Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835
By Bob Smietana
Baptist Press
NASHVILLE — Americans apparently don’t know much about theology, according to a study released Sept. 28. Most say God wrote the Bible. But they’re not sure everything in it is true.
Six in 10 say everyone eventually goes to heaven, but half say only those who believe in Jesus will be saved. And while 7 in 10 say there’s only one true God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — two-thirds say God accepts worship of all faiths. [Read more…]
Mike Ebert
Executive Dir. of Public Relations, NAMB
“What could God do with the North American Mission Board? What could God do with the Southern Baptist Convention if we would realize that the primary thing we are to do before we do anything else is pray?” SBC President Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn., challenged North American Mission Board trustees as they met in Denver Oct. 4-5. Photo by Hayley Catt/NAMB
DENVER (BP) — Set against a backdrop of freshly snow-capped mountains on the front range of Colorado’s Rockies, North American Mission Board trustees saw firsthand how Southern Baptist church planters are countering spiritual darkness in the midst of a recreational paradise.
On the Monday before their Oct. 4-5 meeting, trustees loaded onto buses to visit church planters at their places of ministry. One, Kevin Hasenack, is planting Calvary Church Denver in one of the most diverse communities in the area. [Read more…]
Baptist Press
NASHVILLE — The Executive Committee has voted to update its media policy, prompted by the proliferation and ease of use of social media.
In addition to news media, the policy now encompasses any individuals in attendance at EC meetings, including Executive Committee members themselves.
The new policy received a unanimous vote Sept. 20 during the EC’s two-day meeting in Nashville. [Read more…]
Baptist Press
NASHVILLE — When the U.S. government relinquishes control of a nonprofit organization that oversees Internet domain names, a California Baptist University software engineering professor says, the potential for religious liberty violations could increase.
Since 1998, the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has coordinated and administered Internet domain names, with oversight from the U.S. Department of Commerce. But as of Oct. 1, when the government’s contract expires, ICANN will be governed entirely by an independent board — a move that has been decried by some commentators as dangerous and dismissed by others as innocuous. [Read more…]
Baptist Press
NASHVILLE — An 8-year-old girl who lives as a transgender boy appeared on the Sept. 28 episode of ABC’s “Modern Family,” portraying a transgender friend of Lily, the daughter of the show’s leading gay couple, the series’ director has announced.
Modern Family director Ryan Case identified the show’s first openly transgender actor on Twitter, saying, “He’s 8 years old, from Atlanta, and just happens to be transgender. He plays Lily’s friend Tom in this week’s Modern Family.”
Jeff Johnston, issues analyst for the marriage and parenting group Focus on the Family (FOTF), told Baptist Press the episode would likely confuse children. [Read more…]
By David Roach
Baptist Press
Photo courtesy of Charlotte Convention Center
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Amid controversy over North Carolina’s controversial transgender restroom law, Southern Baptist Convention leaders estimate they’re less than two weeks away from finalizing contracts to hold the 2023 SBC annual meeting in Charlotte.
And they say they’re glad to support the state for its moral stand on gender and sexuality. [Read more…]
Baptist Press
Students at Knoch High School in Saxonburg, Pa., posted this photo on Facebook of their Sept. 28 See You At the Pole prayer event.
Facebook photo/Ignition
NASHVILLE — An estimated million or more students in the U.S. and 63 foreign countries publicly gathered around school flagpoles Sept. 28 and prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The annual See You At the Pole (SYATP) interdenominational Christian outreach was augmented this year with the launch of the I Am Hope outreach leading up to the Oct. 21 release of the film “I’m Not Ashamed.” [Read more…]
By Jeff Brumley
Associated Baptist Press
The news just never seems to get better for American churches.
A poll released this month confirms statistically what clergy and congregations are hearing anecdotally and through the media practically all the time: the percentage of U.S. adults who are religiously unaffiliated is increasing.
“The share of Americans who do not identify with a religious group is surely growing,” the Pew Research Center said in a Sept. 14 report. [Read more…]
Baptist Press
WASHINGTON — Polygamy is knocking at the door of the U.S. Supreme Court.
A polygamous family featured in the reality television show “Sister Wives” asked the justices Sept. 12 to review a lower-court ruling that had reversed a federal judge’s decision in favor of the polygamists. The high court will decide in the months ahead whether to grant review and rule on the case.
Defenders of the biblical and historic view of marriage already were following the case and will continue to do so to see if the Supreme Court’s redefinition of marriage will extend beyond its incorporation of same-sex relationships. The justices legalized gay marriage in 2015.
Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, pointed out during his Sept. 13 podcast there “isn’t any great groundswell of support” for legalizing polygamy but that could change quickly. [Read more…]
Baptist Press
-LifeWay Films
NASHVILLE — Ticket sales for an encore showing of “The Insanity of God” in theaters Tuesday, Sept. 13, pushed box office receipts to $1.1 million.
“Due to the success of the film’s two one-night theater showings,” Trey Reynolds, manager of LifeWay Films, said, “we are planning a church simulcast for the film the first or second week of November, with a consumer DVD and church license DVD to be released Nov. 21.”
The feature documentary film produced by the International Mission Board and Cooke Pictures and distributed by LifeWay Films tells the story of missionaries Nik and Ruth Ripken. After the death of their son, the couple traveled to 72 countries, into the depths of the persecuted church, to find out if God actually makes a difference in difficult places.
The film is based on a best-selling book of the same name from B&H Publishing Group.