AMMAN, Jordan (ABP) — Baptist leaders and other dignitaries — including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair — took part in a ceremony March 20 dedicating a new evangelical Christian baptism center at the Jordanian spot traditionally regarded as the…
Songwriter William Reynolds dies
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — William Reynolds, author of popular hymns including Share His Love and People to People, died March 28. Reynolds, 88, worked 25 years in the church music department of the Baptist Sunday School Board of the Southern…
Southern Baptist activist organizes confab on church and environment
ATLANTA (ABP) — An upcoming national conference on churches and the environment features several well-known evangelical speakers, including some prominent Southern Baptist leaders who will be speaking for first time on the increasingly high-profile theological issue known as "creation care."…
Do churchgoers like Web porn? Not on Sunday, study reveals
BOSTON (ABP)—According to a new study, people who live in states with high church-attendance rates buy as much Internet pornography as their more secularized counterparts—but they are less likely to subscribe to an adult website on Sundays. Researcher Benjamin Edelman…
Parachurch groups not feeling pinch
WINCHESTER, Va. (ABP) — Faith-based charities haven’t been hit as hard by the economic downturn as expected, a new survey by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability indicates. The ECFA, established in 1979 to accredit Christian non-profit organizations that model…
Church finances begin to feel impact of economic crisis
DALLAS (ABP) — Churches that aren’t cutting their budgets due to the economic downturn are, by and large, taking measures to curb expenses, according to a survey the National Association of Church Business Administration has done of its members. The…
Supreme Court: Sect can’t force Utah city to erect monument’
WASHINGTON (ABP) — In a groundbreaking, but limited, free-speech case the Supreme Court said the city of Pleasant Grove, Utah, can’t be forced to accept the gift of a monument to a small religious sect’s precepts — even though the…
Arkansas guns-in-church bill dies in state Senate
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (ABP) — A highly publicized bill that would have allowed worshipers to carry concealed weapons in Arkansas churches died Feb. 25 in the state Senate. The proposal to amend the state’s concealed-weapons law to remove “any church…
Increasingly, Baptists turning to observance of Lent
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — Though traditionally viewed as a Catholic rite, increasing numbers of Baptists are discovering the discipline of Lent. Growing from the free-church branch of Protestantism, Baptists traditionally have been highly suspicious of virtually all of the rituals…