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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (RNS) — When geropsychologist Benjamin Mast evaluates dementia clients at his University of Louisville research lab, there’s a question some people of faith ask him: “What if I forget about God?”

To be honest, exercising more and eating better sounds great and is easily achievable — all I would need to do is complete one workout per year and stop eating endless amounts of clearance candy that I habitually purchase the day after a food-themed holiday (a.k.a. nearly all American holidays) and I would be doing more than I currently am.

Amid a public controversy surrounding the firing of a Baptist college professor who allegedly first sought to oust other professors, multiple professors recently released statements. Much of the debate, which has spread nationally, centers on various doctrinal claims and the nature of theological education.

Your Opinion

In terms of a healthy lifestyle, how would you grade yourself?
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Podcast

  • 49. Eron Henry

    Listen to 49. Eron Henry Eron Henry, who formerly led communications efforts for the Baptist World Alliance, talks with Word&Way Editor & President Brian Kaylor. He discusses his work at the BWA, his native country of Jamaica, and the heritage of Jamaican Baptists. He also talks about his new book, Constitutionally Religious: What the Constitutions of 180 Countries Say About Religion and…

  • 48. Jeff Langford

    Listen to 48. Jeff Langford Jeff Langford, coordinator for CBF Heartland talks with Word&Way Editor & President Brian Kaylor. He discusses the work of CBF Heartland (& nationally), the importance of denominational bodies, and his hopes for the future. He also talks about the "Angela Project" and CBF's "Illumination Project." (This episode is presented in partnership with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.)

  • 47. Yohanna Katanacho

    Listen to 47. Yohanna Katanacho Yohanna Katanacho, a Baptist scholar who works at Nazareth Evangelical College and Bethlehem Bible College, talks with Word&Way Editor & President Brian Kaylor. He talks about life for Baptists and other Christians in Israel and Palestine, including what Christmas is like in Bethlehem today. He also discusses his newest book, Praying Through the Psalms.  (This episode is…

  • 46. Greg Mamula

    Listen to 46. Greg Mamula Greg Mamula, associate executive minister for the American Baptist Churches of Nebraska, talks with Word&Way Editor & President Brian Kaylor. He discusses his work in Nebraska, conflict transformation, church fellowship, and ministering in different Baptist denominational contexts. He also talks about his podcast "Mission in 5." Kaylor appeared as a guest on that program on Dec. 10.  (This episode is…

More "Baptist Without an Adjective"

Baptist

DECATUR, Ga.— The Governing Board voted unanimously Jan. 15 to elect a pastor of “theologically profound leadership,” the Rev. Dr. Paul Baxley, as the fourth executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

MUSTANG, Okla. (BP) -- From a church planting perspective, The Well is averaging approximately 100 in weekly attendance, recently baptizing several new believers. Meanwhile, the planters -- Stephen Myers and Steven Giblet -- have worked to cultivate a culture within the church conducive to foster care and adoption.

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (BP) -- Jimmy Allen, the last moderate Southern Baptist Convention president and entity leader known for his gregarious personality and engagement with cultural issues, died Jan. 8 in Brunswick, Ga.

Nation

NASHVILLE (BP) -- When the 18th Amendment was ratified 100 years ago and prohibition became law of the land on Jan. 16, 1919 , the Southern Baptist Convention called it "the greatest victory for moral reform in America since the Declaration of Independence."

NASHVILLE (BP) -- Church pews may be full of teenagers, but a study released Tuesday (Jan. 15) suggests college students might be a much rarer sight on Sunday mornings.

The number of people in the U.S. experiencing homelessness increased for the second year in a row, according to an annual U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report released in mid-December 2018.

World

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank were born in the same year, 1929. It was the start of the Great Depression, and in the world they came to know, people were out of work, hungry and looking for someone to blame. As happens all too often when people are frightened, the blame was fixed on vulnerable minorities.

WASHINGTON (BP) -- The number of Christians suffering high to extremely high persecution is 14 percent more in 2019, Open Doors reported, counting 245 million individuals globally.

Thousands of people were killed, millions were displaced and billions of dollars in damages occurred in 2018 due to extreme weather events related to human-caused climate change, according to a Christian Aid report published on Dec. 27.

Faith & Culture

(RNS) — After nearly 30 years, a public relations agency that has acted as a powerful gatekeeper for some of the most prominent Christian faith-based organizations is closing its doors.

(RNS) — This week, the most high-profile graduate of the LIFE program at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn. — offered behind the locked steel doors and razor-wire perimeter of the Tennessee Prison for Women — made national headlines when Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam granted her full clemency.

Twenty-five years after the True Love Waits movement was launched, an early leader in the purity movement says he does not "second-guess the rightness of the original message." Meanwhile, the latest critics of the TLW claim abstinence emphases by evangelical churches wrongly shame girls and cause them to view

Media & Entertainment

Yes, much of "The Green Book" was cliched and predictable; you could almost smell the plot turns as they were coming around the bend. But, nevertheless, the movie has something very powerful to teach about race and class in America.

Books, challenges and a new documentary encourages participants to rethink the role of technology in their lives and homes.

Byron and Beth Borger launched their Dallastown, Pa., store during the faith-based-bookstore boom times of the 1980s. They bucked evangelical conventions by including Catholic writers such as Thomas Merton, tackling topics like racial justice and featuring books by spiritual formation proponent Richard Foster, whose take on the Christian life was

Editorials

As we ponder the story of Jesus' baptism, experts in Israel work to remove thousands of landmines from the area near the River Jordan and the traditional baptism site of Jesus. That’s right: One of the holiest sites remains surrounded

Built around the same time as the birth of Jesus, the magnificent Tropaeum Alpium celebrated the victory of Caesar Augustus over the tribes in the Alpine region a decade earlier. Near the same time Augustus built the monument celebrating his military,

As the midterm campaigns end, I suspect that no matter who wins, many people will sigh with relief. The breaks in our television shows — for those who still watch live TV — will return to just airing cheesy local

Other Opinions

Telling teenagers that faith is irrelevant to real life will not keep them from leaving the church. It may hasten their exits.

No doubt, you have noticed we humans are not designed like Janus, the Roman mythological god. Perhaps there is a lesson in that bit of anatomy.

We all have that person in our lives; the one we can never please or do enough for, the one who always finds fault and invariably withholds a word of blessing.

Commentary

What do you mean when you talk about “good church people”? Jesus appeared in first century Palestine, where the line between “good church people” (code for God's chosen) and pagans was clearly defined.

We need epic good news as desperately as the generation to which Jesus was born. The desperation level in the first century must have been equal to that we know in our time.

In Mark's version of the Jesus story, you won’t find the genealogy of Jesus, the exile to Egypt or the Temple visit when the boy Jesus impressed the scholars of the Law. The opening words of this shortest of the

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