Land named to USCIRF for 4th term
Southern Baptist church-state specialist Richard Land has been appointed to a fourth term on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky reappointed the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission to a two-year term on the nine-person panel. The action was made official Oct. 22, when it appeared in the Congressional Record. USCIRF chair Michael Cromartie said the commissioners “are delighted to continue working with” Land, whom he described as “certainly among the religious leaders most committed to advancing the freedom of religion.” USCIRF, which is a nonpartisan panel appointed by the president and members of Congress, researches the status of religious liberty in other countries and provides reports and recommendations to the White House and legislators.
Southeastern pres. endorses Huckabee
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee picked up an endorsement from fellow Baptist and Southeastern Baptist Seminary president Daniel Akin Nov. 5. Akin made the endorsement as a private citizen, telling The News & Observer newspaper that the former Arkansas governor’s positions on issues, such as his opposition to abortion rights and his support of the traditional family, closely align with his own positions. “At this time I’ll put my support behind the person who would do the best job regardless of where they are in the polls,” Akin told the newspaper. Huckabee is an ordained Southern Baptist minister.
BGCT elects woman president
Joy Fenner, a retired missionary and Texas Woman’s Missionary Union executive, was elected president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas over David Lowrie, pastor of First Baptist Church, Oct. 29. In one of the BGCT’s closest presidential votes, 900-840, Fenner became the first woman elected as BGCT president. Fenner and her husband Charlie were missionaries with the International Mission Board in Japan for 14 years. She served 21 years as the executive director-treasurer of the Texas Woman’s Missionary Union and is now executive director emeritus. Fenner, a layperson from Garland, will preside over a state convention whose staff is in transition and budget is tightening. BGCT executive director Charles Wade will retire in January, chief operating officer Ron Gunter’s resignation takes effect at the end of November, and last month the BGCT terminated the employment of 29 convention staff members due to budget cuts.
Oct. CP giving dips from last year
October contributions of nearly $14.8 million through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program were 3.8 percent below CP gifts received in October 2006. As of Oct. 31, 2007, CP gifts of $14,779,886 were $579,068 below the $15,358,955 received last October. Meanwhile, designated giving of $3,062,336 during October was 6 percent, or $173,466, above gifts of $2,888,870 received last October. For the CP allocation budget, the October total of $14,779,886 is 88.4 percent of the $16,716,794 budgeted to support Southern Baptist ministries. Southern Baptists surpassed for the first time the $400 million mark in combined CP and designated giving during the last fiscal year. Gifts through the CP reached $205.7 million during the fiscal year spanning Oct. 1, 2006, to Sept. 30, 2007, while designated gifts, including missions offerings, topped $204.9 million. CP gifts increased 2.6 percent during the year while designated gifts increased 7.1 percent.
Embryonic stem cell proposal defeated
New Jersey citizens delivered an historic blow to embryonic stem cell research Nov. 6 when pro-lifers teamed up with anti-debt and anti-tax voters to defeat a $450 million bond proposal that would have borrowed money to fund the controversial research. It was a surprising outcome for the ballot question, which led in pre-election polls but lost on election night, 53-47 percent. New Jersey became the first state to defeat an embryonic stem cell proposal at the ballot box, after California voters in 2004 passed a $3 billion research initiative and Missouri voters in 2006 OK’d a constitutional amendment protecting embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning. Those votes also were close.