Russian orphans ready for adoption_102003

Posted: 10/17/03 Russian orphans ready for adoptionSeveral children living in Russian orphanages are available for adoption by Christian families and singles through Buckner International Adoption Services. Among them is this…

10/17/2003 - By John Rutledge

SBC giving grows slightly for year_102003

Posted: 10/17/03

SBC giving grows slightly for year

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

The Southern Baptist Convention ended its fiscal year Sept. 30 with undesignated receipts slightly ahead of the previous year and well ahead of budget.

10/17/2003 - By John Rutledge

Professor ponders tech-driven mediocre morality_102003

Posted: 10/17/03

Professor ponders tech-driven mediocre morality

By Jeffrey MacDonald

Religion News Service

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS)–Quentin Schultze has a problem with personal technology. It's just not the problem many critics think he has.

10/17/2003 - By John Rutledge

Action urged against slavery in Sudan_102003

Posted: 10/17/03

Action urged against slavery in Sudan

WASHINGTON (BP)–As a brutal civil war continues to rage in Sudan, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a resolution condemning slavery in that country and urging the Bush administration to impose sanctions.

The resolution, which passed unanimously last month, says the United States should encourage the United Nations to require annual investigations of abuses in Sudan, according to an Associated Press report.

In April, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights voted to drop requirements for annual reports on human rights violations in Sudan and make the country eligible for financial funding. The House resolution asked that the requirements be reinstated.

10/17/2003 - By John Rutledge

Ancient synagogue discovered in Albanian city_102003

Posted: 10/17/03

The mosaic floor in a 5th or 6th century A.D. synagogue depicts the seven-branched candelabrum (menorah). A team of Israeli and Albanian archaeologists discovered the synagogue in the Albanian city of Saranda.

Ancient synagogue discovered in Albanian city

JERUSALEM (RNS)–A team of Israeli and Albanian archaeologists has uncovered remnants from an ancient synagogue in the Albanian city of Saranda, opposite the Greek island of Corfu, the Hebrew University announced.

Dating to the 5th or 6th century A.D., the synagogue was utilized over several periods and converted into a church during its final stage.

Although Albanian archaeologists discovered the site 20 years ago, at the time they did not realize it contained a synagogue. When further excavations hinted at the compound's Jewish roots, they called in Israeli experts from the Hebrew University Institute of Archeology.

10/17/2003 - By John Rutledge

Texas Tidbits_102003

Posted: 10/17/03

Texas Tidbits

ETBU holds spiritual emphasis. East Texas Baptist University recently held its Spiritual Emphasis Week, with guest speaker Neil McClendon, a vocational evangelist and ETBU graduate. "Christianity is not what you do; it is who you are made into," he said in one of the five services. Worship music was led by Ross King of Bryan.

HSU to honor three at homecoming. Three graduates of Hardin-Simmons University will be honored with Distinguished Alumni Awards Oct. 24 during homecoming activities. They are Fran Osborne Adkins, a veteran television personality for Big Country audiences over KTAB-TV; Lt. Col. (retired) Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch of San Antonio, a 20-year U.S. Army veteran who was the first woman to be commissioned as an officer through the Reserve Officer Training Corps program at HSU; and Dan Yeary, who has been pastor since 1993 of North Phoenix Baptist Church in Phoenix.

HSU honors Lacewells. Robert Lacewell and Martha Nollner Lacewell of Abilene will receive the Keeter Alumni Service Award Oct. 25, the highest alumni honor granted by the university. The couple are active supporters of HSU's School of Music and the physical therapy department. He has served on the HSU board of trustees since 1996 and currently chairs the School of Music Foundation. She served five years as music foundation secretary and currently is chaplain for the alumni association. The Lacewells have been significant donors to the university, creating several scholarships, building projects, academic chairs and awards. They are members of First Baptist Church of Abilene.

10/17/2003 - By John Rutledge

Twenty children build a village to fund housing in Mexico_102003

Posted: 10/17/03

Twenty children build a village to fund housing in Mexico

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP)–It may take a village to raise a child, but it took only 20 fifth- and sixth-graders to build a “Bible town.”

What started as a miniature building project to teach the books of the Bible to Sunday School children at Vestavia Hills Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., turned into an event that raised $5,400 to build real homes in Mexico.

The children decorated 66 miniature houses, one for each book of the Bible.

10/17/2003 - By John Rutledge

D.C. voucher proposal withdrawn_102003

Posted: 10/17/03

D.C. voucher proposal withdrawn

WASHINGTON (ABP)–For the time being, the Senate has halted a bill that would create a publicly funded school-voucher program in the District of Columbia.

On Sept. 30, Republican leaders withdrew from consideration the D.C. appropriations bill, which included the voucher provision. Although it had been debated in the Senate for several days, the bill's supporters reportedly were worried they didn't have enough votes to overcome a threatened Democratic filibuster.

A similar D.C. voucher provision already has passed the House on the thinnest of margins–209 to 208.

10/17/2003 - By John Rutledge

Baptist Memorials names new bus for Welch_102003

Posted: 10/17/03

Baptist Memorials names new bus for Welch

SAN ANGELO–Baptist Memorials Center dedicated a new $53,000 bus in honor of longtime employee Betty Welch.

Welch, who died in December, worked for Baptist Memorials Center 26 years, primarily as director of transportation.

She is remembered for service beyond the basic requirements of that job, driving residents wherever they needed to go. She did grocery shopping for residents who did not have the strength to do it themselves, sometimes working 20 grocery lists simultaneously.

10/17/2003 - By John Rutledge

CYBERCOLUMN: Good news by John Duncan_102003

Posted 10/17/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
Good news

By John Duncan

I am sitting here under the old oak tree, wondering about good news. The Romans spoke of good news as glad tidings. Jesus came preaching the good news. Everybody likes to hear good news.

The year was 1967. Good news was hard to find. The U.S. State Department announced that 5,008 Americans were killed in 1966 during the Vietnam War. Protesters marched the streets for peace. Lyndon Johnson served as president while trying to work through he upheaval of Vietnam on the American psyche. Families anguished as loved ones were missing in action. A fire broke out in Apollo 1, killing three men. Racial segregation and prejudice caused a whirlpool stir in society at large. The Cold War froze international politics. The poet Langston Hughes died in 1967, too, forever leaving an imprint of dreams for good news as a wishful thinking in his own thoughts: “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”

John Duncan

10/17/2003 - By John Rutledge

Storylist_102003

Posted 10/17/03 Article List for 10/20/03 issue GO TO SECTIONS: • Texas      • Baptists      • Religion      • Departments      • Opinion      • Bible Study      OUR FRONT PAGE ARTICLES • Eldorado mourns…

10/17/2003 - By John Rutledge

EDITORIAL: Mission boards’ historic steps re-shape Baptist heritage_51903

Posted: 5/19/03

EDITORIAL:
Mission boards' historic steps re-shape Baptist heritage

Led by its mission boards, the Southern Baptist Convention took two significant strides toward creedalism this month.

“Creedalism” has been a painful word in Baptist history. Our Baptist forebears and their cousins from other dissenting Christian groups suffered and died in 17th century Europe for refusing to affirm creeds and declining to bow down to the civil and religious authorities who enforced creeds.

Early Baptists resisted creeds because of their heartfelt understanding of and commitment to the twin concepts of soul competency and the priesthood of the believer. For four centuries, Baptists have championed the concept of soul competency, the idea that God created each person with the innate ability to relate directly to God and to seek God's way and will for her or his life. Similarly, Baptists have believed that each Christian is a priest before God–a follower of Christ who does not need an itermediary, be it a priest or a creed, to stand between the individual and the Lord, and who also has a responsibility for living faithfully in relationship to God and within the community of the church.

10/14/2003 - By John Rutledge