WACO, Texas (ABP) — For many, it was only appropriate to remember Kyle Lake on All Saints Day, two days after the 33-year-old pastor of University Baptist Church died after being electrocuted while standing in the church's baptistry. “Kyle, in…
Baptist ‘brewhaha’: Leaders deny reports volunteers refused to pass out water
CLEWISTON, Fla. (ABP) — Southern Baptist disaster-relief leaders are denying reports, spread widely across the Internet, that a group of their volunteers in Florida refused to give water to victims of Hurricane Wilma because it came from a beer-brewing company….
Alito would give Catholics historic majority on Supreme Court
WASHINGTON (ABP) — If Samuel Alito is confirmed to the Supreme Court, it will give the court a Roman Catholic majority for the first time in its history. That certainly would signal that Catholics — once a persecuted minority in…
Methodist court defrocks lesbian minister, reinstates pastor who denied gay member
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Conservatives in the United Methodist Church scored several victories on Reformation Day Oct. 31, but liberals viewed them more skeptically. A divided nine-member Judicial Council, the highest court in the hierarchical denomination, defrocked a Philadelphia minister for…
Court hears case on Christian sect’s use of hallucinogen in worship
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Hearing a case on All Saints' Day, the Supreme Court struggled with the rights of a tiny Christian group whose members believe the road to sainthood is lined with cups of a hallucinogenic tea the federal government…
Civil-rights pioneer in civic, Baptist life in Texas dies
AUSTIN, Texas (ABP) — As national civil-rights champion Rosa Parks lay in honor in the United States Capitol Oct. 31, a local pioneer in advancing the cause of racial justice died in Texas. Volma Overton, a longtime civil-rights activist in…
Conference to offer youth multidimensional view of faith
ORLANDO (ABP) — More than 1,600 youth from Baptist, Episcopalian and Presbyterian traditions will get a three-dimensional view of Christianity during a youth conference in January. And, oh yes, they get to go to Disney World. “Faith in 3D” is…
Confirmation of Alito would shift court firmly to right, experts say
WASHINGTON (ABP) — President Bush's nomination of federal appeals judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court could shift the court firmly to the right — immediately and for decades to come — on issues such as abortion rights and the…
Waco pastor Kyle Lake killed in freak baptism accident
WACO, Texas (ABP) — Kyle Lake, 33-year-old pastor of the innovative University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, was electrocuted and died Oct. 30 after he grabbed a microphone while in a baptistry full of water. According to eyewitness reports, Lake…
Experts warn electrocution dangers lurk around church baptistries
WACO, Texas (ABP) — Electricity and water create a potentially deadly combination, but metal — not microphones themselves — present the greatest danger to people in baptistries, according to acoustic and church-building consultants. The issue came to the forefront when…
Missouri Baptists narrow membership to exclude CBF, moderate churches
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (ABP) — The Missouri Baptist Convention is no longer open to churches that support any other organization considered to compete with the state convention or the Southern Baptist Convention. The changes will shut out congregations that participate in…
Baylor will reduce board size; is it efficiency or politics?
WACO, Texas (ABP) — Baylor University regents approved a charter change to downsize the school's governing board from 36 to 16 members over nine years and agreed to a 7.8 percent tuition hike for 2006-07. Chairman Will Davis of Austin…