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…
Bob Banks, longtime SBC missions leader, dies at 91
Robert T. Banks Jr., a prominent missions leader among Southern Baptists in the second half of the 20th century, died in Atlanta Jan. 19 at age 91. Banks served as executive vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Home Mission…
As a 21-year-old seminarian, David Fearon challenged the RSV translators on the word ‘homosexual’
David Sheldon Fearon, 84, died peacefully in his home in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada at the beginning of January. On Oct. 22, 1959, Fearon, then a 21-year-old seminary student at McGill University’s School of Religious Studies, Montréal, Quebec, wrote…
BNG columnist David Ramsey dead at 61
BNG columnist David Ramsey died at his North Carolina home Sunday, Dec. 11, after a brief illness. He was 61. “BNG greatly mourns the loss of this beautiful life among us, someone who courageously chronicled his own journey from cradle-roll…
Pioneering missionary journalist Craig Bird dies in Texas
Baptist journalist and educator Craig Bird died Dec. 12 at age 73 due to complications from a fall he experienced the week before, according to his family. Bird, who was born in Arkansas on Oct. 4, 1949, to Clyde and C.W….
A Southern Baptist saint: Gratitude for the life of Leslie Jordan
When I saw the tweet that read “Comedian Leslie Jordan dead at 67,” I gasped. Then immediately, I felt a tear forming in my eyes — and I never cry. I began scrolling until I found an article that confirmed…