Recent weeks have seen renewed interest in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s 16-year-old policy that prohibits the intentional hiring of non-celibate gays and lesbians. Here’s a recap of how the 1,800-church Fellowship got to where it is today on the LGBTQ question,…
BJC says churches not entitled to taxpayer funds
Missouri’s ban on taxpayer funding for churches does not represent hostility toward religion but rather is a time-tested means of protecting religious liberty and the separation of church and state, claims a new brief filed at the U.S. Supreme Court…
Retiring BJC head describes religious liberty as a yes/no proposition
Six months away from retirement, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty head Brent Walker reflected on 27 years of “seeking both/and solutions in the congested intersection of church and state” at an annual lunch gathering for BJC supporters June 24 during…
Judge strikes down Mississippi religious freedom law
A federal judge has struck down a controversial Mississippi bill allowing citizens with “sincerely held religious beliefs” to deny services to gays, lesbian and transgender persons. U.S. District Judge Carlton W. Reeves issued a 60-page opinion June 30 blocking enforcement…
Ethicist urges caution about changing CBF hiring policy
Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics, has cautioned Cooperative Baptist Fellowship leaders about how to respond to growing demands that the organization reverse its 16-year-old ban on hiring non-celibate gays.
Church seeks to ‘out’ minor victims of sexual abuse
A Southern Baptist church being sued over sexual abuse committed by a former Vacation Bible School volunteer currently behind bars is asking a court to reveal the identities of two underage victims.
Son of executed woman says no one has the right to say someone cannot change
The youngest son of the first woman executed in Georgia in 70 years spoke publicly for the first time about the experience in a breakout session at last week’s Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in Greensboro, N.C. Dakota Brookshire — son…
Maligned editor says free speech slipping away
A Georgia Baptist newspaper editor widely criticized for questioning whether Islam qualifies as a religion protected under the First Amendment wondered in the days leading up to July 4 if America’s independence is about to slip away. Gerald Harris, editor…
CBF leader Joe Crumpler dead at 89
Joe Crumpler, widower of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship founder Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler, died June 10 at age 89. The retired 30-year pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Cincinnati was a leader in both the CBF and the Southern Baptist Convention.
British Baptist leader seeks common good after Brexit vote
British Baptists’ top leader assured continuing cooperation with the European Baptist Federation in an open letter to EBF leaders following Britain’s June 23 vote to leave the European Union. “Today we, as the Baptist Union of Great Britain, declare afresh…
Judge criticizes secrecy in U.S. executions
An Arkansas judge who last year declared unconstitutional a law that allows the state to keep confidential the source of drugs used for execution by lethal injection has lamented a 5-4 decision by the Arkansas Supreme Court reversing his ruling….
CBF General Assembly spawns two statements condemning Orlando massacre
Elected leaders of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship passed a rare social commentary statement June 24 condemning the June 15 mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. “CBF is not a like-minded fellowship about matters related to human sexuality,”…