A play, “Southern Baptist Sissies,” written by Del Shore is currently playing at the Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles. Here is a summary of the play taken from a review posted at the play’s official Web site:

A massive earthquake in northern Pakistan and India has killed as many as 30,000 people in the Hindu Kush mountains alone, according to some recent estimates. The quake struck Saturday morning but, due to the remote nature of the quake-damages areas, the massive nature of the destruction was not evident until later on Saturday.

The Washington Post and other papers are reporting that the Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to use taxpayer money to reimburse churches and other religious groups for aid suppied in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
This is a horrible precedent that distorts Christian charity and wrongfully entangles churches and the government. With the tax-funded reimbursement will inevitably come government intrusion and all the rest. Christians should give the aid out of love and concern, without expectation of reimbursement. The reimbursement plan threatens to turn the Christian agencies into extensions of state action — mere service agencies functioning on behalf of the government.
Bravo to Bob Reccord, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board, who told The Washington Post: “Volunteer labor is just that: volunteer.  We would never ask the government to pay for it.” May others follow his lead.

New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary has released information about its operations and plans for coming months. The seminary’s statement is found on its Web site [go here].
The seminary’s plans were detailed in an release published by Baptist Press on Friday. The first paragraphs of the release summarize the plan:
Despite the devastation on the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary campus, President Chuck Kelley said he plans for the main campus to be fully operational in August 2006 and is hopeful that some activities will be held on campus as early as January 2006.Extension center classes will continue as scheduled.”New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary is here to stay and we are getting back to work,” Kelley said during a Sept. 1 meeting at the seminary’s Atlanta-area North Georgia Campus. “We will have a semester. We will have a December graduation.”
We are praying for our sister school and its many families. A relief fund has been established [go here for information]. See also the related Baptist Press release, “Seminaries Begin Mobilizing for Katrina Disaster Relief.”
This satellite image of the New Orleans area allows the viewer to navigate around the city.  The images were taken on Monday morning, before the major flooding took place.

“Pray for the circumstances of our seminary family,” said New Orleans Theological Seminary President Chuck Kelley. “They’re all over the southeastern United States. Virtually all of us on campus now are homeless. My wife and I have what we can put in our car in an hour, and that’s it. We’re all homeless.” [see story in Baptist Press]
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary is one of six seminaries serving the Southern Baptist Convention. Like the City of New Orleans, it is now underwater, and may be for some time. We have no idea of the devastation, and the full extent of the damage may not be known for months. The entire campus may be lost or catastrophically compromised.
Chuck Kelley loves the school he leads, and he loves his students. He has led NOBTS with a firm vision and his own deep Christian conviction. He is an evangelist who also loves the city he has called home for so many years — a city that represents one of the greatest and most challenging mission fields in North America.
He, his wife Rhonda, and the senior seminary leadership have now moved to Atlanta for some time, operating out of their North Georgia extension campus.
Today, they will be meeting to consider the future of their school. They must develop a plan, based on what they know now. I am confident of this — no hurricane is going to keep Chuck Kelley and the NOBTS family from doing what God has called them to do.
Their students and faculty have lost almost everything. They still have their faith, their calling, and their Christian hope. Let’s pray for Chuck and his team as they meet today — and then let’s help them recover and rebuild.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. [Jeremiah 29:11-14, English Standard Version]

The American denominational landscape has experienced significant shifts in recent times, but one major story stands out among them all–the massive redirection of the Southern Baptist Convention. America’s largest evangelical denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention was reshaped, reformed, and restructured over the last three decades, and at an incredibly high cost.

As the Southern Baptist Convention convenes in Nashville next week, the issue of public education is once again at the center of potential controversy. For the second year in a row, proposed resolutions have been submitted to the denomination’s Committee on Resolutions, calling for Christians to reconsider support for the nation’s public school system.

The American denominational landscape has experienced significant shifts in recent times, but one major story stands out among them all–the massive redirection of the Southern Baptist Convention. America's largest evangelical denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention was reshaped, reformed, and restructured over the last three decades, and at an incredibly high cost. Was it worth it? That is one of the crucial questions addressed by Paige Patterson in his new essay, Anatomy of a Reformation: The Southern Baptist Convention 1978-2004.