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 contains items from:
Campbellsville University
Southern Evangelical Seminary
World News Service
Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame
Campbellsville University participating in ‘The Bucket Project’
By Kevin Thomas, student news writer
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. (Campbellsville University) — Buckets of love from Campbellsville University will soon be raining down on Africa.
Campbellsville University is participating in a campus wide event known as The Bucket Project. The Bucket Project is an initiative to aid Southern Baptists in Africa in helping persons with HIV/AIDS, cancer, malaria, and other devastating diseases who are in the last stages of their illness.
The buckets, which are packed with items such as latex gloves, multi-vitamins, bedding material and hygienic supplies to comfort and help with cleanliness, are being used in evangelization efforts on the continent of Africa.
The program is a part of Baptist Global Response, a Southern Baptist-related relief organization.
Baptist Global Response (BGR) is a disaster relief and community development organization with a heart for helping people in desperate need.
BGR and its partners respond to people with critical needs, whether those needs arise from chronic conditions, like extreme poverty, contaminated water, or endemic hunger, or acute crises, such as natural disaster, personal trauma, or social upheaval.
The Texas Baptist Convention was asked last year by BGR to organize its entities. They shipped over 1,500 buckets to Africa. This year, Kentucky was chosen to help with the aid.
Edwina Rowell, adjunct instructor for the English as a Second Language Institute at Campbellsville University, will be serving as the area coordinator for the buckets.
Rowell said, “I think it’s great,…I’m always ready to help with a project I feel is worthy and this is a worthy cause.”
Rowell previously worked overseas for 17 years in the West African countries of Burkina Foso and Nigeria, as well as the Ivory Coast.
Completed buckets and supplies can be dropped off in the Student Activities Center between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. March 27. Students (and others) may bring their packed buckets to the SAC and receive free pizza that night as well as chapel credit for the students.
On Wednesday, April 9, the buckets will be dedicated in chapel and then placed in vans to be transported to Parkway Baptist Church in Bardstown, Ky. Parkway will then take the buckets to First Baptist Church in Murray, Ky. who will send them to port in Virginia to be placed in a sea crate for the voyage to South Africa.
For more information on how you can participate, contact Rowell by email at [email protected] or phone (270) 849-5588. If you would like to know more and for a complete list of supplies needed, go to https://gobgr.org/projects/project_detail/hospice-kits. BGR asks that only the items on the list be purchased for the buckets due to the need and having to be transported through customs.
If you want like to donate money, which will be used for shipping the buckets, send a check (made out to The Bucket Project) to Edwina Rowell at Campbellsville University, UPO 823, 1 University Drive, Campbellsville, Ky. 42718.
Campbellsville University is a widely acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university with more than 3,600 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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Bill Gothard resigns from ministry amid allegations of sexual harassment and other misconduct
By Warren Cole Smith
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (World News Service) — Bill Gothard has resigned as president of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) and from its board and affiliates.
The announcement came Thursday night in a letter to families associated with the IBLP’s Advanced Training Institute from David Waller, ATI’s administrative director.
Gothard’s resignation comes just days after IBLP’s board of directors placed its longtime leader on “administrative leave” while it investigated claims that the 79-year-old years ago engaged in sexual harassment and other misconduct. Attorney David Gibbs of the Christian Law Association, who has been conducting the investigation, did not respond to repeated attempts by WORLD requesting comment on the nature of the investigation.
In the 1970s and ’80s, Gothard filled 20,000-seat auditoriums with evangelical Christians who came to hear his weeklong seminars on biblical principles and practical applications, which included warnings against rock music and exhortations to stay out of debt. His seminars, attended by more than 2.5 million people, were particularly popular with the rapidly growing homeschool community.
The accusations against Gothard became public as a result of the work of Recovering Grace, which has statements from 34 women regarding incidents dating back to their youth in the 1970s and thereafter. The statements concern sexual harassment and — in one case — sexual abuse that included fondling but not rape.
In Waller’s letter, neither Gothard nor the organization admitted wrongdoing. “Mr. Gothard communicated to the Board of Directors his desire to follow Matthew 5:23-24 and listen to those who have ‘ought against’ him,” Waller wrote. “To give his full attention to this objective, Mr. Gothard resigned as president of the Institute in Basic Life Principles, its Board of Directors, and its affiliated entities. The Board of Directors expects to appoint interim leadership for IBLP in the very near future.”
Waller said the organization would continue operating under the leadership of President Chris Hogan, who, according to Waller’s letter “will play an active role in the upcoming conferences.” ATI has events planned for Big Sandy, Texas; Nashville, Tenn.; and Sacramento, Calif., in the months ahead.
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Conservative evangelical leader argues homosexual activity should be legal but religious consciences of business owners should be protected
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Southern Evangelical Seminary) — Dr. Richard Land, President of Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES, www.ses.edu) and an Executive Editor for The Christian Post, was recently featured in the publication for his editorial on a very timely and highly debated topic.
Titled “Gay Marriage and Religious Freedom: A Modest Proposal,” Land’s editorial focuses on the rapid advancement of the acceptance of same-sex marriage in the U.S. and its effect on those who still hold a traditional definition of marriage in high regard.
“The efforts by several states to pass laws protecting the consciences of people with deeply-held religious convictions against same-sex marriage have ignited a debate that has generated far more heat than light,” Land wrote. “Charges of state-sanctioned discrimination harkening back to the dark days of Jim Crow have been leveled at the proponents of such laws.”
Land went on to say that comparing current same-sex marriage laws to Jim Crow laws is not analogous. Jim Crow laws were government-mandated discrimination based on race, while today’s same-sex marriage and “anti-discrimination” laws that were supposedly created to protect some private citizens actually coerce others into violating their consciences.
Land also points out in his column that homosexual activity between consenting adults should not be criminalized, as it is in other countries around the world, such as Uganda, now making headlines.
“Separation of church and state means, among other things, that the church should not use the coercive powers of the state to penalize consensual infractions it considers immoral,” he writes. “It also means that the state must not interfere with an individual church’s discipline of such behavior. Consequently, as a Baptist Christian I would oppose the Uganda laws there and here.
“However, as a Baptist Christian, I continue to oppose changing God’s definition of marriage to include same-sex unions,” Land continues. “Such a redefinition goes far beyond consensual behavior between adults in its social implications for society, including its impact on children.”
The American public, however, seems to be coming to a far different conclusion, but does that mean that there should be no legal protections for people of faith whose religious convictions are at odds with the new cultural norm?
“I would propose no law allowing cafes, restaurants, bakeries or photographers to refuse to serve the LGBT community if they offer their services to the public,” Land writes. “On the other hand, there should be laws protecting them from being coerced to participate in same-sex wedding ceremonies. Surely, fair-minded people can see the difference between serving a couple in a restaurant … and being forced to cater a same-sex wedding reception. There is a big difference between taking a couple’s photo and being coerced to attend the rehearsal, the rehearsal dinner, the wedding and the wedding reception and contribute your artistic talent through photography to that which violates your conscience at the deepest levels. In the first cases you are serving the public. In the latter cases you are being coerced legally and economically into participating in a ceremony that violates your conscience.
“The difference between serving gays and being forced to participate in a ceremony that tramples conscience is the very point that is most often missed in the heat of this debate.”
Dr. Richard Land will be featured in the new three-minute daily radio program, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” airing on several stations local to the SES area in and around Charlotte. The program airs in the morning and during the evening drive time Monday through Friday and features Dr. Land as he comments on faith issues and how they relate to current events. Debuting March 17, the program will also be available online at HeavenRadio.org and at www.ses.edu, as well as podcast daily on the free SES mobile app.
SES is in the planning stages for the 2014 Southern Evangelical Seminary 21st Annual National Conference on Christian Apologetics, set for October 10 and 11, at Calvary Church, 5801 Pineville-Matthews Road, Charlotte.
This year’s theme is “Defending a Never-Changing Faith in an Ever-Changing World,” and the conference will equip Christians to answer questions about their beliefs rationally and intelligently as they explore the field of apologetics—especially important as it becomes more crucial for Christians to defend their faith in an often faithless world.
Registration is open for the 2014 conference. For more information, visit http://conference.ses.edu/.
Dr. Richard Land has taught as a visiting or adjunct professor for several seminaries and has authored or edited more than 15 books. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford University in England and his bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) from Princeton University. Land also earned a Master of Theology degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received the Broadman Seminarian Award as the outstanding graduating student. Dr. Land was the 2013 Watchman Award recipient from the Family Research Council for his leadership on moral and cultural issues. He also received the Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth from Biola University in 2010. Land served previously (1988-2013) as president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s official entity assigned to address social, moral and ethical concerns, with particular attention to their impact on American families.
Southern Evangelical Seminary is a leader in apologetics education—teaching students to defend their faith and talk intelligently, passionately and rationally about what they believe and why they believe it. Many courses focus on societal issues from a Christian worldview, delve into scientific apologetics or contemplate creation research.
Notable professors have joined the SES ranks in recent years, pointing to the fact that Southern Evangelical Seminary is focused on recruiting talent and building courses of study to remain at the top of the apologetic educational institutions in the U.S.
Southern Evangelical Seminary has been ranked No. 1 for its General Christian Apologetics Graduate Program by TheBestSchools.org’s “Top 10 Graduate Programs in Christian Apologetics.” For more information, visit www.ses.edu or call (800) 77-TRUTH.
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Dr. Hazel Mansell Gore joins Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame
By George Frangoulis
MARIAN, Ala. (Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame) — At the recent 43rd Installation Ceremony of the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame (AWHOF), an unsung hero of medicine joined the ranks of other strong women who have contributed to the development of this state. The induction ceremony was for Dr. Hazel Mansell Gore.
The ceremony was held in Alumnae Auditorium of Judson College, Marion, Ala., on March 6. The building housing the AWHOF, A. Howard Bean Hall, is also located on the school’s campus.
Although born and educated in Australia, Dr. Gore lived in Birmingham, AL, from 1969 to 2001 During that time, she practiced and taught medicine in the Department of Pathology and the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
However, growing up in Australia, Dr. Gore wanted to be a physician. As a result, she enrolled in the University of Sydney in the fall of 1940. Due to the need for physicians in WWII, she and her classmates were placed in a rigorous, accelerated program, and she graduated with her medical degree in 1945, at the age of 22.
She practiced medicine in Australia before moving to New York in 1951, to study in the new field of gynecologic pathology. In 1953, she became an Assistant in Pathology at the Harvard Medical School. In 1969, Dr. Gore was jointly recruited by Department of Pathology and the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at UAB.
Dr. Edward E. Partridge, Director of the Comprehensive Cancer and Professor of Gynecologic Oncology at UAB, said that “Over the next two and one-half decades her influence on physicians in training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham was absolutely remarkable.”
In 2007, Dr. Gore was among a select few gynecological pathologists from around the world honored in the journal Pathology, by Dr. Robert H. Young, Harvard Medical School, for her influence in the development of modern gynecologic pathology.
The induction ceremony for Dr. Gore began with a musical prelude by George Philipp Telemann, which was followed with an invocation by The Rt. Rev. Henry Parsley, 10th Episcopal Bishop of Alabama, Ret. The Judson Choir then sang the anthem, Nigra Sum, by Pablo Cassals.
Dr. David Potts, President of Judson College, gave a warm welcome to the attendees, especially to members of Dr. Gore’s family, who had traveled from Memphis, Tenn. Family members attending included two adult children, a son and daughter, as well as grand children. Further introductory remarks were given by Dr. Sandral Hullett, Chairman of the AWHOF Board of Directors.
The key note address honoring Dr. Gore was presented by J. Max Austin, Jr., M.D. Dr. Austin was a student, friend, and colleague of Dr. Gore’s at the University of Alabama in Birmingham’s Medical Center. Dr. Austin is Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Gynecological Oncology, as well as Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UAB.
The memorial plaque honoring Dr. Gore was unveiled by her daughter-in-law, Cynthia Gore, who finalized the induction ceremony. The plaque will be permanently displayed in the AWHOF.
According to the AWHOF’s guidelines, a nominee must have been deceased for two years. In 2001, Dr. Gore was admitted to the hospital for coronary bypass surgery, but she died on July 14, 2001, four days after entering the hospital.
In addition to her family members, other guests attending this year’s gathering included AWHOF trustees, state dignitaries, medical colleagues, students, faculty, and staff of Judson College. A luncheon in Archibald Hall followed the installation.
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