JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP) — The Missouri Baptist Convention Executive Board will evaluate the sale of its downtown Jefferson City, Mo., headquarters and may accept a gift of property in a neighboring town. The board plans to consider the issue…
Texas convention launches internal audit on more alleged improprieties in the Valley
DALLAS (ABP) — For the second time in less than a year, the Baptist General Convention of Texas is looking into alleged misuse of church-starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley. BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade reported to the Executive…
Expatriate Baptist minister nominated for position in Kenyan Parliament
DALLAS (ABP) — A Kenyan Baptist minister appears likely to be elected to parliament in his homeland. Solomon Kimuyu has been nominated by the Kenya African National Union to represent Machakos township, about 35 miles east of Nairobi, in Kenya's…
Baptist Joint Committee to begin looking for new property on Capitol Hill
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty is one step closer to having its own “Center for Religious Liberty” on Capitol Hill. Directors of the organization voted Oct. 1 to engage the services of a real-estate agent…
Opinion: On the frontiers of gender and racial integration
In my last column I raised four critical questions for Christian complementarians and suggested that these helped show the inadequacy of that approach to gender roles. In this column I want to turn my attention left instead of right. I…
Manager of Christian bookstore in Gaza found murdered
GAZA CITY, Palestine (ABP) — The Palestinian Baptist manager of a well-known Christian book store in the Gaza Strip has been murdered. Authorities reportedly found the body of Rami Ayyad on Oct. 7 in Gaza City. He died from a…
Whites participating quietly, fruitfully in African-American Baptist body
AUSTIN, Texas (ABP) — Recently, white Texas Baptist pastor Larry Bethune became the president of a mainly African-American Baptist group — and it didn't make news, because it was nothing new. Perhaps what is news to many Baptists is that…
Sutton, prominent Baptist pastor, safe in Nashville pulpit for now
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — A former nominee for president of the Southern Baptist Convention will remain pastor of a prominent Southern Baptist church, the congregation decided Oct. 7. Jerry Sutton, who for more than two decades has served Two Rivers…
Correction
Please make the following correction in the Oct. 4 ABP story, “Dan Stringer, Baptist executive for three conventions, dead at 79”: Change the first paragraph to read as follows: “Dan Stringer, believed to be the only person to serve as…
‘In God We Trust’ motto still mints controversy after 50 years
WASHINGTON—Fifty years after “In God We Trust” first appeared on U.S. paper currency, those four little words have proven to be the source of big debate in the courts. Michael Newdow, the California atheist known for trying to strip “under…
State Department reports Iraqi insurgency hurts religious freedom
WASHINGTON (RNS)—The continuing insurgency in Iraq is significantly harming the freedom of worship in that country, the State Department said in its 2007 International Religious Freedom Report. The recently released report lists Iraq among 22 countries it notes for either…
Move over She-Hulk. Make room for Samson
HARRISBURG, Pa. (RNS)—Jesus and Moses were sold out, but consumers still could line up at the checkout counter to pay for Mary, Noah, David and a ferocious-looking Samson, packaged with Delilah in hot pink. The world of posable action figures…