HOUSTON — Houston Baptist University trustees voted March 10 to allow non-Baptist Christians a minority presence on the school’s governing board. HBU relates to the Baptist General Convention of Texas by a special agreement that allows the university to elect…
Missouri pastor nominated to lead Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
ATLANTA (ABP) — Keith Herron, senior pastor of Holmeswood Baptist Church in Kansas City, Mo., has been nominated to be the next moderator-elect for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Renée Bennett, chief operating officer with Morningstar Children and Family Services,…
LifeWay backs off ‘read with discernment’ label for books
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) — Southern Baptist bookstores quietly have suspended a four-year-old program that alerted customers to read with “discernment” books by several up-and-coming authors whose books “could be considered inconsistent with historical evangelical theology.” Chris Rodgers, director of product…
BTSR considering merger with North Carolina’s Chowan University
MURFREESBORO, N.C. (ABP) — Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond is considering a merger with Chowan University, a 162-year-old North Carolina Baptist school 99 miles south of the seminary’s Richmond, Va., campus, in hopes of solving lingering financial problems made worse…
Christianity, Locke and gay marriage
By David Gushee Reading John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government this spring has had a huge and still developing impact on my approach to U.S. public policy. I have always known that the normative posture of the church on an…
Vestal predicts further downsizing at CBF
DECATUR, Ga. (ABP) — The head of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship predicted future budget cuts that for the first time would affect global-missions personnel for the 20-year-old movement spun off from the Southern Baptist Convention. The CBF Coordinating Council normally…
What’s the skinny on Lent?
An odd word, Lent. Most European languages refer to the 40-day preparation period prior to Easter with some form of the words “forty” or “fast.” English-speakers, on the other hand, adapted a Teutonic or Anglo-Saxon (no one knows quite sure…
Do religious people make easy targets for scams?
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Major frauds exposed by federal investigators in recent years have targeted Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists and other religious groups, from $190 million lost in a three-year scam promoted by a Christian radio host in Minnesota to an estimated $1.4…
RIGHT OR WRONG? Is any career choice a calling?
{mosimage}I knew I wanted to become a lawyer in middle school and always felt it was a calling. That sense has not changed despite attempts to denigrate my profession. Who hasn’t heard the lawyer jokes like, “The reason sharks do…