Thursday, June 13, 2024

This Week in Religion - Southern Baptists: Ban on women pastors is unnecessary

Lead story

People attending the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting hold up orange ballots.

Editor's note:

Delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting this week voted to oust a prominent Baptist church in Virginia because it insisted that women should be able to serve as pastors. By a narrow margin, in a later vote, the delegates rejected a proposal to enshrine in the SBC’s constitution a ban on churches with women pastors. Opponents of the proposal argued it was unnecessary because the SBC already has a way of ousting churches with women as pastors. It was the highest-profile issue at the SBC’s two-day meeting in Indianapolis, covered intensively by Peter Smith of AP’s Religion Team and Bob Smietana and Adelle Banks of Religion News Service. Other developments included the election of a new SBC president and an update on the denomination’s struggles to create an online database of SBC-affiliated sexual abusers. 

A photo of David Crary, Religion News Director at The Associated Press.
 

Religion News

The Rev. James Lawson Jr., civil rights leader who preached nonviolent protest, dies at 95 

The Rev. James Lawson Jr., an apostle of nonviolent protest who schooled activists to withstand brutal reactions from white authorities as the Civil Rights Movement gained traction, has died, his family said Monday. He was 95. By Christopher Weber, Travis Loller and Adrian Sanz 

At Florida homeschool convention, an education in MAGA politics

Amid more typical homeschool concerns such as combating screen time and filling gaps in homeschool math curricula, the overarching message of the 40th annual Florida Homeschool Convention was about politics, not education. By Katherine Stewart/Religion News Service

The Rev. Matthew L. Watley says it’s not happenstance his suburban Maryland congregation landed at the top of a list of the fastest-growing churches in America. Today, Kingdom Fellowship AME Church’s average weekly attendance is 2,500. By Darren Sands/The Associated Press 

An overhead view of the Kaaba in the holy city of Mecca. Muslim pilgrims are gathered around the Kaaba.

More than 1.5 million foreign pilgrims arrive in Mecca for annual Hajj pilgrimage

Muslim pilgrims have been streaming into Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca ahead of the start of the Hajj later this week, as the annual pilgrimage returns to its monumental scale. By Samy Magdy/The Associated Press

National Eucharistic Pilgrimage passes through Washington, draws fervent Catholics

In Brookland, the Catholic crowd of more than 1,200 were fervent about their faith, but it remains to be seen if the evangelizing project will reach beyond those already committed. By Aleja Hertzler-McCain/Religion News Service

 

Commentary and Analysis

The Supreme Court's approach toward religion in schools has been shifting, creating uncertainty about legislation such as Louisiana's. By Charles J. Russo for The Conversation

Most ideas about Jewish culture in the United States come from Ashkenazi traditions, but there's a vast landscape of Jewish cultures around the world – and represented in the US. By Samira Mehta for The Conversation

Why has the ICC indictment of Israeli and Hamas leaders drawn so much fire?  Understanding the notion of moral equivalence might help explain why.  By Michael Blake for The Conversation

Proposed legislation in the Senate would have far-reaching implications for charitable NGOs and their donors. By Dilshad Ali/Religion News Service

 
Balinese men fight each other using tied plants and shields woven from plants. There is also a crowd of people gathered to watch them.

Balinese men fight each other using tied, thorny pandanus plants and shields during a ritual called 'Mekare-kare' pandanus war at Tenganan village in Bali, Indonesia on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. People of Tenganan village celebrate a month-long ceremony called 'Usabha Sambah' to honour and respect the God Indra, the Hindu god of war. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

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