Associated Baptist Press
November 19, 2008 · (08-112)
David Wilkinson, Executive Director
Robert Marus, Acting Managing Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
Bob Allen, Senior Writer
In this issue
Activity reported on anti-conversion bill in Sri Lanka (503 words)
Proposed resolution cites racial disparities in justice system (376 words)
Church start uses technology to reach Texas community (531 words)
Opinion: A changing religious and political landscape (777 words)
Activity reported on anti-conversion bill in Sri Lanka
By Bob Allen
SRI JAYEWARDENEPURA KOTTE, Sri Lanka (ABP) -- Religious-freedom advocates worry that an anti-conversion bill making its way through Sri Lanka's Parliament could be used to justify discrimination against the nation's Christian minority.
Groups including the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty oppose the "Prevention of Forcible Conversion Bill," which was discussed Oct. 23 by the Sri Lanka Legislative Standing Committee and appears headed to the floor of Parliament within the next few months.
Introduced in 2004 by Sri Lanka's Jathika Hela Urumaya Party -- a political party headed by Buddhist monks -- the bill would outlaw religious conversions carried out by "force," "allurement" or other unethical means like taking advantage of a person's "inexperience, trust, need, low intellect, naivety or state of distress." Depending on how it's interpreted or enforced, faith-based humanitarian groups fear the law could be used to crack down on all evangelism and encourage violence against evangelical Christians.
JHU, roughly translated in English as National Heritage Party, has sought an anti-conversion bill since 2002. The pending bill, which has government support, has been held up in a committee since 2006 due to constitutional problems.
Fundamentalist Buddhists have long pressured the government to address the "problem" of the growth of Christian churches in rural areas. They accuse Christian organizations of using aid to entice or coerce vulnerable people to change their religion and claim that such conversions jeopardize the nation's Buddhist identity.
JHU leader Omalpe Sobhitha Thero has been quoted as saying the two greatest threats facing Sri Lanka are the Tamil Tigers -- a militant secessionist group branded a terrorist organization by 31 countries, including the United States -- and U.S.-funded Christian missionaries.
Anti-missionary sentiment intensified following the 2004 tsunami, which brought an influx of foreign Christian aid workers, some set on proselytizing.
Sri Lanka's Constitution accords Buddhism a "foremost place" but does not formally recognize it as a state religion. Sri Lanka's Supreme Court, however, has endorsed discrimination against non-Buddhist organizations and stated the growth of Christianity threatens not only the primacy of Buddhism, but its very existence.
The constitution gives members of other faiths a right to freely practice their religion, but the U.S. State Department has raised concerns about sporadic attacks on Christian communities. Some groups allege that the government has tacitly condoned harassment and attacks against Christians by inadequately enforcing the law.
Sri Lanka's population of 19 million is 70 percent Buddhist, 15 percent Hindu, 8 percent Muslim and about 7 percent Christian. Despite concern by some Buddhists about losing ground to Christianity in rural areas, the Becket Fund says the sizes of the various religious populations have been consistent for decades.
A forwarded e-mail reportedly from a Sri Lankan pastor expresses fear that, if passed, the law could be used to imprison pastors who share their faith and believers who convert to Christianity from other faiths. The message also anticipates faith-based aid organiztions like World Vision being forced to leave Sri Lanka if the law takes effect.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Proposed resolution cites racial disparities in justice system
By Bob Allen
KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (ABP) -- A resolution on racial disparities in the criminal-justice system received a first reading at a Nov. 12-13 meeting of American Baptists' Board of National Ministries.
The proposed resolution, scheduled to receive a second reading in June, denounces "attitudes of racism, sexism and classism" found in the current judicial system. In addition, it says, the system often is motivated by vengeance instead of rehabilitation.
"A criminal-justice system shaped by these forces cannot achieve its purpose of protecting society and individuals from harmful or dangerous conduct," the statement says, "nor can it rehabilitate the offender so that he or she may return to society as a useful member."
The resolution says the system is unjust toward African-Americans, who represent a disproportionate percentage of the prison population, and the poor, who are unable to afford private counsel and thus tend to suffer worse outcomes in criminal proceedings than those who can afford their own attorneys.
It cites statistics showing suggesting that harsh sentencing schemes such as those used in anti-drug efforts also discriminate, with African Americans serving more frequent and longer prison terms than whites.
"While the thriving of an orderly society requires legal codes and their enforcement, followers of Jesus the Christ are charged with protecting the humanity of all people," the resolution states. "This requires a justice system that safeguards the dignity of all people (including those incarcerated), tempers justice with mercy and, above all, treats all those accused equally."
If adopted, the resolution would call on American Baptists to become active in groups that promote prison reform, increase awareness of unfairness in criminal laws and policies, support drug-treatment options, support increases in public-defender spending and find ways for churches to support victims, the incarcerated and their families.
In March the Progressive National Baptist Convention produced an 87-page resource titled What Shall We Then Do? Family Freedom Kit for Creating Healing Communities, to help congregations minister to members who are affected by the criminal justice system -- whether as defendants, prisoners, victims, people being released from prison or family members of all.
It is available free-of-charge on the National Ministries website.
A 2001 resolution by the General Board of American Baptist Churches USA advocated "restorative justice" as an alternative to incarceration.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Church start uses technology to reach Texas community
By Sue Poss
MANSFIELD, Texas (ABP) -- Patrick Moses has a long commute from his home in Mansfield, Texas, to his job with the Department of Homeland Security in Washington.
But that hasn't stopped the former Cooperative Baptist Fellowship leadership scholar from starting and growing Antioch Baptist Church in Mansfield, a suburban community Moses described as "upwardly mobile and extremely progressive."
Throw in a local barbershop and it's a combination tailor-made for a church whose evangelistic approach focuses on using modern technology to communicate the good news.
The Mansfield area -- located between Dallas and Fort Worth -- is growing, and Moses said many of the families moving in are not connected to any congregation. Moses' strategy is to use e-mail and text messaging as methods for attracting people who don't attend church regularly.
That's where the barbershop comes in. Most of the church's electronic contacts come from two members who operate the hair-care facility.
"Patrick contacted me last year with the hope of starting something new in Mansfield, an area with no moderate African-American churches," said David King, CBF's church-starting assistant. "We worked with him to develop his plan and also put him in contact with the Baptist General Convention of Texas."
Antioch was launched in December 2007 with support from BGCT, CBF, several local African-American Baptist churches and a group of pastors who serve as mentors to Moses.
CBF and CBF of Texas signed an official covenant of partnership with Antioch at the Fellowship's General Assembly this past June. While there are some financial aspects to the partnership, it also involves connecting Moses with other CBF church planters in Texas and beyond.
"CBF is committed to developing a strategy of church starting that is a partnership between national and state CBF leadership as well as new church starts," said Bo Prosser, the Fellowship's coordinator for congregational life. "This new church start has certainly benefited from this strategy. Patrick's energy for the work and his sensitivity to God's spirit are evident. We are pleased to partner in such an exciting setting."
Moses earned a bachelor of arts in political science and a master of public administration degree from Southern University. He was ordained in June 2005, just before he graduated from Texas Christian University's Brite Divinity School with a master of divinity degree. He was introduced to CBF while attending Greater Saint Stephen's First Church in Fort Worth, a connection that helped him become a CBF leadership scholar.
Pastoring isn't Moses' first -- or only -- career. He is an 18-year federal employee, having worked in several government agencies in the Fort Worth area. In May he was recruited to serve in the Homeland Security position, where he has responsibility for the physical security of federal facilities located in the Washington metropolitan area.
Moses' wife, Ronda, is director of social services at Life Care Center of Haltom City, Texas, and recently earned a bachelor's degree in social work at Texas Woman's University. She is a part of the ministry team at Antioch.
"I love transforming people and I feel called to doing a church start," Moses said. "It is exciting to watch God create a new church -- a church with a new DNA."
-- Sue Poss is a writer for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
Opinion: A changing religious and political landscape
By David Gushee
(ABP) -- Credit for most of the material in today's column goes to Faith in Public Life, which Nov. 13 released the results of a nationwide telephone poll of almost 1,300 voters. Key findings of their poll are in bold; my comments follow.
Religious voters want a broad agenda. Only 20% of evangelicals and 12% of Catholics say an agenda focused primarily on abortion and same-sex marriage best reflects their values.
The narrow understanding of a "family values" agenda may remain popular enough to keep Christian Right organizations alive for awhile, but it does not represent anything close to a majority of evangelical or Catholic voters. I have been among those arguing for a broader values agenda for some time, just because that broader agenda is more fully biblical.
A common-ground approach to reducing abortion is overwhelmingly popular. Over 80 percent of white evangelicals and Catholics believe elected officials should work together to find ways to reduce abortions by helping prevent unwanted pregnancies, expanding adoption and increasing economic support for women who want to carry their pregnancies to term.
The election of Barack Obama and a Democratic Congress means that Roe v. Wade will not be overturned any time soon, if ever. Those who have placed all of their pro-life hopes on that goal remain sorely disappointed. But there is an actual opportunity now to take empirically grounded policy measures that can actually reduce abortion on the demand side. The best scholars, activists, and legislative minds need to get together to work on private and public initiatives that are proven to reduce the demand for abortion. Then the new Obama administration should set an aggressive abortion reduction goal (say, 25% in four years) and expend significant efforts to meet it during the next four years.
Twice as many Catholics believe diplomacy rather than military strength is the best way to ensure peace; evangelicals are split.
After World War II, the United States led the world not just because we were the strongest nation militarily, but also because we were the most effective diplomatically. The political structure of the postwar world was the result of our diplomatic leadership. As the Cold War ended and the Soviet bloc disintegrated, skillful diplomacy by the first President Bush and his team helped those events occur with as little bloodshed as they did.
Christians are required to be peacemakers. Diplomacy at its best is international peacemaking. That so many Christians have lost any sense whatsoever of the tragedy of war and the value of skillful diplomacy is a great scandal. But we are a nation weary of war after the long slog in Iraq and the deepening problems in Afghanistan. Let us hope that skillful problem-solving over the next few years will renew both a national and a Christian valuing of diplomacy.
All religious groups rank the economy as the top issue and blame institutions rather than individuals for our economic crisis. Asked who they think is responsible for the current economic crisis, 38 percent say corporations, 31 percent say negligent government and 25 percent say individuals who were careless.
Yes, it was all of the above. Greed and carelessness in the private sector, aided and abetted by negligent government oversight, contributed to the collapse of our economic house of cards. Free-market capitalism is a powerful engine of wealth creation, but one that devours itself without careful self-restraint, far-sighted corporate leadership and vigilant government regulation and oversight. We dare not look entirely to government for the answer to this crisis, which is as much a cultural problem as an economic or policy concern.
The Sarah Palin nomination resulted in a net loss for the GOP ticket. Her nomination increased support among fewer than one-third of white evangelicals, and decreased support among every other religious group and political independents.
This number may be the single best confirmation of my thesis that there is a (white) evangelical right, center, and left, with the center and left together being at least as large as the right, and often looking at politics and policy in very different ways than the right. Whatever else one may say about Gov. Palin, her nomination did not mobilize "evangelical" voters universally for the GOP. It mobilized one-third of them -- basically, a majority of the Christian Right. Everyone else was mobilized away from the GOP by her performance as nominee.
There is no evangelical vote, no single evangelical politics. Even just within the white population of the broader evangelical family, we are politically divided. No single person, group, or party can speak for all evangelicals. This election has once again confirmed this basic but important observation.
-- David Gushee is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University.
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