Kate Shellnutt

2 weeks ago | christianitytoday.com | Kate Shellnutt

After the Southern Baptist annual meeting, some messengers are still holding out for change. Southern Baptists didn't enact major reforms at their annual meeting this week. They didn't vote to shut down their long-standing public policy arm, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). They didn't go ahead with a constitutional amendment barring churches with women as pastors. They didn't adopt sweeping new requirements for financial transparency.

2 weeks ago | christianitytoday.com | Kate Shellnutt

Southern Baptists remain united in their long-standing opposition to gambling, pornography, abortion, and same-sex marriage, and they're putting out stronger calls for the US government to ban what they see as sinful and harmful practices. On Tuesday at the annual meeting, a slate of resolutions-positional statements meant to represent the position of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)-all passed by huge majorities with little to no debate.

2 weeks ago | christianitytoday.com | Kate Shellnutt

On the 100th anniversary of its cooperation, the convention faces slipping trust and calls for greater accountability. Ask Southern Baptists their favorite part of their annual meeting, and nearly everyone will tell you: the missionary-sending presentation. Couples and individuals getting ready to serve abroad introduce themselves from the convention stage, with those bound for sensitive countries hidden in silhouette, and the crowd prays for them.

2 weeks ago | christianitytoday.com | Kate Shellnutt

Meet the survivors and advocates whose voices spurred "holy rumblings" in the nation's largest Protestant denomination. For many years, even as revelations of sexual abuse by clergy had been coming to light for decades in the Catholic church, the evangelical church had not had "eyes to see" or "ears to hear" the extent of its own abuse crisis.

1 month ago | christianitytoday.com | Kate Shellnutt

The founder of the successful family duck-call business was also a Bible teacher and champion for conservative causes. Phil Robertson, the no-nonsense patriarch of the Louisiana family who founded the Duck Commander brand and starred in Duck Dynasty, died Sunday at 79. His family shared last December that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The Robertsons became Christian reality-TV stars when the series chronicling the antics at their family duck-call business took off in 2012.