Posted: 3/12/04

New Iraqi constitution would guarantee broad human rights

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Iraq has a new interim constitution that offers high levels of protection for religious freedom, but one of its provisions still gives pause to some human-rights watchdogs.

After a delay due to last-minute objections by some of its Shia Muslim members, the Iraqi Governing Council signed the document March 8.

The new Transitional Administrative Law is supposed to provide a legal framework for the country between this summer—when American military leaders are scheduled to turn over authority to Iraqis—and the time Iraqis ratify a permanent constitution.

The new document pronounces Islam the nation's official religion but names it as merely "a source" of law. It also provides broad protections for Western-style freedoms, including freedom of conscience and religious belief and practice.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom released a statement March 8 praising the law's protections for freedom of conscience and other human rights but also sounding a note of caution.

"The commission notes that there was a substantial expansion in the articulation of rights from a narrow right of groups to worship in the draft … to the guarantee to every person freedom of thought, conscience, belief and practice in the final version," the statement said. "This emphasis on individual freedom is unique for the region."

The statement went on to note the commissioners are "concerned, however, by language in the Transitional Administrative Law requiring that legislation not be contrary to the 'universally agreed-upon tenets of Islam.' This provision could be used by judges to abridge the internationally recognized human rights of political and social reformers, those voicing criticism of prevailing policies, religious minorities, women or others."

The statement warned that similar provisions in Afghan and Pakistani governing documents have been abused by judges in those countries, who have used the legal leeway they provided to interpret laws in a theocratic manner.

Iraq had an essentially secular government under Hussein's rule, and Christians and other religious minorities enjoyed a higher degree of religious freedom than in many other majority-Muslim nations.

However, the country's Shia Muslim majority often was brutally repressed by Hussein's government, most of whose leaders were of Sunni Muslim heritage. Now freed from the rule of Hussein's Ba'ath Party, many Shiite clerics have moved to solidify their political power, stoking the fears of international religious-freedom advocates that Iraq may become a theocracy.

Other religious-liberty watchdogs have warned about such difficulties with securing religious freedom in the new Iraq.

"If Islam is the official religion of the state, … or if Islam is the source for secular laws, as some propose, the religious freedom of minorities could be seriously circumscribed," said Bishop John Ricard, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' International Policy Committee, prior to the release of the Transitional Administrative Law in its final form.

Posted: 3/07/04

CYBERCOLUMN:
Snow flakes falling

By John Duncan

I'm sitting here under the old oak tree, thinking of snow. Just a couple of weeks ago, snow covered this old oak tree in Granbury. Three inches of snow made Granbury postcard pretty, if there is such a thing.

In the North Carolina mountains, where my family history plunges deep roots in the soil, blizzard conditions dumped snow like loads of white sand on the earth. Roads closed. The rush to Wal-Mart to stock up on groceries before the snowstorm hit was unbelievable. The icy conditions meant that a few folk could not escape their mountain homes for a few days.

A couple of days ago, I woke up on a chilly Sunday morning in Cambridge, England to snow falling like cotton balls from the sky. The glistening snowflakes tumbled form the sky at hurling speed like meteor showers against a dark sky. The snow in Cambridge rushed to the earth fast and furiously and beautifully blanketed the common areas and the towering buildings where schools like King's College stand. The ground, the buildings and the snow painted the Cambridge morning white like a big wedding cake ready for the celebration.

I love it when God paints the world and brushes his finger stroke of beauty on the earth. I love it when God paints the earth white with his grandeur. I love it when God paints the heart white in a world so often black with terror, violence, sadness, sorrow, sickness and sin.

I have not yet seen the movie "The Passion of the Christ," but I hear the buzz. While in Cambridge, I checked CNN news and its website, and the movie was all the rage in America. At teatime at the Tyndale House Biblical Research Center, the chaps in Cambridge talked about the movie's theme, its brutality ("the worst film for brutality ever made," as one theologian stated), and the chance to see it when it arrives for showing at a local theater. I looked on a movie website, and the movie arrives in Cambridge at the end of

March.

My teenage daughter watched the movie minus popcorn and a soft drink. "The Passion" is not a popcorn-and-soft drink kind of movie. Maybe that's what's wrong with the world. We have a popcorn-and-soft drink mentality when we ought to cherish Christ's passion. Enough of that sermon.

Anyway, my daughter talked to me on the phone about "The Passion." She explained that the movie had lots of blood, but that the flashback scenes were really good. "I won't give too much of the movie away. You'll have to see it for yourself," she observed. I guess she did not think that after all these years as a preacher I probably knew the plot line to Christ's passion. I cannot wait to see the movie.

She talked about "The Passion," I listened and talked about the beautiful, wintry snow that painted Cambridge like a picture-perfect post card.

This talk about "The Passion of the Christ" and snow leads me to one thing: I hope the movie has one snow scene in it, like a post card from Granbury or Cambridge blanketed by snow, or a mountain covered with rolling white flakes piled high and looking like a snowman, or snow glittering a building to look like a wedding cake in Cambridge.

Why? Because for all the passion is, as Easter soon approaches, it is the snow of the Christ of the cross falling on hearts and glittering them with grace and washing them as white as snow. Like falling snow by this old oak tree, Christ's brings child-like wonder of happiness and joy. Like snow flakes falling, Christ's snow changes the landscape of the mountain of the heart and soul, decorating it anew. Like snow flakes tumbling, Christ's snow gives cause for celebration, like eating a piece of wedding cake amid the laughter and cheerfulness of two hearts uniting in marriage.

I hear Isaiah's(1:18) plea for snow: "Cone, now, let us reason together," says the Lord: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isaiah's words tumble on my heart like snow falling like cotton balls, and I pen these words. May snowflakes fall on your heart:

*Snow flakes falling

Gently falling

Falling Gently

From heaven above.

*Snow flakes falling

Softly falling

Falling softly

On earth below.

*Snow flakes falling

Quietly falling

Falling quietly

On my heart today.

*Snow flakes tumbling

Humbly falling

Falling humbly

On my soul in a fresh way.

*Snow flakes falling

Gently falling

Falling gently

To wash my sins away.

*Snow flakes falling

Softly falling

Falling softly

To bring the joy of life.

*Snow flakes falling

Quietly falling

Falling quietly

To usher peace without strife.

*Snow flakes falling

Humbly falling

Falling humbly

"Come let us reason," the voice of God does know.

*Snow flakes falling

Gently falling

Falling gently

"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."

*Snow flakes.

Falling

Falling

Falling

Falling

Falling

Falling

Above

Below

Today

In a fresh way

To wash my sins away

To bring life

To end strife

"Come let us reason,"

That's what God says,

"Though your sins be as scarlet,

They shall be as white as snow;

Though they be red like crimson,

They shall be as wool."

*Snow flakes falling

Falling

Falling

>From heaven above.

*Snow flakes packing

Packing

Packing

The earth below.

Like wool and cotton balls,

*Snow falls

Pure white

In sight

On me.

*Snow flakes falling, falling, falling on you and me.

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

Posted: 3/11/04

COMMENTARY:
Atonement and “The Passion”

By Reagan White

Show business has always liked the logic of making a fortune by standing convention on its head. But sometimes, it’s the logic that gets upended.

Recent investments by Rosie O’Donnell and Mel Gibson are a case in point. O’Donnell bet $10 million on a Broadway musical about Boy George called “Taboo” and lost every nickel. Mel Gibson put down $30 million on a movie about Jesus’ crucifixion, voiced the dialogue entirely in Aramaic and Latin, and quadrupled his money in less than a week.

Jay Leno said “The Passion of the Christ” has done so well, “there’s now talk of turning it into a book.”

Others have been less sanguine about Gibson’s Thunderdome treatment of show business logic. A frequent accusation is that he is trading in anti-Semitism. If this were true, audiences should be emerging from the movie fizzing with hatred for Jews. They aren’t, and not just because Gibson expunged the Bible’s “his blood be on us, and on our children.”

It’s because the real theological epicenter of this movie is the Atonement, and his unmistakable stance on the issue has smoked out Gibson’s true adversaries—post-Christian theologians. Just as C.S. Lewis predicted, more than a few of them have put God in the dock—that is, on trial—for offering his Son for our sins.

As for opposition to the movie on the basis of show business rules, perhaps the most interesting charge laid against Gibson’s film has been leveled by A.O. Scott, who wrote in The New York Times that Gibson was unable “to think beyond the conventional logic of movie narrative.” While most movies end by avenging earlier episodes of violence against innocence, Scott contends “The Passion of the Christ” incites the audience to demand justice, and then ends without providing it. The resulting “inconclusiveness” is “Mr. Gibson’s most serious artistic failure,” Scott wrote.

Indeed, in Gibson’s movie, after Jesus is taken down from the cross, anyone in the audience who expects cosmic-level payback is left hanging. Yes, there is a resurrection—its portrayal has been described as “poetically economic”—but a glimpse of Jesus revived hardly scratches the surface of what justice would seem to demand after seeing him tortured to death. Accordingly, the question may fairly be raised: Is “The Passion of the Christ” an unfinished movie?

After all, the New Testament tells us of many things that happened after the crucifixion and resurrection. It’s safe to assume Gibson is aware of them. Shouldn’t we expect a more satisfying conclusion from the star of “Lethal Weapon” and “Braveheart”?

Actually, this is where one might expect more of a writer reviewing a major motion picture for The New York Times. Scott accuses Gibson of failing to think beyond the logic of the conventional Hollywood ending, and then notes specifically how Gibson’s film is unconventional. Nevertheless, a defender of traditional Christianity can hardly pretend that such quibbling constitutes a response to Scott’s indictment.

By refusing to use the resurrection as a counterbalance to the horrors of the crucifixion, Gibson has left the moviegoer in a predicament familiar to Christians everywhere: “In medias res”—Waiting for the other shoe to drop. The omission of any cinematic climax adroitly highlights this fact: The story of God’s business with humanity did not end at Golgotha.

Yes, atonement was made for the sins of the world. Yes, Jesus was vindicated on Easter morning. But the legions of angels who stood by ready to intervene at the crucifixion still await the command to commence judgment on what the ancient prophets said will be “the great and terrible Day of the Lord.”

Horace—no stranger to the logic of drama—advised a budding epic poet not to feel compelled to begin at the beginning of a story, but to start right at a decisive point in its middle instead. He coined “in medias res” to express this idea. Gibson’s drama does something even more unconventional; it reaches its end, makes the audience realize that the final act is still to come, and—to top it off—assures them they are inescapably involved.

It’s a drama that breaches the walls between story and reality and leaves each viewer aware of their part to play in the impending final act. Could there be room in show business for a new kind of logic?

Reagan White Jr. is a member of First Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, and a graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Posted: 2/10/04

CYBERCOLUMN:
God & fishermen

By John Duncan

I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, wondering about fishing. Christ loved fishermen.

Last fall, I went fishing in Central Texas on a private pond. The heat of the fall reigned over me and the other fishermen. We ate peanut butter crackers and drank bottled water chilled over ice. The teacher, knowing I seldom fished, instructed me on the ways of baiting the fish and setting the hook.

My teacher placed a rubber worm with glitter on the j-shaped hook and told me to cast my hook upon the waters. The old preacher from Ecclesiastes once wisely instructed his students, “Cast your bread upon the waters and after many days it will come back.” I was casting my hook on the waters in hopes of a fish coming back.

I threw out a fishing line while the sun beat upon my forehead. “Set the hook,” kept scrolling through my mind like a message at the bottom of a television screen.

I carefully viewed the surrounding scenery—a rock ledge, a floating tire, seaweed, an upside-down aluminum boat on the sandy shore, a tree waving in the light breeze, a cooler and net in the boat, and fish swimming at the surface of the clear water.

Then it happened. A nibble on the hook sent the line off in a direction opposite the boat.

“Set the hook,” scrolled through my brain again.

I jerked the fishing pole—and low and behold, I caught a fish—a gulping fish with jagged teeth and scales and razor-blade fins and speckled skin and a j-shaped hook in the top of his mouth.

My fishing escapade set me to wondering about Jesus’ love for fishermen. He called Peter, Andrew, James and John from their fishing nets. They lived as the sons of Zebedee, fishermen by trade, passionate about gulping fish with jagged teeth and scales and razor-blade fins and speckled skin with meat inside. “Follow me,” Jesus invited.

“And they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him” (Matthew 4:22). As they followed Jesus, they became sons of God and so-called sons of thunder. Their faith rattled the earth.

We strung a heavy load of fish that day on the pond. I gloried in the prize of a catch and took digital pictures to prove it. I smelled like fish for the rest of the day.

I find myself thinking about Jesus and the fishermen. He sets the hook in the heart. He glories in fishermen like a prize. He receives them just as they are—stinky fish smell and all. He bids them, “Come, follow me!”

And in the simplicity of his bidding, many follow. After all, the simplicity of following Jesus brings joy like catching a string of fish.

As Henri Nouwen says, “The loud, boisterous noises of the world make us deaf to the soft, gentle and loving voice of God.”

And so here I am under the old oak tree, wondering. On a pond in Central Texas while setting a hook and catching a fish, I blocked the noise of the world out to be reminded of the soft, gentle, and loving voice of God: “Come, follow me!” Will you?

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

Posted: 3/07/04

COMMENTARY:
Questions about "The Passion"

By Brett Younger

When I was much younger (and I have apologized to God for this) I participated in my church’s Evangelism Explosion program.

In this outreach method, the witnesser wore an unattractive gold lapel pin consisting of two question marks. When the victim asked, “Why are you wearing two questions marks?” we answered, “There are two questions I’d like to ask you. ‘If you died tonight, where would you spend eternity?’ and ‘Why should God let you into heaven?’” I learned that beginning a conversation with “If you died tonight” seldom leads to a helpful exchange of ideas.

For the last week and a half, people who would never dream of wearing two question marks have been asking a question that can lead to a helpful exchange of ideas. The question is, “Have you seen the movie?” How should we talk about “The Passion of the Christ”? What’s thoughtful? What’s beneficial? Several questions keep showing up.

Is the movie anti-Semitic?

Christians may not be the best group to decide what’s anti-Semitic. Those who called themselves Christians were partially responsible for the Holocaust as well as other violence against Jews. As a Baptist living in Fort Worth, the movie doesn’t seem likely to provoke anti-Semitic acts to me, but Jewish people around the world have a right to be concerned.

How is the movie different from the biblical accounts?

In each gospel, the story from the arrest of Jesus to his death takes about three or four pages. This movie has an 85-page script that focuses on the physical suffering of Jesus. In Matthew, the scourging, which takes 10 painfully long minutes in the film, is only a phrase. The walk to Golgotha, which feels like forever, is two verses. At Broadway Baptist Church’s screening, a little more than half of those in attendance indicated that the graphic violence got in the way of considering the whole story.

Is this a good movie for non-Christians to see?

The panel at our discussion said they wished that the movie set Jesus’ death within the context of Jesus’ life. Some people will see this film and not understand that Jesus died because he was a revolutionary who told the rich to share with the poor, hypocrites to love sinners and powerful people that they had no real power.

Do all Christians share the same understanding of the cross?

This movie seems to reflect the idea that God had to punish someone for sins and so Jesus took the beating we had coming. This theory, substitutionary atonement, is held by many devout conservative Christians. Another Christian understanding is that the cross teaches us that God suffers with us. The cross is not the revelation of God’s anger, but of the price God is always paying for all the sin and sorrow in the world.

It’s hard to discuss the things that matter most—for those who wear lapel pins and those who don’t. When an opportunity presents itself, we need to take advantage of it. Well-made movies that take Christian faith seriously don’t show up very often. We should be eager to talk about Jesus’ story, and do so with passion.

Brett Younger is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth and writes a monthly cybercolumn for baptiststandard.com

Posted: 3/05/04

Richardson church helps Latvian
Christians break down walls with music

By George Henson

Staff Writer

RICHARDSON–Nehemiah, the Old Testament figure, was best known for building walls. But a Latvian project that bears his name focuses on breaking down walls–between a people’s desire and their ability to praise God in their own tongue.

The project, headed by members of First Baptist Church in Richardson, has a goal of raising $175,000 to build a recording studio so Latvians can write and record Christian music in their own language.

The Baltic nation of 2.3 million people, between Estonia and Lithuania, has only one recording studio. The government owns it, and it is too expensive for Christian artists in the country to use.

Joe Tom McDonald, a member of the Richardson church, first noticed the need for a recording studio during a mission trip to Riga, Latvia, during the summer of 2002 as he led praise and worship seminars.

“I noticed that they were doing a lot of the same praise and worship songs we were doing–either in English, which they were obviously uncomfortable with, or translated into Latvian, and there was definitely something lost in the translation,” he said.

He believed the seminars had been helpful to the Latvians, but so much more needed to be done.

“I thought evangelism, as well as praise and worship, would be much more effective if they were hearing it in their own language, without going through the filter of English that lost much of the richness of their own language,” he recalled.

McDonald began to explore the possibility of putting together an association of Latvian Christian songwriters and singers and opening a recording studio. Last summer he returned to Latvia to begin pursuing that dream.

He discovered he was not the first person to realize the need for the recording studio. Talis Talsbergs, founder and president of a nationwide Christian radio station, had been trying for seven years to put together a recording studio, but he lacked the expertise and resources to make it happen.

“At that point where we found that all our thinking had come together and reached the same conclusion from two continents away, that was really affirming to me that God was in this,” McDonald said.

Seven members of First Baptist Church in Richardson–McDonald, J.R. and Joycelynn Torres, Tommy Weathersbee, William Lee, Arthur Benson and Renetta Montgomery–gave $12,000. That has been enough to begin construction on the building, but much more is needed to make the dream a reality.

To help spur the effort along, Talsbergs and Latvian Christian artist Valdis Indrisonoks recently made a trip to Richardson and performed there. While in the United States, they also met with various businessmen and toured American recording studios.

Construction has already began on the building that will house the recording studio in Latvia. Additional funds are needed to complete equipping the studio.

One man has pledged to match the first $25,000 raised for the project, “so the first $25,000 translates to $50,000,” J.R. Torres said.

Bridge Builders International, a missions group already at work in Latvia, is facilitating the construction. Talsbergs’ company, Vards & Co., will run the studio after it is completed.

While he has full confidence in the people in Latvia, McDonald said God could not have picked a more unlikely group of American counterparts as their partners. McDonald is a piano tuner, Torres is a carpenter, another team member is a banker and another is a salesman for an electric company.

“It’s kind of an unlikely group to try and put together a recording studio halfway around the world, but in every Bible story it seems God chooses unlikely people to fulfill his will,” McDonald pointed out.

In a Bible study last summer, the group found its biblical example. “Nehemiah prayed about everything he did, put his trust completely in the Lord and then went to work,” J.R. Torres said. “That’s what we’re trying to do.”

The religious make-up of Latvia is primarily Lutheran, Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox, but most Latvians do not participate in organized religion.

McDonald sees the faith of the Christians of the former Soviet republic as a great hope for the future. “When you hear the stories of what these people have endured and the danger they have faced, it is far more than we have endured. They are strong believers,” he said.

“The best way we felt like we could help them was to equip them to evangelize Latvians,” he continued.

“This project, this recording studio, has the potential to reach an entire nation–well not just the nation, but the entire Baltic region,” McDonald said.

The studio would be a great asset, Indrisonoks noted. “We are called ‘The Singing Nation,'” he said. “We have more than 2 million people, but more than 3 million national songs. We have more songs than people.”

The project is crucial, especially in reaching young people with the gospel, he added.

While many Latvians do not speak or understand English, about 85 percent of the music played on his 24-hour Christian music station is in English because Latvian music is largely unavailable, Talsbergs said.

“Every day I receive letters and phone calls asking me to please play more Latvian music, but I don’t have any more to play,” he said.

“We need good Christian, good quality Latvian music in our own language,” Indrisonoks said.

“This is a basic need.”

“There are so many talented Latvian musicians, and we need to open doors to them so they can record and play their music on the radio,” McDonald said.

J.R. Torres is just glad to be able to play a part.

“We’ve been given a front-row seat to watch God work. Our job is to just shut up and pray,” he said.

Posted: 3/05/04

Enrollment at BGCT schools mixed

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

Spring semester enrollment numbers at universities affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas are a mixed bag.

Of the seven liberal arts universities that have begun the spring semester, three have experienced enrollment increases, while four have declined. The one accredited Bible college, Baptist University of the Americas, notched a 51 percent increase in the total number of students.

Houston Baptist University is on a quarterly calendar, and its spring semester does not begin until March 8, HBU spokesperson Sharon Saunders said.

Baptist University of the Americas, until last year named Hispanic Baptist Theological School, registered 207 students this spring, compared to 137 in spring 2003.

Wayland Baptist University in Plainview grew 5.5 percent, with 936 students at its main campus, compared to 887 last year. Wayland has 12 other campuses that did not start the spring semester until Feb. 16, and enrollment figures are not yet available.

Dallas Baptist University posted a 3.5 percent increase, with 4,426 students this spring, compared to 4,275 in 2003. DBU has experienced growth for the past 15 years, according to a university news release.

Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene registered 35 more students this spring, for a 1.7 percent increase and a total of 2,155 students. It is the school's second-highest enrollment in the last 10 years.

Four universities had drops in enrollment.

The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton had nine fewer students, for a total of 2,437, a decrease of 0.4 percent.

However, the total number of full-time students increased. “We have an increase of nearly 500 credit hours this spring compared to last spring,” said Steve Theodore, vice president for enrollment.

Baylor University in Waco enrolled 12,815 students in the spring semester, a decrease of 426 students, or 3.2 percent. The decline is largely attributed to smaller entering classes in each of the last two fall semesters and a larger graduating class in December 2003, the university reported.

Baylor's enrollment includes 10,728 undergraduates, 1,202 graduate students, 353 students at George W. Truett Theological Seminary, 419 at Baylor Law School and 113 at the U.S. Army Academy of Health Sciences in San Antonio.

Howard Payne University in Brownwood registered 69 fewer students, with 1,266 enrolled, a decrease of 5.2 percent. Registrar Lana Wagner said HPU had a larger than normal graduating class in December.

East Texas Baptist University in Marshall registered 1,226 students in the spring, a decrease of 128 students, or 9.5 percent compared to last spring.

David Mohn, vice president for enrollment management and marketing, said the economy impacted the area of Texas where the school recruits most heavily, but he is encouraged about the future, since the university plans to move to a flat-rate guaranteed tuition.

Posted: 3/05/04

Court rules states can't be forced to fund religion

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)–The Supreme Court has ruled that, while the First Amendment may allow a state to fund scholarships to religious schools, it doesn't require all states to do so.

In their 7-2 Locke vs. Davey decision, the justices handed a major victory to supporters of strict church-state separation and a defeat to the Bush administration and other proponents of government funding for religious enterprises.

It pitted the state of Washington against one of its residents who was denied a state-funded college scholarship because he had chosen ministerial studies as his major.

The court ruled the state could deny Joshua Davey the scholarship by appealing to a section of its constitution that forbids indirect government funding of religious instruction.

The court's opinion cited the history of laws from around the country that explicitly forbid the imposition of taxes to pay for clerical salaries or training. The justices said Washington had a compelling state interest in maintaining that tradition.

“Given the historic and substantial state interest at issue, we therefore cannot conclude that the denial of funding for vocational religious instruction alone is inherently constitutionally suspect,” noted Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who wrote the majority's opinion.

In the case, Davey applied in 1999 for the state's Promise Scholarship Program, which provides state-funded tuition grants, or vouchers, to disadvantaged Washington students. The scholarships may be spent at any accredited Washington college, including religious ones.

Davey qualified for the scholarship and elected to spend it at Northwest College, a Seattle-area Bible college affiliated with the Assemblies of God. However, the state revoked the grant when Davey declared a double major that included pastoral ministries. State guidelines for the program permitted it to be spent at religious schools but not for pre-ministerial courses of study.

Davey then sued the state. Among other claims, he contended being denied the scholarship simply because he was training to be a pastor violated his First Amendment right to free exercise of religion.

In 2002, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of an Ohio program that provided vouchers for use in private schools, including religious ones. Justices decided that case on a 5-4 vote.

However, in the Davey case, the court was not deciding whether states may engage in funding religious scholarships, but whether they must.

The court disagreed with Davey's contention that Washington state displayed unconstitutional animus toward religion because it singled out students training for religious vocations for special disfavor. The justices said Washington has the right to treat ministerial training differently because the U.S. Constitution treats religion differently.

“The subject of religion is one in which both the United States and the state constitutions embody distinct views–in favor of free exercise, but opposed to establishment–that find no counterpart with respect to other callings or professions,” Rehnquist wrote. “That a state would deal differently with religious education for the ministry than with education for other callings is a product of these views, not evidence of hostility toward religion.”

However, Justice Antonin Scalia disagreed.

“Let there be no doubt: This case is about discrimination against a religious minority,” Scalia wrote in a dissenting opinion. He was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas.

The decision elated advocates of church-state separation.

“It is an extremely important and positive development in church-state law,” said Holly Hollman, general counsel for the Washington-based Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs. “I do think it is likely to have an impact on the current debates about vouchers and funding of religious charities.”

Hollman said another crucial aspect of the opinion was its strong endorsement of the idea that religion has a special constitutional role.

“One of the best things is that the court so soundly rejected the idea that to treat religion differently was the same as hostility toward religion,” she noted.

Posted: 3/05/04

Ministers turned away from schools during lunch break

By Erin Curry

Baptist Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)–A Kentucky school board has upheld its decision to prohibit ministers from visiting students at school during lunch, despite protests from a local church.

Pastors from Little Flock Baptist Church outside Louisville said for 17 years the school system had allowed students to request that their ministers eat lunch with them at school, but in January Bullitt County School Superintendent Michael Eberbaugh instructed schools to end the visits.

“The Kentucky Education Reform Act says our responsibility … is to mentor the children and provide good examples and leadership for them, and so that's what we were doing when we were at the schools,” said Zach Montroy, communications director at Little Flock.

“We weren't evangelizing, and we weren't passing out literature. We weren't praying with the students. We were … there to be their friends and mentors.”

The Bullitt County school system's policy states: “Students are not permitted to bring guests or visitors to school without permission from the principal.”

The ministers said they had been accustomed to signing in and out as visitors each time they had lunch with students.

“We cannot allow individuals to just sign themselves in anytime they want to,” said Layne Abell, school board chairman.

The church presented its case to the school board. After hearing the church's case, the school board called for a recess and then went into closed session. Members decided to uphold the superintendent's original decision to end the visits and added that only parents would be allowed to have lunch with their students, Montroy said.

“We've decided not to file a legal suit against the school board now because they've decided not to let anybody in schools,” Montroy said.

Posted: 3/05/04

Whistleblower tells chilling tale of ruin

By Sean Flynt

Samford University

BIRMINGHAM (ABP)–Avoid “the slow steps to disaster” that result in ethical failure, Enron whistleblower Sherron Watkins warned Samford University students.

Watkins, one of Time magazine's Persons of the Year in 2002, now speaks throughout the country, detailing the ethical failures underlying her former employer's spectacular collapse.

Watkins was for many years a high-flying accountant who traveled the world for Enron. But at age 42, with a 2-year-old daughter to consider, Watkins traded her glamorous position for what she thought would be quiet “back room” accounting jobs.

In her new position under Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow, Watkins discovered Enron account discrepancies in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

“The math didn't add up,” she said.

When Watkins questioned her colleagues about the discrepancies, they explained to her, “without a bit of alarm in their voices,” the complex and apparently fraudulent structures at the heart of the corporation.

Watkins approached Enron Chairman Ken Lay with what she thought was shocking news–unprecedented conflicts of interest had allowed Fastow, in particular, to create structures both within and outside of Enron that enriched himself and exposed the corporation to financial ruin and legal action.

Watkins now admits she placed too much trust in Lay. He opened an investigation into her charges, but she said that effort was a “whitewash,” intended only to find any fraud Enron executives weren't already aware of.

Later, as a witness before a U.S. Senate committee investigating the collapse of Enron, Watkins learned Lay had launched a parallel, but unsuccessful, investigation to find legal grounds to fire her before she talked to journalists or federal regulators.

Six weeks later, Enron was bankrupt, Watkins was on the way to fame as a whistleblower, and the company's former executives began their slow march toward indictment.

The conduct of former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling especially outraged Watkins.

Skilling served as CEO for less than a year before suddenly resigning, citing personal reasons as well as the disappointing performance of the company's stock, she explained. While some might call in sick, Skilling “called in rich” and walked away from the mess that would destroy the company soon after his departure.

Enron declared bankruptcy Dec. 2, 2001. The next day, 5,000 Enron employees learned they had received their last Enron paycheck and might lose their health insurance as well. Revelations that Enron executives had essentially looted Enron's coffers to cushion their own fall compounded their misery, Watkins said.

“Really, it created an angry mob,” Watkins said of the executives' betrayal of their employees. “When you're the captain of the ship, you're responsible for the crew.”

Skilling, for his alleged role in the fraud, “is headed for the handcuffed perp-walk any day now,” she told the Samford audience. Less than an hour later, Internet media outlets posted photographs of a handcuffed Skilling in the custody of federal agents.

Enron is gone, but the ethical questions it raised remain. Watkins worked for Enron eight years before being moved into a position where she could observe Enron's accounting fraud.

“How was I working for a company that had become so rotten?” she wondered.

Many Enron executives were considered good Christian people, she noted. Ken Lay is the son of a Baptist minister, and his own son is studying to enter the ministry. Andrew Fastow, recently sentenced to prison for his role in Enron's collapse, is a conservative Jew. But “the Bible is chock-full of good people doing the wrong thing,” she said.

The process of ethical ruin is not as straightfoward as approaching the edge of a cliff and deciding at the last moment whether or not to take that final, catastrophic step, Watkins said. She compared the process to walking down an ever-steeper slope that doesn't advertise its dangers until one has passed the point of no return.

“It's the slow steps to disaster we all must pay attention to,” she said. Even a relatively small ethical lapse–stealing a company pen or padding an expense account–“dulls your sense of right and wrong” and compromises one's willingness to speak out against more significant lapses.

Ultimately, Watkins said, corporate ethics depend upon the ethics of the individual.

“Don't fall for any group-think or rationalization that it's OK because its not you, it's your corporation,” she warned, adding that many lower-level employees are indicted long before high-profile executives are led away in handcuffs.

Watkins also urged the students to heed their personal ethical alarms and leave unethical employers before it becomes too late. When a corporation claims to value a code of ethics but rewards those who ignore that code, it's time to leave, she said.

On paper, Enron was at the “top of the list” in corporate ethics, she said. The Enron code of ethics was ever-present on posters and other daily reminders.

Posted: 3/05/04

CBF council proposes doubling BWA financial support next year

By John Pierce

Baptists Today

ATLANTA (ABP)–Cooperative Baptist Fellowship support for the Baptist World Alliance will double to $40,000 next year if the Fellowship's general assembly adopts the $16 million budget approved by its Coordinating Council.

The additional funds would make a slight dent in an anticipated funding gap for the BWA. Southern Baptist Convention messengers in June are expected to cut the final $300,000 in SBC funding for the worldwide Baptist organization.

The Fellowship's entrance into the BWA last year has been cited as a primary reason for the SBC's planned departure from the BWA.

The Fellowship also will attempt to narrow the funding gap by collecting a BWA offering at the general assembly, to be held in Birmingham, Ala., June 24-26.

The Fellowship council recommended that African-American pastor Emmanuel McCall of Atlanta join CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal as the Fellowship's representatives to the BWA.

“Our acceptance into the BWA wasn't in our strategic plan,” Vestal told the council. “But it seemed to be the right thing to do.”

CBF Moderator-elect Bob Setzer of Macon, Ga., is studying how the Fellowship can relate most effectively to the BWA, Vestal said. He also announced BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz will host a breakfast and breakout session during the general assembly.

The Fellowship's proposed 2004-05 budget is equal to its modified spending plan in place for 2003-04, reduced because of a shortfall last year.

Finance committee member Nelson Rodriguez of Fort Worth said revenues for the current year are expected to come in at $348,000 under the revised plan. He described the proposed 2004-05 budget as “conservative.”

Jim Strawn, CBF coordinator for finance, said an additional $3.7 million in designated funds will be spent during the next budget year, bringing total expenditures for 2004-05 to nearly $20 million.

In addition to doubling the funds to BWA, the 2004-05 budget calls for creating the position of associate coordinator in faith formation, plus increases of $150,000 for staff medical insurance, $100,000 for worker's compensation insurance and $100,000 in across-the-board salary upgrades–2 percent for professional staff; 3 percent for support staff.

The council also revised the position vacated when Reba Cobb resigned as resource center coordinator last year. The council approved a new job title–coordinator of administration–and a job description that removes some supervisory responsibilities.

The new job description calls for “overseeing the daily operations of the staff” and providing “direct supervision of administrative operations.” Coordinators who do not specifically relate to administrative services will report directly to Vestal.

Personnel committee Chair Elizabeth Barnes of Raleigh, N.C., described the position as “first among equals,” in that the new staff person would represent CBF in the absence of Vestal.

The proposed budget contains some additional changes from the current one, such as another reduction of funds for partner organizations–including Associated Baptist Press, Baptist Center for Ethics, Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, Baptists Today newsjournal and about a dozen institutions for theological education.

Missouri layman Charles Cantrell, chair of a committee studying relations with those partners, reported the committee's early work has been significant but “hard to quantify.” The committee has tried to define the broad use of the term “partner” in CBF life, he said.

The study committee held its third meeting in conjunction with the Feb. 19-20 council meeting and interviewed representatives of four partner organizations. The coordinating council, which proposed a 20 percent reduction in funding for Fellowship partners, created the study committee.

The council also affirmed a proposal to collaborate with state and regional Fellowship groups to increase support for the CBF Offering for Global Missions.

The plan uses the 2002-03 offering receipts as a numerical baseline. States or regions showing an increase over 2002-03 receipts would be entitled to use 10 percent of the increased amount to fund approved mission endeavors conducted by that state or regional Fellowship body.

The council also approved a recommendation to participate in a new ecumenical effort called Christian Churches Together.

Vestal, who participated in a related meeting in Texas earlier this year, called Christian Churches Together a noble and most ambitious ecumenical effort. The group includes evangelical denominations that have been reluctant to participate in the National Council of Churches.

The council affirmed efforts to continue discussions with leaders of the American Baptist Churches, USA, for an overlapping meeting in 2007 in Washington, D.C.

Posted: 3/05/04

Pressure mounts as Bush backs gay marriage ban

By Robert Marus & Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)–Ending months of silence and under increasing pressure, President Bush has announced he will support a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

However, he did not say if he would go so far as to support a measure that also outlaws marriage-like arrangements for same-sex couples nationwide–a ban some of his most conservative supporters favor.

“After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization,” Bush said.

“If we are to prevent the meaning of marriage from being changed forever, our nation must enact a constitutional amendment to protect marriage in America.”

Recent actions of “activist judges” as well as some local officials made support for an amendment necessary, Bush said. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in November that the state's constitution requires it to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The same court recently reaffirmed that decision.

On Feb. 12, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered municipal officials to begin granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples. More than 3,000 couples have been married since then. Officials in Sandoval County, N.M., soon followed suit.

Because of these developments, Bush has been under mounting pressure from many religious conservatives to support a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. They view the amendment as the only remedy to prevent the legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide.

While most polls show that a large majority of Americans oppose legalization of same-sex marriage, barely a majority support an amendment to outlaw it. Polls also suggest the question is far less important to most voters than the economy, national security and other issues.

Reaction to Bush's announcement was swift–and reflected society's polarization.

Conservative religious leaders applauded the president's announcement and agreed any other remedy is inadequate.

“The president was right on target when he said activist courts have left the American people no other recourse,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. “Nothing short of an amendment will protect the institution of marriage from an out-of-control judiciary.”

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said Bush “has now properly concluded that we have 'reached the last resort' in preserving the sanctity of marriage.”

Citing a survey that suggests 70 percent of Americans oppose same-sex marriage, Land said, “The only way the American people can make their voice heard on this issue is to avail themselves of the mechanism provided by the founding fathers, namely amending the United States Constitution.”

But liberal Christian leaders showed their displeasure with equal fervor.

“It's disturbing that our president would be willing to write discrimination into the Constitution of the United States,” said Laura Montgomery Rutt, spokesperson for the religious gay-rights group Soulforce. “We believe that the majority of fair-minded Americans–religious leaders and people of faith–do not support” amending the Constitution for such a purpose.

The president's support for banning gay marriage is a church-state issue, because “Bush is supporting one religion's view of marriage and putting it into a government document,” Rutt said. Because of that view, “you don't have to be in favor of gay marriage to oppose the amendment.”

Stan Hastey, leader of the Alliance of Baptists and a constitutional scholar, agreed. “My view is the Constitution should be amended only in the most extreme of circumstances when there is a national consensus that is clearly settled,” he said.

“Usually when hot-button issues like this come along, it is very rare when the Constitution has been amended quickly that there has been a good result,” Hastey said. He cited Prohibition as an example of a constitutional amendment that caused more harm than good.

Although Bush announced he supports an amendment banning gay marriage, he also noted any such amendment “should fully protect marriage, while leaving the state legislatures free to make their own choices in defining legal arrangements other than marriage.”

This would allow states to create legal arrangements for same-sex couples–such as civil unions–that grant most or all of the same benefits as marriage while reserving the term “marriage” itself for heterosexual unions.

Bush also did not mention the Federal Marriage Amendment by name in his comments. Currently assigned to committees in both houses of Congress, it would ban both gay marriage and “the legal incidents thereof” nationwide.

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) predicted the House could vote on the amendment by the end of the year.

Many of the amendment's supporters have said it would only prevent courts from forcing same-sex marriage on states. But most of its opponents and many mainstream legal scholars argue its language is ambiguous enough to ban civil unions and even overturn many domestic-partnership rights that states and municipalities have long granted to same-sex couples.

Meanwhile, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said he would favor a constitutional amendment to protect marriage if it allows for civil unions and attendant legal rights.

In a related development, about 70 of the nation's leading conservative religious leaders have signed a letter thanking Bush for his courage in endorsing the amendment.

The letter, dated Feb. 24, includes such names as Franklin Graham, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Land, Charles Colson, Tony Perkins and D. James Kennedy.

In addition to Land, the letter is signed by four other Southern Baptist leaders, including Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee.

Leaders from the Church of the Nazarene, Church of God (Holiness), Missionary Church, International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and International Pentecostal Holiness Church also signed it.

“Mr. President, we applaud your courage,” the letter reads. “There have been times in our history when presidents have been called upon to make difficult decisions to protect the balance of power in our government. Abraham Lincoln did this when he refused to recognize the constitutional precedent of the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision. We think you are making just such a stand in opposing what we view as runaway courts. Thank you … for doing what is right.”

The letter promises the leaders' support in pushing an amendment.

“We pledge to you that we will do everything in our power to inform and educate our constituents about the importance and urgency of this issue both for the preservation of the family in America as well as the right ordering of our government,” it reads. “We will speak on behalf of and to our communities, encouraging their fullest participation in what must be a great national debate to preserve the sanctity of marriage and representative government.”

The leaders also praised Bush for his leadership in preserving the traditional family.

Other Southern Baptists signing the letter are Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; Barrett Duke, vice president for public policy and research with the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; and Bob Reccord, president of the North American Mission Board.

Baptist Press also contributed to this story