By Bob Allen A progressive evangelical group has launched an online petition urging the U.S. Justice Department to investigate a July 4 fire at a Missouri mosque as a potential hate crime. Sojourners, a Washington-based organization dedicated to social justice…
Congressmen query end of military Bibles
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist congressman has called on Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to investigate why the Pentagon revoked permission for LifeWay Christian Resources to use military insignias on Bibles it had been publishing. U.S. Rep. Alan Nunnelee (R-Miss.)…
Group protests chaplain’s rebuke
By Bob Allen A chaplaincy organization supportive of last year’s repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that banned gays from serving openly in the military accused the Southern Baptist Convention of bullying and intimidation for asking an Air…
BWA endorses ethical code for witness
By Bob Allen Baptist leaders from around the world meeting July 2-7 in Santiago, Chile, endorsed a historic joint agreement drafted by Catholics, mainline Protestants and evangelicals outlining ethical guidelines for Christian witness amid religious diversity. A 2012 Baptist World…
BWA endorses ethical code for witness
By Bob Allen Baptist leaders from around the world meeting July 2-7 in Santiago, Chile, endorsed a historic joint agreement drafted by Catholics, mainline Protestants and evangelicals outlining ethical guidelines for Christian witness amid religious diversity. A 2012 Baptist World…
Suit fights tax funding of Baptist home
By Bob Allen Kentucky taxpayers, including a former longtime professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, renewed a legal challenge to taxpayer funding of a Baptist home that fired a staff member in 1998 after learning she is a lesbian after…
Leader says get over fear of Muslims
By Bob Allen A Baptist minister and interfaith leader says it is time for Americans to get over their fear of Islam and get on with the assimilation of Muslims into their neighborhoods. “As a society we simply have to…
Loch Ness Found in Classrooms
Seeing isn’t believing; believing is seeing—at least when it comes to the Loch Ness Monster. As it turns out, students in private Christian schools across Louisiana use textbooks that claim the monster was a dinosaur that existed at the same…
Keep the flame of liberty burning bright
By Roger Lovette Nobody has expressed the essence of America more than the artist Norman Rockwell. His pictures are embedded in our hearts. He pictured the Four Freedoms: from fear, from want, worship and speech. Remember that ugly crowd in…
Real American exceptionalism
By Henry Green Baltimore recently completed a weeklong Sailabration commemorating the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. Events involved tall ships, fireworks and great pride for the host city. In Baltimore, events of this nature cannot help but also…
Be true to religious liberty, Baptists urged
By Bob Allen As early defenders of religious liberty for all, Baptists today should celebrate religious pluralism even as Protestant privilege wanes in American culture, Baptist historian Bill Leonard said June 22 at a luncheon in Fort Worth, Texas, during…
With ruling, contraceptive debate goes on
By Bob Allen Critics of the Obama administration’s requirement that faith-based employers include mandatory contraceptive coverage in their health-care plans for women voiced disappointment June 28 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld key portions of the Affordable Health Care Act…