GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — One of North Carolina's most prominent churches has joined the list of congregations leaving the Southern Baptist Convention. First Baptist Church of Greensboro voted Sept. 15 to remove all denominational affiliation from its bylaws and cut…
Baylor narrowly votes to postpone call for Sloan’s termination
WACO, Texas (ABP) — Baylor University regents voted to postpone indefinitely a call for President Robert Sloan's resignation, and they unanimously rejected a request by the university's faculty senate to hold a faculty-wide referendum on Sloan's administration. After a motion…
Louisiana College offers presidency to conservative seminary scholar
PINEVILLE, La. (ABP) — Trustees of Louisiana College voted Sept. 24 to offer the presidency of the embattled school to Malcolm Yarnell, a seminary dean with conservative credentials. Yarnell, assistant dean of theological studies and associate professor of systemic theology…
Bill intended to protect pledge passes House of Representatives
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would strip the Supreme Court and all other federal courts of the ability to decide cases involving the Pledge of Allegiance. On Sept. 23, the House voted 247-173…
Churches in Alabama, Florida assess damage from Ivan
ORANGE BEACH, Ala. (ABP) — “It's nothing but rubble on the sand.” That's the news Paul Smith, pastor of Romar Beach Baptist Church, got from congregation members who watched televised reports of Hurricane Ivan smashing into the beachfront church building….
Future of society, democracy at stake, Land tells SBC Executive Committee
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — America is approaching “the most crucial election process in our lifetime,” according to Richard Land, executive director of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Though not explicitly endorsing the re-election of President Bush, Land…
Florida Supreme Court strikes down ‘Terri’s Law’
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (ABP) – The Florida Supreme Court ruled Sept 23 that the law passed to restore Terri Schiavo's feeding tube is unconstitutional and violates the separation of powers between the judicial, legislative and executive branches of the state government….
Baptist relief efforts follow Ivan from Caribbean to Virginias
SUMMERSVILLE, W. Va. (ABP) — “Ivan the Terrible” is finally gone, but Baptist volunteers are just getting started cleaning up the mess he left — from the Caribbean to the Alleghenies. The storm first made landfall in the United States…
WMU of Virginia leaders adopt ‘declaration’ opposing devaluing of women in ministry
RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — Leaders of Woman's Missionary Union of Virginia have adopted a declaration endorsing the “diverse and unlimited” Christian vocations of women and “rejecting” both the Southern Baptist Convention's official opposition to women pastors and the refusal of…