WASHINGTON (ABP) – The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a lower-court ruling allowing Kentucky taxpayers to sue over public funding of a Baptist youth home. The April 18 order left standing a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals…
Senate confirms religious-freedom ambassador
WASHINGTON (ABP) – It took 10 months, but on April 14 the U.S. Senate approved President Obama’s nomination of a new ambassador at large for international religious freedom. Suzan Johnson Cook Obama originally nominated Suzan Johnson Cook, an American Baptist…
Some African-Americans bristle at ‘slave of Christ’ language
WASHINGTON (RNS) — For evangelical author John MacArthur, the best way to explain a Christian’s relationship to Jesus is what appears to be a simple metaphor — one often used by the Apostle Paul himself. “To be a Christian is…
Global south Christians love the Bible books Luther hated
WACO, Texas — Regions Martin Luther never knew have embraced biblical books the Protestant reformer never liked, author and educator Philip Jenkins said. “If Luther hated it, it goes down great in Africa,” said Jenkins, professor of humanities at Penn…
Diver searches for the Apostle Paul’s shipwreck
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (RNS) — Even long before the times of Jesus and the Apostle Paul, Malta was the rocky knob at the western edge of the Roman Empire, the place where the leftovers of the Mediterranean Sea washed up and…
Translators’ goal: Make the message clear & plain
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — The preface to the King James Version of the Bible captures Barclay Newman’s respect almost as much as the holy words the translation contains. And the longtime translator for the American Bible Society is disappointed modern editions…
After 400 years, does King James still rule?
Supporters have called it “the book that changed the world.” Detractors have derided it as archaic and inaccurate. But few dispute the impact the King James Version of the Bible has made over the last four centuries. Arguably, no other…
King James-only adherents apply inerrancy to 1611 Bible translation
WACO, Texas — Like the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel’s “wheel in the middle of a wheel,” King James-only churches represent a resilient subculture within the subculture of American fundamentalist Protestants, some scholars insist. King James-only churches believe God preserved the…
Museum to feature treasure trove of biblical artifacts
WASHINGTON (RNS) — An evangelical businessman from Oklahoma has planned a multimillion-dollar, high-tech, interactive museum of the Bible. The plan was announced first amid 130 biblical artifacts exhibited at the Vatican Embassy and later at a conference at Baylor University…