Archive for July 2011
Judge dismisses embryonic stem cell suit
WASHINGTON (BP)--A federal judge dismissed a legal challenge to government funding of embryonic stem cell research July 27, dealing an unsurprising setback to opponents of the lethal experimentation. Royce Lamberth, chief judge of the District of Columbia District Court, ruled in the Obama administration's favor less than a year after suspending [...]
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Mobile ultrasound unit rescues '2 babies & 2 souls' in 1 day
ORLANDO, Fla. (BP)--A mobile pregnancy care resource center may be relatively new for the Florida Baptist Children's Homes, but it already has become a strategic advocate for life and the health of the unborn. "Two babies and two souls were saved" when the unit was stationed next door to a Planned [...]
Continue ReadingEvolution critics, proponents laud Texas boards science vote
AUSTINThe Texas State Board of Education has unanimously approved a list of supplemental science materials that appears to please proponents and critics of evolution alike. The supplemental materials, offered by more than a dozen publishers, aim to bring science classes in Texas public schools up to date with standards the board [...]
Continue ReadingGays see 'watershed moment': Gov't court brief says they face 'purposeful discrimination'
WASHINGTON, D.C. (BP)--In a landmark legal brief that reads more like one from the ACLU or a gay legal group, the U.S. Justice Department argues that homosexuals exhibit immutable characteristics, have suffered a history of discrimination and that the federal government's marriage law is driven by prejudice. The legal brief -- [...]
Continue ReadingNAMB sends states $950,000 in disaster relief funds
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--The North American Mission Board is sending $950,000 to Baptist conventions in seven states hard-hit by tornadoes and storms this spring. The funds have been distributed based on a formula prioritizing the states' needs, NAMB President Kevin Ezell has announced. The amount of funds by state follows: Alabama, $494,000 (52 [...]
Continue ReadingPornography targeted by state conv.
LINN, Mo. (BP)--"There is an 800-pound gorilla in the church auditorium that most congregations seem to be ignoring," pastor David Krueger said. "That gorilla is pornography." The Missouri Baptist Convention's Christian Life Commission, with Krueger as chairman, plans to tackle the problem head-on through two upcoming workshops. "Last year when we were discussing [...]
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With a circulation of more than 40,000, the Southern Baptist TEXAN news-journal reaches pastors, church staff members and laypeople across Texas and beyond. The TEXAN is a 16-page, four-color tabloid published every other week and dedicated to quality news affecting the lives of Southern Baptists in Texas and worldwide. Advertising Rates Deadline [...]
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Southern Baptist TEXAN The News-journal of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention PO BOX 1988 | GRAPEVINE, TX 76099-1988 Gary Ledbetter, Editor Jerry Pierce, Managing Editor Tammi Ledbetter, News Editor/Advertising Russell Lightner, Graphic Artist Lane Rice, Circulation Manager [...]
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With a circulation of more than 40,000, the Southern Baptist TEXAN newsjournal reaches pastors, church staff members and laypeople across Texas and beyond. The TEXAN is a 16-page, four-color tabloid published every other week and dedicated to quality news affecting the lives of Southern Baptists in Texas and worldwide. To [...]
Continue ReadingDiverse Houston church experiences explosive growth
HOUSTON—Until he went to college, Johnny Teague hardly ever associated with African Americans. But God has a way of changing circumstances to advance his kingdom. Today, Teague, who is white, pastors Church at the Cross in Houston, where a wide majority of the congregation is African American. And under his leadership the [...]
Continue ReadingGrand Prairie church tutors students, for Jesus sake
GRAND PRAIRIESometimes the mission field is closer than you think. Maybe its right next door. Thats what South Park Baptist Church in Grand Prairie realized when looking at South Grand Prairie High School, a stones toss awayliterally. The pastor and I began talking, said Henry Loftin, director of Glowing Heart Ministries. [...]
Continue ReadingThe winners re-write history
It is easy to find something to say about the California law that requires public schools to emphasize the accomplishments of homosexual, bisexual, and transgender people alongside those of various racial and ethnic groups. Let me focus for a minute on the mockery this makes of history. One phrase in the [...]
Continue ReadingTexans help in Japan tsunami recovery
ISHINOMAKI, Japan—Tears flowed as members of a Southern Baptists of Texas Convention disaster relief team and their Japanese Baptist co-laborers finished four days of mud-out work with a worship service in a home once submerged by the March 11 tsunami. They cried for God to pour out his spirit on [...]
Continue ReadingThe obligation to know stuff
Probably 10-15 times per year I receive a critical call or e-mail regarding something a prominent Baptist has said or done. In nearly every case, not all, the query comes from someone who has an uninformed opinion. He’s simply not read the comments or an authoritative account of the action [...]
Continue ReadingFounding board member Ted Tedder dies
SAN ANTONIOTherion (Ted) Dexter Tedder, 82, a founding SBTC Executive Board member, died July 3 in San Antonio. A Perry, Fla., native and Florida State University alumnus, he earned an MBA from the Air Force Institute of Technology during a 21-year Air Force career, retiring in 1969 as a lieutenant colonel. [...]
Continue ReadingBrownsville team aids with Japan disaster relief
Most nights, we slept on straw mats, Japanese style, laid out on hardwood floors. We took off our shoes and put on slippers when entering homes. We learned how to eat raw fish, raw shellfish, and raw whale meat with chopsticks. Japan, riveted by earthquakes and tsunami floods last March [...]
Continue ReadingFrom ashes to new building, Tyler church looking up
TYLER—When Tyland Baptist Church burned nearly to the ground 18 months ago at the hands of arsonists, the church was about to begin an evangelism training effort. “We were to begin that Sunday. We said, ‘OK, we are going to do this.’ The enemy wants to keep you down when you [...]
Continue ReadingTokyo church laid groundwork for Texas volunteers
TOKYO—By the time disaster relief volunteers from Southern Baptists of Texas Convention churches arrived in Japan in June, Tokyo Baptist Church had already laid the groundwork with nearly three months of ministry to the northeast Japan towns of Ishinomaki and Kamaishi. The Southern Baptist church, with a membership that is about [...]
Continue ReadingIran tells Christian pastor: recant or face execution
WASHINGTON (BP)--Iranian pastor Yousef Nadarkhani faces execution unless he renounces his faith in Christ, a written verdict from the country's supreme court has confirmed. Baptist Press reported July 8 that Christians in Iran were challenging news reports that Nadarkhani's death penalty had been annulled. The Christian Solidarity Worldwide human rights organization [...]
Continue ReadingPerry invites governors to Aug. 6 prayer event
HOUSTON—Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a potential presidential candidate, has invited the nation’s governors to a prayer and fasting event on Aug. 6 at Reliant Stadium in Houston. Sponsored by the American Family Association, “The Response” is meant to be a non-denominational and non-partisan Christian prayer service, according to the AFA. In [...]
Continue ReadingLand, Wallis, 1-on-1, discuss nat'l debt
Posted on Jul 13, 2011 | by Whitney Jones NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Richard Land and Jim Wallis discuss the national debt and possible solutions in a new online video tackling military spending, taxes, welfare programs and entitlements. Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and Wallis, president and CEO [...]
Continue ReadingWorld's 196th country gives thanks to God for freedom
JUBA, South Sudan (BP)--After enduring two decades of warfare and the deaths of 2 million people, the Republic of South Sudan saw its day of independence on Saturday, July 9. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Juba, the new nation's capital, as they heard their president, Salva Kiir, declare the [...]
Continue ReadingNew Christian finding way amid tsunami recovery
SENDAI, JapanAkifumi Narita understands there is a reason God saved him from the ravages of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that decimated a large portion of his home town of Kamaishi and took the lives of his grandmother and uncle. The young believer is simply trying to figure out [...]
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