News Articles by Andrew J.W. Smith

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- Charles W. Draper, a professor of Boyce College and chair of the school's department of biblical studies, died from a heart attack June 25. He was 70. "Professor Charlie Draper was a cherished member of the Boyce College and Southern Seminary faculty, and he will be greatly missed," said R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Boyce College.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- Ministers of the Gospel are not partakers in a career, but recipients of a divine calling, R. Albert Mohler Jr. said in his commencement address May 19 to the 2017 graduates of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. During 219th commencement exercises on the seminary lawn, 318 master's and doctoral students received degrees. A week earlier, 149 Boyce College students graduated, with the combined 467 degrees representing the largest commencement in Southern Seminary's history.

Trustees of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary unanimously approved the installation of Southern Baptist Convention President Steve Gaines to a visiting professorship during their April 10 meeting.

DEARBORN, Mich. (BP) -- In Dearborn, Mich., home of the largest concentration of Arab-Americans in the United States, students from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary learned about praying for and sharing the Gospel with local Muslims during a three-day visit to the city. Led by faculty member Ayman S. Ibrahim, the team interacted with a number of the 100,000-plus Arab Americans who comprise at least 45 percent of Dearborn's population.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- With secular culture increasingly marginalizing the Christian faith, believers should leave behind political battles and embrace the communal life exemplified by St. Benedict of Nursia, author Rod Dreher said in the Gheens Lectures, Feb. 7-8 at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Although Christianity continues to spread in Asia and the global south, it is rapidly losing its influence in the public square in the West, said Dreher, senior editor of the American Conservative and author of "The Benedict Option," a book to be released March 14 that formed the basis of his lectures.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- Christian ministers should not settle for the comfortable career of secular professionals but courageously embrace their prophetic role, R. Albert Mohler Jr. said in his Dec. 2 winter commencement address at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The seminary conferred 180 master's and doctoral degrees during commencement exercises in Alumni Memorial Chapel.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (SBTS) -- A complete scroll of the Torah dating to the 16th or 17th century was given to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in a presentation at Alumni Memorial Chapel, Sept. 1. President R. Albert Mohler Jr. accepted the scroll, which contains the first five books of the Old Testament, from Ken and Barbara Larson, thanking them for their contribution to the seminary's understanding of the Bible.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- Speeding around Earth at 17,500 mph, U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams spoke through a NASA downlink during Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's chapel Tuesday (Aug. 30). Williams, interviewed by SBTS President R. Albert Mohler Jr., is commander for Expedition 48 of the International Space Station. The astronaut has spoken at the Louisville, Ky., campus previously and regularly listens to Mohler's podcast "The Briefing" in orbit.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- The Southern Baptist Convention's first African-American seminary professor is among three retiring faculty members at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. T. Vaughn Walker, David L. Puckett and Brian C. Richardson are retiring following the 2015-2016 school year with 64 combined years of service on the faculty of Southern Seminary. Walker, WMU professor of Christian ministries and professor of black church studies, was appointed in 1986 as the first black professor at any of the six SBC seminaries, and then the first elected to the faculty in 1997.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (BP) -- From his first day as governor of Kentucky, Matt Bevin's inbox has been piling up. Notes, letters, emails, texts -- all from conservative Christians who at last feel represented. Many of them include a well-known snippet from the book of Esther: For such a time as this. Bevin was sworn in as the third Republican governor of Kentucky since World War II, a Tea Party conservative who defeated Democratic candidate Jack Conway in November 2015. "People think it must be daunting, dealing with all these people, making all these big decisions," Bevin told Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Magazine in his office inside the state capitol in Frankfort.