Here’s a sure way to know Southern Baptist institutions and some Baptist universities don’t think they’re accountable to anyone outside their inner circle: The perpetual refusal to comment on, or even acknowledge, questions from media. A year ago this fall,…
Reversing course, judge dismisses former state exec’s lawsuit against NAMB
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a former Baptist state convention executive claiming job interference by the Southern Baptist Convention North American Mission Board, saying secular courts lack jurisdiction to delve into matters of religious doctrine.
Church at center of gun massacre to break ground for new building
Nearly five months after the Sunday morning 26 worshippers died and another 20 were injured in a mass shooting, First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, unveiled drawings of new worship center paid for with donations guaranteed by the Southern Baptist Convention North American Mission Board.
Pressler lawsuit moved to federal court
A lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by a Houston layman active in Southern Baptist Convention politics in the 1970s and 1980s has been moved to federal court.
‘Ministerial exception’ not a shield for wrongdoing, former Baptist leader says in lawsuit
A Southern Baptist Convention entity cannot hide behind the separation of church and state to avoid liability for wrongful termination and defamation, claims the latest argument filed in a dispute in federal court.
Ed Stetzer leaving LifeWay for Wheaton College
Missiologist and researcher Ed Stetzer is leaving after nine years as executive director of LifeWay Research to become executive director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton College, the Christian liberal arts school near Chicago announced May 16….
Disaster relief volunteer dies after heart attack
A Southern Baptist disaster-relief volunteer died March 29 while on a flood recovery mission in Leesville, La. Don Fulkerson, 77, a member of First Baptist Church in Galatia, Ill., died from a heart attack while serving on a team of…
State convention ‘saddened and disappointed’ by claims of former exec
Officials of a regional association of Southern Baptists disputed the account of a former executive director who claims he was fired because of interference by the denomination’s North American Mission Board. Shannon Baker, director of communications for the Baptist Convention…
State Baptist exec blames firing on interference from SBC agency
A former Baptist state convention executive says what was reported last June as his resignation was actually a firing orchestrated by state convention leaders under pressure from the head of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention….