Southern Baptist megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress prayed for the peace of Jerusalem at the May 14 relocation of the United States embassy from Tel Aviv, while violence raged 40 miles away.
Paige Patterson apologizes for sermon illustration gone wrong
Longtime Southern Baptist leader Paige Patterson has apologized for once describing a teenage girl as “fine” and “built,” explaining it as a sermon illustration gone wrong.
Head of Baptist peace group stepping down next year
LeDayne McLeese Polaski, a 20-year employee of the Baptist Peace Fellowship in North America, is stepping down as executive director at the end of May 2019. Polaski, who recently turned 50, said she has “had a growing sense” her departure…
Former Southern Baptist pastor wins North Carolina primary bid for Congress
Mark Harris, a former Southern Baptist pastor and past president of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, won Tuesday’s primary race for a U.S. House of Representatives seat from a Republican incumbent who narrowly beat him two years ago.
Kentucky Baptist Convention leaders propose end to dual alignment with CBF
Churches dually aligned with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Kentucky Baptist Convention will be no more, if messengers to the KBC fall annual meeting agree with the convention’s credentials committee.
Southern Baptists say Paige Patterson’s views on women unbiblical
Hundreds of Southern Baptist women are signing an online petition calling for removal of a seminary president for views on the subjugation of women they say are unbiblical.
Pressler lawsuit headed back to state jurisdiction
A federal judge ruled May 3 that a sexual molestation lawsuit against former Southern Baptist Convention leader Paul Pressler must return to state court in Texas.
Baptist association expels church for pastor’s support of gay rights
An American Baptist church in West Virginia has been removed from its local association because its pastor does not believe that homosexuality is a sin.
Paige Patterson controversy tests SBC’s ‘no criticism’ code, says former denominational worker
Southern Baptist Convention leaders are distancing themselves from an embattled seminary president in an unusual departure from custom about never speaking ill in public about a fellow agency head, according to a former denominational worker.
Florida megachurch undergoing leadership change
In a surprise announcement, Mac Brunson said April 20 he is stepping down after 12 years as senior pastor of the 10,000-member First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla. Brunson, 60, said in a statement posted on Facebook that he and…
SBC leader under fire for comments about divorce, abuse
The president of a Southern Baptist Convention seminary has defended an 18-year-old recording describing his counsel to a woman in an abusive marriage that is finding a new audience on social media in the age of #MeToo. Paige Patterson, president…
Third Baptist/Muslim dialogue seeks to build bridges between church and mosque
Sixty-five Baptists and Muslims met April 16-19 to discuss ways to unite churches and mosques in communities to foster interfaith understanding, promote religious liberty and cooperate for common good.