Pulpit plagiarism has been making the news again. “Again” is the operative word. This is not new. A couple of friends, now in their 80s, recall making a wager about which swiped sermon a famous Baptist preacher/evangelist would deliver to…
Litton names task force to study sexual abuse handling in SBC, including a critic of past actions as an adviser
One of the most outspoken critics of the Southern Baptist Convention’s handling of alleged clergy sexual abuse has been named a special adviser to the seven-member task force mandated by messengers to this summer’s SBC annual meeting. In 2019, Rachael…
Tennessee officials ask for help tracing possible COVID cluster to SBC annual meeting
Participants in the Southern Baptist Convention’s in-person annual meeting in Nashville in mid-June are asked to notify Tennessee health officials if they came down with COVID-19 after attending the enormous gathering. A small but notable cluster of coronavirus infections has…
SBC and CBF agree on praise for Congress overruling predatory lending policy
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Southern Baptist Convention are among a coalition of faith groups applauding the recent repeal of a government rule that they believe would have expanded predatory lending. Opposition to payday lending and other forms of…
Where’s the line between finding inspiration in another pastor’s sermon and plagiarizing it?
“Borrowing” someone else’s sermon is one of the top four ways pastors get fired from churches, according to Thom Rainer, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s publishing arm and a noted interpreter of modern Christianity. Rainer made that statement…
Amid charges of slippery slope liberalism, Presbyterian Church in America drafts a potent policy against gay clergy
In a scene reminiscent of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting this summer, pastors and leaders of the Presbyterian Church in America entered their annual meeting last week with letters and endorsements and counter-letters circulating to address what some believe…
An open letter to the SBC: God’s amazing grace always builds a bigger, better tent
The Southern Baptist Convention averted a catastrophic split at its most recent annual meeting as messengers narrowly voted to elect Ed Litton, an Alabama pastor, as SBC president. While Litton has been sympathetic to the call for racial tolerance and…
Supreme Court rejects NAMB’s request, sending McRaney case back to trial
The United States Supreme Court has denied a request by the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board to end a case brought against it by the former leader of a Baptist state convention. Among a long list of cases…
Raised a Baptist, Lance Bass feared who he was couldn’t be in sync with his faith
Talk to any adult who grew up in the 1990s and ask them to name the No. 1 boy band in the country at the time, and you’ll likely hear the name NSYNC. What most of those fans didn’t know…