Apprising Ministries makes you aware of this developing story. Merritt is an up and coming voice, not only within the SBC but within evangelicalism as a whole.
The son of former SBC president James Merritt, Outreach magazine places him among “’30 Emerging Influencers’ reshaping Christian leadership.” In addition, Jonathan Merritt is on the advisory board for Religion News Service and the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Let’s be praying those involved in homosexual sin will find repentance and forgiveness of their sin in Jesus’ Name.
The Los Angeles Times shares a troubling report out of San Diego:
Led by a Marine sergeant wearing her dress blue uniform and bearing the American flag aloft, several hundred members of the military marched in the city’s LGBT Pride parade Saturday, marking the first time the Department of Defense has permitted personnel to wear their uniforms in a gay festival parade.
I continue my coverage of this sad situation where, in an email to his Saddleback staff, Southern Baptist megapastor Rick Warren decided to single out fellow Southern Baptist John Downey as an example of the wrong kind of person for his staff to follow.
Included in Warren’s orders was a reference to not casting Saddleback pearls before swine. As an SBC pastor myself I contacted John and he gave me permission to publish his reasoned response to Rick Warren at Apprising Ministries.
Apprising Ministries has been pointing out that one of the fruits of the Seeker Driven movement gaining a stranglehold upon contemporary evangelicalism is the growing influence of Word Faith prosperity preachers so many attractional megachurch pastors so fancy.
Yet another reason this sad story should not be allowed to be swept under the rug.
CRN research articles give a concise overview of a specific topic and provide links to resources for further study. The most recently published research article examines contemplative prayer, discussing some of the dangers of this practice and contrasting it with what the Bible teaches about prayer.
Apprising Ministries is doing what we can to help you see that, as silly as it sounds, Word Faith prosperity preachers are slithering closer to acceptance within contemporary evangelicalism.
This story involving one of the popular of them has taken an important turn. As such, I bring you this important follow up containing the video of Creflo Dollar addressing his arrest with his congregation from his pulpit yesterday morning.
You’ll see that he does present an alternate story from what his daughters testified to in the police report and says it was “appalling” how law enforcement handled this incident.
Apprising Ministries says, you really can’t make this stuff up anymore. The bad news is we’ll likely see Seeker Driven pastors enter this arena as well.
Of course, they aren’t millionaire business moguls like Joel Osteen…yet. Well, the good news is, maybe Mary will be in a better mood and stop holding the Holy Spirit hostage.
The Baptist Press gives details of amendments to the House defense bill that prevent same-sex marriages from taking place on U.S. military bases. According to one amendment sponsor, Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Miss:
This amendment is intended to clear up any doubt and reinforce the [Defense of Marriage Act’s] authority as it applies to those installations.
What is at stake here is the religious liberty of all military service members including chaplains. The report asserts that,
The Obama administration issued a statement saying it “strongly objects” to these amendments protecting chapels and the conscience of chaplains and other service members. The administration stated those provisions “adopt unnecessary and ill-advised policies that would inhibit the ability of same-sex couples to marry or enter a recognized relationship.”
CNS News Reports:
The Obama administration “strongly objects” to provisions in a House defense authorization bill that would prohibit the use of military property for same-sex “marriage or marriage-like” ceremonies, and protect military chaplains from negative repercussions for refusing to act against their consciences, as, for example, in being ordered to perform a same-sex marriage ceremony.
In a policy statement released Wednesday, the White House Office of Management and Budget outlined numerous objections to aspects of the fiscal year 2013 National Defense Authorization Bill (H.R. 4310). The bill was reported out of the House Armed Services Committee last week and is set to be debated in the House, beginning Wednesday.
The Religion News Service has released a story about musician Jennifer Knapp, calling her “an unlikely gay Christian icon.” Knapp was a popular contemporary Christian singer until she came out as a lesbian several years ago. Now Jennifer refers to herself as a “gay Christian artist” and urges Christians to affirm homosexuals. The singer performs regularly for Christian congregations and youth groups and revealed that, “Those listeners who used to treat her like ‘a big rock star’ now approach her after a concert for counsel about their sexual orientation.”
According to the article:
Her new album and her performances have found an audience with some of her old fans as well as Christians who — gay or straight — are hungry for churches to address LGBT issues and the challenges gay Christians face when they come out.
LifeSite News reports:
University of Nebraska’s assistant football coach, Ron Brown, who is facing censure and calls for his dismissal for publicly expressing his biblically-based views against the homosexual lifestyle, has stated that he’d rather be fired than retract his comments.
Brown expressed his belief in the Bible’s condemnation of homosexual acts as sinful, then stated, “the real question I guess I have for you all is – what does God say?”