WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship took the first step June 29 toward joining the United Nations' campaign against global poverty and disease, called the Millennium Development Goals. In a break from business as usual during the Fellowship's national…
At BJC event, historian Ballmer seeks America’s ‘true Baptists’
WASHINGTON (ABP) — One of the most prominent historians of American evangelicalism called on “true Baptists” June 29 to re-assert their prophetic role “as watchmen on the wall of separation between church and state.” Randall Ballmer, a history professor at…
CBF event: American Baptists, new moderator, U.N. development goals
WASHINGTON (ABP) — More than 2,500 Baptists gathered June 28-29 for the annual Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Washington. For the first time, it featured a joint gathering with the American Baptist Churches USA. The service in Washington's convention center marked…
Correction
In the June 26th ABP story, “Southern Baptists in California create competing state convention,” please replace the first sentence of the 8th paragraph with the following: Wilson said 25 percent of the money contributed by his congregation to denominational missions…
Truett’s famed religious liberty sermon recreated at D.C. event
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Eighty-seven years after George Truett thundered a call for separation of church and state to more than 10,000 Southern Baptists gathered in the nation's capital, a smaller but more diverse group of Baptists paid tribute to the…
CBF moderator McCall says God’s covenant gives Christians responsibility
WASHINGTON (ABP) — God's covenant with Christians “places the responsibility for being the presence of Christ squarely on our shoulders,” Emmanuel McCall told participants at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly June 28. God is a covenant-keeping God, insisted McCall,…
Baptist sex-traffic mission worker urges others to ‘show up’ for ministry
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The key to ministry in Jesus' name — even in difficult and dangerous places — is to “show up,” Lauran Bethell told participants in the William H. Whitsitt Baptist Heritage Society annual meeting. Bethell, an American Baptist…
CBF panelists urge Baptists to see ‘humanity’ of AIDS crisis
WASHINGTON (ABP) — AIDS asks one question: Are you human? That's what Genie Hargrove told participants in a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship panel discussion on HIV/AIDS. Churches must see the humanity behind the crisis, she said. Hargrove, pastor of Beulah Baptist…
The legacy of Miss Lu
Lucretia O. Litchfield of Petersburg died a wealthy woman on June 14. She was rich beyond measure in the values that make life sparkle, in the relationships that make life worthwhile, and in the years which made her life long…
Analysis: Courts only slightly less open to church-state suits after Hein case
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Church-state experts said the Supreme Court, in a June 25 decision that limited taxpayers' ability to sue the government over violations of religious freedom, didn't go as far as it could have. However, they agreed, the ruling…
EDITORIAL: SBC reflections
As I returned home from the Southern Baptist Convention, I brought with me three overriding perceptions. First, I was shocked that only 8,618 messengers gathered for the Southern Baptist Convention—and that only 331 Virginians from both the BGAV and the…
CBF leaders endorse Baptist Covenant as aligned with group’s ‘core values’
WASHINGTON, D.C. (ABP) — Leaders of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship endorsed the New Baptist Covenant June 27, saying the mission of the diverse Covenant coalition is consistent with the Fellowship's core values. The New Baptist Covenant, launched by former president…