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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

His, Hers… Hens? The push to make kids gender neutral

By Mary Kassian, Author, Professor Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Forget “his” and “hers.” Sweden has introduced a new, gender-neutral pronoun: “hen.” The word was added to the online version of the country’s National Encyclopedia days after International Women’s Day. (In Swedish, “he” is “han” and “she” is “hon.”) The addition of the new designation was sparked by Sweden’s first ever gender-neutral children’s book, Kivi och Monsterhund (Kivi and Monsterdog), Slate.com reported. The child, “Kivi,” whose gender is non-specified, wants a dog for “hen’s” birthday. <a href="/membership">Continue reading this article</a> for $1.00 or subscribe to the Baptist Message.   … [Read more...]

John Huss: The reformer whose goose was cooked

By Lloyd A. Harsch, NOBTS Nothing happens in a vacuum. The same is true of the Reformation. Before Luther, before Calvin, there was John Huss (also spelled Jan Hus). Huss (which means goose) was born between 1369 and 1373 to peasants in Husinec (which means goose town). With few options for making a living, Huss decided to become a priest. He was initially drawn to the priesthood by the money and prestige it could bring, but as he studied, he developed a deep personal faith. Huss entered the University of Prague in 1390, earning a master’s degree in 1396. He then joined the faculty, becoming dean by 1401. The Renaissance, which was just getting under way, brought a renewed sense of learning and scholarship. One of the results was the founding of numerous universities. Charles IV founded the University of Prague in 1348. He was also the first Bohemian king to become Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The new university drew heavily on German scholars for its faculty. By the time that Huss joined the faculty, Germans still greatly outnumbered Czech faculty. In 1382, Charles’s oldest daughter, Anne, married King Richard II of England. As a result, a number of Czech students came to England to be educated at Oxford, where they … [Read more...]

Questions we’ve pondered

By Archie England, NOBTS Question: What did Adam lose when he chose to eat the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3)? Archie England responds: Created in the likeness of the image of God (Genesis 1:26-28), humanity – when in proper union – could create new life (babies) and rule every aspect of the earthly realm (sea, land, and atmosphere). Bearing His image, then, endowed humanity with lesser but similar character traits of God: creating and administrating. In the process of Adam’s naming all the species, two more traits are unveiled: Adam possessed intellect! He was a sentient being with the ability to reason and make decisions! As the BFM 2000 states initially, Adam had the “freedom of choice.” Likewise, Adam was relational: desiring fellowship. <a href="/membership">Continue reading this article</a> for $1.00 or subscribe to the Baptist Message. … [Read more...]

Teen girls learn Christian babysitting skills

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor WINNFIELD – Babysitting involves much more than just watching children, a half-dozen sixth- and seventh-grade girls from three churches learned recently during a Christian Babysitting Workshop that took place at First Baptist Church. Led by two-time Teacher of the Year Mandi Wolfe, a member at First Winnfield, the workshop was adapted from The Official Christian Babysitting Guide, written by Rebecca Park Totilo. The two-day workshop included CPR training, construction of promotional posters and business cards, instruction in cooking simple meals, examination of the home of a First Winnfield member for possible safety hazards, such as a blow dryer in the bathroom left plugged in, and much more. <a href="/membership">Continue reading this article</a> for $1.00 or subscribe to the Baptist Message.   … [Read more...]

Is Chief Justice Roberts cunning or crazy like a fox?

By World News Service (WNS) – Conservative legal scholars can’t seem to agree: Is Chief Justice John Roberts crazy, or crazy like a fox? Those who think Roberts’ healthcare opinion June 28 was clever have compared it to Chief Justice John Marshall’s landmark opinion in Marbury v. Madison, which recognized the power of judicial review. In that 1803 opinion, Marshall threaded a needle when his court was pitted against his political adversary: President Thomas Jefferson. Marshall’s opinion established the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review but also ruled that the court lacked jurisdiction to rule against Jefferson’s administration in that specific case. So he skipped a bashing of Jefferson but expanded the court’s power. <a href="/membership">Continue reading this article</a> for $1.00 or subscribe to the Baptist Message.   … [Read more...]

Louisiana Milestones

By Staff, Baptist Message ARRIVALS/DEPARTURES n David (wife Brenda) Permenter, new as pastor of Beulah Baptist in Mansfield. n Erby Burgess, new as pastor of Parkview Baptist in Monroe. Alan Miller was transitional pastor. n Sam Greer, resigns as pastor of Hebron Baptist in Bush. <a href="/membership">Continue reading this article</a> for $1.00 or subscribe to the Baptist Message.   … [Read more...]

Pastor’s influence felt far and near in rural community

By Tammy Sharp, Special to the Message HICKS – Huey Haymon, pastor of Flactor Baptist Church in Hicks, has been pastoring churches for close to seven decades. Licensed to preach on December 15, 1946, at Mt. Bethel Baptist Church on Belview Road in Leesville, Haymon, now 84, was ordained to preach on Oct. 24, 1948, along with his older brother Arthur. With the exception of about 14 months when he pastored Plainview Baptist Church in nearby Sabine Parish, Haymon has pastored for all of those years in his home parish of Vernon. <a href="/membership">Continue reading this article</a> for $1.00 or subscribe to the Baptist Message.   … [Read more...]

Pornography – America’s next moral battleground?

By Richard Land, President of the ERLC   A newly released Gallup poll taking America’s moral temperature finds strong support for fidelity in marriage and increasing respect for unborn life, but in other key areas – specifically sex outside of marriage and homosexuality – Americans may have lost their biblical compass. And, unless all people of faith unite in opposition, pornography may be next.   Overall the trend is alarming for most. According to the Gallup organization’s annual Values and Beliefs survey, 73 percent of the nation’s citizens believe moral values are getting worse (up from 69 percent in 2011).   This sense of moral malaise is generalized rather than specific with no one issue reaching even 25 percent as the number one issue. Lack of “compassion” or “caring” etc., reached first at 18 percent, followed by “lack of family structure” and “lack of faith/religion” at 10 percent, with many other individual issues gaining single digits.   When Gallup focused on the specifics however, sexual behavior became the battleground.   Biblically speaking, the best news coming from the values survey is that a majority of Americans still have tremendous respect for marriage. … [Read more...]

Staying under the “Big Tent” of Soteriology

By Shawn Thomas, Pastor of First Baptist Church of Moss Bluff   While I am not a Calvinist, a number of my friends and family members are, which I believe gives me a balanced perspective regarding the current debate over soteriology in the SBC.   I almost signed the recently released “A Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of the Doctrine of Salvation” the first time I read it.  I agree with much of it, and believe that it does generally reflect the position held by most pastors and laypeople in the Southern Baptist Convention today.   But I did not sign the Statement, for several reasons.   First, I disagree with some minor points in it.   For example, in Article 2, the Statement reads: “We deny that Adam’s sin resulted in the incapacitation of any person’s free will.”  I believe the terms “Pelagian” and “semi-Pelagian” have been used too promiscuously in recent years by some Calvinists, but this sentence seems to say that man’s free will was not impacted by the Fall.   If so, this contradicts John 6:44, where Jesus said that “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws Him,” and I Corinthians 2:14, “But a natural man does not … [Read more...]

Letter to the Editor: Writer concerned with theological statement

By Joe B. Nesom, Pastor First Baptist Jackson TO THE EDITOR: It seems that a group of brothers are asking us to affirm a theological position which would cause some of us to deny our historic local church confessions of faith, and would involve all of us in a denial of part of the doctrine of salvation in the Baptist Faith and Message. I serve a church which was organized in 1835, ten years prior to the establishment of the SBC. Our church was founded on the doctrines of grace in a statement which is the theology of the Charleston Manual in small space. That manual contained the Baptist Confession of 1689, and was the matrix of our denominational doctrinal commitment. Our church has supported the missionary enterprise of the SBC with thousands of dollars, and more importantly with much prayer, for 167 years this month. If anybody has the right to use the term ”traditional” Southern Baptist, surely we do. Brothers, who is working against the peace of Jerusalem here? Do we not agree that Christ Jesus is the only hope of sinners? Do we not agree that justification is by faith alone, in Christ alone? Do we not agree that the atoning death of Christ is sufficient to save all who come to him by faith? Why fight? I am sick to my … [Read more...]