Many years ago, I served as an adjunct professor of worship and preaching at a Baptist seminary. One day, as I prepared for an upcoming class, I went to a photocopy shop and begin copying large numbers of worship bulletins and…
White Calvinist theology has gone to hell
“They’re going to hell,” declared Founders Ministry president and Southern Baptist pastor Tom Ascol. In a scene reminiscent of Oprah Winfrey’s “You Get a Car” giveaway, Ascol proclaimed, “Kamala Harris is going to hell, … (Anne) Branigin is going to…
Here’s what’s wrong with the SBC’s trustee system
Every problem facing the Southern Baptist Convention, every new crisis and scandal and reported financial irregularity, can be reduced to a single and seemingly insoluble root cause: a bloated trustee system that is outdated, inefficient, unmanageable and hopelessly beset by…
The SBC still educates 1 in 5 seminary students
All six of the Southern Baptist Convention’s seminaries remain in the top 10 largest schools in the United States, according to new data from the Association of Theological Schools. Even Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, despite its recent financial…
New BNG podcast puts Wingfield and Cole in conversation about the SBC
Baptist News Global Executive Director Mark Wingfield and blogger Benjamin Cole don’t see eye-to-eye on everything in Baptist life, but they do agree their respective denominations have drifted further apart than ever before. In the inaugural episode of the “Stuck…
Baptist Press compares GOP and Democratic platforms to SBC resolutions, and there are some surprises
It should come as a surprise to exactly no one that the platform of the Republican Party aligns more closely with resolutions passed by the Southern Baptist Convention than does the platform of the Democratic Party. What might be surprising,…
First episode of new BNG podcast series now available
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…