How Baptists helped end slavery in the United States

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,…

OZARK, Mo. (ABP) — Longtime Missouri Baptist leader Tom Nelson died June 9 at The Baptist Home in Ozark, Mo. He was 96. He retired in 1978 after 16 years as executive director of the Missouri Baptist Foundation. On two separate occasions, Nelson served…

ATLANTA (ABP) — She gets up early, traveling all day to teach Bible studies and lead worship services. She gets no financial support. She must remain unknown and keep the churches she works with safe and unknown. She does her…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Senate approved landmark legislation June 11 to give the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco, a long-sought move that anti-tobacco groups hail as an important step in improving the nation's health. The bipartisan measure,…