2005 Archives
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EDITORIAL: Pray for China, a waking global giant
Posted: 10/28/05
EDITORIAL:
Pray for China, a waking global giantThe distant rumble you hear is the sound of China racing to catch up with the rest of the developed world. Without a doubt, it will happen–soon.
A mammoth economic engine drives the process. China is home to 1.3 billion people and a rapidly growing middle class. Aggressive business leaders from America and Europe fill flights to Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai. They're on their way to make the mark of a lifetime. Their entrepreneurial spirit is rivaled only by the Chinese themselves, who are economically (if not politically) free to pursue their dreams. So, China is emerging simultaneously as the world's largest market and its most competitive marketer.
You can see new China in its cities. A drive down a Beijing boulevard illustrates China today: On one end, a warren of shanties. Study them, and you can imagine how Chinese peasants lived a century ago and centuries before that. Next stands a string of communist-era apartment buildings. They're mind-numbingly uniform. They're run-down and dilapidated, deteriorated long before their time. They're also indescribably depressing. Beside them, luxury high-rises scratch the sky. In them, you can glimpse entrepreneurial China's ambition. They point where this awakening giant wants to go–straight up, in style. If you were the betting sort, you would lay good money on the likelihood skyscrapers will replace the apartments and shanties before the Beijing Olympics open Aug. 8, 2008. China will sparkle in the world's limelight.
10/28/2005 - By John Rutledge
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Texas Baptist Forum
Posted: 10/28/05
Texas Baptist Forum
Second-class family member
• Jump to online-only letters below Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.
"God sat with me as I remained calm and determined not to be treated with less dignity than any other citizen of Montgomery."
Rosa Parks
The late civil rights champion, remembering her famous display of courage in a 2000 interview with the Montgomery Advertiser (ABP)"Rosa Parks' disobedience to an unjust law was grounded … in her instinctive understanding of a higher moral order based on the sovereignty of God and the dignity of each person made in his image. Rosa Parks was not a theologian, but she knew the words of Amos and Jesus as well as if she had been their contemporary."
Timothy George
Dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. (ABP)"We must draw a line in the sand–a moral line in the sand against further service cuts for poor people and tax cuts for the wealthiest. This is a moral issue now. This is a contradiction, and people around the country are feeling it."
Jim Wallis
Head of the anti-poverty group Call to Renewal, comparing proposed federal budget cuts for the poor to tax breaks for the wealthy (RNS)The theme of this year's Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting is “One Family–One Mission.” Well, this family member feels like a red-headed stepchild again this year.
I have only been a Southern Baptist for five years. I am a graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and I pastor a church that is uniquely aligned with the BGCT. Imagine how it makes me and other family members feel to know that my alma mater does not have a place at the family table. To not allow Southwestern a spot in the exhibit hall or a place to hold its alumni luncheon makes me feel like I am a second-class family member. Am I paying for the sins of my father?
10/28/2005 - By John Rutledge
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Narnia author’s stepson describes the real C.S. Lewis
Posted: 10/28/05
Author C. S. Lewis Narnia author's stepson
describes the real C.S. LewisBy Sarah Price Brown
Religion News Service
LOS ANGELES (RNS)–When 8-year-old Douglas Gresham met C.S. Lewis, the man who would become his stepfather, he was disappointed.
10/28/2005 - By John Rutledge
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Al Camp has resigned as business administrator at Grace Temple in Denton. 
