A decade after Southern Baptist Convention seminaries were adding academic programs in homemaking to advance the denomination’s new emphasis on traditional gender and family roles in the church and home, at least one is creating opportunities for female students to…
Transitions for the week of 02.25.17
Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES Daren Barnett, now serving as pastor of First Baptist Church, Winnebago, Minn. Joe Bumbulis, concluding his tenure as…
As some key congregations threaten to defund SBC, leaders look for solutions
Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention are taking seriously threats to withhold funds by churches dissatisfied with recent positions on public policy taken by some of the convention’s agencies. During its board leadership meeting Feb. 20-21, the SBC Executive Committee…
Warning of ‘seeds of division and bigotry,’ 4,000 faith leaders oppose new refugee ban
Sixty Baptists are among 4,000 signers of an open letter opposing President Trump’s expected executive action barring travelers from the seven Muslim majority countries which were named in an earlier travel ban but declared unconstitutional by federal courts. A petition…
Americans feeling ‘warmer’ toward Mormons and Muslims — but not evangelicals
Maybe Mitt Romney should have waited one election cycle to run for president. Romney was dogged by negative perceptions about his Mormon faith during his unsuccessful 2012 bid for the presidency. But new research shows attitudes about Mormons are warming,…
Politics, homosexuality, roil competing Baptist bodies in Texas
Separate state conventions affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention in Texas that parted ways during the SBC conservative resurgence now face challenges of their own generated by current controversies over homosexuality and President Donald Trump. The Baptist General Convention of…
Poll says 3 in 4 white evangelicals support Trump travel ban
Three in four white evangelicals support President Trump’s controversial executive order banning travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries, according to a recent poll by the Pew Research Center. The study, released Feb. 16, also found white evangelicals, who according to exit…
How to keep youth engaged with church and faith? Pay them.
Frustration transformed into innovation for a Washington State youth minister tired of losing young people to other activities and smartphones. His solution: pay them. It all started for Matt Overton with a growing trend of absenteeism in his youth group…
Supreme Court schedules case involving church-state dispute
The U.S. Supreme Court has set oral arguments in one of the year’s most anticipated cases involving religious liberty and the separation of church and state. Trinity Lutheran Church v. Pauley, set for arguments April 19, involves a Missouri church…
Southern Baptist leader apologizes for legal brief supporting mosque
The president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board has apologized for his agency’s decision to file a legal brief supporting Muslims seeking to build a New Jersey mosque. “I grieve how the amicus brief in the recent mosque…
Faith leaders support death-row inmate’s religious discrimination claim
More than 500 faith leaders across the country have endorsed a statement calling for a new trial for a Texas death row inmate claiming religious discrimination in the selection of his jury. National faith leaders including Tony Campolo and Shane…
Waco attorney, minister answers calling with new nonprofit legal services firm
A Waco, Texas, attorney long accustomed to taking on long-odds cases is betting that his latest cause — a new nonprofit legal services firm — has a good chance of success. Kent McKeever said he knows from experience that low-income clients will…