Baptist

A Tennessee pastor who confessed two decades ago to statutory rape has resigned after his church was recently removed from the Southern Baptist Convention for hiring him. Pastor Randy Leming Jr., who served at Antioch Baptist Church in Sevierville, announced his resignation on Feb. 28.

On Friday, the faculty at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, held a vote of “no confidence” in the school’s Board of Trustees, with 60% of the vote backing the resolution. However, the faculty will redo the vote after concerns about the process emerged over the weekend.

The faculty at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, passed a resolution expressing “no confidence” in the school’s Board of Trustees. The unprecedented move comes after the Board denied tenure or promotion to several faculty members.

Amid concerns at Southwest Baptist University after the Board of Trustees denied tenure or promotion to multiple professors, leaders of the school in Bolivar, Missouri, insist they will not eliminate or change the Division of Behavioral Sciences.

After a Southwest Baptist University professor and a student joined a legal effort Friday to block the new governing documents for their school in Bolivar, Missouri, SBU’s attorney responded Tuesday by claiming the school’s legal documents are beyond such legal scrutiny because the school is religious.

A southeastern Missouri preacher went on leave from his church and is seeking professional counseling after giving a sermon that chastised married women who “let themselves go” and held up former first lady Melania Trump as the pinnacle of feminine beauty.

Before a judge heard arguments Friday (March 5) involving an effort by a former trustee of Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, to block the school’s new governing documents, a current professor and a current student filed to also intervene.

Southwest Baptist University is urging a circuit court judge to approve its new governing documents and reject an effort by a former trustee to intervene. A Baptist layman filed a petition on Feb. 22 with the Circuit Court of Polk County in an effort to stop the approval of the school’s new governing documents.

Leaders of the General Baptist Council of Associations have recommended an investigation of a minister who preached that “weight control” by wives is the solution for marital problems. Stewart-Allen Clark, pastor of the First General Baptist Church in Malden, Missouri, is seen in video clips of a Feb. 21 sermon.

A Baptist layman in Bolivar, Missouri, filed a motion last week to block Southwest Baptist University from changing its governing documents. Don Jump, an alum of SBU who served on the Board of Trustees for 10 years until 2018, filed his petition with the Circuit Court of Polk County on Feb. 22.