WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (ABP) — A North Carolina county is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court ruling that prayers offered in Jesus’ name at meetings of the county’s board of commissioners are a constitutionally impermissible endorsement of…
Baptist school expels transgender student
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (ABP) – California Baptist University expelled a transgender student who listed her gender as female on her application form and appeared on an MTV reality show saying she is biologically male. Domaine Javier, in a video still from…
Evangelist charged with video voyeurism
OSNELL, Ark. (ABP) – A Southern Baptist evangelist, and former camp pastor at LifeWay Christian Resources’ FUGE summer youth events, has been charged with video voyeurism in a home where he was staying as a house guest while preaching a…
Book details rise of independent churches
DURHAM, N.C. (ABP) – About one in five Protestant churches in America is now independent of any denomination, and about one in five Protestants attends those independent churches, Duke sociologist Mark Chaves says in his new book American Religion: Contemporary…
Shorter University adds new faith statements
ROME, Ga. (ABP) – Shorter University has adopted a new faith statement that affirms biblical inerrancy and is requiring faculty and staff to sign a pledge rejecting homosexuality. A new mandatory “personal lifestyle statement” asks employees to agree to “be…
Mississippi Baptists back ‘Personhood Amendment’
JACKSON, Miss. (ABP) – The Mississippi Baptist Convention is backing a constitutional amendment facing voters Nov. 8 that would declare a fertilized human egg to be a person, effectively branding abortion as murder. The state convention’s Christian Action Commission endorsed…
CBF finishes fiscal year 15 percent behind budget
ATLANTA (ABP) – The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship ended its fiscal year $2.1 million short of its 2010-2011 budget goal of $14.5 million in total revenues, controller Larry Hurst reported to the CBF Coordinating Council Oct. 21. Anticipating a shortfall, Hurst…
Texas pastors weigh in on Rob Bell controversy
AMARILLO, Texas (ABP) — Two Texas Baptist pastors weighed in on controversy over Rob Bell’s recent book questioning the traditional view of hell in a training session during the Oct. 24-26 annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Texas….
Church-state expert said minorities face biggest threats to religious liberty
WASHINGTON (ABP) – An advocate for the separation of church and state told a House panel Oct. 26 that what some Americans regard as imminent threats to religious liberty are in fact attempts to maintain a favored status for the…