By Mike Goeke, Associate Pastor Stonegate Community Church   For years, those of us doing ministry in the area of unwanted same-sex attraction and outreach to the gay community have worked diligently to help the church see that homosexual behavior is no different than any sin.   For those of us who struggled with same-sex attraction, the church’s seeming placement of homosexuality at the top of some created “sin hierarchy” was frustrating and hurtful to us.   We also worried that as long as the church treated homosexual behavior as the worst of all sins, people would continue to fear the church instead of finding hope in the church.   Our efforts were surely necessary. But, in some ways, our efforts were too narrow and our success has created a new problem.   Many churches have taken to heart the level nature of sin and clearly acknowledge that sin is sin, be it gossip, envy, lust, gluttony or homosexual behavior.   The level nature of sin, however, makes many reticent to discuss or address the issues surrounding homosexuality in more detail or with any special emphasis. “We don’t want to highlight any one sin,” they reason.   The truth is that … [Read more...]

By Kelly Boggs, Editor Baptist Message   Planned Parenthood, Vanderbilt University and the Obama administration – what do these three have in common?   Each recently has been involved in situations that address whether or not private and/or religious organizations are going to be afforded freedom and respect when it comes to matters of faith and conscience, especially by those who disagree with their beliefs.   In January Komen for the Cure, which claims to be the global leader in the fight against breast cancer, announced it was pulling an annual $680,000 grant it had been giving to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer awareness. The amount represented only .00068 percent of the PP budget.   Planned Parenthood and its supporters went apoplectic over the Komen announcement. The nation’s largest provider of abortion services mounted a public campaign accusing Komen of abandoning poor women. Privately, the message that was communicated was clear: If Komen did not reverse the funding decision, its days were numbered.   Given the intensity of Planned Parenthood’s attack you would have thought it was losing at least a quarter of its budget.   But its budget is more than … [Read more...]

By Bill Warren, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary   Justin Martyr, the best-known Christian apologist of the second century, wrote the earliest extant defenses of Christianity we have from the period after the New Testament. Motivated by seeing Christians willing to die rather than recant their faith in Christ, he moved from being a follower of Greek philosophers to being a follower of Christ.   Viewing Christianity as the pinnacle of philosophy and truth, Justin defended Christians against the unsubstantiated charges that were being brought against them: “We demand that the charges against the Christians be investigated, and that, if these be substantiated, they be punished as they deserve; [or rather, indeed, we ourselves will punish them.] But if no one can convict us of anything, true reason forbids you, for the sake of a wicked rumor, to wrong blameless men, and indeed rather yourselves, who think fit to direct affairs, not by judgment, but by passion.” (Justin Martyr, Apology I, Chapter 3) Little did he know that later he himself would suffer from unsubstantiated charges of wrongdoing because of being a Christian.   As for his background, Justin was one of the few non-Jews from the … [Read more...]

By Archie England, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary   Question: Who is the Messiah mentioned in Daniel 9:24-27?   Archie England responds: Daniel foresaw six actions (9:24) that would mark the future messianic event. These six actions are best understood as the first coming of Jesus Christ, since atonement, the closing of Scripture, etc., certainly took place at the first coming. Thus, what Daniel saw was the (theological) impact of the messianic event (cp. Luke 1:16-17; John 4:25). In the light of Israel’s exile, his statements are clearly hopeful: The Messiah will bring much needed change!   Second, nowhere in the Old Testament is the word Messiah (“anointed one”) ever used to denote Satan or Antichrist. This term is exclusively used to denote the consecration of a high priest or to specify the future promised Messiah. Daniel 9:24-27 employed the “messiah” terminology three times, each time providing less definitive identification: “Messiah the Prince”(9:25); “Messiah” and “prince” (apparently equivalent, 9:26); and “he” (9:27, twice).     In Dan 9:25 the princely Messiah will appear 483 years after a decree (issued by a Persian monarch, occurring both in 458 and 444 … [Read more...]

By Staff, Baptist Message   [img_assist|nid=7988|title=Helping Hand|desc=In Henryville, Ind., relief supplies are unloaded at the back of First Baptist Church, which survived a March 2 tornado that tore through town. The church has become a local hub for relief volunteers and supplies.|link=none|align=right|width=640|height=424]ALEXANDRIA – Despite a swath of tornadoes across the nation’s midsection the first week of March, Disaster Relief volunteers in Lousiana  have not been called to assist in the clean-up, reports the Louisiana Baptist Convention’s  Disaster Relief Director Gibbie McMillan.   “With the exception of the Henryville area near the Indiana/Illinois state lines, each state had enough trained people on hand to meet the need,” McMillan said.   He tied that back to the national response to Hurricane Katrina, which spurred interest in Disaster Relief ministries in Southern Baptist churches across the nation.   In Louisiana, the number of trained DR volunteers increased significantly in the year after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The number of DR units statewide today is 84, up from 18 pre-Katrina.   “The question is,” McMillan said, “When disaster strikes how … [Read more...]

By Staff, Baptist Message LORANGER – Awards were presented recently at the annual Southern Louisiana Disaster Relief Roundtable to four volunteers for their “outstanding contributions to the LBC Disaster Relief program.” Shira Easley of New Zion Baptist Church Two Rivers Baptist Association received the Ollie McGlone Memorial Disaster Relief Chaplain Award. Butch and Sandy Bates of Sandy Creek Baptist Church in William Wallace Baptist Association together received the Volunteer of the Year award. Charles Watson of Zoar Baptist Church in the Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge received the Freddie Arnold Lifetime Achievement Award. Duncan Freche of Woodland Park Baptist Church in Hammond received the 2012 Distinguished Service Award for his efforts in a haylift ministry to drought-stricken Texas. The awards were presented by Gibbie McMillan, Louisiana Baptist Convention’s Disaster Relief director, and by Freddie Arnold of Eastern Louisiana Baptist Association, a longtime Disaster Relief leader. 0 … [Read more...]

By Staff, Baptist Message   BATON ROUGE – A 9.0 earthquake that resulted in a massive tsunami along Japan’s coast on March 11, 2011, continues to crack the reserve of Japanese people.   They are seeing in the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers a difference that comes from the love of Christ that flows through them to the hurting Japanese.   Five Disaster Relief volunteers from the Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge were to leave March 14 for an 11-day mission trip to tsunami-ravaged Japan.   It is the second team sent out by Louisiana Disaster Relief. Other response to Japan’s tragedy includes 4,000 Christmas stockings filled with candy and the Word of God, which were sewn by Louisiana women and teen girls for DR workers to hand out to survivors.   Teams from 15 states have done everything from mudding out houses and rebuilding, to hearing survivor stories and hosting banana split parties.   Last fall’s Louisiana team – Clyde and Jerrie Dennis, Butch and Sandy Bates, and Donna and Eddie Rhymes – rode in a bus through the destruction of five towns on their way to their assignment.   They ministered one-on-one to perhaps 1,000 people, … [Read more...]

By Staff, Baptist Message   But conscience protection bill did gain some Democratic support   (WNS) – The Senate shot down the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, also known as the Blunt-Rubio amendment, on March 1. The legislation would have given religious employers expanded conscience protections from President Obama’s contraceptive/abortifacient mandate.   The Senate tabled the amendment 51-48, a narrow vote where Republicans won the support of three Democrats and kept the votes of most of the moderate female Republicans, belying the narrative that the amendment was something only extreme right-wingers would support.   Many Democrats characterized the amendment as a “ban” on contraceptives and said if the amendment became law it would result in millions of women losing their current healthcare coverage. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., even said it would result in women losing coverage of breast cancer screenings and flu vaccines.   The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said the amendment wouldn’t change anyone’s current healthcare coverage, but rather reinforced federal conscience protections already in place.   Blunt, a Southern Baptist, has perhaps been … [Read more...]

By Wayne Taylor, Director of the Louisiana Baptist Foundation   [img_assist|nid=7993|title=Retirement|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=640|height=511]Planning for retirement typically centers around numbers; either saving an amount of money or attaining a certain age to receive Social Security or a company retirement plan. There is a TV commercial for a financial company that promotes the idea that retirement is a number: accumulating the amount of money we need to live comfortably without a paycheck from employment.  I confess that I viewed retirement that way, until recently.   But while reading Billy Graham’s new book, Nearing Home: Life, Faith and Finishing Well, which is primarily about aging gracefully with purpose and preparing for death, I was surprised to find that Dr. Graham tackled the issue of retirement in Chapter 2, “Don’t Retire from Life.”   Dr. Graham said, “No matter who we are, retirement presents us with two choices. Either we can use it to indulge ourselves, or we can use it to make an impact on the lives of others. In other words, the choice we face is between empty self-indulgence and meaningful activity.”   Dr. Graham wrote about how important it is to plan for … [Read more...]

By Jerry Love, Director of Planned Giving LBF   [img_assist|nid=7995|title=Chart on Giving|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=306]With the enactment of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 through the end of 2011, individuals had the opportunity to use their Individual Retirement Accounts to make gifts directly to charitable and ministries.  Under this provision, Charitable IRA Rollover, the IRA owner could instruct the custodian to make a distribution directly to a church, college or other charitable organization.  There was no tax deduction for the gift but the donor did not have to claim the distribution as income.   Provision expires, but opportunities for giving still exist   This Charitable IRA Rollover provision was allowed to expire at the end of 2011.  However, it does not mean that retirement plan assets should be overlooked as a funding source for charitable gifts. In fact, the income tax treatment they receive can make gifts of these assets a good choice during lifetime and at death.   Due to the tax-deferred nature of retirement assets, their distributions are exposed to income tax and the possibility of estate taxes.  Retirement plan assets may be the best choice for … [Read more...]