NEW YORK (ABP) — The Roman Catholic Church, with 67 million members, remains the largest church in the United States, but the Mormons, the country's fastest-growing church, rose to the No. 4 slot with 5.5 million, according to 2003 church…
Tapes: Bush unwilling to ‘kick gays’ but calls homosexuality ‘sin’
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Prior to his 2000 election campaign, George W. Bush worried about both the need to appeal more to conservative evangelical Christians and the danger of appearing too close to them, private audiotapes reveal. Doug Wead, who was…
Southern Seminary nixes pioneering curriculum for ‘biblical counseling’
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — The Christian counseling department of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which defined the role of pastoral counseling for generations of ministers and Christian counselors, will make a wholesale change by emphasizing “biblical counseling” over behavioral science. The…
Psychology debate dates back to earlier era at Southern
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — Duke McCall said the tension at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary between behavioral science and Christianity dates back to when he was president of the school and Wayne Oates was teaching pastoral counseling. “This discussion is not…
Kentucky convention cancels McLaren over author’s comments on salvation
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — The Kentucky Baptist Convention has withdrawn its invitation to pastor and author Brian McLaren to speak at its evangelism conference. Officials said they made the decision after reviewing McLaren's statements about salvation and the author's most…
Plan to amend Jefferson’s words fails in Virginia Senate
RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — A Virginia legislative panel killed an amendment that would have altered one of the nation's oldest religious-freedom laws Feb. 21. On a bipartisan 10-5 vote, members of the Virginia Senate's courts of justice committee rejected a…
Competing rulings mean Schiavo will continue to receive food
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (ABP) — The legal saga of a severely brain-damaged Florida woman remains in limbo after competing court rulings. On Feb. 22, Pinellas County Circuit Judge George Greer ordered Terri Schiavo's feeding tube remain in place until at…
Donations for tsunami relief continue to grow, groups report
ATLANTA (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's fund for tsunami relief topped $890,000 by the end of January, surpassing all previous CBF relief efforts “With nearly a million given by churches and individuals, CBF will be able to continue our…
Ministers should take leisure time seriously, Jim Henry tells editors
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. (ABP) — To be healthy, ministers should plan their leisure time like they do other aspects of their ministry, said former Southern Baptist Convention president Jim Henry. Jesus practiced the ministry of leisure, said Henry, pastor of…