By Bob Allen Leaders of a historically black Baptist college say they have no intention of disinviting a speaker to campus because she is a lesbian. American Baptist College President Forrest Harris defended an invitation to Bishop Yvette Flunder to…
Arkansas Baptist College dedicates community center
By Bob Allen A year after facing lawsuits from creditors and doubts by an accrediting body that it could continue to fulfill its educational mission, a historically African-American Baptist college with close ties to a state Cooperative Baptist Fellowship celebrated…
McAfee students report transformed lives — their own — in teaching prisoners
By Jeff Brumley It’s been hard for some to fathom how a condemned prisoner earned a certificate in theology while on Georgia’s death row. Even one of those who taught Kelly Gissendaner says it’s amazing that she could write papers…
American Baptist College criticized for inviting lesbian preacher
By Bob Allen More than 50 faith leaders, most of them Baptists, voiced support March 9 for a historically black Baptist college being criticized for inviting a lesbian who is legally married to a woman to speak on campus. Baptist…
Catholic school gets win in Obamacare challenge
By Bob Allen The U.S. Supreme Court revived Notre Dame University’s religious objections to required coverage of contraceptives in Obamacare March 9, vacating a lower court’s decision favoring the federal government and ordering review in light of last summer’s landmark…
Missouri youth director charged with abuse
By Bob Allen A 42-year-old man who until recently worked as youth director at a Missouri Baptist church is in jail on a $100,000 cash-only bond after being arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing a teenaged girl. Dale G. Johnson,…
People of faith key to healing wounds of mass incarceration, expert says
By Ken Camp In a nation where mass incarceration policies have devastated poor and minority communities, people of faith and hope can bring about change, an advocate for criminal justice reform told a Baylor University crowd. “Injustice prevails where hopelessness persists,” said…
Two SBC leaders say Fred Craddock undermined ‘authoritative’ preaching
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist seminary professor says Fred Craddock, one of the most influential preachers in the last half century who died March 7 at age 86, was “dead wrong” in his fundamental assertion that good preaching should…
Pastors wary as winter weather takes financial toll on nation’s churches
By Jeff Brumley With an ice storm blanketing Fort Worth, Texas, Senior Pastor Brent Beasley set out for Broadway Baptist Church to determine if services should be canceled the following morning. He found the sidewalks and parking lots covered by…
SBC leader: Baptists, don’t let your babies grow up to be Catholics
By Bob Allen A recent Wall Street Journal story profiling twin brothers who followed separate spiritual paths — one to become an Anglican bishop, the other a Catholic priest — represents failure by the Southern Baptist church in which they were raised,…
Louisiana College elects president
By Bob Allen Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College has chosen an official from another Baptist school in South Carolina as president. Trustees of the Louisiana Baptist Convention-related college unanimously elected Rick Brewer, vice president of student affairs and athletics at Charleston Southern…
Rwandan Baptist to be honored for dedication to peace, reconciliation
By Eron Henry Corneille Gato Munyamasoko, a Rwandan Baptist who has dedicated his life to peace and reconciliation and fighting the stigma associated with HIV and AIDS, will receive the 2015 Baptist World Alliance Congress Quinquennial Human Rights Award, the…