Monday, September 26, 2005

• Baptist disaster relief units expand to 2 fronts after Rita's landfall

  by Staff, posted Monday, September 26, 2005 (18 years ago)

  ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--Southern Baptists are assessing needs and assigning mobile disaster relief units to areas of Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana damaged during Hurricane Rita, while continuing to provide hot meals, clean-up and recovery services throughout the Gulf Coast.

        “We’ve had people on the ground in the affected areas of Louisiana and Texas since the storm went through Saturday,” said Jim Burton, who coordinates disaster relief services for the North American Mission Board. “They are quickly assessing needs so we can assign mobile units today and tomorrow.

  Rita’s onslaught Hurricane Rita’s 110 mph winds, in battering Lake Charles, La., put a temporary halt to local gambling venues such as the Isle of Capri Casino. Photo by Lance Iversen/San Francisco Chronicle

        “Many of the mobile kitchens and cleanup and recovery crews that were staged at the end of last week just outside the anticipated path of the storm should be feeding hot meals, cutting up downed trees and providing communication and other services tomorrow,” Burton said Sept. 26. “We will ramp up the services throughout the week as needs become clearer and our mobile units assemble from across the country.”

  While some communities along the Texas-Louisiana border were nearly wiped out, overall Hurricane Rita did not wreak the degree of havoc authorities had feared along the already-devastated Gulf Coast region Sept. 24. Read More

• 1,200-plus churches vow to adopt damaged churches on Gulf

  by Tim Yarbrough, posted Monday, September 26, 2005 (18 years ago)

  ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--More than 1,200 Southern Baptist churches have committed to help SBC churches in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The Adopt A Church partnership was initiated by the North American Mission Board the week after the hurricane destroyed thousands of homes and business along the Gulf Coast including hundreds of SBC churches. Read More

• Aiding Katrina victims in La., collegians abandon comfort

  by Cory Miller, posted Monday, September 26, 2005 (18 years ago)

  Back to bare wood Quinn Roddy of Midwestern Baptist College tears out drywall ruined by flooding from Hurricane Katrina in Slidell, La. Photo courtesy of MBTS

  KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)--Missouri pastor Lee Whitley heard the message loud and clear: “It’s bad. These people need help.”

        On the other end of the phone conversation was a fellow pastor on the Gulf Coast requesting Whitley’s help in mobilizing churches to provide disaster relief in the region.

        Whitley, pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Washington, Mo., immediately began e-mailing and calling Southern Baptist churches in the Franklin County Baptist Association to form a disaster relief team to head to Louisiana.

  “I put the team together really in three days,” Whitley said of the short notice given.

  As he began recruiting volunteers, one of the first phone calls he made was to Scott Brawner, dean of students at Midwestern Baptist College, SBC, and director of Fusion, the college’s year-long program to provide training in hands-on ministry and missions. Read More

• ABCUSA leaders call for unity; conservative leader fears denomination's next step will be to align with 'similar' CBF

  by Gregory Tomlin, posted Monday, September 26, 2005 (18 years ago)

  "To take their logic to a laughable extreme, then a local church could be promoting temple prostitution and still be allowed to remain a part of the ABC."

  Jay Wolfe, chairman of West Virginia Baptists for Biblical Truth,

  VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (BP)--The General Board Executive Committee of the American Baptist Churches USA expressed grief and sadness Sept. 19 at the planned departure from the denomination of 300 conservative churches in its Pacific Southwest Region.

        In a statement issued following a two-day meeting in Atlanta, the denomination’s Executive Committee called for unity and said a decision by the California-based Pacific Southwest Region will “separate the region from the American Baptist family and our mission if the region completes its action.” Read More

• Ethicists respond to claims of euthanasia in New Orleans

  by Staff, posted Monday, September 26, 2005 (18 years ago)

  NEW ORLEANS (BP)--An ethicist with the Christian Medical and Dental Associations says claims that doctors expedited the death of some patients rather than evacuating them as the waters rose in New Orleans should raise important questions about what individuals should be expected to do in such dire situations. Read More

• Land: Evangelical majority supports Israel’s Gaza withdrawal

  by Tom Strode, posted Monday, September 26, 2005 (18 years ago)

  WASHINGTON (BP)--A majority of American evangelical Christians support the Israeli government’s decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land estimated to members of a prominent foreign policy organization. Read More

• FIRST-PERSON: Sat. & Sun. back in New Orleans

  by Joe McKeever, posted Monday, September 26, 2005 (18 years ago)

  NEW ORLEANS (BP)--Margaret and I re-entered our home in the New Orleans western suburb of River Ridge Saturday night at 6:30 p.m., precisely four weeks and two and a half hours since we fled Hurricane Katrina. I revisited our house two days after Labor Day for an hour to retrieve some clothes and check on things, and I thought I knew what to expect on returning. Not quite. Read More