News & Commentary About All Things Baptist

Over the weekend thousands flooded the Mall in D.C. to experience Glenn Beck’s Divine Destiny and Restoring Honor rally.  I tuned in for most of the event which one could describe as a sort of interfaith, patriotic prayer meeting that wanted to be a revival.  Lowest common-denominator American religion at its finest.
In the Southern Baptist [...]

In recent days and weeks, more than a few commentators, bloggers and journalists have observed that Fox News personality Glenn Beck - a Mormon - seems to be morphing from Mr. Tea Party leader to some sort of conspiracy-theory peddling religious leader.  With pseudo-historian and chief myth-maker/revisionist David Barton at his side, Beck’s political discussions [...]

Over at the Dallas Morning News’ Texas Faith forum, George Mason - senior pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church - weighs in on the whole Obama-is-a-Muslim charge.
To help those suffering from Sickle Cell Anemia, the National Baptist Convention USA is partnering with the American Red Cross to increase awareness of the need for “like” blood donors [...]

I’ve compiled a list of Baptist-related stories in the news this past week.
Check ‘em out:
The town of Whitman, Massachusetts has made the news after it sent a local Baptist church its first quarterly property tax bill for nearly $2,500.  The 188-year-old FBC Whitman closed last year and has been up for sale since then.  City [...]

On Friday, I offered a survey of sorts of Baptist responses to the Ground Zero Mosque controversy.
Also on Friday, President Obama had this to say about the controversy:
But let me be clear. As a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this [...]

President Obama has waded into the heated controversy over the proposed construction of a Cultural Center/Mosque just blocks away from Ground Zero in Manhattan.  From CNN
Washington (CNN) — President Obama threw his support behind a controversial proposal to build an Islamic center and mosque near New York’s ground zero, saying Friday that “Muslims have the [...]

Here’s the video of Bill O’Reilly’s interview with Fox News colleague Glenn Beck:

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
O’REILLY: But let’s take the gay marriage deal. Big ruling in California. You really didn’t cover that much, right?
BECK: Nope.
O’REILLY: Why?
BECK: Because honestly I think we have bigger fish to fry. You can argue about abortion or gay [...]

Bob Allen of the Associated Baptist Press has penned an article titled BJC files brief opposing sectarian prayer at government meetings.  Here is a snippet:
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty filed legal papers July 6 arguing that inviting religious leaders to invoke sectarian prayers at a North Carolina county’s board of [...]

Below is a copy of an e-mail that I sent to McLennan County Commissioner Lester Gibson about a recent decision to open meetings of the Commissioners Court with a prayer.  [Followers of the church-state landscape know that these nonsectarian prayer policy rarely have a nonsectarian effect.  More often than not, the overwhelming majority of prayers [...]

[McLennan County, Texas is the home of Baylor University, the largest Baptist-affiliated university in the United States.  I am also a resident of the county.]
Back in May, McLennan County Commissioners proposed opening meetings of the Commissioners Court with both the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer.  These two proposals followed a decision of the Court [...]