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Cybercolumn By John Duncan: Thanksgiving list
Posted: 11/10/06
CYBER COLUMN:
Thanksgiving listBy John Duncan
I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, pondering life as I know it on this rainy day. Another Sunday has folded its page on the calendar, and Thanksgiving soon arrives. I love the Lord, Sundays, the church and have so much for which to give thanks.
Actually, I was thinking about that first Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving has its roots in the harvest home celebrations that took place in England before the Pilgrims ever arrived on the sand and shores of America. Thirty-eight English settlers docked the shores of the James River at the Berkley plantation in what is today known as Charles City, Va. The settlers declared, a “Day of thanksgiving to God” after their torturous ride across the Atlantic. Later, another group of Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock on Dec. 11, 1620, and then further south at Cape Cod, Mass. I can only imagine that first, harsh winter in New England. The snow, the questions, the death as they lost about half their settlers, the grief, the misery, the agony, the anger, the longing for home, the joy, and even the adventure of the new land.
John Duncan 11/10/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Texas Baptist Forum
Posted: 11/10/06
Texas Baptist Forum
Not all brothers
Why do people assume Christians, Jews and Muslims are all heirs of Abraham?
Abraham was not Noah; certainly not Adam or God. He wasn’t in a vacuum, and humanity didn’t begin with him. There were plenty of people alive already when God told him (Genesis 12:1) to get away from them, including his kinfolks. And what about those living in the land God sent him to, not to mention enemies along the way? Who are their descendants today?
Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.
“Dear friends, until Moses comes down with two stone tablets from Brokeback Mountain saying we’ve changed the rules, let’s keep it like it is.”
Mike Huckabee
Arkansas governor and former Baptist pastor, speaking about same-sex marriage (RNS)“Those of us on the right have been losing ground since the 1970s and ’80s. Can we ultimately win? I think you would need a reconversion of the country to a traditionalist, Christian point of view—and I don’t see that coming.”
Pat Buchanan
Conservative author of the new book State of Emergency, discussing his belief that conservatives will lose the culture wars (Time magazine/RNS)“Abu Ghraib: I believe that really hurt us. It hurt us internationally. It kind of eased us off the moral high ground; we weren’t a country that was capable of, on the one hand, promoting democracy and then treating people decently.”
President Bush
Responding to a reporter’s question at a White House news conference about torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq (RNS)I have to believe those who truly claim Abraham as their ancestral or spiritual patriarch cannot be enemies among themselves, and those of murderous intent surely descended from the “mixed multitudes” that were a threat then, as now. The fact is, none of us knows who we truly are genetically, only who we choose to be and how we choose to behave.
11/10/2006 - By John Rutledge
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2nd Opinion: Who will seek Middle East peace?
Posted: 11/10/06
2nd Opinion:
Who will seek Middle East peace?By Denton Lotz
Every day, the church is confronted with great ethical issues involving war and peace, corruption and justice, issues of both personal and social consequences. The waiting world, in the form of the secular media, wants answers from Christians: “Whose side are you on? Where do you stand?” Unfortunately, the church and world are so polarized that often we do not speak with one voice. This has always been the case with humanity, from Cain and Abel disagreeing until today.
During the days of the Vietnam War, there were great ethical controversies confronting the church. Paul Ramsey, professor of ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary, wrote a book titled Who Speaks for the Church? He questioned whether the liberal voice was truly speaking for the church.
Today, there are those who ask whether the conservative voice is really speaking for the church. The war between Israel and Hezbollah has again forced Christians to give an answer. And many different answers have been given.
11/10/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Evidence found of misuse of Valley funds
Updated: 11/03/06
BGCT executive board member Al Flores during a question and answer session following the presentation of the investigation into alleged misappropriation of BGCT church starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley. (Photos by Barbara Bedrick/BGCT) Evidence found of misuse of Valley funds
By Ken Camp
Managing Editor
DALLAS—A five-month investigation uncovered evidence Baptist General Convention of Texas church starting funds were misused between 1999 and 2005 in the Rio Grande Valley.
At a called meeting of the BGCT Executive Board Oct. 31, investigators reported they discovered up to 98 percent of the 258 church starts reported by three pastors in the Valley—Otto Arango, Aaron de la Torre and Armando Vera—no longer exist. And some never existed, except on paper. The BGCT gave more than $1.3 million in start-up funding and monthly financial support to those 258 churches.
