Posted: 7/25/03

Posted: 7/25/03

CBF: Understanding urged in facing fundamentalism

By John Pierce

Baptists Today

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The rift between fundamentalist and moderate Baptists has been so painful that another generation likely will have to do most of the fence mending, predicted Philip Wise, pastor of Second Baptist Church of Lubbock.

Wise co-led a breakout session on understanding and responding to fundamentalism during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly. His co-leader was Fisher Humphreys, a theology professor at Samford University's Beeson Divinity school.

Moderate Baptists need to consider now how they will respond to those who often malign them, Wise said, because “fundamentalists are not going away, and we need to develop a philosophy about how we can best relate to them.”

“We think it is regrettable, even if it is sometimes understandable, that many people in America today feel contempt for fundamentalists,” Humphreys said.

Dehumanizing fundamentalists by suggesting they are not true Christians is tempting, but wrong, added Wise. Treating them as fellow believers and showing kindness are better responses, he suggested.

“Kindness is not a characteristic for which fundamentalists have become known,” Wise said. “I hope it is characteristic of moderate Baptists. … We should treat fundamentalists with kindness because that is the way many fundamentalists become ex-fundamentalists.”

Fundamentalism arose in America in the late 19th century when evangelicals began pulling together across denominational lines to counter what they saw as threats to the Christian faith, Humphreys said. He identified biblical criticism, biological evolution and liberal theology as factors driving the reaction.

Unlike European theologians like Albert Schweitzer and Karl Barth, who challenged liberalism through scholarly writings, fundamentalists organized their opposition, Humphreys explained.

He described the wide distribution of “The Fundamentals,” a series of 12 pamphlets published between 1910 and 1925, and use of the word “Fundamentalists” by Northern Baptist newspaper editor Curtis Lee Laws in 1920 as giving the movement its name.

The “five fundamentals” first articulated in 1910 were belief in the inerrancy of Scripture, the virgin birth of Christ, the substitutionary atonement of Christ, Christ's bodily resurrection and the authenticity of biblical miracles. The latter sometimes was replaced in the lineup with a premillenial view of the end times.

“Although fundamentalists affirm these five beliefs for good reasons, in the process they seem to forget what is truly fundamental,” Wise said. He argued that these fundamentals are “not fundamental enough” and are actually supplementary rather than fundamentals of the Christian faith.

“Each of these beliefs, if properly nuanced, can be affirmed,” he added. “However, moderate Baptists have been reluctant to affirm this list, or even individual items, without careful qualifying.”

Such qualification, he explained, is usually seen by fundamentalists as wavering in belief and therefore a sign of theological liberalism.

Wise addressed each of the five fundamentals, describing why the list would not be considered “foundational” theology by many moderate or traditional Baptists.

For example, he said moderate Baptists overwhelmingly embrace the virgin birth of Christ. But the original intent of the doctrine is to affirm the humanity of Christ as well as his divinity.

Since Scripture does not teach that one must hold this belief in order to become a Christian, it could not rightly be called foundational, Wise asserted.

Wise told of being asked by his ordination council in south Alabama if he believed in the virgin birth. Then 21 years old, Wise said, he truthfully and innocently replied: “Yes, but it is not necessary for salvation.”

When asked to defend his position, Wise noted none of the conversion stories in the New Testament mention affirmation of the virgin birth as part of becoming a disciple of Christ.

After excusing Wise while they discussed the matter further, the young minister was invited back in and told by the council: “We agree that it is not necessary to believe in the virgin birth in order to become a Christian, but we don't think you ought to teach this.”

Many observers wrongly assume that fundamentalism was originally a rural, Southern anti-intellectual movement, Humphreys said. In reality, he said, the movement first impacted Baptists and Presbyterians in northern cities.

Fundamentalism has appeared widely within Christian groups as well as other faith traditions in more recent years, he noted. Using the “family traits” of fundamentalism, as defined by Martin Marty and Scott Appleby, Humphreys said fundamentalism is identifiable in various religious settings, including the Southern Baptist Convention.

Humphreys presented reasons for considering the new SBC agenda to be a version of fundamentalism. The “family resemblance,” he said, can be seen in several ways.

Among them are resistance to aspects of modernity–such as the role of women in society and church–and reactions to what they perceive as liberalism. He also pointed to the recent firing of missionaries for not affirming a narrow faith statement as evidence of creating “unequivocal boundaries,” another mark of fundamentalism.

However, Humphreys warned against underestimating the role of theological concerns in the SBC controversy that began in 1979.

“One of the most serious moderate misunderstandings of the controversy was that it was about power only, not about theology,” he said. “The dichotomy was misleading. It was about power, but it also was about theology.”

The new SBC leaders hold deep religious and theological convictions, he said. “They felt these were threatened, and they acted to protect them.”

Fundamentalism is marked not only by its theological positions, the two theologians asserted, but also by its attitudes.

Suspicion, fear, anger and separatism are common attitudes among fundamentalists, Wise said. Suspicion, he added, seems to be a “continuing state of mind” with fundamentalists.

“Because fundamentalism is predicated on the theory that liberals are trying to subvert the church, fundamentalists must constantly be checking the theology of others to ensure that they are not liberals,” Wise explained. “This causes fundamentalists to be suspicious of those outside their community as well as those within it.”

Exaggerated fear and anger also are present in fundamentalism, Wise said, due to the perceived threats of modernity and liberalism to their understanding of faith.

Fundamentalists feel a need to separate from these threats–including separation from fellow Christians who do not share their concerns and beliefs, he added.

“This separatism causes fundamentalists to label others as being 'with us' or 'against us.' This means that even those within the fundamentalist family are suspect, since they may choose the wrong path or weaken in the faith at any point in time.”

Fundamentalists consider accepting people who hold differing views to be the same as condoning heresy, Wise explained. Therefore, church splits and efforts to “purge liberals” result.

Posted: 7/25/03

CBF: Leonard discusses ways
to converse in pluralistic society

By Marv Knox

Editor

CHARLOTTE, N.C.–Many Baptists bog down in theological “quicksand” as they try to relate to people of other religions, church historian Bill Leonard reported.

They've got “one foot set in Jesus-ism and the other in pluralism,” Leonard said in a breakout session held during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's general assembly.

But by taking clues from their heritage, Baptists can find firm footing to remain respectful while advocating for their cause, said Leonard, dean of Wake Forest University's Divinity School.

“Since the beginning of our movement, Baptists generally have affirmed the belief in a regenerate church membership or believer's church,” he said. “Conversion to Christ is non-negotiable” for salvation and membership in the church.

“But since almost the beginning, Baptists have not agreed on the nature or process of that conversion,” he noted.

As early as 1608-09, Baptists affirmed the thinking of religious reformer Jacob Arminius, who believed all people have free will and can decide if they will accept God's grace in Christ and be saved.

Less than 30 years later, Baptists influenced by reformer John Calvin believed Christ died only for the “elect,” or those God already had chosen to be saved, he said.

In Calvinism, “some are elect, some damned,” Leonard explained, adding this understanding implied individuals play no significant part in salvation. “If you are elect, God's irresistible grace will find you anyway.”

So, almost from the beginning of their history, Baptists affirmed two unique plans for salvation, he said.

Moreover, Baptists developed the concept of religious pluralism in America, he added. They took their cues from English Baptists, who first said God, not government, is the Lord of conscience, and neither the church nor the state can dictate religious faith.

Led by Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island Colony, Baptists in America advocated for pluralism, the notion that “every individual is free to believe the right stuff, the wrong stuff or nothing at all,” Leonard said.

But even as they championed the rights of others, Baptists advocated for their own beliefs, he noted. “Baptists were not silent about the need for regeneration. Baptists said, 'You're free to believe, but we're free to tell you you're wrong.'”

This principle of religious pluralism is in serious danger today, Leonard warned. “It is half a step from saying all other religions are wrong to saying we have to protect 'the innocent' with sanctions” against other religions, he explained. “The Baptists (who were persecuted for their faith in Colonial America) knew that before everybody else.”

Throughout the generations, most Baptists have struggled to live in two worlds–unashamed commitment to Christian religion and an understanding of religious liberty that nurtured pluralism, he said.

These potentially competing values create the “quicksand” that provides uncertain footing for evangelistic Christians who also affirm others' rights, he noted.

Up until the late 18th century, when Calvinistic thinking prevailed among Baptists, the challenge between “Jesus-ism” and pluralism wasn't significant, Leonard said. Since God would save whomever God chose to save, Baptists were not threatened by pluralism or compelled to confront other faiths. That was God's issue, not theirs.

But when Baptists began to engage in world missions after 1792, they had to consider God's purposes and their interaction with other religions, he noted. “If you have a responsibility to say Jesus is the only Savior of the world, you have to deal with other religions in ways you didn't when Calvinistic theology was in place.”

Consequently, world missions and evangelism opened the door for dialogue with other religions and the sensitive issue of competing truth claims.

Often, some critics attack Christianity on this point, claiming Christians try to exert “salvific hegemony” over others, Leonard observed. However, other religions–particularly Islam–often are more extreme in denying Christians the opportunity to express their faith.

The way out of the “quicksand,” he said, is recognizing Christians can live responsibly and effectively in a pluralistic society without forfeiting their beliefs or abandoning the right to express them to people who believe differently.

In recent years, many Christians have feared pluralism because they have confused it with syncretism, a politically correct blending of various beliefs that waters each of them down and neutralizes them, Leonard said.

“Pluralism is not capitulation to syncretism,” Leonard said. “I've seen students confusing pluralism with syncretism,. They hesitate to speak (on behalf of their Christian faith) lest it be confused with bigotry.”

But syncretism is offensive to all religions, because it does not represent any of them fairly or accurately, he said.

Christians should think carefully about how they witness in the pluralistic world in light of the results they hope to achieve, Leonard stressed.

“Some are compelled by conscience that all other religions other than Christianity are lost,” he said, noting they should act upon their convictions.

“But they need to know … in church (their belief) will be perceived as a statement of conviction but on CNN it will be interpreted as bigotry,” he added. “You have to ask, 'Who are you saying that to, and what is the witness in that moment?'”

Still, the notion that Christ is only one among several possible roads to faith is “syncretistic pabulum,” Leonard declared.

Moreover, the idea that Christians must choose between “convictional particularism” and “pluralistic libertarianism” is a false dichotomy, he said. Christians can express their convictions while remaining respectful listeners to others and gain ground in the dialogue, he said.

As evidence, he pointed to the rapid growth of Christianity “outside the West,” where faithful Christians diligently but thoughtfully and winsomely confront pluralistic societies.

Leonard said he has learned to “be with them, but not one of them” as he talks to people of other faiths.

“To respond to other world religions, I do it as a person of faith,” he said. “It does me no good to tell Muslims, 'If you don't believe in Jesus, you're going to hell.' You take them seriously, communicate with them. … You can say, 'We're together here and here, but not here.'”

And in discussing where the faiths diverge, the Christian gains an opportunity to share the gospel, he said.

For example, he told about talking to a person from another religion who said to him, “We could never believe God, the transcendent, would become human.” Leonard responded, “I can't imagine God wouldn't.”

Ultimately, Christians must take seriously the Bible's teachings, Leonard stressed.

Evangelical Christians quickly turn to the Gospel of John, where Jesus is recorded as saying: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.”

They also should consider the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus states that God will welcome into the kingdom of heaven the people who feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoners an heal the sick, Leonard said. “And they did it even when they did not know it.”

Posted: 7/25/03

Baptist aid blows into town with hurricane

By Jenny Hartgraves

Texas Baptist Communications

The papers reported Claudette wasn't that bad of a hurricane, but thousands of people fed by Texas Baptist Men might tell a different story.

Southeast Texas residents turned to the Baptist feeding units for more than 32,000 meals during the five days after Hurricane Claudette's fury crippled patches of the region.

Winds blew as strong as 80 miles per hour, and up to 8 inches of rain left portions of Palacios, Port Lavaca and Victoria powerless and drenched for days. Roofs and branches were flung haphazardly through the air, landing where nature left them.

Summer staffers from Texas Baptist Encampment at Palacios by the Sea unload food after campers were evacuated to a safe location.

Citizens slowly stumbled through the streets, blankly staring at the unexpected damage from the storm that was barely classified as a hurricane.

Hope and help came in the form of warm smiles beneath yellow Texas Baptist Men caps and shining Victim Relief Ministries trailers. Four feeding units, two shower units, a chainsaw unit and several clean-up units traveled from around the state to serve in Southeast Texas.

The volunteers served thousands of meals at Baptist churches in Katy, Bay City, Port Lavaca and Victoria. Clean-out units worked in Goliad. Shower units served in Katy and Port Lavaca. A Victim Relief Ministries unit also set up at First Baptist Church in Palacios and later moved to Victoria.

Texas Baptist Men began their work the night before the hurricane made landfall, aiding in the evacuation of more than 400 youth from the Texas Baptist Encampment Palacios by the Sea. The youth were beginning the weeklong OneCamp when they were relocated to First Baptist Church in Katy.

The next day, the camp site suffered severe damage as every building but one lost a wall or roof. High winds crushed an outdoor worship tabernacle.

The church and the city immediately came to the campers' aid, donating food, drinks and plenty of entertainment. Texas Baptist Men units provided meals and showers for the rest of the week.

“We were overwhelmed by the amount of cooperation met in the middle,” said Jim Kluttz, director of OneCamp. “The community of Katy embraced us. We could almost drown our kids in bottled water and soda.”

Victim Relief units were quickly on the scene to counselthe campers when needed, begin damage assessment in the region and console local victims immediately after the storm.

“The faster you get into an area, the more beneficial you are to the people who walk out of their homes dazed and traumatized from the storm,” said Gene Grounds, director of Victim Relief Ministries.

The pier at Texas Baptist Encampment offers a perilous path after its encounter with Hurricane Claudette.

In Palacios, Texas Baptist Men chaplains set up a trailer in the parking lot of First Baptist Church the night after the storm, and they were surprised when more than 50 people came to them needing food, Grounds said.

Within an hour, they finessed a make-shift feeding line at the camp. Texas Baptist Men, members of First Baptist Church and the Salvation Army used gas burners and flashlights to cook without electricity. They fed more than 400 people.

“We had prayed for God to send us where the people were hurting, and he did,” Grounds said. “It was an impromptu ministry and feeding unit. Incredible spiritual things happened as a result.”

Texas Baptist Men served similarly large groups everywhere they went, according to Grounds. The chaplaincy unit met with more than 300 people a day in Palacios and Victoria, and they had plenty of opportunities to share their faith and put people in contact with local church pastors.

“Every volunteer in there sees it as their ministry to respond to the physical needs of people in trauma,” Grounds said. “People are open to tell us about their story and hardships. They just appreciate that someone cares.”

Gov. Rick Perry may have described the work of Texas Baptist Men most succinctly during his visit to Port Lavaca.

“These men and women are the best in the country when it comes to disaster relief,” Perry said. “Texas Baptist Men could feed this entire community if they needed to.”

Gov. Rick Perry speaks with Texas Baptist Men volunteers Ben Freeman and Jim Southerland after a news conference in Port Lavaca, in which the governor praised the Baptist men's group for its ability. At left, summer staffers from Texas Baptist Encampment at Palacios by the Sea unload food after campers were evacuated to a safe location. Inset: The pier at Texas Baptist Encampment offers a perilous path after its encounter with Hurricane Claudette.Jenny Hartgraves/BGCT

Posted: 7/25/03

Whirlwind of activity greets new camp director

By Jenny Hartgraves

Texas Baptist Communications

PALACIOS–Rob Kessler's first days as interim director of the Texas Baptist Encampment Palacios by the Sea came with a whirlwind of responsibility and weather.

Two days after sending 400 OneCamp campers to Katy and one day after Hurricane Claudette destroyed his new home, Kessler viewed the coast with new eyes.

Bob Kessler, interim director of the Texas Baptist Encampment Palacios by the Sea, stands outside his destroyed home. (Jenny Hargraves/BGCT Photo)

He and his staff survived the storm without any injuries, but the camp was virtually destroyed with the exception of one building.

Kessler waited out the hurricane because it was not forecast to produce much damage. But the storm gained strength prior to hitting the encampment.

“We couldn't have been in a worse location,” he said. “We were right at the wall of the eye and never got a break. The wind was hitting us at 100 miles per hour from every direction.”

The hurricane devastated Kessler's home, a duplex his family shared with Administrative Assistant Jeannie Stahlecker. High winds and a possible tornado stripped off the roof, while a large piece of metal from the nearby dormitory impaled the walls.

Stahlecker and her 10-year-old son were inside the house when the first winds came. She whisked her son into the closet as the living room wall collapsed, and they cowered in prayer until Kessler rescued them.

“We sat in that closet and prayed for 10 minutes,” Stahlecker said. “That prayer came alive. God is good. He kept us safe.”

Kessler and the Stahleckers met other full-time camp staff members in a brick conference building where they anticipated the worst of the hurricane.

The encampment's dormitory was trashed by Claudette's 80-mile-an-hour winds.

They waited safely behind brick walls as Claudette wreaked havoc on the camp–lifting the roofs from the largest dormitory and part of the dining hall, crushing the tabernacle worship center and unleashing the fishing pier to sea.

Heavy rains damaged every building at camp, and all the carpets and roofs will need replacing, he said.

Despite the destruction in Palacios, Kessler sounded upbeat about the clean-up and potential for new facilities.

The tabernacle worship center, an outdoor facility built more than 60 years ago, was soon to be replaced before it tumbled in the storm, Kessler said. “We had a need for an indoor worship center for a long time, so it's kind of a God thing that it's gone.”

Damage assessments declared the tabernacle and staff home “totaled,” and insurance and emergency relief will cover most of the property damages.

The camp never has gone into debt, but the loss of power concerned Kessler as a potential loss of income from other upcoming camps. “We want to get going,” he said. “We want everyone to know that we're the toughest camp in Texas.”

Texas Baptist Men established feeding units at the camp, and they stayed four days using the camp's kitchen facilities and supplies to feed the Palacios community and surrounding area.

Texas Baptist Men's Collin County chainsaw unit and Retiree Builders arrived in Palacios the week of July 21 to aid in clean up.

The outdoor tabernacle was crushed.

Youth from First Baptist Church in Rosenberg spent two days gathering debris.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas designated $50,000 to help repair the camp and the staff home.

With the whirlwind of attention and decisions, Kessler had no time to grieve over the damages to the camp and his home, he said. He and his wife have found comfort in his wife's favorite Bible verse.

Jeremiah 29:11 states, “'I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord. 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm. Plans to give you a hope and a future.'”

“We know that God is going to take care of us,” he said. “It might seem kind of creepy to have that attitude, but we're ready for a new beginning.”

Posted: 7/25/03

Storm teaches intern to 'be ready for anything'

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

VICTORIA–An intern at Templo Jerusalem Baptist Church learned to “always be ready for anything” this summer.

Anyra Cano, a student at Hispanic Baptist Theological School, served as a youth intern at the church through a cooperative effort between the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Northside Baptist Church in Victoria and the San Antonio school.

She was working at Northside Baptist Church when Hurricane Claudette raged over the Southeast Texas town. Although a minister invited her to stay at his house, Cano ran toward where she was staying as soon as she could.

“What about the poor people here?” Cano remembers thinking as she ran. “When I came down the street, I was almost crying because that's all I could think of.”

Her host home was undamaged, but trees and piles of leaves were blown into the front yard. Cano helped her host family clean up and moved on to help others.

Teo Cisneros, pastor of Templo Jerusalem, handed her a set of keys to the church, and Cano took turns with the rest of the ministers at the church serving the community. The church facilities, one of the few buildings that had power the five days after the hurricane, remained open to provide families a place to eat and sleep comfortably.

She used the opportunity to become better acquainted with the people in the community and learn their needs. In several instances, she shared the gospel. Cisneros said he was amazed at the ease with which Cano testifies, calling it a “gift.”

Cano said she was disappointed the storm rolled through because it delayed a prayerwalk she now hopes will happen before she leaves. But the time with the people helped her get the word out about an upcoming church lock-in for youth.

“She's got a very good positive spirit,” Cisneros commented. “She takes initiative in things that need to be done, but at the same time she is sensitive to the leaders here.”

Posted: 7/25/03

BIBLE STUDY BREW:
Coffee's influence at church

By John Spalding

Beliefnet

WASHINGTON (RNS)–When Maryetta Anschutz arrived at Christ and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Westport, Conn., three years ago, she noticed a disturbing trend at coffee hour.

“People were sneaking off to Starbucks down the street,” she recalled. “Some would even return with their decaf mocha latte shamelessly in hand. I was the first to call them on it. I'm the church coffee cop.”

Anschutz knows exactly what's wrong with her church's coffee. “It's sludge!”

But coffee hour is “the center of our community,” she noted. “It's why many people who have few chances to socialize because of family and work go to church.”

Finally, after tiring of trailing parishioners to Starbucks, Anschutz found the perfect solution: She got Starbucks to donate pots of regular and decaf each Sunday, and sold coffee to parishioners at $3 a pop. The proceeds went to the high school outreach group she's taking to build homes in Jamaica this summer. In two months, she raised more than $2,000 from coffee hour alone.

It's hard to exaggerate the importance of coffee to American church life. Pulled apart by their views about salvation, biblical interpretation and social issues, nearly all Christians share a common dedication to the beany brew.

In most mainline Protestant and Catholic churches, parishioners gather before or after services in the fellowship hall or church basement for kaffeeklatsches that often bear modest names like “fellowship hour” or “community hour.”

An old Lutheran joke calls coffee hour the “third sacrament,” after baptism and communion.

Young evangelical Christians have taken coffee spirituality off-site. In the past decade, hundreds of coffeehouses have popped up across the country with names like “The Jesus Shack,” “Holy Grounds,” “One Way Cafe,” “Cup O' Joy” and “The Revelation Room.”

So essential is coffee to churchgoing that when someone added arsenic to the coffee urn at Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church in New Sweden, Maine, this spring, killing the 78-year-old head usher and hospitalizing 15 others, parishioners defiantly drank coffee for the TV cameras the following Sunday. Bishop Margaret Payne even showed up to take the symbolic first sip.

“I just wanted to make it clear that this isn't a place where you have to be afraid of drinking coffee,” she said on CBS news.

As with many Christian practices, a whiff of the pagan lies at coffee hour's root. The preparation of coffee has a timeless alchemy about it–grind beans (crush wing of bat), steam milk (boil cauldron), add cinnamon (toss in eye of newt), followed by ritual incantation: “How do you take it?” “Cream and sugar?” “One lump or two?”

And though not as strong as the Native Americans' peyote or the Norsemen's mushrooms, coffee contains a drug–albeit the one drug Ned Flanders can take without feeling guilty.

Caffeine also does what Christian fellowship is supposed to do. It's uplifting; the drink itself is warm and inviting. Coffee hour offers a “level-playing field,” noted Anschutz. “It's not the yacht club. Anyone can come and mingle freely. Even if you don't discuss your faith, something in a sermon may draw you into a meaningful discussion about God and life.”

Christianity hasn't always cottoned to coffee. In her aptly titled book “Coffee,” Claudia Rosen explains that 16th-century priests wanted Pope Clement VIII to ban “the devil's drink.” They insisted Satan had forbidden his followers–Muslims–from drinking wine because it was used in Holy Communion. Instead, the devil provided this “hellish black brew.”

The elixir made from coffee beans does in fact have a long history in Islamic regions. African tribes mixed the crushed beans with animal fat and molded them into balls to eat as a stimulant before battle. Arabs made the first hot coffee beverage, in 1000 A.D. Dervishes–mystic devotees of Islam's Sufi sect–consumed coffee at all-night ceremonies as fuel for achieving religious ecstasy.

Coffee may have remained a Middle Eastern exotic had not Clement VIII decided to put it to the taste test before banning it. “Why, this Satan's drink is so delicious,” he declared, “that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We shall cheat Satan by baptizing it.”

In 1683, a Franciscan friar named Marciano d'Aviano stopped a Turkish invasion of Austria, and along the way, some claim, invented cappuccino. The retreating Turks left behind bags of coffee beans, historians say, which the Viennese found so bitter that they added milk and sugar, creating a frothy, sweet beverage. Legend says the word “cappuccino” comes from d'Aviano's Capuchin order, so named for their brown robes. Pope John Paul II, himself an avowed coffee lover, beatified Marciano d'Aviano this spring (citing other, presumably decaffeinated, miracles he performed).

Still, in mid- to late-18th century Europe, coffee was viewed with mistrust.

Johann Sebastian Bach, an avid coffee drinker and devout Lutheran, composed his “Coffee Cantata” in 1732. In this satirical operetta, a stern father forbids his daughter to touch the evil drink. She pleads: “Father, don't be so severe! If I can't drink my bowl of coffee three times daily, then in my torment I will shrivel up like a piece of roast goat.”

Today, it is sometimes more proper to be a coffee believer than a Christian one. In Salt Lake City last year, where Mormons generally shun caffeinated beverages, Baptists ran a coffeehouse as part of their ministry at the Winter Olympics.

Christian rock bands commonly play the coffeehouse circuit as a way of building an audience. For years, Jars of Clay included in their concerts a paean to coffee usually introduced by Dan Haseltine's dead-on imitation of the rude whorling sound of a barista steaming milk for cappuccino.

Many young evangelical Christians frequent coffeehouses because they are looking for a place to congregate that is not a bar.

They have that in common with recovering alcoholics. Coffee has been a staple at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings since the non-denominational group's formation in 1935. While its high is relatively benign, coffee is nearly as effective a social lubricant as alcohol.

Some faiths are too pure even for coffee. Mormons drink Postum, the cereal-based coffee substitute that made C.W. Post a fortune at the turn of the 20th century, after he smeared coffee as unhealthy in an aggressive ad campaign.

Few church coffee drinkers, however, think coffee may be the least Christian drink of all.

“I pay $4 for a latte,” said Christ and Trinity's “coffee cop,” Anschutz. “I should put the money I spend on coffee every day into my United Thank Offering box and send it to sub-Saharan Africa. Did you know that a grande latte only costs Starbucks 11 cents to make and 22 cents in overhead?

“It's appalling,” she said, “and yet I still go in and buy them.”

Posted: 7/25/03

Court rules for Bible club

WASHINGTON (RNS)–A Pennsylvania high school wrongly barred a student Bible club from meeting during an activity period before the start of classes, an appellate court ruled July 15.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made the decision after Melissa Donovan, a senior at Punxsutawney Area High School, claimed the school district would not permit FISH, her Bible study group, to meet after school started at 8 a.m., the Associated Press reported.

School officials were wrong to prevent the club from meeting during an in-school “activity period,” during which other student groups were permitted to gather, the three-judge panel ruled.

“FISH is a group that discusses current issues from a biblical perspective, and school officials denied the club equal access to meet on school premises during the activity period solely because of the club's religious nature,” Judge Ruggero John Aldisert wrote.

Donovan graduated in the spring, which rendered part of her suit moot. But the court said her constitutional rights to free speech and assembly were violated, so she may be due attorney fees and damages.

School representatives could not be reached for comment. The district had argued that permitting the group to meet during the school day would amount to an inappropriate government endorsement of religion.

The Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based civil liberties organization that sued the district with Donovan, welcomed the decision.

“The court's strongly worded opinion should send a message to school districts throughout the country to think twice before excluding religious students,” said John Whitehead, the institute's president.

Posted: 7/25/03

D.C. vouchers get postponed

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–Congress' latest attempt to use the District of Columbia as a laboratory for school-voucher programs hangs in the balance after a Senate panel unexpectedly postponed a vote on the proposal.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, in a raucous July 17 session, postponed a vote on the District's $5.6 billion budget for at least a week. The bill contains a provision that would create a program of publicly funded scholarships for private schools, including religious schools.

The committee's Republican leaders were scrambling to find enough votes to pass the bill after the defection of one of their own. Committee member Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., citing his own objection to vouchers on church-state grounds, said he would oppose the measure.

Senate Democrats have threatened a filibuster to kill the bill if it is brought to the floor with the voucher provision intact.

A House committee approved a similar D.C. voucher plan earlier in the week.

Congress directly oversees much of the way Washington's government operates. City leaders have objected to voucher proposals in the past. But Mayor Anthony Williams and D.C. School Board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz recently acquiesced to the voucher proposal, reportedly under pressure from the White House. Vouchers are a central part of President Bush's education policy aims.

However, the city's non-voting delegate to the House, Eleanor Holmes Norton, hailed the Senate decision to put the brakes on vouchers. “I very much regret that vouchers have returned to haunt and halt another D.C. appropriations bill,” she said. “People really underestimated how unpopular vouchers are in Congress.”

Norton referred to a 1997 attempt by Republicans to attach vouchers to a D.C. appropriations bill. They backed away from that plan after then-President Bill Clinton promised a veto of any bill containing a voucher program.

Voucher opponents object to providing government money to religious schools and often claim that vouchers will hurt struggling public schools by diverting money that otherwise would have been spent on those schools. Voucher supporters claim that “school choice”–delivered through private schools and public charter schools–is the only hope many students in failing inner-city schools have to get the kind of education those in their communities with more money can afford.

The District of Columbia already has one of the nation's largest charter-school programs.

About 68,000 students are enrolled in regular public schools, while almost 12,000 more are enrolled in public charter schools. Another 14,000 attend private schools located in the city.

Posted: 7/25/03

Deaf called to more prayer

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

WACO–Evangelism begins with God but relies on believers to do the legwork, according to a featured speaker at the Texas Baptist Conference for the Deaf.

Darrell Bonjour, pastor of Paramount Deaf Church in Amarillo, encouraged workshop participants to pray faithfully in preparation for sharing the gospel.

Prayer has proved to be the basis of successful evangelism, Bonjour reported, noting that Christians pray for months or sometimes years before revivals, including the Billy Graham crusades, to open communities to the gospel.

Evangelism begins with prayer “because God has to teach us,” he said. “The Holy Spirit teaches us to pray. The Bible says if we pray and follow his will, he will answer.”

Faithful living helps believers recognize witnessing opportunities, Bonjour continued, citing conversations about death, personal issues and spiritual seeking as examples.

“Through your life, you meet people, and you can witness,” he said. “I have to be honest. God has given me chances to witness and I missed it.”

Believers must adhere continuously to their faith for their testimonies to be meaningful, Bonjour warned, because people are cynical and looking for any inconsistency in believers' actions.

Above all, Christians must step outside their comfort zones to reach non-believers, Bonjour emphasized. Too often believers shrink away from the world rather than impacting it, he implored.

“You have to meet people who aren't Christians. You have to be nice to them. Don't live in your small world.”