The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and New Baptist Covenant will host an offsite event June 24 at the International Civil Rights Center and Museum focusing on advocacy and racial reconciliation during the 2016 CBF General Assembly in Greensboro, N.C. Attendees will…
Episcopal Diocese of Maryland takes up reparations for slavery
The Diocese of Maryland has taken the first of what could be many small steps to engage the issue of reparations and set aside money to help heal the centuries-old wounds of slavery.
A letter to North Carolina’s governor
In response to the recent passage of House Bill 2 in North Carolina, I penned my first-ever letter to our state’s governor, and posted that letter on our church’s webpage. I have had near-unanimous affirmation for my words. Two weeks…
Civil rights panel blasts new state religious liberty laws
The U.S. Civil Rights Commission has denounced new state “religious liberty” laws backed by Southern Baptist state conventions as a trend to use religion as an excuse to deny people their human rights. The independent, bipartisan agency charged with advising…
Dr. King didn’t do everything
We miss the significance of the Civil Rights Movement if we attribute everything to Dr. King. In fact, if one studies the record carefully, it is amazing to note that most of the major Civil Rights Movement campaigns were actually…
Commemorating Thurgood Marshall
Not many baby boys are named Thoroughgood, but that is the name William and Norma Marshall gave their son after his birth in 1908. As a second-grader, though, Thoroughgood decided he wanted a shorter, quicker-to-spell name, so he changed it…
Civil rights groups, Baptists creating ‘incredible moment’ in U.S. politics
By Jeff Brumley The prevailing wisdom is that there is little if anything new under the sun when it comes to politics and religion. But some ministers and expert observers are challenging that notion as the nation leans into the…
On reading Malcolm X’s autobiography
Marking the 50th anniversary of its publication Malcolm X’s Autobiography was the first book that scared me. Here I was, in the transition from adolescence to young adulthood, secretly abandoning my pietist-revivalist rearing in favor of the more verdant fields…
How corporate America changed our religion: A review of “One Nation Under God” by Kevin Kruse
One Nation Under God could change the way we think about civil religion in America. Forget about the 1970s, or even the 1950s, Kevin Kruse says, this story begins in the heart of the Depression. Exiles from the Southern Baptist Convention who…
PNBC head says anger OK, violence not
By Bob Allen An African-American Baptist leader says young people rioting in Baltimore are sacrificing the moral high ground of nonviolent protest advocated by Martin Luther King. “Anger over the yet unexplained death of Freddie Gray is one thing, but…
The problem with broken taillights
As I write, I’m drinking lukewarm coffee and watching daytime television. Confined to the waiting room of a local auto shop, I’m waiting to have a taillight fixed. The broken taillight had slipped my mind for weeks — maybe even…
Statement applauds American Baptists’ contributions to civil rights
By Bob Allen A leadership group in the American Baptist Churches USA adopted a statement March 13 celebrating the role of American Baptists in the civil rights movement and recognizing the 50th anniversary of the March 1965 five-day march from Selma, Ala., to…