Hawaiians thankful: No deaths or serious injuries
Hawaii Baptists are expressing thanks that no deaths or serious injuries were reported when a 6.7-magnitude earthquake shook the island chain around 7 a.m. local time Sunday, Oct. 15. The quake was the strongest to hit Hawaii in more than two decades, and it was followed by several aftershocks, including one measuring 6.0. Bob Duffer, director of missions for the Neighbor Islands Baptist Association of Hawaii, told Baptist Press that First Baptist Church of Waimea in Kamuela on the Big Island sustained some water damage from broken pipes and some broken windows. At the parsonage there, a chimney fell and caused some structural damage. Waikoloa Baptist Church, also on the Big Island, was closest to the epicenter of the earthquake, and the church’s pastor, Emerson Wiles, said people were grateful to be recovering material possessions rather than lost lives.
Pakistan’s earthquake survivors receive help
On the first anniversary of Pakistan’s October 2005 earthquake, politicians cut ribbons at ceremonies and Christians gathered in prayer, while most survivors of the tragedy spent the day getting on with their lives. They were cutting grass for their animals to eat, clearing roads of recent landslides, harvesting corn, building walls of stone and hand-mixed cement, driving their livestock south for the upcoming winter, buying and selling vegetables, and sweeping out their tents. Few in the mountain villages were even aware of the Oct. 8 minute of silence at 8:52 a.m. to memorialize their dead. Government officials estimate the 7.6-magnitude earthquake killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistan and left about 3 million homeless. In neighboring India, the quake killed another 1,300 people and rendered about 150,000 people homeless. A year later, the graves lay silent – not neglected, but far from celebrated — as tens of thousands of earthquake survivors face a second winter without adequate food or shelter, or any assurance of salvation.
NBC cuts crucifixion scene from Madonna concert
Following pressure from Christian groups accusing NBC of a double standard, NBC has decided to cut the crucifixion scene from a November broadcast of a concert from Madonna’s “Confessions” tour, according to the Associated Press in an article also picked up by Billboard magazine Oct. 20. NBC did not say why they decided to cut the scene, but a spokesperson said they will use images from other cameras while Madonna is mounted on a mirrored cross during the first part of the song “Live to Tell,” AP reported. The network only said in a statement that the song has been revised for the broadcast special. Several Christian groups had threatened to boycott one of the concert’s sponsors if the cross scene aired on NBC, especially in light of the network’s decision to censor biblical messages from its Saturday morning broadcasts of the popular Christian-themed children’s cartoon “VeggieTales.”
$16 million gift boosts new chapel at Southwestern
In what is one of the largest gifts from individuals in the 98-year history of Southwestern Baptist Seminary, longtime seminary benefactors Harold and Dottie Riley have committed $16 million as the lead gift to construct a 3,500-seat chapel on the seminary’s campus. Southwestern Seminary president Paige Patterson announced the gift to the seminary trustees during their fall meeting Oct. 17. Harold Riley is a Fort Worth, Tex., native and the chairman of the board of Citizens, Inc., Financial Group of Companies, headquartered in Austin. The Rileys provided a lead gift for the seminary’s Ray I. Riley Alumni Center, named in honor of Harold’s father, a 1953 Southwestern graduate. The gift to help fund the new chapel highlights the Rileys’ commitment to Southwestern Seminary students. “We believe the new chapel is a critical need of the seminary that should substantially enhance the seminary’s ability to train and equip the next generation of pastors, missionaries and church workers,” Harold Riley said.