Messengers to the annual North Carolina Baptist state convention meeting struck down proposed bylaw changes that would have given convention-related institutions more influence over the appointment of trustees and directors. The proposed amendments, more than a year in the making…
N.C. Baptists adopt strictist policy against gay-friendly churches
Baptist churches in North Carolina will have to deny membership to gays or face expulsion from the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. Messengers to the convention's annual meeting voted Nov. 14 to add language to its governing documents that…
Tennessee Baptists will ask leaders if they affirm SBC’s faith statement
Tennessee Baptists voted overwhelmingly Nov. 14 to publicize whether nominees to leadership posts in the convention affirm the Baptist Faith and Message, a controversial confession of faith adopted by the national Southern Baptist Convention. Messengers to Tennessee Baptist Convention's annual…
S.C. messengers increase budget, elect CP supporter as president
Messengers to the annual meeting of the South Carolina Baptist Convention increased their budget by $600,000 for 2007 and elected a strong Cooperative Program supporter as president Nov. 15. For nine of the past 10 years, South Carolina Baptists have…
Arizona voters nation’s first to reject amendment banning gay marriage
Although 27 other states since 1998 have approved amendments to their state constitutions banning gay marriage, Arizona voters bucked the national trend. With 100 percent of the state's precincts reporting by midday Nov. 8, according to the Arizona secretary of…
ANOTHER VIEW: You are what you eat
If you've never been to a “McDonald's Night,” consider yourself lucky. Now in theory, this is a “win-win” proposition: a fundraiser for my children's school and a night out of the kitchen. It has never been truer, alas, that the…
Probe finds Texas churchstarters got up to $1.3 million for bogus churches
A five-month investigation uncovered evidence Baptist General Convention of Texas church-starting funds were misused between 1999 and 2005 in the Rio Grande Valley. At a called meeting of the BGCT Executive Board Oct. 31, investigators reported they discovered up to…
Top evangelical Haggard steps down after allegations from gay prostitute
Ted Haggard, head of the National Association of Evangelicals and a prominent opponent of gay rights, resigned Nov. 2, after a Colorado man came forward with allegations that Haggard paid him for sex and drugs. According to a Colorado Springs,…
Muslim group decries Baptist leader’s claims about Islamic ‘takeover’ of U.S.
Leaders from a prominent American Muslim group have denounced reported comments by the Missouri Baptist Convention's executive director claiming that “Islam has a strategic plan” to take over the United States. Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Washington-based Council on…
N.J. court gives gays marriage rights, but not claim to name
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Oct. 25 that the state's constitution requires that marriage rights be available to same-sex couples on an equal basis with heterosexuals. But the court left state legislators to decide whether to refer to the…
Independent Drake won’t accept traditional obscurity role of 2nd VP
The Southern Baptist Convention expects very little from its vice presidents–nothing, in fact–unless the SBC president becomes incapacitated. Traditionally, those elected each year to the mostly honorary VP positions are seen but not heard. But when Southern Baptists elected Wiley…
Independent Drake won’t accept traditional obscurity role of 2nd VP
The Southern Baptist Convention expects very little from its vice presidents–nothing, in fact–unless the SBC president becomes incapacitated. Traditionally, those elected each year to the mostly honorary VP positions are seen but not heard. But when Southern Baptists elected Wiley…