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• Southern Baptists quit World Alliance | The Southern Baptist Convention quit a global federation of Baptist denominations Tuesday as SBC leaders denounced the Baptist World Alliance and other groups for accepting liberal theology (Associated Press)
  
  
• U.S. Baptists split from world group | The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest U.S. Protestant denomination, voted on Tuesday to cut its links with the Baptist World Alliance, saying the global group is too liberal on gay rights and other issues (Reuters)
  
  

More on the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting:

• Baptist pastors cheer architects of `resurgence' | Hundreds of Southern Baptist pastors cheered leaders of the "conservative resurgence" Monday, 25 years after they launched it in Houston to stem fears of ambivalence in younger generations (Houston Chronicle)
  
  
• Southern Baptists still divided over conservatives' rise | On the revolt's 25th anniversary, Baptists still disagree about what happened and how it changed the convention (Palm Beach Post)
  
  
• Giving 'Exodus' a new meaning | Southern Baptists, show the way and perhaps many will follow. Stop waiting for the world's permission to fully exercise your faith and beliefs (which will never come) and start training your children in the ways your God wants them to go (Cal Thomas, The Washington Times)
  
  
• Bush finds common cause with Baptists | President Bush said Tuesday he was leery of casting himself as "more religious than my neighbor" as he aligned himself on an array of issues with a politically influential Christian group (Associated Press)
  
  
• Mega-pastor | Prestonwood leader wrapping up term as Southern Baptist president (The Dallas Morning News)
  
  

Churches still can't endorse candidates:

• House panel drops 'Safe Harbor for Churches' measure | The House Ways and Means Committee has killed a proposal that was intended to give clergy members freedom to endorse candidates for political office without endangering the tax-exempt status of their congregations (The Washington Post)
  
  
• Earlier: House 'Safe Harbor' proposal infringes on free speech, says Richard Land (Baptist Press)
  
  
• Earlier: Keep pulpits nonpartisan | Dismantling the wall between worship and politics is a threat both to the idea of secular American government and freedom of religious expression, and leaders of the U.S. House should know better (Editorial, Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
  
  

Vatican: Inquisition not so bad:

• Vatican: Inquisition not so widespread | Torture, burning at the stake and other punishment for the faithful condemned as witches or heretics by church tribunals during the centuries-long Inquisition was not as widespread as commonly believed, the Vatican said Tuesday (Associated Press)
  
  
• Historians say Inquisition wasn't that bad | According to the documents from Vatican archives relating to the trials of Jews, Muslims, Cathars, witches, scientists and other non-Catholics in Europe between the 13th and the 19th centuries, the number actually killed or tortured into confession during the Inquisition was far fewer than previously thought (The Guardian, London)
  
  
• Inquisition wasn't quite as bad as people think, says Pope | The Vatican sought to play down the terrors of the Inquisition yesterday, claiming that far fewer people were tortured and executed for heresy than was popularly believed (The Telegraph, London)
  
  
• Also: The Spanish Inquisition (Script, Monty Python's Flying Circus)
  
  

Catholicism:

• Vatican summit aims to combat threat of 'alternative' religions | Catholics from more than 25 countries are in Rome this week to hammer out a strategy for combating the threat posed to Christianity by "New Age" religions and fads (The Independent, London)
  
  

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June (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48