(ABP) — Baptist volunteers from Texas and North Carolina are joining the international disaster-relief effort being called the largest in history, after earthquake-spawned tsunamis struck 12 countries in Southeast Asia and East Africa the day after Christmas. Texas Baptist Men…
Relief ministry planned for Florida
Virginia Baptists' disaster relief ministries is sponsoring a trip to Florida Feb. 7-11. Participants will organize into work teams and help rebuild houses damaged in hurricanes last fall. The Virginia Baptist Mission Board is encouraging Virginia Baptist Men organizations to…
Arkansas judge rules against policy banning gay foster parents
WASHINGTON (ABP) — A judge has overturned an Arkansas state policy banning the placement of foster children in any household with a gay adult, saying the state agency that created it had unconstitutionally overstepped its bounds. Pulaski County Circuit Judge…
Virginia Baptist leader named state’s first agriculture secretary
Robert S. Bloxom, a longtime Virginia Baptist lay leader, has been named the state's first secretary of agriculture and forestry by Gov. Mark Warner. If confirmed by the General Assembly, Bloxom will be the first to hold the cabinet-level post…
Prominent church-state issues likely to resurface in 109th Congress
WASHINGTON (ABP) — As the 109th Congress goes to work in an atmosphere already charged with partisanship, legislative battles over religious and moral issues are virtually certain to remain as prominent as they were in the last session, according to…
Myers leaves campus ministry position
Michelle Myers, who has been the Virginia Baptist Mission Board's campus-based minister for the Ridge and Valley region since 2002, has resigned to move to North Carolina, where her husband has assumed a full-time pastorate. Wellford Tiller has been named…
College students ponder God’s call, their response to world’s need
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP) — For five days, more than 250 college students wrestled with their response to God's call to minister and the world's cry for help during the inaugural Antiphony conference at the Wynfrey Hotel in Birmingham, Ala. The…
Poll: curtail Muslim rights, say 44% of Americans
Nearly half of all Americans would curtail the civil rights of Muslim-Americans in some way, according to a new survey. In the name of combating potential terrorism, 44 percent of respondents to a Cornell University survey said they agreed with…
Students looking for direction find some clarity, focus
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP) — They came with questions. Some wanted clarity on God's calling for their lives. Some wanted to know what to do when they grew up. There were still others questioning whether seminary was a necessary step or…