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…
Kentucky seminary celebrates commencement, accreditation
By Bob Allen Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, one of 15 theology schools in partnership with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, postponed its usual spring commencement to Aug. 8 in a special celebration after earning accreditation early this summer. CBF Executive Coordinator…
In Vietnam, Mercer project provides prosthetics and hope
By Jeff Brumley Craig McMahan has a Ph.D. in New Testament, which has served him well as dean of chapel and university minister at Mercer University in Macon, Ga. But it’s the license in prosthetics that’s come in most handy…
Seventh court upholds Obamacare accommodation for religious nonprofits
By Bob Allen The Obama administration improved to 7-0 in the number of federal appeals courts defending its religious accommodation to require coverage of contraceptives in employer health care plans with an Aug. 7 decision by the Second U.S. Circuit…
Smyth & Helwys exec diagnosed with leukemia
By Bob Allen The publisher and executive vice president of a leading resource provider for churches in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has been hospitalized and is being treated for leukemia. Smyth & Helwys Publishing in Macon, Ga., announced Aug. 7…
Progressive National Baptists initiate call to restore and advance voting rights
By Ken Camp On the eve of the landmark Voting Rights Act’s 50th anniversary — and meeting in Dallas hours after a federal appeals court ruled against Texas’ voter ID law — three groups historically linked to Martin Luther King…
Unsolved church bombings leave New Mexico community on edge
By Bob Allen Police in Las Cruces, N.M., evacuated a mall Aug. 6, after a suspicious package was left near the entrance to a Barnes and Noble Bookstore. Mesilla Valley Mall in Las Cruces was closed for several hours amid…
Alabama governor seeks to end Medicaid agreement with Planned Parenthood
By Bob Allen Alabama’s Southern Baptist governor announced Aug. 6 that he is ending the state’s Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood, citing controversial videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing the harvesting of organs from aborted fetuses. Gov. Robert Bentley indicated…
Some Baptists helping heal the racial divide, pastors say. Others, not so much
By Brian Kaylor The Aug. 9, 2014, death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., the killing of others elsewhere at the hands of white police officers and the recent massacre of nine African-American churchgoers by a white supremacist have grabbed…