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SBC DIGEST: Youth porn use spurs webinar; Hannibal-LaGrange earns perfect NAIA character score


Youth porn use spurs webinar

NASHVILLE (BP) — How to counter teen pornography use within faith communities is the subject of a webinar to be hosted twice in November by the Religious Alliance Against Pornography.

Among the webinar’s presenters is Dean Inserra, pastor of City Church in Tallahassee, Fla. At least two Southern Baptists serve on the alliance’s advisory board: K. Marshall Williams, pastor of Nazarene Baptist Church in Philadelphia, and Dan Darling, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s vice president for communications.

The Religious Alliance Against Pornography (RAAP) is an interfaith effort to mobilize people to understand and combat pornography. In the past, advisory board members have included retired ERLC President Richard Land and the late Adrian Rogers, a former Southern Baptist Convention president and pastor of Memphis-area Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn.

“It is my prayer,” Williams said in written comments, “that this webinar will help save, heal and deliver many from pornography and instill and revive the passion for sexual purity in our youth and adults.”

Offered Nov. 7 at noon Eastern time and again Nov. 16 at 8 p.m. Eastern, the webinar will cover God’s design for sexuality and marriage, the reality that teens “are looking at pornography in staggering numbers” and potential courses of action for pastors and parents, according to a webinar outline on the RAAP website.

Among questions to be addressed, according to the outline:

— “When should we be talking to our youth about” pornography?

— How should adults discuss pornography with teens?

— “What are some steps we can take with users and those who have become addicted?”

— How can adults help teens “in safely using the technological devices that are connected to the internet?”

The webinar, Williams said, will relay “practical insights and preventive measures to ensure victorious living when it comes to personal holiness according to our unique purpose as ordered by the Divine Orderer.”

Webinar participants may register at bit.ly/pornographys-impact-on-youth.

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Hannibal-LaGrange earns perfect NAIA character score

HANNIBAL, Mo. (BP) — Hannibal-LaGrange University’s athletic department scored a perfect 100 points for the Five-Star Champions of Character Award by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics — one of 14 NAIA institutions to receive a perfect score.

This is the first year for the HLGU Trojans to reach the gold standard since the NAIA, encompassing 250-plus small colleges and universities, established the Champions of Character Award four years ago.

NAIA member institutions earn points in various categories, including character training and promotion; academic focus including student-athlete grade point averages; campus and community service project; and conduct in competition such as having minimal to no ejections during the academic year. At HGLU, teams are asked to conduct one service project on campus or in the Hannibal, Mo., community.

Charles Rapp, Trojans’ assistant baseball coach and Champions of Character liaison for the university, said HGLU’s perfect score is “a natural overflow of our Christian emphasis and is something that the whole department came together to accomplish. Our athletics have always been character-driven, and we take pride in standing out amongst our peers.”

HGLU fields men’s and women’s teams in basketball, soccer, cross country, track and field and golf; men’s teams in baseball and wrestling; and women’s teams in softball and volleyball.

The NAIA, headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., dates its beginnings to a 1937 men’s basketball tournament, now the longest running event in college basketball. According to its naia.org website, the NAIA was the first collegiate athletics association to invite historically black institutions into membership and the first to sponsor both men’s and women’s national championships, now numbering 25.

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