Associated Baptist Press
December 18, 2008 · (08-126)
David Wilkinson, Executive Director
Robert Marus, Acting Managing Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
Bob Allen, Senior Writer
In this issue
Christian leaders call for easing travel restrictions to Cuba (407 words)
Survey says most Americans believe in multiple paths to salvation (538 words)
Southwestern Seminary cuts budget (422 words)
Correction
Christian leaders call for easing travel restrictions to Cuba
By Bob Allen
NEW YORK (ABP) -- Christian leaders on Dec. 18 called on President-elect Barack Obama to ease travel restrictions to Cuba they say hinder religious work.
Denominational and ecumenical leaders from a variety of faith groups said restrictions imposed in 2005 have made it harder for religious bodies to send religious delegations or support church partners in Cuba. Religious institutions now are eligible for only limited travel licenses, and some have been unable to obtain even those.
The group went a step further, urging the president-elect to lift the ban on travel to Cuba for all Americans, ending a 46-year-old trade embargo and restoring full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba.
"For decades the U.S. policy toward Cuba has had unfortunate consequences for the Cuban people, while denying important freedoms to Americans," the letter said. "It has failed significantly in its stated objective to precipitate change in the Cuban government."
The faith leaders said hostility between governments has also disrupted historical bonds between churches in the U.S. and Cuba, at a time when Cuban churches are growing rapidly and need support from their Christian counterparts in the U.S.
"We are convinced that it is time to change the ineffective and counter-productive U.S. policy toward Cuba," the letter said. "We urgently request you to change the Cuba policy of the United States in ways that will assist the churches in their work and benefit all Americans."
Baptists signing the letter included Stan Hastey, minister for mission and ecumenism for the Alliance of Baptists; Roy Medley, general secretary of American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A.; and Tyrone Pitts, general secretary of the Progressive National Baptist Convention. The PNBC's ecumenical officer, Brenda Girton-Mitchell, signed the letter, along with Jose Norat-Rodriguez, area director of Iberoamerica and the Caribbean for American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A.
Other signers included John McCullough of Church World Service, Michael Kinnamon of the National Council of Churches and leaders from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Church of the Brethren, Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Mennonite Central Committee, Presbyterian Church (USA), Reformed Church in America, United Methodist Church and United Church of Christ.
One signer, John Thomas, general minister and president of the United Church of Christ, introduced Obama last summer at the UCC's General Synod in Hartford, Conn. At the time Obama was a member of a UCC-affiliated church in Chicago, but he later resigned his membership during the Jeremiah Wright controversy.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Survey says most Americans believe in multiple paths to salvation
By Bob Allen
WASHINGTON (ABP) -- A majority of American Christians believe that at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life, says a new survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Even among evangelicals, a branch of Protestant Christianity identified with the idea that an individual must be "born again" into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ in order to be saved, nearly as many Christians said many religions can lead to eternal life (47 percent) as those who believe theirs is the one true faith (49 percent).
The survey, released Dec. 18, followed up an earlier poll that found that seven Americans in 10 believe many religions can lead to salvation while less than one quarter say their faith is the only one that is true. Critics of that study questioned those findings, suggesting that for many Christians, "other religion" might have meant a different Christian denomination instead of a non-Christian faith.
The new study asks those who say many religions can lead to eternal life questions about specific faiths. Sixty-nine percent said Judaism can lead to eternal life, compared to 52 percent for Islam, 53 percent for Hinduism, 42 percent for atheists and 56 percent for people with no religious faith.
"Responses to these questions show that most American Christians are not thinking only of other Christian denominations when they say many religions provide a path to eternal life," the study found. "To the contrary, among those who say many religions provide a path to eternal life, strong majorities believe that both Christian and non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life."
While white evangelicals are more exclusive in their beliefs about salvation than the general public, nearly two-thirds said it is possible for a Jewish person to go to heaven (64 percent) and a third said the same about Muslims (35 percent) and Hindus (33 percent). One in four evangelicals said atheists could attain eternal life (26 percent) and a third (35 percent) said it is possible for people with no religious faith.
Catholics (84 percent) and white mainline Protestants (82 percent) are most likely to say that many religions can lead to salvation. White evangelicals and black Protestants, meanwhile, have grown more strict on the question. Last year 37 percent of white evangelicals said theirs is the only true faith. This year that percentage rose 12 points to 49 percent.
Evangelicals who attend church at least once a week are twice as likely as those who attend less frequently to say their faith is the only path to heaven -- 60 percent to 30 percent.
About one third of Americans say one's beliefs determine who achieves eternal life, while an equal number say it depends on one's actions. A tenth of the population say it is a combination of belief and action. The rest say something else determines salvation, they don't believe in eternal life or they don't know.
Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary said the findings suggest "a virtual collapse of evangelical theology" that he blamed on superficial preaching in church pulpits.
The survey is based on results of telephone interviews of 2,905 adults conducted in July and August. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percent.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Southwestern Seminary cuts budget
By Ken Camp
FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) -- Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has announced plans to cut its budget by about 10 percent -- a reduction between $3.5 million and $4 million -- in an effort to "protect the institution from future financial crisis."
Casualties of the budget cuts include the seminary's childcare center, its study program in England and most overseas travel. More cutbacks are anticipated.
Southwestern is the second of six SBC seminaries to announce budget shortfalls. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., predicted staff cuts and a tuition increase to offset a projected $3.2 million budget shortfall.
Another Southern Baptist agency suffering financial woes, the Woman's Missionary Union auxiliary, implemented cost-cutting measures including a four-week unpaid furlough for each employee in order to trim its budget by $1.4 million.
"The administration is doing the best it can to find ways to cut spending that do not involve the release of existing faculty or the students employed by the school," Southwestern Seminary's president, Paige Patterson, said in a Dec. 16 news release.
Southwestern is suspending for at least 18 months the work of its Naylor Children's Center, a laboratory school under the direction of the school of educational ministries that provides care and instruction for preschool age children from six weeks to age 5. The center posts a deficit annually, according to the seminary's new release.
Parents reportedly received about two weeks' notice that the childcare center would be closing.
The seminary has also suspended its Oxford study program and all traveling scholar overseas on-site study trips, except for travel directly related to a missionary training program in the Roy Fish School of Evangelism and Missions.
"We anticipate that other cutbacks in the budget will be necessary to ensure that Southwestern maintains its debt-free operational position and to be certain that revenues cover expenditures," Patterson said.
"This is a most regrettable circumstance and not of our own making, but as stewards before God, we are all responsible for handling matters with as much compassion and justice as we possibly can. The goal in the end is to have a strong seminary when the present financial crisis eases."
The news release noted that the cutbacks were being made in accord with recommendations by the seminary's board of trustees.
The seminary's operating budget draws on four streams of income -- endowment, tuition and fees, charitable gifts and funds from the Cooperative Program unified budget. Southwestern's total budget for 2008-2009, adopted at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in June, is just under $37 million.
Ken Camp is managing editor of the Texas Baptist Standard.
Correction:
The story "WMU budget cuts include worker furlough" in our Dec. 16 issue contained an error in the eighth paragraph.
The corrected paragraph should read as follows:
Assets held in a WMU Foundation established in 1995 recently surpassed $20 million, but most of those funds are earmarked for scholarships or other designated causes.
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