News

A new political advertisement calls on Republican Christian voters to turn against Donald Trump this November, arguing the president’s rhetoric and actions are out of step with their faith.

The U.S. is divided along racial lines regarding the removal of monuments and statues linked to slavery, according to a report from YouGov/The Economist published July 6. Racial differences also emerged in response to the Confederate flag.

Churches should partner with government officials to fight the spread of the coronavirus while receiving First Amendment protections as they cooperate, the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission said in a new statement. 

A statement opposing the federal government’s plan to execute four inmates was issued July 7. Signed by over 1,000 faith leaders from multiple traditions, it asks the Trump administration to halt the four federal executions scheduled for July and August.

In the middle of one of the highest COVID-19 surges worldwide, pastors serving Florida’s hard-hit Hispanic community are suffering illnesses among their respective congregations while continuing their ministry.

Crowded bars and house parties have been identified as culprits in spreading the coronavirus. Meat packing plants, prisons and nursing homes are known hot spots. Then there’s the complicated case of America’s churches.

Leaders of 12 Christian organizations on Friday (July 10) urged the Trump administration to rescind a policy requiring international students to leave the U.S. or transfer if their colleges hold classes entirely online this fall, saying it “falls short of American ideals.”

The president of Turkey on Friday formally reconverted Istanbul’s sixth-century Hagia Sophia into a mosque and declared it open for Muslim worship, hours after a high court annulled a 1934 decision that had made the religious landmark a museum. The decision sparked deep dismay among Orthodox Christians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly working on plans to annex about one-third of the Palestinian West Bank into Israel, but Baptists in the region are speaking out against such a move. While many U.S. evangelicals support the modern secular nation of Israel, Baptists who live and minister in that nation or the territory it occupies see the situation much differently.

Core principles such as support for equal rights, community engagement and eschewing partisan politics while not shying away from the pressing issues of the moment have guided St. John's for decades and continue to do so today, after the church once again found itself at the center of an American awakening over racial injustice following George Floyd's killing.