Court strikes down Louisiana Ten Commandments law

ASMARA, Eritrea (ABP) — A sliver of hope widened a bit for Eritrean Christians in early April as the government officially recognized another Protestant group after years of persecution. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is the fourth Christian denomination to gain…

NEW YORK (ABP) — The National Council of Churches welcomed Pope Benedict XVI's announcement that Christian unity will be his central goal and urged the new pope to follow the ecumenical legacies of both John Paul II and the last…

(ABP) — The election of the hard-line German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as pope of the Roman Catholic Church is expected to continue the conservative doctrinal and moral arc of predecessor John Paul II but may hurt chances for closer ties…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — The erosion of support for the First Amendment among high-school students sounds like “a death announcement about someone you love,” church historian Walter Shurden told attendees at a conference sponsored by the First Freedoms Project. Shurden, executive…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — Baptists who believe in church-state separation need to do a better job of defending that principle in the public arena, two members of Congress counseled at a recent conference. Speaking in Washington April 14 at a conference…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Senate's top-ranking Republican and conservative Christian leaders will join forces in an April 24 nationwide telecast to accuse Democrats of barring “people of faith” from becoming federal judges. The charge prompted cries of “foul” from Democrats…

TYLER, Texas (ABP) — One volunteer can make a life-or-death difference for a child, especially if that volunteer happens to be a retired physician. Though Richard Hurst of Tyler, Texas, had been volunteering alongside missions field personnel for 10 years,…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether a small band of adherents of an obscure Brazilian sect living in the United States have a religious right to import hallucinogenic tea for sacramental use. The justices agreed April…

ALEXANDRIA, La. (ABP) — The new executive of the Louisiana Baptist Convention is asking the convention's newspaper to dissolve its independent board and come under the executive's authority. Under the proposal from executive director David Hankins, the Baptist Message would…