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Just a query to those more knowledgeable and savvy, about church denominations. Actually, I mean ANY division of organized Christian religion. I am frustrated by so many churches now, with all the nonsense of the last 2 years. Paying homage to BLM and homos and bowing down to every COVID decree. Everyone says what was our church, Lutheran Church - MO Synod (LCMS), is good for being true. However, after the riots started I saw a bit too much virtue-signaling. The only thing I can say was the website did not seem to specify blacks and BLM, but the statement...

DALTON, Ga. — On a humid evening in August, Nancy Davis Womac paced anxiously on her front deck. Her hands trembled as she stared at a text message from her firstborn daughter, Melanie Spencer, saying that she was minutes away. The two had never met. Forty-three years ago, Womac was pregnant and living in an orphanage when she was sent to the Bethesda Home for Girls on the outskirts of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It was run by Baptist preachers who forced girls to memorize Bible chapters and scrub carpets by hand. Staff members beat the girls with wooden boards if they...

A PARTICIPATORY REPUBLIC. By the Providence and blessing of Almighty God, the United States was founded as a Constitutional Republic, and as a Participatory Republic. Our Baptist forefathers, after experiencing more than a century of persecution in the Colonies, did participate in the new Republic by their witness in writing and personal communications with presidents, members of Congress, and other statesmen. The annals are replete with the record. Whole libraries can be filled with the history of Christian participation. Out of many resources available, we recommend the complete library of the Foundation for American Christian Education (FACE) in Chesapeake, Virginia,...

Greear, who pastors The Summit Church, a North Carolina megachurch, defended his three years as the denomination’s president and the convention’s growing diversity. But he said political divides were distracting the convention from its mission work. ...In recent months, Southern Baptist leaders have been embroiled in a debate over critical race theory, an academic framework that seeks to explain systemic racism ...While he said that he agreed with some of the concerns about CRT, he also lamented that criticism of it had alienated people of color and he pledged to work harder on racial reconciliation. Some Southern Baptist leaders, including...

The president of the Southern Baptist Convention, J.D. Greear, has blasted leaders and pastors who’ve made “closet racists” and “neo-Confederates” feel more at home in their churches than people of color. His criticism came during an address at the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee meeting on Monday. “Let me state this very clearly, as clearly as I can, critical race theory is an important discussion and I am all for, as I hope you would be, robust theological discussion about it,” Greear said. “For something as important as what biblical justice looks like in the world today, we need careful,...

Russell Moore is president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Commission. I say: Impeach Russell Moore for dereliction of duty. Russell Moore has written a pathetic article. “The Roman Road from Insurrection,” calling for Trump’s removal from office by impeachment or application of the 25th Amendment if he does not resign. This call from Moore is hardly surprising because it exhibits the same “Never-Trump” tunnel vision, hatred, and dearth of documentation that we have come to expect from him in politics. The article is short on facts and long on bluster. His whole argument...

Influential Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore issued a blistering criticism of President Donald Trump and the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol last week and said that if he were a member of Congress, he “would vote to impeach” the president. “This is not about politics. This is about our country, about the rule of law and about the sanctity of human life,” Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, wrote in a Jan. 11 op-ed posted on his website. “The president invited mobs to Washington — promising a 'wild' time — and...

Jeff Iorg, president of the Southern Baptist funded Gateway Seminary in California, claimed in a baffling essay that Christians should not be too concerned with “concepts or conspiracies” like socialism, Critical Race Theory or Intersectionality. Dr. Iorg writes, “Many Christians today are captivated by discussions, arguments, and speculations about concepts or conspiracies like socialism, Critical Race Theory, intersectionality, QAnon, the 1619 Project, etc. American Christians have been duped into believing these are pressing issues which deserve our undivided and intense attention.” I’m dumber for having read this essay. Who thinks those issues deserve undivided attention? This is a typical strawman...

Growing up in a strict Baptist family, Nikole Mitchell was expected to be quiet, reserved and sweet. But her dreams weren’t quite so conservative. “From a young age, I had fantasized about being a stripper,” Mitchell, who now works as an erotic dancer on OnlyFans, told The Post. “But I was indoctrinated to believe my desires and my body were innately sinful and bad.” So instead of pursuing the pole, the mother of three went all-in on religion — and became a pastor. Even that, however, was rebellious in her family’s eyes. “I was taught that women aren’t allowed to...

A Christian university affiliated with the Tennessee Baptist Convention has garnered controversy over rescinding a graduate student’s admission because he is in a same-sex relationship. Alex Duron posted a letter he received from Union University on Facebook last week, noting that his admission to a nursing program was rescinded because he was found in violation of the school’s Community Values Statements for Graduate and Non-Traditional Programs. Duron denounced the decision of Union as “Bigotry, Prejudice, Heterosexism, Homophobia” and took issue with the fact that the university receives federal funding. “Union University may not be right for me. I can accept...

The leader of the largest Protestant Christian denomination in the country shocked many when he urged his members to declare "black lives matter" and denounced using "all lives matter." J.D. Greear, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), made the comments during his annual address delivered on Facebook due to coronavirus orders limiting public gatherings. "Southern Baptists, we need to say it clearly as a gospel issue: Black lives matter," Greear said. "Of course black lives matter. Our black brothers and sisters are made in the image of God. Black lives matter because Jesus died for them."

Most leaders in Judaeo-Christian faiths believe scripture teaches that all human lives are valuable and deserving of protection. But there are some who stray from the teaching and promote abortion. A group of New York state clergy members recently advocated for abortion at the state capital, Christian News Network reports. Together, abortion activists who identify as Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopalian, Baptist, Unitarian and Jewish urged New York state lawmakers to support abortion and Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion chain in the United States, according to the report. “As pastors, we believe in New Yorkers’ ability to get the health care...

revival service live now Tabernacle Baptist Church Greenville, SC

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A minister with the American Baptist Church (ABC-USA) has been volunteering as an escort at a North Carolina abortion facility, according to recent reports. In December and January, Yes Magazine covered what it described as “harassment” by pro-lifers against escorts and abortion-minded mothers entering A Woman’s Choice in Greensboro. The facility offers abortions up to 20 weeks gestation (5 months). Among those interviewed was Michael Usey, who leads College Park Baptist Church, which identifies itself as “progressive, diverse, ecumenical.” “Our LGBTQ-friendly church has many LGBTQ members, in addition to gay/lesbian ministers, deacons and staff members,” its website...

Amid growing concern that the nation's largest Protestant denomination is increasingly "woke" and drifting from biblical orthodoxy, a new network has formed to emphasize evangelism and the sufficiency of Scripture within the Southern Baptist Convention. The Conservative Baptist Network, which is being launched Friday, describes itself as a grassroots effort to maintain the proclamation of the Gospel at the center of SBC life, in addition to prioritizing fidelity to Scripture and all of its implications, including presenting a vibrant, biblically-informed witness when engaging culture. The network fully affirms the longstanding beliefs of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. Those involved...

A bill that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to Virginia's nondiscrimination law cleared committees in the House of Delegates and Senate this week and appears to be on its way to becoming law in the Old Dominion. A version of the bill known as the Virginia Values Act was shepherded through the Senate committee by Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria). In the House, it was sponsored by Mark Sickles (D-Franconia), where it passed by a 16-6 vote, with all Democrats and three Republicans voting in favor. The mood among activists was celebratory. Democrats hold a 55-45 majority in the...

3) Among some of the more specific lines of inquiry I wish to pursue are those which would illuminate the reasons for the continued existence of religious conviction among millions of Soviet citizens, all of whom have been subjected to varying degrees of oppression and discouragement by powerful agencies of propaganda and anti-religious education. This tenacity to spiritual commitment is worthy of careful study for these precise methods to the control of man's relationship to God may be unique in human experience. 4) As a Baptist I am especially interested to be in contact with the large number of practicing...

A second Fuller Theological Seminary student has filed a lawsuit against the Christian institution over its ban on noncelibate same-sex relationships. On Tuesday, Nathan Brittsan, a pastor and graduate student who is in a same-sex marriage, added his name to a lawsuit against the California-based nondenominational seminary. Brittsan is joining plaintiff Joanna Maxon, who was expelled by Fuller for being in a same-sex marriage. Her suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. “This is a civil rights case about two students who were expelled from their graduate program for one reason: they married someone...

Former MLB slugger Manny Ramirez — as well-known for his "Manny being Manny" antics as his powerful home runs — has apologized for his career missteps in a Boston Globe interview, explaining that he has a renewed relationship with God and has been in seminary for the past five years. From the Globe article: All these years later, Manny Ramirez wants you to know that he loves you and that he is sorry for mistakes he made while playing in Boston. He is sorry he knocked down Red Sox traveling secretary Jack McCormick over a ticket issue when the Sox...

(RNS) — Evangelical pastor John MacArthur, speaking at a celebration of his 50th year in pulpit ministry this week, weighed in on an ongoing debate in the Southern Baptist Convention over women preachers, claiming the nation’s largest Protestant denomination has lost faith in the authority of the Bible. He claimed the SBC had taken a “headlong plunge” toward allowing women preachers at its annual meeting this summer. That, he said, was a sign the denomination no longer believed in biblical authority. “When you literally overturn the teaching of Scripture to empower people who want power, you have given up biblical...