Justices decline to rehear abortion case

October 11, 2006

Posted: 10/11/06

Justices decline to rehear abortion case

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—The Supreme Court declined Oct. 10 to reconsider their 1973 decision in Doe v. Bolton, the lesser-known companion case to the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in all 50 states.

The Doe v. Bolton decision, which the court handed down the same day as its more famous sibling, loosened legal restrictions of medical procedures used in abortions.

The justices declined, without comment or recorded dissent, to hear Cano v. Baker. Sandra Cano, whose case was filed under the name “Mary Roe” to protect the then-22-year-old’s identity, had asked for a reconsideration of the decision. Her lawyers requested the action under a federal court rule that allows such re-evaluation of past decisions if changing circumstances have rendered them obsolete or unjust.

Cano has reportedly said an activist attorney pressured her into becoming the plaintiff in the abortion case.

Legal papers her attorneys filed in the case said advances in medical technology since the 33-year-old decisions called for such reconsideration. They said the justices had “frozen abortion law based on obsolete 1973 assumptions and prevented the normal regulation of the practice of medicine.”

Apparently, the high court disagreed.

Last year, the court rejected a similar attempt to reconsider the Roe v. Wade decision. Norma McCorvey—on whose behalf that case was filed under the pseudonym “Jane Roe”—had asked the justices to reconsider that case. In the years since the decision, McCorvey has embraced evangelical Christianity and now describes herself, according to her website, as “100 percent pro-life.”

On Nov. 8, the court is scheduled to hear a major case involving a federal ban on “partial-birth abortion.” In 2000, the court struck down a similar law banning such procedures in Nebraska.

But the court’s shifting make-up with regard to abortion rights since that decision leaves the federal law’s fate questionable. Earlier this year, Justice Samuel Alito succeeded retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. While O’Connor generally voted in support of abortion rights, most court observers expect Alito to be more suspicious of the constitutionality of those rights.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.



Churches celebrate restoration after arson

October 11, 2006

Posted: 10/10/06

Churches celebrate restoration after arson

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP)—Eight months after arsonists destroyed several rural Baptist church buildings in Alabama, pastors and members from the victimized congregations joined to celebrate the churches’ restoration recently with government officials and leaders from the college where two of the three arsonists were students.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley (R) and Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), who themselves are both Baptists, attended the event, along with Birmingham-Southern College President David Pollick and Lemarse Washington of the National Conference for Community and Justice. The February fires damaged or destroyed nine Baptist churches, all located near each other in and around Alabama’s Bibb County. The fires made national headlines, calling to mind a string of suspicious fires at rural African-American churches across the South in the 1990s. However, many of the congregations in the February blazes had majority Anglo congregations.

The driving force behind the dinner was the Alabama Churches Rebuilding and Restoration Fund, established by Birmingham-Southern to distribute more than $368,000 to the churches affected by the fires.

A spokesperson for the Methodist school said the fund was created the same day Birmingham-Southern officials learned two of their students were charged with arson and conspiracy in connection to the fires. Pollick’s first response to the news, she said, was that the school should help rebuild the churches.

Benjamin Moseley and Russell Debusk, both 19, set the fires as a joke, according to authorities. They continued setting fires in order to divert attention from the first ones, they told police officers.

Bob Little, pastor of Galilee Baptist Church in Panola, Ala., said he harbors no ill will toward the young men. Little was born and reared in the congregation, whose building had stood more than 60 years before the fire. More than two hours south of Birmingham, Panola has a population of about 100 people.

Little’s church broke ground on a new building Sept. 30. Church members decided to build on a new plot of land in the middle of town and hope to be a pillar of the community there, he said.

“We don’t have any bitterness,” Little said. “All things work together for good for those who love the Lord. He’s going to work all things together for a purpose. Sometimes the acts of the world seem to be bad and bruising, but in this church, God can make them work together for good.”

More than 100 ATF personnel sorting through more than 800 leads worked on the case following the initial fires, which burned the morning of Feb. 3.

Fires completely destroyed Ashby Baptist Church in Brierfield, Rehobeth Baptist Church in Randolph, and Pleasant Sabine Baptist Church near Centreville. Old Union Baptist in Randolph and Antioch Baptist in Centreville had some damage. All of the churches except Pleasant Sabine belonged to the Southern Baptist Convention, the statewide Alabama Baptist Convention, and the local Bibb County Baptist Association.

Another string of fires Feb. 7 destroyed Little’s church and the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church, near Boligee. Dancy Baptist Church near Aliceville and Spring Valley Baptist Church near Emelle suffered damage as well.

Jim Parker, pastor of Ashby Baptist, said in a National Public Radio interview that despite the destruction, his church plans to rebuild. They have been using two trailers donated by Southern Baptists as a sanctuary and for classroom space.

Even with the trailer-sanctuary, Parker said he has reason to believe Ashby Baptist has good years ahead.

“The church is still intact, because the people are the church,” he said.

“I can’t speak for other churches, but I can interpret what the fire has done for us,” Parker said. “What this has done is answered all those questions (about whether to expand) for us. The Lord has made a way for us to do some things that we otherwise would have not been able to do.”

Ashby Baptist had building insurance, and all gifts to Ashby that exceed what the church needs will be funneled to other burned churches, Jones said. The other churches are in various stages of planning, rebuilding and possibly relocating.

The rebuilding fund includes $55,000 from a collaborative effort between the National Conference for Community and Justice, Birmingham-based AmSouth Bank, and WBRC-TV, the Birmingham FOX affiliate. It also received $33,000 from the Community Foundation of West Alabama, a group that works with donors to create charitable funds and match them to causes.

An anonymous couple from Jackson Hole, Wyo., contributed $150,000 to the rebuilding process. The fund also received unsolicited donations from individuals, corporations and foundations across the country.

Under the circumstances, Little said, events like the dinner and support from Birmingham-Southern have helped tremendously. In hindsight, he said, the fires have moved his church to “another level.”

“Everything is going well. The congregation is healing,” he said. “Overall, the church has seen God doing some awesome, miraculous things.”



News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.



Carson-Newman College president gets ‘no confidence’ vote

October 11, 2006

Posted: 10/10/06

Carson-Newman College
president gets 'no confidence' vote

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. (ABP)—The faculty at Carson-Newman College reported Oct. 5 a vote of “no confidence” for President James Netherton.

Approved by a 129-71 margin, the vote was tangible evidence of growing and widespread dissatisfaction among faculty in the Netherton administration’s leadership. Two hundred of the school’s 260 faculty members voted in the hour-long meeting.

James Netherton

The resolution was e-mailed by the chair of the faculty council to all faculty members after the vote.

“Be it therefore resolved that we the faculty do hereby declare that we individually and as a whole have no confidence in President Netherton and respectfully request the Board of Trustees to act for the health, well-being, and future of the college,” the statement said.

Stephen Karr, faculty council chair, added in the email that “a clarification was made immediately prior to the vote which pointed out that we were voting on this resolution— a vote of no confidence—not voting to remove the president from his position.”

While the faculty can express no confidence in Netherton, they cannot remove Netherton from office. Trustees, who have the power to fire Netherton, will meet later this month.

Karr, a biology professor, also said in the letter it was his “sincere wish, hope, and prayer that the college community will come together in a spirit of cooperation and Christian love, working towards resolving the challenges before us.”

“I respectfully request that each and every member of our college family pledge to face these challenges in an open and constructive fashion,” he said.

Trustee Chairman C. T. Cozart also issued a statement about the vote, saying the board “respects the opinion and perspective of the faculty and will be attentive to this expression in future deliberations.”

“All of us recognize and acknowledge there are concerns that need to be addressed, and we will do so in a constructive fashion, working with the trustees, administration, faculty, staff, alumni and other friends of the college,” he said.

Hired at Carson-Newman in 2000, Netherton worked previously as provost at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. He followed Cordell Maddox, who had been president at Carson-Newman for 22 years. Before that, he served as provost at Samford University (1996-2000) and as senior vice-president and chief operating officer at Baylor University (1981-96).



News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.



Cybercolumn by Brett Younger: Sitting in someone else’s chair

October 11, 2006

Posted: 10/06/06

CYBER COLUMN:
Sitting in someone else’s chair

By Brett Younger

How do you react when you come to the kitchen table and someone is in your place? What happens when you walk into your office and find someone sitting in your chair? The way we respond says something about us. Some choose not to make a big deal out of it. We sit in another chair and try not to think about it, but all the while we feel strange sitting in someone else’s chair. Others respond more directly. We have no intention of giving up our place. We immediately say, “You’re in my chair. You need to move.” There must be a third category of people who are not only willing, but eager to sit in a different place and see from a different perspective, but the third group has to be the smallest.

Brett Younger

Most of the time we have no desire to sit where others sit. We don’t want to know the people who sit elsewhere and think differently, because we like believing that our ideas are the best ideas. We divide the world into us and them. Like the Hatfields and McCoys, the Montagues and Capulets, we rarely question the lines—liberals and conservatives, educated and underprivileged, old and young, insiders and outsiders.

Doesn’t it feel awkward to walk into a home or a room or a church where everyone is something you’re not—a different race or the other gender or younger than you are? Do you unconsciously look for someone like you? We’re tempted to spend our lives looking for people like us. We too quickly become uncomfortable around people who aren’t like us.

If you said, “I think I met someone today who’s going to be a good friend,” would the people who know you best be able to guess how old your prospective friend is? Just by hearing that you’ve made a new friend, could we estimate how much money they make, how much education they have, or what religious beliefs they hold?

Self-centeredness is easier than compassion. Some rich people talk about the poor in a way that makes it obvious that they’ve never thought about what it’s like not to have a home. Some white people talk about people of color in a way that makes it clear that they’ve never imagined what it’s like to be a victim of prejudice. Some straight people talk about gay people in a way that leaves no doubt that they’ve never considered what it’s like to be gay. We have an obligation to keep asking what it’s like to be the other person.

This summer I was a counselor at children’s camp. Some of the adults at camp have so much trouble putting themselves in a child’s place that they cling to other adults. You know how if you’re in England and see someone wearing a Baylor T-shirt you feel compelled to introduce yourself, “Hi, I’m from Texas, too.” At children’s camp, it’s the same feeling, “Hi, I’m an adult, too.” After three days, I was begging adults to talk to me about anything that isn’t Harry Potter.

Except there are moments when God does help us understand. A sad little boy I didn’t know was walking back from the swimming pool by himself. I asked, “What church are you from?”

“I came with somebody else’s church.”

“Oh, so you had a buddy from that church.”

“Well, I thought I did.”

Do you remember what that feels like? What it’s like to be a child who left out?

It’s amazing what happens when we ask what it’s like to be someone else. What’s it like to be your child, your parent or your pastor? What’s it like to be a Republican or a Democrat? What’s it like to be Lebanese or Israeli? What’s it like to be Hispanic or Russian, to be 14 or 84, to be a mother with no food in the house or a widow whose husband of 50 years just died? What’s it like to be your neighbor or your enemy?

When I was in junior high school in Mississippi, a friend who was black told me that he didn’t like it when our school band played Dixie. I remember thinking, “I thought everyone loved Dixie.” He had to explain the good reasons he had for not liking Dixie. I had to think about whether I should like Dixie.

Counselors often encourage married couples to argue from the other side. When it’s done honestly, they understand in new ways.

Don’t you enjoy it when judges sentence slum lords to spend a month in their own apartment buildings? They must learn something.

It seems likely that if our parents had been Muslims we would have different ideas. Some of what we claim to believe now wouldn’t make as much sense.

It’s when we see from the other side that we learn. If we could trade places for just a day, imagine what we might discover—students and teachers, 70-year-olds and 7-year-olds, thin people and the more normally proportioned, married and single, parents and adults without children, natives and immigrants, church people and those who would rather be anywhere else, those who have been abused and those who have abused.

When we put ourselves in another’s place, we lose our sense of superiority and begin to feel compassion. It’s when your daughter says that she’s getting a divorce that you learn not to make sweeping judgments. You start to see more clearly. It’s when your best friend gets laid off that you stop seeing the unemployed as a statistic. You start to see faces instead of numbers. It’s when your brother admits that he’s an alcoholic that you stop calling alcoholics weak. You start to love.

Carlyle Marney said, “No drowning people are ever rescued from the dock.” No one is helped by people who sit in the same chair all of their lives. Sitting in someone else’s chair isn’t easy. We may sit in a chair in a hospital holding an arthritic hand. We may sit in a chair at a kitchen table sharing a cup of sorrow. We may sit in front of a computer praying that God will help us love people we’ve never seen clearly enough to love.


Brett Younger is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth and the author of Who Moved My Pulpit? A Hilarious Look at Ministerial Life, available from Smyth & Helwys (800) 747-3016. You can e-mail him at byounger@broadwaybc.org.



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BaptistWay Bible Series for October 15: Living a life that matters a day at a time

October 11, 2006

Posted: 10/04/06

BaptistWay Bible Series for October 15

Living a life that matters a day at a time

• Psalm 90

By David Wilkinson

Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth

On New Year’s Day, our family gathered for a time of Scripture reading and prayer in anticipation of the year ahead. We read Psalm 90 together. Then each of us went to separate places to meditate, pray and journal about our thoughts. We returned an hour later to share our reflections on the psalm. It was a tender and meaningful time as we talked about our hopes and dreams for the year ahead and then prayed for each other.

Whatever the time of year or stage of life, Christians can turn to Psalm 90 as a helpful resource for taking stock of our lives and prayerfully considering how God wants us to live.


A prayer to God

Psalm 90 presents a poetic contrast between the eternal nature of God and the mortality of humankind. The form of the psalm is a prayer offered by the worshipping community. It begins with a brief hymn addressed to the “Lord” (Hebrew, ’adonay), the title for God as Lord or master of a servant people. This attitude is reinforced by references to God’s people as “servants” (vv. 13, 16).

In God, the people of Israel found their “dwelling place” (or “refuge” in some manuscripts). Recall that Psalm 84, a celebration of worship, began similarly: “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts” (v. 1). As a nomadic people who had known captivity, conflict and desert wanderings, Israel at its best affirmed that their ultimate home was in God and God alone.

This opening hymn is a celebration of God’s constancy. In a world of change, God is our one constant. In a world bound by the limits of mortality and rocked by the vicissitudes of life, the eternal God is in control.

Further, the hymn is a reminder that the worship of God is not dependent on our circumstances or mood. The psalmist will soon turn to the painful realities of life that are given voice in the form of a lament. But the psalm begins with praise in recognition of who God is and always has been: “From everlasting to everlasting, you are God” (v. 2).

God, of course, doesn’t need the reminder. We do.


Our human predicament

Verses 3-10 comprise the second of the psalm’s three sections. Parts two and three (vv. 13-17) are connected by two pivotal transition sentences (vv. 11-12).

In this second section, the psalmist bemoans the brevity and fragility of life. In recognition of this painful predicament, the transitional sentence of verse 12 asks God for wisdom to make the most of our lives.

The final section turns to the history of Israel’s relationship with God and pleas for a change from present lives filled with affliction and mourning to future lives blessed with satisfaction and gladness borne in God’s steadfast love. If our days are numbered, says the psalmist, then our prayer is that we may be given wisdom so each day is lived in the light of God’s grace rather than the shadow of God’s anger.

This second section is rich with poetic devices. In verse 3, the psalmist employs double entendre in the reminder that humankind inevitably returns to the “dust” from which we were created. This “back to dust” description of humanity’s mortality is reminiscent of the language of Genesis: “you are dust,” God tells Adam, “and to dust you shall return” (3:19).

The same Hebrew word translated “dust” is used elsewhere in Scripture to communicate contrition and repentance. In the same sentence, the psalmist speaks of humanity in both an individual sense (’enosh) and as a species (bene ’adam), again echoing the language of Genesis. Life’s brevity is both a particular and universal reality shared by “me” and “us.”

Verse 4 builds on this contrast between the Creator and creation and eternity and mortality. For the God of all time and space, a thousand years “are like yesterday when it is past” or “a watch in the night.” Compared to God’s eternal nature, our lives are like grass that flourishes in the coolness of the morning and then quickly withers in the afternoon heat and is blown away (vv. 5-6; see also Psalm 103:15-16). Even a strong life that spans 70 or 80 years is all too brief, coming inexorably to an end “like a sigh” (v. 9). Our lives—whether lived well or poorly, filled with ease or toil, or showered by blessings or troubles—“are soon gone” and, like blades of grass, we too “fly away” (v. 10).

No wonder this psalm often is read at funerals, since there is nothing like a funeral to remind us of our mortality. Yet funerals also can be occasions for reassessing our lives, and that is the turn this congregational prayer takes in the transitional sentences of verses 11-12. Echoing the wisdom theme of many of the psalms and Proverbs, lament turns to supplication: If our days are numbered, then teach us to live wisely, making the most of each day we have.

True wisdom is not related to the quantity of our days but to the quality with which we live them.


A turn towards hope

The final section is a plea for God to balance the scales. The psalmist does not reveal the particular circumstances that may have prompted the prayer. But he does plead for compassion, asking God to even up life’s ledger with credits of good days filled with the satisfaction of God’s “steadfast love” in place of days that have seen only “affliction” and “evil” (vv. 13-15).

Having turned from despair over life’s brevity and hardship, the prayer concludes with a note of hope. However long we may live, the psalmist prays, whatever the number of our days may be, may each day be lived in the light of God’s love and in the strength of God’s power.


Discussion questions

• Can you recall a time when you felt like asking God to “balance the scales” with some good days? How does this psalm speak to that feeling?

• What experiences have helped “put things in perspective” and prompted you to take stock of your life?

• Describe someone whose faith has enabled them to “gain a wise heart” as God’s servant.


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Bible Studies for Life Series for October 15: Take hold of contentment

October 11, 2006

Posted: 10/15/06

Bible Studies for Life Series for October 15

Take hold of contentment

• 1 Timothy 6:3-12,17-19

By Kenneth Lyle

Logsdon School of Theology, Abilene

One of the great paradoxes of living comes in the balance between our desire to improve and our need to be content. We want to mature and grow as individuals. We educate ourselves in order to be more productive in the workplace. We exercise in order to improve our health and our quality of life. We admonish children to “grow up.” We admire those individuals who “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps” and become successful businesspeople.

In twenty-first century America, achievement is a virtue. Yet this drive to achieve and improve often comes at the expense of contentment. One could argue the lack of contentment in our lives drives us to do better—to improve.

This paradox finds its way into our Christian commitment. What drives us to become better disciples of Christ if not a lack of contentment with our current walk? We are encouraged—quite correctly—to grow as Christians, to mature in Christ, to exercise spiritual disciplines. Yet we are to do all of this while we remain content—a paradox indeed.

Paul’s admonition to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:3-19 offers some help in resolving this tension between our desire to improve and our need to be content. Here, Paul describes contentment as a quality of godliness. Paul connects contentment to godliness, and contrasts the love of money with the pursuit of righteousness.

Just a few weeks ago, a national news magazine ran a cover story with the title, “Does God want you to be rich?” The article chronicles the ongoing debate over the so-called “gospel of wealth.” On one side of the debate, there are those who argue that God wants his followers to achieve success in all things financial. Others suggest that the so-called health-and- wealth gospel flies in the face of Scripture.

Those who hold the second view may find support in Paul’s words to Timothy, “for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). Those who believe God wants them to be rich might counter that in other contexts Paul argues wrong motives and misplaced emphasis on human effort to achieve sinless perfection reveals the evil “… right here with me” (Romans 7:21). Is money or motive the real problem?

In 1 Timothy 6, Paul draws a sharp contrast between two kinds of people—the teacher of false doctrine (vv. 3-10) and the “person of God” (vv. 11-19).

He begins the discussion with a description of “false teachers” who manifest selfishness as a lifestyle. Paul employs a litany of warning signs that help Timothy identify false teachers: conceited, lacking understanding, “he has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions” (6:4-5). The culmination of Paul’s description identifies the false teachers as those “who think that godliness is a means to financial gain” (6:5).

Here understand “godliness” as “religion” with the idea that these people believe religion provides an opportunity to make a profit. Paul is not talking about legitimate vocational ministers, and in fact, he has already announced to Timothy that those who preach and teach should be compensated appropriately (1 Timothy 5:17-18).

Paul warns of the persistent human tendency to use religion as a means to an end. Paul here speaks specifically of those religious charlatans of every era who preach the gospel in order to fleece the faithful. However, the use of religion for profit creeps into other aspects of our life, and we need to be on guard against pundits, politicians, and, yes, preachers who peddle religion as a means to an end. Moreover, we need to guard against that tendency in our own lives.

Money itself is not evil, and money employed properly as a tool can help us to do great good. Here, however, greed and temptation replace hard work, faith and benevolence. In contrast to those who use religion for profit, Paul sees profit in contentment (v. 6).

Paul employs the language of the ledger to describe our state. We come into the world with a zero balance, and we leave the same way (v. 7). For Paul, the only gain comes from godliness with contentment.

Some scholars point to the similarity of Paul’s words here with the ideological stance of Stoic philosophers. To be sure, there are some conceptual similarities—contentment with your current state and avoiding the trap of temptation. However, Paul is no Stoic, and he does not envision a static existence for the Christian. Rather, he points Timothy towards a life characterized by pursuit.

In 6:11-19, Paul describes Timothy as a person of God and encourages him to “flee from all this and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith” (vv. 11-12). In contrast to those “false teachers” who pursue wealth, Paul emphatically states the real people of God will “put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (v. 17).

Paul reminds Timothy that Christians need “to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share” laying “up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life” (vv. 18-19).

Often, churches hear this passage of Scripture during the ordination of a young minister. In fact, scholars suggest this part of 1 Timothy reflects an early ordination or baptismal formula. The admonition to “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness” comes in the context of a life commitment.

Paul encourages Timothy to “take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses … in the sight of God … and of Christ Jesus” (vv. 12-13). When we enter into the Christian walk, we enter into a life of pursuit. Take hold of contentment—the very idea is a paradox. If we were content, we would take hold of nothing. As Christians, we find contentment as we pursue the things of God.


Discussion questions

• How do we resolve the tension between our desire to improve and our need to be content? How do we pursue contentment?

• Do we ever use religion as a means to and end?

• In what ways does money help and harm the work of the church?


News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.



Explore the Bible Series for October 15: The promises of God offer hope

October 11, 2006

Posted: 10/04/06

Explore the Bible Series for October 15

The promises of God offer hope

• Hebrews 6:13-7:28

By Howard Anderson

Diversified Spiritual Associates, San Antonio

Christians do not have to live with addictions, in struggles and without hope. Our hope is in the promises of God. We have an assured hope in our relationship with Jesus Christ and our future. It is God’s desire for believers to live in hope utilizing our relationship with him in the here-and-now, and in eternity.


Promises of God (Hebrews 6:13-20)

Hope is a critical element for Christians to stay loyal to Jesus Christ in days of persecution. The winds of diabolical temptation are increasing in their force, tending to blow Christians off their course and against the rocky shores of apostasy where they will be dashed to pieces and destroyed.

What can hold us on course? An unwavering hope and confidence in the person of the Priest and his perfect sacrifice that opens to us a way into the presence of God at all times.

To encourage the Hebrews to rely upon faith as opposed to holding on to the Levitical system of worship, the writer cited the example of Abraham as an outstanding example of faith (Romans 4) that should be imitated (Hebrews 6:12). God promised unilaterally to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 22:15-19).

Verse 14 is quoted from Genesis 22:17, and summarizes the essence of God’s promise. The fact that God had said it assured its fulfillment. It is significant that the quote is in the context of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, who was the immediate fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. The ultimate fulfillment would take place through Isaac and his descendants. Abraham did not live to see all the promises fulfilled (Hebrews 11:13).

“Two immutable things” are God’s promise and his oath. Neither can be changed by anyone but God, the maker of the will. The Christian’s hope is embodied in Jesus Christ who has entered into God’s presence in the heavenly Holy of Holies on our behalf (2 Corinthians 12:2-4)


Priesthood of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:1-10)

The Levitical priesthood was hereditary, but Melchizedek’s was not. His parentage and origin are unknown because they were irrelevant to his priesthood. “Made like” implies the resemblance to Jesus Christ rests upon the way Melchizedek’s history is reported in the Old Testament and not upon Melchizedek himself. Melchizedek was an earthly king-priest and not the pre-incarnate Christ, but he was similar to Christ in that his priesthood was universal, royal, righteous, peaceful and unending (vv.1-3).

In ancient times, it was common for people to give a tithe to a god or his representative. Abraham, the father of the Hebrew faith, gave a tithe to Melchizedick proving Melchizedek was superior to Abraham. Under the Mosaic Law, the Levitical priests collected tithes from their fellow Israelites. The submission of the Israelites was not to honor the priests but to honor the law of God.

Melchizedek not only received a tithe from Abraham, he also blessed him. The lesser person tithes to the greater (v. 7).

The Levitical priesthood changed as each priest died until it passed away altogether. As there is no record of Melchizedek’s death or end of his priesthood, Melchizedek in Scripture record is an illustration of perpetuity of life, a type of Christ who is eternal (Isaiah 9:6; Revelation 1:8-11).


Priesthood of Jesus (Hebrews 7:11-28)

Jesus’ priesthood is better than Aaron because he has an unchangeable law and priesthood. Aaron’s priesthood was changeable. The Levitical priesthood was faulty and was merely a shadow, and not the substance and reality of the eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ. It represented a perfect system but was imperfect itself. It pointed to a perfect sacrifice that would take away sin, but was helpless to cleanse from sin (v. 11).

The author speaks with all confidence that Jesus Christ came from Judah, according to the official Jewish genealogies. The genealogies of both Matthew and Luke establish this fact. There were no difficulties for them in that way, or the enemies of the gospel would have used them as proof against Christ being the Messiah. Jesus Christ is raised out of Judah as the sun in all its strength to bring light to Israel and knowledge to his people (Isaiah 9:1-2).

Whenever the Levitical High Priest sinned, he was required to offer sacrifices for himself (Leviticus 4:3). Whenever the people sinned, he also had to offer a sacrifice for them (Leviticus 4:13). These occasions could be daily. Then, annually, on the Day of Atonement, he had to again offer sacrifices for himself and for the people (Leviticus 16:6, 11, 15). Jesus had no sin and needed no sacrifice for himself. Only one sacrifice (by Jesus) was needed—one time only, for all humanity, for all time. The sacrificial work of Jesus never needed to be repeated unlike the Old Testament priestly sacrifices (1 Peter 3:18).

For the Christian, Jesus is our High Priest and our leader. He is a merciful and sensitive High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, having more than fulfilled all the necessary qualifications of a high priest. Jesus was one of the people, thoroughly identified with us in our humanity. Jesus was faithful to God in the fulfillment of his task. God appointed Jesus with an oath for the task of High Priest.


Discussion questions

• What problems face people that causes them to turn to God for hope?

• Where else do people turn for hope and find it lacking?

• How does Jesus’ role as High Priest offer hope?

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.



SBC urged to take measures to prevent clergy sexual abuse

October 11, 2006

Posted: 10/03/06

SBC urged to take measures
to prevent clergy sexual abuse

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

NASHVILLE (ABP)—Members of the coalition that fought the Roman Catholic Church’s hierarchy over sexual abuse by priests are asking the Southern Baptist Convention to prevent similar clergy abuse in the denomination’s churches.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, recently delivered a letter to the SBC Executive Committee at its Nashville headquarters. It asks convention leaders to form an independent review board to receive and investigate charges of clergy abuse in Southern Baptist congregations.

Abuse from clergy is a “systemic” problem, the letter said, and must be addressed by the denomination’s main permanent governing body, the Executive Committee. SNAP members also mailed the missive to South Carolina pastor Frank Page, who was elected to the SBC presidency in June.

The letter is the second one they have sent to Southern Baptist leaders.

“Just as (a) family member cannot properly investigate a molestation claim made against a close relative, local church leaders cannot properly investigate a report of clergy abuse made against a much-loved minister,” SNAP members wrote. “The usual dynamics dictate that there cannot possibly be a proper inquiry without outside intervention.”

Part of the difficulty the SBC faces in taking aggressive action involves the autonomous nature of local churches in Baptist polity. Since individual congregations have full control over their decision-making and governing processes, the SBC can’t dictate rules or punishment to them.

Christa Brown, 56, who said she was abused by a Southern Baptist youth minister in 1968, believes if SBC leaders cared enough to focus on protecting kids, they would not let congregational autonomy be an impediment to action.

“For denominational leaders to use congregational autonomy as an excuse for inaction strikes me as a rather Pharisee-like focus on an ecclesiological legalism,” said Brown, who maintains www.stopbaptistpredators.org , a website aimed at challenging Southern Baptist leaders to “get tough” on sex abuse by clergy. “And it’s a misplaced focus that is very dangerous because it leaves kids at risk.”

In January, Brown won an apology from the Texas Baptist church that employed the youth minister she says sexually abused her when she was 16. Officials took no legal action against the man at the time, and he was employed by other churches for more than two decades. Brown filed a lawsuit that was settled out of court last year.

Abuse survivors complain that too often abusive ministers move on to other churches without being punished, only to repeat the abuse in another location.

The SNAP letter said that, given the frequently reported pattern of church officials failing to respond to clergy-abuse allegations, the SBC must provide national leadership to rid the ranks of such repetitive predators.

“When kids are at stake, there is no place for passivity on the part of denominational leaders,” it said.

David Clohessy, Mike Coode, Miguel Prats and Brown said in their letter that the denomination’s structure is no excuse for Executive Committee inaction.

Southern Baptists have shown themselves capable of cooperative endeavors when they choose, they wrote, so, “given that congregational autonomy does not preclude a cooperative denomination-wide effort for these other endeavors, why should it preclude a domination-wide effort at protecting kids from clergy predators?”

SBC president Page responded to SNAP’s first letter. After stating how disturbed he was by the egregious abuse of power in some local churches, Page said he would meet with SBC officials to see whether they “might provide this kind of assistance without infringing upon the autonomy of these state-level or local-level entities.”

Requests in the latest letter call for a victim hotline, church-wide education about sexual abuse, and a “zero tolerance” policy for Southern Baptist churches that hire someone with any report of having sexually abused a minor.

The SNAP letter asks the SBC Executive Committee to recommend the establishment of a review board to messengers at the SBC’s 2007 annual meeting, set for San Antonio.

According to the Tennessean of Nashville, SBC officials have said they will continue to provide support for abuse victims and will fully support criminal prosecution when necessary.




News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.



Bill hinders suits over violations of church-state separation

October 11, 2006

Posted: 10/03/06

Bill hinders suits over violations
of church-state separation

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—After impassioned debate on the separation of church and state Sept. 26, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would make it harder to sue the government for violations of church-state separation.

House members voted 244-173 in favor of H.R. 2679, called by supporters the “Public Expression of Religion Act.” In cases involving the First Amendment’s establishment clause, the proposal would prevent federal courts from requiring government entities to reimburse the legal costs of the individual or group that sued the government agency—even though the agency was found in violation of the constitution.

The establishment clause bars the government from endorsing or inhibiting religious groups or doctrines. Currently, federal judges routinely require the government entity to pay the legal expenses of a plaintiff who successfully asserts an establishment-clause violation.

Supporters contended that the bill would keep special-interest groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union from “abusing the system” when filing challenges to government actions that may endorse religion.

“Too often today, overzealous courts have infringed an individual’s right to worship,” Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), a supporter of the measure, said on the House floor. “These attacks on our religious heritage are frivolous.”

But opponents said it would have a chilling effect on the ability of religious minorities to defend their freedoms.

“Mr. Speaker, let’s be clear—there’s nothing benign about this bill. This bill makes it more difficult to enforce the First Amendment to the Constitution and the very words thereof designed to protect the religious freedom of every American,” said Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas).

Without such reimbursements, many church-state separationist groups and other civil-rights groups could not afford to file such lawsuits in the first place.

The bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.), said some such groups file lawsuits and use the threat of hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to pressure municipalities and states into settling before the case reaches court.

“Without that ability for the ACLU and others to go into these closed-door sessions and say to the mayor … we’re going to sue, we’re going to win, and you’re going to have to pay our attorneys’ fees, these cases will go to court,” Hostettler said, referring to the American Civil Liberties Union.

But Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) asked the bill’s supporters if they would feel the same way about limiting attorneys’ fees in such cases if government agencies were being sued for advancing other religions.

“Let’s assume in some town Sunni Muslims became a majority. And let’s assume that everyone in that town…was forced to recite ‘There is but one God, and Allah is his name,’” he said, quoting Islam’s most common affirmation of faith.

“They think that only the majority religion is ever going to be in the position to dominate the local government or any government. Maybe so, but the whole reason we have the First Amendment is because you can’t be sure.”

Although a companion bill has been introduced in the Senate, that body is virtually certain not to address it before Congress ends its current term.




News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.



Family practice residency teaches Christian service

October 11, 2006

Posted: 9/29/06

Family practice residency
teaches Christian service

By Elizabeth Staples

Communications Intern

HARLINGEN—Valley Baptist Medical Center’s family practice residency program not only provides medical training, but also teaches health care professionals how to help from the heart.

Bruce Leibert has been working in residency programs with his wife since they married 22 years ago.

The need for a residency program that trained residents in medicine and the gospel simultaneously became apparent almost immediately.

James Chapman, part of the Valley Baptist Family Practice Residency Program who went on to complete his residency and is now in private practice in New Jersey, checks on a patient in San Carlos, near Edinburg.

“We opened the doors of our (family practice residency) training program in July 1996. Forty-two graduates and 11 years later, we’ve seen God really do incredible things in the lives of faculty, residents and the community,” Leibert said. The program offers a three-year residency at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen. Trained by seven doctors on staff, five residents graduate each year. They are equipped in a variety of medical fields including family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics and general surgery, Leibert said. But it doesn’t stop there.

“This program is different from most because of the three C’s—Christianity, curriculum and community outreach,” he said.

Christianity permeates the program. Physicians are trained spiritually through family retreats, daily devotions, examples of Christian doctors and Bible studies. Every day, they pray in the name of Jesus with most of the patients, Leibert said. “I’d say 99.9 percent of the patients want to pray with the doctors. They’ve never seen anything like this before,” Leibert said.

The family practice residency program curriculum is different from other residency programs. Leibert describes it as an apprenticeship model in which the doctors work in the clinic, and the majority of their time is spent on the floor.

“We have the first-ever blended curriculum,” Leibert said.

Community outreach involves weekly work in areas where the income is low and the needs are great.

“We go to colonias, small communities without electricity or air conditioning, each Wednesday and reach out to fill their needs,” Leibert said.

For the past six summers, the Summer Medical Institute has brought many young medical students to the Valley where they learn to share their faith.

“We pray that we would be pleasing to the Lord in our attitude and actions as an institution,” Leibert said. “The truth must be shared so lives can be saved—anything else would be wrong for us.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.



RIGHT or WRONG? Being vs doing

October 11, 2006

Posted: 9/29/06

RIGHT or WRONG?
Being vs doing

I heard a preacher insist Christian “being” and “doing” should reflect the same thing. What does that mean?

I am hesitant to get into the mind of another preacher. Here is one possibility: Perhaps the preacher was intent on addressing the plague of consumerism Christianity. Maybe he was speaking to the notion that a person can claim a strong faith with little evidence of commitment.

A Christian can wear a witness T-shirt, carry a Christianized coffee cup, put on sacred jewelry, and lay a Bible in the back window of the car, just above the “Icthus” emblem pressed onto the trunk lid. And yet with all of those outside trappings, the person can demonstrate very little commitment to the body of Christ. All the outward signals are in place, but little personal commitment is given in worship, fellowship or service. The Sunday-morning question of joining the body of Christ for worship is equal to the lightweight Saturday-night question, “Do you want to go to a movie?” Maybe that kind of life of opposites is what the preacher had in mind.

Perhaps the preacher is giving reference to James 1:22-25, which says: “But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.”

If the preacher you heard was addressing the temptation to take faith as mental assent without the transformation of life and service, then this text from James would support such an idea. It is possible to hear the gospel without being changed by the gospel. Faith can be more form than substance.

Jesus spoke to this temptation in Mark 7. His audience was worried about the form of tradition without the substance of faith. His opponents were more concerned about washing hands and hiding assets in the temple than they were about worshipping God and caring for the poor. When they heard the call of Jesus, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand,” they turned away and pretended it was intended for someone else. Perhaps the preacher you heard was calling his listeners to quit pretending they are people of faith and start living the faith by serving.

In trying to get into the mind of the preacher, I have taken two roads that naturally lead to caustic preaching and demoralized listeners. Let me suggest another option: In a life, transformed by the gospel and led by the Spirit, there should be little difference in who we are and what we do.

Sometimes, the peer pressure to be “spiritual” is just as great as the teenage pressure to be a “rebel.” And the simplest way to project the image is to buy a shirt or put a symbol on your car. The outward witness eases the inner struggle.

Here is a Scriptural portrait of what we are to be and do in the name of Christ: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against such things” (Galatians 5:22-23).

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.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.



Visitors see same friendly face 52 years

October 11, 2006

Posted: 9/29/06

Visitors see same friendly face 52 years

By Angela Best

Communications Intern

DALLAS—For 52 years, whenever someone has visited the offices of Grace Temple Baptist Church in North Oak Cliff, Betty Hatfield has been there to greet them.

Hatfield, who retired recently as the church’s pastoral and financial secretary, started working at Grace Temple in 1954.

Born and raised with two siblings in Pickton, Hatfield’s family didn’t have enough money for her to attend college. So, in 1953, she moved to Dallas to find work.

Betty Hatfield

She landed a job as a secretary in the trust department at First National Bank. She also began attending Grace Temple, since she and a roommate lived three blocks from the church.

But she wasn’t entirely satisfied.

“The Lord had been working on me,” Hatfield explained. “I felt that maybe I needed to quit my job at the bank and go to college and become a schoolteacher.”

Shortly after she told her parents about her plan, Buell Crouch, Grace Temple’s pastor, and his wife asked Hatfield out to lunch.

“I had no idea what they could possibly want to talk to me about,” she remembered, laughing.

She had met the pastor and his wife and also was very involved in the church. But Hatfield didn’t know the Crouches had spoken with her uncle, who was pastor of nearby Hampton Place Baptist Church, because they were considering asking her to become a secretary at Grace Temple.

“The Lord was in it from the very beginning,” she said. “When I was told about the opportunity, I knew it was what God wanted me to do.”

And in 1954, she became the church’s pastoral and financial secretary.

Hatfield maintained active involvement as a lay member of the church. And there she met her late husband, James Hatfield, in 1955.

The Hatfields had two sons, and she continued her work and brought her children to the church’s daycare.

Besides her position as secretary, Hatfield also directed the youth Sunday school department for almost a decade. She planned parties for the young people and counseled them. She also went on youth mission trips and ski trips.

“I remember one ski trip when the youth wanted me to get on the skis, but I never would,” she recalled. Now, she directs the Adult 3 Sunday school department.

When someone has a question at the church, the common reply is simple and straightforward: “Go ask Betty.”

Throughout her career, Hatfield spent her typical day answering phones, taking care of people who have come to the church, maintaining the finances and making sure all the office tasks get completed.

But her first responsibility was to the pastor, she noted, and in 52 years as secretary, Hatfield worked for seven pastors.

“When new pastors would come, I would always tell them that I didn’t have to stay, and that I wanted them to feel free to get someone else to take my place,” she said. “Well, they all declined and said they wanted me to stay, and I am here to this day. “I’ve become a permanent fixture.” Hatfield acknowledges a simple reason for 52 years of permanence: “I felt that it was something I enjoyed, and I felt like I was needed. There have been a lot of happy times.”

While she never dreamed of working for a church, Hatfield has valued five decades in the Grace Temple office.

“It’s been a joy to work here,” she reflected, smiling at the thought. “It’s been my life for all these years. I felt that it was God’s will that I stay as long as I have, and it’s just been very special to me. I wouldn’t take anything for my life here as pastor’s secretary and financial secretary.”

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