News & Commentary About All Things Baptist

From the POLITICO.COM:
A group that includes leading conservative lawyers and policy experts, former Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and several senior officials of the last Bush administration is denouncing as “shameful” Republican attacks on lawyers who came to the Obama Justice Department after representing suspected terrorists.
Senate Republicans have demanded details of the lawyers’ past work and [...]

That’s how Sam Hodges of the Dallas Morning News described the recent decision of Royal Lane Baptist Church to publicly welcome and affirm all individuals regardless of sexual orientation:

A church, like a person, can come out of the closet. And that’s what Royal Lane Baptist did recently.
The 500-member [...]

John Hall of the Baptist General Convention of Texas has a fascinating article over at Associated Baptist Press on the anti-human trafficking ministries of Texas Baptists especially the Traffick911 ministry of Southside City Church in Fort Worth.
Here is a snippet:
Joining a new abolitionist movement
Citing biblical passages, a growing number of Baptists are showing that light [...]

Starr receives warm welcome at introduction to Baylor University community (Waco Tribune):
Starr, dean of Pepperdine Law School, got an unexpected welcoming embrace after his talk.
Several members of Baylor’s notorious NoZe Brotherhood stormed the stage, surrounding Starr. He took the gag in stride, good-naturedly laughing and posing for pictures.
Starr even sported the NoZe Brotherhood’s trademark glasses [...]

Ken Starr, the new President of Baylor University, was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos earlier today on Good Morning America.  Here is the video
And here is a lengthy farewell tribute blog post from a California minister/lawyer/adjunct professor who once worked with Starr.
Marv Knox of the Baptist Standard has by far the best article on Starr and [...]

That would be Nadine Strossen, long-time President of the American Civil Liberties Union:
“In my extensive dealings with Ken Starr over the past two decades - concerning some important civil liberties issues on which we have collaborated as allies, and other important issues on which we have strongly but respectfully disagreed - I have always found [...]

The Baylor University Board of Regents will introduce Ken Starr to Faculty/Staff on Tuesday at 3pm.
*Update* The Waco Tribune is also reporting that Ken Starr has been named the next President of Baylor University.
*Update* Politico is also reporting the selection of Starr.
*Update* Marv Knox of the Baptist Standard has a report on the selection as [...]

Wiley Drake is back in the news….
From The Orange County Register:
Southern Baptist Pastor Wiley Drake of Buena Park sent out an email Monday night, saying that perhaps his prayers had been answered with the death of Rep. John Murtha yesterday.
“Maybe God took him out,” Drake wrote. “Maybe God Answered our IMPRECATORY prayer that we prayed [...]

Speaking at the National Tea Party Convention, former United States Representative Tom Tancredo proposed a “civics literacy test” as a prerequisite to voting and announced that “people who could not even spell the word ’vote’ or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House.” A former Roman Catholic turned evangelical, [...]

President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships has made public their votes on “non-consensus reform report issues.”  For background on the Advisory Council and their work, see here.
Melissa Rogers, chair of the Advisory Council and Director of the Center for Religion and Public Affairs at Wake Forest University Divinity School, has posted the [...]