Virginia Baptist Library Association plans conference. VBLA has announced plans for its fall conference, to be held Oct. 12-13 at First Baptist Church in Richmond, focusing on the theme “The Church Library—Treasury of the Past, Key to the Future.” The…
Baptists active on both sides in the Little Rock integration battle
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (ABP)—The story of Lakeshore Drive Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., encapsulates the little-recounted role that white Baptists played during the Civil Rights Movement—on both sides. The church owes its existence to the 1957-59 struggle to integrate…
Ethicists debate morality of enhancing genetics
WASHINGTON (RNS)—Scientists already know which genes are responsible for particular illnesses, and clinical trials are under way to find new treatments for genetically based diseases. But, ethicists ask, what if this newfound genetic knowledge is used not only to cure,…
‘The Negro problem’
It was a “sunny, balmy and bracing” day in Lynchburg in late February 1883 when about 300 persons gathered for the first Congress of Virginia Baptists. For several days ministers and laypersons listened to lectures on various issues of the…
FAITH DIGEST
Colorado megachurch approves Haggard's successor. New Life Church, the Colorado megachurch whose leader Ted Haggard was dismissed last year after a sex and drug scandal, has approved a new senior pastor. Brady Boyd, pastor at Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas,…
MID-ATLANTIC BRIEFS
Chowan names associate campus ministers. Chowan University in Murfreesboro, N.C., has named Craig and Jennifer Janney as associate ministers to the university. The Janneys They will assist Mari Wiles, minister to the university, and also teach, serve as chaplains to…
North Carolina WMU decides to leave convention control
CARY, N.C. (ABP) — Woman's Missionary Union of North Carolina has voted to remove itself from the North Carolina Baptist Building — and from the state convention executive director's attempt to assert authority over its staff. The dramatic move culminates…
2ND OPINION: I was a stranger and you took me in
I remember so many occasions when I was a stranger in a foreign land. I traveled over Latin America and the rest of the world as a missionary with the International Mission Board, serving as a consultant in the use…
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY: Why celebrate it?
RICHMOND — Virginia Baptist pastor Victor Visotsky knows about religious persecution. Visotsky, now pastor of New Life Russian Baptist Church in Falls Church, grew up in Soviet Estonia. He remembers how members of his Baptist church were arrested and imprisoned…
Azeri pastor sentenced to two years in prison
WASHINGTON (BWA) — Zaur Balaev, a 44-year old pastor in Aliabad, Azerbaijan, was sentenced to two years in prison Aug. 8 on charges that he beat up five policemen and damaged a police car door, according to Forum 18. Arrested…
Pastor faces possible five years in prison
KHALKABAD, Uzbekistan — Four years after being harassed by authorities, the small Baptist congregation in Khalkabad near Pap in the eastern Namangan Region of Uzbekistan is again facing harassment for meeting without compulsory registration. Local Baptists told Forum 18 News…
Peruvians find unity in quakes aftermath
PISCO, Peru (BP) — The tremor lasts only a moment, but Amparo Guerra can't mistake the familiar feel of the earth moving in waves beneath her feet. Her forehead wrinkles in panic as she screams, “Get away from the building!”…