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"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

Final judgment entered in GuideStone litigation that went to Supreme Court

By Roy Hayhurst, GuideStone Financial Resources DALLAS, Texas - A final judgment was entered in favor of GuideStone last month in the litigation over the Obama-era contraceptive mandate that would have required certain ministries served by GuideStone to provide abortion-causing drugs and devices or face crippling fines. The judgment brings to a conclusion the case GuideStone filed against the federal government to protect its health plan and the ministries it serves. The litigation, which made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 where the justices ruled unanimously in favor of GuideStone and its co-plaintiffs, was sent back to the trial court for final disposition. “This is an important conclusion for our case where we finally have a clear declarative judgment that says the government cannot force a church-controlled organization like GuideStone to violate its faith in the manner the previous administration attempted to do,” GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins said. “We are thankful for the prayers and support of our trustees, of the counsel we had from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and from others who spent tireless hours working on behalf of the unborn.” The final judgment was a necessary step due to … [Read more...]

The Southern Baptist Convention is undergoing a seismic shift

By Gerald Harris, former editor of the Christian Index Following the 1990 Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans a host of conservative Baptists converged on the Café du Monde to celebrate another victory for the cause of biblical inerrancy. Paige Patterson, writing in the Southwestern Journal of Theology, proclaimed, “The aroma of café au lait and powdered sugar-covered beignets was discernible several hundred feet from the famous coffee house. “That night as the convention parliamentarian led the rejoicing conservatives in singing ‘Victory in Jesus,’ that coffee aroma was to conservatives the aroma of life unto life, but to scores of moderates who had tasted several years of defeat, it became the aroma of death unto death.” I have had over a month to process the events of the most recent Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas; and for me it was a Café du Monde experience. The only difference is that I felt like I smelled the aroma of death unto death – at least for the SBC I have known for a very long time. The Southern Baptist Convention is not just changing; it has changed. Many will consider it a blessed conversion. Others will feel disenfranchised, marginalized, and excluded. This convention confirmed that … [Read more...]