By Bob Allen A recent Wall Street Journal story profiling twin brothers who followed separate spiritual paths — one to become an Anglican bishop, the other a Catholic priest — represents failure by the Southern Baptist church in which they were raised,…
Louisiana College elects president
By Bob Allen Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College has chosen an official from another Baptist school in South Carolina as president. Trustees of the Louisiana Baptist Convention-related college unanimously elected Rick Brewer, vice president of student affairs and athletics at Charleston Southern…
Vote postponed on ouster of Alabama church over gay marriage
By Bob Allen A special meeting to decide whether to kick an Alabama Baptist church out of its local association over homosexuality has been postponed due to weather. Officials of Madison Baptist Association announced that tonight’s called meeting of the…
New Orleans Baptist church rocked by abuse arrest
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist youth minister fired by his church after he was seen on surveillance video sneaking into a closet with a 14-year-old girl faces up to 10 years in prison on a charge of sexual battery….
Supreme Court brief argues for gay Baptist minister’s right to wed
By Bob Allen Four same-sex couples in Kentucky, including a Baptist minister, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the state’s ban on gay marriage in a 60-page brief filed Feb. 27. Petitioners included Maurice “Bojangles” Blanchard, a gay-rights activist…
Liberia seminary reopens post-Ebola
By Bob Allen The Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the country’s leading schools, reopened March 2 after six months of closure prompted by the Ebola crisis in West Africa. Richard Wilson, a Mercer University professor named in 2013 as…
Moderate Baptists rise to aid of woman on death row in Georgia
By Bob Allen Update: Kelly Renee Gissendaner’s execution was postponed Monday night when officials cited problems with the drug that would be used for the lethal injection. Officials are waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to either grant or deny…
SBC controversy reverberates for second, third generation ‘exiles,’ book says
By Bob Allen Many young ministers growing up in Cooperative Baptist Fellowship churches have no frame of reference for the great “split” they hear seminary professors and pastors recall with a sense of pain and loss, yet they find themselves…
Baptists in Kentucky support cap on payday loans
By Bob Allen Members of the Kentucky Baptist Fellowship rallied Tuesday, Feb. 24, at the state capitol in Frankfort, after a Monday afternoon seminar on the “debt trap” created by payday lending. Speakers at a press conference in the capitol…