Associated Baptist Press - 3/9/2009

Associated Baptist Press
March 9, 2009 · (09-34)

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

In this issue
Pastor gunned down in pulpit (737 words)
Obama ends Bush restrictions on embryonic stem-cell study (759 words)
Baptists getting older, study says (509 words)
Baptist seminary honors Glenn Hinson for half century of teaching (920 words)
Longtime Baptist professor: Pastors must integrate science, faith (688 words)
Opinion: Whither -- or wither -- conservatism (1,169 words)

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Pastor gunned down in pulpit
By Bob Allen (737 words)

MARYVILLE, Ill. (ABP) -- A past president of the Illinois Baptist State Association died March 8 when a gunman walked into his church and shot him down during an early-morning worship service. Fred Winters, 45, pastor of First Baptist Church of Maryville, Ill., died from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

The following day prosecutors charged Terry Sedlacek, 27, with first-degree murder and aggravated battery. Police did not comment on a motive, but a newspaper report last year said Sedlacek is mentally ill.

Police say Sedlacek fired a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol four times before it jammed, then pulled out a four-inch knife and began injuring himself.

Several male church members subdued him, and two received non-life-threatening cuts that sent them to a local hospital.

About 150 people were attending the 8:15 a.m. service, one of three worship services the 1,400-member church holds each weekend.

Sedlacek was held without bond and hospitalized for the wounds. Last August he was subject of a St. Louis Post-Dispatch story about how Lyme disease caused him to be mentally ill.

Police said Sedlacek entered the 1,000-seat sanctuary in suburban St. Louis and walked toward the pulpit while Winters delivered a sermon on finding happiness at work. He exchanged words with the pastor before revealing the gun and shooting. It was unclear as of press time March 9 if the two men knew each other, and a First Baptist staff member who saw the man briefly said he did not recognize him.

Winters, who had been senior pastor of First Baptist Church since 1987, presided over the Illinois Baptist State Association meeting in 2007, its 100th anniversary year. Nate Adams, executive director of the state affiliate of the Southern Baptist Convention, released a statement.

"Our great God is not surprised by this, or anything," Adams said. "That he allows evil and free will to have their way in tragedies like this is a mystery in many ways. But we know we can trust him no matter what, and draw close to him in any circumstances. Let's draw closer to him and to one another during this terrible tragedy, and renew our faith and obedience to his purposes for however many days we have remaining to serve him."

Winters reportedly deflected the first shot with his Bible, sending a spray of paper into the air that worshipers thought was confetti and part of a skit.

Mark Jones, the congregation's worship minister, told reporters gathered outside the church building that Maryville First Baptist sometimes used dramatic elements in worship, and the attack caught everyone off guard. He said the quick response by church members probably saved other lives.

Jones said in an interview on local TV station KMOV he had no idea about the shooter's motives, but the church will carry on.

"Things will come our way in life, but what we need to tell the people is our foundation is the rock, which is Jesus Christ, and the Bible tells us about the life that we can have in him," he said. "We can go through challenging times. We can go through storms. And if we have that faith and the trust that will help us to have that internal peace."

Jones said the church would probably consider added security after the shooting, but "we think this is a one-time situation."

"We have seen attacks in our country," he said. "People cannot stop living their lives. People cannot be paralyzed with fear. We're going to continue to live our lives and we're going to live with a greater intentionality and purpose," he said.

"I know that our senior pastor would definitely want the church to continue to pursue with passion and intentionality exactly what has been pursued these last 20 years," Jones said.

Winters is survived by his wife of 21 years, Cindy, and two children.

Nearly 1,000 people gathered for a prayer service for Winters the evening of March 8 at Metro Community Church in nearby Edwardsville, Ill.

A 1985 graduate of Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo., Winters earned a master's degree in systematic theology and church history from Wheaton Graduate School in Wheaton, Ill., a master of divinity from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., and a doctor of ministry degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. He was an adjunct professor at Midwestern Seminary, according to the church website.

Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

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Obama ends Bush restrictions on embryonic stem-cell study
By Robert Marus (759 words)

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- With a March 9 executive order, President Obama made official what many scientists had long anticipated -- and many religious conservatives had long feared -- lifting his predecessor's effective ban on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research.

"[I]n recent years, when it comes to stem-cell research, rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values," Obama said, in a statement accompanying his executive order. "In this case, I believe the two are not inconsistent. As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering. I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research -- and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly."

He had been widely expected to reverse a policy, first instituted by President Bush 7 1/2 years ago, that severely limited the kinds of embryonic stem-cell "lines" available for federally funded research. But Obama went further, with a memorandum accompanying the executive order, that asked officials in his administration to institute policies to ensure that political pressure will not come to bear in the government's future decisions about science policies.

Scientists have studied embryonic stem cells for more than a decade because of their potential to become any one of more than 200 types of tissues in the human body. The research, scientists say, has the potential to produce treatments and even cures for a wide array of injuries and degenerative conditions that are disabling and even fatal.

"At this moment, the full promise of stem-cell research remains unknown, and it should not be overstated. But scientists believe these tiny cells may have the potential to help us understand, and possibly cure, some of our most devastating diseases and conditions," Obama said. "To regenerate a severed spinal cord and lift someone from a wheelchair. To spur insulin production and spare a child from a lifetime of needles. To treat Parkinson's, cancer, heart disease and others that affect millions of Americans and the people who love them."

However, such stem-cell research has proven highly controversial, because the embryos are destroyed in the process of harvesting the stem cells..

In addition, some scientists have proposed cloning human embryos from patients with certain diseases. Such cloning would prevent rejection of any new tissues or organs grown from the stem cells and used for those patients.

Religious conservatives -- and many non-religious bioethicists -- find both prospects ethically troubling. Conservatives, in particular, consider the destruction of five-day-old embryos as tantamount to abortion.

Supporters of the research -- and polls consistently show large majorities of the public and of professional biologists in favor of it -- counter that it is done on frozen embryos that would otherwise be discarded because they are by-products of fertility treatments.

Stem-cell-research opponents roundly criticized the Obama order, noting that recent advances in creating embryonic-like stem cells from adult tissue in ways that don't destroy embryos have shown the promise to render the moral quandaries over stem-cell research moot.

"Adult stem cells have been proven to treat every single disease the president mentioned in his speech today, from Parkinson's to diabetes, heart disease to spinal cord injuries," said a statement from the conservative Christian group Family Research Council. "The action by the president today will, in effect, allow scientists to create their own guidelines without proper moral restraints."

The group urged Congress to renew a federal law -- known as the Dickey-Wicker Amendment -- that bans federal funding for research that destroys or harms human embryos. President Clinton's administration interpreted the law to ban funding for the destruction of the embryos themselves, but not for funding of research on the resulting lines of stem cells.

Obama's separate memorandum instructed White House officials to "develop recommendations for presidential action designed to guarantee scientific integrity throughout the executive branch" on science-policy decisions.

President Bush's administration was regularly criticized by scientific groups for decisions in science-related areas -- such as stem-cell research, global warming, teenage sex education and HIV-prevention efforts -- that seemed influenced more by conservative political ideology than the latest research and the scientific community's consensus on those issues.

Obama said he issued the memorandum to make certain "that in this new administration, we base our public policies on the soundest science; that we appoint scientific advisors based on their credentials and experience, not their politics or ideology; and that we are open and honest with the American people about the science behind our decisions."

Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.

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Baptists getting older, study says
By Bob Allen (509 words)

HARTFORD, Conn. (ABP) -- Baptists may be the grayest of any major religious group in America, according to a study released March 9 by Trinity College of connecticut.

The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, the third set of data in a landmark study tracking changes in religious loyalties, reported 21 percent of the people who identify themselves as Baptists are 70 and older. That compares to 12 percent of the general population, 13 percent of Catholics, 14 percent of mainline Christians and 10 percent of Mormons who fall in that age range.

Forty percent of the national population is 50 or older, while 58 percent of Baptists fall into that age bracket.

Related to that, the percentage of Baptists who are widowed is 12 percent, twice the national average. One demographic in which Baptists have far less than their share is among never-marrid singles -- who make up 13 percent of Baptists, but a full 25 percent of the general population.

Baptists have gained members in the last 18 years, but comprise a smaller percentage of the population than they did when the study first compiled statistics. In 1990 there were 33.9 million Baptists, 19 percent of the population. In 2008 they numbered 36.1 million but declined to 15.8 percent of the population.

Baptists are still less educated than the general population and most denominations, but the percentage of Baptists who are college graduates increased from 11 percent in 1990 to 16 percent in 2008.

The survey defines "Baptist" in a broad sense, including Southern Baptist, American Baptist, Free Will, Missionary and African-American denominations.

In general the survey found that the American population self-identifies as predominantly Christian, but Christianity's share of the population is decreasing. Ten percent fewer Americans self-identified as Christians in 2008 (76 percent) than in 1990 (86 percent.)

The portion of the population claiming no religion grew from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008, a gain of almost 20 million adults. Researchers called the rise of the so-called "Nones" as "one of the most important trends on the American religious scene."

Seventy percent of Americans said they believe in a personal God, while 12 percent are either agnostic, atheist or unsure. A surprisingly high percentage, 12 percent, expressed belief in a deist or pagan view of a higher power, but not a personal God.

Researchers found views on religion changed more during the 1990s than since 2000, attributing that to large numbers of immigrants from Latin American countries who are overwhelmingly Christian and Catholic.

Baptists lost ground, meanwhile, both among Hispanics and Asians. Seven percent of Hispanics self-identified as Baptists in 1990, compared to 3 percent in 2008. Asians were 9 percent Baptist in 1990 but now make up 3 percent of Baptists. Asians were also the group most likely to profess no religion.

Researchers said the loss of religious identity could have long-lasting consequences for religious institutions. One sign of the lack of attachment of Americans to religion is that 27 percent do not expect a religious funeral at their death.

Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press

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Baptist seminary honors Glenn Hinson for half century of teaching
By Bob Allen (920 words)

LEXINGTON, Ky.. (ABP) -- The Baptist Seminary of Kentucky honored one of its founding professors for 50 years of teaching by launching an endowed lecture series in his name March 6-7.

The free-standing Baptist school on the campus of the Disciples of Christ-related Lexington Theological Seminary established the E. Glenn Hinson Lecture Series to honor the life and work its senior professor of church history and spirituality. Future lectures will build on Hinson's legacy of study in spiritual formation, church history, ecumenism and Baptist history.

Baptist Seminary of Kentucky President Greg Earwood said knowledge of his field, experience in the classroom, passion about teaching and love for Christ and the church made Hinson a natural choice when the school set out to hire its first faculty members in 2001.

But Earwood said Hinson, a lighting rod for attacks from the right during the Southern Baptist Convention controversy in the 1970s and 1980s, feared he might hurt the seminary's reputation and attempts to raise money.

"Of course none of that has come to be," Earwood said. "Dr. Hinson has been a valuable representative of our seminary, faithful in his commitment to us, a blessing and encourager to me, and we are grateful."

Hinson's teaching career nearly ended as soon as it began. Near the end of his first year at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1959, Hinson noticed trouble hearing some of the questions of his students. That began decades of worsening deafness, which continued to dog him throughout his career.

Not much later, due to working 20 hours a day completing a dissertation while carrying a full teaching load, he wore down and also lost his voice.

"The loss of one vital faculty is difficult, but the loss of two in quick succession can be overwhelming," Hinson said. "I felt the floodwaters roll over me."

Supported by family, colleagues and friends, Hinson said he finally came to accept what the apostle Paul wrote in First Corinthians about his "thorn in the flesh," hearing a message from the Lord, "My grace is sufficient for you."

One of the things Hinson, 77, said he learned over 50 years of teaching is "that you have to play the hand you are dealt." That means teachers "should take account of your limitations."

"I wouldn't give you a nickel for deafness," he said, "but, let me say, I wouldn't take a million dollars for what I have learned because I have had to cope with this handicap."

Hinson said he probably would have been a better teacher with good hearing, but he benefited from improving hearing-aid technology that allowed him to continue his work. Once more at the point of being unable to function in a classroom, Hinson soon will have cochlear implants installed.

Hinson said a second lesson he learned while teaching came in 1960, when he took his first church-history class on a field trip to the Abbey of Gethsemane. Their host was Thomas Merton, a Trappist Catholic monk who wrote more than 60 books on spirituality. To Hinson's horror, one of his students asked why someone with Merton's intellect would waste his life in a monastery.

Hinson said that, rather than rebuking the student, Merton smiled and answered: "I am here because I believe in prayer. That is my vocation."

"You could have knocked me over with a feather," Hinson said. "I had never met anyone who believed in prayer enough to think of it as a vocation."

Hinson pondered Merton's words alongside the Protestant rubric, "God has no hands but our hands, no feet but our feet, no voice but our voice."

"If that is true," he concluded, "our world has to be in an awful mess."

Inspired by the encounter and subsequent trips to Gethsemane, Hinson introduced a course on Classics of Christian Devotion that quickly became one of the most popular classes on campus. It also began to influence a generation of Baptist church historians to integrate spirituality into their teaching about church history.

One of Hinson's former students, Loyd Allen, now a professor at McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta, said all 15 of the moderate Baptist seminaries, divinity schools and houses of studies started since the 1980s have an emphasis on spiritual formation. Each individual teaching those classes has some personal connection with Hinson.

"Glenn started a good work of spiritual formation among us, but it is far, far from over," Allen said." If we truly wanted to honor him, then what we would do is put our energy and our resources into seeing that his work of contemplation and action on spiritual formation for ministers and laity continues."

John Inscore Essick, recently named assistant professor of church history and Hinson's successor at the Kentucky seminary, introduced a panel of Hinson's former students responding to his remarks.

"Seminary professors are often, for better or for worse, like a stone dropped into a calm pool," Essick said. "Ripples, endless ripples, go out from that point."

"You," he said to Hinson, "have been like a very fine stone dropped into a very needy pool, and you have left many ripples as a result of that.

The Baptist Seminary of Kentucky began classes in 2002 with 14 students and held its first commencement with three graduates in 2005. To date the seminary has graduated 13 students. The school offers two master-of-divinity degrees, taught by three full-time and 15 adjunct faculty.

Before coming to the Kentucky seminary, Hinson taught at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond from 1992 until retiring in 1999.

Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

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Longtime Baptist professor: Pastors must integrate science, faith
By Bob Allen (688 words)

LEXINGTON, Ky. (ABP) -- For Christianity to remain relevant in a world influenced by modern science and technology, future ministers must help church members integrate faith and knowledge rather than view them as incompatible, a veteran seminary professor warned.

Glenn Hinson, senior professor of church history and spirituality at Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, told a crowd gathered March 6 to celebrate his 50 years of teaching that the issue of faith and science, "more than any other, divides Christians from one another today."

Since his backyard in Louisville, Ky., abuts the campus of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Hinson said he is "keenly aware that those who now run that institution have chosen to dismiss the world view given by science and to affirm more or less literally the one found in the Bible."

Hinson said Kurt Wise, who heads the seminary's Center for Theology and Science, has declared it impossible to both accept evolution and believe the Bible and teaches that the Earth cannot be more than 10,000 years old.

Interestingly, Hinson said, Wise's conclusion is shared by atheist author Richard Dawkins. Hinson said Dawkins also insists one cannot accept both the Bible and conclusions of modern science, but for him the proper place to stand is with science and against faith. Dawkins devoted three pages to Wise in his 2006 best-selling non-fiction book, The God Delusion.

Hinson also pointed out the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum is located in Kentucky. He said he is told many Southern Seminary students go there for "hands-on learning" about young-Earth creationism.

Hinson taught church history at Southern for 30 years before departing as the seminary shifted from being a moderate-to-progressive institution toward biblical literalism and fundamentalism in the 1990s. He said the seminary now offers a master's degree in biblical counseling.

"Implicit in that is the rejection of the painstaking effort Wayne Oates made to employ the best insights of modern psychology in pastoral care," Hinson said. Oates, who died in 1999, taught psychology of religion and pastoral at Southern Seminary from 1947 until 1974

Based on a conversation with a recent Southern Seminary graduate, Hinson said, "I gather that biblical science supplants insight from contemporary psychology, psychiatry, or psychotherapy."

Hinson said the graduate "seemed quite unaware that Wayne Oates saturated everything with an essentially biblical theology," noting that Oates studied the New Testament at the graduate-school level.

Hinson called the relationship between faith and science "a big issue" for theological education.

"Should we prepare ministers to equip people to live in a world that has not existed for a century, if ever?" he asked. "Should ministers stick to teaching the Bible and not assume a responsibility to help people to relate their faith to findings of science? This is the issue that stands behind the shibboleth that the Bible is inerrant and infallible on any issue it touches."

Hinson said letting such a view of Christianity prevail would result in "the reduction and deprivation of any meaning of this faith."

"If you open the Bible and read it, you will find it directs us and invites us to seek God in the world we live in and among the flawed people whom God brought into this world," Hinson said. He quoted former Southern Seminary President E.Y. Mullins, who commented during an earlier evolution controversy that the Bible "does not tell us how the heavens go; it tells us how to go to Heaven."

"We do not rely on the way primitive people spoke about their world to understand how we should speak about our world," Hinson said. "The Bible is a book of faith."

"We must not divide life into compartments: here's our religious life, yonder the life of everyday," Hinson said. "What distinguishes the preparation of ministers at this seminary [the Baptist Seminary of Kentucky] from the preparation of students at a fundamentalist seminary centers precisely on this issue."

Hinson said future ministers must be able to help church members understand the words of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit priest and philosopher who died in 1955: "Nothing here below is profane for those who know how to see."

Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

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Opinion: Whither -- or wither -- conservatism?
By Benjamin Cole (1,169 words)

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- Last month, I joined more than 8,000 other conservatives from across the country for the annual gathering of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington. Throughout its three-day program, disempowered and occasionally distraught conservatives plotted endlessly an array of strategies to resurrect a party smarting from two cycles of election-day drubbings.

A line-up of aspiring party leaders was organized to fulfill a tall order: soothe the pain and fire up the faithful. In this regard, CPAC 2009 was equal parts analgesic and epinephrine.

The pain conservatives feel is acute, however, and the internal tensions are profound. The fusion of the 1970s and 80s whereby fiscal and social conservatives forged an alliance with economic and political libertarians is suffering the threat of fission in the age of Obama. Today, everybody is pointing fingers at the other guy, looking for a plausible scapegoat.

Fiscal conservatives blame social conservatives for debacles like the Terri Schiavo incident; social conservatives point out the fiscal irresponsibility of the Republican Congress that allowed the national debt to reach $10 trillion and the budget deficit to swell.

Compounding the electoral losses we Republicans have faced are the personal losses we have experienced. In the last six years, we have buried three of our greatest heroes: The president, Ronald Reagan; the philosopher, William F. Buckley; and the preacher, Jerry Falwell.

The loss of these influential conservatives has left a vacuum that could have been filled by George W. Bush had he not become political kryptonite thanks to a wild-eyed federal spending spree, a tanked economy, and a prolonged and expensive war. And while blaming Dubya helps salve the conscience of recklessly complicit congressional leaders, it does little to revive a party experiencing its lowest level of political power since the aftermath of Watergate and the election of Jimmy Carter.

So conservatives arrived at CPAC, so to speak, between Barack and a hard place.

If you listened to media reports after CPAC, you might be convinced that Rush Limbaugh's red-meat keynote was the apex of the event.. But for me, the highlights were the speeches given by men like Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), a compelling leader of the next generation in Congress, whose "Roadmap for America's Future" offers real policy initiatives for entitlement and tax reform that empower Americans to direct their own lives with the kind of liberty that the Founders envisioned.

Or the speech by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who continues to generate ideas by the bushelful for reforming America's health-care system and addressing our energy crisis.

Or Indiana Rep. Mike Pence's sober counsel to conservatives "in the wilderness" of political power that no circumstance of electoral defeat should force them to jettison their first principles.

What I saw and heard were conservatives figuring out how we came so far from our basic commitments to strengthen families, eliminate waste, cut spending, defend liberty and unleash American industries and entrepreneurs to compete in a global marketplace.

Conservatives again were reminded that the movement is about principles, not personalities.

Sure, there are some incredible challenges ahead for conservatives and for the nation. Those who once stood for limiting the size of the federal government will have to deal with the bloated bureaucracies that have grown in the last eight years. Those who oppose unrestricted abortion rights will have to prepare themselves for the judicial confirmation battles ahead. Those who believe in the fundamental justice of capitalism will have to hold the line against calls for greater regulation and nationalization of financial markets.

Being in the minority, however, is not only about holding the line. It's about reforming and renewing your commitments. It's about articulating what conservatives are for as much as what we're against. With this in mind, I suggest a few commitments for conservatives.

First, we must recognize that the same guiding faith that causes us to speak out against injustices to the unborn should cause us to withhold our curses of fellow countrymen on the other side of the political aisle.

Second, we must be as fierce in our indictment of corporate corruption as we are in our defense of deregulated free markets. With the same breath we must steadfastly explain why our ideas offer a better future for all Americans, not just privileges for a fraction thereof.

Third, conservatives need to get back to basics and refuse liberals further opportunities to pin the label "obstructionist" on us. To be conservative does not mean total opposition to change or progress. What it does mean is adapting to new challenges without forsaking the tradition of one's fathers. It means that we look to the Constitution --as adopted and amended by the states -- as the fixed star in the constellation of our politics. Every legislative initiative, every policy proposal is judged by it. Conservatives in the Congress must remember that they too have taken an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and that interpreting the document is as much a responsibility of the legislative branch as it is of the judicial.

Fourth, conservatives must be guided by the prudence of prioritization. That is, we must discern which battles are worth fighting now and which ones can wait for later. When the economy is in a free-fall and success in Afghanistan is hanging by a thread, it's not time to be introducing constitutional amendments on flag burning or school prayer. Conservatives waste valuable time and resources by focusing their efforts on issues that don't pass the basic test of prudential prioritization. Pandering to one's base is not leadership in a time of national crisis.

Fifth, conservatives need to learn a new language of compassion. Regrettably, compassionate conservatism got a black eye in the past eight years. So much that sailed through Congress under President Bush's agenda of compassion has resulted in greater disparities in wealth and more intense political division. The concept of social justice is almost alien to conservatives, but the time is long past for us to cede liberals total claim to any area of public policy. The incidence of poverty, illiteracy and other social ills are major concerns in America, and they should be major concerns for conservatives. There is a reason that a community organizer ended up in the White House, and cracking jokes about President Obama's record of service in Chicago is not going to win the hearts and minds of the voters.

For the time being, Republicans exist in the land of the judges with no king in Israel and every man doing that which is right in his own eyes. Until the dust settles from 2008 and a unifying man or woman rises who has the personal character and political savvy to lead the disparate conservative tribes, Republicans are, as Rep. Pence said, "in the wilderness."

But like Israel of old, the wilderness is a good place to reacquaint yourselves with where you came from, remind yourselves where you're going, and figure out how to bring as many people with you as possible.

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