Posted: 3/14/08

Catholics paid $615 million on abuse claims

By Daniel Burke

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The U.S. Catholic Church paid out $615 million in costs related to sexual abuse claims in 2007, even as the number of victims coming forward fell for the third straight year, according to an annual report issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

More than $526 million went to settlements between victims and Catholic dioceses and religious orders last year. That’s an increase of 90 percent over 2006 and a new high for the U.S. church.

At the same time, according to the report, dioceses and religious orders received 691 credible reports of sexual abuse from 689 victims in 2007, down from 714 such reports in 2006.

Most of the sex attacks took place decades ago, according to the report, most frequently during the 1970s. Just five new instances of the molestation of a minor by Catholic staff during 2007 were reported.

The 84-page report is part of a yearly review inaugurated after the sexual abuse crisis exploded in the church in 2002. It is produced by the bishops’ National Review Board, with information provided by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate and audits conducted by the independent Gavin Group Inc. of Boston.

Since 1950, sexual abuse-related costs have reached an estimated $2.4 billion, and almost 14,000 abuse claims have been lodged, according to church figures.

Posted: 3/14/08

2nd Opinion:
A microcosm of the body of Christ

When in Rome, doing as the Romans do usually doesn’t involve attending an English-language Baptist congregation. For this Texan, looking for a church while living in Italy last fall required plenty of my own initiative.

Despite several false starts and only one month of Italian under my belt, I finally managed to find Rome Baptist Church near the famous Spanish Steps.

Organized in March 1963 as a mission to “serve the Americans who live in Rome,” the church is now led full-time by Dave and Cat

hy Hodgdon, who moved to Rome from Colorado in 2001.

The church draws people from all walks of life and facilitates an atmosphere of openness and diversity, largely because of its heterogeneous congregation. Tourists or students like me join the church for just a few months, or even for just one Sunday.

The church secretary/treasurer (and frequent translator), Lilibeth Daya, is from the Philippines; Peter Owusu, who maintains the church property, is from Ghana.

Margie Caffarelli arrived in Italy in 1995 from Samoa at the age of 15 with her Italian father. She serves the church with her musical skills and by teaching English classes and Sunday school.

Edgar Ocasion, at Rome Baptist 17 years, is the assistant pastor for the Filipino Fellowship. Ocasion loves the church’s sense of community. “I tried other churches,” Ocasion says, “but this is really different. … I really feel loved here.”

Meggie Akin-oni came from Nigeria, where dancing, clapping and singing keep services lively. She has lived in Italy for close to eight years and in Rome for two-and-a-half years. “I wanted to find a non-Catholic, gospel church.” she explains. “I just asked around, and I was directed to Rome Baptist. … I loved the environment, the welcoming spirit.” She sings in the choir, teaches Sunday school and occasionally presents the children’s sermon. The African Fellowship functions for her as both prayer support and a community where they “worship God the African way.”

This church represents more than 30 nationalities and holds three services every Sunday—the international service in English, the Filipino Fellowship service in Tagalog and the Chinese Fellowship service in Mandarin. Additionally, the African Fellowship gathers the first and third Sundays of each month.

The congregation’s multiple major ethnic groups necessitate good rapport among the leadership. Several have been with RBC longer than the Hodgdons, and their wisdom and familiarity with the congregation make them valuable mediators and resources for cultural understanding.

At Rome Baptist Church, intercongregational unity happens when the group turns its attention to worshipping God together, despite often contrasting styles. Their patient, persistent communication with one another comes from a deeply rooted belief that the church universal claims a purpose of unity—they have cultivated relationships with one another that resist trivial differences.

What makes it tick?

Dave Hodgdon thinks “it has to do with key people who are willing to step across some of the hurdles that keep other churches from functioning like we do, people who don’t have problems dealing with others from different cultures. … We’re not just here to be an American church; we’re here to be a church.”

Worshipping in one venue with Filipinos, Australians, Samoans, Americans, Italians and Africans reminded me of the Apostle Paul’s words: “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13).

During my last few months at Rome Baptist, I was able to serve as the church’s choral accompanist, which allowed me the unexpected chance to offer my most treasured gifts in music to the church.

The semester culminated with a multicultural Christmas cantata and potluck dinner, and I understood afresh what it meant for the church universal to sing and move and serve as that one body in Christ.

Carrie Joynton is a senior at Trinity University in San Antonio and a member of Southland Baptist Church in San Angelo.

Posted: 3/14/08

Couple urges truce in war
between faith and science

By Charles Honey

Religion News Service

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS)—The poster in Deborah Haarsma’s office at Calvin College bears the bold title, “Long, long ago in galaxies far, far away”—appropriate Star Wars jargon for an astronomy professor.

It shows photos of galaxy clusters spied by Haarsma and two of her students using one of the world’s largest telescopes last summer.

“We were hoping to find about half a dozen galaxy clusters, but the universe told us that’s not what we’re seeing,” Haarsma says. “We found one galaxy cluster, which is pretty cool in itself.”

When Haarsma says the universe told her what they were seeing, she’s not exaggerating. She believes God speaks through the Bible and through the far-flung reaches of space—God’s word and God’s worlds. For her, science and Scripture do not conflict, but together point toward the Creator of both.

“Seeing the beautiful things of the universe reminds me of God’s beauty,” she said. “Seeing the powerful things reminds me of God’s power.”

Her husband, Calvin physics professor Loren Haarsma, nods in agreement. While she sees God’s wonders in a vast sea of stars, he detects God’s design in atoms flowing in and out of cells.

Both are awed not only by the intricacies of God’s creation, but also by the fact they, as scientists, are able to understand much of how it works.

“We have the privilege of thinking God’s thoughts after him,” she said.

In the noisy debate among biblical creationists, intelligent-design lobbyists and religiously skeptical scientists, consider Loren and Deborah Haarsma missionaries for peaceful dialogue.

Calvin professors since 1999, they share a passion for faith and science and would like to make peace among factions warring over how life was created and by whom.

Stop firing and consider this possibility, the Haarsmas say: Both the Bible and science are true if we interpret them correctly.

“Science and Christianity are not at war,” they write in Origins: A Reformed Look at Creation, Design and Evolution, published last fall by Faith Alive Christian Resources. “In fact, scientifically studying God’s creation is one way we can joyfully explore creation and fulfill our mandate to be caretakers.”

Theirs is a refreshing voice in a debate dominated by nonbelieving scientists on one side and biblical literalists on the other, who both insist science and Scripture are incompatible, said Douglas Kindschi, director of the Grand Dialogue in Science and Religion.

“They are part of a growing movement of people who very competently articulate the relationship and compatibility between good science and good theology,” said Kindschi, professor of math and philosophy at Grand Valley State University.

The Haarsmas both grew up learning a literal Genesis creation account, he in a Christian Reformed Church in Iowa, she in an Evangelical Free Church in Minnesota.

They met at a Bible fellowship as doctoral students in physics. As their relationship grew, so did their interest in exploring apparent conflicts between their faith and their research.

“I would say it was God’s Spirit prompting me and telling me, ‘Yes, I should study this, I should work at this,’” Haarsma said.

“It was an issue I had to work through,” his wife added. “Sort of a moment of realization that these two different areas of thinking in my brain are based on different assumptions. I have to figure out how to reconcile them.”

She insists she did not water down her beliefs to fit the science. It was a matter of understanding how to best interpret Scripture and science, then seeing how the two fit together.

“I wanted to promote Christian unity by showing Christians, ‘Here’s where you agree on issues’ … and try to get people to see where the essence of the disagreement is.”

In fact, there is more agreement than conflict among Christian views of science, the Haarsmas insist. Christians agree God created everything but disagree on how, the couple contends. The disagreements flare over the most controversial concepts—creationism, intelligent design and evolution.

In their book, the Haarsmas argue that answers can be found by careful study of the Bible and the book of nature. Only when asked do they advance their view—that the Earth is about 4.6 billion years old, the universe about 13.7 billion and evolution is God’s program for creating life.

Theological study shows the Book of Genesis was not meant to teach science but about God’s relationship to people, the couple insists. It uses poetic images and concepts of the Earth’s structure that people of the time would have understood.

“God wanted to correct their mistaken beliefs that there were many gods,” he said. “God didn’t bother to teach them modern big-bang cosmology first.”

Posted: 3/14/08

Movie argues for gentler
church approach to divorce

By David Briggs

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Divorced people no longer feel as if they are wearing a scarlet “D” on their chests when they walk into most houses of worship.

The prevalence of divorce has forced even the most conservative church leaders to grapple with the issue and explore ways to welcome people from unsuccessful marriages without giving up the ideal of a lifelong union blessed by God, church observers have noted.

But Christian filmmaker Dave Christiano said there still are times when he gets the sense churchgoers who never have gone through a divorce look at a divorced person and barely can hide the thought, “What did that guy do wrong?”

In his new movie, Me & You, Us, Forever, writer-director Christiano, 51, of North Carolina, tells the story of a divorced 47-year-old Christian man who thinks back and reminisces about his first love of 30 years ago.

The semiautobiographical movie, which opened recently in 83 U.S. cities, is based on Christiano’s first love with a New York woman; he would not disclose the woman’s name.

“This is a tribute to a lost first love,” he said.

But it also is meant to help Christians—particularly those going through a divorce initiated by a spouse, as Christiano did—to accept that such devastating losses happen in life and cannot always be explained.

“The answer is, God is God. He’s the Lord,” said Christiano, who calls himself a nondenominational, Bible-believing Christian. “The issue is to try to grow and mature and deal with it” without remaining angry and bitter.

The main character in the movie, Dave, is angry at both his ex-wife and God. When a friend says God is not responsible for divorce, Dave responds: “Why not? He’s the one running the show, isn’t he?”

A divorce-recovery group at a church helps Dave deal with his anger and denial.

Pastors need to confront the issue, Christiano said.

“Look out at your congregation, and 90 percent of people have been touched by divorce,” Christiano said. “What I try to do with my film is to offer some help to people.”

Posted: 3/14/08

DOWN HOME:
A father’s love plumbs divine depths

Sometimes, I think I know waaaaay too much about chick flicks and fashion.

This is my Y-chromosome’s fault.

See, I’m a daddy of daughters.

If I had produced different chromosomes and Joanna had produced boy babies, I’d probably know all about action movies, video games and the batting averages of left-handed pinch hitters in the American League.

As it is, however, I still remember quite a bit about a genre of tiny dolls called Polly Pockets, the film versions of classic Broadway musicals and the relative merits of most romantic comedies produced by Hollywood in the past 20 years.

Many dads might be bothered by this. A few would be embarrassed to admit it. Not me.

For more than 24 years, I’ve unashamedly committed myself to mastering “girl” things. One of the great accomplishments of my life was learning to tie a bow on the back of little girls’ dresses. (Hey, it’s harder than it looks.) I’ve spent many blissful Sunday afternoons in the middle of the floor, playing dolls. And I’m not bothered—at least not too bothered—to tell you I’ve developed a knack for handicapping the prospects of contestants on “reality” shows like America’s Next Top Model and So You Think You Can Dance.

See, I’m a daddy of daughters.

Love takes many forms. Years ago, as a young father, I was surprised to learn the shape of my love readily conformed to the interests of the two young lights of my life, Lindsay and Molly.

As a guy, I’d never dreamed my heart would turn to mush before “girl” things. But then Joanna gave birth to daughters, and love changed all my preconceptions.

Love changed me, too. I’m still a man, but I can see through a feminine filter, because I want this to be a world where little girls can grow up strong and free and secure, where they know Jesus loves them just as much as boys, where they are respected, appreciated and adored.

Every now and then, I even see myself through that lens. This happened when we watched the latest adaptation of the greatest chick-book-turned-flick of all time, Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice.

The climactic scene is when Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) tells her father, Mr. Bennet (Donald Sutherland), she wants to marry Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen). Females cried when Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy kissed, but I cried with Mr. Bennet. Sutherland’s face told the story of a father’s love, respect and passionate care for his daughter. He should’ve won the Oscar.

That scene has been on my mind as Easter approaches, because my love as a father is the closest I can approximate God’s love for humanity. I saw my love for my daughters reflected in Mr. Bennet’s eyes. And I can only begin to imagine how much God loves us, that he would sacrifice his only child for our eternal sakes.

–Marv Knox

Posted: 3/14/08

EDITORIAL:
U.S. faith swapping & relationships

One word kept coming to mind as I read the new Religious Landscape Survey produced by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. I’ll admit I felt guilty every time I thought that word, but I just couldn’t get away from it. I said it out loud when I read that 44 percent of American adults have faith-swapped—switched religious affiliations or dropped their connections with faith altogether. And while I tried to think other thoughts, it crept back into my brain when I considered other facts, such as only one in four young adults are affiliated with any religious faith; and Protestants comprise barely 51 percent of the population, down from two-thirds two decades ago; and 10 percent of the population are former Catholics; and almost 40 percent of American adults are married to someone from a different religion.

Promiscuity.

That’s the word. I know it sounds judgmental, but I couldn’t help thinking it. Americans are a religiously promiscuous people. We’re movers. We change spouses, houses, jobs and communities more often than our foreparents changed tires. So, why should we expect faith—or no faith, as the case may be—would be any different?

Of course, Baptists historically have benefitted from a degree of religious promiscuity. We call it “conversion,” and our ranks have grown because we have presented a compelling reason for unbelievers to believe in Jesus and for Christian pilgrims unhappy in other sections of God’s kingdom to immigrate to our shores, “through the water,” as it were. The evangelistic imperative, not to mention the Great Commission, bids us to beckon toward others.

Still, I couldn’t help feeling an edge of anger, resentment and sadness as I read the statistics. The source of sadness was easiest to locate; half of all the faith-less adults once affiliated with a religious community. But the pinpoint for resentment was harder to find until it hit me: A huge number of our faith-changing fellow Americans moved from one brand of Christianity to another, and sometimes to another still. That reality personalized the survey, because I know those people. And my inclination to label them as promiscuous grows out of my own sense of betrayal.

We live in a consumeristic culture, and it’s no surprise that Americans sample and swap religious identity the way they change designer clothes. Always looking for the right “fit.” This would be easier to take if I didn’t like, respect and even love some of the faith-changers. On one level, I resent their changing; on another, I recognize why they change.

But when I look at the dispiriting results of this survey, I feel like the optimistic boy who came upon a barn full of manure: “I know there’s a pony in there somewhere!”

The pony is a truth: Faith is relationship.

America’s religions churning reflects a search for faith, and faith is fulfilled in relationship. First, foremost and eternally, humanity’s only complete and fulfilling relationship is with Jesus Christ. We know this—not only through Scripture, doctrine and teaching, but also through firsthand experience. If you are complete and whole and “at home,” then you have a relationship with Jesus. And if you do not know Jesus, then you’re not there yet, and that wanderlust you feel is a compass that points ultimately to him.

And in this life, the visible, tactile, tangible reflection of our faith-relationship with Jesus takes place in a congregation of Christian believers. If we desire for Baptists to quit faith-swapping and we hope others will find a home among us, then our local churches must vibrate with loving, sacrificial relationships that give people a heart-warming, visceral sense of exactly what being loved by Jesus is like.

That love doesn’t fight over worship. It doesn’t exclude because of race or age or status. It simply loves. For Christ’s sake—and the world’s—it loves.

Posted: 3/14/08

Some Southern Baptists decry
timidity on environmental issues

By Adelle M. Banks

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—A group of Southern Baptists has launched a new initiative on the environment, saying that their denomination’s past declarations on the issue have been “too timid.”

“We believe our current denominational engagement with these issues have often been too timid, failing to produce a unified moral voice,” the initiative’s statement reads. “The time for timidity regarding God’s creation is no more.”

Though Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page is among the initiative’s 45 signatories, officials at the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission have not signed the statement.

Baptist Press, information service of the SBC Executive Committee, issued a release saying, “The so-called ‘Southern Baptist’ statement is not an initiative of the Southern Baptist Convention, which voiced its views on global warming last summer in a resolution, ‘On Global Warming.’”

The four-page document says despite “justified disagreement” about the global warming issue among Christians, there is a biblical mandate for churches to be actively involved in preaching and practicing care for creation.

The Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative has been spearheaded by Jonathan Merritt, a seminary student and the 25-year-old son of former Southern Baptist Convention President James Merritt.

The younger Merritt said he was moved to act after hearing his professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., compare destroying creation to ripping out a page of the Bible.

He is encouraging additional Southern Baptists to sign the statement on the initiative’s website, baptistcreationcare.org.

Barrett Duke, vice president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said the commission discussed the document with Jonathan Merritt but was not comfortable with its final version.

Posted: 3/14/08

Faith Digest

Hinn submits records to Senate committee. After several weeks of delay, televangelist Benny Hinn has submitted a “significant amount” of financial material to a Senate committee that is investigating the finances of six prominent ministries to make sure they are complying with tax laws that apply to other nonprofit entities. Jill Gerber, a spokeswoman for the Senate Finance Committee, said ranking Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa and his staff “will evaluate whether the material responds sufficiently but are encouraged by the demonstration of cooperation.” Joyce Meyer Ministries in Fenton, Mo., already provided materials that were reviewed by Senate staff. Kenneth Copeland Ministries submitted some materials. The other three ministries—Creflo Dollar, Paula and Randy White and Bishop Eddie Long—have yet to provide financial records.

Union Seminary appoints first woman president. Serene Jones, a feminist scholar who has taught 17 years at Yale Divinity School, has been named president of Union Theological Seminary. Jones, 48, is the first woman to head the 172-year-old nondenominational seminary located in upper Manhattan and affiliated with Columbia University. Jones will begin her duties July 1 at an institution that has served as a scholarly home for such major theological figures as Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich. Jones is an ordained minister in both the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ.

NFL gives tacit blessing to church Super Bowl events. The National Football League will allow churches to air live showings of the Super Bowl on widescreen TVs, reversing a previous ban. Members of Congress, including Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and church leaders had objected to the NFL’s rule that churches could not hold Super Bowl parties featuring TV screens larger than 55 inches, even though sports bars routinely do. “For future Super Bowls, the league will not object to live showings—regardless of screen size—of the Super Bowl by a religious organization when such showings are free and on premises used by the religious organization on a routine and customary basis,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a letter to Hatch. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., had introduced legislation that would allow churches to show the Super Bowl on widescreen televisions. Goodell told Hatch the league believes legislation is not necessary and will begin its policy with the Super Bowl next Feb. 1.

United Methodists join antitorture campaign. The United Methodist Church’s social policy office is circulating a petition that tells President Bush—a fellow Methodist—torture is immoral and ineffective. The Methodists’ General Board of Church and Society was one of 10 groups that sent a letter to Bush urging him to sign the Intelligence Authorization bill. The legislation would ban the CIA’s use of waterboarding or other interrogation techniques that many consider torture. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill, but more than 1,600 signers of the petition are urging him to authorize it.

Posted: 3/14/08

Faith films still not flooding big screen

By Kim Lawton

Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

LOS ANGELES (RNS)—This year’s batch of Academy Awards nominees for Best Picture portrayed some complex moral dilemmas: A pregnant teen figuring out what to do; a lawyer in an ethical crisis; a Western saga overwhelmed by evil; a romance doomed by lies; a clash between an oil man and a greedy evangelist.

But except for the unsavory clergyman in There Will Be Blood and maybe the title Atonement, there’s little explicit treatment of religion.

In 2004, Mel Gibson’s controversial movie The Passion of the Christ took in more than half a billion dollars.

Film studios began looking for the next big hit to rake in what became known as the “Passion dollars.”

“Hollywood discovered there was money to be made off of those pesky Christians,” said religious author and broadcaster Dick Staub.

Amid the widespread perception that Hollywood finally had found religion, numerous new projects were launched. But four years later, faith-based blockbusters are still not flooding the big screen.

“What people in Hollywood hoped was that they would find a formula that would be a cash cow, kind of printing money off the backs of religious people. It hasn’t turned out that way so far,” Staub said.

Evangelicals in particular had long felt shut out by Hollywood. Many were thrilled in September 2006, when 20th Century Fox launched a new division, Fox Faith. The announcement was greeted with the expectation of many new movies for Christians.

Fox executive vice president of home entertainment, Simon Swart, said his company wanted to target what he calls an “underserved” segment of the market.

“What this initiative was about was releasing and distributing films that reflected back Judeo-Christian values (and) weren’t necessarily evangelical or preachy, but basically great story telling that reflected those values,” Swart said.

Since 2006, Fox Faith has focused on acquiring already-produced projects to release for video sale and rental. Some have overt faith themes, but many are marketed as “family-friendly.”

There have been few original productions. Many Fox Faith films have not done well at the box office, although they’ve been more successful on DVD.

Several Fox Faith projects have been based on bestselling Christian books, such as the popular Love Comes Softly romance series and Saving Sarah Cain. Sarah Cain wasn’t released in theaters; it debuted on the Lifetime cable network and was then released in January on DVD.

Swart acknowledged Fox Faith is re-evaluating whether even to attempt future releases in theaters.

“There’s so much competition for every screen out there, and you’re really competing with the mainline pictures,” he said. “And that’s really risky because … it’s very hard to get that money back again.”

Critics say it comes down to the resources Fox is willing to commit.

“Generally to make a good film, you’ve got to spend money,” said Staub. “Fox Faith has not spent good money. Therefore, they’re not making good films. Therefore, they’re not successful.”

Some film insiders raise concerns about labeling. Last year’s The Ultimate Gift was a heart-warming lessons-about-life story with big-name actors who were not aware they were part of a “Christian” movie.

The producers later questioned whether the Fox Faith label scared off a mainstream audience.

Even veteran insiders are seeing how tough it is to make a good faith-related film, with or without big studio backing.

David Kirkpatrick, former president of Paramount Pictures, is an evangelical who co-founded a Christian entertainment company called Good News Holdings.

“Historically, there really hasn’t been, in the past 50 years, a platform for Christians in the areas of movies, but (the situation) gives those who really want to try to make a difference and create an alternative voice an opportunity,” he said.

One of Good News’ first projects was a film adaptation of novelist Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, about Jesus at age 7. With Rice’s blessing, they hired actors and were doing readings of the script.

The project quietly was scrapped last year.

Other Good News movie projects apparently also were put on hold. No one answers the phone at the old corporate number. The website hasn’t been updated in months.

Kirkpatrick, who’s now working on a reality TV project in Plymouth, Mass., declined to comment.

Many observers say a big part of the problem is a lingering disconnect between the Hollywood establishment and religion.

“People in Hollywood have no clue how religious people, conservative religious people, think. Therefore, they have no idea how to green-light a film that would actually make sense to religious people,” said Staub.

Fox’s Swart countered: “I think it actually goes back the other way, also. I don’t think the church quite understands Hollywood. And Hollywood’s very much for profit.”

Swart said he frequently is approached by Christian filmmakers who propose new projects with an overt faith message.

“It’s very powerful, but I would ask them the question who will pay $10 to see this,’“ Swart said.

But despite the fits and starts, filmmakers and studios alike say they remain committed to exploring faith-related movies on many fronts.

Posted: 3/14/08

What has Hobbiton to do with Jerusalem?

By Jay Smith

Howard Payne University

Bible Belt Christians have struggled long with literature and film espousing a view of reality that confronts the values of our Christian life.

In general, if a book or movie challenges what generally are perceived as Christian values or morals (for example; the existence of God, sexual propriety, general human dignity or a gratuitous emphasis on the supernatural), then we tend to be wary of it.

Christians tend to value literature and films in two different ways. On the one hand, Christians long have enjoyed and promoted the imaginative literature and films produced by openly professing believers such as Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia and even Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.

On the other hand, books and films such as J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter installments or Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, which raise serious theological questions, force Christians to take a harder look at the fantasy genre and the role it plays in Christian spiritual formation.

When we investigate the role of fantasy and its effect on our discipleship, we must be aware of the powerful influence it has on our imaginations. The imagination is a powerful part of the human mind.

As one of the three primary mental faculties, the imagination creates our functional reality by focusing what our senses perceive through the filter of reason and memory. In this sense, we literally live through our imaginations.

As a secondary function, the imagination can daydream or fantasize. In other words, when allowed to “idle,” our imaginations can use our memories or experiences to envision a different version of reality than the one playing out before us.       

When the Bible speaks of imagination, it is usually in a negative fashion. For example, the Old Testament writers located the imagination in the heart. As the seat of the affections, the heart was subject to corruption. Indeed, both Jeremiah and Ezekiel affirmed the need for God’s people to have “new hearts” in order to see, hear and obey as God’s people and given only at God’s initiative.

The New Testament does not directly reference the imagination as such, but several passages help us to understand its role in the life of faith. When Paul, in Ephesians 1:18 references “the eyes of your heart” or when in Hebrews 11, we are asked to understand how in faith we can envision the unseen, or throughout the gospels, where Jesus speaks in parables, we begin to understand how critical the imagination is to the life lived in faith. 

Ultimately, we affirm that the gospel itself—with the life, death and resurrection of Christ at its center—is the reality for which the imagination was created to grasp.       

Our imaginations enable us to learn, to perform, to solve and to envision. In a child with few cumulative memories, the imagination is especially impressionable.

Though the fantasy genre is appealing to people of all ages, it is especially so to children, for it allows their imaginations unlimited “room to run.” This is the effect attained in The Chronicles of Narnia as well as in The Lord of the Rings, for when we find ourselves walking the woods of Narnia or the roads of Hobbiton in the Shire, we find ourselves imagining a new, different and hopefully better world.

Indeed, the imagination helps us to draw correlations from these tales with “the greatest story ever told”—the gospel.       

Yet, it is this “world-inhabiting ability” of the imagination that also makes the fantasy genre problematic. Caught up in their fantastic nature, we tend to disregard the fact that ideologies—both positive and negative—are embedded in every story.

For parents, this means that there is a responsibility to either monitor what their children are reading/viewing or to help their children understand what they are experiencing according to their belief.

As adults, we have an opportunity to continue to grow in Christ as we experience different worldviews through the various perspectives of the fantasy genre. The key is Christ, who must be Lord of the imagination, if he is to be Lord at all. As C.S. Lewis suggested, if Christ is Lord in our life, then we posses a “baptized imagination.”

Consequently, fantasy can have a role to play in our lives and should not be outright rejected, especially if our imaginations are first lashed firmly to the cross.

Jay Smith is assistant professor in the School of Christian Studies at Howard Payne University in Brownwood.

Posted: 3/14/08

Some analysts say Huckabee may
be new face of the Religious Right

By Adelle M. Banks

Religion News Service

ASHINGTON (RNS)—With the race for the Republican presidential nomination now behind him, former candidate Mike Huckabee has many possibilities ahead: Potential vice president to John McCain? GOP adviser? Another run for the White House?

Anyway, many observers note, one thing seems clear: Huckabee is now a kinder, gentler fresh face of the conservative evangelical movement, poised to follow the path laid out by Pat Robertson, who transformed his failed 1988 campaign into a powerful movement of the Religious Right.

“I think (Huckabee) reflects in many ways what I would call the new evangelical center,” said author Ron Sider, the president of Evangelicals for Social Action. “He simply is not the old Religious Right.”

The evangelical “old guard”—Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and the late Jerry Falwell—no longer represent the newer aspects of the movement, which seek to marry fresh issues (environmental preservation) to traditional causes (the sanctity of human life), observers say. In fact, Dobson didn’t endorse Huckabee until almost all the other Republican candidates no longer were running.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that Huckabee has much greater potential to pull a much wider constituency and because of that, he has a lot more staying power, I think, on the national stage,” said Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University in Houston and author of Faith in the Halls of Power.

Huckabee campaign spokeswoman Kirsten Fedewa said continuing to work with evangelicals would fit with Huckabee’s vision—and version—of American conservatism.

“He is certainly well-positioned to lead a conservative—or a Christian conservative—movement in this country,” she said.

Richard Cizik, who heads the Washington office of the National Association of Evangeli-cals, said Huckabee differentiates himself from earlier evangelical leaders, in part because of his “appealing” de-meanor.

“Is he a culture warrior? No,” Cizik said. “But you can be for principles without being a culture warrior and obnoxious. He’s just not obnoxious.”

But the extent to which Huckabee sticks with the broadening concerns of evangelicals, such as fighting global hunger and opposing torture, will determine his staying power as a movement leader, Cizik added.

David Kuo, Washington editor for Beliefnet.com, has predicted Huckabee, a onetime Southern Baptist pastor and former governor of Arkansas, could emerge as a Republican kingmaker.

“At the end of the day, Mike Huckabee has followed Pat Robertson’s 1988 model better than Pat Robertson did,” Kuo said.

Both candidates, he noted, had strong showings in an Iowa GOP primary and ended up with lists of donors that translated into new evangelical voters for the Republican Party.

But Family Research Council President Tony Perkins doesn’t think it will be as easy for Huckabee to gain a post-campaign platform as it was for Robertson.

“Pat Robertson had a TV network around which he could base his operation,” said Perkins, co-author of the new book, Personal Faith, Public Policy. “You’ve got to have some infrastructure. Just a list of names is not going to be enough.”

Perkins thinks Huckabee could help the Republican Party refocus its attention on issues important to social conservatives, but he views the former candidate as just one leader of the evangelical movement, not the only one.

“I would clearly see him as an evangelical leader,” Perkins said. “Is he the next Jerry Falwell? I don’t think there is a next Jerry Falwell. We’re in a different time.”

Posted: 3/14/08

IN BETWEEN:
Mentoring: Is someone coaching you?

I retired from working with our Baptist General Convention of Texas churches in March 2006. I determined more work was needed to help pastors and other church leaders because too many ministers were being terminated, and little preventive (pro-active) help was coming forth from our offices. I felt it was time for me to focus on developing leaders as a “free agent” and not as a staff person.

Soon I found myself working with a colleague, Kerry Webb, in training ministers and laypersons as leaders, not just followers. One of the extremely interesting discoveries for the two of us was the need to build a mentoring dimension into our training. Of course, how could we mentor others unless we were committed to going through that process ourselves?

We found a wonderful lady who became our coach. Actually, she was an executive coach, formally trained in a nationally recognized coaching certification process. Later, we determined each of our participants needed to experience that same coaching.

The Bible is loaded with examples of mentoring relationships. Some were with older-to-younger models (Paul/Timothy), others were with models in which age was not a big difference (Paul/Barnabas). It appears to me that younger ministers/laypersons today seem to be more open to the Paul/Timothy model. Regardless, this kind of relationship is vital to leaders today.

Paul Stanley and Robert Clinton have described how this works in very practical ways in their book, Connecting: The Mentoring Relationships You Need to Succeed in Life. Some mentoring involves “intensive work—disciplers, spiritual guides or coaches. Others are more occasional, such as counselors, teachers or sponsors. Then, there are passive mentors—folks who are deceased but inspire values for life, ministry and profession.”

All believers have the Holy Spirit as a crucial internal mentor. But we also need someone else to walk with us, listen to us, encourage us or discipline us. The Bible sometimes calls these people “shepherds.” Jesus even describes himself in John 10 as the Good Shepherd.

One of the most profitable and difficult times in my life was to have a coach walk with me, asking me tough questions and holding me accountable for issues I had never settled since childhood. For those moments, I am eternally grateful. In fact, I believe the Lord has given me ministry opportunity because I was willing to learn and grow at 65 years of age. I turned 67 this week. I wish I could be done with learning, but I know better and am willing to keep looking for those coaches God places in my life.

Contact Dan McGee, interim director of the BGCT Congregational Leadership Team, for mentoring suggestions.

Jesus coached his first-century apostles. Those men became mentors to many, many leaders. I wonder who walks with you—a coach, not just a nice friend but someone who tells you the truth when you do not want to hear but desperately need to know. Is someone coaching you?