Associated Baptist Press - 2/3/2009

Associated Baptist Press
February 3, 2009 · (09-14)

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

In this issue
Appeals court sides with Missouri Baptist conference center (483 words)
First regional New Baptist Covenant event focuses on reconciliation (929 words)
Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller dies (349 words)
David Tolliver named Missouri executive director (161 words)
Opinion: Confessions, appointees and tax codes (822 words)

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Appeals court sides with Missouri Baptist conference center
By Vicki Brown (483 words)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (ABP) -- Windermere Baptist Conference Center acted within its legal rights when it changed its articles of incorporation, a Missouri appellate court ruled Feb. 3.

A three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, unanimously upheld a lower court's March 4, 2008, ruling in a nearly seven-year legal battle the Missouri Baptist Convention has waged against five formerly affiliated agencies.

The Nov. 25 appeal hearing was the latest round in legal action the MBC took against Windermere, The Baptist Home, Missouri Baptist University, Word & Way and the Missouri Baptist Foundation in an effort to force the entities to rescind changes they had made in their corporate charters.

Word & Way, formerly the convention's official news journal, cooperates with Associated Baptist Press, the Texas Baptist Standard and Virginia Baptists' Religious Herald in the New Voice Media content-sharing partnership.

The Baptist Home, a Christian retirement community, changed its articles of incorporation in 2000 to elect its own trustees. The other four entities took similar actions in 2001. The convention filed suit challenging the changes on Aug. 13, 2002.

In an opinion filed Feb. 3, the appellate court upheld a lower-court ruling that the state convention is not a legal member of Windermere's corporation and no contract exists between the two organizations. State law requires that non-profit organizations state whether the corporation will have members, the justices said, and Windermere's articles of incorporation state clearly that it does not.

The panel rejected the Missouri Baptist Convention's contention that previously granting the group authority to elect trustees gave it de facto member status, saying convention messengers should have been aware of the no-member clause when they ratified Windermere's articles of incorporation and authorized the transfer of the camp's assets and liabilities in 2000.

The state convention filed separate action in 2006 to stop Windermere from selling any of its property pending resolution of the ownership dispute. A hearing in that case is scheduled Feb. 10.

"We are pleased with the unanimous opinion," said Jim Shoemake, Windermere's lead attorney. "The opinion clearly shows that Windermere was correct and justified in its actions, and, hopefully, this will greatly benefit Windermere in furthering its Christian endeavors."

"We hope Missouri Baptists will now be able to put this sad conflict behind us," Windermere CEO Dan Bench said in a statement. "We pray no additional money, energy or time will be wasted by further litigation efforts."

Comment from MBC leaders or attorneys was not available by press time for this story.

The MBC has 15 days in which to file a motion for the Court of Appeals to rehear the case. The convention also may ask the Missouri Supreme Court to review the appellate decision.

The convention's case against the other four entities has been on hold pending the outcome of the appeal in the Windermere case. No dates have yet been set for those hearings.

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First regional New Baptist Covenant event focuses on reconciliation
By Greg Garrison (929 words)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP) -- Former President Jimmy Carter went to a shrine of the Civil Rights Movement Jan. 31 to drive home a point about racial reconciliation among Baptists, stepping up into the pulpit of the Birmingham, Ala., church where four African-American girls died in a 1963 bombing.

The first of several planned regional New Baptist Covenant celebrations came, full of symbolism, in the city's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Besides being the site of the bombing, the church is famous for hosting many meetings where black Baptist leaders -- including Martin Luther King Jr. -- rallied thousands to risk their lives in the fight against segregation.

With a racially mixed crowd of about 1,200 people packing the sanctuary, filling the balcony and lining the walls, Carter preached against separation among Christians.

"There is no way for us to ignore Jesus' emphasis on the poor, the brokenhearted," Carter told the southeast regional meeting of the New Baptist Covenant. The gathering was the second phase in an movement that Carter helped found last year with an interracial, interdenominational convocation that drew an estimated 15,000 Baptists from a variety of denominations to Atlanta.

The meetings have emphasized racial reconciliation and cooperation on social-justice issues, especially among groups of black and white Baptists.

"I have found this evolution of the New Baptist Covenant to be the highlight of my religious life," Carter said.

The Baptist former president spoke at a worship service that was followed by smaller workshops on poverty and racism.

"It's not an accident that God led us to Birmingham and this institute," Carter said earlier during a

breakfast at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. He recalled a time when racial prejudice was rampant in Baptist churches, and theologians defended separate worship.

"The Baptist church was a stalwart defender of segregation," he said. "It was ingrained in our conscience."

Carter said he hoped the meeting would help churches work better together.

"I would like to see a complete breakdown in separation of people," Carter said.

In his message, Carter focused on ways to achieve Christian unity.

"To redefine or change the gospel is a constant temptation for us, either to dilute its message or its meaning, or to mandate human interpretation of specially chosen texts," Carter said.

He recalled growing up in rural Georgia, where his childhood playmates were mostly black. "My family was the only white family there; all my neighbors were African American, all my playmates," Carter said. "They were the ones I loved. They were the ones who loved me."

Of the five most influential people in his childhood besides his parents, only two were white, he said. Yet when it came to worship, he was told that togetherness was wrong.

"In those days distinguished scholars, biblical scholars, would come to our church and prove to us that it was improper in the eyes of God for people of two different races to worship together."

Carter said issues of biblical interpretation are still causing serious and debilitating problems and schism among Baptists and other denominations, such as the Episcopal Church, which he said "is about to come apart at the seams."

Carter said that abortion, homosexuality, women's role in ministry and other divisive issues should be put aside for a focus on the gospel message of unity in Christ.

"There's nothing wrong with believing in fundamentals," he said. "I'm a fundamentalist myself in many ways. The most important fundamental belief is the basic gospel message that we've already mentioned. We are saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ."

He encouraged Baptists of different races to share worship experiences. "I hope in the future the barriers will be broken down," he said.

"Despite our inevitable human differences, under this simple but profound banner, we Christians can and must reach out to each other," Carter said. "Let us, Baptists and all other Christians, be bound together in unity."

Leaders representing a variety of mostly white or mostly black churches also took part in the event.

"The people of God are not going to be dragged kicking and screaming" into racial reconciliation, said Gary Furr, pastor of Vestavia Hills Baptist Church in suburban Birmingham and a co-chairman of the regional event. "We want to lead the way."

Furr said he and Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Pastor Arthur Price, the other co-chairman, had been working on strengthening relationships between their congregations.

"We don't know whether we have a meeting or a movement," said Jimmy Allen, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention and co-organizer of the New Baptist Covenant. "What we're after is a movement."

By the afternoon plenary session, the attendance had thinned to half of those who listened to Carter in the morning.

Another featured speaker, Children's Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, urged churches to reach out to children who are not members of their congregations to stop the spiral of violence and poverty.

"Incarceration is becoming the new American apartheid," she said. "We're the world's leading jailer."

Edelman recalled the four girls killed in the 1963 bombing.

"Four young women gave their lives so that we might have freedom," she said.

She also noted the children who took part in marches against segregation in downtown Birmingham in 1963. "We owe the children of Birmingham, [who marched] in that park across the street, a great debt."

She urged the passage of legislation to extend health care to all children, including illegal immigrants. "We have children falling through the cracks," she said. "It's time for us to speak up for the sacredness of all children."

Greg Garrison is a staff writer for the Birmingham News.

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Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller dies
By Bob Allen (349 words)

AMERICUS, Ga. (ABP) -- Millard Fuller, a millionaire entrepreneur who gave away his fortune to create Habitat for Humanity International in 1976, died Feb. 3 after a brief illness.

Fuller, 74, led the worldwide house-building ministry with his wife, Linda, for 29 years before both were fired in January 2005 following several months of conflict with their board of directors. Afterward Fuller formed a new organization, the Fuller Center for Housing.

"Millard Fuller was a force of nature who turned a simple idea into an international organization that has helped more than 300,000 families move from deplorable housing into simple, decent homes they helped build and can afford to buy and live in," said Jonathan Reckford, Habitat's chief executive officer, said in a statement. "The entire Habitat family mourns the loss of our founder, a true giant in the affordable-housing movement."

Members of Fuller's family said they were "truly overwhelmed" with expressions of love and support for his work and urged people to honor his legacy by donating to the Fuller Center or volunteering with a local partner of either organization.

Visitation was scheduled Jan. 3 at First Presbyterian Church in Americus, Ga. Burial will be at Koinonia Farm, an interracial Christian farming community the Fullers joined in 1965.

Wealthy at age 29 as an entrepreneur and lawyer but with his marriage in a shambles, Fuller and his wife decided to begin anew, selling all they owned and giving it to the poor.

Under the tutelage of Koinonia founder Clarence Jordan, Fuller developed the idea of "partnership housing," building homes with rural neighbors too poor to afford conventional loans. Since then thousands of people have volunteered with Habitat, the most famous being former President Jimmy Carter.

"Millard Fuller was one of the most extraordinary people I have ever known," Carter said in a statement. "He used his remarkable gifts as an entrepreneur for the benefit of millions of needy people around the world by providing them with decent housing."

Fuller's Feb. 4 funeral is open to the public. The family plans a memorial service for later in the month.

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David Tolliver named Missouri executive director
By Bill Webb (161 words)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP) -- David Tolliver, who served as interim executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention for the past 22 months, has been has been named the new executive director.

The MBC Executive Board voted overwhelmingly to call Tolliver during a special called meeting on Feb. 3. Tolliver, 58, accepted the position to applause from board members, convention staff and visitors.

The newly elected leader had joined the state convention staff in 2005 as Cooperative Program specialist and an associate executive director to David Clippard, whom the board fired in 2007.

A pastor for nearly 20 years before coming to the MBC staff, Tolliver holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Dallas Baptist University, and master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

He is a fourth-generation Missouri Baptist pastor. Tolliver and his wife, Myra, have been married for 36 years and have a daughter, Terra Jo; a son, Adam; and two grandchildren.

Bill Webb is editor of Word & Way.

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Opinion: Confessions, appointees and tax codes
By Benjamin Cole (822 words)

(ABP) -- In her recent book, The Art of the Public Grovel, Susan Wise Bauer traces the influence of 19th-century evangelical confession upon modern political speech. From Bill Clinton's infamous intern scandal to the recent descent of superstar pastor Ted Haggard and numerous points in between, Bauer explores the way that acknowledgements of wrongdoing have adopted the language and emotion of evangelical piety as essential to the political survival of transgressing public figures.

While Bauer's treatment is concerned primarily with sins of the flesh, most of her observations hold true for sins less titillating to the body politic. Sins like those of former senator Trent Lott, who got "caught" paying tribute to the career to an aging South Carolina senator who once was an outspoken segregationist, or like two of President Obama's recent cabinet nominees of who failed to pay a portion of their income taxes.

Since the 111th Congress began, the confirmation of the president's nominees has been -- for the most part -- a tranquil sea of uninterrupted approval. Nevertheless, two of the men who would have been most responsible for implementing President Obama's domestic agenda -- Timothy Geithner at Treasury and Tom Daschle at Heath and Human Services -- hit troubled waters in the confirmation process.

The unpaid tax burden of the newly confirmed treasury secretary was relatively minimal. His sin was understandable. Before the Senate Finance Committee, Geithner acknowledged his "careless and avoidable mistakes," though he noted they were "unintentional." When the final reckoning of his tax burden was complete, Geithner paid the federal government a meager $50,000 and received confirmation by a vote of 60-34.

Then Feb. 2, Health and Human Services secretary nominee Tom Daschle released his own pious confession for failure to pay back taxes in excess of $140,000. It seems that the former senator didn't think it necessary to claim the benefit of a company-provided limousine or hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees.

In a multi-page mea culpa sent to the Senate Finance Committee, Daschle apologized for his "errors," and acknowledged the "deep and disappointing embarrassment" that his tax bungling had caused. Like Geithner before him, Daschle was careful to locate his sins under the rubric of "unintentional." Unlike Geithner, the pressures on Daschle to withdraw mounted. But by Feb. 3, Daschle had removed himself from consideration and became the first confirmation casualty of the Obama administration.

During my years as a Baptist pastor, I learned a few things about sin and the confession thereof. Whether walking a deacon through a heart-wrenching process of post-adultery marital reconciliation or chasing down teenage addicts of various and sundry controlled substances, I've been schooled in the subtle differences between sincere catharsis and half-hearted self-immolation. I've learned when public confession is necessary, and when it's not. I've also learned to distinguish between greater and lesser sins, between those requiring a lash on the back and those requiring a slap on the wrist.

It seems to me that neither Timothy Geithner nor Tom Daschle have committed sins sufficiently venial to justify much in the way of political penance. Rather, their sins have exposed a weakness in the law as much as the law-breakers.

At its most recent publication, Title 26 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations -- most commonly referred to as the tax code -- is 3,387 pages, or roughly three times longer than a large-print version of the King James Bible. It is complicated, convoluted, and utterly incomprehensible. And if a former United States senator and a member of the Federal Reserve Board are incapable of navigating its complexities and rendering unto Caesar his prescribed tribute, then the rest of us have little chance.

I don't think that either man's tax transgression is a grave indictment on his character. Sure, it's an embarrassment -- but who among us has not pulled out our hair, screamed and wailed come every April 15th? But for some reason -- in spite of endless frustration and perennial calls for simplification -- the tax code maintains its enshrined and lofty position among the guiding documents of American political life with an amendment threshold almost as foreboding as the Constitution itself.

I suppose that a little prodding around every American's tax records would result in a few unintentional mistakes. Ignorance of the law, as we all know, is no excuse for its violation. Neither does the multiplied company of fellow transgressors provide a defense. But ignorance of a cumbersome and complicated system of laws like the U.S. tax code should qualify for some special dispensation of forgiving grace.

The public inquisition of Secretary Geithner and would-be secretary Daschle for their tax sins is to be expected given the partisan climate of Washington politics. It seems to me, however, that once the country is through these woods, prudence demands a serious revision and reduction of a tax code that neither former members of Congress nor future members of the Cabinet can get right.

-- Benjamin Cole is a former Southern Baptist pastor who now works on public-policy issues in the nation's capital.