By Bob Allen A leader in the Southern Baptist Convention says this week’s ouster of a congregation for violating the denomination’s teaching that homosexuality is always a sin established a dividing line that sooner or later every church will have…
Virginia Baptist nominee’s election could break new ground
By Robert Dilday Virginia Baptist pastor Nancy Stanton McDaniel will be nominated in November for first vice president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia — a position whose incumbent for almost a decade and a half has been elected…
Faith leaders protest use of solitary confinement
By Bob Allen The prolonged use of solitary confinement in prisons and jails violates a U.N. treaty the United States both signed and ratified against torture and other “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” a group of faith leaders…
White evangelicals feel heat of religious decline, surveys show
By Jeff Brumley Two new polls show that religious conservatives — mainly white evangelicals — are complaining louder as they lose ground in the so-called culture wars. They also describe a widening gap between the faithful and religiously unaffiliated Americans. What’s it…
Baptist church says ‘no’ to medical marijuana farm
By Bob Allen A tiny Southern Baptist church snuffed out plans to open a medical marijuana facility in central Florida by rejecting an offer to lease a vacant parcel of land the company needs to comply with proposed state rules…
Jimmy Carter on gay rights: Jesus didn’t discriminate
By Bob Allen Former President Jimmy Carter, the world’s most famous Sunday school teacher, said Sept. 22 he supports LGBT equality because Jesus didn’t discriminate against people based on their identity. Carter, whose Sunday school class at Maranatha Baptist Church…
Warden calls for churches to help break cycle of criminal activity
By Ken Camp A Louisiana prison warden known for pioneering faith-based programs wants to see urban and suburban churches work in partnership to reintegrate ex-offenders into society and minister to inmates’ children. “We want to make the urban church into…
Time to fix broken immigration system, says Paynter
By Aaron Weaver It’s time to explore new strategies to fix the nation’s broken immigration system, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Executive Coordinator Suzii Paynter told a group of religion writers. “If we do the same thing we’ve done before that hasn’t worked…
Russell Moore supports ouster of ‘third way’ church
By Bob Allen The Southern Baptist Convention’s top spokesman for moral concerns voiced support for the Sept. 23 ouster of a California congregation found guilty of affirming homosexuality, and disputed the argument that conservative Christians already embrace a “third way”…
Southern Baptists oust ‘Third Way’ church
By Bob Allen The Southern Baptist Convention has kicked out a California church that voted in May to agree to disagree about whether the Bible teaches that homosexual behavior is always a sin. Acting on behalf of the convention between…
‘Nones’ increasingly uninterested in ministers at time of death, funerals
By Jeff Brumley There was a time when even the unchurched came to church for at least one occasion — their deaths. It was an era when nearly everyone, even those who rejected religion, had some connection to faith, however distant….
American Baptist Home Mission Societies executive to retire next year
By Robert Dilday Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins III has announced plans to retire next year as executive director and chief executive officer of American Baptist Home Mission Societies, completing the longest tenure of any leader of the 182-year-old organization linked with…