One of the victims of Monday’s mass shooting in downtown Louisville, Ky., is the son-in-law of Roy and June Honeycutt and a member of a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church. Roy Honeycutt, who died in 2005, was the last moderate president…
Pastors, politics and the unending controversies about prophecies in Nigeria
Politics and prophesies go together in Nigeria, where a recent presidential election brought out religious figures speaking of divine visions. Weeks ahead of Nigeria’s election, a video of Passion Java, a Zimbawean pastor, made the rounds. In the video, Java…
Baptist pastor joins ‘Mission of Hope’ in Malaysia and India this week
For much of April, Scott Stearman will appear more like an international diplomat than a Baptist minister. But that’s not altogether unusual for Stearman, senior pastor at Bayshore Baptist Church in Tampa, Fla., who also serves as the United Nations…
Chairman of Bob Jones University trustees resigns after school’s executive leadership warns of ‘imminent jeopardy’
In a move likely unprecedented in modern American higher education, academic leadership of Bob Jones University demanded the resignation of the school’s trustee chair April 3, leading to his sudden resignation three days later. The independent, fundamentalist university has been…
With $2 million gift, Simmons College will create Jesse Jackson Center for Racial Justice
On the 55th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Simmons College of Kentucky announced a new $2 million initiative on racial justice. College President Kevin Cosby announced the gift from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation during a…
187 United Methodist churches sue North Georgia Conference to re-start exit process
A group of 186 churches and one individual church have filed separate lawsuits to get the North Georgia regional conference to re-start the process for leaving The United Methodist Church. The lawsuits stem from a December 2022 decision by North…
Those who say women cannot be pastors are ‘wrong,’ open letter asserts
Christians who insist God cannot call women to pastoral ministry are “wrong,” according to an open letter drafted by Baptist Women in Ministry and so far signed by 540 women who are pastors and almost 2,000 others. Unlike a letter…
Capital punishment continues America’s history of lynching, panelists say
Capital punishment in the United States continues a system of lynchings used to terrorize and subjugate Black people in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a panel of death penalty abolitionists said during a recent webinar. “The mistake people sometimes…
Northern Seminary students are writing letters to trustees
Students at Northern Seminary have begun a letter-writing campaign to communicate with trustees about their displeasure with how the board has handled recent events, including an investigation of former President Bill Shiell. “As a doctoral student at Northern Seminary, I…
SBC abuse task force gives in to anti-gay critics of Guidepost Solutions
Anti-gay critics of a single tweet published last summer by Guidepost Solutions appear to have won their campaign with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force. The task force assigned with enacting a series of reforms approved by…
Judge throws out Jane Roe’s defamation case against Patterson and Southwestern Seminary
A former student’s defamation case against Paige Patterson and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary was dismissed on summary judgment April 4. U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan granted a petition to dismiss the final charges remaining against the seminary and its former…
Fundamentalism and politics are hampering SBC’s moral witness, Leonard says
The Southern Baptist Convention’s continued embrace of fundamentalism and conservative politics is undermining its ability to “moralize to American culture,” church historian Bill Leonard said during a lecture at Baylor University. “How did a once engaging gospel of grace, repentance,…