Church

Ron Sider, an author, seminary professor, and evangelical social justice activist, has died, according to an online update from his son. A longtime professor at Palmer Theological Seminary, is best known for his 1977 book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, and for founding Christians for Social Action.

While Bart Barber has been involved with Southern Baptist Convention polity for years — he was the head of the resolutions committee that selected and shaped many of the proposed reforms — Barber is the first SBC president in nearly two decades not to emerge from an urban or suburban megachurch.

Archaeologists in Virginia began excavating three suspected graves at the original site of one of the nation’s oldest Black churches on Monday, commencing a monthslong effort to learn who was buried there and how they lived. 

Lawyer and activist Bryan Stevenson challenged Baptists from around the world to be truth-tellers about racial injustices. He spoke to a special session of the Baptist World Alliance’s annual gathering on Thursday.

A fact-finding commission of the Episcopal Church will research the history of the denomination’s role in operating boarding schools for Native American children — part of a system the church now acknowledges was rooted in White Supremacy and caused generations of trauma.

A prominent mainline Christian denomination plans to divest from five oil companies it believes are not doing enough to address climate change. The vote to divest from Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66, and Valero Energy comes after years of debate in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Many still have a hard time seeing sexual misconduct by pastors as abusive. Particularly when the one abused is an adult, Baptists and other faith groups often view the survivor as the tempter — a sinner who led a holy man astray — rather than as a church member in need of care. Meanwhile, the fallen pastor is just another sinner who needs Jesus.

Since being elected to lead the World Council of Churches earlier this month, the Rev. Jerry Pillay, former general secretary of the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, has been rebuffing critics who accuse him of making antisemitic remarks by referring to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as tantamount to apartheid.

While the plan to split the mainline Protestant denomination over its disagreement about the ordination and marriage of LGBTQ United Methodists will likely still be considered at the next General Conference meeting, wavering support for the protocol leaves the church either imagining a new way forward or plunging into chaos, depending on whom you ask.

A Black Baptist preacher in Dallas, Texas, offered a fiery call at the general assembly of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship for Christians to engage in social justice even if they get attacked for being “heretics.”