By Bob Allen The billionaire owners of Hobby Lobby’s religious objection to the use of certain types of birth control doesn’t entitle them to deny the company’s 22,000 employees insurance coverage required by federal law, Americans United for Separation of…
1 in 5 undecided about Easter worship
By Bob Allen One fifth of Americans haven’t decided if they will attend church on Easter Sunday, according to newly reported numbers by LifeWay Research. The rest of the population is roughly half and half. Four in 10 — 41…
Former Baptist pastor indicted
By Bob Allen A 71-year-old former Southern Baptist minister has been indicted by a grand jury in northern Mississippi on 18 felony counts of child sexual abuse. The Democrat newspaper in Senatobia, Miss., reported March 26 that Larry Gene Singleton,…
Prof expects kinder, gentler ERLC
By Bob Allen A Baptist communications professor who has written a book about religious language in politics predicts that Southern Baptists’ new spokesman for public affairs will be less strident and politically partisan than his predecessor. Russell Moore’s selection as…
Baptists promote disaster preparedness
By Bob Allen An Australian Baptist organization long committed to disaster relief and recovery is shifting focus to prepare communities for the impact of disasters before they happen. Baptist World Aid Australia announced a “Disaster Plus” campaign March 25 to…
Flying Queens ruled women’s hoops
By Bob Allen With most eyes in women’s college basketball trained on Baylor’s 6-8 shot-blocking, slam-dunking phenom Brittney Griner, the current Texas Monthly carries a feature about a lesser-known Baptist General Convention of Texas-affiliated powerhouse that is the winningest women’s…
Russell Moore new ERLC leader
By Bob Allen The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has named seminary professor and administrator Russell Moore as president. He succeeds Richard Land, who retires after 25 years as the Southern Baptist Convention’s chief spokesman on public policy and religious-liberty…
Former youth minister pleads guilty
By Bob Allen A former youth minister at a Southern Baptist church in Maryland pleaded guilty March 20 to sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl attending the congregation’s vacation Bible school. Walter Harrison Yocum, 35, pleaded guilty to a single count…
Longtime denominational worker dies
By Bob Allen Quentin Lockwood, 90, a longtime administrator with the SBC Home Mission Board, died March 20. He led the agency’s rural/urban department in an era marked by expansion into new work areas that transformed the Southern Baptist Convention…