said Thursday [February 22, 2007] the minister has a constitutional right to solicit sex from an undercover policeman.

[Latham's] attorney, Mack Martin, filed a motion to have the misdemeanor lewdness charge thrown out, saying the Supreme Court ruled in the 2003 decision Lawrence v. Texas that it was not illegal for consenting adults to engage in private homosexual acts.

"Now, my client's being prosecuted basically for having offered to engage in such an act, which basically makes it a crime to ask someone to do something that's legal," Martin said.

The victims' advocates who dogged the Roman Catholic Church over sex abuse by its clergy have now turned their attention to the Southern Baptists, accusing America's largest Protestant denomination of also failing to root out molesters.

The Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests [SNAP] has started a campaign to call attention to alleged sex abuse committed by Southern Baptist ministers and concealed by churches. …

Church leaders concede there have been some incidents of abuse in Southern Baptist congregations but say their hands are tied when it comes to investigating complaints across the denomination. … "They don't want to see this problem," said Christa Brown, a SNAP member from Austin, Texas, who says she was sexually abused as a child by a Southern Baptist minister. "That's tragic, because they're imitating the same mistakes made by Catholic bishops."

In the past six months SNAP has received reports of about 40 cases of sexual abuse by Southern Baptist ministers – with some of the incidents dating back many years…

Debbie Vasquez, [who] said she was raped by a Southern Baptist minister in Texas when she was 15 years old.

Now 48, Vasquez filed a lawsuit last year against the pastor, the Reverend Dale "Dickie" Amyx, and his current church, Bolivar Baptist in Sanger, Texas, about 45 miles north of Dallas. She claims the church knew, or should have known, about Amyx's past.

Vasquez says she was raped when Amyx was a minister at the now-defunct Calvary Baptist Church in Lewisville, another town north of Dallas.

When she became pregnant with Amyx's child at age 18, church leaders forced her to go before the congregation and ask forgiveness as an unwed mother. But the congregation was never told it was Amyx's baby. The lawsuit claims Calvary Baptist helped Amyx get another job at a church in Arizona.

The reasons they recommended it was for political reasons, not for scientific reasons … What we're talking about is the right of clients who are unhappy with their feeling (of same-sex attraction) … Those people have the right to seek therapy to help them live the way they want to live – the way they value.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation will argue at a U.S. Supreme Court hearing next week [February 26-March 2, 2007] that President Bush's Faith-Based and Community Initiative violates the "separation of church and state."

But Jordan Lorence, senior counsel for Alliance Defense Fund, told Family News in Focus he sees an ulterior motive in the lawsuit.

"What they are trying to do is stop all government acknowledgement of religion or funding of religion," Lorence said. [link added]

I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good… Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism.
– Randall Terry

A group of influential Christian conservatives and their allies emerged from a private meeting at a Florida resort this month dissatisfied with the Republican presidential field and uncertain where to turn.

The event was a meeting of the Council for National Policy, a secretive club whose few hundred members include Dr. James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family, the Rev. Jerry Falwell of Liberty University and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. Although little known outside the conservative movement, the council has become a pivotal stop for Republican presidential primary hopefuls, including George W. Bush on the eve of his 1999 primary campaign.

But in a stark shift from the group's influence under President Bush, the group risks relegation to the margins.

Wage a war of apocalyptic proportions in Left Behind: Eternal Forces, a real time strategy game based upon the best selling book series created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Conduct physical and spiritual warfare, recover ancient scriptures and command your forces through intense battles. ...

AgapePress has reported that Dr. Frank Page, the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention, is disturbed that many students are leaving the church once they graduate. Indeed, the Convention's Council on Family Life reports that some 88 percent of children from evangelical homes are leaving the church shortly after they graduate from high school.