WASHINGTON (ABP) — Complaints of anti-Muslim bias in the United States shot up by 25 percent in 2006 as compared to the previous year, according to an annual report by an Islamic group. The annual report of the Council on…
Mass. legislators kill marriage ban; N.Y. panel moves gay marriage bill
ALBANY, N.Y. (ABP) — Legislators in Massachusetts crushed an attempt to reverse that state's stance on same-sex marriage June 14, while their counterparts in New York were poised June 19 to move forward with becoming the second state to legalize…
Police again seize Baptist church in Gaza during latest unrest
GAZA CITY, Palestine (ABP) — Palestinian police have seized a Baptist church in the Gaza Strip for the second time in recent months, the church's pastor said June 15. Hanna Massad, pastor of the Gaza Baptist Church, said Gaza's Baptists…
In historic move, First Baptist Decatur calls woman as senior pastor
DECATUR, Ga. (ABP) — First Baptist Church of Decatur, Ga., has become the largest church associated with the Southern Baptist Convention or the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship to hire a woman as senior pastor. In a closed business session after Sunday…
Southern Baptists doubt human cause, government solution to global warming
SAN ANTONIO (ABP) — The Southern Baptist Convention rejected scientific claims that humans are to blame for global warming and dismissed the governmental efforts to reverse it. Messengers to the annual SBC meeting also stood by their resolution committee's decision…
Mark Olson named president of Washington-area seminary
ARLINGTON, Va. (ABP) — Trustees of the John Leland Center for Theological Studies have named Mark Olson, former pastor of Snyder Memorial Baptist Church in Fayetteville, N.C., as the second president of the Virginia school. Olson, who was unanimously elected,…
Ruth Graham, wife of evangelist Billy Graham, dead at 87
MONTREAT, N.C. (ABP) — Ruth Graham, the wife of evangelist Billy Graham, died June 14 at her home at Little Piney Cove in Montreat, N.C. She was 87. An author, philanthropist, Congressional Gold Medal winner and mother of five, Graham…
SPECIAL REPORT: Broken Trust—The recycle of clergy sexual abuse
Secrecy about clergy sexual abuse may protect an abuser's current church from embarrassment but often at the expense of his next church—and its children. Like many small, rural congregations that find themselves without a pastor, East Bonne Terre Baptist Church…
OUT LOUD
“I sometimes marvel when people running for office are asked about faith and their answer is, ‘Oh, I don't get into that, I keep that completely separate. My faith is completely immaterial to how I think and how I govern.'…
NEW: SBC messengers re-elect Page,choose Richards over Rogers
SAN ANTONIO (ABP) — Although the Southern Baptist Convention re-elected as their president a pastor supported by denominational reformers, they defeated the reformers' candidate for first vice president. Messengers at the denomination's annual meeting re-elected South Carolina pastor Frank Page…
SPECIAL REPORT: Broken Trust—Breaking the cycle: How can churches escape the trap of recycling sex a
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.(ABP)—What can churches do to prevent clergy sex abuse and break the pattern of recycling abusers? Even among activists and experts, there is no consensus—and sometimes loud disagreement—about the steps to be taken. • A ministerial code of ethics….
Immigration issues reveal disparity between views in pulpits and pews
WASHINGTON (RNS)—As Congress debates immigration policy, many prominent religious leaders—from all shades of the theological spectrum—have called for a “comprehensive and compassionate” reform of existing laws. It's part of what they see as their biblical mandate to care for the…