By Bob Allen Baptists from the United States and around the world traveled this week to Myanmar to celebrate the 200-year anniversary of the arrival of an American Baptist missionary credited with bringing Christianity to the country in Southeast Asia…
A passion to serve Liberian Baptists
By Jeff Brumley Richard Wilson’s 10th journey to Liberia won’t be the usual Mercer on Mission trip that he’s used to. This time he’s going back as president of the Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary near Monrovia. Wilson, chairman of Mercer University’s…
Prof cites rights violations at border
By Bob Allen The greatest human-rights violation in the United States is happening along the border, a Baptist ethicist said in a weekend radio interview about congressional inaction on immigration reform. Miguel De La Torre, professor of social ethics and…
Church settles lightning-death lawsuit
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist mega church in Florida has settled a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of an 11-year-old boy struck by lightning on a football practice field last year. Jesse Watlington, a sixth-grade student at…
Ergun Caner to lead Ga. Baptist college
By Bob Allen Ergun Caner, former head of Liberty University’s seminary found guilty three years ago of “factual statements that are self-contradictory” in a popular testimony claiming he received terrorist training before converting from Islam to Christianity, has been named…
Justices refuse challenge to Obamacare
By Bob Allen A week after agreeing to decide whether mandated contraception coverage in the Affordable Care Act is constitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down a broader challenge raised by Baptist-affiliated Liberty University. Justices decided without comment…
Global Baptists hold lessons for Bible Belt
By Bob Allen If they have ears to hear, Baptists in places like the United States’ Bible Belt, where Christianity is the norm, can learn lessons from Baptist minorities in other parts of the world, Baptist World Alliance leaders said…
Aid, advocacy bolster Baptist witness
By Bob Allen When Raimundo Barreto, director of the Baptist World Alliance division of freedom and justice, was in Vietnam a couple of years ago, a government official initially was suspicious of him. Then the official spotted a copy of…
Trial gets underway for accused pastor
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist pastor charged with sex crimes stands trial this week in a county court in California, Mo. Travis Smith, pastor of First Baptist Church of Stover, Mo., faces felony charges of sodomy and statutory rape…
CBF leader: Advocacy can unite Baptists
By Bob Allen Baptists of different stripes can multiply their influence and foster reconciliation by working together to advocate on behalf of others in the public square, the newest member of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s leadership team said at the…
Obama lauds Baptist civil-rights icon
By Bob Allen President Obama noted the passing of T.J. Jemison, a civil-rights icon who organized a 1953 bus boycott in Baton Rouge, La., that became the non-violent protest model adopted by Martin Luther King two years later in Montgomery,…
Trial date nears in slain pastor lawsuit
By Bob Allen The widow of a Southern Baptist pastor fatally shot during a botched 2009 drug sting has asked that prospective jurors be polled about pretrial publicity of an incident that divided a small north Georgia community as the…