CP giving 1.23% above last year’s pace
Year-to-date contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention’s Cooperative Program are 1.23 percent above the same time frame in 2005. As of May 31, 2006, the year-to-date total of $134,091,968 for Cooperative Program Missions is $1,630,045 above the $132,461,923 received at the same point in 2005. For the month, receipts of $16,496,303 were 1.73 percent, or $289,713, below the $16,786,016 received in May 2005. Designated giving of $147,781,595 for the same year-to-date period is 6.09 percent, or $9,577,034, below gifts of $157,358,630 received at this point last year. The $15,908,923 in designated gifts received last month is $10,137,400 below the $26,046,324 received in May 2005, a decrease of 38.92 percent.
SBC aid in Indonesia to feed families
Southern Baptist relief funds will provide food for more than 5,400 families affected by the May 27 earthquake in Indonesia’s central island of Java. As the death toll topped 6,000 and estimates of homeless survivors ranged into the hundreds of thousands, Southern Baptist relief specialists joined other aid workers on the scene. They immediately began feeding 500 survivors while assessing needs in the area and meeting with other relief groups. “A 30-day plan of action is now in place to provide food for a large portion of the affected population through 11 command centers scattered throughout the ruins of the area,” a relief worker reported. “An initial $50,000 in Southern Baptist relief funds has been committed to the effort and will go far in providing for the basic food needs of the victims. This will assist more than 5,400 families per day.”
Marriage amend. fails again in Senate
The U.S. Senate rejected June 7 an attempt to amend the Constitution to protect marriage, with supporters gaining only one vote in the nearly two years since their most recent effort. After two full days of debate, Senators voted 49-48 for a procedural move to bring the Marriage Protection Amendment to the floor for an up-or-down vote. The maneuver, known as “invoking cloture,” required 60 votes to succeed, however. If the amendment had reached the floor, it would have needed 67 votes, a two-thirds majority, to pass. In July 2004, 48 senators supported ending debate and holding a vote on the proposal. Fifty senators voted against “invoking cloture.” The addition of only one vote came despite the Republican Party’s gain of four Senate seats in the 2004 election. Among those in favor of bringing the amendment to the floor were South Carolina Senators Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham.
Alabama: 20th state to pass amend.
Perhaps demonstrating that the protection of the definition of marriage should not be a partisan issue, 81 percent of Alabama voters June 6 approved a state constitutional marriage amendment- – an amendment that was placed on the ballot by the legislature and sponsored by two Democrats. The amendment won in every county, making Alabama the 20th state to adopt a constitutional marriage amendment. Those 20 amendments have been adopted with an average of 71 percent of the vote. Only Mississippi — which passed an amendment in 2004 with 86 percent of the vote – surpassed Alabama’s tally. The legislature passed the amendment last year, although it required voter approval. It breezed through the Senate, 30-0, and the House, 85-7.
Bivo ministers seek NAMB office
The Southern Baptist Bivocational Ministers Association submitted a proposal to the Southern Baptist Convention asking that the North American Mission Board fund an office of bivocational ministry. The proposal, approved by more than 70 bivocational ministers at the organization’s May 5-6 meeting, was delivered to NAMB’s board of trustees and the SBC Executive Committee. The meeting was held in Mississippi at the Pearl River Baptist Association’s campground near Picayune. The proposal, framed in resolution form, noted that “bivocationally-led existing churches baptize more new believers per 100 members than churches led by full-compensated pastors.”