By Bob Allen Interfaith Alliance head Welton Gaddy called on authorities to quickly investigate a Thanksgiving week arson that destroyed the Ferguson, Mo., church where the family of slain teenager Michael Brown has attended since July. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms…
For SBC, 1984 was the year of the pivot
By Bob Allen In 1949 George Orwell published Nineteen Eighty-Four, a dystopian novel imagining a future totalitarian state where people are constantly reminded of mass surveillance by the slogan “Big Brother is watching you.” Thirty years ago, Russell Dilday, then…
Officials get mixed messages about right of conscience in marriage laws
By Bob Allen Government clerks have no legal right to refuse to issue a marriage license to same-sex couples in a state where gay marriage is legal, Americans United for Separation of Church and State said in a legal memorandum…
Kentucky human-rights head commends Crescent Hill
By Bob Allen In a Nov. 29 letter to the editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal, the chairman of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights commended a church recently kicked out of the Kentucky Baptist Convention over homosexuality. George Stinson, chairman of the…
Black pastor says racial profiling exists in the SBC
By Bob Allen A black Southern Baptist pastor says he believes the kind of racial profiling which some believe played a role in the shooting of Ferguson, Mo., teenager Michael Brown is alive and well in the Southern Baptist Convention….
FBC Decatur, Ga., elects openly gay deacon
By Bob Allen A flagship Cooperative Baptist Fellowship congregation in Atlanta voted Nov. 23 to approve a slate of deacons including an openly gay man in a committed, same-sex relationship. The vote followed a three-week sermon series on the Bible…
CBF pastor hopes Darren Wilson decision will prompt dialogue
By Bob Allen A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship pastor in St. Louis said any hope for improving race relations lies not in agreement about a non-indictment in the Michael Brown shooting death but in relationships that will grow between people with…
Thabiti Anyabwile says Ferguson grand jury gives marching orders for change
By Bob Allen An African-American leader in the “young, restless and reformed” Calvinist movement in the Southern Baptist Convention called on President Obama to exercise strong leadership in light of a Nov. 24 grand jury decision in Ferguson, Mo., to…
Board drops plans for Bible course in Oklahoma public schools
By Bob Allen An Oklahoma school district has dropped plans for a pilot project by Hobby Lobby President Steve Green aimed at adding Bible study to the curriculum of public high schools nationwide, a church-state watchdog group reported Nov. 25….