Officials of a regional association of Southern Baptists disputed the account of a former executive director who claims he was fired because of interference by the denomination’s North American Mission Board. Shannon Baker, director of communications for the Baptist Convention…
Mohler cites CBF in veto of anti-LGBT ‘religious liberty’ bill
A Southern Baptist seminary president says theology played a role in Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal’s decision to veto a measure that would have discriminated against the state’s LGBT community. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.,…
Embattled Alabama governor no longer member of Southern Baptist church
The governor of Alabama is no longer a member of First Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa after allegations he had an inappropriate relationship with a female adviser, also a member of the church. “While church discipline is a church family matter,…
Baptist group protests North Carolina transgender law
Alliance of Baptists President Michael Castle said March 25 he will ask the leaders at the progressive fellowship’s upcoming annual gathering to consider moving the 2017 annual meeting away from North Carolina in light of a new state law that…
Anti-hate group scrutinizes SBC resolutions committee
The Southern Poverty Law Center questioned Southern Baptist Convention leadership for naming to a resolutions committee at the upcoming SBC annual meeting representatives of organizations the civil rights organization identifies as hate groups. The nonprofit legal advocacy organization — which began…
Georgia governor vetoes anti-LGBT ‘religious liberty’ bill
Georgia’s Baptist governor announced March 28 he would veto a controversial “religious freedom” bill that opponents said would foster LGBT discrimination. Gov. Nathan Deal, a member of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-aligned First Baptist Church in Gainesville, Ga., said he had no…
State Baptist exec blames firing on interference from SBC agency
A former Baptist state convention executive says what was reported last June as his resignation was actually a firing orchestrated by state convention leaders under pressure from the head of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention….
N.C. legislature voids Charlotte’s LGBT protections
North Carolina lawmakers convened a special session March 22 to pass a bill requiring public schools to allow access to multiple occupancy bathrooms and locker rooms based solely on the biological sex listed on a student’s birth certificate. The special…
Little Sisters get day in court
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments March 23 in combined cases to decide whether mandatory coverage of contraceptives under Obamacare violates the religious liberty of faith-based organizations that serve the public and hire non-adherents as employees. Charities including several…
Lawsuit names Baptist church in 30-year-old abuse case
A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship pastor in Georgia has voiced regret and sadness about his church’s handling decades ago of allegations of sexual abuse within a Boy Scout troop it sponsored. A lawsuit filed March 17 in Fulton County State Court…
British Baptists wrestle with same-sex marriage
Hoping to avoid division over an issue that is dividing religious bodies across the globe, British Baptist leaders are asking churches not to allow their buildings to be used for same-sex weddings. The leadership council of the Baptist Union of…
Former president, now professor, reportedly on way out at Louisiana College
A Baptist college in Louisiana is seeking to remove its controversial former president from a teaching position on the faculty, according to a local media report. The Town Talk in Alexandria, La., quoted unnamed sources March 16 saying that Louisiana…