STAFF CHANGES • Daryl J. White, to Monte Vista Church, Hurt, as pastor. • J. Clyde Shelton, to Black Branch Church, Chase City, as interim pastor. RETIREMENTS • Carl Freeman has announced plans to retire as minister of music at…
Muslims see double standard in ‘terrorist’ label
WASHINGTON (RNS) — When 19 Muslim men crashed two planes into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, it was widely labeled “Islamic terrorism,” even as many Muslims cringed at the term. So when nine members of a Michigan-based…
Obama shifts tactics on outreach to Muslim world
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Nearly a year after President Obama told an audience in Cairo that America wanted a “new beginning” with the Muslim world, evidence of that policy shift has, in recent weeks, become hard to ignore. The Obama administration…
Conservatives decry Pentagon for pulling Graham from event
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Conservative Christian leaders blasted the Army’s decision to disinvite evangelist Franklin Graham from a Pentagon event on the National Day of Prayer because he has been critical of Islam. Graham was scheduled to speak at a May…
Faith leaders pan Arizona ‘anti-immigrant’ bill
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Religious leaders are outraged over a bill passed by Arizona legislators that criminalizes illegal immigration, calling the bill “anti-immigrant” and a “social sin.” Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony compared aspects of the legislation, approved April 19 by…
Obama meets with Billy Graham
MONTREAT, N.C. (ABP) — President Obama met Billy Graham for the first time face-to-face April 25, making him the 12th consecutive president of the United States to meet with the famed Southern Baptist evangelist. Obama stopped by Graham's mountaintop home…
Baptist Peace Fellowship marks 15th anniversary of statement on sexuality
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (ABP) — The Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America applauded a recent order by President Obama permitting gays to visit their domestic partners in the hospital with a statement commemorating the 15th anniversary of a controversial move that…
Virginia Baptist Women in Ministry are told their voices can change the world
RICHMOND, Va. — There's a scene from the Oscar-winning film Precious — the story of a black teenager sexually abused by her father but trying to change her life by going to school — where she tells her class that…
Obama meets with Billy Graham
MONTREAT, N.C. (ABP) — President Obama met Billy Graham for the first time face-to-face April 25, making him the 12th consecutive U.S. president to meet with the famed Southern Baptist evangelist. Obama stopped by Graham's mountaintop home in Montreat, N.C.,…
Missouri Baptist Convention releases newspaper from lawsuit
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP) — Attorneys for the Missouri Baptist Convention have voluntarily released the organization's former official news journal from a long-running lawsuit against several agencies that removed themselves from convention control. Word & Way, the historic Missouri Baptist…
Cecil Sherman ‘stood on a higher hill’
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (ABP) — A self-described "comrade in arms" in the Southern Baptist Convention controversy in the 1980s remembered Cecil Sherman as one who "stood on a higher hill" than other moderate Baptist leaders. "Cecil Sherman was right more times…
Cecil Sherman ‘stood on a higher hill’ than his contemporaries, speaker says
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (ABP) — A self-described “comrade in arms” in the Southern Baptist Convention controversy in the 1980s remembered Cecil Sherman as one who “stood on a higher hill” than other moderate Baptist leaders. “Cecil Sherman was right more times…