Forty-five years after a group of young Black students in Soweto, South Africa, took to the streets to protest an educational policy of the ruling South African apartheid government, leading to the death of more than 170 of them, the…
Does the SBC indicate where we are headed?
When the largest Protestant denomination in the United States recently met in Nashville, it was notable what thousands of Southern Baptists did not think were major concerns. An armed insurrection took place at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021,…
BJC speaker asks: ‘What if anti-racism became an essential way of doing faith?’
Churches must boldly support racial, gender and LGBTQ equality in every aspect of ministry by accepting the inherently and radically political message of the gospel, Jacqui Lewis said during a June 18 virtual gathering hosted by Baptist Joint Committee for…
SBC steers a decidedly conservative course but rejects the most far-right agenda while putting Executive Committee and Ronnie Floyd on notice
While affirming bread-and-butter conservative issues on the first day of its annual meeting June 15, the Southern Baptist Convention turned back attempts at harder-line positions desired by the most conservative bloc of the body. That included a narrow rejection of…
Outgoing SBC president affirms conservative values while decrying legalism
In his last address as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, J.D. Greear urged leaders and members of the denomination to support sexual abuse victims, stand with people of color in their struggle against racism and to stop equating politics…
Why Critical Race Theory could be good news for ‘nice white people’
A bedrock theological concept of my formation as a white American evangelical was the idea, best articulated by Paul in Romans 14-20, that there is a war going on within all of us between those things that are good and…
Editing our narratives has the power to heal future generations
There’s a common thread to much of the social conflict we’re seeing in church and society these days, and it has to do with our willingness to edit our own stories. Let’s call it a hardening of the narratives. One…
One year along, United Methodists are working locally to dismantle racism
In the year since The United Methodist Church launched its “Dismantling Racism” campaign, the U.S. units of the worldwide denomination have laid the groundwork for long-term efforts against white supremacy in both church and society. Whether vigorous institutional action can…
BNG webinar this Sunday invites notable SBC exiles to explain what’s going on and why it matters
As the Southern Baptist Convention prepares for its annual meeting in Nashville next week, observers from inside and outside the denomination are watching to see what will happen on a number of controversial issues. To preview those issues and explore…
Kentucky scholar warns the U.S. risks ‘losing its soul’ through hatred
The United States needs a “movement of heart and spirit” to address a moral crisis that places the country in danger of “losing its soul,” warned the leader of a seminary institute dedicated to Black church studies. In an opinion…
Critical Race Theory, voter suppression and historical negation: The irony of it all
In his Key into the Language of America (1643), the earliest Native American/English grammar, Roger Williams, that colonial disquieter of the religio-political peace, described his experiences with the Narragansets and other Northeastern native tribes: They were hospitable to everybody, whomsoever…
Juneteenth and the promise of freedom
June 19, 1865, is the day when the last enslaved persons in Galveston, Texas, received news that they had been emancipated. Juneteenth, as this day has been called, commemorates in the hearts and minds of Black folks the official end…