Church

For some in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, the senior pastor must be a man, but staff and other pastoral roles can be filled by women. For others, pastoral duties, especially preaching, are limited to men, and women are only allowed to teach the Bible to other women and children.

Lawyers for Georgia Baptist pastor Mike Stone filed paperwork Thursday to voluntarily withdraw a complaint filed in federal court against Russell Moore, the former head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

The newest album by The Porter’s Gate is a far cry from the peppy “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”-type Christmas tunes. Drawing heavily from biblical Scriptures and written with congregational worship in mind, Advent Songs is meant as a hope-filled response to 2021’s weighty realities.

Many people don’t know the stories behind their favorite Christmas carols. That’s where ‘Hark! The Stories Behind Our Favorite Christmas Carols’ comes in, a new podcast that explores the meaning and making of some of the best-known and most-loved Christmas carols.

Fewer than half of churchgoers say their clergy (44%) have spoken about vaccines. One exception: historically Black churches, where two-thirds of churchgoers say pastors have encouraged their people to get vaccines. And some have even led their churches to set up on-site vaccine clinics.

A preacher who campaigned for Donald Trump claimed during a sermon Sunday (Dec. 5) attacked President Joe Biden’s administration as “ungodly.” Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, also mocked Biden’s Catholic faith during the sermon.

Months after Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary accused its former president Paige Patterson of stealing from the school, a newly-released financial report offers more insights into the case.

Former Regent employees named at least 40 faculty, staff, and administrators who were forced to exit during Gerson Moreno-Riaño’s tenure at Regent University. Now he is president of Cornerstone University.

When taking into account religious affiliation, party affiliation, and social demographics, people who hear social justice-themed sermons in their places of worship are more likely than other Americans to engage in political activism, regardless of their race.

In this edition of A Public Witness, we set the stage for Advent and countdown ways in which the pandemic, oppression, and insurrection defining our contemporary moment are strikingly similar to when Jesus was first born so long ago.