NASHVILLE (ABP) — The Tennessee Baptist Convention will hold a rare special convention May 9 to deal with a growing rift with Baptist-affiliated Belmont University. Belmont wants to elect its own trustees, who have been appointed by the convention for…
Pro fisherman with no legs, one arm uses profession to witness to others
ROCKWALL, Texas (ABP) — Clay Dyer has a dream job. He believes without a doubt God called him to become a professional fisherman — and not just the “fisher of men” variety. Making his living with a rod, reel and…
Just days after asserting ‘war,’ DeLay leaves Congress
WASHINGTON (ABP) — One of the Religious Right's congressional heroes is leaving Congress under a cloud, just days after he appeared at a conference where the organizer said the attacks on him were part of a “war on Christians.” In…
Longtime Illinois columnist Tom Adams, 75, dies
ELGIN, Ill. (ABP) — Tom Adams, who penned one of the longest-running columns for a state Baptist newspaper, died April 1 following a heart attack. He was 75. “Tom's humility and his lack of pretense were qualities that endeared him…
Afghan president Karzai praises treatment of exiled Christian
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Afghanistan's president praised his government April 4 for releasing a Christian who had been threatened with death for abandoning Islam. Hamid Karzai said the nation's judiciary was right not to bow to pressure from Muslim clerics and…
Paul Corts named 5th president of Christian college council
DALLAS (ABP) — Former Baptist college president Paul Corts has been named the fifth president of the 30-year-old Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. The selection of Corts, who has served as assistant attorney general for administration for the U.S….
Former SBC president Graham plans 2nd campus for Prestonwood Church
DALLAS (ABP) — Prestonwood Baptist Church, the 25,000-member megachurch near Dallas, has announced plans to build a second facility roughly 20 miles north of the existing campus. Former Southern Baptist president Jack Graham has served as pastor at Prestonwood, one…
‘Rare’ Baptist exec Ed Schmeltekopf dies after long battle with Parkinson’s
FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — Texas Baptist denominational leader Ed Schmeltekopf died March 29 after an extended illness related to his longtime battle with Parkinson's disease. Schmeltekopf, 73, served nearly two decades as associate executive director of the Baptist General…
Gulfport church says goodbye to buildings gutted by Katrina
GULFPORT, Miss. (ABP) — Members of this city's First Baptist Church bid farewell March 26 to the hollow shell of their beachfront sanctuary, decimated by Hurricane Katrina, in order to move to an inland location less vulnerable to storms. Stark…
Threat of death for conversion not unique to Afghanistan
(ABP) — As Afghan Adbul Rahman seeks safety in Italy after dodging a death sentence for converting from Islam to Christianity, other Christians worldwide continue to face extreme persecution from countrymen who oppose their beliefs. While Rahman's case gained national…
Texas woman nominated as next CBF moderator
DALLAS (ABP) — Texas leadership consultant Harriet Harral will be nominated as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's moderator-elect, the highest elected position in the national group. “I am both humbled and excited,” Harral told Associated Baptist Press. “CBF is so blessed…
Catholics, mainliners, Jews, evangelicals unite to support immigration reform
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The debate over immigration reform currently dividing America at large — and congressional Republicans in particular — ironically is uniting a wide spectrum of the religious community that views immigration reform as a moral issue. The Roman…