ATLANTA — Retired high-ranking military officers and national security experts at a national summit on torture agreed — a policy that permits torture does not make the United States or its troops safer. Speaking on the seventh anniversary of terrorist…
Four in 10 think clergy should endorse candidates
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Four in 10 Americans believe religious leaders should be permitted to endorse political candidates from the pulpit without risking their organization's tax-exempt status, a new survey by the First Amendment Center shows. Twenty-two percent of respondents “strongly”…
Declaration calls for presidential executive order on torture
Evangelicals for Human Rights, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and the Center for Victims of Torture have drafted a declaration of principles its members want to see the next president include in an executive order on prisoner treatment, torture…
Survey shows megachurches more intimate, less gullible than stereotypes
WASHINGTON (ABP) — A new survey by Baylor University researchers suggests megachurches are more intimate, believers less gullible and atheism less prevalent than popular stereotypes would suggest. Results of the 2008 Baylor Religion Survey were released in a Washington press…
Human rights rooted in Bible, not political philosophy
ATLANTA — Concern about hu-man rights means biblically grounded compassion for oppressed people — not a selfish desire to protect one's own property or prestige, Baptist ethicist Glen Stassen told the National Summit on Torture. “It has been the defenders…
Guidestone’s Hawkins urges investors to ‘stay the course’ when market drops
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) — Even though sharp drops in the stock market have many Southern Baptist pastors worried about their retirement funds, making an emotional decision to get out of the market is unwise, the president of Guidestone Financial Resources…
Tortured suffer lasting effects in body & soul, experts say
ATLANTA (ABP) — Nearly two decades ago, Dianna Ortiz says, Guatemalan security forces abducted her and took her to a clandestine prison where she was gang-raped; burned more than 100 times with cigarettes; forced to cut another woman with a…
Disputed Iran dinner fails to deliver on dialogue
NEW YORK (RNS) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dined with 300 religious and political leaders Sept. 26, but the event that drew condemnation and protest offered far less dialogue than advertised. What was promised as a discussion of how religion…
Virginia Baptist volunteers join Texas Baptists to provide assistance after Ike
LIBERTY, Texas — Less than 72 hours after Hurricane Ike made landfall, a convoy of Virginia Baptist disaster relief units pulled into the parking lot of First Baptist Church, Liberty, Texas. By the next afternoon, Sept. 16, almost 100 Virginia…
SBC leader protests
NEW YORK (BP) — Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land was among those who rallied to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's dinner meeting with members of the World Council of Churches in New York City Sept. 25. “You can put lipstick…
The why and the how
Virginia Baptist disaster relief ministries are able to respond to disasters such as Hurricane Ike because of the gifts of Virginia Baptist churches to Cooperative Missions, the Alma Hunt Offering for Virginia Missions and individual designated donations to the general…
Remembering 9-11
NORFOLK — The young adults at Freemason Street Baptist Church in Norfolk got their hands dirty for missions at a seamen's center. Virginia Intermont College in Bristol worked with a shelter for families facing homelessness and abuse. Gayton Baptist Church…