Baptist Press Archive

Friday, January 12, 2018

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  • Remembering MLK: BP's Q&A with key Southern Baptists
    by Diana Chandler, posted Friday, January 12, 2018 (8 months ago)

    National Park Service photo
    NASHVILLE (BP) -- Pastor James Dixon calls it "otherness," loving others enough to die for their benefit. That's what he credits to the late Martin Luther King Jr. nearly 50 years after the civil rights leader's death.

    "He allowed his life to enter into the lives of others and not leave them the way he found them," Dixon told Baptist Press in advance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 15. "If we're going to keep his memory going, we've got to have that same type of otherness. And that otherness comes because we love people, and that love flows from God through us to the other." Read More

  • Healing, hope and tough decisions in Sutherland Springs

    by Jane Rodgers/Southern Baptist TEXAN, posted Friday, January 12, 2018 (8 months ago)

    Screen capture from KSAT12 ABC
    SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, TEXAS (BP) -- Six-year-old Ryland Ward, the last victim hospitalized from the Sutherland Springs massacre, returned home in style Jan. 11. He rode in a crimson Wilson County fire truck driven by volunteer firefighter Rusty Duncan, who had rescued the boy from the Nov. 5 carnage.

    Ryland returns home to a world markedly different than the one he left -- a new normal without his stepmother, Joann Ward, who died shielding her children from the shooter. Ryland's sisters Emily and Brooke were also slain.

    Today, healing continues at Sutherland Springs Baptist Church months after the shooting which claimed the lives of 26, including Pastor Frank Pomeroy's daughter. The empty sanctuary -- painted stark white with slatted chairs bearing red roses and victims' names -- remains a solemn and much-visited memorial as decisions regarding rebuilding proceed. Read More

  • Christian persecutors largely unchanged, Open Doors reports
    by Tom Strode, posted Friday, January 12, 2018 (8 months ago)

    iStock
    WASHINGTON (BP) -- The most dangerous countries for Christians, led again by North Korea, remain largely the same, according to the 2018 list compiled by a leading advocate for the persecuted church.

    Open Doors USA released its annual World Watch List Jan. 10, two days after President Trump renominated Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback as ambassador at large for international religious freedom in a move welcomed by supporters of people of faith overseas.

    For the 17th consecutive year, North Korea -- a communist country that enforces worship of its leader, Kim Jong-un -- was ranked as the worst country for followers of Jesus Christ. Christians are "the number one enemy of the state in North Korea," Open Doors President David Curry said. Read More

  • Are conservative voices being silenced by Twitter?
    by Grace Thornton, posted Friday, January 12, 2018 (8 months ago)

    Screen capture from YouTube
    NASHVILLE (BP) -- Social media platform Twitter may be trying to reshape the online narrative by editing out conservative voices, a new undercover video released by Project Veritas alleges.

    The video, released Thursday (Jan. 11), appears to show current and former Twitter engineers explaining how they "downrank" some users and make others totally invisible if they don't like what they are saying. Baptist leaders shared different views on the significance of the undercover video -- with one saying the report shouldn’t prompt concern, while another called the video "deeply troubling." Read More

  • 2-year-old dies at NOBTS preschool center
    by Gary Myers, posted Friday, January 12, 2018 (8 months ago)

    NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- A 2-year-old child died Jan. 11 while eating lunch at the Early Learning Center at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

    The child lost consciousness after choking on food just after noon Thursday. Efforts to resuscitate the child by members of the ELC staff and EMS responders were unsuccessful.

    NOBTS President Chuck Kelley said the seminary community is saddened by the death and called on members of the immediate community and the larger Southern Baptist community to pray for the child's family and all those affected by the death. Read More

  • Pew: Muslims on pace to outnumber Jews in U.S.
    by Diana Chandler, posted Friday, January 12, 2018 (8 months ago)

    BP file photo
    WASHINGTON (BP) -- Muslims will likely surpass Jews as the second largest religious group behind Christians in the U.S. by 2040, elevated by a high birth rate and immigration, the Pew Research Center said in its latest analysis.

    The 3.45 million Muslims here will more than double to 8.1 million by 2050, surpassing the number of Jews along the way, Pew estimated Jan. 3. But the research center did not give a Muslim nor Jewish numerical population estimate for 2040. Read More

  • Pastor/prof Bill Bennett leaves mentoring legacy
    by Dianna L. Cagle/Biblical Recorder, posted Friday, January 12, 2018 (8 months ago)

    WILMINGTON, N.C. (BP) -- William "Bill" L. Bennett Sr., founder of Mentoring Men for the Master (M3), died Thursday (Jan. 11) in Wilmington, N.C. He was 93.

    Many Christian leaders shaped by Bennett's passion for mentoring -- as a pastor and seminary professor -- recounted his influence in their lives.

    "His contribution in Kingdom advance will not stop even though God has chosen to call Bill Bennett to glory," Milton A. Hollifield Jr., executive director-treasurer of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, told the Biblical Recorder, the convention's newsjournal. Read More

  • FIRST-PERSON: Is God at home in you?
    by Frank S. Page, posted Friday, January 12, 2018 (8 months ago)

    Frank Page takes note of an "intimate offer from our Lord" -- Jesus' promise in John 14 that He and the Father "will come and make their home with us." Read More

  • EDITORIAL: El Programa Cooperativo: Un Plan Divino
    by Mike Gonzales, posted Friday, January 12, 2018 (8 months ago)

    Como Bautistas del Sur tenemos un vehículo maravilloso para hacer misiones, promover la evangelización, producir líderes y pastores aptos para diferentes ministerios e impactar el mundo entero para Cristo. ... Read More

  • GuideStone anuncia nueva ubicación en Dallas

    Por Roy Hayhurst , posted Friday, January 12, 2018 (8 months ago)

    Foto enviada
    DALLAS (BP) -- Recursos Financieros GuideStone planea reubicarse a finales del verano de 2018 en unas nuevas oficinas alquiladas de 10.700 metros cuadrados ubicadas a unos 16 kilómetros al norte de su actual ubicación.

    El brazo de servicios financieros de la Convención Bautista del Sur ha ocupado su actual domicilio en la zona residencial de Dallas desde 1989. El edificio de la sede de GuideStone ha sido vendido, pero lo estarán alquilando hasta que el traslado pueda ser completado.

    Los directivos de GuideStone han trabajado de cerca con el personal mientras la... Read More

  • 'Soñador' bautista quiere que la gente sepa 'quiénes somos'

    Por Seth Brown/Biblical Recorder , posted Friday, January 12, 2018 (8 months ago)

    Foto cedida cortesía del Biblical Recorder
    CHARLOTTE, N.C. (BP) -- Muchos estadounidenses "desconocen quiénes somos y por lo que estamos pasando," dijo José Ocampo, beneficiario del programa de Acción Diferida para la Llegada de Niños (DACA) y ministro de jóvenes de la Iglesia Bautista Hickory Grove en Charlotte, N.C.

    José Ocampo, alumno de tercer año de la Universidad Wingate cerca de Charlotte, compartió sobre su vida durante un viaje a Capitol Hill en noviembre para instar a los legisladores a proteger a los beneficiarios del programa DACA como él, a menudo llamados "Soñadores," una vez que la política expire a principios de marzo. Read More

  • Evaluación de las peores violaciones de la libertad religiosa en el mundo
    Por Tom Strode, posted Friday, January 12, 2018 (8 months ago)

    Imagen: iStock/Se requiere permiso de licencia.
    WASHINGTON (BP) -- La primera designación de las peores violaciones de la libertad religiosa en el mundo presentada por la administración Trump recibió la misma evaluación que la última lista presentada por el presidente Obama: es buena, pero no lo suficientemente buena.

    El Departamento de Estado anunció el jueves 4 de enero el renombramiento de los mismos "países con preocupaciones particulares" (CPS) que había anunciado la administración Obama en abril del 2016. En una acción del 22 de diciembre, el Secretario de Estado Rex Tillerson mantuvo en la lista a Myanmar, China, Eritrea, Irán, Corea del ... Read More

  • Antigua torre de LifeWay 'se derrumbó … realmente rápido'

    Por David Roach, posted Friday, January 12, 2018 (8 months ago)

    Foto de Jim Veneman
    NASHVILLE (BP) -- El antiguo monumento histórico de Recursos Cristianos LifeWay, la torre Draper es ahora un montón de escombros.

    El edificio de 12 pisos de las anteriores instalaciones de LifeWay en el centro de Nashville fue demolido el 6 de enero con una implosión que el líder del equipo de demolición dijo que "fue 100 por ciento perfecta," reportó el periódico el Tennessean.

    Después de una serie de tremendos ruidos causados por unos 275 kilos de explosivos, la torre Draper se desmoronó en secciones para hacer espacio a un edificio residencial de 380 unidades, dos edificios de oficinas y espacios para ventas al detalle -- todo parte ... Read More

  • EDITORIAL: El Programa Cooperativo: Un Plan Divino
    Mike Gonzales, posted Friday, January 12, 2018 (8 months ago)

    Como Bautistas del Sur tenemos un vehículo maravilloso para hacer misiones, promover la evangelización, producir líderes y pastores aptos para diferentes ministerios e impactar el mundo entero para Cristo. Podemos decir que es un plan divino para hacer la obra de Dios aquí en la tierra. Read More