LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (ABP) — Messengers to the Arkansas Baptist State Convention Nov. 7-9 passed seven resolutions, including ones opposing casino and lottery gambling, the sale of beer on college campuses, and homosexual activism. The 939 messengers also called for…
Rotary teams with CBF of Louisiana, gives $50,000 to Katrina relief efforts
LACOMBE, La. (ABP) — The Rotary Foundation has awarded a $50,000 grant to aid in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Louisiana's hurricane relief efforts in Lacombe, a small Creole community about 25 miles north of New Orleans. Earmarked to restore…
Belmont University plans to end formal ties with Tennessee Baptists
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (ABP) – Belmont University has decided not to remain affiliated with the Tennessee Baptist Convention, which helped found the school in 1952. School officials informed convention leaders that Belmont intends to elect its own trustees — a move…
Off-year elections generally reject conservative candidates, causes
WASHINGTON (ABP) — With a handful of exceptions, candidates and causes backed by religious conservatives went down to defeat in unusually prominent off-year elections Nov. 8. Other than Texas voters' passage of a state constitutional amendment banning marriage and similar…
Intelligent design advocates win one, lose one Nov. 8
DOVER, Pa. (ABP) — The democratic process yielded one win and one loss Nov. 8 for advocates of a controversial theory about the origins of earthly life. A bitterly divided Kansas Board of Education voted 6-4 to write new science…
Texas marriage amendment passes but debate continues over impact
DALLAS (ABP) — Texas voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment Nov. 8 defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. By a two-to-one margin, voters approved Proposition 2, which bolstered the state's ban on same-sex marriage by…
Gray resigns Alabama CBF job to take full-time pastorate
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP) — Mart Gray, who has served for eight years as the coordinator of the Alabama Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, has resigned to become the full-time pastor of a new church. Gray has served part-time as pastor of Covenant…
State Department report identifies global religious-freedom problems
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The State Department's annual report on the state of religious freedom around the globe stars the usual villains but also contains some new bright spots. “In some countries, we find their leaders have modified laws and policies…or…
Corrections
In the story, “Baptist 'brewhaha': Leaders deny reports volunteers refused to pass out water,” issued Nov. 3, please replace the second paragraph with the following: A Fort Myers, Fla., television news crew first reported the alleged incident Oct. 28. NBC-2…
Baylor interim Bill Underwood expected to be Mercer president
MACON, Ga. (ABP) — Trustees of Mercer University are poised to elect Bill Underwood, interim president of Baylor University, as president of the Baptist school in Macon, Ga. Underwood, 49, met with some faculty and board members during a visit…
Ancient church ruins in Israeli prison may be earliest Christian structure
MEGIDDO, Israel (ABP) — The ruins of an ancient Christian church, found within the walls of an Israeli prison, may prove to be one of the earliest churches ever discovered and could change the historical understanding of the Christian church…
Neutrality in Baylor fray gives new ‘reconciler’ president advantage
WACO, Texas (ABP) — John Lilley has kept his distance from the ideological battle that has divided Baylor University's constituents into two camps. That distance — 2004 miles to be exact — and Lilley's reputation as a reconciler may be…