Baptist News Global

Former SBC leader Duke McCall says NAMB is obsolete

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — An elder statesman who led three Southern Baptist Convention entities for a total of 40 years says the denomination's North American Mission Board is an obsolete bureaucracy that will likely have a diminished role or disappear…

Pastor’s accused killer unfit for trial

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (ABP) — A man accused of fatally shooting a Southern Baptist pastor inside an Illinois church in March has been found unfit to stand trial. The decision handed down Oct. 20 followed a mental evaluation of Terry Sedlacek…

Judge declares Illinois pastor’s killer unfit to stand trial

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (ABP) — A man accused of fatally shooting a Southern Baptist pastor inside an Illinois church in March has been found unfit to stand trial. Terry Sedlacek faces murder charges in the March slaying of a Southern Baptist…

Is the Emerging Church threat or ally for Baptists?

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the last in a series of four essays by Baptist historians and thinkers all dealing with the theme, “History Speaks to Hard Questions Baptists Ask,” that have been published by Associated Baptist Press on four successive…

Cuban Baptists released from jail

LAKELAND, Fla. (ABP) — Two Cuban Baptist leaders held two weeks while authorities investigated what they regarded suspicious economic activity have reportedly been released from jail. Rubén Ortiz-Columbié, 68, and Francisco "Pancho" Garcia-Ruiz, 46, were arrested Oct. 3 by agents…

Cuban Baptist leaders reportedly released from jail

LAKELAND, Fla. (ABP) — Two Cuban Baptist leaders held two weeks while authorities investigated what they regarded as suspicious economic activity have reportedly been released from jail. Rubén Ortiz-Columbié Rubén Ortiz-Columbié, 68, and Francisco "Pancho" Garcia-Ruiz, 46, were arrested Oct….

Opinion: American sexual ethics today, Part 2

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second of two columns contrasting prevailing cultural attitudes on sexuality with classic Christian ethics and calling for Christians to reclaim their own heritage in a countercultural practice of Christian community. The first was published Oct….

American sexual ethics today, Part 2

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of two columns contrasting prevailing cultural attitudes on sexuality with classic Christian ethics and calling for Christians to reclaim their own heritage in a countercultural practice of Christian community. The first was published Oct….

Cuban Baptist leaders reportedly released from jail, say sources

LAKELAND, Fla. (ABP) — Two Cuban Baptist leaders held two weeks while authorities investigated what they regarded as suspicious economic activity have reportedly been released from jail. Pancho Garcia-Ruiz Rubén Ortiz-Columbié, 68, and Francisco "Pancho" Garcia-Ruiz, 46, were arrested Oct….

VBMB executive director John Upton explains board budgeting decision

John Upton, executive director of both the Baptist General Association of Virginia and the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, released this letter Oct. 15 following the Oct. 13-14 meeting of the Mission Board at Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center: Dear Virginia…

From the Eastern Shore to Cumberland Gap

STAFF CHANGES • Jim Rizer, now serving as pastor of Burrows Memorial Church, Norfolk. • Matthew Tennant, to Kilmarnock Church, Kilmarnock, as pastor. INSTALLATION: Dan Stanley was installed as pastor of Berryville Baptist Church in Berryville on Sept. 13. On…

Fear Not: What does virtual rumor-mongering say about Christians?

WASHINGTON (ABP) — Thanks to the Internet, some gullible American Christians can engage in one of their favorite hobbies — digging up the metaphorical corpse of Madalyn Murray O’Hair and rhetorically flogging it — more easily than ever before. Even…

Supreme Court slides into partisanship

Before the fireworks, be careful what you drink

The contemptible case of Clarence Thomas

The permanent paradoxes of Christian thinking about war