Why coercive religious politics undermine Christianity and democracy

GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — Taking aim at issues ranging from SBC executives' perks, to Calvinism, from pandemics to what they should call homosexuals, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting presented a flurry of motions. In fact, 29 motions…

GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — When Southern Baptist Convention messengers elected dark-horse candidate Frank Page of South Carolina as president, they not only sent a populist message to the powerbrokers who backed other candidates, but also — at least in the…

GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — After a rough spring, the new leader of the Southern Baptist Convention's domestic missionary agency tried to accentuate the positive in his annual report to the Southern Baptist Convention. Roy Fish, just-named interim president of the…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — The lives of prominent Baptist public figures mighty and mediocre alike took center stage at the annual meeting of the Baptist History and Heritage Society June 1-3 in Washington. The society — for professional Baptist historians and…

CHARLESTON, S.C. (ABP) — Members of the Association of Southern Baptist Colleges and Schools voted June 5 to change the name of the 51-member organization to the International Association of Baptist Colleges and Universities. The change came after the group…

GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — Although Wade Burleson got no resolution to alleged abuses by trustees of the International Mission Board, he left the Southern Baptist Convention June 13-14 with a dogged sense of optimism that those problems would be resolved…

Please make the following corrections to stories in the June 13 release: In “WMU looks for God's call during missions celebration” please correct the spelling of Martha Myers name in the 16th paragraph. It is Myers, not Meyers. In “Messengers…

GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — In an address that was received like a campaign stump speech, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, exhorting her listeners to support the United States in spreading freedom around…

GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — Adrian Rogers' widow captured unexpected attention at the Southern Baptist Pastors' Conference by asserting her husband would not approve of narrowing parameters of fellowship in the Southern Baptist Convention. Joyce Rogers, whose deceased husband was a…

GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — Declaring “our total opposition to the … consuming of alcoholic beverages,” Southern Baptist Convention messengers adopted a strongly worded resolution on the issue. During the Resolutions Committee's initial report Wednesday morning, messengers adopted half a dozen…

GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — “I do not believe the convention elected me to somehow undo the conservative resurgence,” said Frank Page after he was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention June 13. “That's not who I am and that's…

GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — The Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board will get a chance to resolve its own trustee dispute, despite a plea for outside arbitration. Trustee Wade Burleson asked SBC messengers to authorize the convention's Executive Committee to…