WASHINGTON (RNS) — President Obama has named 10 medical and legal experts — including a Franciscan friar — to a commission that will advise the White House on bioethical issues. Daniel P. Sulmasy The appointees include Daniel Sulmasy, a friar…
Innovative cancer procedure performed at Baptist hospital
HARLINGEN, Texas — A new treatment for cancer patients that kills cancer cells with electricity while not harming surrounding healthy tissue was performed for the first time in Texas at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen, Texas. Daniel Fuentes, an…
British Baptists take aim at nuclear weapons, hear of budget deficit in meeting
PLYMOUTH, England (ABP) — From the port city that launched the Pilgrims on their journey to what would become the United States, British Baptists took aim May 3 at those in America, their own United Kingdom or elsewhere who would…
Vestal confident in future as CBF emerges from its adolescence
MARION, N.C. (ABP) — With the death of founding coordinator Cecil Sherman and the approaching 20th anniversary of its birth, the national Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is reaching a point where its viability into the future will either be cemented or…
Task force report urges SBC to free IMB to work in North America
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Great Commission Resurgence Task Force will ask the Southern Baptist Convention to give its International Mission Board freedom to evangelize unreached people groups on what had been the exclusive turf of the North American Mission Board….
CBF leaders, partner group executives focus on organizations’ future
PINE MOUNTAIN, Ga. (ABP) — Chief executives of more than 20 organizations affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship joined CBF national and state leaders and other invitees April 27-29 at a retreat center in southwest Georgia to imagine a future…
Independent panel criticizes Obama, Bush, Clinton on religious freedom
WASHINGTON (ABP) — A bipartisan federal panel charged with monitoring religious-freedom questions worldwide blasted current and past administrations — Republican and Democratic alike — April 29 for under-emphasizing religious liberty in foreign policy. In releasing its annual report, the independent…
Want to pack heat in worship? In Louisiana, you soon may get to
BATON ROUGE, La. (RNS) — People qualified to carry concealed weapons should be able to keep them strapped on in a church or temple as a way to enhance security, a state House committee decided April 28. The House Committee…
Baptist scholars view Noah’s Ark discovery claims with skepticism
LEXINGTON, Ky. (ABP) — As the newest reported discovery of Noah's Ark raised doubts even among fellow Ark-hunters, two Baptist seminary professors said Christians should not rest their faith on whether remains of an ancient vessel are ever found high…
Virginia governor lifts ban on police chaplains’ sectarian prayers
RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has lifted a two-year-old ban on sectarian prayers –including those referring to Jesus Christ — led by Virginia State Police chaplains at department-sanctioned public events. The recently-elected Republican governor instructed state police superintendent…
Glenn Beck, Paige Patterson to speak at Liberty’s commencement
LYNCHBURG, Va. — Two prominent conservative voices in the nation’s culture wars — Fox News commentator Glenn Beck and seminary president Paige Patterson — will speak at Liberty University’s commencement exercises May 15, the school has announced. Chancellor Jerry Falwell…
American Baptist National Ministries reclaims historic name
NEW YORK (ABP) — National Ministries of American Baptist Churches USA marked the 178th anniversary of its founding April 27 by announcing the agency will reclaim its historic name of American Baptist Home Mission Societies. "Outside of American Baptist circles…