Texas Baptists Committed

FACT OR FICTION: HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE BGCT
By H. Leroy Fenton

The price of bias is often confusion. The cost in terms of truth and emotion is tremendous.

God’s Name Used In Vain By Brent Beasley

I was preparing a sermon recently on the third of the Ten Commandments given to Moses in the Mount Sinai wilderness. This is the commandment which forbids taking the name of the Lord in vain.

LYLE E. SCHALLER BRAGS ON TEXAS BAPTISTS

Lyle Schaller, one of the nation’s top experts on churches and church organizations, has singled out the Baptist General Convention of Texas as “one of the most futureoriented and trendsetting regional judicatories in American Protestantism.”

MISSIONS– THE FOCUS OF TEXAS BAPTISTS
by Mauriece V. Johnston

The great Texas Baptist family has always been focused on missions. Innovative ways of doing missions are a part of our churches and associations in 1996.

“Nehemiah Project” Could Affect Us All
by Dr. Don Wilkey, Jr.

Shockwaves have rumbled out of Houston, Texas, concerning the possible loss of 501(c)(3) tax exempt status by Houston Second Baptist Church.

COMMENTARY: Neutral and Free: Religion, values, and the public schools
by Oliver Thomas

Despite the rhetoric of some preachers and politicians, there are hopeful signs that public schools finally may be beginning to get it right about religion.

Paige Patterson writes on Connectionalism

“Baptists have strongly resisted connectionalism while emphasizing cooperation.

RECONCILIATION? ARE WE LIVING IN REALITY?

As I have read numerous Baptist materials from a variety of sources in and out of Texas, I noticed the frequent use of the word “Reconciliation.”

STATES DON’T NEED BUDGET OK FROM NASHVILLE by Mark Wingfield

Do state or regional Baptist conventions have the right to determine how they spend their own money?

THE GOSPEL AND “BAD” PEOPLE
by Phil Lineberger

Mark Coppenger, the new president of Midwestern Seminary, recently spoke to a Virginia group about the condition of people who do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

The Myth of “The Myth of Church–State Separation”
by Mark Weldon Whitten

Since the Supreme Court decision of Everson vs. Board of Education in 1947, the guiding principle embraced by the Supreme Court for the interpretation of the nonestablishment and free exercise clauses of the Constitution of the United States has been that of the ‘separation of church and state.’

THE TEST
by Dean Dickens

Few of us have heard of Molly Ryan of Ballycastle, Northern Ireland. Molly built a fully functioning artificial heart using only household items.

WILL THE REAL EVANGELICALS PLEASE STAND UP?
By Mark Wingfield

Few American Protestants want to be called fundamentalists or liberals anymore, but it seems almost everyone wants to be classified as an evangelical.

Past Statements by Fundamentalist Leaders on The Cooperative Program

Quote from Adrian Rogers: “The ‘best solution’ would be to go back and narrow our theology again, ‘but I sincerely doubt that will ever happen… The Cooperative Program has become a sacred cow…”’ (James C. Hefley, The Truth in Crisis, Vol. II, 1987, p. 7

“Draper invited moderate and conservative leaders to an informal summit in Irving, Texas, with agency heads invited to listen and offer opinions. There, Paige Patterson presented the agency heads a four-point peace proposal: (1) Give conservatives parity with moderates in employment, especially in seminaries. (2) Have denominational employees who do not prefer the term “inerrancy” state ‘publically, clearly and unambiguously’ what they believe about the Bible and other essential doctrines. (3) See that students holding to inerrancy are not ridiculed in classrooms. (4) Support restructure of the Cooperative Program so that churches can give only to agencies whose programs they can in ‘good conscience’ approve.” (Ibid., p. 9)

“Patterson said inerrantists should not be expected to continue giving financial support (through the Cooperative Program) for what they do not believe. If the SBC is going to be broad enough to accept a wide diversity of programming, ‘we must devise a way to allow us not to support those things we oppose without being called ‘uncooperative.”’ (Ibid., p.22)