Tony Campolo, an influential Christian pastor, professor, author, speaker, social activist and adviser to President Bill Clinton, died Tuesday, Nov. 19 at age 89. He was surrounded by family at Beaumont at Bryn Mawr, the Philadelphia retirement community where he…
Remembering Jann Aldredge-Clanton
Jann Aldredge-Clanton was one of the most complex and compassionate people I’ve ever met. Her combination of Southern charm and progressive theology could be both disarming and alarming to those she encountered. She was a trailblazer for sure, setting plenty…
Remembering Floyd Craig, The Godfather of Baptist communicators
Floyd A. Craig, a legendary Baptist communicator and mentor to a number of other Baptist communicators of my generation, entered eternity last Friday evening. He was 91. I called him The Godfather. Not the mafia-type, but the type Miriam-Webster defines…
Breaking news: Paul Pressler died and the SBC said nothing
Herman Paul Pressler III of Houston died June 7, four days before the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, where nothing was said about his passing. Pressler, who had just turned 94, was the co-architect of the so-called “conservative resurgence” in…
June Honeycutt dies at age 96
June Williams Honeycutt died Saturday, June 8, in Louisville, Ky. She was the widow of Roy Honeycutt, former president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. He was the last “moderate” president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s mother seminary before…
Lloyd Elder, Southern Baptist statesman
Southern Baptist statesman Lloyd Elder died Nov. 3 at age 90. Elder was the last “moderate” leader of the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board, forced out in 1991 by trustees elected through the “conservative resurgence” that had begun in 1979….
Remembering BNG columnist Terry Austin
BNG columnist Terry Austin, 72, died unexpectedly Sept. 22, according to a statement from the family. Raised the son of a Southern Baptist pastor in Colorado, Austin went on to become a Baptist minister himself, serving in both congregational ministry…
Russell Dilday, Baptist statesman
Russell H. Dilday, whose tenure as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, saw the school’s endowment more than double while leading the seminary to it its greatest period of growth but who was fired in 1994…
Peter James Flamming, ‘bridge-building’ pastor in Texas and Virginia
Peter James Flamming, one of the best-known “moderate” Southern Baptist preachers of the 20th century, died in Richmond, Va., March 27, at age 89. In 1986, Flamming joined the Southern Baptist Convention’s Peace Committee to fill the spot vacated by…