WASHINGTON — Congress remains a largely Christian institution, bucking two societal trends of declining Christianity and waning religious affiliation, Pew Research said Jan. 3. More than a fifth of Congressional Protestants are Baptists. At least 88 percent of Congress – 469 of the 534 members – identified as Christian in the poll of the current 118th legislative body that is predominantly Protestant, Pew said in its analysis of poll results

NASHVILLE — This year’s most read stories are all over the map – one quite literally. From one scholar’s attempt to trace human DNA around the world and back to Noah to an SEC quarterback’s biblical children’s book to the Southern Baptist Convention’s ongoing reckoning with sexual abuse, Baptist Press covered a little bit of everything this year. Here are the stories people read the most.

Bobbye Rankin — who spent 23 years along with her husband, Jerry, serving as a Southern Baptist missionary in Asia — died on Monday, Jan. 2, at 78. The Rankins shifted from the missions field in 1993 to International Mission Board staff housed in Richmond, Virginia, when Jerry was named president of the then Foreign Mission Board. The name changed to IMB shortly after Jerry became president. They retired in

NASHVILLE — The long-sought-for reversal of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion and the election of its new president highlighted 2022 for the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. The commission celebrated the overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and continued to promote protections for preborn children and their mothers as a vital part of its work this year. The ERLC’s pro-life ministry included the