Tennessee Baptists voted overwhelmingly Nov. 14 to publicize whether nominees to leadership posts in the convention affirm the Baptist Faith and Message, a controversial confession of faith adopted by the national Southern Baptist Convention. Messengers to Tennessee Baptist Convention's annual…
S.C. messengers increase budget, elect CP supporter as president
Messengers to the annual meeting of the South Carolina Baptist Convention increased their budget by $600,000 for 2007 and elected a strong Cooperative Program supporter as president Nov. 15. For nine of the past 10 years, South Carolina Baptists have…
Texas Baptists approve measures to ‘restore trust’ after Valley scandal
“Together We Are Doing More” was the stated theme, but healing from financial scandal was the subtext that dominated the annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Messengers to the Nov. 13-14 meeting elected officers, adopted a $50.6…
Organization at center of scandal in Valley will shut down
A church-planting institute founded by Otto Arango—the central figure in a scandal involving misuse and mismanagement of Texas Baptist church-starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley—will cease to exist at the end of this year. At a special meeting in…
Alabama Baptists approve budgets,ask Wal-Mart to reconsider
Wal-Mart's support of homosexuality, ethics in state government, and the humanitarian crisis in western Sudan surfaced as some of the top issues this year with Alabama Baptists. And Roger Willmore, pastor of Deerfoot Baptist Church in Trussville, Ala., became the…
William & Mary and Jesus
When I read that Gene Nichol, president of the College of William and Mary, had ordered removed from the chapel the bronze cross that had stood there for a century or so, my first response was anger. Nichol decided that…
Pray for Sudan
The passage of the resolution on genocide in Sudan at the Baptist General Association of Virginia meeting was an extremely significant event. What has been happening in Darfur, West Sudan, the past two years has been happening in Southern Sudan…
Muslim threat?
I read with interest the lengthy ABP article by Robert Marus in the Nov. 9 issue of the Herald about the claim of David Clippard, executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention, that “Islam has a strategic plan” to take…
Thanks to Virginia Baptists
We experienced a great tragedy in our community as a group of scouts returning from an outing crashed and burned on Nov. 5. One of the boys was a member of our church. The day before the funeral, I attended…
What do they think?
Southern Baptists were viewed favorably by 57 percent of adults interviewed as part of recent research conducted by the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board's Center for Missional Research through Zogby International. The positive outlook toward Southern Baptists, United…
Sunshine and seeds
Growing up on a farm in Southside Virginia, Cora Anne Davis learned that two things—sunshine and seeds—go together; and until her death on Nov. 9 at age 69, she spread plenty of both everywhere she went. The sunshine came from…
BGCT messengers support Wade despite handling of Valley scandal
Rank-and-file Texas Baptists are sad and angry about the financial scandal in the Rio Grande Valley that has marred their reputation, but most say they still trust their leaders—including executive director Charles Wade—to correct abuses and restore confidence in the…