Names in the news

Kenyn M. Cureton, who has been at the forefront of the voter values movement, was elected Sept. 19 as vice president for convention relations for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee.

The senior pastor of the Nashville-area First Baptist Church in Lebanon, Tenn., will begin his new duties by Nov. 1.

Roy D. Blunt, a Republican and a member of First Baptist Church in Branson, Mo., has been appointed as House majority leader in the wake of Tom DeLay’s Texas indictment for violations of state election laws.

Blunt, 55, was elected to Congress in 1996. He is the father of Missouri’s current governor, Matt Blunt, a member of Second Baptist Church in Springfield.