Tag Archives: Southern Baptist Convention

May 20

Southern Baptist Convention to vote on 1st Black President…

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The Rev. Fred Luter II of the Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, La., is set to become the first ever African-American president of the Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention, as he is so far the only candidate for the election in June.

The Southern Baptist Convention, which has long dealt with issues of race since splitting in 1845 with Northern Baptists over the right to hold slaves, has grown to accept a diverse array of cultures within its congregation. Once an all-white membership, nearly 20 percent of its current congregation nationwide now is composed of minorities. Until now, however, it has never had an African-American president – Luter himself was the first ever African-American first vice-president of the denomination, appointed in June 2011.

Luter has had a long and turbulent road to rise in the ranks, The Tennessean reported, revealing that when Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, his church was destroyed and lost its entire 7,000-member congregation, most of whom fled the city. Three years later, however, the Franklin Avenue Baptist church reopened its doors after help from the entire neighborhood, and now draws 5,000 people for church services. The report goes into detail about Luter’s background and upbringing, sharing how a near-fatal motorcycle accident when he was 21 guided him in the right direction toward God.

For more click on: http://www.christianpost.com/news/southern-baptist-convention-set-to-elect-first-black-president-70673/

Jul 09

WHO BROUGHT US HERE? FOR WHAT?

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It is amazing how with each generation there is a broader and deeper understanding about the Creator and the Universe and what our obligation is to every human being and everything else in His Creation.  No wonder Jesus said, “You can’t pour new wine into old wine skins…”
 
He’s not referring to age, but to people who are not willing to change.  They are afraid of it. They hang with only those who look like, talk, and believe as they do and condemn the rest.  They must have missed out on “the kingdom of Heaven is within,” and “our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.”  They are not aware the Spirit of the Universe reveals himself to us, if only we be open to him through His Creation and “Be still and know that I am God (or whatever you call this Being).  It has been said in so many ways over the ages by those who have experienced this Spirit of the Universe: empty ourselves and be open to this Spirit, die to all the thoughts that plague us and live in the present moment (that’s all we have), etc. -mackie
 
(following source cited)
 

“We believe our current denominational engagement with these issues have often been too timid, failing to produce a unified moral voice. Our cautious response to these issues in the face of mounting evidence may be seen by the world as uncaring, reckless and ill-informed. We can do better. To abandon these issues to the secular world is to shirk from our responsibility to be salt and light. The time for timidity regarding God’s creation is no more.”

I can’t help but hear echoes of Ellen Davis here, and be confirmed in my sense that her kind of theological reasoning has spread much farther and deeper than has heretofore been visible on the surface of our public life. It is also a reminder of the effect of up-and-coming generations in and around Evangelical Christianity, like Shane Claiborne, who has continued to grow in visibility and influence since I interviewed him in 2006. We’re putting him back on the air this week.

 

For more click on:

 

http://blog.speakingoffaith.org/post/757834402/evangelical-environmental-evolution

 

Jul 07

GOP FACING DIVIDE ON IMMIGRATION….

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‘July 7, 2010

Some prominent conservatives are speaking out in favor of the kind of comprehensive immigration bill that many Republicans oppose — one that would include border security and then a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

As a leading evangelical conservative,

Richard Land’s credentials are impeccable. He heads the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, and from that influential perch he’s been urging his fellow conservatives to rethink their opposition to the immigration overhaul.

“I’ve had some of them appeal to me. They say, ‘Richard, you’re going to divide the conservative coalition.’ And I said, ‘Well, I may divide the old conservative coalition, but I’m not going to divide the new one.’ ”

Land adds, “If the new conservative coalition is going to be a governing coalition, it’s going to have to have a significant number of Hispanics in it, that’s dictated by demographics, and you don’t get large numbers of Hispanics to support you when you’re engaged in anti-Hispanic immigration rhetoric.”

Last week, when President Obama gave his speech on immigration, Land was in the audience. In fact, he had urged the president to make the speech. Obama called on both parties to rise above petty politics to fix the country’s broken immigration system.

Land says that will be very hard because, for both parties, there’s a short-term political advantage to doing nothing.’

For source and more click on:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128352487

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SEARCHING FOR RELIABLE SOURCES,
not hearsay, rumors, or falsehoods.