INDIANAPOLIS (ABP) — Florida pastor Bobby Welch won the first contested Southern Baptist Convention presidential election in a decade June 15, then directed his characteristic zeal for evangelism toward reversing the SBC's numerical decline. Welch, pastor of First Baptist Church…
Southern Baptists vote down anti-public-school resolution
INDIANAPOLIS (ABP) — Southern Baptists adopted resolutions June 16 lamenting America's “cultural drift…toward secularization” and urging Christians to vote according to “biblical values,” but they stopped short of calling for a full-scale withdrawal from public schools. The 8,500 messengers attending…
Conservatives considered dividing seminaries with SBC moderates, Patterson recalls
INDIANAPOLIS (ABP) — During the heart of the Southern Baptist controversy, conservatives considered a proposal to split the six Southern Baptist Convention seminaries with moderates, according to one prominent SBC leader. Paige Patterson, an architect of what supporters call the…
Senate adds sexual-orientation protections to Department of Defense appropriation
WASHINGTON (ABP) — By a large majority, the Senate voted June 15 to extend federal hate-crimes protections to sexual minorities. Senators voted 65-33 to add crimes based on a victim's real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or disability to…
Winning speaker urges ‘just trust’ at Bible drill competition
SAN ANTONIO (ABP) — “Just trust” is a simple message, but it's one that Emily Burkhead lives by daily. Burkhead, an 18-year-old member of First Baptist Church in Cleveland, Texas, won the top prize in the speaker part of the…
SBC votes to cut ties to Baptist World Alliance
INDIANAPOLIS (ABP) — Southern Baptist Convention messengers voted overwhelmingly June 15 to end the denomination's 99-year relationship with the Baptist World Alliance. The action during the SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis follows several years of tension between the two organizations….
Southern Baptists cheer Bush, leave BWA, hear warning about ‘separatism’
INDIANAPOLIS (ABP) — In an eventful first day of their annual meeting, Southern Baptists heard a rousing speech from President George W. Bush, broke ties with the Baptist World Alliance, and elected a new convention president June 15. During the…
American Baptist leader labels Patterson’s charges ‘outrageous’
INDIANAPOLIS (ABP) — Paige Patterson's assessment of the American Baptist Churches USA's stand on homosexuality is “completely outrageous,” declared ABC General Secretary Roy Medley. Patterson, a member of the Southern Baptist Convention's Baptist World Alliance study committee, cited BWA's affiliation…
House committee removes controversial church-politicking provision from trade bill
WASHINGTON (ABP) — A House committee has scuttled a provision in a trade bill that would have allowed churches to engage in partisan politics. On June 14, the House Ways and Means Committee unanimously removed an addendum to the “American…