Charles Frazier Stanley, one of the best-known Southern Baptist preachers of the 20th century, died April 18 at age 90. Raised in the Pentecostal tradition, Stanley was ordained to ministry by a Southern Baptist church as a young man, then…
Charles Marsh has a story to tell of evangelical anxiety
Charles Marsh knows something about evangelical anxiety. He grew up in the middle of it as the son of one of the most prominent pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention. The SBC of Marsh’s childhood was the racially tinged Mississippi…
SBC pastor creates Go Fund Me to get abuse survivors to New Orleans convention
A Southern Baptist pastor who is an advocate for victims of sexual abuse has started a Go Fund Me to get abuse survivors to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in New Orleans this June. As of midnight April 12,…
A Baptist’s guide to disaffiliation in other Christian traditions
While the Southern Baptist Convention — the nation’s largest non-Catholic denomination — has been in the news lately for removing churches from its fellowship, The United Methodist Church — the nation’s second-largest non-Catholic denomination — keeps making headlines as churches…
Women preaching the gospel? Yes, please
This is the week upon which the entire Christian religion hinges: the death and resurrection of Jesus, the two observances that most fully embody the hope of God’s saving grace to humanity. In the celebration of Easter, the Christian story…
Those who say women cannot be pastors are ‘wrong,’ open letter asserts
Christians who insist God cannot call women to pastoral ministry are “wrong,” according to an open letter drafted by Baptist Women in Ministry and so far signed by 540 women who are pastors and almost 2,000 others. Unlike a letter…
SBC abuse task force gives in to anti-gay critics of Guidepost Solutions
Anti-gay critics of a single tweet published last summer by Guidepost Solutions appear to have won their campaign with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force. The task force assigned with enacting a series of reforms approved by…
Fundamentalism and politics are hampering SBC’s moral witness, Leonard says
The Southern Baptist Convention’s continued embrace of fundamentalism and conservative politics is undermining its ability to “moralize to American culture,” church historian Bill Leonard said during a lecture at Baylor University. “How did a once engaging gospel of grace, repentance,…
A response to ‘The List’
If I’m being honest, I was a little indignant when I first scrolled down to the “Ds” and realized the church where I serve as associate pastor hadn’t made “the list.” But then I kept scrolling. And scrolling. For more…