A panel at a historically black college in Louisville, Kentucky, said a December report on the history of slavery and racism at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is meaningless as long as the school continues to perpetuate the flawed theology behind the founders’ slaveholder religion.
Survivors support bill to criminalize adult sexual abuse by clergy
Survivors of clergy sexual abuse and experts from across the country traveled to Maine March 29 to support legislation making it a crime for clergy members to abuse their positions of trust to have sexual relations with adults.
James E. Wood, Baylor scholar and BJC leader, dead at 96
James E. Wood Jr., a Baptist statesman and scholar recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on the subject of church-state relations and religious liberty, died peacefully March 4 at age 96. Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, Wood began his…
Proposed Texas bill would shield churches that report sexual abuse from lawsuits
Nearly two months after newspapers reported hundreds of allegations of sexual misconduct by ministers and volunteers in churches aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention, a Texas lawmaker is sponsoring legislation to make it harder for sexual predators to move from church to church without detection.
Religious refusal bill advances in Texas senate
A Southern Baptist lawmaker’s bill to allow professionals licensed by the state of Texas to deny services based on their religious beliefs has passed a committee vote and is headed toward the full state senate.
Dispensationalists delight in Trump’s Golan Heights statement
President Donald Trump on Monday reversed decades of U.S. policy, signing an executive order recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a plateau east of the Sea of Galilee known in Bible times as the region of Bashan.
North Carolina Baptist church ordaining trans woman to gospel ministry
A Baptist church that meets on the campus of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, plans to ordain a transgender woman to the gospel ministry this Sunday.
LifeWay Christian Stores to close nationwide in 2019
The Southern Baptist Convention-owned bookstore chain LifeWay Christian Resources will close all 170 of its brick-and-mortar stores in 2019, officials announced March 20. LifeWay Christian Resources announced in January it would close some stores in a cost-cutting move while moving…
Paul Simmons, outspoken Baptist ethicist, dead at 82
Paul D. Simmons, a Christian ethics professor who a quarter century ago became a lightning rod at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for advocating a woman’s right to abortion, died March 17 following an illness. He was 82. Walter Shurden, a…