Hurricane Katrina’s destruction in 2005 to New Orleans and surrounding areas prompted a yearslong response by Southern Baptist churches and Disaster Relief personnel, with volunteer recruitment for the latter spiking up to 80,000. Coy Webb, director for Send Relief Crisis Response, wouldn’t be surprised to see something similar for the damage from hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Read MoreMany charities and nonprofit organizations are currently accepting donations to help the victims of Hurricane Helene. As the country turns its attention to Hurricane Milton, which is expected to bring life-threatening conditions to Florida’s Gulf Coast, specifically Tampa, communities throughout the region are still reeling from the devastation caused by Helene almost two weeks ago.
Read MoreTrustees for the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee approved a recommendation this week to create a department within the EC to assist churches in the area of sexual abuse prevention and response.
Read MoreAfter a difficult economic stretch for many churches and pastors, Southern Baptist pastors may feel more comfortable compared to two years ago. Compensation for full-time Southern Baptist senior pastors, full-time staff ministers and full-time office personnel outpaced inflation over the past two years, according to a study conducted by Lifeway Research.
Read MoreA release of the Republican National Convention’s (RNC) platform reveals a potential shift in the party’s focus on a federal abortion ban. The announcement came hours after the RNC’s platform committee met on Monday.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In the midst of heated debates about female pastors and the morality of in vitro fertilization, the national Southern Baptist Convention recently passed a religious liberty resolution that — in terms of Baptist history — was rather ordinary. But these are not ordinary times in American life.
Read MoreA flurry of traditional and social media discussion surrounding two SBC resolutions (one on in vitro fertilization, the other on religious liberty) has provoked clarifications among Southern Baptists following the Convention’s Annual Meeting June 11-12 in Indianapolis.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention was as newsworthy as usual, but unusually significant. The Tennessean depicted the deliberations as “a turning point for the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.” If so, will this turning turn out to be Southern Baptists’ migration toward neo-fundamentalism, a growing force within America’s complex evangelical movement?
Read MoreThe big news was politics, of course, as in a convention speech by Vice President Mike Pence. The journalism establishment was not amused, as illustrated in this CNN headline: “Pence accused of ‘hijacking’ evangelical meeting.” Various types of Southern Baptist conservatives welcomed him.
Read MoreNeighborly Faith studied academic publications addressing this issue and created a detailed, 14-point compromise definition stating, in part: “Christian Nationalism is a movement advancing a vision of America's past, present, and future that excludes people of non-Christian religions and non-Western cultures. Christian Nationalists romanticize Christianity's influence on America's development, attributing the nation's historical provenance to God's special favor.”
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights the latest news from the Southern Baptist Convention. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in covers the resignation of a top Southern Baptist Convention official for lying on his resume. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read More(OPINION) The issue isn’t who is a Baptist and who is not. Church historians struggle to count the number of organized Baptist groups, and thousands of Baptist churches are totally independent. The question is whether the SBC’s DNA has changed in ways that will affect local churches, as well as agencies, boards and seminaries at the state and national levels.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights the ongoing battles over who’s in — and who’s out — among Southern Baptists and United Methodists. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read More(OPINION) A New York Times piece was an example of what dialogue between church folks and the secular media can look like if people on both sides check their preconceptions, remain open and speak civilly. They might not form a merger, but they can come to know each other.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in highlights the most consequential Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in decades. Plus, catch up — as always — on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read More(OPINION) In Southern Baptist polity — with sprawling structures of autonomous congregations that, to varying degrees, fund state, national and global ministries — there are no leadership structures resembling local Presbyterian presbyteries, regional annual conferences among United Methodists or the powerful diocesan structures of Catholics, Episcopalians and others. Local churches ordain, hire and fire clergy.
Read MoreThis week’s Weekend Plug-in opens with the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers, along with the gunman. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read MoreA special Monday edition of Weekend Plug-in highlights Sunday’s big news: the release of a 288-page investigative report on sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention. Plus, as always, catch up on all the best reads and top headlines in the world of faith.
Read MoreThe investigation of alleged mishandling of sexual abuse has cost the Southern Baptist Convention more than $1.7 million so far, a number that exceeds the original estimate made last fall. A 2019 investigation by the Houston Chronicle reported hundreds of abuse cases in Southern Baptist churches spanning decades.
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