Courageous martyr, colonial aggressor, neither or both? The recent death of John Allen Chau, a 26-year-old American missionary killed while trying to preach the gospel to a remote tribe in India, has ignited a debate about the wisdom of – or even the need for – evangelizing indigenous peoples ignorant of or hostile to Christianity.
Southern Baptist agency warns ‘eugenics is real’ in Supreme Court brief about Down syndrome and abortion
The Southern Baptist Convention’s public-policy arm is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a state’s right to outlaw abortions involving a fetus with Down syndrome.
Survey says teetotalers slowly losing ground in Protestant churches
About one third of Baptists admit to drinking alcohol, according to a LifeWay Research report released Nov. 27. Earlier this month Baptist Press published an article asking whether consensus might be shifting away from the teetotaling message preached by Southern…
Church seeks to intervene in lawsuit over IRS tax exemption
A Baptist church in the nation’s capital is requesting a day in court before a federal court rules in a lawsuit by an atheist group that lost its tax-exempt status for failing to file a form not required for churches…
Second Baptist state convention in Texas celebrates 20 years
The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, formed in 1998 by churches opposed to moderate leadership of the SBC-affiliated Baptist General Convention of Texas, celebrated the milestone at the group’s recent annual meeting in Houston.
Editor warns Southern Baptists are losing the war on weed
A Baptist state newspaper editor declared legalized pot a winner in the recent midterm elections in an editorial calling 2018 “a banner year for the advancement and normalization of marijuana.”
Attorney named in Pressler lawsuit under investigation for fraud
The attorney representing a man alleging sexual abuse by former Southern Baptist leader Paul Pressler is seeking a delay in court proceedings after police raided one of the parties named in a lawsuit originally filed in 2017. The Houston Chronicle…
Kentucky Baptist Convention formally excludes churches dually aligned with CBF
The Kentucky Baptist Convention no longer welcomes churches that dually align with the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Just over 400 messengers at the state affiliate of the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Pikeville, Kentucky, voted Tuesday to approve a…
Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond to close in 2019
The Virginia seminary, one of 15 theological institutions that receives funding from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, announced Nov. 13 it will close June 30, 2019, “due to financial pressures.”