In the mid-1980s, members and leaders of Old Cambridge Baptist Church risked fines and imprisonment to provide sanctuary to an El Salvadoran wanted by her government and U.S. immigration authorities. Now, Pastor Cody Sanders says, a group of church members…
Tennessee CBF responds to wildfires
A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship partner church in Sevier County, Tenn., lost a youth building and van to wildfires raging through the Great Smoky Mountains that killed at least three people, scorched hundreds of homes and businesses and sent more than…
Controversial religion clause stripped from defense policy bill
A massive defense policy bill is headed for a vote in Congress minus a controversial amendment opposed by religious and civil-liberties groups who claimed it would authorize taxpayer-funded discrimination in federal contracts. Lawmakers from the House and Senate Armed Services…
Laughter can foster forgiveness and heal relationships, minister says
A lot of ministers and congregations frown on the use of humor in the pulpit — or anywhere else in the church. Many consider it to be sacrilegious, blasphemous or, at best, disrespectful to crack a joke to open a sermon….
Study links church attendance with marriage stability
The old adage “the family that prays together stays together” is statistically sound, according to a new study by a Harvard University professor. Couples who attend religious services are 47 percent less likely to subsequently divorce than other couples, according…
Louisiana Baptists commission study of SBC ethics agency
Messengers to the Louisiana Baptist Convention annual meeting Nov. 14-15 in Alexandria, La., asked state convention leadership to study recent actions of the Southern Baptist Convention agency entrusted with public policy concerns. Clark Stewart, pastor of New Zion Baptist Church…
Trump education pick worries church/state separationists
Advocates of church-state separation found little comfort in Donald Trump’s Nov. 23 announcement that he plans to nominate DeVos, a leader in the self-described school reform movement for more than two decades, to head up the U.S. Department of Education.
Former SBC leader says ERLC out of touch with mainstream
A former Southern Baptist Convention leader who made the motion to sever ties with the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty at the SBC annual meeting in 1990 now says it might be time for Southern Baptists to “call it…
Transitions for the week of 11.24.16
Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES Rothangliani Chhangte, to American Baptist Home Mission Societies, as special assistant to the executive director for strategic priorities…
Under Trump, expect ranks of faith-based environmental protesters to swell
Some leaders of creation-care causes say anticipated rollbacks in anti-global warming policies and treaties, boosts in pipeline construction and fossil fuels use will generate sharp reactions by dedicated activists and inspire others to join the movement.
Faith leaders say Trump building a ‘cabinet of bigotry’
More than 1,500 interfaith leaders charged President-elect Donald Trump with building a “cabinet of bigotry” in an online petition released Nov. 22. About 40 of the signers identify as Baptist, with affiliations including the Alliance of Baptists, the American Baptist…
BWA head announces plans to retire
Neville Callam, ninth general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance and the first non-white to head the global alliance of Baptist conventions and unions founded in 1905, has announced plans to retire at the end of 2017. Policies of the organization…