Archives
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Justices decline to rehear abortion case
Posted: 10/11/06
Justices decline to rehear abortion case
By Robert Marus
ABP Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (ABP)—The Supreme Court declined Oct. 10 to reconsider their 1973 decision in Doe v. Bolton, the lesser-known companion case to the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in all 50 states.
The Doe v. Bolton decision, which the court handed down the same day as its more famous sibling, loosened legal restrictions of medical procedures used in abortions.
10/11/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Churches celebrate restoration after arson
Posted: 10/10/06
Churches celebrate restoration after arson
By Hannah Elliott
Associated Baptist Press
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP)—Eight months after arsonists destroyed several rural Baptist church buildings in Alabama, pastors and members from the victimized congregations joined to celebrate the churches’ restoration recently with government officials and leaders from the college where two of the three arsonists were students.
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley (R) and Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), who themselves are both Baptists, attended the event, along with Birmingham-Southern College President David Pollick and Lemarse Washington of the National Conference for Community and Justice. The February fires damaged or destroyed nine Baptist churches, all located near each other in and around Alabama’s Bibb County. The fires made national headlines, calling to mind a string of suspicious fires at rural African-American churches across the South in the 1990s. However, many of the congregations in the February blazes had majority Anglo congregations.
10/10/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Carson-Newman College president gets ‘no confidence’ vote
Posted: 10/10/06
Carson-Newman College
president gets 'no confidence' voteBy Hannah Elliott
Associated Baptist Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. (ABP)—The faculty at Carson-Newman College reported Oct. 5 a vote of “no confidence” for President James Netherton.
Approved by a 129-71 margin, the vote was tangible evidence of growing and widespread dissatisfaction among faculty in the Netherton administration’s leadership. Two hundred of the school’s 260 faculty members voted in the hour-long meeting.
James Netherton 10/10/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Cybercolumn by Brett Younger: Sitting in someone else’s chair
Posted: 10/06/06
CYBER COLUMN:
Sitting in someone else’s chairBy Brett Younger
How do you react when you come to the kitchen table and someone is in your place? What happens when you walk into your office and find someone sitting in your chair? The way we respond says something about us. Some choose not to make a big deal out of it. We sit in another chair and try not to think about it, but all the while we feel strange sitting in someone else’s chair. Others respond more directly. We have no intention of giving up our place. We immediately say, “You’re in my chair. You need to move.” There must be a third category of people who are not only willing, but eager to sit in a different place and see from a different perspective, but the third group has to be the smallest.
Brett Younger Most of the time we have no desire to sit where others sit. We don’t want to know the people who sit elsewhere and think differently, because we like believing that our ideas are the best ideas. We divide the world into us and them. Like the Hatfields and McCoys, the Montagues and Capulets, we rarely question the lines—liberals and conservatives, educated and underprivileged, old and young, insiders and outsiders.
10/06/2006 - By John Rutledge
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SBC urged to take measures to prevent clergy sexual abuse
Posted: 10/03/06
SBC urged to take measures
to prevent clergy sexual abuseBy Hannah Elliott
Associated Baptist Press
NASHVILLE (ABP)—Members of the coalition that fought the Roman Catholic Church’s hierarchy over sexual abuse by priests are asking the Southern Baptist Convention to prevent similar clergy abuse in the denomination’s churches.
Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, recently delivered a letter to the SBC Executive Committee at its Nashville headquarters. It asks convention leaders to form an independent review board to receive and investigate charges of clergy abuse in Southern Baptist congregations.
10/03/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Bill hinders suits over violations of church-state separation
Posted: 10/03/06
Bill hinders suits over violations
of church-state separationBy Robert Marus
ABP Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (ABP)—After impassioned debate on the separation of church and state Sept. 26, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would make it harder to sue the government for violations of church-state separation.
House members voted 244-173 in favor of H.R. 2679, called by supporters the “Public Expression of Religion Act.” In cases involving the First Amendment’s establishment clause, the proposal would prevent federal courts from requiring government entities to reimburse the legal costs of the individual or group that sued the government agency—even though the agency was found in violation of the constitution.
10/03/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Family practice residency teaches Christian service
Posted: 9/29/06
Family practice residency
teaches Christian serviceBy Elizabeth Staples
Communications Intern
HARLINGEN—Valley Baptist Medical Center’s family practice residency program not only provides medical training, but also teaches health care professionals how to help from the heart.
Bruce Leibert has been working in residency programs with his wife since they married 22 years ago.
10/02/2006 - By John Rutledge
