DALLAS (ABP) — For some Christians, listening to the news is like hearing a prayer list. More than 2 million people displaced in Sudan. More than 1.5 million Iraqi children left homeless. Residents of Louisiana still rebuilding two years after…
Caring for the poor: Whose job is it — church or state?
DALLAS (ABP) — Care for people Jesus called “the least of these” requires response from both congregations and government, according to specialists who focus on ministry to the poor and on church-state relations. As participants in both church and state,…
Baptist man from Oklahoma works in Darfur, other global hot spots
BARTLESVILLE, Okla. (ABP) — On day 27 of a 40-day fast in a cabin in Michigan, God called Kevin Turner to ministry — specifically in war zones, disaster areas and places where Christians are persecuted. Since then, he's had quite…
Baptists plan world youth conference in Germany
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Baptist World Alliance has scheduled its next global youth conference for July 20 – Aug. 3 in Leipzig, Germany. Thousands of teenagers are expected to gather in the central German city to “join together in worship…
Virginia pastor Randel Everett is BGCT executive nominee
DALLAS (ABP) — Randel Everett, who has headed a seminary and served as pastor of prominent churches in four states, is the nominee for the executive director position of the largest statewide Baptist convention. Baptist General Convention of Texas officials…
Correction
In the Jan. 15 ABP story “Huckabee's role in SBC conflict presaged political balancing act,” please replace the 17th paragraph with the following: More recently Huckabee pleased SBC conservatives by withdrawing as a keynote speaker for the Celebration of a…
Evangelical voters in Michigan prefer Romney over Huckabee
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Exit polls of Republican voters in the Jan. 15 Michigan primary showed that, unlike in the previous Iowa and New Hampshire contests, evangelical Republicans preferred Mitt Romney to Mike Huckabee. A groundswell of support among self-described evangelical…
Obama again refutes Muslim rumors; Jewish leaders denounce e-mails
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Churchgoing Congregationalist Barack Obama is being forced once again to explain that he is not secretly a Muslim bent on furthering an international Islamic conspiracy by winning the presidency. Jewish and other religious leaders have joined him…
Groups criticize religious insensitivity in exit polls, timing of Nevada caucus
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Leaders from several religious groups are criticizing a polling agency and the organizers of the Jan. 19 Nevada caucuses for a lack of religious sensitivity. In a Jan. 10 letter, a group of prominent evangelicals — including…
Church members must ‘repent’ or risk expulsion, Sutton says
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — The latest internet-publicized conflict at a prominent Southern Baptist church has ended with a lawsuit's dismissal and the pastor calling on the plaintiffs to “repent for their sins” — or risk expulsion from the congregation. The…
Ministries continue in Kenya as violence and tensions remain
NAIROBI, Kenya (ABP) — In spite of a wave of violence that has swept through Kenya over the last few weeks, Baptist groups are proceeding cautiously as they go back to work in the chaotic nation. Classes began as scheduled…
Race, sex, class and presidential politics
It was not until I got to Union Theological Seminary in New York as a doctoral student in Christian ethics that I received my first serious dose of race/class/sex talk. Sometimes it seemed like every course, even every class session,…