Louisiana and Texas attorney generals can proceed in requiring public classrooms to display the Ten Commandments, a federal court has ruled, as Arkansas and Ohio wrangle over similar laws.

It would be premature to judge Louisiana and Texas plaintiffs’ contentions that such laws violate the U.S. Constitution, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said Feb. 20 in a 12-6 ruling, clearing the way for the laws’ enforcement.

“Simply put, we cannot evaluate ‘how the text is used,’ … because we do not yet know—and cannot yet know—how the text will be used,” the court wrote.

“And ‘[i]n the absence of this evidence, we are not able to conduct the fact-intensive and context-specific analysis required by’ the Supreme Court’s Ten Commandments cases.”

Results of the recent ruling

The ruling from the full court vacates a June 2025 ruling from three Fifth Circuit judges who deemed the Louisiana law unconstitutional.

Since that ruling, Texas joined Louisiana in defending the requirements that various courts had approved for some Texas school districts but prevented in others.

“Don’t kill or steal shouldn’t be controversial,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said of the ruling.

“My office has issued clear guidance to our public schools on how to comply with the law, and we have created multiple examples of posters demonstrating how it can be applied constitutionally. Louisiana public schools should follow the law.”

Opposition and response

Plaintiffs, including religious leaders, advocacy groups, and parents of school students, argued the laws impose religion upon students in an environment where attendance is mandatory, violating First Amendment rights.

“Public schools are not Sunday schools, and they must welcome all students, regardless of faith,” Heather L. Weaver, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said in 2025 when a three-judge panel from the Fifth Circuit blocked the law.

In Arkansas, Attorney General Tim Griffin is fighting in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a November court ruling that blocked enforcement of Arkansas’ law.

There, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law in April 2025 requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed not only in all public school and college classrooms, but also in all state and local government buildings.

Arkansas’ law was designed as “an effort to educate students on how the United States was founded and framed its Constitution,” NPR quoted bill sponsor Rep. Alyssa Brown, a Republican from Heber Springs, Ark.

“Every day, as members, we stand on the House floor, and we take a pledge of allegiance to one nation under God. We have the ‘In God We Trust’ motto in those same classrooms,” Brown was quoted.

“We’re not telling every student they have to believe in this God, but we are upholding what those historical documents mean and that historical national motto.”

In Ohio, the General Assembly is considering a bill requiring public classrooms to display four out of 10 select historical documents, with the Ten Commandments among the choices.

The state Senate approved the bill in November 2025, and it is currently in a House committee, according to the state legislative website.

Among other states that have tried to enforce Ten Commandments displays in public schools, a bill in Oklahoma stalled in a legislative committee in 2025.

Santiago “Jimmy” García III, longtime Hispanic ministry leader for the Baptist General Convention of Texas and pastor, died Feb. 18. He was 76. He was born July 17, 1949. García was licensed to preach by Primera Iglesia Bautista of Del Rio in 1967 and ordained to the gospel ministry by Primera Iglesia Bautista of Miles in 1971. In the same year, he graduated from Howard Payne University with a Bachelor of Arts in Bible and psychology. He later earned a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and completed additional graduate studies at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary. In 2001, he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Howard Payne University. García led Hispanic work for the BGCT for 18 years, working with churches, pastors, and leaders across Texas. Following his retirement from the convention, he served as pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana in Dallas from 2004 to 2007. Over the course of his ministry, he served as pastor of Iglesia Bautista Calvario in Fort Worth, Iglesia Bautista Calvario in Corsicana, and Iglesia Bautista Immanuel in Miles. He also served at First Baptist Church in Duncanville. In addition, he served as director of missions for the Del Rio-Uvalde Baptist Association and as associate director of missions for the San Antonio Baptist Association. García also invested in theological education. He served as an adjunct instructor at Dallas Baptist University and Mountain View College and lectured at Truett Theological Seminary and Baptist University of the Américas. He also served on the board of directors for BUA and Valley Baptist Academy. In 2018, he received the Dr. José Rivas Distinguished Service Award for his ministry leadership. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Dolores García; his children, Laura, Matthew, and Anna; and his grandchildren. Visitation will be Wednesday, March 4, at Laurel Land Funeral Home, 6300 S. R.L. Thornton Freeway in Dallas. from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., followed by a funeral from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Santiago and Delia García Scholarship Fund benefiting Howard Payne University students.

Santiago “Jimmy” García III, líder del ministerio hispano de Baptist General Convention of Texas y pastor durante muchos años, falleció el 18 de febrero. Tenía 76 años. Nació el 17 de julio de 1949. García obtuvo su licencia para predicar en la Primera Iglesia Bautista de Del Río en 1967 y fue ordenado al ministerio evangélico por la Primera Iglesia Bautista de Miles en 1971. Ese mismo año, se graduó de Howard Payne University con una Licenciatura en Biblia y Psicología. Posteriormente, obtuvo una Maestría en Divinidad de Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary y completó estudios de posgrado en Truett Theological Seminary de Baylor University. En 2001, recibió un Doctorado honorario en Divinidad de HPU. García dirigió el trabajo hispano de la BGCT durante 18 años, trabajando con iglesias, pastores y líderes en todo Texas. Tras su jubilación de la convención, se desempeñó como pastor de la Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana en Dallas de 2004 a 2007. A lo largo de su ministerio, se desempeñó como pastor de la Iglesia Bautista Calvario en Fort Worth, la Iglesia Bautista Calvario en Corsicana y la Iglesia Bautista Immanuel en Miles. También sirvió en la Primera Iglesia Bautista en Duncanville. Además, se desempeñó como director de misiones para Del Río-Uvalde Baptist Association y como director asociado de misiones para San Antonio Baptist Association. García también invirtió en la educación teológica. Se desempeñó como instructor adjunto en la Dallas Baptist University y Mountain View College y dio conferencias en Truett Theological Seminary y la Universidad Bautista de las Américas. También formó parte de la junta directiva de BUA y Valley Baptist Academy. En 2018, recibió el Premio al Servicio Distinguido Dr. José Rivas por su liderazgo ministerial. Le sobreviven su esposa de 54 años, Dolores García; sus hijos, Laura, Matthew y Anna; y sus nietos. El velatorio será el miércoles 4 de marzo en Laurel Land Funeral Home, 6300 S. R.L. Thornton Freeway en Dallas, de 9 a.m. a 10 a.m., seguido del funeral de 10 a.m. a 11 a.m. En lugar de flores, la familia ha solicitado que se hagan donaciones al Fondo de Becas Santiago y Delia García en beneficio de los estudiantes de Howard Payne University.

Keenan Stringer to First Baptist Church in Richmond as senior pastor, from Arcadia First Baptist Church in Santa Fe, where he was student pastor.

Felix Treviño to Blanco Baptist Association in Beeville as director of missions, from First Baptist Church in Mathis, where he was pastor.

Black Americans are more likely to consider people not related to them by blood or marriage part of their families, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center. Religious affiliation, Pew found, is a key factor in forming these alternative family networks.

Pew’s 93-page report, based on a survey of 4,271 Black adults and 2,555 adults of other races, examines how Black Americans define and experience family, and how people support one another. Overall, 77 percent of Black Americans said their family includes at least one nonrelative, compared with 63 percent of adults of other races.

Kiana Cox, the senior researcher of the survey, noted the research examined the trope of Black Americans’ referring to people who are not relatives as cousins. “It’s sort of tongue in cheek,” she said. “We use the term ‘play cousin,’ because that’s the term some Black people might be familiar with.”

Cox said one of the key findings is the extent to which relatives and nonrelatives serve as sources of financial and emotional support, as well as how widespread the extended family networks are.

Religion plays a part in nonrelative “adoption”

Respondents who said they are religious were more likely to include a nonrelative in their family. About 60 percent of Black Christians reported having more than one nonrelative they consider family, compared with 53 percent of religiously unaffiliated Black adults, while 62 percent of Black adults who practice other religions said so.

Cox said Pew was limited to broad religious categories, Christian, non-Christian, and unaffiliated, because of the small sample sizes of Black non-Christians. Some 70 percent of Black adults identify as Christian.

“Because of sample size, we can’t break apart those other religions any further,” Cox said. “So, we have a three-way break: Christian, non-Christian, and unaffiliated.”

The survey also found 72 percent of Black adults whose family included a nonrelated member said the nonrelatives shared their religious or spiritual beliefs, as opposed to 56 percent of adults of other races.

“Religion is a basis of connection, or a basis of definition, for these nonrelative family members because they share religious and spiritual beliefs,” Cox said.

Racial identity shapes religious views 

While the study, conducted June 16–25, 2025, did not directly examine how faith traditions shape racial identity, Cox said previous Pew research, including Pew’s “Faith Among Black Americans” survey from 2021, shows race is central to how many Black Americans understand religion.

“From our previous work on race and religion, we know that ideas about race are crucial to how Black people think about faith,” Cox said.

“Opposing racism is an essential part of faith for many Black people,” Cox continued. “While I can’t make a direct connection between these findings and those studies, racial identity, opposing racism, and racial equity help form the foundation of faith for Black people.”

Among adults who have at least one nonrelative they consider family, Black adults were more likely than adults of other races to say those family members share one of their identities, including religion (85 percent vs. 75 percent), are longtime family friends (83 percent vs. 70 percent), and share their religious or spiritual beliefs (72 percent vs. 56 percent).

“I think our data does suggest religion is one of the bases that people are using to define who gets included, or at least who is in their close network,” Cox said.

Kinship systems rooted in African traditions 

The report includes a brief history of Black family networks, citing the role of extended kinship systems rooted in African traditions, in which family terms were applied broadly within the community.

It also notes the effects of the transatlantic slave trade, which forcibly separated Black families and led to the formation of kinship bonds among enslaved people on plantations.

Though other Americans have open family structures, Cox said Black families’ relationships with their extra members tend to be closer. “They are unique in terms of the breadth of them and the closeness of them, and those networks do have connections to African kinship systems,” Cox said.

Cox said the report highlighted the connection many Black Americans feel to their community at large, even those outside of nonfamily relative systems.

Again, Christian respondents proved more likely, at 60 percent, to consider Black people in the U.S. to be their brothers and sisters. Slightly more than half of religiously unaffiliated Black adults said the same.

“That definition of brothers and sisters and feeling a responsibility to look out for one another extends to Black people in the country, and not just the family unit,” said Cox.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board approved the creation of three new task forces and approved committee and board nominees and two relationship agreements.

In addition to a task force to study possible updates to the BGCT constitution and bylaws and a task force to promote prayer, a Cooperative Program task force will conduct a comprehensive study of the funding mechanism.

The study will include how the Cooperative Program is promoted, how funds are allocated, how churches decide to participate, what is contributing to the ongoing decline in giving, and potential solutions to improve giving.

Keith Warren, executive pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Weatherford, will chair the task force. Other members include:

• Debbie Potter, BGCT president and children’s pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio.
• Pete Pawelek, Executive Board member and senior pastor of Cowboy Fellowship of Atascosa County in Jourdanton.
• Delvin Atchison, Executive Board member, African American Fellowship of Texas president, and senior pastor of Westside Baptist Church in Lewisville.
• Tim Eng, Executive Board member and lay member of Chinese Baptist Church in Houston.
• Victor Castillo, Texas Baptists River Ministry missionary and pastor of Rio Grande Bible Church in McAllen.
• Michael Gossett, Executive Board member and lead pastor of Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler.
• Del Lopez, lay member of Iglesia Bautista Hispana in Lubbock.
• Maria Bridwell, lay member of Calvary Baptist Church in McAllen.
• Dillard Fisher, Executive Board member and pastor of Cross Bearers Church in Copperas Cove.

Committee and board recommendations approved

The Executive Board approved the following nominations to fill vacancies on the Committee to Nominate Executive Board Directors:

• Dana Moore, Second Baptist Church in Corpus Christi.
• Monica Followell, First Baptist Church in San Marcos.

The board approved the following nominations to fill Executive Board vacancies:

• Tedrick Woods, Living Word Fellowship Church in Dallas.
• Michael Gossett, Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler.

Annual meeting location

When a reservation at the Henry B. González Convention Center in San Antonio could not be secured in time, the Committee on Annual Meeting recommended the 2028 Family Gathering be held at Kalahari Resorts and Conventions in Round Rock. The board approved the recommendation, sending it to messengers for a vote during the 2026 BGCT annual meeting.

Every fifth year, the BGCT annual meeting is held in July and is called the Family Gathering.

Relationship agreements approved

The Executive Board approved a new relationship agreement between the BGCT and Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas. Under the new agreement, the BGCT representation on the BHSET board decreases from 50 percent to 30 percent, which is in line with BGCT agreements with other Baptist hospitals.

The board also approved Baptist University of the Américas’ restated certificate of formation, bringing this agreement in line with other educational institution agreements.

Dustin Slaton, chair of the Institutional Relations Committee, explained the change is from a sole member corporation to no member corporation, which “clarifies legally [BUA is] not owned by the BGCT, run by the BGCT, managed by the BGCT,” though the BGCT still elects BUA trustees.

Other business

The following distributions from J.K. Wadley Endowment earnings were approved, for a total of $475,000:

• BSM campus missionaries, $150,000.
• BSM building maintenance, $150,000.
• Muslin and refugee ministry, $100,000.
• Western Heritage, $50,000.
• MinistrySafe, $25,000.

The board approved updates to a set of personnel policies to bring their language into compliance with current statutes and to better care for staff. The policies relate to background investigations, eligibility for benefits, time away from work, flexible spending accounts, and health savings accounts.

Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board members approved a new board structure to align with recent Texas Baptists’ staffing changes. The board also heard updates on the Texas Baptist Indemnity Program and Cooperative Program receipts, as well as BGCT President Debbie Potter’s first address to the board.

Committee restructuring

With constituent parts of the Center for Cultural Engagement reassigned, a corresponding committee is no longer needed. The Executive Board approved two new committees and a reestablished committee to take its place.

The Christian Life Commission once again has its own committee. Chaplaincy will temporarily fall under the associate executive director.

Affinity Ministries, which includes African American Ministries, Texas Baptists en Español, Western Heritage, and Intercultural Ministries, falls under the purview of the Relational Development Committee. Sergio Ramos, senior director of relational development and GC2 Strong, is the staff liaison.

Texas Baptist Communications and the Cooperative Program office fall under the purview of the Resource Development Committee. Joshua Minatrea, senior director of resource development, is the staff liaison.

The Audit Committee will now fall under the Finance Committee.

Texas Baptist Indemnity Program

Since its start, Nov. 1, 2025, at least 113 churches were enrolled by the end of January in the Texas Baptists Indemnity Program, which partners with KingsCover Insurance Services to provide church property insurance. The total insured value is about $900 million, BGCT Associate Executive Director and TBIP President Craig Christina reported.

The average premium savings has been between 15 percent to 35 percent, Christina said. In addition to reduced premiums, coverages have increased, he added.

The total 2026 premium savings to churches currently enrolled was reported at $1,277,644. These same churches gave $1,646,609 to the Cooperative Program in 2025. Sixty-four of the 113 churches “saved more in premiums than they gave to [the Cooperative Program] in 2025,” Christina reported.

About 600 churches are currently in the application process.

Additionally, Covenant Solutions/Texas Baptists Indemnity Program reimbursed the BGCT around $600,000 of the 2025 start-up costs, Christina said. TBIP partnered with Covenant Solutions, located in South Carolina, to make the church insurance program available nationally.

Cooperative Program

Elaborating on BGCT Executive Director Julio Guarneri’s remarks to the Executive Board on Feb. 23, BGCT Treasurer and CFO Ward Hayes shared an update on Cooperative Program giving.

Cooperative Program giving in 2025 was 97.2 percent of 2024 receipts, or down about $721,000. The shortfall in giving was partially offset by expenses being about $699,000 under budget.

Giving to special mission offerings—Mary Hill Davis, Annie Armstrong, Lottie Moon, and Texas Baptist Hunger Offering—also declined in 2025.

The total decline in Cooperative Program receipts since 2015 is $5 million, or a 17 percent decrease in Cooperative Program giving, averaging a 2 percent decline year over year. Inflation was a compounding factor during the same 10-year period from 2015 to 2025, Hayes said. What $100 could buy in 2015 took $135 in 2025.

In 2015, BGCT endowment income contributed 7 to 8 percent of annual revenue. By 2025, endowment income made up 23 percent of the BGCT’s revenue. Up until last year, investment earnings covered the gap in Cooperative Program decline but are no longer covering the drop, Hayes said.

“Ministry organizations move at the speed of trust,” Hayes said, stating the information shared is not to instill fear but to understand the reality faced by ministry organizations nationwide.

“The Cooperative Program is still the perfect engine to run this cooperative ministry that we share,” Hayes said.

Clay in the potter’s hand

BGCT President Debbie Potter exhorted Executive Board members to stay open to being shaped by the potter, citing Isaiah 64:8: “We are the clay, and you [Lord] are our potter.”

Potter grew up as a “Nazarene pastor’s kid.” She loved being a pastor’s kid and knew at a young age she wanted to marry a pastor because she wanted to be in ministry. She attended a Nazarene college to find and marry a “nice Nazarene man” who would become a pastor.

But it didn’t turn out as she planned. She did meet and marry a “nice Nazarene man” who became a banker. Potter became a public school teacher and administrator. Then, her father lost his ministry, and her family lost their church. She felt lost herself until she and her family found a church home at Parkhills Baptist Church in San Antonio.

Potter discovered her call to children’s ministry there. Parkhills also called her into her first ministry position. She has been a children’s pastor for the last 30 years, now serving at Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio, and is grateful for Texas Baptists who took her in and gave her a home, she said.

Seeing herself as an unlikely candidate for ministry in a Baptist church, Potter said to “look for the outliers. Always remember, God can and will do extraordinary things with ordinary people if we let him.”

Potter also urged Executive Board members to “stand up for the voiceless.” She thanked those who stood up for her as a woman in ministry. She also expressed her gratitude for the child protection policies in place among Texas Baptists and the Christian Life Commission’s work in Austin.

“God’s design takes time. Stay on the wheel,” Potter concluded.

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., and Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church are among 33 Black churches receiving millions of dollars for preservation of their sacred and historic buildings.

They are recipients of the fourth annual round of grants from the Preserving Black Churches program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.

The program, a $60 million initiative of Lilly Endowment, also announced $5 million in grants for five churches on Martin Luther King Day.

It has supported 170 churches across the United States with a total of almost $34 million to provide funding and technical expertise to protect the assets and legacies of historically Black churches.

Civil Rights Movement churches

The Birmingham church, which was bombed in 1963, will receive $300,000 for organizational and capacity building.

Theodore (Ted) Debro, campaign chair for 16th Street Baptist Church, said the grant will allow the church to hire a director of development and fundraising for the building where four young Black girls were killed when members of the Ku Klux Klan set off dynamite as the children were preparing for the Sunday morning worship service.

“As a site of deep historical significance—central to the Civil Rights Movement and a living symbol of resilience, faith, and community—16th Street Baptist Church deserves strategic, professional capacity to preserve its physical fabric, sustain its ministries, and protect the stories it holds for future generations,” Debro told Religion News Service in a statement.

“This grant addresses persistent inequities in preservation funding that have left many Black churches under-resourced despite their outsized cultural and historical importance.”

Ebenezer Baptist, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was baptized and went on to co-pastor with his father in the 1960s, will receive $100,000 for programming and interpretation.

Ebenezer Baptist hosted the early meetings that led to the start of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil rights organization King co-founded.

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, of Georgia, is now the church’s senior pastor.

The funding will support a graduate fellow from a historically Black college or university to design the “Preserving the Oral History Tour of Ebenezer Church” program.

Puerto Rico to Connecticut

Capital project grants were awarded to help restore edifices from Puerto Rico to Connecticut.

Iglesia San Mateo de Cangrejos, or “Church of Saint Mateo de Cangrejos of Santurce,” in San Juan, was constructed in 1832 by free Black people, freedom-seeking maroons and migrants from nearby Caribbean islands.

The Catholic church, whose building was damaged in 2017 during Hurricane Maria, will receive a $500,000 capital project grant to help repair its parish house and chapel.

Dixwell Avenue Congregational United Church of Christ in New Haven, founded in 1820, is one of the first Black churches established in Connecticut and the oldest formally recognized Black Congregational United Church of Christ in the world.

A $400,000 grant will aid in the restoration and preservation of its historic stained-glass windows.

Significance of grants

“America’s 250th anniversary is an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the remarkable legacy of our nation’s historically Black churches,” said Brent Leggs, executive director of the fund and strategic adviser to the CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, in a statement.

“They are essential civic institutions that have anchored democracy, community leadership, and collective care for generations. By investing in their preservation today, we are safeguarding not just historic buildings and architecture, but a living legacy of resilience and social progress for the future.”

Other historic churches

A total of $8.5 million in grants was awarded, ranging from $50,000 to $500,000, for capital projects, programming and interpretation, or project planning. The other recipients are:

• University African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Palo Alto, Calif.
• Shorter African Methodist Episcopal Church (New Dance Theatre d.b.a. Cleo Parker Robinson Dance), Denver, Colo.
• Third Baptist Church (Church of the Advent Anglican), Washington, D.C.
• Trinity Episcopal Church (DC Trinity Development Corporation), Washington, D.C.
• Bethel Baptist Institutional Church, Jacksonville, Fla.
• First African Baptist Church, Savannah, Ga.
• Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church, Chicago, Ill.
• Wayman Chapel, Princeton, Ind.
• Fifth Street Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky.
• Clinton African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (d.b.a. The DuBois Freedom Center; The W.E.B. DuBois Center for Freedom and Democracy), Great Barrington, Mass.
• Mount Morris Ascension Presbyterian Church, Harlem, N.Y.
• First Baptist Church of Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, Ohio
• Zion Baptist Church, Philadelphia, Pa.
• Mark’s Episcopal Church, Charleston, S.C.
• Shiloh Baptist Church, Alexandria, Va.
• John Wesley Community Church (Waterford Foundation, Inc.), Waterford, Va.
• New Jerusalem Baptist Church, Tulsa, Okla.
• Pilgrim Baptist Church, Chicago, Ill.
• Mount Moriah African Methodist Episcopal Church (Banneker-Douglas-Tubman Museum Foundation), Annapolis, Md.
• Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Rochester, N.Y.
• New Congregational Missionary Baptist Church, Los Angeles, Calif.
• Good Shepherd Episcopal Church (Episcopal Diocese of Georgia), Brunswick, Ga.
• Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Lafayette, Ind.
• Union United Methodist Church, Boston, Mass.
• Peter’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, Minneapolis, Minn.
• Historic Spring Hill Missionary Baptist Church, Tupelo, Miss.
• Bethany Baptist Church, Brooklyn, N.Y.
• Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Oklahoma City, Okla.
• John’s Reformed Episcopal Church, Charleston, S.C.

Howard Payne University named five students as Currie-Strickland scholars during the 18th annual Currie-Strickland Distinguished Lectures in Christian Ethics in February. The event featured guest lecturer John Litzler, director for public policy at the Christian Life Commission and general counsel for Texas Baptists. Students recognized were: Cate Gramling, a senior double majoring in practical theology and elementary education from Rowlett; David Newman, a junior Christian education major with an emphasis in cross-cultural ministry from Brownwood; Elsa Leake, a senior business administration major with a minor in youth ministry from Georgetown; Tori Petersheim, a graduate student in the youth and family ministry program from Flower Mound; and Biak Sang, a junior Christian education major with an emphasis in ministry leadership from Garland.

Hardin-Simmons University celebrated its 135th anniversary on Feb. 18, marking more than a century of Christ-centered higher education. As part of the celebration, the Student Government Association’s sophomore class hosted a birthday event in Moody Lobby, distributing free cake to members of the campus community. Founded in 1891 as Abilene Baptist College by the Sweetwater Baptist Association, the university was created to prepare students for lives of faith, leadership, and service.

Houston Christian University’s Society for Human Resource Management student chapter hosted the Energy Summit on Thursday, Feb. 18, with the theme of “Empowering Business Excellence.” Elizabeth Killinger, former executive vice president of NRG Home and former president of Reliant Energy, was the keynote speaker. Breakout sessions focused on people analytics and AI, human energy, international business, global strategy, and HR digital strategy. The summit offered Christ-centered professional development and strengthened connections among business professionals from the energy sector, human resources, business leadership, and the HCU campus.

Dallas Baptist University announced the groundbreaking of the Don and Linda Carter School of Business building. University leadership, faculty, students, alumni, and supporters gathered on campus Feb. 18 for a day of worship, celebration, and fellowship. The building is 55,000 square feet across five levels and will be state-of-the-art, featuring modern classrooms, faculty and administrative offices, student study and collaboration rooms, conference and meeting rooms, auditoriums, a simulated stock exchange trading floor, and other innovative learning environments.

Wayland Baptist University held a student panel event, “Black History Month Talks: More than a Month,” inviting students, employees, and community members to hear conversations featuring diverse experiences and reflections on history. Bashir Easter, associate dean of the School of Business and assistant professor of business administration, moderated the event. After the panel discussion, the audience was encouraged to participate in dialogue. The event was livestreamed on Wayland’s YouTube channel.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Feb. 23 to hear a years-long case brought by former Baptist state convention executive director Will McRaney against the North American Mission Board, upholding an appeals court’s decision to dismiss and essentially closing out the case.

Two judges in a three-judge panel for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a previous dismissal in September. The majority decision pointed out “church autonomy doctrine bars all of McRaney’s claims against NAMB” and resolving his claims “would require secular courts to opine on ‘matters of faith and doctrine.’”

“The Supreme Court’s decision not to review the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision brings closure to a long and difficult legal dispute filed against our ministry nearly nine years ago,” NAMB said in a statement.

“The outcome in this matter—the opinion of the Fifth Circuit—now stands as a landmark protection of religious liberty for all Southern Baptists and other people of faith.

“The Fifth Circuit recognized and respected doctrinal autonomy and voluntary cooperation among Baptist churches and ministries, while also carefully applying longstanding First Amendment principles that protect religious organizations from having internal ministry matters scrutinized by civil courts. We are grateful.”

In a statement, McRaney said he and his wife, Sandy, were grateful for the support and prayers they had received during the legal process.

“While we are disappointed the Supreme Court did not choose to grant cert in this particular case, we trust in time justice will be done and the rights of Baptist people and partners restored,” McRaney said. “This decision will have an impact on millions of Baptists and other religious groups.

“The Southern Baptist Convention and all of its entities won pyrrhic victories today and in the Sept. 2025 5th Circuit’s 2-1 ruling. Today after 9 years in the courts, NAMB won and secured their right to do what God forbids, to defame and interfere with Baptist ministers, partners, and financial supporters.”

In time, he continued, today’s SCOTUS decision will be viewed “as a historic loss in multiple ways.”

“NAMB has made clear in their statement that anyone who supports the mission efforts of the SBC can be defamed and their employment can be interfered with by SBC leaders without Baptist partners having the right to defend themselves in court,” McRaney’s statement said.

NAMB objected to assertions the decision would upend Baptist polity and religious liberty protection, citing the Fifth Circuit Court’s decision that “Baptist ecclesiology is non-hierarchical, and each Baptist church is autonomous.”

“Nevertheless, Baptist churches have long voluntarily cooperated in fellowship with one another and pooled resources for missions, evangelism, and church planting.”

McRaney, on the other hand, asserted the decision will have profound legal ramifications.

“As in other faith traditions like Catholics, now Baptist leaders, ministers, and partners will know for certain they have given up their personal legal rights with their voluntary partnering or contributing to the SBC. Sadly, this can already be seen in the Garner v. SBC court case before the [Tennessee] Supreme Court where SBC leaders also lied to the [Tennessee] Supreme Court justices,” McRaney stated.

“We pray the silence by those who tolerate the lies and deceptions to the courts will be broken and wrongdoings exposed. We pray there will be forthcoming repentance by SBC entity leaders, trustees, and other Baptist leaders resulting in a surge of renewed commitment to righteousness and truth telling above all as an act of obedience to God’s Word,” McRaney said, adding he would release a fuller statement in the coming days.

NAMB concluded its statement by saying: “The [judicial] outcome both respects Baptist distinctives and reaffirms that Baptists and other non-hierarchical faith groups are no less entitled to the First Amendment’s protections against secular intrusion into ministry affairs.”

McRaney sued NAMB in April 2017, claiming libel against the entity for actions that led to his firing as the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware executive director. That lawsuit was dismissed two years later, but the dismissal was reversed in July 2020 and sent back to a district court.

NAMB actually appealed to the Supreme Court to review the case, but that appeal was rejected in June 2021. The case continued to work through the courts until the Fifth Circuit heard from both sides in April 2024.

In addition to its full statement, NAMB posted a thread on X including an FAQ on the matter. Those questions addressed how the decision affects church autonomy, lawsuits filed against religious organizations, and how the ruling does not affect NAMB’s protocols for working with churches and other ministry partners.

Deriving principles from Acts 10-11, Julio Guarneri grounded Texas Baptist history in the authority of Scripture: “Texas Baptists believe the Bible. We are a people of the book. Do not let anyone deceive you otherwise.”

The Baptist General Convention of Texas’ history is a source of strength for the convention’s present and future, BGCT Executive Director Guarneri told BGCT Executive Board members during their February meeting.

Reflecting on the convention’s 140-year legacy and the account of Peter’s vision leading to Cornelius’ conversion, Guarneri called for future growth, renewed vision, and increased cooperation.

Formed around cooperation

Noting there were five Baptist groups in Texas in the mid- to late-1800s, Guarneri said the vision of the BGCT’s founders “was one of cooperation for the sake of God’s mission.” Doctrinal conformity was not an organizing principle, he asserted.

“While Baptist distinctives, including sound doctrine, have always been important, the BGCT did not organize around doctrinal conformity,” Guarneri said.

Similarly, the Southern Baptist Convention, formed in 1845, did not have a convention-wide statement of faith until 1925, Guarneri pointed out.

According to a quote Guarneri shared from William W. Barnes, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary professor, the 1925 statement of faith was not uniformly adopted by Southern Baptists.

The 1925 statement was revised in 1963 and again in 2000.

Lack of “doctrinal centralization,” as Barnes phrased it in 1934, did not mean Southern Baptists nor Texas Baptists questioned the authority of Scripture, Guarneri explained.

However, during the decades-long Southern Baptist controversy that led, in part, to the 2000 revision of the Baptist Faith and Message, the word “inerrancy” became a litmus test for one’s view of Scripture.

Authority of Scripture

Guarneri directly addressed “chatter” about inerrancy, specifically, the assertion other conventions are committed to inerrancy while the BGCT has “a low view of the authority” of Scripture and that only those who affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message believe in inerrancy.

The words “inerrant” or “inerrancy” are not in either the 1963 or the 2000 statements, Guarneri pointed out, comparing “Article I: The Scriptures” in the 1963 and 2000 statements.

Both versions of the statement, following the 1925 statement nearly verbatim, read:

“The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired [and] is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. It reveals the principles by which God judges us; and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried.”

Article I of the 1963 and 2000 statements are not identical but are very similar, Guarneri acknowledged. Differences between the two appear in the first and last sentences.

“Those who suggest the conventions and churches who affirm the 2000 version [of the Baptist Faith and Message] are committed to inerrancy, in contrast with those who [affirm the] 1963 [version], are either ignorant or dishonest, because the word [inerrant] is not there,” Guarneri stated.

“I would argue … our commitment to the authority of the Scriptures is higher than others, because we do not elevate man-made confessions of faith above the Bible,” Guarneri contended. “If your conscience is going to submit to anything, let it be to the scriptures of the Old and New Testament, not to a man-made confession of faith. That’s where we stand.”

Cooperation amid polarization

“Today, we are surrounded by a culture of tribalism,” Guarneri said. “People are emotionally invested in their tribe … around politics, or religious beliefs, or ethical issues. … The tendency is to see others that are not in full agreement with me as the enemy and to attack them and to demean them and perhaps even dehumanize them,” he continued.

Sadly, this tribalism has crept into churches, resulting in people making decisions based around labels, Guarneri added.

“We need to be different [from] the culture around us,” Guarneri asserted. “We need to return to our commitment of cooperation.”

Guarneri also addressed declining Cooperative Program receipts, saying the 25-year decline in BGCT Cooperative Program receipts is not unique. The SBC Cooperative Program receipts have been declining for 35 years, he said.

Guarneri attributed the decline, in part, to increased inflation reducing the buying power at the same time costs have increased. Also, churches are sending less Cooperative Program dollars to the BGCT and SBC as their receipts decline and needs and costs increase.

“Our response should be to neither fear nor fixate on the dollars … nor lament the ways things used to be,” he said.

Rather, he proposed four things based on Acts 10-11 for ministries to focus on instead: The biblical foundation for cooperation, the legacy of cooperation as a Baptist people, prayer for God to reawaken churches, and a commitment to collaborate for the sake of the kingdom.

Unity amid diversity

Citing Numbers 2:2, how the Israelite tribes were to camp around the tabernacle, each family under their own banner, Guarneri asserted: “The church today would honor God most and would be most effective with every local congregation retaining their identity, their autonomy, their uniqueness, and recognizing that we together are one body in Christ.”

“We don’t have to agree on everything to be on mission together. We are called to unity in diversity for the sake of God’s glory,” he continued.

“Sound doctrine is important. We must agree on orthodox Christian doctrine. We must hold up Baptist distinctives, but we must give room for diversity in secondary and tertiary doctrines,” Guarneri said, noting Texas Baptist churches differ over Calvinism and Arminianism, end-times views, Communion, and women in ministry.

Though Texas Baptists interpret some of these matters differently, “what is constant is our commitment to the authority, inspiration, sufficiency, and infallibility of the Holy Scriptures,” Guarneri contended.

In all his travel around Texas and meeting with hundreds of Texas Baptist pastors, he has not yet met a pastor in Texas who doesn’t believe the Bible is authoritative and infallible, he added.

“Let us rise up and claim our identity, our legacy as a Baptist people who cooperate together,” Guarneri encouraged Executive Board members. “One hundred and forty years of cooperation for God’s mission, the Great Commandment, and the Great Commission demand it, and the glory of God is worthy of it.”

This report does not follow the exact chronology of Julio Guarneri’s address.