By Erich Bridges, IMB Senior Global Correspondent I almost got flattened by crazy drivers the other day – not once but twice. The first near-miss occurred in the parking lot of a burger joint, where I dodged an SUV barreling toward the exit. Less than an hour later, at a gas station, I was walking toward my car when a pickup truck speeding through the station missed me by about a foot. Before I could recover from the shock of the moment and think about reacting, the pickup was gone. [img_assist|nid=6535|title=Erich Bridges IMB Senior Global Correspondent|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=67|height=100]You have your own nightmare stories about bad drivers, I’m sure. My larger point is this: Many folks no longer seem to care enough about others to observe the basic rules and courtesies that separate civil society from anarchy. From highways to law and order, from politics to media slugfests, from online flamers to breaking in line at the supermarket, examples are endless. And they range from the mundane to the deadly. In Chicago, 54 people were shot – count ‘em, 54 – over a single weekend in June. Ten of the victims died. Some of the shootings were gang-related, but others reportedly were caused by minor … [Read more...]

By Kelly Boggs Editor Louisiana Baptist Message Apollo 11, NASA’s first manned mission to land on the Moon, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on July 16, 1969. Four days later, Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the lunar surface and proclaimed, “One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” While the first activities by man outside the Apollo 11 lunar module were broadcast and publicized, one of man’s first acts on the moon’s surface – a religious observance that took place inside the lunar module – was kept very private. [img_assist|nid=5974|title=Kelly Boggs, Editor Louisiana Baptist Message|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=78|height=100]On July 20, approximately two-and-a-half hours after landing and prior to exiting the lunar module, Buzz Aldrin broadcast to Earth: “This is the LM pilot. I’d like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way.” Aldrin then paused and took Communion. It was “a ceremony I had planned as an expression of gratitude and hope,” Aldrin wrote in his book “Magnificent Desolation.” … [Read more...]

By Joe Guthrie, Member Lewiston Baptist Church, Kentwood, La. There seems to a great deal of political grandstanding of late regarding the establishment of the United States as a Christian nation.  Both sides of the argument seem to have neglected the true purpose of “freedom of religion,” and how it truly benefits believers. It was not that the United States was formed as a Christian nation, but rather a nation established by Christian men.  Once again, rhetoric and emotion push aside and try to hide history and the beliefs of our founding fathers. During colonial times, each American colony, by law, had established its own state religion. The religious intolerance and bigotry of Europe played one of the most important parts in the colonization of the New World.  As a result, colonial America was left with groups that wanted religious freedom for themselves, but were unwilling to grant it to others. Massachusetts Protestant Pilgrim Puritans fled to the New World as religious refugees, but showed no religious tolerance for Quakers in laws established in 1657.  Later Roger Williams, a Baptist minister, fled Massachusetts as a result of religious persecution to establish the colony of Rhode Island. Pennsylvania was … [Read more...]

GULF COAST – Southern Baptists in early July came up with two ways they’re ministering now to people who live along the Gulf Coast: with onsite chaplains, and with Buckets of Hope. Six Disaster Relief trained chaplains were to be onsite – two in each of three locations – by July 11. That same day, Buckets of Hope were to begin being collected, to be distributed to permanent residents of Gulf Coast towns. [img_assist|nid=6539|title=Contractors use improvised mops made of bamboo poles and absorbent pads to clean up oil in the marsh grass.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=75]These actions are the result of a Deepwater Horizon Summit that took place June 30 to July 2 in New Orleans, and a follow-up conference call on July 7. “For the rest of the world, everything is normal; for the folks down here, it’s a reality that life is not going to be the same anymore,” said Joe Arnold, director of missions for Bayou Baptist Association in Terrebonne Parish, south of Interstate 10 and the next finger of land to the west of Plaquemines Parish, where Port Arthur and Venice are. Venice is 52 miles northwest of the Deepwater containment efforts. “These are people who are losing their heritage and losing their future,” Arnold … [Read more...]

By Philip Timothy, Message Staff Writer NEW ORLEANS – The heat is oppressive. Shade is sparse and the occasional cloud provides just a brief reprieve from the sun beating down unmercifully on those gathered in the parking lot around a storm-ravaged building. Nearby vegetation is slowly swallowing pieces of property on which homes, boarded up and still bearing the fading markings left by search and rescue teams, sit empty nearly five years after Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding that caused so much devastation. The neighborhood is crime-ridden, impoverished, and rundown. Hopelessness and desperation are prevalent. [img_assist|nid=6541|title=The congregation of New Life Temple Baptist Church meets in the parking lot of a boarded-up medical center.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=67]For more than a year, the congregation of Temple of New Life Baptist Church has used the parking lot of a boarded-up medical center to meet for Sunday worship services. They have faithfully endured the weather – cold in the winter, heat in the summer, and rain throughout. Yet, through it all, the congregation endures, and have faithfully come week in and week out. “Nobody but God has been able to bring these people … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor FOREST HILL – The momentum for ministry on reservation lands has spread to at least 36 states plus Canada, and churches across Louisiana continue to reap benefits from their involvement last fall in simultaneous revivals in Native American Christian churches across New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma. Last October is when 44 teams – all but two from Louisiana – participated in what New Mexico leaders wanted to be more than a one-time event. As a part of the revival thrust, the leaders wanted churches willing to make multi-year partnerships with Native American Christian churches and communities. “That’s happening,” said Randy Carruth of Forest Hill, La., a former electrician sidelined by injury who became a fulltime missions volunteer and catalyst for this ministry to Native Americans. “Most of these churches have gone back at least once; God is using it [people’s willingness to get involved in ministry to Native Americans] to do some mighty things.” The interest in reaching out to the people who live on the more than 310 reservations in the United States, and more than 600 reserves in Canada was sparked by the prayer of an elderly Navajo woman. “My prayer is that our Lord and … [Read more...]

By Michele Louviere, Director of Counselling Celebration Church, Metairie Question: I struggle in relationships, mostly in the area of feeling close to people that I should feel close to, like my husband. What is wrong with me? Michele Louviere responds:  It sounds like you may have an attachment disorder. God created children to develop healthy attachment when they are babies. For example, babies will go over to mom and/or dad when a stranger comes in a room, and will cry if mom or dad leaves. This shows that the child has formed an attachment with mom and/or dad, or even another care giver. Learning how to feel safe and secure with other people is attachment. Unfortunately, some children grow up in families where they may not develop healthy attachments. Maybe mom and/or dad are going through a difficult time, such as a relational, financial or life crisis, and they are just not as attentive to the child as they normally would be, so they become emotionally unavailable. In this type of situation, the child can grow up and struggle with either anxious-ambivalent or anxious-avoidant attachment styles. The child will grow into an adult that either is ambivalent about relationships or tries to avoid them. Relationships do … [Read more...]