LAKELAND, Fla. (ABP) — Two Cuban Baptist leaders held two weeks while authorities investigated what they regarded as suspicious economic activity have reportedly been released from jail. Pancho Garcia-Ruiz Rubén Ortiz-Columbié, 68, and Francisco "Pancho" Garcia-Ruiz, 46, were arrested Oct….
VBMB executive director John Upton explains board budgeting decision
John Upton, executive director of both the Baptist General Association of Virginia and the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, released this letter Oct. 15 following the Oct. 13-14 meeting of the Mission Board at Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center: Dear Virginia…
From the Eastern Shore to Cumberland Gap
STAFF CHANGES • Jim Rizer, now serving as pastor of Burrows Memorial Church, Norfolk. • Matthew Tennant, to Kilmarnock Church, Kilmarnock, as pastor. INSTALLATION: Dan Stanley was installed as pastor of Berryville Baptist Church in Berryville on Sept. 13. On…
Fear Not: What does virtual rumor-mongering say about Christians?
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Thanks to the Internet, some gullible American Christians can engage in one of their favorite hobbies — digging up the metaphorical corpse of Madalyn Murray O’Hair and rhetorically flogging it — more easily than ever before. Even…
Fear Not: Ethicists say blessed is he who thinks before forwarding
DALLAS (ABP) — Blessed are they who hit the “delete” key instead of “forward” when it comes to mean-spirited e-mails of questionable veracity, several Christian ethicists suggested. Christians have a responsibility to tell the truth and to tell it in…
SBC leader apologizes for Nazi analogy regarding Obama plan
NEW YORK (ABP) — The head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has apologized for comparing Democratic health-care proposals to policies of Nazi Germany. ERLC President Richard Land reportedly told a Christian Coalition of Florida banquet…
Russian Baptists schedule historic rally with Orthodox, Catholics
MOSCOW (ABP) — An Oct. 15 meeting between high-level representatives of Russia’s Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox communities resulted in the scheduling of a historic multi-confessional Christian rally for early next year, according to a Russian Baptist press release. The rally,…
SBC leader apologizes for Nazi analogy regarding Obama plan
NEW YORK (ABP) — The head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has apologized for comparing Democratic health-care proposals to policies of Nazi Germany. ERLC President Richard Land reportedly told a Christian Coalition of Florida banquet…
Jailed Cuban Baptists accused of illegal economic activity
MIAMI (ABP) — Cuban authorities say two Baptist leaders held in jail for 11 days in a city on the eastern end of the island are suspected of illegal economic activities. Associated Baptist Press first reported Oct. 13 that Rubén…
Louisiana CBF names scholarship after Maggie Lee Henson
BATON ROUGE, La. (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Louisiana has named a scholarship fund for women in ministry after a member of a Shreveport youth group who died this summer following a church-bus accident. The Louisiana CBF launched…
‘Maggie Lee for Good’ day surpasses goal of 13,000 good deeds
SHREVEPORT, La. (ABP) — An Internet-fueled show of support for a 12-year-old girl killed this summer in a church-bus accident is reaching as far away as Africa, bringing clean water to impoverished children in Malawi. More than 13,000 people…
Texas Baptist Men offer relief and hope after Philippine flooding
Mounds of debris clogged Manila's streets after Typhoon Ketsana. (PHOTO/Rand Jenkins) MANILA, Philippines (ABP) — When two typhoons inundated the Philippines recently, 10 Texas Baptist men volunteers packed their rubber boots, leather gloves and bright-yellow shirts and journeyed to the…