(ABP) — Payday-loan vendors have grown like kudzu in recent years. Texas has more payday-lending outlets — about 3,000 — than it has McDonald’s and Whataburger restaurants combined. And some churches and pastors are asking how they can equip people…
Turning a culture of debt into a culture of thrift
(ABP) — A growing number of American Christians and even some secular groups are beginning to believe John Wesley had the right idea: “Make all you can; save all you can; give all you can.” Hard work, thrift and philanthropy…
Church-state advocates urge strong successor for Stevens
John Paul Stevens (SCOTUS photo) WASHINGTON (ABP) — With the Supreme Court’s oldest and longest-serving member announcing April 9 his retirement, advocates for strong church-state separation urged that Justice John Paul Stevens’ replacement be as devoted to preventing government establishment…
Reading the Bible through the lens of poverty affects interpretation
(ABP) — One's socioeconomic status can influence how people read and interpret the Bible — and often how they will act on it, according to some Christian leaders. {youtube}451MJGDsxUE{/youtube} Miguel De La Torre, associate professor of social ethics at the…
Missiologist: Christians in developing world interpret Bible differently
RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — Christians in the developing nations read Scripture differently than their brothers and sister in the affluent West, according to missiologist Caleb Oladipo. Caleb Oladipo “The way we read the Scriptures in the Western world particularly is…
Black Baptist pastor asks SBC to repent of racism
ARLINGTON, Texas (ABP) — A prominent African-American Baptist pastor says the Southern Baptist Convention has not kept a promise made in 1995 to "eradicate racism in all its forms from Southern Baptist life and ministry." Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone…
Black Baptist pastor asks SBC to repent of racism
ARLINGTON, Texas (ABP) — A prominent African-American Baptist pastor says the Southern Baptist Convention has not kept a promise made in 1995 to "eradicate racism in all its forms from Southern Baptist life and ministry." Dwight McKissic Dwight McKissic, pastor…
Former Baptist pastor gets 10 years for molestation
Editor's note: This story was updated April 10 to correct an error in the 12th paragraph. FRANKLIN, Ind. (ABP) — A former Southern Baptist pastor in central Indiana has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for molesting a 15-year-old…
U.S. teens’ pocket change gives South African village access to clean water
RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — About 300 families in a South African village soon will have access to clean water, thanks to pocket change collected last year by hundreds of Virginia Baptist youths. A mission team from Bonsack Baptist Church in…