- Over at the Dallas Morning News’ Texas Faith forum, George Mason – senior pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church - weighs in on the whole Obama-is-a-Muslim charge.
- To help those suffering from Sickle Cell Anemia, the National Baptist Convention USA is partnering with the American Red Cross to increase awareness of the need for “like” blood donors in the African-American community.
- A group of African-American ministers affiliated with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights are speaking out at the National Press Club against an anti-abortion campaign dubbing black children as “endangered species.” The featured speakers are mostly Baptist including Walter Fauntroy and Christine Wiley. It is interesting to see two of the most outspoken proponents (Wiley) and opponents (Fauntroy) in the D.C. same-sex marriage debate unite together on the issue of abortion!
- Is Nathan Deal, a Baptist and nominee to become only the second Republican Governor of Georgia since Reconstruction, a birther? PolitiFact has the facts.
- At a “fiery candidates’ forum,” ethics-challenged Charlie Rangel had a heated exchange with his Democratic challenger Adam Clayton Powell IV at Convent Baptist Church in Harlem. Powell compared Rangel’s ethics woes to a rotting tree: “To have good fruit, you must have a healthy tree. We no longer have a healthy tree, and we will no longer have good fruit.”
- Will the Judge Paul Pressler School of Law @ Louisiana College be built? When? Check this out.
- Southern Baptist pastors in the Houston-area are calling for better border security and a “just and compassionate solution” to the pressing problem of illegal immigration.
- Former President Jimmy Carter will travel to North Korea to win the release of an American prisoner.
- Katy Friggle-Norton of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America has signed a statement of support for the Park51 Islamic cultural center/mosque project near Ground Zero, formerly known as the Cordoba House.
- Roger Olson, a theology professor at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary, is again blogging about inerrancy. The blog Arminian Today weighs in on the inerrancy debate involving Olson. Another Christian academic is having an online squabble of sorts with Southern Seminary prez Albert Mohler. Check out Karl Giberson’s, a scientist and professor at Eastern Nazarene College, article at the Huffington Post titled How Darwin Sustains My Baptist Search For Truth.
- The National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc. will hold its 130th annual meeting September 6-10 in Kansas City. 30,000 delegates are expected to attend.
- SBC ethics chief Richard Land recently spoke to a group of Southern Baptists in Oklahoma City about his opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque, Health Care Reform, and a push for a federal marriage amendment. Land told the crowd: ”It’s going to take a revolt of the people at the ballot box to do it.” In other words, vote Republican. Meanwhile, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has appointed Land to yet another term on the United States Commission on Religious Freedom.
- Congresswoman Barbara Lee, a member of Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, is urging President Obama to lift the travel ban to Cuba.
- Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) says he doesn’t think the ethics charges against colleague Charlie Rangel are racially-motivated. Lewis said of Rangel’s wild and meandering 37-minute defense from the House floor: ”If I were in his shoes knowing what I know, I would have been quiet.” But Rev. Al Sharpton thinks Rangel is being “crucified.”
- Stephanie Jones, the former Executive-Director of the National Urban League Policy Institute, invokes Dr. King in the mosque controversy in a Washington Post op-ed titled “Martin Luther King Jr. tells us why the mosque must be built.”
Baptists in the News [Politicians, Presidents, Pastors, Paul Pressler]
August 20, 2010
Is Baptist (deacon, I believe) Nathan “Sweet” Deal going to support casino gambling in GA?
Good question. Pretty sure Deal has been both a deacon and a Sunday School teacher at FBC Gainesville. Not sure whether FBC Gainesville still supports the SBC. I assume it does. But they do proudly advertise the CBF on their website.
I didn’t realize the age difference between Deal (68) and Barnes (62). I always viewed Barnes as the old dude trying to make a comeback. Is Mark Taylor (aka “fat bastard” as some of his friends called him) still on the political scene?
Don’t hear much about Taylor. Deal, pandering to a pro-gambling group, was quoted as saying he would “consider” casino gambling. Barnes wisely held it at arms length.
#9 – Baptist signing letter in support of Park 51/mosque: the last line of that letter say of building it: “We also can’t think of a better way to honor the image of God in all of us.”
Curious about this line, I called Baptist Peace Fellowship. The kind woman who answered explained that the Abraham was the father of 3 great religions — Christianity, Judaism and Islam. She said many Baptists believe Jesus is “a word” of God and Muhammed is “a word” of God. So there is not a theological problem with a Board member of the Baptist Peace Fellowship (individually, not as a rep) signing a letter expressing strong support of building a mosque as “a way to honor the image of God in all of us.”
Says, not say.
Also, the Park51 website emphasizes that the cultural center will emphasize pluralism, tolerance and multifaith dialogue, but that the mosque contained therein will be a separate nonprofit run by a separate board.
I’d have to disagree with the BPFNA person who told you that “many Baptists” believe that.
That might be a common view among those affiliated with BPFNA but I wouldn’t characterize theological pluralism as a belief common to “many Baptists.”
I did not know that the mosque would be a separate nonprofit. I wonder if the people behind Park51 could affirm the statement of support. I guess that depends on what type of pluralism they support.