Baptist & Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

START PRAYING NOW FOR SBC MEETING IN JUNE

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

For a number of years the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention has come and gone without a lot of fanfare, a far cry from the late 1970s to the early 2000s when annual meetings were national news during the years of the “Conservative Resurgence.”

Attendance has dwindled dramatically at annual meetings but there could be a major uptick in numbers when Southern Baptists gather June 9-10 in Orlando, Fla. Yes, the location will be a factor in more attendees, but so will recent developments in the Southern Baptist Convention.

A dissatisfaction with some current leaders in the SBC is becoming more prevalent among pastors and churches throughout the SBC, including Tennessee. Here are just a few examples. [Read more…]

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ERLC, EC TRUSTEE OFFICERS RESPOND TO TASK FORCE ANNOUNCEMENT

By George Schroeder
Baptist Press

The SBC Executive Committee voted Tuesday (Feb. 18) to form a seven-member task force to address some Southern Baptists’ concerns about actions taken by the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. — Photo by Eric Brown

NASHVILLE — Officers of the Board of Trustees of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) strongly objected Thursday (Feb. 20) to the formation of a task force to study the ERLC’s effectiveness and instructed the entity and its leadership “not to comply” with the inquiry.

In an open letter to SBC Executive Committee chairman Mike Stone and EC members, the ERLC trustee officers called the task force, which was formed by the EC earlier this week, “unwarranted, divisive, and disrespectful.” Signed by ERLC Board of Trustees chairman David Prince and the board’s other officers, the letter suggested the EC was attempting to usurp the role delegated to the ERLC’s trustees and included a statement of support for ERLC president Russell Moore.

“We find the action of the Executive Committee … disappointing, unnecessary, and harmful to our cooperative work in the SBC,” the ERLC trustee officers wrote, adding: “At a time where a unified voice is needed for our cooperative Gospel work, the Executive Committee is sowing needless division, treating trustees with disrespect, and spreading suspicion with this unnecessary task force.” [Read more…]

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ERLC: LAW DOES NOT INCLUDE GAY, TRANSGENDER RIGHTS

By Tom Strode
Baptist Press

WASHINGTON — Non-discrimination protections in federal workplace law do not cover “sexual orientation” or “gender identity,” the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and other faith-based organizations have told the U.S. Supreme Court.

The ERLC signed onto friend-of-the-court briefs filed Aug. 23 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) that urge the high court to rule that the classification “sex” in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not include “sexual orientation” or “gender identity.” [Read more…]

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NEW HHS RULE ON GENDER TRANSITION DRAWS PRAISE

By Tom Strode
Baptist Press

WASHINGTON — Religious liberty and pro-life advocates have praised a newly proposed federal regulation to revise an Obama administration rule that required doctors to perform gender transition procedures as well as abortions.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a proposed regulation May 24 to rescind a 2016 rule that defined discrimination “on the basis of sex” to include gender identity and abortion. The redefinition of “sex” by the Obama-era HHS described gender identity as “an individual’s internal sense of gender, which may be male, female, neither or a combination of male and female, and which may be different from an individual’s sex assigned at birth.” [Read more…]

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MEETING TO FOCUS ON ‘GOSPEL ABOVE ALL’

Baptist Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Keeping the focus on the “Gospel Above All” theme is Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear’s main goal going into SBC’s annual meeting in Birmingham, Ala., June 11-12.

But following a year of transition among five SBC entities searching for new leadership and the convention responding to reports of sexual abuse, Greear noted there will be other issues demanding attention.

Greear, who is expected to be reelected SBC president without opposition, acknowledged that confronting sexual abuse is among them. [Read more…]

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EC WRAP-UP: SEX ABUSE PREVENTION, PRES. SEARCH, DR

Baptist Press staff

Concern over Baptist work in Utah and Idaho, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission were voiced during an Executive Committee open forum Sept. 18. Photo by Morris Abernathy

NASHVILLE — An initiative by Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear to address sexual abuse in the church will be funded by the first $250,000 in Cooperative Program overage for 2017-2018, by a vote of the SBC Executive Committee. [Read more…]

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VICE PRESIDENT ADDRESSES SBC MESSENGERS IN DALLAS

Pence appearance, Greear election were among top storylines at this year’s annual meeting

Editor’s Note: Visit baptistandreflector.org for complete coverage of the SBC annual meeting.

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

 

Messengers at the SBC annual meeting raise their ballots while voting on one of the 20 proposed motions on June 12. — Photo by Matt Miller/Baptist Press

DALLAS — Though an attempt was made to exclude the vice president of the United States from speaking to Southern Baptist Convention messengers, Mike Pence addressed the convention in the June 13 morning session.

Pence’s appearance was one of several highlights during the annual meeting held June 12-13 in Dallas. The meeting drew 9,637 messengers, including 615 from Tennessee. Tennessee trailed only Texas (2,036) and Louisiana (718) in number of messengers. It was the largest attended convention since 2010. [Read more…]

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CONFERENCE FOCUSES ON ‘TODAY’S PARENTING’

By David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector

ERLC president Russell Moore addresses the crowd at this year’s ERLC national conference at the Opryland Hotel.

NASHVILLE — The lineup of speakers at this year’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission conference was impressive. So, too, was the setting for the event, which was held at the sprawling Opryland Hotel.

But the true appeal of this year’s gathering was the event’s central topic: Parenting.

Touching on subjects that ranged from social media to sports to foster care, the conference examined the guidelines of “Christ-Centered Parenting in a Complex World.” The event generated a sell-out crowd that was estimated around 1,300. [Read more…]

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THE NASHVILLE STATEMENT: A CLEAR WORD IN A CONFUSED SOCIETY

By Todd Brady
Vice President for University Ministries, Union University

My wife and I were in Nashville recently for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s annual conference on parenting.  Hearing from folks like Russell Moore, Jen Wilken, Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) and others, we sought to learn what we could to grow in this great work of parenting.

While we were there, the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood finalized The Nashville Statement, a series of affirmations and denials “declaring once again the true story of the world and of our place in it—particularly as male and female.”  In a world of squishy ambiguities, vague double-speak and moral menageries, I was glad to read this clear, precise and definitive declaration espousing God’s design for biblical sexuality.  You may read The Nashville Statement at www.cbmw.com. [Read more…]

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NEWS ANALYSIS: WHAT IS THE ALT-RIGHT MOVEMENT?

By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press

The alt-right social and political movement is in the spotlight after the Southern Baptist Convention condemned alternative-right white supremacy at its 2017 annual meeting in Phoenix.

What is the alt-right movement?

Many Southern Baptists aren’t familiar with the term, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) President Russell Moore said in the June 14 “The Weekly,” ERLC’s e-mail newsletter on news and opinion from the public square. Speaking from the floor of the annual meeting as a messenger from Grace Church in Nashville, Moore was among those encouraging adoption of the resolution condemning “the anti-Gospel of alt-right white supremacy.” [Read more…]

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