Moms In Touch International is celebrating its 25th year of encouraging moms to pray for children and schools. What began as one mother’s heart-cry as her children went to public junior high school has expanded to include an estimated 175,000…
FAITH DIGEST
‘No more Nazi analogies,’ religious leaders urge. Religious leaders are calling on their colleagues and politicians to keep comparisons to Nazism and the Holocaust out of American public policy debates. The Interfaith Alliance responded to a recent onslaught of references…
Conscience clauses not just about abortion anymore
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Faced with a request to give an unmarried female patient a prescription for birth control pills, Michele Phillips looked to her conscience for the answer. “I’m not going to give any kind of medication I see as…
RIGHT OR WRONG?: Legal vs. ethical
A co-worker insists that just because a workplace guideline is legal does not guarantee it is ethical. I maintain policies are neither legal nor ethical but should be understood as both-and. What do you think? In an ideal world, policies…
OUT LOUD
“One of the most amazing surprises of the presidency was the fact that people’s prayers affected me.” Former President George W. Bush The former president was quoted by the Washington Post. (RNS) “As Christians, we are asked to believe some…
SECOND OPINION: Is the Emerging Church threat or ally?
The tsunami of change that struck the Western world in the 20th century permanently altered the cultural landscape. The Emerging Church (EC) addresses this postmodern context. Most Baptists will have to jettison some modernist baggage to stay afloat in the…
HERITAGE: While in Fredericksburg
The Baptist General Association of Virginia has met three times in Fredericksburg but there is no one living who attended any of the meetings. The last one was held in 1874 and the thoughts on many minds were the hardships…
RIGHT OR WRONG: Fighting the tyranny of the urgent
Many leadership programs create the tyranny of the urgent, which seems to result in poor decision-making. But the New Testament reveals a correlation between the depth and breadth of spiritual composure and a person’s integrity. Am I off track? And…
Relationships, reconnection foster restoration
Relationship is at the heart of the restorative justice philosophy — restoring an offender’s relationship with self, family and community. The reconnection often begins in prison, through state-provided programs and/or jail and prison ministries. Then individuals need assistance to reinforce…
Baptists celebrate 50 years in Vietnam
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (BP) — Shortly before the fall of Saigon in 1975, Le Quoc Chanh, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), came with his wife and young son to the home…
Bluefield celebrates annual Baptist Heritage Day
BLUEFIELD — Bluefield College celebrated its history with an annual Baptist Heritage Day ceremony on campus in October, featuring a keynote address from an authority on Baptist life — James M. Dunn, former executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee…
Coming in January: Ask the Architect
Beginning with our first issue in January, Richmond architect Jim DePasquale, AIA, will write a column called “Ask the Architect.” Jim DePasquale Virginia Baptist churches vary in many details of their styles and practices, but they almost universally have buildings….