From left, Carol Shattuck, Mark Chambers and Marv Overman were among 150 volunteers recruited for Saturday's "Sole Chain" celebration. HOUSTON (ABP) — A Baptist church in Texas braved near-100 degree heat Aug. 21 to set the new Guinness world record…
Duvall on film and faith
THE PLAINS, Va. (RNS) — Amid the rolling hills of Northern Virginia, actor Robert Duvall lives in a rural hamlet not unlike the on-screen settings where he has immersed himself in Southern culture. It is, his wife says, “the last…
Ruckersville, Va., church burned, police charge two teens with arson
RUCKERSVILLE, Va. — For more than a century, the sanctuary of Ruckersville Baptist Church, about 20 miles north of Charlottesville, Va., stood as a mute but elegant witness to the presence of Christ. But in the very early hours of…
Change in the air as Baptist higher education is in transition
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — As students return to classes at historically Baptist colleges and universities this fall, the institution of Baptist higher education is in a state of flux. Challenges that include finances, changing demographics and fragmentation of Baptist denominations are…
Hispanic pastor facing deportation for old arrest
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (ABP) — Leaders of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina solicited urgent prayer Aug. 27 for a Hispanic pastor facing possible deportation for a 15-year-old crime he committed before accepting Christ. According to media reports, Hector Villanueva,…
Baptist higher education traces long tradition
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — Baptist higher education stands on the shoulders of a long tradition in Christianity linking knowledge to faith. The Apostle Paul, many of the early church fathers and important theologians like Augustine were respected for knowledge, both…
Christian higher education not spared from recession’s impact
God makes rain fall on the just and the unjust, Jesus said. Similarly, recession makes market prices fall, affecting endowments of Christian higher education and secular universities alike. United States and Canadian schools suffered an average 23 percent drop in…
Devout less stressed than nonbelievers
TORONTO (RNS) — Religion may provide a “buffer” allowing the devout to feel less anxiety when they make mistakes, compared with nonbelievers, according to new scientific research. Researchers at the University of Toronto measured “error-related negativity” — people’s defensive response…
RIGHT OR WRONG? Liability
Following a recent service at our church, a visitor tripped over a curb. She maintained to people around her that she was all right but then asked for an ambulance to carry her two and a half blocks to the…
Religious groups push action on prison rape
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Six months before her scheduled release, Marilyn Shirley was raped in 2000 by a guard at the Texas prison where she was serving time for drug charges. “I am still haunted by the words he whispered in…
FAITH DIGEST
Jordan too polluted for baptisms? Concerns about pollution and water quality have prompted an environmental advocacy group to call for banning baptisms in the lower Jordan River, where the Bible says Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Israeli authorities…
Duvall talks faith on film, except his own
THE PLAINS, Va. (RNS) — Amid the rolling hills of Northern Virginia, actor Robert Duvall lives in a rural hamlet not unlike the on-screen settings where he has immersed himself in Southern culture. It is, his wife says, “the last…