WASHINGTON (ABP) – The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Oct. 5 in a closely watched case involving a church’s right to hire or fire ministers for reasons like religious doctrine that in other settings would be job discrimination. “The…
Man sentenced in church embezzlement
Michael Whitt Barbara Whitt GREENVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) – A man convicted of conspiring with his mother to steal $1.5 million from a Tennessee Baptist church was sentenced Oct. 4 to just over four years in prison. Senior U.S. District Judge…
Pastor acquitted on molestation count
TUSCUMBIA, Mo. (ABP) — A Missouri Baptist minister has been acquitted in a child molestation charge heard in Miller County Sept. 28. Travis Smith, 41, pastor of First Baptist Church in Stover, Mo., was acquitted in the yearlong case after the jury…
Supreme Court hears arguments in important church-state case
WASHINGTON (ABP) – The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Oct. 5 in a closely watched case involving a church’s right to hire or fire ministers for reasons like religious doctrine that in other settings would be job discrimination. “The…
Opinion: The face of hope
(ABP) — What does the face of a child rescued from trafficking look like? The question raced through my mind as our plane taxied down the runway in Kathmandu. I was one of five women on a mission trip to…
Stover pastor acquitted on molestation count
TUSCUMBIA — A Missouri Baptist minister has been acquitted in a child molestation charge heard in Miller County Sept. 28. Travis Smith, pastor of First Baptist Church in Stover, was acquitted in the yearlong case after the jury deliberated for…
Man sentenced in church embezzlement
GREENVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) – A man convicted of conspiring with his mother to steal $1.5 million from a Tennessee Baptist church was sentenced Oct. 4 to just over four years in prison. Senior U.S. District Judge Leon Jordan sentenced Michael…
High court says World Vision can hire only Christians
WASHINGTON (ABP) – The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a lower-court ruling that the Christian humanitarian organization World Vision can fire employees over religious doctrine. The high court declined without comment Oct. 3 to review an August 2010 ruling by…
Former preacher sentenced for incest
ALEXANDRIA, La. (ABP) – A former Louisiana Baptist preacher was sentenced to 25 years in prison Oct. 3 for sexual abuse of a young female relative. Holland Farrell McMorris, 64, was arrested in June 2010 and charged with 15 counts…