Oklahoma’s controversial new state superintendent of public education has launched a statewide partnership with a private faith-based video-education firm criticized for dealing loosely with history while advancing conservative talking points. “I am thrilled to announce this partnership with PragerU,” said…
It’ll be bullets instead of ballots if Trump’s not reelected, Huckabee warns
America will face bullets instead of ballots if Donald Trump is not reelected president next year, former Baptist pastor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Sept. 5. The father of Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders — formerly White House press…
Five U.S. Congressmen ask DOE to clarify Baylor’s ‘religious’ exemption
U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and four other members of Congress wrote to the U.S. Department of Education Sept. 5 seeking clarification on the recent waiver granted Baylor University allowing discrimination against LGBTQ students on campus. The renewed exemption granted…
What Ron DeSantis and the TheoBros share in common
The headline in The Atlantic declared: “The Cost of Ron DeSantis’ Ideological Purity.” That got my attention, because “ideological purity” is big theme among religious conservatives these days — especially among that group we sometimes call the TheoBros. Those are…
Praying football coach returns to field, not sure he’ll stay the season
Update: On Wednesday, Sept. 6, Joseph Kennedy quit his part-time job at Bremerton High School, having been present for only one game. The part-time assistant high school football coach who took his desire to pray at the 50-yard-line after…
BGCT nominates first Hispanic to lead convention as executive director
The current president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas has been nominated to serve as its executive director, ending a 14-month search process. Julio Guarneri, lead pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in McAllen, Texas, is the first Hispanic ever…
NAMB’s lies are worse than McLaurin’s, Will McRaney charges
A former Baptist executive who claims he was defamed by the leaders of a Southern Baptist Convention agency now says Baptists concerned about the fraudulent resume of Willie McLaurin should be more concerned about false witness offered under oath by…
When is a ‘prominent’ memorial not as ‘major’ as advertised?
A “prominent” marker on the campus of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary acknowledging the sins of the institution’s slaveholding founders is smaller than a nearby banner bearing the image of current seminary President Al Mohler, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports. The 20-by-30-inch…
SBC conducting internal investigation on McLaurin’s resume lies
The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee will launch an internal investigation into how its recently removed interim president deceived the denomination for years about his educational background and military service — both of which appear to be bogus. Although Executive…
‘Vengeance is mine,’ says school board trustee who snuck into library to look for objectionable books with a flashlight
A small-town Texas school board member who believes there are pornographic books in the school library was censured by the other trustees of Granbury Independent School District Aug. 23. Trustee Karen Lowery — who ran for office last fall on…
1,000 Baylor alumni call on school to ‘end unequal treatment’ of LGBTQ students
More than 1,000 alumni, faculty and staff members of Baylor University have signed on to a letter calling on the Baptist school to “end the harmful, separate and unequal treatment” of LGBTQ people in the Baylor family and to ensure…
New SBC head attends a dually aligned church and his wife is a ‘minister’
The new interim president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee is a member of a church dually aligned with the SBC and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and where his seminary-educated wife holds the job title “minister of students and…