Art Toalston

NASHVILLE (BP) -- A Southern Baptist seminary president has asked that his interview be removed from a forthcoming documentary decrying the issue of "social justice" currently being debated in evangelicalism. Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in North Carolina, recounted via Twitter on July 23 that he had a brief interview for a documentary, titled "By What Standard," being produced by the Founders Ministries, an organization founded in 1983 with a Calvinistic view of Baptist life and led by Florida pastor Tom Ascol.

NASHVILLE (BP) -- The Credentials Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention held an organizational meeting July 22 by video conferencing, electing Stacy Bramlett of Tennessee as its chair. The nine-member Credentials Committee was repurposed during the SBC's 2019 annual meeting into a standing committee to make inquiries and recommendations for action regarding instances of sexual abuse, racism or other issues that call a church's relationship with the SBC into question.

NASHVILLE (BP) -- D. August "Augie" Boto has announced he will retire from the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee effective Sept. 30. Boto, the EC's executive vice president and general counsel, notified EC President and CEO Ronnie Floyd of his retirement in a July 18 letter. His retirement brings his service "full circle," Boto told Baptist Press, having joined the EC as a member in 1995, the same year Floyd began his 1995-1997 service as EC chairman.

RAPID CITY, S.D. (BP) -- Garvon Golden, executive director/treasurer of the Dakota Baptist Convention since 2012, has announced his retirement, effective Dec. 31. "After serving in denominational life for the last 20 years I am excited about retiring into pastoring again," Golden, 66, told Baptist Press. "I hope to finish my life ministry in the local church as a pastor and preacher of the Gospel."

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (BP) -- Norman Geisler, one of the foremost defenders of the Christian faith in the discipline known as apologetics, died Monday (July 1). He was 86. Tributes to Geisler soon appeared in Religion News Service, Christianity Today and WORLD Magazine, among others.

ST. LOUIS (BP) -- The battle to shutter a final abortion clinic in Missouri will continue at least until Aug. 1, according to a state commission's ruling June 28, acting on a federal judge's ruling a week earlier. Missouri could become the first state in the nation without an abortion clinic since 1973's Roe v. Wade decision -- if state health requirements prevail in closing an abortion clinic operated by Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri (RHS).

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) -- Diversity among Southern Baptists was conveyed via two key committee reports approved at the SBC annual meeting in Birmingham, Ala., today (June 12). "The conversation about diversity is starting to yield a culture of diversity," said Bucky Kennedy, chairman of the SBC's Committee on Nominations, which recommends the trustees for the SBC's entities and members of its standing committees, including the newly repurposed Credentials Committee to make inquiries and recommendations for action regarding church departures from Southern Baptist beliefs regarding such issues as sexual abuse that call a church's standing into question.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) -- "What do you see," Ronnie Floyd asked, "for the future of the Southern Baptist Convention?" Floyd, the new president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, asked the question Tuesday morning (June 11) to 7,500 messengers at the SBC annual meeting in Birmingham, Ala., and to an extended audience watching online.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) -- Sexual abuse and racism would draw heightened action within the Southern Baptist Convention under recommendations to be considered during the June 11-12 SBC annual meeting in Birmingham, Ala. A key recommendation, approved by the SBC Executive Committee in its June 10 meeting, calls for repurposing the SBC Credentials Committee to field claims against churches in regard to sexual abuse and discrimination based on ethnicity as well as matters such as homosexuality that would call their relationship with the SBC into question.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) -- Michael Wood, lead pastor of First West church in West Monroe, La., will be nominated for vice president of the Southern Baptist Pastors' Conference, Tennessee pastor Jordan Easley has announced. Wood has "a love for the local church and our convention," said Easley, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Cleveland, Tenn. "He has a passion for lost people and a personal conviction to preach the Gospel, make disciples and mobilize people to live on mission."