By Lisa Sergent Baptist Press ARTHUR, Ill. — Fourteen-year-old Lindsey Yoder walked 15 miles a day along the dusty back roads of southern Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee in a quest to raise awareness about human trafficking. She departed from Arthur (Ill.) Southern Baptist Church, where she and her family are members, on May 28 and arrived at Nashville’s Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park on June 24. Her mother Regina

Baptist Press OKLAHOMA CITY – Hobby Lobby Stores will forfeit thousands of improperly acquired ancient biblical artifacts and pay a $3 million fine in a civil settlement the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced July 5. The settlement closed a federal investigation of the store’s 2010 purchase and subsequent importation of more than 5,500 artifacts from dealers who did not disclose the items’ Iraqi origin. Hobby Lobby paid $1.6 million for

By Art Toalston Baptist Press PHOENIX — Just to the right of a heart defibrillator and fire extinguisher, Phil Baker has set up a plastic-top folding table in the cavernous loading dock at the Phoenix Convention Center. Baker has placed a plastic box there labeled “Prayer Requests,” along with a supply of blank index cards and pencils and a couple dozen devotional booklets. Another small stack of cards explains what

By Bob Smietana Lifeway Research NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Americans love to fight about sex and religion. From shacking up and same-sex marriage to birth control and bathrooms, Americans disagree about what is right and wrong with sex—often based on faith. Those disputes can end up in court, in highly divisive and controversial cases. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of a Colorado baker who refused to make

Baptist Press PHOENIX — A 12-member study group is expected to recommend in 2018 a new title, credentialing process, and expectations of effectiveness for Southern Baptist directors of missions (DOMs). The Southern Baptist Conference of Associational Leaders (SBCAL) appointed the group at its conference held June 11-12 in advance of the 2017 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Phoenix. The team is charged with submitting a report at the SBCAL

By Diana Chandler Baptist Press PHOENIX (BP) — A protest that an LGBT advocacy group had billed as “historic” was hardly noticeable on the opening day of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Phoenix, bystanders said. But flyers distributed by the group included the SBC 2017 logo and theme. About 50 people appeared to join in Faith in America’s (FIA) protest asking the SBC to remove homosexuality and transgenderism