Reporting across Arkansas

Tim Yarbrough
Arkansas Baptist News

I will be the first to admit the news and editorial pages of the Arkansas Baptist News (ABN) aren’t as sophisticated as some state Baptist newspapers – but what we lack in sophistication I believe we make up in the reporting and sharing of news and information about Arkansas Baptists.

Last month I did an informal survey of our newspaper to get an idea of how we are doing in reporting a variety of stories about Arkansas Baptists in various regions of the state.

Yarbrough

Honestly, I was surprised at how diversified the news is that we publish. While we continue to have a lot of stories originate from Central Arkansas – Little Rock, North Little Rock, Benton, Conway, Jacksonville and Cabot – I was pleasantly surprised to see practically every region of Arkansas represented.

Whether it was in a large news or feature story or a shorter story on our Across Arkansas page, but there they were – Hughes, Kingsland, Atkins, Rose Bud, Gravel Ridge and Berryville, among many others – with timely information about what God is doing through His people known as Arkansas Baptists.

As you have read in this space before, the staff of the ABN has worked hard this past year to increase the number of stories about Arkansas Baptists and decrease other news from outside the state – unless, of course, it is important to Arkansas Baptists.

That effort has resulted in more than a 60 percent increase in news and information published about and for Arkansas Baptists. How did we do it? It was really quite simple – we have worked to reduce the length of our stories in order to report more stories.

With that said, we can’t do what we do without you, our loyal ABN readers. As I travel around the state meeting pastors and members – I ask pastors about what God is doing in their churches. Sometimes pastors are quick to tell me of some exciting things God is doing, but other times they might say something like, “Oh, God is doing some great things, but I’m not sure it is anything you would want to publish in the newspaper.”

I am quick to tell them they are wrong because I believe – no matter how small a story may seem – if it is telling about the activity of God in the state, it is news to Arkansas Baptists.

Soon the ABN will be announcing a major initiative to further improve our reach into the state. We are bringing back the concept of “regional correspondents” – or “stringers” as some of the old-timers call them – to help us do a better job of reporting across Arkansas. Our goal is to publish at least one page every quarter targeted directly to one of four regions outside Central Arkansas.

Stay tuned. This is going to be exciting! And what’s more, it’s all about you and the work God is doing through you and your churches in the Natural State.

Tim Yarbrough is editor of the Arkansas Baptist News. Contact him at tim@arkansasbaptist.org.

Good news and bad: U.S. teen pregnancy rate lowest in nearly 40 years

Larry Page
Arkansas Faith & Ethnics Council 

According to a study by the Guttmacher Institute, teenage pregnancies, births and abortions have declined dramatically. The study’s findings were based on statistics for the year 2008, the most recent year for which complete numbers on the relevant factors were available. The teen pregnancy rate is the lowest it has been in almost four decades. That is good news. However, as is often the case, the good news is mixed with some not so good news and this is no exception. The very best of the good news here is the simple fact that fewer teen pregnancies translate into fewer abortions. For that we are thankful.

PageThe bad news in all of this is that the reduction in teen pregnancies isn’t due to increased sexual abstinence by young people. If it were, that would be great news, too. The fact is that adolescents are as sexually active as they have been in recent years. So what does the research show is responsible for lower teen pregnancy rates? The study concluded that teens are using contraceptive methods more comprehensively, consistently and effectively. The following are some of the key findings reported in the study:

• Pregnancies among 15- to 19-year-olds had dropped 42 percent from its highest level reached 22 years ago – and to its lowest point since 1972.
• In 1990, teen pregnancies peaked at 116.9 per 1,000 teenage girls and women.
• In 2008, there were 67.8 pregnancies per 1,000 for girls and women aged 15 to 19.
• In 2008, nearly 750,000 women under 20 became pregnant (98 percent of them between the ages of 15 -19).
• The teenage birthrate for girls and women aged 15 to 19 in 2008 was 40.2 births per 1000 women – down 35 percent from the 1991 rate of 61.8 births per 1,000 girls and women in that age group.
• The 2008 abortion rate was 17.8 per 1000 girls and women aged 15–19 – down 59 percent from the 1988 rate of 43.5 abortions for girls and women in that age group.
• Black and Hispanic teens experience pregnancy and abortion at 2-4 times that of their white peers.  This particular finding of the study is disturbing and points clearly to the fact that there are still cultural divides in our society that must be bridged if we are be a nation that seeks the best and achieves the best for everyone.

While the numbers reflecting lower incidents of abortion that this study reveals are encouraging, I know that we all long for the day when there are no out-of-wedlock pregnancies and no elective abortions at all; because there is no sexual activity outside marriage, there is fidelity within marriage practiced faithfully, and that a deep and abiding respect for the sanctity of human life is paramount with everyone. Some would say that that will never happen, that those are unrealistic expectations and goals – perhaps that is so – but shouldn’t we pray, teach and work as if it could be so. God’s ideals, standards,and desires for mankind will never be poor choices as goals for us to pray and work to achieve.

Larry Page is executive director of the Arkansas Faith & Ethics Council. Read more at www.arfaith.org.

‘It’s so crazy, it just might work!’

Tim Yarbrough
Arkansas Baptist News

One of my children’s favorite movies when they were younger was “The Master of Disguise,” which was released in 2002. Actually, my daughter, Hannah, who is now 19 and a freshman at the University of Arkansas, still watches the movie from time to time.

There are a lot of funny moments in the film, but there’s this one scene where the central character, Pistachio Disguisey, says something that sums up the entire silly movie.

YarbroughWith big eyes and a broad grin, he states, “It’s so crazy, it just might work!”

Sometimes crazy ideas do work, but sometimes it’s the simple approach that works best.

Volumes of books have been written about how to reach people for Jesus Christ. Southern Baptists, from our very beginnings in 1845, have emphasized evangelism as a core value and strategy for reaching people for Christ.

But at the end of the day, many times it’s personal evangelism that results in people attending church and getting saved.

That’s the focus of Statewide Friend Day set to be held in Arkansas Oct. 14.

“It’s simple; it works,” says Kim Bridges of First Baptist Church, Marmaduke, who participated along with other churches from the Greene County Baptist Association and North Arkansas Baptist Association in 2011.

National surveys point to a simple invitation as a key to the unchurched attending church. Did you read that? National surveys point to a simple invitation as a key to the unchurched attending church.

I don’t think it gets much simpler than that.

And the odds increase more dramatically if the person being invited to church knows the person doing the inviting – a neighbor or co-worker, perhaps?

While we live in dramatically changing times, people today still have a need for belonging.

Everyone wants to be a part of something. The world and the devil want to point people to destructive relationships like gangs or other types of social clubs or environments – anywhere but the church!

Christians on mission for the Lord can capitalize on this need for belonging by extending an invitation to friends and acquaintances to attend church and give Jesus an opportunity to penetrate their hearts.

So the next time you find yourself out in the front of your home visiting with a neighbor, or perhaps when you are sharing a conversation with a co-worker, consider doing something kind of crazy, yet so simple: Invite someone to church.

According to statistics, there’s more than an 80 percent chance they’ll take you up on your offer, and what’s more, their lives possibly will be changed for all eternity.

Tim Yarbrough is editor of the Arkansas Baptist News. Contact him at tim@arkansasbaptist.org.

Behind every theological crusader there’s usually a story

Trevin Wax
LifeWay Christian Resources

I know a pastor who thinks militant Calvinism is about to overtake the Southern Baptist Convention and lead to multiple church splits. In personal conversation, he is constantly going back to the dangers of Reformed theology and the damage it is doing across the evangelical world.

WaxI have a friend on the other side of the spectrum – a truly Reformed guy convinced that the contemporary church movement, particularly its Purpose-Driven manifestation, is man-centered, God-dishonoring and infecting evangelicalism all over the place, leaving us powerless for mission and divided in our churches. Whenever I talk with him, he is constantly railing against church growth and numbers-obsessed pastors who only want to build monuments to themselves.

I have another friend who has a visceral reaction whenever someone is expressive in worship. He talks often about how people are just showing off. Their enthusiasm isn’t real. If it gets out of hand, it will cause problems.

Trevin Wax is managing editor of The Gospel Project at LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, Tenn.

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Adult stem cell research: Empirically sound, successful and pro-life

Larry Page
Arkansas Faith & Ethnics Council 

For several years a huge debate has been taking place within the biomedical and scientific communities. Since the polemics about stem cell research has at its very heart the question of whether we are willing to sacrifice human life for the potential – yet far from realized cures and treatment for diseases and medical conditions – Christians and others who hold dear the Godly principle of sanctity of human life have been drawn into the fight.

PageThere are two major types of stem cell research: embryonic and adult. It is the former kind, embryonic stem cell research that believers find repugnant. In order to collect embryonic stem-cells, a living, human embryo must be destroyed. Adult stem cells, on the other hand, come from a number of places, such as bone marrow, skin cells, placenta, umbilical cord blood, body fat and other sources. 

Research using adult stem-cells has yielded the only positive results and offers even more promising and exciting potential. The list of successes with adult stem cell research is long and impressive. A sample of that list would include the facts that human patients with 73 different medical conditions have seen improved health with treatments using adult stem cells. Adult stem cells were used in the treatment of a bone-cancer victim leading to remission. In addition, adult stem cells have been used in therapy for breast cancer, leukemia and sickle cell anemia, and have been successfully used to treat patients with Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and spinal cord injuries.

Researchers using embryonic stem cells in their studies can point to no such success. It has not been moved much beyond trial studies with animals because the results are wildly unpredictable. Mutations, deformity, the growth of tumors and death are all common in that research. Embryonic stem cells have not cured or treated a single human patient. 

Paul Billings, a long time proponent of embryonic stem cell research, has admitted the obvious after many years studying the effects of stem cells in trials. He said, “The problems [involving embryonic stem-cell research] are so complex that we’re not likely to be able to tackle them with the stem-cell gambit in the foreseeable future.” He concluded that hopes for major new medical treatments based on embryonic stem-cells are “very remote.”

So why do so many in the scientific, academic and the main stream media communities insist that we must concentrate on embryonic stem cell research, placing all our hopes and pouring most of our resources into those studies, when all the stunning success is taking place with adult stem-cell research? That question just seems to hang in the air – because a logical and sensible answer isn’t to be found – “there’s no there there” to use a current colloquialism.

When the entire body of stem cell research is considered, one thing becomes crystal clear. The beneficial and promising research has been the result of work done with adult stem cells. We need to encourage researchers to confine their studies to the only kind of stem cell research that has yielded good results and holds the prospect for achieving great things in the area of disease cures and prevention – and that kind is adult stem-cell research. We need not sacrifice human lives for the advances in medical science that embryonic stem-cell research promises – but never delivers on. A life for such an elusive prize seems a terrible and regrettable bargain indeed.

Larry Page is executive director of the Arkansas Faith & Ethics Council. Read more at www.arfaith.org.