Black Christian News

High School Students in North Texas Hold Day of Silence in Support of Homosexuals

bcn11 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:00:53 +0000

Dozens of North Texas high school students have vowed to remain silent for an entire day to protest the bullying and harrassment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students.

Zach Segovia, president of the Gay/Straight Alliance at North Dallas High School, plans to not speak a word Friday on the National Day of Silence. The movement is also meant to support those who are still in the closet and who feel they are not able to talk about their identity in an open environment.

Segovia and close to 60 additional students will partipate in the movement, but not all students support it.

“Some students are open-minded about it, but others are just writing hateful comments on our poster that we posted up and some are just ripping it off,” Segovia said.

On Thursday, Segovia and some fellow students painted posters and T-shirts inside their school’s auditorium to wear on the Day of Silence. They said they hope their silence will bring awareness to their fellow students.

Beau Heyen, co-chair of The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, said students from as many as 3,000 schools nationwide will participate in the movement.

“This is something I would have been totally too scared to do,” he said. “I think it’s so empowering to see so many youth stepping up.”

Students will pass out cards that read, in part, “My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by anti-LGBT bullying, name-calling and harrassment…Think about the voices you are not hearing today.”

Source: NBC/DFW

bcn11 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:57:13 +0000

“God does not have to destroy America. If America continues in its ways, America will destroy itself.”

–Daniel Whyte III

Students Stand Up Against Homosexual Movement

bcn11 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:55:47 +0000

“Gay rights” may be on the march nationwide, but thousands of Christian students from coast to coast will express a counter-cultural message in the coming days regarding homosexuality.

On Friday, students will participate in the second-annual Golden Rule Pledge, and on Monday in the fifth-annual Day of Truth. The separate events, sponsored by conservative Christian organizers, were established to give students an option to the Day of Silence, a yearly event backed by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) that is promoted as an anti-bullying event but is seen by many as supporting the entire homosexual agenda and giving a one-sided view of the debate over homosexuality.

This year’s Day of Silence will take place on Friday, and GLSEN claims that hundreds of thousands of students from more than 8,000 schools participated last year. As part of the Day of Silence — which was launched nationally in 1997 — students take some form of a vow of silence to draw attention to bullying and name-calling toward homosexual students. The idea may sound innocent, but the group behind it is not, critics say. GLSEN is one of the nation’s leading organizations attempting to get homosexuality-friendly curriculum in classrooms, including “age-appropriate” information for kindergarteners. GLSEN also is the supporter of gay-straight alliances in schools nationwide.

As part of Monday’s Day of Truth students will pass out cards during non-class time with a message, which says in part, “It’s time for an honest conversation about homosexuality. There’s freedom to change if you want to.” Participants in Friday’s Golden Rule Pledge will hand out cards saying, “This is what I am going to do. I pledge to treat others the way I want to be treated. ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you’ (Luke 6:31.)” Although the Golden Rule Pledge may appear non-controversial, the mere fact that a student would refuse to take part in the Day of Silence could be counter-cultural in some schools.

The cards are significant because Day of Silence participants pass out cards, too.

Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International — a Day of Truth sponsor — said the Day of Silence leads to a slanted discussion about homosexuality. That problem is compounded when faculty and staff participate, which is common. Exodus International is a Christian ministry that, according to its website, promotes “freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ.”

“I think the Day of Truth is really important, and certainly increasingly so, because students are being bombarded from every side on the issue of homosexuality,” Chambers told Baptist Press. “And, seemingly the only voices that are allowed or respected in the public school system are those from a pro-gay side. It’s important for everyone to have a voice on this issue and for every opinion to be expressed. If one side is going to be expressed, then the other should be as well.”

Bob Stith, the Southern Baptist Convention’s national strategist for gender issues, has endorsed the Golden Rule Pledge but encourages participation in the Day of Truth, too. The Golden Rule Pledge was launched partly in reaction to calls on the part of some pro-family groups to pull their children out of school during the Day of Silence. The pledge gives Christian students a way to be involved in something on that particular day, being that the Day of Truth always is held on the next school day following the Day of Silence.

“Apart from God sending a sovereign move of revival — I don’t see this issue of homosexuality going away anytime soon, so we’ve really got to prepare our kids for the world in which they find themselves,” he told BP.

For years, Stith has called the issue of homosexuality the “watershed issue” for the modern-day evangelical church. With “gay marriage” being legalized and pushed at a rapid pace, he believes the issue is more important now than ever, particularly regarding religious freedom and the impact of the Gospel.

“If you disagree with homosexuality you’re called a bigot, you’re anti-homosexual, you’re homophobic,” he said. “… Consequently, what it does to the culture at large when they hear that, it tends to cause them to dismiss the Christian voice altogether. It’s affecting our ability to speak evangelistically to the culture.”

Parents, Chambers said, should not assume that their school is not participating in the Day of Silence. “It’s unbelievable how widely supported it is,” he said.

In some instances, Christian students who speak up have been punished. In perhaps the most famous case, Chase Harper, sophomore in 2004 at Poway (Calif.) High School, protested his school’s involvement in the Day of Silence by wearing a T-shirt that on the front read, “Be Ashamed, Our School Embraced What God Has Condemned,” and on the back read, “Homosexuality Is Shameful, Romans 1:27.” He was pulled out of class and told not to wear a similar shirt again. The Christian legal firm Alliance Defense Fund launched the Day of Truth the very next year, and more than 13,000 students since have participated. ADF and Exodus are co-sponsoring it this year, and ADF offers free legal representation to students who are not allowed to participate in the Day of Truth.

But the Day of Silence is not just being promoted in California, said Alliance Defense Fund attorney David Cortman.

“It’s not limited to any geographic region,” he said. ” … We’ve seen where teachers actively promote the Day of Silence, where they permit the distribution of Day of Silence flyers in homeroom class, where they actively participate in the Day of Silence. And at the same time and in the same schools, when the students attempt to participate in the Day of Truth, they have been censored.”

But if a school allows one event to take place, Cortman said, then it must allow the other one, too.

For Chambers, the Day of Truth is personal. He struggled with and overcame unwanted homosexual attractions as a teenager and young adult. He is now married, and he and his wife and have two children.

“Many people don’t know that change is possible or that there’s any alternative out there for people,” he said. “… There was a time when I was trying to fit that with my life, trying to marry my homosexuality and my Christianity and trying to see if I could be a good gay Christian. It didn’t work.”

Source: Baptist Press

’106 & Gospel’ Fans Urge BET Not to Cancel Show

bcn11 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:50:55 +0000

Over 1,500 people have so far signed an online petition asking cable network BET to reconsider its decision to cancel one of its newest gospel music programs, “106 & Gospel.”

“We believe that, if produced, marketed and delivered properly, ’106 & Gospel’ can be an incredibly viable program,” say signers of the petition created three weeks ago. “We respectfully ask that BET reconsider the discontinuation of ’106 & Gospel’ on the network.”

Late last week BET released a statement confirming the cancellation of “106 & Gospel,” the spin-off of BET’s hit music countdown show “106 & Park.” The new show, hosted by Angel Taylor of Trin-I-Tee 5:7 and Jorel Quinn from 21:03, featured music videos, celebrity guests, interactive choir battles, and more.

“Because of our commitment to faith-based programming, we will continue to create new and exciting shows to entertain our audience. However, at times we must also face the hard task of making tough programming decisions, as in the case of ’106 & Gospel,’ which was recently cancelled,” the April 9 statement read. “We will actively continue to create quality programming that resonates with our faith-based community, and we ask for and appreciate your continued support.”

According to the signers of the petition, however, the lower-than-anticipated ratings of “106 & Gospel” that likely led to its cancellation were not the result of the program itself, but more likely due to the “several missteps in the execution of the concept for the program” made by the network.

One suggested misstep included airing the show weekly on Sundays at noon – a time when many would-be viewers attend church.

“While we are unaware of every circumstance surrounding BET’s business decision, discontinuing the program seems to be an extreme and unfortunate response to problems that may have feasible solutions,” petitioners concluded.

“106 & Gospel” made its debut this year on Jan. 11 and has featured guests including award-winning artists Marvin Sapp and Kierra Sheard, among others. It was one of several gospel music shows that BET had produced over the past three decades, including Bobby Jones Gospel, Lift Every Voice, Video Gospel, Celebration of Gospel, and Sunday Best.

According to Nielsen Media Research, BET – a division of Viacom Inc. – reaches more than 87 million households.

Source: Christian Post

One Church’s ‘Faith Stimulus Package’ Makes Impact

bcn11 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:45:10 +0000

While the rest of America was in an uproar over an economic “stimulus package” from Washington, leaders of Faith Baptist Church in Bartlett, Tenn., were planning a stimulus package of their own. A faith stimulus package.

In mid-February, the 3,600-member congregation on the eastern outskirts of Memphis rolled out a 16-page plan designed to stimulate businesses run by church members and help members of the congregation get needed services at more affordable prices. The Faith Stimulus Package was part of a broader initiative to minister to the entire community throughout the spring.

“We hear so much about the economy. A lot of people are struggling,” said Todd Pendergrass, the church’s executive pastor. “For us, it’s about not turning a deaf ear to what’s happening. There are things we can do for each other, take care of each other through difficult times.”

Besides providing a directory of businesses willing to discount services for church members, the congregation also planned to offer “Recession Ready Workshops” to help members strengthen their financial positions and a “Recession Ready Saturday” that offered free services to the community — everything from haircuts and car washes to medical screenings and automobile oil changes for senior adults and single parents. Church members also planned to teach residents how to reduce grocery expenses by planting their own vegetable gardens.

“It’s not going to solve the world’s problems but it will help them to see each other as family that can support each other,” Pendergrass said. “It says to the community that we care about you, we want to do something to help.”

‘SALT AND LIGHT IN A DARK TIME’

A time of economic downturn presents God’s people with tremendous opportunity, senior pastor Danny Sinquefield said as he signed the stimulus package in a ceremony modeled after the White House event formalizing the federal plan.

“Believing that God is the ultimate source and solution to this current economic crisis, and that the church is the body of Christ commanded to love our neighbor as our own lives, and that we as the local expression of His church are responsible for one another in Christian love, we hereby sign this commitment to be ‘recession ready’ as the people of God in this community,” Sinquefield said. “We recognize that this current season of financial uncertainty has the potential to create fresh dependence on the hand of God in each of our lives. We hereby commit ourselves to prayer for our nation to be brought to a place of humility, repentance and spiritual awakening and we acknowledge this as a wonderful opportunity for the church to be salt and light in a dark time.”

The congregation was primed for a ministry like this because they had just completed a churchwide study of “Eternal Impact: The Passion of Kingdom-Centered Communities,” the newest component of the Empowering Kingdom Growth emphasis in the Southern Baptist Convention.

Eternal Impact not only can help a congregation understand for the first time the importance of being Kingdom-centered, it also can help Kingdom-centered congregations like Faith Baptist Church get all their people on the same page about witness and ministry, associate pastor Ryan Johnston said.

“The Faith Stimulus Package was a response to the Kingdom mindset put on the forefront for us by the Eternal Impact study,” Johnston said. “We are a church that has already embraced Kingdom principles. We have an outward focus. Our discipleship classes are packed and we literally don’t have another room to do them in. This year we will be in 20 different countries on short-term mission trips and hopefully we will have close to 3,000 people do short-term mission projects.

“But we also understand that not every individual has personalized that truth. We can have all the programs we want, but unless every member grabs it personally, we will never truly be a Kingdom-focused church,” Johnston added. “Eternal Impact gave us a great opportunity to unveil everything we do for people who are new or haven’t grasped that yet. Hopefully, it helps start an epidemic in people’s hearts that the Kingdom of God isn’t on Sunday morning or Wednesday night but it’s happening all the time, whether it’s at home and in your family or in your business.”

Johnston helped tweak the Eternal Impact material to address that need and also adapted it so the material could be studied by students as well as adults. He said the material can help any church, regardless of its size or how missions-minded it already is.

“We were able to thread that heartbeat for six weeks to everyone. It was beneficial and healthy for us to go through it together,” Johnston said. “Eternal Impact deals with what we need to be as a church and maybe what we have distanced ourselves from. If you have 50 people or 100 or 2,000, the resources are available with this study to develop a missions program or to increase involvement in a healthy missions program. Across the board, it will help any church grab onto the very heartbeat of the Book of Acts and the heartbeat of what it means to be the people of the Kingdom.”

‘TURN THE CORNER’

An Eternal Impact study can help any congregation regain a sharp focus on what the church is supposed to be about, said Anthony Burdick, a church member who led a Sunday-morning class through the material.

“It’s possible, in any organization, to lose focus on why we are here and what we are about. Everybody also needs to be revived from time to time,” Burdick said. “Folks who have been in church forever need to look at who we are and what we need to be doing. Eternal Impact really helped us kind of turn the corner and move on into the next step for our class.”

Many church members will be challenged by Eternal Impact because it is countercultural, added Jerry Rainer, who teaches a class of married couples in their 30s.

“We have such a consumer mentality in the church today. Eternal Impact hits hard on some issues; like, instead asking whether the music makes me happy, we should be asking did the music make God happy,” Rainer said. “Instead of shopping for what a church do for me, I need to be asking, ‘What does God want from me? Where does He want me plugged in?

“God’s got a blueprint for the way He means for the church to work. Our culture is drawing the church to this consumer mentality where we make the church into what we want and need it to be,” Rainer added. “Eternal Impact pulls us back to what the first church was like. Was their focus on themselves or on God and other people? It’s a call back to the foundational principles of what God meant His church to be.”

Eternal Impact takes a congregation a step beyond the first Empowering Kingdom Growth component, “EKG: The Heartbeat of God,” explained Ken Hemphill, the SBC’s national EKG strategist.

“While EKG: The Heartbeat of God changes the heart or the passion of the church, Eternal Impact changes forever how we think about the church,” Hemphill said. “If we think the church is designed only for the comfort of the saved, we neglect the needs of the lost. The church is God’s primary instrument for advancing His Kingdom on earth, and that means our service to the King through the church enables us to live with eternal impact.”

Source: Baptist Press

Southeastern Baptist Seminary President Calls for Great Commission Resurgence, Streamlining Denomination

bcn11 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:40:57 +0000

The lordship of Christ and the centrality of the Gospel in Christian ministry must be the foundation of a Great Commission resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention, Daniel Akin declared April 16 in a chapel message at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.

Akin, the seminary’s president, has been spearheading a movement for several months that he hopes will lead to a “Great Commission Resurgence” in the SBC to follow the “Conservative Resurgence” of the 1980s and 1990s. Akin has said the natural outcome of a return to the authority and inerrancy of Scripture in churches should be a renewed commitment to local and world evangelism that leads to partnership in ministry.

Akin opened his message with a reference to Acts 1, when the disciples asked Christ when he would restore the kingdom to Israel. This question, he said, was interesting; but Christ’s answer indicated that it was not the important issue of the time.

“Like the disciples, Southern Baptists today run the risk of being distracted from the main thing,” Akin said. “Many of the issues we are emphasizing and debating are interesting things, but they are not the most important things. They don’t line up well with the priorities we find revealed in Holy Scripture. The result is that we are fractured and factionalizing. We are confused, having lost our spiritual compass.”

Akin continued by noting that his agenda for a “Great Commission Resurgence” is positive and forward-looking, emphasizing the key doctrines of the faith that will call SBC churches to radical obedience.

Akin then outlined 12 “axioms of a “Great Commission Resurgence.”

Axiom 1: Churches must be committed to the lordship of Jesus Christ in every area. To overlook this, he said, is to miss the point entirely.

“When the world thinks of us, they should think first, ‘those are the folks in love with Jesus. They are the people obsessed with Jesus. Those people talk and act and serve and love like Jesus.’ Southern Baptists are Jesus people!”

Axiom 2: Gospel-centeredness controls every aspect of any endeavor, for the glory of God. Being Gospel-centered, Akin said, means being grace-centered, loving those who are scorned and rejected by others. It also means that everything Southern Baptists do should proclaim the substitutionary death of Christ and his victorious resurrection.

“Too many of our pulpits have jettisoned the proclamation of the Gospel,” he said. “Too many of our people have lost the meaning and therefore the wonder of the Gospel. We must get it right once again if we are to experience a Great Commission Resurgence. No Gospel, no Great Commission Resurgence. It really is that simple.”

Axiom 3: Southern Baptists must continue to stand on the firm foundation of the inerrant and infallible Word of God, affirming its sufficiency in all matters.

“Wonderful men of God like Jimmy Draper, Paige Patterson, Paul Pressler, Adrian Rogers and Jerry Vines spilt their blood and put their ministries on the line because they saw what the poison of liberalism was doing to our Convention and its institution. These men are heroes of the faith and what they did must be honored and never forgotten,” he said. “A younger generation of Southern Baptists will eventually face this challenge, and you must not squander away precious theological ground that is absolutely essential to a Great Commission Resurgence.”

Axiom 4: The pursuit of the Great Commission must be done in the context of the great commandments of Matthew 22.

“The ultimate motivation for the Great Commission is love of God and a passion to be on mission with him,” Akin said. “But flowing out of love for God also will be a genuine love for people, something too many of us have lost somewhere along the way. The results have devastated our witness.”

Among other things, the implications of this axiom are that a “Great Commission Resurgence” does not depend on political activism.

“Governmental legislation will not stop the moral plunge of our nation and the world, but the Gospel will,” Akin said. “Our hope is not in Republicans or Democrats, Congress or Capitol Hill. Our hope, the world’s hope, is in Calvary’s hill and a crucified and risen Savior named King Jesus. Love for God and love for our neighbor demands that we not get sidetracked by political machinations.”

Axiom 5: Affirmation of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 as a healthy and sufficient guide for building a theological consensus for partnership in the Gospel, and a refusal to be sidetracked by theological agendas that distract churches from the Great Commission. This means celebrating the many areas of agreement, he said.

But it also means that issues like the precise constitution of the human person, the exact nature of congregational church governance, the timing of the rapture and the number of tenets of Calvinism one claims, should not lead Southern Baptists to splinter.

“Our agreement on The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 is an asset, not a weakness,” Akin said. “It is a plus and not a minus. If I were to pen my own confession it would not look exactly like the BF&M 2000. But then I do not want nor do I need people exactly like me in order to work together for the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the building of his church.”

Axiom 6: A passionate pursuit of the Great Commission’s command to go to the United States and all nations, to disciple, baptize and teach. Starting at home, this means racial reconciliation in every Southern Baptist church and a commitment to reach those of every race and social class in their own communities and elsewhere.

“We must pursue a vision for our churches that looks like heaven,” Akin said. “Yes, we must go around the world to reach Asians and Europeans, the Africans and the South Americans. But we must also go across the street, down the road and into every corner of our local mission field where God, in grace, has brought the nations to us.

“This means planting authentically Bible/Baptist churches and filling them with authentic followers of Jesus, irrespective of nationality, race, economic or social status. Genuine discipleship is not negotiable.”

Axiom 7: A covenant among families to build Gospel-centered homes that see children as a gift from God and as parents’ first and primary mission field. Southern Baptists, he said, have bought into cultural lies about the nature of motherhood, the role of fathers and the blessings of children.

“Will you pray for God to call your children and grandchildren into vocational ministry?” Akin asked. “To go to the nations far away and to the hard places as an international missionary? Will you get a Godward perspective for life, for marriage, for family?”

Axiom 8: The need to rethink convention structure and identity to maximize energy and resources for the fulfilling of the Great Commission. Akin recognized that this point may generate some controversy, but he noted that it remains essential.

“We have become bloated and bureaucratic,” he said. “It is easier to move some things through the federal government than the Southern Baptist Convention. Overlap and duplication in our associations, state and national conventions is strangling us. We waste time and resources and many are fed up.

“The rally cry of the Conservative Resurgence was, ‘We will not give our monies to liberal institutions.’ Now the cry of the Great Commission Resurgence is, ‘We will not give our money to bloated bureaucracies.’”

Akin called on Southern Baptist leaders to rethink everything they do — boards, organizations, agencies, structures — in light of a Great Commission agenda that maximizes cooperation and minimizes bureaucracy in planting churches and getting the Gospel to all people, everywhere.

Axiom 9: The necessity for pastors to be faithful Bible preachers who teach both the content of the Scriptures and the theology embedded in the Scriptures.

“Today I sense a real hunger in a younger generation for strong Bible teaching and Christian theology,” Akin said. “That is a wonderfully positive sign. With the waning of a cultural Christianity that cannot survey the attacks of a sophisticated and growing secularism, only faithful teaching of the Bible will equip 21st century believers to stand strong as defenders of the faith once for all delivered to the saints.”

Axiom 10: The need to encourage pastors to see themselves as the head of a Gospel missions agency who will lead the way in calling out the called for international assignments and also equip and train all their people to see themselves as missionaries for Jesus regardless of where they live.

“Our churches do not exist to serve the Southern Baptist Convention,” Akin said. “The Southern Baptist Convention at all levels exists to serve the churches, end of discussion. The local church is to be ground zero for the mission of God. Here is the ‘spiritual outpost’ for the invasion of enemy territory as we reclaim lost ground for its rightful owner, King Jesus. A new vision that I pray will grip the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention is, “every church a church planting church.’”

Axiom 11: A renewed cooperation that is Gospel-centered and built around a biblical and theological core and not methodological consensus or agreement. Among other things, this recognizes the need for different methods and strategies in different contexts.

“Cultivating the mind of a missionary we will ask, ‘What is the best way to reach with the Gospel the people I live amongst?’” Akin said. “Waycross, Georgia, will look different than Las Vegas, Nevada. Montgomery, Alabama will look different than Portland, Oregon. Boston will be different than Dallas. Memphis will have a different strategy than Miami. Various ethnic believers and social/cultural tribes will worship the same God, adore the same Jesus, believe the same Bible and preach the same Gospel. However, they may meet in different kinds of structure, wear different kinds of clothes, sing different kinds of songs and engage in different kinds of ministries.”

Axiom 12: The need for churches and believers in those churches to “accept our constant need to humble ourselves and repent of pride, arrogance, jealousy, hatred, contentions, lying, selfish ambitions, laziness, complacency, idolatries and other sins of the flesh; pleading with our Lord to do what only He can do in us and through us and all for his glory.”

Akin said this means those younger leaders need to repent of their pride and refusal to learn from an older and wiser generation. Seasoned veterans of the faith, likewise, need to repent of their arrogance in refusing to let younger men speak and lead in a meaningful way.

“I would submit that there is plenty of sin for all of us to repent of,” Akin said.

Akin concluded by noting that God is about to do a mighty work through Southern Baptists in the 21st century.

“We desperately need the heart of Jesus,” he said. “We need the eyes of Jesus. If we can get to that, we will have what we need to move forward as a mighty Great Commission army going forth to do battle for the captain of our salvation and the Savior of souls. If not, we will find ourselves on the sidelines playing silly and meaningless games while God’s mighty army moves on without us. Brothers and sisters, I have found the army I want to fight with. It’s called the church. I have found the Commander-in-Chief I want to serve. His name is Jesus. I have found the enemy I want to destroy. It is Satan, sin, death and hell. Will you join me? There is victory for the taking!”

Source: Baptist Press

Most Pastors say Global Warming isn’t Man-made, Study says

bcn11 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:35:35 +0000

Though many people insist global warming is real and man-made, Protestant pastors aren’t entirely convinced, according to a new study from LifeWay Research.

The telephone survey of 1,002 randomly selected Protestant pastors, conducted in October 2008, discovered that pastors are evenly split about whether global warming is real and man-made. It also found that views of pastors vary widely by denomination, location and even the individual pastor’s ideologies.

Asked to indicate their level of agreement with the statement, “I believe global warming is real and man-made,” pastors split down the middle: 47 percent agree either strongly or somewhat, while 47 percent disagree either strongly or somewhat. The remainder indicate “don’t know.”

The differences of opinion, however, are seen more sharply when analyzed in relation to a pastor’s denominational affiliation and geographic location. Fully 75 percent of pastors in mainline denominations agree global warming is real and man-made, but only 32 percent of pastors in evangelical denominations agree. Pastors in rural areas are less convinced than large-city pastors. Forty-three percent of rural pastors and 55 percent of large-city pastors agree. Pastors in the Eastern and Western United States are more persuaded, 60 percent and 53 percent, respectively, than pastors in the South (45 percent) and Midwest (40 percent).

When the pastors’ personal beliefs are factored in, the differences grow even more pronounced. Among pastors who consider their political ideology liberal or very liberal, 93 percent agree that global warming is real and man-made, and 79 percent of self-perceived moderates agree. Among those who identify themselves as conservative or very conservative politically, however, agreement is only 37 percent and 16 percent, respectively.

Additionally, while 75 percent of pastors in churches affiliated with mainline denominations agree global warming is real and man-made, only 67 percent of those who consider themselves mainline agree. By comparison, 32 percent of pastors in evangelical-affiliated congregations agree, but 41 percent of those who consider themselves evangelical agree.

“Not all pastors who consider themselves mainline serve in churches in denominations that are traditionally considered mainline,” said Scott McConnell, associate director of LifeWay Research. “Similarly, not all pastors who consider themselves evangelical serve in denominations that are traditionally considered evangelical. Yet these denominational roots provide a strong indication of what a church’s pastor believes about global warming.”

ADDRESSING THE ENVIRONMENT

The majority of Protestant pastors (52 percent) address environmental issues once a year or less, according to the research, but 25 percent say they speak on the subject several times a year. Eleven percent say they never speak to their church members about the environment, but 12 percent say they address the issue at least once a month.

These differences in frequency are also seen more sharply when analyzed in relation to a pastor’s denominational affiliation and geographic location. In mainline denominations, 61 percent of pastors speak on the environment several times a year or more, but only 23 percent of evangelical pastors say they address it that often. Fewer rural-area pastors (34 percent) than large-city pastors (45 percent) speak on the subject that often. Forty-eight percent of pastors in the Eastern United States and 41 percent in the West say they address the environment several times a year or more, while pastors in the South and Midwest speak about it less often, 32 percent and 35 percent respectively.

Again, when the pastors’ personal beliefs are factored in, the differences are more pronounced. Among pastors who see their own political ideology as liberal or very liberal, 75 percent say they speak to their congregations about the environment at least several times a year, and 62 percent of moderates say they address the subject that often. Among those who identify themselves as conservative or very conservative politically, however, only 25 percent and 18 percent respectively indicate they speak about it that often.

Sixty-one percent of pastors in churches affiliated with mainline denominations say they speak on the environment several times a year or more, but only 53 percent of those who consider themselves mainline say they do so. In another reverse twist, while 23 percent of pastors in evangelical-affiliated congregations indicate they speak that often on the environment, 32 percent of those who consider themselves evangelical say they address the issue at least several times a year.

Pastors speak to their congregations about the environment more frequently if they are convinced global warming is a real and man-made danger.

Sixty-nine percent of pastors who strongly agree that global warming is real and man-made speak to their churches about the environment several times a year or more.

Far fewer pastors who are less inclined to agree global warming is a real and man-made issue speak about the environment frequently. Speaking to their church on the environment several times a year or more occurs among 36 percent of pastors who somewhat agree that global warming is real and man-made and among fewer pastors who somewhat disagree (26 percent) or strongly disagree (17 percent).

“Protestant pastors are split on the issue of man-made global warming and their views impact their communication,” said Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research. “Mainline clergy answer the question with similar numbers to self-identified Democrats and liberals in surveys of the general public. Evangelical clergy answer the question in similar percents to Republicans and conservatives. At the end of the day, Protestant pastors are as divided as Americans are on the issue of global warming.”

Source: Baptist Press

Nebraska Becomes 30th State to Recognize “Juneteenth” as Holiday

bcn11 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:30:19 +0000

Nebraska is now the 30th state to recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday or state holiday observance.

The Nebraska State Senate passed L.R. 75, sponsored by State Senator Brenda Council, establishing the “19th of June”, as “Juneteenth National Freedom Day” in the state.

“Nebraska will join Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Delaware, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, California, Wyoming, Illinois, Missouri, Connecticut, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Colorado, Arkansas, Oregon, Kentucky, Michigan, New Mexico, Virginia, Washington State, Tennessee, Massachusetts, North Carolina, West Virginia, South Carolina, Vermont and the District of Columbia in recognizing the end of enslavement in America,” states Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D., Chairman of the National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign.

Ms. Willie Williams, Director of Juneteenth Nebraska, Inc. said: “We especially appreciate the efforts of State Sen. Brenda Council for sponsoring legislation that has made all of this possible.”

Juneteenth, or the “19th of June”, was first recognized by the Congress of the United States as Juneteenth Independence Day through the passage of S.J.R. 11 and H.J.R. 56 in 1997.

Most recently, the U.S. Senate passed S. Res. 584 and the House of Representatives passed House Con. Res. 1237 in 2008, recognizing the significance of Juneteenth in America.

Source: EUR Web

As Democrats Tell Texas Governor to Knock Off Talk of Secession; State Dept. Lists Texas as Foreign Country

bcn11 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:00:31 +0000

On Wednesday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry hinted at Texas secession at an Austin Tea Party rally. On Thursday, state Dems were telling him to knock it off.

But it looks like Perry wasn’t alone in his desire for Texas to reemerge as a sovereign nation.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of State had Texas among a list of 16 foreign countries visited by Secretary Hillary Clinton last month, according to The Huffington Post.

Clinton was in the “state” to accept an award from Planned Parenthood in Houston and to appear at Dallas’ Women’s Museum — and not to work on diplomatic relations.

On the list, Texas was sandwiched between Turkey and Switzerland. The state department has since edited their list, but The Huffington Post still has a screen grab available.

What do you think Texas should do?

Source: NBCDFW.com

Facebook Campaign Seeks to Fire Notre Dame President Because of Barack Obama Commencement Speech

bcn11 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:55:25 +0000

A group has launched an online social networking effort seeking to oust the University of Notre Dame’s president over the school’s decision to invite President Barack Obama to give its commencement speech next month.

A posting on the Web site www.replacejenkins.com says the Obama invitation and other decisions by the Rev. John Jenkins call his judgment into question.

The Web site launched Thursday asks Notre Dame graduates and financial supporters to join its Facebook group and sign a petition.

Notre Dame spokesman Dennis Brown says the school always knew there would be those who would oppose the decision to invite Obama.

Those against the invitation say the nation’s best-known Catholic university should not honor Obama because his support for abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research go against church teachings.

Source: KYPost.com