Editor’s note: This story was edited after publishing to correct an error in the last paragraph. By Bob Allen Kevin Bumgarner, editor-in-chief of the Pacific Business News in Honolulu, Hawaii, since 2010, has been named executive editor of the Florida…
Baptists arrested at worship in Belarus
By Bob Allen Authorities in Belarus raided a Baptist church service Dec. 22 and charged three leaders with holding an unauthorized mass public event, according to an international news service that specializes in religious liberty violations around the world. Forum…
Pastor: Church heartbroken by murder, arrest
By Bob Allen The interim pastor of an Alabama church, whose former children’s minister is in jail on charges of murdering his wife, told church members Jan. 12 to rely on their faith amid struggles. “Not a one of us…
Baptists eye catechism (again) to instruct the faithful
By Jeff Brumley There may just be an ancient solution to the modern church’s problems of decreasing attendance and rising religious illiteracy in a post-modern culture turned off by denominational brand names, some leading Baptist scholars and educators say. The…
Baptists, culture agree about smoking: Stop it
By Bob Allen Under a prevailing Premillennialist theology that holds things on Earth will keep getting worse and worse for believers until Christ returns, coupled with a Calvinism that teaches mankind is totally depraved, it is not unusual to hear…
SNAP urges Baptists to speak out on abuse
By Bob Allen A victim support group held signs outside a Houston megachurch Jan. 9 calling for greater transparency about the reporting of child sex abuse in Southern Baptist churches. Representatives of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests…
Arrest affidavit says minister cut, stabbed his wife
By Bob Allen An arrest affidavit released to the public Jan. 10 accuses former First Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., associate pastor Richard Shahan of cutting and stabbing his wife found murdered in the couple’s home July 23. Shahan, 53,…
Texas minister helps bring abuser in Kenya to justice
By Ken Camp When Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, commissioned Chris Pillsbury to serve in Kenya a year and a half ago, he expected to help women market fair-trade handcrafts, work with a humanitarian medical program and maybe start a…
Mo. Baptists sue state over gay marriage order
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…