Recommendation IV Constitution and Bylaw Changes Items in bold are additions; items in italic are to be deleted BGAV CONSTITUTION ARTICLE III: Meetings and Composition Section B: Composition The General Association shall be composed of the officers of the General…
SECOND OPINION: A new Virginia Statute?
Editor's note: When Thomas Jefferson penned the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, he recognized that future legislators would have the power to amend it. Toward that end, he added a warning: “If any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal…
BGAV REPORTS: VBMB Recommendations—Resolutions of Appreciation
Recommendation V Resolution of Appreciation for Rodney J. Hale Rodney J. Hale has announced his retirement from the staff of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board as Kingdom Advance Field Strategist and Site Specialist on June 30, 2008, after more than…
OUT LOUD
“Roger Williams was quite eccentric and a very annoying man who I would not want to hang out with for more than 10 hours or so, but he's kind of the hero of my book.” Sarah Vowell The author described…
BGAV REPORTS: Annual Meeting Program
Annual Meeting Theme: “Who's My Neighbor?” You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27, NRSV)…
Unto the hills
Southwest Virginia is big and bold and bodacious. Until the taming influence of Interstate 81, that ribbon of asphalt which makes straight the rough passages, Southwest Virginia was protected from the outside world by its own rough terrain. Even so,…
BGAV REPORTS: 2009 Proposed Budget
FAITH SHAPERS: The Lord’s Supper
Communion is a reverent, mystical event that takes us back to the very roots of our faith — and kids find it fascinating. Children always notice when adults get serious about something, and they want to be involved in special…
Study: Religious people more generous, helpful — but only with two conditions
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Reli-gious people are more helpful and generous than others — but only on two conditions, according to a new study published in the prestigious journal Science. University of British Columbia psychology researchers Ara Noren-zayan and Azim Shariff…
Dual citizenship
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The forbidden idea of churches and other tax-exempt organizations endorsing political parties or candidates has started to sound like a good one, in recent decades, to many conservative evangelicals in the United States. In fact, a group…
Report calls U.S. church giving ‘lukewarm’
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Amer-icans 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…
Religious ‘test’ for public office? Yes and No
American Christians may pledge loyalty to the U.S. Constitution. But behind the closed curtain of the polling booth, many violate the spirit of the constitutional prohibition on any religious test for public office. And several church-state experts insist that's not…