“We are all Hokies now.” So reads a banner that appeared at a Baptist church near our home. It tries to express the empathy that most Virginians feel in the wake of the terrible murders at Virginia Tech. The school…
Immigration ethics: The system impacts whom churches can hire
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (ABP) — Claudia Munoz wants to work on a church staff and has done everything she can to prepare herself, including traveling from her home country of Chile to enroll at Baptist University of the Americas. Munoz…
Immigration ethics: Any reform better than nothing, some say
WASHINGTON (ABP) — As Congress debates immigration-reform proposals, some Christian immigration activists say there is no perfect legislation in the pipeline, but time is of the essence in getting something — anything — passed. A reform bill with broad bipartisan…
Panel debates ‘tongues’ in Baptist life; Burleson sees McKissic as SBC prez
ARLINGTON, Texas (ABP) — Wade Burleson thinks Dwight McKissic, the Texas pastor who caused a stir in the Southern Baptist Convention by acknowledging he speaks in “tongues” in private, will eventually be president of that 16-million-member group. If Burleson is…
Turkey’s few Baptists fear threats after murders, civil unrest
IZMIR, Turkey (ABP) — Turkey's handful of Baptists and other evangelical Christians fear increased persecution as the nation continues to reel from political upheaval and the brutal murder of three Christians, allegedly by radical Islamists. Meanwhile, Turkish Christians of all…
Jim Austin confirmed as executive for South Carolina Baptists
IRMO, S.C. (ABP) — Messengers to a special meeting of the South Carolina Baptist Convention April 26 voted without opposition to elect conservative Jim Austin as the new executive director-treasurer of the state convention. The vote, taken at Riverland Hills…
Non-partisan federal panel decries Iraq’s religious-freedom record
WASHINGTON (ABP) — For the first time since the United States overthrew Saddam Hussein four years ago, a non-partisan federal panel said May 2 that religious freedom in Iraq is gravely endangered. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom,…
Worship pioneer Robert Webber dies of pancreatic cancer at 73
SAWYER, Mich. (ABP) — Robert Webber, one of the most influential figures in Christian worship during the last half century, died April 27 of pancreatic cancer in his Sawyer, Mich., home. He was 73. The author of more than 40…
Gruesome murders, Islamist candidate worry Turkish Christians, secularists
ISTANBUL (ABP) — As Turkish Christians reel from the recent brutal murders of three of their own — allegedly by radical Islamists — many Turks worry the possible election of Turkey's first devoutly Muslim president could mean more trouble. As…
Texas Baptists minister to tornado victims in Texas and Mexico
PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico (ABP) — Juan Molina doesn't remember the last tornado that hit Eagle Pass, Texas, or Piedras Negras, Mexico. And he doesn't know anyone else who recalls the last one either. So when it started to rain earlier…
ABP board honors three, moves ahead with partnership with Standard, others
DALLAS (ABP) — The board of the nation's only independent news service for Baptists honored two leaders of Baptist communications and a Dallas congregation for their contributions to the cause of Christian journalism April 27. Meeting in Dallas, directors of…
Immigration ethics: Anti-immigrant rhetoric not new, historians say
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (ABP) — If American Protestants today have trouble knowing how to accept and assimilate a new wave of immigrants, they can at least take comfort in knowing their forebears wrestled with similar issues. “Americans have always struggled with…