The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs has accredited the marriage, family and child counseling degree program at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Graduate School of Counseling. Three federal agencies have made graduation from a council-accredited program a requirement for independent practice in counseling. Previously, the UMHB clinical and mental health counseling program received accreditation from the council. Fifteen Texas universities offer an accredited master’s program in counseling. UMHB is one of only two Christian universities to offer such programs, and UMHB now is the only Christian university in the state to offer students a choice of accredited programs.
Commitments to Christ recorded at state basketball tournaments. Sixty-two 
Sixty-two young men made professions of faith in Christ during the Royal Ambassadors and Challengers state basketball tournaments in Belton. (Texas Baptist Men Photo)young men made professions of faith in Christ during the Royal Ambassadors and Challengers state basketball tournaments in Belton. It marked the largest response ever recorded at the annual event, said Keith Mack, director of Texas Baptist Men RA and Challengers ministries. This year, the tournaments involved 24 teams, compared to 13 teams in 2014.
Baptist brothers sentenced for child pornography. A former youth minister and his brother who volunteered at the same Texas Baptist church are both in federal prison after confessing to sexting teenagers in the youth group. Jordan “Jordy” Earls, 26, received a sentence of 180 months in prison, the statutory minimum, in exchange for pleading guilty to a single count of producing child pornography. Prosecutors said they were prepared to add at least 10 counts if Earls rejected the plea bargain and the case had gone to trial. Previously Earls’ older brother, Joshua Earls, 31, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after also pleading guilty to child pornography. Authorities say together the brothers, sons of a Baptist minister, used Joshua Earls’ position as youth minister at Arapaho Road Baptist Church in Garland to entice minor girls to take pornographic pictures of themselves and share them with the brothers over the Internet.
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