What's New? Archive

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23 May 2001 - Good News! Baptist Surfer is well on it's way to over 600 "hits"!!!

Hopefully, the information contained on this website, has proven to be both encouraging and inspiring to all our visitors!!!

Index page -

Added "First Radio Broadcast" fact to "Fast Facts" section.

Added Billy Graham "Point by Point Appraisal" (from links page).

Added "Ronald Reagan" profile. Brings balance to the profiles - Jimmy Carter (Democrat) is already profiled, so it makes sense to include Ronald Reagan (Republican). Billy Graham, in his autobiography "Just As I Am" (pages 528-539), remarked that Ronald Reagan went to The Christian Church, very similar to The Baptist Church, and that Reagan preached in his teen years, and often discussed theological issues with him.

Other minor enhancements.

Important comment regarding "Jessica Simpson" profile:

This profile (and link) has been included since Baptist Surfer's inception. Out of the (then) current explosion of teen pop stars, Jessica Simpson projected a regular, teen pop image.

For some time, I've been aware of Jessica Simpson trying to establish a more "grown up" image, and a recent visit to her Official website would seem to confirm this new image. (Coincidentally, the site includes a link to popular girl group "Destiny's Child", who are well known for their...erm..."suggestive" style (!), funky music and "Christian friendly" beliefs.)

On the one hand, to remove the profile would seem "heavy handed", and imply she's not a famous Baptist (she is).

On the other hand, to list her with a link to her Official website, would imply Baptist Surfer endorses the "suggestive" images displayed on her website (it doesn't).

After careful consideration, I've decided on the following:

I'm removing the link to the Official Jessica Simpson website, BUT keeping her profile. i.e expressing disapproval of her new image only. I'm also adding a teen article link - "Turn Down The Radio" - lightly covering a similar issue.

The Bottom line? Baptist Surfer likes Jessica Simpson, but not her new look(!)

19 May 2001 - Listeners to 20 The Countdown Magazine, on the Short wave frequencies, had an unexpected bonus last Sunday - The Dove Music Awards. (Christian's Music's official awards show!) One to note for next year.

20 The Countdown Magazine should return to the Short Wave frequencies this Sunday.

New Netscape Counter in place and looking good!

Articles - Added more Bible Dictionary word definitions to the "Miscellaneous" file.

12 May 2001 - Important news from UCB Europe's website:

WHITE PAPER WHITE WASH

Dear Friend,

Fourteen years and still asking for freedom to broadcast.

Recent Developments

6,500 Christians responded to the Government White Paper asking for lifting of the ban to allow Christians to apply for a national licence - Great!

Broadcast Minister, Janet Anderson MP announced the lifting of the ban in her local press before Christmas - she now appears embarrassed by this!

We objected to the unfair statistical analysis of White Paper responses that excluded the 6,500 responses for national Christian broadcasting, but included 250 other responses about other broadcasting issues. We are now waiting for the Government to produce an unbiased analysis.

The Broadcast Minister agreed to meet and offered a church consultation with us to discuss religious broadcasting. Seemed Great!

SHOCKED!

Suddenly, UCB representing three hundred thousand supporters for national Christian radio are excluded from the consultation. Can you believe it?

Suddenly, our opponents, the BBC Central Religious Advisory Committee (CRAC) who were used to lobby for the ban against Christian broadcasting except for Public Service (BBC) in the first place - have been called in to represent us. Can you believe it?

Consultation leads to law! The danger is that a decision against us would ban Independent Christian broadcasters for another 10 years or force us to change religious beliefs to multi-faith to be able to apply for a licence. You'd better believe it!

The Government are now saying in the press that it would be a political nightmare to give Christians a licence to broadcast nationally. And they believe it!

This Government is banning Christians. This is NOT democracy.

We believe that you need to know what is happening and have the opportunity to speak out!

WHAT CAN YOU AND I DO?

James preached faith and works; Jesus prayed to His father and then acted out His faith.

Please pray, pray some more and write, email or phone your local paper and the national papers and ask them to cover this story. Above are the brief facts and you can click here for the press release to help you. Thank you.

Please would you copy this to as many people as possible and ask your church and fellowship to join with you in making this public in as many newspapers as possible?

Standing up for Jesus Christ, God bless you.

Gareth Littler Patricia Hargreaves

Webmaster Note: The "Nationwide UK radio broadcasts" are beamed To the UK, from transmitters abroad. But this method only allows limited broadcasting, at very select times.

Minor Enhancements to:

CCM Showcase

20 Countdown Fansite info

Links page

Index page - added more visible "What's New?" link, improved profile of "Martyn Lloyd-Jones", and added "UCB Europe" local radio entry. Added "Netscape Counter", as I find it easier to deduct hits. Will run alongside existing counter temporarily.

What's New? page - added "Religion Today" Newsfeed, "Christianity Today Magazine" link icon and "Looking for Answers" link icon.

Just to lighten thing up a little(!): Remember those TV ads, where a man keeps asking why is a hamburger called a hamburger, if there's no ham in it? Check this out:

6 May 2001 - According to an old email I found, this is the very day I applied for the Angelfire edition of this website! The Birthday of Baptist Surfer! (1 Year) View the following additions as a sort of mini celebration(!)

Added Riddlenut code (see above). I changed the background colour to "transparent", to blend in with the site.

Also, whilst checking radio stations to the left of my Medium Wave radio dial, I noticed UCB radio! I thought they'd stopped all broadcasts on their Irish Medium Wave frequency on 549 kHz, during their campaign for National Christian Radio, but I guess they've started again?! (Unless they never stopped broadcasting!?!?)

Either way, I'm able to pick up these Irish radio broadcasts, in South Wales! Which means all of UCB's Satellite Radio schedule, can be picked up on 549 kHz Medium Wave!!!

i.e

Hour of Decision - 11am Sundays.

Let My People Think - 5pm Sundays.

Insight For Living - 8pm Mondays - Fridays.

20 The Countdown Magazine - 3pm - 5pm every Saturday.

Reception quality was a little faint, slightly crackly/fuzzy sounding, but definitely audible. Much like "Valleys Radio", reception quality dips when it gets dark. So, it's best to tune in during the Summer (at the time of writing, no problem!).

Also found a website with some profiles of famous Christians:

Tia and Tamera Mowry - I was aware one of the twins starred in a Billy Graham Film Production, called "Something To Sing About", alongside CCM Artist Kirk Frankin, but had no detailed info on both of them both being Christians, until I found the following link: http://www.peoplejustlikeus.org/Tv_and_Movies/Mowry.html

Added a Pocket Profile with Interview link!

Thanks to a link that I found on the above site, I was able to search the archives of Christianity.com - where I found an archive article link on the Mowry twins, and the following famous Christians:

Mr. T - I think there was one interview on a certain Channel 4 programme, where he mentioned his belief in God, but again nothing more, until I found the following link: http://www.peoplejustlikeus.org/Tv_and_Movies/Mr._T.html

Added a Pocket Profile with Video Interview!

Also watched a Video Interview with WCW's Sting (Steve Borden), to add to the "WCW/WWF" wrestlers link on the index page.

Tiffany Brissette - Completely new to me, was the link at http://www.peoplejustlikeus.org/Tv_and_Movies/Brissette.html

According to the website: "She ice skates and speaks Spanish and French fluently -- her French really sounds nice. She is a very devout Christian and works with 'The 700 Club' and said she doesn't regret leaving television....."

Also: "Though Tiffany could've salvaged her thespian career by taking on coarse and sexually provocative scripts like many of her once-innocent contemporaries, she perferred not to go the cheap route and instead lifted her eyes and dignity to embrace the wonders of God and caring."

I checked out the IMDB profile of her as well, and found out some more info:

Tiffany Brissette - She played the role as the child robot 'V.I.C.I.' on Fox's 1980's successful show, "Small Wonder" which had a popular run from 1985-89. Tiffany later received her bachelor's degree in psychology from the prestigious Westmont College in California, and has become heavily involved with children and young adults as a counsellor in San Diego, California. Has been a missionary, youth counsellor and vocalist at the Solana Beach Presbyterian Church in San Diego, California.

This isn't as well known in the UK, as it is in the US, but I remember watching it on HTV during Weekday mornings. I liked the sci-fi element!

Because it's isn't so well known in the UK, I've placed it on the "Articles" page , in the "Teen Interest" Section.

Yesterday's (5 May 2001) Christianity Today Weblog: Is It All In Your Head?, mentioned a website:

"....for those of you who like to keep track of Christian celebrities... "(Me! Me! - Baptist Surfer Webmaster), and provided a link to peoplejustlikeus.org. Ah. I found this a month ago, back when Rhinosoft were offering the free NIV bible download - they had a section called Christian Celebrities. (I was wondering if I should have this as a metatag in addition to famous Christians, but worried that people would see it as too "showbizzy"). I did a search in Google and found the site last month, hence the above additions to my pocket profiles.

Found a Christian radio website - CrossRhythms - with an interesting article:

Christian Radio banned Nationally in the UK

We know of only 4 other countries that have a ban on national Christian broadcasting those are Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan along with the UK. Now the UK Government have introduced a confusing term "enforcement of pluralism", suggesting only multi-faith pluralistic religion is acceptable.

Click here for more info and how you can help

Also, check out this earlier link:

For heaven's sake, why do they ban Christian radio? (Boris Johnson, The Daily Telegraph, London)

28 Apr 2001 - CrossSearch has just given Baptist Surfer a icon , indicating:

'This site has been consistently popular with other CrossSearch visitors.'

Thanks CrossSearch!

Index page - Added "Jimmy Carter" Article link.

Added "Dean Jones" Interview link.

Minor improvement to pocket profile of "Samuel Johnson".

Other minor enhancements. (Trimmed down local radio section.)

Articles - Added 'A Clear View" article link. Added C S Lewis Biographical link, to Articles page, as I felt the index page had more than enough biographical links on C S Lewis!

Links - Added some more links.

Billy Graham's Steps To Peace pages - 'Hour of Decision' radio info on each page.

21 Apr 2001 -

Articles page - added For heaven's sake, why do they ban Christian radio? (Boris Johnson, The Daily Telegraph, London)

Links page - More links and minor improvements

Billy Graham's Steps To Peace pages - Fixed problem of Search Engines going to the wrong page in the sequence. Used abbreviation of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), and changed title of steps 2,3 & 4 pages, to 'Steps to Peace 2, 3 & 4. Newer versions of these pages are on a single page, but with tiny pictures - faster loading, but I preferred the originals, with a few modifications to fix minor problems. I used Notepad to edit pages, to keep text style intact.

14 Apr 2001 -

Minor enhancements to "CCM Showcase".

Last week, Christianity Today magazine's website, gave another quick mention (in their You Know Your Documentary Is Bad When Your Consultant Shreds It Weblog), to the BBC's "Son of God" documentary.

For what it's worth, I thought the 3D animationed reconstructions were pretty entertaining, and, as one newspaper critic noted, at least the BBC is putting on a religious documentary, during peak time viewing. (But then it is Easter!)

12 Apr 2001 - Tributes to comedy pioneer & religious broadcaster Sir Harry Secombe:

Tributes flow in for Sir Harry Secombe (ITN)

Sir Harry Secombe (The Times)

Sir Harry Secombe (BBC)

7 Apr 2001 - ~~News just in!!! Free NIV Bible to download - Hurry! Offer ends April 16th - click here to get it! Download Free NIV Bible Talk about an early Easter Gift!!!~~ Offer Ended.

20 The Countdown Magazine moved back to it's original Midnight Sunday slot on 7.58 MHz Short Wave. It moved to 1.00am during British Summer Time, but a week later, it unexpectedly moved back to midnight, on April 1st. I suspect it's due to "Daylight Saving Time", which occurs a week after British Summer Time, and is probably the US version of British Summer Time. I don't recall this happening before though, but either way, a midnight time slot is better than 1.00am. Both British Summer Time and Daylight Saving Time finish at the same time (October 28th 2001), according to my calendar.

Articles - Added "Snoopy" creator article links & neat anim. I thought the anim would work faster on the articles page, and it seemed apt to place it in the Teen Advice/Teen Interest section.

Other minor enhancements.

1 Apr 2001 - Adapted "Bible Dictionary Search Box" code I had ages ago, to the site's colour scheme.

Christianity Today magazine's website gave a quick mention to the BBC's digital Jesus, in a recent weblog (posted 27/3/2001 - before programme broadcast) article.

Updated "Comet Cursors" link - goes direct to "Comet Cursors for Websites".

31 Mar 2001 - Premier radio has recently launched a petition to keep Christian radio on the airwaves, after learning that it may be forced to reapply for its own broadcasting licence unexpectedly soon. Check out their website for more information.

Articles - added:

"E-mail from the man upstairs (that's E for earthquake)"

"Alpha Brits are coming"

"Religion on the Final Frontier" article links.

Index page - Updated Short Wave radio times to take account of British Summer Time. Added "Francis Collins" profile.

Christianity Today Magazine - I'm surprised this site doesn't get more coverage in the UK, as it's one of the finest Christian websites on the net. Many of the the biographical links & articles on Baptist Surfer, link to the archives of this site, and it always seems to have the best articles, special reports, religious news and views from around the world, and a refreshingly relaxed style and tone to it's articles. Check out the following encyclopaedia article:

Christianity Today, published in Carol Stream, Ill., is a magazine that appears 15 times a year and addresses Protestant evangelical positions in the clergy. Founded in 1956, it has been widely read for its variety of content written by prominent religious journalists, such as Carl F. H. Henry. Its circulation is just under 200,000. (Copyright © 1999 Grolier Interactive Inc., Danbury, CT.)

All change at Lycos.co.uk? Several websites, including this one, don't show 'highly recommended' any more - perhaps they're reviewing their 'highly recommended' sites?

Excite recently included Baptist Surfer. Recognises some metatags but not all.

TWR goes Digital! - You can listen to the Short Wave radio broadcasts, listed on the main page, on Sky Digital (Channel 953), if you have a Satellite dish:

Hour of Decision - 7.15pm Sundays

Insight For Living - 7.30pm Mondays-Fridays

10.00pm Mondays-Fridays

Let My People Think - 1.45pm Sundays

9.30pm Saturdays

You can also pick up 20 The Countdown Magazine on Sky Digital (Channel 940), between 3pm - 5pm every Saturday.

24 Mar 2001 - Updated Short Wave radio times, to take into account British Summer Time - note new frequency for 'Let My People Think'. Apologies for the late update of the Angelfire Edition of this site, due to technical problems. (I couldn't 'login' to upload the new files!) Also, HCJB' posted the new frequencies on their site later than usual.

You can listen to 'Let My People Think' at RZIM, if you've already missed the broadcast.

24 Feb 2001 - Articles - Added 'Good Question/Directions' column articles, Teen Advice, Other Links of Interest, etc

Added 'The Only Way' & 'New Book Tallies Religions' article links.

Index page - Added 'Dean Jones 'profile. Also added 'sources' for some profiles.

Added 'Elizabeth Fry' Biography Link, and added Walking with C.S. Lewis to Tolkien profile (from articles page).

Minor enhancements to index page, including unexpected change to 'Short Wave' time of 'Hour of Decision'.

Links - Updated a few links, added 'CCM Showcase' from the index page.

Around mid January, UK search engine Mirago listed Baptist Surfer, and a week later, Altavista UK also listed Baptist Surfer. So, after 8 months, Mirago accepted it and Altavista UK (which I'd submitted to a few weeks after all the other UK search engines - I forgot Altavista had a UK search engine! - probably accepted me a few weeks earlier than Mirago, which I'd submitted to in mid June). It's worth noting that Lycos UK and UKPlus (both of which listed my site 6 months after my mid-June submissions, 2 months before Mirago & Altavista UK) use their own categories and descriptions of sites submitted, meaning that they ignore Meta Tags included in your pages, whereas Mirago and AltaVista UK recognise Meta Tags.

Mirago is particularly intriguing, as it not only recognises Meta Tags and Meta Descriptions, but seems to scan your site for other links and pages, as I found my site linked to names I'd typed in, that I didn't specifically include as Meta Tags.e.g. Greg Laurie, Ravi Zacharias,etc.

Yahoo US must have listed Baptist Surfer around Xmas, as it included a Christmas message I had as part of the menu on the top of the page. Ask Jeeves USA also lists Baptist Surfer. I submitted to both of these search engine around 26 August 2000, but didn't check when they listed the site, as I felt that the UK search engines would yield more hits (fewer sites mean Baptist Surfer is higher up the list). Both search engines recognise metatags.

6 Jan 2001 - Happy New Year!

Articles - Added links to "Terry Mattingly's Other Works" & "Rev Gregory Ingham" link article

Index Page - Added "CCM Showcase link" to top CCM Artists.

Links - Added "KingdomSeek" link

16 Dec 2000 - Christmas Edition - Merry Christmas Everybody!!! -

Articles - added links to RZIM Just Thinking archives

added extra Terry Mattingly link.

added more info to Miscellaneous file.

Links - added Prince of Egypt link and Christianity Today info.

Index page - added Snowboard picture (surfer picture will return early January)

added link to Cool Snowboarding Game

added Richard Kiel pocket profile and fansite link.

added Thomas Cook pocket profile and biography

added John Polkinghorne pocket profile and interview link.

Corrected radio frequency "mhz" and "khz " to "MHz" and "kHz"

added Merry Christmas! in Quick Menu

added snowflake anim gif to Articles, Quotations and Links pages

20 Nov 2000 - Good news! In 'About Baptist Surfer', I mentioned that I 'd submitted my site to all the major UK search engines: well, after the 3rd time in submitting it (every 2 months - I was waiting for them to accept it!), 2 major search engines have listed it:

Lycos.co.uk

~~They 'highly recommend'~~ Baptist Surfer, so Baptist Surfer 'highly recommends' Lycos.co.uk!

[23 May 2001 - All change at Lycos.co.uk? Several websites, including this one, don't show 'highly recommended' any more - perhaps they're reviewing their 'highly recommended' sites? The site's still listed in their radio section.]

They describe Baptist Surfer as: "Information and programme timings for the religious radio listener."

You don't even have to click on the religion category, as they've recognised the radio side of Baptist Surfer, and placed it in the radio section: one click and you're there! Plus, because it's in alphabetical order, it's near the top of the page!

In fact, even if you only do a search for the word 'Baptist', Baptist surfer is third on the list! (Lycos.co.uk - it's doggone good!)

UKPlus - A 'Safe for Families' search engine (from the owners of the Daily Mail) also lists Baptist Surfer, so I'm listing UKPlus!

They describe this site as :""Baptist Surfer -

Programme schedules for religious broadcasts in the UK, plus links to famous Baptists (eg Billy Graham, Martin Luther King), Christian novelists (CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien) and Christian art."

17 Nov 2000 - Minor updates to index page; added new statistics on Salvation Army.

Slice of Infinity is back! I guess they removed it temporarily to test out the new schedules?!?!

31 Oct 2000 - Added Quick Survey/Link To Us page, to ascertain which radio broadcasts visitors regularly tune into. The N.E American shortwave broadcasts have changed, with "Slice of Infinity" no longer broadcasting in the slot it used to be in. (You can still hear it online though, or read transcripts from its website.)

27 Oct 2000 - Updated radio frequency info: new frequency for "Let My People Think" on 9.78 mhz shortwave & updated N.E American broadcast schedules; due to end of British Summer Time, programmes are broadcast an hour earlier!

Added Picture of John Bunyan to Biography file.

Added Search Box - type in a keyword related to Christianity, and you'll find articles related to that keyword.

Added Quick Menu - just links to 'what's new' and key statements affirming beliefs.

17 Oct 2000 - Minor updates to main index page; added biography for Gregor Mendel, 2nd biography for John Bunyan, Spurgeon Biography, 2 more quotes to Pascal Quotes, centred pictures of Spurgeon & Lewis on their biography pages, etc. Minor update to "About Baptist Surfer" page.

Updated Fast Facts due to release of new Guinness World Records 2001. Curiously, they've downsized their figures for the numbers of Bibles sold/distributed. One possible answer is that they described it as the best selling non copyrighted book, and many Modern English Bible translations are copyrighted (perhaps due to time, organisation & cost of translation, and to prevent other publishers from claiming it as their own & selling it at a higher price?) .

However, the number of adherents (followers) of Christianity has increased to 2 Billion! (33% of World Population!)

12 Oct 2000 - Added the following files to Articles:

An Invisible Danger

The Flood

The Trinity (Article 4)

More info to Miscellaneous

For the 4th week running, no broadcast of "Let My People Think", on HCJB's 15.16 mhz Shortwave Sunday morning slot. I suspect it'll start broadcasting, when the frequency changes to 9.78 mhz from 29 October 2000.

7 Oct 2000 - Added extra biographical entries for G K Chesterton & Al Green. Added more info to Miscellaneous section and Cross Examine section.

3 Oct 2000 - Updated links to Christianity Online, & adapted them to Christianity Today (new name).

Removed the pocket profile of 19th Century Congregational minister, Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), after new information from Grolier Multimedia Encyclopaedia, stating the following: "As his liberalism grew, he was among the few clergymen to abandon notions about miracles, future punishment, and Christ's divinity...". Baptists allow freedom of individual interpretation, but not so wide & loose [absolute] an interpretation, as to endorse blatant & wilful heresy, in denying the authority of the gospels themselves. i.e. disbelieving his own scriptures. To quote Augustine : "If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself." Augustine (354-430).

1 Oct 2000 - For the 3rd week running, no broadcast of "Let My People Think", on HCJB's 15.16 mhz Shortwave Sunday morning slot. I actually sent 2 emails last week, one to HCJB UK (see below) & the other to the main US branch, but only received a response from the UK branch. I will send another email to the main US website, & see what happens. Perhaps the technical problems will cease, when the frequency changes to 9.78 mhz from 29 October 2000.

25 Sept 2000

Articles - Women in the Church

The Problem of Slavery

Miscellaneous

Campus Life Links inc. Teen Advice

Links - Baptist Surfer email login & sign up boxes on links page

Added this "What's New?" page (besides NEW! tags to indicate new features)


Lycos UK Search