HOUSTON (AP) — A former Southern Baptist pastor who supported legislation in Texas that would have criminalized abortions has been arrested on charges of child sex abuse, accused of repeatedly...

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (AP) — Sharing a stage with tearful survivors of sex abuse, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention apologized Wednesday for the abuse crisis besetting his...

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (AP) — Confronting an unprecedented sex-abuse crisis, delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention's national meeting voted Tuesday to make it easier to expel churches that...

HOUSTON (AP) — A former minister in Houston has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to what prosecutors call the theft of more than $800,000 from First Baptist...

The Southern Baptist Convention gathers for its annual national meeting Tuesday with one sobering topic — sex abuse by clergy and staff — overshadowing all others.

SUMTER, S.C. (AP) — When he started at Alice Drive Baptist Church, a former pastor there told him "it's a good church to start at, but nobody stayed for too long."

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Convention planners say the upcoming Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Birmingham is one of the city's largest events ever.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The nation's largest Protestant denomination reported its twelfth year of declining membership in an annual report released Thursday.

ATLANTA (AP) — The Westboro Baptist Church protested outside of the country's only all-male historically black college over the school's new admission policy that accepts transgender...

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Stained-glass windows honoring some religious leaders who helped shift the Southern Baptist Convention to a more conservative stance have been removed from a Texas...

BOW, N.H. (AP) — In all the years since Bow Baptist Church was built in 1832, the building has stood strong even as its bones have aged.

Some modifications to the church's interior have been...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Anchorage minister whose influence extended beyond the pulpit into Alaska politics has stepped down.

The Rev. Jerry Prevo gave a farewell sermon Sunday at...

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A global Baptist figure and the mayor of Jackson are saluting graduates of Belhaven University.

Broadcaster, pastor and speaker Billy Kim spoke to students receiving...

OPELOUSAS, La. (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence praised the parishioners of three African American churches Friday for the inspiring way they responded to the destruction of their sanctuaries by...

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A member of an African American church in Mississippi admitted setting the church on fire but never took responsibility for the words "Vote Trump" that were spray painted on...

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A longtime treasurer for a rural Baptist church near Hannibal has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for defrauding the church out of around...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A beloved pastor at a Baptist church in Utah has announced his retirement after 45 years of service.

The Deseret News reports that hundreds attended a celebratory...

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — The Rev. Raymond Burt Sr. recollected the history of the Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church as one that has grieved, but holds on to an optimistic future for the...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A crowdfunding drive to help rebuild three African American churches gutted by arson fires in Louisiana has surpassed its original $1.8 million goal.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A crowdfunding campaign for three African American churches in Louisiana recently gutted by arson was climbing Tuesday after social media posts urging the public not to forget...

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A former youth pastor at a Vermont Baptist church who admitted exploiting a teenage girl in a youth group will avoid jail time and not be placed on the sex offender registry...

OPELOUSAS, La. (AP) — Members of three historically African American churches that burned in recent weeks in Louisiana say fires won't stop them from worshipping.

OPELOUSAS, La. (AP) — Authorities in southern Louisiana are investigating a string of "suspicious" fires at three African American churches in recent days.

DALLAS (AP) — Arkansas Pastor Ronnie Floyd has been elected president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee after the man previously in the role resigned due to an...

OPELOUSAS, La. (AP) — Two historically black Baptist churches have been destroyed by fires in one week in a Louisiana parish.

News outlets report that the Greater Union Baptist Church in...

SACRAMENTO, Ky. (AP) — Ken Frizzell wears a badge daily as McLean County sheriff, but he also keeps his Bible close as the pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Sacramento.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A member of a black church in Mississippi has pleaded guilty to burning the church, which was also spray painted with the slogan "Vote Trump," a week before the 2016...

ATLANTA (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is set to speak Sunday at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Martin Luther King Jr. once occupied the...

BEAUREGARD, Ala. (AP) — The pastor of a church that became a center for shelter, help and grieving when a tornado killed 23 people in eastern Alabama said in his first Sunday service after the...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — President Donald Trump was just doing what he could to raise spirits when he signed Bibles at an Alabama church for survivors of a tornado outbreak, many religious leaders...

BEAUREGARD, Ala. (AP) — With nearly two dozen people killed in a tornado outbreak that shattered a rural community in east Alabama, notifying the families of the dead was a huge, gut-wrenching...

California Baptist (15-13, 6-8) vs. Texas Rio Grande Valley (18-14, 9-6)

UTRGV Fieldhouse, Edinburg, Texas; Thursday, 8 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Texas Rio Grande Valley goes for the...

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — The pilot and passenger of a small private plane pulled from the Red River over the weekend will be laid to rest this week.

Incarnate Word (6-23, 1-15) vs. Houston Baptist (11-16, 7-9)

Sharp Gymnasium, Houston; Wednesday, 8 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Houston Baptist looks to extend Incarnate Word's conference...

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — An initiative aimed at recruiting more foster and adoptive parents in Kentucky plans two meetings in March for interested parties to get information.

It has been a wrenching season for three of America's largest religious denominations, as sex-abuse scandals and a schism over LGBT inclusion fuel anguish and anger within the Roman Catholic,...

MINOT, N.D. (AP) — Kent Hinkel made his first pilgrimage to Israel when he was a student in his last year of ministry training in 1994.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Dozens of members of Congress are making a weekend-long civil rights pilgrimage through Alabama, visiting historic spots and memorials to the struggle for racial...

CHAPIN, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina woman says she was fired from her role as a teacher at a Baptist child development center for her same-sex relationship.

Utah Valley (20-8, 9-4) vs. California Baptist (15-12, 6-7)

CBU Events Center, Riverside, California; Saturday, 10 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Utah Valley looks for its fifth straight...

Seattle (15-13, 3-10) vs. California Baptist (15-11, 6-6)

CBU Events Center, Riverside, California; Thursday, 10 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Seattle seeks revenge on California Baptist after...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Southern Baptist officials have cleared seven churches accused of covering up sexual abuse just days after a top leader called for greater scrutiny following a joint...

Houston Baptist (10-15, 6-8) vs. Lamar (16-12, 9-6)

Montagne Center, Beaumont, Texas; Wednesday, 8 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Lamar looks for its sixth straight conference win against...

STANLEY, N.C. (AP) — Walk inside 1Mission Coffee Co. in Stanley and you'll hear the hiss of espresso machines, you'll smell freshly ground java, and you just might be spellbound at the sight of...

California Baptist (14-11, 5-6) vs. Cal State Bakersfield (16-10, 7-5)

Icardo Center, Bakersfield, California; Saturday, 10 p.m. EST

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — More than a decade after the Southern Baptist Convention rejected the idea of creating a database of ministers credibly accused of sexual abuse, leaders said on Monday night the possibility is on the table.

The denomination already was looking at how it could better respond to abuse when two Texas newspapers published an investigation last week that detailed hundreds of cases of abuse in its churches.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A prominent leader in the Southern Baptist Convention said he was wrong to support a Kentucky pastor accused of covering up sex abuse.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Hundreds of Southern Baptist church leaders and workers have been accused of sexual misconduct over the past 20 years, including dozens who returned to church duties, according to a joint investigation by two newspapers.