By Bob Allen A victim support group held signs outside a Houston megachurch Jan. 9 calling for greater transparency about the reporting of child sex abuse in Southern Baptist churches. Representatives of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests…
Arrest affidavit says minister cut, stabbed his wife
By Bob Allen An arrest affidavit released to the public Jan. 10 accuses former First Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., associate pastor Richard Shahan of cutting and stabbing his wife found murdered in the couple’s home July 23. Shahan, 53,…
Supreme Court sets date for Hobby Lobby hearing
By Bob Allen The U.S. Supreme Court announced Jan. 8 that it will hear oral arguments in March in a legal challenge to mandated coverage of contraceptives under Obamacare brought by Hobby Lobby, whose Southern Baptist owners oppose some forms…
Mo. Baptists sue state over gay marriage order
By Bob Allen Representatives of the Missouri Baptist Convention’s Christian Life Commission filed a lawsuit Jan. 8 challenging a recent executive order by Gov. Jay Nixon allowing same-sex couples legally married in another state to file joint tax returns with…
Groundbreaking Texas pastor Marvin Griffin dies
By Bob Allen Marvin Griffin, a Baptist pastor and denominational statesman known for his efforts to improve economic and educational opportunities for African-Americans in Austin, Texas, died Christmas Day 2013 at age 90. Griffin, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in…
Pastor charged with murder is on way to Alabama
By Bob Allen An Alabama Baptist minister arrested New Year’s Day while trying to leave the country has been released from jail in Nashville, Tenn., and is on his way to Alabama to face charges of murdering his wife at…
Mohler: Evolution poll results blow to secularists
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist seminary president says recent poll numbers showing that one third of Americans reject evolution is bad news for secularists. “Over the course of the 20th century, the worldview of evolution was supposed to replace…
Pastor: Obama opening door to Antichrist
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist pastor who made news in the last presidential election for saying candidate Mitt Romney’s Mormon religion is a cult claims in a new book coming out this month that President Obama’s re-election is paving…
Pastor murder suspect waives extradition
By Bob Allen An Alabama Baptist pastor will not fight extradition back to Alabama to face murder charges in connection to the stabbing death of his wife last summer. Richard Shahan, who resigned Dec. 31 as children and families pastor…
LifeWay re-launches True Love Waits
By Bob Allen Twenty years after launching the first virginity-pledge program, LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention is retooling its famous True Love Waits sexual abstinence commitment with a video-driven Bible study on the issue of sexual purity….
Interim pastor supports arrested minister
By Bob Allen The interim pastor of First Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., defended the church’s former associate pastor arrested as a fugitive from justice in connection with his wife’s July murder in comments quoted by the Birmingham News. “I…
Attorney: Minister wasn’t trying to flee
By Bob Allen Attorneys for an Alabama Baptist minister charged with murdering his wife say their client would have surrendered voluntarily if he had known a warrant for his arrest had been issued. Avoiding his Jan. 1 arrest while trying…