Associated Baptist Press
March 26, 2009 · (09-43)
David Wilkinson, Executive Director
Robert Marus, Managing Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
Bob Allen, Senior Writer
In this issue
Arizona high court declares state's voucher program unconstitutional (532 words)
Alabama Baptists headed to court over property dispute (641 words)
Correction
Arizona high court declares state's voucher program unconstitutional
By Robert Marus (532 words)
PHOENIX (ABP) -- The Arizona Supreme Court March 25 delivered the latest in a string of blows to the movement to provide tax funding for tuition at private and religious schools.
A unanimous five-member court said a plain reading of a provision in the Arizona Constitution outlaws two small programs that provided publicly funded vouchers that students could use to attend private and parochial schools. One program was for students with disabilities; another served children in foster care.
"The voucher programs appear to be a well-intentioned effort to assist two distinct student populations with special needs. But we are bound by our constitution," wrote Justice Michael Ryan in the court's Cain v. Horne opinion. "There may well be ways of providing aid to these student populations without violating the constitution. But, absent a constitutional amendment, because the Aid Clause does not permit appropriations of public money to private and sectarian schools, the voucher programs violate Article 9, Section 10 of the Arizona Constitution."
The decision affects about 475 students, who will continue to receive the vouchers until the end of this school year. Unless Arizona voters approve a constitutional amendment to undo the ban on aid to religious institutions, the programs will end.
Attorneys for the state had argued that the Arizona Constitution provision in question -- which bans any public appropriation "in aid of any church, or private or sectarian school, or any public service corporation" -- should be interpreted the way that the federal Supreme Court has interpreted the religion clauses of the First Amendment. In 2002, a divided court OK'd an Ohio school-voucher program, saying indirect aid to religious schools did not violate the Constitution's ban on government support for religion.
But the Arizona court agreed with attorneys for religious-liberty and public-school advocates, saying the state's charter provides more specific guidance than the federal Constitution on indirect government aid to religious institutions.
Parents with children in the program intervened in the case on its behalf. One of them, Andrea Weck, told the Arizona Republic that the scholarships had enabled her to enroll her autistic daughter in a small private school for children with learning disabilities. "The opportunity created by the scholarship program changed Lexie from the inside out," Weck said.
Voucher programs -- once hailed by education reformers as a way to rescue kids in failing public-school systems and encourage competition that would improve such schools -- have proven unpopular both at the ballot box and in state courts. Voters in California and Utah recently rebuffed statewide voucher programs, and the highest courts in Maine and Florida have cited similar provisions of their states' charters to prohibit vouchers for religious schools. In early March, Congress voted to discontinue funding for an experimental voucher program in the District of Columbia.
Public-school advocates as well as supporters of strong church-state separation have long opposed voucher programs that include religious schools, saying they violate the spirit of the First Amendment.
Many other states have constitutional provisions similar to Arizona's. In the 2004 Locke v. Davey decision, the federal Supreme Court said that states could use such provisions to provide a higher bar on government aid to religious institutions than the Constitution requires.
Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.
Alabama Baptists headed to court over property dispute
By Bob Allen (641 words)
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (ABP) -- Alabama Baptists are going to court to resolve a dispute with Montgomery, Ala., homeowners whom Baptist leaders claim are unreasonably hindering development of land the state convention is trying to sell
The Alabama Baptist newspaper reported recently that the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions voted Feb. 23 to seek a declarative judgment against a homeowners' association. The homeowners are in a subdivision that neighbors property the state convention purchased more than 20 years ago as a building site for future relocation of the state's Baptist Building.
Two years ago the convention voted to instead sell the land in the eastern part of Alabama's capital city and use proceeds to purchase cheaper property more centrally located for anticipated future building needs.
According to the Alabama Baptist, state convention Associate Executive Director Bobby DuBois told board members that a year of negotiations with homeowners in the Halcyon Forest subdivision had reached a stalemate, forcing Alabama Baptists to decide whether to walk away from the deal or assert the convention's rights in court.
Rusty Sowell, chairman of the state board's properties committee, said he believed it is in Alabama Baptists' best interest to "sell this property when we have a signed contract."
Deed restrictions on developing the land reportedly require approval by the association's architectural review committee, but specify that such approval cannot be "unreasonably withheld."
Baptist leaders said they offered concessions worth $1.7 million to seek ways to allow a developer to build properties including a four-story hotel, two upscale restaurants and two small retail centers, but the homeowners' association turned them down.
State convention leaders voted overwhelmingly, with only a smattering of opposition, to take the homeowners to court.
A resident of Halcyon Forest charged in a letter to the editor in the Montgomery Advertiser, however, that some information given at the State Board of Missions meeting was false.
Larry Cornwell said board members were misled into believing Baptists had satisfied the homeowners' concerns about hotel windows overlooking their backyards and that the association was unreasonable to oppose a four-story hotel on property zoned for two-story buildings.
According to the Alabama Baptist report, one board member who owns a home in the subdivision said he thought it would be better for Alabama Baptists to walk away from the deal.
Mickey Castleberry, retired pastor of Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Montgomery, said he had mixed feelings because he voted in 2007 to sell the property. But he said he understands why neighbors wouldn't want strangers in hotel rooms peering down at children playing in backyard swimming pools.
Castleberry said the arrangement would also comprise Alabama Baptists' witness against alcohol use by knowingly selling to a builder seeking to build restaurants that serve alcoholic beverages.
According to archived stories in the Alabama Baptist, the state convention in 1986 purchased just less than 14 acres of land near the intersection of Interstate 85 and Taylor Road for a little more than $1 million. The purchase was made with an eye to a future building for the convention's headquarters.
In 2007, Baptist leaders determined the plot was at peak value and costing more than $17,000 a year in property taxes, so they decided to sell it. They authorized the purchase of a smaller parcel north of the city along the Interstate 65 corridor -- more centrally located in terms of the entire state.
Baptist leaders said the state convention had no immediate plans to move its headquarters from the current Alabama Baptist Convention State Board of Missions Building at 2001 E. South Boulevard in the southern part of Montgomery, but they were planning ahead for future building needs.
Plans called for using any profit from the sale of the Taylor Road property to pay for a new site, with remaining funds being invested to help fund construction of any future headquarters building.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Correction
ABP wrongly attributed a March 19 opinion piece, "Global Baptists issue pledge at peace conference," to Ken Sehested, a participant at the gathering. While Sehested helped develop some of the language, he wasn't the primary author. The statement was in fact approved at the close of the meeting by the entire body as an official statement for distribution to Baptist bodies.
Showing posts with label ABP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ABP. Show all posts
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Associated Baptist Press - 3/24/2009
Associated Baptist Press
March 24, 2009 · (09-42)
David Wilkinson, Executive Director
Robert Marus, Managing Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
Bob Allen, Senior Writer
In this issue
Families: Redeeming the time (1,380 words)
Family missions involvement raises children's awareness (725 words)
Southern Baptist ethics head lobbies for coal, against cap and trade (926 words)
Southern Baptist activist organizes confab on church and environment (916 words)
Opinion: What marriage is -- and what it isn't (944 words)
Correction
Families: Redeeming the time
By Ken Camp (1,380 words)
DALLAS (ABP) -- In tight economic times, families should recognize making memories doesn't mean breaking the bank, family ministry experts agree.
Dream vacations to Disney World can be meaningful memory-building times for families, but so can shared trips to a store or afternoon drives down country roads.
The times that just happen can be as meaningful as the fancy vacations-and maybe more so," said Diana Garland, dean of the Baylor University School of Social Work.
"Fun does not have to be expensive."
Sometimes, carefully planned trips fail to live up to expectations, but time spent together eating a meal, doing household chores, shopping at the grocery store or learning some new skill-like playing a musical instrument or a new game-offer unbeatable family memories, she noted.
"Quality time is not really scheduled as much as it is something that happens in the middle of the quantity of time spent together. Some of the most precious moments happen in the middle of just living life together," Garland said.
Meaningful family times don't require big budgets or elaborate timetables, but they do demand some intentionality, said Cathy Anderson, children's minister at First Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga.
"I'm a big fan of the designated family night," Anderson said. Scheduling a night each week for a family activity and sticking to that schedule demands discipline when coaches call extra practices, extra-credit school assemblies are offered and opportunities for overtime at work arise.
"Parents have to decide they really want to do it," she said, pointing to one family she knows who designated 6 p.m. Saturday to 6 p.m. Sunday as their family Sabbath time.
"That's the time they committed to turn off all the electronics and spend time together without all the background noise," she said.
Parks, museums and historical sites offer opportunities for families to have fun and learn things together at little or no cost, Anderson added.
"Pretend like you're a tourist in your hometown," she suggested.
Significant time together as a family may be accomplished by something as simple as setting one evening each week as "family night in the kitchen," said Diane Lane, preschool and children's ministry specialist with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
"Choose something easy like spaghetti," she suggested. Give each member of the family some assignment-cooking the main dish, preparing a side dish or dessert, setting the table and cleaning up after the meal. And then rotate the assignments so nobody has to do the same thing two weeks in a row.
Time spent making simple crafts together also can be precious, Lane noted. Parents with young children can find easy craft projects with spiritual applications at no cost online from BaptistWay Press, she suggested.
Some of the time-management principles in Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People apply directly to busy families who struggle to find ways to spend time together, said Keith Lowry, BGCT family ministry specialist.
Lowry quotes Covey: "The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule but to schedule your priorities." That means paying attention to crucially important matters-like family-first when making plans.
"If you want to be happy with the life you've built, you've got to be in charge during construction," Lowry said.
"If you don't decide, and decide now, someone or something else will decide for you. Don't look back at the end of your life and wish you had made different decisions. Make those decisions now. ... Leave a path you won't be sorry to see your children and grandchildren follow you down."
Ministry experts agreed family service projects strengthen faith development and family relations.
"Children develop faith and character in relationships with the adults in their lives," Anderson said.
Parents do well when they set a good example for their children, modeling service to others. But they do even better when they involve their children in working alongside them, Garland stressed.
"It's important for children to learn about serving outside themselves. It's especially important for children and adolescents to realize the importance of who they are and what they do now," she emphasized. "Too often, we ask children what they want to do when they grow up, as if we don't value who they are now."
Service activities can be as simple as an older child reading to a preschooler or families visiting nursing home residents, she noted.
Family mission trips-whether to a remote location or close to home-require some advance planning, said Chris Boltin, short-term assignments and partnerships manager with Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Missions. Families should begin by discovering their passions and interests, he recommended.
"Spend some time as a family discussing things that you already like to do together," Boltin said. A family that enjoys working outdoors might do the yard work for an elderly neighbor, or a family that enjoys playing board games might volunteer for an activities time at a local convalescent center, he suggested.
Family mission trips may involve international travel, but they also may be to an unfamiliar part of town, he noted.
"Something as simple as traveling across town may be a difficult cultural journey," Boltin observed. "You want this to be a fun, productive and meaningful time together. By taking the time to truly know your family, potential problematic issues can be avoided."
Obviously, a full-fledged mission trip to a remote location demands participants do their homework-checking age restrictions, requirements regarding special expertise and estimated costs.
Families should have a clear understanding of expectations and responsibilities in advance, he added.
"Be sure every member of your family understands their individual roles and importance to the trip," Boltin said. "Nothing can replace the feeling that you have been a part of something greater than yourself and have made a difference in the world around you."
Richard Singleton, a counseling program supervisor with STARRY, part of Children At Heart Ministries in Round Rock, suggested several ways families can create meaningful memories:
· Focus on Scripture. "God loves to shower families with blessings built on the foundation of his word," he said. "Take a familiar passage for a test drive under the summer skies. 'The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands' would be a great verse for a picnic in the park. Dole out the bologna sandwiches and lemonade, recline on the checkered blanket, stare into the sky. Recite your verse and play the old tried-and-true game of finding shapes in the clouds. Truly, the heavens will declare glory."
· Don't spend a lot. "Good memories come in all shapes and sizes-and mostly without the need for money," he stressed. "Take pictures, play board games, create a scrapbook, share walks, build a temporary fort out of some of that stuff that you've been threatening to throw out of the garage. My grandpa made me a dilapidated little tree house one summer. I thought it was the best tree house on the planet. I still do!"
· Worship together. "Creating family memories doesn't demand that families miss church," he observed. "Many families check out of church for the summer. But church is an especially important component of a healthy summer."
· Serve side-by-side. "Volunteer for meaningful service projects that allow you and your child to spend valuable summer time together," he advised. "Participate in backyard Bible clubs, vacation Bible school and other endeavors that promote knowledge, fellowship and an opportunity for saving faith to be sparked by the Spirit of God. For many, summer has often been the most formative time for faith to blossom and flourish."
· Take it easy. "Plan for significant times of rest and relaxation," he said, remembering fondly an old porch swing that served as an informal gathering place for his family. "Each summer, our family would gather, clutching sweet tea in mason jars, feet swinging in the air and stories flowing as if from the land of milk and honey. We paused. We rested. We grew closer to God and each other.
· Unplug. "Bless your children or grandchildren with a Sabbath away from all the gadgets, gizmos and games," he recommended. "Go slow. They won't like it at first, but if you find a way to make it meaningful, they'll remember it for a lifetime."
Ken Camp is managing editor of the Baptist Standard.
Family missions involvement raises children's awareness
By Analiz González Schremmer (725 words)
DALLAS (ABP) -- Getting a young family involved in missions might seem impossible, but there are several possibilities available to help children and parents serve the needy locally or overseas.
Violetta Alvarado, volunteer coordinator at Buckner International, offered a number of ideas for families to consider, including creative opportunities to raise children's awareness of others' needs.
"A family could set aside a couple of days and create a certain theme," she said. "For example, they could talk to an international adoption agency and pray for the children from a specific country. Then the family could learn about their culture by eating some of their food or seeing a movie that was made there. They could also write a note and send it to adoption workers to let them know that they are praying for them."
Other local options could include visiting a retirement community, or hosting a drive to collect books, clothing, or coats in the winter.
"Families can pray together over their donations before giving them to their church or a local charity," she added.
Susan Williams, office manager for Buckner missions, said families serving together often can help a child form a broader appreciation for missions and service.
"When I was a child, I remember that my mom had an elderly neighbor that we used to drive to the store because she wasn't able to drive herself," she said. "I also remember Mom taking me over to her house to visit with her. Things like that make such a huge impression, watching your parents serve and experiencing it with them; family mission trips are a great opportunity for that."
Although Buckner normally doesn't offer international mission trip opportunities for children under age 12, Williams said many churches offer opportunities for families to serve together.
"Taking a child on a mission trip, whether locally or internationally, will change their world view," she said.
Buckner offers a summer mother/daughter mission trip for girls and their moms. This summer's trip to Guatemala, July 7-12, still has openings, she added.
Marty Lewis, minister to children at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, noted the importance of involving children in service and said the children in his church are active in local service projects.
"Just yesterday, (children from Park Cities) made sandwiches for some children at a community center," Lewis said. "The children love it. We've been working with Cornerstone Academy, a school of Cornerstone Baptist Church, and they are putting together something for the children to be more comfortable during reading. So Girls in Action (the missions program for girls in grades one through six) made some pillows for them.
"Our boys recently did something called Hoops for Missions, which helped raise money for the Texas Baptist Men by shooting hoops."
Jillian Zeiger is the volunteer coordinator at the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid in Dallas. Many families will spend a day, or sometimes an entire weekend, sorting shoes together for international shipment to orphans because children as young as 4 or 5 can help, she noted.
The children work together with their parents to process shoes by taking tags and trash out, sorting them and separating them by size, she said.
"Local mission trips can be a good idea because of the economy. And volunteers can make a huge difference in just a couple of hours of work. It isn't that going afar isn't good, but this allows kids to know that they can have an impact right here, too. It also makes it easier to bring friends," Zeiger said.
"Another advantage is safety. It is really difficult for anyone who has been on an airplane to go through the process with children. Staying somewhere local means they can avoid the airport system. It also saves children the trouble of having to adjust to time zone changes."
Children also can serve by feeding the homeless in their community, she added.
"I got the chance to do that as a child," Zeiger said. "I was in third grade and lived in Michigan. ... It hit my heart, and so I told my mom and we went as a family. It was a great experience that I will always carry with me and helped mold me into who I am today. That's why I know it's really important for children to have opportunities to do missions like that."
Analiz González Schremmer writes for Buckner International.
Southern Baptist ethics head lobbies for coal, against cap and trade
By Bob Allen (926 words)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) -- Coal-fired power plants have received the blessing of the Southern Baptist Convention's top lobbyist for social and moral concerns, who is urging opposition to a market-based attempt to limit greenhouse-gas emissions.
Friends of Coal, a volunteer organization with ties to the West Virginia Coal Association, is running an article on its website that includes a link for readers to enter their ZIP code and send an e-mail to their senator opposing a "global warming tax" they said would raise energy costs.
The link goes to the website of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, where the agency's president, Richard Land, warns in an article that Democratic Senate leadership plans to move ahead with a "cap-and-trade" bill.
The bill would limit the amounts of greenhouse gases industries can emit and punish them with fines if they exceed those limits. But it would also allow them to pay less-polluting industries for the right to increase their emissions.
"Such a bill would put the brakes on our already slowed economy, forcing industries and businesses to slash jobs and to pass their taxes onto individuals and families in the form of price increases on commodities and energy," Land wrote. "This would make it even more difficult for America to climb out of its current economic troubles."
What's worse, Land contended, is that the whole basis behind the policy -- that it will help avoid catastrophic, human-induced global warming -- "is not even settled among scientists, who are growing increasingly skeptical, especially since we have been experiencing a decade-long cooling trend."
"Christians should take every reasonable step to care for God's creation," Land said. "But rushing into environmental policies based on questionable science that will create greater economic hardships on every American, especially the poor, is the wrong approach."
During the March 14 broadcast of his radio program, "Richard Land Live," Land said he wants "to ring the alarm bells" about "a huge tax" that is coming to all Americans.
"It's called 'cap and trade,' and it's the tax that dares not speak its name," Land said. "Politicians love cap and trade, because they can claim to be taxing polluters, not workers. But of course, that is never true. Taxes are costs that are handed on to consumers. Once the government creates a scarce new commodity -- in this case the right to emit carbon -- and then mandates that businesses buy it, the costs are inevitably going to be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices."
Land said those hit hardest by cap and trade "will be the, quote, 95 percent of working families, unquote, that Mr. Obama keeps talking about, usually omitting that his no-new-taxes pledge comes with a caveat. It comes with a footnote: 'unless you use energy.'"
"Putting a price on carbon is regressive," Land said. "It's not only a tax, it's a regressive tax that hurts those who make the least the most, because poor and middle-income households spend much more of their paychecks, percentage-wise, on things like gas to drive to work or to go get groceries or for home heating and air conditioning."
"Cap and trade is the ideal policy for every Beltway analyst who thinks the tax code is too progressive," Land said. "But the greatest inequities are geographic and would be imposed on the parts of the U.S. that rely most on manufacturing or fossil fuels -- particularly coal, which generates most power in the Midwest, in the Southern and the Plains states. It's no coincidence that the liberals most invested in cap and trade -- [Sen.] Barbara Boxer [D-Calif.], [Rep.] Henry Waxman [D-Calif.] and [Rep.] Ed Markey [D-Mass.] -- come from California or the Northeast."
Land said coal provides more than half of electricity generated in the United States, and 25 states get more than half of their electricity from coal-fired generators. In some states it's even higher. Ohio gets 86 percent of its power from coal, Indiana 94 percent, Missouri 85 percent and West Virginia 98 percent.
"Who's going to get soaked the most with these taxes?" Land asked. "Well, West Virginia, Wyoming, Ohio, Missouri: Grab hold of your pocketbook and hold on tight, because you're going to get more of this tax increase because you get more of your generation from coal. People who run nuclear-energy plants aren't going to have to buy cap and trade. It's going to be coal plants. It gets messier and messier."
Christian anti-global-warming activists disagreed with Land's reasoning. Land is "lash[ing] himself to dirty coal, sacrificing human health and the global environment to corporate greed," according to Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics.
"As a global-warming denier, Richard Land continues to distort the overwhelming agreement within the scientific community about climate change," Parham, author of Loving Neighbors Across Time: A Christian Guide to Protecting the Earth, said. He said Land's "repeated claims about Earth cooling do not negate global warming."
Jonathan Merritt, national spokesman for the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative, said Christians who care about God's creation and recognize that something must be done about the global energy and environmental crisis "are growing increasingly weary of those claiming to represent us who preach relentlessly about what [they] oppose, yet refuse to offer policy alternatives."
He added, "I find it curious that we are first in line to support the coal industry that is polluting our air and destroying the Appalachian Mountains, yet when it comes to actual pro-environmental legislation, we are nowhere to be found."
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Southern Baptist activist organizes confab on church and environment
By Bob Allen (916 words)
ATLANTA (ABP) -- An upcoming national conference on churches and the environment features several well-known evangelical speakers, including some prominent Southern Baptist leaders who will be speaking for first time on the increasingly high-profile theological issue known as "creation care."
The gathering is scheduled May 13-15 at Cross Pointe Church near Atlanta, where former Southern Baptist Convention President James Merritt is senior pastor. Merritt is scheduled to speak, along with other Southern Baptists including Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Ed Stetzer of LifeWay Research and Mark Liederbach, professor of ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.
Merritt's 26-year-old son, Jonathan Merritt, is organizing the gathering, called the Flourish National Church Leaders Conference on Creation Care.
While still in seminary, the younger Merritt spearheaded A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change, which was signed by 550 Southern Baptists, including the SBC president at the time.
Other Southern Baptist leaders quickly distanced themselves from the initiative. A Baptist Press headline declared "Seminary student's climate change project is not SBC's," while Richard Land, head of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, released a statement explaining why he did not endorse the statement.
Land said Southern Baptist public-policy advocacy "is most effective when it is supported by the broadest possible consensus among Southern Baptists." He cited a 2007 SBC resolution that urged Southern Baptists "to proceed cautiously in the human-induced global warming debate in light of conflicting scientific research" and to support only policies that "improve the stewardship of the earth's resources without resulting in significant negative consequences" on the economy.
During that time Merritt met Jim Jewell, who has worked more than 30 years with Christian causes and organizations including World Vision, Trinity Forum, and Prison Fellowship; and Rusty Pritchard, a volunteer lay leader for three decades who taught environmental studies for seven years at Emory University in Atlanta.
Last year Jewell, former CEO of the Evangelical Environment Network, and Pritchard started Flourish, a ministry aimed at helping churches and families build environmental stewardship into their Christian commitment and witness. The May conference is the organization's inaugural event, but plans include a quarterly magazine, Web-based communications and other resources.
A 2008 Barna poll found that 90 percent of evangelicals said they would like to see Christians take a more active role in taking care of the environment, but two-thirds believe the media has over-hyped the story and most are skeptical that humans are a primary cause of global warming.
Jewell says part of the problem is that calls for environmental stewardship in the past have come largely from secular voices with values contrary to the Bible. Moreover, they have focused only on political action to combat climate change.
That prompted some evangelical leaders to overreact, he says, by telling followers that even modest care for God's creation is misplaced concern and has nothing to do with preaching the gospel.
The intent of Flourish, he says, is to bridge the chasm between those who prescribe only political solutions and those who would do nothing at all.
Jewell says there are plenty of good reasons for Bible-believing Christians to care about the environment.
For one thing, he says, Christians are called to be the very best citizens, and one way to do that is by rolling up their sleeves to improve their local communities by planting trees, working for pedestrian and bike paths or cleaning area watersheds.
Another is that Christians are called to love others, and research shows that interrupting delicate balances in the environment through pollution most hurts the needy.
Reducing dependence on foreign oil is important not only for national security, he says, but it also helps stop enriching regimes that restrict Christians' religious freedom.
There are also practical benefits. Jewell says churches can save a lot of money through energy-saving changes, which in turn can be used for programs and missions of the church. Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, for example, where former SBC president Jack Graham is pastor, undertook an environmental retrofit in 2006-2007 that saved the congregation more than $1 million in water and utility bills.
Jewell says environmental problems, like all others, are at root the result of sin, and Christians recognize the ultimate solution to conquering sin is faith in Jesus Christ. For that reason, he contends that creation care is important enough to be a major focus of the church, rooted in Scripture and religious tradition instead of simply reacting to modern trends.
Other scheduled speakers at the Flourish conference include Chris Seay, pastor of the Ecclesia Christian community in Houston; Joel Hunter, pastor of the Orlando-area Northland Church and author of books including A New Kind of Conservative; and Andy Crouch, senior editor at Christianity Today International.
"A new kind of evangelical conversation about God's creation is beginning, and Flourish will be one of the milestones," said Crouch, author of Culture Making. "Those who attend will be on the leading edge of a significant new movement that I believe will, and must, shape the church and our culture for generations to come."
Jonathan Merritt told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he hopes the conference will be a starting point for change in how churches think about their God-given responsibility to care for the world.
"I think it's going to be a primary touchpoint for the church to get involved in in the 21st century," he said.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Opinion: What marriage is -- and what it isn't
By Benjamin Cole (944 words)
(ABP) -- In late February, David Blankenhorn and Jonathan Rauch co-authored a provocative op-ed in the New York Times, titled "A Reconciliation on Gay Marriage." In the piece, Blankenhorn, the conservative president of the Institute for American Values, and Rauch, an openly gay scholar at The Brookings Institution and a staunch advocate of same-sex marriage, sought to forge a political compromise to move the contentious debate "onto a healthier, calmer track."
The Blankenhorn-Rauch compromise proposes a federal recognition of same-sex unions granted at the state level so long as the state licensing the marriage or civil union provides statutory exemptions for religious organizations that do not wish to solemnize or otherwise facilitate those unions. In short, churches would not be required to provide their facilities and ministers would not have to render their services to homosexual partners who desire marriage.
Not long after Blankenhorn and Rauch published their Times piece, I attended a panel discussion on it, held at Brookings' headquarters here in Washington. In the discussion, the two discussed their proposal more thoroughly. Responding to them were an attorney from the gay-rights group Human Rights Campaign, a law professor, and a representative of the Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
During the conversation, it became immediately obvious that the proposal -- at least inasmuch as it was outlined in the op-ed -- did not provide answers to all of the many conflicts between religious liberty and gay rights that will result (indeed, that are already resulting) from the legalization of same-sex unions. For instance, what about the conscientious objection of the county clerk who, on religious grounds, feels she cannot issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples? Or what about the licensed caterers and florists who will deny their services for such ceremonies because same-sex marriage violates their religious principles?
The entire discussion, however, missed the fundamental problem with same-sex marriage: Namely, the nature of marriage itself.
The reason that many conservatives do not approve of same-sex marriage is not because we wish to deny basic liberties to gays and lesbians. It is because we do not believe such relationships constitute a marriage by definition. It is a question of ontology rather than ideology.
Offering exemptions to ministers and churches that object does little to resolve the conflict either. No minister has ever been forced to perform ceremonies for heterosexual couples of whose union the church would disapprove. No church has ever been forced to host a reception for such a union. In my own ministry, I've refused more requests to perform a marriage than I've accepted. My churches have denied our facilities to couples whose relationships did not meet our approval.
Those traditional-marriage advocates who wish to strike a compromise on the issue of same-sex marriage similar to the one proposed by Blankenhorn and Rauch are like the man who feeds the crocodile hoping that it will eat him last.
Such compromises are more aptly labeled capitulations.
I shall never forget the day I read Chief Justice Earl Warren's opinion for the Supreme Court's majority in the landmark 1967 interracial-marriage case, Loving v. Virginia. At the time, I was in the Moody Library of Baylor University preparing for a doctoral seminar presentation on the decriminalization of sodomy and the justices' 2003 reversal of Bowers v. Hardwick, a mid-1980s case out of Georgia in which the Court upheld the constitutionality of state laws prohibiting homosexual acts.
It was probably the best paper I wrote while at Baylor, and probably the most difficult to research. Quite frankly, there are more pleasant things about which to read than criminal reports, statutes and court decisions concerning homosexual sodomy.
When I ran across the Loving decision, I was immediately struck by the way the Court defined marriage as a fundamental right and how the majority opinion -- if pressed -- could be used as precedent by contemporary proponents of same-sex marriage. Chief Justice Warren wrote:
"The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law."
The debate about same-sex marriage in this first decade of the 21st century is probably more volatile than the debate about interracial marriage was in the 1960s. Of course, I am in a priori disagreement with any assertion that the fundamental liberty of a man and a woman to marry regardless of their races is similar to the claim that two persons of the same gender deserve licensed state recognition. Apples and oranges, you might say.
In the first instance, the essential ingredient of male and female is present. In the latter, it is not.
Marriage has always been -- in every culture and society of human history -- a relationship between members of the opposite sex. Even in those cultures and societies where aberrations like polygamy have been accepted, the union of man and woman is essential to the relationship.
The conflict about state recognition of same-sex marriage is not going to be resolved soon. There are those -- like Blankenhorn and Rauch -- who wish to keep it from rising to the temperature of the abortion debate. If the Court, however, decides the issue similar to the way it ruled in Roe v. Wade, then we are almost certain to enter another long and costly phase of the very culture war that Blankenhorn and Rauch wish to avert.
-- Benjamin Cole is a former Southern Baptist pastor who now works on public-policy issues in the nation's capital.
Correction
An unclear audio recording led to mischaracterization of a quotation by Lauran Bethell in the March 23 ABP story, "Mercer conference focuses on ending modern slavery." Please replace the fourth and fifth paragraphs with the following:
Bethell, recipient of the Baptist World Alliance Human Rights Award, spent the past 20 years fighting sex trafficking, first in Thailand, then in Eastern Europe. She told the audience she had stayed sane despite working some of the "darkest situations on Earth" by following the example of her leader, Jesus, who went to the dark places of his time because it was the right thing to do. Using the example of the "woman of ill repute" -- to whom Jesus ministered in Samaria and who later became one of his greatest evangelists -- Bethell said Jesus was the ideal example of showing up.
"Jesus' example of showing up -- showing up in places where even the disciples raised their eyebrows -- let me know that I can, that we can, do this," Bethell said. "What would Jesus' solution be in our time, in our century, of modern-day slavery? I know one thing: He's sure pleased with what you have all done today, just shown up. He's sure pleased with what we have seen today, people sacrificing time and energy to learn from each other and participate together in seeking solutions."
March 24, 2009 · (09-42)
David Wilkinson, Executive Director
Robert Marus, Managing Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
Bob Allen, Senior Writer
In this issue
Families: Redeeming the time (1,380 words)
Family missions involvement raises children's awareness (725 words)
Southern Baptist ethics head lobbies for coal, against cap and trade (926 words)
Southern Baptist activist organizes confab on church and environment (916 words)
Opinion: What marriage is -- and what it isn't (944 words)
Correction
Families: Redeeming the time
By Ken Camp (1,380 words)
DALLAS (ABP) -- In tight economic times, families should recognize making memories doesn't mean breaking the bank, family ministry experts agree.
Dream vacations to Disney World can be meaningful memory-building times for families, but so can shared trips to a store or afternoon drives down country roads.
The times that just happen can be as meaningful as the fancy vacations-and maybe more so," said Diana Garland, dean of the Baylor University School of Social Work.
"Fun does not have to be expensive."
Sometimes, carefully planned trips fail to live up to expectations, but time spent together eating a meal, doing household chores, shopping at the grocery store or learning some new skill-like playing a musical instrument or a new game-offer unbeatable family memories, she noted.
"Quality time is not really scheduled as much as it is something that happens in the middle of the quantity of time spent together. Some of the most precious moments happen in the middle of just living life together," Garland said.
Meaningful family times don't require big budgets or elaborate timetables, but they do demand some intentionality, said Cathy Anderson, children's minister at First Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga.
"I'm a big fan of the designated family night," Anderson said. Scheduling a night each week for a family activity and sticking to that schedule demands discipline when coaches call extra practices, extra-credit school assemblies are offered and opportunities for overtime at work arise.
"Parents have to decide they really want to do it," she said, pointing to one family she knows who designated 6 p.m. Saturday to 6 p.m. Sunday as their family Sabbath time.
"That's the time they committed to turn off all the electronics and spend time together without all the background noise," she said.
Parks, museums and historical sites offer opportunities for families to have fun and learn things together at little or no cost, Anderson added.
"Pretend like you're a tourist in your hometown," she suggested.
Significant time together as a family may be accomplished by something as simple as setting one evening each week as "family night in the kitchen," said Diane Lane, preschool and children's ministry specialist with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
"Choose something easy like spaghetti," she suggested. Give each member of the family some assignment-cooking the main dish, preparing a side dish or dessert, setting the table and cleaning up after the meal. And then rotate the assignments so nobody has to do the same thing two weeks in a row.
Time spent making simple crafts together also can be precious, Lane noted. Parents with young children can find easy craft projects with spiritual applications at no cost online from BaptistWay Press, she suggested.
Some of the time-management principles in Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People apply directly to busy families who struggle to find ways to spend time together, said Keith Lowry, BGCT family ministry specialist.
Lowry quotes Covey: "The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule but to schedule your priorities." That means paying attention to crucially important matters-like family-first when making plans.
"If you want to be happy with the life you've built, you've got to be in charge during construction," Lowry said.
"If you don't decide, and decide now, someone or something else will decide for you. Don't look back at the end of your life and wish you had made different decisions. Make those decisions now. ... Leave a path you won't be sorry to see your children and grandchildren follow you down."
Ministry experts agreed family service projects strengthen faith development and family relations.
"Children develop faith and character in relationships with the adults in their lives," Anderson said.
Parents do well when they set a good example for their children, modeling service to others. But they do even better when they involve their children in working alongside them, Garland stressed.
"It's important for children to learn about serving outside themselves. It's especially important for children and adolescents to realize the importance of who they are and what they do now," she emphasized. "Too often, we ask children what they want to do when they grow up, as if we don't value who they are now."
Service activities can be as simple as an older child reading to a preschooler or families visiting nursing home residents, she noted.
Family mission trips-whether to a remote location or close to home-require some advance planning, said Chris Boltin, short-term assignments and partnerships manager with Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Missions. Families should begin by discovering their passions and interests, he recommended.
"Spend some time as a family discussing things that you already like to do together," Boltin said. A family that enjoys working outdoors might do the yard work for an elderly neighbor, or a family that enjoys playing board games might volunteer for an activities time at a local convalescent center, he suggested.
Family mission trips may involve international travel, but they also may be to an unfamiliar part of town, he noted.
"Something as simple as traveling across town may be a difficult cultural journey," Boltin observed. "You want this to be a fun, productive and meaningful time together. By taking the time to truly know your family, potential problematic issues can be avoided."
Obviously, a full-fledged mission trip to a remote location demands participants do their homework-checking age restrictions, requirements regarding special expertise and estimated costs.
Families should have a clear understanding of expectations and responsibilities in advance, he added.
"Be sure every member of your family understands their individual roles and importance to the trip," Boltin said. "Nothing can replace the feeling that you have been a part of something greater than yourself and have made a difference in the world around you."
Richard Singleton, a counseling program supervisor with STARRY, part of Children At Heart Ministries in Round Rock, suggested several ways families can create meaningful memories:
· Focus on Scripture. "God loves to shower families with blessings built on the foundation of his word," he said. "Take a familiar passage for a test drive under the summer skies. 'The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands' would be a great verse for a picnic in the park. Dole out the bologna sandwiches and lemonade, recline on the checkered blanket, stare into the sky. Recite your verse and play the old tried-and-true game of finding shapes in the clouds. Truly, the heavens will declare glory."
· Don't spend a lot. "Good memories come in all shapes and sizes-and mostly without the need for money," he stressed. "Take pictures, play board games, create a scrapbook, share walks, build a temporary fort out of some of that stuff that you've been threatening to throw out of the garage. My grandpa made me a dilapidated little tree house one summer. I thought it was the best tree house on the planet. I still do!"
· Worship together. "Creating family memories doesn't demand that families miss church," he observed. "Many families check out of church for the summer. But church is an especially important component of a healthy summer."
· Serve side-by-side. "Volunteer for meaningful service projects that allow you and your child to spend valuable summer time together," he advised. "Participate in backyard Bible clubs, vacation Bible school and other endeavors that promote knowledge, fellowship and an opportunity for saving faith to be sparked by the Spirit of God. For many, summer has often been the most formative time for faith to blossom and flourish."
· Take it easy. "Plan for significant times of rest and relaxation," he said, remembering fondly an old porch swing that served as an informal gathering place for his family. "Each summer, our family would gather, clutching sweet tea in mason jars, feet swinging in the air and stories flowing as if from the land of milk and honey. We paused. We rested. We grew closer to God and each other.
· Unplug. "Bless your children or grandchildren with a Sabbath away from all the gadgets, gizmos and games," he recommended. "Go slow. They won't like it at first, but if you find a way to make it meaningful, they'll remember it for a lifetime."
Ken Camp is managing editor of the Baptist Standard.
Family missions involvement raises children's awareness
By Analiz González Schremmer (725 words)
DALLAS (ABP) -- Getting a young family involved in missions might seem impossible, but there are several possibilities available to help children and parents serve the needy locally or overseas.
Violetta Alvarado, volunteer coordinator at Buckner International, offered a number of ideas for families to consider, including creative opportunities to raise children's awareness of others' needs.
"A family could set aside a couple of days and create a certain theme," she said. "For example, they could talk to an international adoption agency and pray for the children from a specific country. Then the family could learn about their culture by eating some of their food or seeing a movie that was made there. They could also write a note and send it to adoption workers to let them know that they are praying for them."
Other local options could include visiting a retirement community, or hosting a drive to collect books, clothing, or coats in the winter.
"Families can pray together over their donations before giving them to their church or a local charity," she added.
Susan Williams, office manager for Buckner missions, said families serving together often can help a child form a broader appreciation for missions and service.
"When I was a child, I remember that my mom had an elderly neighbor that we used to drive to the store because she wasn't able to drive herself," she said. "I also remember Mom taking me over to her house to visit with her. Things like that make such a huge impression, watching your parents serve and experiencing it with them; family mission trips are a great opportunity for that."
Although Buckner normally doesn't offer international mission trip opportunities for children under age 12, Williams said many churches offer opportunities for families to serve together.
"Taking a child on a mission trip, whether locally or internationally, will change their world view," she said.
Buckner offers a summer mother/daughter mission trip for girls and their moms. This summer's trip to Guatemala, July 7-12, still has openings, she added.
Marty Lewis, minister to children at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, noted the importance of involving children in service and said the children in his church are active in local service projects.
"Just yesterday, (children from Park Cities) made sandwiches for some children at a community center," Lewis said. "The children love it. We've been working with Cornerstone Academy, a school of Cornerstone Baptist Church, and they are putting together something for the children to be more comfortable during reading. So Girls in Action (the missions program for girls in grades one through six) made some pillows for them.
"Our boys recently did something called Hoops for Missions, which helped raise money for the Texas Baptist Men by shooting hoops."
Jillian Zeiger is the volunteer coordinator at the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid in Dallas. Many families will spend a day, or sometimes an entire weekend, sorting shoes together for international shipment to orphans because children as young as 4 or 5 can help, she noted.
The children work together with their parents to process shoes by taking tags and trash out, sorting them and separating them by size, she said.
"Local mission trips can be a good idea because of the economy. And volunteers can make a huge difference in just a couple of hours of work. It isn't that going afar isn't good, but this allows kids to know that they can have an impact right here, too. It also makes it easier to bring friends," Zeiger said.
"Another advantage is safety. It is really difficult for anyone who has been on an airplane to go through the process with children. Staying somewhere local means they can avoid the airport system. It also saves children the trouble of having to adjust to time zone changes."
Children also can serve by feeding the homeless in their community, she added.
"I got the chance to do that as a child," Zeiger said. "I was in third grade and lived in Michigan. ... It hit my heart, and so I told my mom and we went as a family. It was a great experience that I will always carry with me and helped mold me into who I am today. That's why I know it's really important for children to have opportunities to do missions like that."
Analiz González Schremmer writes for Buckner International.
Southern Baptist ethics head lobbies for coal, against cap and trade
By Bob Allen (926 words)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) -- Coal-fired power plants have received the blessing of the Southern Baptist Convention's top lobbyist for social and moral concerns, who is urging opposition to a market-based attempt to limit greenhouse-gas emissions.
Friends of Coal, a volunteer organization with ties to the West Virginia Coal Association, is running an article on its website that includes a link for readers to enter their ZIP code and send an e-mail to their senator opposing a "global warming tax" they said would raise energy costs.
The link goes to the website of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, where the agency's president, Richard Land, warns in an article that Democratic Senate leadership plans to move ahead with a "cap-and-trade" bill.
The bill would limit the amounts of greenhouse gases industries can emit and punish them with fines if they exceed those limits. But it would also allow them to pay less-polluting industries for the right to increase their emissions.
"Such a bill would put the brakes on our already slowed economy, forcing industries and businesses to slash jobs and to pass their taxes onto individuals and families in the form of price increases on commodities and energy," Land wrote. "This would make it even more difficult for America to climb out of its current economic troubles."
What's worse, Land contended, is that the whole basis behind the policy -- that it will help avoid catastrophic, human-induced global warming -- "is not even settled among scientists, who are growing increasingly skeptical, especially since we have been experiencing a decade-long cooling trend."
"Christians should take every reasonable step to care for God's creation," Land said. "But rushing into environmental policies based on questionable science that will create greater economic hardships on every American, especially the poor, is the wrong approach."
During the March 14 broadcast of his radio program, "Richard Land Live," Land said he wants "to ring the alarm bells" about "a huge tax" that is coming to all Americans.
"It's called 'cap and trade,' and it's the tax that dares not speak its name," Land said. "Politicians love cap and trade, because they can claim to be taxing polluters, not workers. But of course, that is never true. Taxes are costs that are handed on to consumers. Once the government creates a scarce new commodity -- in this case the right to emit carbon -- and then mandates that businesses buy it, the costs are inevitably going to be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices."
Land said those hit hardest by cap and trade "will be the, quote, 95 percent of working families, unquote, that Mr. Obama keeps talking about, usually omitting that his no-new-taxes pledge comes with a caveat. It comes with a footnote: 'unless you use energy.'"
"Putting a price on carbon is regressive," Land said. "It's not only a tax, it's a regressive tax that hurts those who make the least the most, because poor and middle-income households spend much more of their paychecks, percentage-wise, on things like gas to drive to work or to go get groceries or for home heating and air conditioning."
"Cap and trade is the ideal policy for every Beltway analyst who thinks the tax code is too progressive," Land said. "But the greatest inequities are geographic and would be imposed on the parts of the U.S. that rely most on manufacturing or fossil fuels -- particularly coal, which generates most power in the Midwest, in the Southern and the Plains states. It's no coincidence that the liberals most invested in cap and trade -- [Sen.] Barbara Boxer [D-Calif.], [Rep.] Henry Waxman [D-Calif.] and [Rep.] Ed Markey [D-Mass.] -- come from California or the Northeast."
Land said coal provides more than half of electricity generated in the United States, and 25 states get more than half of their electricity from coal-fired generators. In some states it's even higher. Ohio gets 86 percent of its power from coal, Indiana 94 percent, Missouri 85 percent and West Virginia 98 percent.
"Who's going to get soaked the most with these taxes?" Land asked. "Well, West Virginia, Wyoming, Ohio, Missouri: Grab hold of your pocketbook and hold on tight, because you're going to get more of this tax increase because you get more of your generation from coal. People who run nuclear-energy plants aren't going to have to buy cap and trade. It's going to be coal plants. It gets messier and messier."
Christian anti-global-warming activists disagreed with Land's reasoning. Land is "lash[ing] himself to dirty coal, sacrificing human health and the global environment to corporate greed," according to Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics.
"As a global-warming denier, Richard Land continues to distort the overwhelming agreement within the scientific community about climate change," Parham, author of Loving Neighbors Across Time: A Christian Guide to Protecting the Earth, said. He said Land's "repeated claims about Earth cooling do not negate global warming."
Jonathan Merritt, national spokesman for the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative, said Christians who care about God's creation and recognize that something must be done about the global energy and environmental crisis "are growing increasingly weary of those claiming to represent us who preach relentlessly about what [they] oppose, yet refuse to offer policy alternatives."
He added, "I find it curious that we are first in line to support the coal industry that is polluting our air and destroying the Appalachian Mountains, yet when it comes to actual pro-environmental legislation, we are nowhere to be found."
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Southern Baptist activist organizes confab on church and environment
By Bob Allen (916 words)
ATLANTA (ABP) -- An upcoming national conference on churches and the environment features several well-known evangelical speakers, including some prominent Southern Baptist leaders who will be speaking for first time on the increasingly high-profile theological issue known as "creation care."
The gathering is scheduled May 13-15 at Cross Pointe Church near Atlanta, where former Southern Baptist Convention President James Merritt is senior pastor. Merritt is scheduled to speak, along with other Southern Baptists including Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Ed Stetzer of LifeWay Research and Mark Liederbach, professor of ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.
Merritt's 26-year-old son, Jonathan Merritt, is organizing the gathering, called the Flourish National Church Leaders Conference on Creation Care.
While still in seminary, the younger Merritt spearheaded A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change, which was signed by 550 Southern Baptists, including the SBC president at the time.
Other Southern Baptist leaders quickly distanced themselves from the initiative. A Baptist Press headline declared "Seminary student's climate change project is not SBC's," while Richard Land, head of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, released a statement explaining why he did not endorse the statement.
Land said Southern Baptist public-policy advocacy "is most effective when it is supported by the broadest possible consensus among Southern Baptists." He cited a 2007 SBC resolution that urged Southern Baptists "to proceed cautiously in the human-induced global warming debate in light of conflicting scientific research" and to support only policies that "improve the stewardship of the earth's resources without resulting in significant negative consequences" on the economy.
During that time Merritt met Jim Jewell, who has worked more than 30 years with Christian causes and organizations including World Vision, Trinity Forum, and Prison Fellowship; and Rusty Pritchard, a volunteer lay leader for three decades who taught environmental studies for seven years at Emory University in Atlanta.
Last year Jewell, former CEO of the Evangelical Environment Network, and Pritchard started Flourish, a ministry aimed at helping churches and families build environmental stewardship into their Christian commitment and witness. The May conference is the organization's inaugural event, but plans include a quarterly magazine, Web-based communications and other resources.
A 2008 Barna poll found that 90 percent of evangelicals said they would like to see Christians take a more active role in taking care of the environment, but two-thirds believe the media has over-hyped the story and most are skeptical that humans are a primary cause of global warming.
Jewell says part of the problem is that calls for environmental stewardship in the past have come largely from secular voices with values contrary to the Bible. Moreover, they have focused only on political action to combat climate change.
That prompted some evangelical leaders to overreact, he says, by telling followers that even modest care for God's creation is misplaced concern and has nothing to do with preaching the gospel.
The intent of Flourish, he says, is to bridge the chasm between those who prescribe only political solutions and those who would do nothing at all.
Jewell says there are plenty of good reasons for Bible-believing Christians to care about the environment.
For one thing, he says, Christians are called to be the very best citizens, and one way to do that is by rolling up their sleeves to improve their local communities by planting trees, working for pedestrian and bike paths or cleaning area watersheds.
Another is that Christians are called to love others, and research shows that interrupting delicate balances in the environment through pollution most hurts the needy.
Reducing dependence on foreign oil is important not only for national security, he says, but it also helps stop enriching regimes that restrict Christians' religious freedom.
There are also practical benefits. Jewell says churches can save a lot of money through energy-saving changes, which in turn can be used for programs and missions of the church. Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, for example, where former SBC president Jack Graham is pastor, undertook an environmental retrofit in 2006-2007 that saved the congregation more than $1 million in water and utility bills.
Jewell says environmental problems, like all others, are at root the result of sin, and Christians recognize the ultimate solution to conquering sin is faith in Jesus Christ. For that reason, he contends that creation care is important enough to be a major focus of the church, rooted in Scripture and religious tradition instead of simply reacting to modern trends.
Other scheduled speakers at the Flourish conference include Chris Seay, pastor of the Ecclesia Christian community in Houston; Joel Hunter, pastor of the Orlando-area Northland Church and author of books including A New Kind of Conservative; and Andy Crouch, senior editor at Christianity Today International.
"A new kind of evangelical conversation about God's creation is beginning, and Flourish will be one of the milestones," said Crouch, author of Culture Making. "Those who attend will be on the leading edge of a significant new movement that I believe will, and must, shape the church and our culture for generations to come."
Jonathan Merritt told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he hopes the conference will be a starting point for change in how churches think about their God-given responsibility to care for the world.
"I think it's going to be a primary touchpoint for the church to get involved in in the 21st century," he said.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Opinion: What marriage is -- and what it isn't
By Benjamin Cole (944 words)
(ABP) -- In late February, David Blankenhorn and Jonathan Rauch co-authored a provocative op-ed in the New York Times, titled "A Reconciliation on Gay Marriage." In the piece, Blankenhorn, the conservative president of the Institute for American Values, and Rauch, an openly gay scholar at The Brookings Institution and a staunch advocate of same-sex marriage, sought to forge a political compromise to move the contentious debate "onto a healthier, calmer track."
The Blankenhorn-Rauch compromise proposes a federal recognition of same-sex unions granted at the state level so long as the state licensing the marriage or civil union provides statutory exemptions for religious organizations that do not wish to solemnize or otherwise facilitate those unions. In short, churches would not be required to provide their facilities and ministers would not have to render their services to homosexual partners who desire marriage.
Not long after Blankenhorn and Rauch published their Times piece, I attended a panel discussion on it, held at Brookings' headquarters here in Washington. In the discussion, the two discussed their proposal more thoroughly. Responding to them were an attorney from the gay-rights group Human Rights Campaign, a law professor, and a representative of the Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
During the conversation, it became immediately obvious that the proposal -- at least inasmuch as it was outlined in the op-ed -- did not provide answers to all of the many conflicts between religious liberty and gay rights that will result (indeed, that are already resulting) from the legalization of same-sex unions. For instance, what about the conscientious objection of the county clerk who, on religious grounds, feels she cannot issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples? Or what about the licensed caterers and florists who will deny their services for such ceremonies because same-sex marriage violates their religious principles?
The entire discussion, however, missed the fundamental problem with same-sex marriage: Namely, the nature of marriage itself.
The reason that many conservatives do not approve of same-sex marriage is not because we wish to deny basic liberties to gays and lesbians. It is because we do not believe such relationships constitute a marriage by definition. It is a question of ontology rather than ideology.
Offering exemptions to ministers and churches that object does little to resolve the conflict either. No minister has ever been forced to perform ceremonies for heterosexual couples of whose union the church would disapprove. No church has ever been forced to host a reception for such a union. In my own ministry, I've refused more requests to perform a marriage than I've accepted. My churches have denied our facilities to couples whose relationships did not meet our approval.
Those traditional-marriage advocates who wish to strike a compromise on the issue of same-sex marriage similar to the one proposed by Blankenhorn and Rauch are like the man who feeds the crocodile hoping that it will eat him last.
Such compromises are more aptly labeled capitulations.
I shall never forget the day I read Chief Justice Earl Warren's opinion for the Supreme Court's majority in the landmark 1967 interracial-marriage case, Loving v. Virginia. At the time, I was in the Moody Library of Baylor University preparing for a doctoral seminar presentation on the decriminalization of sodomy and the justices' 2003 reversal of Bowers v. Hardwick, a mid-1980s case out of Georgia in which the Court upheld the constitutionality of state laws prohibiting homosexual acts.
It was probably the best paper I wrote while at Baylor, and probably the most difficult to research. Quite frankly, there are more pleasant things about which to read than criminal reports, statutes and court decisions concerning homosexual sodomy.
When I ran across the Loving decision, I was immediately struck by the way the Court defined marriage as a fundamental right and how the majority opinion -- if pressed -- could be used as precedent by contemporary proponents of same-sex marriage. Chief Justice Warren wrote:
"The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law."
The debate about same-sex marriage in this first decade of the 21st century is probably more volatile than the debate about interracial marriage was in the 1960s. Of course, I am in a priori disagreement with any assertion that the fundamental liberty of a man and a woman to marry regardless of their races is similar to the claim that two persons of the same gender deserve licensed state recognition. Apples and oranges, you might say.
In the first instance, the essential ingredient of male and female is present. In the latter, it is not.
Marriage has always been -- in every culture and society of human history -- a relationship between members of the opposite sex. Even in those cultures and societies where aberrations like polygamy have been accepted, the union of man and woman is essential to the relationship.
The conflict about state recognition of same-sex marriage is not going to be resolved soon. There are those -- like Blankenhorn and Rauch -- who wish to keep it from rising to the temperature of the abortion debate. If the Court, however, decides the issue similar to the way it ruled in Roe v. Wade, then we are almost certain to enter another long and costly phase of the very culture war that Blankenhorn and Rauch wish to avert.
-- Benjamin Cole is a former Southern Baptist pastor who now works on public-policy issues in the nation's capital.
Correction
An unclear audio recording led to mischaracterization of a quotation by Lauran Bethell in the March 23 ABP story, "Mercer conference focuses on ending modern slavery." Please replace the fourth and fifth paragraphs with the following:
Bethell, recipient of the Baptist World Alliance Human Rights Award, spent the past 20 years fighting sex trafficking, first in Thailand, then in Eastern Europe. She told the audience she had stayed sane despite working some of the "darkest situations on Earth" by following the example of her leader, Jesus, who went to the dark places of his time because it was the right thing to do. Using the example of the "woman of ill repute" -- to whom Jesus ministered in Samaria and who later became one of his greatest evangelists -- Bethell said Jesus was the ideal example of showing up.
"Jesus' example of showing up -- showing up in places where even the disciples raised their eyebrows -- let me know that I can, that we can, do this," Bethell said. "What would Jesus' solution be in our time, in our century, of modern-day slavery? I know one thing: He's sure pleased with what you have all done today, just shown up. He's sure pleased with what we have seen today, people sacrificing time and energy to learn from each other and participate together in seeking solutions."
Monday, March 23, 2009
Associated Baptist Press - 3/23/2009
Associated Baptist Press
March 23, 2009 · (09-41)
David Wilkinson, Executive Director
Robert Marus, Managing Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
Bob Allen, Senior Writer
In this issue
Baptism center opens in Jordan (997 words)
Mercer conference focuses on ending modern slavery (1089 words)
Movie review: Knowing explores age-old theological conundrum (460 words)
Baptism center opens in Jordan
By Bob Allen (997 words)
AMMAN, Jordan (ABP) -- Baptist leaders and other dignitaries -- including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair -- took part in a ceremony March 20 dedicating a new evangelical Christian baptism center at the Jordanian spot traditionally regarded as the site of Jesus' baptism.
The afternoon celebration at the Baptism Center at Bethany beyond Jordan included more than 120 baptisms by immersion in the Jordan River. They were conducted by pastors from the Jordan Baptist Convention.
Eron Henry, associate director of communications for the Baptist World Alliance, said in a travel blog it is the first time Baptists in Jordan have received such prominent coverage in Jordan's major media outlets.
One of several new churches being built along the Jordan River at about the location Christian pilgrims have long believed Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, the center is intended to cater to Christian traditions that practice believer's baptism by immersion.
BWA General Secretary Neville Callam, in the day's major address, called the center "a place where people from all parts of the world may assemble for a journey and an experience." He expressed hope that "the waters of the Jordan extinguish the crippling fires of hopelessness that burn in the hearts of those who have no knowledge of God."
Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., sent a congratulatory letter saying he could not attend the dedication ceremony, but plans to make a pilgrimage there when he next visits the Middle East in 2010.
BWA president David Coffey read greetings from former United States presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, both Baptists, and presented a gift on behalf of the BWA to Jordan's Prince Ghazi.
A plaque to be placed on the building upon its completion was unveiled at the ceremony. The plaque reads, "The Commission of the Site of the Baptism of Jesus Christ welcomes here visiting pilgrims from the member churches of the Baptist World Alliance."
Also participating in the event were Imad Maayah, a Baptist and former member of the Jordanian Parliament; Toma Magda and Tony Peck, president and general secretary of the European Baptist Federation; and Nabeeh Abbassi, former president of the Jordan Baptist Convention and chief organizer of the dedication and opening.
An estimated 1,700 persons attended the dedication and opening ceremony.
Blair, now a special envoy to the Middle East on behalf of the United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia, said it "took courage and leadership" for Jordan to allow the baptism site in a part of the world often torn by sectarian strife. The founder of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation said it also modeled the spirit of compassion and justice that run through the teachings of Jesus, the Old Testament prophets and Islam's founding prophet, Muhammad.
Jordan is about 92 percent Muslim, but relations between Muslims and a Christian minority, estimated at 6 percent, are generally good. While Islam is the state religion and proselytization of Muslims and conversions from Islam are prohibited, the Jordanian Constitution promises religious freedom as long as rites do not violate public order or morality, and recognizes several Christian denominations.
Founded in 1957, the Jordan Baptist Convention consists of 20 churches with combined membership of about 2,000. It operates two schools.
The offer of a designated plot of land for a baptism center came from Jordan's King Abdullah II during a meeting he held with Coffey in September 2007. In 2008, Coffey visited the site and met with Prince Ghazi, who chairs an independent trustee board that runs the site as a national park. The board facilitated the construction.
"In our Baptist faith and order, the baptism of Jesus is of central importance to our understanding of the baptism of Christians," Coffey wrote in a 2008 letter affirming the authenticity of the baptism site. "We believe baptism rests on the command of the risen Lord and is integrated with his command to preach the good news to the world; and this command is given authority by his own example at the beginning of his messianic ministry."
Bethany beyond Jordan -- not to be confused with the village near Jerusalem the Bible says was home to Lazarus, Mary and Martha -- was on a pilgrimage route between Jerusalem and Bethlehem to the west and Mount Nebo to the east. It is regarded as one of Christianity's three holiest sites, along with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jeruslam and Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.
It was a military border zone until the 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan and today is regarded one of the most important recent discoveries in biblical archaeology. Excavations didn't begin until 1996, and so far more than 20 churches, caves and baptismal pools dating from Roman and Byzantine times have been uncovered.
Churches of various Christian denominations -- including Anglican, Catholic, Coptic and Russian Orthodox -- have been constructed or are in the process of being built nearby.
Pope John Paul II was the first Roman Catholic pontiff to visit the site, making his pilgrimage there in March 2000. Pope Benedict XVI is expected to visit the holy site in May.
Bethany beyond Jordan is also sacred to Jews and Muslims. In addition to Jesus' baptism, it's said to be the spot where Joshua first led the Israelites into the Promised Land and where the prophet Elijah was taken to heaven in a chariot of fire.
While in Jordan, the BWA delegation met with Islamic journalists and scholars to discuss the BWA response to A Common Word Between Us and You, a letter written by 138 Muslim scholars and leaders to Christians in October 2007.
On Sunday, March 22, Callam crossed over into Turkey to preach at the Izmir Baptist Church. Today Turkey's third-largest city, Izmir in ancient times was called Smyrna, a place mentioned in the second chapter of Revelation among seven towns and cities in the area then known as Asia Minor.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Mercer conference focuses on ending modern slavery
By Mark Vanderhoek (1,089 words)
MACON, Ga. (ABP) -- In the face of the world's fastest-growing crime -- the enslavement of an estimated million people every year -- Lauran Bethell had some profoundly simple advice for the attendees at Mercer University's recent conference on human trafficking: "Just show up."
Bethell, an American Baptist Churches USA global-ministry consultant, said that advocates must begin with the victims, ministering to their greatest immediate need and working on that until they can work on the next, and then the next. Victims have a spark within them, she said, and the resiliency of the human spirit will help to heal them if they can be reached and given hope for the future.
"The healing process is long, it is arduous and there are often many, many, many curves along the path, but we must continue to simply show up in the lives of people, to accept them, to care for them, to listen to them no matter what," Bethell said. "For no matter how long it takes, no matter how things don't go the way that we wish. No matter what: just show up."
Bethell, recipient of the Baptist World Alliance Human Rights Award, spent the past 20 years fighting sex trafficking -- first in Thailand, then in Eastern Europe. She told the audience she had stayed sane despite working in some of the "darkest situations on Earth" by following the example of her leader, Jesus, who went to the dark places of his time because it was the right thing to do. Using the Bible's example of the "woman of ill repute," to whom Jesus ministered in Samaria and who later became one of his greatest advocates, Bethell said Jesus was the ideal example of showing up -- as was his Samaritan apostle.
"She's an example of showing up. Showing up in places where even the disciples raised their eyebrows," Bethell said. "What would Jesus' solution be in our time, in our century, of modern-day slavery? I know one thing: He's sure pleased with what you have all done today, just shown up. He's sure pleased with what we have seen today, people sacrificing time and energy to learn from each other and participate together in seeking solutions."
A diverse group of more than 800 people were following her advice in attending the conference, held March 19-20 on Mercer's Macon, Ga., campus. They came to learn about the problem of modern-day slavery and how they could help defeat it. The student-led conference, titled "STOP Sex Trafficking: A Call to End 21st Century Slavery," included presentations by anti-trafficking advocates from around the state, the country and the world.
According to the State Department, more than a million women and children are trafficked into sex slavery each year -- often forced by economic circumstances into prostitution's horrors. Nearly 20,000 are trafficked annually into the United States, and many of these victims are trafficked into the Southeast. Mercer students in STOP, the Sex Trafficking Opposition Project, organized the conference to counter the growing worldwide crisis.
Among the presenters were trafficking survivors Kika Cerpa and Joana Santos. In a pattern typical of trafficking, both were lured to the United States under false pretenses and told they owed large debts for their transportation after they arrived.
Santos, who was pregnant and had paid for most of her own trip, managed to hold off her tormentors and free herself. In the process, she brought down the ring that had enslaved other girls from her native Brazil.
Cerpa, who accrued a debt from her trip to New York from Venezuela, was not as lucky. She endured terrifying years as a sex slave in brothels around New York City -- including three convictions for prostitution -- only escaping after she got a judge to listen to her harrowing story.
"I was punished by the system and by society," Cerpa said, highlighting a major issue in trafficking, particularly in the United States: that the legal system is only beginning to recognize that women like Cerpa are being pimped to pay false debts, rather than working by choice as prostitutes.
The system needs to change its focus in regard to trafficking, said Dorchen Leidholdt, co-executive director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Sanctuary for Families, the group that helped Cerpa.
"Most states have laws against prostitution that are often used against prostituted people. That is the problem with people who are trying to access the criminal-justice system," Leidholdt said. "Most states have laws against patronizing a prostitute. Those laws are, generally, rarely enforced. All of the energy of our criminal-justice system -- all of the resources -- go to arrest prostituted people."
Addressing those disparities, particularly in the United States, is the goal of the Polaris Project. Bradley Myles, deputy director of Polaris, presented some ways to target the problem. The approach to sex trafficking is threefold, he said -- focusing on prevention by targeting the men who frequent brothels, adding protection for the victims and increasing punishment for traffickers. Myles explained that the legal definition of sex trafficking includes both transporting victims for sex and simply coercing someone into sex with others. He also highlighted some of the myths about trafficking.
"Don't get boxed into thinking it's just foreign people [who are trafficked in the United States] or that trafficking requires transportation," Myles said. "The term trafficking simply denotes trade -- buying or selling."
One of the areas that has the highest incidence of trafficking in the United States is Atlanta, and the problem there often involves American teenagers who are runaways. Girls at homeless shelters are approached by a pimp within the first 72 hours, according to city officials. Alesia Adams, who is the sexual trafficking prevention coordinator for the southern U.S. region of the Salvation Army, said it is important to realize the problem isn't just international. "This isn't a Third-World problem anymore; it's in your backyard," Adams said.
"Dropping your child off at the mall alone has become the same as dropping them off at Beirut."
The issue is also one of basic human rights, said Donna Hughes, a professor of women's studies at the University of Rhode Island, and a longtime anti-trafficking advocate. In approaching new ways to fight human trafficking, Hughes said focusing on perpetrators would be the best way to go forward, which would take the burden off the victims and stop the judgment inherent with any case of prostitution.
"We need to add a perpetrator-focused approach," Hughes said. "We need to reform our laws so that we are targeting the perpetrators' activities."
Mark Vanderhoek is director of media relations at Mercer University.
Movie review: Knowing explores age-old theological conundrum
By Bob Allen (460 words)
(ABP) -- Do our lives have a purpose, or are we products of random chance? If everything is predestined, is there anything we can do to improve our fate? If not, are we without hope?
These questions are discussed daily in seminary classrooms -- but add special effects, a lot of suspense, a love interest and reconciliation with an estranged parent and sibling, and you have the story line of Knowing, a new, big-budget Hollwood thriller starring Nicolas Cage.
The sci-fi film topped box-office receipts in its opening weekend March 20-22, taking in nearly $25 million in a period generally slow for movies due to audience competition from the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments.
Cage's character, John Koestler, is the son of a fundamentalist preacher who believes in the gift of prophecy as described in Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians. John, who is an MIT professor and a single parent since the tragic death of his young wife, is not so sure there is a divine plan.
When a time capsule at his son's elementary school is opened after 50 years, he finds strong evidence of foreknowledge of major catastrophic events, including the end of the world.
Baptists have been arguing about predestination versus free will for nearly 400 years. One of the first controversies dividing Baptists was between Particular Baptists, who believed God has pre-ordained who is saved and lost, and General Baptists, who believed every soul is free to determine whether to accept or reject Jesus Christ.
That debate pitted the theology of John Calvin, the Swiss reformer whose doctrines of divine providence pointed toward predestination, and Jacob Arminius, the Dutch reformed theologian who emphasized that humans have free will.
Those theories divided many Protestants into Calvinist and Arminian denominations, but in some, like Baptists, both Calvinist and Arminian strains have existed side by side. Southern Baptists traditionally have embraced some points of Calvin's doctrines -- like eternal security of the believer -- while rejecting others to affirm that "whosoever will" can come to faith in Jesus.
Still, that hasn't stopped occasional skirmishes between Calvinist Southern Baptist groups (such as Founders Ministries) committed to historic Baptist interpretations of the so-called "Doctrines of Grace" and anti-Calvinist Southern Baptist groups and leaders. For instance, last year Southern Baptist Convention president Johnny Hunt's church hosted a "John 3:16" conference that took a critical look at Calvinism.
These are ambitious questions, and Knowing takes them on in ways that may not be fully theologically (or emotionally) satisfying. But the movie -- rated PG-13 for disaster sequences and some strong language -- is overall faith-affirming, and for Bible fans there's an understated but pretty cool allusion to and depiction of the Old Testament book of Ezekiel's "wheel in a wheel" prophecy.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
See the movie's website.
March 23, 2009 · (09-41)
David Wilkinson, Executive Director
Robert Marus, Managing Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
Bob Allen, Senior Writer
In this issue
Baptism center opens in Jordan (997 words)
Mercer conference focuses on ending modern slavery (1089 words)
Movie review: Knowing explores age-old theological conundrum (460 words)
Baptism center opens in Jordan
By Bob Allen (997 words)
AMMAN, Jordan (ABP) -- Baptist leaders and other dignitaries -- including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair -- took part in a ceremony March 20 dedicating a new evangelical Christian baptism center at the Jordanian spot traditionally regarded as the site of Jesus' baptism.
The afternoon celebration at the Baptism Center at Bethany beyond Jordan included more than 120 baptisms by immersion in the Jordan River. They were conducted by pastors from the Jordan Baptist Convention.
Eron Henry, associate director of communications for the Baptist World Alliance, said in a travel blog it is the first time Baptists in Jordan have received such prominent coverage in Jordan's major media outlets.
One of several new churches being built along the Jordan River at about the location Christian pilgrims have long believed Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, the center is intended to cater to Christian traditions that practice believer's baptism by immersion.
BWA General Secretary Neville Callam, in the day's major address, called the center "a place where people from all parts of the world may assemble for a journey and an experience." He expressed hope that "the waters of the Jordan extinguish the crippling fires of hopelessness that burn in the hearts of those who have no knowledge of God."
Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., sent a congratulatory letter saying he could not attend the dedication ceremony, but plans to make a pilgrimage there when he next visits the Middle East in 2010.
BWA president David Coffey read greetings from former United States presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, both Baptists, and presented a gift on behalf of the BWA to Jordan's Prince Ghazi.
A plaque to be placed on the building upon its completion was unveiled at the ceremony. The plaque reads, "The Commission of the Site of the Baptism of Jesus Christ welcomes here visiting pilgrims from the member churches of the Baptist World Alliance."
Also participating in the event were Imad Maayah, a Baptist and former member of the Jordanian Parliament; Toma Magda and Tony Peck, president and general secretary of the European Baptist Federation; and Nabeeh Abbassi, former president of the Jordan Baptist Convention and chief organizer of the dedication and opening.
An estimated 1,700 persons attended the dedication and opening ceremony.
Blair, now a special envoy to the Middle East on behalf of the United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia, said it "took courage and leadership" for Jordan to allow the baptism site in a part of the world often torn by sectarian strife. The founder of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation said it also modeled the spirit of compassion and justice that run through the teachings of Jesus, the Old Testament prophets and Islam's founding prophet, Muhammad.
Jordan is about 92 percent Muslim, but relations between Muslims and a Christian minority, estimated at 6 percent, are generally good. While Islam is the state religion and proselytization of Muslims and conversions from Islam are prohibited, the Jordanian Constitution promises religious freedom as long as rites do not violate public order or morality, and recognizes several Christian denominations.
Founded in 1957, the Jordan Baptist Convention consists of 20 churches with combined membership of about 2,000. It operates two schools.
The offer of a designated plot of land for a baptism center came from Jordan's King Abdullah II during a meeting he held with Coffey in September 2007. In 2008, Coffey visited the site and met with Prince Ghazi, who chairs an independent trustee board that runs the site as a national park. The board facilitated the construction.
"In our Baptist faith and order, the baptism of Jesus is of central importance to our understanding of the baptism of Christians," Coffey wrote in a 2008 letter affirming the authenticity of the baptism site. "We believe baptism rests on the command of the risen Lord and is integrated with his command to preach the good news to the world; and this command is given authority by his own example at the beginning of his messianic ministry."
Bethany beyond Jordan -- not to be confused with the village near Jerusalem the Bible says was home to Lazarus, Mary and Martha -- was on a pilgrimage route between Jerusalem and Bethlehem to the west and Mount Nebo to the east. It is regarded as one of Christianity's three holiest sites, along with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jeruslam and Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.
It was a military border zone until the 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan and today is regarded one of the most important recent discoveries in biblical archaeology. Excavations didn't begin until 1996, and so far more than 20 churches, caves and baptismal pools dating from Roman and Byzantine times have been uncovered.
Churches of various Christian denominations -- including Anglican, Catholic, Coptic and Russian Orthodox -- have been constructed or are in the process of being built nearby.
Pope John Paul II was the first Roman Catholic pontiff to visit the site, making his pilgrimage there in March 2000. Pope Benedict XVI is expected to visit the holy site in May.
Bethany beyond Jordan is also sacred to Jews and Muslims. In addition to Jesus' baptism, it's said to be the spot where Joshua first led the Israelites into the Promised Land and where the prophet Elijah was taken to heaven in a chariot of fire.
While in Jordan, the BWA delegation met with Islamic journalists and scholars to discuss the BWA response to A Common Word Between Us and You, a letter written by 138 Muslim scholars and leaders to Christians in October 2007.
On Sunday, March 22, Callam crossed over into Turkey to preach at the Izmir Baptist Church. Today Turkey's third-largest city, Izmir in ancient times was called Smyrna, a place mentioned in the second chapter of Revelation among seven towns and cities in the area then known as Asia Minor.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Mercer conference focuses on ending modern slavery
By Mark Vanderhoek (1,089 words)
MACON, Ga. (ABP) -- In the face of the world's fastest-growing crime -- the enslavement of an estimated million people every year -- Lauran Bethell had some profoundly simple advice for the attendees at Mercer University's recent conference on human trafficking: "Just show up."
Bethell, an American Baptist Churches USA global-ministry consultant, said that advocates must begin with the victims, ministering to their greatest immediate need and working on that until they can work on the next, and then the next. Victims have a spark within them, she said, and the resiliency of the human spirit will help to heal them if they can be reached and given hope for the future.
"The healing process is long, it is arduous and there are often many, many, many curves along the path, but we must continue to simply show up in the lives of people, to accept them, to care for them, to listen to them no matter what," Bethell said. "For no matter how long it takes, no matter how things don't go the way that we wish. No matter what: just show up."
Bethell, recipient of the Baptist World Alliance Human Rights Award, spent the past 20 years fighting sex trafficking -- first in Thailand, then in Eastern Europe. She told the audience she had stayed sane despite working in some of the "darkest situations on Earth" by following the example of her leader, Jesus, who went to the dark places of his time because it was the right thing to do. Using the Bible's example of the "woman of ill repute," to whom Jesus ministered in Samaria and who later became one of his greatest advocates, Bethell said Jesus was the ideal example of showing up -- as was his Samaritan apostle.
"She's an example of showing up. Showing up in places where even the disciples raised their eyebrows," Bethell said. "What would Jesus' solution be in our time, in our century, of modern-day slavery? I know one thing: He's sure pleased with what you have all done today, just shown up. He's sure pleased with what we have seen today, people sacrificing time and energy to learn from each other and participate together in seeking solutions."
A diverse group of more than 800 people were following her advice in attending the conference, held March 19-20 on Mercer's Macon, Ga., campus. They came to learn about the problem of modern-day slavery and how they could help defeat it. The student-led conference, titled "STOP Sex Trafficking: A Call to End 21st Century Slavery," included presentations by anti-trafficking advocates from around the state, the country and the world.
According to the State Department, more than a million women and children are trafficked into sex slavery each year -- often forced by economic circumstances into prostitution's horrors. Nearly 20,000 are trafficked annually into the United States, and many of these victims are trafficked into the Southeast. Mercer students in STOP, the Sex Trafficking Opposition Project, organized the conference to counter the growing worldwide crisis.
Among the presenters were trafficking survivors Kika Cerpa and Joana Santos. In a pattern typical of trafficking, both were lured to the United States under false pretenses and told they owed large debts for their transportation after they arrived.
Santos, who was pregnant and had paid for most of her own trip, managed to hold off her tormentors and free herself. In the process, she brought down the ring that had enslaved other girls from her native Brazil.
Cerpa, who accrued a debt from her trip to New York from Venezuela, was not as lucky. She endured terrifying years as a sex slave in brothels around New York City -- including three convictions for prostitution -- only escaping after she got a judge to listen to her harrowing story.
"I was punished by the system and by society," Cerpa said, highlighting a major issue in trafficking, particularly in the United States: that the legal system is only beginning to recognize that women like Cerpa are being pimped to pay false debts, rather than working by choice as prostitutes.
The system needs to change its focus in regard to trafficking, said Dorchen Leidholdt, co-executive director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Sanctuary for Families, the group that helped Cerpa.
"Most states have laws against prostitution that are often used against prostituted people. That is the problem with people who are trying to access the criminal-justice system," Leidholdt said. "Most states have laws against patronizing a prostitute. Those laws are, generally, rarely enforced. All of the energy of our criminal-justice system -- all of the resources -- go to arrest prostituted people."
Addressing those disparities, particularly in the United States, is the goal of the Polaris Project. Bradley Myles, deputy director of Polaris, presented some ways to target the problem. The approach to sex trafficking is threefold, he said -- focusing on prevention by targeting the men who frequent brothels, adding protection for the victims and increasing punishment for traffickers. Myles explained that the legal definition of sex trafficking includes both transporting victims for sex and simply coercing someone into sex with others. He also highlighted some of the myths about trafficking.
"Don't get boxed into thinking it's just foreign people [who are trafficked in the United States] or that trafficking requires transportation," Myles said. "The term trafficking simply denotes trade -- buying or selling."
One of the areas that has the highest incidence of trafficking in the United States is Atlanta, and the problem there often involves American teenagers who are runaways. Girls at homeless shelters are approached by a pimp within the first 72 hours, according to city officials. Alesia Adams, who is the sexual trafficking prevention coordinator for the southern U.S. region of the Salvation Army, said it is important to realize the problem isn't just international. "This isn't a Third-World problem anymore; it's in your backyard," Adams said.
"Dropping your child off at the mall alone has become the same as dropping them off at Beirut."
The issue is also one of basic human rights, said Donna Hughes, a professor of women's studies at the University of Rhode Island, and a longtime anti-trafficking advocate. In approaching new ways to fight human trafficking, Hughes said focusing on perpetrators would be the best way to go forward, which would take the burden off the victims and stop the judgment inherent with any case of prostitution.
"We need to add a perpetrator-focused approach," Hughes said. "We need to reform our laws so that we are targeting the perpetrators' activities."
Mark Vanderhoek is director of media relations at Mercer University.
Movie review: Knowing explores age-old theological conundrum
By Bob Allen (460 words)
(ABP) -- Do our lives have a purpose, or are we products of random chance? If everything is predestined, is there anything we can do to improve our fate? If not, are we without hope?
These questions are discussed daily in seminary classrooms -- but add special effects, a lot of suspense, a love interest and reconciliation with an estranged parent and sibling, and you have the story line of Knowing, a new, big-budget Hollwood thriller starring Nicolas Cage.
The sci-fi film topped box-office receipts in its opening weekend March 20-22, taking in nearly $25 million in a period generally slow for movies due to audience competition from the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments.
Cage's character, John Koestler, is the son of a fundamentalist preacher who believes in the gift of prophecy as described in Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians. John, who is an MIT professor and a single parent since the tragic death of his young wife, is not so sure there is a divine plan.
When a time capsule at his son's elementary school is opened after 50 years, he finds strong evidence of foreknowledge of major catastrophic events, including the end of the world.
Baptists have been arguing about predestination versus free will for nearly 400 years. One of the first controversies dividing Baptists was between Particular Baptists, who believed God has pre-ordained who is saved and lost, and General Baptists, who believed every soul is free to determine whether to accept or reject Jesus Christ.
That debate pitted the theology of John Calvin, the Swiss reformer whose doctrines of divine providence pointed toward predestination, and Jacob Arminius, the Dutch reformed theologian who emphasized that humans have free will.
Those theories divided many Protestants into Calvinist and Arminian denominations, but in some, like Baptists, both Calvinist and Arminian strains have existed side by side. Southern Baptists traditionally have embraced some points of Calvin's doctrines -- like eternal security of the believer -- while rejecting others to affirm that "whosoever will" can come to faith in Jesus.
Still, that hasn't stopped occasional skirmishes between Calvinist Southern Baptist groups (such as Founders Ministries) committed to historic Baptist interpretations of the so-called "Doctrines of Grace" and anti-Calvinist Southern Baptist groups and leaders. For instance, last year Southern Baptist Convention president Johnny Hunt's church hosted a "John 3:16" conference that took a critical look at Calvinism.
These are ambitious questions, and Knowing takes them on in ways that may not be fully theologically (or emotionally) satisfying. But the movie -- rated PG-13 for disaster sequences and some strong language -- is overall faith-affirming, and for Bible fans there's an understated but pretty cool allusion to and depiction of the Old Testament book of Ezekiel's "wheel in a wheel" prophecy.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
See the movie's website.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Associated Baptist Press - 3/18/2009
Associated Baptist Press
March 18, 2009 · (09-39)
David Wilkinson, Executive Director
Robert Marus, Managing Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
Bob Allen, Senior Writer
In this issue
Judge: Controversial home-school ruling hinged on mother's church (582 words)
Evangelical groups protest new religion law in Kyrgyz Republic (615 words)
Church arson investigation brings new charges against former pastor (320 words)
Opinion: Why I am a heretic (1,231 words)
Judge: Controversial home-school ruling hinged on mother's church
By Bob Allen (582 words)
RALEIGH, N.C. (ABP) -- A North Carolina judge, whose recent ruling that a home-schooling mother must send her three children to public school stirred national controversy, said in a written order March 17 that his decision was based largely on concern that the woman's church is a dangerous cult.
Controversy erupted after Wake County Judge Ned Mangum ruled in a divorce case March 6 that Venessa Mills of Raleigh, N.C., must stop home schooling her children and send them to public school.
A March 11 story on the conservative website WorldNetDaily.com quoted Mangum as saying the mother had done a good job at home schooling, but it is time for the children to have a "more well-rounded education" in public school.
The order outraged home-school advocates, who said it violated her parental rights.
A friend of the mother, and a home-schooling mother of four, started a website called Homeschool Injustice to urge supporters to pressure public officials to have Mangum removed from the case.
The story appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer, gained the attention of Focus on the Family's CitizenLink action center and earned a link in the March 13 Drudge Report.
The editor of the North Carolina Baptist newspaper weighed in March 12 with a blog saying the ruling "raises the warning hackles of home-schooling families the nation over."
"I am not one who sees the tentacles of government under every bed, but home schooling has been proven a solid, effective and character-building method of education for the past generation," wrote Biblical Recorder Editor Norman Jameson. Jameson said parents are the best judges of how to educate their children and described Mangum's order as "scary stuff."
In his written court order, however, the judge said the two parents disagree about the children's education, leaving it up to the court to decide what is in the best interest of the minors.
Mangum said Thomas and Venessa Mills were happily married for many years, but the relationship began to change in 2005 when she left the church they attended together to join the Sound Doctrine Church, a Washington state group that witnesses described in sworn affidavits as a "cult."
One witness, a former member of the Sound Doctrine Church, told the court the group is run by fear and manipulation and is not a healthy place for children to grow up.
An online tract for the Sound Doctrine Church says what most churches have is not love, but rather "a thin veneer of polished flattery and token socializing."
"In order for Jesus to give life to our Bible studies, we must allow him to drive nails into our hands and feet," wrote former Sound Doctrine pastor Timothy Williams. "We must permit our very hearts and lives to be taken. If you are not willing to allow this to happen concerning your understanding of the Bible -- indeed, in everything you think you understand -- then you will not enjoy the love at Sound Doctrine Church."
Robyn Williams, the blogger who worked to mobilize support for Venessa Mills, said the wording of the final order is "substantially different" from the judge's earlier verbal ruling and attempted to "destroy the character and credibility" of the mother.
"The whole order is blatantly intended to shift the focus away from the issues of justice regarding home schooling, financial support, and adultery -- and instead use 'shock and awe' tactics to pull attention into a mudslinging free-for-all against Venessa Mills' church and religious beliefs," Williams wrote.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Evangelical groups protest new religion law in Kyrgyz Republic
By Bob Allen (615 words)
(ABP) -- Evangelical leaders in the Kyrgyz Republic are protesting a new religion law they say significantly restricts religious freedom in the officially secular country.
A new law, titled "On the Freedom of Worship and Religious Organizations," took effect Jan. 16. The measure's stated intent is to address concerns about terrorism and other illegal activity by groups posing as religious organizations.
The former Soviet republic's constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the government has largely avoided meddling in religious affairs since the Central Asian country -- formerly called Kyrgyzstan -- gained independence in 1991. In recent years, however, officials have begun to restrict radical Islamic groups considered to be threats to national security.
Evangelical leaders, however, say the law ostensibly aimed at curbing religious extremism goes too far in restricting legitimate religious freedom.
The Evangelical-Christian Churches of the Kyrgyz Republic released an open letter March 15 voicing concern about the new law. The coalition, which includes the Kyrgyz Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, said its members had repeatedly offered suggestions and proposals to government officials that were completely ignored in the new law.
The evangelical groups said the law infringes on religious liberty and contradicts the Kyrgyz Constitution. The leaders highlighted several concerns with the legislation. They include:
-- Its definition of rights and duties of local government to include ensuring "spiritual safety," a concept that evangelical leaders said is "too indistinct" and could open the door to excesses by local officials.
-- Its definition of a "sect" as a religious movement that separates from a confession for "reasons of dogma" in a way that "contradicts the interests of society." Evangelical leaders said the term "sect" has no place in a secular state and puts the government in the position of differentiating between legitimate and unacceptable doctrines.
-- Its ban on the involvement of children in religious organizations. Evangelical leaders said that is the same tactic used during Soviet times to forbid children of believing parents from attending church services, robbing children of religious freedom and denying parents the right to bring up their children according to their beliefs.
-- Its ban on "persistent activities directed at the conversion of believers from other faiths (proselytism)." Evangelical leaders said that flatly contradicts the Kyrgyz Constitution, which says the government will establish no state religion and that individual liberties include the right to change one's religion or belief.
-- Its increase from 10 to 200 the number of members that a religious body must have before it can be officially registered. Evangelical leaders said that, in the past, it was difficult even to ask 10 people to publicly state their creed, because it made them subject to difficulties. Increasing that figure, they said, will make it impossible for many Kyrgyz religious organizations to register and operate legally.
In its current form, evangelical leaders said the law will "cause tension and conflict in local situations," put the republic behind other nations in church-state relations and make it harder for religious organizations to gain or retain registration.
Bordering China in Central Asia, the Kyrgyz Republic is roughly the size of South Dakota. About 80 percent of its 5.3 million citizens are Muslim. Estimates of the Russian Orthodox population range from 11 percent to as low as 8 percent. A small Protestant population includes 48 registered Baptist churches, according to the United States State Department.
Islam is practiced widely in both urban and rural areas around the country, while Orthodoxy is predominantly practiced in Kyrgyz cities with larger ethnic Russian populations. Tensions exist in some rural areas between conservative Muslims and foreign Christian missionaries, as well as members of traditionally Muslim ethnic groups who convert to another religion.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Church arson investigation brings new charges against former pastor
By Bob Allen (320 words)
BELTON, S.C. (ABP) -- A Southern Baptist pastor accused of setting fire to his own church March 8 now faces additional charges of breach of trust and filing a false police statement.
On March 13, sheriff's deputies in South Carolina charged Christopher Patrick Daniels, 40, with making a false report about vandalism at Blue Ridge Baptist Church in Belton, S.C., where he was pastor, the Anderson, S.C., Independent-Mail reported March 16.
The newspaper quoted deputies as saying that Daniels filed four incident reports with the Anderson County Sheriff's Office claiming gang-related vandalism at the church between Dec. 13 and Jan. 23.
Television station WYFF-4 in nearby Greenville, S.C. reported that investigators say the church was vandalized once by someone else in December before Daniels called in four more reports of vandalism, each time filing an insurance claim.
On March 12 the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division announced an additional charge against Daniels of breach of trust with fraudulent intent, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The arrest warrant said Daniels received more than $5,000 belonging to the church for his personal use between Jan. 6 and March 9 of this year.
The new charges are on top of a charge of second-degree arson, a crime that carries a sentence of up to 25 years.
Police arrested Daniels after he reported that he unlocked the church March 8 and found it filled with smoke. It was determined early that the fire was intentionally set after investigators found evidence they said pointed to Daniels.
As of March 16, Daniels was being held at the Anderson County Detention Center in lieu of bonds totaling $40,000, according to the Independent-Mail.
Blue Ridge Baptist Church, formerly known as Triangle Baptist Church, was reportedly Daniels' first congregation, and he had been there less than a year. The church, formed in 1900, is affiliated with the Southern Baptist and South Carolina Baptist conventions.
Bob Allen it is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Opinion: Why I am a heretic
By Miguel De La Torre (1,231 words)
(ABP) -- Yes, I am a heretic -- but then, I'm getting ahead of myself.
As some of you might remember, I recently wrote what turned out to be the most controversial column in the history of Associated Baptist Press. It was based on one of the most difficult passages in the New Testament -- the Gospel story of Jesus calling a woman from another culture a "dog."
Yes, I know that Jesus and the Canaanite woman both probably had the same skin pigmentation. I used the modern label "woman of color" to describe the woman because the Jews of that time thought of themselves as superior to the Canaanites, much the same way some in the dominant culture look down at people of color in today's society.
Not only did it inspire what turned out to be -- by far -- the longest comment thread ever on ABP's site, but it also inspired quite a bit of conversation in the Baptist blogosphere. While, as an educator, there are few things I desire to do more than generate conversation, much of it, in this case, was bombastic.
I was accused, in the story's comment section alone, of "reprehensible" theology, of spouting "theologically dishonest trash," of dragging Jesus Christ into the gutter" and of being "a thorough-going pagan who has no relationship with Jesus." And that was just in the first six of 45 comments!
It was as if I was being called a "dog" (sorry - I couldn't resist the irony).
As I read everything people said about me, I did agree with one accusation I saw repeated several times: that I am a heretic. I am a heretic because I read Scripture for what it says, not what I want it to say. (Never thought being literal would get me into trouble with conservatives and fundamentalists -- go figure..) Scripture states, plainly, that Jesus called this woman a "dog."
Now, to be sure, mine was a "non-traditional" interpretation of this passage. Traditionally -- or, at least, in the 30 or 40 years since white American evangelicals have come to the consensus that racial and ethnic prejudice is sinful -- evangelicals have dispatched with the passage by saying Jesus was simply being sarcastic in calling the Canaanite woman a "dog."
I acknowledge that this is certainly a legitimate way to approach the text. But I don't think the way I approached the text is any less legitimate, nor does my approach take the text less seriously than the "traditional" interpretation. No matter how much we try to explain the passage away, a plain reading of it remains problematic.
And, if you actually read the column carefully, you'll notice I never said Jesus was a racist or a sinner. I simply raised the question. But at the very least, he was tempted, as he was in the desert and as he was in Gethsemane.
Many also thought I was being heretical by implying that Jesus learned something from the Canaanite woman's persistence in demanding aid from him. But do the Gospels themselves not tell us that the fully human Jesus, as he grew into his divinity, "increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God" (Luke 2:52)?
We Christian heretics struggle with Scripture and, if need be, reject passages that are in contradiction to the Gospel message. These are passages like the ones about smashing babies' heads against rocks (Ps. 137:9); today we call that "crimes against humanity." Or the ones with instructions on how to set up a harem (Lev. 18:18); my wife won't let me be that biblical. Or even the ones ordering God's people to put disrespectful teenagers to death (Lev. 20:9), although, as the father of two teenagers, I am often tempted to take this passage literally. Note: I'm using humor here.
So what do we do with biblical passages that seem to run counter to the Gospel message of salvation and liberation? We do what Jesus did.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reinterprets the Hebrew Scriptures to bring them in line with the Gospel message, clearly telling his followers to reject those passages that bring subjugation or death to others. Specifically, Jesus said in Matthew: "You heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist evil, but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other (Matt. 5:38-39)." According to Jesus, the biblical mandate of Exodus 21:24, which literally calls for "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," had to be rejected by his followers. In short, Jesus is calling his disciples to renounce a segment of Scripture (a-HA! - this might help me deal with the book of Joshua).
We Christian heretics are those who are thrown to the lions because we refuse to place God and Caesar on the same level. The early martyrs of the faith were persecuted for being "atheists" who refused to believe in Caesar's religion. They recognize that they couldn't serve both God and mammon, for they would end up loving one and hating the other.
Likewise, today's Christian heretics prophesy against a Christianity that fails to challenge our privileged position, but rather justifies the American empire. (So how close is the American flag to the altar in your church?).
We Christian heretics believe the Word of God is inerrant; however, we believe the interpretations given by humans to God's Word are not. Whether they are conservative or liberal, American or liberationist, all interpretations fall short of the glory of God. And if you come across anyone who has Scripture or God all figured out, I suggest that you hold your wallet and soul tightly -- for you are at risk of losing one, if not both.
Just as the religious leaders of Jesus' time crucified him on the charge of blasphemy (Matt. 26:65), so would today's Pharisees crucify him again if given an opportunity. Why? Because they would not recognize him among the dogs he hangs out with, nor would he them (Matt. 7:21-23).
So, yes, I am unapologetically a Christian heretic.
Although I am no Christ, I follow his footsteps with all my heart and mind, using his own form of heresy as my model. Maybe this is how we discover our salvation, through a heresy that refuses to fuse and confuse the interpretations of the American empire with the Word of God.
Now you have to forgive me -- for I am, after all, an ordained Southern Baptist preacher who received his Southern Baptist Theological Seminary diploma from the hands of Bro. Al Mohler himself -- But altar calls are automatic with me. I know most of us have given our hearts to Jesus; now I ask if we are willing to walk down the aisle and give our minds to Jesus. This means that we are willing to read, to question, to wrestle, to struggle, and even to confess we don't have all the answers (and maybe not even some of the answers).
The good news is that Jesus is not afraid of our honest inquiry. He is also patient when we get it wrong (and we all do). The real question here today is if you are willing to be the sister or brother in Christ of a heretic dog like me?
-- Miguel De La Torre is associate professor of social ethics at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver.
March 18, 2009 · (09-39)
David Wilkinson, Executive Director
Robert Marus, Managing Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
Bob Allen, Senior Writer
In this issue
Judge: Controversial home-school ruling hinged on mother's church (582 words)
Evangelical groups protest new religion law in Kyrgyz Republic (615 words)
Church arson investigation brings new charges against former pastor (320 words)
Opinion: Why I am a heretic (1,231 words)
Judge: Controversial home-school ruling hinged on mother's church
By Bob Allen (582 words)
RALEIGH, N.C. (ABP) -- A North Carolina judge, whose recent ruling that a home-schooling mother must send her three children to public school stirred national controversy, said in a written order March 17 that his decision was based largely on concern that the woman's church is a dangerous cult.
Controversy erupted after Wake County Judge Ned Mangum ruled in a divorce case March 6 that Venessa Mills of Raleigh, N.C., must stop home schooling her children and send them to public school.
A March 11 story on the conservative website WorldNetDaily.com quoted Mangum as saying the mother had done a good job at home schooling, but it is time for the children to have a "more well-rounded education" in public school.
The order outraged home-school advocates, who said it violated her parental rights.
A friend of the mother, and a home-schooling mother of four, started a website called Homeschool Injustice to urge supporters to pressure public officials to have Mangum removed from the case.
The story appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer, gained the attention of Focus on the Family's CitizenLink action center and earned a link in the March 13 Drudge Report.
The editor of the North Carolina Baptist newspaper weighed in March 12 with a blog saying the ruling "raises the warning hackles of home-schooling families the nation over."
"I am not one who sees the tentacles of government under every bed, but home schooling has been proven a solid, effective and character-building method of education for the past generation," wrote Biblical Recorder Editor Norman Jameson. Jameson said parents are the best judges of how to educate their children and described Mangum's order as "scary stuff."
In his written court order, however, the judge said the two parents disagree about the children's education, leaving it up to the court to decide what is in the best interest of the minors.
Mangum said Thomas and Venessa Mills were happily married for many years, but the relationship began to change in 2005 when she left the church they attended together to join the Sound Doctrine Church, a Washington state group that witnesses described in sworn affidavits as a "cult."
One witness, a former member of the Sound Doctrine Church, told the court the group is run by fear and manipulation and is not a healthy place for children to grow up.
An online tract for the Sound Doctrine Church says what most churches have is not love, but rather "a thin veneer of polished flattery and token socializing."
"In order for Jesus to give life to our Bible studies, we must allow him to drive nails into our hands and feet," wrote former Sound Doctrine pastor Timothy Williams. "We must permit our very hearts and lives to be taken. If you are not willing to allow this to happen concerning your understanding of the Bible -- indeed, in everything you think you understand -- then you will not enjoy the love at Sound Doctrine Church."
Robyn Williams, the blogger who worked to mobilize support for Venessa Mills, said the wording of the final order is "substantially different" from the judge's earlier verbal ruling and attempted to "destroy the character and credibility" of the mother.
"The whole order is blatantly intended to shift the focus away from the issues of justice regarding home schooling, financial support, and adultery -- and instead use 'shock and awe' tactics to pull attention into a mudslinging free-for-all against Venessa Mills' church and religious beliefs," Williams wrote.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Evangelical groups protest new religion law in Kyrgyz Republic
By Bob Allen (615 words)
(ABP) -- Evangelical leaders in the Kyrgyz Republic are protesting a new religion law they say significantly restricts religious freedom in the officially secular country.
A new law, titled "On the Freedom of Worship and Religious Organizations," took effect Jan. 16. The measure's stated intent is to address concerns about terrorism and other illegal activity by groups posing as religious organizations.
The former Soviet republic's constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the government has largely avoided meddling in religious affairs since the Central Asian country -- formerly called Kyrgyzstan -- gained independence in 1991. In recent years, however, officials have begun to restrict radical Islamic groups considered to be threats to national security.
Evangelical leaders, however, say the law ostensibly aimed at curbing religious extremism goes too far in restricting legitimate religious freedom.
The Evangelical-Christian Churches of the Kyrgyz Republic released an open letter March 15 voicing concern about the new law. The coalition, which includes the Kyrgyz Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, said its members had repeatedly offered suggestions and proposals to government officials that were completely ignored in the new law.
The evangelical groups said the law infringes on religious liberty and contradicts the Kyrgyz Constitution. The leaders highlighted several concerns with the legislation. They include:
-- Its definition of rights and duties of local government to include ensuring "spiritual safety," a concept that evangelical leaders said is "too indistinct" and could open the door to excesses by local officials.
-- Its definition of a "sect" as a religious movement that separates from a confession for "reasons of dogma" in a way that "contradicts the interests of society." Evangelical leaders said the term "sect" has no place in a secular state and puts the government in the position of differentiating between legitimate and unacceptable doctrines.
-- Its ban on the involvement of children in religious organizations. Evangelical leaders said that is the same tactic used during Soviet times to forbid children of believing parents from attending church services, robbing children of religious freedom and denying parents the right to bring up their children according to their beliefs.
-- Its ban on "persistent activities directed at the conversion of believers from other faiths (proselytism)." Evangelical leaders said that flatly contradicts the Kyrgyz Constitution, which says the government will establish no state religion and that individual liberties include the right to change one's religion or belief.
-- Its increase from 10 to 200 the number of members that a religious body must have before it can be officially registered. Evangelical leaders said that, in the past, it was difficult even to ask 10 people to publicly state their creed, because it made them subject to difficulties. Increasing that figure, they said, will make it impossible for many Kyrgyz religious organizations to register and operate legally.
In its current form, evangelical leaders said the law will "cause tension and conflict in local situations," put the republic behind other nations in church-state relations and make it harder for religious organizations to gain or retain registration.
Bordering China in Central Asia, the Kyrgyz Republic is roughly the size of South Dakota. About 80 percent of its 5.3 million citizens are Muslim. Estimates of the Russian Orthodox population range from 11 percent to as low as 8 percent. A small Protestant population includes 48 registered Baptist churches, according to the United States State Department.
Islam is practiced widely in both urban and rural areas around the country, while Orthodoxy is predominantly practiced in Kyrgyz cities with larger ethnic Russian populations. Tensions exist in some rural areas between conservative Muslims and foreign Christian missionaries, as well as members of traditionally Muslim ethnic groups who convert to another religion.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Church arson investigation brings new charges against former pastor
By Bob Allen (320 words)
BELTON, S.C. (ABP) -- A Southern Baptist pastor accused of setting fire to his own church March 8 now faces additional charges of breach of trust and filing a false police statement.
On March 13, sheriff's deputies in South Carolina charged Christopher Patrick Daniels, 40, with making a false report about vandalism at Blue Ridge Baptist Church in Belton, S.C., where he was pastor, the Anderson, S.C., Independent-Mail reported March 16.
The newspaper quoted deputies as saying that Daniels filed four incident reports with the Anderson County Sheriff's Office claiming gang-related vandalism at the church between Dec. 13 and Jan. 23.
Television station WYFF-4 in nearby Greenville, S.C. reported that investigators say the church was vandalized once by someone else in December before Daniels called in four more reports of vandalism, each time filing an insurance claim.
On March 12 the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division announced an additional charge against Daniels of breach of trust with fraudulent intent, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The arrest warrant said Daniels received more than $5,000 belonging to the church for his personal use between Jan. 6 and March 9 of this year.
The new charges are on top of a charge of second-degree arson, a crime that carries a sentence of up to 25 years.
Police arrested Daniels after he reported that he unlocked the church March 8 and found it filled with smoke. It was determined early that the fire was intentionally set after investigators found evidence they said pointed to Daniels.
As of March 16, Daniels was being held at the Anderson County Detention Center in lieu of bonds totaling $40,000, according to the Independent-Mail.
Blue Ridge Baptist Church, formerly known as Triangle Baptist Church, was reportedly Daniels' first congregation, and he had been there less than a year. The church, formed in 1900, is affiliated with the Southern Baptist and South Carolina Baptist conventions.
Bob Allen it is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Opinion: Why I am a heretic
By Miguel De La Torre (1,231 words)
(ABP) -- Yes, I am a heretic -- but then, I'm getting ahead of myself.
As some of you might remember, I recently wrote what turned out to be the most controversial column in the history of Associated Baptist Press. It was based on one of the most difficult passages in the New Testament -- the Gospel story of Jesus calling a woman from another culture a "dog."
Yes, I know that Jesus and the Canaanite woman both probably had the same skin pigmentation. I used the modern label "woman of color" to describe the woman because the Jews of that time thought of themselves as superior to the Canaanites, much the same way some in the dominant culture look down at people of color in today's society.
Not only did it inspire what turned out to be -- by far -- the longest comment thread ever on ABP's site, but it also inspired quite a bit of conversation in the Baptist blogosphere. While, as an educator, there are few things I desire to do more than generate conversation, much of it, in this case, was bombastic.
I was accused, in the story's comment section alone, of "reprehensible" theology, of spouting "theologically dishonest trash," of dragging Jesus Christ into the gutter" and of being "a thorough-going pagan who has no relationship with Jesus." And that was just in the first six of 45 comments!
It was as if I was being called a "dog" (sorry - I couldn't resist the irony).
As I read everything people said about me, I did agree with one accusation I saw repeated several times: that I am a heretic. I am a heretic because I read Scripture for what it says, not what I want it to say. (Never thought being literal would get me into trouble with conservatives and fundamentalists -- go figure..) Scripture states, plainly, that Jesus called this woman a "dog."
Now, to be sure, mine was a "non-traditional" interpretation of this passage. Traditionally -- or, at least, in the 30 or 40 years since white American evangelicals have come to the consensus that racial and ethnic prejudice is sinful -- evangelicals have dispatched with the passage by saying Jesus was simply being sarcastic in calling the Canaanite woman a "dog."
I acknowledge that this is certainly a legitimate way to approach the text. But I don't think the way I approached the text is any less legitimate, nor does my approach take the text less seriously than the "traditional" interpretation. No matter how much we try to explain the passage away, a plain reading of it remains problematic.
And, if you actually read the column carefully, you'll notice I never said Jesus was a racist or a sinner. I simply raised the question. But at the very least, he was tempted, as he was in the desert and as he was in Gethsemane.
Many also thought I was being heretical by implying that Jesus learned something from the Canaanite woman's persistence in demanding aid from him. But do the Gospels themselves not tell us that the fully human Jesus, as he grew into his divinity, "increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God" (Luke 2:52)?
We Christian heretics struggle with Scripture and, if need be, reject passages that are in contradiction to the Gospel message. These are passages like the ones about smashing babies' heads against rocks (Ps. 137:9); today we call that "crimes against humanity." Or the ones with instructions on how to set up a harem (Lev. 18:18); my wife won't let me be that biblical. Or even the ones ordering God's people to put disrespectful teenagers to death (Lev. 20:9), although, as the father of two teenagers, I am often tempted to take this passage literally. Note: I'm using humor here.
So what do we do with biblical passages that seem to run counter to the Gospel message of salvation and liberation? We do what Jesus did.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reinterprets the Hebrew Scriptures to bring them in line with the Gospel message, clearly telling his followers to reject those passages that bring subjugation or death to others. Specifically, Jesus said in Matthew: "You heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist evil, but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other (Matt. 5:38-39)." According to Jesus, the biblical mandate of Exodus 21:24, which literally calls for "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," had to be rejected by his followers. In short, Jesus is calling his disciples to renounce a segment of Scripture (a-HA! - this might help me deal with the book of Joshua).
We Christian heretics are those who are thrown to the lions because we refuse to place God and Caesar on the same level. The early martyrs of the faith were persecuted for being "atheists" who refused to believe in Caesar's religion. They recognize that they couldn't serve both God and mammon, for they would end up loving one and hating the other.
Likewise, today's Christian heretics prophesy against a Christianity that fails to challenge our privileged position, but rather justifies the American empire. (So how close is the American flag to the altar in your church?).
We Christian heretics believe the Word of God is inerrant; however, we believe the interpretations given by humans to God's Word are not. Whether they are conservative or liberal, American or liberationist, all interpretations fall short of the glory of God. And if you come across anyone who has Scripture or God all figured out, I suggest that you hold your wallet and soul tightly -- for you are at risk of losing one, if not both.
Just as the religious leaders of Jesus' time crucified him on the charge of blasphemy (Matt. 26:65), so would today's Pharisees crucify him again if given an opportunity. Why? Because they would not recognize him among the dogs he hangs out with, nor would he them (Matt. 7:21-23).
So, yes, I am unapologetically a Christian heretic.
Although I am no Christ, I follow his footsteps with all my heart and mind, using his own form of heresy as my model. Maybe this is how we discover our salvation, through a heresy that refuses to fuse and confuse the interpretations of the American empire with the Word of God.
Now you have to forgive me -- for I am, after all, an ordained Southern Baptist preacher who received his Southern Baptist Theological Seminary diploma from the hands of Bro. Al Mohler himself -- But altar calls are automatic with me. I know most of us have given our hearts to Jesus; now I ask if we are willing to walk down the aisle and give our minds to Jesus. This means that we are willing to read, to question, to wrestle, to struggle, and even to confess we don't have all the answers (and maybe not even some of the answers).
The good news is that Jesus is not afraid of our honest inquiry. He is also patient when we get it wrong (and we all do). The real question here today is if you are willing to be the sister or brother in Christ of a heretic dog like me?
-- Miguel De La Torre is associate professor of social ethics at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Associated Baptist Press - 3/16/2009
Associated Baptist Press
March 16, 2009 · (09-38)
David Wilkinson, Executive Director
Robert Marus, Managing Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
Bob Allen, Senior Writer
In this issue
Widow of slain pastor says she isn't angry at accused killer (382 words)
Church gathers for worship week after pastor slain (640 words)
Slain Baptist pastor hailed as hero, martyr (729 words)
Gift of $2 million to fund new chapel on Central Seminary campus (409 words)
Widow of slain pastor says she isn't angry at accused killer
By Bob Allen (382 words)
MARYVILLE, Ill. (ABP) -- The widow of slain Baptist pastor Fred Winters says she harbors no anger toward her husband's alleged murderer.
"I do not have any hatred or even hard feelings toward him," Cindy Winters said March 16 on the CBS Early Show. "We have been praying for him."
She said one of the first things her daughter said after the attack was that she hoped the accused gunman, 27-year-old Terry Sedlacek, would somehow come to "love Jesus" because of the experience.
"We are not angry at all," Winters said.
She said she does not have any opinion about what should happen to Sedlacek in the legal system but she hopes that he "finds peace with God."
"I hope that he understands that God loves him in spite of his sin, and he can have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ."
Winters said she and her daughters are holding up well under the circumstances. "I think I'm a great example that prayer works," she said.
Winters said she did not know Sedlacek and had never seen him before, but now she would like to reach out to his parents.
"In some way we have been united through this crisis, and when they are ready I have a desire to meet them and let them know personally that I love them and in some way I feel their pain. I feel like we're united together in our pain."
"The way I was comforted by others, I have a desire to comfort them."
Winters said she is grateful that neither she nor either of her daughters was in the early service March 8 during the attack. She said she attends the second of the church's three regular morning worship services and had not yet left home. Her older daughter was at church, but helping out in the nursery.
"None of us, fortunately, were in the service to experience what happened, and I am so grateful to God for that," she said.
She also said she knows that coping with her loss is going to be a long process. "I know that the same way God got me through last Sunday, he's going to get me through the next week and he is going to get me through the next 10 years," she said.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Church gathers for worship week after pastor slain
By Bob Allen (640 words)
MARYVILLE, Ill. (ABP) -- One of a select fraternity of pastors who has experienced a church shooting consoled and challenged an Illinois Baptist congregation one week after its popular pastor was fatally shot while preaching his Sunday sermon..
"You are the most prayed-for church in all of Christendom this morning," Al Meredith, pastor of Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, told worshipers in one of three morning worship services March 15 at First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill.
Meredith delivered the sermon from the pulpit where 45-year-old Pastor Fred Winters' life was cut short March 8, when Terry Joe Sedlacek, 27, of nearby Troy, Ill., killed Winters with a gunshot wound to the heart. No motive for the shooting has been revealed, but Sedlacek's family claims he is mentally ill.
Meredith's church suffered similar violence nearly a decade ago, when 47-year-old Larry Gene Ashbrook interrupted a youth prayer service with gunfire that killed seven and wounded seven others. Meredith warned the Illinois congregation it is "heading into uncharted waters" in dealing with the aftermath of the tragedy. He said the old hymn line, "every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before" is "baloney."
"Every day with Jesus is not sweeter than the day before," he said. "Some days are evil days, and last Sunday was an evil day."
Still, he said, the message of the gospel is, "there is hope in this violent world."
"That's why the media are so eager to hear your story, because it's so unique," he said. "We live in a hopeless world."
Describing in detail events of Sept. 15, 1999, that turned Wedgwood Baptist Church into "a killing field for a hopeless madman," Meredith said one question asked during an initial press conference was if there is anywhere in society that is safe.
"Of course not," Meredith said. "We live in a hostile world. The only real place of safety is in the center of God's will." But even that, he said, does not guarantee against untimely death.
Another question Meredith said he received was, "where was God?" when the shooting took place.
"God is exactly were he was when his own dear son was cruelly tortured and murdered," he said. "He is a parent who knows what it's like to lose his only son."
Meredith said God is in control and gives Christians who struggle the ability to get through when they need it.
He also said there are members of his church who are still having counseling nearly 10 years after the tragedy. He warned the Maryville congregation to reach out for help and avoid the "phoniness" of claiming "victory in Jesus" and going it alone.
"Get help from the body of Christ," he advised. "We are still struggling."
Meredith said the Wedgwood tragedy gave him numerous opportunities to share a Christian witness through the mass media.
"God has given us hope and peace in the face of life's worst tragedies," he said. "God gives a peace that the world doesn't understand."
On the other hand, Meredith said, tragedy can cause doubt.
"Faith is not having no doubts," he said. "In fact, faith necessitates doubt."
It's one thing to believe in God when everything makes sense, he said. It's when "God pushes into the abyss where it doesn't make sense" that faith comes into play.
"You don't really have faith until you're pushed beyond your controls," Meredith said. "Most of you are control freaks, and you want to have all your ducks in a row, and last week your ducks all fell apart."
Meredith challenged the Maryville congregation "it is time to put up or shut up" about their faith.
"You are what you are under pressure," he said. "If you squeeze an orange, you don't get Dr Pepper.... When you're squeezed, what's on the inside is what comes out."
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Slain Baptist pastor hailed as hero, martyr
By Bob Allen (729 words)
MARYVILLE, Ill. (ABP) -- A fellow pastor and former church member hailed slain Baptist preacher Fred Winters as a "hero and a martyr" at a memorial service at First Baptist Church of Maryville, Ill., March 13.
"I believe with all my heart Pastor Fred died as a hero and a martyr," Tim Cowin, pastor of the The Rock Church in nearby St. Louis, said of his friend of more than 20 years, who was struck down by a gunman's bullet while preaching from the same pulpit March 8.
Without going into detail Cowin said, "Because Fred acted last Sunday, many lives were spared."
"A martyr is a person who is killed for his faith," Cowin said, adding that Winters "died the way he lived his life, in the midst of service to his King Jesus."
Cowin said a martyr is also someone whose death is a witness to the Christian faith.
Cowin said he does not know why God would allow his friend to die, but that already God was using the tragedy to "raise people to a higher level" of Christian witness.
Winters' widow, Cindy, said she met her future husband when she was 14. "We grew older together, but he never grew up," she said of the fun-loving pastor, husband and father.
She said Winters used to leave chocolate for her in her purse and at night would snuggle with her and ask how he could pray for her.
"He loved being a pastor," she told a packed sanctuary. "He had a pastor's heart. When you hurt, he hurt. When you were happy, he was happy."
"I never heard him once get sick of it," she said. "He loved you guys, and he would be proud of you."
She said Winters would be angry if people put too much attention on him. "The best way we can honor him is by honoring God," she said.
"Fred and I have been talking a lot about how God is on the verge of doing incredible things through this congregation," she said.
"Satan knew it, too, but nothing's changed."
"I refuse to let Satan win," she said. "He's not going to steal my joy. He's not going to steal my passion. I'm not going to hate, and I want to carry out the mission of this church."
"I'm not going to survive this thing," she said. "I'm going to become a better person because of this thing."
Fred Winters was born Dec. 4, 1963, in Kansas City, Mo., and felt the call to ministry while in high school. He and Cindy Lee Jackson were married in 1987. They have two daughters, Alysia, 13, and Cassidy, 11.
He graduated from Southwest Baptist University in 1985 and earned a master's degree from Wheaton Graduate School in 1987. He earned a master of divinity degree from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1991 and went on to receive a doctor of ministry degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Winters came to First Baptist Church in Maryville when the church consisted of just a few families. Today membership has grown to 1,400 and a weekly average of 1,200 people attend worship services. In 2007 Fred and Cindy Winters celebrated both 20 years of marriage and 20 years of service at First Baptist Church.
Adam Cruise, a former staff member at First Baptist Church in Maryville who now leads a church of his own, told mourners that his mentor would not want his death to result in discouragement or defeat. Rather he borrowed an illustration from a World War II story -- something that Winters often did -- to challenge the church to carry on its mission.
"Let the future generation of First Baptist Church, Maryville, look back on this generation and this moment and say this was our finest hour," he said.
Terry Sedlacek, the 27-year-old gunman charged with murder and aggravated battery in Winters' death, was released March 12 from the hospital where he was treated for self-inflicted stab wounds. When they searched his home in nearby Troy, Ill., police seized a planning calendar with March 8 marked "death day."
Cindy Winters read a message from her daughters at the memorial service saying "it was not death day for my daddy" but rather "the best day of his life."
"On Sunday my husband did not die," Winters said. "He just simply got a promotion."
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Gift of $2 million to fund chapel for new Central Seminary campus
By Robert Marus(409 words)
SHAWNEE, Kan. (ABP) -- Central Baptist Theological Seminary will be able to build a chapel on its new Shawnee, Kan., campus thanks to a $2 million gift from a prominent Baptist family foundation.
The John and Eula Mae Baugh Foundation of San Antonio pledged the money toward the seminary's $8 million "Cultivating Excellence" campaign, school officials announced March 12. The gift from the foundation -- which has provided support to several moderate and progressive Baptist organizations, including Associated Baptist Press -- brings total pledges in the campaign to $6.2 million.
It will fund Central's proposed Baugh-Marshall Chapel. The building's name follows Baugh Foundation practice in memorializing the charity's founders and honoring the president of the institution to which the building is donated, in this case Central President Molly Marshall.
"I am humbled by the generosity of the Baugh family," Marshall said, according to a school press release. "The prospect of having my name linked with theirs is a signal honor for me."
In a move designed to cut high maintenance costs, the 107-year-old seminary announced in 2006 that it would sell sell its historic campus in nearby Kansas City, Kan. It purchased and remodeled a former church facility in Kansas City's fast-growing southwestern suburbs, turning it into classroom, office and library space. The chapel will provide dedicated worship and meeting space on the Shawnee campus.
Other portions of the capital campaign include endowing faculty chairmanships, upgrading Central's library, providing housing for international students and visiting scholars and expanding the school's technological capabilities.
"With this pledge, every component of the campaign has received a pledge," said the seminary statement. "In the current financial climate it truly is an amazing gift and a wonderful affirmation of the mission of Central."
School officials indicated construction on the Baugh-Marshall Chapel would begin this summer or fall. Spokesperson Robin Sandbothe said March 16 that architectural renderings were not yet available for the building because "before this gift, we didn't know we'd get to begin building it so soon."
The seminary has, historically, been affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. While it remains so, Central describes itself as also being "in full support of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship." The school has hosted increasing numbers of students from moderate Southern Baptist backgrounds in recent years as fundamentalists solidified control at the official Southern Baptist divinity schools, including Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.
Central also includes students from approximately 20 other denominational backgrounds.
Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.
March 16, 2009 · (09-38)
David Wilkinson, Executive Director
Robert Marus, Managing Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
Bob Allen, Senior Writer
In this issue
Widow of slain pastor says she isn't angry at accused killer (382 words)
Church gathers for worship week after pastor slain (640 words)
Slain Baptist pastor hailed as hero, martyr (729 words)
Gift of $2 million to fund new chapel on Central Seminary campus (409 words)
Widow of slain pastor says she isn't angry at accused killer
By Bob Allen (382 words)
MARYVILLE, Ill. (ABP) -- The widow of slain Baptist pastor Fred Winters says she harbors no anger toward her husband's alleged murderer.
"I do not have any hatred or even hard feelings toward him," Cindy Winters said March 16 on the CBS Early Show. "We have been praying for him."
She said one of the first things her daughter said after the attack was that she hoped the accused gunman, 27-year-old Terry Sedlacek, would somehow come to "love Jesus" because of the experience.
"We are not angry at all," Winters said.
She said she does not have any opinion about what should happen to Sedlacek in the legal system but she hopes that he "finds peace with God."
"I hope that he understands that God loves him in spite of his sin, and he can have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ."
Winters said she and her daughters are holding up well under the circumstances. "I think I'm a great example that prayer works," she said.
Winters said she did not know Sedlacek and had never seen him before, but now she would like to reach out to his parents.
"In some way we have been united through this crisis, and when they are ready I have a desire to meet them and let them know personally that I love them and in some way I feel their pain. I feel like we're united together in our pain."
"The way I was comforted by others, I have a desire to comfort them."
Winters said she is grateful that neither she nor either of her daughters was in the early service March 8 during the attack. She said she attends the second of the church's three regular morning worship services and had not yet left home. Her older daughter was at church, but helping out in the nursery.
"None of us, fortunately, were in the service to experience what happened, and I am so grateful to God for that," she said.
She also said she knows that coping with her loss is going to be a long process. "I know that the same way God got me through last Sunday, he's going to get me through the next week and he is going to get me through the next 10 years," she said.
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Church gathers for worship week after pastor slain
By Bob Allen (640 words)
MARYVILLE, Ill. (ABP) -- One of a select fraternity of pastors who has experienced a church shooting consoled and challenged an Illinois Baptist congregation one week after its popular pastor was fatally shot while preaching his Sunday sermon..
"You are the most prayed-for church in all of Christendom this morning," Al Meredith, pastor of Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, told worshipers in one of three morning worship services March 15 at First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill.
Meredith delivered the sermon from the pulpit where 45-year-old Pastor Fred Winters' life was cut short March 8, when Terry Joe Sedlacek, 27, of nearby Troy, Ill., killed Winters with a gunshot wound to the heart. No motive for the shooting has been revealed, but Sedlacek's family claims he is mentally ill.
Meredith's church suffered similar violence nearly a decade ago, when 47-year-old Larry Gene Ashbrook interrupted a youth prayer service with gunfire that killed seven and wounded seven others. Meredith warned the Illinois congregation it is "heading into uncharted waters" in dealing with the aftermath of the tragedy. He said the old hymn line, "every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before" is "baloney."
"Every day with Jesus is not sweeter than the day before," he said. "Some days are evil days, and last Sunday was an evil day."
Still, he said, the message of the gospel is, "there is hope in this violent world."
"That's why the media are so eager to hear your story, because it's so unique," he said. "We live in a hopeless world."
Describing in detail events of Sept. 15, 1999, that turned Wedgwood Baptist Church into "a killing field for a hopeless madman," Meredith said one question asked during an initial press conference was if there is anywhere in society that is safe.
"Of course not," Meredith said. "We live in a hostile world. The only real place of safety is in the center of God's will." But even that, he said, does not guarantee against untimely death.
Another question Meredith said he received was, "where was God?" when the shooting took place.
"God is exactly were he was when his own dear son was cruelly tortured and murdered," he said. "He is a parent who knows what it's like to lose his only son."
Meredith said God is in control and gives Christians who struggle the ability to get through when they need it.
He also said there are members of his church who are still having counseling nearly 10 years after the tragedy. He warned the Maryville congregation to reach out for help and avoid the "phoniness" of claiming "victory in Jesus" and going it alone.
"Get help from the body of Christ," he advised. "We are still struggling."
Meredith said the Wedgwood tragedy gave him numerous opportunities to share a Christian witness through the mass media.
"God has given us hope and peace in the face of life's worst tragedies," he said. "God gives a peace that the world doesn't understand."
On the other hand, Meredith said, tragedy can cause doubt.
"Faith is not having no doubts," he said. "In fact, faith necessitates doubt."
It's one thing to believe in God when everything makes sense, he said. It's when "God pushes into the abyss where it doesn't make sense" that faith comes into play.
"You don't really have faith until you're pushed beyond your controls," Meredith said. "Most of you are control freaks, and you want to have all your ducks in a row, and last week your ducks all fell apart."
Meredith challenged the Maryville congregation "it is time to put up or shut up" about their faith.
"You are what you are under pressure," he said. "If you squeeze an orange, you don't get Dr Pepper.... When you're squeezed, what's on the inside is what comes out."
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Slain Baptist pastor hailed as hero, martyr
By Bob Allen (729 words)
MARYVILLE, Ill. (ABP) -- A fellow pastor and former church member hailed slain Baptist preacher Fred Winters as a "hero and a martyr" at a memorial service at First Baptist Church of Maryville, Ill., March 13.
"I believe with all my heart Pastor Fred died as a hero and a martyr," Tim Cowin, pastor of the The Rock Church in nearby St. Louis, said of his friend of more than 20 years, who was struck down by a gunman's bullet while preaching from the same pulpit March 8.
Without going into detail Cowin said, "Because Fred acted last Sunday, many lives were spared."
"A martyr is a person who is killed for his faith," Cowin said, adding that Winters "died the way he lived his life, in the midst of service to his King Jesus."
Cowin said a martyr is also someone whose death is a witness to the Christian faith.
Cowin said he does not know why God would allow his friend to die, but that already God was using the tragedy to "raise people to a higher level" of Christian witness.
Winters' widow, Cindy, said she met her future husband when she was 14. "We grew older together, but he never grew up," she said of the fun-loving pastor, husband and father.
She said Winters used to leave chocolate for her in her purse and at night would snuggle with her and ask how he could pray for her.
"He loved being a pastor," she told a packed sanctuary. "He had a pastor's heart. When you hurt, he hurt. When you were happy, he was happy."
"I never heard him once get sick of it," she said. "He loved you guys, and he would be proud of you."
She said Winters would be angry if people put too much attention on him. "The best way we can honor him is by honoring God," she said.
"Fred and I have been talking a lot about how God is on the verge of doing incredible things through this congregation," she said.
"Satan knew it, too, but nothing's changed."
"I refuse to let Satan win," she said. "He's not going to steal my joy. He's not going to steal my passion. I'm not going to hate, and I want to carry out the mission of this church."
"I'm not going to survive this thing," she said. "I'm going to become a better person because of this thing."
Fred Winters was born Dec. 4, 1963, in Kansas City, Mo., and felt the call to ministry while in high school. He and Cindy Lee Jackson were married in 1987. They have two daughters, Alysia, 13, and Cassidy, 11.
He graduated from Southwest Baptist University in 1985 and earned a master's degree from Wheaton Graduate School in 1987. He earned a master of divinity degree from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1991 and went on to receive a doctor of ministry degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Winters came to First Baptist Church in Maryville when the church consisted of just a few families. Today membership has grown to 1,400 and a weekly average of 1,200 people attend worship services. In 2007 Fred and Cindy Winters celebrated both 20 years of marriage and 20 years of service at First Baptist Church.
Adam Cruise, a former staff member at First Baptist Church in Maryville who now leads a church of his own, told mourners that his mentor would not want his death to result in discouragement or defeat. Rather he borrowed an illustration from a World War II story -- something that Winters often did -- to challenge the church to carry on its mission.
"Let the future generation of First Baptist Church, Maryville, look back on this generation and this moment and say this was our finest hour," he said.
Terry Sedlacek, the 27-year-old gunman charged with murder and aggravated battery in Winters' death, was released March 12 from the hospital where he was treated for self-inflicted stab wounds. When they searched his home in nearby Troy, Ill., police seized a planning calendar with March 8 marked "death day."
Cindy Winters read a message from her daughters at the memorial service saying "it was not death day for my daddy" but rather "the best day of his life."
"On Sunday my husband did not die," Winters said. "He just simply got a promotion."
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
Gift of $2 million to fund chapel for new Central Seminary campus
By Robert Marus(409 words)
SHAWNEE, Kan. (ABP) -- Central Baptist Theological Seminary will be able to build a chapel on its new Shawnee, Kan., campus thanks to a $2 million gift from a prominent Baptist family foundation.
The John and Eula Mae Baugh Foundation of San Antonio pledged the money toward the seminary's $8 million "Cultivating Excellence" campaign, school officials announced March 12. The gift from the foundation -- which has provided support to several moderate and progressive Baptist organizations, including Associated Baptist Press -- brings total pledges in the campaign to $6.2 million.
It will fund Central's proposed Baugh-Marshall Chapel. The building's name follows Baugh Foundation practice in memorializing the charity's founders and honoring the president of the institution to which the building is donated, in this case Central President Molly Marshall.
"I am humbled by the generosity of the Baugh family," Marshall said, according to a school press release. "The prospect of having my name linked with theirs is a signal honor for me."
In a move designed to cut high maintenance costs, the 107-year-old seminary announced in 2006 that it would sell sell its historic campus in nearby Kansas City, Kan. It purchased and remodeled a former church facility in Kansas City's fast-growing southwestern suburbs, turning it into classroom, office and library space. The chapel will provide dedicated worship and meeting space on the Shawnee campus.
Other portions of the capital campaign include endowing faculty chairmanships, upgrading Central's library, providing housing for international students and visiting scholars and expanding the school's technological capabilities.
"With this pledge, every component of the campaign has received a pledge," said the seminary statement. "In the current financial climate it truly is an amazing gift and a wonderful affirmation of the mission of Central."
School officials indicated construction on the Baugh-Marshall Chapel would begin this summer or fall. Spokesperson Robin Sandbothe said March 16 that architectural renderings were not yet available for the building because "before this gift, we didn't know we'd get to begin building it so soon."
The seminary has, historically, been affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. While it remains so, Central describes itself as also being "in full support of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship." The school has hosted increasing numbers of students from moderate Southern Baptist backgrounds in recent years as fundamentalists solidified control at the official Southern Baptist divinity schools, including Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.
Central also includes students from approximately 20 other denominational backgrounds.
Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.
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