LOUISVILLE (ABP) — A third Southern Baptist seminary president has endorsed Arkansas pastor Ronnie Floyd for president of the denomination. Meanwhile, Floyd offered an explanation for his church's relatively low support of the Cooperative Program, which funds Southern Baptists' seminaries…
Correction
In the May 16 story, “Pizza magnate building ‘city of God'; Catholics flock while critics mock,” please change the name of the Baptist Joint Committee in the fifth paragraph from Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Freedom to Baptist Joint Committee…
Pacific region leaves ABC over homosexuality issue
COVINA, Calif. (ABP) — Leaders of the American Baptist Churches of the Pacific Southwest took the final step May 11 to remove the regional group from their national denomination, primarily over its handling of homosexuality. The region's board of directors…
Correction
In the May 15 story, “Kentucky Baptist board affirms college's ouster on gay student,” please change the long-term goal in the last paragraph from 60 percent to 40 percent.
Another agency head endorses Floyd as search for 2nd candidate continues
WAKE FOREST, N.C. (ABP) — A second seminary president has endorsed Ronnie Floyd for Southern Baptist Convention president, despite an admonishment from the convention's chief executive, Morris Chapman. In an email to students and others May 15, Danny Akin, president…
Kentucky Baptist board affirms college’s ouster on gay student
BAGDAD, Ky. (ABP) — Members of the Kentucky Baptist Convention Mission Board have voted to affirm the University of the Cumberlands' recent decision to dismiss an openly homosexual student. Citing “the recent public controversy surrounding the Baptist school's dismissal of…
Patterson’s endorsement of Floyd draws rebuke from SBC exec
FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — Seminary president Paige Patterson has endorsed Ronnie Floyd for Southern Baptist Convention president, prompting a rare rebuttal from SBC chief executive Morris Chapman and exposing a growing rift between the two SBC executives. Meanwhile, critics…
House passes bill undercutting military chaplain guidelines
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The House of Representatives has amended a defense-spending bill to appease activists who believe new military guidelines encroach on the religious freedom of evangelical chaplains. The bill, as amended, passed the House May 11 on a 396-31…
Inconsistent actions
I read with interest two Baptist Press articles printed on the same page in the May 4 issue of the Herald. The first, headlined “ ‘Everyone Can' to be the focus of SBC meeting,” concerns the upcoming annual meeting of…
Reinstated Africa missionaries accept IMB guidelines for church planting
Under a new agreement, officials at the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board have reinstated a missionary couple they threatened to fire for establishing a church that was not explicitly Baptist in the African nation of Guinea. Wyman and Michelle…
Floyd to be nominated SBC president, but other candidates likely to follow
Ronnie Floyd, pastor of the largest Southern Baptist church in Arkansas, will be nominated as president of the Southern Baptist Convention next month. Georgia pastor Johnny Hunt, who until a week ago was the nominee favored by the SBC's conservative…
American Baptists still headed toward split over theology
(ABP) — After years of conflict centering mainly on the issue of homosexuality, a large regional body of the American Baptist Churches USA has voted to continue the process of separating itself from the denomination. In an April 29 meeting…