BLUEFIELD, Va. (ABP) — Bluefield College will focus on academics, global service, expanded resources and partnerships as part of its new five-year strategic plan. Trustees of the Virginia Baptist school approved the four-part plan at their April board session. The…
Furman faculty, students divided over Bush speech
GREENVILLE, S.C. (ABP) – Students, administrators, faculty and alumni of Furman University are in an uproar over a speech by President Bush, scheduled for the school's May 31 commencement exercises in Greenville, S.C. The controversy at the moderate school –…
Pass the Popcorn: Christians struggle to decide how best to engage culture
(ABP) — If Christians don't learn to engage the popular culture that surrounds them, they will drown in it, experts insist. “Christians tend to hear the words ‘popular culture' and react as if spitting something yucky from their mouths,” said…
Pass the Popcorn Analysis: Engage culture without assuming it
(ABP) — I've got to be brutally honest; I'm not a Rob Bell fan, although many of my students are. He has two best-selling books: Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith (2005) and Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between…
CBF worker reaches internationals at Mississippi State University
STARKVILLE, Miss. (ABP) — Diana Bridges is an avenue to God in Northern Mississippi for internationals like the Muslim woman who always asks Bridges to pray for her. “God listens when you pray,” she told Bridges. With a call to…
Pass the Popcorn: Popular culture challenges Christians to ‘think outside the box’
HOUSTON (ABP) — It can be difficult to hear God's word in today's media-saturated culture of iPods, YouTube, satellite radio, and DirecTV with over 500 channels and on demand movies. That's the conclusion reached by two culture observers on the…
Tickets for Annual ABP Dinner at CBF
Join us for the Annual Associated Baptist Press Dinner at the CBF General Assembly: “Giving Voice to Truth in the Race-tinged South” Thursday, June 19, 2008, 5:30 – 7:15 p.m., $36 per person Ballroom B, Memphis Cook County Convention Center…
IMB regional director resigns over policy disagreements
RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — A high-ranking Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board employee resigned May 5 because he disagrees with policies governing missionary qualifications. Rodney Hammer, IMB's regional leader for Central and Eastern Europe, cited disagreement with policies disallowing missionary…
IRS clears United Church of Christ of wrongdoing in Obama speech
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Barack Obama's denomination did nothing wrong in hearing a speech from the Democratic presidential candidate, the Internal Revenue Service has told officials of the United Church of Christ. The denomination announced the move on its website May…
UPDATE: Texas court rules against seizure of polygamist sect’s children
SAN ANGELO, Texas (ABP) — The state of Texas had no right to remove some — if not all — of the more than 460 children taken from their polygamist parents, a state appeals court ruled May 22. It was…
Appeals court again overturns Virginia ‘partial-birth’ ban
RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — Despite a recent Supreme Court decision upholding a federal ban on a kind of late-term abortion procedure, a federal appeals court has again overturned a similar statewide ban in Virginia because it could limit far more…
BWA, Samaritan’s Purse make inroads to assist storm survivors
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) — Baptist World Aid, the relief and development arm of the Baptist World Alliance, is working through six relief camps in cyclone-devastated Burma (also known as Myanmar), while a United States-based organization readies an airlift to…