This is unbelievable. From the New York Times on September 30, 1999: In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders. The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets — including the New York metropolitan region — will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring. The borrowers of…
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Ray Boltz
From Christianity Today earlier today: Ray Boltz, who sold about 4.5 million records before retiring from Christian music a few years ago, came out of the closet Friday to announce that he’s gay. . . “I’d denied it ever since I was a kid. . . I became a Christian, I thought that was the way to deal with this and I prayed hard and tried for 30-some years and then at the end, I was just going, ‘I’m still gay. I know I am.’ And I just got to the place where I couldn’t take it anymore … when I was going through all this darkness, I thought, ‘Just…
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Media Bias and the Mess at MSNBC
If the Fox News Channel has the reputation as the “conservative” wing of the cable news outlets, then MSNBC has certainly become the known as the “liberal” one. No other personality on MSNBC personifies this reputation more than Keith Olbermann, one of MSNBC’s lead anchors covering the Democratic Convention.
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Steven Curtis Chapman on ‘Good Morning America’
(HT: Justin Taylor)
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Steven Curtis Chapman Speaks to Press about Grief
Many of you will remember the tragic accident that took the life of Steven Curtis Chapman’s five year old little girl this past May (see here). Chapman and his wife are now talking publicly about their grief and will be doing two high-profile interviews this week. The first one will appear on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday, August 6 at 7am. The second will be on CNN’s “Larry King Live” on Thursday, August 7 at 9pm Eastern Time. ABC has already posted an excerpt of their interview which you can watch here. Having only seen the excerpt, I was struck how Chapman spoke of his grief in the very…
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Tim Russert (1950-2008)
NBC broke into its regularly scheduled programming yesterday with the news bulletin that you see above. They announced the sudden death of Tim Russert, their premier political analyst and long-time host of “Meet the Press.” He will be missed. Psalm 90:12So teach us to number our days, That we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom.
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Criswell College Students on Relief Mission
The local FOX News affiliate produced a short news piece on students from Criswell College who went to Indianapolis, Indiana to help out with flood relief. You can watch it here.
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New Blog: “Between the Times”
Some professors from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary have just started a new blog that you may be interested in reading. It is called “Between the Times,” and I’m certain it will be must-read material for all of my fellow Southern Baptists. Contributors include Danny Akin, Nathan Finn, Bruce Ashford, David Nelson, and Ken Keathley. The first post is already up, and it is entitled “Toward a Great Commission Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention: Part One” by Bruce Ashford.
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Africa’s Messiah of Horror
I haven’t mentioned Joseph Kony on this blog since 2005. Maybe it’s because he’s someone whom I would rather forget. His crimes are so horrifying that it’s hard to let yourself imagine that it’s real. But it is. Michael Gerson of the Washington Post writes today about Kony and about what the U. S. and the international community might do about him. Gerson warns, We are seeing the second coming — surrounded by an army of children and trailing clouds of death — of Joseph Kony. If this is not a cause for horror — and a justified cause for international action — it is difficult to imagine what would…
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Dockery at the Southern Baptist Convention
This post is a follow-up to my previous one about Dr. David Dockery, author of Southern Baptist Consensus and Renewal and president of Union University. He will be making some appearances at the Southern Baptist Convention in a couple of weeks. He’s doing a book-signing, and he’s addressing the messengers in a plenary session. If you plan to attend the convention in Indianapolis, you’ll want to make your way to both of these. Monday, June 9 (4-6pm) – Book-Signing (I guess this will be at the Broadman & Holman display) Tuesday, June 10 (3:30pm) – Plenary address to the convention on themes related to Southern Baptist Consensus and Renewal While…