Nation

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.

The Supreme Court is reviving a lawsuit brought by a Georgia college student who sued school officials after being prevented from distributing Christian literature on campus. Lower courts said the case was moot, but the Supreme Court disagreed.

A sweeping bill that would extend federal civil rights protections to LGBTQ people is a top priority of President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress. Yet as the Equality Act heads to the Senate, its prospects seem bleak — to a large extent because of opposition from conservative religious leaders.

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.

As Missouri lawmakers consider creating a day to honor Rush Limbaugh after his death last month, a group of three dozen faith leaders mostly in St. Louis submitted testimony opposing the bill. Rep. Hardy Billington, a Republican and a Baptist deacon, authored a bill two days after Limbaugh’s death.

Faith leaders are ramping up their support for an Oklahoma death row inmate as his clemency hearing nears. Julius Jones, 40, was sentenced to death in 2002, but his advocates say a different person committed the crime in which a prominent Edmond, Oklahoma, businessman was killed during a carjacking.

Conservative leaders within the United Methodist Church unveiled plans Monday to form a new denomination, the Global Methodist Church, with a doctrine that does not recognize same-sex marriage.

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.

A state appeals court in Texas ruled last week that a sexual abuse lawsuit could go forward against Paul Pressler, a former judge and influential Southern Baptist who helped lead a rightward shift in the denomination in the 1980s and 1990s.

At least 160 public Confederate symbols were taken down or moved from public spaces in 2020, according to a new count by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group keeps a raw count of nearly 2,100 statues, symbols, placards, buildings, and public parks dedicated to the Confederacy.