RIVERSIDE, Calif. (ABP) – California Baptist University expelled a transgender student who listed her gender as female on her application form and appeared on an MTV reality show saying she is biologically male. Domaine Javier, in a video still from…
Evangelist charged with video voyeurism
OSNELL, Ark. (ABP) – A Southern Baptist evangelist, and former camp pastor at LifeWay Christian Resources’ FUGE summer youth events, has been charged with video voyeurism in a home where he was staying as a house guest while preaching a…
N.C. county petitions U.S. Supreme Court to hear prayer case
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A North Carolina county is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court’s ruling that prayers offered in Jesus’ name at meetings of the county’s board of commissioners are a constitutionally impermissible endorsement of religion….
Baptist-produced immigration film to be screened at Richmond, Va., theater
RICHMOND, Va. — “Gospel Without Borders,” a documentary film produced by the Baptist Center for Ethics which explores Christian responses to immigration, will be screened Nov. 6 at 1:30 p.m. at the Byrd Theatre in Richmond, Va. The event is sponsored…
Wake’s divinity school marks KJV anniversary with exhibit, choral service
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Whether or not you use the King James translation of the Bible for your devotional reading, preaching or comparative study, there is no denying the impact that early English translation Bible has had in the Christian universe…
VIEWPOINT: Celebrating the Reformation?
Some people regard the 16th-century Reformation as one of the great irruptions in history that had deleterious consequences for the visible unity of the church and wonder whether it should be celebrated. They argue that those who shared in the…
Book details rise of independent churches
DURHAM, N.C. (ABP) – About one in five Protestant churches in America is now independent of any denomination, and about one in five Protestants attends those independent churches, Duke sociologist Mark Chaves says in his new book American Religion: Contemporary…
Shorter University adds new faith statements
ROME, Ga. (ABP) – Shorter University has adopted a new faith statement that affirms biblical inerrancy and is requiring faculty and staff to sign a pledge rejecting homosexuality. A new mandatory “personal lifestyle statement” asks employees to agree to “be…
VITAL SIGNS: The J word
I cannot stand this word and what it represents. I hear it far too often. It represents an attitude that should be banned from local church life. It is the word just. As in, “I’m just a layperson.” Actually, that…
Fatal accident in Bedford County, Va., involved longtime friends, churchgoers
HUDDLESTON, Va. — They had breakfast together, prayed together and shared a few laughs. Then they spent the rest of Saturday morning, Sept. 10, pruning shrubbery, as they regularly did at their small Bedford County church, Mentow Baptist, where all…
What started as a summer sports camp has become leadership training ground
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Nearly 25 years ago Mike Haywood asked the Virginia Baptist Mission Board to send a sports camp team to Temple Baptist Church in Newport News, Va. The following year when he requested another team he learned…
‘Sabbath’ offered for ministers looking for reprieve from hectic schedule
RICHMOND, Va. — Ministers looking for a break from hectic schedules may find it at Pastor’s Sabbath, set for Nov. 14-16. The retreat, to be held at Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center near Lynchburg, Va., is sponsored by the Virginia…