By Marilyn Stewart, NOBTS Communications NEW ORLEANS -- A raucous presidential election year turned personal for Lloyd Harsch, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary history professor, when his seminary inbox filled with more than 90,000 emails. Harsch is a member of the Electoral College, and most of the electronic messages, primarily from people outside Louisiana, asked him to flip his commitment from Donald J. Trump, who carried the state with nearly 60 percent of the vote. As Harsch, with wife Jill, prepared for travel to attend the Jan. 20 inauguration ceremony and related festivities in Washington, D.C., emails and letters continued to come in, causing Harsch to pause and reflect. “I had to evaluate [voters’] concerns about the purpose of the Electoral College,” Harsch said. “I had to ask, ‘What was it designed to do?’ and ‘What is my actual responsibility?’” Most of the writers expressed genuine concern, Harsch said, and the few veiled in innuendo or threat were passed on to authorities. Louisiana is one of 21 states whose electors are “unbound,” meaning they are not constrained legally to vote for their party’s nominee, the winner of the state’s popular vote. Phone calls, a fax, and about two … [Read more...]

By Marilyn Stewart, NOBTS Communications NEW ORLEANS -- Abdu Murray was a devout Muslim who rarely encountered Christians who could defend their faith. His nine-year journey from Islam to faith in Christ began after meeting the few “annoying” Christians who could. Murray, North American director for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, told of his journey at Defend 2017, an annual apologetics conference presented by New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s Institute for Christian Apologetics (ICA) Jan. 2-6.The conference that hosted 250 participants brought together noted apologists to address issues and worldviews prevalent in today’s culture. “Truth always has a cost,” Murray said. “A lot of Muslims know there are issues with Islam and they know there is a beauty to the Gospel, but they don’t want it because of the price.” Other plenary speakers included Sean McDowell, author of 18 books on apologetics including several co-written with his father Josh McDowell; Braxton Hunter, former president of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists; Craig Hazen, author and renowned apologist at Biola University; Robert Bowman, Jr., Institute for Religious Research; Greg Koukl, Stand to Reason Ministries, and … [Read more...]