5 facts about pastors in America

October is Pastor Appreciation Month. The observance originally began in 1992 as Pastor Appreciation Day, (the second Sunday in October) led by Jerry Frear, Jr., founder of Under His Wing Ministries. The name of the unofficial observance was later changed to Clergy Appreciation Day and expanded to include all of October as Clergy Appreciation Month.

This Week in Washington, D.C.

This week, the Senate released the remaining appropriations bills, and Congress must now either complete appropriations work or pass another continuing resolution by the end of December 3. On September 30, Congress passed a short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government through December 3. 

The FY2022 appropriations bills are troubling because they remove several longstanding pro-life riders from the budget. For the first time since 1976, the Hyde Amendment has not been included in the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. The Hyde Amendment prevents Medicaid from covering the cost of abortion. The budget also removed a handful of other important pro-life provisions.

ERLC acting president Brent Leatherwood sent Senate leadership a letter urging them to defend protections against federal funds being used for abortion and to ensure that pro-life spending riders are approved in all spending legislation passed in the 117th Congress. Leatherwood also urged Congress to remove harmful provisions that would exclude people of faith from serving the most vulnerable.

From The Public Square

What You Need to Read

Jason Thacker with 3 crucial areas of ethical research in technology for the Digital Public Square

Through the Digital Public Square project, the ERLC hopes to chart a new path for Southern Baptist and evangelical engagement on these pressing issues of technology. We will do this based on the unchanging Word of God and the kingship of Christ, alongside a rich heritage of public and social engagement built upon the dignity of every human being. Technology is not a tertiary issue in the public square. It is a deeply theological and ethical issue that the Church must engage, compelled by the love of God and neighbor (Mark 12:30-31).

Ashlyn Portero with On appreciating pastors that keep us

Often we liken the pastor’s call to his church to the shepherd’s call to tend his flock, and the Bible gives us plenty of imagery throughout its pages to draw these comparisons. After all, pastors who shepherd well do so by imaging the Good Shepherd, Christ, whom we encounter in the Scriptures. And yet for some reason, this October, I have been thinking about how maybe in some ways, pastoring is also a little like keeping bees.

Jordan Wootten with Why our boredom feeds wasted time on social media

Despite all the good that we’ve convinced ourselves we’re doing on our respective social media platforms, we are without question contributing to a societal noise that is not healthy by filling every idle moment with a post or tweet, or simply scrolling our timelines. Part of it could be, as Blaise Pascal wrote, that “all of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

This Week at the ERLC

• Chelsea Patterson Sobolik called on U.S. Senate leaders to restore long-standing pro-life policies excluded from newly released spending bills. She also urged President Biden to establish a special refugee category for members of religious minorities in Afghanistan who are threatened by the Taliban and to follow through on his commitment to increase refugee admissions dramatically after a record low in the last year.
   
• Elizabeth Graham talked about what the ERLC is doing as we approach the 50 year mark of the disastrous Roe v. Wade decision and how you can help.

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