By Bob Allen Richard Shahan, until recently on administrative leave as children and families pastor and facilities director at First Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., since his wife was found slain in their home July 23, was arrested New Year’s…
What’s ahead for Baptist life in 2014?
By Bob Allen Crab cakes. The Southern Baptist Convention meets in Baltimore for the first time since 1940 in June. Fred Luter, the first black SBC president in history, isn’t eligible for another term, setting up a presidential race likely…
2013: The year in deaths
Dan Ariail, pastor emeritus of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., where thousands of visitors attend Sunday worship and Bible studies by President Jimmy Carter each year, died Nov. 25 in hospice care. He was 75. Justice Anderson, 83, longtime…
2013: The year in quotes
“For some reason, in our immaturity, the assumption always is that our Christianity is the standard and our Baptist Christianity is the standard. And, of course, it’s not.” (Kathe Traynham) “No one outside the tribe is going to celebrate these…
2013: The year in Baptist news
By Bob Allen The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship introduced Suzii Paynter as executive coordinator Jan. 17. The third person to hold the job and the first woman, the former director of both the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission was officially elected…
Court strikes blow to Obamacare
By Bob Allen A federal judge in Texas ruled Dec. 27 in favor of two Baptist universities who claimed in a lawsuit that Obamacare’s required coverage of birth control violates their religious liberty. United States District Judge Lee Rosenthal in…
Baptists host interfaith Xmas in Georgia
By Bob Allen Baptists in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia initiated a historic Christmas Day gathering of Muslims and Christians hailed as a model for interfaith relations in other countries. Muslim clerics from both Shia and Sunni traditions from…
Study says race perception gap widening
By Bob Allen Fifty years after Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech envisioned unity between blacks and whites, a new study finds a growing gap in racial attitudes and experiences in America. “We do not live in a…
Injunction granted in SBC health care case
By Bob Allen A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction Dec. 20 prohibiting enforcement of the federal health care law known as Obamacare saying the Southern Baptist Convention’s insurance provider has legal standing to challenge mandatory coverage of contraceptives viewed…
Starr: Hobby Lobby case tests liberty
By Bob Allen Baylor University President Ken Starr identified the pending case involving Hobby Lobby over mandated contraception coverage in the Affordable Care Act as a crucial test for religious liberty at a recent international conference on Christianity and freedom….
Is ‘Duck Dynasty’ the next SBC cause?
By Bob Allen A year after targeting the Boy Scouts for dropping their ban on openly gay youth, Southern Baptists meeting June 10-11 in Baltimore may have found a new cause célèbre in a reality TV show star suspended by…
SBC leaders back ‘Duck Dynasty’ star
By Bob Allen Southern Baptist Convention leaders termed “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson, suspended by A&E for controversial anti-gay statements in a magazine interview, the latest casualty in America’s culture war. “[T]he controversy over Duck Dynasty sends a clear signal…