By Will Hall, Message Editor After the Eagles’ comeback win in Super Bowl LII, Tony Dungy, a high-profile Christian and a Super Bowl champion coach now working as an NFL analyst with NBC Sports, said Philadelphia quarterback Nick Foles, a stand-in for the injured franchise quarterback Carson Wentz, had his head on straight. He understands he is the backup, Dungy said, noting that Foles told him “This is Carson Wentz’s team." But Foles also told Dungy, "God has me here for just this time." Foles is a student at Liberty University and plans to become a pastor after he eventually leaves the NFL. But, Foles is not the only high profile Christian on the Eagles’ roster. As team speakers came forward during interviews surrounding the presentation of the Lombardi Trophy, awarded to the winner of the NFL championship game, each offered some mention of their love of Christ. Doug Pederson, who has strong Louisiana ties from playing for Northeast Louisiana University (now known as University of Louisiana Monroe) and coaching Calvary Baptist Academy, founded by Calvary Baptist Church in Shreveport, was bold in his testimony. When asked by NBC sportscaster Dan Patrick how to explain that just nine years ago he was coaching … [Read more...]

By Will Hall, Message Editor ALEXANDRIA (LBM) — U.S. District Court Judge Glen H. Davidson, the senior jurist for the Northern District of Mississippi, Aberdeen Division, ruled Jan. 18, 2018, that a federal lawsuit against the North American Mission Board may proceed. Will McRaney, the former executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware, filed a complaint April 7, 2017, alleging NAMB President Kevin Ezell played a role in his termination from the state convention, and subsequently in McRaney being “uninvited” from speaking at a conference in Mississippi. NAMB lawyers filed “answers and defenses” for the Southern Baptist Convention entity a little more than a month later, May 18, asserting 19 defenses. But the Court focused on NAMB’s claim of a “ministerial exception” and its invoking the “ecclesiastical abstention doctrine,” as well as NAMB’s questioning of “[w]hether McRaney has adequately pled his claims.” In denying NAMB’s motion with regard to the “ministerial exception” (which prevents a court from interfering in issues between a religious institution and its ministers) against McRaney’s assertion of defamation, Judge Davidson wrote that “McRaney was indisputably not employed by NAMB … and … [Read more...]