Amid ongoing discussion of statements by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson on domestic violence, Patterson and the executive committee of the seminary trustees have issued a statement affirming “the importance of protecting victims of abuse.” Meanwhile, at least five Southern Baptist Convention entity presidents have made statements on domestic violence since April 29. […]
GQ’s inclusion of the Bible in a list of 21 overrated classic books has drawn expressions of pity for the popular men’s magazine. “Our response as believers should not be defensiveness or outrage,” said Union University Bible professor George Guthrie, “but pity for those who have never glimpsed even the smallest ray of beauty, the […]
EDITOR’S NOTE: March is National Women’s History Month. In 1917, the Southern Baptist Convention received what Georgia’s Christian Index newsjournal called “quite a shock” when a Texas church music leader made a motion at the SBC annual meeting concerning “the eternal question”: Should women be allowed to serve as SBC messengers? Following a protracted — […]
A Louisiana Baptist Convention-hosted website promoting Kenneth Hemphill’s candidacy for Southern Baptist Convention president was not funded by any Cooperative Program money, Hemphill told Baptist Press today (March 19). Nonetheless, the site is being moved to an independent server this week to avoid “any impression that it was inappropriate.” “I’m working for the Cooperative Program […]
David Platt has announced plans to transition out of his role as president of the International Mission Board but will continue to serve until a new president is selected. Platt told trustees, missionaries and staff Feb. 12 that during his nearly four-year tenure at the IMB, he has been “burdened to continue preaching and leading […]
BAPTIST PRESS NOTE: Sunday, Feb. 11, is Racial Reconciliation Sunday in the Southern Baptist Convention. Striving for racial reconciliation was costly for some Southern Baptist pastors in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. It cost Jack Kwok his property, Paul Turner a beating by angry segregationists and Thomas Holmes his pastorate. But Kwok, now executive director […]
In 1845, at the Southern Baptist Convention’s founding, approximately 1 in 3 Southern Baptist church members was African-American. By 1900, there were virtually no black Southern Baptists. Today, about 1 in 5 Southern Baptist churches is predominantly non-Anglo, including some 3,400 predominately African-American congregations. The story behind those numbers, historians say, is a remarkable narrative […]
Ken Hemphill, an administrator at North Greenville University and a former Southern Baptist Convention seminary president, will be nominated for SBC president, a coalition of Southern Baptists announced Feb. 1 via a Baptist state paper. “We desire to elect a man who is a Southern Baptist through and through, values our understanding of the gospel, […]
Two years after withdrawing from a closely contested election for Southern Baptist Convention president, North Carolina pastor J.D. Greear once again will be nominated for SBC president, Florida pastor Ken Whitten announced today Jan. 29. Greear, 44, “is all about what Southern Baptists have been all about,” Whitten, pastor of Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, […]
A lawsuit alleging decades of sexual abuse by retired Texas state judge Paul Pressler has named a Southern Baptist Convention entity among its co-defendants. Following multiple media reports on the Oct. 18 suit, Pressler’s legal team released a statement Dec. 12 to Baptist Press, in which attorney Ted Tredennick called the allegations “frivolous.” Pressler — […]