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(As en went to press, various lawsuits disputing the result were ongoing.)

Gerald Bray reports from Alabama

The coronavirus pandemic has unexpectedly found me in Alabama, where I have enjoyed a front-row seat in the 2020 elections circus.

Departing President of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), J.D. Greear, has used his final message to the Executive Committee to demand that the church engages constructively with Critical Race Theory (CRT).

The talk coincided with the much-publicised decision of leading Bible teacher Beth Moore – a longstanding critic of Donald Trump – to quit the SBC, saying ‘I can no longer identify with Southern Baptists.’

Gerald Bray

Date posted: 1 Mar 2021

The inauguration of a new American President is always a time of great expectations, but especially now, after the sorry end to the previous regime.

Most people are relieved that the transfer of power went off without a hitch. The overarching need to deal with the pandemic is at the forefront of everyone’s minds, and Joe Biden’s promise to deliver 100 million does of the vaccine in his first 100 days in office is being widely hailed as an ambitious but still achievable goal. In the circumstances, other matters have taken a back seat. Biden is a sincere Catholic and his recent attendance at church has been duly noted, though some of his executive orders are not what the Vatican would have prescribed. He has rescinded the restrictions on abortion that the previous administration introduced and has appointed homosexual and transgender people to prominent positions. He has also removed the bar to transgendered soldiers serving in the armed forces. It is hard to say what practical effect things like that will have, and for the moment few people are talking openly about them. Whether they are the tip of a looming iceberg of radical reform, or simply a nod to left-wing lobbies that will soon be disappointed in their deeper aims, remains to be seen.

Since 2015 there has been a nearly 90% reduction in the number of Christian refugees being resettled to the United States from countries where churches face the greatest persecution. This is according to a new report published by Open Doors USA (a watchdog group that monitors the persecution of Christians) and World Relief (a refugee resettlement agency).

Closed Doors, the title of the 16-page report, is critical of policies that have either drastically reduced refugee resettlement to the USA or made it increasingly difficult for persecuted individuals and families to seek asylum.

The first crack in Donald Trump’s support among America’s so-called evangelical community emerged in January as a prominent Christian magazine called the President’s conduct ‘profoundly immoral’ and said that he should be removed from office.

Up to a quarter of US voters identify as evangelical Christians and they have been a foundation of President Trump’s support. He took over 80% of these voters in the 2016 election.

During the last weekend of September 2019 around 400 people, from French-speaking Europe and further afield, gath-ered in Brussels to celebrate the 100th anni-versary of the Brussels Bible Institute (IBB).

The weekend festivities included: an evangelistic concert by the French band Yatal; a keynote address by the prominent French theologian Henri Blocher on gospel progress over the last century in Europe; and Bible expositions by Pastor Thomas Koning, Albi, France.