Archives
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Baptist Briefs
Posted: 11/02/07
Baptist Briefs
Land named to new term on commission. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, has been appointed to a fourth term on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky reappointed Land to a two-year term on the nine-person panel. The commission, a nonpartisan panel appointed by the president and members of Congress, researches the status of religious liberty in other countries and provides reports and recommendations to the White House and legislators. The president selects three members of the commission, while congressional leaders name the other six. The State Department’s ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom serves as a nonvoting member of the panel.
NAMB finalizes FamilyNet sale. Charles Stanley, founder and president of In Touch Ministries, and Geoff Hammond, president of the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board, signed documents Oct. 25 finalizing the sale of the mission board’s FamilyNet television network to In Touch. Negotiations between the two ministries began several months ago and were announced in a letter of intent from In Touch to NAMB in August. Under the agreement, NAMB will continue to have 30 minutes of programming on both the television and a satellite radio channel each week. Also, a NAMB representative will hold a chair on FamilyNet’s board of directors.
Veteran seminary professors recognized. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary trustees honored John and Robina Drakeford, George and Linda Kelm, and James Leo and Myrta Garrett with the L.R. Scarborough Award, named for the seminary’s second president. Drakeford, who taught counseling and psychology and founded the seminary’s Baptist Marriage and Family Counseling Center in 1960, was recognized posthumously. George and Linda Kelm were leaders in developing and organizing the seminary’s archaeology program, the Charles D. Tandy Archaeological Museum and the Charles D. Tandy Center for Archaeological Research. James Leo Garrett Jr., longtime professor of systematic theology, became a distinguished professor at Southwestern in 1991 and has authored, co-authored, edited and co-edited 134 published works, including the authorship of his two-volume Systematic Theology: Biblical, Historical and Evangelical.
11/02/2007 - By John Rutledge
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2nd Opinion: Knowing how the story ends
Posted: 11/02/07
2nd Opinion: Knowing how the story ends
By Toby Druin
I am reading An Army at Dawn, Rick Atkinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the war in North Africa in 1942-43. Atkinson was a writer and editor for the Washington Post for 20 years, and his account of the war is rich in detail.
I am about a third of the way through the book, but two things already have impressed me. The first is that the United States must remain the No. 1 super power in the world. We must maintain an army superior to that of any other nation— one with enough manpower to fight on two or more fronts with equipment second to none and the ability to deliver them immediately.
America’s isolationist bent prior to World War II encouraged Japanese imperialism and Hitler’s ambitions. Never should any nation or ruler doubt that the United States is willing and ready to defend itself and our allies from such arrogance.
11/02/2007 - By John Rutledge
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EDITORIAL: Look past gender toward priorities
Posted: 11/02/07
EDITORIAL:
Look past gender toward prioritiesThe 2008 Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting came off much more peacefully than prognosticators predicted. To pick a word from this space in last week’s paper, messengers in Amarillo “behaved.” More than that, they represented the best of Baptist ideals. Even when they disagreed, they did so agreeably, and the atmosphere in the assembly hall and hallways was warm and harmonious.
Many Texas Baptists contributed to this positive atmosphere, but none moreso than the president and presidential candidates. President Steve Vernon embodied a genial, caring and helpful Christian spirit. And presidential contenders Joy Fenner and David Lowrie elevated cordiality to new levels. They all set standards of grace.
Our guest speakers, Baptist World Alliance President David Coffey and pastor/author Rick Warren, helped us look beyond ourselves to greater issues. Coffey reminded the BGCT of its place in world Baptist affairs, and Warren helped us see how our present and momentary challenges are insignificant compared to a lost and hurting world.
The 2008 annual meeting will be remembered as the time when the BGCT made history by electing its first female president. Some people predict that decision will cost the convention $2 million to $5 million. Their thinking goes like this: Churches are fed up with spoon-fed “diversity” that produced the first Hispanic, African-American and woman presidents in the past four years. They’re particularly galled that a woman was elected president, citing this as the last straw of “liberalism,” the weight that broke their backs of participation.
11/02/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Faith Digest
Posted: 11/02/07
Faith Digest
Evangelicals advocate for Dalits. The National Association of Evangelicals has called on the U.S. government to take action to reduce persecution of the Dalits, the “untouchable” residents of South Asia. Board members of the evangelical association acknowledged their previous inattention to the Dalits’ plight and urged both the U.S. and Indian governments to do more to help them. About 250 million Dalits live in India, where they are about one-quarter of the population. The statement calls on the U.S. government to acknowledge discrimination faced by the Dalits, issue a State Department report and end agreements that worsen conditions for the Dalits.
Unitarians try to raise profile. Proud of their spiritual skepticism and “big-tent” religious diversity, Unitarian Universalists are not known as heavy-duty evangelizers. But with just 250,000 members nationwide and growth relatively stagnant at 1 percent a year, the Unitarian Universalist Association is trying to raise its national profile with an unorthodox ad campaign. The $425,000 ad campaign, which will run through the end of the year, has two parts. Traditional print ads in Time magazine carry the message: “Is God keeping you from going to church?” The more unusual “advertorials” appear in an online archive of Time religion stories under the tagline: “Find us, and ye shall seek.” The online archive features stories that focus on three areas—religion and science; religion in American democracy; and religion, sexuality and morality. Readers will be able to click on links to a webpage with essays written by Unitarian Universalist ministers about these topics.
11/02/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Howard Payne honors alumni and supporters
Posted: 11/02/07
Robert Carter J. Mac Rust Arlen White Eloise Trigg Russell Fudge Howard Payne honors alumni and supporters
BROWNWOOD—Howard Payne University recognized alumni and friends of the university with special honors during the recent homecoming alumni awards.
Robert Carter, a 1973 graduate and vice chairman of the National Financial Partners in Austin, received the distinguished alumnus award.
J. Mac Rust of Gordan, a 1995 graduate who owns his own legal practice in Stephenville, received an award as outstanding young graduate.
Arlen White of San Angelo, a 1975 graduate, received the medal of service. A medal of service also was awarded to Citizens National Bank of Brownwood.
11/02/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Texas Baptist Forum
Posted: 11/02/07
Texas Baptist Forum
Synergy of the Spirit
As Baptists, we have long believed and relied on the fact that the Lord speaks through the votes of his people.
• Jump to online-only letters below Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.
“My son should have been buried with dignity, not with a bunch of clowns outside.”
Albert Snyder
Father of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who sued Wesboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., after the church protested his son’s 2006 funeral. The church pickets soldiers’ funerals, claiming God is killing troops as punishment for homosexuality in America. (AP/RNS)“Faced with a world lacerated by conflicts, where violence is still justified in the name of God, it is important to reassert that religions must never become vehicles of hate. On the contrary, religions can and should offer precious resources for constructing a pacific humanity.”
Pope Benedict XVI
Speaking at a peace conference (RNS)“He never made me feel that my faith and my intellect were at war with one another. He always made me believe that God gave you a brain, and he expects you to use it.”
Condoleezza Rice
U.S. secretary of state, discussing her faith and her father, a late Presbyterian minister (Larry King Live/RNS)In Amarillo during the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting, I believe God spoke to us in two profound ways. The Lord affirmed Joy Fenner and the significant role of women in ministry. He knows if we are going to claim our future, women must continue to play a vital role in helping us to wrap our arms around Texas and the world.
I also believe the Lord called on us to lay aside political maneuverings and to pull together as one people on one mission to reach Texas and the world for the sake of his kingdom.
11/02/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Memphis church gives new meaning to ‘I Surrender All’
Posted: 11/02/07
Memphis church gives new
meaning to ‘I Surrender All’By Lucky Severson
Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (RNS)—Nineteen-year-old Edacious recently came to New Salem Missionary Baptist Church, to surrender—and not just to Jesus.
There was a warrant for her arrest on marijuana charges, and she had come to church to turn herself in. Hundreds of others with outstanding warrants also showed up.
Frank Ray, pastor of New Salem Missionary Baptist church in Memphis, recently allowed court officials to use his church as a place where fugitives could turn themselves in to law enforcement. Ray said many fugitives feel the church is safer than the sheriff’s office. 11/02/2007 - By John Rutledge
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Kinder, gentler Moses pictured in new Ten Commandments movie
Posted: 11/02/07
Kinder, gentler Moses pictured
in new Ten Commandments movieBy David Briggs
Religion News Service
HOLLYWOOD (RNS)—The image of Charlton Heston as Moses has been carved into the minds of generations.
Few who have seen the Cecil B. DeMille blockbuster can forget Heston’s majestic, commanding presence as he comes down from Mount Sinai and thunders to a wayward people, “Those who will not live by the law shall die by the law.”
11/02/2007 - By John Rutledge
