John L. Yeats

ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP)--Can we do church the way we always have and expect different results? Do we actually think being merely Sunday observers of church can actually impact this culture for Christ?

ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP)--The media is bristling with political banter. Most of us already are sick of all the talk and posturing. However, in a little more than 16 months, Americans will go to the polls and cast their votes for a new president. Will he or she represent our biblical values?

NEW ORLEANS (BP)--An interesting letter to the editor appeared in the March 1 edition of The Times-Picayune, the daily newspaper for the New Orleans metro. The writer, apparently a Roman Catholic, expressed her frustration, “I was appalled to see that St. Mark Catholic Church in Chalmette had not been cleaned out yet. The Archdiocese of New Orleans should have called the Baptists. They would have cleaned it out, no questions asked, as they have been and still are doing at other locations in St. Bernard Parish.”

ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP)--Many American households are drowning in debt and see no way out of the pit that continues to grow deeper by the month. For example, 71 percent of all credit card accounts have only the minimum monthly payments being made by consumers. Typically, this means that 90 percent of the payment is interest and only 10 percent is applied to principle reduction. The problem is so profound that 75 percent of Americans are a mere three paychecks away from bankruptcy.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (BP)--When messengers walk through the doors of the Greensboro Coliseum Complex during the SBC annual meeting, they will be greeted by the traditional tables loaded with copies of SBC Life. However, this year there is a special treat. Next to the stacks of magazines will be a free book, "Testimonies of Giving Your Faith Away, Everyone Can!" by SBC President Bobby Welch.

ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP)--Louisiana Baptist Convention officials opened an envelope filled with $854 cash. Receiving cash in an envelope is not that uncommon for non-profit ministries such as the LBC. However, this money was extraordinary and downright miraculous.
      The cash was an offering from several citizens who live in a community on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, a region decimated by the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami that claimed an estimated 300,000 lives worldwide.

PINEVILLE, La. (BP)--The headline read, “Judge rules against Intelligent Design: Religious alternative to evolution cannot be taught in public school classes.” Evangelical and conservative commentators alike picked up the rhetoric and most bemoaned the fact of another public setback in the culture wars.

OKLAHOMA CITY (BP)--It is just my opinion, but since an editorial is just my opinion, here goes. The 2005 Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville will serve as a pivotal year in the history of Southern Baptists. All organizations, including churches and church-type ministries such as a denomination, experience identity phases. Since the late 1960s through the mid-1990S, the Southern Baptist Convention experienced reclamation of its historical biblically conservative roots.