To understand today’s SBC, listen to history

TEMPLE, Texas (ABP) — Investigators said Jan. 29 that a fire that gutted the historic sanctuary of First Baptist Church of Temple, Texas, on Jan. 19 was set deliberately. The case is now being treated as a criminal investigation. The…

MIAMI (ABP) — Despite crackdowns from the National Football League in recent years that frightened many church leaders into abandoning watch parties for America’s biggest sporting event, experts say churches are free to host viewings of Super Bowl XLIV on…

TOCCOA, Ga. (ABP) — The widow of a Baptist pastor killed last September in a botched drug arrest has sent notice that she intends to sue the city of Toccoa, Ga., and/or a three-county narcotics-enforcement unit involved in his shooting….

HERTFORD, N.C. (ABP) — A Baptist association in North Carolina has hired an interim replacement for a camp director arrested last summer on molestation charges. Chowan Baptist Association has employed Matt Thomas, pastor of Riverside Baptist Church in Elizabeth City,…

AMARILLO, Texas (ABP) — One Baptist congregation is putting ministry to the hurting in another part of the world ahead of its own financial woes. Paramount Baptist Church in Amarillo, Texas, gave $63,100 to Texas Baptist Men for disaster-relief work…

CLEVELAND (ABP) — A spokesman for the United Church of Christ says the CBS decision to air a purportedly anti-abortion ad featuring Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Tim Tebow during the Super Bowl shows favoritism to some religious viewpoints over others. Focus…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — President Obama, in his first official State of the Union address Jan. 27, focused largely on kitchen-table issues and mainly avoided controversial social topics. But he did signal his intent to push harder to allow gay military…

AUSTIN—Baylor theology professor Barry Harvey took just two texts to a seminar on science and faith—the Bible and Darwin’s Origin of Species. “Far too often, (discussing faith and science) generates heat rather than light,” Harvey said, introducing the all-day seminar,…

BROWNWOOD, Texas (ABP) — C.B. "Bill" Hogue, executive director emeritus of the California Southern Baptist Convention, died Jan. 26 in Brownwood, Texas. He observed his 82nd birthday on Jan. 13 and had been receiving treatment for cancer. Hogue was a…

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (ABP) — A former football player at Southwest Baptist University pleaded guilty Jan. 25 to second-degree assault in a 2006 beating that left a Bolivar, Mo., man permanently disabled. Rony Saintil as pictured in his jail booking photo…