‘Worshiping Jesus,’ Shane Hall defies cancer’s toll
OKLAHOMA CITY (BP) — Misty Hall thought her husband Shane was uncomfortable. Confined to bed in their Oklahoma City home in the presumed last days of his battle with stomach cancer, he asked her to raise his hands. “I’m worshiping Jesus,” he explained. As the two of them listened to Charles Billingsley’s “I’ll Run to You,” the 46-year-old pastor mouthed every word Billingsley sang:...
Football prayer complaint leads to employee training
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (BP)—A public school system has agreed to update employees on applicable constitutional law after a special interest group complained of a Southern Baptist pastor’s impromptu prayer over an injured player at a high school football game. The Hamilton County Department of Education (HCDE) will “provide additional training to its employees on the application of the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses in public...
Violence brings cry for ‘true way of our Lord’
NASHVILLE (BP) — The collision of fear and mistrust have driven the violence upon violence that killed two black civilians and five police officers in three separate states in as many days, Southern Baptist pastor Lee Wesley told Baptist Press. “There is a fear on the part of police officers when they go into the black community, and that fear heightens their approach to these problems,” said Wesley, whose pastorate...
Mosque lawsuit brings concern, clarity on religious liberty
BERNARDS TOWNSHIP, N.J. (BP) — The proposed construction of a mosque in New Jersey has prompted discussion among Southern Baptists of the proper way to protect Muslims’ religious liberty. Today (June 9) a trio of Southern Baptist professors — Jason Duesing, provost at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Thomas White, president of Cedarville University; and Malcolm Yarnell, professor of systematic theology at...
Orlando massacre spurs prayer, compassion
ORLANDO, Fla. (BP) — Calls for prayer and compassion rang out from Southern Baptists nationwide hours after the mass murder of 49 and the injury of 53 early Sunday (June 11) at an Orlando, Fla., gay nightclub in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Armed with a handgun and an AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, a U.S.-born citizen of Afghani parents, walked into the Pulse nightclub around 2 a.m....
