SNELLVILLE, Ga. — Georgia Baptist messengers who want to submit resolutions for consideration at the upcoming annual meeting are being urged to do so Nov. 7. That gives the Georgia Baptist Convention’s Resolutions Committee time to review them before the annual meeting, which is set for Nov. 12-14 at the Church on Main in Snellville.

We are all looking forward to joining other Georgia Baptists as we celebrate 201 years as the Georgia Baptist Convention. This year’s theme will be: “Calling Out, The Called,” and our Convention will be held at Church on Main, Snellville, Ga., on Sunday, Nov. 12 through Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023. Over the course of three days, we will hear from five featured speakers and worship with churches across the state.

In 1894, Uganda became a protectorate of the British Empire, and in 1962 the United Kingdom granted independence to Uganda. Since that time, the landlocked country in East African has suffered extreme poverty and untold hardship. According to World Vision, many older adults will remember “the brutal eight-year reign of Dictator Idi Amin whose regime killed up to 500,000 people, persecuted Christians, and left Uganda a broken nation.”

ATLANTA (AP) — Luis Rengifo, Randal Grichuk and Chad Wallach hit solo homers off Charlie Morton, Chase Silseth won his second straight start and the Los Angeles Angels cooled off the major league-leading Atlanta Braves with a 4-1 victory on Monday night.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — Many Georgia churches celebrated the long Independence Day weekend with sermons calling on believers to engage with politicians at the local, state and national levels on issues of biblical and ethical importance. “There’s an old saying that’s true, that they see the light when they feel the heat,” said longtime Atlanta-area pastor Richard Lee who spoke Sunday at Flat Creek Baptist Church in Fayetteville.

On June 12, the Tucker, Georgia City Council voted in favor of a Non-discrimination Ordinance (NDO). This ordinance, while professing to be non-discriminatory, will actually set up opportunities to discriminate against people of faith. Plain and simple: Non-discrimination Ordinances that use the force of law to protect sexual orientation or gender identity can end up being a form of religious censorship, discrimination, and persecution.

As many of you may remember, last June 24 was a very important day in the history of the United States. On that day, Roe versus Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the Dobbs case. The bottom line is that the original Roe v. Wade decision was unconstitutional because there has NEVER been a national constitutional right to abortion!

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — A local official has backed off threats to fine Flat Creek Baptist Church for hosting an evangelistic outreach that he claimed violated zoning regulations. The outreach involved a car show that attracted more than 1,200 people to Flat Creek Baptist Church on Saturday.

Brad Hughes, chairman of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s Public Affairs Committee and director of field operations for Gov. Brian Kemp, and I are very excited about this year's public affairs training events. Our theme for this year’s training is, "Living for Christ in the Public Square."

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has temporarily extended women's access to an abortion pill until Friday while the justices consider whether to allow restrictions on mifepristone to take effect as a legal challenge to the medication's Food and Drug Administration approval continues.

This year's legislative session began slow but ended very busy because it was the first year of a two-year legislative cycle. This was the first year of the Governor’s second term and it was also the first year of a new Lieutenant Governor and a new Speaker of the House. Georgia Baptists monitored around 12 legislative subjects with 27 bills. Once again, we were able to support more legislation than we opposed. Of the 12 legislative subjects that we dealt with, we were in favor of moving legislation in 10 of those areas.

ATLANTA — Georgia lawmakers wrapped up this year's legislative session on Wednesday, steadfastly refusing to legalize sports betting or pari-mutuel wagering on horse racing.

Last week, the Georgia Senate Committee on Economic Development and Tourism replaced House Bill 237, sponsored by Rep. Leesa Hagan, which would establish the Southeast Georgia Soap Box Derby as the official soap box derby of the State of Georgia with language that now makes it a Sports Betting bill. See my Public Affairs Ministry FB video: https://fb.watch/jj4m-2bDrL/

ATLANTA  — Pro-gambling lawmakers have hijacked feel-good legislation that would have designated an official state soap box derby, turning it into  a longshot bill that would legalize sports gambling in the state. State Rep. Leesa Hagan, sponsor of the bill to honor the Southeast Georgia Soap Box Derby in Lyons,  said she wasn’t consulted and didn’t consent to the move.

ATLANTA – Georgia lawmakers have rejected three bills that would have  legalized  sports betting and pari-mutuel wagering on horse races in the Bible Belt state. The latest loss for pro-gambling forces came Monday when they were unable to convince enough Senate lawmakers to approve a proposed constitutional amendment. The proposal fell short of the two-thirds supermajority it needed to pass.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday ousted Saddleback Church, the renowned California megachurch, founded by pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren, for having a woman serving as a teaching pastor. The vote by the convention's Executive Committee resulted from growing tension between leaders of the nation's largest Protestant denomination  and a congregation whose story has been one of the biggest church-growth successes of modern times.

Georgia Sen. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, along with more than 25 other senators, introduced SB 180, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act today at the Capitol.  This bill provides people of faith the same protections from state and local government actions that they now have from federal government actions. This legislation is very simple – it merely provides that the RFRA protections from federal law will also apply to religious-liberty questions arising under Georgia law.

ATLANTA – Georgia Baptists will gather at the Capitol on Thursday with other pro-life organizations for a rally celebrating the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Georgia Life Alliance, the state affiliate to the National Right to Life Committee, is organizing the event dubbed Together for Life.

On February 1st, new gambling legislation was introduced in the Georgia Senate. Senator Billy Hickman authored Senate Bill 57 to legalize sports betting and horse racing through the Georgia Lottery. This bill is not a constitutional amendment, but rather a legislative bill that will only require a majority vote in the Senate to pass.

ATLANTA – Some 200 people attended the annual Pastors Day at the Capitol on Thursday to hear from advocates working on the frontlines on important biblical, moral and ethical issues at play in the Georgia legislature.

For more than eight years the Georgia General Assembly has been dealing with the issue of expanding gambling in Georgia. Every year the proposed legislation has failed to pass out of the House and the Senate. This year, it is once again being discussed at the Capitol. I expect to hear a familiar argument, “Just let the people decide.” However, the people in one way have already “decided.” We are also hearing that there will be an attempt to go through the Georgia Lottery to legalize sports gambling. This means legislation would only be required to have a majority vote in both chambers, rather than a two-thirds majority with a constitutional amendment.

On January 13, 1984, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed that January 22 would be the first National Sanctity of Human Life Day. January 22 is the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion-on-demand in the U.S. in 1973. This month marks the 50th Anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, which led to the deaths of over 60 million preborn children in the United States alone. But this year, on the National Sanctity of Human Life Day we will be celebrating last year’s overturning of Roe v. Wade on a Sunday. This will be the first time in 50 years.

On January 9 the Georgia General Assembly will convene for its 2023 legislative session. This year is set to begin what will be the first of a two-year legislative cycle. Therefore, new legislation will be introduced to the Georgia General Assembly. It is not uncommon that over a two-year period, Georgia Baptists will monitor anywhere from 25 to 30 pieces of legislation, covering approximately 18 or more subject headings.

WASHINGTON — News that the Food and Drug Administration has finalized a rule change that makes abortion pills more widely available in pharmacies and via mail order has pro-life advocates alarmed. Mike Griffin, public affairs representative for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, called the FDA's action "terrible."

DULUTH, Ga. – Some congregations have missed the initial deadline for completing what’s known as the Annual Church Report, a census of sorts for the Georgia Baptist Convention. But it’s not too late to complete the fill-in-the-blank report that can be completed in a matter of minutes.