Court strikes down Louisiana Ten Commandments law

WASHINGTON (ABP) — Opponents of same-sex marriage got a clean sweep in the Nov. 2 elections, with voters in 11 states — from Michigan to Oregon and from Georgia to North Dakota — passing constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage….

(ABP) — Controversial sanctity-of-life issues were weighed by voters in two states Nov. 2, with Californians approving funding for stem-cell research and Floridians requiring parental notification before a minor can get an abortion. Both measures passed easily. In California, voters…

ATLANTA (ABP) — James T. McAfee Jr., who along with his wife, Carolyn, generously supported Baptist educational causes, died in Atlanta Nov. 3, one week after heart surgery. In 1997, Mercer University named its new seminary the James and Carolyn…

RAYTOWN, Mo. (ABP) — On the same day it opened its 170th annual session, the Missouri Baptist Convention filed new legal action against five related agencies. Attorneys for the convention filed a declaratory judgment action on Oct. 25 against the…

(ABP) — Do Baptists affirm the priesthood of the believer or the priesthood of believers? To outsiders, that question — singular or plural — may seem as esoteric as “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?”…

(ABP) — If American troops kill Osama bin Laden, it should be “in the name of justice,” not “in the name of the Lord” as televangelist Jerry Falwell suggests, according to one Southern Baptist ethicist. Falwell, perhaps the best-known Southern…

DURHAM, N.C. (ABP) — A conservative leader will propose scrapping the optional funding plans that are part of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina's budget, which would eliminate funding of causes popular among moderate Baptists in the state. Ted…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — A federal judge has struck down state funding of a “parish nurse” program in Montana, saying the program violated the Constitution. Judge Richard Anderson of the United States District Court for Montana ruled Oct. 26 that the…

WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty has named 26-year-old Jeff Huett as its new director of communications. Since May, Huett has been serving as acting communications director for the Washington-based agency, which advocates for religious freedom…