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…
Opponents see indicators that death penalty on its way out in U.S.
Melissa Browning was drawn deep into the anti-death penalty movement when the state of Georgia was trying to kill Kelly Gissendaner last year. There were plenty of ups, including multiple delays in her execution date. And there were downs, too,…
Georgia Baptist spokesman criticized for Hitler comparison
Republican legislators took offense when a Georgia Baptist Convention official compared them to Hitler for failing to move forward with a bill intended to bolster religious freedom protections. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution quoted Republican House members blasting Mike Griffin, senior pastor…
‘Pilgrim’ identity is Baptists’ gift to the larger church, new book asserts
Baptists tend to be the “problem children” of the ecumenical movement but have gifts both to give and receive from the broader Christian community, a Baptist theologian who teaches in the school of divinity at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs,…
New transitions this week
Our latest roundup of clergy and staff transitions, and other items of interest, around the country.
LGBT groups seek NCAA sanctions for schools that discriminate
More than 80 LGBT sports, religious and youth advocacy groups have signed on to a public letter calling on the NCAA to divest from schools requesting religious exemptions from Title IX regulations that would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or…
‘Religious liberty’ bill passes Missouri Senate
A proposal to add religious liberty protections to the Missouri constitution engineered with leadership from the state’s Southern Baptists has passed the state Senate, despite a 39-hour filibuster by Democrats who say it discriminates against gays and lesbians. Senate Republicans…
As U.S. holds world record for imprisonment, churches increase prison ministries
The United States locks up more people in prison — in raw numbers and in percentage of the population — than any other nation in the world. More than 2 million people are incarcerated in federal, state and county jails,…