#iorg

[flowersanddoves]

At Virginia Grand Assembly this weekend

[ajferro]

#IORG #grandassembly (at Sheraton Hartford South Hotel) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpq2iH_t3r9/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[mybrotherstolemyquesadilla]

iorg jr grand looks 🌈🫶🏻

[shefancdotcom]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Lot Of 4 Topps Chewing Gum Inc Toronto Blue Jays 1987 Baseball Trading Cards.

[creepypastacryptidd]

Hey, Ex-IORG member that you reblogged from here, could you please remove the reblog of my post where I talk about my experience with Rainbow? I don’t appreciate having my real life experiences in that organization being conflated with “conspiracy theories”

deleted.

[dankusner]

Census: Southern Baptist membership down again 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Southern Baptist Convention’s annual census reported 241,000 fewer members and 292 fewer churches in 2023, another yearly drop for the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

Lifeway Research, a division of the SBC’s publishing arm, said in its annual church profile on Tuesday there were 46,906 Southern Baptist churches and 12.9million members in 2023, down from 13.2million in 2022.

Total SBC membership has declined by 3.3 million since its peak in 2006 when there were 16.3million members.

The consecutive losses in key measurements for years have contributed to differing arguments within Southern Baptist circles for the best remedy, most recently leading to six candidates for convention president announcing their bid ahead of the SBC annual meeting in June in Indianapolis.

Yet this year’s annual church profile also includes some growth, namely baptisms and average weekly attendance.

'More than 4million people gathered weekly in Southern Baptist worship services (about four times more than combined NFL attendance on any weekend in the fall),' said Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee in an opinion column on Tuesday that accompanied the latest data.

In the newest annual church profile, the highest-ranking states for total membership and total churches are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

Total baptisms were up for a third consecutive year, a sign of success last seen 30-plus years ago.

The latest data shows 'the Southern Baptist Convention actually can do more than one thing at a time,' said SBC President Bart Barber in an opinion column that accompanied the latest data release.

Opposition conservatives, who are trying to pull the SBC further to the right, have responded to the declining membership and finances by emphasizing evangelism and, at times, shifting the focus away from abuse reform.

Meanwhile, many mainstream conservatives are calling for more support for abuse reform and initiatives to promote greater racial and ethnic diversity among Southern Baptist leadership to avoid deterring future generations of prospective churchgoers.

'We struggle with major issues like eradicating racism and stopping sexual abuse,' Iorg said in an opinion column. 'We are a fractious, willful, sinful bunch, and we sometimes act like it.'

A notable addition to the latest annual church profile were statistics on churches’ policies and practices for preventing and responding to sexual abuse.

Some state Southern Baptist conventions received more responses than others, lending to drastically different figures depending on the state. But on average:

58% of churches require background checks for staff and volunteers working with children and students.

36% of churches reported their staff and volunteers are trained in reporting sexual abuse.

16% of churches reported that staff and volunteers are trained in caring for abuse survivors.

No, evangelical Christians do not believe immigrants are ‘garbage’ 

Your Turn

Tim Moore Guest columnist

Houston megachurch pastor Ed Young made local and national headlines recently with a sermon that characterized immigrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as “undesirables” and “garbage.”

As a fellow Southern Baptist pastor here in Texas, I resonate with Dr. Young’s frustration with our government’s failure to ensure secure borders.

However, his characterization of immigrants contradicts the biblical teaching that all human beings are made in God’s image with inherent dignity.

No person is “garbage” but is “fearfully and wonderfully made” by God.

While he may have gotten carried away in a politicized moment, I believe that, at his core, Dr. Young believes that all human beings – regardless of their country of origin, ethnicity, legal status or any other factor – bear God’s image and thus have inherent dignity.

According to a recent survey from Lifeway Research, 92 percent of Texan evangelical Christians, agree that our immigration policies should reflect human dignity as well.

Evangelical Christians overwhelmingly have compassionate, nuanced views on immigration issues – and want Congress to pass bipartisan immigration reforms that reflect those values.

In fact, roughly a decade ago – at my invitation – Dr. Young joined thousands of other evangelical leaders in affirming a call for a bipartisan immigration solutionthat “respects the God-given dignity of every person.”

That statement, which then-president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission Dr. Richard Land helped to draft, also insisted upon secure national borders, fairness to taxpayers and respect for the rule of law, along with protecting family unity and establishing a path toward legal status and/or citizenship for those who qualify and wish to become permanent residents.

That Evangelical Statement of Principles for Immigration Reform was affirmed in subsequent years not only by Dr. Young, but by hundreds of Southern Baptist and other evangelical leaders across our state, including some of Texas’ most prominent pastors.

The vast majority of Texas evangelicals still stand by these principles.

In fact, Lifeway Research’s January 2024 survey found that each one of the six principles of this statement – including establishing a path toward citizenship for immigrants in the country unlawfully who meet certain qualifications – is supported by at least 73 percent of Texas evangelicals.

And its principles align closely with a resolution passed nearly unanimously at the Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans just last summer.

Despite a common misconception, perpetuated by these recent viral comments, evangelical Christians are not anti-immigrant. We want secure borders, to be sure, and believe it is a God-ordained function of gov-

to protect citizens – a responsibility for which the Biden administration and Congress are clearly missing the mark.

But we also love immigrants, as God explicitly commands his people to do, emulating his own love, in Deuteronomy 10.

Evangelical ministries like Send Relief and World Relief Texas care for immigrants in a plethora of ways; fully 36 percent of Texas evangelicals say they have personally been involved in ministry to immigrants.

Immigration is not just a political issue for a great many Texas evangelicals – including me.

Throughout my pastoral ministry in the Austin area, I’ve been blessed by the immigrants who have joined my congregation.

Some brought a vibrant Christian faith with them from their countries of origin, including some who had fled persecution and hardship on account of their faith.

Without due process in our country, these persecuternment ed brothers and sisters in Christ could have been sent back to danger and even death.

And, in other cases, immigration has provided an opportunity to introduce migrants to Christ. In fact, many have encountered and embraced the gospel for the first time in Texas. Immigration presents an opportunity for evangelical churches for whom introducing people to Jesus is our very first priority, beyond any political questions.

That’s why, while I still deeply respect Dr. Young, I hope he’ll reconsider his comments.

But regardless of any individual pastor’s statements, I hope immigrants here in Texas will know that most evangelical churches love and are eager to welcome them. And I pray that our presidential and congressional leaders will put aside partisanship to finally pass reforms that would benefit not only our immigrant neighbors but also improve the security and economic wellbeing of Americans.

Moore is the pastor of First Baptist Church of Leander

[orthotv]

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[unwelcome-ozian]

Do y'all know anything about the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls (IORG)? They're a Masonic group, leadership mentorship and the like for girls 10-20. I'm not saying there's any abuse happening, this isn't a victim speaking out - I just had a professor who recently mentioned being in it, and it set off a red flag. Are they one of the less... Terrifying sects of the Masons? Or do they have a shady underbelly too?

Here’s a link to someone speaking about their experience.

T.W sexual abuse

LINK

Oz

[natureaker]

you think you can hurt me? i was a rainbow girl for 4 years before realizing that i’m transmasc

[sunnyskies281]

Fun fact about Charity Layne!

She’s named after one of the line stations in the cult I was in! So are her two sisters!

Faith, Hope, and Charity!

Despite being named after the third in the line, she’s the middle child.

Her mother, Fidelity, is named after one of the 7 bow stations. The bow stations are 7 seats that each represent a color of the rainbow. Love, nature, religion, patriotism, fidelity, service, and there’s one other that I can’t remember.

Charity’s last name, Layne, came to me on a whim.

Fun facts about Kurt Tess!

His name is a pun on Courtesy, which is one of the values of DeMolay, a sister (or should I say… brother) organization to Rainbow, the cult I was in! I’ve never been to or seen a DeMolay meeting so I don’t know much about it but Kurt does follow the same naming scheme as Charity of being named after something that relates back to freemasonry.

[figtreemetaphor]

The thoughts we think have been pondered by many before us, and the same conclusions we draw were discussed by the ancients. The truth that has been expressed by another becomes ours only because our understanding has expanded to receive it.

W. Mark Sexon

[ajferro]

#IORG #grandassembly (at Sheraton Hartford South Hotel) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpq2UiZtW6V/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[itsagoodlife]

Happiness lives inside of the smallest moments.

Christy Ann Martine