Church

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.”

In defiance of some U.S. bishops, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi reportedly received communion during a mass presided over by Pope Francis on Wednesday for the celebration of the feast of St. Peter and Paul. The Catholic congresswoman is banned from receiving the sacrament in four U.S. dioceses due to her abortion rights stance.

This week at the theologically conservative Presbyterian Church in America's General Assembly in Birmingham, Alabama, commissioners approved a motion to leave the National Association of Evangelicals – an umbrella organization of 40 evangelical Christian denominations.

A state holiday in Texas since 1980, Juneteenth was on only eight states‘ official holiday calendars before the federal designation, with another nine adding it since last year. Faith leaders have long marked the holiday with interfaith marches and special church services.

After approving a series of reforms meant to address sexual abuse in their denomination, Southern Baptists at their national meeting approved a resolution apologizing to abuse survivors and asking for forgiveness. They also called on legislatures to create laws that make pastoral sexual misconduct a specific crime and punish those who prey on church members.

The election was one of the closely watched aspects of the two-day meeting, during which messengers, or delegates, addressed a sexual abuse investigation. Barber received 61% of the votes in the second round of voting at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday evening, defeating Florida pastor Tom Ascol in a runoff election.

Last year, leaders at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting pulled a resolution that would have had messengers declare they “denounce the Capitol insurrection.” This year, messengers might elect a new leader who amplified false claims about the 2020 election.

Survivors of sexual assault in church settings and their advocates have been calling on churches for years to admit the extent of abuse in their midst and to implement reforms. In recent weeks #ChurchToo has seen an especially intense set of revelations across denominations and ministries.

Tom Ascol has long argued Southern Baptist churches are filled with people who believe they are Christians but really aren't — a belief shaped by growing up with an abusive father who was also a church deacon.