By Bob Allen An Alabama Baptist church fired its new pastor after his recent arrest on sexual abuse charges in Texas, but it isn’t the pastor’s first time in jail. Mark Allen Green, 41, in jail under a $500,000 bond…
Vines: Time to talk about Calvinism
By Bob Allen A former president of the Southern Baptist Convention called the rising influence of Calvinism “the elephant in the room” that must be addressed in order to preserve unity in the nation’s second-largest religious body. Jerry Vines, the…
Vines: Time to talk about Calvinism
By Bob Allen A former president of the Southern Baptist Convention called the rising influence of Calvinism “the elephant in the room” that must be addressed in order to preserve unity in the nation’s second-largest religious body. Jerry Vines, the…
Land’s rebuke termed damage control
By Bob Allen Richard Land’s formal reprimand and cancellation of his weekly radio program apparently had more to do with damage control than any violation of on-air ethical standards, a religious broadcasting executive said in a World Magazine web article…
Pastor amends comment about killing gays
By Bob Allen A Kansas pastor who made national headlines for saying the government should execute homosexuals says he never expected his words to be taken literally or discussed beyond the walls of his local church. “This has been an…
Former Va. editor Julian Pentecost dies
By Bob Allen Julian H. Pentecost, longtime editor of the Religious Herald and a founding director of Associated Baptist Press, died May 31 at 87. A former pastor, Pentecost served as editor of the Baptist General Association of Virginia’s news…
Richard Land signs off radio show
The head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission signed off without fanfare for the last time on the Richard Land Live! weekly radio show June 2. Land, Southern Baptists’ top spokesman for moral and religious-liberty concerns…
ABPNews adds blog section
Beginning today, Associated Baptist Press will publish one or more blogs daily, Monday through Friday, submitted by a variety of lay and ordained writers on www.baptistnews.com/blog. Topics will be as varied as the contributors themselves, ranging from social issues and spiritual…
The new face of interfaith dialogue
Interfaith dialogue is on the rise, not just in formal conversations led by judicatory leaders but in local communities where friendships forge as ministers of various faiths work together for common goals amid increasing religious diversity in the Bible belt….
Baptist group denounces ‘hate speech’
By Bob Allen The Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists called June 1 for Baptist leaders across all traditions to denounce rhetoric from Baptist pulpits promoting violence and even genocide against gays. Robin Lunn, executive director of the Kensington, Md.-based…
Trustees cancel Richard Land’s radio show
By Bob Allen The Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission is pulling the plug on agency head Richard Land’s radio show over recent controversial remarks about the Trayvon Martin killing. The ERLC’s trustee executive committee announced June 1…
BWA sends funds to burned-out refugees
By Bob Allen The Baptist World Alliance has sent $25,000 in emergency financial aid to help rebuild a Baptist-run school at a refugee camp along the Thai-Burmese border destroyed by fire in April. The money sent through Baptist World Aid…