By Bob Allen A Baptist pastor in Kazakhstan faces up to a year in prison after refusing to pay a fine equivalent to about two months’ average salary for conducting worship without government permission, the international news service Forum 18…
Pastor resigns amid abuse allegations
By Bob Allen An independent Baptist pastor has resigned his church in Georgia after allegations of sexual abuse 18 years ago in Michigan resurfaced on the Internet. Leaders at King’s Way Baptist Church in Douglasville, Ga., confirmed in a letter…
Immigration ‘personal,’ Baptist leader says
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist Convention official says evangelicals are galvanizing around immigration reform because increasingly if affects someone they know. “A primary motivating factor for us is this has become personal for us,” Barrett Duke, vice president for…
AU defends contraceptive mandate
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist business owner’s religious objection to the use of emergency contraceptives does not trump his employees’ right to obtain health insurance under Obamacare, civil liberties and religious groups said in papers filed Oct. 28 in…
New book details Baptist/Hindu marriage
By Bob Allen Ordained Baptist minister J. Dana Trent got more than she bargained for when she tried to broaden the field on a dating website application by checking boxes for other religions along with Christian and “spiritual but not…
Jerry Holcomb, longtime Virginia Baptist pastor and former BGAV president, dies at 73
VIRGINIA BEACH — W. Jerry Holcomb, a Virginia Baptist pastor for nearly 40 years and former president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, died Oct. 28 in a Virginia Beach hospital. He was 73. Holcomb was pastor of King’s…
Baptist minister Dana Trent details marriage to Hindu monk in just-released ‘Saffron Cross’
North Carolina Baptist minister J. Dana Trent got more than she bargained for when she tried to broaden the field on a dating website application by checking boxes for other religions along with Christian and “spiritual but not religious” —…
NABF peers into Baptist future
By Jeff Brumley The North American Baptist Fellowship will focus on the future, not the past, when it celebrates its 50th anniversary next spring. So the organization is now turning to Baptists across the board for help in discerning what…
Windermere sues Mo. Baptist Convention
By Bob Allen A Baptist conference center involved in a long-running legal dispute with the Missouri Baptist Convention filed papers Oct. 25 seeking $10 million in damages, claiming convention lawyers are holding up needed sewer and water improvements that would…
Chaplain joined Navy to hide from God
By Jeff Brumley The biggest challenge of being a chaplain isn’t always the long hours or never knowing what crisis is right around the corner. Jim Pope says it’s the general assumption by others that chaplaincy isn’t real ministry. Now…
Carroll Institute elects new president
By Bob Allen Gene Wilkes, a former longtime pastor hired in June as vice president for advancement at the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute, has been elected president of the graduate level “community of faith and learning” based in Arlington, Texas….
CBF begins search for missions leader
By Bob Allen A search is underway for the next Cooperative Baptist Fellowship coordinator of global missions, a key position in a period of transition for the moderate Baptist group formed out of controversy two decades ago. The Atlanta-based Fellowship…