Friday, March 09, 2018
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Miss. nears earliest abortion ban in country
WASHINGTON (BP) -- Mississippi stands on the verge of enacting the earliest ban on abortions in the United States.
iStockThe state's House of Representatives approved in a 75-34 vote Thursday (March 8) a bill that would prohibit abortions after 15 weeks' gestation. The legislation -- which the Senate passed 35-14 March 6 -- will go to Gov. Phil Bryant, who has indicated he will sign it.
The measure will lower Mississippi's ban on abortions by five weeks from its current 20-week restriction.
Southern Baptist ethics leaders commended the legislature's action. Read More
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WEEK OF PRAYER: Hope shining in East St. Louis
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. -- East St. Louis is the home -- and mission field -- of Kempton and Caryn Turner.
NAMB PhotoA native of East St. Louis, Ill., Kempton Turner grew up on the streets where he now serves as a church planting missionary and pastor of City of Joy Fellowship. The church was launched on Sept. 18, 2016, with one mission: restoring hope to the city through Jesus Christ. It currently rents space at the local Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center.
"Because I was raised here, I've got a real heart for the people," Turner said. "It's a small city. It's a dangerous, poor place, 85 percent fatherlessness. The houses, the buildings and the roads show the desperate place that East St. Louis is in. The people know struggle." Read More
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Billy Graham legacy honored by historic pulpit at NOBTS
NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- The faded pulpit at the front of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's Leavell Chapel during the first week of March seemed out of place. Out of place unless one saw Billy Graham's signature scrawled on its top.
NOBTS PhotoThe time-worn, battered pulpit is the one used by Graham during his 1954 New Orleans crusade. From Oct. 3-31, 1954, Graham preached the Gospel to crowds at Pelican Stadium and Tulane Stadium in the Crescent City.
According to The Times-Picayune, 4,411 people committed their lives to Christ during the crusade. Leaders at NOBTS placed the pulpit in Leavell Chapel for campus revival week and preview weekend to honor the Gospel-focused legacy of Graham, who passed away Feb. 21. Read More
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Faith group regains campus status after suing college
DETROIT (BP) -- A Christian student group dispelled from a public university for requiring chapter leaders to be Christian has been readmitted. But attorneys say the school's change of heart is hardly adequate.
Becket photoWayne State University (WSU) recertified InterVarsity Christian Fellowship as an official campus student group two days after InterVarsity filed a lawsuit against WSU, the university said in a March 8 statement to media. Read More
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State papers 'have a future,' Tenn. editor says
NASHVILLE (BP) -- In an era of shrinking newspaper readership, Baptist state papers retain a viable path forward as "niche publications" with strong online and print presence, state paper editor Lonnie Wilkey told the Tennessee Baptist Historical Society (TBHS).
Photo by David Roach"The newspaper industry is declining, but Baptist papers still have a future," said Wilkey, editor of Tennessee's Baptist and Reflector newsjournal. That's "mainly because we are niche publications ... If you want to read about Tennessee Baptists, the only source you really have is the Baptist and Reflector."
Baptist papers in other states, he said, similarly serve as the main viable sources about Baptists there. Read More
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FIRST-PERSON: The blessings of a portable church
"No labor was ever more fulfilling," Lori McDaniel writes, than being part of a "church-in-a-trailer" in a school for five years. Now that the church has its own building, she writes, it's "just a toolbox," like the school, for believers in sharing the Gospel. Read More
