American Baptist Home Mission Societies has announced a goal to raise $1 million within the next three to six months to support the rebuilding of homes and churches in hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico. The national ministries arm of the American Baptist…
ACLU challenges law allowing faith-based child services providers to turn away LGBT parents
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Sept. 20 challenging a Michigan law allowing faith-based child placement agencies receiving taxpayer funds to deny services to same-sex couples because of religious objections. The 2105 law is similar to legislation…
Second judge challenges secrecy of drugs used in capital punishment
A second Arkansas judge has ruled the state must reveal more information about drugs used in lethal injections for capital punishment. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Mackie Pierce ruled Sept. 19 that officials must disclose the labels on its new supply…
Transitions for the week of 09.22.17
Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES Cynthia Aulds, concluding her tenure as missions coordinator at Sugar Land (Texas) Baptist Church. Danielle Bridgeforth, to First…
Church celebrates 25 years welcoming Hooter’s, schizophrenics and Pharisees
Worshiping with drug addicts and sometimes-disruptive schizophrenics wasn’t the way Jimmy Dorrell envisioned his calling while growing up in Conroe, Texas, in the 1960s.
Language weakening Johnson Amendment survives House of Representatives vote
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a massive spending bill Sept. 14 that includes a provision consonant with President Trump’s stated desire to “get rid of and totally destroy” a decades-old law requiring that churches and other charities accepting tax-exempt benefits stay out of partisan politics.
SBC president, CBF pastors join in call to remove Confederate statue
The president of the Southern Baptist Convention joined more than 170 black and white clergy, including Cooperative Baptist Fellowship pastors, in Memphis, Tenn., in an open letter Sept. 13 seeking permission from the state or local officials to remove a Confederate monument from a city park.
Harvey, Irma cleanup poses challenges for faith-based recovery
Faith-based disaster response groups are admittedly feeling the major challenge faced in the aftermath of hurricanes Harvey and Irma. “There’s a lot of chaos out there,” said David Harding, international disaster response coordinator for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Devastation in…
BJC, others, say Trump travel ban unconstitutionally targets Muslims
An interfaith coalition that includes the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate President Trump’s travel ban barring certain people from six Muslim-majority nations from entering the country, saying it discriminates on the…
Critics say seminary professor’s departure reveals faculty rift between faith and science
Supporters of a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor quietly stepping down after 17 years in the classroom are blaming his departure on a faculty colleague who harshly criticized his scholarship in a public setting a year and a half ago….
Many Trump evangelicals worship ‘Old Testament God,’ researchers find
Eight years with a black president capped by state-by-state victories for same-sex marriage didn’t sit well with white evangelicals already feeling like victims in American society. The result was a victory for Donald Trump last November. While that may have…
Did Baptists do enough to respond to the Holocaust? It’s complicated, says Baptist leader in new book
Were Baptists in the United States truly concerned, or were they apathetic in the face of the persecution and attempted extermination of the Jewish people?
First Harvey, then Irma: Is there enough help to go around?
Hurricane Harvey drowns parts of Texas and Irma follows by drenching all of Florida. Are there enough rescuers, volunteers, trucks and helicopters to respond? Experience shows that there will be. But when it comes to financial contributions — that may be a different story.
Southern Baptists say Christian baker has right to refuse same-sex wedding
The Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission is siding with a Colorado baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple in a case headed toward the United States Supreme Court.