Two Southern Baptist pastors will seek an investigation into allegations that the highest echelons of the Southern Baptist Convention mishandled several sex abuse claims and bullied sex abuse victims. Southern Baptists will meet June 15-16 in Nashville for their annual convention.
Seven states have an unconstitutional ban on atheists holding public office. Although superseded by Supreme Court rulings, the bans reflect the normalization of anti-atheism that has yet to be truly dealt with, or rarely acknowledged, in the United States.
Deacon Ivey is used to the lingering stares in restaurants and on vacation. As a biracial teenager with White evangelical parents, Deacon said he often feels uncomfortable going into public with his multiracial family in their predominantly White community in Texas. Read full piece
Robert Wilson-Black remembers Donald W. Dayton, who died last May 2020. Dayton was an important interpreter of Evangelical, Wesleyan, Holiness, and Pentecostal traditions, revealing how they were connected and displaying how their roots were more entangled than historians had previously understood.
In episode 2 of the new Word&Way podcast Dangerous Dogma, Lindsey Krinks talks about viewing communities from below, reading scriptures in public spaces, and what keeps her ministering despite disappointments with institutional Christianity.
Melissa Florer-Bixler: In North Carolina, memory is politics. I’ve learned this over the past three years organizing with a coalition of North Carolinians working toward the creation of lynching memorials in Wake County. Read full piece
Within the parachurch ministry, critics allege its recent approach to diversity has relied on critical race theory and resulted in “mission drift.” Read full piece
In a recently-published leaked letter, Russell Moore cited an unnamed SBC leader who was critical of his decision to hire a Black woman. Two Southern Baptist sources have confirmed with RNS the SBC leader who made the comment: Paige Patterson
We may not have subpoena power or ornate hearing rooms in Washington, D.C., but in this edition of A Public Witness we explore the evil spirit animating Jan. 6 that abides in too many churches and revealed itself at the U.S. Capitol. This is a demon that
Columnist Ken Satterfield reflects on vaccine hesitation and research on how to persuade people to get a coronavirus vaccine. He also connects those lessons to thinking about faith.