BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (BP) -- A Kentucky policy barring volunteers and employees in the juvenile justice system from calling homosexuality a sin has drawn criticism from the region's Baptists and provoked the threat of a lawsuit. David Wells, a 13-year volunteer prison minister from McQuady, Ky., was informed in July by the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice that he would no longer be permitted to serve at the Warren County Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Bowling Green because he refused to sign a document, per state policy, promising not to "imply or tell LGBTQI juveniles that they are abnormal, deviant, sinful, or that they can or should change their sexual orientation or gender identity." Wells told Fox News he and every other volunteer from Pleasant View Baptist Church received a similar notice, as did volunteers at a nearby Baptist church. Pleasant View is not listed as a Southern Baptist congregation in the Southern Baptist Directory Services database or by the Kentucky Baptist Convention. KBC Executive Director Paul Chitwood told Baptist Press that while nondiscrimination policies "have become commonplace in government and corporate settings," to "begin to require people of faith to sign off on statements … [Read more...]
Archives for August 2015
IMB, ERLC support Baptist schools in brief
WASHINGTON (BP) -- Two Southern Baptist entities have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower-court decision in order to protect the religious freedom of two Baptist universities and a Presbyterian seminary. The International Mission Board and Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission filed a friend-of-the-court brief Aug. 10 that calls for the high court to grant the appeal of a ruling that upheld enforcement of the abortion/contraception mandate on the Christian schools. In the case, Houston Baptist University, East Texas Baptist University and Westminster Theological Seminary have petitioned the justices regarding a June opinion by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The case is one of more than 50 involving religious non-profit organizations that object to a controversial rule helping implement the 2010 health-care law. The regulation requires employers to provide for their workers not only contraceptives but drugs and devices that can potentially cause abortions. The Department of Health and Human Services provided an exemption to the rule for churches and their auxiliaries, but the accommodation it offered for other religious institutions failed to satisfy the conscience objections of many of … [Read more...]
Burl Cain rules out run for governor, for now
By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer ANGOLA – Burl Cain won’t be joining the list of candidates running for Louisiana governor, at least for now. The warden of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola announced the news on Wednesday during a meeting of the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge, ending months of speculation on his status for running in the governor’s race. “I wouldn’t have the money to do it,” Cain said in an article by the Baton Rouge Advocate newspaper. “I looked at it. I’m still looking at it. … I’d have to resign my job.” The longest-serving warden of any prison in the U.S. and in the history of Angola itself, Cain had said during the Louisiana Baptist Senior Adult Lunch at Summer Grove Baptist Church in February that he had not yet made a decision whether he would or would not run for the office. Signs in support of his potential candidacy can be found around Louisiana and the Facebook page “We Want Warden Burl Cain La Governor 2015” has garnered nearly 2,000 likes. “It’s important to serve Him and look for His blessing and direction,” Cain said at the time. “When you are not in God’s will, disaster occurs. No answer would mean I didn’t get an answer and I would stay here at Angola Either answer is … [Read more...]
First Baptist Ponchatoula credits God, AED to helping save member’s life
By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer PONCHATOULA – First Baptist Church in Ponchatoula is counting their blessings after an automated external defibrillator (AED) the congregation received years ago saved the life of one of its deacons. The incident occurred as parents and teenagers gathered for a lunch and meet-and-greet with the church’s prospective youth minister on Aug. 9. Suddenly, a deacon fell back and burst his head. Byron Willie, a member of the church and the Ponchatoula Fire Department, was just outside the building when he called to the scene. A circle of prayer was formed while Willie performed CPR. David Cranford, pastor of the church, soon arrived with the church’s AED and the deacon was brought back to life. Willie said he is thankful God prevented what could have been a tragic situation. “Everyone is saying y’all saved that man’s life,” Willie said. “I told them God put that man in the right place at the right time with the right people. God took care of everything else.” An AED is a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses irregular heartbeats to could lead to cardiac arrest in a patient. When used, the device can help re-establish an effective rhythm in a … [Read more...]
CCCU loses Union University
By J.C. Derrick, World Magazine JACKSON, Tenn.—Union University has informed the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) that it will withdraw from the coalition in the wake of two member schools changing their hiring policies to include same-sex couples. CCCU president Shirley Hoogstra and board chairman Charles Pollard, who also serves as president of John Brown University, received a letter from Union president Dub Oliver on Monday, almost four weeks after Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) and Goshen College announced they would begin hiring non-celibate homosexual staff and faculty. “It grieves us to make this decision as we have been members of the CCCU since 1991,” Oliver wrote in the letter. He said Union benefited from the council’s programs, professional development, and advocacy, but “our faithfulness to the authority of Scripture takes precedence … marriage is at the heart of the Gospel.” Union, founded in 1823 and located in Jackson, Tenn., is the oldest Southern Baptist–affiliated university in the country and could serve as a bellwether for other schools. The university will now look to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and the Family Research … [Read more...]
Mental health advisory team gives final report
NASHVILLE (BP) -- Noting that we are in "a new day of awareness" about mental health issues, Frank S. Page expressed appreciation to the Mental Health Advisory Group at its culminating meeting and received the group's final report. In response to a motion on mental health ministry and a resolution on mental health concerns introduced at the 2013 SBC annual meeting, Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, appointed the Mental Health Advisory Group to "report and advise [him] on possible ways of better informing Southern Baptists about available mental health service providers and resources." Numerous individuals both within and outside the SBC have been encouraged by the elevation of mental health ministry needs and the work of the advisory group, Page said. Following the group's first meeting in spring, 2014, chairman Tony Rose, pastor of LaGrange Baptist Church in LaGrange, Ky., divided the group into teams to investigate various facets of mental health ministry in SBC life. The full advisory group met again on Nov. 21, 2014 in Nashville to discuss each team's findings and begin the process of collating their findings into its report. Professional and Church Counseling Services The … [Read more...]
3 states defund Planned Parenthood in wake of videos
WASHINGTON (BP) -- Three states have acted swiftly to accomplish what the U.S. Senate could not -- defund Planned Parenthood. Alabama, Louisiana and New Hampshire all have eliminated funding for the country's leading abortion provider after the release of videos providing evidence Planned Parenthood trades in baby body parts. Since mid-July, an investigative group has released five undercover videos that show Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of organs from aborted children for research. It is expected more videos will be released in the next few weeks. Thirteen states have initiated investigations into Planned Parenthood, according to The Christian Science Monitor. After investigations in their states, Florida and Indiana officials have reported they found no evidence of violations by the organization regarding fetal tissue. While some states have canceled contracts with Planned Parenthood, supporters of defunding in the U.S. Senate fell short in their attempt Aug. 3. Senators voted 53-46 to bring to the floor a bill to eliminate federal funds for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and its affiliates. While a majority of senators favored consideration of the proposal, the attempt to invoke … [Read more...]
Domestic violence: Why pastors can’t ignore it
NASHVILLE, (BP) -- When Mark Bagwell started Golden Corner Church in Walhalla, S.C., 22 years ago, he was shocked by the prevalence of domestic violence among the people he sought to reach. "A huge number of the people I was counseling -- within just a short time of even the first meeting, I would start discovering that they had been abused," Bagwell, now Golden Corner's care pastor, told SBC LIFE. That reality "broke my heart and started bringing about a great passion" to confront the problem. Consistent with Golden Corner's vision of "loving God, loving people," Bagwell educated himself about ministering to domestic violence victims. Today, along with other area ministers, he works in conjunction with a local women's shelter to help abuse victims. He was quoted last year as an advocate for battered women in a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles on domestic violence by Charleston, S.C.'s The Post and Courier. Bagwell is among a growing coalition of Southern Baptists encouraging pastors to place more emphasis on combating domestic abuse -- a common but often overlooked problem within churches. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that more than one in three women (35.6 percent) and one in four … [Read more...]
Views on divorce studied
NASHVILLE (BP) -- Pastors believe not all divorces are created equal, but for many Americans any reason is as good as another, a new study shows. "Pastors make a distinction about the rightness of a divorce based on the reasons behind it," said Scott McConnell, vice president of LifeWay Research in Nashville. "They want to account for the parts of Scripture that speak of possible rationales." However, Americans view virtually all reasons for ending a marriage in the same moral light. In a phone survey of 1,000 Americans, LifeWay Research found 39 percent say divorce is a sin when an individual's spouse commits adultery; 38 percent when the couple no longer loves one another; 38 percent when a spouse abandons the other; 37 percent when a spouse is abused; and 35 percent when a spouse is addicted to pornography. Close to the same (37 percent) say divorce is not a sin in any of these. "About one in seven Americans are saying divorce is a sin in all of these cases, more than a third don't think any of these would be a sin, and almost half believe some circumstances would be sinful, but not others," McConnell said. In a separate phone survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors, less than a third want to classify as sinful an … [Read more...]
Ferguson tensions show need for SBC’s Crossover
FERGUSON, Mo. (BP) -- More than 200 Baptist pastors and leaders gathered at First Baptist Church in Ferguson, Mo., on the day violence had broken out in the early morning hours during the one-year anniversary weekend of the shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer. Baptist leaders from the Missouri and Illinois sides of the Mississippi River met to hear plans for and the challenges of Crossover St. Louis, which will precede the Southern Baptist Convention's 2016 annual meeting, June 14-15 in St. Louis. "This has been a city in crisis for more than a year," SBC President Ronnie Floyd said during the sessions at First Baptist in Ferguson. "When we set up this meeting, we didn't realize it would be the anniversary of that horrible event. But God did. "The entire metropolitan area needs an awakening," Floyd continued. "We need to pray for an outpouring of God's Holy Spirit. God is getting His people ready and this is our moment to make a difference." On Sunday (Aug. 9) after an estimated 1,000 protesters had marched peacefully in Ferguson, police returned gunfire from a suspect around 11:15 p.m., critically wounding the man. Dozens of protesters were arrested throughout the day on Monday, the St. Louis … [Read more...]
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