WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (ABP) — Bob Patterson, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, has announced plans to step down “sometime during 2004.” Patterson, hired in February 1999 as the state organization's first coordinator, made the announcement Jan. 20…
Senators approve DC vouchers; opponents vow legal responses
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Senate gave final approval Jan. 22 to a bill that includes the nation's first federally funded school-voucher program. Senators voted 65-28 to approve the massive appropriations package, which comes four months late and includes funding for…
Women’s group affirms BWA despite planned SBC withdrawal
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP) — Woman's Missionary Union, the women's auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention, came out in support of the Baptist World Alliance Jan. 12, breaking ranks with the Southern Baptist leaders who want to withdraw SBC membership and…
Bush touts faith, charity, abstinence in third State of the Union address
WASHINGTON (ABP) — President Bush delivered a confident and combative State of the Union address Jan. 20 that included calls for Congress to expand the government's ability to fund social services through churches and an appeal for more abstinence-based sex…
Filibuster continues on bill containing DC vouchers
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Disputes over several issues Jan. 20 stalled final passage of a massive appropriations package that includes what would become the nation's first federally funded school-voucher program. However, most observers said the bill will probably pass within the…
IMB opens sex-abuse hotline for missionaries
RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — The International Mission Board has set up a toll-free telephone line for missionaries and their families to report incidents of sexual abuse. The Southern Baptist agency, which has 5,600 active missionaries, has sent the phone number…
Philanthropist Paul Piper dead at 86
APOLLO BEACH, Fla. (ABP) — Longtime philanthropist Paul Piper Sr., whose generosity provided funds for education and research to many organizations, including Baptist ones, died Jan 17 in Apollo Beach, Fla. He was 86. A self-made businessman, the Tennessee native…
Bush will address marriage, charity in State of Union speech
WASHINGTON (ABP) — In what many view as the unofficial kick-off of his 2004 re-election campaign, President Bush will speak to the issue of marriage as well as his attempts to fund social work through religious charities during tonight's State…
Anonymous donor contributes $2 million to CBF missions
ATLANTA (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has received another anonymous multimillion-dollar contribution for global missions, this one from a member of a Georgia church. Bill Coates, pastor of First Baptist Church in Gainesville, Ga., presented CBF with a check…