Associated Baptist Press - 3/19/2009

Associated Baptist Press
March 19, 2009 · (09-40)

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

In this issue
Groups oppose federal rule limiting books in prison chapels (406 words)
Baptists help hurting in aftermath of Alabama shooting spree (690 words)
Spankings of member's child earn Baptist pastor battery conviction (338 words)
Opinion: Global Baptists issue pledges at peace conference (675 words)

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Groups oppose federal rule limiting books in prison chapels
By Bob Allen (406 words)

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty is among several religious and civil-liberties groups objecting to proposed rules giving federal prisons more leeway to ban religious books that officials believe could incite violence or criminal behavior.

Two years ago, Congress passed a law that allows the Bureau of Prisons to restrict prison-library materials that "seek to incite, promote or otherwise suggest the commission of violence or criminal activity."

That was in response to an outcry over revelations that prison chaplains were purging from chapel libraries any materials not on a list of approved titles. Titles pulled from shelves included Code of Jewish Law by the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides and Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life.

Proposed changes to the prison bureau's regulations on religious beliefs and practices, however, would allow exclusion from chapel libraries materials that simply "could" incite, promote or suggest violence or crime.

Groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union said in public comments that broadening the standard from banning materials expressly intended to incite violence to banning anything that officials think might be disruptive "needlessly deprives prisoners of access to vital religious works."

They said such language could theoretically ban works including the Bible, because of Old Testament verses that call for sinners to be stoned, and Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail, because it advocates disobeying unjust laws as a matter of civil disobedience.

The groups said the new regulations would violate the Second Chance Act, in which Congress clearly intended to limit prison-library censorship to a strict standard. The amended regulations also do not require prisons to notify prisoners when censorship occurs, which the complaint says violates due-process rights of both prisoners and publishers.

The regulations also are unclear about who is authorized to censor materials, raising the specter of those decisions being made by low-level administrators. The groups said new language should specify that any decisions about banning a book be made by senior officials in the Bureau of Prisons central office.

David Shapiro, staff attorney with the ACLU National Prison Project, said prison officials "need to follow the law, not engage in the business of banning religious material."

"Distributing and reading religious material is as protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as worshiping in churches or preaching from the pulpits," Shapiro said in a press release. "It is not the role of the government to dictate what is religiously acceptable."

Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

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Baptists help the hurting in aftermath of Alabama shooting spree
By Grace Thornton (690 words)

SAMSON, Ala. (ABP) -- Baptists are reaching out in Samson, Ala., a normally sleepy town marred by violence March 10 when 28-year-old Michael McLendon allegedly went on a 10-victim killing spree before turning a gun on himself.

"For this small town to have that type of trauma, it's devastating and overwhelming for people," said Alisha Lewis, a counselor with Pathways Professional Counseling of the Alabama Baptist Children's Homes & Family Ministries.

Lewis said a tragedy like the shooting "hits even closer to home when you have a tight-knit community like this."

Lewis and her family live an hour away, but said Samson is like a second home to them. Her two kindergarten- and preschool-age daughters attend Samson Baptist Academy, where their father, Wade Lewis, is principal and minister of music at First Baptist Church.

In the hours and days after the shooting, Lewis made herself available to the community, offering counseling time to the local high school where one of the victims was a student and walking from local business to local business handing out her card.

She's talked with children, teens and adults who are carrying a lot of grief, fear and questions. "Here everybody knows everybody," she said. "They are really dealing hard with the killings. There are mixed emotions, anger and tears."

While there's not much physical evidence left of the shootings in the town of 2,000, where six of the 10 victims resided, Lewis said emotional scars will last for a long time.

"In terms of counseling, there will be a great need to follow up," she said. "Other people who are coming in to offer things now, it's so appreciated. But when they drive away, there will still be a lot of people who need help who are hurting."

When that happens, Lewis hopes they will pick up her Pathways card, see the Alabama Baptist Children's Homes logo and think, "I need to call this lady and get help."

That's the whole goal of the ministry, said Steve Sellers, church-relations manager for the chidren's homes. "Alabama Baptist Children's Homes responds to people in crises, whether that be a child or through Pathways," he said.

Sellers, along with ABCH Southeastern Regional Director Kim McGainey, also responded after the shootings, assisting First Baptist Church in Samson with a prayer service held March 11 for the broken community.

Wade Lewis led the crowd of about 300 in a "very worshipful, very moving song that brought peace to a lot of people," Sellers said. When an invitation was given at the end of the service, people flooded the altar.

Area pastors -- including First Baptist Pastor Sam Totten -- and counselors were there to minister to and talk with the people, too, and "just did an awesome job," Sellers said. He noted, "First Baptist Church, all the churches in the area and the [Geneva Baptist Association] director of missions responded in a tremendous way."

Other churches in the area, such as Ino Baptist Church in Kinston, Ala., held services and sought ways to minister to grieving families.

Brent Gay, pastor of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Samson, planned a prayer walk March 14 for people from his church and the Baptist College of Florida in nearby Graceville, Fla., to knock on doors and pray with the community. "We want to offer them a shoulder to cry on," said Gay, a senior at the college.

Lewis said it's a group effort that will continue. In the coming days, "We hope to keep helping hurting people to take care of themselves."

Police say McLendon, armed with an assault rifle, burned his mother's house down around her, shot his grandparents, aunt and uncle dead and then killed five more people, apparently at random, during a 24-mile shooting spree through the small towns of Kinston, Samson and Geneva, Ala. He then apparently killed himself at a factory where he used to work.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley declared March 20, as a "Day of Prayer and Remembrance" for victims, families and South Alabama communities hurt by the deadly rampage.

The area is in the far southeast part of the state, near the Alabama-Florida border.

Grace Thornton is assistant editor of The Alabama Baptist, where this story originally appeared. Associated Baptist Press Senior Writer Bob Allen contributed to this story.

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Spankings of member's child earn Baptist pastor battery conviction
By Bob Allen (338 words)

ELGIN, Ill. (ABP) -- A Chicago-area Baptist preacher avoided jail time after being found guilty of battery for spanking a girl he thought was lying about sexual abuse.

Daryl P. Bujak, 33, was sentenced to a year of supervision, 80 hours of community service and $350 in fines after his conviction of two counts of misdemeanor battery at a two-day bench trial that ended March 18. A judge cleared him of another charge of failing to report sexual abuse.

Police arrested Bujak in May 2006 for allegedly spanking a 12-year-old girl brought to him for counseling by parents who doubted her story that she was being sexually abused. Bujak, who also believed she was lying, is said to have beaten the girl with a piece of wooden molding hard enough to leave bruises and welts on her legs and buttocks.

According to media reports, Bujak, former pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church in Elgin, Ill., told Kane County Judge Allen Anderson he was "over his head" in trying to deal with allegations of sexual abuse.

During the trial the girl, now 16, testified that spankings were a regular part of weekly meetings with her pastor beginning in March 2005 after she gave her mother a note containing vague allegations of sexual abuse.

Police believed the girl's story, charging her stepfather, 33-year-old Matthew Resh, with five counts of predatory criminal sexual abuse on May 12, 2006. Resh, now 36, is awaiting trial on charges stemming from incidents alleged to have occurred between September 2003 and November 2005.

The judge rejected Bujak's claim that corporal punishment is not a crime if carried out with permission of the parents. But the magistrate also said it wasn't clear that the girl gave Bujak enough detail to put him in violation of a state law that requires clergy to report allegations of sexual abuse.

Bujak left First Missionary Baptist Church, described on its website as independent and "fundamental," in August 2008, but the reason reportedly had nothing to do with the battery case.

Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

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Opinion: Global Baptists issue pledges at peace conference
By Ken Sehested (675 words)

(ABP) -- Gathering together from 59 different nations, representing many diverse communities throughout the world, more than 350 people came to Rome Feb. 9-14 to participate in the 2009 Global Baptist Peace Conference. We came together in the name of the God of peace, who in Christ is the foundation of justice and fulfillment of our peace, and whose Spirit invites us to be peacemakers in the world.

Our purpose was to teach and preach, learn and live -- the commitment to peace-building and justice-making that is at the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Together we shared in worship of the God who is our peace. There was joyous celebration, disturbing lament, and deep affirmation of our shared faith. Scripture was preached, and seeds were planted as a sign of our hope for peace.

Together we listened to stories of pain and violence, of tears and despair, of life and renewal, of harmony and hope. Amidst the recognition of the violence and brokenness that scars our world, testimony to the deeper power of God's redeeming and reconciling love was heard with joy.

Together we learned the practice of peacemaking. Rooted in theology and nurtured by the experience of participants from many different places and situations, food was shared for the continuing journey of conflict transformation..

In our meeting together we confessed and sought repentance for the part our own church communities have played in sustaining a culture of violence, and as God's forgiven people we celebrated our renewal for the task of peacemaking in the name of Christ.

Inspired by our work together and our witness to one another we made the following declarations, and call upon all our Baptist sisters and brothers to join us in the urgent gospel task of being justice-seekers and peacemakers in our world by making the same affirmations and commitments:

-- We affirm, as people of faith, our commitment to the role of the United Nations in resolving national and international disputes, and we oppose all acts of violence and aggression that ignore U.N. resolutions.

-- We affirm, as people of faith, our commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, believing that all are made in the image of God, urge that fundamental rights be respected and upheld by all peoples everywhere.

-- We recognize the reality of conflict between peoples of different faiths, and we commit to deepen mutual understanding and dialogue in a spirit of peace and goodwill.

-- We recognize the reality of ethnic and racial violence, and we commit to bring healing and reconciliation across the barriers of division.

-- We recognize the reality of poverty and oppression, and we commit to challenging the unjust social and economic structures that perpetuate inequality and destroy life.

-- We promise to seek God's kingdom, recognizing that this means caring for all those who are children and becoming as children ourselves.

-- We promise to seek God's kingdom, recognizing that this means rejecting the power structures of this world that hold the hidden seeds of conflict throughout the world.

-- We promise to seek God's kingdom, recognizing that this means opposing the particular forms of violence and discrimination that are inflicted upon women.

-- We will follow the way of peace through listening to the voices of the marginalized, including those who are refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants, and offering a welcome to those who are strangers in our midst.

-- We will follow the way of peace through our concern for the whole of creation, including the impact of climate change on our environment, and we will reject privatization that denies people access to basic needs, such as clean water.

In the midst of a world affected by violence, terror and division, let us stand together as those who have heard and answered the call of God, who wills justice and promises peace. Let us seek the joy of those who know the freedom that is found in Christ. Let us seek the hope that is the gift of the Spirit who unites us.

-- Ken Sehested is co-pastor at Circle of Mercy Congregation in Asheville, N.C.