Many years ago, an African-American man attended our church by climbing the bell tower to listen to worship. He is buried eight feet outside church property but not in the church cemetery, according to the church’s policy at the time…
Analysis: Southern Baptists face the future — and an identity crisis
Bill Leonard (ABP) — Institutionally and organizationally, American Protestantism is in a state of permanent transition — and the Southern Baptist Convention is no exception. These days it is clear that fewer religious Americans think of their primary identity in…
Publisher of Ergun Caner’s memoirs stands by demoted seminary head
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (ABP) — A Christian publishing company said it has no plans to pull titles written by a Baptist seminary president recently demoted for making "factual statements that are self-contradictory" in sermons and speeches. After an investigation, Liberty…
ANALYSIS: Southern Baptists face the future — and an identity crisis
(ABP) — Institutionally and organizationally, American Protestantism is in a state of permanent transition — and the Southern Baptist Convention is no exception. These days it is clear that fewer religious Americans think of their primary identity in terms of…
In Grand-Goave, U.S. Baptists offer Haitians a hand with church, clinic
GRAND-GOÂVE, Haiti (ABP) — Michael Akinboro emanates gentleness. Toddlers sit quietly while he checks their breathing. Babies obediently swallow bitter cough syrup. Not one child who comes for diagnosis fusses or cries. Michael Akinboro, a Nigerian-born registered nurse from African…
‘Good News Bible’ translator Bob Bratcher dies
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (ABP) — Robert Bratcher, the New Testament translator for the Good News Bible, died July 11 at the Carol Woods retirement community in Chapel Hill, N.C. He was 90. Robert Bratcher Born in Brazil the son of…
Six months after massive earthquake, Haiti still has a long way to go
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (ABP) — Haiti is a country of conspicuous contrasts — a landscape both monochrome and vivid, and a people standing solidly, yet shaken to pieces. Nearly six months after an earthquake rocked Haiti, the island still bears the…
CBF joins national coalition of disaster-relief responders
Tori Wentz, one of CBF's field personnel, provides medical care during a recent mission trip to Haiti. (CBF photo) ATLANTA (ABP) — Five years after organizing a national disaster-relief ministry in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship…
CBF-funded Mercer team to attend to Haiti’s psychological wounds
ATLANTA (ABP) — Six months after the earthquake that devastated Haiti, a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-funded team of students with Haitian ties and faculty members from Mercer University is seeking to help the country recover from its deep psychological wounds. Reid…
Book signing turns into event
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (ABP) — First it was a T-shirt. Then it was a book. At the recent Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in Charlotte, N.C., "This is What a Preacher Looks Like" became an event. Sue Fitzgerald, retired director of…
BJC files brief opposing sectarian prayer at government meetings
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty filed legal papers July 6 arguing that inviting religious leaders to invoke sectarian prayers at a North Carolina county's board of commissioners meetings is unconstitutional. The BJC filed a friend-of-the-court…
God hates flags? Judge bars arrest of Westboro flag protester
LINCOLN, Neb. (ABP) — A federal judge has granted a temporary restraining order blocking the arrest of a member of a controversial Baptist church for breaking a Nebraska law against desecrating the American flag. A Westboro Baptist Church member pickets…