August 2004

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Evangelist Franklin Graham closed out the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in mid-June by announcing a new initiative to encourage public school children to be on-campus evangelists for Christ.

"I want to see a child, at least one child, in every class in every public school in America who is trained as a witness for Jesus Christ," said Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. The association plans to enroll children in an Internet-based witnessing program that will give them cards identifying them as "certified evangelists."

The son of Billy Graham and the president of the Samaritan's Purse relief organization urged Southern Baptists to be similarly vocal about their faith.

"There is no other way to God except through Jesus Christ," he said. "Oh, is that offensive? I'm so sorry but it's the truth. … Let's be a true witness."

Graham's remarks capped a meeting in which Southern Baptists formally broke ties with the Baptist World Alliance, elected a new president and rejected a proposal to have a committee study whether the religious body's name should be changed.

President Bush addressed more than 8,000 members of the nation's largest Protestant denomination via satellite during the first day of their two-day annual meeting.

"My administration is defending the sanctity of marriage against activist courts and local officials who want to redefine marriage forever," the president told them Tuesday, drawing a standing ovation. "The union of a man and a woman is the most enduring human institution, honored and encouraged in all cultures and by every religious faith."

Southern Baptists, agreeing with that sentiment, passed a resolution supporting a federal marriage amendment that would define ...