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Just two weeks after the Southern Baptist Convention announced a new sexual abuse prevention and response curriculum for member congregations, new allegations have rocked a small SBC church in the Florida Keys. Monte Lavelle Chitty, 62, pastor of First Baptist Church in Marathon, has been charged with sexual assault, lewd lascivious behavior and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. A Monroe County Sheriff’s Office news release said a 15-year-old girl accused the married pastor of sexually molesting her after serving her spiked alcohol at the church. A subsequently released arrest report detailed that the alleged victim “felt weak, could...

Jarrett Booker, a 37-year-old former youth and worship pastor in Nashua, New Hampshire, was found dead two days after he was terminated from his church amid credible allegations of child sex abuse. The cause of death was suicide. Nashua Baptist Church, where Booker had served as a pastor, said in a statement on Nov. 29 that Booker died by suicide on the evening of Nov. 27, one day after church leadership communicated to the congregation that Booker had been terminated and was the subject of a criminal investigation. “On November 22, we became aware of a criminal investigation concerning credible...

Yesterday, we reported that Joel Rainey, a prominent and outspoken Southern Baptist pastor argued on social media that Obergefell, the Supreme Court decision that falsely found that same-sex “marriage” was protected by the Constitution, should not be overturned and that Christians shouldn’t support it. Arguing that homosexuals in these civil unions are in “marriage relationships,” he stated that his opposition to overturning “gay marriage” (something that doesn’t exist), was basically rooted in the desire to not have to deal with the aftermath of unholy unions being “suddenly invalidated.” Of course, his position is completely unbiblical and disqualifying as a pastor...

A Georgia megachurch is facing allegations it failed to warn congregants about a former youth volunteer who’s been charged with trying to traffic a 16-year-old on the dark web. Records obtained by The Roys Report (TRR) show that on June 30, authorities arrested Kelly Garrett Ivey—a former youth volunteer at Rock Springs Church in Milner, Ga.—and charged him with child cruelty and kidnapping. And last Monday, a grand jury indicted Ivey, 41, on first and second-degree charges of cruelty to children, trafficking, and three counts of criminal attempt to commit a felony, including kidnapping. Yet, members of Rock Springs said...

I woke up this morning, and to my complete shock and dismay, I saw that Southern Baptist Convention president, Bart Barber, is slated to join a secular publication that’s hosting hundreds of speakers, 90+ percent of which are progressives, to speak on this issue of “the rise of Christian nationalism.” I couldn’t help but notice that one of the speakers he will be joining in this discussion is a woman named Anthea Butler. Here’s Barber’s tweet: Who is Anthea Butler? Anthea Butler is a professor and chair of the University of Pennsylvania Department of Religious Studies. She is known for...

A Tennessee church has announced they have voted to disaffiliate from the Southern Baptist Convention after nearly 70 years of partnership, warming the cockles of our hearts with this wonderfully thrilling news. Monte Vista Baptist Church, a 150-member congregation in Maryville, TN, issued a press release announcing the unanimous vote of the community “in response to the convention’s recent decisions that only men are qualified by Scripture to serve as pastor of a local congregation and the subsequent exclusion of some churches where women were serving in a pastoral position.” They explain: “Monte Vista has ordained women to serve as...

this is the message I give the inmates to those who have just arrived.

(RNS) — The Rev. Bob Stine, former president of the Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention, will be required to answer questions in court in September after police in Madison, Wisconsin, recommended he be charged with sexual assault. The Dane County district attorney’s office said the case involving Stine, pastor of Midvale Baptist Church in Madison, is under review. No charges have been filed. “The DA’s Office has received the referral from Madison Police Dept,” the DA’s office said in an email about Stine. “He is scheduled to appear for an Initial Appearance on 9/7/23 at 8:30 AM.” Police have investigated allegations that...

North Carolina megachurch Elevation—known for its popular music and charismatic pastor—is withdrawing its affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention effective immediately, according to a letter sent to the SBC’s Executive Committee and the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. “We would like to thank the Southern Baptists for the privilege of partnering with you, especially through the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina for nearly two decades,” says the letter, which was published by the official SBC publication Baptist Press. It goes on to thank the Conference for “the privilege of having been affiliated with the SBC all these years”...

ATLANTA — Police are investigating after a church was vandalized with anti-LGBTQ graffiti. Someone defaced the sign at The Church at Ponce and Highland in Northeast Atlanta this weekend and on Monday. The church’s Pride flags were also removed and tossed into a garbage can. Neighbors say it’s disappointing. “Well, I just think it’s awful. There’s too much of this hateful stuff going on right now,” Robin Bostick said. Church officials say they’ve contacted investigators at least four times in the last two months over vandalism that appears to target the church’s welcoming stance to the LGBTQ community. Investigators are...

The Southern Baptist Convention voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to uphold earlier decisions to expel two churches because they have women pastors. The decision came during the group's annual meeting in New Orleans. The SBC heard appeals by California megachurch Saddleback and a smaller church, Fern Creek Baptist in Louisville, Ky. Saddleback Church ordained a woman as a campus pastor, and the Kentucky congregation has had a woman pastor, Rev. Linda Popham, for more than three decades. The SBC's 2000 statement of faith, called Baptist Faith and Message, asserts that only qualified men can serve as pastors, and the nearly 13,000 voters,...

Earlier this week, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) cut ties with Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church. The influential Southern California-based congregation had been part of the SBC since its founding, but the denomination dismissed Saddleback over a decision that founding pastor Warren made shortly before he retired.In 2021, Warren ordained three women as pastors, which caused the SBC to consider disciplining the church or kicking it out of the denomination. One of those women, Stacie Wood, the wife of lead pastor Andy Wood, is a “teaching pastor.” On Tuesday, the SBC Executive Committee deemed Saddleback to be “not in friendly cooperation...

U.S. President Joe Biden will be the first sitting president to deliver a Sunday sermon at Martin Luther King Jr.'s church in Atlanta, as he marks a national holiday celebrating the civil rights leader, White House officials said on Friday. Biden will speak at Ebenezer Baptist Church on Sunday at the invitation of the church's pastor, Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock, on what would have been King's 94th birthday. King was killed at age 39 in 1968 by an avowed segregationist.

Lamb of God, I am not worthy to loosen Your sandal straps. You take away my sins and invite me home to heavenly glory. May my spirit be at peace and rejoice in Your mercy.John the Baptist was the first to recognize Christ (though he didn’t see Him) as he leaped in the womb at His coming (Luke 1:41). In his leap, he pointed his mother to Jesus who, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in homage to the mother of our Lord. In a way, the unborn John was the one who made this introduction. It was a...

Kentucky State Police responded to a first-degree criminal abuse complaint Oct. 24 at the Pilgrims Rest Ministry of Reconciliation, an Ohio County boys boarding school affiliated with the fundamentalist Baptist faith. Details of the incident are unclear. Both KSP and the state’s Department for Community Based Services (DCBS) have declined to provide information about the case — citing an ongoing investigation into the facility. “Premature disclosure of records generated in the course of this active investigation of alleged physical and sexual abuse of juveniles, at this early stage, would do irreparable harm to the investigation,” said KSP’s official custodian of...

Prominent Southern Baptist theologians have published a statement clarifying the meaning of the word "pastor" amid controversy within the United States' largest Protestant denomination stemming from Rick Warren's Saddleback Church ordaining female pastors last year. The document "A Statement Concerning the Baptist Faith & Message and the Word' Pastor'" was released last week by two Southern Baptist seminary presidents and the former head of the denomination's public policy arm. The signatories are Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Chuck Kelley, president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary; and Richard Land, who served as the president of the...

Russell Moore, one of the biggest names in modern evangelicalism, broke his silence on the overturning of Roe v. Wade during a panel at a recent Ethics and Public Policy Center event, a video of which was posted online in early July. As I noted last month, Moore’s public muteness on the matter might have seemed odd to some, not only because the religious leader has both “public” and “theology” in his current title at Christianity Today, but because he’s been a longtime voice in the pro-life movement. But it made sense to anyone who’s followed Moore’s trajectory. After years...

While conservative evangelical and Catholic churches across America celebrated Friday’s Supreme Court ruling rescinding a federal right to abortion care, sermons and prayers in other congregations ranged from lament to outrage to calls for simply getting along with each other. Sunday, June 26, turned out to be one of those rare occasions when the connection between faith and politics could not be avoided. Tim Schaefer “I am put in a position to address things that concern the people, the congregation, and sometimes those issues are difficult to address. They’re not easy, especially when we may not all agree. But I...

CNN)Both cite the same Bible. Both follow the same Jesus. And both talk about the sanctity of life. And yet both stand on opposite sides of the contentious debate over abortion. Trent Horn, an author, speaker and podcaster, is a Roman Catholic and an opponent of abortion rights. Laura Ellis supports legal abortion rights and is project manager at Baptist Women in Ministry, a Baptist group that advocates for women in ministry. Both personify the divisions over abortion in the church — and show how complex the issue can be when two smart and well-informed people cite scripture to support...

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...