By Jeff Brumley Millennials and other young people get a lot of credit — or blame, depending on the observer — for the dramatic changes occurring in the modern church. Experiments with everything from mission to worship styles are attempted in order…
Federal grant will help Mercer University serve disadvantaged students
By Jeff Brumley Mercer University has received a $1.1 million federal grant to improve the retention, gradate and financial literacy of non-traditional students. The university reported this week that the U.S. Department of Education Student Support Services awarded the funds,…
From microbiology to ministry, veteran leader retires from ABC-USA regional post
By Vicki Brown When asked why he gave up microbiology and academia for a pastor’s life, Dwight Stinnett always responds that God has a tremendous sense of humor. God’s humor not only led Stinnett into the pastorate, but also to…
Advocate links with CBF to combat payday lending
By Aaron Weaver In the Appalachian foothills of southeast Kentucky, Scarlette Jasper, one of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s field personnel, is working to educate others about the debt trap that is predatory lending. Jasper, who was commissioned by CBF in…
Baptist leaders pray for Jimmy Carter
By Bob Allen Condolences and well-wishes worldwide followed an Aug. 12 announcement by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter that he has cancer. “Recent liver surgery revealed that I have cancer that now is in other parts of my body,” the…
Union University quits CCCU over homosexuality
By Bob Allen Baptist-affiliated Union University announced Aug. 13 it is withdrawing from an association of Christian schools after two member institutions changed policies to permit the hiring of faculty members who are in same-sex marriages. The Tennessee Baptist Convention-affiliated…
Civil rights groups, Baptists creating ‘incredible moment’ in U.S. politics
By Jeff Brumley The prevailing wisdom is that there is little if anything new under the sun when it comes to politics and religion. But some ministers and expert observers are challenging that notion as the nation leans into the…
Church-state group says matrimony sentence out of bounds
By Bob Allen A Texas judge had no right to sentence a man to marriage and court-ordered Bible study, a Washington-based church-state watchdog group said Aug. 10. Americans United for Separation of Church and State attorneys wrote Smith County Judge…
Ordinance foes claim religious right to discriminate
By Bob Allen More than 200 people gathered Aug. 11 in a Southern Baptist church in Fayetteville, Ark., to rally against a proposed civil rights ordinance that opponents say poses a threat to religious liberty. The rally at University Baptist…
One couple tries to ease plight of Africa-to-Europe immigrants
By Greg Warner In past centuries, West Africans were forcibly exported as slaves to work in the New World and Europe. Today, that dangerous and desperate journey exists in a different form. During the slave trade of the 1700s and…
16 states side with Baptist schools in Obamacare appeal
By Ken Camp Legal representatives of 16 states filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting two Texas Baptist universities and a Pennsylvania seminary in the schools’ challenge to the Health and Human Services mandate of the Affordable…
Baptist protestors arrested in St. Louis
By Bob Allen Four of the 57 people arrested Aug. 10 in a peaceful protest outside a federal courthouse in St. Louis were part of an eight-member Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America delegation in Ferguson, Mo., there to observe…