OKLAHOMA CITY (ABP) — A Southern Baptist Convention leader was arrested Jan. 3 in Oklahoma City for offering to have sex with a male undercover police officer. Police arrested Lonnie Latham, pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church in Tulsa, Okla.,…
Florida Supreme Court overturns statewide voucher program
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (ABP) — The Florida Supreme Court overturned that state's school-voucher program Jan. 5, saying it violates the Florida Constitution. But the court's decision did not address whether state money for parochial schools violates Florida's religious-freedom laws. Lower state…
Financial strides let Georgetown overcome SACS probation
GEORGETOWN, Ky. (ABP) — One year after being placed on probation by its accrediting association, Georgetown College has been “given a clean bill of health,” according to college president Bill Crouch. Georgetown was placed on probation in December 2004 by…
Wildfire destroys Texas church; Baptists deliver aid to victims
KOKOMO, Texas (ABP) — Wildfires sweeping across North Texas burned down Kokomo Baptist Church Dec. 31. While members of the church were preventing wildfires from destroying homes in their community, a fire turned their church into a “pile of rubble,”…
Baptist congregation, friends mourn death of Florida plane-crash victims
ROME, Ga. (ABP) — When a shrimp boat accidentally snagged the wreckage of a submerged plane off the Florida coast early Jan. 2, a long, sad wait came to an end for a Baptist family in Rome, Ga. The bodies…
Arson suspected in Christmas fires at Texas community ministry
ARLINGTON, Texas (ABP) — Fires apparently set by an arsonist on Christmas Eve and in the pre-dawn hours of Christmas Day caused significant damage to a Baptist community ministry in Arlington, Texas. But by the next day, Mission Arlington was…
Dallas church gets funding renewed for residency program for pastors
DALLAS (ABP) — The Lilly Endowment has awarded Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas a second round of funding for its unique pastoral residency program. The $850,000 grant will fund another five years of the program that brings recent seminary graduates…
American Baptist congregation witnesses rejoicing, sorrow during mine tragedy
BUCKHANNON, W. Va. (ABP) — Praises turned to curses for families gathered Jan. 4 inside a West Virginia Baptist church building waiting for news of their loved ones trapped after a coal-mine accident. Relatives of the 13 trapped miners had…
Correction
In the Dec. 22 ABP story “Underwood closes Baylor tenure urging grads to challenge 'prevailing orthodoxy,'” please clarify the 5th paragraph by replacing it with the following: Underwood, president-elect of Mercer University, used his final address at Baylor to underscore…