CBF clarifies what it means to be a partner_71403

Posted 7/03/03

CBF clarifies what it means to be a partner

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

CHARLOTTE, N.C.–What does it mean to be a “partner” ministry with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and how much financial dependency should go with that title?

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

ANOTHER VIEW: Parents must take steps to help children combat obesity _polk_71403

Posted: 7/11/03

ANOTHER VIEW:
Parents must take steps to help children combat obesity

By Branda Polk

According to a report from the Journal of the American Medical Association, 15.5 percent of 12- to 19-year-olds are overweight or obese. Childhood obesity is rising at a rate that parallels the adult population. The Centers for Disease Control reports that 60 percent of U.S. adults are overweight or obese.

Childhood obesity is causing a myriad of health problems, including high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and joint pain that once were experienced only by adults. If we don't address this issue with our children now, statistically, they will become obese or overweight adults.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

DOWN HOME: Eye in sky tracks wayward animals_71403

Posted: 7/11/03

DOWN HOME:
Eye in sky tracks wayward animals

You may remember that we “lost” our dog, Betsy, a few weeks ago.

Actually, she lost us. Normally a stay-close-to-home dog, she ran out through a broken slat in our backyard fence late Friday night and stayed gone the better part of a weekend.

We think she must've spotted a rabbit out near the drainage ditch behind our house, chased the critter until she got lost and wandered around, looking for home. Joanna, Lindsay, Molly and I spent a heart-breaking weekend looking for our aging pooch, and by Sunday afternoon, we had pretty much given up on ever seeing her again.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

EDITORIAL: Each Baptist should support at least 1 missions cause_71403

Posted: 7/11/03

EDITORIAL:
Each Baptist should support at least 1 missions cause

No matter what Baptist brand you wear, you've heard a discouraging word lately.

Due to a shortage of funds, the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board has reduced by 100 the number of missionaries it will appoint in 2003 and 2004. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's Global Missions program wouldn't be able to appoint any new missionaries this year and next if not for two anonymous gifts totalling $9 million. And the Baptist General Convention of Texas' Church Starting Center already has distributed all its funds for the year.

Several factors account for this missions malaise.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

Campbell: Patterson’s pick shows BGCT study was right_71403

Posted: 7/11/03

Campbell: Patterson's pick
shows BGCT study was right

HOUSTON–Paige Patterson's election as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary proves the validity of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Seminary Study Committee, according to the chairman of that committee.

Bob Campbell, who chaired that committee in 1999 and 2000, currently serves as president of the BGCT. He is pastor of Westbury Baptist Church in Houston.

The BGCT committee studied all six Southern Baptist Convention seminaries and concluded all, to one degree or another, had moved away from the basic theological tenets and church polity practiced by a majority of Texas Baptists.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

CBF: Governments are the Babylons of Revelation, Campolo warns at BJC luncheon_71403

Posted: 7/11/03

CBF: Governments are the Babylons
of Revelation, Campolo warns at BJC luncheon

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (ABP)–Human governments are the Babylons referred to in the Book of Revelation, and America's Babylon is the temptation for religious charities to accept government money, Baptist sociologist Tony Campolo said in a May 27 speech.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

Court says Mormon Church can’t regulate speech on public access_71403

Posted: 7/11/03

Court says Mormon Church can't
regulate speech on public access

WASHINGTON (ABP)–The Supreme Court has let stand a lower court's ruling that the Mormon Church may not regulate speech on a Salt Lake City park it owns because of the park's past as a public street.

On June 23, the justices declined, without comment, to hear an appeal from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to the ruling by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In October, a three-judge panel of that court ruled city officials violated the First Amendment by selling a section of a downtown street to the LDS Church for use as a religious park.

Terms of the sale said the area would remain accessible to the public but allowed church officials to regulate speech, such as barring distribution of “anti-Mormon” literature and disallowing sunbathing or other forms of clothing church officials deemed immodest.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

Polls find agreement with court but not with gay unions_71403

Posted: 7/11/03

Polls find agreement with
court but not with gay unions

WASHINGTON (RNS)–A majority of Americans oppose same-sex marriages, but six in 10 believe consensual gay sex should not be illegal.

The data on same-sex marriages came from a new USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll.

The poll found opposition to gay marriage, while significant, is eroding. Fifty-five percent of Americans oppose gay marriage–down from 68 percent in 1996. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they favored the right of gay men and lesbians to marry.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

Supreme Court’s sodomy ruling draws sharp reaction_71403

Posted: 7/11/03

Supreme Court's sodomy
ruling draws sharp reaction

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–The U.S. Supreme Court's June 26 decision to overturn state bans on sodomy has drawn sharp rebuke from cultural and religious conservatives.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge

CYBERCOLUMN: Walking the aisle_younger_71403

Posted 7/11/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
Walking the aisle

By Brett Younger

For years, some people have assumed that a real worship service hasn’t taken place unless it ends with a constantly interrupted invitation hymn. After a long sermon, a preacher with a booming voice says something along the lines of: "This is the time of commitment. If you feel God pulling at your heart, then you need to come forward. If you feel something in your heart and you’re not sure what it is, you need to come. No matter what you’re feeling, you need to come, as we stand and sing."

Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing, passing from you and from me.