Covenant Fellowship in Huntsville seeks to engage ex-offenders in ministry to the incarcerated population—for the mutual benefit of both.

“Men on the inside are more likely to listen to guys who have worn the same white uniforms and walked in the same state-issued shoes they wear,” said Scotty McKinley, pastor of discipleship and missions at Covenant Fellowship.

Since Covenant Fellowship launched in 2008, the church has ministered to individuals inside Texas Department of Criminal Justice facilities—both inmates and correctional officers—through multiple avenues.

Involving ex-offenders in ministry to currently incarcerated men benefits those who have reentered the free world and those who are preparing to do so, Eddie Harmon said.

‘Not just a Sunday thing’

Harmon, lead elder at Covenant Fellowship, became involved in prison ministry 14 years ago when he accompanied Pastor David Valentine inside a correctional unit.

“I had never been inside a prison before,” Harmon said, but added he soon realized, “This is where I’m supposed to be.”

Within the course of a few weeks, he saw how God was changing inmates’ lives in dramatic ways.

“They ‘get’ Jesus more than those in the outside world do. They understand he can do for them what they can’t do for themselves,” Harmon said. “It’s not just a Sunday thing for them.”

Harmon became a certified volunteer chaplain assistant with the TDCJ. He serves at least one day a week—often more—in the John M. Wynne Unit.

‘No playing games with them’

He considers preparing inmates for life in the outside world as a key part of his ministry, along with staying in close touch with men after their release.

“I stay in contact with guys all over the state,” he said.

For those who live within driving distance of the Wynne Unit, Harmon seeks to involve them in ministry to current inmates. He recognizes they have an instant rapport and built-in credibility with the men inside prison.

“I’m just an old, retired white man who lived a pretty good life. I don’t have much to offer them,” Harmon said.

Incarcerated offenders are more likely to listen to the Christian testimony of someone who has been in prison and who successfully transitioned to life in the free world, he said. Some of the ex-offenders served lengthy sentences at the Wynne Unit, and men on the inside knew them—before and after God changed their lives.

“There’s no playing games with them. They can’t hide anything. They’ve seen it all,” Harmon said. “It helps guys on the inside realize there’s life after prison.”

Returning to prison as a volunteer also benefits the ex-offenders, he added.

“It helps them stay strong,” Harmon said. “They realize it’s such a privilege getting out, and now they can do some good, helping people inside.”

Celebrate Recovery—inside and out

Recognizing many offenders and ex-offenders have a history of alcohol and drug abuse, Covenant Fellowship seeks to provide recovery groups—both for men inside prison and for anyone in the community.

McKinley oversees both a Celebrate Recovery 12-step group at his church and a Celebrate Recovery Inside group in the Wynne Unit. He recognizes the value of the program from firsthand experience.

“A decade ago, I realized I had a problem with alcohol I could not fix myself and needed help,” McKinley said. “Celebrate Recovery was life-changing for me.”

Saddleback Church in Southern California launched Celebrate Recovery in 1991 as a Christ-centered program for people dealing with addictive, compulsive and dysfunctional behaviors.

The Celebrate Recovery Inside group at the Wynne Unit grew out of McKinley’s encounter with an inmate. Like Harmon, McKinley was accompanying Valentine on visit to the Wynne Unit.

An inmate spotted the Celebrate Recovery logo on McKinley’s shirt and asked if a group was starting at the unit. McKinley asked him to pray about it and agreed to do the same.

The next time McKinley saw the inmate, the man asked how soon a group would start. McKinley said he would need to talk to the chaplain to see if it could be scheduled.

“There’s a slot open on Thursdays,” said the inmate, who worked as a clerk in the chaplain’s office.

Celebrate Recovery Inside began at the Wynne Unit in 2016. Up to 60 inmates can participate at one time. Currently, a group of 20 is working through the Celebrate Recovery curriculum each Wednesday.

“We try as much as possible to model what a [Celebrate Recovery] group looks like on the outside,” McKinley said.

Need for a supportive community

Incarcerated men learn the steps toward recovery, and they discover the value of being part of a supportive small group, he noted.

The biggest barriers standing between ex-offenders and successful reentry into the free world are the lack of jobs, housing, transportation and community. Celebrate Recovery addresses that latter need, McKinley said.

“When men get out, they not only tend to go back to the same geographical area, but also tend to pick up their old friends,” he said. As a result, they often find themselves getting “back into the same stuff” that led to their previous arrest and imprisonment.

Once inmates have a release date, McKinley seeks to connect them in advance with a “family of believers” who can provide the supportive community they need.

“If they don’t already have a church home, we try to find them a church that has a Celebrate Recovery group” who will welcome them, he said.

As much as possible, McKinley seeks to encourage ex-offenders not only to be ministered to by a supportive church family—or at least a supportive Celebrate Recovery group within a larger congregation—but also to minister to men inside prison.

“Current inmates listen to guys who have been where they are now,” he said. “It’s an encouragement to them to say, ‘If they can do it, so can I.’”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Hollywood, the USA Gymnastics team, Penn State, the Boy Scouts: Sexual abuse has proved pervasive across institutions. And when it comes to faith groups, no creed, structure, value system or size has seemed immune.

“We’ve got to stop saying that could never happen in my church, or my pastor would never do that,” said David Pooler, a professor of social work at Baylor University who researches clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse of adults.

With more victims coming forward and more research done on abuse within religious contexts, the evidence has shown that when sexual abuse happens in a place designated not only safe, but holy, it’s a unique form of betrayal. And when the perpetrator is a clergy member or spiritual leader, the abuse can be seen as God-endorsed.

As the scope of this crisis has been revealed, houses of worship and religious institutions—from Southern Baptists to Orthodox Jews to American atheists—have looked to shore up their safeguarding protocols and protect their constituents against abuse.

But rather than scrambling to respond in the wake of a crisis, faith groups need to adopt policies tailored to their setting and connected to their mission, says Kathleen McChesney, who was the first executive director of the Office of Child Protection for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“When you do that, people will have a greater understanding of what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and how you’re doing it,” said McChesney, one of a growing group of abuse experts and survivor advocates consulting with religious institutions.

Experts suggest a few steps every faith group can take to improve safeguarding protocols.

Accept it can happen anywhere

One of the most dangerous—and common—assumptions religious groups make is to think of sexual abuse as a “them” problem.

As the founder of international nonprofit Freely in Hope, Nikole Lim has worked for years to combat sexual violence in Kenya and Zambia, and more recently has been helping U.S.-based groups prevent sexual abuse locally. For Lim, the reality that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men worldwide are survivors of sexual abuse is evidence this is a problem that permeates every level of society.

“That’s a global statistic that doesn’t only exist in poor communities,” said Lim. “That also exists within your family, within your congregations.”

Experts agree faith groups often embrace the myth that good intentions, theology and ethics can stop sexual abuse from landing on their doorstep. Amy Langenberg, a professor of religious studies at Eckerd College, along with her research partner Ann Gleig, a religious and cultural studies scholar at the University of Central Florida, have shown Buddhist ethics about doing no harm and showing compassion are insufficient to prevent abuse in Buddhist contexts.

“You really do need these other ways of thinking about ethics, which are coming from outside of Buddhism, and which are coming usually from feminism, from advocacy, from the law,” said Langenberg.

Because faith communities often think of themselves as the “good guys,” they’re vulnerable to blind spots. That’s why conducting a risk assessment, much like you’d do for fire insurance, can help pinpoint what protocols are most needed, according to McChesney, who now leads a firm that consults on employee misconduct investigations and policy development.

Once concrete anti-abuse measures are in place, ongoing education can remind people at all levels of the organization to remain vigilant.

Define abuse

Faith groups often struggle to respond effectively to sexual misconduct because they lack consensus on what “counts” as abusive.

Gleig, who is teaming up with Langenberg on a book-length study called “Abuse, Sex, and the Sangha,” told Religion News Service that in Buddhist contexts, the category of abuse often is contested. In some cases, Gleig said, “abuse can be framed as a Buddhist teaching—for example, that this wasn’t abuse, it was actually some kind of skillful form of pedagogy.”

In churches, Lim has found loose definitions of abuse can lead to a form of “spiritual bypassing,” where abuse is framed as a mistake to be prayed about, rather than an act of harm that requires tangible accountability.

Conversations about sexual abuse in religious settings are often framed around clergy abuse of children. But faith groups must also account for peer-on-peer violence among children and teens, as well as abuse of adults.

Key to preventing such abuse, Pooler said, is having a robust definition of sexual abuse that goes beyond mere legal metrics and includes things such as sexual conversations, nonconsensual touch and sexual jokes and language.

Recognize power dynamics

The unequal power dynamics inherent to religious settings are an enormous barrier to equitably addressing sexual abuse. But the law is beginning to account for this imbalance.

In at least 13 states and the District of Columbia, it’s illegal for clergy to engage in sexual behavior with someone in their spiritual care—and many experts believe this standard, widely embraced when it comes to doctors and therapists, should be universal in religious settings, too.

According to Pooler, religious groups should work to share power among multiple leaders and ensure that the broader community has decision-making authority.

When sexual abuse allegations involve a religious leader, “the person should be placed on some type of leave where they are no longer influencing or speaking,” said Pooler, “because what I have seen is abusive people will try and grab ahold of the microphone and shape a narrative immediately.”

Center survivors

Experts commonly observe a default reaction in religious settings to protect the reputation of the faith group or clergyperson over investigating an abuse allegation. But defensive postures often overlook the person who, at great risk, reported the abuse in the first place.

When a survivor shares abuse allegations, faith groups often fear what will happen if they take the report seriously.

For example, Navila Rashid, director of training and survivor advocacy for Heart, a group that equips Muslims to nurture sexual health and confront sexual violence, said Muslim communities can be hesitant to address sexual violence because they don’t want to add to existing Islamophobic narratives about the violence of Islam. But Rashid told RNS it’s vital to believe survivors.

“If we can’t start off from that premise, then doing and creating preventative tools and methods is not going to actually work,” she said.

Pooler advises groups to make sure survivors “sit at the steering wheel” of how the response is handled—if and when personal details about the survivor are shared, for example, should be entirely up to them.

Caring for abuse survivors requires taking their needs seriously at every juncture, even before abuse is reported, according to Pooler and other experts. That’s why background checks are vital.

“You don’t want to put somebody that has abused a minor ever in a role of supervising minors,” McChesney told RNS.

Get outside help

Faith communities are known for being close-knit, which makes avoiding conflicts of interest difficult, if not impossible, when it comes to holding offenders accountable. That’s why many experts recommend hiring outside groups to hold trainings, develop protocols and steer abuse investigations.

“They don’t have any investment in the church looking good or their leaders looking good,” Pooler said about hiring groups such as GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) or other third-party organizations that investigate abuse allegations. These organizations, he said, are committed to laying out the facts so faith groups can make informed decisions.

Groups that are trauma-informed can also ensure that gathering testimony from survivors doesn’t cause additional harm.

Rashid recommended faith communities create a budget line for hiring outside groups who focus on addressing sexual abuse. Rather than offering quick fixes, she said, such groups are designed to help faith communities unlearn biases, recognize power dynamics and adopt long-term solutions at individual, communal and institutional levels that prioritize the safety of all community members.

“What we want to see with policies is pushing for a culture shift,” she said, “not a Band-Aid fix.”

NASHVILLE (BP)—The only thing matched by the pomp and festivities of the NFL Draft, held April 25 in Detroit, may be the level at which gambling has become entwined with the league.

NFL partners include the Caesar’s Sportsbook Stage, BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel, not to mention Genius Sports, the league’s exclusive sports betting data provider.

The concern spreads to all sports. When the interpreter and best friend of baseball’s biggest star becomes embroiled in a $41 million betting scandal, some begin to wonder about gambling’s ultimate payout.

 “We want to show that the detriments are more than the benefits,” said Mike Griffin, public affairs representative for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. “Gambling supporters point to the tax revenue and how it can help fund education.”

He specifically targets predatory gambling such as sports betting, pari-mutuel horse racing and video poker machines. There is a definite grooming aspect to draw people, even minors, into participating, he noted.

“We’ve seen the data on how addictive gambling can be and that up to one-third of [compulsive] gamblers will attempt suicide,” he said. “It’s going to end up costing you.”

Legal sports betting in 38 states

A 2018 Supreme Court decision took out a federal ban on state authorization for sports betting that had exempted Nevada. Other states jumped at the opportunity practically overnight, and today 38 offer legal sports gambling.

The Texas Constitution prohibits gambling in most instances but permits pari-mutuel betting on horses and greyhounds, charitable bingo and raffles within certain parameters and three Indian casinos. Online sports betting remains illegal in Texas.

All of the professional sports franchises in Texas—as well as betting platforms—are partners in the Texas Sports Betting Alliance, a well-funded group seeking to legalize sports betting in the state.

“Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission has long opposed the efforts of groups like the Texas Sports Betting Alliance to amend the Texas Constitution to expand gambling in Texas. We’ve seen that the societal harms exacerbated in jurisdictions that have legalized gambling far outweigh any financial benefit a percentage of gambling profits can provide,” said John Litzler, public policy director for the CLC.

“We anticipate opposing similar gambling legislation in 2025 as we work to inform legislators about the immense cost exacted on residents by legalized gambling.”

Russ Coleman, chair of Texans Against Gambling, noted his organization also will continue to resist gambling expansion in the state.

Politically, there is little connecting California and Georgia. But they are rare examples of states where sports gambling legislation has been defeated outright. A 2022 rejection by California voters has set up a massive showdown over the issue.

Research shows harm gambling causes

As sports betting has gathered steam, many are beginning to wonder if it is out of control. Studies show how it rewires the brain. A late three-pointer can affect the point spread and bring death threats, as one Purdue basketball player experienced this year.

Andrew Hurley is a senior walk-on for the national champion University of Connecticut. Occasionally his coach and dad, Dan, would put him in at the end of Huskies blowouts, and the younger Hurley would hear chants to shoot the ball. He would wonder later if money was riding on those shots.

“It’s scary at the end of games,” he told the Boston Globe. “I don’t fully understand how much of [sports betting] works. … During the game I’m not thinking about that, but in the locker room after the game I’m thinking, ‘I hope nobody is out there jumping me for what I did in the game.’”

The NFL previously never broached the idea of having anything to do with Las Vegas due to its gambling background, and yet, the city hosted the Super Bowl in February. The result was a record $185.6 million in wagers on the game by Nevada’s sportsbooks.

States are noticing an alarming rise in calls to gambling hotlines, with numbers more than doubling. It’s costing homes and relationships and skewing toward men in their 20s and 30s.

 “We believe, nationwide, the rate and severity of gambling problems have increased across the United States since 2018,” said Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling which operates a helpline at 1-800-GAMBLER, in an NBC News report.

Griffin is in his 11th year as Georgia Baptists’ public policy representative. His predecessor, the late Ray Newman, also was pushing back on attempted sports betting legislation as early as 2010.

This year there were at least 12 gambling bills, which Griffin shared in detail in a column for Georgia Baptists’ state news journal, The Christian Index. He knows he’ll have to suit up for battle again next year against gambling proponents.

“It won’t stop trying until Jesus comes back,” he said.

“They are misled into thinking that they can fix a problem by regulating it. … If you regulate it too well, though, there won’t be as much money to make. You need the problem gamblers. You need to increase the opportunities to gamble and entice more people to do it.

“The house has to win.”

With additional reporting by Managing Editor Ken Camp.

NEW YORK (RNS)—Christian nationalist activist and musician Sean Feucht, pastor Russell Johnson and conservative author Eric Metaxas headed a pro-Israel rally at Columbia University in response to the “Gaza solidarity encampment” established by students a week ago.

The “United for Israel” rally on April 25 was promoted on social media and intended to show support for Israel, Jewish students and faculties.

It drew a crowd of a few hundred, who circled the Columbia campus singing hymns and praying without entering its gate. Instead, they traded shouted slogans and threats through the Upper Manhattan school’s iron fences.

The rally was a sign of political evangelicalism’s increasing interest in campus politics writ large and in the pro-Palestinian campus protests in particular. Earlier in the week, House Speaker Mike Johnson, an evangelical Christian, made an appearance at Columbia to decry antisemitism on the campus and meet with school officials to demand the resignation of Columbia President Minouche Shafik.

The rally was billed as an attempt to “redeem Columbia University,” in the words of Feucht, who gained notoriety during the COVID-19 pandemic for holding worship concerts to protest restrictions on gathering.

He organized the rally with Russell Johnson, the conservative lead pastor of Pursuit NW Church, and Metaxas, a 2020 election denier and supporter of former President Donald Trump. Metaxas—who wrote a 2010 biography of the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed for opposing Hitler in World War II—toted a poster of Bonhoeffer’s image during Thursday’s event.

Feucht kickstarted the event by intoning the Christian anthem “How Great Is Our God” before blessing the crowd and praying for Israel.

‘These are the end days’

“Today, we say enough is enough. This anti-Christ, antisemitic agenda that has risen up in New York City, that has risen up in universities,” he said.

The day before, in a livestream, Feucht said there had been a rise in antisemitism on campuses due to the pro-Palestinian student protests and that it was a sign the end times were near.

“We’re seeing this rise and this flood of antisemitism across the world. These are the end days. I know people say this all the time, and everyone’s saying this is the end of the day. … Well, these are the end days, and we’re one day closer to the return of Jesus,” he said.

Adding that the Israel-Hamas war is “one of these end times issues,” Feucht said that Christians need to “get right’’ by siding with Israel.

Reading aloud a verse from the 12th chapter of the Bible’s Book of Genesis referring to God’s covenant with Abraham, Feucht said it was a Christian duty to support Israel.

Feucht then led the protesters in a procession around Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus. Their march, he claimed, mirrored that of Joshua’s army circling the walls of Jericho, as told in the Book of Joshua.

Some protesters blew shofars, musical horns used in Jewish religious ceremonies, emulating the biblical story.

Noreen Ciano, a 63-year-old Christian from New Jersey, closed her eyes and prayed in tongues as she marched.

“I was praying for peace. I was praying for the Lord’s presence in this place,” she told Religion News Service.

A nondenominational Christian, Ciano is a member of the International House of Prayer Eastern Gate Church, for which she hosts a radio show. As a Christian, she said, supporting Israel should be an easy decision, as “the whole Bible is Israel-centric.”

Contrasting perspectives

Some in the crowd waved Israeli and American flags and yelled, “Bring them home,” in reference to the estimated 130 hostages still thought to be held by Hamas since the Oct. 7 attacks.

Along their path, the marchers encountered members of the anti-Zionist Hasidic group Neturei Karta, who held signs reading “Judaism rejects Zionism and the State of Israel.”

Pro-Palestinian Christian activists also clashed with the crowd, some of them bearing signs reading “Jesus lies under the rubble in Palestine.”

At the end of the rally, the march faced off with pro-Palestinian student protesters at the campus gates on Amsterdam Avenue and 116th Street in a tense confrontation. The two groups yelled at each other through the gates, and the pro-Israel crowd sang the Israeli anthem and “God Bless America.”

Members of Passages, a pro-Israel Christian organization that plans “Christian birthright trips” to the Holy Land, came bearing signs reading “Christians stand with Israel.”

Ariel Kohane, a Modern Orthodox Jew who wore a yarmulke printed with the name of a Jewish activist group, Young Jewish Conservatives, under a red “Trump was right” cap, said the marchers’ support of Christian Zionists was much appreciated at this juncture in the war in Gaza.

He also praised the efforts of other evangelical groups, such as Christian United for Israel and its leader, John Hagee, who headlined a rally for Israel late last year in Washington.

“We share conservative political views and religious values. We are allies, and we work together, hand in hand. It’s so wonderful that they are standing side-by-side with us, shoulder-to-shoulder,” Kohane said.

Kohane, who lives near the Columbia campus, denounced the “Gaza solidarity encampment” and said the situation should prompt donors to withdraw funding from the institution. He said Shafik should resign due to her poor handling of the situation.

Anya Andreeva, a Christian living in Brooklyn, came to pray and support Israel. She said she heard about the rally on Facebook but made sure it would be a peaceful demonstration focused on prayer before she decided to attend. She vetted the organizers before coming.

“I saw enough to trust it. I’m keen not to side with anything that uses Christianity as a promotion for any kind of agenda,” she said.

The rally ended in a prayer session. The crowd prayed for the “salvation and safety” of the hostages and blessed Jewish participants who attended.

“Lord, we pray even tonight that a miracle would take place, a miracle across the Middle East,” Feucht said.

RICHMOND (BP)—Longtime International Mission Board leader Clyde D. Meador died April 26. He was 79.

Meador worked closely with four IMB presidents as a top advisor and executive vice president, and as the mission organization’s interim president from August 2010 to March 2011 and again briefly in 2018 before the election of current President Paul Chitwood.

“I thank God for the life and friendship of Clyde Meador,” Chitwood said. “I first met Clyde when I began serving as an IMB trustee in 2002. Over the following years, I saw Clyde was a leader who had earned the trust of everyone—trustees, administrators and missionaries.”

When Chitwood was elected IMB president in November 2018, he asked trustees’ approval for Meador to remain in the president’s office as interim executive vice president during the transition.

In February 2019, at the election of Todd Lafferty as IMB’s executive vice president, Meador agreed to remain as an executive adviser. In the subsequent months, he filled several key interim roles as the organization’s new executive team was solidified.

“When I began serving in my current role, Clyde’s willingness to walk alongside me as I built out our leadership team was a wonderful blessing,” Chitwood said. “Humble, gifted servants like Clyde are evidence of God’s favor upon the IMB.”

Meador retired in May 2016 but returned in 2018 to serve as IMB’s interim president. When he retired a second time on June 12, 2020, after more than 45 years of service to Southern Baptists, John Brady, the IMB’s vice president for global engagement, called Meador “the glue” holding the IMB together.

“Clyde has inspired leaders at all levels across the IMB to abide in Christ as we face the burdens and challenges of leadership,” Brady said. “He kept our eyes focused on doing our part to complete the Great Commission with the wonderful end vision from Revelation 7:9.”

‘Step-by-step obedience in the same direction’

Meador was known—along with his wife, Elaine—among missionary teams and staff for steady, unflappable leadership. Yet, long years of service appear to testify to the Meadors’ simple steps of obedience even more than to their strategic insights and leadership.

“When you look at Clyde’s and Elaine’s lives, it’s step-by-step obedience in the same direction towards the Father’s will for their lives,” Brady said.

The Meadors began their careers with IMB in 1974 when they were appointed as missionaries to Indonesia. For the next 14 years, the couple served in a range of roles, with Clyde starting as a church planter in Medan, then training pastors and lay leaders in Semarang and later Purwokerto. In 1987, he became the mission administrator in Jakarta.

After the couple had spent almost 14 years in Indonesia, the government began refusing visa renewals for missionaries who had served more than 10 years and kicked the Meadors out.

“We were grief-stricken,” Clyde Meador later recalled. “[Elaine] fell apart immediately when we left Indonesia. I fell apart about six months later … a delayed grief … until I realized what it was and took it to the Lord, and there was healing.”

There was also a new ministry. Later that year, Meador took on leadership of the Southern Asia and Pacific Itinerant Mission. Former IMB President Jerry Rankin, who served as the Meadors’ area director at the time, noted that he saw in Clyde Meador’s leadership of these teams that he “had sound theology and was a strategic thinker.”

More than a decade before mission strategists had introduced concepts like creative access, Rankin said, the Meadors were leading roving teams of missionaries who moved in and out of South Asian countries on training circuits for local pastors and lay leaders.

The couple moved in the early ’90s to leading missionary teams across the South Asia, Pacific and Oceania regions as an associate director and then an area director—and eventually moved to serving as a steady right hand to four presidents.

Honored commitments

Former IMB President Tom Elliff, who led the organization from 2011 to 2014, said there is an easy, trusting way about Clyde and Elaine Meador.

“It is the authentic nature of Clyde’s and Elaine’s hearts that stands out most clearly to me,” Elliff said. “You can trust they will do what they say they will do. If they say that they are going to pray for you, they will. … They remember their commitments. They don’t take these things lightly.”

Rankin, who worked with Clyde and Elaine Meador for much of their mission careers, said the couple’s success as leaders also resided in their willingness to follow.

“You cannot be an effective leader without being an effective follower,” noted Rankin, whose 17-year presidency ended with retirement in 2010. “Clyde … can enjoy fulfillment and joy in knowing that he is contributing to making things happen. He didn’t seek the credit. He doesn’t need that.”

In 1998, Rankin asked Meador to lead a massive new area which included all IMB missionary teams working in Central and Southern Asia. This followed Rankin’s decision in 1997 to rework the IMB’s structure and focus, an initiative called New Directions.

“New Directions launched a redeployment of our mission force to focus on engagement, to change our ethos to one of church planting, and to understand people groups,” Rankin said. “Clyde’s fingerprints are all over that.”

Meador later called it perhaps the most significant missiology change in modern IMB history.

‘Humble leadership … made it happen’

In 2001, Rankin asked the Meadors to move to Richmond and join the office of the president as part of Rankin’s leadership team.

“I had a vision for where I knew we needed to go,” he said. “But it was people like Clyde and Elaine, with their humble leadership, that helped make it happen.”

Elliff, who followed Rankin as president, also noted Meador’s humility: “Clyde was so good in working with me. He would humbly come along behind and say: ‘You have the plan. Let’s talk about how I can help implement that plan.’ Not everybody is willing to do that, but Clyde could always see the big picture because, for him, it’s about the kingdom.”

Meador was born in Arkadelphia, Ark., and considered Albuquerque, N.M., his hometown. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Grand Canyon College in Phoenix; a Master of Divinity from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.; and the Doctor of Ministry from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

Before his missionary appointment, Meador worked in the information technology field in New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona. He also was pastor of Tracy (Mo.) Baptist Chapel and First Baptist Church, Weston, Mo.

Meador is survived by his wife, Elaine; two grown children; and four grandchildren.

John Marshall Edwards, longtime Texas Baptist pastor, died March 12 on his 85th birthday. He was born in Salisbury, N.C., on March 12, 1939. He responded to God’s call to enter full-time ministry while attending a revival with friends during his senior year at Newton County High School in Covington, Ga., where he graduated in 1957. At Baylor University, he was the president of the Freshman Baptist Student Union Council, president of the Ministerial Alliance, missions chair of the Baptist Student Union Executive Council and member of Student Congress. While a student at Baylor, he also served as pastor of Mountain Baptist Church in Gatesville. He met Doris Dillard in 1958. After their first date during a Latham Springs Baptist Encampment retreat, he told his cabinmates he had just dated the girl he planned to marry. They married Aug. 18, 1960. He graduated from Baylor University in 1961, earning his undergraduate degree with a major in religion and minors in English and history. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1966. While he was in seminary, he was pastor of First Baptist Church in Troy and Meadow Oaks Baptist Church in Temple. After graduating from seminary, he was pastor of Windsor Park Baptist Church in Austin; Columbus Avenue Baptist Church in Waco; First Baptist Church in Columbia, S.C.; First Baptist Church in Conroe; St. Andrews Baptist Church in Columbia, S.C.; and First Baptist Church in Blowing Rock, N.C. During his time in Austin, he founded the Fellowship of Christian Athletes group at Reagan High School and served as chaplain of the school’s football and baseball teams. While serving in Waco, he founded and led the popular “Wholeness of Life” series, a lunchtime Bible study attended by about 400 members of the business and professional community. He continued leading the “Wholeness of Life” series with a weekly attendance of about 1,000 while in Columbia, S.C. He also served interim pastorates at First Baptist Church in San Marcos and First Baptist Church in Kingsland. In 2005, he was named pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church in Blowing Rock. He served as the speaker for the annual mission meetings in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, Honduras, Guatemala, Indonesia and Kenya. He served on the board of trustees of Baylor University and was chair of the board of trustees at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree by the Baptist College at Charleston, S.C., in 1982. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Doris Dillard Edwards; son Scott and his wife, Mary K; daughter Cindy; five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Protests on U.S. college campuses opposing Israel’s continuing military campaign against Gaza reflect the views of a significant minority of Gen Z voters, a recent online survey revealed.

One-third of U.S. voters age 18 to 24 believe Israel does not have a right to exist as a nation in the Middle East, compared to only 10 percent of voters overall, according to a recent survey by RMG Research.

Summit Ministries, a conservative Christian organization committed to “equip and support rising generations to embrace God’s truth and champion a biblical worldview,” commissioned the RMG Research survey.

The comparative public opinion poll showed more than three-fourths (77 percent) of voters overall said Israel has a right to exist as a nation in the Middle East, while a little more than half (56 percent) of Gen Z voters agreed.

The RMG Research survey revealed Gen Z voters are significantly less likely than voters overall to view Hamas as a terrorist organization.

While 8 out of 10 (81 percent) of American voters overall agree with the United States classifying Hamas a terrorist group, the ratio drops to 6 out of 10 (61 percent) among voters ages 18 to 24.

A majority of American voters overall support Israel’s military campaign against Hamas, but that reflects a minority view among Gen Z voters.

The survey showed 58 percent of American voters believe Israel’s campaign against Hamas is just. Only 21 percent of voters overall said they believe Israel’s superior military strength and its wealth makes the war unjust.

In contrast, 42 percent of surveyed voters ages 18 to 24 said they consider Israel’s campaign again Hamas to be just. Almost half (47 percent) believe Israel’s greater wealth and military power makes the conflict unjust.

Campus protests spread

More than 500 students participated in an April 24 classroom walkout at the University of Texas in Austin organized by the Palestine Solidarity Committee. Students demanded the university divest from manufacturers that supply Israel with weapons used in strikes on Gaza. Authorities arrested at least 34 people after police unsuccessfully tried to disperse protesters.

The walkout at the University of Texas followed a series of pro-Palestinian protests at Ivy League universities including Columbia, Yale and Harvard.

RMG Research conducted its online survey of 1,002 registered voters March 20 and 21. The sample was lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, internet usage and political affiliation to reflect the population of registered voters more accurately. The overall margin of error is 3.1 percent. The margin of error for voters ages 18 to 24 is 4.4 percent.

WASHINGTON (BP)—President Joe Biden signed a $95 billion foreign aid package April 24 that drew bipartisan support for Israel, Ukraine and other allies, and pledged to begin sending weapons and military equipment to Ukraine within hours.

“It’s going to make America safer. It’s going to make the world safer. And it continues America’s leadership in the world,” Biden said after signing the bill.

The foreign aid package gives Ukraine $60.8 billion, Israel $26.4 billion and the Indo-Pacific region $8.1 billion. A portion of Israel’s allocation, $9 billion, will provide humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, welcomed the foreign aid package secured with bipartisan support encouraged by House Speaker Mike Johnson. Southern Baptist leaders and some other evangelicals had been urging Johnson to push the measure through.

“Our nation has long supported those combating oppression and terrorism, and the horrors we have seen across the globe demand a response,” Leatherwood said.

“Whether responding to an active war in Europe, a terrorist event in Israel, or the threat of an invasion by China, American engagement is essential for protecting vulnerable lives, churches and communities threatened by tyrants. This nation still has the capacity to do tremendous good, and it did so this week.”

House Speaker Johnson commended

Leatherwood is among several evangelicals who have commended Johnson for his about-face in moving the aid package forward, despite blocking its progress months earlier as Republicans focused on border security and other national concerns.

Ultimately, Johnson promoted the aid as crucial to helping U.S. allies in pushing back communists and terrorists who threaten national and international security.

“This week a fellow Southern Baptist, House Speaker Mike Johnson, helped ensure America will not stand idly by and let the illegal and unjust invasion directed by Vladimir Putin go unchallenged,” Leatherwood said.

“I am confident our Baptist brothers and sisters in Ukraine, and their fellow Ukrainians, are deeply appreciative of his leadership and the bipartisan resolve shown in Washington that has met the challenge of this moment.

“For the last two years in Ukraine, Russian bombs have obliterated hundreds of Baptist churches, religious liberty has been extinguished in areas under Russian control and countless innocent lives have been lost at the hands of Russian invaders. These atrocities deserve our strongest condemnation, and thankfully, Southern Baptists have been at the forefront of calling attention to them.”

Johnson risked the support of a handful of Republican members of Congress opposed to foreign aid who called for his ouster, but most Republicans supported the measures.

The Senate passed the four-bill package April 23 after the House’s approval late last week, but Congress struggled for months to find a bipartisan solution to support allies in the military crises that Southern Baptists have said threaten religious freedom and democracy beyond Europe and the Middle East.

Ukraine’s allotment includes $13.8 billion for weapons, $9 billion worth of economic assistance as forgivable loans, and other monies to replenish U.S. weapons stockpiles.

Ukrainian president thanks U.S.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the United States for the aid in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“I am grateful to President Biden, Congress, and all Americans who recognize that we must cut the ground under Putin’s feet rather than obeying him, as this is the only way to truly reduce threats to freedom,” Zelensky wrote April 24. “Together, we can ensure this.

“Regardless of what anyone says, we are gaining the support we need to continue protecting lives from Russian attacks.”

Israel’s allocation includes $4 billion for the Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile defense systems in the Israel-Hamas War. Israel, the only U.S. ally in the Middle East, launched war against Hamas after the terrorist group killed 1,200 civilians in an unprecedented attack on Israel Oct. 7, and is also pushing back attacks from Iran and Hezbollah.

The allocation to the Indo-Pacific region would help U.S. allies in combatting Chinese aggression, including $3.3 billion for submarine infrastructure and development, and $1.9 billion to replenish U.S. weapons provided to Taiwan and other regional allies.

China’s religious persecution includes beating and imprisoning religious leaders and others on fabricated charges, attempting to ban entire religious groups, and limiting public preaching, proselytizing, conversions, religious literature and broadcasting.

China relentlessly has persecuted Christians in its war on Ukraine, banning religious groups, shuttering houses of worship, and abducting, detaining, imprisoning and torturing religious leaders.

Included in the package is a ban on TikTok in U.S. app stores unless the platform’s Chinese owners divest of their shares within a year. China’s strong communist arm jeopardizes the personal data of some 170 million Americans who use the platform, including teenagers and business owners, supporters of the ban assert.

WACO— Erik Carter challenged participants at a Baylor University conference to be catalysts for change—so all really do belong in faith communities.

Carter is executive director of the Baylor Center for Developmental Disabilities, host of “Disability and Church: A Conversation” on April 17. 

“How might we be communities of all the peoples—where members with and without disabilities live, learn, work and worship?” Carter asked. “And serve and support one another. … Where all families can flourish together in faith and life.”

Carted began with his personal testimony. Growing up in a time when disabled people generally were segregated in schools or clubs, he had limited opportunity to know and befriend people with disabilities. 

“It was as if our schools, workplaces, and even our churches were perfectly designed in ways that kept us apart,” Carter explained.

In this environment, Carter had come to believe his value lay in accomplishments and abilities—until he went to a summer camp his freshman year in college where he “stumbled into new friendships with several young men and women with intellectual disability at a mountain camping program.”

‘Glad abandon’ speaks

Wayne, Margaret and John Ray loved him without any concern for his accomplishments, and he felt belonging, Carter said. Beyond belonging, Carter observed the “glad abandon” with which they worshiped and their deep love for Jesus. 

“John Ray could not speak, and Wayne often struggled with words,” Carter said. “They trusted wholeheartedly. They knew for sure they belonged to God. And how much I longed to have that same assurance! … And so, I followed their lead and gave my life to Christ.” 

Carter said this story should not be surprising. 

“Indeed, it is an ordinary story of how God’s grace flows through God’s people to transform lives. All of God’s people. No asterisks. No exceptions,” he continued.

Offering insights from two decades of research focused on “what it means to create communities in which believing and belonging abound together,” Carter described five prevailing portraits for community, which have generally progressed through history “from exclusion toward embrace.”

Portraits of community

Providing a visual model of each, Carter explained exclusion was the prevailing model of the 1970s, where individuals with disabilities still were excluded from much of community life—especially those with intellectual or developmental disabilities. There were holes in this model. 

“Communities were incomplete,” Carter said.

In the 1970s and ’80s, separation was the prevailing model—where programs were created for children and adults with developmental disabilities, but “usually, apart from anyone else without the same label. In most communities, everyday life was still lived away from people with disabilities,” Carter said.

In the 1990s and 2000s there was a shift toward integration, “but many of the opportunities that emerged still involved a certain separation,” he said. People with disabilities were placed “near, but not really among, their peers without disabilities. There is a huge difference between near and among,” Carter said.

The present-day model is one of inclusion, Carter said—“where a growing national focus is on the full inclusion of people with disabilities in the same classrooms, clubs, colleges, church activities and community groups as anyone else. Inclusion. From being apart to among and with one another.” 

But, Carter said, there is still one more model churches should be striving toward—beyond integration or inclusion—belonging. In this model, Christians learn to see each other in fundamentally different ways, “as a diverse community in which each person has equal and immeasurable value … knitted together—woven into relationship.”

None of these models is actually just historical—it is “living history; our present landscape….you will find each of these varied portraits—[exclusion, segregation, integration, inclusion and belonging]—across the more than 26,000 churches and scores of Christian schools throughout Texas,” Carter said.

But the research has identified elements of belonging, Carter said, “from the lived experiences of hundreds of young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families who have been part of our various studies over the years. 

 “It is a question we have posed directly to them. How do you know you belong in your faith community?”

Elements of belonging

“Belonging is experienced when they are present, invited, welcomed, known, accepted, supported, cared for, befriended, needed and loved,” Carter said their responses showed.

Carter recalled his own testimony of being welcomed, befriended and loved by Wayne, Margaret and John Ray as a teen and how they shared their faith with others—people with disabilities doing ministry.

 “Three people who might have been overlooked by society—and by the church—as a promising avenue through which Jesus might call others to him. And yet the opposite is certainly true,” Carter said, explaining that their gifts were real, attractive and a conduit for God’s life-changing grace.

Carter opened table talks, observed by Baylor Center for Developmental Disabilities representatives for the purpose of study. Participants reflected on and discussed ways the churches represented were doing well or could do better or differently in each of the ten areas identified as necessary for experiencing belonging.

Table discussions allowed families of disabled people and disabled attendees, themselves, to discuss their experiences with church and disability.  

One participant, whose adult son is autistic, shared a positive story of inclusion at their church where they have been members for years.

She said everyone at church knows her son by name and that “she’s really only known as his mom.” They both feel known and loved there, she said. 

But she said she would like to worship in a space where she feels less concerned about how an unexpected behavior from her son might impact other worshippers. 

She has a vision for beginning a disability-inclusive service, much like other churches might have non-English speaking language services. And one of her pastors and two other church members who want to help support and participate in this ministry vision becoming reality joined her for the talk.

Others at the table shared how their experiences at church had not always been welcoming. Kirk and Gena Baker shared of times they’d been asked to remove autistic children from worship, who were not being excessively disruptive.

They’ve forgiven these offenses, they said. But they expressed how crushing it was to be treated this way by brothers and sisters in Christ. 

Yet they rejoiced in God’s answer to 27 years of prayer, when they moved to Waco less than two years ago and learned about the Baylor Collaborative for Developmental Disabilities beginning.

Thriving congregations initiative

This talk was part of an interdisciplinary project funded by a grant from the Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative. The project is led by Baylor’s Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor Center for Developmental Disabilities and the Center for Church and Community Impact in the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work. 

 “The project focuses on helping congregations embrace young people with disabilities, mental health challenges and chronic illnesses,” said Angela Reed, Truett Seminary’s associate dean for academic affairs and principal investigator of this project, in an earlier interview.

“We’re going to need congregations that are very interested in young people and supporting young people,” she continued.

“Early this summer, we will be announcing how interested churches can apply to join our first learning cohort,” Carter said.

Jason La Shana, director of the Baylor Collaborative on Faith & Disability, explained the selected cohort of churches will enter into a “multi-year mutual learning process around disability and mental health in the church,” in a follow-up email.

A Kachin Baptist leader in Myanmar who briefly was released from prison last week after 16 months behind bars was taken into custody again by authorities and continued to be detained a week later.

Hkalam Samson, former president of the Kachin Baptist Convention, was released from Myitkyina Prison on April 17 as part of an amnesty marking the end of the Thingyan New Year festival in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Hours later, authorities arrived at Samson’s home to take him into custody.

“It was a Gethsemane moment for many of us,” said Roy Medley, executive director of the Burma Advocacy Group and general secretary emeritus of the American Baptist Churches USA.

Samson’s wife, Zung Nyaw, initially was allowed to accompany him, and a member of the Kachin Peace-Talk Creation Group also was taken into custody at the same time.

As of April 24, Samson—chairman of the Kachin National Consultative Assembly and critic of human rights abuses by the ruling Burmese military—still was detained for questioning at a house on the grounds of Myitkyina Prison.

Ah Le Lakang, general secretary of the Kachin Baptist Convention USA, reported April 18 Zung Nyaw was allowed to leave the prison grounds. At least at that point, she and other family members were permitted to visit Samson.

Initially, Ah Le Lakang said, Samson’s wife said police told them he was being taken into custody for his own security. Later, they said he was being detained for questioning.

Samson first was arrested on Dec. 5, 2022, at the Mandalay International Airport while attempting to travel to Bangkok for a medical procedure.

He was sentenced last year to six years in prison on charges of unlawful association, defaming the state and terrorism.

At the time, Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Elijah Brown called Samson’s sentence “a grave injustice” and called on churches to pray for an end to his “unjust imprisonment.”

Samson was president of the Kachin Baptist Convention in Myanmar from 2018 to 2022, and he previously served two terms as the convention’s general secretary, from 2010 to 2018.

‘Arbitrary disregard for human rights’

Medley called Samson “a courageous spokesman for religious liberty” who continued to minister to others even during his 16-month imprisonment.

On behalf of the Burma Advocacy Group, Medley contacted Rashad Hussain, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom; Tom Andrews, U.N. Special Rapporteur for Burma; Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; and Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In addition to advocating with government officials for Samson’s release, Medley also requested prayer.

“Let us remember in our prayers his wife and family, for this is yet another tragic experience of arbitrary disregard for human rights and the rule of law,” he wrote in an email.

“We must not lose heart, but instead, we must redouble our prayers and efforts for his release and for the release of all in Burma from the shackles of tyranny.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: In an email to the Baptist Standard received late evening on April 24, Ah Le Lakang reported Hkalam Samson continues to be detained in a guest house at the prison compound. He wrote: “His family members can visit and have meals together. His relatives are allowed to speak with him on the prison grounds. His attorney can speak with him but has yet to be in person. He is still being held for questioning. The spokesperson, Zaw Min Thun, the Burmese Military, told BBC Burmese that Dr. Samson was called back for the peace-building process.  PCG leader Lamai Gum Ja is still with Dr. Samson. He can go home and come stay with Dr. Samson anytime.”

Will Pierce to First Baptist Church in Edmonson as pastor. He previously was pastor of youth and young families at Port Caddo Baptist Church in Marshall.