Historical drama Pressure clears the air on speaking truth to power

WOODSTOCK, Ga. (ABP) — The president of the Southern Baptist Convention has voiced support for a proposed SBC resolution celebrating President Obama's election. SBC President Johnny Hunt is pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga. SBC president Johnny Hunt…

RALEIGH, N.C. (ABP) — A historic and prominent North Carolina Baptist church welcomes a new pastor to the pulpit June 21. Christopher Chapman becomes pastor of First Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C., a 1,400-member congregation organized in 1812. He moves…

ATLANTA (ABP) — Former President Jimmy Carter is calling Israel’s 2-year-old blockade of Gaza an “atrocity” and saying people there are being treated like animals. “Tragically, the international community largely ignores the cries for help, while the citizens of Gaza…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — A group of high-profile religious leaders from various faiths is pushing President Obama to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate alleged United States-sanctioned use of torture since 9/11. Thirty-three religious leaders met with administration officials after…

ARLINGTON, Texas (ABP) — Women outnumbered men in many Baptist churches in colonial America, but most of their names have been lost to history, church historian Pam Durso lamented at a recent conference. “Some of the early Baptist church records…

ARLINGTON, Texas (ABP) — Southern-style Social Gospel may not be the first thing that springs to mind when most Baptists think of the Woman’s Missionary Union, but Southern progressivism significantly influenced the Southern Baptist organization in its formative years, church historian…

ARLINGTON, Texas (ABP) — Pragmatism and tradition have stood alongside biblical and theological principles in shaping Baptist ordination practices, church historian Karen Bullock said at the recent B.H. Carroll Theological Institute colloquy. “The concept of ordination as practiced by Baptists today…

ARLINGTON, Texas (ABP) — By looking back to their beliefs and practices from the mid-18th century to the early 19th century, Baptists can reclaim a view of baptism between the extremes of sacramentalism and “mere symbolism,” according to a Baptist…

WINFIELD, Mo. (ABP) — Thirty years after the Southern Baptist Convention began ridding itself of theological moderates and liberals, a prominent Missouri Baptist layman is warning that the nation’s largest non-Catholic faith group now faces a different kind of liberalism from within….

ARLINGTON, Texas (ABP) — Some of the same theological disputes that divided Baptists throughout their first 400 years continue to distinguish different branches of the Baptist family tree in the early years of the 21st century, theologian James Leo Garrett…

ARLINGTON—By looking back to their beliefs and practices from the mid-18th century to the early 19th century, Baptists can reclaim a view of baptism between the extremes of sacramentalism and “mere symbolism,” church historian and theologian Sheila Klopfer said. Historically,…