Associated Baptist Press - 7/10/2008

Associated Baptist Press
July 10, 2008 (8-70)

IN THIS ISSUE:
Carson-Newman names Baylor Provost Randall O’Brien president
Declaration responds to torture-policy shift
Daniel Vestal counters BP column that said CBF not ‘truly Christian’
John Templeton, religious philanthropist, dead at 95
Baptist student missionary killed in Peru bus accident
Economy may affect churches in ways other than giving
Clarification

Carson-Newman names Baylor Provost Randall O’Brien president
By Ken Camp and Robert Marus

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. (ABP) -- Veteran Baylor University professor and administrator Randall O’Brien has been named president of Carson-Newman College.

Trustees of the Jefferson City, Tenn., school elected him July 8. O’Brien will assume full-time duties Jan. 1, 2009, after a transitional period that begins in August. During the transition, he will share administrative duties with Carson-Newman’s current interim president, Joe Bill Sloan.

“It quickly became apparent to the committee that Dr. O’Brien’s reputation in Baptist higher education was national in scope,” said Carson-Newman trustee chair David Ogle, according to a news release from the school. Ogle also served as chair of the search committee that called O’Brien.

“He brings a breadth and depth of education, experience and understanding for the roles, challenges and opportunities required to ensure quality faculty and instruction, vibrant student life, and visionary leadership,” said Ogle, a Sevier County, Tenn., businessman. “Further, he is also nationally recognized by Baptists as an outstanding pastor, religious scholar, author and speaker. I look forward to seeing Dr. O’Brien in Baptist pulpits across this nation as Carson-Newman’s chief ambassador.”

O’Brien replaces James Netherton, who resigned under pressure in early 2007. He was the target of a no-confidence vote by the faculty in the fall of 2006. Critics among Carson-Newman professors, alumni and supporters accused Netherton of incompetence and mistreating faculty, and they blamed him for declining enrollment and financial pressures.

The school has also been a point of contention in the Tennessee Baptist Convention for at least a decade. In 1998, Carson-Newman trustees voted to remove the power to appoint their successors from the convention. Fundamentalists have accused the moderate-dominated school of teaching incorrect doctrine, while moderates have defended the academic freedom of professors.

However, Carson-Newman and the convention have reached an agreement to jointly appoint trustees and continue the convention’s financial support for the school.

Like O’Brien, Netherton previously worked for Baylor. He was vice president and chief operating officer until 1996, when he accepted the post of provost at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.

O’Brien told the Knoxville News Sentinel that he hoped to continue to improve Carson-Newman’s relationship with the churches that support it. “We want Tennessee Baptists to trust us,” he said. “When people trust you they'll support you. I hope to prove trustworthy.”

O’Brien has served at Baylor -- Texas Baptists’ flagship school -- for 17 years, including the last three as executive vice president and provost.

“Randall has served Baylor admirably in a variety of positions over a period of nearly two decades,” Baylor President John Lilley said. “I have deeply appreciated the important role he has played as executive vice president and provost, overseeing our academic programs and helping to lead the university as we’ve confronted a variety of opportunities and challenges.”

A popular choice of students, O’Brien’s courses often were oversubscribed, and students have honored him with numerous teaching awards. He also has written four books and more than 70 scholarly articles.

He has filled the pulpit in many Texas Baptist churches, and he currently serves as interim pastor of one of the state’s most prominent moderate congregations -- Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio.

“Baylor University has been good to us,” O’Brien said. “For 17 wonderful years, Baylor has been home. Our children have grown up here. We have loved Baylor and Baylor has loved us. We have been a part of each other—family you might say, and in a very real sense we always will be.

“The only thing harder than saying goodbye to family and friends is saying ‘no’ to God, a sure recipe for misery,” he said.

“Someone has said that God’s other name is ‘Surprise!’ Well, God has, indeed, surprised us once again, this time with a call to become the 22nd president of Carson-Newman College. … We have prayerfully accepted God’s call upon our lives and Carson-Newman’s call to become president of the college.”

O’Brien was a full-time pastor -- most recently at Calvary Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark. -- before going to Baylor. A native of McComb, Miss., he is a graduate of Mississippi College, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Yale Divinity School. He also studied at Harvard and Oxford universities and is a decorated Vietnam veteran.

O’Brien’s wife, Kay, has extensive experience as a licensed social worker and an educator, and has taught in Baylor’s social-work school since 1997. They have two married adult daughters, both of whom are preparing to be international missionaries, and a son who is in college.

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Declaration responds to torture-policy shift
By Vicki Brown

(ABP) -- For years in foreign-policy circles, the United States was regarded as the world’s premier protector of individual liberty, promoter of democracy and champion of human rights.

But terrorist attacks on U.S. soil on Sept. 11, 2001, created a new climate of fear, President Bush’s declaration of war on terror -- and a shift in the government’s policies on torture.

Now, a coalition of religious and secular leaders hopes to persuade either the current administration or the one that takes office in January to return to the United States’ historic stance against torture.

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), Evangelicals for Human Rights and the Center for Victims of Torture issued a unique document June 26.

Called the “Declaration of Principles for a Presidential Executive Order on Prisoner Treatment, Torture and Cruelty,” it was signed by several religious, political and military leaders. It includes six principles for prisoner treatment and asks the president to issue an executive order enshrining them as U.S. policy.

Shifted by fear

“The events of 9/11 were horrific,” noted Richard Killmer, executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. “I’m sure the administration had fear, and they began to develop policy in an effort to make us more secure.”

The problem, Killmer believes, is that fear induced inappropriate policies. “We have no doubts about the intention of the president…. But he forgot about international law, laws on the books, about how you treat enemy combatants,” Killmer said.

Information about Justice Department and Defense Department memos surfaced in 2005. The memos, written primarily in 2002 and 2003, offered legal justification for using harsh measures against terrorism detainees.

A March 2003 memo by John Yoo offered the most sweeping arguments. A former deputy in the Department of Defense Office of Legal Counsel, Yoo asserted that the president’s authority as commander-in-chief gives him unlimited power to order interrogations. The Constitution gave the president authority to protect the nation from attack, Yoo claimed. The memo was declassified and released earlier this year.

Passage of the Military Commissions Act in March 2006 strengthened the administration’s position. It gave the president power to determine the enemy and to imprison those tagged as enemies without charges.

“Policies developed that really endangered our country,” Douglas Johnson, director of the Center for Victims of Torture, said.

Moral/strategic concerns

The possibility of a concerted effort to affect the administration’s view emerged as individual groups examined possible consequences of the government’s shift toward condoning torture.

Johnson noticed voices emerging on several levels. Religious voices, especially among evangelicals, had begun speaking out on “the deep immorality of torture,” he said.

At the same time, foreign-policy experts and former military leaders emphasized the strategic implications of torture policy. “The issues of security were badly played in the administration and the news media,” Johnson said.

Condoning torture “has hurt America,” he added, by alienating U.S. allies and providing some credence to al Qaeda’s charge that America is out to persecute and martyr Muslims.

As conversations continued, several individuals recognized the need for “an important moral statement to get people to re-examine the frivolous conversations taking place…to get people to start thinking,” Johnson said.

“The policies were not only wrong, but stupid” in their effect, he added. “These [moral and strategic] arguments were being rolled over. We were looking for people who would bring sanity to the conversation.”

Building consensus

The center organized a dinner meeting in early 2007 to discuss how to build consensus.

Dinner participants determined that a declaration asking for an executive order would be an effective means of clearly spelling out their concerns. They enlisted David Gushee, director of Evangelicals for Human Rights and an ethics professor at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology, to help write the document. (Gushee also writes a regular column for Associated Baptist Press.)

The declaration affirms six principles on prisoner treatment: refusal to use treatment on others that most Americans would find unacceptable; creating uniform, national standards to be used by all U.S. governmental agencies; adherence to the rule of law and adequate judicial process for prisoners; acceptance of the responsibility to protect prisoners after they are transferred to the custody of other nations; adherence to the checks and balances in the U.S. political process; and clarity and accountability to legal rules, regardless of rank or position.

The document “is an aspect of what it means to follow Christ, to speak up for justice in the public square,” Gushee emphasized.

“September 11 basically temporarily unhinged us. We have to go back. There have always been and there will always be security threats…but we have to uphold our ideals.”

Growing movement

“It’s kind of a ‘grass-tops’ and a grassroots movement,” Gushee said.

The three organizations began the “grass-tops” effort by enlisting key leaders involved in initial conversations to sign the declaration, and a concerted grassroots outreach by launching a website (www.campaigntobantorture.org).

Early signers include former secretaries of state George Shultz, Madeleine Albright and Warren Christopher and former defense secretaries Harold Brown, William Perry and William Cohen. Several political figures, such as former senators Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and John Glenn (D-Ohio), have signed.

Project organizers intend to keep the document in the public eye. “I’m genuinely thrilled by the kind of people who have already signed it and the diversity of influence they represent,” Gushee said.

“There are everyday folks who need to be persuaded. It helps that some people whose job has been to protect the country have already signed,” he added. “We are hoping to help foster a national consensus.”

And they hope that consensus will grab the administration’s attention and the attention of presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama.

The principles would have to be incorporated by executive order and legislative action to return to previous policies.

“It’s hard to get anybody to admit when they’re wrong. But this is the voice that’s needed to tell the administration that we don’t need them to protect us,” Johnson said. “It’s the ideals that we want protected.”

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Daniel Vestal counters BP column that said CBF not ‘truly Christian’
By Jim White

ATLANTA (ABP) -- Why would some Baptist writers go out of their way to create the impression that the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is not even Christian?

CBF Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal said he is trying to answer that question after a the Southern Baptist Convention’s news agency published a column claiming the Fellowship was neither Baptist nor Christian at all.

“It pained me that people have been offended and hurt by this confusion about what CBF believes. I want to make clear that CBF is Christ-centered and trinitarian in its theology,” asserted Vestal. “CBF is clear in its affirmation of the core commitment to the triune God. Our commitment to Christ as the savior for the whole world stems from our trinitarian faith.”

Vestal responded to the column by James Smith, editor of the Florida Baptist Witness, which Baptist Press published nationwide June 25.

“Here's the bottom line,” Smith wrote. “It's long past time to declare the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is no longer truly Christian, let alone Baptist.”

Smith conceded that some -- perhaps even most -- individuals in the CBF are Christians. But he contended they are ill informed about what he called CBF’s promotion of “heresy.”

Smith’s words were apparently inspired by comments made at CBF’s recent annual meeting by John Killinger. The Presbyterian pastor and author led three of about 60 breakout sessions at the meeting.

According to multiple reports, in one session Killinger said: “Now we are re-evaluating and we’re approaching everything with a humbler perspective and seeing God’s hand working in Christ, but not necessarily as the incarnate God in our midst. Now, that may be hard for you to hear depending on where you are coming from, but we can talk more about it.”

Some of Killinger’s comments were first reported by BP, which sent reporters to cover the CBF general assembly in Memphis, Tenn.

Killinger is currently executive minister and theologian-in-residence at Marble Collegiate Church in New York -- the pulpit from which the late Norman Vincent Peale rose to fame.

Vestal denounced the theology Killinger expressed. “The only confession of the [early] Christian church was ‘Jesus is Lord,’” he said. “To make that confession cost many people their lives because of its radical claim. To say and believe that Jesus is Lord was to say and believe that Jesus of Nazareth is God. It was a clear affirmation of the deity of Jesus. And the Incarnation of God in the man Jesus is the cornerstone of the Christian faith.

“And so for somebody in one of our workshops to question the Incarnation is simply very painful for me,” Vestal continued. “I have known John Killinger to be a popular Presbyterian preacher. He was a professor at Samford University. … But we had no idea that his views on Christ were what he declared in this breakout session. His perspective is deeply troubling to me.”

Vestal’s own views on the lordship of Christ are made clear in his book, Being the Presence of Christ, just published by the Upper Room. The book’s premise, according to Vestal, is “that all the gospels were written from the perspective of the Resurrection, and the living Christ is none other than the incarnate Christ that was proclaimed in the pages of Scripture.”

Vestal said he regretted allowing Killinger to challenge such christological views at a CBF event. “I feel like that we gave him a platform at the general assembly,” he said. “We do allow freedom of exchange and ideas that people disagree on. But if we had known then what we know now about his christology, he would not have been invited.”

Vestal conceded, however, that CBF planners should have paid more attention to Killinger’s theological shifts. “I accept the responsibility for that. Obviously the staff and I had heard him speak. We knew him to be a popular preacher, but we did not know of his christological views. Should we have known that? Yes, we probably should have, and we will do more due diligence in the future.”

He continued, “We try to invite people who have different perspectives on a lot of issues, but the issue of the Incarnation is foundational. That’s central. That’s core gospel.”

But Vestal strongly objected to Smith’s characterization of the CBF as non-Christian.

“This is very personal for me and also very personal for Cooperative Baptist Fellowship,” he said. “… For some editors to write and insinuate that we are not Christians is very painful for me.”

Vestal questioned BP’s motives in regularly investing thousands of dollars in denominational resources to send reporters to cover the annual meeting of CBF, a group that is dwarfed in size by the SBC.

He said he believes they attend “to find things in our assembly, either in a breakout session or in a line that someone makes, that they can use then to somehow paint everybody in the CBF in a certain way.”

Will Hall, executive editor of Baptist Press and the SBC’s chief public-relations officer, said his only reaction to Vestal was, “I really don’t have any comment. We’re a news service.”

The SBC agency sends reporters to the event annually. In the past, they have frequently produced stories highlighting general assembly speakers, workshop leaders or exhibitor organizations who may hold beliefs that some conservative Southern Baptists would find questionable.

In 2000, many general assembly attendees accused BP writer Russell Moore of inaccuracies and blatant fabrications in several stories -- most notably a report where he claimed that a former missionary attending the meeting physically assaulted him. Moore is now a dean at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Vestal said BP missed a great opportunity at this year’s assembly to celebrate a fellow Baptist group’s successes in kingdom work.

“This was one of the best gatherings we have had. It was just a wonderful, wonderful meeting. Wednesday night we had a special commissioning service. We appointed 18 new missionaries that are going to some of the most difficult, dangerous places in the world.”

According to Vestal, the meeting was “a high and holy moment” that included inspiring worship, corporate prayer and discernment about the organization’s future, and affirmation of CBF’s commitment to the Millennium Development Goals and the Micah Challenge.

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-- Jim White is editor of the Religious Herald. Robert Marus contributed to this story.

John Templeton, religious philanthropist, dead at 95
By Vicki Brown

NASSAU, Bahamas (ABP) -- Sir John Marks Templeton, religious philanthropist and founder of an annual award that honors innovation in religion, died of pneumonia July 8 in Nassau, Bahamas. He was 95.

Perhaps most widely known for the Templeton Prize and the Templeton Foundation, Templeton made billions in mutual funds and investments.

The longtime Presbyterian wanted to encourage discovery of what he called “spiritual realities” and “progress in religion” through love, gratitude, forgiveness and creativity. He believed that science and religion could cooperate to find answers to philosophical questions.

Born Nov. 29, 1912, in Winchester, Tenn., he graduated from Yale University in 1934. He was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Balliol College at Oxford University, earning a master’s degree in law. He gave up his United States citizenship to become a subject of Queen Elizabeth II, who knighted him in 1987.

He served as a Princeton Theological Seminary trustee for 42 years, including 12 as board chair. He also endowed Templeton College at Oxford.

He founded the Templeton Prize in 1972 because no Nobel Prize was offered in religion. Sir Templeton awarded the first prize of $85,000 to Mother Teresa in 1973. The prize has grown to $1.6 million.

Recipients have included Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus. American religious icon Billy Graham and Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn are among past Templeton honorees.

Templeton established the foundation in 1987 to administer the prize and to promote projects that study religion with scientific methods and the nature and origin of religious belief.

In 1992, he sold his money-management firm to the Franklin Group for $440 million and devoted more time to philanthropy. He authored eight books on spiritual subjects and edited several others.

Templeton is survived by two sons, a stepdaughter, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

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Baptist student missionary killed in Peru bus accident
By Lee Ann Marcel

ST. LOUIS (ABP) -- Southern Baptist student missionary Gregory Gomez IV died July 5 in a bus crash in Peru.

The 22-year-old Gomez was serving as a short-term field worker with the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board.

According to Baptist Press, the SBC’s news outlet, Gomez was traveling with fellow IMB student missionary Lydia Shivar and a Peruvian translator when the accident occurred near the town of Abancay. Shivar, of Crawford, Ga., and the translator received minor injuries.

Gomez graduated in May from the University of Mississippi with a degree in mechanical engineering. He was an active member of the Baptist Student Union, Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and served as president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Gomez was a member of Bethel Baptist Church in Troy, Ill., near St. Louis.

"Greg was on what they call an Extreme Team, and they were going to some of the most rural, rugged areas of Peru, finding what they call micro-people groups," Bethel Baptist Pastor Tim Lewis told KSDK-TV, the St. Louis NBC affiliate in nearby St. Louis. "They were finding out where those communities are, the kinds of language they speak and then preparing the way for other missionaries who try to come in and plant churches."

Mo Baker, director of the Baptist Student Union at the University of Mississippi, told the school paper, the Daily Mississippian, that he remembers Gomez as an inspiring person with great character and enthusiasm about God.

"His smile would brighten up a room the moment he stepped in," Baker said. "He influenced people by being an encourager. He led by serving others."

Gomez is survived by his parents, Elida and Gregory Gomez III, of Glen Carbon, Ill., and two sisters.

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Economy may affect churches in ways other than giving
By Rachel Mehlhaff

(ABP) -- The bottoming markets, soaring gas and food prices and a steady stream of home foreclosures may be affecting other sectors of the economy, but that doesn’t mean church budgets will necessarily feel the pinch.

But local congregations may well be affected in other ways, according to experts on the subject.

In tough times people look to religion, said Sylvia Ronsvalle, executive vice president of the Christian research organization empty tomb, inc.

In the United States, “60 million people are in a religious house of worship each weekend” she said. “These numbers suggest church is one of the last places people begin to cut back on.”

Giving to local churches has almost consistently been increasing since 1986. It did decrease slightly during three out of six economic recessions between 1986 and 2005, according to an empty tomb analysis of church giving in recession years. The report also suggests that the decrease doesn’t tend to show up until near the end of the recessions.

The report also notes that “church-member giving declined in four non-recession years during the 1968 through 2005 period,” Therefore, it reasons, “church-member giving does not necessarily decline in a recession.”

Scott McConnell, associate director of research for LifeWay Christian Resources, believes giving has been fairly consistent.

The organization -- the Southern Baptist Convention’s publishing arm -- recently conducted an economic survey of Southern Baptist pastors. The survey indicated that 72 percent felt the economy was having a negative impact on their churches. But the survey’s other findings indicate the situation for most churches may not be as dire as the pastors perceive.

It also looked at whether the pastors’ incomes were meeting their expectations. Half of the respondents said their salaries were about what they expected. Twenty-three percent said they were more than expected and 24 percent said their income was not meeting expectations.

McConnell said the share of those not satisfied with their salary is a normal percentage from what he has seen in surveys conducted in non-recession years.

Finally, the LifeWay survey looked at whether or not the pastors thought their churches would meet their budgets. Sixty-six percent said yes and 26 percent said no.

McConnell said government figures show that, overall, wages are continuing to rise. He believes people should be giving at the same levels as income.

Whether this affects churches will be revealed at the end of the year, he said. In particular, year-end giving figures will show how accurately churches and individual church members budgeted, taking the various economic stresses into account.

As unemployment begins to rise and tough economic times increase McConnell said, the pinch could be a great opportunity for individual church members who can afford to give more generously than those whose budgets are tighter.

This is “an opportunity to see God work,” McConnell said. “I think there is a renewed awareness that we have heard from a lot of churches needing to be in tune with their community.”

But other factors may affect giving in more logistical ways. For instance, high gas prices could make it difficult for members to make it to worship services to turn in their tithe envelopes.

Steve Hewitt, a reporter for Christian Computing magazine said churches are going to have to find alternate routes -- such as online giving or automatic checking-account deductions -- for giving.

“Churches can do stuff to fix this,” he said.

Hewitt believes that churches have other reasons to adapt their ministry to the rising gas prices, which are projected to be as high as $5.75 by the end of July.

He drives 30 to 40 miles to church and frequently has church activities to attend throughout the week.

Hewitt said more churches may choose to stream their worship services and other events live on the Internet to help members for whom driving to church regularly creates an economic hardship.

“Only problem I have with that is the music aspect,” he said.

The soaring price of fuel is fundamentally different than the other aspects of the economic crunch, Hewitt noted. “It is directly proportionate to me going to church,” he said. “It affects the largest of all churches.”

Hewitt believes one solution may actually create better fellowship within churches: A new emphasis on neighborhood meetings and local small groups of church members.

Members of such groups not only can conduct some church business without driving to a remote location, but also get to know each other and share fellowship and support during difficult economic times, he said.

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Clarification
By ABP staff

Please replace the 14th paragraph of the July 8 ABP story, "Helms, ultra-conservative icon, steeped in moderate Baptist life," with the following:

"Helms also had a close association with right-wing El Salvadorian leader Roberto d’Aubuisson. D'Aubuisson was identified by the State Department as the man who ordered the murder of San Salvador Archbishop Oscar Romero -- done while the anti-poverty activist presided over the cathedral altar at a communion service."

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