Posted: 5/19/03

June 15

Amos 4:4-5; 5:18-24

Going to church never felt so bad

By Bill Shiell

“Is it ever a sin to go to church?” Randall O' Brien once posed this question to a group of students when discussing our focal passage for this lesson.

In Amos' day, the religious leadership was so corrupt the people's presence at worship actually appeared to condone the hypocritical religious activities of the priesthood. Amos calls the people in these passages to a higher form of worship and service.

Problems in the

priesthood (4:4-5)

We have noted throughout these lessons that the people committed several sinful acts against the Lord. The ultimate transgressions were committed by the priesthood, the very people entrusted by God to draw the Israelites closer to him.

The conflict between Amos and Amaziah (7:10-17) will be noted in the

next lesson, but the example of their problems gives evidence for an overall corrupt priesthood. The religious leaders were complicit with the political leaders by condoning alliances with nations that ran contrary to the standards of Israel's God. Their own political and religious dealings left Israel with an inept priestly class, incapable of addressing the societal ills of the day.

This is why Amos declared so passionately in 4:4-5, “Go to Bethel and sin!” He uses this hyperbolic language much like a parent would say to a child determined to go the party she is not supposed to attend: “Go on and party through the night; see what good that does for you!”

Amos, however, attacks their religious rituals, the very fabric of their society, and tells them their participation in ritual will no longer be sufficient to save them. They have depended upon the religious traditions passed down from Moses to provide a hedge of protection, but now the priests are corrupt as well. Going to their religious sites in Bethel and Gilgal would only lead them further away from God.

They could “brag about their freewill offerings” (4:5), but it would do them no good whatsoever. Through the mouth of Amos, God says to the people to not go to Bethel, Gilgal or Beersheba, because these places will be captured by the enemy (5:5).

Days of gloom

and darkness (5:18-24)

The priests had made one critical mistake in their interpretation of a concept popular in ancient Israelite theology– the day of the Lord or the day of Yahweh. Most of the priests in Amos' day thought this day at the end of time would mean the dawn of a new era of victory, light and hope for all those who were ethnically tied to Israel.

Amos and several of his contemporaries reminded the people that God intended for the day of the Lord to be a day of reckoning for those who had not lived up to the responsibilities of the covenant (Zephaniah 1:7,8; Obadiah 15; Zechariah 14:1; Joel 2:1-11).

The first part of the passage (5:18-20) describes Amos' view of the day of the Lord, a day of darkness and gloom for his people. The Lord would win, but the people who thought they were on the victorious side would actually be the recipients of wrath.

In the passages from other prophets noted previously, each shared the idea the God would go into battle, conquer his enemies and be victorious. This “holy war” is a common thread that unites each of the predictions of a “day of the Lord.” They would be very similar to God's battles in other sections of the Old Testament, when the battles began with a theophany (image of God) appearing before the people, and a subsequent victory for God (Judges 7:1; 1 Samuel 14:15; Joshua 6).

In Amos' case, the day of the Lord would be very similar to the evening the death angel passed through the land of Egypt. Only those who trusted in God completely would be spared from doom. Any feelings of security or well-being will be short-lived. Whether through the lion, the bear or snake, the people would not escape the judgment of God (5:19), a day of intense darkness (5:20).

The darkness, of course, was caused by priests' treatment of the religious festivals, now despised by a holy and righteous God. Beginning in 5:21, Amos returns to a critique of these sacrifices, many of which the people learned in the wilderness wanderings. Now they are detested by the Lord. He rejects the very sacrifices he commanded the people to carry out in Leviticus 1-3–burnt offerings, grain offerings and fellowship offerings.

Another aspect of the festivals was the music. God cuts off his sense of hearing (5:22) so he does not have to listen to the music of the people. This act signifies the end of all communications. Smell (v. 21), sight (v. 22) and sound (v. 23) are all blocked.

Hope in the

midst of darkness

Amos' condemnation of the people provides a shaft of light in the midst of deep darkness and gloom. He subtly weaves solutions to the problems for those who are willing to be obedient.

Seek God individually

The people of Amos' day had been taught simply to follow their religious and political leaders. The priest and king would hold the keys to unlocking the doorways into righteousness. Their leaders had, at one time, instructed them that God was God alone; and no one would compete with him. Now Amos says that with corruption and disobedience on every hand, their leaders could no longer be trusted. By following the leaders' instructions and trusting in a king or priest instead of the Lord, the people risked violation of the first commandment: You shall have no other gods before me.

The people were not absolved from responsibility, and Amos tells them to go outside of the traditional priesthood and monarchy. Seek God individually for your needs.

This radical message was practically unheard of in Amos' time until he spoke the word from the Lord, but it was the people's only hope. Instead of going to Gilgal and Bethel, Amos said, “Seek me and live” (5:4). Do not wait for the leadership to instruct you, because they will fail you every time. In other words, it is now a sin to continue to go to worship God through the traditional religious systems.

Shalom Paul calls this kind of seeking “a total dedication to a concern,” making God's righteousness their complete passion.

Hate what is evil

“Hate evil” is strong language, but he calls for the people in 5:15 to examine the individual shortcomings in their lives and learn to detest them. The people could either be purified through handling this problem themselves and ending their worship as they knew it, or, through fire and destruction, the day of Yahweh would cleanse the land of rebellion and impurity before a holy God.

C.S. Lewis once likened the way some people treat evil to the way we file taxes. When we pay taxes, we hope there is still some money left over when we are finished. Lewis stated that sometimes we confess sin hoping there is enough left over where we can still enjoy ourselves.

Amos preached against this attitude. Do not use God for what you can get out of him, hoping to have a little left over for yourself. Hate the kinds of evils God detests–the mistreatment of a brother or sister, injustice in the court system and abuse of the poor.

Let justice roll

Perhaps the most famous admonition of Amos comes in 5:24: “Let justice and righteousness roll.” Like the waters flowing down through the rivers of a mountain stream, so Amos holds out the chance for the cool, refreshing waters of righteousness to cleanse the land. God's righteous people would need to instigate the waterfall, however. They could not wait for their tithes, worship or taxes to begin the process; their individual deeds of righteousness would be the fountain from which God's justice would roll.

I once served a church in Central Texas that was a victim of a flood. A heavy rainstorm swept through the area on a Friday evening, and the rains filled up the drains in the city so quickly the water backed up into our church building. Luckily, one of the senior adult men who maintained the grounds of the church stopped by on a Saturday morning before the water flooded the sanctuary too badly. The men in our church came out with wet-dry vacuums in hand, ready to clean up the carpet, but the damage was bad enough to the office areas that we had to tear out carpet and flooring and sanitize the slab.

That event remains a picture for me of what Amos was describing here in these chapters. This was a time when the floodwaters of corruption had filled even the worship centers of ancient Israel. The only thing left to do was to tear apart the institutions and start over from the ground up. Individuals would be responsible for seeking the Lord from pure and righteous hearts.

Sometimes the institutions we trust become corrupt and far removed from God; even what we think is true worship is only shoddy mishandling of the holiness of God. Amos calls for a higher standard and for individuals to rise up righteously and release the floodgates of justice and righteousness throughout the land.

Questions for discussion

Describe a time when an institution you trusted became corrupt and untrustworthy. How did you feel; what changes did you make in your giving and attendance to that system?

When is it a "sin" to go to church? What are the sinful characteristics of religious leaders that Amos is addressing? What are the warning signs that indicate when religious leaders have lost the prophetic edge Amos brought to the ministry of preaching in his day?

Letting justice and righteousness roll requires a complete reversal of the social systems that caused the problems in the first place. How can individuals be used to address corrupt mishandling of resources, poor worship, immoral problems, bribery in the judicial system and mistreatment of the poor through society?

Amos implies religious leaders and political leaders should not mix, a common theme in Baptist circles today. Why would Amos be a strong advocate for separation of church and state? What circumstances in Amos' day contributed to the downfall of the priests and the monarchy? How can both church and state live more righteously today?

Some people have stated that many churches fight "worship wars," characterized by disagreement over styles of music played during a service. These debates would have largely been unheard of in Amos' day. The war over worship in his book regarded the effects worship had on its hearers. Amos wanted their worship to produce ethical people who cared about justice for the poor. What kind of people does your worship service produce? Do people leave more focused on the needs of those less fortunate?

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

Posted: 5/19/03
June 22 Lesson

Amos 7:7-17

On the outside looking in

By Bill Shiell

For six chapters, Amos has preached a word of the Lord to the people. As a prophet, he has used the deeds of the people as signposts to point them to the problems of their day. Although the world around Amos was politically secure, spiritually the people were in shambles. In our focal text for this lesson, we gain insight into the prophet behind the prophecies.

Amos: The messenger

The book of Amos begins with very little information about the prophet himself. We learn from the first chapter about his hometown and his primary occupation as a shepherd. The focus of the book is not on biographical details but the word Amos speaks. In chapter 7, however, we learn a bit more about the man behind the prophecies and how his role as an outsider might have affected his mes

sage to the people of the northern kingdom of Israel.

One word that characterizes Amos' life is “outsider.” Amos was an outdoorsman, one who spent much of his time in the desert with sheep (1:1) and sycamore trees (7:14). As Amos says, he considers himself to be “neither a prophet nor a son of a prophet.” In other words, he has had no formal training for this role; he is a country man called out by God to announce these words of warning to the people.

Located six miles south of Bethlehem, Tekoa was a town somewhat isolated from the rest of Judah. It is significant in only two other places in the Bible. A wise woman from Tekoa once visited King David, and King Rehoboam fortified the city.

More than likely, Amos lived on the outskirts of the city in the wilderness region that extends east along the Dead Sea. The climate and terrain of this region make it possible for Amos to tend to sheep and care for the trees as well.

People like Amos who lived in the desert were removed from the progress of civilization in the populated regions and would have had little regard for the wealth being consumed by the rich of their day. They still would hold fast to the Mosaic laws that guided the chosen people to this land.

As a man who lived outside, Amos would have had contact with many of the images he used in his prophecies–locusts (7:1), fire (7:4), lions (1:2; 3:4, 8, 11), drought (1:2), birds (3:5) and traps (3:5).

Amos was not only a geographical outsider, but he was a political outsider as well. Tekoa was located in the southern kingdom of Judah. Amos traveled into hostile territory, the northern kingdom of Israel, where he was called to prophesy against their transgressions. The cities of Bethel, Gilgal and Samaria were no more than a two days' walk for anyone from the village of Tekoa. Amaziah, the priest Amos confronted in 7:12-13, was so enraged a prophet from Judah would come to Israel to preach he tried to force Amos to go home.

Amos probably was a social outsider as well. Most biblical scholars agree that shepherds earned very little money and were viewed as social outcasts by the majority of the population. Amos naturally would have been sympathetic to the causes of the poor and the despised.

Amos also functioned as a religious outsider as well. Unlike Isaiah, who was a priest in the temple system, Amos was simply a layman. With no formal training whatsoever and no family ties to the priesthood (7:12, 14), Amos would have walked into the role of prophet with no credentials other than the word of the Lord that was spoken directly to him. Amos even admits he was plucked from his occupation and sent to this region by God directly (7:15).

Amos' life as an outsider contrasts sharply with those that failed to hear God's voice in society. All the individuals on the inside were deaf and blind to the message of God–an Israelite king who inherited the throne, a priest named Amaziah who regularly dealt with the holy things of God, and the rich and wealthy who had enough time and money on their hands to do anything they wanted to. None of these people accepted God's warnings or could see the signs in their society that judgment was coming. God had to raise up an outsider to carry forth his message.

Amos: The message

Amos' identity as an outsider more than likely helped him shape the message that would be used to warn the people. The opening verse of Amos provides a date for his message two years before a key event, the year of a great earthquake. We do not know the precise date for this event, but we do know it occurred during the reign of Uzziah.

This king of Judah was quite popular. He ascended the throne at age 16 and was known for conquering the dreaded Philistines, building up Jerusalem and organizing an army. At the zenith of his success, however, his pride overcame him.

According to 2 Chronicles 26, he went into the temple and attempted to burn incense, a direct violation of the laws of God and a privilege reserved only for the priests. As soon as he was confronted with this sin, while he was in the temple with a burning tong in his hand, Uzziah contracted leprosy and remained so until he died. He was removed from the throne and had to live in isolation the rest of his life. For the southern resident Amos, familiar with Uzziah's sins and shortcomings, to see similar transgressions in the north was possibly a motivating factor for this shepherd in touch with God.

The northern king, Jeroboam II (circa 783-743 B.C.), had caused troubles much like Uzziah. He created a false sense of peace and tranquility by paying taxes to the influential Assyrian nation to his north. In doing so, he violated God's command for the people to be completely reliant upon him.

Assyria had expanded its empire southward, taking the areas of Erini (775 B.C.), Damascus (773 B.C.) and Hadrach (772 B.C.). By keeping the Assyrians at bay for several years, Jeroboam II was able to convince the people through his priest Amaziah that they were safe and secure as God's chosen ones. During this time, they had no conflicts with the southern kingdom of Judah, and the economy flourished through some agriculture, trade, urbanization and slavery.

Amos, however, had a different perspective. He stated the people tried to manipulate God and that priests like Amaziah had taken power into their own hands. As Chip Conyers noted, Israel tried to appeal to God for the purposes of economic security and political safety but wanted to organize their nation to fit their own plans. Amos, however, said the people could not worship God merely for what he could do for them. Rather, God reached down to Israel, choosing them to be used for his purposes. The covenant into which they entered was an “all-or-nothing” proposition, and the people were required to live up to their end of the agreement.

With the analogy of the plumb line in 7:7-9, Amos indicated the walls of their false religion were cracking and crumbling, no longer aligned with God. Because the walls of their religion had been breached by their own injustice, mistreatment of the poor and participation in sexual immorality in the worship centers (7:9), they could no longer be continually pardoned for their misdeeds.

The Lord had measured Israel like a plumb line, and they were found to be crooked. Their king and priest would die shameful deaths, and their people would be taken into exile (7:17).

Amos: The representative

Amos' life follows in a long tradition of outsiders, especially shepherds, whom God uses to carry out his work. God called out a Bedouin shepherd named Abraham to be the first one to bear his covenant promise for a new nation. Moses ran from the Egyptian palace guard and found an occupation as a shepherd tending his father-in-law's flocks until God convinced him to appear before the Pharaoh to free the Israelites from slavery. David's primary occupation prior to becoming the anointed king of Israel was the shepherd of father Jesse's flocks.

Amos seems to fit the pattern, and his life anticipates another shepherd, the Good Shepherd, who will come and complete the task Amos began, offering a word of hope, judgment and redemption to the lost sheep of the world (John 10).

When our own religious and political institutions become corrupt, God must use outsiders to awaken our senses to a new, fresh calling on our lives. Amos provides an example of one who came from the outside to awaken people to God's day of wrath dawning on them.

Questions for discussion

Make a list of people in the Bible who were considered outsiders by their community's standards until God used them on the inside of society to change people's hearts.

While many of the people God uses in Scripture are like Isaiah, formally trained for their tasks, some are like Amos, with no training whatsoever. Has there been a circumstance recently in your life that you have felt God's nudging but used the excuse that you needed more training to be suited for that task?

The first part of chapter 7 records Amos' requests urging God not to bring the judgment he had planned on the people. Amos prayed continually that God would relent. How is Amos a model of prayer today? In a world where some preachers focus solely on condemnation and judgment, how does Amos' prayer life provide an alternative to this one-sided view of preaching?

Amos rises to the occasion for one brief moment in time and follows God obediently, perhaps even at the cost of his life. Even though there may be times in our past where we have not been faithful to God, the Lord still can use us at this moment. Think of ways God can use you in the world today to carry out Amos' message of justice and love.

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

Posted: 5/19/03
June 29 Lesson

Amos 9

Eyes wide open to the future

By Bill Shiell

Many people claiming to be prophets have attempted to see things in their day as signs apocalyptic events were near. In the 1800's, William Miller predicted Christ would return on Oct. 22, 1844. In 1988, Edgar Whisenant published “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will be in 1988.” From Hal Lindsey to Tim LaHaye and other modern-day prognosticators, the doomsday theorists abound hoping to read the tea leaves and be the first to show that the end of time is coming.

Amos, however, was not that kind of a prophet. He was less concerned with foretelling future events than forthtelling (telling forth) truths from the daily experiences of life in 8th century B.C. Israel. He could see a "day of the Lord" was imminent, but he was less concerned with setting specific dates. He was not a magical prognosticator; through the inspiration of the

Lord, he knew the people were bringing incredible consequences upon themselves if they continued down this path.

In ancient Israel, the prophet was one of the few people in society tuned in to the natural progression (or destruction) of society. Each one played a significant role in helping the king and/or the people to understand their relationship with God better.

Some such as Elijah, Elisha and Isaiah focused mainly on the king, his court and the destruction he caused in the region. Amos' role as prophet was unique because he had an audience with the king, the priest and the people. He was able to speak directly to individuals who could go around the king and hopefully protect themselves from God's judgment.

In fact, the land was so peaceful at the time, Amaziah, the ruling priest, and Jeroboam II, one of the reigning kings might have thought he was crazy to predict doom and gloom.

Amos concentrated more on the actions of the people: Whether or not judgment comes, do the people's activities match their covenant responsibilities? Amos was able to take the common images from nature such as earthquakes, drought and fire and send warning signals to get the people to change their ethical behavior.

The last chapter of Amos provides a new day that dawns for the people of Israel who would be carried into exile following Amos' prophecies. Indeed, what Amos said did come true; but they were given hope for the future.

God rebuilds

The book of Amos opens with a series of three dramatic events–an earthquake (1:1) that shook the foundations of the buildings, a roll of thunder (1:2) to warn the people of the onslaught that was coming and a fire to purify their lives (1:4).

In chapter 5, God cursed the people, reinforcing the destruction of the opening chapters: "Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine."

Each event in nature corresponded to an aspect of God's power. The earthquake, which would become so pivotal to the date of the book and the ministry of Amos, spoke to the need for the people to understand they were not in control of the affairs of their own lives. Their hubris created a false security. They formed alliances with foreign deities and powers. The earthquake shook up their senses to see that God desired for them to be dependent on him.

The tendency of some during times of disaster, as one writer has noted, is to get in touch with how we feel and how our emotions are handling things. For Amos, times of disaster were designed to help people reach out to God in dependence on him, rather than being too concerned with the self.

Amos used thunder to show the sound they were hearing in his preaching was like a distant warning from on high. Just as thunder warned lightning was near, so his preaching sounded an alarm that God's judgment was near. Positively, the thunder also reminded them God's presence was near. In his righteous love, God was not seeking to zap the people from on high but to nudge them with physical reminders of his never-failing love, just as Amos showed them in chapter 9.

Fire reminded the people of his holiness. Just as he had done to Moses through a burning bush, the Israelites through a pillar of fire, Elijah and the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel and Isaiah in the temple, so through Amos' words, God revealed his holy presence through fire. Fire would consume the land so that the highest peak in Israel, Mount Carmel, to the lowest part of the country, would be purified.

Amazingly and graciously, in 9:11-15 of the focal text, everything is reversed. God promises to restore what he has torn down; he promises to replant a land that was wiped out. His first step was to rebuild. Clearly, the devastation brought by the attacking Assyrian army in 722 B.C. would have been overwhelming to the people.

The first group taken into exile was led off by the very person Israel had attempted to pacify, Tiglath-Pileser of the Assyrians. These ancient peoples were known for their heinous acts of torture. When they took another tribe out of their homeland, the Assyrians intended to enforce punishment down to the lowest level of society. Families would be torn apart, women would be raped. Only the lowest class, the most ignorant of the people, remained in Israel. No one remained who could mount resistance to their puppet government. The most educated and wealthiest were the ones taken away and scattered throughout the region.

God has a way, however, of getting his point across to the people who threatened his chosen ones. He still had hope for the Israelites. We should recall the events that unfolded after the Assyrian conquest.

Babylon, a new empire, rose up conquering Assyria and eventually Judah in 586 B.C. The Babylonians were then conquered by the Persians. One of the most heathen rulers of all time, a non-believer named Cyrus, understood the plight of these Jews and granted them permission to go back home. In the middle of the exile, God began to rebuild through the work of an earthly Persian king.

We should review these lessons from the exile, because God always has the intent to rebuild what individuals destroy. While many of the people were victims of the destruction brought by Jeroboam II and Amaziah, God would not forget his precious chosen ones.

I remember being in Germany a year after the Berlin wall fell. We would walk around from town to town and see bullet holes still remaining from World War II imbedded in walls. Churches such as the old Berlin Cathedral and other buildings still were lying in ruins because they never had finances to rebuild. But when freedom dawned in that land, the construction process began to take place; people found hope, new jobs, new freedoms and took pride in their construction again. Even churches like the Berlin Cathedral reopened as marvelous houses of worship.

God replants people

Amos shows us in this text as well that God replants his people. Through the mouth of his prophet, God shows us he is not trying to punish the people for punishment's sake. Rather, this is only a transitional phase in the lives of the Israelites. In the end, the once dry agricultural harvest will be watered and restored by God; the same God who brought judgment would bring renewal. In 9:14, the reversal of destruction has been completed. Now the exiled people are back; they are able to build again; their vineyards are fruitful; and their gardens are alive.

Instead of a day of judgment and wrath like the day of the Lord, a new day is dawning full of hope and promise for these restored people. This time, the people do not think that they have rights to the land and the government and the social systems; the focus in this text is on their dependence on God. God is the one who gives them the land; he is the one who plants them. They understand they are contingent people and learn to trust the Lord even better.

God opens our eyes

Amos' eyes were opened by a sovereign God to see the natural progression of the choices the people were making. God did not send earthquakes, drought, fire and destruction so the people could be punished. They set themselves up for their own failure. Amos was able to use the events in life as analogies for the decay on the inside of their lives. He was able to speak a word of hope when the imminent doom and destruction were coming. Amos' message was a sign of love that God still desired for the people to be near him, even though they continually rejected him.

In the world today, people still debate whether or not God actively sends destruction for the purposes of punishing people. From a New Testament perspective of grace, we say, "No." God is able, however, to open our eyes to the world around us, alerting us to the need for dependence on the Lord who is in control.

When the space shuttle Columbia exploded over the skies of Texas, many of us literally watched in stunned amazement. One of those people was a local man named Richard who had been visiting our church with his girlfriend.

From what little I knew about Richard, he had been running from the Lord for a long time. When he saw the shuttle disaster, he sought out his girlfriend's father, a fellow minister in our community. That morning, Richard trusted the Lord as his personal Savior. He joined our church the next day and was baptized a month later.

Even though God did not send the astronauts of the Columbia to this horrible death, through this terrible experience, Richard's eyes were opened to a God who loved him very much and had been seeking him for a long time. Amos was hoping the same could happen to many in Israel in 760 B.C.

Questions for discussion

In the end, Israel's restoration comes from a remnant of people allowed to go back and restore everything that was lost. How did these events play out in the life of Nehemiah?

Describe a natural disaster where your eyes were opened to your need for dependence upon God.

There is a natural temptation to see destruction in nature and life as God's condemnation on certain people. How do we avoid that dangerous interpretation of Scripture yet keep our eyes open to God's messages to us through the significant events in life?

Other ancient near eastern cultures thought their gods tricked people and even willfully destroyed them. How did Amos' message differ from the myths of other gods during his time? How did Amos show the true God's power and love at the same time?

What are some of the distractions in the modern world that deceive us into thinking we are actually in control of our destinies? What role do technological advances, consumerism and wealth play in your life? Is it hard to remain dependent upon God while putting faith in other areas of society?

The last word of Amos is one of hope. How can we be ambassadors of hope to those experiencing disaster around us?

How does Amos contrast with modern-day figures who try to predict the return of Jesus Christ? What would Amos say to them? What should we focus on in our lives while anticipating the coming day of the Lord?

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

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

Posted: 5/22/03

Baylor regents investigate board member
for interfering in drug investigation

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

Baylor University's board of regents has launched an investigation of board member Jaclanel McFarland, reportedly on charges that she interfered with an undercover drug investigation on campus.

McFarland, a Houston attorney and former vice president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, denied the allegation. She contends she is being pressured to leave the board because she has opposed several recent initiatives of President Robert Sloan.

Sloan and other university officials declined to comment on the investigation or allegations against McFarland. “Our hands are tied because of the legalities involved in the investigation,” said Baylor spokesman Larry Brumley.

Executive session

The story broke in the Waco Tribune-Herald Saturday, May 17, the day after accusations against McFarland were made in an executive session of the board of regents. No one present in that executive session would comment to the Standard about what happened there.

The Tribune-Herald reported that a subcommittee of the regents concluded initial evidence warranted a full investigation by the board if McFarland did not resign. Brumley said the university could not divulge that evidence beyond the regents.

McFarland said she first heard rumors about an investigation on Wednesday, May 7. At that point, she called Sloan, she said, to ask if he knew anything about it.

Sloan told her he didn't wish to discuss the matter with her, she said.

McFarland then called Drayton McLane, chairman of the regents and a Temple businessman. McLane arranged for McFarland to meet on Friday, May 9, with himself, Sloan and Bill Brian, an attorney from Amarillo who also serves as a Baylor regent.

At that meeting, McFarland said, she was urged to resign from the board to spare her family “embarrassment.”

By her account, the visiting delegation warned her that criminal charges could be filed against her but that if she resigned from the board, they would intercede to have those charges dropped.

McLane and Brian declined to comment, citing confidentiality requirements of their duties as regents. Baylor spokesman Brumley said Sloan could not comment on the matter either.

The university did release a statement May 23, however, that said: “Baylor University Regent Jaclanel McFarland has recently communicated with the media regarding an internal investigation over her conduct. The Baylor board of regents is conducting such an investigation. The rules set forth in the bylaws of the university govern such investigations. These rules provide that neither Baylor University nor any regent has the right to make public any information obtained through such investigation. Baylor has abided by these rules and will continue to do so.”

Tip-off alleged

McFarland, who has been a visible figure within Texas Baptist denominational affairs, called the turn of events “surreal” and said she was shocked by the allegations against her.

Although the university has not publicly stated any allegations against McFarland, she and others reported she has been accused of tipping off members of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity to the presence of an undercover police officer.

According to press accounts, Baylor's Department of Public Safety placed an undercover officer inside the student population and he in turn pledged the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity this year. The 22-year-old officer enrolled in classes and lived in Penland Hall, a student dormitory.

The undercover operation came to a conclusion April 29 with the arrest of six people for selling illegal drugs and the arrest of one other for possession of illegal drugs. None of those arrested were reported to be members of the fraternity, although six of the seven were Baylor students.

A May 5 memo distributed to the university community by Baylor's chief of police, Jim Doak, said the “lengthy undercover operation” was designed to “remove individuals from the university community who were known to provide contraband to students and others.”

“At no time did anyone within the TKE fraternity nor anyone within Baylor Student Life have knowledge of this operation,” Doak wrote.

He reported that “no active members of the TKE fraternity were involved in any capacity with distributing contraband.”

The memo extolled the fraternity as a “model of efficiency” and reported it conducted pledge activities without hazing.

That reflects an improvement for the fraternity, which in February 2002 was suspended from campus for the rest of that semester due to allegations of hazing violations.

Doak concluded his memo by saying the public safety department “has achieved the stated goal of this operation.”

Yet, according to the Tribune-Herald, university officials have complained that the undercover operation was cut short because the officer's cover was blown. The newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying the seven arrests were minor compared to what Baylor law enforcement had hoped to achieve.

McFarland's 22-year-old son, Allen, has been a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon, although he did not attend Baylor during the 2002-2003 academic year. He enrolled in the fall at McClennan County Community College, then returned to Houston to work in his parents' law firm to save money for an overseas study trip.

Charges denied

University officials reportedly have alleged that Jaclanel McFarland knew of the undercover operation in her role as a regent and informed her son, who in turn tipped off members of the fraternity. McFarland explained to the Houston Chronicle: “Supposedly, I knew when no other regent did. I told my son, and he told someone who told someone.”

The regent affirmed to the Baptist Standard in a May 20 interview that she had no knowledge of the undercover operation prior to its conclusion and could not have told her son or anyone else about it. Other regents confirmed to the Standard that regents had not been told of the undercover operation.

“We weren't told about this,” McFarland said. “I didn't know about it until it came out on TV.”

While refusing to discuss what was said in the regents' executive session, McFarland said any evidence against her that she is aware of is “triple hearsay.”

McFarland said she spoke May 20 with Steve McConnico, an Austin attorney hired by the university to participate in the investigation. McConnico told her, she said, that he had no solid evidence against her or her son.

McConnico, a Baylor Law School graduate who works in the Austin law firm Scott, Douglass & McConnico, did not respond to the Standard's request for an interview.

The Standard could not ascertain whether any criminal charges or complaints have been filed against McFarland.

Likewise, the status of the regents' investigation of McFarland could not be determined. University spokesman Brumley declined to characterize the status of the investigation. It is being handled by “outside counsel” rather than in-house, he said.

Retaliation alleged

McFarland and others close to her have suggested that she has been targeted because of her vocal opposition to several recent decisions at Baylor. Although initially a strong supporter of Sloan, McFarland in recent years has become a vocal critic, particularly of the spending required to implement Baylor 2012, the university's 10-year strategic plan, and Sloan's recent purchase of a jet.

By her own account, McFarland gave Sloan poor marks on a recent job evaluation. She gave him “D's” and “F's” on the evaluation, she told the Houston Chronicle.

By multiple accounts given to the Standard, she led the charge against the jet purchase in a conference call between Sloan and some regents who questioned the purchase. Regents reportedly had been told about the $2.3 million purchase after a $100,000 deposit already had been made.

Brumley questioned the relevance of the jet purchase to the current investigation of McFarland. “Regents were completely in the loop on that,” he said.

McFarland also has opposed the university's increase in spending to fulfill the goals of Baylor 2012.

Although Baylor officials would not discuss details of the ongoing investigation, they implicitly rejected the assertion that McFarland is a victim of retaliation.

Removal process

If Baylor presses to remove McFarland from the board of regents, it would be the first time in the university's 158-year history for such a step to be taken.

The case would take on particular interest because McFarland is among the one-fourth of Baylor regents elected by the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Until 1991, the BGCT elected all Baylor's trustees. When the Baylor board amended the university charter to declare a self-perpetuating board, the BGCT worked out an agreement to elect one-fourth of the regents, with the remainder elected by the board itself.

Baylor's bylaws give minimal provision for removal of a regent, stating: “A director may be removed from his or her position as a director only for cause and by employing due process procedures applicable to private entities. The removal of a director may occur at a regular or called meeting of the board of directors, provided notice of intention to act upon the question of removing the director has been stated in the notice of the meeting as one of the purposes of the meeting.”

Parent protests

Meanwhile, the mother of a Baylor student who roomed with the undercover officer has complained that Baylor put her student and another roommate at risk in the undercover operation.

The Tribune-Herald reported May 22 that Diane Ambrosio, mother of 19-year-old Andrew Ambrosio, believes her son was placed at risk by the presence of the undercover policeman.

“I really feel like they used our sons,” the mother said, reasoning that a drug dealer could have tracked the officer back to his dorm room and harmed everyone present.

The May 22 story also reported that some Baylor students and members of Tau Kappa Epsilon suspected the undercover officer as early as last fall. “We knew he was a narc,” Andrew Ambrosio told the paper.

Ambrosio said the undercover officer also dated a Baylor student who apparently was unaware of his true role.

Ambrosio and the third roommate eventually learned the undercover officer was 22 years old when they found his wallet lying on the floor, he said.

All three roommates were present in the dorm room April 29 when police burst into the room and conducted a mock arrest of the undercover officer at the same time other arrests were made in Penland Hall.

The Tribune-Herald also reported that members of the fraternity confronted the undercover officer on the Friday before the April 29 raid, but the officer denied he was a police officer.

Raid results

On May 22, the Tribune-Herald also reported the names and charges against individuals arrested in the drug sting. The three students arrested in Penland Hall are 19; three others who live in apartments near the campus are 21. The seventh person, who was not a Baylor student at the time of his arrest, is 20.

Five of the six Baylor students were charged with misdemeanor counts related to selling or possessing marijuana, the paper said. One was charged with two felony counts related to drug delivery. The non-student was charged with four counts of delivery of a controlled substance and one count of possession of an illegal substance. Two of those charges are felony offenses and three are misdemeanors.

Below are links to other news reports:

Baylor regent under investigationby university officials

Waco Tribune-Herald, May 17

Parents irked about Baylor undercover drug sting

Waco Tribune-Herald, May 22

Baylor drug sting resulted in mostly minor charges

Waco Tribune-Herald, May 22

Baylor regent blames politics for ouster bid

Houston Chronicle, May 19

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