After an outcry from the faith community and immigration advocates, the Biden administration May 3 fully reversed course and returned to its earlier plan to raise the ceiling for refugee admissions this fiscal year to 62,500 people. That will be…
Voting rights and the ninth commandment
It shouldn’t feel so hard to write about voting rights in a way that will not offend partisan sensibilities. It didn’t used to be this way. In 2006, Congress reauthorized the 1965 Voting Rights Act with a unanimous vote in…
European school seeks to bolster Baptist scholarship and mission
While serving as a Baptist pastor in Kentucky, Erica Whitaker is working toward a Ph.D. at a prestigious European university. Her academic pursuit, however, is more than a distance learning endeavor with a public research university in the Netherlands. Her…
CBF names Letson and Green to stewardship roles
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has named two new staff members with different responsibilities related to stewardship. Rickey Letson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Laurens, S.C., will join the CBF staff in May as congregational stewardship officer. Nell Green, who…
DeLoach confirmed as McAfee School of Theology dean
After serving in an interim role for more than 18 months, Gregory DeLoach has been named dean of Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology. Prior to being named interim dean in 2018, DeLoach served as a development officer for Mercer’s…
Kieve senses a calling to new role helping churches prevent and respond to sexual abuse
One of the worst mistakes a church can make in cases of clergy sexual abuse or other sexual abuse is to be unprepared for the situation, said Jay Kieve, the recently appointed abuse prevention and response advocate for the Cooperative…
Months after two hurricanes, vaccinated volunteers finally heading to Lake Charles
Recovery has been painfully slow in Lake Charles, La., which remains a near-ghost town since being struck by two hurricanes last fall and cut off from the aid of faith-based groups due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And now, with the…
CBF Benefits Board names executive vice president and COO
Beth Roberts has been named executive vice president and chief operating officer for the CBF Church Benefits Board. This nonprofit ministry affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship provides retirement benefits for ministers and staff members of churches affiliated with CBF,…
If you want to help the poor, first understand their humanity
Humanizing the poor and hungry is a vital first step for individuals and churches called to combat poverty and hunger, a group of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship ministers and lay leaders learned during a recent webinar hosted by CBF Heartland. “It’s…