Following Scripture not easy recipe for political choices, ethicists insist

Posted: 6/22/07

Following Scripture not easy
recipe for political choices, ethicists insist

By Robert Dilday

Virginia Religious Herald

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP)—Abortion is the most pressing moral issue of the day, said Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, a Republican candidate for president, at a recent GOP debate. So much so, the Catholic senator continued, that he doesn’t think his party can nominate anyone who isn’t pro-life because that’s “at our core.”

Not so fast, said former senator John Edwards, the Democratic presidential candidate from North Carolina. The “great moral issue of our time” is poverty in the United States, Edwards, a Methodist who was raised Southern Baptist, said in a Democratic candidate forum hosted by a Christian group. “As long as I am alive and breathing, I will be out there fighting with everything I have to help the poor in this country.”

06/22/2007 - By John Rutledge

Pastors challenged to link faith, society in their sermons

Posted: 6/22/07

Pastors challenged to link faith,
society in their sermons

By Ted Parks

Associated Baptist Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP)—Prophecy is not about gazing into the future. It’s about passion for a better world right now, speakers at a celebration of preaching stressed.

While many think of the prophets of the Bible primarily as predictors of the future, that prophetic proclamation is mostly a critique of social evil and a call to justice, they said.

06/22/2007 - By John Rutledge

Pulpit politics run risk for churches

Posted: 6/22/07

Pulpit politics run risk for churches

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

DALLAS—Churches engaged in partisan politics risk losing not only their tax-exempt status, but also their credibility, several experts in church-state relations agree.

06/22/2007 - By John Rutledge

‘Red Letter Christians’ a growing political force

Posted: 6/22/07

'Red Letter Christians' a growing political force

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

NEW YORK (ABP)—In what is shaping up to be a faith-filled race for the presidency, Republican and Democratic candidates have pulled out all the stops—hiring religion gurus, conscientiously attending church, discussing the intimate details of their prayer lives on national TV and publicly admitting personal struggles with sin.

It’s an effort to appeal to religious voters and—especially for Democratic candidates—dispel a perception that they don’t take religion seriously. The latest manifestation of that effort came at a George Washington University forum sponsored by the progressive Christian group Sojourners.

06/22/2007 - By John Rutledge

RENDER TO CAESAR: Some Baptists feel ‘caught in the middle’

Posted: 6/22/07

RENDER TO CAESAR:
Some Baptists feel ‘caught in the middle’

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

It may look dead, but it’s really just evolving—even though its members might not like that word. And it may be developing into something its founders wouldn’t recognize.

That’s what some experts say about the future of the Religious Right as a political movement. And even many very conservative Southern Baptists are part of the trend.

06/22/2007 - By John Rutledge

Senator asserts global warming divides, distracts evangelicals from core issues

Posted: 6/22/07

Senator asserts global warming divides,
distracts evangelicals from core issues

By Daniel Burke

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON—Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., criticized efforts to enlist evangelicals to fight global warming as a “brilliant idea to divide and conquer” and distract them from “core values issues.”

Inhofe, who has been highly critical of climate change “alarmists,” made his remarks during a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee dedicated to religious views on global warming.

06/22/2007 - By John Rutledge

Rockwall church focuses on families, majors on missions

Posted: 6/22/07

Rockwall church focuses
on families, majors on missions

By Jessica Dooley

Communications Intern

ROCKWALL—Grace Fellowship of Rockwall built its church around a simple but uncommon approach. It doesn’t split up families when they enter the church building.

Grace Fellowship believes this helps nurture the relationship between the children and parents.

06/22/2007 - By John Rutledge

Global warming debate generates resolutions heat at SBC

Posted: 6/22/07

Global warming debate
generates resolutions heat at SBC

By Marv Knox

Editor

SAN ANTONIO—Southern Baptist Convention messengers generated some heat during their annual meeting as they debated the government’s responsibility to address global warming.

They also stood by the SBC resolution committee’s decision not to address how many people actually populate Southern Baptist churches.

06/22/2007 - By John Rutledge

WMU: Seeking God means following his will

Posted: 6/22/07

WMU: Seeking God means following his will

By Charlie Warren, Lisa Watson & Bill Webb

Arkansas Baptist, Word & Way

SAN ANTONIO—Prayer for missions took center stage as Woman’s Missionary Union leaders and missionaries challenged participants at the WMU Annual Meeting, held prior to the Southern Baptist Convention gathering in San Antonio.

In her annual address, WMU President Kaye Miller of Little Rock, Ark., cited 2 Chronicles 7:14, highlighting from the passage “humble yourselves” and “pray and seek God.”

06/22/2007 - By John Rutledge

Texas Baptist Men send toolboxes to Sudan

Posted: 6/22/07

Texas Baptist Men send toolboxes to Sudan

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—Texas Baptist young men are sending more than 190 toolboxes to Sudan to help husbands and fathers there learn carpentry skills so they can support their families.

Elementary, middle and high school boys across the state who are part of Texas Baptist Men’s Royal Ambassadors and Challengers missions education programs collected money and purchased toolboxes and tools to send to Sudan. Each toolbox is filled with about $150 of tools.

06/22/2007 - By John Rutledge

Texas Tidbits

Posted: 6/22/07

Texas Tidbits

Communications interns on the job. Three Baylor University students are serving as Texas Baptist communications interns 12 weeks this summer in a cooperative venture involving the Baptist Standard, the Baptist General Convention of Texas communications team and the Buckner International communications office. Jessica Dooley of Ardmore, Okla., Whitney Farr of Caddo Mills and Rebekah Hardage of Waco are serving four weeks in each office. Matt Kennedy of Midlothian, a recent Baylor graduate, is working as an intern with Associated Baptist Press, based out of the Baptist Standard office.

Amarillo hospital dedicates new tower. Baptist St. Anthony’s Health System recently dedicated its new six-story Ware Tower. The new wing was the result of three years of extensive planning and construction. The building permit for the $60 million facility reportedly was the largest ever granted in Amarillo.

06/22/2007 - By John Rutledge

TOGETHER: Together, Texas Baptists touch lives

Posted: 6/22/07

TOGETHER:
Together, Texas Baptists touch lives

Here’s a potpourri of reasons to rejoice in the ministries we are able to do together as Texas Baptists:

• Camps. Each year, between 6,000 and 7,000 older children and youth are saved on the 31 campgrounds that relate to our convention. Pray for all those who administer the camps and all the church leaders who go as sponsors.

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

An exciting development over the last five years has been the camp program for Asian young people sponsored by our intercultural ministry. This year’s camp was the largest, with 240 campers, sponsors and staff attending. All the recreation and media staff were Asian-American young people who have been “raised up” in the previous years of camp. There were seven professions of faith, 19 rededications and 10 commitments to full-time ministry.

For the first time, we had an African camp. Forty students and sponsors from Nigeria and Kenya participated. There were six professions of faith, several rededications and at least one commitment to vocational ministry.

06/22/2007 - By John Rutledge