Free Republic

HOUSTON (BP)--Joe H. Reynolds, a World War II veteran who fought at the battle of Iwo Jima and who went on to serve as Texas assistant attorney general and in several roles within the Southern Baptist Convention, died Dec. 18 of natural causes. He was 88. Reynolds grew up in Tyler, Texas, and enlisted in the Marine Corps following the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was seriously wounded in 1945 at the battle of Iwo Jima -- he received a Purple Heart -- and he witnessed the raising of the American flag on Mount Suribachi, a significant moment in U.S....

MELBOURNE, December 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an address to a gathering sponsored by the World Parliament of Religions (PWR) last Friday, former US President Jimmy Carter has once again blamed traditional religion, particularly Southern Baptists and Roman Catholics, for "creating an environment where violations against women are justified."It is a theme that Carter has successfully used to garner media attention for several years.  Although in a July column in The Observer Carter admits to "not having training in religion or theology," in his address to the PWR Carter appeals to his authority as someone who has "taught Bible lessons...

One of the leaders of the nation’s influential Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) tells Newsmax that President Obama is “very dangerous” in his economic policies and his foreign policy is causing “severe damage” to U.S. standing in the world. Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and author of the book “The Divided State of America: What Liberals and Conservatives Are Missing In The God And Country Shouting Match”, told Newsmax.TV that the cultural war is heating up. Christians must remember that God is not partisan. “And on many of the most important issues...

New York, NY, October 15, 2009 … A prominent Christian religious leader has apologized to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for comparing proposed healthcare reform measures to "what the Nazis did" and for bestowing a Josef Mengele Award on the president's chief healthcare advisor. In a letter to ADL, Dr. Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said he deeply regretted his remarks. "I was using hyperbole for effect and never intended to actually equate anyone in the Obama administration with Dr. Mengele," he wrote. "I apologize to everyone who found such references hurtful," Dr. Land...

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--A music professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has opted for early retirement rather than leave a church declared out of fellowship with the Southern Baptist Convention because of openly homosexual members. Michael Cox, an award-winning professor of music theory and composition who has taught at Southwestern since 1990, chose to remain in membership at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, a congregation with 125-year ties to the SBC and a long history of faculty and seminary leaders in its membership. The seminary requires faculty to be members in Southern Baptist churches. Messengers to the SBC annual...

For critics of the Southern Baptist Convention, former President Jimmy Carter is the gift that just keeps on giving. Over the last several days, yet another round of news reports has trumpeted the news that the former president has resigned his membership in the Southern Baptist Convention. Almost a decade after he first made this announcement, his repetitive return to this theme set up a new avalanche of news reports. Reports, we might add, that are not news. Adding insult to injury, the reports are about a "resignation" that isn't even a resignation. Try explaining that to the international media....

After more than 60 years together, Jimmy Carter has announced himself at odds with the Southern Baptist Church -- and he's decided it's time they go their separate ways. Via Feministing, the former president called the decision "unavoidable" after church leaders prohibited women from being ordained and insisted women be "subservient to their husbands." Said Carter in an essay in The Age: At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions...

After more than 60 years together, Jimmy Carter has announced himself at odds with the Southern Baptist Church -- and he's decided it's time they go their separate ways. Via Feministing, the former president called the decision "unavoidable" after church leaders prohibited women from being ordained and insisted women be "subservient to their husbands."

"Will the Baptist conventions come back together?" my father-in-law asked over Sunday lunch.Not in his lifetime.Most likely, not in my lifetime.And probably not until the Consummation of Time.Good question My father-in-law had a solid reason for his question. He had read my editorial about this year's Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. It describes the generation gap within the SBC and tells how the youngish leadership walloped the old guard.This is significant because the old guard comprises the remnants of the hard-line fundamentalist leadership that wrested control of the SBC from so-called moderates in a struggle that lasted from the late 1970s...

Last week’s Southern Baptist Conven­tion annual meeting in Louisville, Ky., offered a glimpse into the future — the not-so-distant future. The aging leadership of the SBC, including the Executive Committee and the various entity heads, are acknowledging that their days until retirement are numbered. Some statistics suggest they perhaps should be concerned about leaving the convention in worse shape than they found it. For the most part, these are the same leaders that came onto the scene after self-described conservatives swept aside an old guard of denominational leaders in the years following 1979. They signed inerrancy statements testifying to their...

David Limbaugh speaks at 9 AM & 10:45 AM. Lt. Col. Oliver North will speak at 7 PM.

THIS YEAR’S Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Annual Meeting is likely to be among its most significant in recent memory. For the first time in many years, the convention will meet in Louisville, where the Calvinism of Al Mohler and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary are holding sway. This convention happens in the shadow of a brewing controversy over the direction the convention will take in the future. Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary President Danny Akin and SBC President Johnny Hunt have articulated a vision for the SBC’s future that has the old denominational guard feeling its first real pressure since the...

NEW YORK (ABP) -- A former Southern Baptist Convention officer who on June 2 called the death of abortion provider George Tiller an answer to prayer said later in the day he is also praying "imprecatory prayer" against President Obama. Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., and former running mate of American Independent Party presidential candidate Alan Keyes, said June 2 on Fox News Radio he didn't understand why people were upset with his comments quoted by Associated Baptist Press from a webcast of his daily radio talk show. "Imprecatory prayer is agreeing with...

The president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is repudiating statements made by a former convention official regarding President Barack Obama and the recent murder of abortionist George Tiller. On a recent webcast of his daily radio talk show, Wiley Drake, former second vice-president of the SBC, called last Sunday's murder of Tiller "an answer to prayer." Then during an interview with Alan Colmes on Fox News Radio, Drake said he was praying the same type of "imprecatory prayer" against the president of the United States. For years, Drake has encouraged the practice of praying words of judgment found throughout...

...But in celebrating accomplishments like these [the SBC's success in creating colleges and universities], I now wonder if our focus in the evangelical community should shift at least in part from training our children during the transition to adulthood to placing greater emphasis on training up a child in the way he should go. I'm not advocating the neglect of what we have already established in higher education, but simply a course correction in an area that seems to have suffered neglect -- the protection and nurturing of the spiritual health and growth of children and adolescents. In far too...

At long last, a prominent Christian conservative has called waterboarding what it is: torture. Last week, Richard Land, an official with the Southern Baptist Convention, said the practice is unethical and "violates everything we stand for." "There are some things you should never do to another human being, no matter how horrific the things they have done. If you do so, you demean yourself to their level," said Land, president of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He added, "I don't agree with the belief that we should use any means necessary to extract information." The religious right certainly...

I spoke today with Richard Land, public policy chief of the Southern Baptist Convention—the nation's largest evangelical denomination—and was struck by his praise of President Obama for living out "family values": Not enough religious conservatives are saying this: It's terribly important that [Obama] gives every indication of being a moral man who is demonstrably fond of his wife and children. I think that's important in a president, be it a Democrat or a Republican. That's why I said I couldn't vote for Giuliani or Gingrich. I think [Obama's] making a real difference in this country in his example as a...

THE SOUTHERN Baptist Convention voted June 20 to adopt a resolution renouncing its racist roots and apologizing for its past defense of slavery.

WEST PAWLET, Vt. – Four years ago in this remote valley hamlet, the last eight members of the financially strapped United Church of West Pawlet voted to disband the congregation. Tad Perry remembers the wrenching vote as “one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.” But now on a nine-degree Sunday morning, a steady plume rises once again from the chimney behind the steeple. Inside, nearly 50 people singing catchy hymns with piano accompaniment help make the tiny sanctuary feel close to full. And the voice from the pulpit bespeaks what’s taking place—not only here, but in formerly...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--In the midst of the nation's financial hardships, Southern Baptists have a prime opportunity to show unbelievers that what they've embraced is not fair-weather Christianity, Johnny Hunt, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said Feb. 16. "I thank God that what the Lord Jesus Christ has done in our lives will go the distance. The truth is ... it's not what's going to come against us that's going to make us or break us, it's what God has placed in us and what we choose to do with it," Hunt told the SBC Executive Committee in Nashville, Tenn....

President Obama will unveil a revamped office of Faith-Based Initiatives Thursday, and a new approach to the controversial program established by former President George Bush. The office, tasked with steering federal funds to charitable organizations tied to churches and faith-based organizations, will be headed by Josh DuBois – a 26 year-old Pentecostal minister who was in charge of religious outreach for the Obama campaign. According to a White House official, the basic structure of the office will remain the same as it was under Bush, but Obama is introducing a new component: an advisory council of 25 leaders — secular...

Our Father, Lord of all creation, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: We pray today with a sense of special urgency and responsibility. We come before you to pray for our new President, Barack Obama, and for all those in this new administration who now assume roles of such high responsibility. We know that you and you alone are sovereign; that you rule over all, and that you alone are able to keep and defend us. We know that our times are in your hands, and that "the king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the...

Running a successful church requires cutting-edge marketing and branding as much as it does innovative preaching and ministry. The Fellowship at Celebration Baptist Church has learned that the hard way during the past decade as a similarly named congregation has become synonymous with the word "Celebration." As a result, the East Arlington congregation is changing its name on Thursday to FaithBridge Church. That's something church member Jaime Brasseit said she's had to pray to accept. "I liked 'Celebration,' and I kinda wish we had kept 'Baptist,' " Brasseit, 22, said after a recent Sunday morning service. But Brasseit said she...

For more than half a century, the First Baptist Church of Dallas could claim among its members one of the most famous of Christians – the Rev. Billy Graham. But that distinction has ended with the 90-year-old evangelist's decision to join the First Baptist Church of Spartanburg, S.C., which is much nearer his home in Montreat, N.C. -snip- Members of First Baptist Spartanburg voted him in on Sunday. -snip-

Times are tough, even in the salvation market. After decades of growth, the nation's largest group of Protestants, the Southern Baptist Convention, is reporting losses (in church membership and recorded baptisms) for the third year in a row. Baptisms are at a 20-year low, a figure liable to put an eternity-conscious church into a severe depression. Cutbacks at Southern Baptist seminaries and agencies are even hitting the denomination's bold, new marketing strategy designed to spread the gospel (and increase the flock) to every soul in North America by 2020. The campaign, called "God's Plan for Sharing" (Yes, GPS), includes a...

On the surface, something about Barack Obama picking Rick Warren to give his inauguration invocation seemed fishy. I mean, Warren was the man responsible for one of Obama's few (and perhaps biggest) campaign faux pas, when he made Barack look silly last summer trying to answer the question "When does life begin?" But then I realized that Barack, brilliant politician that he is, was using his special reverse "If I can't beat him, join ME!" psychology, already duping Warren and many of his on-the-surface Christians into his camp for the next election. However, while I predict this pick for Obama...

More than 3,000 people, including longtime Mormon critic James Dobson of Focus on the Family, have signed an online petition thanking the LDS Church for its efforts on behalf of California's traditional marriage initiative known as Proposition 8. "Anyone who participated in this process has come to admire the competence, diligence and moral courage that so many members of your faith community displayed as part of this coalition effort -- as Catholics, Evangelicals, Mormons and people of other faith communities all came together to fight this great battle for marriage," says the petition, which is addressed to LDS President Thomas...

WOODSTOCK, Ga. (BP)--The John 3:16 Conference, described by organizers as a biblical and theological assessment of and response to five-point Calvinism, was held Nov. 6-7 at First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Ga. About 1,000 pastors and laypeople attended. The conference was sponsored by Jerry Vines Ministries, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, Luther Rice Seminary and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. TULIP is an acronym for the five points of Calvinism—total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints. Each point was addressed by individual speakers. "I want to help...

In 1914, Ernest Henry Shackleton led an expedition to cross the entire continent of Antarctica, but wound up shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. To rescue his team, Shackleton sailed a tiny boat across 850 miles of rough seas to South Georgia Island. Despite the choppy waters and gray skies, Shackleton was able to safely navigate the boat to their destination. If his coordinates had been off by even one half of one degree, his team would have missed their destination by hundreds of miles and perished. Ship captains, airplane pilots, and astronauts will be the first to tell you that...

Stay Faithful to Core Values By RICHARD LAND To regain a majority, Republicans must embrace core values with such conviction that Americans will welcome where Republicans will lead them in the future. The first core value must be a pro-life agenda. Republicans must advocate for all life from conception to natural death. This is the decent thing to do. And there were 70 million white Evangelical voters on Election Day, 74% of whom voted for John McCain. The vast majority voted pro-life, not Republican. If the GOP turns away from a pro-life agenda, they will turn away from the GOP....

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Americans spent nearly twice as much on first-day sales of the video game “Grand Theft Auto IV” as the Southern Baptist Convention and its International Mission Board would need to share the gospel with all the world’s unreached people groups by 2010, according to a new report on church giving. http://www.baptiststandard.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8691&Itemid=53

First, congratulations on your successful campaign to become the 44th President of our beloved United States of America. This was a historic election in terms of the massive increase in voter participation as a percentage of the electorate. I hope you know that there are tens of millions of Americans who did not vote for you who are still very, very pleased that an African-American has been elected President of the United States. That fact that this could happen in a country with as tragic a racial past as America’s says something noble and fine about the American experiment and...

RALEIGH, N.C. - Within the nation's largest Protestant denomination, a woman may not lead a church or a home. But prominent Southern Baptists see nothing wrong with Sarah Palin serving as vice president — or perhaps even commander-in-chief someday. In other words: A woman can run the White House, just not her own house. Republican presidential nominee John McCain's selection of the Alaska governor as his running mate — the first female on the party's ticket in history — has thrilled conservative Christians. It also has led Southern Baptist congregations and seminary students to confront their beliefs about the role...

The president of the Southern Baptist Convention says the denomination must correct what he sees as a drift from a Great Commission. Dr. Johnny Hunt made his comments during his first presidential address to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee in Nashville. Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia, said the denomination is fragmented and must make proclaiming the gospel first priority. He adds that the drift from the Great Commission is evident in the declining baptisms in the SBC. Hunt believes the time has come for greater camaraderie in the denomination and an emphasis on reaching...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Early in my ministry, I found myself staring at the ceiling for hours each night, night after night. I had a decision to make, and I didn't know what to do. A couple, both of whom I cared about, asked me to officiate at their wedding. Neither of them were followers of Jesus. It was a torturous quandary because I wanted an ongoing relationship with them, as an inroad to the Gospel. This couple wasn't in disobedience to the Word of God. This wasn't the "unequal yoking" of a believer to an unbeliever. That would have been an...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--In the wake of Gov. Sarah Palin's selection as the Republican vice presidential nominee, there has been considerable "speculation" about why Evangelicals in general, and Southern Baptists in particular, have responded so favorably to her candidacy. As Sally Quinn reasoned in the Washington Post, if Southern Baptists are opposed to a woman being the pastor of a local church, why would they support a woman as vice president? Aren't they being inconsistent, if not hypocritical? Now we have David Gushee (a self-identified "moderate evangelical") discussing the "Palin Predicament," which he described as "how can the theological vision that...

Over 100 Christian bookstores run by the Southern Baptist Convention have pulled from their shelves this month's issue of Gospel Today Magazine, which features a cover story about female pastors. Customers to Lifeway Christian Bookstores, located mostly in the Bible Belt with a handful of locations along the West Coast, will now have to request to buy the Sept./Oct. issue of Gospel Today Magazine, which have been placed behind the stores' counters. The front cover of the latest issue of Gospel Today, an urban publication with a circulation of nearly a quarter of a million, features five smiling female pastors...

HOUSTON (BP)--About 1,500 Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers are setting up units in Texas and were expected to be operational by the end of the day Tuesday to serve victims of Hurricane Ike. The primary focus of the efforts currently is food preparation, with 39 kitchen units on site in the state. The American Red Cross has asked Southern Baptists to be ready to prepare up to 375,000 hot meals a day, while the Salvation Army has requested 125,000 meals a day, bringing the total to 500,000. In addition to the 39 feeding units, more than 40 other types of...

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (BP)--A church in Tennessee baptized 120 people in one night following an evangelism emphasis called "As You Go," which challenged church members to choose a non-Christian and then pray for that person, develop a relationship and present the Gospel. New Vision Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tenn., draws about 2,400 people to four weekend services. A few months ago they held a call to prayer and fasting as part of the As You Go emphasis. Participants were challenged to fast one day and show up that evening in the church sanctuary to pray for the people they had committed...

NIXON, Texas (BP)--A small church pastor in Texas is encouraging other small churches not to limit God after his congregation committed themselves to prayer and then saw God bring substantial results. "I believe that there is a mindset now that if I'm not a mega-church pastor, I don't count," Kenny Rawls, pastor of First Baptist Church in Nixon, Texas, told Baptist Press. "I want the nation to understand that the majority of churches that are Southern Baptist are smaller-population churches. "God has planted that church there for a reason, and every pastor who carries the Gospel of Jesus Christ is...

Sen. John McCain electrified the Republican base and millions of people of every political persuasion last Friday when he selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. Why?   First, because she is a reform-minded, no-nonsense, pro-life, pistol-packing hockey mom with five children. And her pro-life convictions have been illustrated vividly by her decision to carry to term and keep her fifth child, a son with Down syndrome. It is one thing to espouse a pro-life position. It is quite another to live your values and affirm life in this way. Now, it has been revealed that...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Research from two studies by LifeWay Research indicates a disconnect between Southern Baptist pastors' view of Scripture and those of the people in their pews. The research arm of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention conducted one study this spring among a representative sample of 778 Southern Baptist pastors. A second study, in 2007, surveyed 2,500 adults who attend a Protestant church at least once a month, including 260 who attend Southern Baptist churches. Southern Baptist pastors were asked to indicate their level of agreement with the statement, "I believe in the divine inspiration of Scripture."...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--A call for Southern Baptists and other believers to engage in 40 days of prayer beginning in late September has been issued by the SBC's North American Mission Board and Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. NAMB President Geoff Hammond and ERLC President Richard Land are hopeful that the 40/40 Prayer Vigil for Spiritual Revival and National Renewal will pay spiritual dividends for families, churches and the nation. Hammond described it as "a strategic opportunity for Southern Baptists to join hands in praying for our nation, asking the Lord to grant sweeping repentance, renewal and spiritual awakening." The cooperative...

A former Sunni Muslim has been elected as the new president of Truett-McConnell College in Georgia. Dr. Emir Caner, who was the founding dean of the College at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, was voted by Truett-McConnell’s board of trustees to become its eighth president on Aug. 8, according to the Cleveland, Ga.-based college. His new appointment makes him the first former Muslim to be elected as president of a Southern Baptist college or university. He will officially begin his duties on Aug. 18. “It’s a great day in the life of Truett-McConnell College and Georgia Baptists!...

...Richard Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. In talking about VP choices with CBS News, Land said that Gov. Palin would be the most exciting VP choice for the Evangelical community.... http://palinforvp.blogspot.com/2008/08/leading-evangelical-says-palin-rings.html

A key evangelical leader with influence on American politics emphasized this past week the importance of Republican John McCain’s vice presidential pick on the decision of values voters this fall. Presumptive presidential candidate McCain’s running mate selection is the “most important” decision of the campaign, said Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission to CBS News. If McCain picks a pro-choice running mate, Land said, it will only confirm the mistrust of evangelicals toward the candidate that some have criticized as being too liberal. “[H]e has no room for error, no margin for doubt,” noted...

CBSNews.com: So, Tom Ridge, who's been discussed. You think … Richard Land: That would be a catastrophe. CBSNews.com: Who’s on the list of people mentioned for VP that you think would most excite Southern Baptists and other members of the conservative faith community? Richard Land: Probably Governor Palin of Alaska, because she's a person of strong faith. She just had her fifth child, a Downs Syndrome child. And there's a wonderful quote that she gave about her baby, and the fact that she would never, ever consider having an abortion just because her child had Downs Syndrome. She's strongly pro-life....

The Episcopal Church has been at the forefront of baptizing active homosexual lifestyle as God-blessed. Since 1960, that denomination has decreased in membership by 48%. The United Methodist Church has been roiled by those adamant on establishing homosexual lifestyles as Christian legitimate. In the fight for one side or another that denomination has decreased in membership by 25%. The Presbyterian Church (USA) has likewise been embroiled in the tussle. That denomination has decreased in membership by 44%. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has also been riddled with in-house fighting over homosexual lifestyles as anti-God or pro-God. That denomination's membership...

Southern Baptists inherited the most compelling aspects of all the Baptist Calvinists that preceded them. James P. Boyce summarized this well. He encouraged every preacher to get theological education in some way, even if it could not be at the Seminary in Greenville, South Carolina. If no other means were available, he advised, 'work at it yourself.' The fathers of the convention did this, Boyce claimed; 'They familiarized themselves with the Bible, and Gill and Andrew Fuller, and they made good and effective preachers. God is able to raise up others like them.'1 But this is the very difficulty that...

Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention have condemned sexual predators and are urging churches to flush out molesters using federal background checks. But a simple search on the convention's Web site shows they have yet to purge their own house of predators. SBC's MinisterSearch, a Web database for finding clergy members, contains the names of pastors both indicted and convicted of sexual abuse. Among them is a former Cordova pastor charged in October with rape and sexual battery. "It's a double standard," said David Brown, an abuse victim and coordinator for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests in...