ST. LOUIS (ABP) — This fall, Missouri Baptist University in suburban St. Louis will join a handful of other schools nationwide in offering a women’s wrestling program. MBU officials hope the program will help more of the small liberal-arts institution’s…
SBC officials reject idea of sex-offender database
The move came in response to a motion, passed nearly unanimously by messengers to last year’s SBC meeting, asking officials to study the database idea. Oklahoma pastor and former International Mission Board trustee Wade Burleson requested a feasibility study for…
Troubled Texas WMU seeks healing with interim director
On the first day of their June 16-17 board meeting, directors learned the organization’s executive committee had hired Nelda Seal, former executive director of Louisiana WMU, for the post 11 days earlier. On June 17, members introduced a bylaws revision…
Alma Hunt, longtime Baptist missions advocate, dead at 98
Hunt’s influence remained profound over the next 34 years as a volunteer worker with the Baptist World Alliance, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Foreign (now International) Mission Board, Global Women and numerous Virginia Baptist organizations. “[Alma Hunt] heralded the cause of…
SBC resolution could shrink church membership rolls further
The resolution, which reflects the growing influencing of Calvinism in the SBC, comes on the heels of denominational statistics that showed the 16 million-member convention shrinking. Membership fell in 2007 for the second time in a decade. Even more discouraging,…
Texas church targeted for ouster from SBC over homosexuality
Sanderson’s motion, like the one targeting female pastors, was referred to the SBC Executive Committee, which handles the business of the convention during the rest of the year. If eventually approved by the SBC next year, the effect of the…
Radical Islam among 4 apocalyptic forces threatening America, SBC’s Land says
Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, spoke during his agency’s report to the SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis. He saved his toughest words for radical Islam, which he called a “death cult.”…
Caspian more violent than virtuous, scholars say; but what about 3rd movie?
What ensues is a storyline that is noticeably more violent than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Ralph Wood, professor of Lewis and Tolkien literature at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, noticed the difference between the two movies. He…
Aid groups feel the pinch of rising food, gas prices
WASHINGTON (RNS)—Dramatic increases in food and gas prices are leaving some religious hunger-relief groups praying for relief. Problems already were apparent in 2006, but U.S. churches now report increased difficulty getting meals to people who need them. Food distributors see…
Baptist campus minister at UVA takes new post
CHARLOTTESVILLE — Leanne Sanders has resigned as Baptist collegiate minister at the University of Virginia, effective at the end of the spring semester. Sanders, who has served at UVA since January 2006, was married in May and has moved to…
Donor offers giving challenge at BTSR
RICHMOND (ABP) — Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond could receive up to $1 million in new giving by the end of next April due to an anonymous donor's challenge to churches, seminary officials have announced. The donor — apparently a…
Rising cost of fuel, food prompts adjustments by relief groups
With oil trading at about $130 a barrel in New York and London markets and gas at the pump inching toward $4 a gallon in the United States, some international relief agencies have found the task of getting assistance to…