Tuesday, October 25, 2005

• Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, dead at 92, found strength in Scripture, church

  by Art Toalston, posted Tuesday, October 25, 2005 (18 years ago)

  DETROIT (BP)--Rosa Parks, a laywoman who, at the forefront of the civil rights movement, found strength in the 23rd Psalm and other passages of Scripture, died of natural causes Oct. 24 at her home in Detroit.

        Parks, 92, died just a few weeks shy of the 50th anniversary of her Dec. 1, 1955, arrest for refusing to surrender her seat to a white man on a segregated bus –- an event that sparked the 381-day Montgomery bus boycott and the rise to national prominence of a local pastor: Martin Luther King Jr., then of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

  Rosa Parks

        Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, a member of First Baptist Church in Ashland, said the state “joins the nation in mourning as we mark the passing of a remarkable life.” Riley ordered the flags at the state capitol flown at half-staff in Parks’ honor until sunset on the day of her funeral.

        “Rosa Parks will always be remembered as a courageous woman who quietly confronted injustice, and in so doing, she changed a nation,” Riley said. Read More

• Hurricane Wilma leaves 6 million without power, 5 dead

  by Staff, posted Tuesday, October 25, 2005 (18 years ago)

  Wary of Wilma Girard Desnoyers and his wife Rita evacuate their mobile home in Sunny South Estates as the eye of Hurricane Wilma passed over Palm Beach County Monday, past the remains of their neighbor's roof wrapped around a stand of palm trees. The couple had become worried about their own roof and headed to a shelter. Photo by Lannis Waters/Palm Beach Post /I>

  NAPLES, Fla. (BP)--Hurricane Wilma inflicted widespread damage in South Florida, leaving residents there with the tasks of clearing debris, ridding homes and businesses of water, repairing power lines and rebuilding damaged structures while Southern Baptists took their places of service alongside them.

  The storm, which is being called the worst to hit Broward County since Hurricane King in 1950, is responsible for at least five deaths, 6 million people without electricity and damage estimated between $6 and $10 billion in South Florida, according to the Associated Press.

  Residents sought generators, chain saws and other supplies and officials were distributing ice, water and food in the state’s three most populous areas -- Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties -- AP said. Read More

• Amid N.O.'s needs & tumult, police officer buoyed by faith

  by Keith Manuel, posted Tuesday, October 25, 2005 (18 years ago)

  Sergeant’s faith Sgt. Don McCoy relied on his faith amid the post-Katrina upheaval faced by the New Orleans-area Gretna Police Department. Photo by Keith Manuel

  NEW ORLEANS, La. (BP)--Watching as rooftops peeled off adjacent buildings and debris tumbled down the street, Sgt. Don McCoy of the New Orleans-area Gretna Police Department, relied on his faith while waiting patiently for Hurricane Katrina to die down enough to get back on the streets to protect his city.

        “The wind sounded almost like a train,” McCoy said. “I’ve never heard wind howl like that before.... Telephone poles were going back and forth. Then the power went out.”

  McCoy, along with his wife and son, watched the destruction through the plate-glass windows in the lobby of the Gretna courthouse as if they were at home watching a catastrophe on the evening news. Instead, they were living it. Read More

• Intelligent Design defense begins in Pa. school trial

  by James Patterson, posted Tuesday, October 25, 2005 (18 years ago)

  HARRISBURG, Pa. (BP)--Intelligent Design is based on provable, scientific evidence, a key witness testified as attorneys for a Pennsylvania school board began their defense of a policy attempting to balance the teaching of Darwinian evolution. Read More

• Health savings account option available via GuideStone in ’06

  by Staff, posted Tuesday, October 25, 2005 (18 years ago)

  DALLAS (BP)--GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention will make available for 2006 a new qualified high-deductible health plan (HDHP) with an accompanying health savings account (HSA). Read More

• FIRST-PERSON: Standing up to American Girl

  by Dorothy Kelley Patterson, posted Tuesday, October 25, 2005 (18 years ago)

  FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--American Girl ranks right up there with motherhood and apple pie, and yet the company is reportedly being assaulted by “conservative activists” for their support of an organization that endorses liberal causes. This outcry, however, is not limited to “conservative activists." It extends to parents and grandparents and to all Americans who want not only to protect Judeo-Christian values but also to see these values implanted in the lives of their children. Read More

• FIRST-PERSON: Developing a full-throttle faith

  by Jack Graham, posted Tuesday, October 25, 2005 (18 years ago)

  PLANO, Texas (BP)--We live in a culture that continues to push the envelope to become more and more immoral. In the midst of this disintegration, why do Christians seem to have such a small and seemingly insignificant impact? Read More

• FIRST-PERSON: Making evangelism good news again

  by John Avant, posted Tuesday, October 25, 2005 (18 years ago)

  ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--One of the enemy’s greatest lies is that people are not open to the message of Jesus. Most Christians are fearful that the people they talk to will be offended if they bring up spiritual things. Actually, I find this to be the most spiritually open time of my life. Read More