Monday, December 12, 2016

• Teen overcomes fears to spread Gospel in S. Africa

  by Elaine Gaston, posted Monday, December 12, 2016 (2 years ago)

  

  IMB photo

  JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (BP) -- The children crowded around 18-year-old Bethany Amber, hands reaching toward her on the hot South African morning. A few years ago this kind of crowding frightened the Southern Baptist "missionary kid."

  At age 13 she found the lack of personal space in the townships difficult to endure, having just moved to South Africa with her parents who were International Mission Board missionaries.

  "People were always wanting to touch my hair, touch my face," Bethany recalled. Read More

• W.Va. state convention pres. Ron McCoy dies

  by David Roach, posted Monday, December 12, 2016 (2 years ago)

  

  WVCSB photo.

  WHEELING, W.Va. (BP) -- Ron McCoy, the second-term president of the West Virginia Convention of Southern Baptists who urged his state's Baptists last month to be catalysts for revival, died Dec. 8 after a battle with cancer. He was 78.

  Associational missionary for the Upper Ohio Valley Baptist Association in Wheeling, W.Va., since 2014, McCoy was elected WVCSB president in 2015 and again last month.

  Addressing attendees at the WVCSB annual meeting Nov. 3-4 in Triadelphia, ... Read More

• Macy's ends Planned Parenthood contributions

  by Diana Chandler, posted Monday, December 12, 2016 (2 years ago)

  

  NASHVILLE (BP) -- Macy's Inc. has reportedly discontinued contributions to Planned Parenthood after customers complained of the chain's support of the abortion provider.

  Macy's Inc.'s latest 990 tax form verifies that the retail giant no longer includes the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in its community contributions, the research group 2ndVote said, describing the news as the latest "Miracle on 34th Street." Read More

• Thomas Oden, 'hero of orthodox conviction,' dies

  by David Roach, posted Monday, December 12, 2016 (2 years ago)

  

  Photo courtesy of www.ivpress.com.

  NASHVILLE (BP) -- Thomas C. Oden, a prolific Methodist theologian whose midlife turn from theological liberalism inspired a generation of Southern Baptist scholars, died Dec. 8. He was 85.

  Among those to cite Oden's influence on their lives are Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr., Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Provost Jason Duesing, Beeson Divinity School Dean Timothy George, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School President David S. Dockery and Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore. Read More

• Congress passes 1st bill devoted to fighting Boko Haram

  by Onize Ohikere, posted Monday, December 12, 2016 (2 years ago)

  

  Channels TV screen capture.

  WASHINGTON (BP) -- The United States House of Representatives on Dec. 8 unanimously approved a bipartisan bill to help counter Boko Haram's insurgency in northeast Nigeria and other affected African countries. The bill is awaiting the president's signature to become a law.

  The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Frederica Wilson, D.-Fla., and Sen. Susan Collins, R.-Maine, passed in the Senate in September 2015. The pending bill would require the U.S. secretaries of state and defense to develop a five-year strategy to combat the Islamic terror group. The strategy would involve offering assistance to ... Read More

• FIRST-PERSON: A tribute to Thomas C. Oden

  by David S. Dockery, posted Monday, December 12, 2016 (2 years ago)

  "Thomas C. Oden was one of the most prolific and influential theologians of this generation," David Dockery writes. Not only was Thomas, who died Dec. 8, one of the most prolific and influential Christian thinkers of our time, Dockery notes, but his theological journey was also certainly one of the most interesting. Read More