A Southern Baptist Convention resolution that denounced gay conversion therapy bans and “homosexual identity politics” failed to go through at the denomination’s annual meeting.

Robert O. Lopez, a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas, who submitted the resolution, explained to The Christian Post what happened.

“The resolution was declined in committee and never came up for a vote. Attempts to revive it from the floor failed when time was called,” said Lopez.

The SBC Committee on Resolutions explained why the measure did not go through.

“While the Committee believes that the Southern Baptist Convention messengers would agree that ministries seeking to provide biblical counsel to those with same-sex attraction is needed as evidenced by the over two dozen resolutions addressing homosexuality over the last forty years, as well as Article XV of The Baptist Faith and Message, the Committee concluded…

Vice President Mike Pence touted President Trump’s meeting with North Korean President Kim Jong Un in a speech before Southern Baptists and urged their continuing prayers as the administration moves ahead with negotiations to seek peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The speech drew cheers from a friendly crowd as Pence tallied accomplishments popular with evangelicals in areas from abortion to aid for persecuted Christians abroad. Concerns raised one day prior about the denomination appearing too cozy with one political party faded to the background when he took the stage.

“While strong American leadership has accomplished much, he and I both know that the effective and fervent prayers of a righteous people availeth much,” Pence said on Wednesday (June 13), referencing the Book of James from the New Testament. “Let’s all pray, pray for peace for the Korean people and the world.”

The day before his speech, a messenger, or delegate, requested reconsideration of the plans to welcome Pence. He was overruled.

Pence, in a speech that sometimes resembled a sermon, pulled out of his pocket a small card he said he received on the tarmac of Andrews Air Force Base from the three American hostages who arrived from North Korea a month before Trump’s meeting with Kim. On it they wrote their thanks for the vice president’s prayers and the administration’s efforts to…

DALLAS — The majority of Southern Baptist messengers applauded Vice President Mike Pence as he spoke at the denomination’s annual meeting on Wednesday, but some say politics should be left out of the Christ-centered event.

African-American Pastor Bruce Kirk of Alpha Missionary Church in Bolingbrook, Illinois, said it’s not the messenger but political messages that have no place in a convention made up of both Republicans and Democrats. He told The Christian Post that, in his opinion, the SBC needs “a smack on the wrist” for allowing Pence to talk about politics instead of “sticking to the script,” and solely focusing on what Jesus Christ has done in his life.

But other pastors, like Jeremy Butler who leads Rio Mimbres Baptist Church in New Mexico, said Pence’s speech was edifying and he felt buoyed by his support for their work in local communities.

“I like that he encouraged pastors. He encouraged us to…

“This is a very dire time for human rights in Russia,” according to the Russia programme director for Human Rights Watch, Tanya Lokshina, speaking ahead of the start of the 2018 Football World Cup, which kicked off in Moscow earlier today.

Since Vladimir Putin became Russia’s president again in 2012 there has been a “staggering human rights clampdown”, she told the Australian Associated Press last week.

“What we see in Russia today, as far as freedom of expression is concerned, is just devastating,” she said. “Every year it is just getting worse.”

“There is no sign that … persecution of religious minorities and foreign missionaries is coming to an end.”

However, she said the World Cup may at least shine a light on the abuses: “Russia being in the spotlight, so many fans coming from all around the world, so many media publications… It’s all going to make people focus on the profound human rights crisis in Russia.”

Among the challenges facing Russians is the clampdown on religious freedom since the introduction two years ago of the so-called “anti-missionary law”.

Under this law, prosecuted individuals face heavy fines, up to six years in prison, and, for foreigners, deportation.

An…

The Rev. Thomas Littleton, a veteran Southern Baptist pastor and writer, said he was “physically handled” by a staff member of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and removed from the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Dallas Tuesday for asking questions about the ERLC’s ties to Revoice, an upcoming conservative Christian conference for those struggling with same-sex attraction.

The Revoice 2018 conference, which takes place next month, is aimed at “supporting, encouraging, and empowering gay, lesbian, same-sex-attracted, and other LGBT Christians so they can flourish while observing the historic, Christian doctrine of marriage and sexuality.” Some critics insist that the conference is trying to push an LGBT agenda on conservative evangelical churches but those involved say there is a lot of misinformation out there.

In a series of tweets beginning Wednesday, Littleton, who is an evangelist with over 38 years’ experience, claims he was…

A woman who says she is a former lesbian is rallying with others in California against a law that would ban “conversion therapy.”

LGBT activists say they want the measure passed because it would ban licensed counselors from practicing “conversion therapy.” Under the proposed law, bill AB 2943, the practice would be a violation of consumer fraud.

But Elizabeth Woning says she was a lesbian in her 20s and even served as a youth pastor advocating for LGBT rights. Then, she became a Christian.

“AB 2943 would seek to block me inviting other people to go on that same journey that I went on,” she said. “My faith journey involved questioning my sexuality as a lesbian, and so this bill would seek to block any kind of invitation, or any kind of encouragement from me, to another person to do the same.”

Woning became the co-founder of Equipped to Love, an organization that helps those who want to “walk out of homosexuality” and see sexuality “through the lens of redemption offered by the Gospel.”

Woning said she hopes to get a copy of the organization’s book, Changed, to every California legislator. The book is a compilation of stories of people who have left homosexuality.

Critics of the bill are also worried because the bill forbids “sexual orientation change efforts,” the proposed law could also outlaw the sale of books that claim sexual…