Week of April 18, 2005
Louisiana College has set its annual commencement ceremony for May 14
on the Pineville campus. About 200 graduates from the Louisiana Baptist
school will be honored during the ceremony. The scheduled speaker is
W.E. Thorn, president emeritus of Dallas Baptist University in Dallas.
The ceremony is set to begin at 10:30 a.m. in Guinn Auditorium. For
details, call (318) 487-7401.
The American Civil Liberties Union has charged that the Louisiana
Governor’s Program on Abstinence is continuing to promote religion in
defiance of a court order issued three years ago. The program once was
cited for giving grants to groups that used them to deliver religious
messages. Now, the ACLU says religious materials is being presented on
the program’s Web site. ACLU attorneys have asked that the state be
held in contempt of court for defying the order of three years ago.
They say the abstinence program’s Web site includes experts, articles
and skits that unconstitutionally mix religion with the abstinence
message. For instance, some materials state that “God’s plan is not for
us to be alone” or urge youth who have sex to repent and seek
“forgiveness through Jesus.” Meanwhile, attorneys for the state say the
Web site makes minute mention of God and does not promote any
particular religion. “You can’t just pull out the word ‘God’ and say
we’re in violation,” a lead attorney noted. “The biggest problem is
that they are (citing items) completely out of context.” The ACLU is
asking that a third party be named to monitor the Web site. The
abstinence program’s Web site is found at www.abstinenceedu.com.
Eight members of the Rolling Hills Resort Ministries chainsaw unit in
Ruston completed two jobs recently after a tornado struck the town of
Fryeburg on April 5. The storm destroyed six homes and damaged 21
others.
A prominent adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said recently
that extreme world poverty can be ended within two decades. “Poverty is
not a condition of fate,” said Jeffrey Sachs, director of The Earth
Institute at Columbia University. “These challenges are solvable by
practical means and good ethics.” Sachs also advises Annan on the
Millennium Development Goals, a series of eight global objectives that
include halving extreme poverty by 2015. The goals have been championed
by a wide spectrum of religious groups. In his recent comments, Sachs
said extreme poverty – a condition that is experienced by about 1
billion people – can be overcome with small but concrete measures taken
by rich nations. For instance, the transfer of 0.7 percent of gross
national product – or 70 cents of every $100 of income – by wealthy
nations would allow 1 billion persons to escape poverty, he said. In
addition, $3 billion could eliminate malaria, a treatable disease that
still kills 3 million persons – most of them children – every year.
In an effort to strengthen the institution of marriage, two lawmakers
in Tennessee have proposed a bill to allow spouses who have been
cheated on, abused or abandoned to receive more than half of the
marital assets rather than the typical 50 percent. The bill is gaining
bipartisan support, reports indicate. “The hope is that we will be able
to reintroduce some teeth into the divorce law and discourage some of
the more egregious behaviors that lead to the breakup of marriages and
the destruction of children that they leave in their wake,” said Sen.
David Fowler, a sponsor of the bill. Some say it’s ironic that someone
who fails to keep a business contract can be required to pay damages
but a spouse who violates a marriage contract is not held accountable.
Under the law, a spouse would have to present clear and convincing
evidence that the other partner committed adultery, abuse or
abandonment in the year before the divorce was filed, and the person
claiming to be the victim cannot be guilty of the same behavior.
However, the proposed law is being criticized by some who say the
divorce process is complicated enough.
Focus on the Family founder James Dobson recently decried activist
judges, comparing U.S. Supreme Court justices to the Ku Klux Klan.
During an interview with author Mark Levin on his Focus on the Family
radio show, Dobson referred to Justice Antonin Scalia description of
his Supreme Court colleagues as “black-robed masters.” In an exchange
with Levin, Dobson then said – “I heard a minister the other day
talking about the great injustice and evil of men in white robes, the
Ku Klux Klan, that roamed the country in the South, and they did great
wrong to civil rights and to morality. And now, we have black-robed
men, and that’s what you’re talking about.” Dobson said all of the
issues he cares about – including the sanctity of marriage,
preservation of the family, abortion and embryonic stem cell research –
are dependent on the whims of the Supreme Court. “And we simply have to
get a handle on that,” he said.
The Louisiana Board of Regents recently granted the Teacher Education
Program at Louisiana College a rating of “Exemplary,” the highest of
the five ratings, said Glenn Wilkins, interim chair of the Division of
Education at the Pineville school. A portion of the “Exemplary” rating
was based on the fact that Louisiana College teacher education
graduates had a 100 percent passage rate on the PRAXIS exam, the test
all education graduates must pass for certification. “Louisiana College
education graduates continue to show that they are well prepared to
move into classrooms to provide the very best teaching environment for
their students,” Wilkins said. “Our graduates are highly regarded and
sought by school systems.” Wilkins said the Louisiana College TEACH
program – designed for individuals who did not major in education but
who hold college degrees and would like to work toward certification –
was another factor in the program’s rating. For information about the
Louisiana College program, persons may call (318) 487-7302.
With the approval of his successor, Pope John Paul II could be
proclaimed blessed – the step before sainthood – as early as October, a
high Vatican official said. Such speed would be unprecedented in modern
times. John Paul put Mother Teresa on the fast track to sainthood, but
her beatification came six years after she died. John Paul died April
2. Nevertheless, Archbishop Edward Nowak said six months should be
enough time to collect “adequate documentation” on the pope’s holiness
and miracles expected to be attributed to his intervention. Nowak is
secretary and acting head of the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of
Saints. Nowak said the prolonged applause, banners and shouts of “santo
subito (saint immediately)” at John Paul’s funeral were sufficient
popular support to trigger the process leading to sainthood. Until
1588, saints were created by the acclamation of their followers. Today,
the process can take decades and involves proof that two miracles
occurred after prayers to the candidate.
A recent report that British officials will not prosecute two doctors
who aborted a baby because the child had a cleft lip and palate
produced shock and protests among pro-lifers. British prosecutors
defended the decision by saying the doctors had decided there was a
significant risk the child would be seriously handicapped. However,
cleft lip and palate is a fairly common birth defect, and children born
with it can be totally rehabilitated through such treatments as
surgery, dental or orthodontic care and speech therapy. “This very sad
case demonstrates the vicious consumerism of our culture,” said Ben
Mitchell, a bioethics consultant for the Southern Baptist Ethics and
Religious Liberty Commission. “Children are treated like new cars. If
the car doesn’t have the right options, people don’t want it.” Under
British law, abortion is prohibited after 24 weeks of pregnancy, unless
there is a substantial likelihood the child will be seriously disabled.
The American Tract Society is celebrating its 180th year of existence,
still working to help equip Christians of all denominations to share
their faith. One of the oldest faith-based organizations still
operating today, the society has published 10 billion pages of tracts,
books and Bibles in more than 188 languages. Its materials have been
used by almost every Christian denomination and have circulated in
almost every country on the globe. Society tracts are displayed in
churches across the nation, in airport chapels and elsewhere. The
organization maintains an interactive Web site (www.atstracts.org) on
which tracts can be viewed, sent via e-mail and ordered online, and
produces Radio Trax, a CD of 60-second daily radio programs available
to broadcast media across the country. In 2004, the society provided
print-ready art and funds necessary to help print 7.8 million tracts in
88 languages with distribution to 50 countries. The “Steps to Peace
With God” tract by evangelist Billy Graham has been the all-time
best-seller for the society, with tens of millions distributed.
Faith-based groups received more than $2 billion in federal funding for
the 2004 fiscal year, compared to $1.17 billion in 2003, statistics
released by the President George Bush administration indicates. Bush
has pushed to give religious groups equal opportunities to compete with
nonsectarian groups for federal contracts since entering office in
2001. Some of the federal funding last year was funneled through state
governments. New York received the most with more than $150 million
targeted to faith-based groups. Illinois and California also received
more than $100 million for such groups. “The faith-based program is one
that is going to … remain a constant part of my administration,” Bush
said. The president has said he wants to expand opportunities for
people to choose faith-based options and has applied pressure on
Congress to pass legislation for increased funding, while urging states
to support faith-based groups.