Cheap cheese heroin a deadly snare for teens

Posted: 6/15/07

Cheap cheese heroin a deadly snare for teens

By George Henson

Staff Writer

DALLAS—A killer is stalking Hispanic teenagers, and it is beginning to claim a wider circle of victims, a group of Dallas-area youth ministers recently learned.

The killer drug—cheese heroin—has become a favorite of many Hispanic teens, because a single dose in a small plastic bag sells for only about $2, said Javier Rios, a drug intervention/prevention and gang consultant with the Dallas Independent School District and interim pastor of Iglesia Bautista Compañerismo Oikos.

06/15/2007 - By John Rutledge

Faith and hip-hop culture combine in beach ministry

Posted: 6/15/07

Faith and hip-hop culture
combine in beach ministry

By Barbara Bedrick

Texas Baptist Communications

GALVESTON—Wearing the signature red bandana of the “Bloods” gang, Marcus jumped from his Mustang convertible, popped open the trunk and pulled out an AK-47. His friends shouted: “Shoot ‘em! Shoot ‘em!”

The potentially deadly face-off developed after another driver cut in front of Marcus’ car, ripping off its front end.

06/15/2007 - By John Rutledge

Buckner helps single mothers on the road to self-sufficiency

Posted: 6/15/07

Buckner helps single mothers
on the road to self-sufficiency

By Whitney Farr

Communications Intern

The women traveled a dark road. They spent years trying to get somewhere but always ended up in the same place. They were single moms struggling to provide, and their road was filled with potholes—unpaid bills, little mouths to feed and employers who required higher education which, due to responsibilities, they could not attain.

But Buckner Family Pathways, a self-sufficiency program based in Dallas, was out on the road in front of the group, filling in potholes with things like rental subsidies and child care, making the road of life a little smoother.

06/15/2007 - By John Rutledge

Cheap cheese heroin a deadly snare for teens

Posted: 6/15/07

CYBER COLUMN:
Stomping, shouting, and listening for God

By Brett Younger

Two weeks ago, my 13-year-old son, Caleb, and I decided at the last minute to go to a Fort Worth Cats baseball game. We bought our general admission tickets and headed out to right field to find a seat, but the people in our section weren’t sitting. We hadn’t realized that they had given general admission tickets to this game to all of the elementary school students in the Fort Worth ISD who had perfect attendance. The bleachers were overflowing with 7- and 8-year-olds attending what appeared to be their first baseball game.

They didn’t show any signs of interest in the game itself, but they were fascinated with stomping on the metal bleachers. Unfortunately, they had more enthusiasm than rhythm. It sounded like hail on a tin roof. When they tried to clap in time, it also was without any recognizable rhythm. We were, however, in sync when we sang YMCA with the motions.

06/15/2007 - By John Rutledge

SBC messengers re-elect Page president; select Richards, Redmond as vice presidents

Posted: 6/13/07

SBC messengers re-elect Page president;
select Richards, Redmond as vice presidents

By Lonnie Wilkey

Baptist and Reflector

SAN ANTONIO—South Carolina pastor Frank Page was elected unopposed June 12 for a second one-year term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Messengers also elected Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, as first vice president, and African American pastor Eric Redmond of Hillcrest Baptist Church, Temple Hills, Md., as second vice president.

06/14/2007 - By John Rutledge

SBC says doctrinal statement ‘sufficient,’ but impact on hiring remains unclear

Posted: 6/13/07

SBC says doctrinal statement ‘sufficient,’
but impact on hiring remains unclear

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

SAN ANTONIO—The Southern Baptist Convention affirmed the Baptist Faith & Message June 12 as the “sufficient” doctrinal guide for its agencies and institutions. But SBC leaders immediately disagreed over whether the action will keep those agencies from adopting more restrictive policies.

The motion was supported by messengers who worry the SBC’s conservative leaders have gone too far in limiting participation in the 16 million-member convention. They cite controversial hiring guidelines, adopted last year at the International Mission Board, that exclude missionaries who practice a “private prayer language”—a type of speaking in tongues.

06/14/2007 - By John Rutledge

Texas Baptist disaster relief workers join drill, provide special-needs assistance

Posted: 6/14/07

Texas Baptist disaster relief workers join drill, provide special-needs assistance

By Barbara Bedrick

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—Forecasters predicted Hurricane Brett would hit the Texas coast in less than 72 hours. But the impending disaster was only a lesson in survival, as Texas Baptists and hundreds of city, county and state disaster response teams raced through Texas’ first simulated hurricane under its revamped state disaster and evacuation plan.

In the wake of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, Texas emergency management officials reworked the state’s response plan to make it more effective. In the recent drill, crews rushed to coordinate the simulated evacuation of more than 1 million people along the Texas Gulf Coast.

06/14/2007 - By John Rutledge

Southern Baptists have been ‘fighting the wrong battles,’ president insists

Posted: 6/14/07

Southern Baptists have been ‘fighting
the wrong battles,’ president insists

By Charlie Warren

Arkansas Baptist

SAN ANTONIO—Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page challenged challenged Baptists to lay aside factionalism and cold-hearted legalism to develop a new strategic battle plan that goes beyond doctrinal rightness to speak the truth in love to a lost world.

To illustrate his message from Psalm 51:1-13, Page referred to France just prior to World War II. French leaders, particularly André Maginot, minister of war, poured enormous financial resources into a state-of-the-art defense system along the nation’s eastern border, with the exception of dense forests they considered impenetrable.

06/14/2007 - By John Rutledge

Global warming debate generates resolutions heat

Posted: 6/14/07

Global warming debate generates resolutions heat

By Marv Knox

Editor, Baptist Standard

SAN ANTONIO, Texas—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.

06/14/2007 - By John Rutledge

SBC strategist for gender issues coordinates ministry to homosexuals

Posted: 6/14/07

SBC strategist for gender issues
coordinates ministry to homosexuals

By Trennis Henderson

Kentucky Western Recorder

SAN ANTONIO—Pastor Bob Stith—who said God convicted him more than a decade ago about his judgmental attitutudes and how he condemned homosexuals—has been named Southern Baptists’ national strategist for gender issues.

Stith, pastor of Carroll Baptist Church in Southlake, Texas, since 1970, accepted the newly created position effective June 1. LifeWay Christian Resources is funding the post, and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is providing administrative oversight.

06/14/2007 - By John Rutledge

Zinn: Catch vision for Great Commission

Posted: 6/14/07

Zinn: Catch vision for Great Commission

By Bill Webb

Word & Way

SAN ANTONIO—California Pastor Rob Zinn bemoaned Southern Baptist baptism statistics and challenged messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting to catch a vision for winning people to Christ.

In the annual convention sermon, Zinn, senior pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Highland, Calif., charged that believers have fallen short of the demands of the Great Commission, and many churches deliberately have chosen not to grow.

06/14/2007 - By John Rutledge

SBC re-elects Page, hears motions on agency policies, clergy sex abuse

Posted: 6/13/07

SBC re-elects Page, hears motions
on agency policies, clergy sex abuse

By Greg Warner & Charlie Warren

Associated Baptist Press & Arkansas Baptist

SAN ANTONIO (ABP)—Frank Page was re-elected without opposition to the traditional second one-year term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention during the first day of the denomination’s annual meeting, which also featured efforts to curb clergy sexual abuse and to prevent hiring criteria that are more restrictive than the SBC’s official doctrinal statement.

Page, pastor of First Baptist Church of Taylors, S.C., was elected last year on a pledge to oppose more restrictive parameters for participation in the 16 million-member denomination. Last year, the SBC’s fundamentalist establishment opposed Page’s election, which they saw as a threat to the SBC’s 27-year rightward shift.

06/13/2007 - By John Rutledge