LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — It took messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 23 only 30 seconds to sever a 125-year relationship with a prominent Texas congregation because of the church’s perceived toleration of gay members. Voting in…
Mike Huckabee slams Obama on Iran, abortion in speech to SBC pastors
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — Mike Huckabee — the once and (possibly) future Republican presidential candidate — staked out conservative political ground in a June 22 speech to Southern Baptist pastors. While only obliquely referring to the man he might run…
Huckabee criticizes Obama on Iran
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — Mike Huckabee — the once and (possibly) future Republican presidential candidate — staked out conservative political ground in a June 22 speech to Southern Baptist pastors. While only obliquely referring to the man he might run…
SBC Executive Committee proposes ouster of church over homosexuality
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee is recommending that the denomination sever ties with a prominent Texas church over homosexuality. If messengers to the convention’s annual meeting, set for June 23-24 in Louisville, Ky., agree to…
Religious charities gain in a down year
Religious organizations reported a 5.5 increase in donations last year, a marked contrast from the nationwide 2-percent decline in charitable giving, according to a study by Giving USA Foundation. Religious congregations, which accounted for 35 percent of the total $307…
Megachurches attract many under 45
Megachurches are most attractive to younger adults, and almost all who arrive at their sanctuaries have darkened a church’s door before, a new survey shows. The study by Leadership Network and Hartford Institute for Religion Research, released June 9 found…
Barmen Declaration offers relevant lessons 75 years after its publication
ATLANTA (ABP) — A document written three-quarters of a century ago to protest rising nationalism in Nazi Germany’s Protestant churches provides instruction for American Christians navigating through today’s culture wars, say a Baptist ethicist and Methodist filmmaker working together against…
Missouri Baptist layman takes on emergent movement
WINFIELD, Mo. (ABP) — Thirty years after the Southern Baptist Convention began ridding itself of theological moderates and liberals, a prominent Missouri Baptist layman is warning that the nation’s largest non-Catholic faith group now faces a different kind of liberalism…
BAPTIST BRIEFS
Baptist Women in Ministry director named. Pam Durso of Atlanta has been hired as the new full-time executive director for Baptist Women in Ministry. Durso, currently associate executive director-treasurer of the Baptist History & Heritage Society, will begin her duties…
Former SBC officer says he’s praying for President Obama’s death
BUENA PARK, Calif. (ABP) — A former Southern Baptist Convention officer called the murder of a controversial abortion provider in Kansas an answer to prayer, and he told a talk show host he also is praying for President Obama to…
Study of SBC restructuring unnecessary, Chapman asserts
NASHVILLE — A proposal to study a restructuring of the Southern Baptist Convention is not needed, SBC Executive Committee President Morris Chapman insists. Chapman made his feelings known about a proposed Great Commission Resurgence Declaration, issued in late April by…
FAITH DIGEST
Christianity Today cuts back. Christianity Today International, citing hard times in the publishing industry, is shutting down four publications and laying off 31 workers. Two magazines will fold later this year — Today’s Christian Woman and the Campus Life College…