By Bob Allen Baptist organizations including the Southern Baptist Convention’s insurance provider got temporary relief Aug. 21 from an Affordable Care Act requirement that employers include in their employee health care plans drugs and devices they believe cause abortion. A…
SBC parliamentarian ‘converts’ from long affiliation with Christian Church
By Bob Allen After advising Southern Baptist Convention presidents for 29 years as chief parliamentarian during SBC annual meetings, longtime Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) minister Barry McCarty is officially part of the fold. The Christian Index reported recently that…
State convention challenges church’s acceptance of gays
By Bob Allen The South Carolina Baptist Convention has written a letter asking First Baptist Church of Greenville to either recant its recent decision to include gays in all areas of church life or withdraw from the 2,000-church state affiliate…
Ted Cruz urges evangelicals to vote in 2016
By Bob Allen Southern Baptist presidential candidate Ted Cruz says evangelical pastors are Republicans’ best hope to win the White House in 2016. “Nothing is more important in the next 18 months than that the Body of Christ rise up…
Coalition opposes taxpayer-funded discrimination
By Bob Allen American Baptist Home Mission Societies and the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty are among 130 religious, education, civil rights, labor, LGBT, women’s and health organizations asking President Obama to review a Bush-era legal opinion allowing faith-based…
Jimmy Carter says his future ‘in the hands of God’
By Bob Allen Former President Jimmy Carter said he was “surprisingly at ease” after being diagnosed with cancer, which has spread to parts of his brain, in a news conference Aug. 20 at the Carter Center in Atlanta. Carter, 90,…
Anti-nuke activist chastises politicians for rhetoric about proposed Iran deal
By Bob Allen A leading evangelical voice for nuclear disarmament criticized politicians for comparing a widely debated nuclear deal between the U.S. and Iran to the Holocaust and saying it fulfills End Times prophecy in the Bible. In an interview with the Christian Post, Tyler…
Minister charged with murder appears in court
By Bob Allen A former Southern Baptist minister charged with murdering his wife appeared in court Aug. 19 in Birmingham, Ala. Attorneys representing Richard Shahan, former children and families pastor and facilities director at First Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.,…
Global Women wins Best of Pelham Award
By Bob Allen An ecumenical woman-to-woman missions organization with Baptist ties dedicated to improving the lives of vulnerable women around the world has been honored as one of its local community’s best businesses. Global Women’s international partnerships in areas including…
Former Union University student pleads guilty to murder
By Bob Allen A former Union University student pleaded guilty Aug. 6 to second-degree murder and tampering with evidence in the 2014 shooting death of his fiancée on the campus of the Baptist affiliated school in Jackson, Tenn. Charlie Pittman,…
Al Mohler, Franklin Graham, criticize FBC Greenville’s affirmation of gays
By Bob Allen The president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s flagship seminary said Aug. 18 he is not surprised by news that the school’s mother church has taken a stance of affirming homosexuality. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological…
Historic Baptist church adopts gay non-discrimination policy
By Bob Allen A historic church formerly affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention is making headlines with a “discernment” process about how to relate to the LGBTQ community. In early May members of First Baptist Church in Greenville, S.C., approved…