WASHINGTON (ABP) — Thirty-nine pro-life Christian pastors and leaders released a statement Dec. 18 applauding alternative language aimed at preventing health-care reform from being derailed by debate over abortion. With bill supporters in the Senate lacking a filibuster-proof majority to…
Appeals court allows suit over Ky. Baptist institution to proceed
CINCINNATI (ABP) — The full 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined Dec. 16 to review the August ruling of a three-judge panel allowing a case challenging taxpayer funding of a Baptist children's home to move forward. Sunrise Children's Services,…
N.C. judge strikes down law banning sex offenders from church
PITTSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — A North Carolina judge has ruled in favor of two registered sex offenders arrested in May for attending a Baptist church near Raleigh. Francis Demaio and James Nichols were indicted May 11 for violating a state…
Study says majority of world’s population faces religious restriction
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Nearly 70 percent of the world's 6.8 billion people live in countries with high restrictions on religion, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life. Titled Global Restrictions on…
Day with a legend: Belmont students meet Baptist activist Will Campbell
Belmont University students pose with Will Campbell outside his cabin in Mt. Juliet, Tenn. MT. JULIET, Tenn. (ABP) — Religion majors at Belmont University ended their semester on a high note Dec. 14, visiting and chatting with legendary Baptist civil-rights…
Oklahoma company debuts funds that keep faith with Christian investors
OKLAHOMA CITY (ABP) — An Oklahoma investment company has unveiled what is believed to be the first Christian-themed line of exchange-traded funds in the United States. FaithShares Trust in Oklahoma City announced two new products, FaithShares Baptist Values Fund and…
Lilly-funded McAfee program to help grads serving in first churches
ATLANTA (ABP) — A $1 million grant is funding a new center at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology that aims to create a new paradigm for transitioning new ministers from the academic setting into the realities of local-church ministry….
U.S. religious groups square off over bill imposing new Iran sanctions
WASHINGTON (ABP) — With a key vote looming in the House of Representatives, religious leaders weighed in on both sides of the debate over new sanctions against Iran. Thirty-four conservative religious leaders, including the Southern Baptist Convention's top lobbyist, wrote…
D.C. set to become 6th jurisdiction in U.S. with legal same-sex marriage
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The District of Columbia Council voted overwhelmingly — and despite vocal protests from a coalition of conservative evangelicals and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington — to legalize same-sex marriage in the nation’s capital Dec. 15. Anthony…