Archives
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DOWN HOME: Are you too old to wear corduroys?
Posted: 1/05/07
DOWN HOME:
Are you too old to wear corduroys?Joanna took me shopping, but she didn’t stay long enough to protect me from the sales clerk. Oh, the humiliation.
Like most guys I know, I’m a buyer, not a shopper. The difference is the agenda. A buyer’s agenda is short. He knows what he wants and goes looking for it. Nothing else matters. If he’s shopping for jeans, and the store is selling $65 dress shirts for a nickel, he’ll come home only with jeans. But a shopper’s agenda is open. She may need a blue sweater, but if she sees fuchsia pumps at a great price, she’ll come home with fuschia pumps. And the blue sweater.
As a hard-shell buyer, I prefer to “shop” on the Internet. The Internet eliminates all the challenges of shopping—huge malls, parking, crowds, distractions and sales clerks. You type the name of the item you need, look at the options, make your pick, pay, and you’re done.
But my wife of lo these many years knows that, while I’m pretty good at buying dress shirts online, my wardrobe would look like a uniform if that’s the only way I bought clothes.
01/04/2007 - By John Rutledge
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EDITORIAL: Prophecies needed for coming year
Posted: 1/05/07
EDITORIAL:
Prophecies needed for coming yearA few years ago, (Actually, exactly seven years ago, January 2000. Remember Y2K?) our Sunday school quarterly focused on apocalyptic literature—mystical passages from the Old Testament books of Zechariah and Daniel, as well as mesmerizing passages from the New Testament book of Revelation. The first Sunday, our classroom nearly burst. We started the lesson several minutes late because we had to haul in chairs for all the folks who came to hear the teacher predict The End of the World as We Know It.
Within 30 minutes, I conducted the most effective ensmallment campaign in the history of Sunday school. The majority of our first-time visitors weren’t impressed when I told them: “Every passage in the Bible meant something to the people who first heard or read it. Sustained by the power of the Holy Spirit, it meant something to each succeeding generation. Thank God, it also means something for us today. But we would be indescribably arrogant to assume biblical prophecy meant nothing to all the believers in all the years up until now and was written only for people alive today.” Most of the newcomers never came back. If you can’t get the inside scoop on what the Mark of the Beast really looks like and determine the true identity of the Antichrist, why bother with Bible study?
This episode returned to memory Jan. 2, when televangelist Pat Robertson predicted a terrorist attack would produce “mass killing” in the United States this year. Oh, really. This from the TV preacher who predicted the U.S. coast would be “lashed by storms” and the Pacific Northwest would be smashed by “something as bad as a tsunami,” both of which could happen randomly but both of which have not come true.
When you think about it, you can understand why religionists like Robertson stir up a following. People are curious. They want to know the future, whether it’s the next terrorist attack, or a wave the size of Mount Rushmore, or the date when Jesus returns. That’s why pastors who put on “biblical prophecy” seminars make money. Problem is, people confuse prophecy with prediction or, as Beth Newman of the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond calls it, fortunetelling. But prophecy is something entirely different. “In Scripture, the prophets deliver a word from the Lord that always carries with it a self-judgmental call to repent, to turn to God, to be God's people,” Newman explains.
01/04/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Graham named among most-admired in poll for 50th time
Posted: 1/05/07
Graham named among
most-admired in poll for 50th timeBy Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS)—Evangelist Billy Graham has been named in the Gallup Poll’s top 10 “most-admired” men list for a record 50th time.
In a poll taken in mid-December, the 88-year-old evangelist came in fifth.
Billy Graham 01/04/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Texas Baptist Forum
Posted: 1/05/07
Texas Baptist Forum
‘Fixing’ immigration
The recent well-publicized immigration raid on the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Cactus, in the Texas Panhandle, serves as a troubling reminder that our immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed.
• Jump to online-only letters below Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.
“Being in the position I am today, I do feel like a looking glass, where people living in the West can view Islam, and Muslims can view another culture. I feel comfortable looking at both and living in these two distinct zones.”
Yusuf Islam
The singer/songwriter formerly known as Cat Stevens, speaking about how his 1978 conversion to Islam allows him to live in two different realms (USA Today/RNS)“I’m not in the ‘Who’s Who’ of Baptists. I’m in the ‘Who’s He?’ of Baptists.”
Frank Page
Dark-horse candidate who won election as president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2006 (RNS)“Our tolerance is part of what makes Britain, Britain. So conform to it—or don’t come here. We don’t want the hatemongers, whatever their race, religion or creed.”
Tony Blair
British prime minister (AP/RNS)“You meet the Lord in prayer every day. The idea of meeting him is, while disquieting, not something I think I am afraid of.”
Francis George
Chicago Roman Catholic cardinal, who was facing surgery for bladder cancer (Chicago Tribune/RNS)Texas businesses want and need to follow the law. Unfortunately, they lack a sensible and reliable system to verify an employee’s legal status.
Employers are forced to navigate tricky waters each time they make a hire. Texas businesses must deal with complex immigration regulations; a glut of seemingly valid, but sometimes counterfeit, worker identification documents; and the threat of discrimination lawsuits if they ask the “wrong” questions about employees’ documents.
01/04/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Volunteers warm orphans’ hearts—and feet—in Moldova
Posted: 1/05/07
Chris Love, a member of Bethel Baptist Church in New Caney, fits a pair of insulated boots onto a boy who lives at the Sarata orphanage in Moldova. Volunteers warm orphans’
hearts—and feet—in MoldovaBy Craig Bird
Baptist Child & Family Services
Clay Palmer handed a thin, poorly dressed Moldovan child new white socks and got the typical excited smile. But what happened next was totally unexpected.
Instead of moving to the next station where volunteers were fitting children for insulated winter boots, the boy grinned broadly and headed back out the door.
01/04/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Apostle’s grave may be beneath Rome church
Posted: 1/05/07
Apostle’s grave may be beneath Rome church
By Stacy Meichtry
Religion News Service
VATICAN CITY (RNS)— Vatican officials have identified a marble sarcophagus embedded in the foundations of a Rome basilica as the coffin believed to contain the remains of the Apostle Paul.
The announcement marked the latest chapter of an excavation campaign under way since 2002, when Vatican archaeologists set out to locate the sarcophagus.
A statue of the Apostle Paul by Adamo Tadolini stands in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (RNS photo by Rene Shaw) 01/04/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Prize-winning biologist issues plea for religion, science to save creation
Posted: 1/05/07
Prize-winning biologist issues plea
for religion, science to save creationBy Bob Abernathy
Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly
WASHINGTON (RNS)—Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist E.O. Wilson fears for creation—for many of the 10 million or more species of plants and animals he believes are in mortal peril.
Wilson, a biologist who recently retired from Harvard University, has written a new book, The Creation, that is a plea for science and religion to work together to save the species.
01/04/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Religious affiliations of Texas congressional delegation
Posted: 1/05/07
Religious affiliations of
Texas congressional delegation1: Louie Gohmert (R) Baptist
2: Ted Poe (R) Church of Christ
3: Sam Johnson (R) Methodist
01/04/2007 - By John Rutledge
