Issues
The Christian Action Commission covers a host of issues. To the left you'll see several categories with related subtopics. Select the issue(s) you're interested in. Here you'll be able to read and even tell a friend about it.
Tasting the Forbidden Fruit
By Bob Terry
May 14, 2008
God promised it would happen. “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die,” God cautioned Adam in Genesis 2:17. But Adam and Eve did not believe the warning. They concluded they knew more than God did and ate the forbidden fruit.
You know what happened next. Their innocence died and they hid behind fig leaves. Their relationship to each other died, and Adam blamed Eve for his problems, while Eve blamed the serpent. Their relationship to God died, and they hid from Him. Their idyllic state died and they were driven from Eden.
Unintended consequences of an uninformed decision? Perhaps. But God told them what would happen. The problem was not on God’s part. The fault lay with Adam and Eve, who chose to ignore …
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DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND THE MEMORIAL TO THE MISSING
By Jimmy Porter
How many pennies do we have in the Memorial to the Missing? The most accurate “guess” is 49,200,000. Approximately 800,000 more pennies are needed. Our goal is to have this project completed by the end of August. So, PLEASE, if you have pennies already collected, get them to us or to your associational missions office and someone from the Baptist Building will pick them up. You are to be commended for such a splendid response of a very worthy project. The impact of seeing fifty million pennies and knowing what they represent is life changing.
Often I am asked, “What can we do as a church or group that will impact our community and our church?” As I read the August 6th edition of the Clarion Ledger, it became clear to me that Mississippi Baptists must get more involved in an often ignored issue that is present in …
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A little honesty, please
By William H. Perkins, Jr.
June 12, 2008
Gambling has wrought many changes in Mississippi since it was legalized in 1992, but did you know that it has created employment for everyone in Tunica County and put a pickup in every driveway? That’s what the mayor of Biloxi apparently believes.
According to the May 14 edition of BaldwinCountyNow.com, a web site that covers south Alabama news, Biloxi Mayor A.J. Holloway addressed the recent Southern Gaming Summit in his fair city and said the following:
“[Legalized gambling] has been a big boom for Mississippi… [Tunica County] was the Sugar Ditch of the United States before casinos came in, and they have a new pickup truck at every house now… The casinos came and everybody in and around Tunica got a job…”
Well. That’s quite a mouthful, even for a reliable gambling apologist like Holloway. The problem is, Holloway’s …
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Got Bread? Give to World Hunger
By Jimmy Porter
“Obesity costs Mississippi millions” was one of the featured articles in the June 4th edition of The Clarion Ledger. The adult obesity rate for Mississippi in 1991 was more than 15 percent. Now it is 30.6 percent. That is the highest in America. The article suggested obesity cost Mississippi taxpayers $221 million per year. The national medical bill for obesity is approximately $93 billion annually.
These figures are staggering and startling, but do not let them deceive you into believing that hunger and malnutrition are non existent, especially in Mississippi and the rest of the world. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that 200,000 Mississippi households live with hunger or the threat of hunger on a regular basis.
The leading cause of hunger is poverty and it is here that Mississippi leads all states. The Food Stamps Program, the first line of defense against hunger, …
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Lessons from the divorce generation
By By Penna Dexter
May 6, 2008
A recent Newsweek cover story, entitled The Divorce Generation Grows Up, chronicles the history of divorce by spotlighting a middle class suburban community. A generation ago, learning that someone was divorced was still a bit shocking. No longer. Back then, divorcing parents reasoned that a split was better for children than conflict in the home. Today, that’s a tough case to make.
Newsweek’s David Jefferson used a captivating device to write his story. He interviewed several of his classmates at Ulysses S. Grant High School in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley to see how the class of ’82 had been affected by divorce.
The divorce rate in 1982 was more than double that of the 1950s. It had grown in the fertile ground tilled by the feminists’ message that “a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” Then, in …
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Who shall prevail—the judges or the people?
By By Richard Land
May 22, 2008
This column originally published at Casting Stones, a blog hosted by Beliefnet.com.
The California Supreme Court has ruled (by a 4-3 vote) in its supposedly “infinite” wisdom that the California state constitution requires that same-sex couples must have the same right to get married as heterosexual couples do. The California Supreme Court did this in spite of the fact that the people of California voted in a referendum in 2000 that marriage was only to be a man and a woman, thus ruling out not only same-sex marriage, but also polygamy.
Californians voted by a 61 to 39 percent margin to define marriage in this exclusive and specific way. When one examined the referendum votes more closely, marriage “as only between a man and a woman” carried every county in the state, including San Francisco. It also carried …
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Nashville Declaration on “Same-sex Marriage”
By By Fellows of the Research Institute
Mar 9, 2005
Across the country the American people have spoken loudly, clearly repudiating attempts to redefine marriage. In every state in which citizens have been given the opportunity, they have voted to reaffirm the historic definition of marriage as only the union of one man and one woman. Yet activist judges are still in a position to force so-called “same-sex marriage” on the American people, and have already shown a willingness to do so in a number of states. In response to the serious challenge to the traditional biblical definition of marriage, we are compelled to make the following declaration:
1. We affirm the biblical teaching that God designed marriage as a lifetime union of one man and one woman. We deny that the God-ordained institution of marriage is subject to redefinition as merely a civil institution or simply a private matter.
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The Bible Speaks on Family
By By staff
Jan 24, 2006
Family life today is under siege. Families are beset by divorce, a crisis in roles, absenteeism of parents, a breakdown of authority, preoccupation with things, inadequate time together, financial pressures, and a host of other problems. The Bible teaches that the institution of family is of divine origin and purpose. The Bible also provides guidelines for good relations within the family. A commitment to the Bible’s teachings and principles provides today’s best hope for the recovery of family life.
I. The Family Is Divine in Origin.
1. God created human beings in His own image.
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness’… So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female” (Genesis 1:26-27).
“Then the …
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What does the Bible really say about heterosexual marriage and homosexuality?
By By Hal Lane
Jul 31, 2007
The evangelical Christian community leads efforts to preserve the traditional definition of marriage and to oppose acceptance of homosexuality for one primary reason—biblical revelation. For those who believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God there is no confusion about the proper definition of marriage or the immorality of homosexuality.
The biblical basis for understanding God’s intention for marriage is found in Genesis 2. The human race began with the creation of a heterosexual couple—Adam and Eve. The creation of Adam and Eve (male and female) was the foundation of human civilization and their union the first marriage. Genesis 2:24 states: This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. Marriage is an institution of God designed as a lifelong covenant relationship between a man and woman (Matt. 19:1-6).
…
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Cohabitation Confusion: What does the Bible say?
By By Hal Lane
Aug 9, 2007
The fact that many couples live together without the legal commitment of marriage surprises few in our morally dysfunctional society. What is surprising is the number of professing Christians who choose to live together without the benefit of marriage.
Churches and families are increasingly faced with the question of how to respond to these individuals who believe their personal commitments to one another are morally equivalent to legal marriage.
Every moral issue is fundamentally a biblical issue. Genesis 2:18-25 describes marriage as a divine institution. God presented Adam with Eve and established the first marriage.
Genesis 2:24 is the basis for all future marriages: “This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.” When Jesus was asked about grounds for divorce, He quoted this verse with regard to …
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The Christian Doctrine of Religious Liberty
By By Barrett Duke
Sep 8, 2005
Presented at First Freedom Conference on Religious Liberty Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Fort Worth, Texas September 8, 2005
Recently, the United States’ Bureau of Immigration Appeals (BIA) argued that a Chinese man who had been arrested and beaten in China for operating an unregistered house church could not remain in the United States but would have to return to China. The BIA denied his request to remain because it believed that the treatment the man received from the Chinese authorities was related to his illegal activity of operating an unregistered place of worship not his religious beliefs.
Essentially, the BIA made a distinction between religious belief and religious practice. For them, persecution for religious belief merits protection, but persecution for religious practice born out of that belief is not necessarily protected behavior. The BIA made this decision in …
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The Bible Speaks on Christian Citizenship
By By Staff
Jan 24, 2006
Politics is the business of deciding who gets what, when, and where. Christians must not leave such important business to unbelievers. In these times, no one can be an obedient Christian who is not also a good citizen. The Christian faith demands responsible citizenship.
Democracy, by its very nature, requires citizen participation in the processes of government at every level—local, state, and national. The Bible, moreover, explicitly calls for Christian citizenship.
The Nature of Government
Bible principles concerning the nature of government are as valid today as when they were first given.
• Civil government is of divine appointment. Civil government is a part of God’s purpose for this kind of world. God’s people have lived under many different forms of government. While no one form of government is divinely chosen, government itself is ordained of …
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Religious Expression on Public Property
By By Richard Land
A book was published in April 2007 which reflects almost a half century of reflection and study on my part concerning an issue that matters deeply to me as an American Christian deeply committed to the Baptist faith tradition. The issue is religious freedom, and the book is The Divided States of America? What Liberals AND Conservatives Are Missing in the God-and-Country Shouting Match!
One issue discussed in the book that has generated considerable interest and response is my attempt to identify and analyze three major perspectives, or models, regarding religious expression in the public square in American society.
First, there are those Americans, particularly those on the left, who have adopted a position of avoidance. They assert that things pertaining to religion have no place in the public square. They oppose manger scenes or other religious displays on government property, such as courthouse lawns, and …
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The Christian and the Government: A Delicate Balance
By By Richard Land
Americans celebrated the 231st birthday of their nation last week with picnics, parades and pyrotechnics. While it may not have been a topic of conversation within most gatherings on July 4, it is worth pondering what a government ordained by God looks like.
For the Apostle Paul writing to the Romans, it was the Roman Empire—not what you would call an enlightened regime. You and I wouldn’t like it even if we had been Roman citizens. Yet Paul referred to these pagan rulers as governing authorities established by God, and he instructed persecuted Christians to submit to them “for conscience sake”:
Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God. So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves …
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Tackling the Relationship Between the Church and the State
By By Steven Griffin
Aug 1, 2007
A Summary of The Divided States of America? by Richard Land
Most conservatives think we have taken God out of this country and we need to put Him back in, asserting that God is on our side and taking patriotism to an idolatrous level. Meanwhile, most liberals think separation of church and state requires that God should not have anything to do with American politics and public life. Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, writes why both views are wrong in his book, The Divided States of America?, and why these views will lead to a “furtherance of the shouting matches that rage between the extreme worldviews on each side, resulting in lots of heat but very little light.”
Dr. Land points out that while America was not founded as a “Christian nation,” it …
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