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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Ralph Abraham disputes Edwards’ transgender stance

BATON ROUGE – U.S. Congressman Ralph Abraham has released a campaign ad titled, “The Truth,” in which he rejects Gov. John Bel Edwards’s efforts to establish special rights for people who claim a transgender or a gender fluid sexual identity. “As a doctor, I can assure you there are only two genders,” Abraham said. The reference is to Edwards’s executive order that mandated state government contractors must accommodate employees who identify as something other than their actual biological sex. Transgenderism and gender fluidity are not recognized by federal law as protected classes, and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry filed a lawsuit to prevent enforcement of Edwards’s edict. Ultimately, the state Supreme Court ruled Edwards’s mandate as unconstitutional. … [Read more...]

Goliath’s giant hometown discovered

TELL ES-SAFI, Israel – After digging at a site in southern Israel for more than two decades, archeologists have discovered unusually large stone fortifications and walls twice as thick as other cities in the area, proving that Gath was a major regional power consistent with the biblical account. Gath is the birthplace of Goliath, the Philistine giant who terrorized the army of Israel but was killed by the slingshot of a young David. While the massive gate and the monumental structures of the city are impressive in size, convincing visitors the city must have been built by giants, the lead archeologist disagrees. Prof. Aren Maeir of Barllan University, who has been digging in the area for 23 years, previously uncovered the 10th century B.C. ruins of Gath before finding the new site, dated to the 11th century B.C., just a meter deeper. He told the Jerusalem Post that people are prone to conclude “this must have been done by giants of the past.” But he dismissed the suggestion that giants existed, saying “There are no skeletons of people who are taller than NBA centers.” Meanwhile, BreakingIsraelNews.com reported Maier previously discovered, 2006, a Philistine inscription with two names. One, written with Semitic … [Read more...]

GALLUP: 40 percent of Americans believe in creationism

By Will Hall, Message Executive Editor WASHINGTON – Gallup reported this summer that 40 percent of U.S. adults professed to hold a creationist view of human origins, remaining within the range of 38-47 percent that has benchmarked this response during the 37year history of the poll. Participants were asked specifically if they believed “God created human beings pretty much in their present form within the last 10,000 years or so.” Meanwhile another 33 percent of respondents said they believed humans developed “over millions of years … but God guided this process.” Only 22 percent of Americans shared a view that “God had no part in” the development of humans. However, this is the highest number to make this response in the history of the poll. Gallup related this increase to the rise in the country of the number of religiously unaffiliated persons which also amounts to about 22 percent of the population. … [Read more...]

Planned Parenthood chooses abortion over women’s health

By Will Hall, Message Executive Editor WASHINGTON – Planned Parenthood announced it would forego as much as $60 million by not participating in the Title X program, which provides funding for such things as cancer screenings, because of a Trump adminstration rule that the grants cannot be used by a clinic that offers abortions or makes referrals for abortions even if it provides other women’s health care services. In essence, Planned Parenthood had to choose between the $60 million in federal grants for women’s healthcare or the more lucrative abortion business it conducts. The Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parent hood’s research arm, reported that an abortion, whether surgical or chemical, cost about $500 last year in Planned Parenthood clinics across the United States. That means Planned Parenthood, which performed nearly 333,000 abortions last year, made in the neighborhood of $166 million from abortions, or $106 million more than it would receive this year in women’s healthcare funding under the federal government’s Title X program. Planned Parenthood also receives Medicaid funds, which last year totaled an estimated $500 million for the group. In total, the nation’s largest abortion provider had revenues from all … [Read more...]