By Bob Allen The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is backing a bill filed in Congress to protect religious institutions and other nonprofit groups that don’t recognize same-sex marriage from possible discrimination. The Marriage and Religious Freedom Act,…
BJC opposes local government prayer
By Bob Allen Opening local government meetings with prayer violates the conscience of not just religious minorities, but also of Christians who believe that worship must be voluntary, a Baptist church-state group argues in a legal brief filed Sept. 23…
Christian leaders oppose SNAP cuts
By Bob Allen American Baptists joined other faith leaders in urging members of the House of Representatives to oppose cuts to food stamps proposed by Republican leaders totaling $40 billion over 10 years. A vote is expected this week on…
Baptists monitor Syria crisis
By Bob Allen European Baptist leaders urged caution amid rising support for military intervention in Syria over what the United States, France and Great Britain say is clear evidence that President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have used banned chemical weapons on…
Alliance signs letter opposing Safe Act
By Bob Allen The Alliance of Baptists joined other faith organizations and leaders in an Aug. 21 letter opposing a law pending in Congress to crack down on crimes committed by aliens living in the United States illegally. Introduced in…
Suffer little children
By Miguel De La Torre Wouldn’t you do anything for your children? Your grandchildren? Is not their wellbeing important to you? To our culture? To our society? And yet, political policies advocated by some within the Christian community are damning…
Evangelicals seek OK on pulpit politicking
By Jeff Brumley A church-state watchdog group has urged Congress to ignore a proposal from evangelical and other groups seeking an end to the prohibition against politics in the pulpit. The proposal by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability claims…
Judgment and empathy
By Marv Knox Let’s face it: a white person doesn’t know what being black feels like, and a man can’t completely understand a woman. But during this long, hard summer, I’ve tried. First came the George Zimmerman trial. A Hispanic…
Letter seeks ‘circle of protection’ for poor
By Bob Allen Christian leaders across the country released a pastoral letter July 18 urging Congress to make hungry and poor people a priority in negotiations over a new federal budget. With Washington set to reconsider sequestration — across-the-board spending…