By Bob Allen Kentucky Baptist Convention leaders are seeking answers to rumors swirling that a popular professor at Campbellsville University is being released from his teaching position for being too conservative. KBC Executive Director Paul Chitwood blogged April 20 that…
Former Baptist editor dies
By Bob Allen Theo Sommerkamp, 84, a longtime Baptist journalist known to friends for his strong love for railroad trains, died April 19. Sommerkamp, of Columbus, Ohio, met his wife of 60 years, Jean, while attending Oklahoma Baptist University. They…
ABPNews, Religious Herald plan merger
By Bob Allen and Robert Dilday Associated Baptist Press and the Religious Herald have agreed in principle to a merger of their operations, creating a new Baptist media platform which leaders of the two news organizations said will enhance the…
SBC leader says life begins in vitro
By Bob Allen The newly elected leader of the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission says couples who conceive children through in-vitro fertilization are morally responsible for extra embryos created in case the first round of treatment doesn’t…
Blog shines light on abuse in SBC
By Bob Allen A progressive blogger who monitors the Religious Right says conservative Catholic bishops and leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention both have a poor record when it comes to child sex abuse, and it should be counting against…
Gaddy takes NC lawmakers to task
By Bob Allen A Baptist minister and interfaith leader took state lawmakers in North Carolina to task for demonizing one religion while trying to establish another, despite the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom for all. “It is becoming increasingly…
Former Texas youth pastor charged
By Bob Allen A former youth minister at a Southern Baptist church in Texas is free on $100,000 bond following his arrest on charges of inappropriate contact with female victims under the age of 17. Local media report that Joshua…
Retiring SBC agency head lands in NC
By Bob Allen Richard Land, who last year announced plans to retire in October after 25 years as president of the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, has been named president of Southern Evangelical Seminary, a non-denominational school…
Sexuality resource updated, released
By Bob Allen The Alliance of Baptists, Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, and Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America teamed up to revise and update a congregational resource on human sexuality first released in 2000. The March 2013 edition…
Alliance: Drop Cuba from terror list
By Bob Allen The Alliance of Baptists appealed April 6 to President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to remove Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism in a State Department annual terror report due out April…
SBC leader calls HHS mandate ‘persecution’
By Bob Allen The Southern Baptist Convention’s top spokesman for moral concerns charged the Obama administration with “religious persecution” for requiring religious employers to cover preventive health-care services including FDA-approved contraceptives. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known…
AU calls for access to birth control
By Bob Allen A Washington-based religious-liberty watchdog group says the Obama administration should reject demands of conservative religious groups seeking to curb access to contraceptive coverage in the name of religious liberty. “Americans want and deserve access to safe and…