2004 Archives
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STEVE MURDOCK: Demographic guru_110804
Posted: 11/05/04
STEVE MURDOCK: Demographic guru
Texas has become the second most-populous state in the nation and is growing by the minute with great implications for church starting and church growth. No one in the state is more aware of what is happening than the state's demographer, Steve Murdock, who heads the Texas State Data Center and the Institute for Demographic and Socioeconomic Research at the University of Texas-San Antonio. A native of North Dakota, Murdock is a graduate of North Dakota State University and earned master's and doctor of philosophy degrees at the University of Kentucky. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He is the author of 11 books, more than 120 technical articles and book chapters, 125 research reports and monographs and 70 popular articles on the determinants and consequences of demographic, socioeconomic and natural resource changes.
Steve Murdock Q.
What is the history of the Texas Data Center and the office of the state demographer?
The state data center program started in 1979 in Texas. We have been the primary agency in terms of providing technical support and information since then. We provide direct information through our cells and affiliates to about 50,000 people a year. We provide direct access through our website to another 2.5 million real users, who go to the site and download data from it. In fact, we download about 2.5 gigabytes a day. About 50 percent are public and 50 percent are private users.
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11/05/2004 - By John Rutledge
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EDITORIAL: ‘Moral values’ should mean more than sexual ethics_110804
Posted: 11/05/04
EDITORIAL:
'Moral values' should mean more than sexual ethicsHow do you define “moral values”?
I couldn't help but ponder that question on election night. The national exit poll, shared by major news media, revealed 80 percent of voters who said “moral values” are a primary concern cast their ballots for George W. Bush. As I listened to the pundits and recalled which “moral values” surfaced in the presidential campaign, I came to the same conclusion I reach while viewing too many TV commercials: It's all about sex.
The “moral values” boiled down to two front-line issues and a shadow third–abortion, homosexual “marriage” and a former president's infidelity.
We who seek to pattern our lives after the Great Commandment–loving God–some-times forget the Second Command-ment–love others. But any biblical definition of "moral values" surely embraces both. 11/05/2004 - By John Rutledge
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Texas Baptist Forum_110804
Posted: 11/05/04
TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM
Freedom 'restraints'
The Texas Baptist Forum in the Nov. 1 Baptist Standard is an interesting cross-section of the contemporary views on church and state in Texas and beyond.
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com Several letters rightly expressed the reasons the United States may appropriately be called a secular nation. One lamented perceived hostility from the government toward religious expression.
Believers in the first century would laugh at today's Americans complaining of restraints on our religious freedom. Most likely, believers in the Two-Thirds world would take offense at the same.
11/05/2004 - By John Rutledge
