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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Berkley, California, becomes ‘no man’ land

By Will Hall, Message Executive Editor BERKLEY, Calif. (LBM) – In the 1960s, Berkley, California, was known as the epicenter of the countercultural revolution. In 2019, the city has become the center of a movement to ban gender-specific language, including the word “manhole” which must now be referred to as a “maintenance hole” because of an ordinance passed July 23. The move will replace all gendered language from the municipal code, according to the measure’s sponsor Rigel Robinson, a 23-year- old councilman and recent graduate of U.C. Berkley, in an effort to avoid bias against non-binary persons (those who do not identify as either male or female). City manager Dee Williams-Ridley concurred with the measure, explaining in a memorandum to the council that the “broadening societal awareness of transgender and gender-nonconforming identities has brought to light the importance of non-binary, gender inclusivity.” “Firemen” will be referred to instead as “firefighters,” and, “policemen” will be addressed as “police officers.” References to women will be abolished as well: “Pregnant woman” will become “pregnant employee.” Likewise, all pronouns which identify the sex of a person will be changed: “He” and “she” will … [Read more...]

SBC lawmaker fails in third attempt to impeach President Trump

By Will Hall, Message Executive Editor WASHINGTON (LBM) – U.S. Rep. Al Green (D- Houston) lost in his July 16 attempt to impeach President Trump by a vote of 332-95 to table the issue. It was Green’s third such attempt. He previously introduced articles of impeachment in December 2017, when Republicans controlled the House, and again in March of this year with House Democrats in control. Both times he was soundly defeated. On Wednesday, 137 Democrats voted to kill Green’s resolution and 95 supported it. He is listed as the lone Southern Baptist Democrat serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Baptist Press, the news service of the Southern Baptist Convention, previously reported Green is a member of Cullen Missionary Baptist Church in Houston. Green’s complaints against the president cited Trump’s tweets (which were condemned as “racist” in a separate House resolution vote largely along political party lines) against four congresswomen, and accused the president of bringing “the high office of the president of the United States in contempt, ridicule, disgrace and disrepute” causing “discord among the people of the United States.” His two other attempts accused the president of causing racial … [Read more...]

Apollo 11: Aldrin celebrated Lord’s Supper on the moon

By Will Hall, Executive Editor ALEXANDRIA (LBM) – The world is set to celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of man’s greatest achievements: the landing on the moon by an American astronaut crew. But few know that God was exalted in the lunar module before the historic “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” took place on July 20, 1969. Mission commander Neil Armstrong made this grand declaration, broadcast to the world, as he became the first human to walk on the lunar surface. But minutes earlier, lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin asked the television audience watching on earth “to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way.” He turned off communications and pulled out a package containing the elements of the Lord’s Supper. Then Aldrin read the words of Christ: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Aldrin later explained in a number of publications that the blackout was the result of NASA’s heightened political sensitivity due to a lawsuit by atheist Madelyn Murray O’Hare. She had filed an objection to the televised reading of Genesis 1, months … [Read more...]

Beth Moore charges SBC conservatives with ‘sin’, recants 2009 statement on ‘homosexual sin’

By Will Hall, Executive Editor HOUSTON (LBM) -- LifeWay’s best-selling author, Beth Moore, created more controversy in June and July, accusing Southern Baptists in the Conservative Resurgence of “sin” while recanting a 2009 statement she made about “homosexual sin.” Moore stirred controversy when it was discovered that she had revised her decade-old book, “Praying God’s Word,” to delete a paragraph she said, July 6, “exceeded Scripture and singled out same-sex sin as particularly satanic.” In 2009 she wrote in the book that “He’s showing me” some things about “sexual strongholds” and then cited promiscuity, pornography and homosexuality as undermining the “sanctifying work of Christ.” Now she has deleted a passage from the electronic version of her book that called homosexuality “another deadly assault of the evil one in our society.” Moore said she made the change because she “heard from some heartbroken mothers about their kids who were having a hard enough time feeling ostracized as it was.” Among the changes she made, she deleted the statement that “God indeed can deliver you” and removed another part that said “complete transformation is possible … because God’s Word says so … [and] because I have witnessed it … [Read more...]