DECATUR, Ga. (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will stress community at the organization’s 20th General Assembly June 24-25, 2010, in Charlotte, N.C. Daniel Vestal, executive coordinator of the Atlanta-based CBF, told members of the group’s national Coordinating Council Oct….
Seminary adopts statement asserting male headship
FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has adopted a policy statement that declares men and women equal before God but created for specific roles of headship and submission in the church and home. Seminary trustees voted Oct….
Did Huckabee rely too much on faith in commuting prisoners’ sentences?
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (ABP) — The Dec. 1 police shooting of suspected cop killer Maurice Clemmons has renewed allegations that, as governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee paid more attention to preachers and professed jailhouse conversions than prosecutors and parole boards…
Judge in Tajikistan orders Baptist church to close, citing violations
OSLO, Norway (ABP) — A judge in Tajikistan has ordered a Baptist church in the capital city, Dushanbe, to cease meetings in a private home, saying that housing codes and a new religion law require houses of worship to register…
Constitutionality of Christian prison planned in Oklahoma disputed
WASHINGTON (ABP) — A church-state watchdog group maintains a Christian prison proposed in Oklahoma probably would be unconstitutional. But the Baptist minister who hopes to open the nation’s first faith-based prison says he is confident it will pass constitutional muster….
Baptist state convention budgets feeling effects of shaky economy
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — Feeling the effects of a bad economy, several Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated state and regional conventions reduced budgets in annual meetings, held in recent weeks across the nation. The Baptist General Convention of Texas, which includes 4,500…
Don’t blame Islam for Fort Hood killings, Baptist leader says
NORMAN, Okla. (ABP) — At least one Baptist leader cautioned against attempts to blame the the Nov. 5 Fort Hood massacre on the accused assailant's Islamic faith. Bruce Prescott, executive director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists, said Nov. 8 that assuming…
Russian Baptists alarmed by proposed changes to religion law
MOSCOW (ABP) — Russian Baptist leaders have raised concerns about proposed revisions to the nation's religion law — changes they contend would greatly curtail religious freedom in Russia. Yuri Sipko, president of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists wrote Russian…
BMS World Mission writes prime minister about global warming
DIDCOT, England (ABP) — The urgent need for action on global climate change is the subject on which a 217-year-old British Baptist missionary-sending organization has chosen to write what its leaders believe to be the group's first-ever open letter to…