Twenty graduates await diplomas in May as the last graduating class of Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. Jan. 31 marked the final day of operation for the moderate Baptist seminary closing its doors after more than 30 years due to…
Respecting the spirituality behind Marie Kondo’s ‘Tidying Up’
While many are either casually intrigued or cruelly judgmental of Marie Kondo’s approach to tidying, most have not taken the time to understand her method and its religious underpinnings.
SBC president says white privilege is real
J.D. Greear says the solution is not to take rights away from one group and give them to another but for people who experience privilege of any kind to want people from different races and backgrounds to have access to the same opportunities.
Former staffer at SBC megachurch charged with child sex crime
A former children’s minister at a Southern Baptist megachurch in Texas has been indicted and is being prosecuted for indecency with a child stemming from allegations involving a minor at a church youth camp in 2012. Matthew David Tonne, 35,…
BJC opposes ‘government-funded religious discrimination’ in foster care
Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, said a Jan. 23 decision to grant an exception to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services policy prohibiting the use of taxpayer funds for religious discrimination “shows more concern for the providers than children in need and willing foster parents.”
Kentucky Baptist editor changing jobs
After 10 years as editor of the Western Recorder, Todd Deaton is leaving the official news journal of the Kentucky Baptist Convention March 1.
Jack Harwell, champion for an uncensored Baptist press, dies at 86
Jack Harwell, a 40-year Baptist journalist who stood against censorship of the denominational press, died Friday, Jan. 18, at age 86. A memorial service is scheduled Saturday, Jan. 26 at First Baptist Church of Morrow, Georgia, where he served the…
LifeWay to close stores in shift to digital strategy
A number of LifeWay Christian Stores face closure, LifeWay Christian Resources president Thom Ranier said in a e-mail to employees Jan. 15.
CBF elects Georgia pastor Paul Baxley as executive coordinator
Paul Baxley, a 49-year-old pastor who has been active in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship his entire ministry, has been named the organization’s fourth executive coordinator. He begins duties in March. On Tuesday the CBF Governing Board voted unanimously to hire…
SBC president who said God hears only Christian prayers dead at 79
Bailey Smith, the former Southern Baptist Convention president best known for saying God does not hear the prayers of a Jew, died Jan. 14 after a 21-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Smith, 79, was the youngest man ever elected SBC…
SBC leader says APA guidelines on ‘toxic masculinity’ do not square with Scripture
New American Psychological Association guidelines labeling “traditional masculinity ideology” bad for male health aren’t sitting well with religious leaders who hold a “complementarian” view of what the Bible teaches about gender.
Nashville Statement controversy goes Dutch
About 250 pastors are in Dutch after their names appeared on a translated document by fundamentalist Christians in the United States being received in the Netherlands as bigotry against the LGBTQ community.