By Bob Allen Baptist organizations including the Southern Baptist Convention’s insurance provider got temporary relief Aug. 21 from an Affordable Care Act requirement that employers include in their employee health care plans drugs and devices they believe cause abortion. A…
Baylor launches investigation of student-athlete’s sexual assault
By Ken Camp Baylor University President Ken Starr called for a “comprehensive internal inquiry” into circumstances surrounding former football player Sam Ukwuachu’s sexual assault of an 18-year-old female student-athlete, including the conduct of the various campus offices involved. Ukwuachu, a…
For some, another threat to church survival: natural beauty
By Jeff Brumley The American church, it seems, just can’t catch a break. The “nones” won’t come in, the “dones” are … well, done, and the rest of the membership is slowly but surely dying off. Attendance and tithing are…
SBC parliamentarian ‘converts’ from long affiliation with Christian Church
By Bob Allen After advising Southern Baptist Convention presidents for 29 years as chief parliamentarian during SBC annual meetings, longtime Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) minister Barry McCarty is officially part of the fold. The Christian Index reported recently that…
State convention challenges church’s acceptance of gays
By Bob Allen The South Carolina Baptist Convention has written a letter asking First Baptist Church of Greenville to either recant its recent decision to include gays in all areas of church life or withdraw from the 2,000-church state affiliate…
‘Preacher camp’ inspires sermons, ministries and lives of 6 pastors
By Jeff Brumley Every year, interest grows in a combined worship planning and support group that has forged an unbreakable bond between six Baptist pastors. Known as preacher camp, the annual, closed gathering got a lot of attention on Facebook…
Ted Cruz urges evangelicals to vote in 2016
By Bob Allen Southern Baptist presidential candidate Ted Cruz says evangelical pastors are Republicans’ best hope to win the White House in 2016. “Nothing is more important in the next 18 months than that the Body of Christ rise up…
Coalition opposes taxpayer-funded discrimination
By Bob Allen American Baptist Home Mission Societies and the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty are among 130 religious, education, civil rights, labor, LGBT, women’s and health organizations asking President Obama to review a Bush-era legal opinion allowing faith-based…
Jimmy Carter says his future ‘in the hands of God’
By Bob Allen Former President Jimmy Carter said he was “surprisingly at ease” after being diagnosed with cancer, which has spread to parts of his brain, in a news conference Aug. 20 at the Carter Center in Atlanta. Carter, 90,…
Advocates urge Nepal to avoid criminalizing religious conversion
By Ken Camp An international coalition spearheaded by the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, with significant Baptist involvement, has urged government officials in Nepal to remove from the nation’s proposed constitution language criminalizing “any act to convert another person from one…
Ministers, churches seek end to ‘mission tourism’
By Aaron Weaver Parachute missions. Poverty tourism. Vacationary. These descriptors are frequently invoked to characterize and critique a misguided (western) approach to missions — an approach that many say encourages an unhealthy dependency and paternalism. “Contrary to popular belief, most…
Anti-nuke activist chastises politicians for rhetoric about proposed Iran deal
By Bob Allen A leading evangelical voice for nuclear disarmament criticized politicians for comparing a widely debated nuclear deal between the U.S. and Iran to the Holocaust and saying it fulfills End Times prophecy in the Bible. In an interview with the Christian Post, Tyler…