Court strikes down Louisiana Ten Commandments law

A Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments be posted in every public classroom is “unconstitutional on its face” and may not go into effect Jan. 1 as state officials hoped, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge John W....

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Most Christians ill prepared for end-of-life care decisions

CYNTHIANA, Ky. (ABP) — Lou Byrd knows she could be in the final months of her life and is at peace with that. “There are worse things than death,” said Byrd, a member of Cynthiana (Ky.) Baptist Church. The 73-year-old…

Fellowship gives $5,000 for famine relief in Kenya

ATLANTA (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has donated $5,000 to alleviate what the Baptist Convention of Kenya has called a “serious hunger disaster” in northern Kenya. The human needs board of the Baptist Convention of Kenya asked the Fellowship…

Louisiana church donates mattresses for Florida hurricane victims

ATLANTA (ABP) — A member of First Baptist Church in Shreveport, La., matched his church's $5,000 donation to purchase mattresses for hurricane victims in Florida. When the anonymous donor offered to match the church's contribution up to $5,000, Ronney Joe…

SBC agency says churches should affirm inerrancy

ALPHARETTA, GA. (ABP) — New guidelines for starting Southern Baptist churches ask members of new congregations to affirm biblical inerrancy and male-only deacons. The guidelines, adopted Oct. 6 by trustees of the North American Mission Board, do not apply to…

Supreme Court agrees to hear appeals in Ten Commandments cases

WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Supreme Court has agreed to wade into one of the day's most explosive church-state issues: Whether displays of the Ten Commandments on public buildings can ever be constitutional. In an announcement that took some court watchers…

Water recedes in North Carolina, but floods’ effects continue

CLYDE, N.C. (ABP) — A map on a wall at First Baptist Church said it all. Thin lines representing the Pigeon River were marked on either side with sprawling black areas — the parts of the town where a fierce…

Supreme Court will hear case on inmates’ religious freedom

WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Supreme Court will consider for the first time the constitutionality of a law intended to protect the religious freedom of prison inmates. The justices agreed Oct. 12 to hear arguments in Cutter vs. Wilkinson, which involves…

Giving beyond local congregations lower than 1968, study says

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (ABP) — Church members are giving less of their income to churches today than 35 years ago, and even less of those contributions are put to work outside the local congregation, according to a new study. Giving as…

President Carter’s pastor announces plans to retire from Plains church

PLAINS, Ga. (ABP) — After 22 years as pastor of a small Baptist congregation that includes former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, Dan Ariail plans to retire next year. The 135-member Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., is…