Newspaper Page Text
6B
♦ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2007
BRIEFS
From page jB
wife, Brandi Anderson, at
2:30 p.m. Feb. 18.
All are welcome to
attend.
For information, call
987-9954.
Lightword Band
to perform
Roland Everett Fall
and the Lightword Band
will perform original
Christian music March 3
at the Josha Cup Coffee
House, 1090 Washington
Ave., Macon
The public is invited and
there is no cover charge.
Music will begin at 8
p.m.
Refreshments will be
served.
Baptists sending soldiers Christian mags instead of ‘lad mags’
By ROSE FRENCH
Associated Press Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - In
with Bible verses, out with
bikinis.
Southern Baptists are
sending Christian maga
zines to troops in Iraq as
an alternative to the “lad
mags” that feature scant
ily clad women, hoping to
get clean, positive images in
front of the servicemen.
Lifeway Christian
Resources, the publishing
arm of the Southern Baptist
Convention, is working
with Baptist associations
and churches to create
“Lifeboxes,” which include
magazines like Christian
Single, notes of encourage
ment, gum, socks, candy,
stationery supplies and wet
wipes.
“Soldiers have said that
mail and magazines are
greatly appreciated, and
now we have an opportunity
to have a positive impact
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Domino’s Pizza has been providing free pizza for several years for the Crossroads
United Methodist Church’s annual blood drive for the American Red Cross. Organizers
of the drive recently presented Domino’s with a certificate of appreciation. From left,
Fran Peake, Domino's driver Don Cline and Eunice Galloway.
on their lives,” said Rhonda
Buescher, director of
Lifeway’s magazine adver
tising and circulation.
Nearly 3,500 churches
across the country are try
ing to mail between 35,000
and 50,000 boxes to troops
by March 23, so they can
arrive by Easter on April 8.
Buescher said Nashville
based Lifeway helped launch
the project after hearing
from Fort Campbell sol
diers who said they would
be interested in receiving
Christian magazines.
“They said, ‘Frankly, when
we’re away from our fami
lies, we don’t need to be see
ing soft-core pornography,”’
she said.
Maxim and other “lad
mags” such as Stuff and
FHM feature partly clothed
women posing provocative
ly, but without the explicit
nudity that’s in Playboy and
other men’s magazines.
The soldiers from Fort
Campbell, located on the
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Giving life
Kentucky-Tennessee line,
said U.S. troops were get
ting Maxim free of charge,
and they wanted a Christian
alternative, Buescher said.
Maxim spokesman Sean
Evans said the magazine is
not pornography and that
soldiers have requested it
since the war in Iraq began
nearly four years ago.
Evans said he didn’t know
how many copies of Maxim
have been sent to troops in
Iraq, or if the magazines
were sent free of charge
without soldiers requesting
them.
“We congratulate Lifeway
on their much-needed
Lifebox project for soldiers
overseas,” Evans said. “The
soldiers have written to us
by the thousands about the
popular movies, TV shows,
DVDs they read about in
Maxim that they wish they
could be seeing back home.”
Fort Campbell spokesman
Terry Webster said troops
get reading material from
LOCAL
families and church groups,
but they are not allowed to
receive pornographic mate
rial in Iraq.
“Basically everybody has
different taste and choices in
reading material,” Webster
said. “If they don’t want
to read a certain publica
tion, they don’t have to read
that.”
Dozens of Lifeway boxes
have already been mailed to
troops by churches in the
Fort Campbell area and in
Virginia as part of a pilot
program, Buescher said.
Jimmie Miles, a retired
military chaplain and min
ister of education at Winfree
Memorial Baptist Church in
Midlothian, Va., sent about 50
boxes in November to troops
in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The congregation mailed
most of the boxes to soldiers
from Fort Lee, located about
20 miles south of the church.
Miles said the congregation
has received a number of
thank-you notes from troops
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— .its
Roman Catholic Church
undergoing great growth
VATICAN CITY (AP)
- The Roman Catholic
Church experienced its
greatest growth in Africa
and Asia between 2004
and 2005, according to new
statistics released by the
Vatican.
In Africa, the Catholic
population increased 3.1
percent, while the num
ber jumped 2.7 percent
in Asia from the period,
the Catholic News Service
reported Monday. The rise
in the number of Catholics
in the Americas was just
1.2 percent.
The trend was similar for
priests.
Of the more than 400,000
priests worldwide, Asia saw
the greatest increase, 3.8
percent, followed by Africa
for the boxes.
“There are all types of
magazines available to
troops, but I know from my
requests from the troops,
it was basically, ‘We’d like
to have this type of maga
zine, more family oriented,”’
Miles said.
Sgt. Conway Dooley IV,
with the 2nd Brigade Combat
Team, 10th Mountain
Division (Light Infantry)
from Fort Drum, N.Y., is on
his second tour in Iraq and
recently got one of the boxes
from Winfree Memorial
Baptist.
“It is a great idea to send
packages to the troops,”
Dooley said by e-mail. “It
keeps up the morale of the
soldiers. Soldiers have to
deal with what is going on
here and back home and it is
very hard for some of them
to deal with that. Receiving
packages from home helps
them.”
As part of the project,
churches donate money to
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at 3.6 percent, while Europe
and the Americas showed a
decrease in the number of
priests by about half a per
centage point.
By the end of 2005, Africa
and Asia accounted for
just over 20 percent of the
world’s priests, compared
to 11 percent two decades
earlier. Europe had nearly
49 percent, compared to 58
percent in the same period,
while the numbers for the
Americas remained rela
tively unchanged - about
30 percent.
At the end of 2005, the
worldwide Catholic popu
lation was about 1.1 bil
lion, a 1.5 percent increase
from the previous year, the
Vatican said.
their local Baptist associa
tion to pay for magazines
and postage. Baptist asso
ciations then order maga
zines including Home Life,
Christian Single or Journey
through Lifeway at a special
discount and enlist churches
to participate.
Addresses of military per
sonnel or chaplains are col
lected from churches and
from Web sites that have
names of military personnel
who wish to receive mail.
Churches then assemble and
mail the boxes.
Sandy Bain, director of mis
sions for New River Baptist
Association in Jacksonville,
N.C., is on the Lifeway com
mittee that helped create
the boxes.
“We feel like for them to
have something on a more
Christian basis would be
better for them and their
families as well,” Bain said.
“It shows that somebody
cares. It’s also giving them a
chance to feed their faith.”