WASHINGTON (ABP) — Standards of decency on broadcast television are again in the news as the Federal Communications Commission investigates what led to an incident during the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXVIII. The show, watched by an estimated 99…
Army honors Baptist chaplain for service to soldiers in Iraq
ATLANTA (ABP) — A Baptist chaplain has been awarded the Army's Bronze Star for “exceptionally meritorious service” while serving in Iraq. Maj. Scott Sterling, an ethics instructor at the U.S. Army Chaplain School in Fort Jackson, S.C., received the honor…
Texas Baptists spread gospel as Super Bowl comes to state
HOUSTON (ABP) — The Super Bowl has spring-boarded many athletes to international fame, but Baptists regularly use the event to point people to something even greater. Several thousand Baptists, primarily from Texas, sought to share the gospel with non-Christians by…
Candidates express support for separation, opposition to Bush’s ‘faith-based’ program
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The major Democratic candidates for president support faith influencing public policy but differ with President Bush on the role of religious groups in public life, according to a series of interviews conducted by an advocacy group. The…
BWA president Kim says ‘liberalism’ is in eye of beholder
ATLANTA (ABP) — On a tour of American churches, the head of Baptist World Alliance said Southern Baptist Convention leaders' attacks against his group could be turned on themselves. An SBC study committee recently recommended the denomination break all ties…
Influence of local associations factors into unrest in N.C.
GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — How much influence should a local Baptist association have on the decisions of a state convention? That question is at the heart of a controversy some say threatens to split the Baptist State Convention of North…
Federal appeals court upholds law banning gay adoptions in Florida
WASHINGTON (ABP) — A federal appeals court has upheld the nation's only state law banning gay and lesbian people from adopting children. In a Jan. 28 ruling, the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a Florida law barring…
Texas convention must change to reverse decline, officers say
DALLAS (ABP) — The Baptist General Convention of Texas must change or continue to decline, the convention's three top officers predicted. President Ken Hall, first vice president Albert Reyes and second vice president Dennis Young announced their support for BGCT…
Alabama, Texas volunteers feed quake victims in Iran
DALLAS (ABP) — Texas Baptist volunteers have been some of the first responders among faith-based disaster-relief workers over the last three decades. But the Texas Baptists who recently returned from Iran were glad an Alabama group had paved the way…
College students more spiritual than courses reflect, study says
LOS ANGELES (ABP) — Most American college students are more interested in discussing spiritual matters than are their professors, preliminary results from a massive nationwide study suggest. Late last year, researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles' Higher…
CBF partner-study committee setting scope of task
ATLANTA (ABP) — A seven-member committee studying the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's funding of ministry partners is making progress in establishing the scope of its work, according to the chair. The committee met Jan. 8-9 in Atlanta and will next reconvene…
Mexican Baptists use lay training to spur church-planting boom
MATAMOROS, Mexico — Baptists in Mexico started about 800 churches in the past year, which leaders hope will help trigger a “spiritual revolution” in Mexico and beyond. The new-church total is impressive because it almost doubles the previous number of…