Updated: 12/15/06

Morality alone cannot stop AIDS

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (ABP)—The choice between preventing AIDS by teaching abstinence or by distributing condoms is a false choice, Sen. Barack Obama told a mostly evangelical audience on World AIDS Day.

Instead, both methods for dealing with HIV/AIDS should be used to their fullest extent, Obama (D-Ill.) told listeners at the Global Summit on AIDS and the Church at Saddleback Church in Southern California.

There is a spiritual and moral dimension to fighting AIDS, he continued, and churches can fill that need.

“Let me say this: I don’t think we can deny that there is a moral and spiritual component to prevention, that in too many places all over the world where AIDS is prevalent— including our own country, by the way—the relationship between men and women, between sexuality and spirituality, has broken down and needs to be repaired,” he said.

When a husband hides infidelity from his wife, Obama said, it’s not only a sin; it’s a potential death sentence. That is a problem in many African countries where AIDS has spread unchecked, he noted.

When trying to change attitudes about a man’s prerogative for promiscuity and rape, Obama said, local churches like Saddleback provide a moral basis for better choices.

But faith-based morality alone won’t stop AIDS, he warned.

“I also believe that we cannot ignore that abstinence and fidelity may too often be the ideal and not the reality—that we are dealing with flesh-and-blood men and women and not abstractions—and that if condoms and potentially microbicides can prevent millions of deaths, they should be made more widely available,” he added.

Obama, a special guest of Saddleback Church pastor and author Rick Warren, appeared at the summit despite calls from pro-life activists and Religious Right hardliners for Warren to rescind the invitation because of the senator’s pro-choice stance on abortion.

Protestors, led by Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum, circulated a letter condemning the senator and asking Warren how he can hope “to fight one evil while justifying another.” Based in Alton, Ill., the Eagle Forum has championed the pro-life cause since 1972.

“If Senator Obama cannot defend the most helpless citizens in our country, he has nothing to say to the AIDS crisis. … We will never work with those can support the murder of babies in the womb,” the letter said.

Warren, for his part, was nonplused by the criticism. He told reporters he would work with anyone committed to ending AIDS, no matter what their motivation or peripheral beliefs. Obama shared the Saddleback pulpit with Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) a pro-choice conservative Christian.

“Kay and I have built our entire ministry on being unifiers, not dividers,” Warren said. “There will always be people who criticize us. If you can only work with people you agree with on everything, you’ve ruled out the world, because nobody agrees with you on everything.”

Obama took the same stance. While acknowledging disagreements about the best way to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS, he said the tendency to frame the issue in either/or terms is wrong.

Some people say the only way to prevent the disease is for men and women to change their sexual behavior, but for others such a prescription is unrealistic, Obama said.

He also said he “respectfully but unequivocally” disagrees with those who, out of sincere religious convictions, oppose condom distribution, microbicides and programs promoting delayed sexual activity. He said he does not accept the notion that “those who make mistakes in their lives should be given an effective death sentence.” He insisted he is unwilling to allow innocent people—wives with unfaithful husbands or children who contract the virus through birth—to “suffer, when condoms or other measures would have kept them from harm.”

Obama, a member of a United Church of Christ congregation, told the group his faith reminds him that all people are sinners. Living according to the example set by Jesus is the most difficult kind of faith but the most rewarding as well, he said.

“My Bible tells me that when God sent his only son to earth, it was to heal the sick and comfort the weary; to feed the hungry and clothe the naked; to befriend the outcast and redeem those who strayed from righteousness,” he said. “It is a way of life that can not only light our way as people of faith, but guide us to a new and better politics as Americans.”

Posted: 12/15/06

AIDS workers debate what lessons Uganda teaches

By Jason Kane

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Stalled in the gridlocked streets of Johannesburg on her way to an AIDS event, Rukia Cornelius fumed about the tendency of Americans to mix their religious and political beliefs. South Africans have suffered as a result, she said.

“I’m a little bit tired, but I’m also angry, because we need the money, but treatment can’t be done with such a provision on abstinence,” said Cornelius, national campaign manager of the South African AIDS lobby group Treatment Action Campaign.

Her frustration with President Bush’s AIDS initiative has increased as a number of organizations formerly devoted to preventing HIV/AIDS have abandoned their efforts in favor of treating it. It’s a shift specifically designed to avoid restrictions attached to U.S. AIDS-prevention funding, Cornelius said.

Caroline Tumuhembise, 20, sits with other young sex workers who met to discuss ways to prevent HIV infection in Uganda. The Bush administration has embraced Uganda’s abstinence-first approach to fighting AIDS in Africa. (RNS photo courtesy of Ami Vitale/CARE)

“In a country like South Africa, the Bush administration’s abstinence-above-all-else approach is simply not working,” she said, pointing to religious, cultural and economic factors that have tangled such efforts.

Some workers, activists and scholars agree, saying the abstinence approach pushed into law by U.S. religious conservatives has translated poorly to Africa. The Christian doctrine of abstinence, they say, is a concept that doesn’t always resonate in traditional African cultures and is therefore stalling efforts to save lives.

But abstinence advocates point to Uganda as evidence their approach can work in an African context.

Embedded in the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the provision dictates a third of the initiative’s prevention funding should go toward abstinence programming. This amounts to 7 percent of the overall $15 billion Bush has requested from Congress over five years.

Ironically, each side in the abstinence war of words is loudly demanding identical action—an evidence-based approach that “works for Africa.”

Most support the ABC philosophy successfully implemented in Uganda—Abstinence, Be faithful, and—if all else fails—use Condoms.

But there’s little consensus over the proper balance between the three, and some fear ABC emphasizes Western ideals at the expense of cultural norms in Africa, home to 12 of the initiative’s 14 “focus countries.”

Sibusiso Mas-ondo, professor of traditional African religion at the University of Cape Town in Rondebosch, South Africa, cited a number of factors that could undermine an abstinence strategy.

“Abstinence as defined by the Christian church was never a practice of traditional Africans,” Masondo said. “The only time when people abstained from sexual activity was during rituals and other major events in the life of the community.”

The rigid nature of the prevention funding restricts efforts to tailor programming to local conditions, said Jodi Jacobson, executive director at the Center for Health and Gender Equity, based in Takoma Park, Md. In the male-dominated societies of Africa, critical gender issues prevent women from controlling their sexual relationships, she said.

According to Jacobson, the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates for women in their 20s and 30s are among married women who contract the virus from their husbands.

“What the abstinence-until-marriage programs do is funnel extraordinarily large amounts of money to particular programming,” she said. “This is completely and wholly ideological and flies in the face of all evidence of what works.”

But ABC advocates point to Uganda where, beginning in the early 1990s, President Yoweri Museveni launched a society-wide offensive on the epidemic, which at that time infected 15 percent of adults. Ten years later and with ABC programming firmly entrenched, the infection rate dropped to 5 percent.

Ambassador Mark Dybul, the U.S. global AIDS coordinator charged with distributing the President’s Emergency Plan funds, said the Ugandan model represents undeniable success. He uses it to tell participants in the debate to start “listening to the Africans” and stop bickering among themselves.

“We’ve got a balanced ABC approach while most people have a C-only approach,” Dybul said, adding the United States still is the largest supplier of condoms worldwide.

Catholic Relief Services maintains the ABC strategy has worked remarkably well on the ground. Jed Hoffman, director for the organization’s AIDSRelief project, said despite the legislation’s religious roots, abstinence programming simply is one of the most effective methods available in preventing the spread of the epidemic.

“We’re a very pragmatic, evidence-based society, and we want to do what works. And evidence shows that promoting abstinence is one of the things that works,” he said.

Posted: 12/18/06

DBU students raise funds to help hungry

Dallas Baptist University students recently completed a Christmas food drive for Bro Bill’s Helping Hands Ministry in West Dallas, collecting more than 1,800 food items to benefit the West Dallas community ministry. 

The DBU Ministry Student Fellowship sponsored, organized and administered the food drive.

Brother Bill’s Helping Hands Ministry grew out of West Dallas Baptist Church, where Bill Harrod served as pastor. Harrod led the church—now named Iglesia Bautista Harrod Memorial—to minister to physical needs in the community beginning in the 1950s.

The ministry’s Christmas outreach to children is its best-known program in the area, but Helping Hands also provides services—including food—to families throughout the year.

Helping Hands Ministry—a nonprofit ministry with an approved client list of more than 600 families—also plans to open a wellness clinic in the near future.

Suzanne Griffin, director of Helping Hands Ministry, first became acquainted with the ministry as a child when she visited it with her mother in the 1950s.

She worked as a volunteer at the ministry for many years and was named full-time director two years ago.  DBU has provided volunteers for Helping Hands Ministry for many years, said Joe Mosley, director of ministry students.

Posted: 12/18/06

Ex-gay says: Treat homosexuality
as temptation, not orientation

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (ABP)—For Christians to love homosexuals like Jesus would, they should stop thinking of homosexuality as an orientation and start thinking of it as a temptation, says Tim Wilkins, himself “formerly gay.”

Wilkins, who founded a group that helps people who have “unwanted same-sex attractions,” offered his controversial view during a breakout session at Saddleback Church’s Global Summit on AIDS and the Church. The summit brought Christians and AIDS workers together to address prevention and treatment of the disease, which originally was associated with homosexuals.

“In practical terms … mankind is heterosexual—physiologically, anatomically and biologically,” Wilkins told his audience mostly of evangelicals. “The only part that is not heterosexual is the mind, and that is not a big deal because the Bible says we are transformed by the renewing of our mind.”

Wilkins knows what it’s like to be attracted to other men. For many of his developmental and early-adult years, he experienced and acted on those homosexual feelings.

But now, married for 13 years and with three daughters, Wilkins says he does not give in to the temptation to indulge in homosexual conduct. And his work at Cross Ministries is devoted to preaching the same message.

Wilkins told conference participants they must love people not only from their heart and gut but also from their head.

“We actually choose to love people. And you have not loved anybody unless you choose to love somebody that is completely different from you,” he said. “Sometimes, if not most of the time, our expressions of love … are counterintuitive and counterproductive. No one has ever been argued out of homosexuality.”

For Christians to love homosexuals as Jesus would, one of the first steps is to stop thinking of homosexuality as an orientation and think of it as a temptation, Wilkins said.

His own experience with same-sex attraction, Wilkins said, was “not predominantly (about) homosexuality;” it was an issue with his own sin nature—something inside every human being. Everyone faces temptation, Wilkins said, and people are simply tempted by different things.

After they recognize the origin of the attraction, Christians can love homosexuals by showing them that homosexuality is not the opposite of heterosexuality, but it’s a “counterfeit” sexuality, he said.

With such a controversial message about homosexuality, Wilkins has plenty of critics. Mike Airhart, who contributes to the website www.exgaywatch.com, wrote that Wilkins offers no solid advice for gay people, choosing instead to speak against them.

“Wilkins dismisses the ‘counterfeit love found in homosexuality,’ offers no constructive reflections about gay people, and provides no trace of opposition to antigay discrimination,” Airhart wrote.

Wilkins has also come under fire from some religious groups who are uncomfortable with his admissions that he may still struggle with “temptations” for same-sex attraction.

Last September, Wilkins told a North Carolina church group “he was not cured, but merely suppressing his sexuality,” according to political activist Wayne Besen. Besen wrote Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.

Besen disagreed with Wilkins’ alleged belief “that those who don’t become straight or successfully celibate fail because they are not sufficiently obedient to God.”

“From my experience this message is particularly dangerous,” Besen wrote, adding that people who don’t change after extraordinary effort often despair, falling into depression, low self-esteem or suicide.

Despite his detractors, Wilkins soldiers on with his message that turning from homosexuality comes from a relationship with God, which brings freedom. During the AIDS summit at Saddleback, none of his listeners spoke up to object to his ideas, even during the question-and-answer session.

Christians focus too much on talking about change for homosexuals instead of talking about the freedom that comes from knowing God, Wilkins said. The idea that Christians should try to “convert” homosexuals to heterosexuality “does not place the appropriate emphasis on Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith.”

What’s more, to peddle heterosexuality to people attracted to those of the same sex just doesn’t make sense, Wilkins said. “If beautiful women were the remedy for male homosexuality, there would be no gay men.”

Further, he added, it’s not a sin to be attracted to the same sex—the attraction itself is a moot point. Instead, when Christians lead people to a relationship with Jesus, those with same-sex attractions will get a savior who fulfills their needs for love, acceptance and affirmation.

After he became spiritually intimate with God, Wilkins said, his needs for intimacy with men diminished.

“What I needed was a savior,” he said. “I needed Jesus Christ. The relationship which precedes every relationship in the world is the one with our heavenly father.”

Saddleback’s two-day summit was intended to motivate and equip Christians and churches to address the needs of people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS. Seminars addressed a number of medical and spiritual topics, including how to set up an HIV/AIDS ministry in a local church.

Although AIDS worldwide is primarily spread through heterosexual sex, it was first recognized in the United States as a disease of homosexual men. Because of how it first emerged in the public psyche, many people still think of HIV/AIDS as a homosexual disease.

In the United States, 42 percent of men first obtain the human immunodeficiency virus through homosexual contact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But a full 33 percent get it through heterosexual relationships. Many others (25 percent) get it through unsafe injection of drugs. Seventy-five percent of women in the United States obtain HIV through heterosexual contact, the center reports.

Posted: 12/18/06

Court to decide if taxpayers
can sue over faith-based plan

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—The Supreme Court will, for the first time, hear a case directly related to President Bush’s faith-based initiatives, his attempt to expand the government’s ability to fund social services through churches and other religious charities.

However, the case does not deal directly with whether the program violates the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion, as some of its critics contend. Rather, the court will consider a narrower issue—whether a group of taxpayers has “standing,” or the right to sue, over the use of general executive-branch funds to promote the faith-based plan.

In an unusual move, the court agreed to hear Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation and expedite its normal schedule for each side in the case to file legal papers.

In the case, President Bush’s administration appealed a 2005 ruling from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That decision said that a group of taxpayers, represented by the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, could challenge the White House’s practice of spending money on a series of conferences to promote the faith-based initiative.

The taxpayers said they had standing to challenge the practice because government money was being used to promote religion, even though Congress did not specifically appropriate the money for any religious groups.

Attorneys for the government responded that giving taxpayers the right to sue over the conferences would dramatically expand the rules for such lawsuits dealing with the First Amendment’s religion clauses.

The expedited briefing schedule calls for legal documents in the case to be filed by Feb. 16, about 78 days after the Dec. 1 ruling. The normal briefing schedule is for such documents to be on file by 115 days after the court agrees to hear the case.

Because of the expedited schedule, the justices could hear oral arguments in the case by the end of February—meaning they could hand down a decision in the case by the end of the court’s 2006-07 term in June.

Posted: 12/15/06

Book Reviews

The Christmas Angel by Katherine Duhon, (Vantage Press)

In this children’s book, Katherine Duhon relates the story of a typical brother and sister eagerly waiting for Santa. Except this year, Milly and Tommy must see the bearded gift-giver in person. They want Saint Nick to bring back their momma’s smile after their daddy’s death.

When the jolly fellow fails to appear, the young boy and girl don coats, caps, mittens and muffs, and slip out to search for Santa. The two lose their way as the snow slows their steps and the wind whistles through the trees. But God’s Christmas angel helps the children learn a lesson in patience and the healing of time.

What are you reading that other Texas Baptists would find helpful? Send suggestions and reviews to marvknox@baptiststandard.com.

Black-and-white pen-and-ink illustrations of the wide-eyed children add interest to The Christmas Angel, a story of love, hope and the magic of Christmas.

Once Upon a Christmas by Lauraine Snelling and Lenora Worth, (Steeple Hill)

The cover of Once Upon a Christmas suggests the perfect way to enjoy two romantic novellas—curled up in front of a twinkling tree sipping rich hot chocolate or spicy tea. In “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” Lauraine Snelling introduces single graphic artist Blythe Stensrude, who’s ready to remove the holidays from her calendar. Busy with burgeoning business, Blythe hasn’t the time even for de-signing her church’s Christmas program as promised. However, Harley, the only male in her life, has other ideas. The dog has his eye on Matty, and the two bassets manage to introduce their masters via tangled leashes. Just when the blossoming relationship be-tween Blythe and Thane Davidson seems destined for a merry Christmas, Thane becomes guardian of his 3-year-old niece. Readers agonize with Blythe as she struggles to overcome her fear of motherhood to grasp the love God sent.

Lenora Worth sets the shorter selection, “’T’was the Week before Christmas,” in the Louisiana bayous. Matriarch Betty Jean Melancon, a former state senator who raised five sons and has 14 grandsons, dotes on her only granddaughter. Elise Rachelle Melancon arrives early at the family estate to help her widowed grandmother prepare for the family gathering. But Mamere has a different project in mind—polishing a handsome local to win back his gone-off-to-LSU-and-gotten-too-good-for-him girlfriend. The 25-year-old oil executive grudgingly takes on the impossible task to surprising results, at least to everyone but Grandmother Melancon.

These Christian romances from award-winning authors offer a relaxing evening or two in the midst of the hectic holidays.

The Christmas Angel by Thomas Kinkade and Katherine Spencer, (Cape Light Novels)

Thomas Kinkade not only paints beautiful canvases; along with best-selling author Katherine Spencer, he draws wonderful word pictures. In The Christmas Angel, Kinkade and Spencer spin a holiday story set in Cape Light as three plot lines meander through the pages. On her morning jog, Mayor Emily Warwick, who as a young girl gave up now-grown Sara for adoption, discovers a baby left in her church’s crèche. After becoming Jane’s foster parents, Emily and her husband, Dan, struggle with the real-life issues of jobs, age, adoption and changing relationships.

Meanwhile Sara, whose search for her birth mother led her to Emily, struggles with her future and whether it includes romance with the ready-to-be married Luke. And Pastor Ben struggles with discouragement and doubt as his congregation seems more concerned with the annual Christmas fair than offering help and hope to the poor of Wood’s Hollow, a short, winding road away.

With the plots sometimes converging and sometimes diverging, The Christmas Angel shows the honest ups and downs of Christian life and how God uses real people as his Christmas angels. This happy-ending story leaves the reader ready for the next Cape Light novel.

All reviews are written by Kathy Robinson Hillman, former president, Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas, Waco.

Posted: 12/15/06

Waco students light up lives, raise money

By George Henson

Staff Writer

WACO—Students at McLennan Community College are helping Waco-area residents hang Christmas lights this holiday season so that they can share the im-pact of Christ’s birth with other students next spring.

“There are a lot of people who can’t put up their own lights anymore, and their sons or daughters live too far away or don’t have time to put lights up for them. We get to help with that and raise money so that we can participate in Beach Reach,” Jacob Garcia ex-plained.

Garcia and his friends from the McLennan Community College Baptist Student Ministry are putting up lights for whatever donation people offer. Payment has ranged widely, but they see hanging the lights as a ministry in itself.

“The majority of folks we put up lights for are older people, and we feel good about getting to help them with this,” he said.

They also have met some very nice people, he added.

“Some people come out and watch us unless it’s cold, then they usually stay inside. But one lady brought us out some really good hot chocolate. That was our favorite house right there,” he joked.

Dennis Vergara, a native of Honduras, insisted his focus is on raising money to participate in Beach Reach, an outreach to college students on South Padre Island during spring break. The cost for the McClennan County students to make the trip is $350 per person.

While most students flee to the island for days of sun and drinking, Baptist Student Ministry students from across the state go to share the love of Christ.

“We’re going to go and give them rides so that they won’t have to drive drunk, but also to share the word of God as we go,” Vergara said. “It’s good to give back and help keep people safe. I had other choices of what I could do with my spring break, but that’s how I want to spend my time.”

Russell Etheredge plans to return after ministering on the beach last year.

“It was a blast; it was just so much fun,” he said. “Just getting to interact with people and being able to share my faith with them was great.

“And the funny thing is, I was a definite ‘no’ until about two days before spring break, and the Holy Spirit got to working.”

Fear prompted his reluctance, he acknowledged, but now he can’t wait to return to the beach.

“It’s an exhausting week. From 8 o’clock in the evening until 4 or 5 in the morning, we’re giving rides to people, and then we’re back up early that morning fixing breakfast for people. It’s exhausting, not just physically, but spiritually. It’s exciting, though, to meet other college students from all across the state that are just as excited about following Christ,” Etheredge said.

Posted: 12/15/06

Posted: 12/15/06

BaptistWay Bible Series for December 24

Jesus stands ready to heal

• John 5:1-24

By David Wilkinson

Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth

As John 5 opens, Jesus is back in Jerusalem following his eventful sojourn in Samaria, and the series of personal encounters continues. As a good storyteller, John interweaves several story lines or subplots into this account.

The primary storyline is the healing of an invalid man. John describes the setting as a “pool” (the word is found only here in the New Testament) near the Sheep Gate, one of the entrances into the walled city, surrounded by “five porticoes” (v. 2). Archeologists suggest steps in the corners of the pool provided access to its waters.

For a printer-friendly version, click on the printer icon at bottom of page.

Creating a scene

It must have been quite a site and sight to behold. A variety of disabled people—“the blind, the lame, the paralyzed”—were camped under these covered porches (v. 3). Verses 4 and 7 tell us why. Verse 4 (not included in the best early manuscripts but still alluded to in the invalid’s explanation in verse 7) may be a reference to a local legend that an angel “stirred up” the water, and the first person in after such an event would be healed of his disease or disability.

With only one winner, all other contestants were losers, and this particular man had been losing for nearly four decades, never able to beat the others to the water’s healing powers whenever the magic moment arrived. Whether he was motivated by persistence or hope or whether he was there despite cynicism and despair, we do not know. (How much hope would you have after 38 years of a debilitating and humiliating illness you were powerless to change?)

As John Chrysostom noted in the fourth century, whatever may have been the man’s motivation or attitude, at least he was there at the pool, “while we, if we have persisted for 10 days to pray for anything and have obtained it, are too slothful afterwards to employ the same zeal.”

Adding to the man’s burden, popular theology in Jesus’ day often surmised physical illness or deformity was evidence of judgment for sin (see the disciples’ question of Jesus in John 9:2). Like others who were considered “unclean” or less than whole, he likely felt the weight of spiritual judgment and suspicion, in addition to the loneliness of second-class social status.

Notably, this unnamed man did nothing to call attention to himself in Jesus’ presence. Unlike blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52), he did not call out to Jesus as he passed by and plead for mercy. Instead, it is Jesus who notices him among the others and initiates the conversation.

Key question

The question Jesus asks him is striking. It is not “Do you believe?” or “Do you have faith?” but rather, “Do you want to be made well?” (v. 5). If the man had been incredulous, it would have been no surprise. The narrative not only points out he had been sick 38 years, but also that Jesus was aware he had been lying by the pool “for a long time” (v. 6).

The answer seems obvious (who wouldn’t want to be healed?), so why did Jesus bother to ask? Part of the answer may be that the healing Jesus offered first required a response on the man’s part. The miracle is not imposed. Even in the presence of the Son of God, the man must exercise the gift of free will.

Further, Jesus requires the man to pick up his own mat and walk (v. 8). In accepting Jesus’ healing, the man simultaneously gives up whatever dependence he had developed on others. From now on, he will not be getting attention by getting others to attend to him. Jesus gives him wholeness, including the ability to care for himself.

Jesus’ question also may be appropriate for the reader. We, who know our own failings and infirmities, might well ask ourselves, “Am I ready to give up my dependencies and convenient excuses in order to allow God to make me whole?” Healing may require change.

The man’s answer focuses on his understanding of why he could not be healed, implying all he was hoping for was that someone, even Jesus, might tote him to the water at the right time. He seems to view Jesus as a helper rather than a possible healer.

As John Calvin noted, the man did “what we nearly all do. He limits God’s help to his own ideas and does not dare promise himself more than he conceives in his mind.”

A story with subplots

A subplot is the conflict the healing triggers between Jesus and his religious opponents. Jesus easily could have adopted the cynical “no good deed goes unpunished” line; he gets nothing but trouble for his compassion. Immediately, the Sabbath police are on his case for “doing work” on the Sabbath in violation of strict interpretation of religious doctrine.

Worse, Jesus’ own words, suggesting he was equal to God (v. 18), provide his enemies with clear evidence for the charge of blasphemy. The conflict that ultimately leads to Jesus’ execution begins to unfold.

For their part, the Pharisees cannot rejoice in the man’s healing, blinded by the threat Jesus poses to their authority. For his part, even the healed man refuses to go out of his way to stand up for the One who healed him. “Hey, it’s not my fault” seems to be his stance, whether applied to his physical disability in verse 7 or his response to the Pharisees in verse 11 (“It’s not my fault that I’m sick,” followed by “It’s not my fault that I’m now well.”).

Finally, this chapter offers further insight into Jesus’ intimate, life-giving relationship with God whom he called Father. Twice Jesus emphasizes he can “do nothing” on his own—that is, nothing outside the will of the Father (vv. 19 and 30). Jesus lives and ministers with an absolute dependence on his Father. In contrast to the Pharisees, who are bound to the law, Jesus is bound to God.

Discussion questions

• What does the fact that Jesus initiated this healing encounter with an invalid man suggest to you about the grace of God in your life?

• What needs to be healed in your life and in your relationships with others and with God? What if Jesus were to ask you, “Do you want to be healed”? Is it a simple matter of “yes, please,” or could it be more complicated—and more difficult—than that? What would you be living without if you accepted Jesus’ healing?

Posted: 12/15/06

CYBER COLUMN:
The Tie that binds

By Jeanie Miley

On the first Sunday of Advent, I sat in my regular place in the sanctuary of my church, looking around at all of the people who form my community of faith and anticipating the coming Christmas season with eagerness and joy. I know some of the people with whom I have gathered for worship really well, and they know me. Others are still strangers to me, even after all these years, and I often wonder if that is simply choice or if it is, somehow, a kind of failure.

I’ve served on various committees with many of these people, and we have met for prayer and projects, banquets and business meetings, fellowship dinners and the usual funerals, weddings and baby dedications that mark the passage of time and the meaning of community.

As I look up and down the rows of people, there is one thing I know for sure, and that is that if we talk long enough with each other or work on enough projects together, we will find places where we simply do not agree.

Some of us want one kind of worship, and if you take a poll on any given Sunday, you’ll find some who want the exact opposite form of worship. Some just do not care, as long as they don’t have to pray in public or listen to a fight about styles of music, forms of preaching or whether you call the Lord’s Supper an ordinance or a sacrament. Some among us love observing Advent, and others—well, they like the music and the greenery, but wish we wouldn’t call it Advent.

There are some of us who interpret the Bible one way, and others lean more to the right or to the left, at least in their opinions about the Bible. Some folks have more opinions about the Bible, I’ve noticed, than they do real knowledge of it, and sometimes that causes a kink in the ties that bind us.

Those of us who grew up Baptist are pretty settled in our ways about the form of church governance we will tolerate and support, and those who came from other denominations or no denominations either shuffle through our processes, dazed and confused, or they try to impose their understandings of polity and policies on the tense moments of decision-making.

We who went to Training Union even have a jargon that separates us from the new Baptists, many of whom do not want to be asked to join anything resembling an organization, and all of us tend to forget that the church is intended to be a living organism with Christ as the head and the rest of us, the feet and hands, eyes and ears and voices of the One whom we say we serve.

However many are our areas of disagreement, there is one thing that draws us together every year and that is our common belief in Jesus Christ. However we understand that relationship with the Living Christ who dwells within us and between us, around us and among us, it is that common commitment to him that holds us together and unifies us, even in our diversity.

And so it is that we need to come together every year to celebrate that one magnificent Truth that ties us together in a voluntary bondage of love. We need to remember why it is we gather together, and we need to affirm that it is Mystery and Wonder happening outside the boundaries of reason and logic that hold us in this precious relationship we call church.

Maybe if we spent more time affirming that which we do agree about, the things we don’t agree about would not be quite so big.

Jeanie Miley is an author and columnist and a retreat and workshop leader. She is married to Martus Miley, pastor of River Oaks Baptist Church in Houston, and they have three adult daughters. Got feedback? Write her at Writer2530@aol.com.

Posted: 12/15/06

RIGHT or WRONG?
Conflict mediation

We’ve had some relational breakdowns in our congregation. Some have suggested that we contact a conflict-mediation expert. Does that idea have merit?

The heart of your question hinges on the word “some.” Does “some” mean 60 percent of the congregation has taken a position in total opposition to the remainder of the congregation? On the other hand, does “some” mean the two most forceful leaders in the congregation have reached an impasse on a particular issue or personality? In either case, the congregation might, through conversation, time and grace, be able to resolve the issue on its own. Alternatively, it may well be that issues are so strong and nerves so frayed that the perspective of a skilled listener with training in mediation could be a positive step toward healing the congregation.

Many times when a congregation calls upon a mediator, the conflict centers upon a staff member who has left or is about to leave the congregation. “Some” want to make a change. “Some” felt the staff member was treated unjustly. In this case, someone, who can be trusted by nearly everyone, who can look at a situation with a fresh pair of eyes, can be invaluable to resolving the issues. Skilled mediators can find the common ground shared by the congregation and help re-establish trust. Sometimes, mediators have to do the hard work of helping the congregation stand up to the bully in the room and reclaim the congregation for the good of the whole.

One more added advantage to the mediator is the objectivity of examining the historic trends within the congregation. From their very inception, many congregations are blessed with a unity of spirit, a shared goal, a love for one another and a mutual desire to see every member of the congregation thrive. A healthy cycle develops in the congregational culture that declares how the congregation will handle difficult issues.

Other churches seem to be plagued with disagreement and conflict from their inception. Consequently, an unhealthy cycle develops in the congregational culture, and members develop bad habits as to how they handle matters. A trusted mediator is able to see the long view of the congregation and spot patterns that are destructive to the life of the congregation. With an honest and open perspective, the congregation can develop a covenant and a strategy for enabling the church to resolve matters and move forward in clear steps.

I would offer the suggestion that if your congregation is considering a mediator, ask for references from previous churches that person has assisted. Contact those references—both Baptist churches and churches affiliated with other denominations—and listen to their stories. Do not tell yours. Just listen. Listen to how the mediator helped them see themselves and the mission of the church. Listen to how the mediator recognized their needs and worked to resolve those issues. Listen to the tone of their voice as to how they grew to trust the mediator. Most of the time, these reference calls not only serve as a signal as to whether you are contacting the right person, but they also serve as a beacon of hope, that you, too, can get past this issue and be the presence of Christ in your community.

Stacy Conner, pastor

First Baptist Church

Muleshoe

Right or Wrong? is sponsored by the T.B. Maston Chair of Christian Ethics at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. Send your questions about how to apply your faith to btillman@hsutx.edu.

Posted: 7/07/06

AIDS summit challenges
Baptists to ‘break the silence’

By Carla Wynn

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

ATLANTA (ABP)—Baptists and other Christians responded slowly and poorly 25 years ago to the advent of AIDS, but God has been in the trenches from the start, said David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, a Christian advocacy group.

“God is in the midst of this,” Beckmann told more than 400 people gathered in Atlanta June 21-22 for an HIV/AIDS summit, dubbed “Breaking the Silence: Compassion for an HIV-Positive World.” The event was scheduled in conjunction with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly.

“We know it may have taken some time to break the silence, but God has not been waiting 25 years,” said Beckmann, whose organization is a CBF partner.

The summit taught participants how to develop personal, congregational and larger responses to this growing health crisis.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has changed the world, speakers agreed. With an estimated 40 million people worldwide currently living with AIDS and HIV, it is considered an international health crisis—too big to ignore, and yet so big it can be overwhelming to know how to respond, summit leaders said.

“The things we’re uncomfortable with, we don’t want to talk about,” musician Kate Campbell told a conference session.

What makes HIV/AIDS unsettling, Beckmann said, varies from lack of awareness about the disease to stereotypes and stigmas—particularly in the United States, where the first cases of the disease were spread mainly between homosexual men.

“God is not put off by the sexual character of this disease,” he said. “There are more important things at stake than that.”

Beckmann pointed to the connection between HIV/AIDS and poverty, arguing that fighting to alleviate global poverty can make a difference in curbing further spread of HIV/AIDS. Poor access to health care, lack of education about the disease and a sense of not being in control of one’s life all are byproducts of poverty that affect the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Part of the challenge of responding to HIV/AIDS is combating ignorance or lack of awareness about the disease.

Thus, summit workshops ranged in focus from basic scientific information about the disease to listening to stories from people who live with HIV/AIDS.

To increase personal awareness, parti-cipants were urged to form relationships with people living with the disease. These relationships also would allow participants to be a supportive presence to those who may face some of the psycho-social consequences of the illness, including social isolation and fear.

“We need to reach out to the invisible and make them visible,” said workshop panelist Gretchen McDaniel, a Samford University nursing professor. “They want somebody to listen to them.”

One female speaker, who asked to remain anonymous, has lived with HIV 10 years. She told participants about the importance of support from friends and family—from whom she once hid her diagnosis because of fear of their response.

“They chose education over ignorance,” she said. “No one has ever turned their back on me.”

As one workshop discussed, spreading awareness could happen at seminaries, where future church leaders could be educated about the disease and the need for a local-church response. It wouldn’t be a new idea, said Sam Nixon of the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention, an African-American Baptist group. An HIV/AIDS class is required for students at a seminary in Zimbabwe, where the disease has a daily impact on the sub-Saharan African country, he said.

Responses to the HIV/AIDS crisis can come on several levels, participants learned. There is a spiritual response, where Baptists can pray for those infected and affected by the disease. Beckmann also challenged participants to get involved in their communities by working to prevent further HIV contraction among at-risk groups and by ensuring those with HIV have access to adequate medical treatment.

Beckmann also said personal response involves changing laws and systems that may limit the ability of governments or nonprofit groups to respond effectively to the AIDS crisis. For example, individuals can lobby for increased government spending on groups combating HIV/AIDS, he said. Engaging in Bread for the World’s targeted advocacy campaigns for global poverty alleviation also can have an impact, he said.

“Right now, God is achieving a great liberation in our world … and we can be part of it,” Beckmann said.

CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal said Baptists have a spiritual duty to use their resources to address the crisis.

“What we do with human suffering and pain … is really the acid test of the Christian faith,” he said.