A 117-year-old Jamaican Baptist woman is now the world’s oldest human, according to the Gerontology Research Group. With Saturday’s death of Italian Emma Morano, born in 1899 and the last survivor from the 19th century, Violet Mosse-Brown became the oldest…
Second Baptist state convention sued for alleged child abuse at agency
A second Southern Baptist state convention in a month has been slapped with an ascending liability lawsuit over alleged child sex abuse involving an affiliated ministry. A lawsuit filed April 5 in Tarrant County, Texas, seeks to hold the Southern…
Arkansas plan to execute 7 men in 11 days strengthens faith, death penalty opposition
It was a Holy Week unlike any other for death-penalty opponents in Arkansas and the rest of the nation. It began with outrage over the state’s plan to begin executing seven men the day after Easter. It was filled with…
Journalist Marv Knox to lead CBF Southwest
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has selected veteran Baptist journalist Marv Knox to lead a new network aimed at expanding the 1,800-church network’s reach in the southwestern United States. Officials at the Decatur, Ga.,-based CBF announced April 13 that Knox, editor…
Transitions for the week of 04.14.17
Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES Hambric Brooks, to First Baptist Church, Forsyth, Ga., as pastor, effective May 14. He comes from the pastorate…
Youth studying theology? Lilly Endowment-funded programs hope to pull it off
Getting high school students interested in theology sounds like a pretty tall order. In the age of “nones” and “dones” and continuing declines in religious adherence, younger generations have been identified with a less-is-more attitude toward faith. But that assumption…
LGBT military community upset with Trump’s Army secretary pick
Advocates for gays and lesbians serving in the military are displeased with President Donald’s Trump’s decision to replace the first openly gay Secretary of the Army with a Southern Baptist state lawmaker who has sponsored or supported legislation criticized as…
Why Christians should think hard before holding Seder meals during Holy Week
Hosting Seder meals during Holy Week has become deeply entrenched among some Christian congregations. But both supporters and opponents of the practice say there needs to be careful reflection about intentions before engaging in it.
Case dropped against Baptist minister charged with murder
Prosecutors have dropped the case against a longtime Southern Baptist minister accused of murdering his wife in 2013. Richard Shahan, former children and families’ pastor and facilities director at First Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., was arrested New Year’s Day…
‘Confessing faculty’ denounce sins of the Trump era
More than 1,100 professors at Christian colleges across the country have signed a “Confessing Faculty” document acknowledging sins of omission that echoes an 83-year-old statement denouncing the corruption of Protestant churches in Nazi Germany. The statement, drafted by faculty and…
Pastor’s wife says for girls, modesty more important than sports
Muslim-American fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad made history last summer as the first U.S. Olympian to compete wearing a hijab, but Muslims aren’t the only ones worried about immodest attire in women’s sports. Kara Barnett, pastor’s wife at Faith Baptist Church of…
The ‘Billy Graham Rule’ and women in ministry
A female Baptist pastor and a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship leader say the “Billy Graham Rule” — in the news since revelations that Vice President Mike Pence never eats alone with a woman other than his wife — has serious implications for women…