Sociology professor, researcher and author George Yancey always steps back when he knocks on a door. A 6-foot-3-inch African-American, he says his appearance strikes societal fear. Seminary assistant dean and director Missie Branch says she also encounters difficulties because she is an African-American woman. She says she’s either overlooked or viewed through stereotypes, “which results […]
Let someone walk into Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church with a backpack and Polly Sheppard relives June 17, 2015. That’s when white supremacist Dylann Roof walked in. “Only in that church. Other churches I can sit and be calm,” Sheppard told Baptist Press in advance of the documentary film “Emanuel.” “But when I go to […]
A new media report on sex abuse allegations, admissions and convictions involving former International Mission Board workers comes as the IMB is implementing extensive sex abuse prevention reforms. The IMB is hiring a full-time senior staff member to oversee prevention response efforts, will involve outside legal counsel when reports of child abuse and sexual harassment […]
Ronnie Floyd is the new president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, elected April 2 by ballot vote in a called meeting in Dallas. Floyd received 68 of 69 votes cast, the EC said, electing Floyd in an executive session of nearly four hours. A former SBC president, Floyd will resign April […]
The late Billy Graham called himself an “ordinary messenger of the Kingdom of God,” but his legacy as “America’s pastor” is unique. Graham’s ministry of nearly 80 years is chronicled in the new documentary “Billy Graham: An Extraordinary Journey,” available Nov. 6 on DVD and digital HD. The release was a day before the 100th […]
Alex Malarkey, the boy who claimed in a bestselling book that he went to heaven while comatose from a car accident, is suing his publisher, Tyndale House, for damages including book profits from the since-retracted story. The 2010 book “The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven” listed Malarkey as a coauthor with his father, Kevin, […]
Amid two Southern Baptist Convention entity leadership searches and upcoming national SBC elections, both SBC presidential candidates have issued a joint call for prayer, grace and civility. J.D. Greear and Ken Hemphill, both tapped as 2018 nominees for SBC president, made the joint appeal as the International Mission Board (IMB) and the SBC Executive Committee […]
An apology, admission of liability and a $300,000 payout are among the terms First Baptist Church of Columbia, S.C., reached to settle a case involving a child who was reportedly sexually abused by a former church volunteer. Confessing “a broken and contrite heart,” the church apologized and read an explanatory statement including the full terms […]
Children’s ministry pioneer and Awana co-founder Arthur Reynold Rorheim died Jan. 5, 2018, in Oregon, Ill., at age 99. Rorheim co-founded the Awana Youth Association, originally an acronym for Approved Workers Are Not Ashamed, in 1950 while youth director of North Side Gospel Center near Chicago. Lance “Doc” Latham, his pastor at the time, was […]
Pastor James Dixon calls it “otherness,” loving others enough to die for their benefit. That’s what he credits to the late Martin Luther King Jr. nearly 50 years the civil rights leader’s death. “He allowed his life to enter into the lives of others and not leave them the way he found them,” Dixon told […]