WACO, Texas—The academic achievement gap between Anglo students and their African-American or Hispanic peers disappears when the students live in intact, religious families, a new study shows. William Jeynes, a nonresident researcher with the Baylor Univer-sity Institute for Studies of…
Wade announces plans to retire as Texas Baptist executive
DALLAS (ABP) — Charles Wade, who led the Baptist General Convention of Texas through major changes in its governance and a reorganization of its staff, has announced plans to retire as executive director Jan. 31, 2008. Wade told BGCT employees…
Organization at center of scandal in Valley will shut down
A church-planting institute founded by Otto Arango—the central figure in a scandal involving misuse and mismanagement of Texas Baptist church-starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley—will cease to exist at the end of this year. At a special meeting in…
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…
Baptism meanings and methods spark debate among some Baptists
Disputes about baptism are troubling the waters among some Baptists. From a controversial policy of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board, which narrows the definition of an acceptable baptism of a new missionary, to churches that wrestle with the…
ANALYSIS: Will election of president deal blow to neo-Calvinism?
When Southern Baptist Convention messengers elected dark-horse candidate Frank Page of South Carolina as president, they not only sent a populist message to the powerbrokers who backed other candidates, but also — at least in the eyes of some observers…
As collaboration takes root worldwide, focus on exclusion isolates SBC missions
At a time when collaboration and cooperation characterize Christian missions, the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board appears to be moving toward isolation and exclusion, some veteran missionaries and missiologists insist. They point to new IMB policies — prohibiting private…