By Bob Allen After being around for 30 years, it’s easy to forget that a decade ago BWIM was considering whether it should continue to exist. What is the state of your movement today, and what did it take to…
Been there, done that: Some Baptist ministers have already officiated at same-sex marriages
By Jeff Brumley Same-sex weddings are the stuff headlines are made of these days — especially when Baptist ministers are embracing the ceremonies ruled legal in every state by the Supreme Court last Friday. The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., recently featured Jason…
Don McGregor, editor, ABP founder, dead at 91
By Bob Allen Don McGregor, a founder of Associated Baptist Press (today known as Baptist News Global) who served as the independent new service’s first executive director, died June 30 in Mesquite, Texas. He was 91. As editor of the…
Gay Baptist minister followed long path to marriage equality
By Bob Allen A Baptist minister and his same-sex partner jailed for trespassing two years ago after refusing to leave a county clerk’s office after being denied a marriage license returned to the scene of the crime Monday afternoon armed…
Chaplain: Military trains you to see ministry as God’s work, not yours
By Jeff Brumley Imagine spending three or four years in a place, building new ministries or reviving existing ones, only to be replaced by someone else and sent somewhere else to do it all over again. It’s a feeling that…
Jeff Haggray to lead American Baptist mission agency
By Bob Allen The former District of Columbia Baptist Convention executive minister and former pastor of Washington’s First Baptist Church has been named executive director of American Baptist Home Mission Societies. According to American Baptist News Service, Jeffrey Haggray, interim…
Union University murder trial postponed
By Bob Allen The trial of a former Union University student charged with murdering his fiancée 16 months ago has been postponed a second time. Charles Pittman, a former Christian ministries major and member of the golf team at the Baptist-affiliate…
SBC’s Russell Moore: Take down the Confederate flag
By Bob Allen Southern Baptist Convention ethicist Russell Moore says for the sake of the gospel the time has arrived to take down the Confederate flag. Russell Moore, head of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said in a…
Taking Jesus seriously in East Texas
Kyle Childress doesn’t look like a dangerous radical. If Childress, pastor of Austin Heights Baptist Church in Nacogdoches, Texas, let his neatly trimmed white beard grow out a bit, he would make a passable Santa Claus. And when he pushes…
President of Northern Seminary to resign next year
By Robert Dilday Alistair Brown announced June 15 he will resign as president of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary at the end of the next academic year. Brown, who has been president of the seminary in suburban Chicago since September 2008,…
Baptists open safe house for human trafficking victims
By Vicki Brown Savannah Oswald elbowed her way through the crowds on Black Friday 2014, searching for the cutest clothes she could find for her limited bucks. The then-high school senior cast a practiced eye over the racks and nabbed…
Connecting faith and sports can be challenging, says seminary professor
By Jeff Brumley John White has competed against some of the world’s top athletes — and ministered to still more of them. “I raced against [future three-time Tour de France winner] Greg LeMond once and he would never know this, but…