By Gregory Tomlin, Christian Examiner MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Christian Examiner) – Roy Moore, chief justice of Alabama's Supreme Court, has issued an order to his state's probate judges instructing them to halt the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples until conflicts over "existing orders" from the Alabama Supreme Court can be resolved and the ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges clarified. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state laws and constitutional amendments in Kentucky, Michigan, Tennessee and Ohio which declared marriage to be only a union between one man and one woman were unconstitutional – an action most interpreted as creating the right to same-sex marriage nationwide. Moore, however, had noted in his order that the Alabama Supreme Court had upheld the state's ban on same-sex marriage in March 2015, and because Obergefell v. Hodges only addressed the right to same-sex marriage in four states, other states' same-sex marriage laws – including his state's laws – remain unaffected and intact. "Confusion and uncertainty exist among the probate judges of this State as to the effect of Obergefell on the 'existing orders,'" Moore wrote in his four-page order. "Many probate judges are issuing marriage … [Read more...]

By Kelly Ledbetter, Christian Examiner KAY COUNTY, Okla. (Christian Examiner) – Helen Strickland, the wife of 29-year-old vocalist Craig Strickland, tweeted Monday afternoon that his body had been found. "#CraigStrickland was found today. He is safe with his Father in Heaven. Thank you Lord for leading us to him today. I will praise you, Amen," she wrote in her Tweet on social media. Last week he was feared dead in a northwestern Oklahoma lake, as his wife asked for prayers for a miracle and her husband's safe return. "While we hurt and experience the worst pain of our lives, we sometimes believe that God might not be there with us listening when we cry out to Him. But then, when we least expect it, He speaks and comforts us in such beautiful ways," Helen Strickland had tweeted. Ronnie Floyd, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of Cross Church in Springfield, Arkansas, tweeted New Year's Eve: "Heavy hearts and continued prayers from the @crosschurch family for @HelenWisner (Strickland) as the search continues for @BackroadCRAIG." The lead singer, a part of the six-member country and rock band Backroad Anthem, which formed in Arkansas in 2012, was duck hunting with his friend on Kaw Lake when … [Read more...]

By Roy Hayhurst, GuideStone Financial Resources DALLAS — GuideStone Financial Resources, along with LifeWay Research and Baptist state conventions, will open the biennial SBC Church Compensation Survey in 2016. Ministers and church employees are invited to participate in the survey, a resource used by churches of all sizes to determine fair wages and benefits. Survey participants will have the opportunity to enter for a chance to win an iPad®. The survey and complete contest rules are available at GuideStone.org/CompensationSurvey. The survey’s results will be made available in the early fall, in time for many churches considering their 2017 budgets. The survey is the largest free, church compensation study conducted in the United States. The most recent survey results — conducted in 2014 — have been visited almost 55,000 times. “GuideStone works tirelessly to be an advocate for pastors and church staff, ensuring that they are compensated fairly,” said O.S. Hawkins, President of GuideStone Financial Resources. “The surveys can help churches benchmark their own salary and benefits packages against churches of like size within Southern Baptist life.” Survey results are not reported individually. Compensation and benefit … [Read more...]

By Billy Graham Christmas is a special time. It is a family celebration. Other holidays are different. Good Friday and Easter are usually celebrated in church. National days are honored with speeches, parades and the ceremonies of government. But Christmas is glorified in the home because it is the celebration of a birthday. Yet there is irony in the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. He was born away from home, on a journey that symbolized the restless and the wandering nature of the world into which He came. He was born in the insecurity of a barn, a symbol of the fact that during His public ministry, He would have very little home life. He roamed the roads and towns of ancient Palestine. He died, taking the ordeal of the cross so that out of His suffering and His victorious resurrection mankind could find redemption. Christmas means different things to different people. To some, Christmas is merely a means to make more money. People vie with each other in their preparation for the celebration of the occasion. Some of them do not believe in Christ; they may even hate Him. But Christmas has become big business. People are more concerned to hear about their profit from Christmas than to hear about the Prophet from … [Read more...]

By Franklin Graham Jesus’ birth was the fulfillment of numerous prophecies in the Old Testament that foretold the incarnation of the Son of God, who would deliver men from the guilt, penalty and power of sin, which has brought death and enslavement since the time of Adam. More than 700 years before the Savior was born, Isaiah prophesied: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:6-7). The Scriptures actually foretold the Messiah’s coming in the Book of Genesis when the Lord spoke to the serpent following the calamitous disobedience of Adam and Eve in the garden: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he [Christ] will crush your [Satan’s] head, and you [the devil] will strike his [Christ’s] heel” (Genesis 3:15, NIV). Jesus came two millennia ago to a small Judean village for one ultimate purpose: to die on a horrid Roman instrument of execution—the cross—for the sins of men. There He would deal with the universal penalty and consequences of … [Read more...]

By Billy Graham Today is Christmas, read Luke 2:11, 13–14. The greatest sermon ever preached was delivered by angels on this historic night. It has always been interesting to me that this message was delivered at night. It wasn’t night because the sun had gone down. It was night because the world was surrounded in spiritual and moral gloom. People were driven by greed, intolerance, and lust for power. Religion had become a device for the rich in the exploitation of the poor. Men robbed and swindled and profiteered under the cloak of religion; they even fought wars in the name of religion. In every arena of life, it was night when Jesus came. Things haven’t changed. Today, there seems to be a moral night that has settled over our world—sexual immorality, pleasure-mad people, lusting for money and power—the same as it was in the days when Jesus came 2,000 years ago. It is in the darkest hour that Christ often comes. He brings the joy, the thrill, the peace, and the glory such as you have never known—when you and your loved ones give your lives to Him. How has Jesus shown Himself to you in your darkest hour? Reflect on this for Christmas. … [Read more...]

By Staff, Alliance Defending Freedom WASHINGTON – Alliance Defending Freedom and the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty have filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in support of a Marine court-martialed for posting a Bible verse in her workspace. Lance Cpl. Monifa Sterling posted the verse “No weapons formed against me shall prosper,” a reference to Isaiah 54:17, three times around her workspace at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in honor of the Trinity. Her supervisor said, “I don’t like the tone,” and told her to take them down. When Sterling declined, her supervisor took them down at the end of the duty day. Sterling reprinted and re-posted the messages, but she found them in the trash the next morning. She was then court-martialed. “No one in our military who goes to work every day to defend our freedoms should then be court-martialed for exercising those very freedoms,” said ADF Legal Counsel and Director of Military Affairs Daniel Briggs, a former Air Force JAG officer. “This case is about Monifa, but it is also about every American who puts on the uniform in service to this country. The question is whether they will be allowed to exercise their faith in the military, or … [Read more...]

By Staff, Alliance Defending Freedom WASHINGTON – Alliance Defending Freedom filed a brief Dec. 18 with the U.S. Supreme Court that answers arguments the state of Missouri has made in favor of religious discrimination in what is supposed to be a religion-neutral state program. ADF attorneys, who represent the school, argue that the high court should reverse a lower court decision that allowed the state to exclude a Christian pre-school and daycare center from the program, which provides recycled tires to surface children’s playgrounds. Earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit upheld a district court’s decision in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Pauley that ruled the state was justified in denying the center because a church runs it. This month, 10 states filed a brief with the Supreme Court arguing that the high court should grant the ADF petition and reverse that ruling. “Children’s safety is no less important on church daycare playgrounds than it is on other daycare playgrounds,” said ADF Senior Counsel Erik Stanley. “Missouri should understand that the U.S. Constitution prohibits anti-religious bias, which is what the state exhibited when it denied Trinity Lutheran’s scrap tire … [Read more...]

By Staff, Alliance Defending Freedom FALLS CHURCH, Va. – A small city in Virginia has changed its tune on ban on Christmas caroling on public sidewalks. After receiving a letter from Alliance Defending Freedom, the city of Falls Church, Va., has decided to allow Christmas carolers to sing on a public sidewalk outside of an abortion business Dec. 22. “No one should try to shut down Christmas carols on a public sidewalk, and we’re pleased that that city has changed its tune and says it won’t do that again,” said ADF senior counsel Matt Bowman. “We will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that the carolers will be able to exercise their constitutionally protected freedom to sing tomorrow as planned.” Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter Dec. 21 to the Falls Church Police Department after two officers told several Christmas carolers to stop singing on a public sidewalk outside of an abortion business. One of the carolers captured the officers on video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpWEa85iZbc&feature=youtube) informing the carolers that singing is prohibited under a noise ordinance and that they must cease singing. The letter explains that police cannot use the ordinance to stop a constitutionally … [Read more...]

By David Roach, Baptist Press NASHVILLE (BP) - Everyone knows the biblical Christmas story, with Mary riding on a donkey, an innkeeper turning away Mary and Joseph, animals surrounding the Christ child and three wise men visiting Jesus on the night of His birth. Or do they? It may come as a surprise to some that none of these elements are included in the two scriptural accounts of Jesus' birth in Matthew and Luke -- though they commonly are featured in Christmas pageants. In "The First Days of Jesus," published this year by Crossway, two authors with Southern Baptist ties urge believers to separate fact from fiction through "a careful reading of the New Testament infancy narratives in their historical context." Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Andreas Köstenberger and Southeastern Ph.D. graduate Alexander Stewart argue such a reading will help Christians "clear away the brush so [they] can truly encounter and be changed by the Christ of Christmas." The authors analyze the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke as well as the theological presentation of Jesus' incarnation in John. They also propose a harmonization of the narratives in Matthew and Luke to refute critics who erroneously claim the … [Read more...]