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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Gov. Edwards mandates masks indoors

By Message staff BATON ROUGE, La. (LBM) – Ten days after Gov. John Bel Edwards strongly advised Louisianans to wear a mask indoors, he has issued an order requiring them in the fight against COVID-19. Edwards, during a news conference on Monday, Aug. 2, cited a continued rise in new cases of the coronavirus and hospitalizations. The new order, which goes into effect Wednesday, Aug. 4 and is set to expire Sept. 1, applies to those five years of age and older and must be worn in all buildings. The full mandate can be found at https://gov.louisiana.gov/assets/Proclamations/2021/137JBE2021StateofEmergency.pdf. “It is heartbreaking,” Edwards said. “Those are not just numbers. Those are our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles. Those are fellow Louisianans who are longer with us. And that is heartbreaking. “It has become extremely clear that our current recommendations on their own are not strong enough to deal with Louisiana’s fourth surge of COVID,” he continued. “In fact, nobody should be laboring under the misapprehension that this is just another surge. We’ve already had three of these. This is the worst one we’ve had thus far.” The Louisiana Department of Health reported, August 2, that there … [Read more...]

Messengers adopt 10 resolutions

By Will Hall, Message executive editor NOTE: The online edition of this article has been corrected to indicate that the SBC Resolutions Committee tabled Resolution 7. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (LBM) – Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention’s 2021 Annual Meeting adopted nine of the 10 resolutions submitted by the Resolutions Committee and added one from the floor that called for “abolishing abortion.” According to Baptist Press, the Resolutions Committee had declined the previously submitted pro-life resolution, June 15, because the issue of abortion had been addressed in another resolution they wrote. However, one of the co-authors of the rejected resolution spoke to the messengers, who voted to bring it to the floor for consideration with a two-thirds vote and adopted it the next day after the word “alone” was added. In the end, this resolution declared “that we will not embrace an incremental approach alone to ending abortion because it challenges God’s Lordship over the heart and the conscience, and rejects His call to repent of sin completely and immediately.” Meanwhile, the committee tabled the proposed Resolution 7 they had crafted -- which denounced “the Capitol resurrection of January 6, 2021, … as inconsistent … [Read more...]

Messengers present 32 motions for consideration

By Staff, Baptist Message NASHVILLE (BP) – Messengers presented 32 motions during the 2021 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting, and moved: for an investigation of the ERLC for concealing knowledge about sex abuse for more than a year and only revealing such information through leaked ERLC letters accusing the EC of racism and mishandling sex abuse cases (Jared Longshore, Florida); for an outside investigation of the EC regarding the ERLC’s accusations in the leaked letters (Grant Gaines, Tennessee); for the Executive Committee to study possible conflicts of interest because the same legal counsel represents the EC and the SBC (Jay Adkins, Louisiana); to break fellowship with Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California (Shad Tibbs, Louisiana); that specific conditions be met before using Cooperative Program funds to pay for an outside in-vestigation of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission or the EC (Allen Nelson, Arkansas); that a Fellowship Meal Sunday be added to the SBC calendar (James Allen Murray, North Carolina); to rescind Resolution 9 (that approved of Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality), which was adopted during the 2019 SBC Annual Meeting (Tom Ascol, Florida); to end … [Read more...]

Southern Baptists identify sexual abuse, racism as disqualifying for membership

By Message Staff BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Messengers took a stand against sexual abuse and racism at the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting, June 11-12, in Birmingham, Alabama. They voted, overwhelmingly, for amendments to the SBC Constitution to specifically state that sexual abuse and discrimination based on ethnicity are grounds for a church to be deemed as “not in friendly cooperation” with the Convention. Messengers likewise voted to amend the SBC Bylaws to repurpose the Credentials Committee into a standing commit-tee to make inquiries and recommendations for action regarding instances of sexual abuse, racism or other issues that call a church’s relationship with the SBC into question. Ronnie Floyd, president and CEO of the SBC Executive Committee, told messengers the votes constituted a significant moment in the history of the Convention. “May this world know that the Southern Baptist Convention stands against all forms of sexual abuse,” Floyd said. “May this world know that this convention of churches – 47,000 churches, plus a few thousand congregations, just under 52,000 churches and congregations – has given a clear signal not only about what we believe about sexual abuse, but we also stand against … [Read more...]

Celebration Church mourns sudden death of Westbank campus pastor

Dear Celebration Church Family, As many in our Church family know all too well, life is filled with unexplainable tragedies. Last night such a tragedy occurred when our Celebration Westbank Campus Pastor, Claude Williams, was taken from this life in a traffic accident. As far as we can tell, Pastor Claude and his long time friend Jeff Leinart stopped on the elevated Westbank Expressway to assist someone who had a flat tire. While they were assisting the person someone else hit them and the car they were working on, and their lives and another person’s life were ended. Pastor Claude’s wife, Twila, and their boys (Emmett, Elijah and Emory) were in Knoxville, Tennessee visiting her mother. They and Pastor Claude’s mother have been told about what has happened. Let’s pray for them constantly, asking the Lord, the “God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3) to help them process through their pain and sorrow in the coming weeks, month and years. We will stand with them and assist them in every week in the coming days. We also need to pray for our Celebration Family, especially our Celebration Westbank Members. Pastor Claude was greatly loved by all who knew him. He has been a faithful, faith-filled, godly and loving leader and a … [Read more...]

CULTURAL NEWS: Wisconsin voters reject attacks on Christian Supreme Court candidate

By Will Hall, Message Editor In a stunning upset victory, a Christian candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court won his election despite being outspent and vilified in the media as a “bigot” because of his religious convictions, which include support for traditional marriage, National Review reported. Conservative Brian Hagedorn still faces a recount because of his narrow 6,000-vote victory among 1.2 million votes cast, but experts say statistically it is unlikely the election will be overturned barring any major error in reporting by precincts. Just a year ago his liberal opponent, Lisa Neubauer, led by 12 percentage points and appeared unstoppable. But she and outside liberal groups viciously attacked Hagedorn for his Christian beliefs, with the help of the secular media, accusing him of supporting hate groups because he founded a Christian school and spoke to Christian and conservative groups that support traditional marriage. But voters apparently rejected the anti-Christian bigotry at the grass roots level in the state which ranks in the bottom half of states in terms of church attendance by the population. By state law Neubauer can still request and pay for a recount because the vote margin was less than one … [Read more...]

Graham: G.H.W. Bush ‘in the presence of God’

By Will Hall, Message Editor CHARLOTTE, N.C. (LBM) -- Asked to reflect about the passing of President George H.W. Bush, Franklin Graham did not hesitate to respond. “I know where my father is, he’s in the presence of God,” he told Fox News interviewers, Dec. 1. “And I believe that President George H.W. Bush today is with my father, in the presence of God.” The 41st president died at age 94 on Nov. 30 in Houston, Texas. His wife Barbara preceded him in death earlier this year. News reports stated that shortly before dying she comforted her son, Jeb, the former governor of Florida, by reassuring him, “I believe in Jesus and He is my Savior. I don’t want to leave your dad, but I know I will be in a beautiful place.” SPIRITUAL CERTAINTY Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, disclosed that Bush’s faith was “a very private thing for him,” but spoke confidently that the president had “faith in God.” “He believed in His Son, Jesus Christ. He believed that Jesus was the Way, the Truth and the Life, and He was the only way to God. He believed that,” Graham said. Graham also offered anecdotes to underscore his observations about the former U.S. president. “[H]e and my father had many … [Read more...]

Gaines, Page gather with Sutherland Springs community to pray, heal

FLORESVILLE, Texas (BP) -- "We take care of our own," stated Frank S. Page, formerly a Texas pastor, as he and Southern Baptist Convention President Steve Gaines and his wife Donna spent three days helping to serve families distraught over the Nov. 5 massacre of half of the congregation of First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs. The broader Southern Baptist family -- from the Gaineses to Tony Wolfe, pastor/church relations director for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention -- demonstrated servanthood by visiting grieving families, and injured congregants and praying for area folks suffering from the tragedy. In the hours following the Sunday morning massacre by a deranged gunman from New Braunfels who eventually took his own life, local ministers accepted the SBTS offer to host a community-wide prayer meeting at nearby Floresville Independent School District's Eschenburg Field, setting local pastors free to minister to the flock of the targeted church and their extended family of God. A reported shooting incident at a nursing home a half-mile away, chilly temperatures and the threat of rain did not deter an estimated 2,500 or more area residents and more than 100 media representatives from attending the prayer … [Read more...]