By Bob Allen A transgender employee of a Chicago-area Hobby Lobby is suing the Oklahoma City-based craft store chain, claiming discrimination because her employer won’t allow her to use the women’s restroom. Meggan Sommerville, frame-shop manager at a Hobby Lobby…
Campbellsville seeks new relationship with Kentucky Baptists
By Bob Allen Campbellsville University has proposed renegotiating its affiliation with the Kentucky Baptist Convention to phase out nearly $1 million a year in cooperative funding in exchange for more flexibility in trustee appointments and academic freedom. Trustees of the…
Passport’s founders spearheaded quiet shift in how youth hear God’s call
Over the last two decades, a quiet shift has taken place in how and where Baptist young people hear the call of God and receive training for Christian ministry. One of those in the vanguard of this movement is Passport…
BJC, others, oppose religious exemption in non-discrimination order
By Bob Allen The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty joined nearly 100 other civil- and religious-liberty organizations in a letter July 15 urging President Obama to reject calls to exempt religious groups from an upcoming executive order banning discrimination…
Clergy, psychiatrists launch new partnership
By Bob Allen Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy described the important role that spirituality played in his own recovery from alcohol and substance abuse at an inaugural gathering of a new collaboration among psychiatrists and clergy July 11 in Arlington, Va….
So your church members are wired. How do you organize all the social networking?
By Natalie Aho Once social media becomes a part of your ministry and the conversation at your church, it can be overwhelming to manage. Thankfully, there are a few platforms out there designed to help organize your social networking. 1….
Expelled transgender student gets partial win
By Bob Allen A California judge ruled July 11 that a Baptist university was within its rights to expel a transgender student for violating the school’s moral code but went too far in barring her from university-controlled businesses and services…
Experts seek balance between optimism and pessimism in future of congregations
By Jeff Brumley LifeWay President and CEO Thom Rainer has declared himself an “obnoxious optimist” about the state of American churches despite years of declines and closures in a post-Christian, post-church culture. In a July 11 column in The Christian…
Kentucky Baptist Convention leaders, Campbellsville University trustees clash
By Bob Allen Eight months after ending ties with Georgetown College, the Kentucky Baptist Convention warned trustees of Campbellsville University that a governance change reportedly up for a vote this week could jeopardize their school’s relationship to the state affiliate…
Jonathan Merritt explores how he took hold of ‘a thread called grace’
In his latest book, faith and culture writer Jonathan Merritt delves into a yearlong inward journey to recover a faith that had grown spiritually dry. ABPnews/Herald asked him what led him to write Jesus Is Better Than You Imagined and…
Richard Land says transgenderism ‘ultimate rebellion’
By Bob Allen Transgenderism is “the ultimate rebellion” against God’s created order, a former Southern Baptist leader said recently in a television interview. Richard Land, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary near Charlotte, N.C., made the comment June 26 on Newsmax…