Posted: 6/27/03

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE:
Baptist worker held in Russia

By Frank Brown

Religion News Service

MOSCOW (RNS)–Andrew Okhotin, a Baptist youth pastor, took the 10-hour flight from New York to Moscow in late March on a quick and joyful mission. He was going to deliver a $48,000 cash gift from American believers to Russian Baptists, visit for a few days with relatives and then return to the United States and his studies at Harvard Divinity School.

Nearly three months later, the 28-year-old Okhotin remains in Moscow, has yet to hand over the money, and, if Moscow prosecutors get their way, could spend the next five years in a Russian prison.

Russian customs inspectors claim Okhotin is a currency smuggler, who on March 29 deliberately chose the green, “nothing-to-declare” corridor at Moscow's main international airport, all the while carrying $48,000 in $100 and $50 bills in his beige backpack.

In fact, Okhotin says, he made an innocent mistake by stepping into the wrong corridor and, when asked, immediately reached into his jacket pocket and handed over a duly completed customs form he had filled out on the plane.

Learning just how much money Okhotin had, customs inspectors detained him for 12 hours as they interrogated him, offering twice to release him for bribes of $5,000 and $10,000, he says.

As the marathon session wore on without agreement, customs officer Irina Kondratskaya jotted down on a piece of paper her own home telephone number and the cell phone of a Moscow lawyer, saying: “Contact him. He'll tell you what to do.”

The lawyer, Okhotin says, offered to get the charges dropped for $15,000.

“I've never heard a thing about this Okhotin you're talking about,” the lawyer, Igor Tokarev, said initially in a June 19 conversation, recalling a few minutes later that a Russian journalist had interviewed him the day before about the bribery allegations.

Kondratskaya hotly denied any wrongdoing, saying: “If Mr. Okhotin is accusing me of bribery, let him talk to my supervisors. I'm not commenting.”

Whatever the facts, Okhotin's case has taken on a life of its own by slowly, organically provoking the prayerful indignation of evangelical Christians worldwide. Without any apparent unified effort or formal organization by Okhotin's supporters, the quiet Baptist with an earnest demeanor and a slight stoop has become a cause celebre. Supporters are following his journey through the Russian legal system, his 27-day hunger strike and the prayer appeals on the K-Love Christian radio network, through e-mail and on Christian-oriented websites from Denmark to the United States to Russia.

“I think you have no idea how many people are praying. There is so much interest in this case. I think you could comfortably say hundreds of thousands of people,” says Sue Clark, whose husband teaches at Wheaton College in Illinois, where 400 students signed a petition for Okhotin's release.

Aside from the perceived venality of Russian officials, the issue also seems to resonate deeply and poignantly in evangelical Christian circles worldwide because Okhotin's predicament brings back memories of Soviet-era religious repression, especially of Christians who were not members of state-approved denominations.

Indeed, Okhotin's father was a Soviet-era pastor in an underground Baptist church who was arrested for his religious work, convicted of anti-Soviet agitation and sent for 2 1/2 years to a prison near the Sea of Azov, where he says his health was permanently damaged. The family–Andrew Okhotin, his parents and his eight siblings–immigrated to the United States in 1989.

From his home in San Diego, where he runs Russian Evangelist Missions, Okhotin's father, Vladimir, said he sees an eerie parallel with his own experience.

“They seized him like a Christian. Just as they went after me, they are going after him,” said Vladimir Okhotin, 61, who refers to his son by his given name, Andrei. “Our goal is only that God gives Andrei the power to stand his ground and that the money gets to the people who need it. That is not just any money but money that came from poor people in some cases.”

Nearly 20 years ago, Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-Pa., was one of the hundreds of Americans involved in a letter-writing campaign to win the elder Okhotin's release from Soviet prison. Back then, Pitts was a state legislator in Pennsylvania, but now he sits on the House of Representatives' international relations committee. He enlisted the help of five other congressmen in sending an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Congressman Pitts likes to say that he is a toothache that just won't go away regarding this issue,” said Pitts' spokesman, Derek Karchner, from Washington, adding that, so far, there is little progress. “We have had varying degrees of evasion and obstinence from Russian officials. (Pitts) had a rather brief and pointed conversation with the Russian ambassador two weeks ago. Nothing was really accomplished, and there didn't appear to be any flexibility.”

Ultimately, Karchner said, the strongest political weapon Pitts has is to introduce Okhotin's case during the upcoming discussion in the House on the repeal of the last significant Cold War-era trade restrictions on Russia.

“That's especially true since six of the biggest players on the (trade) issue in the House are involved in Andrew's case,” Karchner said.

Elsewhere, Okhotin's supporters have held two prayer vigils involving a couple dozen people outside the Russian Embassy, according to the elder Okhotin. And students at Harvard Divinity School have fasted and taken part in a 12-hour prayer service for Okhotin in Cambridge, Mass., reported Chanta Bhan, a classmate of Okhotin.

The Russian government has not officially responded to the lobbying and petitions aside from a somewhat peculiar June 10 news release from the Foreign Ministry announcing tersely that Okhotin had been detained at the airport for not declaring $48,000 on March 29.

But, according to Okhotin's Moscow lawyer, some of the Russian officials receiving faxed and mailed petitions each bearing “40 or 100 signatures” are increasingly irritated at the sheer volume of missives from America.

“We're talking about more than a thousand, and that is just the faxes,” said the lawyer, Anatoly Pchelintsev. “I don't think this sort of thing happens very often. I think it is a problem for them mostly on a practical level. I know in the police office, they just didn't have enough fax paper.”

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: 6/27/03

On the Move

Brad Davis has resigned as music minister at First Church in Hamilton.

Denise Deaton to First Church in Covington as minister of music and students.

Jami Demel to Saint Paul's Church in Schulenberg as youth director.

Keith Dyer to Hay Valley Church in Gatesville as pastor, where he had been interim.

James Grant has resigned as pastor of Harmony Church in San Antonio.

Bobby Hoffpauir to Second Church in Marshall as pastor.

Stewart Holloway to Forestburg Church in Forestburg as pastor.

Jeff Hutchison to Northside Church in Lamesa as pastor.

Paul Jackson has resigned as pastor of Living Word Church in Venus.

Steven Lentz to First Church in La Grange as youth and music minister.

Karen Pace to First Church in Wichita Falls as interim associate director of preschool and children's ministries, where she was assistant director of preschool and children's ministries.

Bill Pinson has completed an interim pastorate at First Church in Longview.

Bryan Price has completed an interim music ministry at First Church in Winnsboro. He is now working with Alpine Resort Ministries, leading worship in Colorado RV parks.

Nicole Puryear has resigned as minister to children and preschool at First Church in Joshua.

Philip Schroeder to First Church in Bulverde as interim pastor.

Jimmy Stiles to First Church in Wizard Wells as pastor.

Larry Strandberg to First Church in Cresson as associate pastor of youth and family.

Wade Yarbro to Cedar Creek Church in Whitney as associate pastor.

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: 6/27/03

Israeli scholars say James ossuary
a fake; others not so quick to quit

By Alexandra Alter

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–An inscription on an ancient stone burial box suggesting it held the remains of James, the brother of Jesus, is a fake, Israeli archaeological experts say.

Other scholars, however, contend the guilty verdict may have been leveled prematurely.

The Aramaic inscription on the limestone box, called an ossuary, was deemed genuine last October, when scholars and scientists announced the artifact could provide a link between the Jesus of the Bible and a historical figure named Jesus. If authenticated, the ossuary would have been one of the oldest archaeological references to biblical figures.

The inscription, which reads, “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus,” originally thought to date to about 63 A.D., was in fact carved over the stone's natural fossilized sheen, or patina, said the experts of the Israeli Antiquities Authority.

Last October, scholars defending the box's authenticity argued the Aramaic script used on the box matches the style that was popular in the first decades of the first century after the birth of Jesus.

Extensive tests also dated the burial box to 63 A.D.–a year after James' death and within the half-century such boxes were used.

Still, archaeological specialists in Israel announced June 18 that although the artifact is real, the inscription is a forgery.

“The ossuary is real. But the inscription is fake,” said Shuka Dorfman, director of the Israeli Antiquities Authority. “What this means is that someone took the real box and forged the writing on it, probably to give it a religious significance.”

Other experts, however, have said that finding may be premature.

“The problem is, the report is not out yet,” said Hershel Shanks of the Biblical Archaeological Review in Washington, adding that there may be disagreement among the scientists. “There may be some archaeological politics involved.”

Two other groups of specialists from the Geological Survey of Israel and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto also studied the stone box earlier and determined it was genuine, Shanks added. Moreover, the patina over the inscription could have been worn down because the mother of the man who owned it scrubbed it heavily, he said.

The artifact's owner, Oded Golan, said he bought the ossuary in the mid-1970s from an antiquities dealer in Old Jerusalem. He also owns the so-called “Yoash inscription,” a tablet from the 9th century B.C. instructing the Jews how to maintain the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. It also was determined to be a fake, the Israeli newspaper Maarev reported.

Robert Eisenman, a biblical scholar who wrote a book on James, questioned the artifact's authenticity from the beginning because the script on the box appeared to have been written in two hands.

“I always considered the timing of the Jesus Ossuary very odd and worrisome,” he said. “There was a spate of books on James and his importance in 1997 and 1998, and then the box appeared.”

James, whom historians say was stoned to death in 62 A.D., is considered the first bishop of the Christian church in Jerusalem. He also is described as Jesus' brother in the Gospels. Protestants and Jews accept James as Jesus' brother, but Catholics, who believe Mary spent her life as a virgin, say he was a cousin. Many Orthodox Christians regard James as Jesus' half-brother from a previous marriage of Joseph's.

The strong possibility that the ossuary's inscription, thought to be one of the greatest archaeological finds of modern times, may be a modern forgery leaves many braced for disappointment.

“If it turns out to be a fake, whoever did it should be put in jail,” Shanks said.

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: 6/27/03

Patterson elected unanimously
to lead Southwestern Seminary

By Toby Druin

Editor Emeritus

FORT WORTH–Pledging he would not “clean house” but would build a faculty committed to Southern Baptist Convention guidelines, including the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, Paige Patterson was elected eighth president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary June 24.

The co-architect with Paul Pressler of the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC was elected unanimously in a called meeting of seminary trustees. Thirty-three of the 40 members of the board–all who were present–answered “yes” as Chairman David Allen, pastor of MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church in Irving and professor at Criswell College, asked for a roll-call vote.

Patterson, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., for almost 11 years, will assume the Southwestern presidency Aug. 1. His wife, Dorothy, also was elected a full professor at Southwestern, with full benefits but no salary.

Denny Autry, pastor of First Baptist Church of Lindale and chairman of the 10-member search committee that recommended Patterson, said the 60-year-old native Texan was the only candidate the panel interviewed.

“We received a number of recommendations from the Southern Baptist family,” Autry said. “We could have taken two approaches, one interviewing each individual candidate or determining (at first) which candidate we felt most comfortable with and moving to the end result. We prayed over all the recommendations, and Dr. Patterson came to the top.”

Both Patterson and Autry emphasized that no contact, formally or informally, was made by the search committee or any other trustee before the search committee spoke to him initially on May 15.

Even after that contact, Patterson said, “my position has been that I was president of Southeastern Seminary. In my wildest imaginations I never dreamed I would be standing here today.”

Patterson added that he was so happy with his circumstances at Southeastern that he had no interest in moving to Fort Worth, where he was born while his late father, T. A. Patterson, former executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, was working on his doctoral dissertation at Southwestern.

“I don't want that misunderstood,” Patterson said. “I have a great love and appreciation for (Southwestern's) history. It's just that when you are totally satisfied and happy and blessed of God beyond any possible way, and someone says, 'Are you interested in moving?' the answer is 'No, I am not interested in moving under any circumstances.'”

He held that position, he said, “until crossing the Atlantic a couple of weeks ago and I felt God decisively spoke to my heart. Until then no decision whatever (had been made) on my part.”

In accepting his election, Patterson said it was a “signal honor” to be chosen and that he would come with “a keen sense of what is expected and a keen awareness of the fact that no one, least of all I, has the ability to do what must be done, except for the intervention of God. Our Lord said, 'Without me, you can do nothing,' and I am more convinced of that every day that I live.”

He and his wife came to Fort Worth, he said, with their minds made up that he would accept the presidency if elected, and he will notify Southeastern Seminary of his resignation, effective July 31.

Patterson will succeed Ken Hemphill, who resigned to lead a new SBC initiative called Empowering Kingdom Growth. Hemphill had been president since 1994 when he succeeded Russell Dilday, who was fired by trustees for opposing the new direction of the SBC.

Although Hemphill and trustee spokesmen deny it, numerous sources have told the Baptist Standard and other media that Hemphill was forced out of the presidency by seminary trustees and SBC leaders who were unhappy with the seminary's declining enrollment and Hemphill's alleged failure to clear out faculty not fully sympathetic with SBC leadership.

Patterson said Hemphill assured him he felt God leading him to the new position in Nashville.

“He came at a time of considerable turmoil and came with sweetness and a gentle spirit,” Patterson said of Hemphill. “And no better man could have been chosen to lead our empowering for kingdom growth. I am looking forward to reading his books.”

Asked if he would “clean house” at Southwestern, as has been speculated, Patterson cited his experience at Southeastern Seminary when he assumed the presidency there.

“When we went to Southeastern, there were rumors we would dismiss faculty,” he said. “I never found it be a satisfactory way to handle the situation. We knew there were faculty members who were not sympathetic with the turn in direction of the convention, but I found them to be reasonable, and we were able to work with them. Most did eventually leave, but it was never necessary to fire them.”

He said he could not imagine a circumstance when he would “come in and clean house. That does not fit my style of operation. I would prefer to motivate on a higher level.”

There will be changes, however, he acknowledged. “There are always retirements; churches hire faculty because they can pay more; and sometimes the grass seems greener someplace else and people leave. I would anticipate that will happen here.”

In hiring new faculty, Patterson said, he will seek men and women who have a genuine walk with God and who know what that means, who are good husbands and wives, good fathers and mothers and who are consistent witnesses for Christ.

They also must be adequately credentialed with terminal degrees and proven abilities and must be people who can “contribute to theological literature through writing as well as a teaching ministry. They must be good classroom teachers. It is a sin to be boring.”

Paige Patterson greets a well-wisher after his election.

“And,” he added, “they must operate within the guidelines of the SBC which have been given to us and adopted by the six seminaries. They must be people who can sign their agreement with the Baptist Faith & Message 2000.”

Asked if he would permit a woman to teach in the seminary's School of Theology, Patterson said it would be his purpose as a leader not to do anything in the School of Theology other than what he would want churches to imitate.

“I believe there are ample numbers of men out there,” he said. “I will build the theology faculty around them.”

Asked if that was a “no” to women teaching theology, Patterson said, “Well, I didn't say it that way, but it tells you the direction I am headed.”

Pressed further, he said women could teach in areas of Christian education and church music, particularly if they were teaching women and children.

“My concern,” he said, “is that the New Testament is crystal clear that pastors are to be men. That is not a question of the equality of essence but the assignment of roles that God gives. I believe in the equality of essence, but I believe there are specific roles given to men. As we build the School of Theology, where we primarily train future pastors, it is only appropriate, if we are going to stay with the biblical pattern, that we use only men in that capacity.”

Asked if he would turn Southwestern into a “fundamentalist institution,” Patterson said the issue is not, as some reporters have written, that he would require a literal interpretation of Scripture, but rather that he would uphold the “truthfulness of God's word.”

“If it means to be a fundamentalist is to say Jesus is Lord, the Bible is absolutely true, and the mission of Jesus to us is to win people to faith in Christ around the world, I am guilty. If it means to be angry with it, I am not; I am quite happy with it. I am a fundamentalist with a little f, not a capital F.”

Trustee Chairman Allen said he believes the main thing Patterson will bring to Southwestern is “the ability to wed scholarship and evangelistic zeal in a proper blend.”

Among those welcoming Patterson to his new assignment was Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

As to the kind of relationship Patterson would seek for Southwestern with the BGCT, Patterson said the answer is easy. “I fully intend to have a wonderful relationship with anybody, regardless of affiliation, who maintains the absolute lordship of Christ, the inerrancy of God's word and the mission of winning men and women to Christ.”

Relations between the BGCT and Southwestern have been strained since a BGCT seminary study committee recommended three years ago that churches reduce funding to all six SBC seminaries, alleging they no longer operated in harmony with mainstream Texas Baptist beliefs.

In response to Patterson's election, BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade said: “The Baptist General Convention of Texas has had a long and fruitful relationship with Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. We have been saddened in recent years by the removal of presidents and professors for reasons that failed to convince many Texas Baptists of the wisdom or fairness of those decisions. We pray Dr. Patterson will exercise Christian wisdom and Baptist principles in his leadership of this institution, which has meant so much to all Texas Baptists.

“We are grateful for the good work that is being done in our universities and seminaries to prepare men and women for Christian ministry. Texas Baptists will continue to work with Southwestern in every way we are given opportunity to do so.”

Patterson's election drew a strongly positive response from Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and current chairman of the council of SBC seminary presidents.

“The election of Paige Patterson as president of Southwestern Seminary is one of the great moments in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention,” Mohler said in a Baptist Press report. “Dr. Patterson is one of our greatest leaders and the Martin Luther in the reformation of our convention and the recovery of biblical inerrancy and authority.”

Mohler predicted Patterson “will take Texas by storm” and “win the hearts of Texas Baptists to the great cause of the gospel and truth as represented by their beloved Southwestern Seminary.”

Miles Seaborn, retired pastor of Birchman Baptist Church in Fort Worth and a highly influential person among Southwestern trustees, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “A lot of people say Paige is mean-spirited, but I've been in a lot of meetings, and I've never heard him to be unkind. He's just very precise with what the Scripture says about an issue.”

Seminary trustee Ted Stone of North Carolina, who said he was among those who recommended Patterson to the search committee, likewise praised the new president as someone with “an established track record of success.”

He called Patterson the “one man” who can meet all Southwestern's current needs.

Texas Baptists disaffected by the fundamentalist power sweep within the SBC did not share the trustees' and Mohler's appreciation for Patterson's election.

“It's the final stroke in Patterson's plan to capture and radically alter the great school,” former Southwestern President Russell Dilday told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Already, Southwestern bears little resemblance to the institution that undergirded Baptist churches and ministries around the world for 90 years. Paige's election will complete that tragic metamorphosis, and the Southwestern we knew no longer exists.”

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: 6/27/03

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: 6/27/03

Paige Patterson profile

Ordained to the ministry at age 16 by First Baptist Church of Beaumont.

His father, T.A. Patterson, was executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas from 1961 to 1973.

He earned the bachelor of arts degree from Hardin-Simmons University, the master of theology degree and doctor of theology degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Paige Patterson

Married to Dorothy Kelley Patterson, professor of women's studies at Southeastern Seminary. Mrs. Patterson is the sister of Chuck Kelley, president of New Orleans Seminary.

Paige Patterson has served as pastor of churches in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.

The Pattersons have traveled in 70 countries and have developed a significant collection of biblical artifacts. Mrs. Patterson's bio sheet reports that she has “met with Pope John Paul in his private apartment in the Vatican; … had coffee with former Israeli Prime Minister Menachen Begin in his Knesset office; … (and) been the guest of Yaser Arafat at a midnight banquet in Sadam Hussein's palace guest house in Baghdad.”

Patterson served as president of Criswell Center for Biblical Studies (now Criswell College) in Dallas from 1975 to 1992.

Patterson gained national prominence when in 1979 he and Paul Pressler launched an orchestrated effort to change the leadership and direction of the Southern Baptist Convention.

In 1992, he became president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

In 1998 and again in 1999, the SBC elected Patterson president of the convention.

The Pattersons are parents of two adult children, a son, Armour, and his wife, Rachel, who live in Arizona; a daughter, Carmen, and her husband, Mark Howell, who is pastor of First Baptist Church of Little Rock, Ark.

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: 6/27/03

Study says prison ministry effective

WASHINGTON (RNS)–A study of the effectiveness of a key faith-based prisoner rehabilitation program has found graduates of the program are less likely to return to a life of crime.

The study was released June 18 after leaders of Prison Fellowship, the ministry founded by ex-convict and Nixon aide Chuck Colson, met with President Bush and White House officials to discuss the program's impact on ex-prisoners.

The study, conducted by Byron Johnson of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society, found graduates of Prison Fellowship's program are less likely than non-graduates to return to a life of crime. The program provides spiritual counseling, job training and mentoring to prisoners nearing the end of their sentences.

Of the 177 ex-prisoners who participated in the study, the 75 who underwent biblical education and counseling were half as likely to be reincarcerated, Johnson said.

Church-state separationist groups who say the biblically based program amounts to a violation of the Constitution have called the study baseless, arguing it should have compared graduates of the program to ex-prisoners who received secular counseling.

“This is junk science driven by right-wing ideology,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

The Washington-based watchdog group has filed suit against the Prison Fellowship program in Iowa, saying the prison there gives special privileges to program participants and uses state funding for a program whose goal is completely religious.

“Our primary concern is that it's not right to have government funds to pay for people's religious conversions,” Lynn said.

The Prison Fellowship program, titled the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, was first introduced in a Texas state prison in 1997 and now has similar programs in Iowa, Kansas and Minnesota.

Speaking in front of the White House after the meeting, Colson expressed his gratitude to Bush for introducing the program in Texas six years ago when he was governor.

“I didn't think he'd be willing to fight it through, all the church-state issues,” Colson said. “This is a tremendous vindication for the president.”

Colson and other advocates of faith-based prison rehabilitation programs said they were pleased Bush expressed interest in expanding the InnerChange Freedom Initiative to federal prisons.

“The president feels an urgency as part of his compassion agenda to reach out to these communities,” said Jim Towey, director of the White House Office for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

At a federal level, however, the program would have to accommodate people of all faiths and no faiths rather than being explicitly Christian, Towey said, noting that Jewish and Muslim counselors already provide services in federal prisons.

Lynn said Americans United will fight any attempt to federally fund religious rehabilitation for prisoners.

“Expanding the program to Muslims does not change the constitutional problem,” he said. “Taxpayers should not be expected to pay for people's religious conversion.”

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: 6/27/03

Retired teacher left major
gift to Temple church and UMHB

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

TEMPLE–When Memorial Baptist Church set out to relocate, the congregation had no idea the tragedy that would befall it in 2003. Nor could it have imagined the incredible gift it would receive in the same year.

Most Texas Baptists know Memorial as the church that suffered a fatal bus accident on Valentine's Day. Johnie Punchard knew Memorial as the church that cared for her in her youth and college years.

Punchard carried that love unspoken for more than 65 years, as well as appreciation for her alma mater, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in nearby Belton.

Punchard, who devoted 50 years to teaching business students, died July 26, 2002, in Baytown, where she had been a highly respected teacher at Robert E. Lee High School.

Unknown to the church or the university, Punchard had arranged for the bulk of her estate to benefit the two Texas Baptist entities. Her will directed a $50,000 gift to Robert E. Lee High School, with the remainder of her estate to be divided between Memorial Baptist Church and UMHB.

The church and the university each recently received an initial $500,000 from the estate, and each will receive a significant additional sum when the estate has been settled.

The university has created two endowed scholarships with the initial funds, one scholarship named for Punchard and the other named for her sister, Frances Punchard McCulloch.

“This was a wonderful surprise for the university,” said UMHB President Jerry Bawcom. “Her professional career indicates her strong commitment to education, and now students for generations will be able to receive an education as a result of the scholarships she established.”

In Temple, surprise hardly describes the reaction of Memorial Baptist Church, where a mostly graying congregation had been planning to relocate to a more accessible facility. Although the building fund had accumulated a fair amount of contributions, the relocation was to be done in phases to stay within budget.

Then came the bus wreck that killed five beloved church members and two others on a rain-slicked I-35. Despite the tragedy, despite the grief, the congregation vowed to keep moving forward.

In that resolve, little did they know that a seed planted more than six decades earlier would give them such a boost. Punchard's will specifically stated her desire to help the church add an educational building.

“It looks like the Lord has laid it out pretty plain what he wants done,” said Pastor Roy Parker. “We are extremely grateful to God that he did this. We had no idea.”

In the lows and highs of the past five months, Parker said he sees God's will surfacing. “Even in the tragedy, God has brought so much out of that.”

Punchard had been a member of Memorial Baptist Church in the 1930s, as a teenager and then as a student at UMHB, where she graduated with honors. She was raised on a farm in Bell County, near Rogers.

She went on to earn a master's degree from Baylor University and a doctor of philosophy degree from the University of Houston.

“If she ever came back to visit this church, and surely she did, I have not been able to find anyone who remembers that,” Parker said.

That would not be inconsistent with descriptions of Punchard's life–profoundly influencing students in the classroom but having few social interactions outside school.

Parker and others who have researched Punchard's life found no evidence she ever joined another church or participated in any social organizations other than Eastern Star. She never married.

Although she had neighbors who cared for her, she outlived most of her contemporaries and immediate family. Her parents and sister preceded her in death, and her only living relatives are distant cousins.

She retired from teaching in 1984. In her home were found letters written by former students, thanking Punchard for putting them on the right path.

“When I was in your class of business math … I felt very unworthy of myself,” one student wrote in 1976. “But you had a way of making me feel very worthwhile.”

The student explained how she married, divorced and lost her first child by judicial order. “I tried suicide, but something wouldn't let me finish it.”

Finally, the student became a Christian, she wrote, explaining that Jesus “has given me a sweet peace and a knowing that I am loved and cherished by him.”

And she credited Punchard with setting the first example for her. “I saw in you something I wanted for myself. And now I believe that I have what it was that I saw in you.”

In her privacy, Punchard lived frugally, saving seemingly everything. Her home reportedly was filled with a lifetime collection.

“Her mother and dad had a home here in Temple,” Parker explained. “She left everything just like it was when they died. That was 30 or 40 years ago. … Things were in the house just like back then. The old car was still in the garage.”

The business teacher's frugality paid off, however, resulting in an estate of far greater wealth than typically expected of a high school teacher.

Her wealth was not amassed in a single high-performing stock or any other unusual way, according to officials at the Baptist Foundation of Texas, who served as administrator of the estate.

Punchard's silent witness will continue to bear fruit in the lives of students through her scholarship funds at UMHB. And at Memorial Baptist, Pastor Parker feels certain her generosity will impact students young and old.

“We were planning to build a satellite (location) because we did not have enough money to build the whole thing,” he said. “With this money, we feel like we'll be able to build a facility large enough that we can completely relocate and still have room to grow.”

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: 6/27/03

Attempt to revisit Roe nixed

By Jenny Hartgraves

Staff Writer

DALLAS–Efforts by Norma McCorvey–“Jane Roe” from Roe vs. Wade–and her legal team to reverse the 1973 abortion case were rejected June 19 as a federal judge ruled her petition for reconsideration did not come in a “reasonable time.”

Thirty years after the United States Supreme Court legalized abortion, McCorvey filed a motion June 17 in the downtown Dallas County Courthouse to reopen the case. Her efforts were made possible by a legal team headed by Allan Parker of San Antonio and joined by Virginia Armstrong, professor of political science emeritus at Hardin-Simmons University.

McCorvey's team believed they had a strong case based on the basic issue of whether or not an unborn child is a person.

“The Supreme Court said specifically it was not in 1973, but now scientific evidence proves that they were wrong,” Armstrong said. Other issues included in the petition were the effects of abortion on McCorvey, the effects of abortion on women in general and the methods and motives of the abortion industry. All the data collected was unavailable in 1973.

David Godbey, federal judge in the northern district of Texas, said in his eight-page order that this type of petition must be filed in “reasonable time,” meaning “weeks or months, not decades.”

“Whether or not the Supreme Court was infallible, its Roe decision was certainly final in this litigation,” Godbey wrote. “Other parties in other cases may be able to re-examine those issues, but not McCorvey in this case.”

McCorvey filed a Rule 60 motion, a provision that permits a litigant to request the federal courts “relieve” a party from a final act of the courts.

In January 1973, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Roe vs. Wade to overturn state laws prohibiting abortion. More than 40 million legal abortions have been performed in the United States since that ruling.

McCorvey began working for an abortion-rights organization but became a Christian in the 1990s. Since then, she has become an anti-abortion activist.

Upon filing the motion, she said, “I'm sorry I signed the affidavit (in Roe v. Wade). I want to do everything in my power to help women and their children.”

With reporting by Staff Writer Kambry Bickings and Baptist Press

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: 6/27/03

Texas Tidbits

CenturyMen travel to Europe. The CenturyMen, a 100-voice men's chorus, is traveling in Germany, Austria and Switzerland through July 8. The chorus of music ministers, including many from Texas, is directed by Buryl Red. On this tour, the CenturyMen will work with Baptist missionaries Doyle and Arlee Searcy, Scott and Kathy Hinton, Rick and Nancy Dill, Wayne and Pam Jenkins, Carlos and Shannon Ichter, and Tom and Barb Suiter. Daily ministry updates and prayer concerns are listed at www.centurymentour2003.com.

Baylor staffer to White House. Jerome Loughridge, chief of staff to Baylor University President Robert Sloan, has been named a White House Fellow for 2003-2004. He will assume the new role Sept. 1. Loughridge, a 1995 Baylor graduate who also holds a master's degree in public policy from Harvard, is among 12 people chosen for the prestigious fellowship from among more than 1,000 candidates. Loughridge and his wife, Tricia, are members of Highland Baptist Church in Waco.

Music conference planned. The Church MusiConference West, slated for July 25-26 at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, is aimed at ministers of music, youth and children's choir directors, accompanists and other music leaders in churches. The conference includes six 75-minute classes, reading sessions, exhibits, networking opportunities with fellow church musicians and a banquet. The cost is $50 per person. For more information, contact Robert Black at (806) 291-1067 or Dan Turner at (806) 935-3176.

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: 6/27/03

TOGETHER:
Numbers paint picture of missions

Summer brings a change of pace for most of us. Family vacations are most often planned for this time of the year. Churches take on a different dynamic, too, as the sounds of children and youth can be heard throughout the week. Camp programs, Vacation Bible Schools, summer mission trips, Super Summer youth evangelism conferences, recreational activities and local community mission involvement all contribute to the “hum” around the church house.

That hum goes on statewide, as well. Rosemary and I, along with scores of Baptist General Convention of Texas staff, attended the annual meeting of the Hispanic Baptist Convention June 22-24. In a few days, the African-American Baptist Fellowship will convene in Houston, July 8-11. What I love about these meetings is the way entire families show up. There are activities for children and young people. And the adults celebrate and rejoice in the achievements of their children and grandchildren.

It is the stated goal of the BGCT to “reach all people.” We want, as a pastor in the Valley expressed, our churches and convention to look like the face of Texas. We want Hispanics, African-Americans, Asian-Americans and anyone else to feel as much at home in the BGCT as do Anglo-Americans. And if we are to do that effectively, we must encourage one another, and in order to do that, we must know one another.

For more than 40 years now, the Mexican Baptist Convention in Texas, now called the Hispanic Baptist Convention in Texas, has been an integral part of the BGCT. We cannot even think about the BGCT without thinking of the 1,200 Hispanic congregations, the Hispanic Baptist Theological School (now Baptist University of the Americas) in San Antonio, and the gifted and dedicated Hispanic members of the BGCT staff.

It was another great Convencion this year. These brothers and sisters are poised for the greatest advance of the gospel we have yet known in Texas Hispanic culture, in outreach to Mexico, in helping churches across America start Hispanic congregations.

The giving of the Hispanic churches through the BGCT Cooperative Program continues to climb as these churches see more and more how their giving helps them to be part of a great mission and ministry outreach throughout Texas and around the world. The BGCT priorities of starting churches and equipping leaders who can build strong and healthy churches are exactly the priorities that move the hearts of our Hispanic churches.

If you attend the African-American Fellowship meeting in Houston, you will be welcomed and blessed. There are more than 700 black congregations affiliated with the BGCT. There are growing numbers of our African-American brothers and sisters who work on our staff and who serve on the committees of our convention. More and more of their churches are giving generously through the Cooperative Program.

In the next five years, there will be 1.2 million more Hispanics in Texas than now. There will be 154,000 more African-Americans, 203,000 more Anglos, and 135,000 more of all others, mostly Asians. That means that if Texas Baptists are going to be true to God, we must share the good news of Jesus Christ with all these people. There must be more than 1,100 new churches, mostly among Hispanics. There must be more intentional multicultural congregations. And even if Texas were not adding so many new people, we would have a mission field all around us, because at least 10.5 million people now living in Texas have no relationship to a church.

We are loved.

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: 6/27/03

Truett Seminary to produce 79 graduates in 2003

WACO–Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary honored 79 members of the class of 2003, including 35 spring graduates, during baccalaureate ceremonies.

Bill Sherman, pastor of First Baptist Church of Fairview, Tenn., delivered the baccalaureate address on “The Compulsion of the Cross.” Sherman told the graduates, “The Christ of the cross compels us to believe and to believe strongly, … to act and to act greatly, … to love and love supremely … and to praise and praise gloriously.”

Sherman admonished the seminarians, using the words of British World War I chaplain G.A. Studdert-Kennedy, to “serve in such a way that you will hear God as you stand before him in eternity say, 'Well done' rather than, 'Well!'”

The year's outstanding students, as voted by the Truett faculty, were Scott Daniel Bertrand of Houston, Andrew Donald Black of Waco and Andrea Louise Hall of San Antonio. All three earned the master of divinity degree in May.

The student body's Professor of Choice Award was given to Hulitt Gloer, professor of preaching and Christian Scriptures and visiting professor at Baylor Law School.

In an emotional ceremony, William Treadwell III, rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in McKinney, presented an inaugural award named for his late father–the William Charles Treadwell Jr. Award for Excellence in Christian Education and Leadership–to Michael Warren McEntyre of Knoxville, Tenn. McEntyre had served as a graduate assistant to Treadwell, associate professor of Christian education and leadership/administration, who died April 23, 2002. Treadwell had been a member of the Truett faculty since 1995 and was lauded by students and faculty members for helping form the character of the young seminary.

May master's-level graduates, their hometowns and the schools from which they earned undergraduate degrees included Scott Daniel Bertrand, Houston (Baylor); Andrew Donald Black, Waco (Baylor); Robert Wayne Brasier, Tulsa, Okla. (Oklahoma Baptist University); Jerrod Cameron Clark, Las Vegas, Nev. (Baylor); Daniel McFerrin Cook, Waco (Baylor); Melissa Ann Frazier, Belton (University of Mary Hardin-Baylor); Amy Regan DéAwn Fritts, Friendswood (Baylor ); Steven Edward Fry, Dodge City, Kan. (William Jewell College); Andrea Louise Hall, San Antonio (University of Texas at San Antonio); Eric Peter Herrstrom, Arlington (Baylor); Ronald Leslie Higgins, Plano (Baylor); Garin Lynn Hill, Gate City, Va. (Carson-Newman College); Eric Holt, New Caney (East Texas Baptist University); Jeffrey Lincoln Huckeby, Levelland (Wayland Baptist University); Lance Ross Hutchins, Lumberton (ETBU); Ed Johnson III, Austin (Dallas Baptist University); Christine Danette Brown Jones, Heber Springs, Ark. (Ouachita Baptist University); Sallie Elizabeth Liss, Talkeetna, Alaska (Howard Payne University);

Carol Marie McEntyre, Sparta, Tenn. (Carson-Newman); Michael Warren McEntyre, Knoxville, Tenn. (Carson-Newman); Michael Jean Mitchell, Cameron (Texas A&M University, University of Southern California); Edward Clayton Polson, Ridgeland, Miss. (Mississippi College); Velma Porraz, Houston (Houston Baptist University); James M. Solomon, Memphis, Tenn. (University of Memphis); Steven Kenneth Solstad, Lawton, Okla. (Cameron University); Stephanie Ann Spitzer, Athens (University of Texas at Austin); Shelley Lynn Springate, Johnson City, Tenn. (Carson-Newman); Scott Taylor, Covington, Ind. (Indiana State University); Ragan Malone Vandegriff IV, Orlando, Fla. (Baylor); Jeremy Matthew Webb, Waco (Baylor); Myles Philip Werntz, Shreveport, La. (Ouachita); David Arthur Wiley, Jackson, Miss. (Mississippi State University); Allison Gail Wright, Sugar Land (Baylor).

Doctor of ministry graduates included Gary Lynn Hall, Lubbock (Texas Tech University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary); and John Aubrey Petty, Shreveport, La. (Baylor and Southwestern Seminary).

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.