2006 Archives
-
Poverty trumps hot-button issues with most voters
Posted: 12/01/06
Poverty trumps hot-button issues with most voters
By Hannah Elliott
Associated Baptist Press
WASHINGTON (ABP)—”Kitchen-table” issues like poverty and greed were more important to voters in this year’s midterm elections than issues usually trumpeted by religious groups, recent surveys revealed.
Commissioned by Faith in Public Life and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, the survey reported that faith groups who told voters to consider kitchen-table issues when voting had a 20 point higher national favorability rating than religious groups that told people to vote for candidates according to views on abortion and same-sex marriage.
“More than twice as many voters named poverty, greed and economic crisis as the biggest moral problems in the United States than abortion. When voters hear from groups that are emphasizing these issues, they like what they hear.” 12/01/2006 - By John Rutledge
-
Program gives poor families reason to give thanks
Posted: 12/01/06
Two HOPE program participants present Shontoya Watt (center) with a surprise turkey delivery just before Thanksgiving. Sarah Eubank, HOPE program supervisor, looks on in the background. Program gives poor families reason to give thanks
By Miranda Bradley
Children at Heart Ministries
ROUND ROCK—Shontoya Watt works hard to provide for her family, but living in a low-income housing complex, she hasn’t always found it easy to give thanks.
This Thanksgiving was different, due largely to Texas Baptist Children’s Home’s HOPE program.
12/01/2006 - By John Rutledge
-
TOGETHER: From Thanksgiving on to Christmas
Posted: 12/01/06
TOGETHER:
From Thanksgiving on to ChristmasThis season always comes as a special gift to me. Caught up between Thanksgiving and Christmas, my spirit begins to soar a bit more, like a bird riding the updrafts of sun-warmed air rising from overheated fields of freshly plowed earth or miles of urban asphalt.
Some of the exhilaration is purely family and memories. I have been blessed with family trips, warm welcomes and slowed-down schedules that hover around me like benedictions.
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
One snowy day, we piled into our Volkswagen Beetle to hurry from my folks’ home to Rosemary’s folks’ home so we could spend part of Christmas day with both families. Racing across Oklahoma’s rolling hills, suddenly the front hood sprung loose and flew back against the windshield.
Three children were riding in the tiny backseat and “cubby space.” They squealed in amazement and then concern. “Daddy, don’t let the presents fall out!”
12/01/2006 - By John Rutledge
-
Wade to release Valley probe to law-enforcement officials
Posted: 12/01/06
Wade to release Valley probe
to law-enforcement officialsBy John Hall
Texas Baptist Communications
MCALLEN—Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Charles Wade will give law-enforcement officials complete copies of a BGCT-commissioned investigative report and all relevant exhibits regarding alleged misuse of convention church-starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley.
BGCT leaders are attempting to schedule a meeting with law-enforcement officials in an effort to gauge their interest in the documents.
• See complete list of Valley funds scandal articles 12/01/2006 - By John Rutledge
-
Pro-lifers blast Warren for inviting Obama
Posted: 12/01/06
Pro-lifers blast Warren for inviting Obama
By Hannah Elliott
Associated Baptist Press
DALLAS (ABP)—Members of Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in Southern California hosted a two-day summit on the global AIDS crisis in an effort to “serve the hurting like Jesus did.” But the event was not without critics—including some conservative Christians.
The event, which began Nov. 30 and concluded on World AIDS Day Dec. 1, was slated to feature Bono of U-2, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), among others.
12/01/2006 - By John Rutledge
-
Cybercolumn by Berry Simpson: At home again
Posted: 11/27/06
CYBER COLUMN: At home again
By Berry Simpson
I just finished reading The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, a powerful book that will haunt me (in a good way) for a long time. In fact, the reason it sat on my too-be-read shelf for over a year was because I’d heard enough about it to know it would have a big impact on mek and I didn’t want to read it until I was ready. But my friend Carol kept asking if I’d read it yetk and I couldn’t keep telling her I was waiting to start.
Berry D. Simpson I can’t write about most of what Didion said because I haven’t experienced the losses she had—the loss of her spouse and the loss of control to help her family—and I just don’t feel qualified. I don’t think I’m grown up enough to write about all of that. But I can write about this—something she said about being at home. She wrote: “In California, we heated our houses by building fires. We built fires even on summer evenings, because the fog came in. Fires said we were home, we had drawn the circle, we were safe through the night. I lit the candles.”
11/27/2006 - By John Rutledge
