News & Commentary About All Things Baptist

Back in October, Americans United for Separation of Church and State requested the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether First Baptist Church of Dallas broke the law when it posted media clips of Pastor Robert Jeffress endorsing Texas governor and (now) failed presidential candidate Rick Perry. Now, another Southern Baptist pastor from Texas has endorsed [...]

David Neff, the editor of the flagship evangelical magazine, has written a powerful essay concerning the recent gathering of Christian Right leaders at Paul Pressler’s ranch in Brenham, Texas.  I previously penned a post on that event (see here). Neff begins: The 150 evangelical leaders who met behind closed doors on January 14 to anoint a [...]

Over the weekend, some 150 evangelical activists met to discuss GOP primary politics at the ranch of Paul Pressler in Benham, Texas.  Pressler, a retired Texas Court of Appeals judge, is best known for his role as the architect of the 1980s takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention that put fundamentalists in power and ousted [...]

A church-state controversy is brewing in Athens, not the home of my Dawgs but Athens, Texas. Here’s the lede from Associated Baptist Press: ATHENS, Texas (ABP) – An East Texas town is being dubbed Ground Zero in this year’s round of skirmishes known collectively as the Christmas Wars. Attention turned to Athens, Texas, about 50 [...]

Dr. Jim Denison is the theologian-in-residence for the Baptist General Convention of Texas and former pastor of the Dallas megachurch Park Cities Baptist. Denison is also a regular columnist for Associated Baptist Press.  Denison’s columns are normally not controversial and contain a bit of cultural analysis with a few devotional thoughts.  This week’s column dealing [...]

Check out this week’s Top 10 in Baptist life. 1. Prominent Black Southern Baptist pastor Dwight McKissic penned a defense of Herman Cain this week over at the popular blog SBCVoices.com.  McKissic writes, “The liberal media, conservative Republicans who support rival candidates and African-American civil rights leaders who strongly support the Democratic Party and liberal [...]

Here’s my annotated Top 10 list for this week in Baptist life.  Check ‘em out. 1. Mercer University has adopted a domestic partner benefit policy that will provide access to health care and other benefits to employees and their partners regardless of sexual orientation.  News of Mercer’s policy comes just days after Georgia Baptist-affiliated Shorter [...]

This news comes via a column at EthicsDaily.com by Dr. Colin Harris, professor of religious studies at Mercer University. From Harris: Recently, two Georgia universities, with roots deep in the rich heritage of Baptist higher education, have responded in rather different ways to this challenge….In rather stark contrast, Mercer University announced the adoption of a [...]

In recent weeks, two important Baptist groups in moderate Baptist life met to discuss and conduct business.  Last week, the Coordinating Council of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship met at First Baptist Church, Tucker, Georgia.  This week, the Baptist General Convention of Texas held its annual meeting in Amarillo.  Both groups were once again confronted with [...]

Last week, Associated Baptist Press reported that the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Missouri announced that it was offering cash to churches searching for a pastor that are willing to consider (?) a female candidate. CBF-Missouri is promising to pay the travel expenses incurred by search committees willing to “include a woman candidate in the process…treating [...]