Baptist Church

The last time I spoke was eight years ago when my best friend tried to kill me. I never dreamed my silence would break with a scream. Being sent to Chapel Crest after my new stepfather deemed me a heathen seemed like a blessing compared to staying with him and my mom. I was a mute demon in his eyes, and when the rod didn’t beat the evil out of me, he prayed Chapel Crest could. I envisioned the religious academy would become my sanctuary. I was wrong. So very wrong. Chapel Crest was an asylum moonlighting as a religious school.

At the age of five, Megan Phelps-Roper began protesting homosexuality and other alleged vices alongside fellow members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. Founded by her grandfather and consisting almost entirely of her extended family, the tiny group would gain worldwide notoriety for its pickets at military funerals and celebrations of death and tragedy.

From Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, one of the most esteemed centers of African American spirituality in the country, comes Food for the Soul - a compilation of more than 100 recipes, and the many stories behind them shared by its congregation. Since its founding in 1808, Abyssinian has been a major social and religious voice of black Americans. The oldest African American church in New York State, it is a cultural melting-pot ministry with members from throughout the African diaspora - and a history of cooking reflecting that diversity.

As an English-speaking denomination, Baptists originated within 17th-century Puritanism as an offshoot of Congregationalism. English Baptists migrated to the American colonies during the 17th century. During the 18th century, the Great Awakening resulted in the expansion of the denomination, and the conversion of many slaves to Baptist churches. Baptist congregations formed their first national organization the Triennial Convention in the early 1800.

Trapped. Beaten. Broken. Adam destroyed himself to save me. At first, I doubt if I have the strength to go on. But with every second that passes, I seethe and curse the Prophet. My time as a Maiden is over. I refuse to be a toy in his game any longer. But there’s always more ways for the Prophet to get to me, to use me, and to keep me under his influence. Will I be strong enough to break free?

Banished is an eye-opening, deeply personal account of life inside the cult known as the Westboro Baptist Church, as well as a fascinating story of adaptation and perseverance. Since no organized religion will claim affiliation with the WBC, it's perhaps more accurate to think of them as a cult. Lauren Drain was thrust into that cult at the age of 15, and then spat back out again seven years later. Banished is the story of Lauren's fight to find herself amidst dramatic changes in a world of extremists and a life in exile.

Are your Sunday mornings more difficult than joyous? Forty thoughtful meditations on biblical truths encourage listeners to understand the source of their struggle, express their sorrow, and take wise action.

Westboro Baptist Church has earned an unforgettable reputation for virulently anti-gay pickets. Westboro has even stooped to picketing funerals to spread their hateful message. Most people respond to this hate with more hate of their own, but through poetry, this book calls us to respond with understanding instead. This work strives to challenge common reactions and to stimulate new thoughtful dialogue.

From the New York Times best-selling author of Stony the Road and one of our most important voices on the African-American experience, a powerful new history of the Black church in America as the Black community's abiding rock and its fortress.

When Christa Brown first spoke out about the sexual abuse she endured in her Texas childhood church, she never imagined it would expose the ethical chasm at the core of the Southern Baptist Convention: male religious leaders so focused on institutional protection that they sacrifice the safety of children. A book about speaking out and speaking up, Baptistland weaves together Christa’s revealing story of hope amid Southern patriarchy and religious fundamentalism.

Joining Divine Fragrance Palace has propelled Li Wei on the path of alchemy and the path of his Dao. However, one of the three prominent clans of the Divine Fragrance Palace is in marital relationship with Du clan that he had eliminated, and they don’t take a slap-in-the-face lightly. From the first step into the sect, Wei is faced with resistance, accusations and enemy he can’t think of overtaking, and with a dear friend from previous life thrown in same trouble, he has to go against all odds to save his and his friends life. Can Wei overcome the odds? Or give up trying that?

A Yale graduate who volunteered to serve his country, Larry Gwin was only 23 years old when he arrived in Vietnam in 1965. After a brief stint in the Delta, Gwin was reassigned to the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in An Khe. There, in the hotly contested Central Highlands, he served almost nine months as executive officer for Alpha Company, 2/7, fighting against crack NVA troops in some of the war's most horrific battles.

This Very Short Introduction tells the evangelical story from the preacher-led revivals of the eighteenth century, through the frontier camp meetings of the nineteenth, to the mass urban rallies of the twentieth and the global megachurches of the twenty-first. More than just a sketch of where evangelicals have come from, this volume aims to examine the heart of evangelical phenomenon.

Ever since evangelical Christians rose to national prominence, mainstream America has tracked their every move with a nervous eye. But in spite of this vigilance, our understanding hasn't gone beyond the caricatures. Who are evangelicals, really? What are they like in private, and what do they want? Is it possible that beneath the differences in culture and language, church and party, we might share with them some common purpose?

Sometimes it can seem as if friends are more work and pain than they're worth, with friendship challenges that we have to endure and struggle through. Life gets in the way of our well-intentioned efforts to connect. Conflicts and differences over serious issues divide us and make us think that we could never be close to a person ever again. How can we build real relationships that are life giving and pass the test of time? Bryan Loritts mines one of the Bible's least-known books for insights into how friendships can flourish even in the midst of sin and brokenness.

A Case for Being Timeless makes a case for churches remaining on the old, fundamental paths on which they began rather than constantly changing in order to keep up with fads. The three parts (What, Why, and How) to this audiobook make a compelling case for why our generation of youth should choose to be passionate about the old paths.