Week of October 3, 2005
The Louisiana college business programs have been awarded reaffirmation
of their accreditation, school officials announced recently. Louisiana
College business programs are accredited by the Association of
Collegiate Business Schools and Programs. “This is another sign of the
strength of our academic program,” LC President Joe Aguillard said.
“This reaffirmation underscores the quality of the business
curriculum.” Louisiana College is one of the smallest programs to
receive the accreditation, said Bruce Cofer, interim chair of the
school’s Division of Business. “It is quite an honor to be recognized
nationally as a high-quality business program,” he said. For
information about the school’s business programs, call (318) 487-7422.
The number of Americans living in poverty rose to 37 million in 2004,
an increase of 1.1 million from the previous year, Census Bureau
figures indicate. The number represents 12.7 percent of the American
population and marks the fourth straight increase in national poverty.
Meanwhile, Census Bureau figures also indicate that household income
remained flat in 2004, and the number of people without health
insurance rose to 45.8 million, an increase of 800,000. Officials for
the President George Bush administration said they were not surprised
by the numbers, adding that it follows the pattern of previous years as
the nation rose from a recession. “We hope this is it, that this is the
last gasp of indicators for the recession,” a spokesperson said. The
nation has not seen a decline in poverty totals since Bush took office.
Trustees of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist
convention approved a record budget for 2006 last week. Trustees
approved a budget of $453 million, an increase of $7.2 million from the
current year. LifeWay is projected to finish fiscal 2005 with a record
$441 million in revenue, a $12.5 million increase from 2004 (2.9
percent growth), but $4.8 million below budget. A spokesperson said
Hurricane Katrina is responsible for part of the shortfall, along with
higher fuel prices and the decline in sales of “The Purpose-Driven
Life” by Rick Warren. Trustees also authorized the use of $6 million in
reserve funds to assist Southern Baptist disaster relief efforts in the
wake of Hurricane Katrina. In other matters, officials reported 648
professions of faith, 4,005 rededications and other ministry
commitments at Glorieta and Ridgecrest conference centers. A Broadman
& Holman spokesperson said Bibles now comprise 48 percent of the
division’s sales. The Holman Christian Standard Bible translation is
the fifth most-popular translation on the market. Officials also said a
3.2 percent price increase will be implemented with the spring 2006
Sunday School curriculum.
Inspired by the Christian faith of those who cared for them, a couple
who fled New Orleans were married Sept. 10 in the shelter that has
become their home since Hurricane Katrina. Barry McBride and Samantha
Holmes have lived together for the past three years. After their
daughter was born four months ago, they said they decided they wanted
to get married as soon as they could move to a better neighborhood so
she would have a better life. That was before Hurricane Katrina.
Following the storm, the couple spent five nightmarish days in the New
Orleans Convention Center. Eventually, they were transported to San
Antonio and ended up at Churchill Baptist Church. Through the days, the
couple became friends with relief workers, many of them Churchill
members who had a Christian faith that appealed to them, they say. So,
a week after fleeing New Orleans, Samantha Holmes and Barry McBride
stood before Pastor Neil Bennett and exchanged vows. “We decided it was
time for us to give our lives to God, and this seemed like the best
place to do it, where we have been surrounded by Christian people,”
McBride said. “I am glad Barry and Samantha realized they needed to be
married,” Bennett added. “And I am pleased Churchill Baptist can play a
role in that.”
GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention
currently is offering churches a Planning Financial Support workbook to
use in drafting budgets for the new year. The workbook provides a
step-by-step budget plan and includes sample polices and forms. The
resource cites six steps to financial support planning. The Planning
Financial Support workbook is free and may be ordered by calling (800)
262-0511 or by visiting www.GuideStone.org. GuideStone also is offering
the 2004 Compensation Study compiled by 41 Southern Baptist state
conventions. The study provides customized salary and benefit
information for several positions within a church.
In Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath, President George Bush may be able to
push a federal school voucher program through Congress, which has
stymied similar efforts for the last four years. A day after Bush
reviewed hurricane-recovery efforts for the Gulf Coast, Education
Secretary Margaret Spellings announced that part of the money earmarked
for schools would go to subsidizing private-school tuition for families
evacuated from the region. The program essentially would create the
nation’s first large-scale federal voucher program. Bush repeatedly has
tried to create a nationwide program for vouchers that could be used by
parents who want to enroll their children in private or religious
schools. But other than a small voucher program in the District of
Columbia, the president has been rebuffed by Congress. The Supreme
Court ruled in 2002 that the use of government-funded vouchers in
religious schools was constitutional. However, such programs remain
unpopular in most populations and have their share of critics. Indeed,
some have criticized the latest move as capitalizing on a disaster to
push through a pet program. But a Bush spokesperson said the president
simply is pursuing good ideas that will help persons affected by the
storm.
Religious groups recently stepped up pressure on the President George
Bush administration and Congress to help end the genocide in Sudan’s
Darfur region, saying the United States has a “moral duty” to
intervene. Leaders of the Save Darfur Coalition of 134 religious and
humanitarian groups recently urged Washington to provide increased aid
to African Union troops who are on the ground in Darfur and to impose
economic sanctions on the Sudanese government. “The United States has a
moral duty to lead the world to stop the slaughter of innocent
civilians in Darfur,” said Richard Cizik, vice president for the
National Association of Evangelicals. “But we didn’t just say, ‘Do
something.’ We proposed specific steps to resolve this horrific
humanitarian crisis that is killing one Darfurian civilian every four
minutes.” Government-backed Arab militias have killed some 400,000
black Africans in Sudan’s western Darfur region since 2003, according
to the United Nations. There are an estimated 2.5 million refugees in
Sudan and neighboring Chad, and 3.5 million are facing starvation. The
Sudan crisis has garnered widespread attention from religious groups.
Many praised Bush’s actions in Sudan but said more remains to be done.
A couple with Louisiana ties recently was commissioned as overseas
missionaries with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board.
Arnold Ray Austin Jr. and his wife, Margie, were assigned to serve in
South America. He is a Baton Rouge native and a graduate of Louisiana
State University in Shreveport and Louisiana Tech University in Ruston.
She is a Shreveport native and a graduate of Bossier Parish Community
College in Bossier City. The couple have been members at Parkview
Baptist Church in Baton Rouge.
Ashley Smith gained many fans when she was taken hostage by a man
charged in the Atlanta courthouse shootings and read him portions of
“The Purpose-Driven Life” by Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren in
persuading him to surrender. However, those fans were shocked recently
when news surfaced that she also gave the man some of her crystal
methamphetamine. The information was disclosed in her recently-released
book, “Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero.”
Apparently, the night she was held captive, Smith was asked by escapee
Brian Nichols if she had any marijuana. She told him she did not, but
she said she did have some crystal meth. In the book, Smith revealed
that she had been struggling with a methamphetamine addiction when she
was taken hostage, and the drug problem even had led to time spent in a
psychiatric hospital and the loss of custody of her 5-year-old
daughter. Smith said the last time she used the drug was 36 hours
before Nichols entered her home. Nichols wanted her to use the drug
with him, but she refused. “Suddenly, looking down at my drug pouch, I
realized that I would rather have died in my apartment than have done
those drugs with Brian Nichols,” she said. “If the cops were going to
bust in here and find me dead, they were not going to find drugs in me
when they did the autopsy.”
American Baptist churches in Southern California and the Southwest
recently declared their intention to break from their national
denomination by the end of the year over the issue of homosexuality. A
second group in West Virginia likely will do the same this month. Both
groups cite the unwillingness of the American Baptist Churches (USA) to
enforce the denomination’s official stance against homosexuality,
pointing to the acceptance of openly gay and “affirming” churches for
membership as the reason for their actions. Leaders of the Pacific
Southwest Region, composed of some 300 churches, said the
denomination’s national leadership had been unresponsive to repeated
calls from conservative churches to implement a 1992 resolution that
declared the practice of homosexuality as incompatible with Christian
teaching. Members of 65 American Baptist Churches aligned with the
conservative West Virginia Baptists for Biblical Truth also are
scheduled to decide this month whether or not they will withdraw from
the national convention.