By Greg Warner University Baptist Church pastors, (left to right), Kyle Lake, senior pastor; Ben Dudley, community pastor, and David Crowder, music and arts pastor; lead worship. (Photo by Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald) WACO, Texas (ABP) — Kyle Lake, pastor of the innovative University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, was killed by electrocution Oct. 30 while performing a baptism during a worship service. Lake, whose age was not immediately known, had been pastor of the church for more than four years. The congregation, made up mostly of Baylor University students, is best known as the home church of worship leader and songwriter David Crowder. Lake and a baptismal candidate reportedly…
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A Postmortem on the Miers Nomination
A Triumph of Principle over Politics In church life, it is an accepted axiom that “a mist in the pulpit is a fog in the pew.” In other words, a lack of spiritual substance in the pew is often a symptom of something that’s wrong in the pulpit. In the same way, conservative critics of Harriet Miers saw a nominee whose conservative bona fides could not be verified by her record. In the last several weeks, her misty record has looked more and more like a fog in the nominee. Just this week Miers’s speeches from the 1990’s have revealed a nominee who sounds more like a libertarian than a…
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“The Abortion Debate No One Wants to Have”
Patricia E. Bauer with her husband, Edward Muller, and their children, Margaret and Johnny Muller, in June at Margaret’s high school graduation in Massachusetts. Photo Credit: Courtesy Christina Overland Patricia E. Bauer, former Washington Post reporter and bureau chief, writes a stunningly pro-life Op-Ed today titled “The Abortion Debate No One Wants to Have.” The article discusses whether it is right to abort a baby simply because pre-natal testing confirms that the baby has a disability. In Bauer’s case, the issue is intensely personal because she is raising a daughter named Margaret who has Down syndrome. She writes this about her daughter: Margaret is a person and a member of…
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Flu Pandemic: The Biggest Story in the News
As far as I’m concerned, the story about a possible flu pandemic is the biggest story in the news right now. The Wall Street Journal has run an insightful Op-Ed on the topic today titled “Reasons to Be Fearful: We are ill-prepared for a flu pandemic” by Henry I. Miller. Last week, Charles Krauthammer wrote a chilling piece on the subject in the Washington Post titled “A Flu Hope, Or Horror?” The common flu kills about 1% of those who contract it each year. The so-called “Bird Flu” kills 50%. If this particular flu virus mutates such that it can move from human to human with efficiency, then there could…
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Encouraging News about Harriet Miers?
World magazine’s blog has an encouraging set of entries on Harriet Miers. According to an interview with her good friend, Texas Supreme Court justice Nathan Hecht, she is an originalist in her approach to constitutional (and biblical!) interpretation. The blog also reports that Miers is a committed evangelical Christian who is a regular tither to her church in Dallas and who holds the same position on abortion as the majority of other evangelicals in America. As for reports that Miers donated money to Democrat candidates for President in the late 80’s, Hecht says, “If she did it, it was because [her law] firm made her do it.”
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Travesty: Abortion as Charity!
The Associated Press reports that the only abortion clinic in central Arkansas is offering free abortions to victims of Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Jerry Edwards says, “If we didn’t provide it now, they would get it later — a late-term abortion that would give greater risk to the mother’s health.” Dr. Edwards says he has already provided six free abortions that would normally cost between $525 and $600. The abortion clinic is called “Little Rock Family Planning Services” and was featured in this past Sunday’s New York Times in an article titled “Under Din of Abortion Debate, an Experience Shared Quietly.” The Times article tells the tragic stories of a number…
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Scopes Monkey Trial 2: Intelligent Design on Trial
The New York Times reports today about an upcoming court case in Pennsylvania. “Advocates on both sides of the issue have lined up behind the case, often calling it Scopes II, in reference to the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial that was the last century’s great face-off over evolution. “On the evolutionists’ side is a legal team put together by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. These groups want to put intelligent design itself on trial and discredit it so thoroughly that no other school board would dare authorize teaching it. “Witold J. Walczak, legal director of the A.C.L.U. of Pennsylvania, said the…
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L.B.J. and Senator Russell Long after Hurricane Betsy
Lyndon Johnson and Senator Russell Long of Louisiana peer out of Air Force One in 1965 to survey the damage done by Hurricane Betsy. – Yoichi R. Okamoto / Lyndon Baines Johnson Library NBC News Anchorman Brian Williams provides a glimpse into how Lyndon Johnson used a trip to New Orleans after Hurricane Betsy in 1965 for political advantage. This is a gem of an Op-Ed. Go check it out. It’s titled “L.B.J.’s Political Hurricane.”
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Disappointed with Russert, et al.
It’s not just the partisans who are rushing to judgment about who to blame for the catastrophic aftermath of Katrina. The clear thrust of mainstream media reporting has been to lay the blame for the crisis in New Orleans at the feet of the Bush administration. The default assumption in the media appears to be that if there was a failure of rescue operations, then the failure was a federal one. No reporter that I have seen has come up with a line of questioning that would insinuate a failure on the part of the Louisiana governor or the New Orleans mayor (I’ve mainly been watching CNN, NBC, and MSNBC’s…
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Kanye West’s Race-Baiting Tirade
Hip-hop star Kanye West went on a tirade during NBC’s disaster relief fundraiser tonight. West and Michael Myers were paired together during a segment so that they could appeal to a nationwide TV audience to donate money to the Red Cross. After Michael Myers opened with a few remarks, Kanye West began a meandering monologue that was clearly not written on his cue card and was very difficult to understand. However, a few things came through loud and clear. First, West made the outlandish claim that the government had given the troops in New Orleans permission to shoot black people. Second, he accused the media of racist coverage, alleging that…