Will we be the right kind of light to the world?

DALLAS (ABP) — An increase in the number of Baptists serving in “closed” countries could lead to more incidents like a recent group from Texas experienced when they became trapped in Lebanon. As a result of Hezbollah military strikes and…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — The House of Representatives passed a little-noticed bill July 19 attempting to make it easier for a controversial cross to remain on public land in San Diego. On a vote of 349-74, the chamber approved a bill…

BEIRUT (ABP) — As United States Marines began evacuating Americans in earnest from a besieged Beirut July 19 and U.S. Baptist groups reported their missionaries in the region safe, a Lebanese Baptist leader said his people's suffering would seem “quite…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — An independent government study has found that federal programs providing grants to religious organizations do not sufficiently safeguard the separation of church and state. The determination echoes analysis by experts in the field and critics of President…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — Just days after a new Department of Education study suggesting children from similar backgrounds do about as well in public as in private schools, a group of congressional Republicans unveiled their latest plan for school vouchers. The…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — Simultaneously pleasing his socially conservative base and overruling large majorities in Congress and the public, President Bush used the first veto of his political career July 19 to kill a bill that would have expanded embryonic stem-cell…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — Angering civil libertarians and supporters of church-state separation, the House of Representatives voted July 19 to strip the federal courts of the ability to decide cases involving the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools. The so-called “Pledge…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — As expected, the House of Representatives July 18 defeated a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage — for the second time in as many election years and after the Senate had defeated the same proposal. Known by its…

BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. (ABP) — Barely a year after he became dean of Gardner-Webb University's school of divinity, Charles Bugg has resigned from the position. Bugg, who assumed the position in June 2005, as dean of Gardner-Webb University's school of…