Posted: 11/05/04

Louisiana College violated accrediting body's
standards and internal policies, study says

PINEVILLE, La. (ABP)–Citing “a general climate of fear” and “pervasive mistrust” among faculty, administrators and trustees, a special team of investigators has concluded Louisiana College violated principles of academic freedom and proper board governance.

The report came from a specially appointed study team from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, sent to investigate several recent controversies over academic freedom and other issues at the Louisiana Baptist institution. The study concluded the school had violated both standards set by the regional accrediting body and its own stated college policies in several areas.

“The committee concluded, based upon extensive interviews … that a significant portion of the board of trustees of Louisiana College are influenced if not controlled by the agenda of the Louisiana Inerrancy Fellowship and the Louisiana Baptist Convention,” the report stated.

The study team said an agenda from the group–established as a political movement within the Louisiana Baptist Convention–had unduly influenced the board's work.

Among the controversies on campus were two policies that many professors said violated academic freedom–a 2003 move to require prior approval of class texts and materials by administrators and a more recent action involving a board committee more closely in academic hiring and requiring new faculty hires to be in agreement with the Southern Baptist Convention's 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement.

Posted: 11/05/04

Voters in 11 states approve bans on same-sex marriage

WASHINGTON (ABP)–Opponents of same-sex marriage got a clean sweep in the Nov. 2 elections, with voters in 11 states–from Michigan to Oregon and from Georgia to North Dakota–passing constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage.

Most of the proposals carried by large margins, according to the most recent figures available. In Mississippi, voters passed their state's ban by an 86-to-14 percent margin. In several other states–Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, North Dakota and Oklahoma–similar bans passed by margins of about three to one.

The amendments in Utah and Montana passed by 66-to-34 percent in each state. Even in Michigan and Oregon–states carried by Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry–similar bans passed by wide margins (59 to 41 percent in Michigan's case, and 57 to 43 percent in Oregon's).

Some observers thought the vote might be closer in Ohio, where the proposal was denounced by the state's Republican governor and its two Republican senators.

They said it would make the state vulnerable to economic boycotts because it not only banned marriage but also any other legal arrangements designed to protect same-sex couples.

Nonetheless, it passed by a 62-to-38 percent margin.

Mitch Daniels, president of the Washington-based Alliance For Marriage, called the results “a democratic tidal wave in the states in favor of marriage.”

But “the real big picture is: This is essentially a political dress rehearsal for the national phase, which is about to begin,” he added, noting that gay-rights activists have already promised to challenge the state amendments in federal court.

Which is why, Daniels said, opponents of gay marriage should work again to pass a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Such an amendment failed in both the House and the Senate earlier this year.

But that might change, he said, now that there is a slightly more conservative Congress–and what conservatives are viewing as a new mandate for Bush.

“We've got the Senate leadership. We've got the House leadership as stronger than ever,” he said. “Ultimately, if we get our marriage amendment out of Congress, it's going to fly through the states.”

A statement released Nov. 3 by the Human Rights Campaign–a gay-rights advocacy group–pointed to exit-polling data showing that a large majority of Americans support either same-sex marriage or civil unions.

The polls showed that, while only 25 percent of voters supported gay marriage, another 35 percent supported other legal arrangements for same-sex couples. Thirty-seven percent opposed any legal recognition for gay partners.

Of the 35 percent who supported civil unions but not marriages for gays, a 52-to-47 percent majority actually voted for Bush.

Despite the support for civil unions indicated in the poll, most of the state anti-gay-marriage amendments that passed Nov. 2 also banned such unions. Besides Ohio, the amendments in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Utah outlawed civil unions or similar arrangements.

Controversial sanctity-of-life issues were weighed by voters in two states Nov. 2, with Californians approving funding for stem-cell research and Floridians requiring parental notification before a minor can get an abortion. Both measures passed easily.

In California, voters established a stem-cell research group, called the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, that will distribute up to $3 billion over the next 10 years to fund research, which many scientists believe can produce new treatments and therapies to combat degenerative diseases such as muscular dystrophy and Parkinson's.

The measure, Proposition 71, passed 59 percent to 41 percent.

The funding, which will come from state bonds, will pay for research that has not been eligible for government money since 2001, when President Bush limited federal spending on human embryonic stem-cell research to cell lines already in existence. The creation of new cell lines involves the destruction of days-old human embryos. Most biomedical researchers believe the number of stem-cell lines available under Bush's order are inadequate to produce the promised breakthroughs.

The conservative Family Research Council decried the decision, claiming research funds will be used for human cloning and the destruction of human embryos.

“As a country, we cannot afford to let this type of egregious disregard for human life to become common and accepted practice,” said FRC President Tony Perkins.

Peter Van Etten, president of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, hailed the California decision but warned it will not be enough.

“Today's developments in California are very promising for the field of stem-cell research, but for the field to realize its true potential it needs the full support of the federal government,” he said.

Voters in Florida amended the state's constitution to require notification of the parent or guardian of a minor before an abortion can be performed.

The state legislature will be required to provide exemptions and create a process for waiving notification if approved by a judge. The amendment won 65 percent to 35 percent, with 99 percent of precincts reporting Nov. 3.

Florida Baptists lobbied heavily in favor of the parental-notification measure.

“Praise God for almost 5 million Florida voters who understand that parents have the responsibility to care for their children during difficult situations like unplanned pregnancy,” said Kathleen Hiers, director of sanctity of human life issues for the Florida Baptist Children's Homes, which supported the ballot measaure.

“I am thankful for the protection this will provide for young women facing the life-changing decisions related to parenting, adoption placement or abortion,” she said.

Compiled from reports by Greg Warner and Rob Marus of Associated Baptist Press and Trennis Henderson of the Kentucky Western Recorder.

Posted: 11/05/04

Posted: 11/05/04

Missouri Baptist Convention files new suits
against five agencies than changed charters

By Vicki Brown

Missouri Word & Way

RAYTOWN, Mo. (ABP)–On the same day it opened its 170th annual session, the Missouri Baptist Convention filed new legal action against five related agencies.

Attorneys for the convention filed a declaratory judgment action against the Baptist Home, Missouri Baptist University, Windermere Baptist Conference Center, the Missouri Baptist Foundation and the Word & Way newsjournal in an effort to void new charters the institutions filed in 2000 and 2001. Charter changes allow the five entities to elect their own trustees rather than to allow the convention to continue to do so.

The convention first filed a declaratory judgment action against the five entities on Aug. 13, 2002, in 19th Judicial District Circuit Court in Cole County. The convention's Executive Board and six convention-related churches were plaintiffs in that lawsuit.

In March, Judge Thomas Brown dismissed the action on the grounds that the Executive Board and the six churches did not have standing–the legal right–to file the action. Currently, the convention is appealing that ruling in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City.

The new legal action, filed in the same circuit court, names the Missouri Baptist Convention and five individual messengers, rather than churches, as plaintiffs. The five individuals were included as plaintiffs because each has served as a messenger to annual meetings since 1999 and each has been or is a convention-elected trustee for one of the five institutions.

According to court documents, the convention asks the court to declare that the convention and the five individuals have standing to bring the action. The convention also asks the court to declare the convention's right to elect trustees, that current convention-elected trustees are each agency's only authorized trustees, and that the convention has the right to approve amendments to the institutions' charters.

The Missouri Baptist Convention seeks to have the court declare the amendments to each charter as unlawful and void and the authorized charters as legally enforceable by the convention.

The convention seeks the return of some assets from the entities and a monetary award to cover its court costs and attorneys' fees.

Posted: 11/05/04

Ethnic 'niche' Bible study groups attract university students

By Amanda Mantone

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–At the Word Up! Bible Study in George Washington University's student center, dozens of students surrender their Thursday nights–the biggest “party night” of the GW week–to worshipping God.

The members are a tight-knit group, counting each other as close friends in this large university. Like many evangelical groups on secular college campuses, Word Up! has blossomed in recent years, attracting new members–but mostly among black students.

Some white and Asian students attend the weekly meetings, and Word Up! is trying to attract even more. But since its formation in 1997, Word Up! has catered mostly to the university's African-American population, and a recent growth spurt hasn't changed that.

“As people, we tend to float to people who we're like,” said LeeAnn Willis, president of Word Up! “I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but the problem comes when you only go to that one group. We know that in God's community he doesn't want it to be like that, so we've been trying to break out of those barriers that say, 'This is the black one, this is the white one,' and recognize that we're all Christians first.”

The group is part of a nationwide phenomenon that has students drifting away from large Christian fellowships and gravitating toward new “niche” groups catering to their interests, age or ethnicity.

It's only the latest outgrowth of the expanding “evangelical movement” on American college campuses. Bible studies target the football team, sorority sisters and fraternity brothers, and different racial and ethnic groups. Some of the largest national Christian organizations reach out to these groups in an effort to modernize and coordinate Christianity with the diverse lives of today's God-seeking students.

“Until you focus on a specific market, you never really have success there. It's all the more specific groups on campus,” said Andy Dalton, director of Greek Ministry for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. “Whether it be ethnic groups or graduate students, there's a strong push toward putting a high value on community instead of a strong individual.”

The Intervarsity Greek Ministry is active on more than 40 campuses, with many new chapters. Dalton said it started because Greek students felt stigmatized and unwelcome in mainstream Christian fellowships, so they–like many other “minority” Christian groups–decided to form their own.

Most students agree that such diversity is leading to attempts at unity between groups instead of divisiveness. But some professors say enabling students to make all their social connections through tailored religious groups may be problematic at secular universities, where students run a risk of appearing too exclusive–reinforcing stereotypes that Christian groups are cultish or extremist in a time when evangelicals should be fighting for greater integration into university life.

As “evangelical students are getting toward a majority of college students, and they're having their worldview shaped and friendships made outside the classroom, it won't be too long before they won't be granting the faculty or classroom much authority at all,” said Stephen Webb, professor of religion and philosophy at Wabash College in Indiana.

“You'll lose a large percentage of the student body who will have their primary sense of learning and loyalty outside the college. How strong of alumni are they going to be? And what about the social cohesiveness of the university, or creating a campus environment where everyone belongs? We need to have more open dialogue with evangelical students.”

Webb said colleges are choosing to ignore the burgeoning evangelical population because most faculty are traditionally liberal and consider Christianity “anti-intellectual.”

Christian college life was once dominated by more mainline Protestant groups–Methodists, Presbyterians–and university chaplain boards reflected that, he noted.

But mainline denominations are losing allegiance among students as evangelicals grow, and schools are turning a blind eye.

“Evangelicals have gone from being the subset of Christianity on college campuses to being the main group. That's changing the student body dramatically, and we're not keeping pace,” Webb said. “I think there's a huge shift going on here that faculty and colleges are not prepared for. ”

Part of the problem is that schools have a misguided view of Christianity, leaving evangelical students marginalized by students and faculty, Willis said.

“People are very scared of the whole evangelical movement. They think we're Bible-thumpers. We do get a bad reputation,” she said. “But we don't try to be fake or make you do anything you don't want to do. I see it as something people are maybe afraid of, and they're operating on stereotypes.”

And Christians, by limiting their friendships and extra-curricular activities to specialized religious circles, may share some of the blame.

“There's lots of suspicion of evangelicals, that they're manipulative and sneaky. Some (Christians) probably don't know how to articulate their message in a pluralistic way,” said John Schmalzbauer, professor of sociology at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.

“Evangelicals are getting better at this, but they need to understand how to have a conversation with, say, a Buddhist.”

Ultimately, Webb said, secular schools will have to include evangelicals in their definition of diversity–or watch one of the largest sectors of the college population be ostracized and disengaged from university life.

“There's real tension there–faculty need to retool and rethink. Their understanding of Christianity is so out of sync with what's going on in America, it's appalling. We need to be able to understand what's going on on our campuses. We can learn about these students, and it's going to be a huge missed opportunity if that doesn't happen,” Webb said.

“Ten years ago, when evangelicals started to grow, people said, 'It won't last.' It's not a trend anymore; now it's reality. Let's face it.”

Posted: 11/05/04

Young Brownwood woman adopts
African lifestyle to share Christian faith

By Gloria Douglas

Special to the Baptist Standard

Faith Scarbrough of Brownwood has “gone African.”

For almost two years, the Texas Baptist woman from Brownwood has lived in Torodi, Niger, in West Africa. She has worked with the Zerma people as a journeyman missionary with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board.

When Scarbrough's missionary friends in Niger describe her as having “gone African,” they mean she lives like her Zerma friends.

She has no electricity except from 4 p.m. until midnight and on market day. Her friend, Lobe, who lives within her walled yard, cooks for her, so she eats native food. She speaks the language and dresses as the Zerma do. She endures the heat and sleeps outside under the stars and mosquito netting on a stick bed, enduring termite migrations, frog choruses and the numerous calls to prayer from the local mosque.

“Going African” is actually a good thing, Scarbrough believes.

In adopting the lifestyle, she is more comfortable in the arid, desert environment. It has allowed her to develop a relationship with her neighbors. When walking through Torodi, many call out to her.

People know she is virtually the only white American in town. But more than that, they know she is a Christian. After two years, her faith is widely known.

This fall, Scarbrough returns to her home in Brownwood. She is not sure what she will do, but she's not worried. She says God will reveal his will for her.

Scarbrough and the rest of the Zerma team–three career couples and one journeyman–say that even though the results are slow to occur from their efforts, God is at work among the Muslims of Niger.

Posted: 11/05/04

Albert Reyes

Reyes offers suggestions for dealing with
pastor shortage in Hispanic congregations

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

One Hispanic Texas Baptist congregation out of six lacks a pastor, but Albert Reyes refuses to believe it's because God isn't calling enough people into ministry.

“I don't think that there is a shortage of Hispanic ministers who are being called at this time,” said Reyes, president of Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio.

Paying the pastor can be a challenge for some churches, he acknowledged, but most Hispanic pastors are bivocational.

“And this is something that should be affirmed and celebrated,” he added.

The key to solving the pastor shortage in Hispanic churches is discovering and nurturing leaders, both among youth and among new converts, Reyes insisted.

“I am not aware of a BGCT strategy for leadership development that addresses the growing need for Hispanic ministry leaders other than its current focus on Baptist University of the Americas,” said Reyes, current BGCT first vice president and expected nominee for state convention president.

He noted his institution has 185 ministry students enrolled at its San Antonio campus and more than 500 in Baptist Bible institutes in Texas, Alabama and Mexico this semester.

“I strongly believe that the BGCT will make a wise investment in the future by planning now how to develop Hispanic ministry leaders for the next 10 years.”

Baptist University of the Americas and the BGCT Strategic Evangelism Center's ethnic evangelism office have planned a youth leadership summit for Hispanic young people who feel called into ministry, he noted.

He also hopes all BGCT-affiliated schools will focus attention on developing young Hispanic ministry leaders.

“Youth ministers are another strategic resource for identifying emerging leaders,” Reyes noted.

“One of the best things the BGCT can do is to gather Hispanic youth ministers and leaders together to create strategies for identifying, affirming and equipping emerging Hispanic ministry leaders.”

Reyes also wants to challenge churches to call out leaders from among their own congregations, looking particularly at the potential of new Christians.

“I believe that the leaders are found in the harvest,” he said.

“As we invigorate our evangelistic and church-planting efforts, we will find that the harvest holds many who could serve as ministry leaders given the calling, training and education.”

Pointing to his own experience, Reyes advises Hispanic congregations: “The next pastor of your church may not know the Lord right now. … After all, I came out of the harvest, too.”

Posted: 11/05/04

Isolation, economics make it hard
to find pastors in some rural areas

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

More than eight in 10 pastorless churches affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas average 100 or less in Sunday school attendance.

Economics and isolation make it hard for many of those churches to find–and keep–pastors, said Bob Ray, director of BGCT bivocational and small-church development.

Churches in some rural areas where the population is dwindling need to rethink whether they can afford a fully supported pastor who lives in the community, he observed. They might consider calling a student or bivocational minister.

“The problem is they may see that as taking a step backward,” Ray said. “They need help in looking at it as doing things in a different way, not seeing it as less than first class.”

In particularly isolated areas where job opportunities are scarce, churches may need to allow a pastor to live somewhere other than in the immediate community, he added.

That relates closely to another new way of thinking Ray tries to promote in rural churches. He firmly believes most congregations define their church field too narrowly–particularly in communities where residents are used to driving an hour from home to shop.

“How far will people drive to shop at Wal-Mart?” he asks. “That's how far they may be willing to drive to church.”

At Fairy Baptist Church in Hamilton Baptist Association, where Ray is pastor, “There are only 63 human beings within a three-mile radius around us. … But people will drive 35 miles to Stephenville to shop. And we have regular, active members from up to 35 miles away.”

Ray urges small, rural churches to define their church fields in terms of the reach of their members' relationships, and to develop a particular niche ministry.

“For us, our niche ministry is youth,” he said. “The average age in our church is about 25. We have more youth than adults. But by working on our niche, it enables us to relate to other people, like the parents of those youth.”

Posted: 11/05/04

Busy preachers face temptation to
plagiarize ready-to-preach sermons

By Grace Thornton

Alabama Baptist

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP)– Megachurch pastor Rick Warren may fill the pulpit of your church this Sunday morning. Actually, he might have been there before too. The question is, did you recognize him?

Warren's sermons–and those of other well-known preachers–are available for the buying in books and on websites such as SermonNotes.com. And pastors increasingly are turning to pre-written material to upgrade their sermons from tired to inspired.

“Whether pastors are pressed for time or feeling the need to preach a 'Cadillac sermon,' the practice is becoming a common phenomenon,” said Robert Smith, professor of Christian preaching at Beeson Divinity School.

But with instant improvement available at the click of a mouse, pastors are faced with the temptation to take sermon swapping one step too far, Smith said. Some pastors preach the material nearly verbatim without giving credit to the authors.

“It's a matter of integrity, and using the work of others as his own robs a pastor of integrity and personal growth,” Smith said.

It also can cause a pastor to lose his profession. Last spring, Robert Hamm stepped down as senior pastor of Keene United Church of Christ in Keene, N.H., after admitting to plagiarizing full sermons, Religion News Service reported.

No preacher needs to reinvent the wheel or create information from scratch, Smith said, but researching, processing and assimilating are part of the spiritual growth process.

“It is not necessary for a pastor to manufacture new material, but it is wrong to take others' material without citing the source,” he said.

A pastor's job is to spend time with God and with Scripture, said Clint Pressley, senior pastor of Dauphin Way Baptist Church in Mobile, Ala.

“I think that if you are using someone else's sermon as your own, you are not only cheating yourself; you are cheating your people.”

Though Pressley is not against being well read, he said preaching is a personal event and should overflow from a pastor's personal spiritual life.

“It's hard to infuse passion into something that didn't emerge from your own personality,” he said.

Pressley noted that researching others' work correctly for background, then fleshing it out with personal experiences and insights, can keep the spirit of sharing alive for some pastors.

Others, he said, move past help with preparation into plagiarism and disaster, as did Glenn Wagner, pastor of Calvary Church in Charlotte, N.C., Pressley's hometown. Wagner resigned in September after admitting to the congregation that discouragement and depression had led him to plagiarize sermons for the last two years.

What makes a pastor turn to ready-to-read sermons?

“Pastors are expected to be everything, everywhere, all the time,” Pressley said. “They are stretched in lots of directions, and often it is hard to carve out time to study.”

Preparing to preach, opening the Bible and waiting to hear from God is a waning practice, he said.

Jay Wolf, pastor of First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala., said the Internet can be an excellent tool if used correctly and simply as a part of the sermon-developing process.

“Plagiarism, camouflaging or masquerading is never appropriate. It is certainly wrong to take other people's material and experiences and pretend they are your own,” Wolf said.

But in a world that's increasingly media-driven, it becomes more and more difficult to be completely original on approaches to the Scripture.

The key, Wolf said, is “to dress the same truths in new clothes that connect to the fresh needs of people.”

Mixing personal experiences with knowledge gleaned from outside sources makes a pastor a more effective communicator and avoids compromising his integrity, Wolf said.

“Sermons are like recipes,” he said.

“It's like making homemade fried chicken. You start with a basic recipe, but what makes yours so good is the ingredients only you can add.”

Posted: 11/05/04

When the preacher confesses, people listen, Miller insists

By George Henson

Staff Writer

NEW BRAUNFELS–Three points and a poem may offer a familiar formula for preachers, but it may not be the best way to reach the person in the pew, noted preacher and professor Calvin Miller recently said.

“I never advocate three-point sermons,” said Miller, speaking at Oakwood Baptist Church in New Braunfels at an event sponsored by Bluebonnet Baptist Association. “It's easier to jam three points into the text rather than saying what the passage itself is really saying.

“Besides, people can't remember three things, and you can't preach on three things with equal intensity, so why not pick one.”

One of the most important things a sermon must do is hold the attention of the congregation, he said. Miller suggests using visual aids–and it doesn't hurt to keep those hidden for a bit.

“Boxes and bags are great,” he said. “No matter how boring you are, you are going to hold their attention–at least until you open the bag.”

Knowing that the preacher is a real person who has experienced the trials of life also is a step toward being heard, Miller said. Paul's “thorn of the flesh” was what made the Apostle Paul believable to his hearers, he said.

“If you can manage to bleed with them, you will never want for job security,” he said.

Many preachers may have been taught to leave themselves out of their illustrations, but Miller disagreed.

“The strongest kind of preaching is confessional,” he said. “When you confess, people listen.”

But “there is a limit to how far you unzip the viscera,” he added. Never confess to more people than you have wronged, Miller said.

He also cautioned against falling victim to the “sin-as-entertainment syndrome,” where the sin takes center stage instead of the grace of God.

That goes for guest speakers as well.

“We Baptists have a habit of paying people big bucks for dirty rotten stories,” something Miller believes can put the emphasis on the wrong part of the sin equation.

Another of the tips Miller offered the preachers was: “make every sermon an apocalypse. … Save something back for the end. … Help them see something they have seen before.”

“It's not how well you explain anything; it's how well you help them experience the mystery of God,” he said.

Preachers need to learn audience analysis, Miller said. “Figure out who these people are, what they will hear and how they will hear it.”

That becomes even more crucial for pastors who have a long tenure with the same congregation, he said.

“Churches are not the same from Sunday to Sunday. Things happen between Sundays. Your job is to figure out what those things are and how it affected them,” Miller said.

Part of that is done through “the speech before the speech–what you say before you get to what you wrote down,” Miller said.

Relate back to current events that have affected members of the body, he suggested.

Preachers have to connect with people to be effective, he said.

“If you don't keep your humanity, you can't do much,” he said. “People listen to preachers they like–and they want to know that you internalize what you tell them.”

It is important for congregations to know the preacher doesn't just believe his sermon, but lives it out.

Narrative preaching is the key to reaching many people, Miller suggested. It has visual component that paints a picture in people's minds that they can relate to and hold on to.

Preachers should use both components of telling a story, however–plot and character.

Plot, he suggested, is easier. It simply tells what happened. He offered the story of the Good Samaritan–we know little detail about him, whether he was short, tall, bald, overweight are not disclosed.

Adding that detail or character is harder for most preachers, Miller said, and it is important that it not detract from the truth of Scripture.

But storytelling can be a way to offer up truth in a way that it sticks with the hearer.

“Storytelling scratches an itch everyone has,” he said. “It is the barb that snags the three-minute attention span of modern churchgoers.”

Miller pointed out that a movie theater is filled with people of varying ages, races, income levels and backgrounds, but all are drawn to the telling of a story.

When preaching, Miller said, he makes a manuscript, but he only carries an outline to the pulpit. “I don't believe in read sermons. Talk to your people; have a conversation–but don't read to them.”

Going against a popular trend, Miller said he also would counsel against providing outlines to the congregation or putting an outline of the sermon up on a screen.

“If they are writing, they have to take their eyes off your eyes–it weakens the sermon. When it comes to the point of making a decision, it's a lot more likely if they haven't been writing. That's what I believe,” he said.

He also told pastors to consider using metaphor over alliteration, just as Jesus did.

Ending the story or sermon on an upbeat also is important, Miller said.

“When Jesus walked out of the tomb, he stamped a happy ending on the story. If you don't put the happy ending onto the story, you haven't preached the whole gospel.”

Posted: 11/05/04

TBM Retiree Builders remodel three British
churches to meet accessibility requirements

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

Volunteers with Texas Baptist Men Retiree Builders recently built up English Baptist ministry by remodeling three church buildings.

Eight retiree builder couples split into three groups to tackle the needs of northern England Baptist churches. One team remodeled the kitchen of Hamsterly Baptist Church, one of England's oldest Baptist congregations, and replaced windows. The volunteers also remodeled the floor of the church's parsonage.

The other two teams created handicap accessible bathrooms in Easington Colliery Baptist Church and Berwick Hills Baptist Church.

At Easington, that meant converting a room to a bathroom. At Berwick Hills, volunteers remodeled an existing bathroom.

The construction is critical to the work of those congregations, said George Shafer, who directed the construction teams. Public buildings without handicapped accessible bathrooms were to be shut down Oct. 1.

Shafer said he was glad the Texans could keep the churches' doors open. More than that, he was glad to see the construction draw new attention to the congregations.

As the Texas volunteers served, members of the local towns joined them. Since they left, residents stop by the church to see what the Texans did. Attendance has increased in the churches, and people are interested in the congregation's activity.”

This project “was to help our fellow Christians in England,” said Shafer, a member of First Baptist Church in New Braunfels.

“It helps spread the word of God. It encourages them, and we get a great blessing, but it's all about the glory of God.”

The effort may have longer effects, since leaders of the Northern Baptist Association in England are investigating ways to send representatives to Texas to see how to start their own retiree builders effort.

Posted: 11/05/04

Evidence shows plague of slavery persists in northwest Africa

By Elizabeth Bryant

Religion News Service

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (RNS)–In the rigid caste system of her Kunta tribe, Ghoive Mint Sabahr knew her place.

From dawn to dusk, she tended cattle and goats on the sandy plains of central Mauritania. School was a luxury for privileged children. Once a year, her owners–nomadic Moors belonging to the upper echelons of the tribe–gave Sabahr a new veil or dress. Just about every- other day, she says, she was beaten.

“I thought being a slave was completely normal, that this was a rational situation,” recalled the 26-year-old woman, now free and living in Nouakchott.

Technically, slavery has been outlawed three times in this northwest African country, most recently in 1981. Mauritania's Islamic government denies it exists beyond rare exceptions. But reports by human rights groups and former slaves like Sabahr suggest otherwise.

“There's a tacit acceptance of slavery here, out of shame or out of convenience, which must be denounced,” said Boubacar Messaoud, head of SOS Slaves, a Nouakchott-based advocacy group dedicated to eliminating chattel slavery in Mauritania. “A society that cannot look itself in the face cannot advance.”

From her new home in the capital, Sabahr described a lonely, arduous childhood. Her mother ran away when she was an infant. Her sisters were sent to serve other families. So unquestioned was her bondage, Sabahr said, that her master once identified her as a slave to a government census taker.

Stories like Sabahr's are difficult to verify independently. But reports of bondage continue to haunt a number of Saharan nations straddling the Arab and African worlds, where slavery flourished long before the transatlantic trade in humans.

Sudan, where the government also has denied slavery allegations, offers the most extreme example of long-standing injustices that have exploded into violence–first, in a years-long civil war pitting an Arab north against a black-African south, and more recently in Darfur.

But African analysts and human rights advocates point to examples like Niger and Chad, where rigid caste systems based on color, religion or ethnicity quietly persist. Mauritania, a desert nation of 2.7 million people, invariably is cited as a top offender.

“Mauritania and Sudan are probably the worst cases of slavery,” said Tommy Calvert, chief of external operations for the Boston-based American Anti-Slavery Group. “You're talking about chattel slavery, handed down from generation to generation.”

Arabs and Berbers who invaded this land centuries ago forced many indigenous Africans into bondage.

Intermixing has since blurred skin colors, but ethnic Arabs still are known as White Moors, and they dominate the government, army and private sector. Haratines, or black Africans, remain at the bottom of the social and economic heap.

Still, defining slavery, much less its prevalence here, is a matter of dispute. Mauritania's government claims reports of involuntary servitude are exaggerated, and describes a raft of educational and poverty-alleviation programs targeting its Haratine population.

“There are many opportunities for rapid, government-assisted advancement of the descendants of former slaves,” said Kemal Mohamedou, a diplomat at the Mauritanian Embassy in Washington.

In e-mailed remarks, he noted a number of governmental officials, including the country's prime minister, are descendants of slaves.

Washington–which has forged close ties with Mauritania's authoritarian president, Maaoya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya, in the fight against terrorism–also cites only “vestiges” and “consequences” of slavery in a human rights report.

But a number of critics assert that while examples of classic slavery have dwindled, new forms of bondage remain as deeply destructive and entrenched in Mauritanian society.

“We haven't noticed any change,” said Adotei Akwei, African advocacy director for the U.S. chapter of human rights advocate Amnesty International, which wrote a scorching report on slavery in Mauritania two years ago.

In some cases, ex-slaves pay former owners with crops and other forms of remittances, activists say. Others continue to live with their former masters long after they are technically freed.

“Slaves cry when their masters die,” Messaoud of SOS Slaves said. “That's all they have–their masters and God.”

Sghaira Mint Tesh only has bitter memories. Like Sabahr, Tesh describes days of drudgery and beatings, working for a family of light-skinned Moors in southern Mauritania. When her master's daughter married, she was sent to live in the new household. But her old owner continued to stalk her, she said.

“He would follow me when I left the village to care for the animals,” said Tesh, an ethnic African in her 20s. “He asked for sex. When I refused, he would hit me. Then he would rape me.”

She pointed to her infant and to two small children, standing shyly by the door of her tiny Nouakchott home. “Those are his,” she said.

In 2002, Tesh ran away from her owners. Clutching her two children and pregnant with a third, she walked and walked. Eventually she came into contact with anti-slavery activists, who helped her start a new life in Nouakchott.

While the government toughened anti-slavery laws last year, critics say it rarely enforces them. Few cases ever wind up in Mauritanian courts, said lawyer Mohamed Ahmed El Hadj Sidi. Sidi comes from a family of slave owners. Today, he represents ex-slaves, pro bono.

“The government tries to settle the problem quietly because they don't want a judicial decision recognizing there is slavery,” Sidi said. “And the victims rarely file charges because they don't know their rights.”

Sabahr also fled in early 2003, ultimately finding refuge with an uncle in Nouakchott. Now she is married to another ex-slave.

From their one-room, cement-block home in the city's ramshackle outskirts, the couple is slowly piecing together a new life. But they do not consider themselves entirely free.

“Even my current work is a form of slavery,” said Sabahr's husband, Bilal Ould Samba, a mason.

“We're badly paid. We're exploited.”

As Sabahr nursed her infant son, her husband smiled bitterly.

“For me,” he said, “freedom doesn't exist.”