Tag Archives: southern baptist

President Obama Nominates New Air Force Chief of Chaplains

Update: The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, repeated at Military.com and the Stars and Stripes, tells a bit of Col Costin’s story, including his “unique” invocations…

“I hope not to change at all,” Costin said. “I hope I just stay who I am.”

In an official DoD release, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced that President Obama had nominated US Air Force Col Dondi E. Costin to be the next Air Force Chief of Chaplains. As with some other headquarters staff jobs, the move merits a two-step promotion to Major General.

Chaplain Costin would be replacing Chaplain (MajGen) Howard Stendahl, who has served in the position since 2012.

Chaplain Costin is currently the Command Chaplain for PACAF. He is a frequent speaker at National Day of Prayer events, a participant in religious respect events Read more

Supreme Court Restricts Marriage, and No One Notices

Update: As Chief Justice John Roberts predicted: Inspired by SCOTUS ruling, polygamous Montana trio applies for wedding license.

While some have hailed the US Supreme Court‘s ruling last week (available in PDF here) that expanded the legal definition of marriage to include homosexuals, few have noted Justice Anthony Kennedy’s careful wording that actually restricted the definition of marriage:

The Fourteenth Amendment requires a State to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex… Read more

Mohler: There’s Nowhere to Hide

Dr. Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary:

This is a moment of decision, and every evangelical believer, congregation, denomination, and institution will have to answer. There will be no place to hide. The forces driving this revolution in morality will not allow evasion or equivocation. Every pastor, every church, and every Christian organization will soon be forced to declare an allegiance to the Scriptures and to the Bible’s teachings on marriage and sexual morality, or to affirm loyalty to the sexual revolution. That revolution did not start with same-sex marriage, and it will not end there. But marriage is the most urgent issue of the day, and the moment of decision has arrived.

In this season of testing, Christians committed to the gospel of Christ are called upon to muster the greatest display of compassion and conviction of our lives. But true compassion will never lead to an abandonment of biblical authority or a redefinition of the gospel of Jesus Christ…

No one, especially in a position of leadership, will be able to fly under the radar on this issue…

The issues before us are compelling and urgent. The Bible is clear. Are you ready to give an answer?

Read more.

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Report: Military Atheists Outnumber Southern Baptists

Christianity Today recently cited December 2014 DoD statistics to state that atheists outnumber Southern Baptists in the US military:

According the latest Department of Defense statistics on religion, there were 12,360 Southern Baptists among the US military’s 1.3 million members on active duty as of December 2014. There were also 12,764 atheists—an advantage of 404 over Southern Baptists.

By contrast, Southern Baptists outnumbered atheists by about 10,000 in 2009, with 16,975 Southern Baptists and only 6,702 atheists on active duty.

In contrast with prior stories on “religious hostility” in the military, using historical data columnist Bob Smietana also said there was no evidence of a “mass exodus” of Christians from the military:   Read more

Evangelical Leaders: Defend Religious Freedom for All

At the American Enterprise Institute’s Evangelical Leadership Summit in Washington, DC, a panel of evangelical leaders advocated for Christians to defend the religious liberty of all, because religious freedom benefits everyone. Panel member Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission said

the burden to fight for religious liberties is not just about Judeo-Christian beliefs, but that Evangelicals are called to fight for freedoms for all religious motivations. He also stated that evangelicals should bring back the use of the term “separation of church and state,” but Read more

Religious Liberty the New Civil Rights Issue

A religious liberty panel sponsored by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission agreed that

religious liberty will be the civil rights issue of the next decade

The panel members included Phillip Bethancourt, Samuel Rodriguez, Rick Warren, David Platt and Russell Moore. Rick Warren spoke for many when he advocated for a “free market” of religious belief, not the restriction or imposition of any:  Read more

Homosexual Advocates Malign US Military Chaplains

The American Military Partner Association recently published a press release (and submitted to the US Department of Defense) a list of “Top Needs of LGBT Military Spouses and their Families.” The AMPA took a significant pot shot at US military chaplains — and substantially avoided the truth to do so. At #5, the AMPA listed an LGBT need as “Military Chaplain and Counseling Support,” saying

The North American Mission Board (NAMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention announced that NAMB endorsed chaplains are prohibited from ministering to same-gender military couples.

The AMPA’s statement is flatly untrue, but, like Tom Carpenter and Jason Torpy’s portrayals of this same subject, mischaracterization is necessary to make a political point.

The truth is Read more

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