Monday, January 07, 2019

• Sexual purity movement undaunted by new critics

  by David Roach, posted Monday, January 07, 2019 (4 years ago)

  

  iStock photo

  NASHVILLE (BP) -- Amid new claims sexual abstinence pledges harm teen girls, an early leader in the evangelical purity movement says he does not "second-guess the rightness of the original message."

  "Inviting teenagers into a lifetime of sexual holiness and purity, if consistent with Scripture, is a beautiful thing," Richard Ross, cofounder of the True Love Waits (TLW) sexual purity movement, wrote in a December blog post. " ... I do not feel guilty, nor do I second-guess the rightness of the original message." Read More

• 'In Jesus' name': Evangelicals meet Mideast leaders

  by Diana Chandler, posted Monday, January 07, 2019 (4 years ago)

  

  Twitter photo

  MIDDLE EAST (BP) -- Southern Baptists are praying in Jesus' name in the offices of Muslim princes and presidents hosting evangelicals on tours promoting religious freedom in the Middle East.

  In the office of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Jerry Johnson of the National Religious Broadcasters led a prayer for bin Salman just days after the killing of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi, in a visit officially unrelated to Khashoggi's disappearance. Read More

• Venezuelans find mercy in arduous exodus from tumult

  by Monica Starr , posted Monday, January 07, 2019 (4 years ago)

  

  COLOMBIA (BP) -- Night descends rapidly on the small plaza where a penetrating drizzle falls onto the cold stone floor. About 35 men, most in short sleeves or sleeveless shirts, huddle under the only two trees.

  Meanwhile, two young women scurry to pull together an improvised "tent" of black plastic trash bags while trying to keep a small girl dry in her fuzzy footsie pajamas. They select the top step of the plaza, against the wall of a closed building. Rain runs off the roof onto their shelter, collapsing it.

  Nearby, under the narrow archway of the building, a young couple sit in physical exhaustion, ... Read More

• National Day of Prayer launches PRAY magazine

  by BP Staff, posted Monday, January 07, 2019 (4 years ago)

  

  Photo submitted

  SPRINGDALE, Ark. (BP) -- Ronnie Floyd, president of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, has introduced a new quarterly magazine, PRAY.

  While PRAY will seek to “encourage and equip Christians in how to pray more effectively,” Floyd noted to Baptist Press that “it is also published for men and women who lead local church prayer ministries.”

  The National Day of Prayer publication "is just one tool we are using to mobilize unified public prayer for America," Floyd said in a Jan. 7 news release. Read More

• Church of England's new 'gender transition service'

  by Kiley Crossland/WORLD , posted Monday, January 07, 2019 (4 years ago)

  

  iStock photo

  ENGLAND (BP) -- The Church of England issued pastoral guidance last month instituting a new "gender transition service," a move conservative Anglicans decried as contrary to the Bible.

  The guidance, published Dec. 11 and approved by the House of Bishops, the upper house of the tricameral Church of England General Synod, laid out a model for a "celebratory" service to mark the church's official recognition of a person as a sex different from that of his or her birth. Read More

• FIRST-PERSON: Teaching your kids not to follow Christ?

  by Doug Munton, posted Monday, January 07, 2019 (4 years ago)

  Doug Munton ventures some suggestions if you're interested in helping your kids slide down the path to moral relativism and depravity or becoming, at best, lukewarm Christians. Read More