Submitted by philip on Tue, 06/04/2013 - 10:45 A joyous boy leaps into the arms of his incarcerated father at the ninth annual AWANA Lifeline Returning Hearts celebration that took place at Angola prison on May 18. By Mark H. Hunter, Regional Reporter ANGOLA – When the announcer at the recent AWANA Lifeline Returning Hearts celebration called the name of the first Angola inmate to come down out of the grandstands to greet a child he had not seen for nearly a year, Tracey Sanders burst into tears. “I started boo-hooing,” said Sanders, a second grade school teacher and volunteer from Satsuma Baptist Church in Livingston. “When I saw the joy of the children seeing their dads, and the joy of the dads seeing their children – I just couldn’t help it. “As a teacher I see so many children who do not have a father figure,” Sanders said. “I have students right now whose fathers are incarcerated.” Satsuma Baptist sent 27 volunteers and brought 26 children to the ninth annual event. More than 760 children, accompanied by 540 volunteers from 24 states, spent the day with about 340 inmate fathers, grandfathers and uncles. More than 340 mothers and grandmothers also came to the prison; they participated in a separate event just … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Tue, 06/04/2013 - 10:48 Members of a Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief unit from the Baton Rouge area work to put up a tarp on this heavily damaged house in Moore, Okla. By Brian Blackwell, Marketing Director MOORE, Okla. – Charles Watson described the scene of a tornado-ravaged area in suburban Oklahoma City as worse than what was portrayed on television. As the blue hat – leader – of the Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief unit from the Baton Rouge area surveyed the damage upon arrival to Moore on May 24, Watson noticed not only total destruction in neighborhoods but in other areas, homes not leveled but severely damaged. Throughout their week-long stay in Moore, the team of 15 from six different churches cut down and removed trees from homes, installed tarps on roofs and cleaned up yards. But even through the devastation that included the deaths of 24 people including school children who died when the storm touched down on May 20, Watson said the residents there have displayed a resilient and grateful attitude. “We have met people who have lost everything,” said Watson, who began serving on a Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief team during Hurricane Katrina ministry in 2005. “And they have … [Read more...]

By Kelly Boggs, Editor Baptist Message The National Council of the Boy Scouts of America has made a decision on the organization’s official position concerning the legitimacy and moral nature of homosexuality. As a result, Christians and conservatives will now be forced to make a decision. BSA leadership voted on May 23 to allow those who openly identify themselves as homosexual to be members. The organization did not, however, change its policy on Boy Scout leadership. Openly homosexual leaders will still not be allowed. Many conservative churches sponsor BSA troops and many more are Scouts and leaders. All of these will have a decision to make concerning whether or not to remain a part of an organization that has legitimized a behavior they believe is immoral. The BSA has come under increasing pressure from homosexual activist groups in recent years. The activists’ goal was to have the Scouts accept homosexuality as natural, normal and healthy. Financial pressure, the ploy of many activist groups, was brought to bear on BSA. Homosexual activists successfully lobbied corporations and non-profits to pull funding from the Boy Scouts. Additionally, efforts were made to keep BSA troops from using any public facilities for their … [Read more...]

By Penna Dexter, Columnist The gruesome trial of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell has ended. He’ll spend his life behind bars for murdering newborns not quite killed in abortion. Gosnell called his filthy clinic the Women’s Medical Society, a respectable sounding name for a disgusting facility that was somehow allowed to operate, without inspection, for more than 15 years. When it was finally investigated, authorities called the clinic a “House of Horrors.” Gosnell was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of a woman who died of a drug overdose while emergency workers tried to break into the clinic’s barricaded door. And he was convicted on more than 200 other counts including performing illegal late-term abortions. Both pro-lifers and pro-choicers were hoping for a conviction in this case. Pro-choicers had to show Gosnell is an outlier, an exception – that what he did was unethical, unscrupulous, illegal as opposed to what they portray as “safe,” legal abortion. In response to the verdict, Planned Parenthood deemed Gosnell’s crimes “appalling.” NARAL Pro-Choice America called his actions “atrocities” as if the abortions they support are not. Even with all its gruesomeness, it wasn’t until four to … [Read more...]

Submitted by philip on Tue, 06/04/2013 - 10:56 By Ed Stetzer, President of LifeWay Research When tragedy strikes, deep and abiding religious convictions, shared by so many in our country, rise to the surface and reveal what was thought to be discarded. Much has been written about the secularization of America, and in some ways that is the case. Pew Research found that one in five adults in our nation have no religious affiliation, a group identified as the “Nones.” Oftentimes, research like this and other anecdotes about the waning influence of Christianity on the public square are presented as proof that America is no longer a religious nation. This supposedly demonstrates that we have left our religious traditions in history’s dustbin. Then, a tragedy strikes. Those times of grief reaffirm our identity as a religious nation. Shortly after the horrific news of the tornado devastation in Oklahoma,             #PrayforOklahoma quickly rose to the top of Twitter’s trending list as millions shared their prayers for the people who lost loved ones and had their homes destroyed. In times of prosperity, far removed from tragedies, many people in our culture reject expressions of faith. In the moments of hopelessness, … [Read more...]