JACKSON, Tenn. (ABP) — Three Christian gay-rights activists were arrested Nov. 10 on the campus of Southern Baptist-affiliated Union University. The arrests occurred during the next-to-last stop on the 2008 Equality Ride, an outreach bus tour of 15 religious schools…
Equality Riders arrested
Texas Baptists elect Lowrie,
defer name-change proposal
FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — The Baptist General Convention of Texas elevated to its highest office the son of a former president, deferred action on a proposed name change and approved a reduced budget for 2009 at its most sparsely…
Baptist churches in Texas, California
draw gay-rights supporters’ protests
DALLAS (ABP) — About 100 people stood outside First Baptist Church of Dallas Nov. 9 to protest a sermon publicized on the church marquee with the title, “Why gay is not OK.” “To say in today’s culture that homosexuality is…
Baptist youth minister charged with child pornography
MONROE, Conn. (ABP) — An American Baptist youth minister in Connecticut was arrested on child-pornography charges after a nude photo of a 15-year-old girl he was counseling was found on his church computer. David Esarey, 30, was arraigned Nov. 5…
Dobson claims Obama election
sets pro-lifers back severely
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (ABP) — Focus on the Family founder James Dobson said Nov. 6 that Barack Obama’s election could set America’s pro-life movement back 35 years. In the first of a two-part broadcast on his radio show, Dobson admitted…
Black Baptist leaders: Obama win
moves us closer to King’s dream
AUSTIN, Texas (ABP) — Black Baptist leaders said Barack Obama’s election as the first African-American president of the United States does not mean Martin Luther King’s dream of racial justice has been fully realized — but it’s a lot closer…
Experts: Obama win may signal
start of religious-voter shift
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Barack Obama’s election as president could signal waning influence by the Christian Right in American politics, according to several experts — but his improvements over previous Democratic nominees’ appeal to religious voters could also simply be a…
Pastor creates interfaith church where Christians are not in charge
NEW YORK (RNS) — A Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist and an atheist walk into a prayer meeting. Any number of punch lines could follow. But the members of Faith House Manhattan have serious business in mind. They…
Charismatic Southern Baptist churches see themselves as open to spiritual gifts
HIXSON, Tenn. (ABP) — Suffering from burnout after a decade as pastor of Central Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in suburban Chattanooga, Tenn., Ron Phillips wrote his resignation letter on a portable computer on the way to a meeting…
FAITH DIGEST
White literalists less likely to vote for minority candidates. More than eight in 10 white American Protestants would vote for a racial minority candidate for president, but fewer whites who interpret the Bible literally or who worship in an all-white…
Trinity debate trickles down to gender roles
DEERFIELD, Ill. (ABP) — There's a tempest brewing among evangelical theologians about the triune nature of God, with potential to spill beyond academic halls into relationships between males and females in the church and home. Trinity Evangelical Divinity School sponsored…
CBF Coordinating Council adopts new strategic priorities
ATLANTA — A year-long spiritual discernment process culminated Oct. 10 in the unanimous approval by its governing Coordinating Council of the re-prioritizing of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's work. In addition to the vote to adopt new strategic priorities and bless…