By Jeff Brumley and Ken Camp There’s a growing push, here and there around the country, to stop treating ex-cons like criminals after they have served their time. The restorative justice movement is nothing new but is taking on fresh…
Baylor renames School of Social Work for Dean Diana Garland
By Bob Allen Baylor University’s board of regents has voted to rename the university’s School of Social Work in honor of the school’s first dean, Diana Garland, who is stepping down June 1 due to illness. The Diana R. Garland…
SBC Pastors Conference disinvites Ben Carson
By Bob Allen An invitation to likely Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson to speak at this summer’s Southern Baptist Convention Pastors Conference has been withdrawn after it was criticized in Baptist blogs. Pastors Conference President Willy Rice said in a…
Union University murder trial postponed
By Bob Allen The trial of a former Union University student accused of murdering his fiancee has been postponed from May 12 until Sept. 28 due to a backlog in the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation crime lab. Charles Pittman, charged…
Aiming to deepen rite’s meaning, Baptist pastor in Ohio baptizes infant
By Jeff Brumley There are plenty of Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran and Methodist churches in Dayton, Ohio, where parents could have an infant child baptized. But one local couple wanted Rodney Kennedy to baptize their 7-month-old son, even though they knew…
Uzbek Baptist jailed for handing out Christian leaflet
By Bob Allen A Baptist in Uzbekistan was jailed 15 days in March and fined three years’ worth of the national minimum wage for giving a Christian leaflet to a passer-by he met while traveling by bicycle, according to a…
SBC Pastors Conference criticized for inviting non-Baptist presidential hopeful to speak
By Bob Allen A two-day preaching conference held each year prior to the Southern Baptist Convention once criticized as too narrow is now being scrutinized for inviting speakers who are non-Baptists. Recent Baptist blogs have questioned an invitation to this…
Project seeks to get churches talking about issues of sex and racism
By Bob Allen A progressive Baptist organization committed to social and economic justice has launched a program to help churches begin conversations about LGBT inclusion and racial justice. Last fall the Alliance of Baptists received a $104,400 Arcus Foundation grant…
Arkansas Baptist leaders satisfied with RFRA bill
By Bob Allen While religious conservatives didn’t get all they wanted in a religious-freedom bill signed recently by Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchison, a supporter of the original measure says after last summer’s Hobby Lobby decision, the final version of the…
From ABP to BNG, Baptist journalists remember past, embrace future
By Jeff Brumley The toxic denominational atmosphere that gave birth to Associated Baptist Press a quarter century ago is fading into the mists of history. However, its modern descendent — Baptist News Global — still faces daunting modern challenges. Both the bested…
Baylor student to study ethical issues at Auschwitz
By Ashton Brown Elizabeth Andrasi, a third-year master of divinity student at George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University, has been selected by the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics to participate in a two-week program…
Marks of leadership
By Norman Jameson E lizabeth Davis has been cracking gender ceilings for a long time, so recognition as the first female president of a historically Baptist university doesn’t really resonate with her. “I understand the significance but I don’t…