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A group of around 150 Baptist Christians who were forcibly displaced from their villages in a region of Mexico have moved to the neighbouring state of Veracruz after authorities failed to honour an agreement allowing for the return of the group and guaranteeing freedom of religion or belief for all.The group from the Great Commission Fundamental Baptist Church were forced to move from their villages of Coamila and Rancho Nuevo in April after local authorities said religious minority groups wouldn't be tolerated. Those who chose to stay were told they would have their movements strictly monitored to enforce a prohibition...

A prominent Seattle minister and homeless activist has been arrested on child sex crime charges, including possession of child pornography, with some victims being as young as five years old. David Bloom, 82, of north Seattle, was taken into custody on Sept. 20. Court documents state that Seattle police detectives found Bloom in possession of multiple images of children engaging in sexual acts alone and with men and women. Bloom was booked into King County Jail on one count of second-degree dealing and one count of second-degree possession of explicit images of children, CBS 12 reported. He was released on...

The Southern Baptist church has narrowly rejected a proposal to ban women as pastors. Members voted 61.4% to 38.3% in favour of a ban. However, a two-thirds majority was required to amend the church's constitution. The proposed amendment, which stated that “only men” could hold the role, would have affected women at hundreds of the church's 47,000 places of worship. The Southern Baptist Convention and its nearly 13 million church members are mostly a conservative voting bloc in American elections. The vote's failure is a blow to the group's hard-right faction, which has been vying for influence. In a written...

CV NEWS FEED // The funeral for the late Rep. Donald Payne, Jr., D-NJ, a pro-abortion Baptist, is reportedly scheduled to be held at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark Thursday, May 4. North Jersey Media Group reported Friday that the late congressman’s funeral will take place “at 10 a.m. Thursday at Newark’s Cathedral Basilica.” Other sources corroborated this date and location. In addition, multiple sources indicate that Payne listed his religious affiliation as Baptist. It is likely that he was never baptized as a Catholic. Payne’s father and predecessor, the late Rep. Donald Payne, Sr., D-NJ,...

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...