Why coercive religious politics undermine Christianity and democracy

Please make the following correction in the story “Baptist groups join Call to Renewal to make poverty a political issue,” dated May 26. The correct name for the CBF Rural Poverty Initiative is “Partners in Hope,” not “Seeds of Hope.”…

SAN FRANCISCO (ABP) — A federal judge in California has declared unconstitutional a federal law that attempts to ban certain medical procedures that abortion-rights opponents call “partial-birth” abortions. Federal District Judge Phyllis Hamilton of San Francisco, in a decision handed…

BERLIN, Germany (ABP) — European Baptists leaders “repented” for their century-old role in the colonizing of Africa, which they admit divided and exploited the continent. The European Baptist Mission, the mission society of European Baptists, recognized the 120th anniversary of…

WACO, Texas (ABP) — When Heather Herschap became convinced last year her prayer life was too focused on her own needs, she asked God for direction. “God whispered into my ear: 'India,'” she said. “I wasn't sure what to do…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — Continuing a familiar pattern, President Bush used his administrative powers June 1 to make it easier for churches and other religious organizations to receive federal money for social services. Bush announced an executive order — his third…

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (ABP) — Roy Moore's hand-picked candidate to replace himself as Alabama's chief justice won a tightly contested primary battle June 1 over one of Moore's former colleagues. With the vast majority of the state's precincts reporting, former Moore…

DURHAM, N.C. (ABP) — A Durham, N.C., church has voted to pull out of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina over the convention's treatment of another congregation that admitted gay members. The members of Watts Street Baptist Church voted…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — A federal appeals court has stopped Attorney General John Ashcroft's attempt to override an Oregon law allowing physician-assisted suicides. A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled May 26 that Ashcroft overstepped…

DENISON, Texas (ABP) — A Texas church's tax-exempt status, which was denied three years ago because of the church's alleged lack of beliefs, was abruptly reinstated recently after the case drew media attention. Red River Unitarian Universalist Church in Denison…

CHARLESTON, S.C. (ABP) — Providence Baptist Church never has been a Southern Baptist church and doesn't want to be one. But the congregation has had a hard time convincing the Southern Baptist Convention of that. The eight-year-old church in Charleston,…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — Fighting poverty should be a far more prominent issue for American Christians in the 2004 elections than it has been in the past, according to a diverse group of leaders meeting in Washington. The Christian anti-poverty group…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the Alliance of Baptists and the American Baptist Churches are joining arms with a national Christian anti-poverty group to call attention to poverty issues in an election year. The Baptist groups joined the…