Associated Baptist Press - 2/20/2009

Associated Baptist Press
February 20, 2009 · (09-23)

David Wilkinson, Executive Director
Robert Marus, Managing Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
Bob Allen, Senior Writer
In this issue
CBF cuts spending by 20 percent, partners by 30 percent (695 words)
Survey: Crisis has some churches slashing budgets, more worried (707 words)
Baptist pastor convicted in Azerbaijan (520 words)
Lutheran task force proposes process to allow gay relationships for clergy (687 words)
Opinion: In vitro industry out of control (721 words)

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CBF cuts spending by 20 percent, partners by 30 percent
By Bob Allen (695 words)

DECATUR, Ga. (ABP) -- Starting March 1, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will operate on a contingency spending plan that cuts staff salaries by 1 percent and reduces funding for theology schools and other CBF partner organizations by 30 percent.

The plan, adopted by the CBF advisory council and reported to the full CBF Coordinating Council Feb. 19-20, saves $5.5 million over the next 19 months.

Connie McNeill, the Fellowship's coordinator of administration, said the cutbacks anticipate a worst-case scenario of revenue projections during the current economic recession. Should the financial picture get brighter, she said, the cuts will be only temporary.

"You can imagine that these have been painful and thoughtful decisions," McNeill said. "We are fully aware of the possible implications to the entire Fellowship movement. We also know that we are held responsible by you to be good fiscal managers of CBF."

McNeill said no current CBF employees will lose their jobs in the contingency plan, but some vacant positions will not be filled. She said further staff reductions could come in the future, however.

Daniel Vestal, CBF's executive coordinator, is recovering from surgery and did not attend the meeting.

The plan cuts salaries by 1 percent across the board and decreases contributions to employees' retirement plans by 3 percent. It includes no raises in 2010, reduces travel by 20 percent and requires employees to reimburse CBF for personal use of their cell phones.

CBF has about 60 paid employees at its headquarters in Atlanta, along with 135 global-mission personnel in 29 countries. Thirty-five of those missionaries are CBF "affiliates," who are commissioned by CBF but provide or raise their own support.

The contingency plan also cuts funding for 15 theological schools and 17 other autonomous "partners" that receive part of their support through CBF. They include Associated Baptist Press, which stands to see its $110,000 annual CBF allocation -- about a fifth of its annual budget -- reduced by $33,000 in each of the next two budget years.

Jack Glasgow, CBF moderator, said receipts early in the fiscal year were about 79 percent of budget levels, prompting CBF to cut back spending to 80 percent of amounts approved in the 2008-2009 budget adopted at last year's General Assembly in Memphis, Tenn.
"This is a spending plan that is an effort to match our current spending with receipts, and it is based on the early-fiscal-year look at receipts," said Glasgow, pastor of Zebulon Baptist Church in Zebulon, N.C.

Glasgow said in an interview that partners would be cut at a higher level -- 30 percent instead of 20 percent -- because they have the possibility of making up the difference from other sources. "With partners and schools, CBF funding is a piece the funding," Glasgow said. "A 20 percent cut is a real 20 percent cut to us."

CBF leaders said they decided to tighten the belt now, rather than waiting for a crisis that could force even harder decisions down the road.

"We're trying to figure out how not to panic," said Colleen Burroughs, chair of the CBF finance committee. "Everybody in America is panicking right now. It's better to come up with a plan now to spend wisely on the front end rather than to panic on the back end."

Burroughs said if the economy rebounds and revenues increase, CBF can go back to spending at budget levels. Glasgow said any funding due partners and schools would be made up at the end of the year.

"We did not feel reserves were at a place where we could ignore this revenue shortfall," Glasgow said. He added that if revenues are lower than the contingency plan anticipates, such as 78 percent instead of 80 percent of budget levels, reserves could be tapped to make up the difference.

In other business, the Coordinating Council approved a $16,150,000 budget for 2009-2010. The contingency plan continues into that budget year, however, meaning that unless revoked the new budget will start out with spending at 80 percent.
The proposed budget, to be presented for approval at the CBF General Assembly July 2-3 in Houston, is 2 percent lower than the $16.5 million originally budgeted for 2008-2009.

Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

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Survey: Crisis has some churches slashing budgets, more worried
By Robert Marus (707 words)

DALLAS (ABP) -- Churches that aren't cutting their budgets due to the economic downturn are, by and large, taking measures to curb expenses, according to a survey the National Association of Church Business Administration has done of its members.

The organization -- the professional society for church administrators of all denominations -- released the study Feb. 20. It found that 57 percent of the congregations represented by members surveyed had experienced a slowdown in contributions.

Thirty-two percent of the churches' administrators said the dip was "not common for our congregation this time of year," while 25 percent could not say for certain whether the downturn was due to the economy.

Meanwhile, 30 percent of the respondents said their churches were "doing okay" but "not seeing strong growth in financial support." Twelve percent said their giving was "strong" and continuing to grow, while only 1 percent said their financial support was "very strong."

Twenty percent of the respondents said their churches had been forced to lay off employees and 26 percent said they had postponed a major capital project. Nearly half -- 47 percent -- said they had reduced or frozen staff compensation packages.

Phill Martin is NACBA's deputy chief executive and a veteran Baptist church administrator. He said the 32 percent of members who believed the economy had definitely affected their congregations was much higher than the 14 percent who thought so when they answered a similar survey in August.

"I think we are starting to see more pain felt -- although nothing like in the private sector," Martin, who is also a member of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, said.

Martin noted that it is often more difficult for churches than businesses or secular non-profits to judge whether the economy is responsible for a dip in contributions or if it owes to some other factor, such as church conflict or the a lack of a pastor.

"Our local ABC [TV] affiliate came and asked me to give them the names of five churches in [economic] trouble," he said. "But I can give you five churches in trouble when the economy's in good shape."

He also noted the differences in local economic effects are causing differences between metropolitan areas and regions of the country in how particular churches fare.

"If we look at North Dallas, things are pretty good," he said Feb. 19, noting he had just come from a meeting with 40 local church administrators and that they simply "had a good dialogue" about the state of the economy. "But [members of] our chapter in Phoenix are really struggling because so many people there have lost their jobs because of downsizing."

That's the case in Dalton, Ga., a small city about an hour northwest of Atlanta where floor-covering manufacturers dominate the local economy.

"There have been layoffs in almost all of the major carpet companies located in Dalton," said Debra Haney, administrator at First Baptist Church of Dalton. "These layoffs have been necessary due to reduced need for floor covering. Of course, this need is directly tied to the declining housing market."

Haney said the church has cut its 2009 budget by more than 11 percent -- across all budget categories and including reductions in working hours for some staff.

Bill Wilson, the church's pastor, is a member of the Associated Baptist Press board of directors.

The cuts may only be the beginning. The economy shows no obvious signs of a quick recovery, and many economists are predicting a multi-year recession.

Martin pointed to a study by the Christian research organization Empty Tomb, Inc., showing that there has not necessarily been a correlation between nationwide recessions and declines in annual per-capita giving to churches in the last 40 years.

However, Martin noted, between 1968 and 2005, church giving declined in three of the 10 years that showed one month or more of economic contraction. Out of those three years of drops in church giving, two were the last year of recessions that stretched over multiple years.

"What I got out of that is that a lot of times multi-year recessions tend to catch up with the church; they're not instantly affected," he said. "And so I think it is a wise caution that churches are displaying."

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

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Baptist pastor convicted in Azerbaijan
By ABP staff (520 words)

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) -- A Baptist pastor in the South Caucasus country of Azerbaijan has been found guilty of what supporters say are bogus weapons charges and given "a two-year corrective labor sentence," according to a worldwide Baptist group.

The Virginia-based Baptist World Alliance announced Feb. 20 that Hamid Shabanov, who pastors a house church of approximately 60 members in the town of Aliabad, had been convicted. He was arrested on June 20, 2008, after police claimed to have found an illegal weapon in his home after a raid.

Denying the allegations against Shabanov, and claiming that the weapon was planted by the police, Baptist Union of Azerbaijan General Secretary Elnur Jabiyev said the arrest "was a provocation by the police" and that it was "a deliberately targeted action," according to a BWA press release. Jabiyev claimed "the police's aim is to halt Baptist activity and close the church in Aliabad."

"I will continue to fight against this sentence and to clear my name," Shabanov said after his Feb. 11 conviction. The two-year labor sentence is equivalent to eight months in prison. Thus Shabanov, who has already spent more than seven months in detention or under house arrest, will not be locked up. He was ordered to pay a fine to cover the remainder of the sentence.

After his arrest, the trial against Shabanov began on July 22, 2008, but the case was referred back to the prosecutor by the judge on July 29 for further investigation. Another hearing was called on Aug. 22 without the knowledge of Shabanov, his lawyer or family. This hearing extended his detention by a further two months, which ended on Oct. 21.

The trial was scheduled to begin on Oct. 28. But it did not begin -- despite his lawyer traveling 450 kilometers (280 miles) from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku -- because police failed to bring Shabanov from jail to the court.

In addition, neither the pastor's family nor lawyer had received a copy of the indictment against him. "They haven't even given us the case materials," Shabanov's lawyer said.

After another hearing on Jan. 26, Shabanov's trial began on Feb. 4 and the verdict was handed down Feb. 11.

Shabanov is the second Baptist pastor in Aliabad to be convicted of a crime. Zaur Balaev was arrested in May 2007 and given a two -ear sentence after being convicted in August of that year for beating up five policemen and damaging a police car door.

Members of Balaev's church and residents in the town also disputed the charges against Balaev, who was released in March 2008 after protests from officials of the BWA, the European Baptist Federation and former United States President Jimmy Carter.

The EBF, one of six regional fellowships of the BWA, led a delegation to Azerbaijan in January to meet with government, diplomatic, and religious leaders, partly in response to the cases against Balaev and Shabanov.

Azerbaijan, a Muslim-majority country, gained its independence after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. There are 22 Baptist churches and 3,000 baptized believers in the country of 8.7 million people.

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Lutheran task force proposes process to allow gay relationships for clergy
By Robert Marus (687 words)

CHICAGO (ABP) -- An ad hoc panel for one of the nation's largest Protestant bodies is recommending a four-part process to begin allowing members of its clergy to live openly in committed same-sex relationships.

But both supporters and opponents of gay rights in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America expressed mixed reviews of the Feb. 19 proposal by the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality.

The denomination represents nearly 5 million Lutherans in centrist-to-liberal congregations nationwide.

The proposal is divided into two main parts: First, a proposed "social statement" that affirms the multiple "conscience-bound" views of ELCA members on the propriety of monogamous same-sex relationships, to be voted on by the denomination's Churchwide Assembly, scheduled for Minneapolis in August.

Second, the task force recommended a four-step process for beginning to allow the "rostering," or official denominational recognition, of clergy members in monogamous gay relationships. The recommendation also will be voted on during the Minneapolis assembly.

The first step would be an affirmation that the assembly "is committed to finding ways to allow congregations and synods that choose to do so to recognize, support, and hold publicly accountable lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships."

If it were to fail, the rest of the proposals would die. But if it passed, the assembly would then be asked to affirm recommendations that the church allow rostering of partnered gay clergy, in good faith respect the consciences of those who disagree and finally create a process for allowing such rostering while allowing exceptions for congregations, synods and bishops who do not want to act in ways they view as affirming homosexual behavior.

It stopped short of recommending specific marriage rites or liturgies for same-sex unions in the church.

A group that supports full equality for gay Lutherans praised most of the recommendations, but expressed reservations about churches or clergy from areas with conservative bishops.

"Clearly, the Lutheran Church has ample room for conscience-bound opposition, but that ought to lie at the congregational level," said Emily Eastwood, executive director of Lutherans Concerned North America, in a press release issued in reaction to the task force's recommendations.

"[T]he recommendations provide for a framework in which congregations, synods, candidacy committees and bishops may discriminate at will against ministers and candidates in a same-gender relationship," Eastwood said. "In the ELCA, congregations retain the right to call the minister of their choosing from approved rosters of the whole church. The recommendations could restrict a congregation's ability to call a well-suited minister in a same-gender relationship. Candidates in locations with unsupportive leadership could be denied candidacy."

A conservative group of ELCA leaders, meanwhile, expressed strong opposition to the task force's recommendations as well as the proposed social statement.

"When any church finds itself accommodating its teachings to the ways of the culture, that church is in trouble," said Erma Wolf, a Lutheran minister from Brandon, S.D., in a statement released by Lutheran CORE. The group opposes gay equality in the ELCA.

"In these documents the ELCA would accommodate itself to the demands of our culture that the desires and needs of individuals trump everything else," Wolf, vice chair of the Lutheran CORE steering committee, continued. "The exceptions become the rule, until finally there are no rules. That movement is happening in a number of areas, including human sexual relations. But no church has the authority to overturn the Word of God that protects sexual relations by placing them properly in the structure of marriage, and establishes marriage as being between male and female."

The task force report builds on an earlier set of recommendations. In 2007, the church asked its bishops to refrain from enforcing the previous policy barring gay ministers in same-sex relationships pending the outcome of the task force's study. Earlier that year, an Atlanta pastor was defrocked after announcing to Lutheran officials that he was living in a same-sex relationship.

The ELCA's approximately 4.8 million members are spread throughout the country but concentrated most heavily in the Midwest. Two much smaller Lutheran denominations -- the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod -- are far more conservative on issues such as homosexuality and women in leadership.

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

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Opinion: In vitro industry out of control
By David Gushee (721 words)

(ABP) -- In January, a California woman named Nadya Suleman gave birth to octuplets through in vitro fertilization. These eight babies were added to six others that Suleman had also conceived through in vitro procedures.

Nadya Suleman is an extreme example of a growing trend. The reproductive-technology industry is booming, with over 130,000 procedures and 50,000 births a year, up from around 65,000 procedures and just below 20,000 births a little over a decade ago. Almost 90 percent of in vitro procedures involve transferring more than one embryo; nearly a third of in vitro live births involve multiple children; 2 percent of them involve triplets or more. And these multiple births often come with health consequences such as the need for long-term care due to low birth weights and various disabilities. Sometimes these long-term expenses are paid by the taxpayer.

Demand for in vitro and other reproductive technologies is driven from a number of directions. Infertility rates among couples seeking children now stand at over 10%, due to social and environmental factors. Single and divorced women, and some men, also have turned to the industry in search of the children they cannot have any other way. The breakdown of marriage has produced more and more people in such situations.

The reproductive-technology industry is almost entirely unregulated. Professional standards for the industry are primarily framed as guidelines and not enforced by law. For example, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine established a guideline, not a rule, that doctors should transfer no more than two embryos for women under 35, and no more than five (!) for women over that age. But this is just a guideline, and even statistical reporting of what fertility clinics are doing is voluntary.

As a competitive industry, reproductive clinics must sell themselves based on their results. The bottom line is that people are desperate to make babies. Implanting multiple embryos, it has been believed, increases the likelihood that at least one will survive to birth. It is therefore in the business interest of fertility clinics to do whatever maximizes their live birth rate. Meanwhile, the expense of these procedures motivates patients to make the most of every round of in vitro fertilization.

The spate of well-publicized multiple births appears at least partially related to a striking paradox -- conservative religious believers who do not believe in wasting, destroying, or "selectively reducing" the embryos from their in vitro processes. These are people whose religious beliefs do not prohibit them from intervening via technology in the procreative process, but do prohibit them from destroying embryos once they have been produced. It makes for an uneasy combination of tradition and innovation, of ancient beliefs partially adapted to contemporary medical practices.

Certainly reproductive technologies have brought into the world hundreds of thousands of children much loved by their families. No one can or should question that. In a society in which over a million babies are aborted each year, it is heartening that the desire to give birth to new life still runs so deep in so many.

But this industry needs better regulation. Federal law is required to establish basic professional standards for the industry in areas such as physician training, reporting and practices. I would like to see a healthy debate on a ban of the transfer of more than two embryos, as well as on "selective reduction." Any reform of our health-care and health-insurance system requires consideration of the cost and value of these procedures.

Meanwhile, Christian ethics has work to do. While Roman Catholic ethics officially has rejected any technological intervention in the procreative process, Protestant ethics has tended to offer an uncritical blessing, to try to suggest a few caveats or limits, and mainly to say nothing. A handful of recent younger ethicists and social critics have begun exploring the deeper implications of this increasingly massive industry. But this analysis hasn't really filtered to the grass roots. Most local-church pastors have little background or training to help couples and families think through the theological, financial, and moral issues raised by the reproductive-technology choices they are presented with when they face fertility problems.

Absent any serious reflection or guidance from their churches, many of our people gradually wander into the thicket of reproductive technology without a guide. The churches must do better. Our nation must do better.

David Gushee is distinguished university professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University.