DEATH • Retired Virginia Baptist pastor Donald P. Stroud died Feb. 15 in Yorktown at the age of 72. He served as pastor of churches in Florida, North Carolina and Georgia, before coming to Virginia and serving as pastor of…
Catholics paid $615 million on abuse claims
WASHINGTON (RNS) — The U.S. Catholic Church paid out $615 million in costs related to sexual abuse claims in 2007, even as the number of victims coming forward fell for the third straight year, according to an annual report issued…
New officers for CBFV
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia elected officers at its annual General Assembly this month. From left are Ka'thy Gore Chappell, secretary; Walt Cummings, current moderator; Jack Mercer, national Coordinating Council member; and Rob Fox, moderator-elect. Not pictured are treasurer…
Muslim leader decries American ‘bigotry’
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) — American culture's view of American Muslims and Islam steadily is deteriorating under an onslaught of “bigotry” on cable news shows, newspaper op-ed pages and in the blogosphere, an Arab-American activist said. Commentators and politicians have devoted…
New officers for CBFV
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Virginia elected officers at its annual General Assembly this month. From left are Ka'thy Gore Chappell, secretary; Walt Cummings, current moderator; Jack Mercer, national Coordinating Council member; and Rob Fox, moderator-elect. Not pictured are treasurer…
Indiana Jones would be proud
LONDON (RNS) — Brushing back a thick layer of dust, Tudor Parfitt revealed a distinctive interwoven pattern carved around the outside of the “terribly, terribly damaged” wooden artifact tucked away on the bottom shelf of a Zimbabwe warehouse. “The moment…
Oxford researchers get $4 million to study origins of belief in God
LONDON (RNS) — Oxford University researchers have been given nearly $4 million to investigate the origins of belief in God. The three-year project titled “Empirical Expansion in Cognitive Science of Religion and Theology” is designed to determine if belief in…
Pastor’s role in Obama campaign spotlights race, pulpit freedom
WASHINGTON (ABP) — While the political consequences of Sen. Barack Obama's March 18 speech on race have occupied much of the chatter on cable-news channels, the whole episode is noteworthy for another reason, according to experts in religion and politics….
Opinion: The utilitarian temptation
A few weeks ago, I was reminded in a news article that Judge Paul Pressler had actually said, at the beginning of the Southern Baptist controversy, that his side must “go for the jugular.” This is an image of slaying…
British Baptist leader to head U.S. seminary
CHICAGO (ABP) — The head of British Baptists' mission agency will become the head of an American Baptist seminary, according to the Baptist World Alliance. Alistair Brown, general director of BMS World Mission since 1996, has been selected to be…
Jim Smith named CBF head of global-missions field teams
ATLANTA (ABP) — Jim Smith has been named the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's director of field team ministries for CBF global missions. The position was previously held by Jack Snell, who died in October after a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer….
IRS scrutiny of Obama’s denomination may signal political-speech crackdown
WASHINGTON (ABP) — What is the IRS thinking? That's the question that many church-state experts asked themselves when news broke in late February about the Internal Revenue Service's investigation of Sen. Barack Obama's denomination. By all accounts, this is the…