DOWN HOME: Sky impression, faulty opinions_51903

Posted: 5/19/03

DOWN HOME:
Sky impression, faulty opinions

The skies over Texas have been looking like “a communist country” lately.

That's not a political statement. It's a flashback kid's-eye-view-of-social-studies statement.

When I was growing up–way yonder in the Texas Panhandle, where the wind scrubs the sky clean several times a day (except, of course, when it fills it with dirt from parched farmland)–I couldn't imagine smog.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

ANOTHER VIEW: Look below the surface for answers to global problems_towery_51903

Posted: 5/19/03

ANOTHER VIEW:
Look below the surface for answers to global problems

I met a man not long ago. He was a Persian. He was from Iran, between Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Persian looked me in the eye and told me something of which I was already aware: Americans know next to nothing about the history and culture of the Middle East.

I agreed with him. Americans, as a whole, are not well versed on anything beyond Hawaii on one side and the Bahamas on the other.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

CYBERCOLUMN: Amish Baptists_younger_51903

Posted: 5/19/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
Amish Baptists

By Brett Younger

My parents, my church and most of my friends called them selves Baptist, but in reality we were, in most of the ways that mattered to a teenager, Amish. We not only didn't drink or sleep around; we didn't personally know anyone who did. We saw those people. They went to the grocery store that sold beer. Everyone at our church went to the store that didn't sell beer. We knew where the pool hall was, where most of the drinking reportedly took place, but no one in my youth group had ever been there.

Not only had alcohol never passed my lips I had never seen it pass anyone else's lips either. We knew that there were seventeen-year-olds who slept around, but we didn't know any of them–though I tended to imagine such girls. I imagined those women wore bright red dresses or tight-fitting blue jeans. They had long painted fingernails and were always looking for young Baptist/Amish victims to lure into depravity. (The Amish kids may have been less sheltered than I was.)

Before I went to Baylor a deacon who was concerned that I was going some place more worldly than Bob Jones University pulled me aside and said,”When you get to college, you will face temptations that you have never imagined. There will be hard drinking, loose living women. You need to decide right now that you will have nothing to do with them, because if the devil gets hold of you she doesn't let go.”

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

CYBERCOLUMN: Pastors & Mavericks_duncan_60203

Posted: 5/23/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
Pastors & Mavericks

By John Duncan

I am sitting here under the old oak tree, pondering the powerful playoff run of the Dallas Mavericks and the precipice upon which pastors stand.

Do basketball and pastors coincide? Like coaches in today's society, pastors live on the edge of a precipice, ready to step into the glorious promised land, or they gingerly step toward the not-so-ready dangerous fall into oblivion. Pastors possess the joy of a higher calling, but for many, pressures mount.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

Panhandle church steers toward a witness with car show _60203

Posted: 5/30/03

Panhandle church steers
toward a witness with car show

By George Henson

Staff Writer

AMARILLO–Pastor Dana Moore's driving passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ recently steered his congregation to sponsor a car show in the church parking lot.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

Campolo, Campbell to headline CBF meeting_60203

Posted: 5/30/03

Campolo, Campbell to headline CBF meeting

ATLANTA–Tony Campolo, Kate Campbell and Marjorie Thompson will lead worship and prayer sessions at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's general assembly June 26-28 in Charlotte, N.C.

Campolo, professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern College in St. David's, Pa., and a prolific author and speaker, will speak during the assembly's opening session.

Campbell, a Nashville recording artist and daughter of a Baptist pastor, will provide music for the sessions. Thompson, an author on Christian spiritual formation, will lead guided prayer times.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

Team charts new missions territory in rural China_60203

Posted: 5/30/03

Team charts new missions territory in rural China

Editor's note: The names of the Baptist mission workers in this story have been changed for security reasons.

RURAL CHINA (BP)–Wearing the same pair of socks for a week, dining on soupy Chinese noodles and veggies for breakfast, shampooing in a creek and snacking on energy bars are only a few of the many unique aspects of hiking through China's countryside.

Doug McTavish and Stephen Faulkner know this first-hand.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

Ministers offered free counseling at Pastors’ Conference_60203

Posted: 5/30/03

Ministers offered free counseling

DALLAS (BP)–Too often, Christian leaders have personal problems but feel they have no place to turn, Mac Brunson says.

But the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas has helped put together a ministry to some of those hurting leaders. This year's Southern Baptist Convention Pastors' Conference, headed by Brunson, will join with Focus on the Family and Hope for the Heart to offer free Christian counseling to pastors, staff members, missionaries and their families Sunday and Monday, June 15-16.

To ensure anonymity, the counseling will take place away from the Phoenix Civic Plaza. Focus on the Family's H.B. London Jr. and Hope for the Heart's June Hunt will lead a team of counselors.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

Case of state’s grant for religious education goes to Supreme Court_60203

Posted: 5/30/03

Case of state's grant for religious
education goes to Supreme Court

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that may decide whether the government is required to fund religious organizations in some circumstances.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

Discovery opens eyes to America and hearts to God_60203

Posted: 5/30/03

Discovery opens eyes to America and hearts to God

By George Henson

Staff Writer

COLLEGE STATION–For 35 years, women from around the world have found a place to gather, learn skills and gain an introduction to Christianity at a College Station ministry.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

James Dobson changes roles_60203

Posted: 5/30/03

James Dobson changes roles

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (RNS)–James Dobson, longtime president of Focus on the Family, will expand his role as chairman of the conservative Christian group but pass on the presidency to a successor.

Don Hodel, former president of the Christian Coalition and a Cabinet member in the Reagan administration, began serving as president and CEO May 15.

“This redefined responsibility will assure Dr. Dobson's continued leadership of the organization but without the burden of day-to-day management,” the ministry announced. “It will allow him to spend more time on ministry objectives that only he can accomplish.”

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

DOWN HOME: A dog-gone tale and a broken fence_60203

Posted: 5/30/03

DOWN HOME:
A dog-gone tale and a broken fence

Now I know the cost of our dog, Betsy: 85¢.

That's how much I spent to replace the broken plank in the fence, where she escaped into the wide, wild world.

Betsy got out on Friday night, and I could kick myself for not fixing the fence earlier.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge