2005 Archives
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Georgetown senior volunteers find warm welcome in West Africa_22105
Posted: 2/18/05
African villagers’ natural respect for their elders provided a welcoming context for a mission team of senior adults from First Baptist Church in Georgetown. Georgetown senior volunteers
find warm welcome in West AfricaBy Sue Sprenkle
International Mission Board
Women and children lined the footpaths throughout the West African village, each wearing their finest festive clothes and adornments. Warriors escorted their Texas Baptist visitors from the main road to this village made up of mud and stick homes.
02/18/2005 - By John Rutledge
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Texas Baptist Forum_22105
Posted: 2/18/05
TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM
Risky business
Perhaps many older Baptists feel a cultural aversion to having a woman pastor, but it strikes me as disingenuous to portray this issue as solely or even primarily cultural (Jan. 24).
As a child of the '70s–educated after the rise of feminism–I have consistently been taught that women should be free to do anything men can do. Thus, I hold my belief that a woman should not be a pastor in contradiction to my culture, not because of it. Why? Because I believe I must be obedient to God's word.
I wonder sometimes whether advocates of woman pastors realize the implications of their assertions. When he forbade women from holding authority over men in church, Paul based his argument on the story of Adam and Eve in the Old Testament, not on his culture (1 Timothy 2:11-15).
Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum. "Scrubbing public discourse of religious ideas would remove one of the main sources of social justice in our history."
Michael Gerson
White House speechwriter, speaking about President Bush's frequent use of religious language (Time/RNS)
"I have no problem teaching creationism, but not as a science. I learned my creation in Sunday school, and I learned my evolution in high school."
Joel Leib
Parent of a student in Dover, Penn., where the local school board voted to require ninth-grade science teachers to present "intelligent design" as an alternative to evolution (RNS)
"We believe that the rhythm of work and rest, doing and being, acting and reflecting, acquiring and sharing, is one of the most basic Jewish wisdoms. We see that the modern world is out of kilter: so addicted to the technology of making, doing, producing, consuming–and so contemptuous of contemplation, community and family–that this addiction is endangering both our society and the web of life on earth."
Shalom Report
A Jewish electronic newsletter, quoted by Texas Impact.
02/18/2005 - By John Rutledge
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