Alliance of Baptists President Michael Castle said March 25 he will ask the leaders at the progressive fellowship’s upcoming annual gathering to consider moving the 2017 annual meeting away from North Carolina in light of a new state law that…
Anti-hate group scrutinizes SBC resolutions committee
The Southern Poverty Law Center questioned Southern Baptist Convention leadership for naming to a resolutions committee at the upcoming SBC annual meeting representatives of organizations the civil rights organization identifies as hate groups. The nonprofit legal advocacy organization — which began…
Georgia governor vetoes anti-LGBT ‘religious liberty’ bill
Georgia’s Baptist governor announced March 28 he would veto a controversial “religious freedom” bill that opponents said would foster LGBT discrimination. Gov. Nathan Deal, a member of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-aligned First Baptist Church in Gainesville, Ga., said he had no…
Advocates seek systemic change in prison justice issues
For the past 15 years, Alan Bean has found himself involved in some of the biggest criminal justice controversies in Texas and Louisiana. In 1999, the mild-mannered Baptist minister founded Friends of Justice and assumed the role of prophet and…
Transitions for this week
Please submit transitions — including staff changes, ordinations, anniversaries or deaths — to Barbara Francis. This page will be updated weekly. STAFF CHANGES Randy Ashcraft, to the Center for Healthy Churches, as congregational consultant. Most recently he served as pastor in…
State Baptist exec blames firing on interference from SBC agency
A former Baptist state convention executive says what was reported last June as his resignation was actually a firing orchestrated by state convention leaders under pressure from the head of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention….
N.C. legislature voids Charlotte’s LGBT protections
North Carolina lawmakers convened a special session March 22 to pass a bill requiring public schools to allow access to multiple occupancy bathrooms and locker rooms based solely on the biological sex listed on a student’s birth certificate. The special…
Usually traditional, NYC church takes different approach on Good Friday
Good Friday services at Madison Avenue Baptist Church are traditional in many ways. Participants are reminded, through music, prayer and scripture readings, of the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ. Themes of sorrow and grief are experienced in an ornate…
Little Sisters get day in court
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments March 23 in combined cases to decide whether mandatory coverage of contraceptives under Obamacare violates the religious liberty of faith-based organizations that serve the public and hire non-adherents as employees. Charities including several…
Christians, Muslims fear backlash from Brussels attacks
The deadly explosions in Brussels Tuesday morning had some American Muslims and Christians awaking with dismay. “I’d like to say I was surprised, but I wasn’t,” said Joe Bradford, founder of the Houston-based nonprofit American Muslims Care. The previous arrests…
Lawsuit names Baptist church in 30-year-old abuse case
A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship pastor in Georgia has voiced regret and sadness about his church’s handling decades ago of allegations of sexual abuse within a Boy Scout troop it sponsored. A lawsuit filed March 17 in Fulton County State Court…
Wife of BTSR president unexpectedly dies
Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond is reporting the unexpected death of Cyndi Crawford, wife of seminary president Ron Crawford. According to a press release from BTSR, she was discovered at the family home in Hanover County, Va., yesterday evening. The…