Why coercive religious politics undermine Christianity and democracy

DALLAS (ABP) — When missionaries answer what they believe is Christ's call, a growing number also may hear echoes of the martyred German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer who wrote 60 years ago: “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come…

NAIROBI, KENYA (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is entering into a ministry partnership with two other groups to aid children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic in Africa. The Atlanta-based moderate Baptist group will participate in the Hope Child Sponsorship…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Senate has given final approval to a bill that treats violence against a pregnant woman as two separate crimes — against her and the fetus she is carrying. Opponents of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — In hearing arguments on whether the Pledge of Allegiance's reference to God is constitutional, the justices of the Supreme Court seemed concerned not only with Michael Newdow's case, but also with his right to make it. Newdow,…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — While the Supreme Court was hearing legal arguments on the Pledge of Allegiance case March 24, hundreds of protestors outside had their own oral arguments. But theirs tended to be more about volume than about legal nuances….

DALLAS (ABP) — The lone survivor of a March 15 drive-by shooting in Iraq that killed four Southern Baptist mission workers is recovering well in a Dallas-area hospital, according to an International Mission Board spokesman. Carrie Taylor McDonnall, 26, of…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — A civil-rights group has filed suit against the state of Oregon on behalf of a group of gay couples, and Iowa legislators have rejected an anti-gay-marriage amendment to that state's constitution — the latest salvos in the…

ATLANTA (ABP) — Baptist Women in Ministry, started in 1983 to support Southern Baptist women serving as ministers, will move its offices to Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology in northeast Atlanta. The group celebrated its 20th anniversary last summer…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — A March 23 congressional hearing designed as a celebration of President Bush's faith-based initiative served as a platform for a Baptist lawyer to recite the dangers she believes it poses to religious freedom. Several religious-freedom experts and…

CYPREMORT, La. (ABP) — March 12 was the day 100 former members of Mount Olive Baptist Church near Cypremort Point planned to gather for their first service since the church closed its doors five years ago. However, an arsonist set…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — A Senate panel held its first official hearing on an updated version of the Federal Marriage Amendment — less than 24 hours after the legislation was introduced. While supporters of the amendment praised changes in its language,…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — On the eve of the first official congressional hearing on a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, its principal sponsors announced a change they say clarifies the proposal — but the amendment's opponents say the change…