MANY PROFESSORS TAKE DIM VIEW OF EVANGELICALS. About half of nonevangelical university faculty acknowledge they don't have warm feelings about evangelical Christians, a new survey shows. A survey released by the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish & Community Research found…
Republicans join Democrats on New Covenant program
ATLANTA (ABP)—Organizers for next January's New Baptist Covenant gathering announced the speakers for the historic three-day meeting—with former President Jimmy Carter making good on a pledge to enlist prominent Republican Baptists to complement the mostly Democratic headliners. Republican Senators Lindsay…
Southern Baptists may consider another public school resolution
HOUSTON (RNS)—A resolution calling on Southern Baptist churches to “create more Christian alternatives to the public schools” has been drafted and submitted for the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting June 12-13 in San Antonio. Bruce Shortt, a Houston attorney, and…
SBC annual meeting to focus on prayer
SAN ANTONIO (BP) —Prayer will be the the focus of the Southern Baptist Convention's June 12-13 annual meeting in San Antonio's Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. Each of the SBC's five sessions will have a prayer focus. “The central focus…
Jerry Falwell leaves complex legacy
WASHINGTON (ABP)—Many social observers agree: Few figures in the second half of the 20th century proved as polarizing in American popular and political culture as Jerry Falwell, who died May 15 at the age of 73. But the outspoken preacher…
News about Virginia Baptists and their ministries for 5-31-07
STAFF CHANGES • Bill Nieporte, to Patterson Avenue Church, Richmond, as pastor, effective July 1. • Donald G. Proctor, to Clover Bottom Church, Nathalie, as full-time pastor. • Jerry Wayne Stanfield, to Childrey Church, Nathalie, as pastor. • Peyton Fitzgerald…
Deployed
CHARLOTTESVILLE–Joel Jenkins, pastor of First Baptist Church of Charlottesville, temporarily changed congregations last year—and the relocation was extreme. Jenkins, a longtime Army Reserve chaplain, was called to active duty in Iraq last June with barely a week's notice. For the…
Chaplain strives to be the presence of Christ in war zone
ALANBAR, Iraq (ABP)–Chaplain Alan Rogers has baptized a Marine in an Iraqi river under armed protection. Needless to say, it was a quick job. A Marine Corps corporal asked Rogers to baptize in the Euphrates River in Iraq, near the…
What can churches do?
The war on terrorism is very much like other wars; and it is very different from other wars. Like all wars before it, people die and are wounded in body and mind. Like no war before it in our nation's…
Chaplains prep West Point cadets for spiritual warfare
WEST POINT, N.Y. (BP)—Southern Baptist chaplains Col. John Cook and Lt. Col. Darrell Thomsen, along with other chaplains at West Point, mourn the loss of 51 academy graduates since the war began. Still, new cadets keep coming with a desire…
Cadets learn Islam as part of “winning the peace”
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (RNS)—The lights in a Jersey City mosque flickered at dawn, and more than a dozen West Point cadets stirred in sleeping bags scattered across the prayer room. As Imam Hussein Wahdan began the melodious call to prayer…
Virginia Baptist Foundation awards scholarships to 42
RICHMOND — The Virginia Baptist Foundation has awarded scholarships to 42 recipients for the 2007-2008 academic year. “These scholarship recipients were determined by our scholarship committee during its recent annual meeting,” said Ronald C. Hall, president and CEO of the…