Associated Baptist Press - 12/23/2008

Associated Baptist Press
December 23, 2008 · (08-127)

David Wilkinson, Executive Director
Robert Marus, Acting Managing Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
Bob Allen, Senior Writer

In this issue
Controversy over inaugural prayer is nothing new (928 words)
Opinion: Christmas Prayer (555 words)
Opinion: Loving God, Loveless Christians (722 words)
Religion in presidential race tops ranking of ABP stories in 2008 (965 words)

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Controversy over inaugural prayer isn't anything new
Bob Allen

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- President-elect Barack Obama's surprise pick of Purpose Drive Life author Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration Jan. 20 isn't the first time the ceremonial prayer has created controversy.

Eight years ago Kirbyjohn Caldwell, senior pastor of Windsor Village Methodist Church in Houston, drew criticism for closing the benediction at President Bush's first inauguration with: "We respectfully submit this humble prayer in the name that's above all other names, Jesus, the Christ. Let all who agree say, 'Amen.'"

At Bush's second inauguration in 2005, Caldwell was more inclusive, modifying his closing to: "Respecting persons of all faiths, I humbly submit this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."

Franklin Graham also offered the invocation at the 2001 inauguration in Jesus' name, drawing rebuke from non-Christians. Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz called it "particularistic and parochial language" that "excluded tens of millions of American Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Shintoists, Unitarians, agnostics and atheists from his blessing."

Graham said the backlash was evidence that "there are factions of society today that hate God and everything that He stands for."

Atheist Michael Newdow, best known for his fight against the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, sued unsuccessfully in 2005 to block prayer at Bush's second inauguration, claiming that inaugural prayers violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Invoking God's blessing has been a part of the presidential inauguration ceremony since 1789, when George Washington added the words "So help me God" at the end of his oath and proceeded to St. Paul's Chapel, where the Senate chaplain read from the Book of Common Prayer.

The prayer was moved from the church to the Senate chamber for the 1937 inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Every inauguration since has included prayers by one or more clergymen invited by the president-elect.

For years Billy Graham was a fixture of inaugural prayers, befriending every president since Eisenhower. Unable to attend the first inauguration of George W. Bush because of illness, Graham sent his son as a substitute to deliver the invocation in 2001.

Joseph Lowery, an icon of the civil rights movement and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, is scheduled to pronounce the benediction at Obama's inauguration, but garnering most of the attention is Obama's selection of Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., for the invocation.

The high-profile invitation particularly upset supporters of gay rights. Warren has compared homosexuality to incest, pedophilia and polygamy. He also spoke on behalf Proposition 8 a California referendum to ban gay marriage, which homosexuals regard a civil right.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., one of three openly gay members of the House of Representatives, said he was "very disappointed" by the choice.

"Religious leaders obviously have every right to speak out in opposition to anti-discrimination measures, even in the degrading terms that Rev. Warren has used with regard to same-sex marriage," Frank said. "But that does not confer upon them the right to a place of honor in the inauguration ceremony of a president whose stated commitment to LGBT rights won him the strong support of the great majority of those who support that cause."

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, wrote in the Washington Post that inviting Warren "sends a chilling message to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans" and "makes us uncertain about this exciting, young president-elect who has said repeatedly that we are part of his America, too."

Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, called it "a divisive choice, and clearly not one that will help our country come together and heal."

Obama defended Warren's selection by saying there will be a "wide range of viewpoints" presented at the inauguration. "We're not going to agree on every single issue," he said, "but what we have to do is be able to create an atmosphere where we can disagree without being disagreeable, and then focus on those things that we hold in common."

Warren commended the president-elect for "courage to willingly take enormous heat by inviting someone like me, with whom he doesn't agree on every issue" and called it an effort "to model civility in America."

While Warren differs with Obama on homosexuality and abortion rights, they share values like fighting AIDS in Africa. Warren took heat from fellow religious conservatives for inviting Obama to speak at a conference on the subject at his church in 2006.

Joseph Farah of World Net Daily expressed "profound and abject revulsion" at Warren's acceptance of the invitation to ask God's blessing on Obama's policies, which he called "evil."

"Yes, we are commanded to pray for our leaders," Farah said. "But there is no suggestion in the Bible that we are ever to be used as political pawns by praying at their events -- especially when they are promoting the wholesale slaughter of innocent human beings."

Warren's selection also disappointed the religious left, who say his non-partisan image belies a social agenda in lockstep with the religious right. Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State called Warren "a kinder, gentler Jerry Falwell in a Hawaiian shirt."

Don Byrd, who blogs on church-state issues at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, said regardless of their stances on controversial issues, he hopes both Warren and Lowery "manage broad, all-inclusive, non-sectarian approaches to this solemn occasion that should be for all Americans" and if Obama wants to offer a specifically Christian prayer with the religious leaders that it be done before or after the public event.

Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

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Opinion: Christmas Prayer
By Jim Evans

Lord, first of all, thank you for the careful and creative way in which you have designed this world. You have made this planet a marvelous place, filled with life and beauty. It is a privilege to recognize that we humans are a part of your amazing invention.

Having said that, it is necessary to also say we are sorry. We are sorry for our poor stewardship of the earth. We have not been very careful with the air and the water. We have also not been very careful with certain forms of life. We have acted as if ours was the only existence that matters. Apparently we forgot what Jesus said about you and the sparrows.

We have also not been very good stewards of the resources which sustain life. Many of us living in the developed nations have become a highly acquisitive people. It's almost as if we believe that the purpose of our humanity is to get our hands on as much stuff as possible. There are many who look to their earthly treasures as the true source of their security and meaning. You used the word idolatry to describe that kind of thinking.

Sadly, our pursuit of things has also created a dismal state of affairs in our relations with each other. We've got it all backwards from what you intended. Instead of loving people, as you taught, we use people to get what we want. Instead using things to make life better, we love things and cling to them as if they were life itself.

This tragic reversal has had dire consequences. Our greedy consumption has created a world of poverty for millions -- as our wealth grows, so does their poverty. And we keep fighting one bloody war after another, taking the lives of your children, trying to protect our stuff.

In fact, that touches on one of our most difficult problems -- our love of violence. We treat violence in our culture as if it were a sacred rite. We believe in violence. We cherish it, we celebrate it. We teach it to our children as if we were passing along a spiritual heritage. We have endowed violence with a trust and a hope that should be reserved for you. We believe violence can conquer evil. We believe violence can make peace. We believe violence can end violence. You would think that 50,000 years of human experience would convince us otherwise, but not yet.

That is why Christmas is so important. The birth of Jesus represents the supreme effort on your part to re-shape our flawed humanity back into your own image. If we would only accept as true the things Jesus had to say to us what a different world this might be.

Somewhere along the way this Christmas we will hear the words of the prophet Isaiah: "A child shall lead them." We are drawn to the innocence of the nativity with a sense of wonder and longing. We believe that Jesus is that child.

But he cannot lead us if we do not follow. And he cannot change us so long as we insist on having things our own way.

Help us this year to finally admit that our way is not working and for once, just for once, try doing things his way. Amen.

James L. Evans is pastor of Auburn First Baptist Church in Auburn, Ala.

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Opinion: Loving God, Loveless Christians
David P. Gushee

It's Christmastime, so it seems especially appropriate to begin with reminders of the amazing love of God to the world in Jesus Christ:

"Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." --Luke 2:10-11

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but would have everlasting life." --John 3:16

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will someone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." --Romans 5:6-8

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" --I John 3:1

It's Christmastime, so it seems especially appropriate to continue with reminders of the Bible's demand that followers of Christ be characterized by godly love:

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. " --1 John 4:7-11

"'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?' Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." --Mt. 22:36-40

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." --John 13:34-35

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have no love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing." --1 Cor. 13:1-3

It's Christmastime, so it seems especially sad to be reminded of the hatefulness that Christians demonstrate toward those whose lifestyles they disapprove of, whose politics they reject, or whose doctrine or moral beliefs they believe erroneous:

Grieve for every Christian leader pushed out of his or her job because they did not quite hit the right notes for some fellow Christians in their church, school or organization, and for every Christian who somehow finds it in their heart to rejoice at the downfall of their perceived Christian enemies.

Grieve for homosexuals, so often the recipients of Christian rejection and hatred.

Grieve for every Christian who in 2008 was treated as some kind of pagan by other Christians because they supported Barack Obama, and every Christian treated as some kind of Neanderthal because they supported John McCain.

Grieve for a Christian community in which orthodoxy rather than orthopraxy defines what it means to be right with God, which produces a community with an abundance of right-thinkers filled with contempt for those who do not see the world as correctly as they do.

"The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians...who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. This is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable." --Brennan Manning

"Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love." --1 John 4:8

-- David Gushee is distinguished university professor of Christian ethics at Mercer

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Religion in presidential race tops ranking of ABP stories in 2008
By Bob Allen

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP) -- Baptist journalists and observers ranked religion in the 2008 presidential election the year's biggest story for Baptists. Faith in politics played a major role in the year's news cycle, according to an annual ranking of top stories compiled by Associated Baptist Press.

Religion stories ranged from the surprising emergence of Southern Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee as a contender for the GOP nomination, to questions about whether Mitt Romney's Mormon faith would be a turnoff to evangelical voters, to problems for John McCain over comments by his supporter John Hagee and to the Jeremiah Wright controversy that prompted President-elect Barack Obama to divorce himself from both his former pastor and home church.

Respondents to an annual informal survey by the independent news service based in Jacksonville, Fla., ranked religion in the 2008 presidential election the year's top story.
The rest of the rankings were as follows:

2. The New Baptist Covenant Celebration. The historic gathering held Jan. 30-Feb. 1 in Atlanta drew 15,000 participants from 30 Baptist conventions and organizations to hear addresses from speakers including former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and former vice president Al Gore. Carter, one of the meeting's principal organizers, called it the "most momentous event of my religious life." The movement toward a unified Baptist witness in North America picks up again in 2009 with a series of regional New Baptist Covenant gatherings beginning Jan. 31 in Birmingham, Ala.

3. Election of African-American president suggests shift in religious voters. Though opposed by the Religious Right for his pro-choice views on abortion and support for civil unions for gays, Obama found strong support from African-American and Hispanic religious voters. Some observers said the election marked waning influence of the Religious Right, while others said it is too early to tell if the trend is permanent.

4. Saddleback civil forum features presidential candidates. Southern Baptist mega-church pastor and Purpose Driven Life author Rick Warren made headlines in August when he invited both major presidential candidates to a Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency at his church in Lake Forest, Calif. The first time nominees of both parties appeared on the same stage, the event provided one of the most embarrassing moments of the campaign for Obama, who tried to dismiss a question about abortion by saying that answering a question about when a baby gets human rights is "above my pay grade." McCain, meanwhile, cemented his support among Religious Right leaders previously suspicious of him for past comments critical of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.

5. The economy. One writer predicted a faltering economy would top next year's ranking, but effects are already being felt in Baptist life. Two Southern Baptist seminaries -- Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, -- recently announced budget shortfalls, while Woman's Missionary Union in Birmingham, Ala., plans cutbacks including placing workers on a four-week unpaid furlough in 2009.

6. Baylor removes president for failure to unite campus. Trustees fired President John Lilley July 24, saying he had failed to reunite a university community divided by differences over leadership by his predecessor, Robert Sloan. Lilley, who took Baylor's helm in January 2006, ran into his own problems after denying tenure to several faculty members, despite recommendation by their departments. Outcry from alumni also forced him to back off from a proposal to replace Baylor's "BU" interlocking logo on the school's football helmets with the word "Baylor" in an attempt to push the Baptist school's brand name to a national level.

7. Georgia Baptists reject church with woman pastor. The Georgia Baptist Convention changed a policy to authorize leaders to refuse funds from First Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga., because it called woman as pastor. Convention leaders said calling Julie Pennington-Russell as pastor in 2007 violated the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message doctrinal statement and rendered the historic congregation "not in harmony" with the state convention.

8. North Carolina Baptists nix plan that forwarded funds to CBF. Capping several years of challenges to a multi-track giving plan, the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina voted Nov. 12 to end an option that allowed churches to forward money through the state convention to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and other entities unrelated to the Southern Baptist Convention. While supporters of multiple options said the system respected church autonomy, opponents said it put forth a divided witness for the state's Southern Baptists. Churches in North Carolina that want to contribute to the breakaway moderate group will in the future have to send funds directly to the CBF.

9. 'Evangelical center' forming in U.S. politics. David Gushee, a regular ABP columnist, began 2008 with a book arguing a "political center" is emerging in American's white evangelical community -- one that seeks a broader moral agenda than traditional family values concerns and prefers consensus solutions to polarization between the secular left and Religious Right. Groups including the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative sought to define social problems like poverty, torture and the environment as moral issues. Exit polls showed that religious voters want a broader agenda than opposition to abortion and gay marriage to best reflect their values, and prefer common-ground solutions like working to reduce instead of outlawing abortion.

10. Violence targets Christians in India. Baptists worldwide denounced violence targeting Christians in an overwhelmingly Hindu state in northeastern India. Religious violence is nothing new in Orissa, where in 1999 a mob burned Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons to death while they slept in a car. In November U.S. Christian leaders including Daniel Vestal of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and William Shaw of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., urged President Bush to take action against sectarian violence described as "ethnic cleansing" of religious minorities.

Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.