Religion played a key role in midterm primaries in Texas March 3. A Presbyterian seminarian secured the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate and will face either the incumbent, John Cornyn, a member of the Churches of Christ, or Ken Paxton,…
Proctor Conference marks leadership transition
Tears flowed and applause resounded as the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference marked its first-ever leadership transition at the annual gathering in Chicago Feb. 23. Iva E. Carruthers, who was the founding general secretary of the nonprofit, has taken on emeritus…
Texas midterms take a twist as another pastor enters the race
A single day of cascading campaign announcements threw a prominent Baptist pastor into a race for the U.S. House of Representatives Dec. 8. Frederick Haynes III, pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, filed to run for Texas’ 30th Congressional…
Haynes to succeed Jackson as leader of Rainbow PUSH Coalition
Dallas pastor Frederick Douglass Haynes III has been named successor to Jesse Jackson as president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Haynes has served as pastor at Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas for 40 years, a role he will continue. The…
Poor People’s Campaign marches on Texas Capitol with demands for voting rights
A civil rights demonstration at the Texas State Capitol July 31— that included country music legend Willie Nelson and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke — was intended to warn Americans about the dangers of nationwide voter suppression efforts and to…
‘Critical Race Theory is the kryptonite of white evangelicals,’ professor declares
What makes Southern Baptists and other white evangelicals so outraged about Critical Race theory isn’t their claim that it fosters a distorted view of American law and history, but that it illuminates the racist attitudes and assumptions baked into U.S….
Poor People’s Campaign plans a march in Texas to protest restrictive voting legislation
The Poor People’s Campaign and its high-profile and charismatic leader, Bishop William J. Barber II, will lead a “Selma-to-Montgomery style” march in Texas this month to protest Republican-led efforts to limit voting rights in the state and around the nation….
Texas takes the spotlight as statehouses across the nation seek to restrict trans teens and voter access
Some Texas legislators want to outdo Georgia and Arkansas with a combination of bills restricting transgender teens and voting access for poor and minority citizens. The Texas bills — four concerning transgender health care, six concerning transgender athletes and two…
If you would have marched with Dr. King, where are you now?
Editor’s note: In October 2017, Freddy Haynes of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas wrote an open letter to Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in Dallas, asking his cooperation in fighting racism in America. Haynes is a nationally known figure…
As racial healing seems elusive, New Baptist Covenant plans next summit
Former President Jimmy Carter, who has long put religion and racial reconciliation at the center of his life, is on a mission to heal a racial divide among Baptists and help the country soothe rifts that he believes are getting…