“28% of U.S. Protestant pastors say LGBTQ+ individuals can serve anywhere in their church, while 31% say there is nowhere they can serve.” - Lifeway

“I have in mind Rick Warren’s brief address Tuesday from the floor of the convention and Juan Sanchez’ convention sermon Wednesday. These two messages represented two different, competing visions of ministry and the local church.” - 9 Marks

“The emergence of the online sharing economy calls to mind the Socratic desire to abolish ownership with the goal of ending competition and discord. But, as Aristotle reminds us, this is a corrosive vision that would exacerbate rather than mitigate conflict” - Public Discourse

“It leaves room for different Christians to worship in ways consistent with their traditions and culture, yet also calls us to ensure that, no matter what, our worship is ‘shaped and governed by the Word of God’ ” - Challies

“In a 5-4 opinion, the high court overruled the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that struck down all state abortion bans and legalized the procedure throughout the country. The justices also invalidated the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey opinion that affirmed Roe.” - BPNews

NR: A Stain Erased

“Wisconsin adopted a ban on abortion except to save the mother’s life in 1849, a year after the territory became a state. The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide nullified the ban.” - C.Index

“The PCA takes up the case of a church leader who responded to sexual harassment claims with a defamation lawsuit against his accusers.” - C.Today

“’We’ve been writing about the threat of Putin to Orthodoxy for years,’ added Demacopoulos. ‘In some sense, I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.’” - RNS

“’You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip’ (Ps. 18:36)….The Lord has not set us on a tightrope. He has given us a wide place to walk, a place where we take steps with confidence” - TGC

“We enjoyed tremendous services and other sessions at our recent annual meeting….You can find audio and video for our sessions here (not all sessions recorded in video). One of our afternoon panel discussions featured a worthy question for our panelists, ‘Why join the FBFI?’” - P&D

Richard Baxter on God’s Love for the saints: Baxter (1615 – 1691) is well known for his monumental work “The Saints’ Everlasting Rest.” This work was a product of the turmoil the Puritan experienced throughout his life.

The Ending of Seminaries as We’ve Known Them

“The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Maine can’t exclude religious schools from a program that offers tuition aid for private education, a decision that could ease religious organizations’ access to taxpayer money.” - C.Index

“Now is a good time for pastors both inside and outside the SBC to assess how they’re protecting their people and to implement improvements. Here are some ideas” - Lifeway

“ ‘comfort’ is not the normal way that verb gets translated in the New Testament. Most often, this extremely common verb, parakaleō, gets translated [as] ‘encourage,’ ‘exhort,’ or ‘urge,’ but only rarely as ‘comfort.’” - Kenneth Berding

”’[Post:] There was only one way she could make sense of it, she said: Losing them now — as fully formed human beings — would be different from losing them back then.’ How so? Could the Post have interviewed activists and scientists on both sides of that question?…. all we hear about in the piece is how many career opportunities the mother has lost” - GetReligion

“I am seeing this in a lot of other institutions [other than SBC], is that the healthiest people are disengaging, because they are not the people who want to go through the nonsense that one has to go in these things.” - Juicy Ecumenism

The Hebrew verb רחם (rḥm) is used over 40 times in the Old Testament and is translated in the Authorized Version as “compassion,” “pity,” or “mercy.” In its basic sense, רחם may mean (1) to feel affectionate love based upon a relational bond, or (2) to show kindness to the inferior or needy. The English term “mercy” best translates the second meaning, whereas the term “compassion” brings out the affective element in the first meaning. The underlying relational bond is underscored by those passages which associate רחם with “covenant” [בְּרִית; bərît] and “covenant love” [חֶסֶד; ḥesed] (Isa. 54:8, 10; Lam. 3:32).

“Now, abuse survivors and Southern Baptists leaders wait to see whether the momentum and historic stances will result in meaningful change in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.” - C.Today

“Pence’s focus, by contrast, was on justice—upholding the rule of law—and the courage he sought was the courage to ignore the howls of the mob …If you doubt that January 6 was a thoroughly religious moment for Mike Pence, read this” - David French

“Our elders were forced to consider this qualification in the heat of the moment. A pastor of our church had not crossed any one line.” - 9 Marks

“…what should you do when you begin feeling discontent at your church? What should you do when you feel that yearning to pick up and move on?” - Challies

“The Statesman as Thinker points us toward the need for both a classical political-philosophic and a theologically informed understanding of how to evaluate political action. Mahoney seeks the best in political life through this dual focus” - L&L

“Juneteenth National Independence Day, which celebrates the end of slavery in the United States, became a federal holiday last year.” - Pew

“Walsh nowhere appeals to the Bible, but instead uses common-sense, rational questioning to investigate transgenderism’s attempt to overthrow nature—God’s “second book” of revelation.” - American Reformer

“While 81% of American adults say they believe in God, the percentage has dropped 6 points since 2017 and is the lowest since the Gallup polling firm started asking the question more than seven decades ago.” - CPost

“1. The Imago Test: Are we treating opponents as image-bearers? …2. The Red/Blue Test: Are our minds hyper-politicized?… 3. The Justification Test: Are we seeking righteousness apart from Christ?… 4. The Fruit Test: Is the Spirit less evident in our lives?” - Desiring God

Read the series.

Credo-baptism and the Covenant of Grace

I have taken a quick look at the way paedo-baptist covenant theologians understand baptism as a sign of the New covenant aspect of the covenant of grace, but of course many Baptists are Reformed yet they reject the baptism of infants as unbiblical.

“As my offenses were enumerated, I felt my blood pressure skyrocket. My reflex was absolute defensiveness. But then I looked into the faces of these four or five men. I knew them. I knew their track records of humble, faithful, loving service in our church.” - 9 Marks

“At a press conference held Wednesday, Barber gave opening remarks in which he addressed the issue of holding sexual predators within Southern Baptist congregations accountable.” - C.Post