FORT WORTH – The loss of a rule that prevented officials from entering churches to arrest immigrants accused of being in the U.S. illegally has hurt the Church’s witness, the National Hispanic Baptist Network (NHBN) said Jan. 29 in calling for the rule’s reinstatement. The NHBN, a group representing more than 3,300 Southern Baptist churches, released its statement in Spanish and English nine days after the Department of Homeland Security

NASHVILLE — The Cooperative Program stands at a crossroads as its 100th birthday approaches. Messengers to the Tennessee Baptist Convention’s Summit felt that reality this fall. They voted reluctantly to decrease the SBC percentage of the Tennessee convention’s CP allocation from 47.5 to 45 and retain 55 percent for Tennessee ministries. “When we started moving toward 50/50 distribution of Cooperative Program giving, that was overwhelmingly approved by our messengers,” said

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Dec. 4 in United States v. Skrmetti, a case which will determine the constitutionality of a Tennessee law banning gender transition procedures or so-called “gender affirming care” for minors. The case involves three transgender teenagers and the Biden administration suing Tennessee officials in order to bar the state from enforcing the ban. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is named as the defendant

PHILADELPHIA — The Bible protects against what the U.S. surgeon general has termed an “epidemic of loneliness” as harmful to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, the American Bible Society (ABS) said in releasing its latest chapter of the 2024 State of the Bible. Bible engagement, forgiveness and church attendance all offer individual antidotes to loneliness, decreasing the malady by more than 50 percent, ABS said. Scripture engagement offers

CHATTANOOGA — As far as David and Marilyn Killian are concerned, God sent Cameron Lowe to save David’s life so David could help save Cameron’s. An HVAC repair worker, Cameron is trained to get compressors and blowers back up and running – not human hearts. But that’s exactly what he had to do one Thursday last month. David had made an appointment with North Georgia Heating and Air weeks earlier

Southern Baptists have set aside Sunday, Nov. 9, to focus on caring for widows and orphans. Based on James 1:27, “Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (CSB), the day gives churches an opportunity to pray for widows and orphans and evaluate their ministry to them. In a Lifeway Research