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…
Poll: Gay-marriage right not absolute
By Bob Allen A majority of American adults view same-sex marriage as a civil-rights issue and nearly two-thirds believe it is inevitable that it will become legal throughout the United States, but opinions vary about what those rights should entail,…
Ex-offender ministry addresses recidivism
By Ken Camp Men just released from state prisons in Huntsville, Texas, arrived by bus in Fort Worth and gathered at the Tarrant County Probation Office. Before re-entering the free world, they heard straight talk from someone who understands what they face….
Clergy press for assault-weapon ban
By Bob Allen More than 4,000 congregational leaders have signed an open letter to U.S. senators urging them to pass comprehensive gun violence prevention legislation. The letter calls for legislation that includes a ban on assault weapons and high capacity…
Churches’ prom project reminds teenage girls that real beauty is on the inside
Two young women’s groups in different parts of Virginia recently partnered to prepare teens in Amherst and Nelson counties for a day of outer beauty — their senior prom — while also highlighting the inner beauty of women who love…
OPINION: Yoga and a Christianity for the body
I’m no yoga apologist. In fact, my wife Miska does Bikram Yoga where they heat the room to 105 degrees and then strain, contort, sweat great drops of blood and try not to collapse on the floor for one and half hours….
OPINION: Graceful ears
Even before my hair started to go and betray me, migrating lower on my face and body while my head began to show through up top, my ears have always extended at a quite profound angle. They are, in fact…
NABF retools disaster-relief network
By Jeff Brumley The stream of volunteers coming through La Place, La., these days ebbs and flows, says Reid Doster, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Louisiana. A large group of Stetson University students is currently rehabbing some of…
Church calls cops on inquiring member
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist megachurch reportedly filed a police report on a church member who raised questions about news stories alleging that nearly 25 years ago leaders of the congregation failed to alert authorities about credible accusations of…