OXFORD, Miss. (BP) -- When University of Mississippi defensive end John Youngblood takes a break during the team's practices, he isn't likely to take a drink of cold, clean water for granted. And in the locker room, Youngblood, an Ole Miss junior, and teammate Christian Russell, a senior linebacker, likely will have greater appreciation for a refreshing shower. The players' gratitude for fresh, convenient water -- and other common necessities -- stems from a mission trip to Haiti last spring with 11 teammates among the volunteers to help provide safe water for a village of 7,000 people. "A lot of guys had no idea the struggles of other cultures and the poverty -- how bad things are there," said Youngblood, who visited the village, Camp Marie, during a similar spring break trip in 2014. "We're kind of spoiled," Russell said. "We tend to complain" when, in reality, "we're really blessed." The people of Camp Marie spend their days "trying to find clean water" amid concerns about "where the next meal is coming from," Russell said. But now, one thing Camp Marie residents no longer will deal with is finding safe, clean water. Until recently, residents were drinking untreated water from a spring. But that changed in late … [Read more...]

NASHVILLE (BP) -- The role of the Cooperative Program in Southern Baptist life took center stage at the 2015 Send North America Conference during a main session panel discussion led by Kevin Ezell. Ezell, president of the North America Mission Board, was joined on the platform by Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary President Daniel Akin, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. and Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore. "Each one of these men would tell you -- we cannot do what we do, and David [Platt] and the IMB [International Mission Board] cannot do what they do, if it were not for the sacrificial gifts of people in churches who give faithfully every Sunday," said Ezell, who added he is equally appreciative of "churches who make a commitment to ... the Cooperative Program. As they give [through] that, part of that goes to support the International Mission Board, the North American Mission Board, the ERLC and all the seminaries." Ezell asked the panelists to share what it means to them to be part of the Southern Baptist family. Akin said during the Aug. 4 panel in Nashville, "Southern Baptists ... have a passion to see the Gospel go to … [Read more...]

LOS ANGELES (BP) -- Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd told a national television audience he is hopeful for America because he sees Christians beginning to pray desperately for a mighty work of God. "While so many are down on our country ... I do my very best to try to constantly call out to God about our nation," Floyd, senior pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas, said on TBN's "Praise the Lord" Aug. 12. "We may give up on our country along the way, but God does not give up on anyone. God can step in anywhere, anytime with anyone and do anything He so chooses." That's why Floyd is "not counting on politicians in Washington to control the ultimate destiny of our nation" but is advocating prayer as a catalyst for "the next great move of God." The two-hour program on which Floyd was a guest focused on the movie "War Room," which is due in theaters Aug. 28 and tells the story of a woman who learns how prayer can help save her struggling marriage. Other guests on the program included filmmakers Alex and Stephen Kendrick, who co-wrote "War Room," as well as the film's lead actress, Priscilla Shirer, a Christian author and Bible teacher. Host Kirk Cameron interviewed guests about the role of prayer in a … [Read more...]

WASHINGTON (BP) -- Two Southern Baptist entities have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower-court decision in order to protect the religious freedom of two Baptist universities and a Presbyterian seminary. The International Mission Board and Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission filed a friend-of-the-court brief Aug. 10 that calls for the high court to grant the appeal of a ruling that upheld enforcement of the abortion/contraception mandate on the Christian schools. In the case, Houston Baptist University, East Texas Baptist University and Westminster Theological Seminary have petitioned the justices regarding a June opinion by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The case is one of more than 50 involving religious non-profit organizations that object to a controversial rule helping implement the 2010 health-care law. The regulation requires employers to provide for their workers not only contraceptives but drugs and devices that can potentially cause abortions. The Department of Health and Human Services provided an exemption to the rule for churches and their auxiliaries, but the accommodation it offered for other religious institutions failed to satisfy the conscience objections of many of … [Read more...]

By J.C. Derrick, World Magazine JACKSON, Tenn.—Union University has informed the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) that it will withdraw from the coalition in the wake of two member schools changing their hiring policies to include same-sex couples. CCCU president Shirley Hoogstra and board chairman Charles Pollard, who also serves as president of John Brown University, received a letter from Union president Dub Oliver on Monday, almost four weeks after Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) and Goshen College announced they would begin hiring non-celibate homosexual staff and faculty. “It grieves us to make this decision as we have been members of the CCCU since 1991,” Oliver wrote in the letter. He said Union benefited from the council’s programs, professional development, and advocacy, but “our faithfulness to the authority of Scripture takes precedence … marriage is at the heart of the Gospel.” Union, founded in 1823 and located in Jackson, Tenn., is the oldest Southern Baptist–affiliated university in the country and could serve as a bellwether for other schools. The university will now look to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and the Family Research … [Read more...]

WASHINGTON (BP) -- Three states have acted swiftly to accomplish what the U.S. Senate could not -- defund Planned Parenthood. Alabama, Louisiana and New Hampshire all have eliminated funding for the country's leading abortion provider after the release of videos providing evidence Planned Parenthood trades in baby body parts. Since mid-July, an investigative group has released five undercover videos that show Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of organs from aborted children for research. It is expected more videos will be released in the next few weeks. Thirteen states have initiated investigations into Planned Parenthood, according to The Christian Science Monitor. After investigations in their states, Florida and Indiana officials have reported they found no evidence of violations by the organization regarding fetal tissue. While some states have canceled contracts with Planned Parenthood, supporters of defunding in the U.S. Senate fell short in their attempt Aug. 3. Senators voted 53-46 to bring to the floor a bill to eliminate federal funds for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and its affiliates. While a majority of senators favored consideration of the proposal, the attempt to invoke … [Read more...]

NASHVILLE, (BP) -- When Mark Bagwell started Golden Corner Church in Walhalla, S.C., 22 years ago, he was shocked by the prevalence of domestic violence among the people he sought to reach. "A huge number of the people I was counseling -- within just a short time of even the first meeting, I would start discovering that they had been abused," Bagwell, now Golden Corner's care pastor, told SBC LIFE. That reality "broke my heart and started bringing about a great passion" to confront the problem. Consistent with Golden Corner's vision of "loving God, loving people," Bagwell educated himself about ministering to domestic violence victims. Today, along with other area ministers, he works in conjunction with a local women's shelter to help abuse victims. He was quoted last year as an advocate for battered women in a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles on domestic violence by Charleston, S.C.'s The Post and Courier. Bagwell is among a growing coalition of Southern Baptists encouraging pastors to place more emphasis on combating domestic abuse -- a common but often overlooked problem within churches. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that more than one in three women (35.6 percent) and one in four … [Read more...]

NASHVILLE (BP) -- Pastors believe not all divorces are created equal, but for many Americans any reason is as good as another, a new study shows. "Pastors make a distinction about the rightness of a divorce based on the reasons behind it," said Scott McConnell, vice president of LifeWay Research in Nashville. "They want to account for the parts of Scripture that speak of possible rationales." However, Americans view virtually all reasons for ending a marriage in the same moral light. In a phone survey of 1,000 Americans, LifeWay Research found 39 percent say divorce is a sin when an individual's spouse commits adultery; 38 percent when the couple no longer loves one another; 38 percent when a spouse abandons the other; 37 percent when a spouse is abused; and 35 percent when a spouse is addicted to pornography. Close to the same (37 percent) say divorce is not a sin in any of these. "About one in seven Americans are saying divorce is a sin in all of these cases, more than a third don't think any of these would be a sin, and almost half believe some circumstances would be sinful, but not others," McConnell said. In a separate phone survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors, less than a third want to classify as sinful an … [Read more...]

FERGUSON, Mo. (BP) -- More than 200 Baptist pastors and leaders gathered at First Baptist Church in Ferguson, Mo., on the day violence had broken out in the early morning hours during the one-year anniversary weekend of the shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer. Baptist leaders from the Missouri and Illinois sides of the Mississippi River met to hear plans for and the challenges of Crossover St. Louis, which will precede the Southern Baptist Convention's 2016 annual meeting, June 14-15 in St. Louis. "This has been a city in crisis for more than a year," SBC President Ronnie Floyd said during the sessions at First Baptist in Ferguson. "When we set up this meeting, we didn't realize it would be the anniversary of that horrible event. But God did. "The entire metropolitan area needs an awakening," Floyd continued. "We need to pray for an outpouring of God's Holy Spirit. God is getting His people ready and this is our moment to make a difference." On Sunday (Aug. 9) after an estimated 1,000 protesters had marched peacefully in Ferguson, police returned gunfire from a suspect around 11:15 p.m., critically wounding the man. Dozens of protesters were arrested throughout the day on Monday, the St. Louis … [Read more...]