WASHINGTON (ABP) — A unanimous Supreme Court said March 6 that law schools, no matter how distasteful they find the military's anti-gay policies, cannot claim their First Amendment rights are being violated by a law that requires them to allow…
Chairman to ask IMB committee to revisit, clarify controversial issues
RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — The chairman of the International Mission Board is asking the board's personnel committee to take another look at two controversial measures the board passed in November. Chair Tom Hatley, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Rogers,…
GuideStone offers assistance in taxes for ministers
DALLAS — Ministers can find additional help in preparing their 2007 federal income tax returns from GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. The annual Ministers Tax Guide for 2007 Returns details recent changes to tax laws and their…
Catholic Democrats outline beliefs on church, state, abortion rights
WASHINGTON (ABP) — In an apparent attempt to address a controversy that has swirled since the 2004 general election, a group of Catholic Democrats in the House of Representatives issued a document Feb. 28 explaining how they reconcile their faith…
Terrorist executed in Yemen for killing Baptist missionaries
DALLAS (ABP) – A man convicted of murdering three Southern Baptist missionaries in a Yemeni hospital in 2002 died by firing squad Feb. 27, Reuters reported. Abed Abdel Razzak Kamel's execution happened in the southern Ibb province, the same region…
Supreme Court says racketeering law can’t be used against abortion protests
WASHINGTON (ABP) — A unanimous Supreme Court declared Feb. 28 that a federal law originally aimed at mobsters can't be used to shut down abortion-clinic protests. The high court already ruled in 2003 that one federal anti-racketeering law cannot be…
Gaddy warns Mainstream Baptists to be vigilant on religious liberty
RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — Speaking Feb. 24 in the birthplace of the First Amendment's religion clauses, a Baptist minister who is a professional opponent of the Religious Right warned Baptists to be equally vigilant. Welton Gaddy, president of the Washington-based…
NAMB panel to study Index charges; agency won’t release media audit
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) – Trustees of the North American Mission Board are asking a task force to see if there is any truth to allegations — first reported in the Christian Index — that NAMB's evangelism and church-planting efforts are…
Baylor caught in squabble over Bush library plans
WACO, Texas, (ABP) – Baylor University's previously quiet campaign to bring the proposed George W. Bush Presidential Library to campus might get a whole lot louder if one Dallas attorney has his way. Gary Vodicka is suing Southern Methodist University,…