How possible is it that the continent with the lowest COVID-19 infection rate could potentially become the biggest spreader of new mutations of the deadly virus across the world? The answer to that question lies in a new report published…
COVID-19 and moral incompetence
In 1979, the E.F. Hutton investment firm marketed itself on television with a commercial in which someone would mention that E.F. Hutton was managing their investments. Immediately, people near that speaker stopped what they were doing to overhear the conversation,…
Conversation growing about COVID vaccine ‘religious exemptions’
The most-read article on Baptist News Global’s website for the month of August was about religious exemptions to employer and school mandates on COVID-19 vaccines. That article was accessed nearly 50,000 times in two weeks and continues to be read…
LA County and state of California pay settlement to pastor and church who denied reality of the pandemic
John MacArthur’s defiance of California’s public health restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19 has netted the church $800,000 — not because MacArthur told the truth about the pandemic but because the U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled that California couldn’t…
Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist is back and armed with data for parents to fight for masks in schools
Your Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist has come to the masking debate armed with new data, and she’s ready to help health-conscious parents advocate at their schools, school boards and churches. Emily Smith, assistant professor of epidemiology at Baylor University and a…
COVID has dramatically changed the experience of global missionaries
American missionaries serving in far-away places continue to endure significant challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including limits on travel and in-person ministry, a scarcity of international volunteers and in some cases feelings of guilt for being vaccinated in communities…
Church ‘religious exemption’ letters against COVID vaccination mandates likely won’t work
Churches in California and North Carolina are among those now offering congregants documentation for “religious exemptions” to the COVID-19 vaccine, a practice that is legally dubious and likely ineffective, according to labor lawyers. The practice has arisen as more employers…
Get ready for more claims of ‘religious exemptions’ to vaccine mandates
As children return to school and adults return to offices this fall amid a severe surge in coronavirus cases, expect to hear more talk about “religious exemptions” to vaccine requirements. Even before COVID-19, sincerely held religious beliefs have provided a…
BYKOTA people and COVID vaccines
Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler was a Baptist icon of her generation. For 15 years, she served as executive director of Woman’s Missionary Union, an auxiliary organization to the male-dominated Southern Baptist Convention. When she retired in 1989, she was tired of…
A pediatrician’s advice to parents worried about the COVID vaccine and their children
Even parents who are willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 themselves may be hesitant to have their eligible children vaccinated, according to new data from Public Religion Research Institute and Interfaith Youth Core. That finding doesn’t surprise Rhonda Walton, a…
Rapid spread of Delta variant throws some churches into reverse on their newfound ‘normal’
Will churches stop in-person worship once again as the Delta variant of COVID-19 roars across the country? Will those churches that continue to meet in person return to requiring masks and social distancing? These are the urgent questions facing church…
COVID vaccinations, firearms and martyrs: Another American epidemic
Semen est sanguis Christianorum. “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” Those words, attributed to the third century theologian Tertullian, appear in an Apologeticum written to defend against the many charges — cannibalism, incest, atheism, sedition,…