Baptist Press Archive

Friday, August 06, 2010

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  • Medical team meets N. African spiritual, physical needs
    by Don Graham, posted Friday, August 06, 2010 (14 years ago)

    NORTH AFRICA (BP)--Laila* lies motionless in the sweltering heat of a remote medical clinic poised at the edge of the Sahara Desert.

          Black flies swarm the young mother's face, feasting on the yellow infection that oozes from her eyes. An IV impales one of her arms; the other drapes limply over her swollen belly.

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          At six-and-a-half months pregnant, Laila is suffering from a severe case of measles. Though she is likely to recover, the disease is a virtual death sentence for her baby.

          Jenny Byrd,* a nurse practitioner from Georgia, watches over her. Speaking broken Arabic, Byrd caresses the Muslim woman's arm and tries to reassure Laila's mother and husband who wait anxiously by her side. A simple vaccination would have prevented this tragedy, but Byrd knows the situation is now beyond medicine's reach. She closes her eyes and silently asks God for a miracle and the chance to explain why she came to North Africa.

          Byrd is part of a team of Southern Baptist medical workers called TRUTH -- Trailblazers Reaching the Unreached Through Healthcare. They share Christ in an Islamic country so hostile to the Gospel that its name can't be printed without risking the team's safety.

          Chuck Castle,* a family doctor from Texas, leads the TRUTH team. After volunteering on a handful of short-term trips, Castle knew God wanted him serving overseas fulltime. By 1999, he and his wife, Debbie,* were in North Africa, pioneering a medical ministry supported by the International Mission ... Read More

  • Former Muslims pay heavy price for faith
    by Don Graham, posted Friday, August 06, 2010 (14 years ago)

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    NORTH AFRICA (BP)--Ibrahim* wasn't ready to die. He wasn't ready to back down either.

          For months, Islamic authorities had ignored the tiny house church he started with a handful of former Muslims in a dusty, desolate village on the outskirts of town. But the 26-year-old Arab farmer's brazen evangelism had become a problem. The church was growing, and it was now turning too many heads and winning too many souls for authorities to overlook. Today, they'd come to end it. Read More

  • Couple sees Muslims come to Christ
    by Don Graham, posted Friday, August 06, 2010 (14 years ago)

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    NORTH AFRICA (BP)--Sweat rolls down Todd Riddle's* bald head as he thumbs through the mountain of cash heaped on his dining room table. Wrapped in cheap, plastic bags, the money is being prepped for a transfer at a crumbling airstrip in the middle of nowhere in North Africa. Read More

  • Miraculous healing brings African to faith
    by Don Graham, posted Friday, August 06, 2010 (14 years ago)

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    NORTH AFRICA (BP)--Curses cast by Islamic witch doctors weren't on the curriculum when Chuck Castle* went to medical school. Neither were miracles. Little did the family doctor know he'd be dealing with both when he traveled to North Africa as a Southern Baptist worker. Read More

  • Nurse's compassion opens mother's heart
    by Don Graham, posted Friday, August 06, 2010 (14 years ago)

    NORTH AFRICA (BP)--Allison Smith* knew why God brought her to North Africa the moment she came face to face with a girl named Munira.*

    A burn nurse from North Carolina, Smith had just joined a team of Southern Baptist medical workers who ran a clinic in an isolated town near the Sahara Desert. She'd been with them for less than a week when she met 2-year-old Munira, one of the worst pediatric burn cases she'd ever seen.

    Munira's clothes had ignited while playing too close to her moth... Read More

  • McCain, Levin clash over 'Don't Ask'
    by Michael Foust, posted Friday, August 06, 2010 (14 years ago)

    WASHINGTON (BP)--A spontaneous Senate floor debate over the military's policy on homosexual service became heated Aug. 5, with Republican Sen. John McCain calling its proposed repeal part of a Democratic "social agenda" and Democratic Sen. Carl Levin defending the repeal by saying it will honor military protocol.

    The exchange lasted 10 minutes and saw the two men, raising their voices, interrupt each other and try to get the last word. It took place immediately after the Senate confirmed S... Read More

  • CULTURE DIGEST: Mixed-faith marriages on the rise; house churches' popularity growing
    by Erin Roach, posted Friday, August 06, 2010 (14 years ago)

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The recent nuptials of former first daughter Chelsea Clinton and investment banker Marc Mezvinsky were a high-profile example of a growing trend in America: mixed-faith marriages.

    Clinton identifies herself as a Methodist, but her new husband is Jewish, and their wedding included a pastor and a rabbi as well as the traditional Jewish "chuppah" and the breaking of a glass underfoot.

    The wedding prompted USA Today and other publications to cite statistics showing... Read More

  • Política Mexico City: El Senado procura hacer permanente la política internacional pro-escogencia
    Por el Personal, posted Friday, August 06, 2010 (14 years ago)

    WASHINGTON (BP)--Un comité del Senado ha reexpedido a toda la cámara la legislación que afianzaría la revocación de una prohibición de usar fondos federales para organizaciones que realizan o promueven los abortos en el extranjero.

          El Comité de Apropiación aprobó una enmienda hecha por el senador Frank Lautenberg, demócrata de New Jersey, que codificaría la revocación del 2009 de la política Mexico City (Ciudad de México) realizada por el presidente Obama. La votación del 29 de julio en apoyo al proyecto de ley de gasto en conjunto de Operativos Extranjeros y Estatales que incluyó la enmienda fue de 18 a 12.

          Si la enmienda al proyecto de ley es aprobada y firmada por el presidente Obama, entonces un futuro presidente pro-vida no podría reinstalar la política Mexico City con una orden ejecutiva. Requeriría una acción del congreso -- una barrera mucho más alta.

          Si la enmienda al proyecto de ley es aprobada y firmada por el presidente Obama, entonces un futuro presidente pro-vida no podría reinstalar la política Mexico City con una orden ejecutiva. Requeriría una acción del congreso -- una barrera mucho más alta.

          Cuando estuvo en efecto, la política prohibía que organizaciones internacionales de planificación familiar recibieran fondos federales a menos que ellos estuvieran de acuerdo en no realizar abortos o aconsejar practicarlos o cabildear para liberalizar las políticas pro-vida de gobiernos extranjeros. Los oponentes la llaman la regla de la "mordaza global."

          Obama derogó la política en el 2009 durante su primera semana en la Casa Blanca. Sin embargo, un presidente subsiguiente podría reinstalar la política. Si la enmienda de Lautenberg se vuelve ley, se requerirían una nueva acción congregacional y la firma del presidente para revocarla.

          La política Mexico City ha tenido una historia fluctuante. Iniciada por el presidente Reagan y anunciada en una conferencia en la Ciudad de México en 1984, estuvo en vigencia hasta 1993, cuando el presidente Clinton la rescindió en su segundo día completo en la Casa Blanca. El presidente George W. Bush la rehabilitó exactamente ocho años después. Read More

  • Momento histórico: El juez anula la prohibición del 'matrimonio de homosexuales' en California
    Por Michael Foust, posted Friday, August 06, 2010 (14 years ago)

    SAN FRANCISCO (BP)--El miércoles, un juez federal entregó una decisión histórica que pudiera afectar la libertad religiosa y conllevar a la reversión de las leyes del matrimonio tradicional en cada uno de los estados, derrumbando la enmienda constitucional aprobada por el voto de los californianos donde se prohibía el 'matrimonio de homosexuales'; la decisión establecía que [la enmienda] viola las cláusulas de igualdad de protección y de proceso legal en la Constitución de los EE UU. Read More

  • Las iglesias pueden enfrentar multas por micrófonos inalámbricos
    Por Erin Roach, posted Friday, August 06, 2010 (14 years ago)

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Las iglesias podrían enfrentar multas de seis dígitos si continúan usando micrófonos inalámbricos que operan dentro de un espectro que la Comisión Federal de Comunicaciones (FCC por sus siglas en inglés) ha establecido para las entidades de seguridad pública. Read More

  • EDITORIAL: ¿Qué es lo que hemos perdido?
    Por Óscar J. Fernández, posted Friday, August 06, 2010 (14 years ago)

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Tengo un amigo que vive en New Jersey que me escribió el otro día, preocupado por la situación que ve en su propia iglesia y en general en las iglesias de los Estados Unidos y otros países de Europa y América Latina. ¿Qué está pasando me preguntaba? ¿Qué es lo que hemos perdido? Read More