ACCRA, Ghana—Like the other regions represented in the Baptist World Alliance, the North American Baptist Fellowship met July 4 in Ghana as part of the BWA annual gathering. The Fellowship, headed by its executive director Alan Stanford, is a network…
Opinion: 17 rules for Christian engagement in politics
It's election season again. Actually, it never ceases to be election season in our politics-obsessed culture — and in politics-obsessed evangelical America. I have been thinking a lot about the intersection of evangelicals and politics. In a new book coming…
Gushee appointed professor of Christian ethics at Mercer
MACON, Ga. (ABP) — David Gushee, a Baptist theologian and author, has been named to the position of distinguished university professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University. Gushee currently serves as a professor of philosophy at Union University in Jackson,…
Pulitzer-winning Baptist cartoonist Marlette dies in Miss. car accident
HOLLY SPRINGS, Miss. (ABP) — Doug Marlette, whose editorial cartoons often lampooned fundamentalist religion but whose folksy comic strip celebrated a rural Southern Baptist pastor, was killed in an automobile accident July 10. He was 57. The Pulitzer Prize winner,…
Criticism of Southwestern homemaking courses angers professor, radio host
FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — Recent criticism of a “cookie-making” degree at a Southern Baptist seminary has brought some homemakers out swinging, calling the critics “pitiful” and “sanctimonious liberals.” The tiff emerged after a June 18 guest opinion piece by…
Philanthropic Texas Baptist family issues challenge for BJC campaign
WASHINGTON (ABP) — A prominent family of Texas Baptist philanthropists has given a big boost — and a challenge — to the campaign to create a permanent home for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. BJC Executive Director Brent…
BWA leaders, in Ghana, call for repentance, forgiveness for slavery
ACCRA, Ghana (ABP) — Gathered in the courtyard of Ghana's Cape Coast Slave Castle, members of Baptist World Alliance held a somber service of memory and reconciliation July 5. The slave castle, perched on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean,…
The Great Commission: What is the future of missions?
DALLAS (ABP) — As churches and individual Christians demand more hands-on, practical connection to missions, some Baptists are questioning whether a missions-by-proxy approach — churches supporting professional career missionaries sent by large denominational agencies — has a future. Count Ken…
The Great Commission: Churches increasingly become mission-senders
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — While Baptist missiologists are declaring church-based missions the future of global outreach, some pastors are saying it is already here. Although evidence is largely anecdotal, many Baptists believe church work overseas without the help of mission…
The Great Commission: Back to basics as missionaries raise own support
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP) — Career missionaries have started to cut out the middleman when it comes to generating money, they say. And while denominational agencies and mission partners will not be left completely out of the picture, their roles…
BWA celebrates freedom, promotes reconciliation
ACCRA, Ghana (ABP) — The twin themes of freedom in Christ and reconciliation that leads to unity echoed throughout the July 2-7 annual gathering of the Baptist World Alliance. With more than 110 million members, the Alliance is the world's…
Minorities flock to multiethnic campus groups for Christian fellowship
DALLAS (ABP) — Caucasian students continue to primarily populate college evangelical organizations, but ethnic minority students have started to join them in increasing numbers. Two of the nation's largest parachurch campus evangelical organizations, Campus Crusade for Christ and InterVarsity Christian…