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…
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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…
‘Churchy’ lingo turning off Millennials
(ABP) — If there were an 11th commandment, for Millennials it might be “thou shalt ban pious slogans from thy midst.” In fact, faith-based lingo — like “everything happens for a reason” and “God is in control” — is coming…
Controversy underscores importance of theology in hymns
Worship leaders seldom welcome controversy. But some church musicians see value in the dust-up created earlier this year by a line in a hymn. The committee on congregational song for the Presbyterian Church, USA, wanted to include a version of…