Associated Baptist Press
December 4, 2008 · (08-119)
David Wilkinson, Executive Director
Robert Marus, Acting Managing Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
Bob Allen, Senior Writer
In this issue
Group sues Ky. for law requiring credit to God for security (521 words)
Have yourself a simple little Christmas (542 words)
A 'Simple Christmas' suggestion box (243 words)
Fair trade fights poverty, allows gift giving with a clear conscience (1,252 words)
Tough economic times don't dim lights on Living Christmas Trees (691 words)
Group sues Ky. for law requiring credit to God for security
By Bob Allen
LEXINGTON, Ky. (ABP) -- An atheist-rights group and 10 Kentucky citizens are suing the commonwealth over a law requiring that the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security credit God for keeping residents safe.
The religious language, largely unnoticed when a Southern Baptist lawmaker inserted it into homeland-security legislation in 2006, made news recently when its sponsor complained the department did not mention God in its mission statement, on its website or in its 2008 Homeland Security report.
Rep. Tom Riner (D-Louisville) inserted language into the 2006 bill that called for "stressing the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the commonwealth" and affirmed that security "cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God."
Former Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R), himself an ordained Baptist minister, obeyed the law, which includes posting a plaque with the 88-word statement at the entrance to the state Emergency Operations Center.
But a 56-page homeland-security report released Oct. 31 by the current Democratic governor, Steve Beshear, omitted the religious language. Beshear is the son of a Primitive Baptist minister.
"We certainly expect it to be there, of course," Riner told the Herald-Leader.
After learning of the God requirement's existence, American Atheists recruited 10 Kentuckians to sue for its removal.
The lawsuit called the law an unlawful attempt to "endorse belief over non-belief, set up a religious test, indoctrinate Kentucky citizens and state employees in theistic religious beliefs, and diminish the civil rights, privileges or capacities of atheists and others who do not believe in a god, or who believe in a different god or gods than the presumed supernatural entity unconstitutionally endorsed by the legislation."
It denounced the law as "grossly and outrageously at variance" with both the United States and Kentucky constitutions and "retrograde to the very purposes of protecting American freedoms for which the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security was established."
American Atheists President Ed Buckner called actions by the legislature "illegal and un-American" and "unconstitutional on their face."
Paul Simmons, chairman of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, urged lawmakers to overturn the legislation. Simmons, a former professor at the Louisville-based Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, told the Louisville Courier-Journal the Office of Homeland Security "is not in the business of promoting religion" but instead "securing all citizens against harm from enemies."
AU spokesman Rob Boston described the God requirement as an example of "meaningless civil religion" similar to the prayer that opens every session of Congress -- usually delivered before a nearly empty chamber. "It has become by-rote ritual, a thing to be gotten through so we can get to work, a mere formality," said Boston. "I'd like Rep. Riner or one of his supporters to explain exactly how this helps religion."
In a telephone interview, Riner called the lawsuit "frivolous" and said the disputed language is no different than religious references in inaugural addresses or proclamations made by every U.S. president or in the constitutions of all 50 states.
An ordained minister and pastor of Christ is King Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., Riner attended Southern Seminary in the 1960s, but quit short of earning a divinity degree.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Have yourself a simple little Christmas
By Jennifer Harris
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP) -- It's time to "Unplug the Christmas machine," states a book with the same title by Jo Robinson and Jean Coppock Staeheli. And members of First Baptist Church in Jefferson City, Mo., are challenged to do just that.
"Simple Christmas," the church's Advent theme this year, is a plan to "take back Christmas," so it isn't driven by consumerism, commercials and things material, Pastor Doyle Sager said.
"It's to help place the focus on the spiritual meaning, to be set free. The things that mean the most don't cost anything." The idea for the churchwide emphasis began last October at a Central Baptist Theological Seminary Advent planning workshop. Holly McKissick, senior pastor at St. Andrew Christian Church in Olathe, Kan., led a breakout session on simplifying Christmas.
Sager and his wife, Janet, had been leading their own extended families to simplify gift-giving, from adopting families in need to gifts to charitable organizations in honor of the recipient.
As he toyed with the ideas McKissick presented, Sager knew he wanted to bring it to the church. "I told the staff, 'I already have the Advent '08 theme,'" he said.
Why is a simple Christmas necessary? "It's about focusing on the real meaning of Christmas," said Laurel Dunwoody, the church's administrator.
"So many are at the stage where they don't really need anything," Sager said. "Instead of feeling guilty for buying things no one needs," share a more relational holiday and give funds to people and organizations that can use them.
Plans started long before the economic downturn became obvious, he added.
"It made us look genius, but it is really the Lord at work," he said.
The church featured a "Christmas Made Simple as ABC" event to give members an opportunity to make Christmas gifts and collect a recipe book of gift, gift-wrapping and food ideas. According to Dunwoody, more than 90 people attended, including 33 children.
Some of the thoughts garnered from Unplug the Christmas Machine emphasize thinking through favorite Christmas memories from years past, and finding ways to create similar memories for children. Very rarely are those memories material gifts, Sager said. Instead, it's "the year we got snowed in" or "the time a homeless man intruded at church and didn't have anywhere to go, so we invited him home."
Sager recognizes simplifying the season and focusing on the meaning of Advent is counter-cultural.
"It is a challenge, and it is countering the culture if we do it right -- rather than raging (over a so-called 'war on Christmas'), do positive things," he said. "People love rituals and simplicity. The church has an open door if it stops complaining and whining. We have a responsibility of stewardship to take back holy days, to redeem time."
Sager will address simplicity from the pulpit during Advent, focusing on "simple justice," "simple holiness" and "simple humility."
The church also has created a website with resources on simplifying the season, including alternative Christmas gifts, a budget sheet and links to other helpful sites.
"The website is simple -- and purposefully so," Dunwoody said.
The church will continue to maintain the website with new resources, links and personal stories beyond Christmas.
And the church will continue the emphasis next year, Sager added.
Jennifer Harris is a news writer for Word & Way, the Missouri Baptist newspaper.
A 'Simple Christmas' suggestion box
(ABP) -- Here are some suggestions to reduce and reallocate Christmas spending habits:
· Draw names instead of giving to everyone.
· Let others help; tell them your intention to give less and ask them not to buy an expensive gift.
· Give family gifts instead of individual gifts.
· Give gifts only to children.
· Don't give children money to give you a gift.
· Design and make your own gifts.
· Set a spending limit with spouse and family.
· Don't buy a gift that simply will be returned.
· Bake something.
· Go caroling.
· Create a homemade gift certificate for a favor or service.
· Give to mission and benevolent projects in someone's honor.
· Give and wrap gifts in a way that cares for the environment.
· Give the gift of your time, talents and involvement -- more presence, fewer presents!
· Teach someone a skill you possess.
· Make cards or postcards on your computer.
· Send electronic cards; they're often free.
· Write a story or poem, make a song or create art as a gift.
· Write a letter of love and/or appreciation.
· Adopt a family in the community. Names are available through churches and community agencies.
· Support church missions around the world.
-- taken From www.simplechristmas.org, including suggestions from Unplug the Christmas Machine: A Complete Guide to Putting Love and Joy Back into the Season by Jo Robinson and Jean Coppock Staeheli.
Fair trade fights poverty, allows gift giving with a clear conscience
By Ken Camp
DALLAS (ABP) -- Any so-called gospel that fails to take seriously Jesus' proclamation of good news to the poor lacks authenticity, Nathan George decided a few years ago. And that belief led him to found Trade as One -- a company that helps poor and marginalized workers by bringing together markets and missions.
And as a primary provider of Good News Goods, George is providing a venue for members of Baptist churches to do Christmas shopping with a clear conscience.
George grew up in India and in various parts of the Middle East as a missionary kid, while his parents served with Operation Mobilization. But in spite of his Christian upbringing, after about 15 years in business with telecommunications and software companies, he felt something lacking in his understanding of the call to discipleship.
"Five or six years ago, I began re-examining the call of the gospel," he said. In the process, he became captivated with Jesus' declaration that he came to preach good news to the poor.
"I wanted to know how business, the kingdom of God and good news to the poor could all fit together," he said. "God's heart beats for the poor."
George came to the conclusion God created human beings for meaningful work.
"The absence of work is a missions issue," he determined. And helping disenfranchised people find purpose in their labor and giving them the ability to provide for themselves and their families are ways Christians can contribute to "restoration of the Eden vision."
George and his wife, Catherine, discovered multiple small businesses in developing nations that were providing jobs with fair wages, but those businesses needed someone to help connect them to potential buyers in the affluent West.
The Georges began operating a market for those goods once a month through the 200-member Baptist church they attended in Cranleigh, England, about 40 miles south of London. Through that "low-profile, regular presence," they raised awareness about fair trade in their community and sold about $15,000 a year in what are known as "fair-trade" goods, George said.
In time, the couple felt God's call to make that avocation their full-time job, and they relocated to Santa Cruz, Calif. They built Trade as One around fair-trade practices -- no slave labor or child labor, safe workplaces, fair wages to workers, environmental sustainability and profit to producers rather than middlemen.
Trade as One works with 62 producer groups in 28 nations throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America. The company only does business with producers that are fair-trade-certified or with whom Trade as One or a trusted organization such as World Vision is directly acquainted.
"We buy from suppliers in-country and pay them up front to provide them working capital," George explained.
Products fall into two categories. Consumable goods include coffee, tea, rice, olive oil, lotions and cosmetics. Non-consumable goods include scarves, handmade jewelry, bags, bowls and rugs.
"We won't sell products that people don't need," George said. "Spending habits and stewardship are discipleship issues."
Americans spend more on cosmetics and Europeans more on ice cream than it would cost to provide education and sanitation for the 2 billion people who go without both, he noted. Trade as One operates no storefronts. It sells through individuals who host home parties, through direct Internet commerce and through partnerships with churches that take orders or sell products.
The company recently entered into a close working relationship with the Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Life Commission through its Good News Goods initiative.
Good News Goods enlists churches to serve as host sites for one-day or weekend fair-trade markets or as ongoing trading posts where people in the congregation and the surrounding community can order fair- trade consumable goods on a regular basis.
Trade as One serves as the primary provider for Good News Goods. Another is WorldCrafts, a nonprofit ministry related to the Southern Baptist Woman's Missionary Union. WorldCrafts imports handcrafts from 38 countries and markets them in the United States. Good News Goods also will work directly with developmental ministries related to the Baptist World Alliance and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
In addition to providing buyers with quality goods and producers with fair compensation for their work, 10 percent of sales from products purchased in Good News Goods markets in BGCT-affiliated churches directly benefits the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger.
While the initiative officially launches in January, two Texas Baptist churches -- Wilshire Baptist in Dallas and First Baptist in Austin -- piloted Good News Goods events recently, in time for church members to shop for Christmas presents.
"People were surprised by the quality and variety of the products," said Mindy Logsdon, Wilshire's minister of missions.
Because the church is in the middle of a construction project, the Good News Goods market had to be divided into three venues in different parts of the facility. Wilshire volunteers staffed each site, explaining the stories behind the products, showing a video provided by Trade as One and operating a sales machine.
In a single Sunday-morning event that was not advertised outside the church's membership, Wilshire sold $5,555.54 in goods.
"When you do something that's a little out of the ordinary, there's always someone who doesn't like it. But I honestly didn't hear any negative feedback," Logsdon said.
"What I heard was how glad people were to be able to buy fair-trade products -- to spend their money on products without having to worry about the use of child labor and to know the people who produced them received fair wages."
CLC Director Suzii Paynter presented the idea of a Good News Goods market to her Sunday school class at First Baptist in Austin. Steve Mines, an attorney who grew up as a missionary kid in Argentina, took the lead in contacting Trade as One and organizing the event.
"We did not have much time to advertise this to the church. It made it into one church newsletter and a short, short video clip in worship. The following week, I held my breath, wondering if our folks would support it," Pastor Roger Paynter said.
On the day of the market, a Trade as One representative spoke briefly at the close of the Sunday morning worship service. He explained that the sale of Good News Goods products would -- in part -- provide employment for young women in developing nations, allowing them the opportunity to escape from the sex-trafficking industry.
"In a matter of a few hours, our church purchased $11,000 in fair-trade products, shocking the folks from Trade as One with our generous response," the pastor said, noting it was Trade As One's second-highest one-day sales total ever.
Paynter said members told him they appreciated the opportunity to purchase quality items and make a difference in someone's life at the same time. First Baptist plans to set up an ongoing trading post where people can subscribe to consumable goods on a regular basis, he added.
"I have long contended that the church frustrates people who want to act on their faith but have very few, tangible outlets. I think that part of the success of Habitat for Humanity is that people can literally put their faith in action, pick up a hammer, see a result. Good News Goods has the same appeal," he said.
"You purchase a beautiful, unusual item while helping a woman or child find a chance to move out of the horrors of the sex-slave industry and you do it with an organization rooted in Christ. What could be better?"
Ken Camp is managing editor of the Texas Baptist Standard.
Tough economic times don't dim lights on Living Christmas Trees
By Bob Allen
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (ABP) -- Rather than cutting back on lavish Christmas programs this year due to the economy, some church leaders insist hard times make them more valuable than ever.
Billy Orton, minister of music and worship at First Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala., said his church did not even consider cutting back its annual Living Christmas Tree performance, now in its 24th year.
"The message of hope, peace, joy and love is needed now more than ever," Orton said.
While a major investment of resources, Orton said, the church views the Living Christmas Tree -- with free admission and no offering taken -- as a gift to the entire community.
"We are thinking there might be even larger crowds due to the fact that folks will hold back on purchasing tickets to other holiday concerts and presentations in the area and instead choose to attend one of our six performances," he said. Steve Poole, minister of music and worship at Oak Grove Baptist Church in Bel Air, Md. -- a congregation born during hard economic times in 1932 -- said he volunteered to trim his music budget along with other expenses being reduced in 2009, but so far many members have remained faithful to support missions and ministries of the church.
It costs Oak Grove about $15,000 each year to present 11 performances of the Living Christmas Tree, Poole said. The church collects a free-will offering, with any money received over expenses going to a benevolence ministry to help needy families in surrounding Harford County.
"If the tough financial times we are in now bring about a reduction in the free-will offerings, then we may need to cut back on some of our plans for the 2009 program," he said.
The idea of lining up choir members on risers stacked cone-shape to resemble a Christmas tree has been around for decades. The outdoor Singing Christmas Tree at Belhaven College in Jackson, Miss., thought to be the oldest, has been a tradition since 1933.
The advent of the megachurch in the 1970s, however, introduced cavernous worship centers large enough to accommodate bringing such massive structures indoors.
While it's unclear where the idea got started, one of the early pioneers was Bill Shadle, longtime music minister at First Baptist Church in Denton, Texas. He asked Millard Heath, a heating-and-air-conditioning contractor, about building a tree-shaped platform out of metal pipe for his 103-voice choir in 1972.
Figuring pipe would not handle the load, Heath instead designed a platform using structural steel.
He patented the design and started a company that since has sold more than 200 trees for churches in 30 states and overseas.
M.H. Specialties in Bertram, Texas, now offers custom-built models ranging from 18 feet to 48 feet accommodating from 30 to 450 singers or more. Packages cost from $12,000 to nearly $100,000, but according to the company website some churches cover the initial cost within two years of purchase thanks to offerings taken at performances.
Jeffrey Smith, who purchased the company in 2003, said he hasn't seen any downturn in business due to the economy.
"Ninety percent of our trees this year are replacement trees," Smith said.
Smith said he just finished putting a tree stage up in Knoxville, Tenn., in a church that has been performing a Living Christmas Tree for 35 years, but just now is upgrading from a wooden stage to steel.
A church in Bradenton, Fla., he said, had one tree taken down and replaced it with two. A church in Ormond Beach, Fla., is considering purchase of a 60-foot tree to go outdoors on the beach, possibly in 2009.
In addition to its impact on the Huntsville community, Orton said his church's Living Christmas Tree also is important to its own membership
In addition to more than 200 musicians in the chorus and orchestra, he said, the program involves the skills of a wide cross-section of the congregation, from construction workers, technical people and decorators to car parkers. This year's program also features the church's children's choirs.
"I am praying that the impact of the 2008 Living Christmas Tree is significant and eternal," Orton said.
Bob Allen is Senior News Writer for Associated Baptist Press.
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