Protestant
Vexed by quailing attendance, sex abuse and internal feuds, SBC takes on women pastors
By Bob Smietana — June 12, 2023
(RNS) — More than 12,000 local church representatives, known as messengers, will gather in New Orleans, ready to do their denomination's business.
How Pat Robertson made white evangelicals Republican
By Mark Silk — June 10, 2023
(RNS) — It all began with his 1988 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
As Christian Reformed synod opens, one church awaits its fate
By Yonat Shimron — June 9, 2023
(RNS) — Last year, the synod voted to declare sexually active gays and lesbians 'unchaste.' This year it will revisit the issue and may take action against a church that ordained a gay deacon.
Three years after George Floyd’s death, faith groups quietly advance racial healing
By Adelle M. Banks — June 9, 2023
(RNS) — A range of Christian groups are working separately to continue to address the often-fraught divisions along racial lines among their members and in the wider society.
With Turning Point Faith, pastors use politics as a church-growth strategy
By Jack Jenkins — June 9, 2023
(RNS) — For a growing number of evangelical pastors, embracing right-wing rhetoric is seen as a way to put more people in the pews — and it may be working.
Welton Gaddy, former Southern Baptist who became a champion of liberal Christianity, dies
By Jack Jenkins — June 8, 2023
(RNS) — The pastor is also credited with helping found the Alliance of Baptists.
Anglican denomination erupts into power struggle after Bishop Stewart Ruch’s return
By Kathryn Post — June 8, 2023
(RNS) — The struggle broke into the open Wednesday when ACNA’s archbishop accused his denomination’s highest court of attempting to stop an investigation into charges against Ruch.
Southwestern Baptist seminary ran up $140 million in deficit spending since 2000
By Bob Smietana — June 8, 2023
(RNS) — For decades, spending went up at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary while enrollment plummeted, causing the school to overspend by millions in 19 of the last 21 years.
Pat Robertson, broadcaster who helped make religion central to GOP politics, dies at 93
By Ben Finley — June 8, 2023
The Christian Broadcasting Network founder tried a run for president and helped make religion central to Republican Party politics in America through his Christian Coalition.
Poll: Most religious Americans believe there are only two genders
By Yonat Shimron — June 8, 2023
(RNS) — Americans’ views of trans people have hardened over the past two years, a new PRRI survey shows.
Bart Barber, Mike Stone — two conservative pastors — to square off for SBC president
By Bob Smietana — June 7, 2023
(RNS) — The two candidates for SBC president hold many of the same beliefs but disagree sharply over how to handle the issue of sexual abuse and over the direction of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.
With Keller’s death, ‘young, restless and Reformed’ new Calvinists are at a crossroads
By Bob Smietana and Kathryn Post — June 6, 2023
(RNS) — The Reformed resurgence swept through evangelicalism in the early 2000s, fueled by Calvinism, charisma and complementarianism. Despite the fall of a number of leaders, the movement retains staying power.
Molly Worthen’s conversion represents a truce in evangelical infighting. Will it last?
By Jacob Lupfer — June 5, 2023
(RNS) — The conversion of a religious history professor was a boon for evangelicals. But will they take the win?
Rick Warren campaigns for Southern Baptist reinstatement of Saddleback Church
By Adelle M. Banks — June 5, 2023
(RNS) — Warren argues that the debate is far larger than what might happen to the church he founded.
Seattle’s Quest Church leaves ECC as church affirms LGBTQ Christians
By Emily McFarlan Miller — June 5, 2023
(RNS) — The Seattle megachurch’s move to disaffiliate from the denomination comes as the ECC was prepared to vote this summer on expelling Quest and Awaken Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, over the churches' support for LGBTQ Christians.
