NEW ORLEANS (RNS) — Millie Campbell slipped the transmission into reverse and backed her blue Chevrolet away from her spotless brick home. “Oh God,” she said, “we thank you for the blood of Jesus.” Then the 76-year-old cranked the wheel…
All Southern Baptist eyes on black New Orleans pastor
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Even before the Southern Baptist Convention elected the Rev. Fred Luter to national office, there was already widespread speculation that Luter is poised to become the denomination's first African-American president. Representatives of 16 million Southern…
Obama narrows — but doesn’t close — the electoral ‘God gap’
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Analysis of exit polls dissecting Barack Obama's historic presidential victory indicates the “God gap” dividing American politics remains in place, but Obama fashioned a victory by significantly narrowing it nearly everywhere — among those who worship frequently…
Muslim leader decries American ‘bigotry’
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) — American culture's view of American Muslims and Islam steadily is deteriorating under an onslaught of “bigotry” on cable news shows, newspaper op-ed pages and in the blogosphere, an Arab-American activist said. Commentators and politicians have devoted…
Are some people born to be religious?
NEW ORLEANS (RNS)—A recent debate at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary was titled “The Future of Atheism,” but the heart of the dialogue explored a related question: Can mankind's age-old belief in God be explained purely as a stubbornly recurring…
New Orleans churches stagger back to life
Seventy-five people gathered in bright sunshine on a recent Sunday outside Reaping the Harvest Full Gospel Baptist Church in New Orleans. They applauded as pastor Troy Lawrence, resplendent in a three-piece gray pinstriped suit, cut a red ribbon and, for…