PASADENA, Calif. (ABP) — The Internal Revenue Service has informed a progressive California church that it will not be sanctioned for an anti-war sermon preached there in 2004 — but church leaders are asking for an apology for an investigation…
Thomas Corts named coordinator of Bush’s education initiative
NEW YORK (ABP) — Thomas Corts, executive director of the International Association of Baptist Colleges and Universities and former president of Samford University, has been named to a new position related to President Bush's international education initiatives. Corts will be…
Mission to Unreached Peoples names Kent Parks international director
DALLAS (ABP) — Kent Parks, a 20-year veteran of Baptist mission service in Southeast Asia, will become international director of Mission to Unreached Peoples, effective November 1. Parks, 50, will establish an international office in Dallas, Texas, and will work…
Opinion: Keeping complementarians true to Scripture
My professional pilgrimage has been marked by a sometimes painful series of movements between Christian academic institutions falling on opposite sides of the gender issue, or what has come to be called the complementarian/egalitarian divide. This has given me opportunity…
BWA president Coffey in Lebanon shortly after lawmaker’s assassination
BEIRUT, Lebanon (ABP) — The president of the Baptist World Alliance is touring Lebanon and the Middle East in the wake of an assassination of a Lebanese Parliament member and continued unrest in the tumultuous region. David Coffey arrived in…
Little Rock remembers scars of past, hopes for future of anti-racist faith
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (ABP) — When Jefferson Thomas enrolled at the formerly all-white Little Rock Central High School in 1957, he said only one white student treated him “in a Christianly manner.” When Thomas, who was raised Baptist, asked his…
Trustees question Roberts’ leadership after VP resigns from Midwestern
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (ABP) — The chief financial officer at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary resigned Sept. 20 in a dispute with president Philip Roberts over a financial analysis that raised questions about Roberts' leadership, the school's trustee chairman said. David…
South Dakota honors Baptist woman who turned parsonage into coffee shop
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (ABP) — A coffeehouse on isolated Native American land is proof that a specialized business can succeed on a reservation in the middle of nowhere. Just ask Belva Matthews. She was honored Sept. 7 as one of…
Pastor of burned church, arsonist’s mom talk in chapel service about redemption
BRIERFIELD, Ala. (ABP) — An unlikely pair shared the pulpit at Judson College's weekly chapel Sept. 18. Jim Parker is pastor of the Ashby Baptist Church in Brierfield, Ala., the second of nine Alabama churches burned by arsonists in February…
New ‘ex-gay’ study hailed by Right raises methodological questions
WASHINGTON (ABP) — A new study suggesting that religiously motivated conversion from homosexual orientation is possible and not harmful has been hailed by some social conservatives, while others are questioning the study's motive and methodology. The study, funded by an…
Candidates’ religious commitment not a big voter draw, survey shows
WASHINGTON (ABP)—A new survey of voters' attitudes toward presidential candidates shows that being perceived as highly religious may not help the 2008 hopefuls much. The study, released by two bipartisan public-interest groups, also suggests many issues most important to conservative…
Pastors collaborate on new SBC blog
NEW YORK (ABP) — Four conservative pastors have joined the increasingly wild and wooly frontier of blogs discussing the state of the Southern Baptist Convention. Robin Foster, Wes Kenney, Tim Rogers, and Joe Stewart have announced the launch of a…