The way Susan Sparks sees it, congregations are missing a huge opportunity to share the gospel by not livestreaming their worship services. “We represent a messiah who used every available opportunity he had to reach out,” said Sparks, pastor at…
BJC’s Brent Walker urges vote on Obama’s Supreme Court nominee
A Baptist church-state expert welcomed President Obama’s March 16 announcement of a nominee for a Supreme Court seat vacated by the death last month of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. In a Rose Garden ceremony Wednesday morning, the president announced his…
‘Evangelical elite’ just doesn’t get it, claims pastor and Trump supporter
A Southern Baptist pastor who has been supportive of GOP presidential front runner Donald Trump says leaders of an “evangelical elite” vocally opposed to Trump are out of touch with people in the pew. “There is an absolute disconnect between…
Baptist group welcomes latest easing of U.S. pressure on Cuba
An Alliance of Baptists leader is applauding new policies easing restrictions on travel and trade with Cuba unveiled by the Obama administration March 15.
Confused by issues in the 2016 presidential campaign?
This year’s presidential campaign has taken some of the strangest twists in U.S. history. Brent Walker of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, suggests nine books that can help clear things up.
Former SBC leader claims 2016 election most important since the Civil War
The former head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commissions says the possibility of a lesser-of-two-evils choice in this year’s presidential election cannot deter conservative evangelicals from going to the polls. “The 2016 election year is well…
Not all evangelicals afraid of dialogue, Muslims and Christians say
A new study illustrates in numbers what many already know intuitively: evangelicals aren’t big on dialoguing with anyone but themselves. “Evangelicals seem to have a particularly difficult time talking to those outside their group,” the Barna Group reported in a March…
Lawmakers seek repeal of no aid to religion in Oklahoma constitution
Lawmakers in Oklahoma are pushing a ballot initiative to repeal a section of the state constitution that prohibits the use of taxpayer money or property to advance religion. House Joint Resolution 1062, passed by the Oklahoma House of Representatives March…
Richard Shahan trial postponed
The trial of a longtime Southern Baptist minister charged with murder in his wife’s 2013 stabbing death has been pushed back until 2017. Richard Shahan, former children and families pastor and facilities director at First Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.,…
Liberation theologian prompts Baptist minister’s ‘Franciscan conversion’ to serve the poor
Jeremy Everett was a young Baptist seminary graduate grappling with exactly how to answer his calling — to serve the poor — when he found the answer in a kitchen in Waco, Texas, at a birthday party for a Dominican…
Maryland senate panel hears two sides of evangelical sex abuse scandal
A Washington-area evangelical church featured in recent reports in an alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse took center stage March 9 at a Maryland state senate hearing. Proposed legislation considered at the hearing would extend the statute of limitations on…
Baylor and its alumni association settle dispute
A longstanding dispute between Baylor University and the 157-year-old Baylor Alumni Association ended March 9 with settlement of a lawsuit filed in 2014. Baylor sued the alumni association in 2014 for trademark infringement stemming from a dispute that began in…