The Southern Baptist Convention’s top public policy spokesman criticized an Obama administration letter telling public schools to let transgender students use the bathrooms of their choice as an attempt “to target children’s bathrooms for the sake of transgender ideology.” Russell…
Social media a source of ministry amid disaster, pastor says
Mitch Randall’s Facebook posts read much like those of any other minister, complete with links to audio sermons and youth group videos, kudos to family and church members and steady reminders of ministry needs and volunteer opportunities. But Randall, pastor…
Transitions for the week of 05.13.16
The latest staff moves, church news and more, updated weekly.
Legislation would bar religious discrimination in immigration
The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty joined 30 other religious and religious-liberty organizations in a broad coalition urging passage of legislation making it illegal for Donald Trump, if elected president, to bar Muslim immigration. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) unveiled the…
Word & Way editor Bill Webb retiring this year
Veteran Baptist journalist Bill Webb announced plans to retire later this year, shortly after celebrating his 20th anniversary as editor of the Missouri Baptist publication Word & Way. Webb, 66, announced his retirement plans to readers in a May 10…
CBF church models open attitude on NPR
National Public Radio featured a small Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church in Louisville, Ky., in a two-part series May 10 on the different ways U.S. evangelicals are responding to shifting attitudes about homosexuality and marriage in the United States. NPR’s Morning…
Peace group head urges Obama to get specific during Hiroshima visit
The leader of the nation’s largest peace group focused on abolishing nuclear weapons and urged President Obama to get specific about his plans to reduce their number during his historic visit later this month to Hiroshima, Japan. The White House…
Healing the world in one of Philadelphia’s toughest neighborhoods
With a name like Strawberry Mansion, it would be easy to assume one of Philadelphia’s most notorious neighborhoods is full of lavish abodes and Lamborghinis. But Wayne Weathers, a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church starter and pastor of Vision of Hope Baptist…
Mississippi religious liberty law challenged in court
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit May 9 challenging Mississippi’s religious freedom law, which critics say could be used to discriminate against gays.
Global Women celebrates 15th anniversary with award
A women-to-women missions group will celebrate its 15th birthday by honoring a philanthropist whose family has a long record of generous support for moderate Baptist causes.
Comparing faith decline in U.S. with Europe, Japan misleading, says professor
Christians anxious about the troubles of the American church often look to Europe’s beautiful-but-empty cathedrals as signs of things to come. But a scholar who studies the connection between fertility, immigration rates and religion said American Christianity is at nowhere near the same place as its European counterpart.
Trump lashes out at SBC spokesman
Presidential candidate Donald Trump shot back at Southern Baptist Convention leader Russell Moore after the denomination’s top public policy spokesman criticized the GOP front-runner Sunday morning on network television. Trump lashed out Monday morning on Twitter calling Moore “truly a…