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Top administrative leaders for the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in America, said Tuesday that they will release a secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse. An attorney for the SBC’s Executive Committee announced the decision during a virtual meeting called in response to a scathing investigative report detailing how the committee mishandled allegations of sex abuse and stonewalled numerous survivors. The committee anticipates releasing the list Thursday. During the meeting, top leaders and several committee members vowed to work toward changing the culture of the denomination and to listen more...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP) -- Some Baptists in this state say the Florida Baptist Convention is intimidating and demonizing churches that believe in Calvinism -- and doing it with the churches' own money. Convention executive director John Sullivan last week sent recordings of sermons by Sullivan's former pastor Jerry Vines to every church in the state, apparently at convention expense, that identify Calvinism as a threat to Baptist life. A week earlier, Sullivan sent one of his associates to a rural Panhandle county to confront local pastors about alleged "conflict" created by Calvinists in the Holmes Baptist Association. Sullivan's emissary, Cecil...

The Rev. Mac Brunson, a Texas preacher known for his homespun, Bible-based sermons and an ability to inspire congregations, will be nominated as pastor of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, prominent members of the downtown megachurch said Thursday night. State Sen. Stephen Wise, state Rep. Stan Jordan and Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland told the Times-Union that Brunson has been tapped to fill the pulpit vacated by the Rev. Jerry Vines, who retired Tuesday after 23 years at the 28,000-member church. "I know it's going to be the guy from Texas," Wise said of Brunson, who is pastor...

The announcement that Rev. Jerry Vines is stepping down from the helm of First Baptist Church has elicited mixed reactions within the American Muslim community. While recognizing the positive contributions made by Rev. Vines in his stewardship of the congregation and as a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Muslims remain disappointed that a prominent religious leader used divisive rhetoric at a time when the world needed spiritual healers. In 2002, Rev. Vines sparked a national controversy when he defamed the Prophet Muhammad by calling him a "demon-possessed pedophile." Besides the fact that his comments were offensive to Muslims,...

His final Sunday morning sermon in Jacksonville will be this weekend. He's been pastor of First Baptist Church for 23 years. First Baptist is one of the ten largest churches out of 39,00 churches in the Southern Baptist Convention. His hottest controversy came during a pastors conference in which he made comments about Mohammed. For months after the story spread around the world he wouldn't comment except for an official statement read at church. But during our interview he made new statements on the issue. We'll broadcast those in our 11:00 story Sunday night. His sermons always have ended with...

Is President Bush Really "One Of Us?" By Chuck Baldwin Food For Thought From The Chuck Wagon October 24, 2003 As Jimmy Carter had done before him, G.W. Bush won the White House, in part, due to his Christian profession. Christians nationwide regard President Bush as "one of us." They believe that he shares their Christian principles and values. Why, then, does President Bush use the power of his office to publicly condemn those Christians who courageously champion Christian principles? Time and again, President Bush has publicly repudiated the statements or actions of principled Christians as they attempted to stand...

Are Christian evangelists eyeing Iraq? In its war against Iraq, the United States has reportedly been aiming to win over the “hearts and minds” of the Iraqi people. But some US-based Christian evangelists are readying themselves to take it a step further. Dedicated workers of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Samaritan’s Purse—two of the biggest evangelical Christian missions in the US—are reportedly waiting in Jordan on the Iraq border for the war to end. Ready to go into the battle-scarred country with both relief and their Gospel. Baghdad under attack: attempts to preach Christianity in Iraq is bound to...

A group of Southern Baptist missionaries working in Muslim countries has asked the U.S. leaders of their denomination to tone down their harsh criticism of Islam for safety reasons. The missionaries said denigrating Islam puts them at risk as they work to spread Christianity under dangerous conditions overseas. On Dec. 30, a suspected Islamic militant killed three workers at a Southern Baptist hospital in Yemen -- the latest in a series of attacks over the last year on American religious workers abroad. "We are not sure if you are aware of the ramifications that comments that malign Islam and Muhammad...