Posted: 12/03/04

Seminary attorney clarifies trustee statement

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary attorney Don Richard recently issued a letter to Southern Baptist Convention attorneys, providing documentation about sole membership language approved by seminary trustees during a closed executive session in mid-October.

Previously, the exact nature of the actions taken in the closed session was unclear, even though the trustees publicly released two motions they had approved.

The news is significant, observers noted, because it signals the seminary's compliance with the request by SBC messengers at the 2004 annual meeting that the seminary adopt sole membership at their October meeting by amending the seminary's charter.

Richard also indicated trustees had abandoned interest in offering alternatives.

Seminary President Chuck Kelley previously stated that other options would be placed before messengers next June.

"When the trustees of NOBTS met in executive session and voted on this matter, all of the trustees had before them several proposed charter amendments," Richard wrote in the letter, which was addressed to SBC attorney Jim Guenther. "All proposed charter amendments were rejected with the exception of the proposed charter amendment sent to the seminary by the Executive Committee of the SBC several years ago."

Richard noted the seminary also intends to repeat previously expressed concerns about polity and Louisiana law when the amended charter is presented for consideration at the 2005 SBC annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn.

The language adopted during the New Orleans Seminary trustee's executive session is the “exact charter that was proposed” by the SBC Executive Committee, Richard said.

“However, the trustees passed a further motion which directs the executive committee of NOBTS and undersigned counsel to draft reservations which were expressed by the trustees for presentation for the 2005 convention once they are finally approved by the NOBTS executive committee in December of 2004.”

Posted: 12/03/04

On the Move

Jim Anderson to First Church in Caddo Mills as pastor.

David Askins has resigned as pastor of Fairview Church in Greenville.

Jack Bodenhamer to Trinity Church in Sweetwater as youth minister from First Church in Comanche, where he was a youth ministry intern.

John Brothers has resigned as minister of students and recreation at First Church in El Paso.

Phil Colquitt to Aspendale Encampment as administrator of camping ministries.

Kim Cook to First Church in El Paso as interim minister to students.

James Egan to First Church in Post as pastor from Harvest Church in Lawton, Okla.

E.L. Harris to Greater Saint James Church in Lubbock from Macedonia Church in Quanah and New Hope Church in Vernon.

Scott Hensley to First Church in O'Donnell as pastor from Calvary Church in Tulia.

Darrell Horn to Coastal Plains Area as executive director.

Kirk Jones has resigned as pastor of First Church in Greenville.

Clayton Ledbetter to Grace Temple Church in Denton as minister of music from First Church in Argyle.

Dan Lewis has resigned as youth minister at First Church in Sherman.

Ricardo Macias to Alfa Y Omega as pastor from Iglesia Calvario in Lubbock.

Bill Roe to Bosque Association as director of missions.

Chris Smith to Memorial Church in Denton as youth minister.

Terry Snow to First Church in Tom Bean as children's minister.

Posted: 12/03/04

Central Texas Christians give record
amount to Operation Christmas Child

By Terri Jo Ryan

Special to the Baptist Standard

WACO–A record number of shoeboxes filled with small gifts were collected recently at Highland Baptist Church, the final stop in Central Texas for presents intended for Operation Christmas Child.

Ominous skies and a river of rainwater in the streets didn't stop the appointed rounds of the dozens of helpers gathering a mountain of brightly wrapped gifts–12,354 of them–for children on the other side of the globe.

Students, faculty and staff at Baylor University contributed almost 1,000 boxes at 12 campus drop-off locations this season for Operation Christmas Child, a 25-percent increase in the number of gifts gathered on campus in 2003, according to the university ministries office.

This leg of the journey for the Texas-sent presents, part of the international collection of gift boxes for needy youngsters for Operation Christmas Child, is by far the easiest, said area coordinator Marti Dietrick.

Samaritan's Purse, the Christian missionary organization behind Operation Christmas Child, employs a wide variety of means to get the goodie-laden shoeboxes into the hands of orphans and other poor children. Planes, trains, buses, helicopters, cargo ships, canoes, dog sleds, mules and even camels are used to transport the boxes to their intended recipients half a world away.

In 2000, Waco-area residents sent out 5,217 boxes for processing, more than double the 1999 total of 2,400, she said. The 2003 total was 11,123 boxes, down slightly from the 2002 total.

“We had gotten spoiled there because it kept doubling for a few years,” Dietrick said.

Dietrick and almost two-dozen helpers at Highland Baptist Church accepted packages from nine relay stations throughout Central Texas, cataloging where they came from. It is a popular project with Sunday schools, church youth groups and secular classrooms, she said.

Volunteers like the Hardeman sisters–Saralyn, 13, and Elizabeth, 14–packed them into the large cardboard cartons for shipment to one of six regional centers in the United States.

“Our mom volunteers for everything,” said Elizabeth, a ninth-grader at Texas Christian Academy. She and seventh-grader Saralyn already were on their Thanksgiving holiday from school, and used their break to help others. Their only “payment,” Saralyn said, was a T-shirt and free candy. But Elizabeth was quick to remind her sister their reward is a heavenly one.

“When we get tired, we just think about who will be getting these gifts on the other side,” said Elizabeth. “Somebody else's Christmas will be blessed by it.”

Boxes that arrived un-wrapped were given their holiday trappings by a team of volunteers, including Kay Dunham, 72, of Washington, Ill. She and her husband, Julius, 74, came specifically to Central Texas to work on Operation Christmas Child, she said. It's just a coincidence that they have a daughter, teacher Karla Morris of Woodway, to visit for Thanksgiving when this chore is through, she added.

“My fingers are nubs,” Kay Dunham said, about three hours into her eight-hour shift.

When Dietrick's own children –Nathaniel, 16; Rebecca, 12; and Ethan, 10–pack their shoeboxes, they include personal letters and pictures of themselves for the recipients. After Christmas 2001, they got “thank you” notes from the recipient in the Philippines, and the following year from a teenaged girl in Kosovo.

Dietrick said she first became involved in Operation Christmas Child 10 years ago by packing a single box. The next year, she encouraged her play group to do it, and by 1996, she was talking her church into taking on the leadership role in the community for the shoe box drive.

Although the shoe boxes laden with goodies are headed primarily to the children of the Third World–Asia, Africa, the Middle and Far East–some actually will be delivered a lot closer to home, Dietrick said.

Some Native American reservations in the West are on the list. Australia, another “sending country” like the United States, also keeps a portion for its indigenous population, aborigines, as well.

Calling itself the “world's largest children's Christmas project,” Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan's Purse, a nonprofit organization run by Franklin Graham.

Since 1993, more than 31 million shoeboxes valued at more than $610 million have been distributed to about 100 countries.

Posted: 12/03/04

Prayer partnership sparks revival, DOM says

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

Prayer is connecting Texas Baptists with Christians from New England to the Rocky Mountains, and it is bringing revival with it, firsthand observers report.

Churches in the San Felipe and Colorado Baptist associations, which make up Coastal Plains Baptist Area, have connected with Christians in New England and Colorado through prayer-based partnerships.

San Felipe Association is partnered with Southeast New England Baptist Association, and Colorado Association is partnering with Arkansas Valley Baptist Association in the state of Colorado.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas and its Texas Partnerships Resource Center facilitated both relationships.

Rather than launching the partnerships with mission projects, Harold Sellers, director of missions for the Coastal Plains Baptist Area, started by pairing at least one Texas church with each congregation in the New England and Colorado associations.

Leaders communicate prayer requests, needs and praises to each other at least once a month, Sellers said.

From there, a relationship has developed naturally.

Ministers from Colorado Baptist Association in Texas sent their pictures to leaders in the Arkansas Valley Baptist Association in Colorado.

The communication and prayer have been encouraging, Colorado and New England directors of missions said.

There are fewer churches in these areas than in Texas, and ministers are not as well connected, he explained.

“We have some churches here where it is 45 to 50 miles to the next Southern Baptist church,” said Frank Cornelius, director of missions for the Arkansas Valley Baptist Association in southeastern Colorado. “The pastors get lonely.”

“It is such a source of encouragement to know people are praying for each other,” said Rafael Hernandez, director of missions for the Southeast New England Baptist Association, which includes Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut.

Communication helps each side know the other's needs, Sellers said. Then each party has set out to assist the other.

San Felipe Association helped put together the first youth camp for Southeast New England Association in several years. Later, the Texas churches donated money to help New Englanders turn a church into an associational office.

Texas ministers consoled a family with Colorado state ties after the loss of a loved one. Texas Baptists also have done several projects in Colorado.

Baptists from New England and Colorado have helped Texas churches by sharing ideas about ministries that worked for them. Colorado Christians also repaired facilities at the Baptist encampment at Palacios last year.

“It's been a true partnership,” Cornelius said. “We've done a lot together.”

The relationships have brought revival to Coastal Plains Baptist Area, Sellers said. Churches allowed God to work in their ministry because it was based in prayer, he emphasized.

“I think one of our greatest needs today is revival,” he said. “I think that always starts with prayer.”

Posted: 12/03/04

Poll shows Americans divided over
question of evolution vs. creation

By Kevin Eckstrom

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–A Gallup Poll suggests Americans are divided over how the world was created–either through evolution or at the hand of God–but either way, they appear skeptical that it happened exactly as described in the book of Genesis.

The poll found Charles Darwin's theory of evolution remains controversial among Americans. About one-third say it is supported by evidence, one-third see it as bunk and one-third don't know enough to judge.

A plurality of Americans–45 percent–say man was created by God in his present form, while 38 percent say man developed over time as God guided the process. Just 13 percent said God had no role in the process.

Yet a smaller percentage, 34 percent, said the Bible is the actual word of God and should be read literally.

Pollsters said that discrepancy suggests Americans believe man was created as-is, but not because the Bible says so.

Breaking down the numbers, Gallup officials said about one-quarter of Americans are “biblical literalists” who believe man was created 10,000 years ago in his present form. They tend to be women, conservatives, Republicans and attend a Protestant church at least once a week.

A slightly smaller number–one in five Americans–believe man was created in his present form 10,000 years ago, but not because they read the Bible literally. Just 9 percent of the country read the Bible literally but are open to the theory of evolution.

The largest group–46 percent–do not read the Bible literally and believe humans may have evolved over time. This group tends to be male, urban, more educated, Catholic and seldom or never attend church.

“It is not surprising to find that the biblical literalists who believe that God created humans 10,000 years ago tend to be more religious and Protestant,” said Frank Newport, Gallup's editor-in-chief.

The survey of 1,016 adults has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Posted: 12/03/04

Handmade lap quilts a labor of undying love for Garland man

By George Henson

Staff Writer

GARLAND–As a living memorial to his late wife, Jeanie, Tom Kelly continues a nursing home ministry she envisioned to warm body and soul.

Kelly didn't accompany his wife of 62 years as she made visits to nursing homes, but he remembers that when she returned, she always was concerned that so many residents seemed cold as they sat in their wheelchairs, even during the summer.

Kelly and his wife always had been handy with a sewing machine, and they decided to make something to keep the residents warm. They began accumulating material, but then she grew ill.

All Kelly's time and energy were dedicated for awhile to taking care of his wife, but in September 2003, she succumbed to lung disease.

Since then, he has been working eight to 10 hours most days crafting lap quilts and quilted shoulder wraps for nursing home residents and shut-ins.

Kelly, 90, has made about 150 lap quilts and quillows–a quilt that folds into a pocket to form a pillow if needed. When the quilt is unfolded, the pocket can be used to warm cold feet.

After two cornea transplants and a new eyeglass prescription, he even threads his own needles.

Kelly allows friends in the adult choirs at First Baptist Church in Garland to deliver his creations as a part of their nursing home ministry.

“I get the blessing of making them, but I let them have the blessing of giving them away,” he said. “I want as many people as posible to take them. That's how they get their blessing.”

His daughter, Pat Walker, said the ministry is a testament of the love she saw between her parents her entire life.

“You could always see how devoted they were to one another, and it's like they are still doing this together in my mind,” she said.

She often accompanies her father as he makes his trips to buy fabric and other supplies, where many of the store clerks have come to recognize them.

“They know what he does with the material, and many times they have some they think he would like set aside,” she said.

One of the clerks especially was helpful, and Kelly made her a quillow in appreciation.

“When she took it, she had tears in her eyes,” Walker said.

While most of his creations have gone to five area nursing homes and assisted living centers, others have made their way to Tulsa, Texarkana and Australia.

Walker said the ministry keeps her father vibrant.

“At 90 years of age, he has a purpose in life; he doesn't just sit around and watch TV. He's doing things to help other people,” she said.

Kelly is more interested in encouraging others than in having accolades heaped on himself.

“If hearing this can encourage someone else to do something and to realize that they're not finished, then that will be good,” he said.

Posted: 12/03/04

Teachers from the Delta Kappa Gamma Society read to twin brothers during the Bountiful Book Party held on the Texas Baptist Children's Home campus. Members of the society brought three books each to share with the home's single parent ministry. Susan Lee (right), supervisor for Texas Baptist Children's Home's Family Care program, talks to one toddler about the books provided by the Delta Kappa Gamma Society of teachers during the Bountiful Book Party.

Volunteers share love of reading with kids at children's home

By Miranda Bradley

Texas Baptist Children's Home

Fifty teachers recently opened a new classroom in Round Rock on the Texas Baptist Children's Home campus. But instead of blackboards and erasers, the two cottages, which normally house up to 10 Family Care residents, were filled with books and children. And the one lesson these volunteers wanted to teach was a love for reading.

Members of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society brought three books each to share with the children of Texas Baptist Children's Home's Family Care Program during its annual Bountiful Book Party.

While Texas Baptist Children's Home began in 1950, Family Care was started in the 1970s as an answer to the growing number of single mothers with children.

Deborah Taylor, principal of Wells Branch Elementary School, reads to a child in Texas Baptist Children's Home's Family Care program during the Delta Kappa Gamma Society's annual Bountiful Book Party. Members of the society brought three books each to share with the home's single parent ministry.

Six of the children's home's 13 cottages serve these families, which often are struggling with how to thrive in the world around them. Some mothers come from abusive home environments, while others are suffering from financial strain. But no matter their circumstance or background, each is grappling with the same issue–how to be a better parent.

Delta Kappa Gamma volunteers showed mothers how to do that by learning how to read to their kids. Aside from promoting a love of reading, it also helps forge a strong relationship between parent and child, members said.

“We just show them how to ask questions about the book and help the children understand it a little better,” said Laura Bridge, president of the society. “The mothers always get more out of it than even the children.”

Delta Kappa Gamma is made up of both retired and active teachers in the area as far away as Leander and Georgetown. The group helps raise money for scholarships and chooses various projects throughout the year to give back to the local community.

“This is our favorite project out of all the ones we do,” Bridge said. “Everyone looks so forward to it every year.”

Despite all the things Delta Kappa Gamma is, there is one thing it isn't.

“We aren't a sorority,” explained Betty Parnell, a retired Houston-area teacher. “It's an international society made up of key women educators. And we love to do this type of work.”

Reading provides a dual purpose for the moms, said Susan Lee, Family Care Program administrator.

“It's a really good excuse to hold your baby in your lap,” she said. “It is an opportunity for bonding and education at the same time.”

The society has been offering this bonding experience to TBCH residents for more than six years and plans to do it well into the future.

“We are teachers, so this fits perfectly with what we are about,” Bridge said. “We are able to promote a love of books to kids who might not have as many opportunities as other children. There's just a great deal of personal satisfaction in that.”

Posted: 12/03/04

Pro-life Democrat, pro-choice Republican likely to lead Senate

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–Senate Democrats, whose party officially supports abortion rights, have elected an abortion opponent as their leader.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans, whose party officially opposes abortion, appear ready to name a rare pro-choice senator as chair of one of the Senate's most powerful committees.

Senate Democrats elected Nevada Sen. Harry Reid as minority leader by acclamation. Reid, a Mormon, is a longtime opponent of abortion rights who voted in favor of a 2003 law that bans so-called "partial-birth" abortions.

On the Republican side, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter appears to have quelled an uproar from social conservatives against his elevation to the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Specter is a moderate who supports abortion rights and generally has supported church-state separation.

Dozens of Religious Right groups and other conservative organizations asked Specter's colleagues to bar him from the chairmanship after comments he made to reporters shortly after President Bush was re-elected Nov. 3.

Specter implied that Bush should not bother sending far-right nominees for Supreme Court vacancies to the Senate for confirmation, because they likely would be filibustered by Democrats.

Nominees to the federal bench must first be confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the chairman has wide latitude over which nominees receive a hearing.

But after meetings with Senate GOP leaders and Republican Judiciary Committee members, several expressed support for Specter.

“Sen. Specter handled himself very well” in the meeting, said outgoing committee chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah, according to the Washington Post. “I'm for him, as I should be.”

But not all conservatives followed Hatch's lead.

In an e-mail newsletter, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council asked supporters not to let up pressure on other senators, since a majority of the entire Senate Republican Conference must confirm Specter's nomination when the group meets Jan. 5 to organize for the new session of Congress.

“Each Republican senator must be challenged to stand up for the values of the voters that helped them gain solid control of the Senate, rather than capitulate to the political protocol that advances privilege above principle,” Perkins wrote.

Posted: 12/03/04

Baptist state conventions urge ban on same-sex marriage

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP)– As “values voters” in 11 states sent a political message rejecting same-sex marriage, Baptist conventions in at least seven states offered a resounding “amen” by adopting resolutions against the practice.

Most of the statements voiced support for constitutional amendments on the state and federal level to define marriage as only the union of a man and a woman.

Supporters say the constitutional amendments are necessary to stop the trend of legalizing gay marriage–which began last fall in Massachusetts and has surfaced in a handful of cities.

Opponents say the amendments are unnecessary because of existing federal and state laws, such as the Defense of Marriage Act, that prohibit gay marriage.

But supporters counter that “activist” judges could overturn those laws as unconstitutional, making constitutional amendments the only sure defense against gay marriage.

At annual conventions, most held in mid-November, Baptist messengers in Alabama, North Carolina, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and California all spoke out against gay marriage.

Typical of the state convention actions was the resolution passed in Alabama, which affirmed that “biblical and legal marriage is between one man and one woman” and is “the only marriage ordained of God.” The resolution calls for the U.S. Congress and the Alabama legislature to pass constitutional amendments limiting marriage to a man and a woman.

In North Carolina, messengers were presented a proposed statement from their resolutions committee that included the same definition of marriage but did not call for constitutional amendments. Before it was adopted, the resolution easily was amended from the floor to include the need for the constitutional amendments, noting successful legal challenges could force North Carolina and other states to “accept same-sex marriage as the law of the land without any vote of our elected legislators in the U.S. Congress.”

In Arkansas, where legislators already have adopted a constitutional amendment defining marriage, Baptist messengers expressed gratitude for the Arkansas Marriage Amendment and called for a similar amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Messengers to the Florida Baptist Convention went a step further, pledging to work with other like-minded denominations to add gay-marriage bans to the state and federal constitutions. The statement calls for legislation defining marriage “as the union between a man and a woman” and “the God-ordained building block of the family and bedrock of civil society.” Like many other states, Florida already has enacted the Defense of Marriage Act that limits marriage to heterosexual couples.

In Louisiana and Mississippi, Baptist messengers adopted resolutions calling for passage of the Federal Marriage Amendment, but in Louisiana another resolution urged Baptists to continue to address the issue of homosexuality from a biblical standpoint. The statement laments that homosexuality is becoming more culturally acceptable, while remaining an “abomination unto God” and “unrighteous.” The resolution calls on pastors to continue “stating very plainly what the Bible teaches about homosexuality.”

In California, the resolutions committee presented only one resolution, a catch-all statement dealing with the right to life, family values, purity in marriage between a man and a woman, and raising children.

This year, as usual, Baptist conventions adopted resolutions addressing a broad range of moral issues, as well as support for hurricane victims and troops in Iraq. The statements carry no power of enforcement, even among the conventions' churches, and are supposed to reflect only the opinions of the messengers present–who are predominantly ministers. But resolutions often serve as an indicator of congregational sentiment and thus influence convention policy.

While same-sex marriage clearly was the hottest topic in 2004, an expected debate over the alleged moral failure of public education fizzled.

Several state conventions were expected to act on a resolution denouncing the secular condition of public or “government” schools and urging parents to “remove their children from “godless” and “anti-Christian government schools and see to it they receive a thoroughly Christian education.”

A similar resolution introduced at the Southern Baptist Convention last June was rejected by the SBC resolutions committee, which said the resolution would “usurp” the responsibility of parents to decide how to educate their children.

According to Exodus Mandate, a group advocating a Christian departure from public education, the resolution was to be introduced at 10 state Baptist conventions this fall.

However, none of those conventions approved the resolution as proposed. Some passed watered-down versions. But most declined to abandon public education. In fact, more resolutions affirmed public schools than denounced them.

In the Alabama Baptist State Convention, a resolution affirmed Baptists' support of education, including public schools, and affirmed actions by local churches, associations and individual Christians to partner with schools.

In South Carolina, messengers voted to “celebrate the diversity” of choices Baptist families are making in regard to their children's education. The resolution called on parents to make “the responsible, intelligent and prayerful choice” of being actively involved “in the academic and spiritual development of children.”

At the Florida Baptist Convention, messengers passed a brief motion asking convention administrators “to find ways to strengthen and support Christian schools and home schooling” among the convention's churches.

Because of that action, convention leaders decided it was not necessary to consider the longer resolution condemning public schools and calling all Christians to abandon public education.

Meanwhile, even the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, an alternative pro-SBC convention in that state, took no action against public schools. An attempt to add an anti-schools amendment to a resolution on “the secularization of American society” failed to pass.

At the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, another conservative alternative group, messengers resolved to “instruct parents to ensure the godly education of children whether in public schools, private schools, home schools, or through the church's educational program.”

The Missouri Baptist Convention passed a resolution encouraging Baptists to consider the dangers of secularization of public schools.

In several other state conventions, such as Tennessee, the anti-schools resolution was submitted but rejected by the resolutions committees. In some states, such as Illinois, the resolution was not even introduced.

T.C. Pinckney of Virginia, a conservative Southern Baptist who led the unsuccessful effort to pass the anti-schools resolution at the SBC in June, said he was not disappointed in the lack of action in the state conventions.

Pinckney said he did not expect many conventions to pass “strong, unambiguous” statements for Christian education this year.

“My judgment is that such a major change in the way we think about education and the assumptions under which we proceed regarding educating our children will take a long time–years–to complete,” he said.

“To the extent that the state resolutions cause people to think about the issue, we have made progress.”

Posted: 12/03/04

Court declines review of same-sex marriage

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–The Supreme Court has denied a request to review a Massachusetts court's decision that legalized gay marriage in that state.

Returning to the bench after their Thanksgiving break, the justices declined without comment a request from a group of socially conservative Massachusetts legislators to review a decision by the state's Supreme Judicial Court that legalized same-sex marriage in the commonwealth.

The group, represented by the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, had argued the decision denied Massachusetts voters the right to govern themselves through their legislature, thus violating the federal Constitution's guarantee of a representative form of government for each state.

In a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, Liberty Counsel attorney Matthew Staver said the justices should hear the case because voters in Massachusetts had a constitutional right “to live in a republican form of government free from tyranny, whether that comes at the barrel of a gun or by the decree of a court.”

But in June, a three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held unanimously that the legislators who filed the suit did not have standing to sue because they did not prove they had suffered any actual injury.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's decision did not violate the federal Constitution, the appeals court said, because Massachusetts voters may overrule that decision in 2006, by approving a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage but allowing “civil unions” between gay partners.

The argument by the Liberty Council overreached, the appeals court said in its unsigned June ruling, because the Massachusetts court “has not abolished the legislature. The amendment process enshrined in the Massachusetts Constitution is purposely designed to be slow; that choice is itself a result of the state's republican form of government.”

The controversy erupted in November 2003 when the Massachusetts court ruled the state's constitution requires it to offer marriage licenses on an equal basis to both homosexuals and heterosexuals. The decision set off a backlash across the country, with nearly a dozen states adopting constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage. It also gave steam to an effort to amend the federal Constitution to ban gay marriage.

Conservatives said the Supreme Court's decision not to hear the Massachusetts case is further proof that a federal constitutional amendment is needed.

“It is increasingly clear that the ultimate solution to the problem of judicial tyranny will not come from other judges but from the people themselves,” said Peter Sprigg, policy director for the Family Research Council, in a statement. “That is why the electorates of 13 states have amended their state constitutions in recent months to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.”

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, asked about the court's decision during a press briefing, said it deals with federal-versus-state issues and does not mean the court would decline to entertain a future challenge to the federal law banning same-sex marriage.

“The president believes that (marriage) is an enduring institution in our society,” he said. “That's why he has fought to move forward on a constitutional process that would allow the states and the people in those states to be involved in this decision.”

Posted: 12/03/04

TBM responds to flooding in Coastal Plains

WHARTON–Flooding interrupted the Thanksgiving holiday for residents southwest of Houston, but Texas Baptist Men volunteers came to the rescue by providing meals and clean-up help.

Four TBM disaster relief units have responded to flooding in the Coastal Plains. In less than a week, volunteers served more than 1,000 meals, and completed about 20 clean-up jobs, as well as providing showers and laundry service.

Bill Pyle, a member of First Baptist Church in Karnes City and leader of the Gambrell Baptist Association clean-out/shower unit, said the water had receded after several days, and volunteers finally were able to get into all previously flooded areas.

In El Campo, the rainwater simply piled up in low areas then went down, Pyle said. In Wharton, the Colorado River left its banks, carrying mud and silt into homes.

Tim Willis, a member of First Baptist Church in Plains and an area manager for TBM disaster relief, said crews are able to clean about 10 houses per day, depending on size of the home and extent of the damage. There still are 44 houses in Wharton and 22 in El Campo that need to be cleaned.

More help is needed, and Willis said TBM will be calling out additional trained volunteers. Twenty-five were on the scene Dec. 1.

As the volunteers worked, they found their prayers “get answered up here pretty quickly,” Pyle said.

God has them there for a purpose and takes care of the different needs that arise, he said. “It's plumb amazing.”

Other TBM units dispatched to the Coastal Plains are the South Texas feeding rig, San Antonio cleanout and San Antonio command/communication/security.

Donations for the relief effort may be sent to Texas Baptist Men, 333 N. Washington, Dallas 75246 and designated for the Coastal Plains Flood.

Posted: 12/03/04

Denton Baptists use holidays to share
the gospel with international students

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

DENTON–Thanksgiving and Christmas are about more than turkey and dressing for some members of First Baptist Church in Denton.

They use the holidays as an opportunity to share American customs and the Christian message with international students at the University of North Texas through food, fellowship and prayer.

Young people crowd into a church-owned house for the chance to practice their English and learn more about how Americans celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas, said Codi Knowles, International Friendship and Sunday school coordinator.

The celebration includes a prayer over the meal and several First Baptist Church members thanking God for working in their lives in various ways. Then Christians get to know the students and provide more information about each holiday.

Lacee Link looks at the sheet music as Tzu-Hsi Lin plays the piano during First Baptist Church in Denton's Thanksgiving meal for international students.

The church works with International Friendship to partner American students and families with international students in hopes of sharing the Christian faith, said Linda Knowles, Codi's mother and director of International Friendship.

“We can talk about all the Thanksgiving dinners we want …, but its all about them coming to know the Lord,” Linda Knowles said.

Jim Herbison, another member of First Baptist Church, said serving these students through Bible studies, events and fellowship is like ministering on a foreign field.

Young people come from many countries, including Brazil, Japan, China and Korea.

Groups of as many as 100 students come five times a year to the University of North Texas and stay as long as two years, Herbison said. That gives First Baptist Church members an opportunity to impact the rest of the world.

Everyone who serves in the ministry is a volunteer who gives many of their own resources to see students become Christians. Each spoke of feeling God calling them to minister to international students.

“Everything that is done here, everything you see here, is done from right here–a place we call our heart,” Linda Knowles said.