News

On Tuesday, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee called for a further week of deliberations with a special task force on sexual abuse after failing to agree on the ground rules for a third party review commissioned to study the denomination’s handling of abuse claims. 

In this edition of A Public Witness, we look at the cognitive dissonance the audit’s findings created for true believers of the “rigged election” claim, along with examining how this bureaucratic exercise took on a religious fervor.

Local Haitian media is reporting that a deacon at First Baptist Church Port-au-Prince was killed and his wife kidnapped as they prepared to enter Sunday morning worship Sept. 26.

Amid the Boy Scouts of America’s complex bankruptcy case, there is worsening friction between the BSA and the major religious groups that help it run thousands of scout units. An eventual settlement — while protecting the BSA from future sex-abuse lawsuits — could leave many churches unprotected.

A Baptist pastor and three other men were killed and a town of 2,000 homes all but abandoned this past weekend in fighting in Myanmar’s western Chin State that escalated after a call for a nationwide uprising against the country’s military government, a resident said Thursday.

Some churches in Kenya have barred politicians from addressing their congregations, saying campaigning during services disrespects the sanctity of worship. The national Anglican, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic churches have all issued bans.

Washington National Cathedral announced Thursday it has chosen contemporary artist Kerry James Marshall, renowned for his wide-ranging works depicting African American life, to design new stained-glass windows with themes of racial justice that will replace a set with Confederate imagery.

Rev. Timothy Stewart, the first international president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, has died, his denomination announced. The Bahamas pastor served three years of his four-year term and presided over the virtual annual session of the historically Black religious group in August.

In this edition of A Public Witness we place our aim on the rising use of drones as the preferred weapons of war. The urgency of the conversation ignores all borders, which means the life-or-death stakes warrant the attention of the global Church. 

Female clergy describe having a sense of anticipation for years before this summer’s elevation of Rev. Gina Stewart to president of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Missionary Society. But questions remain about where Black denominations stand on women’s leadership.