Abortions, SOC, Missouri Baptists in the news
Planned Parenthood, America’s largest provider of abortions, has released some sad statistics:
• Planned Parenthood clinics conducted 264,943 abortions in 2005, a three percent increase over 2004.
• The organization admitted to selling 1.2 million “emergency” birth control kits in 2005, nearly 27 percent more than in 2004.
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It is happening in Illinois, but not here thanks to Gov. Matt Blunt and the General Assembly.
The Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health (ICAH), one of the state’s leading advocates of “comprehensive” sex education, hosted an adults-only fundraiser last month in Chicago featuring a “neo-burlesque performance” by former Miss Exotic World Michelle L’amour, a stripper. Along with Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area, ICAH is part of the Illinois Campaign for Responsible Sex Education, a coalition whose goal is to strip all funding of abstinence education for Illinois schools and instead require them to use condom-based sex education programs.
This is the direction Missouri sex education was headed in our public schools largely under the auspices of Planned Parenthood, America’s largest provider of abortions – that is until the state legislature and governor acted. The legislature passed a bill that prevents groups like Planned Parenthood from teaching such un-scriptural sex education in Missouri public schools. The governor has announced he will sign it into law soon and it should go into effect sometime in August.
The fundraiser by ICAH should not come as a surprise. Last year they held a similar event at the Headquarters of Playboy Enterprises that featured a VIP reception hosted by Chief Executive Officer Christie Hefner, daughter of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.
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I was surprised to see an email from Webster County Baptist Association Director of Missions (DOM) John Shuler to pastors and directors of missions suggesting that a discussion might be helpful concerning the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) perhaps withdrawing its legal actions against the five breakaway agencies. Shuler said the issue may be worth addressing in the email inviting people to the Save Our Convention (SOC) meeting in Marshfield June 25. To SOC’s credit, the issue did not surface. I understand people are in disagreement over the legal action by the MBC and I respect their opinions, but an overwhelming majority of Missouri Southern Baptists have made it clear how they feel.
MBC messengers in convention assembled have the final word. They have consistently and overwhelmingly affirmed the legal action against “The Breakaway Five” and there is no indication their minds are changing. In fact, the MBC now has a much sought-after trial date for its action against the Windermere trustees (Oct. 12) and it is possible we will have a verdict before messengers gather for the MBC’s annual meeting at Tan-Tar-A Oct. 29-31.
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Missouri Southern Baptists are getting their share of time in the national spotlight. Four, Interim Executive Director David Tolliver, Darrin Patrick, pastor of The Journey in St. Louis, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Professor Mark DeVine and Michael Knight, MBC Executive Board and pastor, First Baptist Church, Viburnum, were featured in a recent article published June 29 by Christianity Today.com. A fifth, Kerry Messer, lobbyist for the MBC’s Christian Life Commission and a member of First Baptist Church, Festus-Crystal City, was prominent in an article about pro-life legislation being passed in Missouri in the July 15 issue of WORLD magazine (see page 16).
The Christianity Today article dealt with the MBC providing a $200,000 loan to The Journey, which has a controversial outreach ministry at a brewery called “Theology at the Bottleworks.”
“Theology at the Bottleworks was started to reach people who are actively opposed to Christianity, by discussing contemporary cultural issues in a neutral environment,” Patrick told the magazine, adding that The Journey adheres to the same theological confessions as the MBC – the Baptist Faith & Message 2000.
Tolliver said the outreach caught the MBC off guard. “We need to engage the culture, but without compromising our biblical, traditional Baptist values. For me,” Tolliver said, “that includes abstinence from alcohol.”
The article also quoted DeVine who sees the MBC’s concern about mixing alcohol and evangelism as part of a struggle between traditional churches and new “emerging” churches. The article also notes that Michael Knight, chairman of the board’s ad hoc Theological Review Committee, may propose that the MBC sever all contact, financial and otherwise, with Acts 29, a church planting network tied to the emerging church movement. It has been estimated that about 25 percent of Acts 29 church plants are by Southern Baptist church planters.