FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) — A Baptist World Alliance-led delegation recently returned from Vietnam, where they pressed government officials to ensure greater religious freedom in the rapidly Westernizing nation. Though conditions for religious groups — especially Protestant groups — have…
Former mission board worker fights for NAMB support for ailing wife
WACO, Texas (ABP) — In his day, Nathan Porter jokes, he was the sex symbol of the Southern Baptist Convention. These days, he said, he's the sex symbol of the AARP. No matter. The tall 73-year-old Brazilian with blueberry eyes…
CBF leaders elect Rob Nash to global missions post
ATLANTA (ABP) — With a standing ovation, leaders of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship unanimously approved Rob Nash as the group's new global missions coordinator June 21. The CBF Coordinating Council approved Nash to head up the organization's missionary force in…
Supreme Court agrees to expand scope of ‘partial-birth abortion’ case
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Supreme Court said June 20 it will expand its review of a controversial federal abortion law. The justices agreed to hear a California case involving the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. They will consider, in…
SBC messengers strip much of anti-nepotism motion
GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — After an appeal from an International Mission Board trustee June 14, Southern Baptist Convention messengers removed provisions of a recommendation designed to prevent nepotism and conflicts of interest among SBC agency trustees. The move dealt something…
UPDATED: Amended abstinence resolution calls for all SBC trustees to be teetotalers
GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — Declaring “our total opposition to the … consuming of alcoholic beverages,” Southern Baptist Convention messengers adopted a strongly worded resolution on the issue June 14. Messengers adopted 15 resolutions presented by the SBC Resolutions Committee on…
SBC messengers ask for studies of execs’ perks, IMB turmoil
GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — Taking aim at issues ranging from SBC executives' perks, to Calvinism, from pandemics to what they should call homosexuals, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting presented a flurry of motions. In fact, 29 motions…
Will election of SBC president deal blow to neo-Calvinism?
GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — When Southern Baptist Convention messengers elected dark-horse candidate Frank Page of South Carolina as president, they not only sent a populist message to the powerbrokers who backed other candidates, but also — at least in the…
Fish accentuates positive in NAMB report to SBC
GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — After a rough spring, the new leader of the Southern Baptist Convention's domestic missionary agency tried to accentuate the positive in his annual report to the Southern Baptist Convention. Roy Fish, just-named interim president of the…
My thanksgiving
Our son converted to Mormonism. He was baptized at a Mormon ward and was to go on the Mormon mission field. Many would say, “Oh, okay; how nice” or “A Christian missionary in your family—so what's the problem?” Many others…
Baptist historians celebrate lives of public figures at meeting
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The lives of prominent Baptist public figures mighty and mediocre alike took center stage at the annual meeting of the Baptist History and Heritage Society June 1-3 in Washington. The society — for professional Baptist historians and…
CBF will commission Virginia missionaries
Virginia missionaries Greg and Sue Smith will be commissioned as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship global missions affiliates at the Fellowship's 2006 General Assembly in June. The Smiths will remain in Fredericksburg, where they serve with the Virginia Baptist Mission Board. They…