Why coercive religious politics undermine Christianity and democracy

WASHINGTON (ABP) — All religious groups shifted toward Barack Obama, the candidate opposed by the Religious Right's leadership, in his historic presidential win Nov. 4. Still, religious conservatives did manage a few victories. The Democratic candidate garnered about 52 percent…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — All religious groups shifted toward Barack Obama, the candidate opposed by the Religious Right’s leadership, in his historic presidential win Nov. 4. Still, religious conservatives did manage a few victories. The Democratic candidate garnered about 52 percent…

WACO, Texas (ABP) — Baylor University police responded to three apparently racially related on-campus incidents on Election Day. Late on the afternoon of Nov. 4, officials at the Texas Baptist school were notified a single clothes-line rope resembling a noose was…

(ABP) — The long-awaited trial of an Azerbaijani Baptist pastor arrested in June has had another delay. Hamid Shabanov, 52, was supposed to stand trial Oct. 31 on what supporters say are bogus weapons charges. But his family and lawyer told…

LEXINGTON, Ky. (ABP) — A former Southern Baptist youth minister in Kentucky was sentenced Oct. 31 to 10 years in prison after confessing to sexually exploiting a 14-year-old girl he met while posing as a 17-year-old youth evangelist on the…

KIEV, Ukraine (ABP) — Baptist leaders from Russia and Georgia met Oct. 30 in Kiev to pursue improved relations between Baptists in the two countries, marred by war earlier this year. Representatives of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia and…

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP) — A Baptist church in Florida is once again creating tension with its Muslim neighbors over a marquee message. A sign posted outside First Conservative Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., reads, "God loves you, Allah hates." A…

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP) — A Baptist church in Florida is once again creating tension with its Muslim neighbors over a marquee message. A sign posted outside First Conservative Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., reads, “God loves you, Allah hates.” A…

ST. LOUIS (ABP) — Messengers to the Missouri Baptist Convention annual meeting Oct. 27-29 once again elected officers sympathetic to a reform movement within the state convention, while hearing a report about he difficult work of an ad hoc “peace…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether Oct. 29 remarks by Michelle Obama to an African-American Baptist gathering violated federal tax law. According to media reports, the…