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Baylor University Prayer Denounces “Straight White Men” FROM TODD STARNES: “God, give them the moral imagination to reject the old keys we are trying to give them to a planet that we are poisoning by running it on fossil fuels and misplaced priorities – a planet with too many straight, white men like me behind the steering wheel while others have been expected to sit quietly in the back of the bus,” the minister prayed. Did you notice the cheers from the crowd? A friend from Get Religion sent me a link to an exclusive story about the prayer written...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — Tennessee faith leaders are urging Gov. Bill Lee to oppose a bill that would restrict access to abortions. More than 150 pastors and leaders signed the letter to Lee in support of keeping abortion safe and legal. Leaders are urging Lee against HB77, the "Fetal Heartbeat Bill." “Because we trust pregnant people, we know that these decisions are informed by tremendous reflection and not taken lightly,” the letter states. “When a person decides that abortion is their best option, they need community support not obstacles preventing safe access to medical care.”

Thirty-five years later, Debbie Vasquez's voice trembled as she described her trauma to a group of Southern Baptist leaders. She was 14, she said, when she was first molested by her pastor in Sanger, a tiny prairie town an hour north of Dallas. It was the first of many assaults that Vasquez said destroyed her teenage years and, at 18, left her pregnant by the Southern Baptist pastor, a married man more than a dozen years older. In June 2008, she paid her way to Indianapolis, where she and others asked leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and its 47,000...

The “Dry Alabama” Facebook page, illustrated with stark images of car wrecks and videos of families ruined by drink, had a blunt message: Alcohol is the devil’s work, and the state should ban it entirely. Along with a companion Twitter feed, the Facebook page appeared to be the work of Baptist teetotalers who supported the Republican, Roy S. Moore, in the 2017 Alabama Senate race. “Pray for Roy Moore,” one tweet exhorted. In fact, the Dry Alabama campaign, not previously reported, was the stealth creation of progressive Democrats who were out to defeat Mr. Moore — the second such secret...

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) — A former Baptist missionary doctor from Wyoming accused of molesting nearly two dozen girls and women in Bangladesh, along with a girl in Allendale, won't face trial. An Ottawa County judge ruled that Donn Ketcham, now 87, is incompetent to stand trial because he suffers from dementia. Prosecutors told 24 Hour News 8 they don't plan to appeal, which means the charge against him will be dismissed. Ketcham's alleged victims from his decades in Bangladesh — known then as MKs, or missionary kids — said the local case was their only chance for justice.

PLAINS, Ga. -- Jimmy Carter finishes his Saturday night dinner, salmon and broccoli casserole on a paper plate, flashes his famous toothy grin and calls playfully to his wife of 72 years, Rosalynn. "C'mon, kid," he says. She laughs and takes his hand, and they walk carefully through a neighbor's kitchen filled with 1976 campaign buttons, photos of world leaders and a couple of unopened cans of Billy Beer and then out the back door. Three Secret Service agents wait. They do this just about every weekend in this tiny town where they were born -- he almost 94 years...

Ivanka Trump is credited with a $50,000 donation to a Plano, Texas church that helps those detained at the border. Let’s face it, it’s been a rough week with the press coverage of the situation on the border for illegal aliens and their children. While much of the overwrought reporting has been discredited and Barack Obama’s policies have come under a newly found scrutiny, First Daughter Ivanka quietly donated a chunk of change to help out those trying to come into our country the illegal way. A little good news story is welcomed.Naturally, the source of this feel-good story...

Vice President Mike Pence's speech at the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting Wednesday has left some Christians unhappy, especially the newly chosen leader of the SBC.

For those of you familiar with fundamentalist movements, particularly the IFB (Independent Fundamental Baptist), you’ll know these movements tend to be rife with sexual abuse and cover-ups. Because the IFB maintains ideologies of separatism and elitism, they tend to deal with their issues “in house.” The trend is: keep it in the church, don’t tell anyone (authorities included), blame the victim, and re-locate the offender to another church in another town (and don’t forget his severance package). Well, in a shocking turn of events, one IFB mega-pastor took a public stand against these actions, and those of us who have...

Former Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney lashed out at the decision to have a controversial evangelical leader give a blessing at the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem Monday, calling him a "religious bigot." The Senate candidate from Utah criticized the inclusion of the Rev. Robert Jeffress — the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas who is also an an adviser to President Donald Trump. The president recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital last year. "Robert Jeffress says, 'You can't be saved by being a Jew,' and 'Mormonism is a heresy from the pit of hell,'" Romney wrote in...

The District of Columbia Baptist Convention has been given 90 days to remove a church with lesbian co-pastors from fellowship or risk severing ties with the Southern Baptist Convention.SBC's official news service, Baptist Press, reports that the SBC Executive Committee approved a motion on Feb. 20 giving the DCBC until May 20 to end its affiliation with churches "that have demonstrated a faith or practice affirming, approving or endorsing homosexual behavior."The motion effectively gives DCBC the option to either sever its ties with the 155-year-old Calvary Baptist Church or help lead the church to "repentance."In January 2017, Calvary Baptist hired lesbian...

In the early 2000s, when I was a middle schooler in Florida, I was subjected to a trauma that was meant to erase my existence as a newly out bisexual. My parents were Southern Baptist missionaries who believed the dangerous and discredited practice of conversion therapy could “cure” my sexuality. I sat on a couch over two years and endured emotionally painful sessions with a counselor. I was told that my faith community rejected my sexuality; that I was the abomination we had heard about in Sunday school; that I was the only gay person in the world; that it...

Feeling helpless hearing the news of yet another mass shooting, this time in a church in a small town in Texas. Name wasn't Islamic, so my guess is either a plain old fashioned lunatic, or a snowflake in meltdown. Which ever. This is all I can do about it, start a memorial song thread for people to contribute to. Theme is Texas, cowboys, oil wells, whatever Texas means to you, or Baptist hymns, if that's what you want. Songs are best, but poems, anecdotes, whatever moves you. I grabbed one of the best again, with the song Giant.

If I told you that Baptists broke the Ramadan fast at a local mosque, it might grab your attention. If I added that a Republican U.S. Senate candidate showed up after the evening prayers for a stump speech, you'd think I was surely making it up. If I claimed that we all had dinner together, you'd probably be bracing for a particularly bad punch line. He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. ... Luke 22:36 That is...

The abortion business Planned Parenthood managed to find a few clergy to help promote its pro-abortion agenda in a new video. Planned Parenthood is desperate for support after Americans elected a large group of pro-life leaders to the United States Congress last fall. Efforts to cut off millions of taxpayer funds to the abortion chain are under way. In an appeal to religious individuals, Planned Parenthood produced a new video this week where four pro-abortion clergy members – two Baptist pastors, a Unitarian Universalist pastor and a Jewish rabbi — urged people to support the abortion business, according to the...

Why Baptists Should Support Muslims’ Right to Build Mosques Given the shift in American demographics, it might not be long before the Baptists are once again a powerless minority. And this time, it might be Muslims before whom they are pleading for ‘soul freedom.’

Two Texas Baptist churches may be expelled from the Baptist General Convention of Texas for their welcoming open-door policies toward LGBTQ people, reports say. The Baptist Standard reports that Wilshire Baptist in Dallas and First Baptist in Austin received letters from BGCT officials stating that because the churches had affirmed themselves with the LGBTQ people, they were "no longer being in harmonious cooperation with the BGCT."

Must read Wikileaks tweet that links to the_donald subreddit where someone there has found a link between Hillary and child stealer Laura Silsby! https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/794247777756860417

The National Baptist Convention is being held in Kansas City Missouri with thousands of baptist worshipers from all fifty states. Hillary Clinton was the key note speaker.The convention organizers anticipated considerable -and enthusiastic- attendance, amid a predominantly black audience, and set up the venue accordingly in the Kansas City Convention Center Thursday afternoon.Then this happened:It gets worse:And worse:The stunningly lackluster results must be sending shock waves throughout the DNC and Clinton Campaign. This portends trouble…. Big Trouble.The latest poll results via Kansas City Star for the presidential race – Sept 6th:In a four-way race for president: R – Donald...

Blue Creek Academy was an abusive hell on earth, former students say—and the principal who ran it is now heading up a new Bible school in another state. Jacob* dressed himself in a camouflage jacket and a matching beanie on the summer morning he ran away into the West Virginia hills. At 14 years old, he was one of the youngest, smallest, and longest-attending students at Blue Creek Academy, a religious reform school for boys from which he was desperate to escape. Blue Creek Academy was made up of an old schoolhouse and several cabins situated on a remote campground...