A mariachi band performed at Iglesia Bautista Templo in Lubbock as part of a Cinco de Mayo celebration Baptists in the area sponsored to reach their community. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Ed Sena) LUBBOCK, Texas (ABP) — The sound of mariachi band…
History society recognizes former staffer with award
ATLANTA (ABP) — The Baptist History and Heritage Society honored its former associate executive director, Pamela Durso, with an award at the group's recent annual meeting in Georgetown, Ky. Pamela Durso, winner of the W. O. Carver Distinguished Service Award,…
SBC motions target Alliance of Baptists, racial discrimination
ORLANDO, Fla. (ABP) — The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee will study a motion to exclude churches affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists. SBC president Johnny Hunt completed his second one-year term as the denomination's top volunteer leader June 16….
Church team cycles across Missouri for kids’ smiles
TEBBETTS, Mo. (ABP) — Eighteen bicyclists ranging in age from 23 to 70 recently braved heat, rain and sore muscles to — literally — put smiles on the faces of children in underdeveloped countries. The riders and six support staff…
Obama nominates Baptist pastor to be religious-freedom ambassador
WASHINGTON (ABP) — President Obama has responded to more than a year of speculation and criticism among advocates for international religious freedom by naming an American Baptist pastor and motivational speaker as the nation’s top diplomat for religious freedom. Suzan…
Tennessee Baptist summer missionary dies after car accident in Maine
STANDISH, Maine (ABP) — A 20-year-old Tennessee Baptist summer missionary was killed June 16 — and three other summer missionaries and their local Baptist supervisor were injured — in a car accident in Maine. Palmer Maphet Palmer Maphet of Mount…
Gulf oil spill prompts environmental soul-searching
WASHINGTON (RNS)—The constant loop of disheartening images from the Gulf of Mexico—oil-covered pelicans, dead sea turtles, despairing fishermen—has prompted many Americans to seek ways to do something, anything, to take better care of the Earth. But what? And how? While…
RIGHT or WRONG? Moral decay
Almost every week, another new study seems to document the decline of congregational life in America. I think the decline can all be traced to moral decay. What do you think? Surveys show the generation on the cusp of adulthood,…
Baptists view growing Hispanic population as opportunity
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP)—The Census Bureau reports the Hispanic population in the United States has more than doubled in the last 20 years, from 22 million in 1990 to a projected 47 million in 2010. In 40 years, experts project that…
Southern Baptists denounce Gulf oil spill, divorce, gay-rights proposals
ORLANDO, Fla. (ABP) – The Southern Baptist Convention denounced the Gulf of Mexico environmental calamity in a resolution June 16. “God has designed us with a dependence on the natural resources around us and has assigned us a dominion of…
SBC approves slightly reduced budget, recognizes retiring executives
ORLANDO, Fla. — Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando, Fla., approved a pared down budget for 2010-2011 and honored two agency presidents who retire this year. They approved a $199,822,090 Cooperative Program allocation budget recommended by the SBC…
SBC resolutions highlight Gulf, family, homosexuality
ORLANDO, Fla. — The Southern Baptist Convention decried ecological catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, focused on the family and opposed the normalization of homosexuality as messengers approved seven resolutions with no debate during the SBC annual meeting in Orlando…