JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP) — A decision by Missouri Baptist Convention leaders to cut off funding for certain new church starts has set off a firestorm of protest and further widened a rift among conservative Baptists in the state. MBC…
Study links video violence to aggressive behavior
DALLAS (ABP) — Repeated exposure to video violence — particularly interactive games — influences aggressive behavior more than drug use, poverty or domestic abuse, a University of Michigan researcher has asserted. In fact, the correlation between media violence and aggression…
Iraqi refugee children get scholarships to attend school in Jordan
ATLANTA (ABP) — Forty Iraqi children will receive funding this year from Christian organizations trying to ensure they receive an education. Millions of Iraqis have fled to Jordan and Syria to escape ongoing violence in Iraq. Most arrive with only…
Baptist ‘celebration rallies’ reach hundreds in Lebanon, Egypt
ATLANTA (ABP) — At dinner one night in Cairo, Egypt, Chaouki Boulos invited a restaurant waiter named Mario to the final night of a four-day “Celebrate Jesus” rally. The next night, Mario joined nearly 900 people at the rally, heard…
Volleyball coach at Baptist-affiliated university dies unexpectedly
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — Doris Wefwafwa, a student-assistant volleyball coach at Campbellsville University and former volleyball All-American, died unexpectedly Dec. 10. Wefwafwa, a resident of Kenya, was 34. Wefwafwa died at Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabethtown, Ky., after a brief…
Huckabee apologizes to Romney for reportedly anti-Mormon crack
JOHNSTON, Iowa (ABP) — The newest front-runner in the Republican presidential campaign responded to newfound scrutiny Dec. 12, reportedly apologizing for what critics called an anti-Mormon crack. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, apologized to former Massachusetts…
Opinion: Why are Christians ignoring the ultimate moral-values issue?
The data is in: Global warming is becoming the ultimate moral-values issue. Both religious and political leaders must mobilize immediately to address it. No society is more reluctant to accept these two claims than the United States. No religious community…
Did Romney speech do enough to keep evangelicals from bolting to Huckabee?
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Mitt Romney's Dec. 6 speech on faith and public affairs elicited both praise and criticism from a broad spectrum of observers, but it may not have sealed the much-coveted support of evangelical Christians. The highly anticipated speech…
New Jersey legislators vote to repeal death penalty
TRENTON, N.J. (ABP) – In what could become the biggest legislative victory for opponents of capital punishment, the New Jersey Senate voted Dec. 10 to repeal that state's death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment. The chamber voted 21-16…
Huckabee’s surge in polls brings new media attention, scrutiny
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Mike Huckabee has gone from long-shot candidate to serious GOP presidential contender in only a few weeks — and his media coverage has gone from curious bemusement to serious analysis of his past record. The result is…
Church leaders seek clarity about split between CBF, ABC benefits plans
ATLANTA (ABP) — A seven-year partnership between American Baptists and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which has allowed CBF-related churches to buy retirement and medical benefits, will end Dec. 31. The end of the partnership is leaving some church leaders confused…
Romney claims no candidate should be faith’s spokesman
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (ABP) — People of faith who value religious liberty “have a friend and an ally in me,” but promoters of the “religion of secularism” who want to strip religious references from the public square do not, said…