Hurricane Ida
Dear friends and colleagues, So many of us know and are close to many who have experienced the effect of hurricane Ida, as it has unfolded in these recent days. Our own NABF President Samuel Tolbert and his family had just finished...
Warnock, Progressive National Baptists Focus on Voting Rights During Annual Meeting
The Rev. Raphael Warnock addresses a virtual 60th annual gathering of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021. Video screengrab (RNS) — The Rev. Raphael Warnock urged the Progressive National Baptist...
The Young and Secular are Least Vaccinated, Not Evangelicals
(ANALYSIS) As the delta variant has caused COVID-19 to surge again in the United States, there’s been a flurry of attention paid to the share of Americans who have chosen to forgo the vaccine against the coronavirus....
Messages from Hell
Written by Brian Kaylor, Word & Way Rev. Lucifer Satan of Woke Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri, recently offered us his support. As did Dr. Right Rev. Nimrod Covid Vaccine of the Church of Satan in Hell. The state for the...
NABF Annual Meeting
Register now for the NABF Annual Meeting, taking place October 27 - 28, 2021. This year's meeting will take place both online and in person (in St. Louis, Missouri). Join us as we explore what it means to recover and repair as we look to...
Christian Nationalism
Panelists: Curtis Freeman – Research Professor of Theology and Director of the Baptist House of Studies, Duke Divinity School Barry Harvey – Professor of Theology, Honors College, Baylor University Samuel Perry – Associate Professor of...
A Call to Take Responsibility
This has been such an overwhelming and tumultuous week, I have tried to find ways of expressing the overwhelming sadness and I have found in part with Ray Aldred of the Vancouver School of Theology. - Jeremy Bell, General Secretary of the...
New Podcast: Dangerous Dogma
There are a lot of problematic ideas animating American Christianity today. The false hopes stirred by the prosperity gospel linger. White supremacist and patriarchal readings of scripture continue to deny the Image of God and equal...
Tulsa Pastors Honor ‘Holy Ground’ 100 Years After Massacre
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — When White attackers destroyed the prosperous Black neighborhood of Greenwood 100 years ago this week, they bypassed the original sanctuary of the First Baptist Church of North Tulsa. By the church’s own account, the...
So, Why Am I a Christian?
I have a bias that causes me to gravitate towards smart Christians. When someone accomplished in business, science, or other areas of intellectual achievement professes faith in Jesus Christ, I take notice. There’s comfort in realizing...
Raphael Warnock, the ‘senator reverend,’ keeps preaching most Sundays
Faith and politics are intertwined for Georgia Democrat Raphael Warnock, shown here on the campaign trail last year, returns to Georgia most weekends to deliver his sermons, peppered with mentions of his work in the Senate. (Tom...
Pentecost Sunday Brings ‘Fresh Hope for New Beginnings’ as Pandemic Eases
As this year’s Pentecost celebration approaches for congregations, the parallels feel stronger than normal to that initial moment when the Holy Spirit was poured out on Jesus’s disciples. This year the Spirit arrives as a yearlong...
Russell Moore, Baptist Ethicist & Trump Critic, to Leave ERLC
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) — Russell Moore, the embattled Southern Baptist ethicist and “Never Trumper,” is resigning as president of his denomination’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Moore will be joining the staff...
PBS’s Billy Graham Documentary Captures Preacher’s Pull & Ambition
(RNS) — How did Billy Graham become the most famous evangelist in America? Does he deserve blame for paving the way for the religious right? How should we see his place in America’s political and spiritual history? The PBS series...
An Answer To Rex Murphy’s Questions on Racism In Canada
The rise of violence against people of Asian descent has always been amongst us, but has been accelerated and is recently even more disturbing. Bloomberg news service indicated that Vancouver, based on reported incidents to police, has...
The Debate Over Women Pastors is a Southern Baptist Smoke Screen
(RNS) — Over the past two weeks, Christian leaders and commentators have been setting news outlets and social media ablaze with arguments over women’s ordination, women as pastors, and women’s callings. It’s a long-running, on-again,...
Liz Cheney, Ousted from Party Leadership, Invokes ‘Power of Faith’
WASHINGTON (RNS) — On the eve of her removal from the House Republican leadership for failing to back President Donald Trump’s attacks on the 2020 election, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney cited principles she insisted were foundational for many...
It’s Ever Given for Greed to Crash
Over the past week, global media coverage and internet memes gravitated to a massive container ship stuck in the Suez Canal. And as the boat clogged international shipping, our modern economic pharaohs gnashed their teeth. Cutting a...
Christian Nationalism is a Barrier to Mass Vaccination Against COVID-19
(The Conversation) – While the majority of Americans either intend to get the COVID-19 vaccine or have already received their shots, getting White evangelicals to vaccination sites may prove more of a challenge – especially...
Behind Gallup’s Portrait of Church Decline
(RNS) — As Holy Week began this year, a Gallup Poll found that church membership in the United States had declined to less than half of the population for the first time. The headline grabbed attention, but it’s mostly unsurprising: In a...
Crucified Between Two Proud Boys
Governor Pilate looked out the window of the executive mansion. He could see the edge of a large crowd gathered nearby outside the Virginia State Capitol. What he saw looked similar to the images he’d just flipped past on multiple network...
Despair & Hope in Holy Week
(RNS) — If you are a news junkie, like me, it is easy to despair. An assault on the Capitol. Mass shootings. Violence targeting racial minorities. Police violence. Another uptick in COVID cases. Tornadoes and flooding in the South....
Women and African Americans Now More Likely to Leave the SBC, But So Is Everybody Else
Though data shows declines across the board, departing members aren’t going far. RYAN BURGE|APRIL 7, 2021 06:00 AM Image: Ismael Paramo / Unsplash The Southern Baptist Convention has been faced with a string of prominent departures...
Thank God. Love Neighbors. Get Vaccinated.
On Monday, the day after Easter, I got my second “Fauci Ouchie.” That means in a couple weeks I should be fully vaccinated and facing much less risk from COVID-19 (though I’ll continue wearing a mask and practicing social distancing to do...
5 Faith Facts as Baylor & Gonzaga Square Off for NCAA Hoops Crown
(RNS) — March Madness ends tonight with the ultimate church league showdown. For the first time in two years, the NCAA will crown a new men’s Division I basketball champion on Monday (April 5). The game features teams from Baylor...
Pandemic Altered U.S. Churchgoers’ Discipleship Practices
(Lifeway Research) — Fewer churchgoers filled pews and Bible studies during the pandemic, but many still continued personal discipleship habits throughout 2020. A study by Nashville-based Lifeway Research found U.S....
Despite Hate from Evangelicals, Katherine Hayhoe Sees Climate Hope
NOTE FROM NABF GENERAL SECRETARYI have met, hosted, respected and deeply admired Kathrine Hayhoe for a while now. This is an important article to read and to take encouragement from. I have also have a great deal of time and admiration...
Justice & Not-Yet Justice
As people across the country exhaled after the guilty verdicts in the trial of Derek Chauvin on Tuesday (April 20), social media quickly lit up with cries of “justice.” But while holding someone accountable for murdering George Floyd is a...
Faith Leaders Hope Chauvin Verdict Lifts Racial Justice Work
(AP) — Faith leaders in Minnesota and across the United States expressed hope that their advocacy work for racial justice will gain momentum from the guilty verdict rendered against Derek Chauvin, the former police officer convicted of...
Derek Chauvin’s Guilty Verdict Might be an Exodus for America
(RNS) — The first thing my daughter Claire asked when she came home from school on Tuesday (April 20) was, “Dad, what does a guilty verdict mean?” I thought of the passage in the Book of Joshua: “This shall be a sign among you; when your...