By Bob Allen As the Senate opened formal debate on a proposal for comprehensive immigration reform, a group of religious organizations called on senators to include a ban on religious profiling in the final package. An 844-page legislative plan developed…
Unnatural disasters
By Bill Leonard In recent days a series of unnatural disasters spread across the American landscape, extending from populous Boston to the small town of West, Texas, even winding through the power-laden corridors of the United States Senate. On Patriots’…
Gaddy takes NC lawmakers to task
By Bob Allen A Baptist minister and interfaith leader took state lawmakers in North Carolina to task for demonizing one religion while trying to establish another, despite the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom for all. “It is becoming increasingly…
Is today the day war begins in East Asia?
By Leroy Seat Today might be the day war breaks out in East Asia. This is the “Day of the Sun,” the most celebrated holiday of the year in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Day of the Sun commemorates…
SBC leader calls HHS mandate ‘persecution’
By Bob Allen The Southern Baptist Convention’s top spokesman for moral concerns charged the Obama administration with “religious persecution” for requiring religious employers to cover preventive health-care services including FDA-approved contraceptives. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known…
AU calls for access to birth control
By Bob Allen A Washington-based religious-liberty watchdog group says the Obama administration should reject demands of conservative religious groups seeking to curb access to contraceptive coverage in the name of religious liberty. “Americans want and deserve access to safe and…
AU calls for access to birth control
By Bob Allen A Washington-based religious-liberty watchdog group says the Obama administration should reject demands of conservative religious groups seeking to curb access to contraceptive coverage in the name of religious liberty. “Americans want and deserve access to safe and…
CBF ministers urge immigration reform
By Robert Dilday Ministers affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina rallied in Winston-Salem April 2 to call on their representatives in Washington to support “comprehensive, fair immigration reform” that supports “the common good.” “Our Scripture repeatedly calls…
AU defends birth-control mandate
By Bob Allen The billionaire owners of Hobby Lobby’s religious objection to the use of certain types of birth control doesn’t entitle them to deny the company’s 22,000 employees insurance coverage required by federal law, Americans United for Separation of…
Jesus faces mock trial in Texas
By Jeff Brumley Mark Osler will leave First Baptist Church in Austin, Texas, Thursday evening spiritually drained. Seeking the death penalty for Jesus Christ, he said, always does that to him. “It is very dark,” said Osler, a former federal…
Prof expects kinder, gentler ERLC
By Bob Allen A Baptist communications professor who has written a book about religious language in politics predicts that Southern Baptists’ new spokesman for public affairs will be less strident and politically partisan than his predecessor. Russell Moore’s selection as…
Melissa Rogers speaks to press
By Robert Dilday The new head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships told reporters March 22 she values Baptists’ “special gift to the nation” — religious liberty — and looks forward to tackling religious liberty issues…