The Christian Century

The Assemblies of God reaffirmed its doctrine of speaking in tongues during its biennial General Council meeting and declared—on a second try—that showing God’s compassion for the world is their “fourth reason for being.”

For the second time in as many years, President Bush vetoed a bill June 20 that would have expanded federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

A survey sample of senior pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention found that exactly half of them say speaking in tongues is a spiritual gift given to some believers today— whether those utterances occur in public worship or are “private prayer languages,” a term used in an escalating dispute within the denomination.

Controversy is again brewing in the Southern Baptist Convention over the practice of speaking in tongues.

Last year the denomination’s International Mission Board adopted a policy that forbids considering missionary candidates who use a “private prayer language.”