[1]NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–The Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission, anticipating a name change to the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission in June, has established a presence on the Internet.
The agency’s home page, at http://erlc.com, made its debut May 8.
“The purpose of this new venture is to give Christians more awareness and understanding of the compelling moral and ethical issues facing society today,” said Jeff Carter, CLC director of citizenship concerns, who is overseeing the design and implementation of the site on the World Wide Web. He said the web site will enable Christians “to respond in an informed and timely manner to those issues.”
He noted the objectives of the commission’s web site:
1) to educate Christians about the moral and ethical issues facing today’s culture.
2) to inform Christians of their roles and responsibilities as citizens of both heaven and of the United States in all areas of life.
3) to reach Christians in the most timely manner with information about the cultural issues being addressed in government circles and to provide them with the means to become directly involved in communicating with their elected representatives concerning those issues.
4) to encourage Christians to become actively involved in America’s democratic society (both politically and culturally), teaching them steps that may be taken to achieve that end and stressing the importance of undertaking such involvement in a biblical, Christlike manner.
5) to build grassroots prayer support for government leaders and current issues.
6) to expose non-Christian visitors of the home page to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Some of the information accessible from the home page will be full text versions of Salt and of Light, the commission’s bimonthly publications, Carter said.
“Visitors to the site will be able to determine the identity of their national and state representatives merely by typing in their street address and zip code,” Carter said, noting the results will furnish relevant information about contacting their elected officials, including “links” to their e-mail or home page if available.
“This technology will greatly increase the ability of the ERLC and its visitors to communicate with elected officials regarding often last-minute votes and issues,” Carter explained.
Visitors will be encouraged to register their names and e-mail addresses at the home page, he said. This will allow ERLC staff to contact these registrants by e-mail to inform them of various issues currently facing Congress and upon which they can take action.
Over time, summaries of materials produced by the ERLC addressing ethical and cultural issues will be added to the home page, he continued, noting this will allow visitors to gain a fuller understanding of particular issues of interest. In the event more information on a particular subject is desired, an order form could be completed, printed out and either mailed, faxed or e-mailed to the agency’s offices.
“As the Christian Life Commission becomes the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the use of technology such as the new home page will enable the ERLC to more effectively serve as the ethics and public policy agency of the Southern Baptist Convention for many years to come,” Carter emphasized, encouraging computer users to not “miss out on this incredible opportunity to become involved.”