WASHINGTON (BP) – The Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine effort received Southern Baptist commendation, but the president’s advocacy for an expansive gay and transgender rights bill earned disapproval after his first speech to a limited, joint session of Congress.

MINNEAPOLIS (BP) – Leaders and pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention joined others this evening in commenting on the verdict of former police officer Derek Chauvin as guilty on all counts in the death of George Floyd.

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Police on Tuesday identified a 21-year-old man as the suspect who opened fire inside a crowded Colorado supermarket, killing 10 people, including a police officer.

HEBRON, Ky. (BP) – The federal government has passed three separate COVID relief bills to cover losses during a pandemic year. Christians will disagree on whether these bills were prudent or needed, but it has resulted in individuals and families receiving money they would never have expected.

MILTON, Ga. (BP) – Elders at Crabapple First Baptist Church condemned both the “extreme and wicked” actions and the purported motives of a church member who allegedly killed eight people in a series of shootings, calling them a direct contradiction of his professed faith in Christ and the church’s teachings.

DALLAS (AP) – A winter storm dropping snow and ice also sent temperatures plunging across the southern Plains, prompting a power emergency in Texas a day after conditions canceled flights and impacted traffic across large swaths of the U.S.

NEW ORLEANS (BP) – Years before I became a pastor or seminary professor, I had another job. As a 16-year-old boy, growing up in Atlanta, I had a dream job – I was a batboy for the Atlanta Braves.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lifted regional stay-at-home orders across the state Monday in response to improving coronavirus conditions, returning the state to a system of county-by-county restrictions.

WASHINGTON (BP) – The U.S. House of Representatives voted 232-197 Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 13) to impeach Donald Trump for inciting insurrection, making him the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice.

WASHINGTON (BP) – Protestant Christians remain easily the largest religious group in Congress, but those who identify as “unspecified” have expanded their advantage over Baptists in that category.