By Bob Allen A past president of the Southern Baptist Convention is front and center of a campaign by Houston pastors to convince voters to say no to a controversial equal-rights ordinance scheduled to be on the ballot Nov. 3….
SBC leader says Christians should not attend a same-sex wedding
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist seminary president’s forthcoming book is making headlines with a suggestion that Christians should not attend a same-sex wedding ceremony, even it if means boycotting the marriage of their own child. “STANDING RESOLUTE” screamed a…
Baptist judge blocks Arkansas executions
By Bob Allen An Arkansas judge who also is pastor of a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church has halted the executions of eight death row inmates challenging a new law allowing the state to withhold information that could publicly identify the…
Member of BJC board dies after fall
By Bob Allen A member of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty board of directors died Oct. 8 from complications related to injuries he suffered from a fall as he left his hotel for the recent BJC board meeting….
Appeals court throws out settlement of Baptist home lawsuit
By Bob Allen A federal appeals court has thrown out the 2013 settlement of a lawsuit challenging state funding of a Kentucky Baptist children’s ministry, saying a judge should decide if court-ordered monitoring of alleged violations of the separation of…
Baylor rescinds Bill Cosby’s honorary degree
By Bob Allen Baylor University acted Oct. 8 to rescind an honorary doctorate the school awarded to accused serial rapist Bill Cosby in 2003. The 78-year-old comedian, facing legal challenges from more than 50 women who accuse him of drugging…
SBC president suggests a single mission board
By Bob Allen Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd suggested merger of the convention’s two mission boards during a symposium on the denomination’s future Sept. 28-29 at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo. “Structures and systems flow from…
Professor urges churches to model ‘common life’
By Bob Allen Christianity has a prophetic word to counter the “politics of denunciation” that argues people are more defined by their differences than their common life as a whole community, Duke University ethicist Luke Bretherton said Oct. 8 at…
Former youth minister sentenced to prison
By Bob Allen A former Texas Baptist youth minister has been sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for enticing a 13-year-old girl into a nine-month sexual relationship in 2014. Derek Hutter, 38, pleaded guilty in June to enticing a girl…