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.

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) — A Baptist minister in Spartanburg, South Carolina, is accused of repeatedly raping and twice impregnating a child, whose pregnancies were then terminated.

News outlets report 32-year-old Phillip Jerard Buckson was arrested Wednesday at the Cleveland Chapel Baptist Church, where he has worked since 2014. The Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office says he is charged with sexual conduct with a minor and has admitted to the allegations.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The mayor of North Carolina's largest city will share the stage with Gov. Roy Cooper and others at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. service for state government employees.

Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles is the special guest speaker for Friday's King holiday observance at First Baptist Church in downtown Raleigh.

The historically-black congregation has shared the service locale over the years with the historically-white First Baptist Church at the opposite corner of Capitol Square.

HENDERSON, Ky. (AP) — Alan Chamness says his grandfather didn't expect him to stay in Henderson more than six months.

Knowing Chamness' personality, it might be reasonable to understand that. Even at 70 years old, Chamness describes himself as having unmedicated attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

"I would have loved to have been an octopus to have more hands and do more things. I would have enjoyed it. I need more hands because my mind thinks like that," Chamness said.

SEGUIN, Texas (AP) — The Latest on armed man who told Texas police he was on way to church to fulfill "prophecy" (all times local):

5:30 p.m.

A Southeast Texas police chief says the handgun a man was carrying while on his way to a church to fulfill a "prophecy" was stolen days earlier from a home.

Vidor (VY'-dohr) police Chief Rod Carroll said Monday that it's not clear if 33-year-old Tony Dwayne Albert II was involved in the theft of the gun or obtained it later.

ATLANTA (AP) — Former President Jimmy Carter, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, and dozens of members of the Carter family attended worship service at the church where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached.

News outlets report more than 40 members of the Carter family joined the congregation for the last Sunday morning service of the year at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church.

The Rev. Raphael Warnock said it was an honor to host the 94-year-old former president of the United States.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Sure, six-year-old Lilly has the typical wish list for Christmas, including Barbie dolls and a dollhouse. But it was something much more meaningful that she longed for most: a family of her own.

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A former Southern Baptist official was indicted in Texas on charges related to the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl in 1997, when he was a 25-year-old seminary student in Fort Worth.

Mark Aderholt, now 47, was indicted by a Tarrant County grand jury Tuesday on a count of sexual assault of a child under 17 and three counts of indecency with a child.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Louisville-based Southern Baptist Theological Seminary on Wednesday disclosed its ties to slavery, detailing decades of racism and how its four founders owned more than 50 slaves.

Its 71-page report found the school, the oldest seminary associated with the Southern Baptist Convention, supported an ideology of bigotry and white supremacy after its founding in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1859.

HOUSTON (AP) — A former Houston minister has been accused of embezzling more than $800,000 from his church.

Jerrell Altic appeared in court Tuesday after surrendering to authorities.

A grand jury indicted the 40-year-old on Monday on a theft charge.

WENTWORTH, N.C. (AP) — A Baptist pastor and private school principal has pleaded guilty to performing inappropriate sex acts and sending several nude pictures to an underage girl in North Carolina.

CULPEPER, Va. (AP) — Hundreds gathered this month at Culpeper Baptist Church for a time of respectful reflection in remembrance of the lynching 100 years ago of Charles "Allie" Thompson.

The two-hour event, both solemn and joyful, ended outside the nearby local jail, from where the young man was taken before his brutal death. A century later, attendees stood outside the same building to join hands in a show of unity.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Baptist Convention has cut ties with more than 12 churches that showed support for an organization that lifted a ban this year on hiring LGBTQ employees.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The GOP nominee for a historically Republican congressional seat in North Carolina finds himself in an unusual situation: behind in money and overmatched on the airwaves.

NATALBANY, La. (AP) — A Louisiana man has been reunited with his high school class ring that went missing 32 years ago.

The Daily Star of Hammond reports the ring was found in Wiggins, Mississippi, and recently returned to Natalbany resident Luis Alvarez. Alvarez says the ring commemorating his 1984 graduation from Natalbany Baptist High School went missing in 1986. He says he's not sure how it ended up in Mississippi.

NICHOLS, S.C. (AP) — Craig Graham spent part of a recent Saturday morning on his hands and knees behind the sanctuary in Nichols Baptist Church, taking up flooring that congregants had worked to place about 18 months ago after Hurricane Matthew.

Elsewhere in the church four dehumidifiers hummed, several fans ran and the voices of other volunteers rang out. On the church's front steps was a pile of carpet that had, until Hurricane Florence, been on the floor in the sanctuary.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missouri's Republican Senate candidate Josh Hawley opposes a federal provision that bars religious organizations from political endorsements, and his upcoming appearance at a Baptist university may provide a test case for the future of the measure.

Hawley, the state's attorney general, is scheduled to speak Wednesday during chapel at Hannibal-LaGrange University, a 900-student college in Hannibal, 115 miles north of St. Louis.

HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Looking back, the Rev. Cortez R. Miller imagined he would become a pastor at the age of 30, but last Sunday, the 30-year-old celebrated his fifth pastoral anniversary at Moore's Baptist Church.

"It all happened so fast," said the husband and father of three. "I guess it's like when you don't know the decision to make, God will make a decision for you."

FALMOUTH, Va. (AP) — A state historical marker will be dedicated to a Baptist church established in 1868 by 27 African-Americans who selected a former slave as the church's first pastor.

The marker issued by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources will be dedicated Saturday at the Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Church in Falmouth. The event is open to the public.