By Bob Allen Representatives of the Missouri Baptist Convention’s Christian Life Commission filed a lawsuit Jan. 8 challenging a recent executive order by Gov. Jay Nixon allowing same-sex couples legally married in another state to file joint tax returns with…
Groundbreaking Texas pastor Marvin Griffin dies
By Bob Allen Marvin Griffin, a Baptist pastor and denominational statesman known for his efforts to improve economic and educational opportunities for African-Americans in Austin, Texas, died Christmas Day 2013 at age 90. Griffin, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in…
Pastor charged with murder is on way to Alabama
By Bob Allen An Alabama Baptist minister arrested New Year’s Day while trying to leave the country has been released from jail in Nashville, Tenn., and is on his way to Alabama to face charges of murdering his wife at…
Mohler: Evolution poll results blow to secularists
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist seminary president says recent poll numbers showing that one third of Americans reject evolution is bad news for secularists. “Over the course of the 20th century, the worldview of evolution was supposed to replace…
Pastor: Obama opening door to Antichrist
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist pastor who made news in the last presidential election for saying candidate Mitt Romney’s Mormon religion is a cult claims in a new book coming out this month that President Obama’s re-election is paving…
First African-American tapped as Virginia WMU executive
By Robert Dilday A longtime Baptist minister and social worker will be recommended Feb. 8 to be the ninth executive of Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia — the first African-American to hold the post in the organization’s 140-year existence. Valerie…
Pastor murder suspect waives extradition
By Bob Allen An Alabama Baptist pastor will not fight extradition back to Alabama to face murder charges in connection to the stabbing death of his wife last summer. Richard Shahan, who resigned Dec. 31 as children and families pastor…
Discerning what is – and isn’t – persecution
By Jeff Brumley In America, a reality TV star gets suspended for controversial remarks on race and homosexuality and conservative Christians claim victim and martyr status in the media. In Egypt, churches are torched by Islamic mobs and those Christians…
LifeWay re-launches True Love Waits
By Bob Allen Twenty years after launching the first virginity-pledge program, LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention is retooling its famous True Love Waits sexual abstinence commitment with a video-driven Bible study on the issue of sexual purity….
Interim pastor supports arrested minister
By Bob Allen The interim pastor of First Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., defended the church’s former associate pastor arrested as a fugitive from justice in connection with his wife’s July murder in comments quoted by the Birmingham News. “I…
Attorney: Minister wasn’t trying to flee
By Bob Allen Attorneys for an Alabama Baptist minister charged with murdering his wife say their client would have surrendered voluntarily if he had known a warrant for his arrest had been issued. Avoiding his Jan. 1 arrest while trying…
Exec resigns to head leadership group
By Robert Dilday Rob McCleland has resigned as executive director and CEO of the 400-church North American Baptist Conference to become executive of an Atlanta-based Christian leadership training organization. McCleland, who had led the 74,000-member NAB since 2007, will assume…