President-elect Donald Trump named Mike Huckabee as his choice to be the United States ambassador to Israel. Huckabee, of course, was a Southern Baptist minister before getting involved in rightwing media and politics. His faith has been a central feature…
‘Notre Dame of SBC’ burns in Dallas
A church building the Southern Baptist Convention president called the Notre Dame of the denomination fell victim to a four-alarm fire Friday night, July 19. Firefighters have not yet determined the cause of the fire that took down the historic…
Criswell was Truett on the outside and Norris on the inside, new biography says
W.A. Criswell was George W. Truett on the outside and J. Frank Norris on the inside, according to O.S. Hawkins, whose new biography of the legendary pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas releases today. Criswell grew up in the…
Abandoned by evangelicals, Americans United continues 75-year fight for church-state separation
In 1947, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopal and Seventh-day Adventist leaders gathered in Chicago to form a new group: Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Founding members included Clyde W. Taylor, secretary of the National…
Isn’t it really fundamentalist Christian nationalism?
As Christian nationalism forces itself across the American political and ecclesiastical landscape, I’ve been intrigued by recent columns from David French, New York Times commentator and prominent evangelical Christian. These include “Who Truly Threatens the Church?” (July 10), “Political Christianity…
The historical significance of ETBU acquiring B.H. Carroll Institute
The landscape of Baptist theological education is changing yet again, with news that one of the freestanding seminaries created out of the Southern Baptist Convention schism of the late 20th century is merging with one of the oldest Baptist schools…