Why coercive religious politics undermine Christianity and democracy

DALLAS (ABP) — The Texas Baptist Men personnel search committee will nominate Leo Smith to be the organization's executive director at the group's Feb. 27 board meeting. Smith is currently TBM's interim executive director, a position he accepted after resigning…

WACO, Texas (ABP) — A moderate Baptist seminary has revoked a student's scholarship — purportedly because he is gay — and the student and gay-rights groups are calling “foul.” In late December, officials at Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological…

HOUSTON (ABP) — The Super Bowl has spring-boarded many athletes to international fame, but Baptists regularly use the event to point people to something even greater. Several thousand Baptists, primarily from Texas, sought to share the gospel with non-Christians by…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — Standards of decency on broadcast television are again in the news as the Federal Communications Commission investigates what led to an incident during the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXVIII. The show, watched by an estimated 99…

ATLANTA (ABP) — A Baptist chaplain has been awarded the Army's Bronze Star for “exceptionally meritorious service” while serving in Iraq. Maj. Scott Sterling, an ethics instructor at the U.S. Army Chaplain School in Fort Jackson, S.C., received the honor…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — The major Democratic candidates for president support faith influencing public policy but differ with President Bush on the role of religious groups in public life, according to a series of interviews conducted by an advocacy group. The…

ATLANTA (ABP) — On a tour of American churches, the head of Baptist World Alliance said Southern Baptist Convention leaders' attacks against his group could be turned on themselves. An SBC study committee recently recommended the denomination break all ties…

GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — How much influence should a local Baptist association have on the decisions of a state convention? That question is at the heart of a controversy some say threatens to split the Baptist State Convention of North…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — A federal appeals court has upheld the nation's only state law banning gay and lesbian people from adopting children. In a Jan. 28 ruling, the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a Florida law barring…

DALLAS (ABP) — The Baptist General Convention of Texas must change or continue to decline, the convention's three top officers predicted. President Ken Hall, first vice president Albert Reyes and second vice president Dennis Young announced their support for BGCT…

DALLAS (ABP) — Southern Baptist Convention withdrawal from the Baptist World Alliance would mean not only the loss of one fourth of the organization's income, but the loss of a unified Baptist witness worldwide, say BWA officials. “We belong together…

DALLAS (ABP) — Texas Baptist volunteers have been some of the first responders among faith-based disaster-relief workers over the last three decades. But the Texas Baptists who recently returned from Iran were glad an Alabama group had paved the way…