· 'Accounting gimmick' -- Obama compromise still threatens religious liberty, leaders say
President Obama Friday announced a change in the way that employees of religious organizations will receive free contraceptives that can cause abortions, but it fell far short of what is needed to protect religious liberty, say religious and conservative leaders. Richard Land and others said that an insurance company's money is fungible, and that a religious employer would still be providing the funding to pay for an employees' abortion-inducing drugs.
· Midwestern Seminary Pres. Phil Roberts resigns
The trustees of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Friday accepted the resignation of seminary R. Philip Roberts effective Feb. 29 during a called meeting at an airport hotel and named as acting president Robin Hadaway, associate professor of missions at the seminary.
· 'Encroachment of Calvinism' concerns editor
Southern Baptists must decide whether they are satisfied with a "presumable encroachment of Calvinism" as they move toward a possible name change for the Southern Baptist Convention, newspaper editor Gerald Harris wrote Feb. 9, drawing responses from SBC entities.
· Election -- God's gracious purpose
Roger S. (Sing) Oldham, vice president for communications and convention relations with the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, examines diverse views of the doctrine of election, including Calvinism (also called the "doctrines of grace"), among Southern Baptists.
· Syria bloodshed: 'same hopelessness'
Reflecting on the bloodshed in Syria, a Christian worker observes, "The thing that saddens me most is this: You get a sense of excitement when you see millions of people chanting for democracy. But on the other side of that change is ultimately the same hopelessness that everyone began with, because they don't have Christ."
· TRUSTEES: NAMB, via 'Send North America,' deploys for gains in church planting
Send North America is the strategic plan to reverse the Southern Baptist Convention's trend of losing ground in the planting of new congregations, North American Mission Board President Kevin Ezell told trustees during their Feb. 8 meeting in Miami.
· Churches' racial openness 'practice for heaven'
A new church campus is launched with a focus on racial unity. "... It's not mostly white with a few black folks or mostly black. You can't even tell," the founding pastor says, "and it's beautiful for that."
· Black History Month & the church
The significance of African American churches is integral to Black History Month, notes Baptist minister Elgia Wells.
· CULTURE DIGEST: Casino mogul funds Gingrich
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is staying in the race despite dismal support largely because of money he is receiving from a casino mogul.
· FIRST-PERSON: What compromise? Religious liberty is in peril and Planned Parenthood is smiling
The change in the contraceptive mandate is no compromise, says columnist R. Albert Mohler Jr., who added that "only an accounting maneuver hides the fact that we will all be paying for chemical abortions."
· FIRST-PERSON: Religious liberty 101: Jefferson & the Danbury Baptists
The Obama administration, columnist Kelly Boggs says, would do well to learn about the famous exchange on religious freedom between President Thomas Jefferson and the Danbury Baptist Association.
· EDITORIAL: Siempre Preparados Para La Batalla