The first episode of BNG’s new limited podcast series, “Stuck in the Middle with You,” is now available for download and streaming. Find the podcast on Podbean, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio, Player FM, Samsung, Podchaser and BoomPlay. The podcast…
BNG launches new podcast series on the state of the SBC
BNG debuts a new podcast series this week titled “Stuck in the Middle with You.” The podcast series features BNG Executive Director Mark Wingfield in dialogue with Benjamin Cole, also known as The Baptist Blogger. The first episode will drop…
Letter to the Editor: I am the unnamed source
Dear Editor: Mark, mystery solved. Please let your BNG readers know that I am the “rogue, non-professional, lone ranger source” that provided the Abuse of Faith information to Phillip Robertson that you referenced in your Aug. 5 article. It was irresponsible for…
A cautionary tale of celebrity pastors and family empires
Late last month, Liberty University and its former president, Jerry Falwell Jr., settled for an undisclosed amount to end a multi-year, sprawling set of multi-million dollar lawsuits brought by Falwell against the Lynchburg, Va.-based school. For the world’s “largest evangelical university,” the…
Megan Basham sharply criticized for outing Johnny Hunt’s alleged abuse victim
A prominent religion reporter has lambasted far-right culture warrior Megan Basham for exposing the name of Johnny Hunt’s alleged sexual abuse victim in her new book. Evangelical Twitter is lit up with critiques of Basham’s book, Shepherds for Sale, that…
The SBC’s trustee system is broken
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again now: The Southern Baptist Convention’s system of electing trustees to oversee its agencies and institutions is broken and in need of dramatic reform. The latest evidence comes from the bizarre turn…
Breaking news: Leatherwood reinstated at ERLC, board chairman acted alone
Note: This article was updated Tuesday afternoon, July 23, to include new information about Kevin Smith. The chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission acted alone in firing President Brent Leatherwood yesterday, and Leatherwood remains…
ERLC removes president one day after kind word about Biden
Editor’s note: This article replaces and updates a previous article posted just two hours earlier. One day after Brent Leatherwood offered a gracious comment about President Joe Biden bowing out of the presidential race, he was fired as head…
Must our quests for liberty be mutually exclusive?
There’s a strange tension in the minds of many people between the desires for independence and community. It comes up often in conversations about churches and denominations. A church may want to be independent yet participate in the community of…
Johnny Hunt tells his side of the story, including his definition of ‘adultery’
Johnny Hunt finally got to tell his side the story about what happened at a beachside condo in 2010, when he is accused of sexually abusing a pastor’s wife the age of his own daughters. In a court deposition taken…
SBC’s church planting agency now promoting private church-based schools
The Southern Baptist Convention’s church planting agency now has a program devoted to encouraging churches to start Christian schools in their buildings. In a promotional video posted on the website of the SBC North American Mission Board, a spokesman declares:…
Gone fishin’: The SBC and me
Recently I came across an excellent article in Baptist News Global about cooperation (or lack thereof), among Southern Baptists in how we present Jesus Christ as the only hope for the spiritually lost and dying residents of our planet. Derek…