Latest Baptist News

After Roe's demise, clergy lead faithful in praise, laments
Praise and lament for the overturning of abortion rights filled sacred spaces this weekend as clergy across the U.S. rearranged worship plans or rewrote sermons to provide their religious context -- and competing messages -- about the historic moment. Abortion is a visceral issue...

Senator in 2010 deposition: 13-year-olds can consent to sex
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Before he became a leading voice for conservative causes on Capitol Hill, U.S. Senator James Lankford spent more than a decade as the director of youth programming at the Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center, a sprawling campground about 80 miles south of Oklahoma City that...

From joy to anger, faith leaders react to Roe's reversal
Religious Americans are deeply divided in their views on abortion, and reactions from faith leaders ranged from elation to anger after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that made abortion legal nationwide. The ruling issued Friday was hailed by...

New SBC President commits to move sex abuse reforms forward
ANAHEIM, California (AP) — The new president of the Southern Baptist Convention said Wednesday he will accelerate sex abuse reforms in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Texas pastor Bart Barber's first priority: to assemble a panel of people -- Southern Baptist...

Texas pastor Bart Barber elected Southern Baptist president
ANAHEIM, California (AP) — Bart Barber is a staunch Southern Baptist conservative who would welcome bans on abortion, opposes critical race theory and believes only men should serve as pastors. Yet Barber, elected Tuesday as the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention,...

Southern Baptists agree to keep list of accused sex abusers
ANAHEIM, California (AP) — The Southern Baptist Convention voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to create a way to track pastors and other church workers credibly accused of sex abuse and launch a new task force to oversee further reforms in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. ...

Cubans adapt a month after devastating hotel explosion
HAVANA (AP) — The worshippers pray beneath a torrid sun, taking shelter beneath umbrellas or some of the few trees that border the Amphitheater of Old Havana, just a strip of highway from the channel into the city's harbor. Hundreds of Baptists have been meeting on open-air...

Southern Baptists who backed open abuse review win key roles
ANAHEIM, California (AP) — The newly elected leaders of a top Southern Baptist Convention committee had all supported a more transparent investigation into allegations the denomination mishandled sex abuse reports and mistreated survivors. They defeated candidates who had opposed that move. ...

#ChurchToo revelations growing, years after movement began
A withering report on sexual abuse and cover-up in the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. A viral video in which a woman confronts her pastor at an independent Christian church for sexually preying on her when she was a teen. A...

Southern Baptist leaders release secret accused abuser list
In response to an explosive investigation, top Southern Baptists have released a previously secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse. The 205-page database was made public late Thursday. It includes more than 700 entries from...
