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Adelle M. Banks

Adelle M. Banks is a national reporter for Religion News Service.

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Black church leader says Target boycott won't ease until DEI programs return

A collective Lenten fast from making purchases at Target has been lengthened into a “full-out boycott,” Jamal Bryant, pastor of an Atlanta-area megachurch and one of the leaders of the campaign, an...
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Abyssinian Baptist Church welcomes dismissal of pastor candidate's discrimination suit

A federal judge has dismissed a gender discrimination lawsuit brought against Abyssinian Baptist Church by a onetime candidate to be the historic Harlem church’s senior pastor, the sole female cand...
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Documentary highlights the tensions, isolation of being 'Black + Evangelical'

A new documentary is shedding light on a group of people who are part of the evangelical Christian tradition in a way, said Wheaton College theology professor Vincent Bacote, “that’s not just White...
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Jimmy Carter, beloved Sunday school teacher, former president, dies at 100

Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at age 100, was known most as the 39th president of the United States. But he also will be remembered as the world’s most famous Sunday school teacher....
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Historical 'twin pillars' of US Black communities partner to boost vote

Soon after Vice President Kamala Harris shifted from vice presidential candidate to presidential nominee, 44,000 of her supporters dialed into a call dubbed Win With Black Women that quickly became...
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E. Anne Henning Byfield, former president of AME bishops' council, dies at 74

Bishop E. Anne Henning Byfield, a leader of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, has died two months into her retirement, the denomination announced on Thursday....
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National Baptists choose Connecticut pastor Boise Kimber as next president

After an unusual election that gave voters the choice on the ballot of a name or a “no,” members of the National Baptist Convention, USA, lined up behind a new president, Boise Kimber, senior pasto...
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AME Church announces retirement settlement agreement during general conference

The African Methodist Episcopal Church announced a settlement agreement with a number of its clergy who had sued the denomination, accusing it of mishandling their retirement funds....
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As AME Church meets for general conference, retirement plan questions continue

When Carieta Cain-Grizzell reached age 75, she had expected to retire after a lifetime as an African Methodist Episcopal Church member who became a pastor of several of its churches....
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Amos Brown, pastor to Kamala Harris, known for civil rights, reparations activism

Amos Brown, a longtime pastor of Third Baptist Church of San Francisco, was specific when he described Vice President Kamala Harris’s connection to his church....

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Voter protection training begins as clergy, secular groups look toward election

Faith leaders are making plans to provide a de-escalating presence at the polls months ahead of another deeply contested presidential election in an increasingly polarized country....
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Mary Patterson, preserver of Church of God in Christ history, dies at 83

Mary P....
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Southern Baptists don’t get votes to add ‘only men’ pastors language to constitution

Southern Baptists failed to adopt a change in their constitution that would explicitly state that “only men” can be “any kind of pastor” in affiliated churches....
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New commission of religiously affiliated higher education aims to spark collaboration

A prominent association of colleges and universities in the United States has created a new commission of religious schools whose aim will be to share with their nonreligious counterparts the innov...
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Churches tied to civil rights movement awarded National Park Service preservation funds

Six churches are among 39 projects being awarded grants from the National Park Service to preserve historical examples of the civil rights activism of Black people in the United States....
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Conservative faith leaders praise Johnson for House’s approval of foreign aid

Conservative religious leaders who had been imploring Speaker Mike Johnson to back assistance for Ukraine and Israel in fighting their wars celebrated the House’s passage of foreign aid packages Sa...

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