Since 1835, the B&R has kept Tennessee Baptists informed, inspired
By Art Toalston
Contributing Writer, B&R
FRANKLIN — After a tornado tore through their community — and her family’s home — followed by the upheaval of COVID-19, Ashley Lee had no less resolve for Vacation Bible School.
“So many of our children had already had so much taken away from them,” Lee told the Baptist and Reflector. “We knew we couldn’t let VBS be one more ‘No’ in our kids’ lives.”
More than 100 COVID-19 related news and feature stories have been reported by the B&R since April, such as the VBS that Lee and others led for dozens of families at Friendship Community Church in Mt. Juliet.
Those articles, and others relaying insight to Tennessee Baptists on global missions, the sanctity of life, race relations, local church ministry, Baptist beliefs and Christian living, reflect the function of the Baptist and Reflector throughout its 185-year history, beginning just two years after the Tennessee Baptist Convention’s formation in 1833.
“Christian journalism in Southern Baptist life has a long and illustrious history,” the late Fletcher Allen, B&R editor from 1987-1998, wrote in his first editorial. “We must not allow that history to be blemished; the task is the same task that faced those first journalists: Tell the news openly, honestly, completely, with integrity and compassion.” [Read more…]