Cooperative Program 3.70% behind 2009 pace
Year-to-date contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program are 3.70 percent below the same time frame last year. As of Aug. 31, the year-to-date total of $178,218,414.00 for Cooperative Program (CP) missions is $6,850,782.66 behind the $185,069,196.66 received at the end of August 2009. Designated giving of $187,308,389.00 for the same year-to-date period is 0.86 percent, or $1,619,413.65, behind gifts of $188,927,802.65 received at this point last year.
U.S. split on whether Islam promotes violence
Most Americans continue to know little about Islam, and people in the United States remain somewhat divided in their views of the religion, according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center. The poll found that favorable opinions of Islam have declined since 2005, and a slight majority of Americans do not want to see a mosque built near the World Trade Center site in New York. Pew said 51 percent of respondents objected to the mosque and 34 percent supported it. Meanwhile, 62 percent said they believe Muslims should have the same rights as other religious groups to build places of worship, and 25 percent said local communities should be able to block mosques if they don’t want them. Eighty-five percent of respondents said they either don’t know much about Islam or know nothing at all, and just 9 percent said they know a great deal. Pew found that 41 percent said they actually know someone who is Muslim. Knowledge of Islam and acquaintance with Muslims rose if respondents were college graduates or were younger.
Pastor, wife slain at church served by Lottie Moon
A Chinese pastor and his wife were slain Aug. 31 at Penglai Christian Church, where Lottie Moon, an icon of Southern Baptist mission work, served in the early 1900s in Penglai, China. Pastor Qin Jia Ye and his wife Hong En He, both in their 80s, were killed in the church’s office. The suspect, a 40-year-old former church member, was arrested within an hour of the early morning incident. The church was closed for 49 years after communists came to power at the end of World War II, reopening in 1988 with only 20 people. Qin reported 300 baptisms several years in a row. Today, there are 3,600 members. The church eventually outgrew Moon’s original structure and built a modern 1,500-seat sanctuary next to it with the help of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga. “From the moment I met Pastor Qin, I could sense a Christlike spirit,” said Bryant Wright, Johnson Ferry senior pastor and current Southern Baptist Convention president. “We are incredibly saddened by this tragic event, but we know one of the Lord’s faithful servants is with him forever in heaven.”
Cambodian Baptists seek partnerships
God has blessed Baptist work in Cambodia – with 304 churches started since 1993 – but partnership is needed for the work to move forward, the president of Cambodia’s Baptist Union said. Nivath Nhem traveled to the United States in August to explore prospects for church-to-church partnerships that would help advance a visionary plan to start 1,621 new congregations in the next five years. “We want to see every person in Cambodia accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord,” Nhem told Baptist Press in a mid-August interview. “We need partners if the work is going to move forward,” Nhem said. “There is openness to the gospel in our country right now. We must take advantage of this openness, but we need partners to do that.”
Home schooling continues to grow
Several recent media reports have pointed to the growing trend of home schooling, with Texas alone seeing a 20 percent increase in the number of home-schooling families in the past five years. Tim Lambert, president of the Texas Home School Coalition, said the economy is a factor. He added that the primary reason people who contact his organization choose home schooling is that they want to “integrate their faith or pass on their values in the education of their children.” The Home School Legal Defense Association reports that at least 2 million students in the United States are home-schooled, and the National Home Education Research Institute said home-schooled students typically score 15 to 30 percentage points above public school students on standardized achievement tests. The Detroit Free Press ran a feature article on home schooling in August, noting, “With a sea of available resources and a ballooning network of supporters, homeschooling is becoming more mainstream.”
FCC’s appeal of indecency case applauded
Pro-family advocates applauded the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to appeal a court ruling they fear could open broadcast television to the use of even more profanities and obscenities. The FCC filed a petition with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, asking the judges to reconsider their July opinion striking down the agency’s broadcast indecency policy. A three-judge panel unanimously ruled the FCC’s approach to overseeing obscene or profane language is “unconstitutionally vague.” The FCC’s petition is the latest act in a case that has gone up and down the federal court system in recent years. The Fox Channel and other networks sued the FCC after the commission found live Fox broadcasts of the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards programs violated decency standards.
SBC pastor shot, killed by officer
A police officer doing a prowl check outside a business in Spokane Valley, Wash., Aug. 25 shot and killed the owner – a Southern Baptist pastor – who apparently also was checking for suspicious activity. Details are still emerging in the case in which 74-year-old Scott Creach, owner of the Plant Farm nursery and pastor of Greenacres Baptist Church, was killed. Creach was carrying a gun and lives next door to the business. The officer, whose name has not been released, was in an unmarked car but was in uniform, local media reported. The Spokane Police Department is conducting an investigation.