Baptists

Southern Baptists will go back to the future when they begin their national convention in Houston tomorrow.Fourteen years ago in Houston, the Baptists began a "holy war" that divided the nation's largest Protestant group into fundamentalist and moderate camps.The fundamentalists stunned moderates at the 1979 gathering when the Rev. Adrian Rogers of Memphis, Tenn., won the presidency from moderate candidates, who had had a hammerlock on leadership for more than a decade.It was the beginning of a series of fundamentalist victories that have left that faction in sole control of the 15.5 million-member national convention.

The Awana Club at Prince of Peace Baptist Church in Fallston recently presented five of the highest awards given in the Awana organization. Citation awards are presented only to high school seniors and adults. For each recipient, this represents 10 years of work and includes the memorization of 800 to 1,000 verses as well as many hours of study and service activities.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- On abortion, pornography and other social issues, Southern Baptists and Roman Catholics often fight on the same side.In that spirit, the Southern Baptist Convention approved a resolution yesterday stating that because of decaying morality and ethics, "cooperative efforts" with Roman Catholics and other Christian groups are needed "to present united support for pressing social and moral concerns."In the past, Baptists have resisted moves toward ecumenism, fearing that it might compromise their beliefs.

Editor: Thank you, Harford County, for joining Oak Grove Baptist Church in our third annual Women's Conference held on April 13. With nearly 150 in attendance, we enjoyed the lavish account by DeeDee Jonrowe of her life on the Iditarod Trail over the past 31 years as a musher in Alaska. DeeDee is the foremost female dog musher competing in the world today and a breast cancer survivor. Her accounts of the life lessons learned on the Iditarod Trail have bolstered her desire to honor God in her racing and daily life.

Contrition for the past fills the air.Japan's government fumbles for the right word to express remorse for World War II. Robert McNamara issues a belated mea culpa for his role in prolonging the Vietnam war. The Evangelical Lutheran Church apologizes for the anti-Semitism of its namesake, Martin Luther.Now the Southern Baptists, the country's largest Protestant denomination, are struggling to make amends. Next week, they are going to Atlanta calling for a mass apology for their history of slavery and racism.

A major new demographic study of American Christians and Jews, based on data from the 1990 census and from participating churches and synagogues, estimates that black Baptists constitute the fourth largest religious community in the country.The number of black Baptists, which has never been accurately estimated before, was put at 8.7 million in the study published by Glenmary Research Center of Atlanta.The survey, released yesterday, also shows dramatic increases among the more conservative and evangelical Protestant churches and the Mormons in the decade since a similar 1980 study was published by Glenmary.

RELIGION thrives in this country as in few others in part because the Constitution shields public policy from sectarian power struggles and in part because, learning from that experience, most religions understand the value of respecting other faiths.But we've been hearing lately just what a tin ear some over-eager religionists have for the harmonies that are necessary to keep this religiously diverse nation humming.Especially egregious is the declaration of a proselytizing war by Southern Baptists on Jews during this season of the Jewish high holy days.

Working side-by-side, a band of small liquor store owners and Baptists are fighting a proposed beer and wine superstore just north of Columbia at the new Long Gate Shopping Center. More than 100 people packed a hearing room Tuesday night for a meeting of the Howard County Liquor Board.Total Beverage -- which has three stores in Northern Virginia each featuring 500 varieties of beer and 5,000 different wines -- contends there is sufficient demand for a warehouse-style store in the new "power center" near the intersection of U.S. 29 and Route 100.Total Beverage presented its argument this week, saying it deserved a sales license in the name of free enterprise.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Southern Baptists have produced a "Jewish prayer guide" urging members to pray for the conversion of Jews to Christianity during the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur beginning today.Some Jewish leaders called the action arrogant and offensive."Baptists have a right to believe what they believe," said Mark Briskman, Southwest regional director for the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. "But we find this offensive. It shows an element of arrogance because they are specifically targeting Jews during this holy season."

ONE MAN'S SINNER is, apparently, another man's savior. Just a week before the Southern Baptists declared moral war on Walt Disney Co. for its "gay-friendly" policies, New Yorkers were giddy that Disney had transported its "electric parade" from Disney World to Central Park to promote its new animated kids' movie, "Hercules." In New York's view, Disney helped clean up notorious Times Square with its retail and theater projects.Family values, like beauty, are obviously in the eye of the beholder.

I am the Realtor that was the agent for the seller of the land that was sold to the Chin Baptist Church. Shortly after this became public knowledge I was approached by a neighbor. He told me this had to be stopped because if you let one Korean into the neighborhood than other Koreans will want to move into the neighborhood. By the way they are not Koreans. Later my son came home and told me that an adult had told him that I was the person who let the gooks into the neighborhood. I don't know if this person was serious or not. The first public hearing was on an Ash Wednesday.

Aberdeen's girls basketball team got off to a quick start Thursday night, scoring the first eight points against nationally ranked Riverdale Baptist, but with the Eagles' lack of a true point guard and the Crusaders' impressive perimeter shooting, it couldn't last. Riverdale Baptist, ranked No. 17 in USA Today's Girls Basketball Super 25 and No. 4 in The Washington Post, hit 14 3-pointers en route to an 85-66 victory at No. 1 Aberdeen, their third win over the Eagles in less than a year.

The Rev. Vernon Dobson, a Baptist minister and civil rights leader, died Saturday of complications of a stroke. He was 89. As a leading figure in Baltimore's civil rights movement, Mr. Dobson lived a life molded by the struggle for equality — a struggle he continued into his last years — and as a pastor who believed that the church should play an important part in the fight. Campaigning took a hold on Mr. Dobson's life early on. Talking to The Baltimore Sun in 1998, he described demonstrating against segregation as a young child with his mother in the 1930s.

Mary Ann Fulford, a member of Heritage Baptist Church in Annapolis, helped launch a local version of the Backpack Buddies program at the church after she heard about it about four years ago. The national program provides weekend meals to needy children, and Fulford saw a need in her own community. The church started by providing food to 15 students at Georgetown East Elementary School in the spring of 2009. Today, the church provides meals to more than 60 children, at Georgetown East and at a second school, Mills-Parole Elementary in Annapolis.

A handful of Westboro Baptist Church protesters picketing same-sex marriage in front of courthouses in Annapolis and Towson Wednesday were met with large groups of counter-protesters holding signs preaching tolerance. In the state capital, more than 250 people gathered in the early morning, singing carols, to counter four members of the ultra-conservative Westboro Baptist, which is based in Kansas. St. Anne's Episcopal Church, across the street from the Annapolis courthouse, organized the counter-protest there.

Chick-fil-APresident and CEO Dan Cathy surely knew that his corporate opposition to same-sex marriage would spur controversy. He is more than justified in stating his position, given that his company will either reap the benefits or suffer the consequences of his words. What is more disturbing is his statement that "we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say 'We know better than you as to what constitutes marriage.'" That attitude smacks frighteningly of the radical Westboro Baptist Church philosophy that celebrates the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan because, it says, the U.S. tolerates homosexuality.

PHILADELPHIA -- Most people picture the typical Southern Baptist church as being, first off, in the South, perhaps at the intersection of two roads named after trees in a quiet neighborhood of freshly mowed lawns and conservative Caucasians. Most probably wouldn't picture something like the Service Baptist Church, located in a storefront on Baltimore Avenue in West Philadelphia. But Service is one of a rapidly growing number of black churches to affiliate with the Southern Baptists -- a stunning irony given the church's history.

As communism crumbles and the Soviet Union shatters, the people of Latvia are savoring political independence for the first time in five decades.Latvians also are rekindling the religious faith extinguished by Moscow in 1940, when the Soviets annexed the Baltic country.To help in that rebirth of faith, Southern Baptists from Maryland and Delaware are undertaking a three-year mission program that would spiritually and materially assist the estimated 4,700 Latvian Baptists.More than 100 local Baptist ministers and lay people are expected to travel to the Latvian capital of Riga to help renovate churches recently released from Soviet control, install computer equipment at the office of the Union of Latvian Baptists, and conduct seminars on Sunday school instruction and pastoral counseling, among other activities.

Cody Joyce received a harsh introduction to the cutthroat world of college basketball recruiting less than a week after he accepted his first Division I scholarship offer. Fresh off an official visit and commitment to Marist last June , Joyce returned to his Anne Arundel County home only to get the news two days later that the Red Foxes had rescinded his scholarship offer .  “That was a low point. That was a really low point,” Joyce said Thursday. “But it's one of those things where the next day I was like, 'Alright, I'm going to figure out where I'm going to go next and pretty much prove that the [Marist]

A three-alarm fire tore through a church in the 4300 block of North Point Blvd. in Sparrows Point on Tuesday night, causing parts of the roof to collapse, according to a Baltimore County fire official. Responding to a 7:38 p.m. call reporting a fire at Pleasant Zion Baptist Church, fire crews found a shed and wooden pallets at the rear of the church engulfed in flames, said Lt. Jay Ringgold. The fire quickly spread to the roof of the church, and the crew requested a second alarm, Ringgold said.