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PHOENIX (ABP) – The president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary said June 15 that Southern Baptists need to repent of a “form of homophobia” that keeps gays and lesbians out of their churches. Albert Mohler responded during his report to the Southern Baptist Convention to a question from Peter Lumpkins, a Southern Baptist blogger, about whether comments attributed to him in a March 24 Christian Science Monitor article were accurate. Writer Jonathan Merritt, a Southern Baptist minister and well-known social critic, quoted Mohler as saying “We’ve lied about the nature of homosexuality and have practiced what can only be described...

A new coalition announced that it was starting a petition today on the GetEQUAL website (www.getequal.org), calling on the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) to apologize for the harm its teachings are causing the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. Pointing to current teachings and ministries of the SBC, the coalition is attempting to shed light on harmful teachings and actions that individual congregations, pastors, and SBC leadership have embraced, targeting the LGBT community — particularly LGBT youth. These words and actions include everything from counseling parents to kick gay youth out of their homes to the horrifying practices of...

Nationwide (May 5, 2011) -- The 21st century has offered new challenges to the faith community and society. We are faced with social issues which have become increasingly more complex due to ever shifting perceptions of behavior and relationships. In 1954, Dr. Martin Luther King, in his sermon, "Rediscovering Lost Values," warned the country of a disturbing trend he perceived among its citizens - Moral Relativism. In the 60s it came under this guise: "If it feels good, do it! If it doesn't, do it anyway..." In the 70s it was, "I'm Okay. You're Okay." And these days our children...

Church preacher convicted of sex assault 10:57 p.m. CDT, April 28, 2011 Rev. Morris Eubanks told a judge in Lake County Thursday night that God will punish those who bore "false witness" against him during his trial for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl. The Waukegan man, who has preached at Baptist churches in North Chicago and Zion, according to testimony, declined to take the stand in his own defense, saying he was relying on his faith to clear his name. But there would be no divine intervention for Eubanks, as a jury found him guilty of aggravated criminal sexual abuse...

SNIP This year the Obamas chose Shiloh Baptist Church — one of the oldest African-American congregations in the city, according to the White House — for their Easter service, drawing applause from members decked out in Sunday suits and fancy dresses. The president declined the pastor’s invitation to speak, but a little bit of politics did slip in: the man who led the church in prayers, when mentioning the Obama family, said: “Lord, they’re going to need you for the next six year.” Shouts of “Oh yeah” followed that intercession. SNIP

President Barack Obama and his family marked Easter Sunday by attending a service at an African-American baptist church in Washington, standing to clap the 120-strong choir. Obama and his wife Michelle brought their daughters Malia, 12, and Sasha, 9, to the service at Shiloh Baptist Church, to massive applause from worshippers.

Long before the sun rose over the Shiloh Baptist Church, people were passing through metaldetectors at the historic African American congregation where President Barack Obama and his family will celebrate Easter. [Snip] Rev. Wallace Charles Smith, in the church's program, said, "We are honored to welcome to our 10 a.m. Easter service President Barack Obama, First LadyMichelle Obama, and daughters Malia and Sasha. Shiloh prays for the first family every Sunday and we thank God for the wonderful inspiration they provide to our nation." [Snip] The 3,000-member D.C. congregation [was] started by freed slaves.

Four decades ago, when my wife Dianne and I were active Baptists, somehow we ended up with a Baptist hymnal in our home. This same kleptomaniac-like behavior has surfaced on multiple occasions with respect to LDS hymnals. We even have an LDS hymnal embossed with “Joseph Smith Memorial Building.” Our Baptist hymnal is a...once widely-used, 1956-copyrighted edition published by Convention Press... SNIP Recently I searched our current 1985 edition of "Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" to determine how many of these hymns are common to our older Baptist hymnal. One might be surprised to learn...

LIVE - Mondays 8 PM ET Encore – Tuesday 1 AM ET & 9 AM ET, Thursday 2 PM ET, Saturday 11 PM ET April 04 Michael Matthews - Former Baptist Minister Michael's conversion story - in pdf format

The alleged killers of the minister found dead inside his own church 'laughed' while watching a news report about the case on television, court documents said. Pastor Clint Dobson, 29, of NorthPointe Baptist Church in Arlington, was suffocated with a plastic bag and his assistant Judy Elliott, 67, was severely beaten, they said. Steven Nelson, 24, and Anthony Springs, 19, were ‘laughing and making inappropriate comments about Dobson’s death’, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. ‘When confronted about this behaviour (Springs) produced an item he claimed belonged to Dobson,’ it said. They made the comments at a friend’s house in...

Arlington police are on the scene at NorthPointe Baptist Church on Brown Boulevard, where at least one person is dead and one is injured. Police responded to a call at the church about 4:15 p.m. NorthPointe is satellite campus of First Baptist Church in Arlington. According to WFAA's website, police said the suspect or suspects in the case may have fled the scene in the female victim's car, which was missing from the scene. The vehicle is a four-door, cream-colored 2007 Mitsubishi Galant. The license plate number is DFR-352. Police have asked that anyone who spots the car alert authorities...

The Westboro Baptist Church is a nasty little bunch of fanatics, who gain publicity for their fundamentalist views in a particularly loathsome way: by picketing the funerals of fallen American soldiers. But 8 members of the US Supreme Court have agreed that even this repellent form of public speech is protected by the First Amendment. Perhaps so. After all it is when people say unpopular things, and/or say them in unpopular ways, that they need constitutional protection. Those who express polite, conventional views are never in much danger of being silenced. But I have not read the briefs in this...

In recent years there have been a flurry of news articles prior to Lent, Holy Week, and Advent about how various Protestant groups and denominations have "discovered" that Catholic and Orthodox beliefs about the liturgical year are not nearly as "unbiblical" as many non-Catholics thought. Quite the contrary, as this Associated Baptist Press piece explains (ht: National Catholic Register): Many Baptists are seeking to reclaim that pre-Easter focus -- historically called Lent -- which has been an integral part of many Christians’ experience since the earliest years of the church. “It’s a biblical thing, not a made-up Catholic thing,” says...

"Have ye not read?...Have ye not read?...If ye had known what this meaneth."—Matthew 12:3-7. HE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES were great readers of the law. They studied the sacred books continually, poring over each word and letter. They made notes of very little importance, but still very curious notes—as to which was the middle verse of the entire old Testament, which verse was halfway to the middle, and how many times such a word occurred, and even how many times a letter occurred, and the size of the letter, and its peculiar position. They have left us a mass of wonderful...

Manhattan College claims to be a Catholic institution, and the Archdiocese of New York lists the school as a Catholic college. Nevertheless, all this has not impressed the National Labor Relations Board, which recently ruled that the college could not prevent adjunct faculty from unionizing because, as G. Jeffrey MacDonald of Religion News Service reports, “the school’s core purpose isn’t religious enough to trigger a labor law exemption.” Isn’t religious enough? Manhattan College does not require its faculty to profess Catholicism. Actually, it is unclear just how the school functions as a Catholic institution. As the NLRB found, the college’s...

Even local churches worship money and have very little concern about where it comes from . A crusty old man walks into a local Baptist church and says to the secretary, "I would like to join this damn church." The astonished woman replies, "I beg your pardon, sir. I must have misunderstood you... What did you say?" "Listen up, damn it. I said I want to join this damn church!" "I'm very sorry sir, but that kind of language is not tolerated in this church." The secretary leaves her desk and goes into the pastor's study to inform him of...

Upon finishing his talk on St. Paul at today’s general audience in Vatican City on Wednesday, Pope Benedict turned his attention to the attacks against Christians in India. He appealed for an end to the violence and prayed that a return to peace would soon be restored, reports Catholic News Agency. Benedict XVI told of his deep sadness upon having learned the news about the violence against Christian communities in the Indian State of Orissa. People have been killed, others injured, and church property and private houses destroyed following the murder of the Hindu leader Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati. The Holy...

Pastor James Brown Jr. of the Covenant Baptist Church in Barnesville, Ga., wants his state legislature to pass a bill that permits churchgoers to carry firearms to worship at his church. Joining him in the effort is Pastor Joe Morecraft of Chalcedon Presbyterian Church in Cumming, Ga. And the campaign is just getting started. The bill, HB 54, was introduced in late January by Republican state Rep. Bobby Franklin, who serves the state's 43rd district. If passed, it will repeal a section of a law prohibiting individuals from carrying guns in a church setting. Currently, the state's "Common Sense Lawful...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) -- A Southern Baptist seminary president and evolution opponent has turned sights on "theistic evolution," the idea that evolutionary forces are somehow guided by God. Albert Mohler Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote an article in the Winter 2011 issue of the seminary magazine labeling attempts by Christians to accommodate Darwinism "a biblical and theological disaster." Mohler said being able to find middle ground between a young-earth creationism that believes God created the world in six 24-hour days and naturalism that regards evolution the product of random chance "would resolve a great cultural and...

The nuts from Westboro Baptist Church will be picketing two Catholic high schools in Philadelphia on the basis that it would seem that, according to them, that the Catholic school teaches premarital sex and birth control are ok. And oh yeah, the students are demon possessed. Hey, you want logic out of people who picket military funerals and whose website is Godhatesfags.com?...