DALLAS (BP) -- Messengers to the 2018 Southern Baptist Convention affirmed the dignity and worth of women, denounced all forms of abuse and called for sexual purity among Christian leaders in adopting 16 resolutions Tuesday (June 12). Passage of the resolutions on women, abuse and pastoral purity by nearly unanimous votes late in the afternoon session came after months of disclosures of sexual abuse and misconduct by male leaders had rocked Southern Baptist and other evangelical … [Read more...]
Sex abuse news ‘wake-up call’ for pastors, ERLC panel says
DALLAS (BP) -- The revelations of sexual abuse of women and mishandling of it by Christian leaders offer a "divine opportunity" for the Southern Baptist Convention and its pastors to take a stand, attendees were told at a Monday evening (June 11) panel discussion sponsored by the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. The event -- "Gospel Sexuality in a #MeToo Culture" -- was held on the eve of the SBC's annual meeting in Dallas and followed months of revelations of sexual … [Read more...]
Overcoming prejudicial blind spots
I have one great-niece in our family of only 10. So, we’re tighter than a bug in a rug. Tightness aside, it is my three-year-old great-niece, Tynslee, that is “the star of the Hinkle show.” When I think about Tynslee, Psalm 127:3 comes to mind, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord and the fruit of the womb is His reward.” The term “reward” is so appropriate for Tynslee. She is gorgeous, smart and vivacious like any energic three-year-old Miss America. She can sing like an … [Read more...]
MBCH pleads for house parents
BRIDGETON – In the first quarter of 2018, a dozen families have been reunified that would not have had the chance if not through the work of the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home. In addition to those reunifications, trustees at the April 24 board meeting here heard the MBCH’s Children and Family Ministries (CFM) facilitated six guardianships and 12 adoptions. Russell Martin, president of the MBCH begged for prayers that God would call 10-15 couples to serve as house parents at group … [Read more...]
Army chaplain fights charge of unlawful discrimination
WASHINGTON (BP) – Southern Baptist chaplain Jerry Scott Squires is fighting a U.S. Army investigator’s charge of unlawful discrimination for refusing to preside over a marriage retreat including same-sex couples. But Squires followed federal law and Army and Southern Baptist Convention chaplaincy protocol when he rescheduled a Feb. 9 Strong Bonds marriage retreat in order to involve a non-SBC chaplain, thereby accommodating the attendance of a lesbian couple, First Liberty Institute said … [Read more...]
No end in sight for battle over religious freedom
Conflict over religious freedom will continue for future generations of Missourians. Many observers feel the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision in 2015 that legalized same-sex “marriage,” repeated the mistake it made with Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion. Rather than let the people sort through the issue, the high court – like a blunt instrument – cutoff public debate, triggering yet another decades-long struggle – this time over religious freedom. In the last decade … [Read more...]
Abstinence ed could benefit from HHS tweaks
WASHINGTON (BP) -- Tweaks to a federal grant program that allots $260 million to family planning, mostly for lower-income Americans, have drawn praise from advocates of abstinence-based sex education and criticism from Planned Parenthood. Among the tweaks at issue, this year's grant announcement for Title X Family Planning Services Grants encourages applicants to consider informing teens of the "benefits of delaying sex." Another change this year by the U.S. Department of Health and … [Read more...]
How to handle ‘bossy’ kids
“Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.” Acts 3:17 Some kids are just bossy! They seem to be always barking out orders to those around them. It can be annoying! What is behind this behavior? What are they trying to accomplish? What should we do about it? At one time education students were taught that children were born like a blank page, and what they became depended on their environment. Thankfully, now we know better. Children are born … [Read more...]
Sweden 1st to offer payouts to sterilized transsexuals
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (BP) -- Transgender Swedes forcibly sterilized to expressly prevent reproduction are eligible for payouts of about $27,000 each under a new law that is reportedly the first of its kind worldwide. Sweden's one-house parliament, the Riksdag, adopted the legislation March 21 affecting people forced to undergo sexual sterilization under the Gender Recognition Act of 1972 before changing their gender designation on legal documents. "People who applied to change their … [Read more...]
Federal court: Do not enforce ‘contraceptive mandate’
DALLAS (GuideStone) – An Oklahoma federal court issued a permanent injunction March 15, prohibiting the federal government from enforcing the contraceptive mandate issued by the Obama Administration in 2013. The mandate, issued under the Affordable Care Act, would have forced certain ministries to provide abortion-causing drugs or devices or face potentially crippling fines. The permanent injunction protects the plaintiffs in the case — Reaching Souls International, an Oklahoma … [Read more...]
Baptist lawyer urges Mo Supreme Court to uphold law respecting student privacy
JEFFERSON CITY – Southern Baptist attorney Jonathan R. Whitehead filed a friend-of-the-court brief March 26 with the Missouri Supreme Court in support of a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit against Blue Springs R-IV School District that would have authorized a girl identifying as a boy to use the boys’ locker rooms and restrooms at the high school, in disregard of the privacy rights of other students. Whitehead filed the brief on behalf of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a public … [Read more...]
Religious liberty ruled no basis for transgender policy
CINCINNATI (BP) -- Religious freedom provides no legal basis to discipline transgender workers who violate workplace gender policies, a U.S. appeals court has ruled in a groundbreaking decision. The March 7 decision is the first to extend Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 to transgender individuals charging discrimination based on sexual identity, and reverses a lower court ruling that had protected the workplace under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act … [Read more...]
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