Southern Baptist
Still Baptist. Still evangelical.
By Karen Swallow Prior — February 9, 2021
(RNS) — My childhood church has come to mind a lot lately, perhaps because these days in church life have so dismayed and disoriented me.
White Christian America built a faith-based safety net. What happens when it’s gone?
By Bob Smietana — October 26, 2020
(RNS) — Faith groups are quick to lend a hand when disaster strikes. But with organized religion fading, who will pick up the slack?
Southern Baptist publishing arm, LifeWay, sues former president Thom Rainer
By Yonat Shimron — September 29, 2020
(RNS) — LifeWay Christian Resources, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, has sued its former president and CEO, alleging he violated a noncompete clause in his contract that forbids him from working with competitors.
Shunning online services, some clergy preach ‘abstinence’ from gathered worship
By Adelle M. Banks — April 9, 2020
(RNS) — A Missouri pastor said, ‘we don’t believe that a live stream is a real, actual substitute for a church gathering.’
JD Greear, Omar Suleiman to discuss Christian-Muslim relations at NC college
By Aysha Khan — March 3, 2020
(RNS) — Evangelical students will hear the Southern Baptist Convention president and prominent imam discuss how evangelicals and Muslims can find a way forward ‘in a time of unprecedented division and distrust.’
Southern Baptist church: Racial prejudice a factor in rejection of black pastor
By Adelle M. Banks — October 30, 2019
(RNS) — Pastor Marcus Hayes, a leader of Biltmore Church in Asheville, North Carolina, received 81% of the vote at First Baptist Church Naples in Florida. But an 85% vote was needed for approval.
Prosperity gospel’s false promises aren’t always about money
By Alan Cross — September 10, 2019
(RNS) — There are many subtler prosperity gospels that hold out the promise of victory, success, actualization, a sense of 'arrival' and the good life. They are all equally dangerous.
More churches are checking the national sex offender registry. Is it helping?
By Yonat Shimron — July 30, 2019
(RNS) — Running potential employees through the national sex offender registry may be useful, but the data it provides is limited.
Rabbi with a gift for fundraising among evangelicals mourned as friend
By Yonat Shimron — February 7, 2019
(RNS) — Yechiel Eckstein was the spark that ignited an appreciation and even love for Israel and for the Jewish people among evangelicals.
Seminaries partner with prisons to offer inmates new life as ministers
By Yonat Shimron — November 14, 2018
NASHVILLE, N.C. (RNS) — Evangelical schools such as Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary offer inmates a free, on-site college degree if they promise they'll minister to other inmates once they graduate.
In red-state Oklahoma, marijuana ballot question splits people of faith
By Bobby Ross Jr. — June 6, 2018
OKLAHOMA CITY (RNS) — Clergy on both sides of State Question 788, which would permit the distribution of medical marijuana, call it a moral issue, with proponents arguing that pot will reduce dependence on opioids and critics, including the state's Southern Baptist convention and Catholic conference, saying it will lead to recreational use.
King in Montgomery: A white Southern Baptist minister reflects
By Alan Cross — April 5, 2018
(RNS) — If we benefit from the status quo, we can seek to maintain it rather than recognize that a wheel of injustice might be grinding our neighbor down. King shone a light on that injustice and it often made white Christians uncomfortable. His words and legacy, if we listen, still make us uncomfortable today.
After Roy Moore, evangelicals must trade wishful thinking for soul-searching
By Jonathan Merritt — December 13, 2017
Some people choose to live in houses filled with covered mirrors, but Christians cannot afford to be those kinds of people.
Russell Moore: Southern Baptists feel the horror ‘more viscerally’
By Emily McFarlan Miller — November 7, 2017
(RNS) — Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy arm, talks about how Southern Baptists feel the attack on one of their churches personally, and can remain divided on gun control.
Why pastor Robert Jeffress’ interview with Sean Hannity was so maddening to so many
By Jonathan Merritt — October 25, 2017
(RNS) — Who knew that a simple meeting between a preacher and a pundit would be so controversial? But it starts to make sense when you consider the preacher. And the pundit. And the meeting itself. (COMMENTARY)
