Posted 8/25/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
I dress for success

By John Duncan

I am sitting here under the old oak tree, watching the early morning sun rise, preparing for the day ahead and longing for Cambridge, England.

Just this morning, I biked on a golf course near the lake. The ducks waddled and paddled along. Birds chirped, fluttering effortlessly into the morning air. Workers mowed the grass, trimming and cutting the golf greens in preparation for a day of bogeys, sand traps and “fore!” I stopped on a wooden bridge near the golf course and watched an orange sun slowly rise to greet the day.

The old Apostle Paul told the Romans that creation groans like a woman in childbirth (Romans 8:22). Creation grunts, grinds and groans with the pain and excitement of the birth of a precious child. On this day, though, creation does not groan. It hums. It sings. It makes joyous melody that starts the day with freshness. The sun births a chorus of praise to the Almighty. God conducts the choir of creation.

While the sun rises, I am perspiring and thinking about “next.” Next week has come. The next thing to do must be done. The next project lay ahead. Life is full of “next.” On this morning, I watch the sun, and my mind rolls toward “next.” I must get home, shower and dress for the day to come.

Paul held in his mind the importance of clothes and dressing for each new day. Paul knew all too well that the Roman garb of veils, head coverings, mantles, tunics, togas and togas with the identifiable purple stripes. The Romans, they never left home without the right clothing. After all, the purple stripers wanted everyone to know of their status and importance in the Roman world. Graceful, bald-headed Paul, he urged Christians to “put on Christ” each new day (Romans 13:12). Don’t leave home without him!

On a cold January day in 1996, men stood in line for five hours to purchase San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown’s old clothes. The mayor donated eight Italian suits, an Italian tuxedo, eight designer jackets, a slew of silk ties, 18 dress shirts, a vest and 12 pair of slacks, one of which was black leather. Guys waited in line to buy the mayor’s clothes. One man quipped, speaking of the mayor: “He’s a wonderful, self-made man. I’m proud to be a member of the Willie Brown clothes horse association.” One guy spent $379 on Brown’s old clothes. I guess that guy wished to dress for each new day like the dapper mayor.

I never hear the words “clothes horse” without thinking of Trudy Woods, who, in her nineties once told me as she lay in a nursing home bed: “I’m a clothes horse. I buy all my clothes at Goodwill.” Amazing how different we all are: One guy rises with the sun to put on an Italian suit and one woman rises with the sun to dress for success with clothes from the Goodwill rack. The sun still rises, but, remember, God looks at the heart.

I once heard a preacher ask, “Do clothes make the man, or does a man make the clothes?” I think he was trying to say that life is more than clothes and that God does look past clothes and straight into the heart.

We preachers, we say stuff that is not always what we mean. The day that preacher asked the question, I figured he forgot about all the women who listened. Should he not have asked, “Do clothes make the woman, or does a woman make the clothes?” All I could think of is that clothes are made in factories by people with sewing needles and machines with foot pedals. The preacher, though, he recovered and got me back into understanding when he used a cliché. He thundered after his question, “The clothes don’t make the man, the man makes the clothes!” Hallelujah! God looks right past Italian suits and Goodwill dresses and locks his eyes on hearts. I think that’s what the preacher was trying to say. So dress up your heart.

Tom Wolfe writes long books. An interviewer once asked him about his clothes. He replied: “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t even drink coffee. I don’t play tennis, I don’t even play golf. I found when I was working on the Herald Tribune making $135 a week, that as long as you don’t do those other things, I had enough money for fancy clothes.” I do not know Tom Wolfe, but he would make a good Baptist because Baptists like “don’ts” quite a lot. I would like to ask him about his “do” list, not to be confused about your “to do” list. Tom Wolfe, tell me what you do. Do you smile? Do you sing happy songs? Do you buy your clothes at Goodwill? Do you dress your heart with Jesus? Old Paul again suffices, “Put on the armor of Light.” I hope Tom Wolfe’s “do” list includes dressing for each new day with the Light.

So, here I am, sitting near the old oak tree, thinking “next.” The sun rises in a panorama of color. A fish swirls in the water below the bridge. A turtle pops its head from beneath the water’s surface. A blackbird perches near the bridge. And I must dress for the new day. What will I wear? How will it look? What color shall I choose? Will the colors match?

Old Paul keeps whispering, “Put on Christ.” Old Cambridge scholar C.S. Lewis understands my morning clothes dilemma. He whispers, “That is very much like the problem with all of us: to dress our souls not for the electric lights of the present world but for the daylight of the next.”

John Duncan is pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, and the writer of numerous articles in various journals and magazines

Posted 8/25/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
Bigger, stronger, wiser…

By Donna Van Cleve

I admit it. After a steady diet of troubling news events of which I have little or no control, the urge to stick my head in the sand is very tempting. I can watch or listen or read about it only so much, and then I have to focus on something else, or the uneasiness will pull me under.

When things start to overwhelm me, I tend to cry at the drop of a hat. Not long ago, the trigger was the movie “Shenandoah” with Jimmy Stewart. I had seen it years ago, but with my feeble memory, it was like watching a brand-new movie all over again. It hooked me before I recalled it had some tragic scenes. When they came, the dam broke.

I cried for the death of his children. I cried again for the great loss our country experienced on Sept. 11, and especially the loss of security we’ve all felt. I cried for the precious lives lost in the recent war, and the continued danger and losses our soldiers and peacekeepers are facing daily. I cried for the turmoil in the Middle East, wondering again if this is the beginning of the end. I cried because my son’s job sends him to places in the world where people hate the United States and want to destroy it and anyone affiliated with it. He just returned from Saudi Arabia with newspapers full of anti-American propaganda. I cried for the missing girl on the poster at the Dairy Queen, who was from the same area my daughter and granddaughter recently moved to.

I want someone bigger, stronger and wiser to take charge.

I want our government leaders to have integrity and the courage and wisdom to make the right decisions and do the right thing, no matter how difficult the pressure is to do otherwise. I want them to have the hearts of servants and to be role models in their lifestyles. I want those same things for our spiritual leaders and for their lives to model what they profess. The walk and talk should be no different from public life to private life for them or any one of us, for that matter. And yes, character does count in any life or job, our own included.

I want husbands and fathers to be strong and committed enough to hang around a lifetime for their wives and children, no matter how tough it is to stick with it. I want daddies to take an active role in raising their children, not just showing up for the game to coach from the sidelines. I want husbands and fathers to be the biblically mandated spiritual leaders of their families, churches and communities. Women are tired of carrying the bulk of that responsibility for too long now. If a husband expects the wife to take care of the house and bill-paying, raise the children, take them to church, maintain the car, and be a contributing breadwinner in this day and age of two-income-lifestyle households, what does she need a husband for? That’s not the way God intended for it to be, and it’s not the way most women necessarily want it. But a wife/mother will take up the slack in those areas when the husband/father relinquishes it, allows it or even expects it of them. Praise God for godly men who truly understand their responsibilities in these areas and live it.

I want someone bigger, stronger and wiser to take charge.

And then I remember, God is.

And again, I hand my Lord, my Abba, a burden called sorrows, and another precious load labeled my children, and another entitled husband/daddy, and a millstone imprinted guilt and regrets, and an encumbrance named poor health, and some shackles branded fears, and I can get up and face another day.

Donna Van Cleve is a writer and wife of one, mother of two, and grandmother of Audrie, and is a member of Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin.

Posted 8/29/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
What it takes

By Berry D. Simpson

The fundamental question for guys is, “Do I have what it takes?”

Everything we do comes down to that question.

For me, it even affects the type of movies I like. I don’t watch many modern-day action movies, like the “Die Hard” movies, or “Terminator” movies, or martial-arts movies, etc. They all seem contrived and trivial to me, as if someone thought it would be fun to film some cool fight scenes and blow stuff up, so they wrapped a marginal plot around the punches and explosions and gunfire. They always make lots of money from the movies because not everyone is like me. Lots of people love those movies, and I say, “Good for them,” but I will pass. I’d rather read a book.

But if you are talking about a movie like “Braveheart,” or “The Patriot,” or “Black Hawk Down,” or “Saving Private Ryan,” or “Gettysburg,” I will watch every time. I will watch them over and over.

It is a family joke that I watch “Midway’ every time it comes on TV. It’s true. Of course, I know how the movie ends, and I know how the real Battle of Midway happened, and I have seen the movie so many times I know the dialogue and scenes, but I watch it all over again. I am the same way with “A Bridge too Far” or “The Longest Day” or “Guns of Navarone.” I want to see them again and again. It isn’t because I like violence. I am not a violent guy, I never served in the military, and I do not own a gun.

For the two nights recently, I was up past midnight watching “Gods and Generals.” I was up so late because the movie was on DVD, and our only DVD player is in the living room, and I knew Cyndi had no interest in joining me, so I waited until she went to bed. She doesn’t want to watch war movies because of the death and destruction. When she sees a scene showing Rebel troops and Yankee troops lined up across from each other 40 yards apart with rifles leveled firing volley after volley into each other, well, that is a little too much reality for her. She worries about all these men getting hurt or killed, and she would rather not watch. I cannot blame her.

I watch war movies and not action thrillers because there is nothing contrived or fake about the violence at Chancellorsville or Omaha Beach or Bannockburn or Guilford Courthouse. The scenes in the movie, while certainly adapted for cinema, are based on real events that happed to real men just like me. I don’t see violence and death straightaway. What I see first is courage and bravery and dedication to companions and scared men making life-or-death decisions on-the-fly without enough information or training. And in the back of my mind, I wonder if I would be so brave. John Eldridge wrote, “If there’s one thing a man does know he knows he is made (by God) to ‘come through,’ yet he wonders … can I? Will I?”

I recently ran my seventh marathon in Nashville; only at the starting line I was 20 pounds too heavy (actually 40 pounds too heavy) and terribly short on long training runs due to lingering injuries. Yet I did the race anyway, knowing I wouldn’t finish well and knowing it might be my slowest marathon ever and knowing I might get hurt. What I didn’t know was if I had what it takes to run anyway when the situation is not perfect and to accept less-than-perfect results. I did, and I did. I’m not proud of myself for my lack of conditioning before the race, and I don’t want to do that again, but I am proud that I followed through and finished.

I don’t mean to make more of this than I should, but understanding this question—“Do I have what it takes?”–has opened my life up to me. I understand myself better and my own motives and behavior. I have been reading, for the second time this year, “Wild At Heart,” by John Eldridge, and this question is a big part of the book. Eldridge says it is The Question that haunts every man. “This is every man’s deepest fear; to be exposed, to be found out, to be discovered as an imposter, and not really a man.”

This isn’t about living in fear of failure, but about living under the challenge of doing what God has called us to do. I think we have to understand our own heart before we can give it over to God. And we have to trust him for the outcome.

Berry Simpson, a Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church in Midland, is a petroleum engineer, writer, runner and member of the city council in Midland.

Posted 8/29/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
If a tree falls

By Terry Cosby

She was just over the southern end of Mary’s house. Actually, where else would you expect to find her at this point in history? It was a clear, cool evening, and it would be my last chance to see her for 284 years. So I took a long look.

She looked good. At least I think she did. I’m not really sure how a planet, even our neighbor Mars, is suppose to look. But she was bright and seemed a little embarrassed to be so intimate with us. Maybe that’s why she seemed to blush a bit. Wow, only 35.6 million miles away! She seemed to me to be as close as Venus. I’m a bit more used to Venus, our morning “star.” Rumors have it women are from there. But this Mars lady had all my attention for a few minutes last night. Good neighbor Mary came out and we marveled a moment.

Why the fascination? I’m not sure exactly. Possibly, because I will not have this good of a look again in my life. She will outlast me.

There’s something sad and in a weird way comforting to me in that. Everyone appreciates fine craftsmanship and good, solid materials. There is something in all our hearts that needs to behold beauty and the mysterious. This is so because there beats in our hearts the equal truth that not all will last and not all is beautiful. So, in each of us is the longing for the lasting and the desire for the beauty.

But there is also hidden in there the darker truth that there is something broken, something lacking, something very much fragile and ephemeral about our lives. Looking up at Mars so close reminds me of both truths.

I’ve noticed another planet of late with conflicting emotions, assuring truths and melancholy moments. With this one I am much more intimate. With Mars it was a late summer fling, a one-night stand. I really don’t know her. She seems cold and lonely. Maybe that’s why she moved so close. But she will leave. We are just not in her circle.

With my own Earth there is more knowledge but also the carelessness of closeness that can take for granted or take advantage of her treasures. How would I view Earth should I live on Mars and she come so close for a moment? Would my warm, blue planet be viewed as tease and a passing fancy?

Who is to say, except possibly the Creator of Earth? He has some interesting views of this life-filled marble of his. Until I looked a little closer, I didn’t realize how expressive, even loud Earth is. It starts out dark and chaotic, but things change quickly. And it was very good. But things didn’t stay that way.

In Genesis 4, blood cries out from the ground. The Earth turns angry. Seas roar. Mountains quake. All of creation groans as though giving birth in Romans 8. But the Earth also can sing, the trees can clap, the hills are clothed with gladness, and the desert rejoices according to the Psalmist and the Prophet. The sounds are not unlike that of a symphony orchestra warming up. There is conflict and loudness; confusion and beauty; silence and anticipation. But when the Conductor arrives he brings it all into harmony. It will be glorious, and Mars will not be red but green with envy.

The Conductor actually came once. But he showed up as a simple piano tuner. Only a few recognized him and wisely tuned their hearts to his.

Mary remarked of probably not seeing Mars again like this. The odds are against us. Yet we will see it from another perspective one day. And we will view Earth with another perspective. The vistas are now marred by dark spots and cloudy forecasts of mortality. But there’s a new world coming and it closer than we can imagine. Odds are it won’t take 284 years to get here.

Terry Cosby is pastor of First Baptist Church of Hereford in the Texas Panhandle, where evening skies are bright and clear.

Posted: 9/2/03

Commentary:
Where do the Ten Commandments belong?

By J. Brent Walker

In the emotionally volatile debate over whether “Roy’s Rock” should stay in the Alabama State Judicial Building, one supporter of the display vowed, “they’ll never be able to remove it from our hearts.”

That is precisely the point.

The debate that led to the Ten Commandments being moved is not about whether the Commandments teach sound theology or wholesome ethics. That is a given, particularly for Jews and Christians. The question is not whether the Commandments embody the right teachings; they certainly do. Rather, the question is who is the right teacher — -the government or the families, churches and synagogues? I can think of few things more desirable than for people to read and obey the Ten Commandments. I can think of little worse than for government officials to tell citizens to do so.

Indeed, writing the Ten Commandments “on our hearts” is the way to ensure that they will never be loaded onto a proverbial hydraulic lift and moved to a less visible place.

The Ten Commandments display in Alabama clearly violates the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. But important theological and practical reasons should convince people of faith to object to government getting involved in displaying, and thereby endorsing, holy writ.

First, it puts government officials in the role of secular high priests deciding which rendition of Ten Commandments will be enshrined as orthodox. Which one, Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5? Which version, Jewish, Catholic or Protestant? Which translation, King James, New International, or New Revised Standard? Families, churches, and synagogues, not Caesar, should make these fundamentally religious decisions.

Second, making such decisions will engender rivalry among religious denominations, sects and traditions. As has been recently demonstrated, governmental displays of the Ten Commandments is a quick way to generate a religious struggle that would make losers of us all. In our religiously pluralistic nation, the worst thing government can do is to take sides in matters of religion. One of the reasons we have had precious little religious strife — despite our dizzying diversity — is that government has remained neutral in such matters. This neutrality ensures a future where Christians and Jews will not have to abide the display of other faiths' religious documents in government settings.

Third, one cannot properly interpret a text, including the Ten Commandments, without considering the context. The First Commandment states that, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, you shall have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:2-3). Thus, the Commandments are part of a specific covenant between God and the Israelite people. The text is betrayed when we try to replace Moses and the Israelites with Chief Justice Roy Moore and the citizens of Alabama. The Commandments have fared quite well for several millennia without the help of American politicians.

Fourth, supporters seek to justify the displaying of the Ten Commandments by exhibiting them along with secular documents, such as the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence. While this in some cases may shore up constitutionality, it's terrible theology. Jews understand the Ten Commandments as a central tenet of their faith and their relationship to God. Christians highly respect the place of the Commandments in the Exodus story and the life of the church. To place the Commandments along side of and on equal footing with these secular documents depreciates the high regard placed in them by those in the Jewish and Christian traditions.

Finally, it is quite proper for Americans – even American politicians – to “acknowledge God.” As Justice William O. Douglas wrote, Americans “are a religious people.” Our civil discourse is replete with religious talk. But, it is entirely something else for a government official (who must render justice to all citizens) to endorse a specific passage of Holy Scripture as orthodox and normative for all.

For those who take the Ten Commandments seriously, let us write them on our hearts, as the prophet Jeremiah instructed, instead of displaying them in government courthouses. Then we'll be able to incarnate the love of God perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ, and make a real difference in our world.

J. Brent Walker, an ordained Baptist minister and an attorney, is executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee in Washington, D.C.

Posted: 9/5/03

Navy chaplains' suit expanded to include 2,000

By Ward Sanderson

Stars & Stripes

WASHINGTON (BP)–A federal judge recently expanded the scope of a religious discrimination lawsuit against the Navy, further whipping the tempest that threatens to force the sea service into reviewing the promotions of every evangelical in its Chaplain Corps since 1977.

The decision effectively doubles the number of former and present chaplains represented in the case to about 2,000 by widening the span of time under scrutiny. A group of evangelicals filed the suit against the Navy three years ago in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and it has since become a class action.

The chaplains claim the service unfairly promotes Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants ahead of evangelicals, thereby forcing the latter out, and that the resulting mix fails to represent the religious preferences of sailors.

The suit seeks an overhaul of the system, a review of past promotions and the repair of any injustices occurring over the years, which could theoretically result in retroactive promotions and back pay, although the chaplains say they aren't after money.

Navy policy prevents it from discussing pending suits, but the service denies it operates under any bias.

“The Chaplain Corps is comprised of a dynamic group of officers and enlisted personnel whose purpose is to facilitate the faith needs of everyone in the sea services,” said Lt. Jon Spiers, a spokesman for the chief of naval personnel. “The Navy sees what the Chaplain Corps does as a fundamental element of mission readiness. What they do is tremendously important each and every day.”

Whoever is right, an attorney representing the evangelicals hails the decision as a victory.

“It makes my job much easier,” attorney Arthur Schulcz said from Washington, D.C. “And it really addresses the full scope of the predicament.”

The chaplains also are backed by the Rutherford Institute, the legal foundation that represented Paula Jones in her sexual harassment suit against former President Clinton.

The Justice Department is handling the Navy's defense. Charles Miller, department spokesman, said he cannot comment on the case.

Initially, the evangelicals maintained the Navy's alleged discrimination began in the late 1980s, with the introduction of what they call “the thirds policy”–a purposeful organizing of the Christian element of the Chaplain Corps into one-third Catholic, one-third Mainline or “liturgical” Protestant and one-third evangelical, or “non-liturgical.”

The chaplains claim such a system fails to reflect the numbers of evangelicals in the Navy. The Navy denies any such policy.

According to the complaint, two-thirds of the Navy's chaplains are Catholic or mainline. The Defense Manpower Data Center, however, records that only a third of sailors actually belong to those churches.

Evangelicals complain that sermons have been censored or watered down in the name of pluralism or cooperation among religions.

Spiers, the Navy personnel spokesman, said pluralism is important. “It's your job to help out everybody, regardless of their faith preference.”

Those in the lawsuit say that they'll help everyone but won't modify their message in the process.

According to court documents, the suing chaplains filed a motion to move the date of review back to 1977 after discovering that the then-Chief of Chaplains John O'Connor ordered a “stacking policy” requiring at least two Catholic priests to sit on every chaplain selection board. Schulcz said the practice was stopped in 1986 due to a lawsuit, but he believes the precedent bolsters his position.

“Rear Admiral O'Connor's placing of two Catholics on the board is typical of the arrogance with which the Chaplain Corps and Navy deals with promotions,” Schulcz said. O'Connor died in May 2000 at age 80. After leaving the Navy, O'Connor went on to become the celebrated archbishop of New York, a cardinal and arguably the Vatican's strongest voice in the United States.

According to the ruling issued by Judge Ricardo Urbina in July, the Navy argued against moving the date of review back in part because O'Connor's death deprived them of a chief witness.

Urbina disagreed.

“Although former Chief O'Connor–a witness potentially as important to the plaintiffs as to the defendants–passed away three years ago, his death occurred just two months after the plaintiffs filed their complaints, making it unlikely that he could have been deposed before his death,” the judge wrote.

“As a result, the court concludes that the defendants have not shown that the proposed amendment is unduly delayed or would cause them undue prejudice.”

This article originally appeared in the European Stars and Stripes on July 27, 2003, and is reprinted with permission from Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication

Posted: 9/5/03

This chaplain keeps ministry on tap

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

BEAUMONT–What is a ninth-generation Baptist doing in a beer distribution center?

Ministry, according to Brenda Warren, a Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary graduate serving as a part-time chaplain at the Del Papa Distributing Co.

She spends about three hours a week getting to know the workers and trying to meet needs where she can. In some cases, she makes hospital visits and performs weddings and funerals.

Employees have shared personal and family issues with her, and she has shared the gospel when possible.

“It's very purposeful to visit with people of different denominations and those who don't go to church,” Warren said. “I really love meeting the people. I love listening to their life stories.”

The chaplain makes it clear she is on call around the clock all year long and employees should not hesitate to contact her when needed. If she can be there for them, Warren said, she hopes they may want to embrace Christianity.

Chaplains who serve through Marketplace Ministries, a non-denominational venture that supplies chaplains to a variety of businesses, have impacted the company positively, said Michelle Christopher, a human resources specialist at Del Papa.

Their ministry prevented employees from leaving the company when personal issues arose and the only option seemed to be a change of location, Christopher said.

The chaplains also represent a consistent reminder that the company cares for its employees in a more personal manner than a hotline, she added. Chaplains visit with workers when they see them around the city, and workers have responded.

Warren believes her work puts her faith into practice.

Christians should act the same whether they are in church or a business, she emphasized. “If we walk into a grocery store, walk into any business, we need to be the presence of Christ.”

Above all, never put anything out of the realm of possibility when dealing God, Warren said, noting God can lead obedient believers to minister anywhere.

“It always surprises me how the Lord works,” she said with a laugh. “I never thought a ninth generation Baptist would end up in a beer distribution center.”

Posted: 9/5/03

Alabama monument removed; judge under scrutiny

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–Despite promises of civil disobedience from hundreds of protesters, authorities removed a stone Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of an Alabama courthouse Aug. 27 without incident.

At the beginning of the business day, with the crowds that had been gathering to protest outside the building relatively light, workers moved the 5,280-pound granite monument to a non-public part of the state judicial headquarters building.

The action brought to an end a dramatic two-week standoff with Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. On Aug. 14, he announced he would not comply with a federal judge's order to remove the depiction of the Protestant King James translation of the commandments from the public areas of the building by midnight Aug. 20. But Moore's colleagues on the Alabama Supreme Court unanimously overruled him Aug. 21, saying they were duty-bound to comply with federal court orders.

Moore, a Southern Baptist layman, placed the monument in the center of the building's rotunda during the summer of 2001–without the associate justices' consent or knowledge. He then was sued by a coalition of civil-rights groups, acting on behalf of three Montgomery attorneys.

In November, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson declared the display a violation of the Constitution's ban on government endorsement of a particular religion. After being upheld unanimously by a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Thompson ordered the monument removed by Aug. 20, threatening to levy stiff fines against the state if Moore did not comply with his injunction.

Moore said he would refuse because complying with the order would violate the state constitution, which he claims requires the state to “acknowledge God” as the source of law.

But the eight associate justices–seven of them, like Moore, Republicans–invoked a little-used Alabama law that allows them to overrule an administrative decision of the chief justice. The building manager placed partitions to block the monument from public view Aug. 21.

As a result of his actions, Moore was suspended, with pay, from his duties as head of the Alabama Supreme Court Aug. 22. The state's Judicial Inquiry Commission filed a six-count charge against him for violating judicial ethics. The suspension was to last at least 10 days. Moore will be prosecuted in the Alabama Court of the Judiciary–a group convened for the purpose of adjudicating cases against judges.

That court could decide to relieve Moore of his duties permanently.

“This controversy has never been about the Ten Commandments,” said Ayesha Khan, legal director for the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “It's about maintaining a court system that treats all Americans fairly, regardless of their religious beliefs. Judges have no right to impose their personal religious beliefs on others through official action.”

But Moore lamented the development. “It is a sad day in our country when the moral foundation of our laws and the acknowledgment of God has to be hidden from public view to appease a federal judge,” he said.

In their order overruling Moore, his peers issued the chief justice a stern rebuke. “The justices of this court are bound by solemn oath to follow the law, whether they agree or disagree with it,” they said. Moore's continued failure to comply with a higher court's order “would impair the authority and ability of all the courts of this state to enforce their judgments,” they added.

Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor, himself a Republican, a Catholic and a previous defender of Moore's action, endorsed the associate justices' decision after it was announced. “The taxpayers of this state should not be punished for the refusal of the chief justice to follow a federal court order,” he said.

Pryor's office will prosecute Moore in the Court of the Judiciary.

Posted: 9/5/03

COMMENTARY:
Love, not angry slogans, will
convince Muslims of God's truth

By Erich Bridges

Declaration recently spotted on a T-shirt at a mall food court:

Abortion is murder.

Homosexuality is a sin.

Islam is a lie.

Some issues are black & white.

If this statement is intended to make the T-shirt wearer feel good about the rightness of his views, it probably succeeds. If it's intended to change anyone else's mind or heart, it fails miserably.

Take it from a longtime pro-lifer: The fastest way to end a conversation about abortion before it even begins is with a frontal assault. If you want to shout your opinions or express righteous anger, have at it. But don't expect to convince anyone who's unconvinced.

The same goes for the “Islam is a lie” approach. It's not “hate speech,” but it's also not a very effective way to initiate a discussion. Would you introduce yourself to a Muslim on a street corner in Cairo with that line? I don't recommend it. It's a guaranteed riot starter in the 45 or so countries with Muslim majorities. It won't work in Atlanta or Dallas, either, if you want to get past square one in communicating the truth in love.

Isn't communicating the truth in love your goal? If not, you need to examine your motives in the light of Scripture and God's Spirit.

Muslims, like most people, don't respond well to in-your-face confrontation. They do respond to friendship, love and–at the right moment–the good news that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Savior of all people.

And it is news to most Muslims.

While we're talking truth and lies, the notion that Muslims automatically reject the gospel is one of Satan's biggest falsehoods. The fact that so many Christians believe this lie–or fear testing it–is a global tragedy. Most of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims simply haven't heard the gospel in a way they can understand. When they do, God begins to reveal himself.

“Tolga,” a university student, recently wrote to the producers of an evangelistic radio program that is broadcast in several Muslim cities:

“Today I heard your show for the first time. The program explaining the life of Christ is rather intriguing to me, but my head's all mixed up. Some of the things you're teaching differ from what I've been taught all my life. I'd like to be better informed, but I don't know how. I'd like it if you could help me.”

Christian broadcasters and Bible distributors in the Muslim world can show you thousands of similar letters.

“Ali,” another respondent, wrote: “I've been listening to you for two years. I've tried to write you before, but I've just been too frightened. When I am writing you, my hand trembles with fear. I really love you, and I am truly alive. My family and my neighborhood are fanatical Muslims, and I can't speak these words to them. I hope this doesn't sound really weird to you.”

It doesn't sound weird at all, Ali. You are discovering the God of love and mercy. One day, he will give you the strength and courage to share this wonderful news with your relatives and neighbors.

That's what more than 3,500 Muslims who have become followers of Christ are doing in a major South Asian city. When asked why they decided to follow Christ, group representatives cited three factors–the “guarantee of heaven,” the fact Jesus Christ is not just a prophet but God's anointed Messiah, and his healing power. When asked if God had revealed these truths to them through the Koran (Islam's holy book), the New Testament or their personal experiences, they responded, “All three.”

The same is true in the United States, a magnet for Muslim immigrants from all over the world.

Guven, a Muslim from Central Asia, came to the United States to pursue post-graduate studies. A pastor at a church that prays for Muslims befriended him and supports mission work in Guven's home country.

The two discussed their religious beliefs. Like so many Muslims, Guven rejected the idea of a God in three persons, the resurrection of Christ and the authority of the Bible. But the two stayed in touch, and when Guven's teeth began to ache, the pastor contacted a Christian dentist who performed a root canal on Guven without charge.

The grateful student decided to visit the pastor's church a few times, strictly as a courtesy. But the more he went, the more alive the worship songs, the pastor's words and the Scripture seemed.

“What made the most sense was the personal relationship” with God, Guven later said. “This is amazing.”

Eventually, in the quietness of his heart, Guven invited Christ to be his Savior and Lord. When he told the pastor and his congregation, they stood and applauded for joy. Next year, he plans to return to his home country with a team from the church to share the gospel with others who are hungry for God.

“I know it's a challenge, but I pray God makes me ready for this, too,” he said, acknowledging the risks of taking the good news to his own people. “Everyone has to go through trials, and this is going to be mine.”

What are the odds that Guven would have opened his mind and heart to Christ if the pastor had shown up on his university campus one day wearing a T-shirt declaring, “Islam is a lie”?

Don't get so caught up in defending truth that you lose the chance to share truth with the people around you who are desperately seeking it.

Erich Bridges is a writer with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board; his column was distributed by Baptist Press

9/5/03

U.S. overlooks Africa's 'twin towers'

By Richard Stearns

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States proved the mettle of the American people. We are strong. We are brave. We are a people of faith. And we are generous and compassionate.

Few of us will be called upon to prove our strength by rushing into a burning building. Fewer still to prove our bravery by commandeering a hijacked airplane. But all of us can demonstrate our compassion by helping widows and orphans in need.

Seven out of 10 Americans gave to help families of the thousands of people killed in the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center's twin towers. But there's another “twin tower” disaster that has been all but ignored by the American people–Africa's AIDS crisis.

I received a list of children who had lost one or both parents to AIDS in just nine villages of the southern African country of Zambia. The list of 3,613 names, 10 to a page, was 3 inches thick. I calculated that a list of all of the African children who have lost parents to AIDS–at least 12 million–would be more than 90 stories high.

Next to that, put a similar list of 28 million Africans infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS; that list would reach 194 floors–84 stories taller than the World Trade Center. Many of the names would be of widows, infected by their husbands with the disease, wishing for nothing more than to stay alive long enough to raise their children.

Unlike New York's twin towers, which collapsed before the eyes of the world, these towers have been building slowly, inch by inch, for the past two decades–not on global television, but in anonymous slums and villages.

That's not to say that Americans are unaware of the toll AIDS is taking on Africa. We just choose to look away.

A poll conducted by the Barna Research Group found that about three-quarters of the American public is aware that many countries have a large population afflicted by AIDS. Nearly a third said they were “very familiar” with the AIDS crisis.

The same survey found that more than half of the public is unlikely to help children who have lost parents to AIDS. Almost two-thirds said they are unlikely to help overseas AIDS prevention and education programs–efforts that can protect wives from being infected by their husbands and young people from experiencing the same fate as their parents. Only 8 percent said they would definitely support these causes.

Regrettably, evangelical Christians were significantly less likely than non-Christians to support AIDS education and prevention. And although they are usually twice as likely as adults overall to support disadvantaged children overseas, they were less likely to support children orphaned by AIDS.

Why would fewer than one in 10 Americans be willing to help widows and orphans of AIDS, while seven out of 10 were moved to help those who lost mothers, fathers, wives and husbands in the Sept. 11 attacks?

Sept. 11 saw the first direct attack on the United States in nearly 60 years. The deaths of thousands of our countrymen in three short hours also were unprecedented.

More compelling than the terrible ways in which they died was the ordinariness of their lives as they started the day. They commuted to work. They got on airplanes. They sat at their computers, coffee cup to the right, pictures of their kids to the left–just like us.

In short, we all can relate to the people who died on Sept. 11. We feel compelled to care for their families like they were our own. As we should.

Africa's AIDS crisis, by contrast, has been slowly building over the years. Those affected live in villages, even countries, we cannot locate on a map–or even pronounce. Most are poor. Their cultures are different. The way men and women relate to one another is different. And so we turn away from what we do not understand.

But while we turn away, the “twin towers” of those affected by HIV/AIDS continue to grow. By the end of this decade, Africa alone could have 40 million children who have lost parents to AIDS. That list would stack up high enough to make three of the New York twin towers.

Sept. 11 proved it is impossible for the United States to ignore the world's problems. We were outraged by the oppression of women under the Taliban, and even moved by abuse and neglect of animals at the Kabul zoo. We are more aware of world events than we have been in decades.

We are a different country than we were prior to Sept. 11, 2001–stronger, kinder, more internationally savvy. Our new awareness of the world should lead us to extend the same respect and compassion to the widows and orphans of Africa's AIDS epidemic as we have to survivors of America's greatest tragedy.

Richard Stearns is president of World Vision United States, one of the world's largest Christian humanitarian organizations. His column is distributed by Religion News Service

Posted: 9/5/03

Congress returns to face church-state issues

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–As Congress returns to session this month from its summer recess, a host of church-state issues await on the agenda–from gay marriage to school vouchers.

The most visible debate may be over gay marriage. A proposed constitutional amendment that would limit marriage and marriage-like benefits to opposite-sex couples–in some cases overturning state and local laws–appears to be picking up momentum in Congress. The Federal Marriage Amendment, sponsored by Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., likely will receive committee hearings in the early fall.

But other church-state issues are farther along in the legislative process and could get action sooner. Among them:

Religious discrimination in hiring. The issue of religious discrimination in federal programs likely will resurface in Head Start legislation. When the House passed a bill July 24 that reauthorizes funding for the Head Start early-childhood-education program, it included a provision explicitly allowing religious organizations receiving Head Start funds to discriminate in their hiring practices on the basis of religious ideology. This would repeal anti-discrimination provisions under which Head Start has operated for years.

In May, the House added similar provisions to the Workforce Reinvestment and Adult Education Act of 2003. Critics of government funding for social-service programs at churches and other religious organizations claim this is part of a wider plan by the Bush administration to enact Bush's “faith-based initiative” in a piecemeal fashion.

Both bills will come up in the Senate, where the hiring-discrimination provisions are expected to face stiffer opposition in that chamber than they did in the House.

School vouchers. On Sept. 4, the House was expected to take up a District of Columbia appropriations bill with an expected Republican amendment to start a school-voucher program for D.C. public-school children. The scholarships for low-income children could be spent at private schools, including religious schools. Church-state separationists and many public-school advocates strongly oppose vouchers. Last year, the Supreme Court declared an Ohio voucher program constitutionally valid.

Previous attempts to create D.C. voucher programs have failed, but the latest program got a boost earlier this year with unexpected endorsements from Washington Mayor Anthony Williams and the chair of the city's school board.

Churches and political endorsements. Legislators who think churches should be allowed to endorse or oppose political candidates without losing their tax-exempt status are expected to make a second attempt to amend Internal Revenue Service codes. The latest version of Rep. Walter Jones', R-N.C., “Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act,” currently in a House committee, has managed to gain 159 co-sponsors at last count.

Although the House soundly defeated a similar bill last year, it has strong support from many Religious Right leaders and organizations. They claim churches, pastors and religious organizations are unfairly silenced on political issues by IRS regulations. Opponents claim the bill threatens religious liberty and gives religious groups political privileges other tax-exempt organizations would not enjoy.

Posted: 9/5/03

Death row exonerations reach new high

WASHINGTON (RNS)–Nine death row inmates have been exonerated this year, the highest number in 15 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Three men who spent a combined 67 years on death row were freed in late July, bringing to 111 the number of inmates who have been released from death row since 1973.

All charges were dropped against Timothy Howard and Gary Lamar James, childhood friends who were convicted in 1977 in Ohio on robbery and murder charges, after new evidence was presented in Howard's case and James passed a polygraph test. Both men were on death row before Ohio's capital punishment law was overturned in 1978.

A third man, Joseph Amrine, was released from a Missouri prison after spending 17 years on death row. Discovery of inaccurate testimony from witnesses helped free Amrine from a conviction in the 1985 murder of a fellow inmate.

Six inmates from Illinois, Louisiana and Florida have been freed this year; another man, Nicholas James Yarris, is expected to be released in Pennsylvania.

“With these most recent exonerations, it is increasingly clear that the death penalty is falling apart at the seams,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment. “There is no question that additional cases of innocence remain uncovered on America's death row.”

Most religious groups oppose capital punishment, although many Baptist groups have supported it strongly.

In 2000, then-Gov. George Ryan of Illinois imposed a moratorium on all executions after 13 inmates had their sentences overturned. Days before he left office last January, Ryan commuted the death sentences of 167 inmates.

Illinois remains the only state to have a moratorium on all executions.

Gov. Robert Ehrlich of Maryland overturned a statewide moratorium imposed by his predecessor, Parris Glendening, when he was inaugurated earlier this year.