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 ...

ROHATYN, Ukraine (AP) — Steven Reece pulls a shield over his face, takes a weed whacker in hand, and begins trimming tall grass in an overgrown, tick-infested Jewish cemetery in western Ukraine where tombstones lie toppled and broken.

For years now, Reece, an ordained Southern Baptist ...

DETROIT (AP) — The Latest on a viewing of Aretha Franklin Thursday at the church where her father preached and she started singing gospel (all times local):

12:40 p.m.

With the third day of public viewing for the Queen of Soul has come a third outfit change.

Mourners at New ...

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (AP) — Framed obituaries and stuffed animals are part of a museum exhibit to remember the more than two dozen people slain last fall during gunfire at a South Texas church.

The

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Until a few years ago, the greatest threat to the future of the 99-year-old New Light Beulah Baptist Church in Philadelphia’s Graduate Hospital neighborhood was a thunderstorm that barreled through on a Thursday evening, ripping off part of the roof.

The raging downpour ...

NEW STANTON, Pa. (AP) — Representatives from 13 area churches got tips last week on proper handling of guns in the event any of their congregations faces a deadly intruder.

In an age when any house of worship might become a gunman’s target, the 17 men who gathered at Calvary Baptist Church ...

Vice President Mike Pence gave an often boastful campaign-style speech Wednesday to the closing session of the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, winning several standing ovations even as some evangelicals criticized his appearance.

Pence repeatedly made clear that the SBC — the ...

DALLAS (AP) — The Southern Baptist Convention opened its annual national meeting Tuesday in an anxious mood as the denomination’s all-male leadership grappled with the fallout of multiple sexual misconduct cases.

With virtually no opposition, delegates at the meeting adopted resolutions ...

DALLAS (AP) — The Latest on the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas (all times local):

2:15 p.m.

About two dozen protesters gathered outside the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention are pushing for three changes to church operations.

They ...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A statue of Jesus that a Baptist church in South Carolina voted to remove because the congregation deemed it too Catholic has found a new home.

The hand-carved, 7-foot (2-meter) statue and accompanying reliefs depicting scenes from Christ’s life have been displayed ...

The Southern Baptists are facing their own #MeToo crisis as the biggest Protestant denomination in the U.S. heads into its annual meeting next week.

A series of sexual misconduct cases has prompted the Southern Baptist Convention’s socially conservative, all-male leadership to seek ...

DALLAS (AP) — A former seminary president dismissed over his response to two rape allegations made by students says he won’t give the featured sermon at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting next week in Dallas.

The convention’s news service, Baptist Press, says Paige Patterson ...

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — The president of a leading Baptist seminary in Texas was dismissed because of his response to two rape allegations made years apart by students, according to officials at the Fort Worth-based school.

Kevin Ueckert, board chairman for Southwestern Baptist ...

LEXINGTON, S.C. (AP) — A Baptist church in South Carolina plans to remove a hand-carved statue of Jesus Christ because some congregants believe it’s too “Catholic” for their place of worship.

The hand-carved, 7-foot (2-meter) statue and accompanying reliefs depicting scenes from Christ’s ...

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A former head of the Southern Baptist Convention was removed Wednesday as president of a Texas seminary following allegations of “unbiblical teaching” through sexist and demeaning comments to women who he suggests should tolerate abuse.

The Southwestern Baptist ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate candidate Mitt Romney of Utah says a prominent Baptist minister shouldn’t be giving the prayer that opens the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem because he’s a “religious bigot.”

In a tweet Sunday night, the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential ...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Three-term incumbent Rep. Robert Pittenger of North Carolina narrowly lost Tuesday to a Southern Baptist pastor in a GOP primary rematch focused on their evangelical Christian credentials and loyalty to President Donald Trump.

Two years ago, the Rev. Mark Harris of ...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Three-term incumbent Rep. Robert Pittenger of North Carolina narrowly lost Tuesday to a Southern Baptist pastor in a GOP primary rematch focused on their evangelical Christian credentials and loyalty to President Donald Trump.

Two years ago, the Rev. Mark Harris of ...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The president and chief executive of the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee has resigned following a “morally inappropriate relationship.”

Frank Page initially announced Monday he was retiring. But on Tuesday the 65-year-old released a statement ...