LAVONIA, Ga. (ABP) — An investigation into the Sept. 1 police shooting of a Southern Baptist pastor in northeast Georgia is expected to last another month. Brian Rickman, district attorney of Mountain Judicial Circuit, said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation…
Charles Wellborn, ‘Baptist Hour’ preacher, writer, ethicist, dies
GEORGETOWN, Ky. (ABP) — Retired Florida State University professor and former "Baptist Hour" radio preacher Charles Wellborn died Oct. 1 at his home in Georgetown, Ky. Contemporaries described Charles Wellborn, who died Oct. 1 at age 86 as one of…
Ban on religious signs at football games roils Georgia community
FORT OGLETHORPE, Ga. (ABP) — The woman who sparked a controversy over signs bearing Bible verses at a north Georgia high school's football games says she was not offended by the signs and was surprised when the district superintendent banned…
Court turns away attempt to force ‘Choose Life’ plates on Illinois
WASHINGTON (ABP) — On the opening day of their 2009-2010 term Oct. 5, the justices of the Supreme Court turned away an anti-abortion group’s attempt to force Illinois to offer special license plates that support the pro-life cause. A mockup…
Faithful Stewards: Debt keeps Christians from reaching potential
RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — If Americans had followed biblical financial principles, they could have lessened — or completely avoided — the worst recession in decades, two prominent Christian money-management specialists said. “Debt may not be a sin, but it is…
Faithful Stewards: Can we reclaim the corporate virtue of thrift?
AUSTIN, Texas (ABP) — Some social analysts observe the United States in the past half-century has shifted from a Bedford Falls-like culture of small businesses and community-friendly financial institutions to a Pottersville-style nightmare of predatory lenders and seedy businesses that…
Faithful Stewards: ‘Generosity’ as a concept over ‘stewardship?’
LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. (ABP) — A 2,000-year-old incident continues to set the standard for what it means to be a generous church. The sanctuary of First Baptist Church in Galveston, Texas, served as a staging area for collecting clothing and…
Global Baptists responding to Pacific Rim disasters
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) — Baptist relief agencies worked on several fronts to respond to humanitarian needs created by a series of tsunamis, earthquakes and tropical storms in Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands. Paul Montacute, director of Baptist World…
Study says SBC funding plan inadequate to achieve stated goals
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (ABP) — The Southern Baptist Convention has identified a missionary-sending goal big enough to accomplish the nearly 2,000-year-old task of the Great Commission — but lacks a clear fund-raising plan for meeting it, according to an upcoming annual…
U.S. Christian leaders join calls to restore civil rights in Honduras
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Several Christian leaders in the United States are calling on the current government of Honduras to restore civil liberties suspended in an escalating political crisis in the Central American nation. The heads of several Protestant and Catholic…
Rally planned for Georgia pastor killed in botched drug sting
TOCCOA, Ga. (ABP) — A vigil is planned Oct. 3 to show support for the family of a Baptist pastor shot dead a month earlier by undercover police officers in a drug investigation gone wrong. Members of Shoal Creek Baptist…
Cheerleaders’ Bible banners raise community controversy
FORT OGLETHORPE, Ga. (ABP) — Hundreds of people gathered Sept. 30 in northern Georgia to support cheerleaders at a public high school ordered to stop using religious messages on banners carried on the field during football games. Cheerleaders at Lakeview-Fort…