By Bob Allen Leaders of the Baptist World Alliance offered congratulations to Pope Francis, elected the 266th head of the Catholic Church March 13, and announced plans to attend the new pope’s inauguration March 19 at the Vatican. “The BWA…
School adding transgender policy
By Bob Allen A Califorinia Christian college is updating its sexuality policies to include issues of gender identity as a sister school in the state faces a discrimination lawsuit. Biola University’s work on a policy regarding transgender individuals coinciides with former CBU…
Small church embraces diversity
By Daniel Wallace Allendale, S.C., is one of the most economically challenged counties in the United States. The U.S. Census Bureau can testify to that. But it’s also one of the most ethnically diverse. And First Baptist Church of Allendale…
SBC leader denounces papacy
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist seminary president urged evangelicals not to get too caught up in all the excitement surrounding the naming of a new pope. “Evangelical Christians simply cannot accept the legitimacy of the papacy and must resist…
Increasingly disturbed by effects of sex trafficking, two teens fight back — with purses
ROCKY MOUNT, Va. — Many women have an obsession with purses. They love to dress in style and complete their look with a fashionable handbag. Recently two teens in Rocky Mount, Va., carried women’s obsession with purses to a new…
Increasingly disturbed by effects of sex trafficking, two teens fight back — with purses
ROCKY MOUNT, Va. — Many women have an obsession with purses. They love to dress in style and complete their look with a fashionable handbag. Recently two teens in Rocky Mount, Va., carried women’s obsession with purses to a new…
Ridgecrest pulls the plug on what might have been one of N.C.’s largest solar energy projects
RIDGECREST, N.C. — Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center has withdrawn from a project that would have created one of North Carolina’s largest solar energy projects because of the amount of land required. Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center is about 20 miles east…
N.C.’s Rowan County latest in Mid-Atlantic to grapple with sectarian prayers at official meetings
SALISBURY, N.C. — North Carolina’s Rowan County is the latest jurisdiction in the Mid-Atlantic to grapple with the role of sectarian prayers at official government meetings. The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina filed a lawsuit against Rowan’s board…
Baptist named to White House post
By Bob Allen The White House announced March 13 that Melissa Rogers, a Baptist church-state specialist who formerly worked at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, will serve as special assistant to the president and director of the Office…
Obama names Baptist church-state expert at Wake Forest divinity school to direct faith-based office
WASHINGTON — Melissa Rogers, a Baptist church-state expert on the faculty of Wake Forest University School of Divinity, has been named director of the White House’s Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Rogers, director of the Center for Religion and…
CBF ends Haiti disaster response
By Jeff Brumley The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has gotten out of the disaster-response business in Haiti, but churches planning long- or short-term mission trips there needn’t be worried, a Fellowship official said today. “Churches can still engage” in outreach with…
CJ Mahaney leaving SGM post
By Bob Allen A leader in a resurgent Calvinism movement popular among Southern Baptists is resigning from a church-planting network he helped launch 30 years ago amid reports of internal strife and a lawsuit alleging a cover-up of sexual and…