Posted: 5/09/08

DOWN HOME:
Her world grows & also shrinks

We’re breathing easier at our house these days. Molly, our youngest daughter, returned home after studying in Europe for a semester.

Back when I was in college, I thought “suffering for Jesus” as a summer missionary in Colorado was pretty exotic. I never dreamed of spending a semester overseas.

But Baylor University’s international studies program figured large when Molly evaluated where to go to college. And thanks to scholarships and variations in tuition, she wound up studying at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands for not much more than the cost of a normal semester in Waco. So, her dream became a reality.

Joanna and I watched from afar. Through the semester, we traded instant messages online and even talked through Skype, a telephone program that works on my laptop computer. We monitored Facebook for new pictures of our darlin’ daughter in exotic places.

The quality of studying overseas multiplies the more students travel and experience various cultures and societies. Maastricht filled the bill for Molly, our family’s world citizen.

A few days after they arrived in the Netherlands, the entire Baylor group took a trip to Istanbul, Turkey. OK, I was nervous, but my prayer life picked up.

Once the semester started, the kids went to school four days a week and traveled during long weekends. Truth be told, I probably enjoyed hearing about Molly’s journeys about as much as she enjoyed actually taking them.

Every Sunday, I awaited news from her destinations—Prague, Berlin, The Hague, Bruges, Amsterdam, some little town in eastern France, Interlaken, Paris. Some parents live vicariously through their children’s athletic or musical prowess. Me, I just got a kick out of hearing where my kid visited over the weekend.

When their studies ended, the students spent a month backpacking over Europe. So, the variety and pace of reports quickened—Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, Porto, Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, some little town in southern France, Cinque Terra, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Athens, Santorini.

When she got home, Molly showed us pictures. We spent an entire evening on the couch, reliving her semester, trip by trip. I inadvertently revealed my low-browness when I acknowledged my jealousy peaked at the wrong time—not when she saw the “Mona Lisa” or visited St. Peter’s Basilica, but when she sledded down the Swiss Alps at night.

The world became both larger and smaller for Molly this semester. She experienced a dizzying array of complex cultures but also got to know real human beings in strange and far-off places.

I thank God Molly got to see so much of the world. And I thank God for bringing her home.

Posted: 5/09/08

EDITORIAL:
Why can’t we all disagree agreeably?

You probably aren’t surprised to learn we get a lot of mail here at the Baptist Standard. For generations, Baptists have interpreted their foundational doctrines—soul competency and the priesthood of all believers—to embrace a corollary: the right to write a letter to the editor. That’s good. Soul competency and individual priesthood affirm God’s grace in the life of each Christian. So, we expect to learn from each other as grace works in our lives. And even when we read letters with which we disagree, at least we learn about others’ perspectives. At the Standard, we also value letters to the editor because we value our fellowship with the believers who write them.

An occupational hazard of being a newspaper editor is receiving mail from people who think you’re (a) dumb, (b) mistaken, (c) doing a crummy job, (d) preparing to roast in hell or (e) all of the above. Readers never see the majority of those letters, because people who set out to prove points (a) through (e) usually blow past the Standard’s 250-word limit before they even get warmed up. Then, by the time I offer to publish a condensed letter, they’ve calmed down and don’t feel compelled to condemn me to a fate worse than death.

While I hate to admit it, I’m lousy at predicting what will set readers off. (One exception: Anything about worship music generates tons of mail.) When I fret, nothing happens. Then, when an “innocuous” edition comes out, the letters pour.

Those are the weeks when friends offer sympathy, but I tell them I’ve got it easy compared to pastors. Readers can take me to task, but they live elsewhere, and I worship in the company of my friends. But a pastor gets criticism and then has to stand in the pulpit on Sunday and see the faces of the folks who are after him. Now, that’s a challenge, and it’s a pity more people don’t appreciate how hard it is.

Lately, I’ve been increasingly bothered by a trend in letters to the editor, church relationships and public discussion in general. We can’t disagree agreeably.

Theoretically, people should be able to express different opinions and still get along. In practice, however, cordial disagreement is the exception rather than the rule. Confronted with a contrary opinion, people go from placid to mad faster than you can shout, “You’re an idiot!”

Denies our heritage

Across society, this reflects a dangerous breakdown of civility. In the church, it undermines unity. Among Baptists, it denies our heritage.

Civility glues democracies together. That’s why our haste to anger and inability to remain civil imperils the nation. For example, witness the rampant partisanship of Congress. Incivility impedes our lawmakers’ ability to find solutions to our worst problems.

The night before he was crucified, Jesus prayed that the church, his followers, might be unified. Jesus clearly saw Christian unity as the outward testimony of his mission to express God’s love to a hurting world. His logic is simple: How will the world know God loves them if Christians can’t love each other? Yet when Christians fight each other and congregations split apart, the world doesn’t see a symbol of God’s love, but just another group whose practices are like worldly organizations, only more vicious. Our incivility belies our witness.

Value disagreement

Baptists, of all Christians, ought to value disagreement. Remember soul competency and the priesthood of all believers? For 399 years, Baptists have been champions of religious dissent—not, as some may think, because we like to argue, but because we believe God entitles each person to an opinion. And when we’re at our Baptist-best, even when we disagree, we listen for the voice of God in the one who vocalizes another opinion.

May we be free to speak, quick to hear and slow to judge. If Baptists lead the way to civil disagreement, our nation will be stronger, our churches healthier and our witness more credible.

Posted: 5/09/08

New HPU lectureship weds evangelism to ethics

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

BROWNWOOD—Evangelism and ethics both grow out of a vibrant relationship with the God who is love, speakers told participants at the inaugural Currie-Strickland Distinguished Lectures in Christian Ethics at Howard Payne University.

People cannot fully come to know God apart from the Bible, but they cannot really know the Bible apart from God, said David Sapp, pastor of Second-Ponce de Leon Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga.

“If God breathed it, how can we possibly understand it apart from knowing him?” Sapp asked.

Proper understanding of Scripture and application of its teachings in daily life require disciples to seek the mind of God, he said. Sapp suggested three themes that help Christians interpret Scripture—love, covenant and conquest of fear.

“Love is key to understanding the mind and heart of God,” he said.

But determining the most loving thing to do in the midst of any circumstance proves difficult, he acknowledged. Consequently, many Christians retreat to a rule-based ethic and treat the Bible as a “moral and ethical encyclopedia” from which they pluck isolated verses—usually ones that reinforce their own opinions and prejudices, he added.

God demonstrated his love through covenant relationships, and covenant serves as an interpretive key for reading Scripture, Sapp noted.

“Without commitment, there is no covenant,” he said. “Covenant commitment is an obligation, not just of contract, but of relationship.”

Covenant finds its expression in community, Sapp noted. In the Old Testament, God established covenant with Israel as a people, not strictly with individuals. While the New Covenant has more individual expression, he observed, it still offers invitation to enter into a larger community as part of the kingdom of God.

“Sin is social and not just personal,” he said.

Much sin grows out of fear, and “defeat of fear is part of the agenda of God,” Sapp said. “Much of our sin has its genesis in fear. Fear is fertile soil for evil.”

Both ethics and evangelism express God’s love, said Richard Jackson, director of the Jackson Center for Evangelism and Encouragement and pastor emeritus of North Phoenix Baptist Church in Phoenix, Ariz.

“Evangelism is born in the heart of a God of love,” Jackson said. From the earliest passage in Genesis and throughout the Bible, Scriptures testify to God’s loving pursuit of spiritually lost men and women.

“Jesus Christ didn’t come to heal the sick, or he would have healed them all. He didn’t come to feed the hungry, or he would have fed them all,” Jackson said. “He came to seek and save the lost. He healed the sick and fed the hungry because of who he is.”

Likewise, Christians today evangelize because Christ gave them that assignment, he said. Christians meet needs and seek justice because of who they are.

“Because Jesus lives in me, I will reach out to help those who are hurting,” he said.

Evangelism and ethics—“winning people to Jesus and wanting people to act like it”—bring Baptists together, noted Jimmy Allen, former denominational executive and recent coordinator of the New Baptist Covenant celebration in Atlanta.

Allen recalled his experiences as pastor of First Baptist Church in San Antonio, leading a church with a historic commitment to missions and evangelism to recognize ethical challenges and injustices in their own community.

At the downtown San Antonio church, Allen noted, people already possessed the necessary desire. They just needed to be challenged.

“A church will follow the vision of its pastor if the pastor has a passion for it,” he said.

But in some churches, he added, members must be shaken from their complacency and challenged to look beyond the four walls of the church building to see community needs.

“The moribund church never looks outside its windows except to see if the grass is mowed,” he said.

Gary and Molli Elliston of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas established the Currie-Strickland lectures in honor of David Currie, executive director of Texas Baptists Committed, and in memory of Phil Strickland, longtime director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ Christian Life Commission.

Posted: 5/09/08

IN FOCUS:
Hopeful conversations across Texas

It has been a privilege for me to travel throughout much of Texas during the last month and see God at work in many of our churches and institutions.

I had the opportunity to meet with more than 1,000 of our pastors and numerous leaders of our institutions. I have been on the campuses of several of our universities, met with more than 90 percent of our directors of missions, been engaged in conversations with some of our Baptist Student Ministry directors and interns, and preached in several of our churches. I was privileged to attend the annual Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas meeting, the Hispanic preaching conference and the minister of education retreat. In each situation, there was a spirit of optimism and a desire to work together in our kingdom assignment.

Missions, evangelism and discipleship (through Sunday school or other small groups) were at the heart of the conversations. Questions were raised about what we need to do to better reflect the ethnic diversity of Texas and how to allow Texas Baptists 35 years old and younger to become more involved in the leadership of our churches. A strong loyalty to our schools and agencies was expressed from alumni and families who had been directly affected by BGCT partners.

Some misconceptions were addressed. Our recent reduction of budget led to the belief that giving through the BGCT Cooperative Program was declining. Fortunately, that is not true. At the end of April, our gifts through the Texas CP were slightly ahead of last year. The majority of BGCT operating funds comes from two sources—Cooperative Program giving from BGCT churches and investment income from funds provided over the years through faithful Texas Baptists. The 2008 BGCT budget called for an increase in CP giving of about $3.4 million, or 8.5 percent. It also projected the use of $6.8 million in investment funds, which is $1.9 million beyond the level called for by a new state regulation that went into effect this year. As a result, we anticipate BGCT budget income about $5.3 million less than what was projected. I’m hopeful the trend of increased giving will continue so we can approach the 2009 budget realistically and hopefully.

Another misconception is that we give to the Cooperative Program. Russell Dilday reminded the Future Focus Committee that we give through, not to, the Cooperative Program. Churches determine how they choose to support missions and ministry and then channel the gifts through the BGCT. As a Texas Baptist family, we decide how these dollars need to be directed for our kingdom work.

A new initiative, Texas Hope 2010, has been shared in these meetings. It is our desire to share the hope of Christ with every person in Texas within their own language and context by Resurrection Sunday 2010. This is the most important assignment we have as Texas Baptists. It will take all of us to fulfill this challenge. Let’s equip our children, youth and adults to begin to pray, care and share so that the lost of our state will experience the love of Christ.

Posted: 5/09/08

Abilene church leads drive
to sweeten ministry to troops in Iraq

By George Henson

Staff Writer

ABILENE—Pioneer Drive Baptist Church in Abilene is spearheading what has become a communitywide drive to help sweeten a chaplain’s ministry to troops in Iraq.

Capt. Matthew Van Hook, a battalion chaplain, is seeking to give troops a welcoming place to find respite —a coffeehouse at Camp Taji called the Mud House.

“This has been a good ministry because it allows me and the other chaplains to reach a lot of soldiers that normally do not attend our services,” Van Hook wrote in an e-mail. “I’ve done a lot of relationship building with Wiccans, heathens, atheists and nominal Christians at the Mud House.“

To help Van Hook with his ministry, Pioneer Drive Baptist began a campaign that has grown far beyond what the church could do alone. Businesses, churches and individuals throughout Abilene are collecting 25,000 pounds of candy bars and M&M candies.

The chaplains not only will give candy to the soldiers for their own enjoyment, but also will provide them quick means of introducing themselves to the Iraqis in the villages they enter.

“When they go into these villages, they can give out this candy to the children and their families to show they are friendly and want to have a good relationship,” said Randy Perkins, minister of missions at Pioneer Drive.

In the first week of the drive, the campaign received more than 3,000 pounds of donated candy.

“I can’t tell you how much the community is behind this,” Perkins said. “It’s pretty neat the way it has taken off.”

Van Hook’s family lives in Abilene. Prior to volunteering for service in Iraq, he had been pastor of Noodle Baptist Church near Abilene, and he served Pioneer Drive as minister of missions from 1996 to 2005.

In addition to the candy, T-shirts with the Mud House logo are being sold throughout Abilene for $10. The shirts then are printed, shipped to Iraq and given to soldiers. Each person who purchases a shirt also writes a note that will accompany it.

Chaplain Van Hook hopes word about the coffeehouse will spread to other units that deplaoy to Iraq.

“It’s amazing to read some of these cards. Sunday, a kindergarten class purchased a T-shirt and wrote, ‘From the kindergarten class to our heroes.’ Most of them couldn’t write their names, but they did the best they could. It was so good,” Perkins said.

Organizers set a goal of selling 1,000 shirts. They sold 500 in just the first week, Perkins noted.

The shirts could prove pivotal to the Mud House’s success as a ministry, Van Hook said. “We think the way to preserve this ministry through multiple deployments by different units is to make it famous. The T-shirts play a pivotal role in doing that,” Van Hook wrote. “When soldiers redeploy and wear their Mud House T-shirts at their particular garrison, the word spreads to units who may be deploying to Taji.”

For Perkins, the notes that go along with the shirts are just as important. He feels it is so important, he hopes the idea will catch on in churches and communities across the state.

“We’d love for every church in the state to pick a troop or a brigade or whatever they can handle to tell these kids how much they are loved and appreciated,” Perkins said. “If they’ll call us, I’d love to tell them how easy this is to do.”

Perkins can be reached at (325) 437-1337.

Posted: 5/09/08

Texas Baptist Forum

Climate change

Thank you for printing John Christy’s excellent article on global warming (April 28). As a climate scientist, he is in a position to expose much of the overreaching we see on the subject—the bulldozer approach to rushing us all into acceptance of Al Gore’s brainchild.

• Jump to online-only letters below

Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.

“We deplore those who are led astray—those Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists, evangelicals, Pentecostals and many others who cut Christ’s robes like bandits, who are like the soldiers who crucified Christ, who ripped apart Christ's holy coat.” Aleksei D. Zorin Chief Russian Orthodox priest in Stary Oskol, Russia, in a televised sermon that denounced Protestant “sects” (New York Times/RNS) “Whenever we see euphemisms in use, we can know that something morally dubious is going on. Torture is not ‘torture’; it is ‘enhanced interrogation.’ Genocide is not ‘murder’; it is ‘special treatment’ or ‘ethnic cleansing.’ And a developing human being in its first stages is not a ‘baby’ but a ‘potential life.’” David Gushee Ethics professor at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology (ABP) “To avoid misunderstandings I would like to say: I was atheist and I stay atheist.” Mikhail Gorbachev Former Soviet leader, debunking rumors he converted to Catholicism (RNS)

There have been many articles and essays on the need to go slow on trying to control climate change. In a recent edition of the Wall Street Journal, Steven Hayward, author of the annual “Index of Leading Environmental Indicators,” demonstrates the mathematical chances for reaching the 80 percent reduction in emissions by 2050 being pushed by the major presidential candidates and the environmental lobby. In short, it ain’t gonna happen, and wishing won’t make it so.

Ken Boren

Rowlett

Biofuels & the poor

Global warming is a catastrophe, but not in the sense that so many think. The catastrophe is that so many “experts” did not foresee or care about the damage that biofuels would have on the world’s poorest.

Taking food such as corn and turning it into fuel when so many in the world already struggle to survive because of lack of food is a bad idea.

The global food price index has risen 40 percent this year. Now we have a worldwide food shortage and high prices causing more starvation.

United Nations expert Jean Ziegler calls the present situation “a crime against humanity” and is calling for a five-year moratorium on biofuels until ethics and science can catch up with each other.

Two hundred thirty-two kilos of corn produce 50 liters of ethanol—not much. The same 232 kilos of corn can feed a poor child for a year.

The Christian response calls for us to petition for the poor and stop using food for biofuels. Anything less is evil.

Jean Whitmore

Okinawa, Japan

Capital punishment

I wish I were so confident I would be able to know for sure what Jesus would oppose and what he would support were Jesus a member of today’s U.S. Supreme Court. Would Jesus be more in opposition to the death penalty or legal abortions? 

The number of innocents wrongly convicted and executed, and yes, even the number of guilty who are executed, is very small when compared to the number of babies killed by abortion. Which would Jesus be most likely to speak out against? 

I suspect no one knows for sure. After all, didn’t God allow the political powers of the time to execute his own innocent son? 

Does the commandment the editorial writer chose to apply to his argument against executions (April 28) state, “Thou shall not kill” or “Thou shall not murder” in the earliest known languages?

Mac McFatter

Semmes, Ala.

Intrigued by Calvinism articles

I’m no theologian, but I was intrigued by the package of articles on Calvinism (April 28).

Ironically, today’s entry in My Utmost for His Highest says, in part: “When we become simply a promoter or a defender of a particular belief, something within us dies. That is not believing God—it is only believing our belief about him. Jesus said, ‘unless you … become as little children … .’ (Matthew 18:3) The spiritual life is the life of a child. We are not uncertain of God, just uncertain of what he is going to do next. If our certainty is only in our beliefs, we develop a sense of self-righteousness, become overly critical and are limited by the view that our beliefs are complete and settled. But when we have the right relationship with God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy. Jesus said, ‘Believe also in Me” (John 14:1), not, “Believe certain things about Me.’”

Calvinism, as with much of Christian fundamentalism, sounds suspiciously like believing in our beliefs, not in our Savior. 

Vic Houston Henry

Dallas

Promiscuous or Spirit-led?

I have read your editorial on “U.S. faith swapping” (March 17) and Paul Mastin’s response, “Reason to swap” (March 31). I would like to share several thoughts:

I was raised in Churches of Christ, graduated from a Texas Baptist (Logsdon) seminary, attended a nondenominational church, participate in many ecumenical Christian functions and currently attend a large Baptist church that sends money to the Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. If you were to attend my Sunday school class, you might think you were in semi-charismatic church on some Sunday mornings. If I were to re-locate to another city, I frankly do not know where my family would attend worship. The sign out front would not be the primary factor in our family’s decision.

Am I “religiously promiscuous”? I think not! I prefer the term “Spirit-driven.” I have concluded many churches sincerely seek to worship Jesus and serve humanity with many different signs out front. I do not see this as a crisis; it is simply the way things are in our postmodern and mobile culture of the 21st century USA.

Many contemporary Christians are not seeking creedal purity, nor are they seeking to be part of a specific tradition. They are seeking a church where they can serve the Lord, raise their kids and participate in a wholesome, vibrant Christian community.

On the other hand, I have found there is too much selfishness, politics and immaturity in churches of all denominations.

Brian Gasiorowski

Corpus Christi

Gambling vs hoping to win

I just read Van Christian’s “Right or Wrong” article about lottery tickets (April 14). He handled the issue quite well, but I must question two of his points.

He says: “Yes, this is really gambling. The amount is irrelevant. You are wagering a small amount for the potential of winning a larger amount.” I think most would agree that this is a fairly common and accurate definition of gambling.

However, what do we do about churches that have golf and fishing tournaments? The people who enter these tournaments pay an entry fee—which is usually much more than the cost of a lottery ticket—and there is the “potential of winning a larger amount.” They are “wagering” their money with the hopes of winning more.

This also brings into question the last point Christian makes. He says the lottery “gives them hope.” Whenever I enter a golf or fishing tournament, I always “hope” I will win and take home the big prize. Is it wrong for me to hope I win?

I am not condemning or condoning the lottery or golf and fishing tournaments, but sometimes I feel our reasoning for abstaining from one activity is contradicted by our actions in another activity.

Russell Cowan

Midland

Charity is not a tithe

As presidential candidates release their IRS filings, the news media seem to determine the amount given to charitable donations is a tithe. Wrong!

One of the first scriptures I learned back in GAs, then called Girls Auxiliary, was Malachi 3:10.

Verses 8 and 9 clarify the tithe belongs to the Lord. Nothing in that Scripture says we can take God’s money and spread it around to nonprofit or charitable organizations and call it tithing. God makes it quite clear: All the tithes are to be brought to the storehouse to prove the goodness of God.

Not that we can’t give to worthwhile causes. I have two favorite charities I give to regularly.

Why, I can even remember collecting dimes for the March of Dimes back in the 1940s when I first went to school.

My favorite story about tithing took place a number of years back when I attempted to teach my fifth grade Sunday school class how to tithe.

That Sunday morning, I gave each child 10 dimes. They were so thrilled when I told them they could keep all the dimes and decide on how to spend the dimes. As they counted the dimes, I said, “One dime belongs to God.” We then learned Malachi 3:10.

Ninety cents out of 10 dimes made some happy kids. Yet one little boy spoke up and said, “That’s not fair.”

I replied, “What’s not fair?”

He answered, “God doesn’t get very much.”

Joyce Brumley

Grand Prairie

Speak up. Send letters by mail: P.O. Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267; or by e-mail: marvknox@baptiststandard.com.

Posted: 5/09/08

Methodists vote to retain
policies on homosexuality

By Daniel Burke

Religion News Service

FORT WORTH (RNS)—The United Methodist Church at its General Conference in Fort Worth held to its traditional rules on homosexuality, refusing to support or celebrate same-sex unions and maintaining language that calls homosexual activity “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

Nearly 1,000 delegates at the quadrennial General Conference spent almost a full day debating Methodist policies on homosexuality. While many Methodists at the assembly acknowledged sharp disagreement within their church on sexuality and biblical interpretation, delegates voted down efforts that would reflect that division in church rules or social policies.

A measure to remove the “incompatible” phrase and replace it with a mandate to “refrain from judgment regarding homosexual persons and practices as the Spirit leads us to new insight” was defeated 517 to 416.

Several delegates warned that actions taken by the General Conference directly affect Methodists in Africa and Asia, many of whom are conservative and whose churches are experiencing explosive growth. About 30 percent of the 11.5 million-member church now lives outside the United States.

Earlier in the day, a solid majority—more than 65 percent—rejected an attempt to change the church’s constitution, the Book of Discipline, to recognize same-sex civil unions.

The ban “reflects the sentiment of most (church) members and the majority of citizens in the U.S. and many other countries,” said the committee that handled the resolution. “Sanctioning homosexual unions would give the church’s approval to homosexual behavior and relationships, which would be inconsistent” with church teaching.

Delegates also refused to commit to support civil unions in wider society. They agreed to open educational opportunities to all persons regardless of sexual orientation.

And, after an emotional debate, a slim majority of Methodists agreed to strengthen the church’s advocacy against sexism by “opposing all forms of violence or discrimination based on gender, gender identity, sexual practice or sexual orientation.”

Posted: 5/09/08

On the Move

• Joe Carbanaro to First United Methodist Church in Denton as business administrator from First Church in Denton.

• Rick Cochran to First Church in Argyle as music minister from The Church at Trophy Lakes in Trophy Club.

• Jim Gatliff to Hunt Association as director of missions.

• Bryant Johnson to Enloe Church in Enloe as pastor.

• Michael Kelly to Paradise Church in Caddo Mills as pastor.

• Wilmer Lopez to Centro de Restauracion Yo Soy in Denton as pastor.

• Nathan McCarter to Memorial Church in Denton as worship leader.

• Ben Moore to First Church in Wichita Falls as contemporary worship leader from Indiana Avenue Church in Lubbock, where he was university worship pastor.

• Brad Reedy to Rainbow Church in Rainbow as pastor from First Church in Longview, where he was minister to singles/young adults.

• Jim Sherwin to First Church in Celeste as pastor.

• Bill Swinney to Northlake Church in Garland as minister of education and administration from First Church in Floydada, where he was minister of education and music.

• Bobby Walker to Wynnewood Church in Dallas as minister of music.

• Philip Wise has resigned as pastor of Second Church in Lubbock.

• Steven Young has resigned as pastor of New Generation Church in Tyler.

• Brett Younger to Mercer University as professor of preaching from Broadway Church in Fort Worth, where he was pastor.

Posted: 5/06/08

Future Focus Committee examines
Cooperative Program giving trends

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

DALLAS—A committee formed to look at the long-range future of the Baptist General Convention of Texas began by examining the past.

At its initial May 5 meeting, the BGCT Future Focus Committee reviewed the work of previous study committees and examined Cooperative Program giving trends over the last 10 years.

“We wanted to gain a historical perspective and orient everyone on the committee—to get everyone to the same starting point,” said Stephen Hatfield, co-chair of the committee and pastor of First Baptist Church in Lewisville.

A look at Cooperative Program trends in the last decade revealed giving by Texas Baptist churches has remained fairly consistent, but the buying power of the funds has eroded significantly, noted Andy Pittman, co-chair and pastor of First Baptist Church in Lufkin.

“It particularly was eye-opening” to discover 51 percent of the Cooperative Program budget came from 171 churches last year, and 1,749 BGCT-related churches gave nothing to the Cooperative Program in 2007, Pittman added.

Executive Director Randel Everett challenged the committee to think about two questions as it looks to the future: “What does the BGCT do well? What are Texas Baptists passionate about?”

With 20 of its 25 members present, the committee divided into three subcommittees to explore specific concerns.

Hatfield will chair an eight-member finance subcommittee; Pittman will chair an eight-person institutional relations committee; and Steve Vernon, BGCT past president and pastor of First Baptist Church in Levelland, will chair a nine-member subcommittee related to Executive Board staff.

The Future Focus Committee scheduled its next two meetings for Aug. 5 and Nov. 3. The committee will complete its work and present its final report no later than the 2009 BGCT annual meeting.

Posted: 5/06/08

Expert offers tips to manage
mix of religion and politics

By Marv Knox

Editor

ABILENE, Texas—Religion and politics inevitably will mix—especially in the U.S. presidential campaign—but that does not mean Americans should sanction a free-for-all, church-state expert Melissa Rogers insisted.

Rogers, director of the Center for Religion & Public Affairs at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., delivered the annual T.B. Maston Christian Ethics Lectures at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon Seminary in Abilene.

“There’s a growing interest in religion’s role in politics that could result in an ‘anything goes’ approach,” she observed. “But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are some constructive ways of managing these issues.”

The U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to mix politics and religion—to a degree, reported Rogers, former executive director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and former general counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty, both based in Washington.

“Our Constitution certainly says that religious groups and people have the right to participate in the debate of political issues,” she said, adding, “Private citizens clearly have a constitutional right to comment on issues of public concern in religious terms.”

And while Article VI of the Constitution forbids any government-imposed religious test for public office, “voters certainly are free to cast their ballots for any reason, including voting for or against someone because of his or her religion or lack thereof,” she noted. Still, the spirit of this constitutional provision should influence voters’ decisions, she argued.

Religion and politics will mix

More broadly, Rogers offered six suggestions for “managing the mix of religion and politics.” They are:

• “Accept the fact that religion and politics will mix,” she said. “They always have; they always will.”

Long before Mormon Mitt Romney and former Baptist pastor Mike Huckabee ran for president and candidate Barack Obama’s pastor made headlines, Americans were bringing their values to bear on political/religious discussions, she noted.

“There is nothing unconstitutional, un-American or otherwise wrong with the mere fact that some will draw on religion as a source of guidance when making decisions about public matters or that some will include religious references in their discussion of such matters,” she said.

“The separation of church and state does not require the separation of religion and politics. Further, I believe any attempt to do so would not only generate a tremendous backlash, it also would be ultimately unsuccessful.”

Risks involved

• “Although the religious and political spheres overlap, they are different, and there are risks when religion and politics mix,” Rogers warned.

“This is one indication of the risks when religion and politics mix: We begin to think that those who disagree with us are enemies of God, and we are at the right hand of God. Other risks include the potential for damage to our pluralistic democracy and to the integrity of religion, including the use of religion as a means to a political end.”

• While religious people have rights to participate in politics, they are not better rights than others’ rights, she admonished.

She quoted Huckabee, who said on the campaign trail, “… I don’t feel like a person has to share my faith to share my love of this country.”

“America should be a place that welcomes all people of good will to bring their values to the political process and to participate fully and equally in that process,” she urged. “After all, religious people who are political conservatives are not the only Americans who have values and vote them. All God’s children got values, including nonreligious people, and all of us vote them.”

Candidates' obligation

• Candidates have an obligation to answer some questions that “touch on religion,” she insisted.

To illustrate, she showed a video clip of John McCain talking about whether the United States is a “Christian nation” and quoted Barack Obama discussing his beliefs about teaching evolution in public schools.

Emphasizing candidates should be willing to answer questions “about how their personal beliefs, including personal religious beliefs, might affect their governance,” she also referenced some statements by Obama about race, religion and patriotism, and played a clip of Huckabee answering a question about whether his religious perspective on marriage would impact his political decisions.

• “There’s good religious outreach and bad religious outreach by candidates,” Rogers said.

“Here I am talking not about what is politically effective, but about what is right,” she explained. Assuming they are respecting the tax rules that nonprofits must follow, she said, “It is good for candidates to reach out to religious as well as nonreligious communities and listen to religious as well as nonreligious groups.

“But it is not good for candidates to try to tell people of faith what their faith means to them, how they should vote, or to otherwise try to command, control and co-opt religion.”

The good and the bad

• Religious communities engage in both “good and bad forms of religious engagement” of politics, she reported.

The late U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan offered “wise advice to those who speak of religion in the public square,” Rogers said, quoting Jordan: “‘You would do well to pursue your cause with vigor, while remembering that you are a servant of God, not a spokesperson for God.’”

Similarly, churches and other religious groups should resist politicians’ attempts to usurp the autonomy and freedom of religion, she added, warning against giving politicians access to church members’ contact information, church money and volunteers.

“Our faith is not an instrument of electoral politics, and we should never do anything that suggests it is,” she admonished. “Partisan politics should have no place in the pulpit. … Let’s say it again this election: God is not a Republican or a Democrat. An awesome God does not affiliate with any political party.”

Posted: 5/06/08

Ground-rules recommended
for religion in public schools

By Marv Knox

Editor

ABILENE—Whatever the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately decides, communities should strive to have better conversations about the role of religion in public schools, Melissa Rogers told participants at the T.B. Maston Christian Ethics Lectures at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon Seminary.

Rogers, director of the Center for Religion & Public Affairs at Wake Forest University, offered a few ground-rules for guiding the religion-in-schools debate in communities across the nation.

Before outlining her ground-rules, Rogers explained what kinds of prayer, religious speech and religious curriculum are allowed and disallowed in public schools.

Put simply, she said, “The only kind of prayer that is not permitted at public schools is the kind the government leads or sponsors.” For example, students may pray silently at any time and may pray audibly over lunches and at other times “as long as they are not disruptive and the school does not sponsor the religious expression.”

But schools “cannot organize or sponsor prayers during class time or at school events, whether through teacher-led prayer, inviting clergy to pray, organizing student votes on prayer or otherwise,” she reported, also noting, “Moments of silence are unconstitutional if they are used to promote prayer.”

Rogers affirmed the place of religion in public school curriculum.

“We cannot understand our nation or our world without understanding religion,” she said. “But how can we ensure that schools teach about religion rather than preach about it? After all, preaching about religion is not the job of the schools, but rather the job of religious leaders, houses of worship, and family.”

The landmark 1963 Supreme Court decision Abingdon Township v. Schempp “made clear that public schools could not engage in devotional teaching of religion,” she noted, adding, “In this same decision, the court also noted that academic teaching about religion was constitutional and even desirable within public school classrooms. …

No indoctrination

“The Supreme Court has made it clear that the school’s curricula must be shaped by academic rather than religious principles and that it must not otherwise seek to indoctrinate students in religion,” she said. Schools may teach about religion if they are neutral regarding faith, neither inculcating nor denigrating religion, she added.

Rogers noted some ways in which the new justices on the Supreme Court may differ on these issues from the justices they replaced. But she acknowledged predicting the Supreme Court’s course is risky and often unproductive.

“We cannot control what happens in the future at the Supreme Court,” she said. “We can control, however, how we deal with these issues in our communities, and I believe that we can and should invest our energies there.”

Seeking to alleviate local battles over religion in school, Rogers proposed four general ground-rules that she believes everyone can endorse, even if they differ on more specific church-state issues:

Not religion-free zones

• “Our nation’s public schools are not and should not be religion-free zones,” she said.

“Students who are people of faith will want to express that faith on campus, and they may do so in many ways that do not involve state sponsorship and thus do not violate the First Amendment. … Further, schools need to teach about religion. Schools should never indoctrinate; they should never press for the acceptance or rejection of religion. But schools should instruct students about the way religion has shaped societies.”

To ensure that these matters are handled appropriately, she called for “mandating and funding teacher training” regarding religion and public schools.

• “The government should never create a hierarchy of faiths,” she insisted.

“It isn’t the job of government to determine which faith is right or best or dominant,” Rogers said. Instead, it is the job of government to safeguard the rights of all people.

“In short, one does not have to believe all religions are equally true in order to believe that the government ought to treat all religions equally,” she said.

“We demand full religious liberty for Christians abroad, in countries that are majority Muslim, for example, and properly so. On the flip side, we must demand religious liberty for non-Christians here at home.”

• “We should never heckle or bully others because of their faiths, lack of faith or positions on church-state issues,” Rogers urged.

“This should not be a difficult one for Christians, given that Christ taught us to love our neighbors. Frankly, and sadly, we don’t have to look hard to find examples of Christians behaving badly when it comes to debates about religion and public schools. That’s a shame. As the song goes, they should know we are Christians by our love.”

Truth, not cliche or rumor

• Tell the truth about church-state issues, she pleaded.

“Prayer has not been kicked out of public schools,” she asserted, citing one of the persistent untruths told about church-state relations.

“As the saying goes, ‘As long as there are math tests in school, there will be prayer in school.’ More seriously, we’ve talked about a range of other ways in which prayer is permitted in public schools.”

If people have more narrow concerns, they should voice them, Rogers said, noting blanket statements are not truthful or helpful.

“We only confuse the issue and hurt our public witness when we make false statements like ‘prayer has been kicked out of public schools,’” she insisted.

Posted: 5/06/08

BaptistWay Bible Series for May 11

When the going gets tough

• 2 Kings 18:1-19, 29-31; 19:1-11, 14-20

By Kenneth Jordan

First Baptist Church, Alpine

There is an old expression, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” I always have understood it to indicate that tough times reveal tough people. The “tough” are the ones who do not allow hard times to sideline them. In the passage for this week, we see some definite “tough goings” for the kingdom of Judah. The revelation of tough times brings more information about a one-of-a-kind leader.

Chapter 18 of 2 Kings begins with a quick biography of King Hezekiah. The historian is quick to bring the comparison to David, the “man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14; 2 Kings 18:3). It is a refreshing change from the details of the final kings of the Northern Kingdom. Hezekiah was intent on restoring legitimate worship in Judah. He eliminated places that had been dedicated to the worship of false gods.

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Some that we are familiar with (like the Asherah poles). Then there is a brief mention in verse 4 of the bronze serpent of Moses. If you recall (from Numbers 21:1-9), the bronze serpent was God’s remedy for poisonous snakes that had infiltrated the grumbling Israelites’ camp. Those that looked upon the serpent with faith would be healed of the venom. Now we find that our short-memoried spiritual ancestors had begun worshiping the bronze serpent. What was once the symbol of faith for God’s people had become an idol with a name and adorers.

The early years of Hezekiah were marked with spiritual, political, and military success. But then, the “going got tough.”

The new king of Assyria, Sennacherib began a systematic assault on the areas around Judah with the intent to overwhelm the little kingdom. The king sent a delegation to prepare the way for the invasion—and if possible, to spare an all-out war. His officials engaged in a dazzling array of psychological warfare to the representatives of Hezekiah as well as to the people who had gathered to see what was going on.

In their logic, no other group of people had stood before Sennacherib. No other god had assisted any resistance. YHWH was just one more god among the local gods and, in fact, Hezekiah had reduced any divine help he could have called on by destroying the high places of idolatry in Judah.

The field commander scorned the treaties Hezekiah had signed with other nations (2 Kings 18:21). He mocked the limited military personnel Judah had available (2 Kings 18:23).

He then loudly offered to the people listening the “chicken in every pot” promise—that life under Assyrian rule wouldn’t be bad. Everyone would have food to eat and provisions aplenty. Since we have seen before how quickly the opinions of the Hebrew nation change (Numbers 13), perhaps Sennacherib’s officials thought this ploy would work.

For Hezekiah, when the going got tough, he “got going” to pray to his God. Chapter 19 details his response: Sackcloth and ashes. Symbols of mourning. He went to the temple. Demonstration of faith.

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary states: “It is to Hezekiah’s credit that he realized the deeper spiritual issues involved in the crisis. It was not enough to bring the stated services and religious practices up to standard; God must be a living reality in every believer's life.”

Perhaps lulled into a false sense of security by early victories, Hezekiah now comes face to face with genuine peril and finds nowhere to turn except to the Lord. During his time of inquiry of the Lord as to the outcome of the crisis, Hezekiah prays before the Lord in the temple. Spreading out the threats from Sennacherib’s officials, the king demonstrates a simple and profound faith in the Holy One of Israel. He closes his time of prayer with a plea for God’s deliverance. But the impetus behind the request is what should get your attention. He wants the deliverance so all people may know YHWH alone is God.

What Hezekiah came to realize is what should resonate in the heart of every believer. As we face crises in our daily lives, we should concern ourselves (and our prayers) that the character and reputation of our God not be disgraced. We should (when the going gets tough) find ourselves “going” to the one who hears our prayers and can intervene for his name’s sake.