RICHMOND — Seven members of First Baptist Church in Danville were installing shelving in the laundry room at the House of Hope homeless shelter on Saturday, Sept. 12. In Norfolk a team from Freemason Street Baptist Church were rebuilding the…
Bluefield’s enrollment up
BLUEFIELD — Bluefield College began the fall 2009 semester with a 22 percent increase in new student enrollment and the highest new traditional student figures since the fall of 2006. Traditional new student numbers at BC — including new freshmen,…
Healing the Sick: Religious groups fighting to prevent reform debacle
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The last time a president attempted comprehensive reform of America’s health-insurance system, it went over like the proverbial lead balloon — and conservative religious groups were prominent in the coalition that helped sink the plan. President Clinton’s…
Nilson Fanini, former Baptist World Alliance president, dies at 77
BEDFORD, Texas — Nilson Fanini, Brazilian pastor and evangelist who served as president of the Baptist World Alliance from 1995 to 2000, died Sept. 19. He was 77. During his term as BWA president, Fanini viewed the BWA’s primary role…
Healing the Sick: Faith-based providers crucial to health reform
Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. DALLAS (ABP) — Faith-based health-care providers can lead the way in developing new models that emphasize wellness and prevention — and create accountable care organizations focused on the needs of patients and their families,…
Former BWA president Nilson Fanini dies
BEDFORD, Texas (ABP) — Nilson Fanini, a Brazilian Baptist pastor who led the Baptist World Alliance from 1990 to 1995, died Sept. 19 after a brief illness. Fanini, 77, was hospitalized Sept. 13 with pneumonia while visiting a new granddaughter…
Church-state groups press Holder to withdraw Bush-era hiring memo
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Supporters of the separation of church and state are urging Attorney General Eric Holder to fulfill a campaign promise by President Obama to combat religious discrimination in hiring. The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the…
Florida principal, athletic director not guilty of contempt of court
PENSACOLA, Fla. (ABP) — A federal judge in Florida ruled Sept. 17 that a blessing at an athletic banquet did not violate her court order telling a school district's leaders to refrain from promoting religious activity at school events. Following…
Open mission positions may be ‘God moment,’ says SBC task force chair
ROGERS, Ark. (ABP) — Impending vacancies in the top leadership positions of the Southern Baptist Convention’s two mission boards offer unique opportunities for the denomination, says the chair of a task force examining how the SBC should most effectively structure…
Theologian-scientist says there are pathways between two disciplines
ATLANTA (ABP) — There are paths between science and theology, and both can find value in interaction, noted author and professor of science and theology Robert Russell told an audience at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology Sept. 15. Robert…
Most religiously conservative states have highest teen birth rates
PHILADELPHIA (ABP) — Teenage birth rates tend to be higher in states that are more religiously conservative, possibly because communities in those places discourage contraception, according to a national study. An article in the open-access journal Reproductive Health reported a…
Rankin: Future of SBC missions includes focus on direct involvement
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP) — Baptist congregations will increasingly take on more direct responsibility for international missions, freeing full-time missionaries to focus their energies in countries that restrict Christian evangelism, says the retiring executive of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission…