STAFF CHANGES • John Snow, to Zoar Church, Deltaville, as pastor, effective March 1. • Gregory W. Wissinger, to Beaver Dam Church, Troy, as pastor, effective March 1. • Thomas S. Larson, to Fox Hill Road Church, Hampton, as pastor….
VIRGINIA BAPTIST FORUM: Call it what God calls it
Recent issues of the Religious Herald have reported on abortion, homosexuals, evolution, Muslims, Obama and church/state walls and the controversies that surround them. Consider: Abortion: God calls it murder; we call it “choice.” Homosexuality: God calls it an abomination; we…
New Poverty Forum aims to keep focus on the poor
WASHINGTON (RNS) — A bipartisan group of 18 Christian leaders has developed a host of policy recommendations on poverty reduction that they hope will shape the actions of the Obama administration and Congress. The effort, co-chaired by evangelical activist Jim…
National Baptists to choose between two candidates for convention president
(RNS) — Henry J. Lyons, the former president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, who was imprisoned on charges of fraud a decade ago, is one of two candidates running to be the convention’s next president this September. The other…
Anti-gay pastor told not to come to United Kingdom
LONDON (RNS) — Britain has barred an American anti-gay Christian preacher and his daughter from entering the country, to stop them from spreading what the government described as “extremism and hatred.” Fred Phelps, who has gained notoriety in the United…
HERITAGE: Bright eyes
Everybody loves Gracie Kirkpatrick, the vivacious, bubbly, compassionate community missionary of the Richmond Baptist Association. For 31 summers she has directed the association’s unique ministry known as Camp Alkulana. When the camp opens this summer for its 94th season, Gracie…
African-Americans more religious than most others in United States
WASHINGTON (RNS) — African-Americans surpass others in the United States in a range of expressions of faith, from praying more to attending religious services more frequently, a new report shows. “Compared with other racial and ethnic groups, African-Americans are among…
OUT LOUD
“I am a Christian. Through the centuries we have had many people who have done terrible things in the name of Christianity. They have perverted the religion.” Hillary Rodham Clinton The secretary of state was responding to a question in…
SECOND OPINION: Apologetics and apologies
Dwight L. Moody, the great 19th-century American evangelist, once said that of 100 people, one would read the Bible, and the other 99 would “read the Christian.” Let’s face it: Christianity has an image problem. When you hear the word…