WEST POINT, N.Y. (BP)—Southern Baptist chaplains Col. John Cook and Lt. Col. Darrell Thomsen, along with other chaplains at West Point, mourn the loss of 51 academy graduates since the war began. Still, new cadets keep coming with a desire…
Southern Baptists may consider another public school resolution
HOUSTON (RNS)—A resolution calling on Southern Baptist churches to “create more Christian alternatives to the public schools” has been drafted and submitted for the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting June 12-13 in San Antonio. Bruce Shortt, a Houston attorney, and…
Cadets learn Islam as part of “winning the peace”
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (RNS)—The lights in a Jersey City mosque flickered at dawn, and more than a dozen West Point cadets stirred in sleeping bags scattered across the prayer room. As Imam Hussein Wahdan began the melodious call to prayer…
SBC annual meeting to focus on prayer
SAN ANTONIO (BP) —Prayer will be the the focus of the Southern Baptist Convention's June 12-13 annual meeting in San Antonio's Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. Each of the SBC's five sessions will have a prayer focus. “The central focus…
Opinion: The duty to subordinate that which divides us?
A few nights ago, just at bedtime, my husband and I heard some kind of owl — at least we assumed it was an owl — announcing its presence among the oaks in our backyard. A little research on the…
N.C. Baptist newspaper set to elect PR director Jameson as editor
RALEIGH, N.C. (ABP) — Norman Jameson has been recommended as the new editor of the Biblical Recorder, the North Carolina Baptist state newspaper. Jameson, the executive leader for public relations for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, met with…
Festival of homiletics links spoken word and suffering world
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — “Then God showed up, and all hell broke loose.” That's how William Willimon described Pentecost, but he added that it was a far cry from the lukewarm homilies found in pulpits today. A Methodist bishop and…
Pennington-Russell set to make history as pastor of large Decatur church
DECATUR, Ga. (ABP) — A female pastor who broke the “stained-glass ceiling” in Texas Baptist life is expected to move to a historic church near Atlanta, making it by far the largest Southern Baptist church led by a woman. A…
Herb Reynolds, Baylor president emeritus, dead at 77
WACO, Texas (ABP) — Herb Reynolds, the president who led Baylor University into the Big 12 Conference and founded George W. Truett Theological Seminary, died May 25 in Angel Fire, N.M. He was 77. Reynolds, the 11th president of Texas'…
State’s highest court to hear about consequences of marriage ban
LANSING, Mich. (ABP) — Michigan's highest court agreed May 24 to hear a case on what some opponents of same-sex marriage consider an unintended consequence of banning it. The Michigan Supreme Court will hear an appeal of a lower court's…
UPDATED: Study finds U.S. Muslims better assimilated than European ones
WASHINGTON (ABP) — One of the most comprehensive studies of its kind suggests that Muslims in the United States are better assimilated into the nation's culture – and less likely to espouse extremist beliefs — than their counterparts in Europe….
High-level GOPers absent at Falwell funeral service
LYNCHBURG, Va. (ABP) — Although Jerry Falwell did more than about anybody else to identify conservative evangelical Christians with the Republican Party in the last 30 years, top GOP leaders were notably absent at his May 22 funeral in Virginia….