EDITOR’S NOTE: BP Ledger carries items for reader information each week from various Southern Baptist-related entities, and news releases of interest from other sources. The items are published as received.
Today’s BP Ledger includes items from:
Radical.net
Campbellsville University
Compass Direct News
Pastor and author of “Radical” David Platt announces new ministry
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (Radical.net)–“Radical” (at Radical.net), a new resource ministry, was announced by pastor and author David Platt on Good Friday, April 6, during a live simulcast of Secret Church to 50,000-plus participants worldwide.
The simulcast is one of the avenues Radical is equipping and encouraging followers of Christ to reach the nations with the Gospel. Radical, with the help of LifeWay Christian Resources, simulcast the six-hour Bible study and time of prayer for persecuted believers called Secret Church (SecretChurch.org). Participants gathered in 49 states and 20 countries to participate.
Another example of a catalytic event Radical desires to produce is a discipleship conference in the fall. Platt, in partnership with Francis Chan (author of “Crazy Love”), will host this conference as part of a discipleship project begun last fall called Multiply. This event is scheduled to take place Nov. 9-10 in Birmingham, Ala., at The Church at Brook Hills and will be sponsored by Radical.
According to a press release from Radical, the ministry “exists to serve the church in accomplishing the mission of Christ. We long to see the church making disciples who make disciples who make disciples throughout the world — from our neighbors across the street to the unreached people groups across the globe — all for the glory of God.
“Radical strives to carry out this purpose by producing and providing multilingual biblical resources aimed at fueling disciple-making in all nations through events like Secret Church and the Multiply Conference. Most of the resources at DMI are from David Platt, who serves as one of the pastors of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala.
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Campbellsville University hosts David Brody, Christian Broadcasting Network, political correspondent
By Tori Banks and Matt Schmuck
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. (Campbellsville University)–“We all go into the lion’s den every day,” David Brody, chief correspondent with the Christian Broadcasting Network, said in Campbellsville University’s weekly chapel service. “Mine is the mainstream media.”
Brody, Emmy winning, chief political correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network, spoke at Campbellsville University recently for chapel, for a Kentucky Heartland Institute on Public Policy event and also at the 8th annual Media Appreciation Luncheon.
Brody is a 23-year veteran news journalist who covers the White House and interviews national newsmakers across the country. His political blog, The Brody File, has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.
Throughout his career, Brody has had the opportunity to speak with and interview many big name individuals including Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Hillary Clinton, Newt Gingrich and Donald Trump; however, he is not your typical broadcaster.
At the chapel service on campus, he spoke of his spiritual journey, and at the KHIPP event he spoke more on politics while at the Media Appreciation Luncheon, he spoke on journalism as a whole.
At chapel, Brody said he strives to integrate his faith with his work by interviewing individuals in the secular world from a Godly perspective, but Brody said he hasn’t always had a personal relationship with Christ.
“I grew up in the Jewish faith where I participated in Passover dinners and Bar Mitzvah but I was just going through the motions,” Brody said.
He said it wasn’t until he met his future wife in high school that he began to understand the importance of having a relationship with Christ.
“She was the one who started talking to me about God,” Brody said. “But I thought I didn’t need Him because I was Jewish.”
“Shortly after we were married I gave my life to Christ. I knew He was calling me to that decision,” he said.
Although his family didn’t quite understand why he surrendered his life to the Lord, Brody said he never felt more Jewish than he did in that moment.
“All of the traditions and customs made sense,” he said.
After a long career, Brody came to CBN news where he continues to work today interviewing individuals in the mainstream media.
Brody strives to incorporate his faith with his work every day as he lives his life sold out for the Lord.
At the KHIPP forum, Obama’s potential Republican opponents were analyzed individually by Brody, who believes Romney sits comfortably in the driver’s seat due to the splitting of the Republican votes three other ways.
With Romney having the upper hand, the question arose in regard to the possibility of either Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum dropping out of the race.
Brody believes this will not happen, expecting a four-way shootout, including Ron Paul, for the Republican presidential nomination further down the road of the nominating process.
Santorum’s message is that America is a moral enterprise. “There is a moral component to everything about this country,” Brody said of Santorum’s message.
Brody believes Romney looks to be more of a “Mr. Fix it” guy, where as Santorum’s message has a high bandwidth, meaning he covers many key issues. The problem is that Santorum doesn’t have the campaign money that Romney does, Brody said.
“Money isn’t going to win the election,” Santorum said in an interview with Brody for his political blog, “The Brody File.”
When Gingrich begins to enter the discussion of Republican presidential candidate, he wins the evangelical vote with no contest, in Brody’s opinion.
“Evangelicals like Newt Gingrich because he pulls no punches and doesn’t try to mask anything in political correctness,” Brody said.
The problem for Brody when it comes to Gingrich being “that guy” in the fall is simple.
“[Gingrich] is a walking train-wreck,” Brody said in reference to Gingrich’s state-to-state mindset, instead of having a long-term plan.
As to the campaign of Ron Paul, he noted that he will likely stay in the campaign until the Republican nominating convention, that he knows he can’t win the nomination, and he hopes to influence the platform and direction of the fall campaign.
Brody believes that by the end of June, the Republican Party is going to come together to figure out the bigger picture of things. The topic at the forefront of that bigger picture is the question of whether Mitt Romney is a damaged candidate as he prepares to take on President Obama in the fall.
Brody feels that it will be a tight race for president with President Obama a slight favorite due to the power of incumbency and the improving economy.
With the likelihood that Romney will win the GOP nomination, Brody wonders who will be his vice president. Listing a few possible names from out of the woodwork, Brody said Mike Huckabee will most likely be the man who is able to bring evangelical voters onto the Romney express.
“Mike Huckabee would most definitely be the guy to seal the deal,” Brody said. “He’s probably the one guy who could truly get evangelicals off the couch who are skeptical of Romney.”
At the Media Appreciation Luncheon, Brody touched base on similar topics to that of his KHIPP speech. Brody showed a YouTube video of a Herman Cain interview for Brody’s political blog, “The Brody File.”
In the video, Brody asked Cain how he would respond to “gotcha” type questions in his then-attempt at winning the GOP race for Presidential candidate.
Brody asked, “Are you ready for the ‘gotcha’ questions that are coming from the media and others on foreign policy? Like, who’s the president of Uzbekistan?…”
Cain’s response went viral within days with the help of YouTube.
“I’m ready for the ‘gotcha’ questions and they’re already starting to come. And when they ask me, ‘Who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan?’ I’m going to say, ‘You know, I don’t know. Do you know?'” Cain said. “And then I’m going to say, ‘How’s that going to create one job?'”
Brody’s advice to journalism students, and aspiring journalists alike was simple.
“Be careful,” Brody said. “Because you never know who is going to hear this stuff.
Campbellsville University is a widely acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university with more than 3,500 students offering 63 undergraduate options, 17 master’s degrees, five postgraduate areas and eight pre-professional programs. The website for complete information is campbellsville.edu.
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Tori Banks and Matt Schmuck are student newswriters for Campbellsville University.
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Pakistani Woman Accused of ‘Blasphemy’ Illegally Held in Jail
Authorities fail to file charge sheet against young mother of 6-month-old.
LAHORE, Pakistan, April 10 (Compass Direct News)–The mother of a 6-month-old girl has been wrongly jailed for more than a month, as Pakistani authorities have failed to file a charge sheet within the mandatory 14-day period against the young Christian woman falsely accused of “blaspheming” the prophet of Islam, her attorney said.
Shamim Bibi, 26, of village Chak No. 170/7R Colony, in the Fort Abbas area of Bahawalpur district, was charged under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s “blasphemy” statutes after neighbors accused her of uttering remarks against Muhammad. She was arrested on Feb. 28.
Speaking ill of Muhammad in Pakistan is punishable by life imprisonment or death under Pakistan’s internationally condemned blasphemy laws.
“Shamim has been implicated in a completely baseless case,” said her husband, Bashir Masih. “I was present with her at the time of the alleged incident … nothing of the sort happened. The Muslims cooked up a false story, though it’s still not clear who provoked them into leveling this accusation.”
After visiting his wife in jail today, Bashir told Compass by phone that she was holding fast to her Christian faith and firmly believed that God would rescue her soon from the false charge.
“She is alright otherwise, but she especially misses her daughter,” Masih said. “We are not sure when Shamim will be able to come back home, although our lawyer is quite hopeful of securing her release very soon.”
One of the two witnesses named in the First Information Report (FIR), Abdul Qayyum, has already denied hearing anything from her that supports the charge.
“The police just did not listen to our pleas and went ahead and registered a case against my innocent wife,” he said. “It’s been over a month now, but the police haven’t filed a charge sheet against her. Who will compensate for the agony that my wife and family are suffering for no fault of ours?”
Shamim Bib’s lawyer, Mahboob A. Khan, told Compass that he had filed a bail application on March 17, but the court has not taken it up.
“The complainant party has changed their lawyer, and their new counsel filed his papers in court at today’s [Tuesday] hearing,” Khan said. “The bail application will now most likely be heard at the next hearing.”
On the delay in completing the charge sheet, Khan said that police were supposed to register it within 14 days of filing the FIR under the Code of Criminal Procedure. Police say that they have forwarded the charge sheet to the prosecution department, but there has been nothing from them either, he said.
“The judicial process is painfully slow, and it’s even slower in such sensitive matters,” Khan said. “I just hope the judge realizes the gaps in the case, and even if he does not muster enough courage to quash the case, he should at least set her free on bail.”
Shamim Bibi’s family had earlier told Compass that she had been accused because she had resisted pressure to convert to Islam four days before her arrest. Three relatives had become Muslims on Feb. 24 and urged her to do the same, and when she refused, neighbors on Feb. 27 accused her of making derogatory remarks – as yet unknown – about Muhammad (see www.compassdirect.org, “Pakistani Woman Charged with ‘Blasphemy’ for Refusing Islam,” March 12).
Ansar Ali Shah, a local prayer leader in Chak 170/7R Colony, claimed that Shamim Bibi’s neighbors, Hamad Ahmed Hashmi and Abdul Qayyum, told him and other Muslims that they had heard the Christian woman making derogatory remarks about Muhammad in her courtyard, according to the First Information Report (FIR No. 30/12) registered by the Khichiwala police station. But there is no indication in the FIR of what, exactly, Shamim Bibi was alleged to have said.
As word of the allegation spread, a large crowd of villagers besieged her house and demanded “severe punishment for the infidel,” claiming she had hurt their religious sentiments, sources said.
Shahbaz Masih, her brother-in-law, told Compass that Qayyum told police that he wasn’t even present in his house at the time of the alleged incident and had come to know about it from Hashmi, the other witness. Hashmi, a motorized-rickshaw driver, also was not present at his house at 3 p.m., the time of the alleged remark, Shahbaz Masih said, based on information gathered from Shamim Bibi’s neighborhood.
Bahawalnagar Superintendent of Police Investigation Irfan Ullah has acknowledged that one of the two witnesses had admitted to not being present at the alleged “crime” scene at the time of the alleged remark.
Reported by Compass Direct News (www.compassdirect.org), a news service based in Santa Ana, Calif., focusing on Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Used by permission.
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