A Baptist ethicist says flaws in America’s immigration system don’t rise to the level of a moral issue to justify the use of civil disobedience, but a Washington, D.C., pastor believes churches should do everything in their power to renounce language of criminality in the immigration debate.
Prior to health care replacement bill being pulled, range of Baptist leaders said ‘no’
A Baptist minister joined hundreds of interfaith clergy and community leaders in a Capitol Hill rally March 22 opposing the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act as legislation moved to an expected showdown vote on March 24.
Trump returning to Liberty University as commencement speaker
President Donald Trump will deliver the spring commencement address at Liberty University, returning to the scene of an appearance in January 2016 that helped put him on a path to winning widespread evangelical support in last year’s election. The school…
ERLC officers affirm Russell Moore
Officers of the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty have affirmed the leadership of agency head Russell Moore, amid media reports that he might be fired. In an unusual statement March 20, the ERLC executive committee said Moore, under…
AWAB leaders empathize with ‘unambiguously gay’ Disney character
Controversy over the “exclusively gay moment” in the live-action musical remake of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast offers a glimpse of what many gay people experience growing up in church, leaders of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists commented…
Baptist state convention sued over rape at church camp
A lawsuit filed recently in Oklahoma claims negligence by a Southern Baptist state convention in the violent rape last summer of a 13-year girl attending a church camp. The lawsuit, filed March 8 in the district court of Oklahoma County,…
Minister joins effort to address North Carolina’s role in torture
A former military officer turned Baptist minister denounced torture as “unjust, immoral and unethical on religious grounds” in a telephone press conference March 15 launching the new nonprofit North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture. “All religions traditions affirm the…
One of Richmond seminary’s original professors nominated as its president
One-time New Testament professor Linda McKinnish Bridges will return to Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond as president if approved by the Virginia seminary’s trustee board March 21. A presidential search committee announced her nomination to replace current President Ron Crawford,…
Religious freedom clashes coming to a Sunday school class near you
A new small-group study curriculum produced by the Southern Baptist Convention portrays religious liberty as under siege in the United States of America. A joint project of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and LifeWay Christian Resources, the six-week…
Seminarians push back at former SBC president escrowing Cooperative Program funds
Former Southern Baptist Convention President Jack Graham was greeted by students wearing “I Love CP” t-shirts and an open letter voicing concern about his Texas megachurch’s decision to temporarily withhold funding for the denomination when he spoke in chapel March…
Moderate Baptist ethicist Robert Parham dies
Robert Parham, founding executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics, died March 5 following an illness. He was 63. “More than anyone I have known, Robert was well-suited for and passionate about his specific job in life,” Kevin Heifner,…
Four dozen Baptists side with transgender teen in bathroom battle
Nearly 50 clergy members identifying with the Alliance of Baptists, American Baptist Churches USA or Cooperative Baptist Fellowship joined a legal brief filed March 2 supporting a transgender student’s case before the U.S. Supreme Court. In all more than 1,800…