Baptist News Global

Study: Churchgoers like porn, but don’t buy it on the Sabbath

BOSTON (ABP) — According to a new study, people who live in states with high church-attendance rates buy as much Internet pornography as their more secularized counterparts — but they are less likely to subscribe to an adult website on…

Senate scandal divides state Democrats over race

CHICAGO (ABP) — Calls for embattled Sen. Roland Burris to resign from the Senate are dividing his fellow Illinois Democrats along racial lines. Burris, the only black United States senator, is under fire for conflicting statements about his relationship with disgraced…

Faith-based leaders say budget is major shift in poverty policy

WASHINGTON (ABP) — President Obama's first proposed budget signals a dramatic shift in prioritizing domestic poverty, centrist and liberal Christian leaders said in a teleconference with reporters March 2. Nonetheless, some expressed concerns that portions of the proposal did not…

Justices decline to upend decision barring N.J. coach from prayers

WASHINGTON (ABP) — A New Jersey high-school coach will not be able to participate in his football team’s prayers after the Supreme Court’s March 2 refusal to review a lower court’s decision. Opponents of government-sanctioned school prayers praised the justices’…

From the Eastern Shore to Cumberland Gap

STAFF CHANGES • John Snow, to Zoar Church, Deltaville, as pastor, effective March 1. • Gregory W. Wissinger, to Beaver Dam Church, Troy, as pastor, effective March 1. • Thomas S. Larson, to Fox Hill Road Church, Hampton, as pastor….

VIRGINIA BAPTIST FORUM: Call it what God calls it

Recent issues of the Religious Herald have reported on abortion, homosexuals, evolution, Muslims, Obama and church/state walls and the controversies that surround them. Consider: Abortion: God calls it murder; we call it “choice.” Homosexuality: God calls it an abomination; we…

New Poverty Forum aims to keep focus on the poor

WASHINGTON (RNS) — A bipartisan group of 18 Christian leaders has developed a host of policy recommendations on poverty reduction that they hope will shape the actions of the Obama administration and Congress. The effort, co-chaired by evangelical activist Jim…

National Baptists to choose between two candidates for convention president

(RNS) — Henry J. Lyons, the former president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, who was imprisoned on charges of fraud a decade ago, is one of two candidates running to be the convention’s next president this September. The other…

Anti-gay pastor told not to come to United Kingdom

LONDON (RNS) — Britain has barred an American anti-gay Christian preacher and his daughter from entering the country, to stop them from spreading what the government described as “extremism and hatred.” Fred Phelps, who has gained notoriety in the United…

HERITAGE: Bright eyes

Everybody loves Gracie Kirkpatrick, the vivacious, bubbly, compassionate community missionary of the Richmond Baptist Association. For 31 summers she has directed the association’s unique ministry known as Camp Alkulana. When the camp opens this summer for its 94th season, Gracie…

African-Americans more religious than most others in United States

WASHINGTON (RNS) — African-Americans surpass others in the United States in a range of expressions of faith, from praying more to attending religious services more frequently, a new report shows. “Compared with other racial and ethnic groups, African-Americans are among…

OUT LOUD

“I am a Christian. Through the centuries we have had many people who have done terrible things in the name of Christianity. They have perverted the religion.” Hillary Rodham Clinton The secretary of state was responding to a question in…

What you’re not seeing: Tens of thousands of children separated from parents

The way we were

Talarico’s pastor pushes back on Daily Wire’s claims

Spiritual formation is how churches learn whom to hear