TAKS scores in science are down at Hopkins Academy and school district officials think a new school resource, the Classroom on Wheels, can help. It costs $6,000. more >>
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May 08, 2008
Today 8 a.m. at Palestine Missionary Baptist Church, 608 E. Convent St., Victoria. Guest speaker is the Rev. Lee Jones Jr. of Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Brookshire. Cost: $13 adults; $5 children. more >>
NEW ORLEANS – Bishop J. Douglas Wiley has just a tent for a church and a fraction of his congregants, more than 2½ years after Hurricane Katrina. But, he says, God’s been good, and his parishioners, faithful. more >>
When the subject of pride is mentioned, it is nearly always taken negatively. We live in a broken world where good and evil lie not only side-by-side, but are often intertwined. While it is true that pride has been called the cardinal sin, we will look at pride from both angles. When pride is viewed as self-esteem it is valuable in giving a person dignity and self worth, while at the same time agreeing that it can be carried too far. Ben Jonson called it, “That solemn vice of greatness.” We hear of “Black Pride” and “Hispanic Pride” but no one has a corner on the need for it; all of us need to feel some sense of importance in order to make a contribution to society. I do not agree with the term “Gay Pride” as the promoters of that lifestyle are simply trying to legitimize an act that the Bible and society in general denounces. more >>
Let’s see. I have one, two, three, four, five, six, no, make that seven books on prayer standing on the bookshelves in my office. And those are just the one’s that deal specifically with prayer, not the ones that include prayer along with some other topics or practices. You’d think that a pastor with that many books on prayer would be a great prayer, wouldn’t you? Well, I hate to disappoint you but I’m not. I guess I have the mistaken notion that I’m supposed to measure up to John Wesley, the man you can trace our church roots back to. He was up at 4 in the morning for prayer and devotions; he read the Bible in the original Hebrew and Greek while riding horseback; he fasted two days a week; preached untold number of sermons; led covenant discipleship groups; leaped tall buildings in a single bound! No, I don’t measure up. more >>
Conservative Christian leaders who believe the word “evangelical” has lost its religious meaning plan to release a starkly self-critical document saying the movement has become too political and has diminished the Gospel through its approach to the culture wars. The statement, called “An Evangelical Manifesto,” condemns Christians on the right and left for “using faith” to express political views without regard to the truth of the Bible, according to a draft of the document obtained Friday by The Associated Press. more >>
NEW YORK – Whatever impressions Pope Benedict XVI took away from his long weekend in New York may influence a big, upcoming decision – picking a successor to Cardinal Edward Egan as archbishop. Speculating on the next leader of the New York Archdiocese, one of the most important posts in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church, has become something of a parlor game for church-watchers. A couple of the candidates who keep surfacing reflect the diversity of the American church: the black archbishop of Atlanta and the Hispanic archbishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico. more >>
Religious Poetry Contest offers $1,000 prize The New Jersey Poets are sponsoring a religious poetry contest, which offers a $1,000 grand prize. The contest is free, and open to any denomination. more >>
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles is using its school properties to help pay part of a record $660 million to alleged victims of clergy sex abuse. Spokesman Tod Tamberg said the diocese has put up six high schools as collateral on a $50 million loan to go toward the settlement. more >>
NEW YORK – The crowd of 25,000 Roman Catholics burst into cheers when Pope Benedict XVI took the stage for a youth rally during his U.S. visit last week. Chanting “Viva Papa!”they pressed against security barriers and reached out to touch him. Many Catholics and church leaders were happily surprised by the outpouring of enthusiasm. Now, they hope the experience will draw some of the young revelers into the priesthood. more >>
Sometimes it’s hard for Judy Lynn Turner-Coons to walk down the aisle of Wal-Mart and H-E-B. It’s hard, she says, because she can hear people talking about what she believes in. “They don’t know you are Mormon, they start talking about people out there on that compound, ‘they’ve all abused all them kids and they need to be put in prison,’” Coons said. “When they say things like that they don’t make a distinction between the people in El Dorado and the people that are living right next door in Victoria County, it’s just ‘all those Mormon people.’” more >>
MIAMI – Florida drivers can order more than 100 specialty license plates celebrating everything from manatees to the Miami Heat, but one now under consideration would be the first in the nation to explicitly promote a specific religion. The Florida Legislature is considering a specialty plate with a design that includes a Christian cross, a stained-glass window and the words “I Believe.” more >>
Mind is man’s glory. It is this mind that marks the difference between man and beast. We have been created in the image of God and we possess many of his attributes, not the least of which is the ability to think grand thoughts. Blaise Pascal said, “Man is obviously made to think. It is his whole dignity and his whole merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought.” Since God has created us for responsibilities in the life hereafter he has equipped us with the abilities to think well, but it is up to us to develop that thinking. The book of Proverbs says, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. (Pro. 4:7) There is joy in feeling that one has a sense of accomplishment in using his brain. Sir Edward Dyer has said, “My mind to me a kingdom is; Such perfect joy therein I find As far exceeds all earthly bliss That God or nature hath assigned.” more >>
