A vote is “a kind of prayer,” Baptist pastor Raphael Warnock said in his first speech on the Senate floor as a newly elected legislator. The March 17 speech was a blistering call to protect voting rights and a critique…
Why conservatives can’t get Jeremiah Wright out of their heads
The spectacle seemed to dominate every news station, barber shop, beauty shop and church fellowship hall across the nation. For months on end, an excerpt of a sermon offered in the sacred confines of the Black church had taken center…
In Georgia, demonizing Black Liberation Theology yet again
I am a Baptist theologian, and “professor of historical theology” is my specific job title. It is therefore of no little interest to me that a political controversy moving into the national spotlight involves a candidate who is a fellow…
Franklin Graham, toxic charity concerns send churches packing from Operation Christmas Child
Years of viral news articles describing Operation Christmas Child as a form of toxic charity have contributed to a movement of churches away from the Samaritan’s Purse ministry.
It seemed like a good idea: Seminarian worships at up to 30 churches in months before first pastorate
William Reilly was in church quite a bit in the months before finishing seminary and becoming a Baptist pastor earlier this year. Normally, that wouldn’t be news. But in Reilly’s case it is because he worshiped at up to 30 different churches September to March. And many of them weren’t Baptist churches.
Religion Notes: New CBF leader headed for Texas; GWU elects new president
The new executive director of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will tour parts of Texas during his first week on the job. Paul Baxley is to address meetings in Dallas, Fort Worth, Waco, Austin, San Antonio and Houston March 20-22, Fellowship…
Pastor-chaplain confronts the bad theology facing women in ministry and grieving parents
It’s bad theology to tell someone your baby died because God knows what God is doing. No, your baby died because we may not know why.
Hurricane season has ended (yay) but the poor aren’t cheering
The 2018 hurricane season, which officially ends today, unleashed yet another barrage of terrifying and destructive weather that left huge swaths of the nation soaked, flattened – or both. And as usual, it is those with the fewest resources who have been left with the biggest obstacles to overcome.
How to help immigrants in detention
Some of the ways that individuals and congregations can help are to learn about the issues of immigration and advocate for humane, compassionate, and sensible public policies and laws which impact the immigrant community.