WACO, Texas (ABP) — Baylor University has withdrawn its invitation to move its autonomous alumni association in-house, citing lack of a positive response to a request that the group give up its independent nonprofit status and come under the authority…
Lilly-funded McAfee program to help grads serving in first churches
ATLANTA (ABP) — A $1 million grant is funding a new center at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology that aims to create a new paradigm for transitioning new ministers from the academic setting into the realities of local-church ministry….
U.S. religious groups square off over bill imposing new Iran sanctions
WASHINGTON (ABP) — With a key vote looming in the House of Representatives, religious leaders weighed in on both sides of the debate over new sanctions against Iran. Thirty-four conservative religious leaders, including the Southern Baptist Convention's top lobbyist, wrote…
Did Huckabee rely too much on faith in commuting prisoners’ sentences?
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (ABP) — The Dec. 1 police shooting of suspected cop killer Maurice Clemmons has renewed allegations that, as governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee paid more attention to preachers and professed jailhouse conversions than prosecutors and parole boards…
Historical resources to be available at Virginia Baptist annual meeting
RICHMOND — Two new resources of the Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies will be available at the annual meeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia. “The Swirling Center: Prospects for Diversity in the Church” is a three-disc DVD…
FAITH DIGEST
Appeals court upholds ban on religious songs. A federal appeals court in New Jersey has upheld a policy that allows secular holiday songs but prohibits religious Christmas carols in Maplewood-South Orange public schools. A three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S….
4 inducted into Bluefield’s Sports Hall of Fame
BLUEFIELD — Four Bluefield College alumni received the school’s highest honor available for former athletes when they were inducted into the school’s Sports Hall of Fame on Oct. 24. Bill Berry, Larry Slagle and Mark Vinson were included in the…
Handwritten ‘Bible Across America’ sells for $15,000
WASHINGTON (RNS) — The first handwritten copy of the New International Version Bible sold on eBay for more than $15,000. Zondervan’s handwritten Bible Across America project marked the 30th anniversary of the popular New International Version translation. The Christian publisher…
Women gather to pray, fast for public schools
Moms In Touch International is celebrating its 25th year of encouraging moms to pray for children and schools. What began as one mother’s heart-cry as her children went to public junior high school has expanded to include an estimated 175,000…
As scandal-plagued pastor returns, questions linger about ‘restoration’
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (RNS) — After disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard decided to start holding prayer meetings at his Colorado home, advisers and observers, perhaps not surprisingly, reacted with disappointment. But the fact he’s chosen to host the meetings within…
FAITH DIGEST
‘No more Nazi analogies,’ religious leaders urge. Religious leaders are calling on their colleagues and politicians to keep comparisons to Nazism and the Holocaust out of American public policy debates. The Interfaith Alliance responded to a recent onslaught of references…
Zondervan pulls kung fu book; Is it ‘Rickshaw Rally’ revisited?
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Evangelical publisher Zondervan has pulled a leadership book featuring a kung fu theme after Asian-American Christian leaders led an online protest against its imagery. The book, Deadly Viper Character Assassins: A Kung Fu Survival Guide for Life…