Ruling on public funds for church playground draws varied responses
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled states sometimes must make public funds available to religious organizations, a decision some Baptists hailed as a victory for religious freedom and others saw as chipping away at the wall of separation between church and state that protects religious liberty.
Note to your church: Raise $714,000/year to offset Trump budget cuts
Churches can’t “pick up the slack” left by President Trump’s proposed federal budget, Bread for the World’s David Beckmann insists.
Editorial: We need people of robust faith in both political parties
If people of faith are shut out of either major political party, then voices for moral principles and transcendent values will be diminished.
Voices: Is conversion the cure America needs?
It’s going to take more than conversion to make progress on social ills like racism, violence and poverty. It’s going to take more than individual piety to create a more just society. The highly individualized theology of American Christianity leaves us hamstrung to face the social problems of our time.
2nd Opinion: Old wolf of racism appears in alt-right sheep’s clothing
The base of the alt-right movement is “white nationalism, or at least white identity politics.”
No major U.S. religious groups approve refusing service to homosexuals
Overall in 2016, twice as many Americans disapproved than approved of those who refuse service to a gay person based on religious beliefs—61 percent to 30 percent
More than a place to stay; a path to restoration
Eunice Chambless Hospitality House ministers to the physical and spiritual needs of people who arrive to visit loved ones incarcerated in Abilene.
Guest editorial: What if churches re-evaluate instead of scapegoat?
Scapegoating has become far too common among churches as a means of diverting attention from actual causes to projected ones.
California: ‘I did not sign up for this’
Student Missions blog: It was a long week, and it had not been what I thought it was going to be. There have been multiple times I have said to myself, “I did not sign up for this.”
Music, SBC and Shariah
Letters this week addressed a column on songwriting, the Southern Baptist Convention’s resolution decrying the alt-right movement and Shariah law.
Evangelical leaders push for criminal justice reform
Evangelical Christian leaders are spearheading a campaign for criminal justice reform, calling for equitable punishment, alternatives to incarceration and a different take on the “tough on crime” language of the Trump administration.
Voices: A church for earthlings
Churches are for people, and people are complicated. We’re human, and the records of our faith have not flinched in the face of that fact, so why should our churches?
Voices: Distraction or righteousness?
What this year’s NBA Finals taught us is that racism rears its ugly head anywhere and everywhere.
Voices: Imagining the church as a hospital for the spiritually ill
If we think of church as a hospital, then under no circumstances could we ever turn someone away because her or his spiritual illness was too severe, or think someone has to change behavior or get healthy before becoming part of our community.
Howard Anderson: ‘Building people to do great work’
This week’s profile of Texas Baptist ministers features Howard Anderson, founding pastor of the “Exciting” Singing Hills Baptist Church in Dallas.
Commentary: How anti-Shariah marches mistake Muslim concepts for law
A legal scholar explains Shariah law, and why—despite fears and protests to the contrary—it is not a threat to non-Muslims.
2nd Opinion: Returning Iraqi Christians to their persecutors
If the church in America isn’t outraged, vocal and actively pursuing a reversal of the policy of deporting Iraqi Christians back to their homeland, then who will? Who will stop an action that will send these people back to Iraq to face almost certain intense persecution and potentially death? (Baptist News Global)
Guest editorial: Lessons from a palm tree
A longtime missionary observes how palm trees provide a compelling metaphor for spiritual resilience.
Truett’s Gregory comforts mourners remembering ‘Emanuel Nine’
Truett Seminary preaching professor Joel Gregory preached a message of comfort for Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., on the second anniversary of the shooting there. He urged worshippers to “cling to what is good” despite the evil.
Whole relationships involve God and others, Baylor’s Singletary insists
A person’s relationship with God cannot be made whole if relationships with other people aren’t whole, too, explains Jon Singletary, dean of the Garland School of Social Work at Baylor University.
Students help Dallas bounce back from sub-standard housing
Students from across Texas spent a week in Dallas, helping people improve their homes through Bounce Student Disaster Recovery.
African-American leader offers to help churches overcome racism
The head of the National African American Fellowship has offered to help congregations combat racism.
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