ST. LOUIS (ABP) — Messengers to the Missouri Baptist Convention annual meeting Oct. 27-29 once again elected officers sympathetic to a reform movement within the state convention, while hearing a report about he difficult work of an ad hoc “peace…
Missouri Baptist convention again
Michelle Obama speech to Baptists
spurs request for IRS investigation
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether Oct. 29 remarks by Michelle Obama to an African-American Baptist gathering violated federal tax law. According to media reports, the…
Survey: Protestant pastors favor
McCain, but many still undecided
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — A majority of Protestant pastors say they plan to vote for Republican presidential nominee John McCain, but just days before the Nov. 4 election nearly one in four is undecided, according to the latest LifeWay Research…
Baptist pastor’s trial begins;
Azerbaijanis claim intimidation
Hamid Shabanov, 52, was arrested after police in the remote northern village of Aliabad, near the Georgian border, searched his house and claimed to find an illegal firearm and ammunition. Family members say Shabanov does not own a gun and…
Father, Son & Who?
(ABP) — “Ghost!” the 5-year-old screeched as he stood in the pew and clutched his mother’s neck. “Mama, the preacher said there’s a ghost in here!” Although most Baptists in the sanctuary laughed at the outburst, likely at least a…
On the Trinity, Baptist worship largely settles for two out of three
(ABP) — Hymns sung in most Baptist churches historically have been “More About Jesus” than about either God the Father or the Holy Spirit, several church music experts agree. “From a Baptist perspective, I don’t think the hymnody has ever…
Charismatic Southern Baptists 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…
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 near…
Congo: New fighting creates
latest humanitarian crisis
NEW YORK (ABP) — Escalating violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is creating a “humanitarian crisis of catastrophic dimensions,” the head of the United Nations said Oct. 29. U.N. Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon called attention to the flare-up, which…
Religious Right appeals
to fear as election nears
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (ABP) — Perfect love may cast out fear, but some Religious Right leaders seem intent on scaring the pants off of their followers as the Nov. 4 presidential election approaches. With Republican nominee John McCain trailing in…
Catholic views on abortion, gay marriage depend on frequency of church attendance
WASHINGTON (RNS) — U.S. Catholic voters are split on the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage between those who attend church at least twice a month and those who attend church less often, according to a new survey by the…
SBC seminary professor calls birth control ‘sin’
FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — A Southern Baptist seminary professor has sparked controversy with a recent sermon labeling use of birth-control pills a sin. Thomas White, vice president for student services and communications and associate professor of systematic theology at…