Church

Asian American Christian leaders said Thursday their congregations are saddened and outraged after a White gunman killed eight people — most of them women of Asian descent — at three Atlanta-area massage parlors. And they’re calling for action beyond prayers.

When pastors or churches talk about misconduct as a ‘moral failing’ instead of abuse, they send a message that victims and survivors are partially to blame. This can be seen in the response to Jennifer Lyell in Southern Baptist life.

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.

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.

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.

About 75 people gathered Friday afternoon outside the administration building at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, to protest the treatment of several professors in recent months.

After 3 1/2 years living inside a Missouri church to avoid deportation, Honduran immigrant Alex Garcia finally stepped outside Wednesday (Feb. 24), following a promise from President Joe Biden's administration to let him be.