tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86653920184053105052011-12-23T19:02:43.351-08:00Religious ConnectionsNews and commentary on Religion, especially Southern religion.BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.comBlogger13311100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-20797420039170921502010-11-30T13:27:00.000-08:002010-11-30T13:28:43.489-08:00Southern Baptist minister, elders guilty of not reporting abuseFailing to report child abuse is a crime for which there is no justifiable church exemption. And as Christa Brown brought to our attention, the consequences of failure to report fell on the heads of a New Hampshire Southern Baptist pastor and two elders last week.She wrote:In New Hampshire, [at Valley Christian Church] Southern Baptist pastor Timothy Dillmuth and two church elders, Richard Eland George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-75956469828327454992010-11-13T08:25:00.000-08:002010-11-13T08:49:31.973-08:00'Hare-brained game of pretending' to believe Obama is a MuslimCampbell University Divinity School professor Tony Cartledge writes of President Obama's visit to Indonesia:Unfortunately, since Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population, Obama-haters have used the event to play up their hare-brained game of pretending to believe the president is a secret Muslim (this article cites a number of examples). I never cease to be amazed that so many people George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-13542232149035331202010-11-11T11:59:00.001-08:002010-11-11T12:14:06.429-08:00UK Baptist pastor faces up to 80 years in prisonChrista Brown writes about the case of Robert Dando:Dando was very closely connected to the highest levels of Baptists’ worldwide leadership. He previously served as executive assistant to the president of the Baptist World Alliance. This was a guy who ran with the big dogs.Dando “was embroiled in another child sex abuse scandal when he was a minister at Orchard Baptist Fellowship” in the United George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-11521901304134319242010-11-11T11:21:00.000-08:002010-11-11T11:24:14.109-08:00What should Catholic politicians who support Roe v. Wade say?Mark Silk led us to this from George Dennis O'Brien's new book:Stop trying to avoid the issue by saying that you are personally opposed to abortion or that you accept the Church's views on abortion, but it is not your responsibility as a legislator to impose your moral will on the country. That is a cop-out. Any-slavery legislators in the nineteenth century did not retreat into personal opinion George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-46692857460322055862010-11-10T11:21:00.000-08:002010-11-10T11:29:56.581-08:00Health reform delay's price in human livesThe Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land stumbled over the heels of the exit polls to argue without foundation that in the mid-term elections, "American voters" demanded the Republicans "repeal ObamaCare."Land is wrong, as Dan at Bold Faith Type explained:Edison Research's exit polls - which are used by the Associated Press, CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox News - show that a minority of midterm George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-53335544772685543922010-11-05T11:01:00.000-07:002010-11-05T11:03:32.740-07:00Southern Baptist Sharron Angle (& others)Southern Baptist Sharron Angle misjudged the electorate in Nevada, and lost.Amanda Marcotte makes a coherent argument that Angle's Mama Grizzly racism is to some conservatives an unbearable contradiction of her femininity. A deal breaker:This contradiction exposed why it's so critical to the fundamentalist worldview that women stay at home and abandon ambition. In this world, women are supposed George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-34771857697487750372010-10-29T13:31:00.000-07:002010-10-30T04:21:54.010-07:00Associate pastor barred from church pending resolution of sexual misconduct chargesEmerald Baptist Church Associate Pastor and Minister of Music Norman Henley Keesee has been barred from church activities and the church grounds pending resolution of charges of sexual misconduct and lewd acts.Keesee, a Southern Baptist, was arrested by Greenwood, S.C., police after "the mother of a 13 year old girl and attendee of Emerald Baptist Church met with authorities to alert them to George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-78972120326278988352010-10-29T09:07:00.001-07:002010-10-29T09:07:58.801-07:00Scottish Catholics asked to come up with the cash, fastScottish Catholics asked to dig deep this weekend, apparently in part because Pope Benedict XVI attracted 30,000 fewer pilgrims than anticipated. They're being asked to come up with another £800,000 ($1.1 million). That's on the heels of £1.7 million they were asked to come up with prior to the visit.George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-17483793183794453992010-10-26T11:03:00.000-07:002010-10-26T11:03:14.355-07:00There is a price in Baptistland for defending those sexually abused by clergyThe passion of religious faith transmuted into meanness, explains Christa Brown:I never imagined a world of so much meanness until I stepped onto the terrain of Baptistland with pleas for clergy accountability and for care of abuse survivors.
Worst of all . . . it’s a malignant meanness that masks itself as religion.George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-55973643790990988582010-10-26T10:57:00.000-07:002010-10-26T10:57:01.089-07:00What N.C. Southern Baptist fundamentalists want in an editor?About the abrupt resignation of North Carolina Biblical Recorder Editor Norman Jameson John D. Pierce of Baptists Today writesIn 2000, Herb Hollinger retired from the helm of Baptist Press — the Southern Baptist Executive Committee public relations arm that masquerades as a legitimate news service. In a meeting shortly afterward, longtime editor of Louisiana's Baptist Message, Lynn Clayton, askedGeorge Frinknoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-66891571439306427212010-10-18T20:56:00.000-07:002010-10-18T21:12:05.498-07:00The Anglican Communion's women bishopsThe 28 women bishops in the Anglican Communion, reviewed by Ruthie Glendhill, religion correspondent for The Times of London.None in England.After the review, Glendhill interviews Christina Rees, who has campaigned for the ordination of women in the Anglican Church and is now the Chairperson of WATCH (Women and the Church), about "the prospects for women bishops in the Church of England after George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-27325171247818412222010-10-15T03:57:00.000-07:002010-10-15T07:49:23.457-07:00Texas Baptist 'Valleygate' lawsuit settledThe Valleygate lawsuit filed by the Rev. Otto Arango alleging libel and slander by the Baptist General Convention of Texas and others has been settled in mediation and without an admission of fault to or by Arago, according to confidential sources and documents we were provided.The overall terms of the settlement "are confidential."The burden of the settlement with Arango is shared, we were BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-71115432039870058802010-10-07T07:19:00.000-07:002010-10-27T09:13:37.123-07:00Caner hangs out his 'Islam Expert for Hire' shingleDitched amid uproar as dean of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary but (huh?) retained as a professor, Ergun Caner visited Bristol, Va., Friday to dismiss it all:We saw it (controversy) coming. My brothers and I have been dealing with it for years. This just happened to bounce big, and I paid no attention. News means little to me, and the Web is — well, bloggers for the most part — are just George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-59133514422520744962010-10-04T03:40:00.000-07:002010-10-04T03:40:22.404-07:00U.S. Air Force Academy & damage from the Christian conservative religious push into the militaryHow did the U.S. Air Force Academy come to be so "overrun with Christian conservative fanatics" that a coalition of civil rights and interfaith groups was driven to send a letter Tuesday to the Department of Defense.That letter detailed a startling cadet email and included "testimony from the parents of an academy graduate who believe their daughter was 'methodically brain washed' by a George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-586314631622984942010-10-03T13:30:00.000-07:002010-10-03T13:30:40.482-07:00A Fair(y) Use TaleGeorge Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-85676044518324396202010-10-03T10:56:00.000-07:002010-10-03T10:56:49.796-07:00Regarding Bishop Chaput and press bias against religionBishop Chaput and others don't want to hear it, and his first comment on this topic included unfortunate language, but Mark Silk is exactly right:I've spent the better part of two decades studying, writing about, and contributing to news coverage of religion. As in any other field of endeavor, there's the good, the bad, and the ugly. And that means the field can be cherry-picked to make a case George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-58847740803312937952010-10-02T03:56:00.000-07:002010-10-02T03:56:57.646-07:00Another military religious intimidation incidentFor refusing to attend a Christian band concert soldiers at Fort Eustis were reportedly confined to barracks.That was in August, not long after the Air Force Academy elected to keep secret its 2010 religious climate survey which apparently indicated the tensions which boiled over this week into allegations of conservative Christian intimidation.One writer found humor in the apparent decision of aGeorge Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-25969721982594408332010-10-01T20:01:00.000-07:002010-10-01T20:01:34.367-07:00Freedom of expressionThe Center for Inquiry had a Campaign for Free Expression contest:The Center for Inquiry is pleased to announce that Gregory Walsh and John Schmid of Maryland are the Grand Prize winners of its Campaign for Free Expression Video Contest, which asked contestants to submit short videos in the form of a public service announcement that addresses the importance of free expression.
They're all aboutGeorge Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-73821909946106441772010-10-01T18:30:00.000-07:002010-10-01T18:44:43.594-07:00YouTube video admonishes Eddie Long to 'tell the truth'Openly gay and bisexual Rev. Dennis A. Meredith, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Atlanta, has posted a YouTube video admonishing scandal besieged Lithonia Eddie Long to "tell the truth:" Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Shelia M. Poole wrote:The nearly four-minute video was posted on YouTube on Monday, the day after Long made his first public comments about the scandal in which four George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-56736509329667222652010-10-01T16:24:00.000-07:002010-10-01T21:06:50.512-07:00U.S. Air Force Academy cadets allege Christian conservative religious intimidation: Addendum
Air Force Academy Chapel
A U.S. Air Force Academy cadet has written in an email to Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) , warning that:
Mr. Weinstein, USAFA is literally overrun
with Christian conservative fanatics. And the leadership here either
knows this or is ridiculously blind to it. If any of us gave even the
slightest indication that we weren’t one of theirGeorge Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-56374416478764310812010-10-01T13:31:00.000-07:002010-10-01T13:31:37.792-07:00NPR: Church tackles sex abuse by Eddie Long and othersGarland's cross-denominational studyWhy predatory clergy flourishSexually abusive pastor profile and techniqueOn NPR, Baylor's Diana Garland, co-author of "How Sexual Misconduct Happens," and Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, clinical associate professor of Pastoral Studies at Catholic University, address how church tackles sex abuse by clergy.They address both the problem in general and the Eddie LongGeorge Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-11188242323982349752010-10-01T03:27:00.000-07:002010-10-01T03:28:43.930-07:00Christine O’Donnell’s fantasy satanismDelaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell told Bill Maher, "I dabbled into witchcraft," and added a couple of details which suggest that her story was made up for its sensationalistic appeal. Imagine that.Fred Clark writing at slactivist nails it down to the dubious sources:
That evidence -- her claim to have seen a "Satanic altar" with "a little blood there" -- is cribbed entirelyGeorge Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-84739346456648876622010-09-30T15:35:00.000-07:002010-09-30T15:36:38.801-07:00The Druid Network first pagan group recognized under UK's 2006 Charities ActThe Druid Network this week became the first pagan religion in the United Kingdom recogized under the 2006 British Charities Act.Their announcement says:The Druid Network received notification yesterday (24th September) that our application to be registered as a charity furthering the religion of Druidry has been finally accepted. This has been a long hard struggle taking over five years to George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-25725798157003306622010-09-30T11:27:00.000-07:002010-09-30T11:27:20.755-07:00Who's smarter than an atheist?Despite their claims to the contrary, neither Jimmy Akin of the National Catholic Register nor the staff of the Christian Science Monitor will help anyone answer that question.No. Neither makes the mistake of relying on a shorter Pew Forum quiz to arrive at the wrong answer. That quiz only has 15 questions and the instrument on which the study is based has 32.Yet both pieces use headlines which George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-5619508465212293062010-09-30T11:22:00.000-07:002010-09-30T11:22:27.199-07:00Eddie Long accuser Jamal Parris speaks (you decide)
Read the Parris lawsuit [.pdf].Sex encounters on church groundsGeorge Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-81656813264091150202010-09-19T07:21:00.000-07:002010-09-20T16:43:20.337-07:00Did NAMB president give short shrift to the welfare of his church's children?Refuse to testify and fail to warn your church's members about a sexual predator in their midst.That was newly elected Southern Baptist North American Mission Board President Kevin Ezell's reaction when in 2004 as pastor of Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, he learned that a volunteer at his church who had also taught at a school operated by his church [see addendum] was accused ofGeorge Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-32337927009455995472010-09-17T06:55:00.000-07:002010-09-19T03:54:54.435-07:00From housecoats to statesmanship at the NAMB?Kevin Ezell, who was on Sept. 14 appointed president of the Southern Baptist Convention's troubled North American Mission Board, along the way blasted bloggers who were critical of his selection:Typically those are bloggers who live with their mother and wear a housecoat during the day. Just ignore them, but I apologize if you are hurt by anything that they might say about me or indirectly about George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-47430707221869319532010-09-17T03:55:00.000-07:002010-09-17T03:55:00.387-07:00Church abuse survivors demand justiceHilary Whiteman of CNN reports:Sue Cox was 10 years old when she says she was raped by a priest in her family home on the eve of her Confirmation, a sacrament which signifies the cementing of bonds between baptised believers and the Church.The attack occurred in her bedroom while her family was downstairs. "I was mortified. I started to self-harm. I was ashamed and guilty," she said. Her mother George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-49196675552587183472010-09-17T03:23:00.000-07:002010-09-17T03:23:22.296-07:00Mural hits Catholic Church failure to ordain women priestsSt. John's, an Scottish Episcopal Church in Edenburgh, Scotland, has a tradition of murals which are an appeal to community conscience.On their Web site, they explain:Murals addressing contemporary issues relating to justice and peace have appeared at St John's for many years. They are intended to provoke discussion and a response from passers-by on Princes Street. The murals are painted by George Frinknoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-86699237805972115162010-09-16T15:53:00.000-07:002010-09-16T15:53:06.400-07:00Denominational secrecy is a pervasive 'insult to Southern Baptists'Norman Jameson, editor of North Carolina's Biblical Recorder, gets right to the point:Being a denominational journalist or any Baptist with a contrary opinion in the current era of Southern Baptist Convention upheaval sometimes feels a bit like a tick picker atop a rhino. It’s an important role, but the rhino is going to go where he will.And nowadays, he gets there in secret.His immediate concernGeorge Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-25341555375650224672010-09-15T02:27:00.000-07:002010-09-15T02:27:02.994-07:00Mid-Term elections come to Mayberry, N.C.Andy Griffith, beloved as sheriff of Mayberry, has been hit by mid-term elections health reform backlash:The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cMayberry WTFwww.thedailyshow.comDaily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorTea PartyGeorge Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-64847857928220217602010-09-13T15:25:00.000-07:002010-09-13T15:25:54.654-07:00'Dude you have no Qu'ran!' & nothing was burned in Amarillo:Watch the video here.George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-53061931599209378952010-09-13T06:57:00.000-07:002010-09-13T06:57:12.314-07:00Read 'The Scariest Verses in The Qu'ran'All the way to the bottom, read Tia Lynn's "The Scariest Verses in The Qu'ran!!!"[H/T: Mainstream Baptist]George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-25497479967646854082010-08-16T16:16:00.000-07:002010-08-16T16:16:54.240-07:00Supremes say the Orly Birther has to payThe U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Orly Taitz to pay the $20,000 fine for filing "frivolous" litigation.BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-24412597366758994662010-08-11T15:08:00.000-07:002010-08-11T15:09:49.730-07:00Benny Hinn says he had just a "friendship" with Paula WhiteSomewhat like his marriage, "the relationship is over," reports Charisma. But allegations of an affair were characterized by Hinn as, "a lie."Just knocks you over, doesn't it?BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-73601479095328964252010-08-03T10:47:00.000-07:002010-08-03T10:47:58.834-07:00The Benny Hinn knockdown matchEver theatrical and controversial, Benny Hinn flails away:BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-61229802820193063352010-07-23T13:09:00.000-07:002010-07-23T13:09:41.905-07:00Bad Universe (is out to get you)The Bad Astronomer, Philip Cary Plait, is hosting a new show on Discovery:George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-58367862357077994332010-07-23T07:29:00.000-07:002010-07-23T10:29:49.391-07:00Canberra Declaration announced & Manhattan begs for moneyAustralia's Canberra Declaration was announced today on the Parliament House lawn in Canberra at the Government of God Conference.It is apparently descended from the 2009 Manhattan Declaration in the U.S. and the 2010 Westminster Declaration in the U.K.Born into a country where Christianity is hardly ascendant and the prime minister is an atheist (not their first), it may be a less effective George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-87712273506844030832010-07-23T02:41:00.000-07:002010-07-23T02:41:34.944-07:00Celluloid pastor/priest Polanski set freeEfforts to extradite Roman Polanski apparently collapsed in a heap of miscommunication.George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-83084282030344405622010-07-23T02:23:00.000-07:002010-07-23T02:23:52.769-07:00Futile British appeal for women priests"Pope Benedict Ordain Women Now", a UK "group of women and men who care deeply about the Roman Catholic Church" called Catholic Women's Ordination will be shouting from London bus sides.It will appeal to deaf Vatican ears throughout September. We say deaf because, last Thursday the Vatican issued a declaration which among many other things said "the 'attempted ordination of a woman' to the George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-58132416599780980002010-07-22T18:34:00.000-07:002010-07-22T18:34:48.248-07:00Campaign for Free Expression video contestCenter for Inquiry Campign for Free Expression is running a
public service announcement video contest. The general idea is:There is a $2,000 prize.Here are the instructions and rules for entries, which must be submitted by Sept. 20.Don't be shy.George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-78676448229529647712010-07-02T04:12:00.000-07:002010-07-02T04:12:06.319-07:00Some South Carolina Baptists smeared themselvesSome South Carolina Baptists helped carry that "raghead" water which did not douse Nikki Haley's bid the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial nomination.George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-17447482640091126312010-07-01T09:13:00.000-07:002010-07-01T09:13:02.681-07:00Failing Newsweek opens a war on marriage?Soon to be radio showless but voice unlowered, Albert Mohler, dean of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, finds that besieged, failing and for-sale Newsweek has begun the culture war to end marriage. Just like that. Mohler wrote:The Newsweek article represents what may be the most direct journalistic attack on marriage in our times. Though only an op-ed column, it presents arguments that had George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-76703730841561515442010-07-01T08:30:00.000-07:002010-07-01T08:33:07.269-07:00Another price of clerical sexual abuseRoman Catholic author Peter Steinfels reminds us at dotCommonWeal that in his book, A People Adrift:I warned that the Catholic church in the U.S. faced “thoroughgoing transformation or irreversible decline.” Yes, the gates of hell will not prevail but that did not guarantee the church’s flourishing or even existence in any given time or place.He feels The Atlantic's Ross Douthat has made the George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-56898526760075153212010-07-01T04:22:00.000-07:002010-07-01T04:22:52.367-07:00How 'forgiveness' becomes cover-up for church sexual predatorsChrista Brown calls our attention to a story of a Southern Baptist church's negligence in dealing with a preacher's sexual abuse of his adopted children. She quotes from the Anchorage Daily News:Church officials knew the oldest daughter, Renee, was being abused long before Diana did. One of them, according to Renee's sworn testimony, told her to forgive her father and not tell anyone what he had George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-7826699104671529542010-06-30T04:59:00.000-07:002010-06-30T05:01:34.254-07:00Impetus for Belgian police raids on Catholic Church officesVatican outrage which greeted raids by Belgian police last week on church offices and a cathedral in the Archdiocese of Malines-Brussels was misplaced.Doreen Carvajal of the New York Times reports that they were the result of "a formal accusation that the church was hiding information on sexual abuse lodged by the former president of an internal church commission handling such cases."The Flemish George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-90059786067203510392010-06-29T11:12:00.000-07:002010-06-30T11:09:40.128-07:00Australia's atrophied religious right vs faithless Baptist PMAustralia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard is a "non-practicing Baptist [atheist]" who lives without benefit of matrimony with her male companion.Australians, it seems, are even less attentive to the blandishments of their religious right than voters in this country have become to the overstated suasions of the likes of Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land. As Joel Gibson wrote recently for George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-33681656884464856532010-06-29T07:50:00.000-07:002010-06-29T08:54:27.208-07:00Pope seeks (somewhat like Southern Baptists) 'renewed evangelization'The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is not alone in its quest for a Great Commission Resurgence, or something somewhat similar:Pope Benedict XVI announced he is establishing a pontifical council for new evangelization to find ways "to re-propose the perennial truth of the Gospel" in regions where secularism is smothering church practice. . . ."I have decided to create a new organism, in the George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-35013122203728689582010-06-29T03:56:00.000-07:002010-06-29T06:03:21.023-07:00Austrians would ordain married men and women as Catholic priestsA telephone survey of 500 Austrian parish priests found 79 per cent support allowing married men to be ordained, and 51 per cent think women should be allowed to become priests.Commissioned by ORF (Österreichischer Rundfunk: "Austrian Broadcasting"), 51 per cent said the Vatican does a poor job of handling sexual abuse cases.A survey earlier this month of 406 Austrian Catholic priests by George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-53390771410787827072010-06-28T19:42:00.000-07:002010-06-28T19:42:45.180-07:00How to make free-speech martyrs of atheists
Deface their billboards, again(?). This time on the Billy Graham Parkway in North Carolina.
William Warren of Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics was civil in his response. According to the Charlotte Observer:
He said his group considered the vandalism an isolated act and not indicative of Charlotte’s religious community.It would be ironic if Christians were found to be responsible for the vandalismGeorge Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-21490643028773163352010-06-28T18:13:00.000-07:002010-06-28T18:13:47.141-07:00Re Belgium, the pope has lit some firesOther fires were lit by incandescent papal response to Thursday's daylong Belgian police raids.Mark Silk saw evidence that "the wheels are coming off the popemobile," while groups representing those abused by Catholic clergy were themselves outraged.Neither was quite as blunt as Fr. Rik Deville, 65, interviewed by the Italian newspaper La Stampa interviewed Devillèon June 27. He was, for example,George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-15416062771786208372010-06-28T13:20:00.000-07:002010-06-28T13:20:42.751-07:00Subsidy, not faith, is the issue in HastingsThe Christian Legal Society can still require voting members to sign a statement of faith in which they disavow "unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle." Thus effectively banning avowed homosexuals from becoming voting members.The Supreme Court has ruled 5-4, however, that the University of California's Hastings College of Law has every right to continue to deny George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-19056292701265986392010-06-26T00:09:00.000-07:002010-06-26T04:23:53.703-07:00Oops? Again? In the case of FBC Jax WatchdogOops is in a way how FBC Jax Watchdog was robbed of his anonymity.Formerly anonymous blogger Thomas A. Rich's identity was made public after an unnecessary investigation whose details are still being unearthed in court.Although some evidence pertaining to the involvement of Florida State Attorney Angela Corey was somehow inadvertently destroyed.Really, and that destruction is cited as part of an George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-7610755011094527232010-06-25T19:40:00.000-07:002010-06-25T20:38:28.862-07:00Huh? Caner out as dean, still a professor
Liberty University decided to end one contract with Ergun Caner because of his "self-contradictory" statements, and offer him another.
Liberty announced June 25 that Caner would not be dean of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary after June 30, according to a report in the Lynchburg News and Advance. Whereupon the school offered to let him stay on the faculty, and he accepted.
The university'sSteveDeVanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12833741319331982952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-4303157101625246982010-06-23T08:25:00.000-07:002010-06-23T14:46:08.137-07:00Catholic News Agency blistered for journalistic malpractice [Addendum]USCCB [US Council of Catholic Bishops] Media Blog called out the right-leaning Catholic News Agency this week for "fabrication."Bold Faith Type deftly summarizes:Helen Osman, the Secretary for Communications at the bishops' conference, writes in the USCCB blog that the Catholic News Agency simply "cobbled together its own fabrication of the session." Osman, who attended the executive session George Frinknoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-13441290252768422022010-06-23T06:12:00.000-07:002010-06-23T06:14:55.412-07:00When is 'Creation Science' most clearly not science?When someone is attempting to award a degree in it, a Texas federal district court would appear to have ruled. Howard M. Friedman at Religion Clause writes:In Institute for Creation Research Graduate School v. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, (WD TX, June 18, 2010), a Texas federal district court upheld the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's refusal to grant the Institute of George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-56904336891122316722010-06-23T05:05:00.000-07:002010-06-23T05:05:41.530-07:00Creation Care or doomsday?Wake up with a bracing mug of Creation Care via Rejuvenate magazine's interview with Southern Baptist John Meritt, and then chow down on esteemed Australian microbiologist Frank Fenner's prediction of our collective extinction from "overpopulation, environmental destruction and climate change."Fenner, 95, has won awards for his work in helping eradicate the variola virus that causes smallpox, andGeorge Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-63836236930081197792010-06-21T21:40:00.001-07:002010-06-21T21:40:16.075-07:00Ted Haggard's predictive tweets and retrospective denialsTed Haggard has come to twitter and gently predicted the end of the religious right.There is a link to his Web site, which includes a surprising Healing Overview.Don't expect a therapeutic guide.It's a sanitized version of his sexual history at New Light Baptist Church in which he acknowledges one contact with gay escort Mike Jones and effectively denies there was anything else.George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-64445753109648409442010-06-21T12:42:00.000-07:002010-06-21T21:17:33.430-07:00Scientology founder's view of womenL. Ron Hubbard's take on women has been edited out of the reprint of Scientology: A New Slant on Life. No doubt Nevada GOP Senate nominee Sharron Angle knew nothing about it when she pushed a Scientology-endorsed prison rehabilitation program.From the Village Voice, we see that Hubbard wrote:A society in which women are taught anything but the management of a family, the care of men, and the George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-80022584149492550562010-06-17T12:27:00.000-07:002010-06-17T12:27:54.075-07:00Signed, sealed, unsent, undelivered"We have nothing to hide." That's what then Southern Baptist Convention president Johnny Hunt said in June 2009 about the not yet formed Great Commission Resurgence Task Force. He made the statement to editors from four state Baptist newspapers, according to Baptist Press. Hunt said the group would be as open and transparent as possible. "I would be real open to say that we look forward to every SteveDeVanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12833741319331982952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-3988664453576184292010-06-16T19:05:00.000-07:002010-06-16T19:09:17.935-07:00McKissic's racism motion referred to committeeTexas pastor Dwight McKissic's much-anticipated motion to disfellowship churches which condone racism was referred to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee.Such referrals standard process, the Arkansas Baptist news reported:Committee on Order of Business Chairman Jonathan Whitehead of Missouri, expressed agreement for the intent of the motion, but suggested the need to refer BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-2110568013194945672010-06-16T12:00:00.000-07:002010-06-16T12:00:10.209-07:00What IMB message did the SBC messengers stay away from in droves on Wednesday?Jerry Rankin, president of the International Mission Board, told the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) on June 15:...there are 11,000-plus distinct, ethnic people groups in the world, and more than 6,400 of those are still unreached with less than 2 percent of them who have heard the gospel. ... [and] after sending out more than 900 new missionaries in 2008 and reaching a record level of 5,624 BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-39599201819790401092010-06-16T08:01:00.000-07:002010-06-16T08:01:00.895-07:00More of the SBC same on clerical sexual predatorsSouthern Baptist Convention (SBC) heavies who gracelessly dragged their feet on acknowledging Frank Page's selection as president of the SBC Executive Committee seem unlikely to have been concerned about his castigation of the victims of Southern Baptist clergy sex abuse.It is after all the SBC which rejected a proposal to create a central database of staff and clergy who have been either BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-45516879353764347462010-06-16T06:34:00.000-07:002010-06-16T06:34:22.612-07:00Ghosts of SBC liberals past scare up GCR approvalTwice during Southern Baptist Commission (SBC) adoption of the "Great Commission Resurgence" Task Force report, messengers demonstrated that it was more an SBC throwback than a bold change of direction. First, toward the end of debate on the report when discussion had dragged on for hours and the outcome seemed in doubt, former SBC president James Merritt rose to rally support. Merritt argued SteveDeVanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12833741319331982952noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-85023143366844886912010-06-13T20:06:00.000-07:002010-06-13T23:46:15.166-07:00GCR passage won't change SBCEven if the "Great Commission Resurgence" Task Force proposals are adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting this week, there will be no "resurgence."The overall effort will fail because the required change isn't on the agenda and if it were, could not be implemented by a vote of the messengers.The report says SBC churches "need a new missional vision." No one will argue SteveDeVanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12833741319331982952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-81543267274438845362010-06-12T08:59:00.000-07:002010-06-12T09:01:23.234-07:00Richard Land's misanalysis of the Deepwater Horizon catastropheRichard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a drummer in the right-wing parade of blame for the Deepwater Horizon oil catastrophe. Blame is directed at "the environmental movement" and the Obama administration, while British Petroleum is treated gently.Brian Kaylor, contributing editor at Ethics Daily, writes:Richard Land, head of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-50120115203413700642010-06-11T09:57:00.000-07:002010-06-11T10:02:14.718-07:00Send records of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force deliberations to WikiLeaksControversy over the decision to seal for 15 years the record of deliberations by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Great Commission Resurgence Task Force is easily stilled. One person with access need only provide the complete record to WikiLeaks.Before the SBC meets in Orlando, Fla.Thereafter, assuming WikiLeaks can be prompted to republish with suitable dispatch, everyone who is so BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-12190050861893045642010-06-08T10:34:00.000-07:002010-06-08T10:34:00.170-07:00NRCAT video against torture/experimentationThe National Religious Campaign Against Torture video on torture/experimentation contains decidedly graphic and disturbing imagery:BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-61928820334832480272010-06-08T08:16:00.000-07:002010-06-08T08:19:30.378-07:00Disregard for the Nuremberg CodeTorture is a moral issue, argues the National Religious Campaign against Torture. It has come back home again in a corruption of medical practice and scientific research, as the Physicians for Human Rights materials demonstrate.Meredith Wadman of Nature writes:According to Nancy Berlinger, a research scholar who studies clinical ethics at The Hastings Center in Garrison, New York, the report is BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-61197999138059096672010-06-08T03:24:00.000-07:002010-06-08T03:39:11.295-07:00SBC's Richard Land et al. unhappy about gay immigration partnersUnsurprisingly certain evangelicals reject gay partners in immigration bill.Southern Baptist Convention Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission czar Richard Land joined Liberty Counsel Chairman Mathew Staver and at best a handful of other Religious Right leaders in signing a statement of opposition to the proposal by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.Although the National Evangelical Association, "which BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-70098424006177477092010-06-04T15:32:00.000-07:002010-06-04T15:32:20.043-07:00Alliance of Baptists call for repeal of DADTThe Alliance of Baptists, "a growing denominational movement of progressive Christians" organized in 1987 as the Southern Baptist Convention continued to veer to the right, has endorsed the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT)The letter to the Comprehensive Review Working Group, written by Minister for Leadership Formation Chris Copeland, says in part:The Alliance of Baptists supports the BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-9866493792946707412010-06-03T08:41:00.000-07:002010-06-03T08:45:34.686-07:00What ever happened to the Hutaree Christian militia?Four of the nine arrested in March have been released on bail and on Wednesday, additional gun charges were filed against four.Reuters James B. Kelleher and Cynthia Osterman reported:The indictment originally unsealed in late March accused the nine, members of a midwestern militia group called the Hutaree, of planning to kill a police officer in Michigan and then ambush the funeral procession BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-51308446843499663072010-06-03T07:20:00.000-07:002010-06-03T07:20:00.317-07:00Commonweal explains the hardline error of U.S. Roman Catholic bishopsThe independent,lay Catholic journal Commonweal in an editorial, A Pattern of Missteps, writes:Instead of addressing the legitimate concerns of those who oppose the church’s teaching on abortion—such as concerns for the health of women—American bishops too often seem to fear that any acknowledgment of the complexity of this issue would weaken their own position. And instead of speaking from the BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-5173214228008948042010-06-03T05:51:00.000-07:002010-06-03T05:54:45.323-07:00USDA forecasts our current plagues may be followed by hopping insectsAlex Wild writes at his blog, MyrmecosWith plumes of crude oil destroying the Gulf of Mexico, tensions rising in the middle east, a severe hurricane season reving up in the Atlantic, and the earth opening up and just plain swallowing parts of Guatemala City whole, what else could possibly go wrong?Yes, a plague, of grasshoppers (locusts are short-horned grasshoppers). Next?BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-14694518401446287852010-06-03T04:45:00.000-07:002010-06-03T04:50:36.407-07:00Medieval Catholic Southern Baptists?At Ethics Daily Robert Parham celebrates Baptist historians, among them E. Glenn Hinson, once of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Parham reminds us that in 1980 amid the gathering fundamentalist storm, Hinson "took on Bailey Smith, the Southern Baptist fundamentalist, who said in 1980 that 'God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew.'"Hinson told FaithLab in an interview:I made five BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-86198833619244186352010-06-02T20:33:00.000-07:002010-06-02T20:33:52.431-07:00Haggard re 'homosexual issues' about his 'church'Candace Chellew-Hodge, associate pastor at Garden of Grace United Church of Christ in Columbia, S.C., blistered the formerly homosexual Rev. Ted Haggard for hypocrisy after Haggard said that at his new church he would "'encourage' members to strive towards the ideal of biblical heterosexuality and monogamy."She wrote:It’s disappointing when you realize the lesson [of his period of being widely BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-31078199889018538442010-06-02T19:42:00.000-07:002010-06-02T19:42:25.874-07:00Roman Catholic Church's flawed team Ireland lineupCardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston's appointment to head the apostolic visitation to deal with the Roman Catholic child abuse catastrophe in Dublin was for good reason not universally cheered:BishopAccountability.org, a Waltham-based organization that tracks abuse cases, was also critical, saying, "O’Malley’s career ascent has been fueled by his ability to walk into dioceses wracked by horrible BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-36029145901559371232010-05-31T06:49:00.000-07:002010-05-31T06:49:27.768-07:00"Dozens of priests' mistresses" call for abolition of celibacyHow did dozens of priests' mistresses "happen to meet?" asked @ebertchicago [Roger Ebert].Stefania Salomone, an Italian woman who signed the widely publicized open letter [English] [Italian] to Pope Benedict XVI calling for an end to the Roman Catholic Church's priestly celibacy, is part of a Web discussion for women who are in relationships with priests. Yet she remains the only public signatoryGeorge Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-35964046790601020562010-05-28T14:00:00.000-07:002010-05-28T15:12:55.860-07:00Part of the DADT debate's impactNeither misleading headlines nor contrived statistics nor false appeals to religious liberty could stop legislative progress toward repeal of Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell. [Update: CNN]Equally important in the long run, even the most cunning attempts to mislead -- like those to which Tony Cartledge, Nick at Bold Faith Type and Mark Silk responded -- have a cumulative self-discrediting quality.George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-91721459251493596822010-05-27T09:29:00.000-07:002010-05-27T09:29:43.966-07:00'Sheriff: Former camp director facing sex charges kills himself 'Former director of a Southern Baptist summer youth camp, the Cale Retreat and Conference Center in Hertford, N.C., Stephen Wayne Carter, apparently committed suicide Monday night. Perquimans County Sheriff Eric Tilley said Carter was found in Virginia Beach, Va., where he owned property.Facing felony sex offense charges with regard to three different victims, Carter was free on "$80,000 bond on George Frinknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-36236070963458943332010-05-20T07:22:00.000-07:002010-05-20T07:22:16.043-07:00Media coverage heightens pressure on Liberty's Ergun CanerAccusations that Ergun Caner fabricated parts of his background hit newspapers across the country this week increasing the likelihood that the president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary will have to resign. For months, Liberty University administrators stood by Caner as bloggers questioned statements he made about his background. Then newspaper reporters started calling, and last week SteveDeVanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12833741319331982952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-54289126048867781442010-05-18T19:38:00.000-07:002010-05-19T04:48:51.220-07:00WWJD for a declining denomination?A Southern Baptist researcher asks the right questions, but not enough of them.Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, looks at the "ongoing decline" in Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) membership. He says a loss of 68,350 members in 2009 and statistics from other recent years shows that SBC membership has peaked, and suggests that Southern Baptists react with questions like the one posed in SteveDeVanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12833741319331982952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-88302475181904986372010-05-18T03:47:00.000-07:002010-05-18T03:47:55.038-07:00Laura Silsby convicted/sentenced to time served/releasedIdaho Southern Baptist Laura Silsby was released after being found guilty of child smuggling by a Haitian court on May 17. BBC news reported:A US missionary has been convicted of trying to illegally take 33 children out of Haiti in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in January.The judge sentenced Laura Silsby, 40, to the time she had already spent in jail on remand, and said she was free BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-73050951636374778482010-05-14T20:47:00.000-07:002010-05-14T20:47:12.499-07:00"Glenn Beck's Nazi Tourette's"Comic Lewis Black comes to us via Cathleen Kaveny at dotCommonweal, who calls this one "Glenn Beck’s Nazi Tourette’s:"The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Back in Black - Glenn Beck's Nazi Tourette'swww.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorTea PartyBaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-56614692344925537722010-05-14T16:19:00.000-07:002010-05-15T09:19:21.190-07:00Former Southern Baptist youth pastor gets 17 years for assaultThe former Southern Baptist youth pastor at Seaford Baptist Church, Jeremy "Jack" Duffer, 40, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for sexually assaulting two girls. The Virginia Gazette reported:The charges stem from incidents in 2008 and 2009 involving two 15-year-old girls. Duffer was arrested last August after the parents of one of the girls contacted the Sheriff's Office after discovering an BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-27760170318956736242010-05-14T15:12:00.000-07:002010-05-14T15:12:30.917-07:00“For the First Time in My Environmental Career, I’m Using the Word ‘Hopeless’”Melissa Lafsky writes:This video was taken by John Wathen, an environmentalist from Alabama also known as the Hurricane Creekkeeper. The images, and his informative yet devastating narration, give some visual sense of just how bad the situation in the Gulf has become. For more of Wathen’s coverage, check out his blog, BPoilslick.blogspot.com.[H/T: A Blog Around the Clock]BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-82082660498371190602010-05-14T14:27:00.000-07:002010-05-14T14:28:29.083-07:00Underwater video footage of the Gulf oil leakUgly and "considerable pressure" was required to persuade BP to release even this brief video:BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-57862554635179378962010-05-14T12:39:00.000-07:002010-05-14T12:39:52.561-07:00Britain's 'Christian' political parties. . . are marginalized by political incompetence.BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-68127058024442840472010-05-14T11:37:00.000-07:002010-05-14T11:37:56.598-07:00Pastors smeared for telling the First Amendment truthThere is a price in smear to taking a stand against revisionist history, as a group of moderate to liberal clergy - members of the Texas Faith Network - did recently.Jonathan Saenz, , a lawyer/lobbyist for Liberty Institute (the Texas affiliate of the far-right Focus on the Family), quickly accused the group had used their press conference "to personally attack the Christian faith of some State BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-16675859747805681102010-05-14T07:01:00.000-07:002010-05-14T07:58:49.214-07:00That anti-poor people lottery feedback loop: AddendumSome truths do endure. Since 1890, the Southern Baptist Convention has formally expressed its opposition to legalized gambling, and there is experimental evidence that the SBC position is the right and fair one. Jonah Lehrer writes at The Frontal Cortext:A new study by Emily Haisley, Romel Mostafa and George Loewenstein explored some of the reasons why low-income people spend so much money on a BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-50332320965174777522010-05-14T06:04:00.000-07:002010-05-14T16:11:34.367-07:00The Southern Baptist Convention of 'liars and embellishers'Wade Burleson writes in blistering assessment of Southern Baptist Convention pastors' fake doctorates. The key passage:Southern Baptist pastors seem infatuated with the title "Dr," even to the extent of asking others to use it of them before they've earned it. Take a gander at the Pastors' Conference line-up. Does every single speaker really have an earned doctorate? It would be inappropriate forBaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-70362541276337668402010-05-14T05:08:00.000-07:002010-05-14T14:14:01.884-07:00Ted Haggard incorporates (again)Ted Haggard actually started his new church in November. Last week's incorporation was just another step for the man who left his last big church amid scandal and left behind a hush money agreement.Why incorporate now? He told the Colorado Springs Gazette that it's about the money. That is:. . . St. James was incorporated “to keep the accounting in order” of the paid talks they’ve given for aboutBaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-14031428224629433952010-05-14T04:03:00.000-07:002010-05-14T04:03:15.913-07:00ClimateGate swings back (flog whom?)ClimateGate debunked? Over and over again:BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-67904295299932190332010-05-13T17:44:00.000-07:002010-05-13T17:44:09.798-07:00Laura Bush vs Pope Benedict XVI on gay marriageFormer First Lady Laura Bush said "yes" to gay marriage:Pope Benedict XVI in his visit to a famous Portuguese shrine to the Virgin Mary denounced gay marriage:In a speech here to Catholic social service groups, Benedict called for initiatives aimed at protecting “the family based on the indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman, help to respond to some of today’s most insidious and BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-62060109211583024302010-05-13T15:24:00.000-07:002010-05-13T15:24:38.840-07:00Jail for Laura SilsbyUSA Today reports that on the first day of trial, the Haitian prosecutor recommends six months in jail:Prosecutor Sonel Jean-Francois told a Port-au-Prince court today that Silsby knew she had broken Haitian law. She and nine other Baptist missionaries were charged initially with kidnapping after being stopped on their way to the Dominican Republic, where she planned to open an orphanage. The BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-65724574703395603272010-05-13T15:13:00.000-07:002010-05-13T15:32:54.138-07:00Fleeing Rekers is no substitute for honest reassessmentGeorge A. Rekers' ongoing RentBoy uproar has called renewed attention to his role as a source of validation for Southern Baptist Convention positions on the family.Without actually disavowing his pseudoscience or explaining themselves, several other institutions and organizations which have formerly cited him as an authority or honored ally, have turned and run:The Campus Crusade for Christ has BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-35016277676748227352010-05-12T06:54:00.000-07:002010-05-12T07:17:44.516-07:00Media inquiries prompt Liberty to investigate CanerLiberty University officials will investigate allegations that the president of the school's seminary fabricated much of his life history, a decision they say they made only after members of the "mainstream media" inquired (not, alas, Wade Burleson, FBC Jax Watchdog and/or other bloggers). Ergun Caner, the president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, faces questions regarding discrepancies SteveDeVanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12833741319331982952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-84938568882636262762010-05-12T06:16:00.000-07:002010-05-12T06:21:53.122-07:00Megachurch starter kit "Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.[H/T: Andrew Yeager-Buckley]BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-70148084148198458782010-05-11T15:11:00.000-07:002010-05-12T14:11:26.255-07:00Stupak reflects on the misuse of abortion against health reformRep. Bart Stupak explains in Newsweek his disappointment over the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' reaction when he asked their support for "an executive order confirming that no federal money would support abortion:"No, no, no, no, they said. We need statutory law. But an executive order can have the full force of law, I said. Lincoln used one to free the slaves. George W. Bush used one to BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8665392018405310505.post-60684073378827775322010-05-11T10:55:00.000-07:002010-05-11T10:56:21.545-07:00Stolen 'Mojave Cross' was subject of Supreme Court caseLess than two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it could stay, "the 8-foot-high cross at Mojave National Preserve" was torn down and hauled away.Leo Shane III of Stars and Stripes wrote:The cross, which has stood in various forms for the last 76 years as a memorial to World War I soldiers, was stolen late Sunday night or early Monday morning, according to officials from the Liberty BaptistPlanetnoreply@blogger.com0