News & Commentary About All Things Baptist

My latest Baptist Studies Bulletin column is up over at the Baptist History & Heritage website. Stop by and read the entire column on Baptists and immigration reform.  I’ve included a snippet below: A look at history shows us that broad-based coalitions of “odd bedfellows” sometimes are indeed able to work together to achieve a [...]

Check out my recent column in the March edition of the Baptist Studies Bulletin on some Baptists fighting the good fight against predatory or “payday” lenders in states like Texas. Here’s a snippet: Abortion, homosexuality and church-state separation.  These are all issues on which Baptists have made their diverse opinions loudly known to the public.  [...]

Take a look at my latest column for the Baptist Studies Bulletin of the Baptist History & Heritage Society. Here’s snippet: With the nation’s economy on better footing, will more attention be paid to environmental issues such as climate change in 2013?  Will churches and denominations once again discover that climate change is a challenge [...]

Rev. Alan Cross is the senior pastor of Gateway Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.  Cross submitted to the resolutions committee of the Alabama Baptist Convention a resolution titled “Calling for the Affirmation of Alabama Baptist Churches to Provide a Welcoming Hospitable Environment for the Immigrants and Aliens in our Midst.”  This resolution comes in the [...]

Conservative evangelicals are in freak-out mode.  The sky is falling.  The sky is falling. Dr. Albert Mohler of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary declared the 2012 election to be “an evangelical disaster.”  Dr. Denny Burk, also of Mohler’s Southern Seminary, called last Tuesday night “a disaster for social conservative causes.” However, Mohler & Burk are getting [...]

I’m back and with a blog post on the recent lawsuits from two Baptist universities in Texas challenging the “contraception mandate” of the Affordable Care Act.  This  post was originally published at the Associated Baptist Press blog with the title Church-state relationships in a pluralistic society. It is posted below in full: By Aaron Weaver Recently, two [...]

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary held a panel discussion today—September 11, 2012—on whether a Christian can vote for a Mormon in the upcoming presidential election while still opposing Mormonism. During that panel discussion, Dr. Mark Coppenger made the following comment: “Sometimes I say Muslims can’t build cars but they can sure blow them up,” Coppenger said. [...]

Rev. Dr. Angela Yarber is Pastor for Preaching and Worship at Wake Forest Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  Rev. Yarber has penned an open letter to Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy in the wake of his media storm-causing comments to Baptist Press. Below is the full-text of Rev. Yarber’s letter: An Open Letter to Dan Cathy [...]

Dr. Glenn Jonas is a Professor of Religion and Chair of the Department of Religion at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina.  Jonas is also the author of a fine new book chronicling the rich 200-year history of First Baptist Church of Raleigh, North Carolina. Established in 1812, FBC Raleigh has gained a reputation [...]

The Southern Baptist Convention has consistently opposed the inclusion of gays and lesbians in the military.  In 1993, Southern Baptists adopted a resolution titled “On Homosexuality, Military Service and Civil Rights.”  That resolution resolved: Be it further RESOLVED, That we oppose all effort to provide government endorsement, sanction, recognition, acceptance, or civil rights advantage on [...]