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…
Merger
Herald Legacy Initiative
Gay couple fined 1 cent for trespassing
By Bob Allen A gay Baptist minister arrested in January for refusing to leave a county clerk’s office that denied him and his partner a marriage license was convicted Nov. 26 of trespassing and fined a penny for the crime….
Hearing held in Glorieta lawsuit
By Bob Allen A federal judge in New Mexico has removed 113 individuals from a lawsuit against two Southern Baptist Convention agencies challenging the recent sale of Glorieta Conference Center named in subpoenas that convention lawyers say were improperly served….
Supreme Court to hear Hobby Lobby case
By Bob Allen The Supreme Court agreed Nov. 26 to accept cases challenging mandated contraception coverage in the health care reform law known as Obamacare. Justices announced they would hear cases with plaintiffs including Hobby Lobby, the Oklahoma-based arts-and-crafts retailer…
Longtime pastor to Jimmy Carter dies
By John Pierce Dan Ariail, pastor emeritus of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., where thousands of visitors attend Sunday worship and Bible studies by President Jimmy Carter each year, died Nov. 25 in hospice care in Albany. He was…
Longtime pastor to Jimmy Carter dies
By John Pierce Dan Ariail, pastor emeritus of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, where thousands of visitors attend Sunday worship and Bible studies by President Jimmy Carter each year, died Nov. 25 in hospice care in Albany, Ga. He was…
‘Redneck opera singer’ got start in church
By Jeff Brumley Paris sounds like the natural home town for any world-class opera singer. But for Jay Hunter Morris, one of the top operatic tenors on the planet, it all started in Paris, Texas. And a career that’s made…
Court strikes down clergy tax break
Editor’s note: This story was edited after posting to correct an error in the final paragraph. By Bob Allen A federal judge said Nov. 23 that an IRS rule allowing clergy to avoid paying taxes on a part of their…
REVIEW: ‘Twelve Years a Slave’ portrays human suffering, without the filter
There are some movies that you will only watch once. They are so intense and deal with subject matter that makes you not want to repeat the experience. Yet, when you finish viewing it you are grateful for the experience….
OPINION: Unwrapping the church
(ABP) — Let’s be honest: at the start of my pastorate I had no idea what I was doing. Combined with my glaring inexperience, that first year of pastoral ministry also carried a heavy weight of congregational expectation: “Finally our…