WASHINGTON (RNS) — While Americans have debated whether Osama bin Laden’s body belongs at the bottom of the Arabian Sea, most agree on the final destination of his soul — in hell. A new poll reports most Americans (82 percent)…
J. Alfred Smith finds Gardner-Webb University open to diversity
BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. (ABP) — A predominantly white Baptist college in rural North Carolina might seem an unlikely place to find an urban African-American pastor from California known for an agenda of prophetic justice, but Gardner-Webb University just said goodbye…
Alliance of Baptists acts out call for economic justice with staff salaries
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — At its recent convocation in Louisville, Ky., the Alliance of Baptists not only adopted a statement on economic justice but implemented the commitment by equalizing salaries for members of the organization’s leadership team. Denouncing public policy…
Church leaders focus on untapped ‘Power of One’ at annual gathering
LYNCHBURG, Va. — Deacons, pastors and other church leaders trekked up the mountain for the annual Leadership Gathering at Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center, May 6-8. Nearly five hundred strong, they celebrated the theme, “Energy: The Power of One” taken…
Panel exploring renewed ties with Averett making ‘positive’ progress
RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia Baptist committee exploring a possible renewal of Baptist General Association of Virginia ties with Averett University — ties dissolved in 2005 in a disagreement over homosexuality — has seen “positive” progress, says the committee’s chair….
Virginian gets disaster relief service award for work in state, Haiti
Marie Lawrence receives a plaque for distiguished service in disaster relief ministry. LYNCHBURG, Va. — Marie Lawrence of Colonial Heights, Va., received a distinguished service award from the Southern Baptist Convention’s disaster relief ministry during an April 25-26 ceremony at…
Relief offered in counties devastated by deadly sweep of April tornadoes
RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Baptists’ disaster relief ministry is winding down its initial efforts in Virginia counties hard hit by a series of deadly tornadoes that touched down April 27-28 — the third time in less than a month the…
It takes a tractor: Church’s ministry in Ghana had small beginning
TAPPAHANNOCK, Va. — Ghana is one part of the world where Beale Memorial Baptist Church in Tappahannock, Va., is involved in missions, and it started with a tractor. Mission team members from Beale Memorial Baptist Church Bryan and Nancy Taliaferro,…
EDITORIAL: Soldiers of the Cross must make sacrifices, too
In the May 16, 1861, issue of the Religious Herald an article appeared noting that the New York Bible Society had distributed 14,000 Bibles to soldiers and sailors volunteering for service in the North. Alfred E. Dickenson, who later became…