Baptist Briefs

Posted: 11/02/07

Baptist Briefs

Land named to new term on commission. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, has been appointed to a fourth term on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky reappointed Land to a two-year term on the nine-person panel. The commission, a nonpartisan panel appointed by the president and members of Congress, researches the status of religious liberty in other countries and provides reports and recommendations to the White House and legislators. The president selects three members of the commission, while congressional leaders name the other six. The State Department’s ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom serves as a nonvoting member of the panel.

NAMB finalizes FamilyNet sale. Charles Stanley, founder and president of In Touch Ministries, and Geoff Hammond, president of the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board, signed documents Oct. 25 finalizing the sale of the mission board’s FamilyNet television network to In Touch. Negotiations between the two ministries began several months ago and were announced in a letter of intent from In Touch to NAMB in August. Under the agreement, NAMB will continue to have 30 minutes of programming on both the television and a satellite radio channel each week. Also, a NAMB representative will hold a chair on FamilyNet’s board of directors.

Veteran seminary professors recognized. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary trustees honored John and Robina Drakeford, George and Linda Kelm, and James Leo and Myrta Garrett with the L.R. Scarborough Award, named for the seminary’s second president. Drakeford, who taught counseling and psychology and founded the seminary’s Baptist Marriage and Family Counseling Center in 1960, was recognized posthumously. George and Linda Kelm were leaders in developing and organizing the seminary’s archaeology program, the Charles D. Tandy Archaeological Museum and the Charles D. Tandy Center for Archaeological Research. James Leo Garrett Jr., longtime professor of systematic theology, became a distinguished professor at Southwestern in 1991 and has authored, co-authored, edited and co-edited 134 published works, including the authorship of his two-volume Systematic Theology: Biblical, Historical and Evangelical.

Seminary to build Homemaking House. Southwestern Baptist Theological Semi-nary trustees unanimously approved construction of a Homemaking House, providing an instruction facility and student housing for the seminary’s homemaking concentration. The house will contain three primary teaching areas—a multifunction room for instruction with computer resources; a room for students to learn about working with and laundering textiles; and a kitchen, complete with appliances and a horseshoe-shaped counter for instruction in food preparation. Upstairs, two rooms will house seniors in the homemaking concentration, and another room will be available for guest housing. Trustees learned the seminary has received “a generous donation” for the construction of the building, and the house will be built as soon as all funds have been secured. The plan is for the house to be built and available in August 2008.