HOT SPRINGS, N.C. (ABP) — The third-annual Wild Goose Festival opened in early August in the mountains of North Carolina, with organizers and many participants hoping the outdoor gathering will heal divisions between conservative, progressive and moderate Christians. National leaders…
Woman follows her parents into ministry, despite ups and downs of life as preacher’s kid
(ABP) — Now and then, a preacher's kid follows a parent into the ministry. But when the moment of decision came for Leah Anderson Reed, she decided to follow both her father and mother into ordination. Reed, 27, was ordained…
N.C. governor allows anti-Shariah bill to become law as Okla. judge strikes down similar measure
(RNS) — North Carolina became the seventh state to prohibit its judges from considering Islamic law after Gov. Pat McCrory allowed the bill to become law without formally signing it. McCory, a Republican, called the law “unnecessary,” but declined to…
New book by Wake Forest divinity school professor recounts church gardening as peacemaking ministry
BREVARD, N.C. (RNS) — Fred Bahnson’s first bit of advice when he started planning a church garden eight years ago came from an elderly tobacco farmer who grabbed a handful of soil, rolled it around in his fingers and shook…
They are your brothers
The news of late has been enough to depress just about anyone who longs for and fights for justice, fairness, and equality. We have seen states trying to limit a woman’s access to healthcare and limit her right to make her own…
What is traditional? What is contemporary?
Just what makes a church “traditional” these days? As someone who has written extensively and spoken to religious gatherings on the subject of “traditional” churches, I’m increasingly finding it hard to draw an exacting definition. But by the same token,…
What if a generation of women in ministry planted new congregations?
It is hard to believe it has been more than 35 years since I was ready to leave seminary in Louisville, KY for what I thought would be my first full-time church pastorate. Although I had grown up in Baltimore…
At 81, North Carolina Baptist joins Moral Monday protests
GREENSBORO (ABP) — When Baptist Jacqueline Allen of Chapel Hill began participating this month in the Moral Monday protests against the Republican-led North Carolina legislature, she got a loving-but-firm admonition from her daughter and son-in-law: don’t get arrested. “An 81-year-old…
Faith-based groups, including Baptists, emerge as leaders of Moral Monday protests in Raleigh
RALEIGH (RNS) — The throngs of demonstrators who flock to the grassy knoll outside the North Carolina Statehouse each Monday know the drill. They listen to a fiery speech denouncing the Republican majority’s legislative actions. They sing freedom songs and…
Protesting in North Carolina: Moral Monday Reflections
Recent events in North Carolina are putting our Baptist convictions to the test. In remembering the most, North Carolina’s lawmakers have forgotten the least. School children are hungry. Access to affordable healthcare will soon be even more difficult to procure. …
National Baptist minister to lead black church studies at Duke Divinity School
DURHAM — Eboni Marshall Turman, an ordained minister in the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc, has been named director of Duke Divinity School’s office of black church studies and assistant research professor of black church studies. Marshall Turman Divinity school…
CBF of North Carolina to host second Fresh Expressions event
RALEIGH — Fresh Expressions has scheduled a Vision Day in Raleigh Aug. 16, the second to be hosted by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina. The event serves as an introduction to Fresh Expressions, a movement which aims to…