MONTGOMERY, Ala. (ABP) — Jay Wolf, pastor of First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala., recently had a conversation with his youngest daughter about the season leading up to Easter. “Some members of her class were considering giving up chewing gum…
Supreme Court agrees to hear Oregon assisted-suicide case
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The U. S. Supreme Court agreed Feb. 22 to hear a case involving a state's assisted-suicide law, while turning away two other appeals on controversial topics. The justices announced they would hear the federal Justice Department's appeal…
D.C. event to explore importance of religious liberty, free press
WASHINGTON, D.C. (ABP) — First Amendment freedoms will be the focus of an April 14-15 event in the nation's capital, sponsored by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, Associated Baptist Press and Baptists Today news journal. Freedom Forum executive…
Baylor search committee, advisory group named
WACO, Texas (ABP) — W. H. Brian Jr., an attorney in Amarillo, Texas, will chair the 11-member committee to seek a new president of Baylor University, the largest Baptist university in the world. Brian and 10 other regents were named…
Catholics most numerous, but Mormons gaining
NEW YORK (ABP) — The Roman Catholic Church, with 67 million members, remains the largest church in the United States, but the Mormons, the country's fastest-growing church, rose to the No. 4 slot with 5.5 million, according to 2003 church…
Tapes: Bush unwilling to ‘kick gays’ but calls homosexuality ‘sin’
WASHINGTON (ABP) — Prior to his 2000 election campaign, George W. Bush worried about both the need to appeal more to conservative evangelical Christians and the danger of appearing too close to them, private audiotapes reveal. Doug Wead, who was…
Southern Seminary nixes pioneering curriculum for ‘biblical counseling’
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — The Christian counseling department of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which defined the role of pastoral counseling for generations of ministers and Christian counselors, will make a wholesale change by emphasizing “biblical counseling” over behavioral science. The…
Psychology debate dates back to earlier era at Southern
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — Duke McCall said the tension at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary between behavioral science and Christianity dates back to when he was president of the school and Wayne Oates was teaching pastoral counseling. “This discussion is not…
Kentucky convention cancels McLaren over author’s comments on salvation
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — The Kentucky Baptist Convention has withdrawn its invitation to pastor and author Brian McLaren to speak at its evangelism conference. Officials said they made the decision after reviewing McLaren's statements about salvation and the author's most…