The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-08/29/2016 DISCLAIMER: Baptist Press should be credited for any reprinted stories that originate with BP. Suggested credit line: Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. Please note that Baptist Press periodically carries stories from other sources by permission. Individuals interested in reprinting non-BP stories should contact the entity where the story originated to seek reprint permission. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Moore: Gospel-defined conservatism needed by Tom Strode Date: August 29, 2016 - Monday NASHVILLE (BP) -- Christians need to make certain what they are seeking to conserve in America is distinguished by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Russell Moore told attendees of a national conference on cultural engagement. "[I]f what we are conserving is not defined by the Gospel, defined by a righteousness found in the lived life and shed blood of the resurrected Jesus Christ, a Gospel that is seen in the authority of the Bible as the Word of God, a Gospel seen in the community of the redeemed, a Gospel seen in that ministry of reconciliation, then we have nothing worth conserving at all," the president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) said Friday evening (Aug. 26). Moore's keynote speech came in the final session of the ERLC's two-day national conference titled, like his address, "Onward: Engaging the Culture Without Losing the Gospel." he shaking of American culture is no sign that God has given up on His church." -- Russell Moore] Many Christians may be interpreting the great cultural shifts in America wrongly, Moore said. "We have many Christians who are fearful and panicky because their illusion of a Mayberry-like, Christian America is falling apart," he said. "Brothers and sisters, the shaking of American culture is no sign that God has given up on His church. The shaking of American culture well could be a sign that God is rescuing His church from a captivity we didn't even know that we were in." The dramatic cultural change does not mean this is "a time for fear," Moore told the audience at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville. "This is good news, because with the changing of the culture around us, what is falling is the almost Christianity of cultural Christianity," he said. "Mayberry is great unless there's a hell, unless there's a judgment day. And if there's a day of judgment, an almost Gospel is worse than no Gospel at all. So we must be prepared to be the people who stand and stand fast and, if necessary, to be the people who are willing to stand alone." Basing his remarks on Galatians 1:10-2:14, Moore said Christians should be the kind of people who conserve a Gospel authority and a Gospel community. If Christians "are not consistently preaching and teaching and holding fast to the word of the Bible, some other authority will fill the void," he said. The Gospel authority Christians should rely on "ought to feed and fuel a courage," Moore told the audience. "If I received man's Gospel, then I need to be afraid of men. But if I received God's Gospel, then I need to be fearful of God and in obedience to God." Followers of Jesus should see their goal as "the approval of the invisible God more than the approval of the visible people that we admire or that we fear around us," he said. Christians fear, he said, "because we are seeking to conserve ourselves; we're seeking to conserve our lives; we're seeking to conserve our security." Speaking of a recent report that a white pastor was fired because he wanted the church's Vacation Bible School opened to children of other races, Moore said, "A church that would limit the Gospel to one ethnicity or one skin color or one group of people is not just a church that is backward. It is a church that is anti-Christ. It is a church that is contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ." Through the Gospel, God creates the kind of community that "brings us into family as a witness to the outside world of what reconciliation within the body really means," he said. "The church of Jesus Christ is not a coalition of old, angry, white people who are all outraged about the same stuff." One of the biggest challenges for Christians is "to be separated from sin but not separated from sinners," Moore told attendees. "And what we often want to do is the exact reverse." Christians can be guilty of fearing what others "in our tribe" in the church will think if they see them with a Muslim neighbor, atheist neighbor or gay neighbor, he said. "But am I a servant of Jesus Christ, or am I a servant of other people's expectations?" -------------------------------------------------------------------- Mother, son fight for 'right' to incestuous relationship by Kiley Crossland/WORLD News Service Date: August 29, 2016 - Monday CLOVIS, N.M. (BP) -- A mother and adult son charged with incest in New Mexico are going public with their relationship, saying they are willing to go to jail to fight for the "right" to be together. The mother, Monica Mares, 36, and her son, Caleb Peterson, 19, met again last year after nearly 18 years apart. Another family adopted Peterson soon after Mares gave birth to him. Their relationship soon turned romantic, according to the couple, and Peterson started living with Mares and her two youngest children, ages 5 and 6, in Clovis, N.M. Police learned of the relationship during a domestic dispute involving a neighbor in late February, according to reporting by the Clovis News Journal. Peterson admitted to having sexual relations with Mares. Mares and Peterson appeared in court March 10 to face charges of incest, a felony. Last week the court moved the trial date from late August to Oct. 26. If convicted, they could each face up to three years in prison and a $3,000 fine. The case garnered a wider audience after an exclusive in-depth interview with Britain's Daily Mail earlier this month. Mares and Peterson said they hoped to raise awareness for "Genetic Sexual Attraction," sexual attraction between close relatives who first meet as adults. "Honestly, I never thought we would get into trouble for our relationship. We were both consenting adults -- when it comes down to it," Peterson said in the Daily Mail interview. "She's adult; I'm adult. I can make my own decisions. I never thought it would blow up into something like this." A support and advocacy website for related couples is raising money for their legal fees. The site supports what it calls consanguinamorous relationships and is pushing for "FULL marriage equality for ALL consenting adults." A woman who calls herself Cristina Shy runs the site. "It needs to be brought to the attention of everybody in the country, and people need to start thinking differently," Shy told the Daily Mail. "It was the same with gay people just a few years ago and now they can get married and they are accepted. Well, why not consanguinamorous people like us? We are all adults." That is "not a far leap at all," said Travis Weber, an attorney with the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. "I think that the framing of this case and the advocacy on their behalf is made much easier by the Supreme Court's decision and many of the developments we are seeing in law in regards to homosexuality," Weber said. Despite public pushback, many commentators are advocating for Mares and Peterson's right to have a sexual relationship. The local Clovis News Journal editorial board published an article in March arguing that regardless of any objections, "from morality to the physical and psychological health of everyone connected to this family -- there is an overriding concern that government does not belong in the bedroom of consenting adults." Weber said this case points to a societal breakdown of logic and reason. People who oppose Mares and Peterson's relationship are "holding onto a vestige of conscience and moral judgment in some areas," but if pushed, Weber said, they often "can't pinpoint why they are holding that view." When asked about the health risks of incestuous relationships, Weber said we have shut down an objective discussion about the health risks in regard to homosexuality: "What's to stop us in regard to incest?" -------------------------------------------------------------------- SBC DIGEST: Astronaut on space station to be interviewed; WMU joins flood relief efforts by BP Staff Date: August 29, 2016 - Monday LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, now aboard the International Space Station, is scheduled to be interviewed by R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, during the Tuesday, Aug. 30, chapel service at 10 a.m. The interview will be livestreamed at sbts.edu/live from the seminary's Alumni Memorial Chapel in Louisville, Ky. Williams, who has previously spoken on campus about his explorations, and his Soyuz crewmates were launched on a 172-day mission to the International Space Station on March 18. On Aug. 24, he surpassed Scott Kelly's previous record of 521 days to become the American with the most cumulative days in space. The current mission is Williams' fourth spaceflight and third long-duration stay on the space station. Williams was featured in the August issue of Southern Seminary's newsmagazine Towers (posted at www.sbts.edu/blogs) in which he talked about his spiritual devotion aboard the space station and other aspects of an astronaut's life. "There certainly is an acute awareness and appreciation of God's creative and providential work given the literal 'worldview,' and that awareness does energize reading and prayer," Williams said of space travel. The impact that Williams' experiences in space have on his worldview will be discussed further in the Aug. 30 interview with Mohler. WMU aiding flood-stricken La. congregation BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) -- Woman's Missionary Union has joined Baptist relief efforts for flood survivors in south Louisiana. The WMU Foundation has awarded a $6,000 grant from its HEART (Humanitarian Emergency Aid for Rebuilding Tomorrow) Fund to First Baptist Church in Lafayette, which is assisting about 40 families in need after record rainfall and flooding earlier this month. The foundation, which had established a relationship with First Baptist Lafayette prior to the flooding, reached out to its contact at the church, Andrea McKenzie, minister of missions and college students, to determine if a HEART Fund grant would help. At that point, the church had already conducted a needs assessment in the community and was helping about 40 families. "Their neighborhoods had never flooded before, but now they [sustained] several inches of water in their homes," McKenzie reported. Their homes had not been listed as located in a flood zone, so the residents do not have flood insurance. Church members and volunteers will use the HEART Fund grant to purchase items needed immediately, such as diapers and wipes, baby formula and food. The grant will also be used to purchase gift cards that families can use to buy necessities, and for cleanup and rebuilding efforts. "Please pray for strength and health for our staff as we work overtime on disaster relief plus the regular weekly activities of getting back to our full fall schedule," McKenzie also told the WMU Foundation. Promotion Sunday was at hand; the preschool minister lost her home; and the Mother's Day Out director had undergone emergency surgery. "Many of our volunteers have full-time jobs and are going to help others after work each evening. Pray for safety and continued strength for them," McKenzie wrote. Judith Edwards, WMU Foundation board member, noted, "When we learn of disasters we sometimes feel all we can do is pray. By giving to the HEART Fund, even those of us who cannot physically help can still reach out to the hurting in Christ's name." The WMU Foundation will be considering additional HEART Fund grants as relief and rebuilding efforts continue, David George, WMU Foundation president, said. "There are immediate needs like food and shelter now, but there will be many additional needs in the days and weeks ahead," George said. "We will continue to help as people face the challenges of rebuilding and putting their lives back together." The WMU Foundation is accepting donations to the HEART Fund for disaster relief victims online at wmufoundation.com or by mail to WMU Foundation HEART Fund, 100 Missionary Ridge, Birmingham, AL 35242. Information also is available from Louisiana Baptist Convention about its relief efforts in conjunction with the North American Mission Board, as well as a link for providing financial assistance, at LouisianaBaptists.org/DisasterRelief. -------------------------------------------------------------------- FIRST-PERSON: The SBC's wisdom about Disney by David Roach Date: August 29, 2016 - Monday NASHVILLE (BP) -- In anticipation of watching Disney's "Finding Dory" with my children in the theater this summer, I pulled up the trailer on my phone and noticed what appeared to be a scene featuring a lesbian couple with a baby. The scene passes quickly, and co-director Andrew Stanton told USA Today the two animated women, who caused a significant internet stir, "can be whatever you want them to be." Still, viewing that scene -- and other moments in the Disney movies my daughters love -- has reminded me of Southern Baptists' wisdom in 2005 when they pledged in conjunction with ending an eight-year Disney boycott "to continue to monitor the products and policies of The Disney Company." Disney's children's entertainment contains no profanity, gratuitous violence or overt sexual content -- at least that I have seen. And recent productions contain positive thematic elements like ethnic diversity. But the more I view Disney shows and movies with my kids, the more I realize they contain elements that seem likely to influence children away from Christian doctrine and morality. I also notice a departure in recent Disney entertainment from some wholesome themes of the company's productions in the mid-20th century. For one, biblical allusions and depictions of Judeo-Christian religious practices have yielded in some cases to depictions of secular and even idolatrous practices. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) includes a scene in which Snow White kneels by her bed and prays. "Pinocchio" (1940) bears striking parallels to the biblical story of Jonah, as a puppet disobeys the instructions of the loving father who created him and is swallowed by a whale then vomited up. The apparent biblical imagery continues in "Sleeping Beauty" (1959), when the king's only son, armed with "the sword of truth," cuts through a forest of thorns and thistles to rescue his bride and slays the "mistress of all evil," who takes the form of a dragon and tells him she possesses "all the powers of hell." In addition, themes of resurrection seem apparent in "Snow White," "Pinocchio," "Sleeping Beauty" and even the more recent "Beauty and the Beast" (1991). Contrast that with, for example, the Native American religion depicted in "Pocahontas" (1995), the ancestor worship depicted in "Mulan" (1998), a crowd of people bowing to an idol in "Mulan II" (2004) and the replacement of Christmas with the fictional and religion-less winter holiday "Wassailia" in the "Sofia the First" series (2012-present). Portrayals of marriage and gender roles have shifted too. Disney princesses used to get married almost without exception. Think "Snow White," "Cinderella" (1950), "Sleeping Beauty," "The Little Mermaid" (1989) and "Beauty and the Beast." Not so much anymore, as in "Pocahontas," "Mulan," "Brave" (2012) and "Frozen" (2013). In mid-20th-century films, departures from the traditional family structure caused grief and pain, as in "Snow White" and "Cinderella." In "Sofia the First," however, a blended family appears to be the source of nearly unmitigated joy. Of course, many aspects of this shift are not bad in themselves. The single life is a God-ordained and fulfilling path for many Christians, and blended families can be blessed and joyful. The fact remains though, that the trajectory of Disney entertainment seems to be moving away from extolling the traditional family. In other gender-related developments, Mulan joins the military and engages in hand-to-hand combat. She also finds herself accidentally swimming nude with men. That said, caveats are in order. First, older Disney movies were not without flaws. Racial insensitivity seems apparent in "Snow White," where the heroine is seen as beautiful because she has fair skin. Sleeping Beauty's distinctly Anglo features similarly are said to set her apart as beautiful. And almost all Disney movies include references to magic. Second, there have been some decidedly positive shifts in more recent Disney entertainment like the racial and ethnic diversity of the protagonists. Third, Disney is not the only producer of children's entertainment to include questionable themes. It is one of many mirrors that reflect a general cultural drift. Still, without child-level discussions on religious pluralism, marriage, gender roles, modesty and other ethical and theological themes, exposure to Disney entertainment may undermine foundations of a biblical worldview. Amplifying the problem, Disney introduces such themes well before some parents want to introduce them. So should parents prevent their children from watching Disney movies and shows? That's for each family to decide, seeking God's wisdom in the process. Some may opt to delay exposure to these themes while others may decide to watch Disney films with their children and use them as teachable moments, as my wife and I have done. What's certain is that Southern Baptists were right in 2005 to urge vigilance in monitoring Disney products. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Atheists block city grant to National Baptists by Diana Chandler Date: August 29, 2016 - Monday KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP) -- Atheists have blocked a $65,000 grant the Kansas City, Mo., government had allocated for use during the National Baptist Convention USA (NBC USA) annual meeting Sept. 5-9 in the city. John Modest Miles of Modest Miles Ministries had counted on the Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund grant to help cover ground transportation costs for delegates at the 31,000-church NBC USA meeting, saying the funds would support tourism. But after American Atheists Inc. and two of its Kansas City members contended in a lawsuit that the public funds would support religion, the city withheld the grant pending additional documentation from Miles, the Kansas City Star reported. As Miles works to recoup the money through other sources, including private funding, a GoFundMe page set up Aug. 26 by the Black Health Care Coalition had raised about $1,500, with all funds designated for the NBC-USA Kansas City meeting. "Let's join together to honor the social service agenda of the National Baptist Convention," the Go Fund Me appeal reads, noting criminal justice, disaster relief, hunger relief, employment advocacy, housing and health among the NBC-USA's concerns. "We need this. Service saves lives." Miles was not available for comment today (Aug. 29), but he told the Raleigh, N.C., News & Observer days earlier he had been troubled over the loss of funding. "All of us are in tears," said Miles, who also pastors the NBC-USA congregation Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in Kansas City. "I'm up at night praying. That's all I know to do." NBC-USA President Jerry Young, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss., spoke during the Southern Baptist Convention's 2016 annual meeting in St. Louis in connection with his joint promotion of racial reconciliation with immediate past SBC President Ronnie Floyd, pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas. An estimated 20,000 delegates and family members are slated to attend the convention, occupying 8,200 hotel rooms and yielding a $7.9 million economic impact, VisitKC, the city's convention and tourism agency, told the News & Observer. Miles continues to meet with city officials to find another source of funds. City Manager Troy Schulte told the News & Observer that private funding is Miles' only option, and said the city would assist Miles in finding such support. "At this time, we will not be using public money," Schulte said. The American Atheists' lawsuit has not been heard in court, and the atheists had sought to resolve the problem in meetings before the lawsuit was filed. "The National Baptist Convention is inherently religious -- and it is clear under Missouri law and the First Amendment that Missouri taxpayers should not be paying for it," Amanda Knief, American Atheists National Legal Director, said in a press release on the group's website. City tourism funds were also allocated to Miles' ministry when he served as chairman of the host committee for NBC USA national conventions in 1998, 2003 and 2010, Miles told the Kansas City Star, but the paper said in a July 26 report that it was unable to verify the allocations because the city's database records only go back five years. According to American Atheists Inc., the grants amounted to $100,000 in 1998, $142,000 in 2003 and $77,585 in 2010. Young told the Kansas City Star that the convention is strictly a business meeting, with some sessions open to the public. "I would hope that those who are part of the atheist movement would not take the position that the money used by the city to market the city and to bring economic development and enhancement … ought to apply to everybody but Christians," Young told the Star. "When you spend money to bring 20,000 people to your city, you're not spending that money to promote the cause. You're spending that money because it just makes sense." The convention will continue as planned, Young said. -------------------------------------------------------------------- N.C. transgender ruling 'narrow' but a 'step back' by David Roach Date: August 29, 2016 - Monday WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (BP) -- A federal judge's ruling suspending enforcement of North Carolina's so-called bathroom bill for three individuals in the University of North Carolina system has been classified by a pro-family organization in the state as "very narrow" and of "little effect" practically. Judge Thomas Schroeder ruled Aug. 26 that UNC must allow three transgender individuals to use restrooms corresponding to their perceived gender identity until their claim challenging North Carolina's House Bill 2 is decided. H.B. 2, among other provisions, requires individuals at public agencies to use restrooms corresponding to the biological sex indicated on their birth certificates. "Judge Schroeder has made a very narrow ruling by suspending enforcement of H.B. 2's bathroom provisions only for the three UNC transgender student and faculty plaintiffs," Tami Fitzgerald, an attorney and executive director of the North Carolina Values Coalition, said in a statement. "H.B. 2 remains in effect for all others at UNC and across the state. Since UNC has refused to enforce H.B. 2, the ruling has little effect." Schroeder, a George W. Bush appointee to the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, ruled two transgender students and a transgender employee "are likely to succeed" in their challenge of H.B. 2's bathroom use provision because that provision violates Title IX of the 1972 federal Education Amendments, as interpreted by the Obama administration. The relevant precedent in the UNC case, Schroeder wrote in an 83-page opinion, is the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' April ruling that a transgender high school student in Virginia is entitled to use restrooms and other facilities corresponding to her gender identity. The Fourth Circuit ruled, Schroeder stated, that "controlling weight" should be given to the Department of Education's interpretation of "sex discrimination" in Title IX as including gender identity discrimination. The 1972 amendment includes no mention of gender identity. Schroeder hinted he may agree with a dissent to the Fourth Circuit ruling but said accepting North Carolina's arguments against the appellate court's reasoning "would violate" his "obligation" to "follow circuit precedent." Schroeder's ruling noted a Texas-based federal judge's ruling against the Obama administration's so-called transgender directive to public schools and universities as well as the U.S. Supreme Court's stay of the Fourth Circuit ruling until the case is resolved on appeal. Schroeder argued, however, that the Fourth Circuit's reasoning "remains the law in this circuit," which includes Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia. Despite their successful argument regarding Title IX, the transgender plaintiffs in the UNC case "have not made a clear showing they are likely to succeed" in their claim H.B. 2 violates the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, Schroeder wrote. Mark Harris, a North Carolina pastor and former Republican candidate for both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, told Baptist Press "the court appears to be waiting for a higher court's decision." "Ultimately, everyone believes that the Supreme Court will end up ruling on this, particularly when you have the federal judge in Texas putting a stay on all of what the federal government was trying to do through President Obama's Justice Department's actions," said Harris, pastor of First Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C. Despite the narrowness of Schroeder's ruling and its limited effect, Harris said "any decision like this feels like it takes us one step back. You would like to have every ruling come down in favor of H.B. 2 in terms of stating the issues of privacy and safety that we feel like are impacted here." -------------------------------------------------------------------- WRAP-UP: ERLC event addresses culture, Gospel by Tom Strode Date: August 29, 2016 - Monday NASHVILLE (BP) -- Speakers and panelists sought to help Christians understand how they can engage the culture in a Gospel-focused manner during the second day of a Southern Baptist-sponsored conference Aug. 26. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission's 2016 National Conference featured pastors, academics and authors providing guidance to the audience -- which consisted of more than 900 registrants -- regarding not only what biblically based cultural engagement is but how to avoid being a captive of cultural Christianity. Dallas-area pastor Matt Chandler said the Bible Belt has "churches that are filled with unregenerate [people] in a culture where any type of conservatism is just lumped in to being a Christian." In the Bible Belt, pastors will often have to help "really moral church folk understand that they're non-Christians," he told attendees. e have to in the Bible Belt deconstruct the idea that Jesus is about good people." -- Matt Chandler] Many of those who grew up in a church but were converted to Christ as adults in The Village Church, where Chandler is lead teaching pastor, say they have a "long list of behaviors" but "never heard the Gospel," he said. "So we have to in the Bible Belt deconstruct the idea that Jesus is about good people." Speaking on the parable of the lost sheep, coin and son in Luke 15, Chandler said, "The mission of God is to seek and save the lost -- not moral betterment. That's what happens when we are saved, right? We are going to be transformed from the inside out. "Well, the Bible Belt is so twisted around this idea," he said, adding he has been overwhelmed that "the basic Gospel message has been completely lost on a full generation." The reality for a Christian that "all of life is repentance" needs to be understood in the church, Chandler said. "If people in the Bible Belt don't know that what it means to be a Christian is for the rest of their life they're to be repentant in their life, then every little struggle they have will be hidden in the darkness because they will believe that they did that when they got saved," he said. "I just can't tell you the sheer volume of people I know who are enslaved to sin and feel like they can't tell anyone about it, because they got saved 15 years ago." Andy Crouch, executive editor of Christianity Today, challenged audience members to consider whether they -- and the American church -- are "on a quest for control," particularly of culture, freelance writer Kara Bettis wrote in a report for the ERLC. Human beings are uniquely given authority -- the capacity for meaningful action -- and vulnerability -- exposure to meaningful risk, but control itself is a testament to true motivations, he said. "You know someone is addicted to control [if] when their control begins to slip they become violent," Crouch said, Bettis reported. "What our culture has perceived of us Christians is they see us losing control of culture and they see the rage with which we react to that loss of control." Crouch proposed an alternative approach -- true leadership and leaders who "just show up and are honest about their limits, honest about our limits and call us to live a life of risk." Robby Gallaty, senior pastor of Long Hollow Baptist church in Hendersonville, Tenn., pointed attendees to a two-fold strategy Jesus gave the church to engage the culture -- an invitation to follow Him and an investment in others. "We're going to change the culture the same way Jesus changed the culture, and that's with an invitation to follow Him," Gallaty said. "We will never affect the culture publicly until we have been transformed by the Gospel privately. "Intimacy with God always precedes ministry," he said. "Who we are in Christ trumps what we will ever do for Christ." Greg Thornbury, president of The King's College in New York City, said he is worried as someone who leads an institution preparing young adults for the world. "I am concerned that the rightful teaching of grace in our churches may be producing a slacker generation that will damage our witness in culture in coming generations," he said, acknowledging his comment would be controversial. "We need to recover the work ethic that made the people of God who they were in every cultural situation." Trevin Wax, Bible and reference publisher for LifeWay Christian Resources, said in a panel discussion cultural engagement should be connected to the Great Commission. If cultural engagement is simply a way for Christians to seek "to show that we're culturally savvy ... then that is the way to disaster," he said, adding it should be about having a "Great Commission understanding of people around us so we can effectively present the Gospel." On the same panel, Jackie Hill Perry, a poet and artist with Humble Beast Records, encouraged young Christians to demonstrate "an intentionality about our lives." They should use their "online presence for the Gospel, for the glory of God," she said Hill Perry also urged young Christian couples, "Don't be afraid to have children. If we are not raising disciples now, who will be the ones to carry the torch later?" The Aug. 26 proceedings included breakout sessions on race, religious liberty, parenting, millennials and sports. An all-female panel also discussed women and cultural engagement. During the meeting, the ERLC announced its 2017 National Conference, which is scheduled Aug. 24-25 and will again be held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. Christ-centered parenting will be the theme, and the speakers will include ERLC President Russell Moore, who also spoke Aug. 26 at this year's conference; Focus on the Family President Jim Daly; and authors Sally Lloyd-Jones and Jen Wilkin. The ERLC and Southern Baptist Executive Committee cosponsored a Next Generation luncheon Aug. 26 for young SBC pastors and leaders. The gathering with more than 100 registrants included a question-and-answer session with SBC President Steve Gaines, Executive Committee President Frank S. Page, Chandler and Moore.