Baptist Press News

The Southern Baptist Convention's benefits entity has joined the growing chorus of evangelical and Roman Catholic voices publicly protesting the Obama administration's mandate that health insurance plans cover contraceptives, including ones that can cause abortions. "This encroachment of religious freedom is blatant and outrageous and should be taken seriously by those of us who are part of the body of believers, as well as by others who respect and regard this nation's history and constitutional foundation," GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins said in a written statement.

Hispanic ministries in Alabama adjust to ramifications of the state's immigration law that went into effect last fall.

Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, will be nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Convention by David E. Crosby, pastor of First Baptist Church in New Orleans. Crosby said the election of Luter "as the first African American president of the SBC will send a great, hopeful, powerful message to our city, our culture, our convention and our country."

New Orleans pastor Fred Luter recounts how he came to be open to the Southern Baptist Convention's presidency and what priorities, if elected, he would pursue.

The Georgia Baptist Convention experienced its most dramatic staff reduction ever Jan. 26-27 as 16 employees and two vacant positions were eliminated in the latest round of downsizing. Staffing has now been cut 26 percent since the 2008 recession.

For much of the season, Chase Blackburn watched the NFL season the way millions of other fans did -- from his couch. He ended the season, however, in the middle of the New York Giants Super Bowl victory celebration. In Sunday's Super Bowl XLVI win over New England, Blackburn made one of the game's biggest plays, intercepting a Tom Brady pass to tight end Rob Gronkowski at the Giants' 8 yard line with 14:20 left in the fourth quarter.

Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., and author of "The Purpose Driven Life," says that the 16th-century Anabaptists shaped his Purpose Driven model for the church. More than 500 students, faculty members and guests from around the world attended the "Anabaptism and Contemporary Baptists" conference at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where Warren joined prominent Anabaptist historian Abraham Friesen as a featured speaker.

A plurality of self-identified evangelicals and born-again Christians voted for Mitt Romney during Saturday's Nevada caucuses, helping him secure his second straight victory in the Republican nomination race.

In February, many churches hold annual True Love Waits ceremonies for young people who make commitments to remain abstinent until their wedding day.

The Obama administration's decision to require religious institutions to cover abortion-inducing contraceptives amounts to the trampling of religious liberty "under the feet of the leviathan state," says columnist R. Albert Mohler Jr.

Columnist Evan Lenow, a Texas Rangers fan who follows Josh Hamilton, examines what Christians and sports fans should think when sports stars like Hamilton have public failures, as Hamilton recently did.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure has revised a policy that it had recently used in deciding to stop funding for Planned Parenthood, leaving the impression it had reversed itself on future grants to the country's No. 1 abortion provider. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, voiced disappointment that the Komen foundation would "cave to the political pressure of the radical pro-choice movement."

New York Giants backup quarterback David Carr arrives at his first Super Bowl, persevering through a bumpy NFL career.

Grant Ethridge, president of the Southern Baptist Pastors' Conference, recounts his first experience in 1984 with the annual sessions and previews plans for this year's June 17-18 conference in New Orleans.

Speakers at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in the nation's capital usually keep their talks diplomatic. After all, the room is filled with ambassadors, lawmakers from both parties, Cabinet members, and people of various faiths from around the world. But with President Obama in the audience, featured speaker Eric Metaxas talked to an audience of 4,000 important people about false religion, human depravity, poverty, slavery and abortion.

Alaska Airlines is discontinuing a 30-year-old tradition of placing prayer cards on meal trays in order to "respect the diverse religious beliefs and cultural attitudes" of their customers and employees.

It is not clear what Komen's Friday statement accomplished, says columnist Denny Burk, but the organization is worse off than it was a month ago and now looks like a leftist pro-choice political group.

The top abortion provider in the United States won a big victory Friday, and a once-reputable cancer charity -- Komen -- was further tarnished, says columnist Kelly Boggs.