Given the current mood in the country and the moral and ethical dilemmas the nation faces, how is the church to respond? Baptist pastor Wendell Griffen offers leadership on how to deal with the challenges and opportunities of being people of prophetic hope in a divisive time.
Second judge challenges secrecy of drugs used in capital punishment
A second Arkansas judge has ruled the state must reveal more information about drugs used in lethal injections for capital punishment. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Mackie Pierce ruled Sept. 19 that officials must disclose the labels on its new supply…
Pastor/judge threatened with impeachment says his critics ignore the Constitution
An Arkansas judge under fire for participating in a death penalty protest after issuing an order blocking an execution says critics seeking his impeachment want to infringe on his rights as a Baptist pastor to express his religious beliefs. The…
Judge disputes claims that his death penalty protest violated judicial impartiality
An Arkansas judge who also serves as a Baptist pastor defended his participation in a death penalty protest after issuing a court order barring the state from using an execution drug, saying his ruling on facts in a property dispute had…
Arkansas plan to execute 7 men in 11 days strengthens faith, death penalty opposition
It was a Holy Week unlike any other for death-penalty opponents in Arkansas and the rest of the nation. It began with outrage over the state’s plan to begin executing seven men the day after Easter. It was filled with…
Living out the ‘fierce urgency’ of the prophets in U.S. culture
Prophets rarely fare well in their own historical setting. Their clarity of vision disturbs the nonchalance with which most people engage their personal context. Prophets scrutinize those policies and practices that most of us blithely ignore, and they shine the…
Like Gissendaner, Wood case may change hearts on death penalty
Many Americans support capital punishment until they hear a story or meet someone who makes it personal to them, anti-death penalty activist Melissa Browning says. “Everything changes when you see it through the eyes of someone who is personally affected,” said…
Judge criticizes secrecy in U.S. executions
An Arkansas judge who last year declared unconstitutional a law that allows the state to keep confidential the source of drugs used for execution by lethal injection has lamented a 5-4 decision by the Arkansas Supreme Court reversing his ruling….
Opponents see indicators that death penalty on its way out in U.S.
Melissa Browning was drawn deep into the anti-death penalty movement when the state of Georgia was trying to kill Kelly Gissendaner last year. There were plenty of ups, including multiple delays in her execution date. And there were downs, too,…
Baptist judge blocks Arkansas executions
By Bob Allen An Arkansas judge who also is pastor of a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church has halted the executions of eight death row inmates challenging a new law allowing the state to withhold information that could publicly identify the…
Civil rights groups, Baptists creating ‘incredible moment’ in U.S. politics
By Jeff Brumley The prevailing wisdom is that there is little if anything new under the sun when it comes to politics and religion. But some ministers and expert observers are challenging that notion as the nation leans into the…
Baptists must do more to help immigrants, advocate says
By Jeff Brumley Baptists can no longer stand by and watch as Catholics, Mennonites, Methodists and other Christians take the lead in ministering to immigrants, a Baptist scholar and immigration advocate told members of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North…