Baptist News Global

Virginia Baptist Annual makes history in 2007

RICHMOND —For the first time in Virginia Baptist history, the Virginia Baptist Annual will be offered in an electronic CD format. “By providing this publication on a CD, we will have tremendous cost savings,” says Paige Peak, assistant executive director…

Mission Board awards 58 scholarships

The ministerial education committee of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board awarded 58 scholarships to ministerial-seeking students for the 2007-2008 academic year. These recipients represent 50 Baptist General Association of Virginia churches, six colleges and six seminaries. Preparing emerging leaders for…

EDITORIAL: The new slave trade

If I had ever learned of the Cape Coast Castle and Dungeon on what was then called the Gold Coast of Africa, I didn't remember it long after the exam. So when I arrived at the castle with 10 busloads…

SECOND OPINION: Think about immigration and Jesus

Don't you wish America's political leadership had an ounce of moral imagination? The Senate's failure to improve our immigration system represents a new low in legislative ineffectiveness. (Coming from someone who's watched the Texas Legislature at un-work, that's a mouthful.)…

Remembering Jamestown

Everyone should visit Jamestown once in their life. My once occurred years ago when our children were young. We walked the dusty trails. We climbed aboard one of the tiny ships. We marveled. And then we boarded the Jamestown-Scotland ferry,…

RIGHT OR WRONG?

Our pastor recently called for us to be model citizens. Then, the pastor said, “Be sure, though, you sacrifice your political party's platform on the altar of the gospel, and not vice-versa.” I'm left with the question, “What can I…

Scholar mulls the possibilities of U.S. relations with Muslims

WASHINGTON (RNS)—What if, Akbar Ahmed asks, America had limited its military response to 9/11 to liberating Afghanistan from the Taliban and al-Qaida? What if, instead of invading Iraq and waging a global war on terror, the United States had expanded…

Anti-Muslim bias skyrocketed in U.S.

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Complaints of anti-Muslim bias in the United States shot up by 25 percent in 2006 as compared to the previous year, according to a survey by an Islamic group. The annual report of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, titled…

Complaints of church politicking up in 2006

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Complaints about improper politicking by tax-exempt organizations went up 43 percent in the 2006 elections compared to 2004, according to a report by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS was asked to investigate 237 cases involving churches and other…

U.S. Hispanic believers prefer ‘Spirit-filled’ worship in Spanish

WASHINGTON (ABP)—His-panic believers in the United States prefer “Spirit-filled religious expression” and gravitate toward a “distinctively ethnic” worship experience, opting to go to church with other Hispanics and speak Spanish when they get there, according to a recent report by…

Trust level in religion at near-record low

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Americans trust the military and the police significantly more than the church and organized religion, a new Gallup Poll reveals. Only 46 percent of respondents said they had either a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in…

FAITH DIGEST

Polluted lower Jordan River an endangered site. The lower portion of the Jordan River is so polluted, the World Monuments Fund has designated it an “Endangered Cultural Heritage Site.” The international body for the protection of monuments recently placed the…

Theologizing with Larkin Poe, 10 years after Reskinned

Ministry leader with tall tales wins GOP bid for Colorado governor

What Willy Rice once knew

What I learned July 5 at church