June 10, 2002
___ Merritt won't meet with protesters. Southern Baptist Convention President James Merritt will ignore an invitation to meet with representatives of Soulforce, a gay-rights group, at the SBC annual meeting in St. Louis. A May 23 letter to Merritt threatened escalated protests this year unless the SBC president joins Soulforce in denouncing views the group says promote violence against gays. "He feels like he has made his position clear to them and will not be responding to this particular letter," said Dan Greer, Merritt's associate pastor at First Baptist Church of Snellville, Ga.
___ Children's music lines consolidated. LifeWay Christian Resources has announced a reorganization of its Children's Music Series product line. The current five product lines will be reduced to three. Beginning this fall, the series will include Music Time, for ages 3 through kindergarten; Music Makers, for grades one through three; and Young Musicians, for grades four through six. Music & Me, a product designed for 3-year-olds, and the Children's Choir product line, a combined age group product, no longer will be offered.
___ New publication in Missouri. The Missouri Baptist Convention has announced a new publication and editor to replace the Word & Way, a weekly journal that recently declared a self-perpetuating board in order to avoid control by fundamentalists. Word & Way still publishes and still covers Missouri Baptist life, but the historic newspaper is out of favor with those who have gained control of the Missouri Baptist Convention. The new publication, which will mainly be distributed electronically, will be called the Pathway. Its editor will be Don Hinkle, a correspondent for Baptist Press who is a doctoral student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
___ Merritt: SBC losing focus on evangelism. The Southern Baptist Convention is losing its focus on evangelism, according to outgoing SBC President James Merritt. He offered the assessment in an interview published in Baptist Press. "The Cooperative Program is extremely healthy and doing well," he said. "Doctrinally, we've never been stronger or more united. Our confession of faith, the Baptist Faith & Message, has been strengthened, and I'm very pleased with the changes that were made. ... I am greatly afraid this denomination is getting away from evangelism. I am very concerned, quite frankly. I don't believe this convention, as a whole, has a heart for personal evangelism like we ought to have and like we need to have."
___ Andersen pays settlement. Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano announced June 5 that Arthur Andersen had completed payment of a $217 million settlement it signed with the state of Arizona and the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit involving the failure of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona. "We look forward to the parties obtaining final court approval so that this money can be distributed to BFA's investors this year," Napolitano said.
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