On February 12, Potawatomi author Kaitlin Curtice was heckled during a chapel service at Baylor University in which she addressed God as “Mystery” and spoke about the need to decolonize Christianity and to dismantle “capitalist greed” and “toxic patriarchy.”
When Curtice stated that in many churches, men and women are not seen as equals, a student shouted, “No one even thinks like that!”
James Leo Garrett Jr., known as the “dean of Southern Baptist theologians,” died February 5 at the age of 94.
Garrett is credited with helping to shape the Southern Baptist Convention as it grew into the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. During his 48-year academic career, he taught theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Baylor University in addition to heading the Baptist World Alliance’s Study Commission on Cooperative Christianity and lecturing around the world.
Raphael Warnock, pastor of the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, announced that he’s running for the US Senate, challenging recently appointed Republican senator Kelly Loeffler.
With his influential pulpit at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Warnock immediately brings some Democratic star power to the race—and some powerful friends.
Within hours of entering the race, Warnock locked up perhaps the most coveted endorsement in Georgia Democratic politics when Stacey Abrams, the party’s 2018 nominee for governor, announced she’s supporting his campaign.
In the historic black church where she worshiped, the late journalist Gwen Ifill was remembered with a new Black Heritage stamp in a ceremony featuring dignitaries of the church, politics, and journalism.
Speakers at the event January 30 at Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church took turns describing Ifill’s courage in defying expectations and praised her faith-fueled ability to serve as a mentor to young journalists who followed in her footsteps. She was known for her broadcast and print journalism and for moderating election season debates.
Herbert Chilstrom, the first presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, died on January 19 at the age of 88.
The Minnesota pastor and former dean at Lutheran College in Teaneck, New Jersey, was elected to head the new ELCA denomination in 1987. It’s widely believed that it was Chilstrom’s leadership, at least in part, that made the historic merger of three Lutheran church bodies a success.
In a statement posted to the ELCA website, the current presiding bishop, Elizabeth Eaton, praised Chilstrom’s dedication to the fledgling denomination.
Lawan Andimi, the Nigerian Church of the Brethren pastor whose hostage video made waves on the internet last month, was executed on January 20, according to conflict and terrorism reporter Ahmad Salkida.
Andimi was reported missing on January 3 after Boko Haram or a splinter terrorist group attacked the town where Andimi was working as the director of the Christian Association of Nigeria.
His hostage video garnered international attention for what some called his Christian testimony.