Associated Baptist Press - 7/1/2008

Associated Baptist Press
July 1, 2008 (8-67)

IN THIS ISSUE:
On Bush’s faith-based programs, Obama says save best, ditch rest
CBF worker furthers education for children in Ethiopian town
Michael Clyburn assumes helm at Alderson-Broaddus College
Opinion: Hearing the full story

On Bush’s faith-based programs, Obama says save best, ditch rest
By Robert Marus

ZANESVILLE, Ohio (ABP) – Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama vowed July 1 to carry on the best parts -- and dump the worst -- of President Bush’s so-called “faith-based initiative.”

“I still believe it’s a good idea to have a partnership between the White House and grass-roots groups, both faith-based and secular. But it has to be a real partnership -- not a photo-op,” Obama said in remarks prepared for delivery at a Christian community-service center in Zanesville, Ohio.

The Illinois senator’s remarks drew mostly positive reactions from advocates of strong church-state separation.

Obama, a former community organizer in Chicago, affirmed the core of Bush’s effort -- to expand government’s ability to work with religious charities -- while cautioning against political and constitutional abuses to which such an enterprise can be prone.

“[A]s someone who used to teach constitutional law, I believe deeply in the separation of church and state, but I don’t believe this partnership will endanger that idea -- so long as we follow a few basic principles,” he said. “First, if you get a federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize … the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them -- or against the people you hire -- on the basis of their religion. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples and mosques can only be used on secular programs.”

Obama also said that, under his administration, federal funds would only support “those [faith-based] programs that actually work.”

In the Democrat’s speech, the clearest difference from Bush’s policy was whether religious groups could discriminate on the basis of faith in hiring when receiving federal funds.

“It was decidedly different on the issue of constitutional protections in hiring,” said Holly Hollman, general counsel for the Washington-based Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. “It says that … if you get a federal grant, you can’t use the money to proselytize or discriminate against the people you serve or the people you hire. So that’s a notable distinction from the policy pursued by the Bush administration.”

Hollman’s group has opposed Bush’s faith-based efforts on two counts -- his attempt to have several federal laws rewritten in order to allow such discrimination and his efforts to promote funding of organizations that don’t strictly separate their religious functions from their secular ones.

But Obama’s speech demonstrated a broadly different understanding of the issue than has the rhetoric of Bush and his surrogates, Hollman said.

“It seems encouraging that he says, ‘Make no mistake, I believe in the separation of church and state,’” she said. “To me, that is signaling the importance of recognizing the constitutional principle and policy interest of protecting religious freedom while talking about the way government and religious institutions can be partners.”

Hollman added that Obama’s speech showed sensitivity to religious groups that express concerns about government funding churches, synagogues and mosques -- also a departure from Bush’s rhetoric.

“There’s nothing here that indicates that those who would emphasize religious-liberty concerns [about the faith-based plan] somehow don’t count or don’t understand what we’re doing here or are missing the boat,” she said.

But while Obama’s speech called for closer attention to constitutional safeguards in administering the faith-based program, it also called for expanding the effort. He said he’d raise the profile of Bush’s White House Office for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

“I’ll establish a new Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships,” Obama said. “The new name will reflect a new commitment. This council will not just be another name on the White House organization chart -- it will be a critical part of my administration.”

Bush “short-changed” the very charities that he intended to help because the effort was sidetracked by politics, Obama contended.

“Support for social services to the poor and the needy have been consistently underfunded. Rather than promoting the cause of all faith-based organizations, former officials in [Bush’s faith-based office] have described how it was used to promote partisan interests.”

Obama said his program would be structured to “train the trainers” through large, well-established charities that work with smaller religious and community organizations. He mentioned groups such as Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services.

That, according to one constitutional-law professor who has studied Bush’s faith-based efforts closely, is also a substantial departure from Bush’s scheme. Chip Lupu, a First Amendment expert who teaches at George Washington University Law School, noted that Bush’s program relied on “intermediary” grants for such capacity-building purposes -- and that such grants sometimes went to conservative religious organizations. That left Bush open to charges of political pandering.

“There was a lot of criticism of the sort of intermediary grants as ways of including your friends in the spoils,” he said, noting one particularly controversial grant that was distributed through an organization founded by Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson.

But using large religious organizations with long histories of operating like secular non-profits shows that Obama is interested in paying close attention to church-state concerns, Lupu noted. “If Obama is talking about bringing back major players like Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services … they are faith-based in name, but not faith-based in practice,” he said.

However, Obama’s speech seemed to maintain support for direct government grants to churches and other strongly religious charities, so long as the funds only support secular services. The most ardent defenders of church-state separation oppose such funding.

Those grants continue to raise “serious issues of entanglement between religion and government,” said a statement from Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, said Obama’s apparent support for continuing such grants means his speech is “a step in the right direction, though I would like him to go further.”

And Hollman said the Baptist Joint Committee “would never commend [government] money going directly to houses of worship because of the risk of entanglement, both with practical and legal difficulties.”

But Lupu said it’s a sign of how far the public conversation on government funding for religious organizations has shifted in the last 10 years that the presidential candidates aren’t echoing those concerns.

“Neither Obama nor [his GOP opponent, Sen. John] McCain nor George W. Bush would say houses of worship are categorically denied form being grantees -- and that’s a big change; that’s a big change that [almost] everybody accepts that,” he said.

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CBF worker furthers education for children in Ethiopian town
By Charlotte Tubbs

ATLANTA (ABP) -- Dee Donalson grasped a tiny hand and helped an Ethiopian kindergartener trace over stones lined in the shape of the numeral 2.

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field worker, whose front porch serves as a makeshift classroom, teaches nine students about letters, numbers and shapes. She uses whatever educational tools she can find locally -- including stones, wheat straw and juice boxes -- to instruct the students and two teacher trainees.

Before Donalson arrived in Hossana, Ethiopia, last year, most of the village’s young children did not attend kindergarten, because the closest one was too far away. Nationwide, Donalson said, only 20 percent of Ethiopia’s children attend any sort of school, because the government does not have the financial resources to provide enough classrooms or teachers.

Donalson is working to build a kindergarten at Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church Ministry Training College in Hossana. She expects the school, with six classrooms, running water and furnishings, will cost about $100,000.

“Kindergarten taught in a developmentally appropriate way gives them a foundation to build the rest of their education,” she said. “It also teaches them to problem-solve, investigate, explore, examine and experiment.”

Donalson, 65, of Sanibel Island and Ft. Myers, Fla., spent her career establishing schools for young children and training teachers in the United States. In 2004, she felt called to serve in Ethiopia. From 2004-07 she served as a teacher trainer and director of a kindergarten in Butajira, Ethiopia. But then she felt the Lord was calling her to do more.

“I had a definite message from God that I was to train many more teachers in Ethiopia to teach the thousands of children who were school age, but didn’t have a space in the classroom,” Donalson said.

Soon, she knew God was calling her to the Bible college in Hossana. The school is one of seven Bible colleges in Ethiopia run by the Kale Heywet Church, the country’s largest evangelical denomination, with about 3.5 million members and 6,000 churches. Kale Heywet, which translates as “word of life,” sends missionaries worldwide, including some countries where American missionaries are not welcomed, she said.

“I love the idea that [CBF Global Missions Coordinator] Rob Nash put forth when he said that ‘the church is God’s missionary to the world,’” Donalson said. “And I feel that there are many opportunities to bridge with other organizations like the Kale Heywet Church in Ethiopia.”

In addition to her kindergarten work, Donalson has taught English at the college. Learning English is a critical tool for indigenous missionaries, she said, since it is the most commonly used language both in Ethiopia and abroad.

She also is helping the community improve its access to water, plant vegetable gardens and learn good health practices. When Donalson learned the campus had no running water, she contacted David Harding, a CBF field worker who brings clean water to Ethiopian communities.

Harding’s team evaluated the college’s well and recommended a submersible pump. CBF donated the pump, a holding tank and a platform. Donalson’s home church, Sanibel Community Church, is raising funds to pay for pump installation and pipes.

When the pump begins operating, more financial support will be needed to cover additional electricity costs and to pay a guard to oversee the well.

Once the school is constructed, about $1,080 a year will be needed to provide salaries for two kindergarten teachers. Donalson hopes to add a grade level each year after the kindergarten is established.

She often reminds herself of Acts 17:28, “It is in Him that I live and move and have my being.” That verse helps her focus on being the presence of Christ.

“I hope that as I am in His presence I will be totally submissive in allowing the Holy Spirit to manifest itself through me to help fulfill the Great Commission,” she said.

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Michael Clyburn assumes helm at Alderson-Broaddus College
By ABP staff

PHILIPPI, W. Va. (ABP) -- Michael Clyburn began his duties July 1 as president of Alderson-Broaddus College, an American Baptist school in Philippi, W. Va.

Clyburn, who previously served as president of Louisburg College in North Carolina, became the eighth president of the 127-year-old college. He replaced Stephen Markwood, who retired June 30 after 20 years of service.

The four-year, liberal-arts school, which has about 750 students, is noted for its programs for medical professionals. Alderson-Broaddus is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA through ABC National Ministries, and is also connected to the West Virginia Baptist Convention.

Clyburn has also served as vice president for academic affairs and provost at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn. He has a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Tennessee. He has had a 20-year career in several areas of higher-education administration.

“American Baptists welcome Dr. Clyburn as he begins ministry as president of Alderson-Broaddus,” said David Laubach, National Ministries’ liaison to American Baptist schools. “We look forward to joining him along with the other ABC-related college presidents at Estes Park, Colo., in July for the National Gathering of American Baptist Youth.”

According to the Clarksville, W.Va., Exponent-Telegram John Thralls, chair of the search committee that hired Clyburn, said: “We thought he brought a combination of factors well-suited to the presidency at Alderson-Broaddus…. In the early years of his career, he was a pastor. Since [we] are a faith-based school, we thought that background as well would equip him to serve as our president.”

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Opinion: Hearing the full story
By Beth Newman

(ABP) -- Years ago I saw a foreign film about two brothers and their father. One brother, against his father's wishes, decides to become an actor and travels far and wide. The other stays close to home, caring for his father until he dies.

The actor son has sent countless letters home to his father without ever hearing back from him, eventually concluding that his father has totally rejected him. As a result, he starts drinking. His life takes a severe downward turn as he squanders his time and talent on a life of debauchery.

Upon his father's death, however, he discovers his own unopened letters in a chest in his father's house. How did they get there? His brother had secretly intercepted them, hiding them from their father. Consequently, the father dies believing his actor son had abandoned him, while this son believes his father has rejected him, until he sees the letters.

I have been haunted by this movie because it displays so vividly how people can live their whole lives by a story that is not true.

The actor son's "story" that his father rejected him shaped his life so deeply that he was unable to follow his dream. Instead he turned to a life of drinking and waste. The true story, however, was that his father loved him deeply and was terribly saddened that his son, so he assumed, had cut him off.

If only they had known otherwise.

The story of each son is true, but only partially. Tragically, it is the missing part that deforms the truth and renders it destructive. One son has remained at home and assumed responsibility. But does he see in his brother's freedom a threat to his own identity? The other son has taken up his own life. But does his father's apparent silence confirm some fear or guilt about the price of his own freedom?

When the son discovers the truth about what his brother had done, the story he tells himself shifts. No longer is he the rejected one but the one loved so deeply that his father suffered for him until his death.

The movie is reminiscent of the parable of the Prodigal Son. Here also is a young man who wants to go "find himself" out in the real world. "A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living" (Luke. 15: 13).

What he discovers, of course, is that this story he is living is killing him. ("…[F]or this son of mine was dead." Luke 15:23) When he steps into a different story, he is met by a father so delighted to see his son return that he runs to embrace him even before any words are spoken.

("But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him." Luke 15:20).

Of course, the elder son in the story that Jesus tells has forgotten the fullness of the truth as well. Every charge that he brings against his younger brother is true, but in his resentment, he has forgotten the whole truth: That he is and always will be his father's son, and that everything that his father has is his.

The temptation to live by stories that are only partially true is a danger not only to individuals, but to the church.

One example, as we approach Independence Day, is to mistake our true good fortune as Americans for the providential purposes of God and to, in turn, imagine that we are somehow an exceptional nation with a special role in salvation history. Such a role is reserved for the church -- not this, or any, nation.

Yet another example might be the reaction of some of the younger members of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship to Cecil Sherman's remarks about the struggle for control of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Cecil Sherman is right that it is impossible to ask those who lived through it to get over it. As William Faulkner famously observed, "The past isn't dead; it isn't even past." But those new voices are also right to say that for those 45 and under, the past is different. And so the future they envision is a different one.

A contemporary German theologian has put it like this: "If a threat arises, it is not from alleged contenders, but from the forgetfulness of the church of its own vocation...." The challenge and the opportunity is not for us to win arguments about the past but to understand it in light of the fullness of the gospel story.

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-- Beth Newman is professor of theology and ethics at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. bnewman@btsr.edu