Posted: 10/01/04

BaptistWay Bible Series for Oct. 17

Paul was faithful in ministry despite hardships

2 Corinthians 6:1-13; 7:2-4

By Todd Still

Truett Seminary, Waco

In last week's lesson, 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 was considered–a text centered upon Paul's ambassadorial role as a minister of reconciliation. Paul was convinced God had given him a reconciliatory ministry and entrusted him with the message that “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself” (5:18-19).

In the passages this week, Paul reflects further upon his apostolic ministry with special reference to the Corinthians. At this point in the letter, the apostle appeals to his own afflictions and affections as well as to his personal character and commitments in an effort to reinforce his recipients in the faith and in their relationship with him.

As one who works with God in reconciling people to God through Christ, Paul enjoins the assembly not to compromise their received faith. He does not want the grace of God they have embraced to be rendered inoperative in their lives (6:1). To iterate their need to act with all due diligence and allegiance to God's kindness made manifest in Christ, Paul cites Isaiah 49:8. The apostle employs this text not only to underscore God's mercy, but also to call the Corinthians to renew their commitment to the gospel. All deferring and delaying will be tantamount to disobedience (6:2).

If the church were impeded in responding positively to the message Paul proclaimed, he insists his ministry is not to blame. Paul contends he had not placed an obstacle in anyone's path (6:3). To support his claim that he is a commendable servant of God, Paul emphasizes his “great endurance” in the face of undefined “afflictions, hardships and calamities” as well as external opposition (“beatings, imprisonments and riots”) and personal exhaustion and deprivation (“labors, sleepless nights and hunger”) (6:4-5).

Paul was intimately acquainted with the spiritual progression he would later articulate in his letter to the Romans–“affliction produces endurance” and “endurance produces character” (5:3-4). Having listed nine illustrative hardships in 6:4-5, Paul notes in 6:6-7 eight virtues that characterize and thus commend his ministry. His ministerial service was marked by moral purity or integrity, knowledge or understanding, patience or forbearance, and kindness.

Moreover, Paul's apostolic work was conducted “in the Holy Spirit” (or less likely, in my view, “in holiness of spirit”), “in sincere love,” “in truthful speech” and “in the power of God.” At the conclusion of 6:7, the apostle indicates he did not enter the “ministerial combat zone” unarmed; rather, he was fully armed by God's righteousness so that he might withstand spiritual onslaughts and prevail in spiritual battle.

The contrast with which 6:7 concludes (right hand/left hand) is followed by two additional contrasting pairs in 6:8 and then by seven antithetical clauses in 6:8-10.

The end of verse 8 suggests that while some regarded Paul as honorable and reputable, others considered him to be dishonorable and without repute. Furthermore, people responded to the apostle as an obscure imposter and as a well-known, trustworthy messenger. The contrasts continue in 6:9-10, where Paul juxtaposes dying with living, punishment with being killed, sorrow with rejoicing, poverty with wealth and the possession of nothing with having everything. Such an incongruous existence would reduce most people to a confused, if not crazed, state, but not so with Paul. Ironically, he regarded the paradox and disparity that typified his ministry to be a seal of its authenticity. Paul knew well another who was a man of sorrows and well acquainted with grief.

On the heels of a riveting description of his apostolic ministry, Paul speaks directly to the Corinthians. He indicates he has opened his mouth and his heart to them (6:11). Moreover, he maintains there is no restriction in his affections toward them, only in theirs toward him (6:12). Like a parent pleading with children, Paul calls upon the church to reciprocate (6:13). Then in 7:2, he reiterates his desire for the Corinthians to make room in their hearts for him. Whatever his detractors might say to the contrary, Paul insists he and his colleagues have not wronged, corrupted or exploited anyone (7:2).

The apostle's motivation for making such assertions is not the condemnation of the congregation. He assures the Corinthians they are very dear to him. Paul's commitment to the assembly runs deep. They are not only in his heart; they also are people with and for whom he would live and die (7:3). Paul clearly possesses much more than a passing apostolic interest in the Corinthian assembly.

Second Corinthians 7:4 serves as both a conclusion to what Paul has been saying and as an introduction to what he will go on to say in the letter. The apostle notes he has spoken with much boldness toward and with much boasting on behalf of the Corinthians. He also speaks again of the consolation with which he has been filled and of the joy with which he has been overcome in the face of his various afflictions. Paul's straight talk to the church signals his affection for the church; his personal hardships serve as a reminder of God's powerful presence in the midst of his human frailty.

Second Corinthians 6:1-12, 7:2-4 indicates that the apostle was intimately acquainted with the ideas that Robert Grant would later express so poignantly and poetically in the fourth stanza of “O Worship the King”: “Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail, in thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail: thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end; our Maker, Defender, Redeemer and Friend.”

Discussion question

Have you seen hard times lead to character development?

Posted: 10/01/04

Regents postpone indefinitely a call
for Baylor president's resignation

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

WACO–Baylor University regents voted to postpone indefinitely a call for President Robert Sloan's resignation, and they unanimously rejected a request by the university's Faculty Senate to hold a facultywide referendum on Sloan's administration.

After a motion was introduced at the Sept. 24 meeting calling for Sloan's resignation, a second motion called for the matter to be postponed indefinitely, Chairman Will Davis announced after the executive session.

“It does not kill the idea for ever and ever. It can be brought up at another time,” he said, but he declared the matter “dead” for now.

Davis declined to reveal the vote margin on the motion to postpone, but one regent characterized it as “very close.”

When asked if any regents had negotiated a deal with Sloan to secure his resignation without a vote, Davis replied: “Not that I'm aware of, and I think as chairman of the board, I would be aware if such an agreement had been made.”

The motion to postpone a call for resignation was one in a series of votes by regents on Sloan's leadership. The board voted 31-4 in September 2003 to affirm Sloan. But his support had eroded by spring, and at the board's May meeting, a motion to ask for Sloan's resignation failed by an 18-17 secret ballot.

Regents took no vote on Sloan's presidency at their July retreat, other than unanimously affirming the Baylor 2012 10-year plan that has become the often-controversial centerpiece of his administration.

Sloan insisted he remained optimistic about Baylor 2012 and committed to leading the university.

“Of course, it's been a challenging time,” he said. “It's been difficult for all of us. But I am focused on serving Baylor University to the best of my ability. … I have every intention of continuing to serve as president and to focus on the continuing implementation of Baylor 2012.”

Sloan pointed to the incoming freshman class as evidence that Baylor's 10-year plan is on the right track. While overall enrollment at Baylor is down slightly, the freshman class was the fourth-largest in the school's history, had higher SAT scores and showed greater diversity, with minority students making up 30.3 percent of the class.

“The marketplace of Baptist families and Christian families is giving a resounding 'yes' to Baylor University,” he said. “Students want to come to a school like this, and parents want to send their children to a comprehensive academic institution that is committed to a strong Christian identify within the Baptist tradition, academic excellence and excellence in every aspect of student life.”

While Davis described the Sept. 24 board meeting as “collegial,” a regent said the mood was “very tense.” A majority of the board members expressed their views during extended discussion of Sloan's leadership, he added.

In spite of division, Davis insisted Sloan can heal those divisions and lead the university effectively.

“I support Dr. Sloan,” he said. “I think he's a very fine president–a very fine man. I think he has skill and talent, and I think he can lead Baylor.”

Clifton Robinson, a steering committee member of the Friends of Baylor organization, agreed.

“I believe Dr. Sloan is reaching out to all the dissident groups and making every effort humanly possible to resolve problems with them,” said Robinson, founder and co-chairman of National Lloyds Insurance Company of Waco.

While saying he was “thrilled” with the regents' decision to postpone a vote on dismissing Sloan as president, Robinson added he hoped the question is settled.

“I think it makes Baylor look a bit dysfunctional to have the board vote at every meeting on the administration,” he said.

Twice in a little more than a year, the university's Faculty Senate passed votes of no confidence in Sloan's leadership.

At a recent retreat, the group voted 29-1 to call for an independently administered secret-ballot survey asking all university faculty whether they believe Sloan should remain as Baylor's president. Davis said the regents unanimously turned down that request and he personally did not believe it was appropriate to put the issue to “some kind of popularity contest.”

The regents' vote came the same day Baylor started parents' weekend and dedicated a $103.3 million science building. The 508,000-square-foot facility consolidates the chemistry, biology, geology, physics and neurology programs under one roof, along with most of the university's pre-professional healthcare programs and five multidisciplinary research centers.

New facilities have been a key component of Baylor 2012, Sloan's ten-year vision for making Baylor a top-tier university.

But capital expansion at the university–coupled with unprecedented levels of debt–during Sloan's tenure as university president have raised the ire of his critics. They also faulted him for increasing tuition, failing to foster good relationships with alumni and faculty, and imposing narrow religious restrictions on faculty.

Prior to the regents' meeting, 22 former Baylor regents submitted a resolution calling for the current board to replace Sloan immediately with an interim leader and initiate a nationwide presidential search.

The resolution accused Sloan of creating “the greatest divisiveness and distrust in the history of Baylor.”

“As a consequence, the faculty and staff have become demoralized, deflated and uncertain, and alumni and friends of the university are astounded that such problems have been allowed to continue for so long to the detriment of so many,” the resolution stated.

Signers included John Baugh, founder of the Houston-based SYSCO Corporation and a major Baylor benefactor. Baugh had addressed the regents at their May meeting, warning he would ask for loans to be repaid and his financial gifts to Baylor be returned unless the board took action to rescue the university from “the paralyzing quagmire in which it … is ensnared.”

Sources close to the university estimated gifts by Baugh and his family at more than $15 million, plus $3 million in outstanding loans.

Following the Sept. 24 regents meeting, Baugh said he felt university leaders were “still bogged down,” but he would not make a decision regarding his gifts and loans until he knew more about “what went on behind the scenes” or until “the direction they take is definitive.”

Other former regents who signed the resolution include George Anson, C.T. Beckham, Travis Berry, Dan Bagby, Glenn Biggs, Os Chrisman, George Cowden, Buckner Fanning, Randy Fields, Jack Folmar, Gale Galloway, Vernon Garrett, Jack Hightower, Gracie Hatfield Hilton, Sid Jones, Milfred Lewis, David McCall, Kelly McCann, Ella Wall Prichard, Ralph Storm and Hal Wingo.

Sloan, 55, is a native of Coleman and a graduate of Baylor University, Princeton Seminary and the University of Basel.

Before assuming the Baylor presidency in 1995, he was dean of Baylor's Truett Theological Seminary.

Sloan served on the Baylor religion faculty from 1983 to 1995, and he taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1980 to 1983.

Posted: 10/01/04

Time taking toll on church racist bombers couldn't destroy

By Greg Garrison

Religion News Service

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.–Carolyn McKinstry guided a visitor through the basement of the historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and pointed out some glaring cracks in the walls.

“The building is a symbol and has its own voice,” McKinstry said.

Right now, the voice seems to be asking for help. Church and community leaders are answering the call with the launch of a fund-raising campaign to repair and upgrade the structure.

“This is our sacred site; this is our community treasure,” said McKinstry, who as a 14-year-old girl survived the Sept. 15, 1963, bomb that killed four other girls, her friends, as they prepared for Sunday service.

The $3.8 million restoration plan calls for stabilizing the foundation, repairing cracks, re-roofing the building and creating a new drainage system to stop water leaks into the church basement.

“It's something that needs to be done,” said Arthur Price, pastor of the 200-member church. “Sixteenth Street is a Birmingham icon, an Alabama icon.”

At a ceremony for Mayor Bernard Kincaid's second-term inauguration in January, Neal Berte toured the church after a worship service.

“There was water standing on one side of the downstairs where they teach Sunday school,” said Berte, chancellor of Birmingham-Southern College and co-chair with McKinstry of the campaign steering committee. “On the outside, the bricks were separated. It just sort of said over and over, there are major restoration needs for this facility.”

Berte helped gather community participation for a newly formed nonprofit foundation that commissioned a detailed report on what it would take to stabilize the building. Anyone walking around the building can see the need.

“You can see a crack right in the middle of the back wall of the church,” Price said. “Where they found the bodies, there's cracking in the wall. On a rainy day, the church takes in water.”

The deterioration of the architectural icon means that Birmingham's historical heritage is at stake.

“This is in many ways Birmingham's church,” Berte said. “It just needs to be taken care of.”

Berte hopes about $3 million will be raised in Birmingham and hopes for $800,000 in contributions from around the country, including possibly some federal funding.

So far, the foundation has pledges of about $1,367,000, Berte said.

“We're counting on the community at large to step up and get this done,” Berte said.

The nonprofit foundation will fund the restoration. It will remain completely separate from the church budget, Berte said.

The foundation plans to use about $80,000 of the money to make a push for national historic landmark status for the church, a designation similar to that given to the Old North Church in Boston.

“We think it is appropriate to be named a landmark,” Berte said.

A recent community service at the church commemorated the deaths of the four girls in 1963.

Since the bombing, the church has attracted more than 200,000 visitors a year.

“As a survivor of 1963, I just witnessed an outpouring of emotion and awe and respect for that church by people all over the world,” McKinstry said. “I've seen it over and over again.”

The steady stream of visitors offers the city a chance to convey a new image to the world, she said.

“There's more to the story than what happened on Sept. 15. How did all of Birmingham rise above what happened here?” McKinstry said. “It is a poignant story. It leaves us with a grave responsibility. We have a legacy to preserve.”

In 1963, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church served as a key meeting place for civil rights rallies led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and a starting point for marches and rallies.

Founded in 1873 as the First Colored Baptist Church, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church members began construction on the present building in 1909; it was finished in 1911, with seating for 1,600 people. Wallace Rayfield, the city's first black architect, designed the structure.

After so far withstanding a bomb and the ravages of time, it remains a beautiful and enduring monument, Price said.

“This is a pretty sound building,” Price said. “There was a lot of detail and excellent work that went into the building.”

The modified Romanesque and Byzantine arch design features twin red-roofed towers at the front corners.

“It provides a sense of hope, a sense of courage for the struggle,” Price said. “This is one of Alabama's treasures, and we need to keep it around.”

Posted: 10/01/04

Directors approve name change for Baptist Joint Committee

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–The Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs will become the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty after the agency's directors approved a name change recently.

Holding their annual meeting in Washington, D.C., representatives of the national and regional Baptist bodies that support the group voted unanimously to alter their certificate of incorporation.

The alterations include the name change, designed to better reflect the Baptist Joint Committee's mission of advocating for religious freedom and church-state separation.

“'Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs' is a relic from the old days when there was possibly more of a public-affairs mission” for the organization, David Massengill, chair of the BJC's bylaw revision committee, told board members in recommending the change.

The Washington-based group deals strictly with legal and legislative issues regarding the First Amendment's two religion clauses that ban both government establishment of religion and government infringement on religious exercise.

The Baptist Joint Committee does not deal with other public-affairs issues in which Baptists might be interested. Therefore, Massengill said, the name change was in order.

The change came about with a revision of the group's incorporation documents, as well as its bylaws, to bring the documents better into line with District of Columbia law for non-profit corporations.

Opening the board's meeting with a devotional message, Falls Church, Va., pastor Jim Baucom told BJC leaders that many Baptists don't understand or appreciate the concept of church-state separation anymore.

Therefore, Baucom said, the organization needs to focus its public message more on advocacy for religious freedom–and then note that such freedom is underpinned by the separation of church and state.

The board also voted to enter into a fund-raising campaign that would culminate in 2006, the 70th anniversary of the Baptist Joint Committee's founding.

The campaign would center on raising funds to build, buy or lease a religious-freedom center somewhere in Washington. The building would house Baptist Joint Committee's offices as well as meeting space for educational and lobbying efforts.

A document provided to board members says the center would “provide a strategic base to protect and advance religious liberty.”

For several decades, the agency has rented office space from the Washington office of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

The Capitol Hill building is located adjacent to both the Supreme Court and the Senate office buildings, and only a block from the Capitol. Rent for the space will exceed $80,000 this year.

After the board approved the campaign's outlines, chairman Jeffrey Haggray appointed a steering committee to set more specific fund-raising goals and plan implementation of the campaign.

The committee's members are Reggie McDonough of Tennessee, Barbara Baugh of Texas, Sue Bennett of Oklahoma, Mark Wiggs of Mississippi, Pat Ayres of Texas, Russell Tuck of Virginia, Reba Sloan Cobb of Kentucky, Richard Ice of California, Susan Stewart of Georgia, and Cynthia Holmes of Missouri.

In other business, the board approved a 2005 budget of $1,096,100. The proposal represents a $33,000 increase over the agency's 2004 budget.

The board also re-elected its current officers–Haggray, executive director of the District of Columbia Baptist Convention, as chairman; Ray Swatkowski, executive vice president of the Baptist General Conference, as vice chairman; and Bennett, a Tulsa businesswoman, as secretary.

The new Baptist Joint Committee bylaws created a treasurer position separate from the executive director's position. To fill that new slot, the board elected Valoria Cheek, president of the American Baptist Extension Corporation, as treasurer.

Posted: 10/01/04

Baptist Briefs

Thomas accepts seminary post. Claude Thomas has resigned as pastor of First Baptist Church in Euless to serve as chaplain at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and special assistant to President Paige Patterson. He also will assist in the seminary's doctor of ministry degree program and student recruitment. Thomas earned two degrees from Southwestern Seminary and is former president of the seminary's National Alumni Association.

Virginia WMU rejects SBC position. Leaders of Woman's Missionary Union of Virginia have adopted a declaration endorsing the "diverse and unlimited" Christian vocations of women and rejecting both the Southern Baptist Convention's official opposition to women pastors as expressed in the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement and the refusal of the convention's North American Mission Board to endorse women as military and prison chaplains. The Virginia WMU trustees and board of advisers unanimously approved the "Declaration of the Dignity of Women" during their annual meeting. The full text of the declaration may be read at www.wmu-va.org.

Baylor researcher joins seminary faculty. William Dembski, associate research professor at Baylor University's Institute for Faith and Learning, has been named director of the new Center for Science and Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Southern Seminary President Al Mohler described Dembski as "a primary theorist of intelligent design, as well as a primary opponent of Darwinism and evolutionary theory." Dembski previously taught at Northwestern University, the University of Notre Dame and the University of Dallas.

SBC Executive Committee announces staff changes. The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee has named David Hankins executive vice president, Bill Merrell senior executive adviser, Augie Boto general counsel and vice president for convention policy, and Donald Magee director of finance. Hankins, 54, joined the Executive Committee staff as vice president for convention policy in 1996 and was named vice president for Cooperative Program in 1998. Merrell, 60, who is continuing to recover from a stroke last fall, has served as the Executive Committee's vice president for convention relations since 1996. His new position will be voluntary, but he will continue to receive retirement and medical benefits. Boto, 53, joined the Executive Committee staff in 1998 as vice president for convention policy. He is a former county attorney and private attorney in Texas. Magee, 59, joined the staff in 1998 as director of technology and was named director of technology/convention planning in 1999 and director of business systems/convention planning in 2002.

Mayday for Marriage rally set. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship and Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission are among the key speakers at a Mayday for Marriage rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Oct. 15. Other program personalities include Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, author and lecturer Anne Graham Lotz and Alan Keyes, Republican candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois. For more information about the rally, visit www.maydayformarriage.com.

Arkansas CBF names coordinator. Ray Higgins, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., has been named the first full-time coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Arkansas, effective Jan. 1, 2005. Higgins, 48, is serving his second term on the national CBF Coordinating Council. He is a graduate of the University of Arkansas, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Baylor University. Higgins was assistant professor of Christian ethics at Southwestern from 1987 to 1994, and he was pastor of Purmela Baptist Church in Coryell Baptist Association.

Posted: 10/01/04

Bush's faith more mainstream
American than evangelical, insiders insist

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–While many of President Bush's opponents and critics alike have pointed to his evangelical Christian faith as his defining characteristic, several intimately acquainted with Bush recently told a gathering of journalists the president considers himself in the mainstream of American religious life.

Speaking to the Religion Newswriters Association annual conference in Washington, experts familiar with Bush's much-talked-about faith said the president does not use it improperly in his work in the White House.

“He's all business in the Oval Office,” said Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. “He does not talk about his personal faith with staff–at least, not with me.”

Towey and Houston minister Kirbyjon Caldwell, one of Bush's spiritual confidants, both described Bush's view of his own faith as being squarely in the mainstream of American religious life.

“He does not believe God told him to run (for president) and he certainly does not believe that God told him to drop bombs anywhere–that's not his theology and not his ethos,” said Caldwell, pastor of the nation's largest United Methodist congregation.

Bush, who said during his 2000 election campaign that Jesus was his favorite philosopher “because he changed my heart,” has been lauded by conservative evangelical Protestants as one of their own.

Born into a family with Presbyterian and Episcopal roots, Bush is widely reported to have had a faith-deepening experience similar to an evangelical conversion around the time he turned 40, in the mid-1980s. He was a member of United Methodist congregations in Dallas and Austin during his Texas years.

However, according to a journalist who wrote a sympathetic book on Bush's faith, he is not a typical evangelical.

“It's not easy, although the temptation is there, to pigeon-hole this guy,” said David Aikman, a former Time magazine reporter and now head of an international fellowship of Christian journalists. “He does not like to be called an evangelical. He does not like to use the language 'born again.' This is no-no language in the White House.”

Speaking to journalists on a panel discussion about faith in the White House, Aikman said Bush is “very ecumenical” compared to most conservative Protestants, and he is comfortable with people of all faiths.

“He is a Methodist, but he is comfortable with Baptists and Catholics and Episcopalians,” Aikman said.

The reporter also noted Bush “has worshipped in mainstream Episcopal churches, which evangelicals may think are liberal,” including the gay-friendly St. John's Episcopal Church, just across Lafayette Square from the White House.

Bush's parents attended St. John's while they were in the White House, and the younger Bush and his wife, Laura, have attended there on some of the handful of occasions when they have been in Washington on a Sunday morning.

Aikman also noted Bush's openness to people of minority faiths, such as Islam and Sikhism.

“He has had prayer sessions with followers of the Sikh religion in the Oval Office,” he said. “What's a born-again Christian doing praying with Sikh religionists?

“Although the cliché is this is the president of the Christian Right, … in fact, he's a far more complex and subtle individual in his faith orientation than many people have been led to believe,” Aikman concluded.

However, Bush has embraced positions on several divisive social issues–such as abortion rights and gay rights–congruent with those of the Religious Right.

Shaun Casey, assistant professor at Washington's Wesley Theological Seminary, told the journalists that such actions are part of the way Bush was “exploiting religion brilliantly in this campaign.”

Casey noted recent reports that the Bush campaign had attempted to organize voters through conservative churches in important “battleground” states. “They have been directly reaching out to churches in a very, I would say, unseemly manner,” he said. “The Bush hagiography apparatus has marketed in a very Machiavellian way, in a very effective way, their message among the press corps.”

Nonetheless, Casey said, he didn't question the authenticity of Bush's personal piety.

“I think we need to separate between the faith of the president and how religion is being used in the campaign,” he said.

Towey joked that Bush was not consumed at work by esoteric religious talk or practices. “I haven't walked in the Oval Office and seen him lost in prayer or levitating,” he said, to laughter.

Posted: 10/01/04

SBC leader blasts
BWA fund-raiser

NASHVILLE–A Baptist World Alliance fund-raising appeal directed to Southern Baptist Convention churches has drawn criticism from Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee, who claims the effort violates longstanding denominational policy.

The policy in the SBC's business and financial plan specifies that “in no case shall any convention entity approach a church for inclusion in its church budget or appeal for financial contributions.”

While BWA leaders voluntarily honored that policy when the SBC was affiliated with BWA, the two entities no longer have formal ties.

SBC messengers voted in June to withdraw membership from the international Baptist body.

The letter from BWA President Billy Kim and General Secretary Denton Lotz, dated Aug. 27, addresses charges made by the Southern Baptist BWA study committee and also details the ministry of the Baptist World Alliance.

The letter notes that a gift of $250 will make a church an “associate member” of BWA while a gift of $1,000 will make it a “Global Impact Church.”

Chapman wrote BWA officials, asking them to “cease immediately” the fund-raising effort directed to SBC churches.

Ian Chapman, BWA's director of promotion and development, told Baptist Press that in addition to Southern Baptist churches, BWA's letter was mailed to churches in the American Baptist Churches USA, Baptist General Conference and Progressive National Baptist Convention.

“Now that the Southern Baptist Convention is no longer a member of the Baptist World Alliance, there's no reason for us not to send (letters to) individual churches,” he said.

“Baptist autonomy means that churches can make their own decisions.”

Based on reporting by Trennis Henderson and Baptist Press

Posted: 10/01/04

President George W. Bush, shown here at Union Bethel African Methodist Church in New Orleans, says he cannot separate his faith from his job as president.(RNS/John McCusker Photo)	Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, shown here at Second Ebenezer Baptist Church in Detroit, considers his faith a deeply personal matter.(AP/Charles Krupa Photo)

Presidential candidates experience, express faith differently

By Mark O'Keefe

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–One candidate is from the Bible Belt and likes to tell how God redeemed him from a life of destructive drinking, which made him a better husband and public servant for such a time as this.

The other hails from the Northeast, where religion is a more private matter. While he won't wear his on his sleeve, he says, his faith shapes his values and his values animate his actions.

President George W. Bush, a United Methodist, and Sen. John Kerry, a Roman Catholic, both consider faith a vital part of their lives. But how do the presidential candidates' personal beliefs inform their public policy when it comes to gay marriage, federal budget priorities, the war in Iraq and a host of other issues with moral components? In this regard, the two men could hardly be more different.

Not only does Kerry passionately call for separation of church and state, he makes no personal claim to divine guidance in his decision-making and advocates far less presidential piety than Bush displays.

“I personally would not choose–though I'm a person of faith–to insert it as much as the president does,” Kerry told The Ladies Home Journal in August 2003. “I think it crosses a line, and it sort of squeezes the diversity that the presidency is supposed to embrace. It creates a discomfort level.”

On a similar note, Kerry told reporters in April, “I fully intend to continue to practice my religion as separately from what I do with respect to my public life, and that's the way it ought to be in America.”

Kerry, whose paternal grandparents were born Jewish and converted to Catholicism, says this separation is a constitutional requirement established by the founders to protect people of all faiths or no faith. He also sees it as a guard against arrogance in the name of God.

“I don't want to claim that God is on our side,” he said in his speech at the Democratic National Convention. “As Abraham Lincoln told us, I want to pray humbly that we are on God's side.”

Unlike Kerry, whose Catholicism has been a lifelong journey since infant baptism, Bush experienced a profound and sudden change when he embraced Christianity and quit drinking in a classic adult evangelical conversion.

It has carried into his political life. The president told CNN's Larry King, “I don't see how you can separate your faith as a person from the job of being president.”

When Radio and Television Ireland asked Bush in June if he believes the hand of God guides him in the war on terrorism, Bush said, “My relationship with God is a very personal relationship, and I turn to the good Lord for strength, and I turn to the good Lord for guidance.”

“He's the commander in chief, not the pastor in chief,” James Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, said in an interview. “But I don't think President Bush thinks he can compartmentalize his life so that when he steps in the Oval Office, God somehow isn't there. That would be an illusion.”

In most non-Islamic countries, it would be unusual for politicians to make repeated references to religion. But not in the United States.

When Bush frames the war on terrorism as a battle between good and evil, he draws upon a long historical tradition. Ever since 17th-century Puritan leader John Winthrop compared America with the biblical “shining city on a hill,” presidential candidates from both parties have used that metaphor to argue America has been singled out as special.

The Sept. 11 attacks gave Bush ample opportunity to expand on that theme. The day of the attacks, Bush said the United States was targeted “because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world.” He promised, “No one will keep that light from shining.”

Addressing this year's Republican National Convention, Bush justified the invasion of Iraq and removal of Saddam Hussein with a favorite maxim: “Freedom is not America's gift to the world, it is the Almighty God's gift to every man and woman in this world.”

Towey said Bush's faith is evident on the job. Away from the public and the media, the president has been seen with his head bowed, apparently in silent prayer, before giving a speech.

Yet what is Christian humility to Bush supporters is self-righteousness to some of his critics, especially when Bush applies his faith to hot-button social issues.

Consider same-sex marriage. Bush opposes it, arguing in this year's State of the Union address that “the same moral tradition that defines marriage (as the union of a man and a woman) also teaches that each individual has dignity and value in God's sight.”

Kerry is far more cautious.

“I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman,” Kerry said at a March campaign stop in Tougaloo, Miss. “But I believe it's important in the United States of America that we recognize that we have a Constitution which has an equal protection clause.”

A similar dynamic is at work in the areas of abortion rights and federal funding for research on new embryonic stem cells.

Bush opposes both, explaining to “March for Life” participants in January that “all life is sacred and worthy of protection.”

Kerry supports abortion rights and stem cell research in defiance of the official teachings of his own church. He addressed the dichotomy in a July interview with the Telegraph Herald of Dubuque, Iowa: “I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception.” But, he added, “I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist” because “we have separation of church and state in the United States of America.”

Like many Democrats, Kerry is more comfortable applying religious principles to what he considers issues of social justice in the federal budget.

“We believe in the family value expressed in one of the oldest commandments: 'Honor thy father and thy mother,'” Kerry said in accepting his party's nomination. “As president, I will not privatize Social Security. I will not cut benefits.”

John Podesta, former chief of staff to President Clinton, said Kerry speaks with “a moral perspective instead of an overtly religious perspective,” in the tradition of another Catholic senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy.

Northeasterner Kerry and Texan Bush not only reflect the religious sensibilities of their political parties and geographic regions, but also see the presidency through the lenses of their particular faith traditions, said John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron.

Bush, influenced by his evangelical Christianity, seeks moral clarity, Green said. Kerry, as a Catholic, finds ambiguity.

Bush “makes a decision, and he sticks to that decision, and that fits with the certainty of his faith,” said Green, a leading scholar of religion and politics. “The fact of the matter is that President Bush is not into nuance. On the other hand, Sen. Kerry is very nuanced. He does really see multiple sides of an argument and looks at them closely before making a decision.”

Posted: 10/01/04

Book examines five views on church polity

By David Roach

Southern Baptist Seminary

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–What is the most biblical way to structure church government?

That is the central question addressed in “Perspectives on Church Government: Five Views of Church Polity,” a new book edited by Chad Brand and Stanton Norman from the Broadman & Holman publishing arm of LifeWay Christian Resources.

Brand is associate professor of Christian theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and Norman is associate professor of theology at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

“Perspectives on Church Government” features five chapters written by five scholars. Each chapter defends a different view of church government and ends with responses from the other four writers.

No single view of church government should be considered an essential tenet of Christian orthodoxy, Brand and Norman write in the introduction. But they believe anyone who seeks to minister effectively in a congregation needs to develop a biblical perspective on church governance.

James Leo Garrett, emeritus professor of systematic theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, presents the democratic congregational model of church government. Final human authority in a church rests with the entire congregation when it gathers for decision-making, Garrett maintains.

“This means that decisions about membership, leadership, doctrine, worship, conduct, missions, finances, property, relationships and the like are to be made by the gathered congregation except when such decisions have been delegated by the congregation to individual members or groups of members,” Garrett writes.

While congregationalism allows for pastoral leadership in local churches, Garrett argues that congregations that adopt elder rule in some form move toward the “erosion or rejection” of congregational polity.

Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forrest, N.C., defends a model of church government in which a single elder leads the congregation.

“Each and every member has equal rights and responsibilities,” Akin writes. “However, aspects of representative democracy are not ruled out. Certain persons may indeed be chosen by the body of believers to lead and serve in particular and specific ways. Those who are called to pastor the church immediately come to mind.”

Because the New Testament does not specify the number of elders required in a congregation, a church may have just one elder if only one man in the church meets the scriptural qualifications for the office, Akin writes. Even in cases where there is a plurality of elders, Akin interprets Scripture to suggest one elder should emerge as the “first among equals.”

Robert Reymond, professor of systematic theology at Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., argues for a presbyterian model of church government, where individual congregations elect elders. Those elders “are to rule and to oversee the congregation, not primarily in agreement with the will of the congregation but primarily in agreement with the revealed word of God, in accordance with the authority delegated to them by Christ, the head of the church.”

Unlike the congregational model, Reymond argues each local church is not an autonomous unit. Instead, the New Testament teaches that congregations should form a “connectional government of graded courts,” which exercises spiritual and moral oversight over individual congregations.

Paul Zahl, dean of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Ala., supports the episcopal model of church government. The New Testament does not mandate any one model of church government as essential for a biblically functioning congregation, he contends. Therefore, Christians must opt for a form of church government that most effectively contributes to the well-being of the church.

Under the episcopal model, churches are governed by a three-tiered leadership structure, Zahl writes. Deacons are the first order of leaders and act as servants in local congregations. Presbyters or elders are the second order of leaders and act as overseers in local congregations. Bishops are the third order of leaders and oversee the activities of elders and congregations.

James White, adjunct professor of theology at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, Calif., and president of Alpha and Omega Ministries, advocates a plural elder-led congregational model of church government. Like Akin, White argues the ultimate human authority in a church rests in the gathered congregation and the congregation should elect elders to lead the church.

But unlike Akin, White argues the Bible calls for more than one elder in each congregation and does not elevate one elder as the “first among equals.” Elders may perform slightly different functions within the congregation according to their giftedness, he writes.

White concludes all Christians must seek to discover the Bible's standards for church polity if they hope to build up the body of Christ effectively.

“The issue (of church government) is an important one, despite the fact that it hardly appears on the 'radar screen' of the modern church. It truly reflects how much we really believe Jesus is Lord of his church and is concerned that it functions as he has commanded.”

Posted: 10/01/04

Muleshoe pastor to be nominated
for BGCT second vice president

By Marv Knox

Editor

DRIPPING SPRINGS–Stacy Conner, pastor of First Baptist Church in Muleshoe since 1991, will be nominated for second vice president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas this fall.

Lonny Poe, pastor of Sunset Canyon Baptist Church in Dripping Springs who has been Conner's friend for more than 20 years, announced he will make the nomination at the BGCT annual session in San Antonio, Nov. 8-9.

“Stacy was born and raised in Texas and is enmeshed in Texas Baptist life,” he said. “He knows who we are. He loves us and wants us to continue to do kingdom work.”

Conner was educated and prepared for ministry by Texas Baptists, Poe said, recalling the pair met in 1983, while they were ministerial students at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview.

“I've known him to be a wonderful dad, a tremendous preacher, a gifted pastor, a good husband and a faith-filled Texas Baptist,” he said.

Conner has demonstrated his ability and preparedness for convention office through service on numerous convention and community boards and other places of responsibility, he added.

“In all the capacities where he's served, people have recognized Stacy's wisdom and integrity. That's always caught people's eyes,” Poe said. “He's also a community pastor. He's the pastor not only of First Baptist Church, but all of Muleshoe. People look to him for leadership, for a moral compass and for integrity.

“He's as solid as they come. He's my best friend, and I'm honored to nominate him for second vice president. He bridges gaps and loves people. I think he'll do great.”

Conner said he finds the nomination affirming. “It's not only an honor for me, but for our church, that I was asked to serve,” he said.

And if elected, he would look forward to serving with the other two officer nominees–Albert Reyes, the convention's current first vice president and president of Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio, who will be nominated for president, and Michael Bell, pastor of Greater St. Stephen Baptist Church in Fort Worth, who will be nominated for first vice president–as well as the BGCT Executive Board, Conner said.

Conner would serve out of a sense of gratitude for all he has received from the BGCT, he said.

“I'm a product of Texas Baptists,” he noted. “I attended Wayland, where I received BGCT ministerial tuition assistance. I attended Southwestern (Baptist Theological) Seminary when it was a Texas seminary. And all through my educational experience, I was trained by Baptists who cared to educate me properly.

“As a pastor, I've been blessed to enjoy fellowship through ministry endeavors with Texas Baptists and to appreciate the blessing of being a Texas Baptist.

“Being part of the BGCT has allowed not only our church but me to be involved in numerous ministries of which I would never have been able to be a part individually. My Christian experience has been enhanced because I've been nurtured and encouraged by Texas Baptists.”

With the BGCT considering its most significant reorganization in about 50 years, the coming year will be a “pivotal time” in the convention's history, Conner said, predicting, “It will be a time of growth, a time of learning and a time of more effective ministry for the BGCT.”

Reyes has said he intends to emphasize the importance of the BGCT's Cooperative Program unified budget, and Conner stressed he affirms that focus.

“Our church has been strongly supportive of the Cooperative Program, and we will continue to support the BGCT through the Cooperative Program,” he said.

Conner also would be honored to represent West Texas as a convention officer, he said, noting Steve Vernon, pastor of First Baptist Church in Levelland, was the most recent BGCT officer from that part of the state.

“I'll try to uphold the high standards he set in representing West Texas goals and visions,” he said.

First Baptist Church in Muleshoe has 556 resident members and averages 350 in worship and 176 in Bible study. Last year, the church baptized 12 new Christians and contributed $32,656 to the BGCT Cooperative Program.

Before becoming pastor of the Muleshoe congregation, Conner was pastor of First Baptist Church in Matador and minister of activities at First Baptist Church in Plainview.

He earned a bachelor's degree from Wayland, a master's degree from Southwestern Seminary and a doctorate from Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University.

Conner is a trustee of Wayland, and he has served on the BGCT Executive Board.

He also was vice chairman of the BGCT Christian Education Coordinating Board and chairman of that board's university funding committee.

He has served on the board of Caprock-Plains Baptist Area and was pastoral care director for Llanos Altos Baptist Association.

He is a member of the national coordinating council of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Conner has been involved in his community. He's a past-president of the Muleshoe Lions Club and a member of the Muleshoe Rotary Club, and he has served on Muleshoe Independent School District and local Little League organizations and coached baseball and basketball.

Conner and his wife, Debbie, have a daughter and two sons, ranging in age from 17 to 12.

Posted: 10/01/04

Focus on the Family joins call for Procter & Gamble boycott

By Adelle Banks

Religion News Service

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (RNS)–Focus on the Family Chairman James Dobson has encouraged listeners to his radio program to boycott Procter & Gamble products because of what he calls the company's “tacit endorsement of gay marriage,” but the Cincinnati manufacturer says conservative groups are mistaken about its stance.

“For Procter and Gamble to align itself with radical groups committed to redefining marriage in our country is an affront to its customers,” Dobson said. “An overwhelming majority of Americans–the men and women who buy this company's products–oppose same-sex marriage.”

Procter & Gamble's donation of $10,000 to a campaign for the repeal of a city ordinance barring enactment of gay rights laws is not related to the marriage issue, said company spokesman Doug Shelton.

“Our company supports repeal of Article 12 in the city of Cincinnati, which removed from our city council the authority to enact any ordinances that would protect individuals from discrimination,” Shelton said. “The two issues are separate and distinct, and our company has not taken a position on the definition of marriage.”

He said Dobson correctly stated that the company “will not tolerate discrimination in any form, against anyone for any reason.”

Shelton said his company thinks the city's ordinance, which he said is the only one of its kind in the country, has hurt the region's economy.

“The perception with this ordinance on the books is that Cincinnati is not a very welcoming place to live or to start a career, so we lose a lot of people who do not want to come to Cincinnati because they feel that the city is intolerant,” he said.

Dobson recommended that his listeners boycott two of the company's best-known brands: Crest toothpaste and Tide laundry detergent.

The American Family Association, a conservative Christian organization based in Tupelo, Miss., asked its supporters to participate in the same boycott.

Posted: 10/01/04

DOWN HOME:
For good health, always wash up

Talk about a bad job.

The American Society of Microbiology hired people to hang out in airport bathrooms and keep track of the percentage of travelers who wash their hands after they're finished with everything else they do in the bathroom.

I heard about this on the radio. The reporter interviewed one of the “researchers,” who explained he tried to do his job inconspicuously. Like that's easy. He would be the person over by the wall, keeping an eye on the sinks, making tally marks in a notebook, trying not to look thoroughly disgusted.

I know. You think this sounds like a goofy science project. But microbiologists don't do goofy. They're deadly serious.

They say the No. 1 source of infectious diseases is contact between hand and mouth. So, clean hands mean less disease. They keep track of these things. In airports, at baseball stadiums. Maybe at a bathroom near you.

You may be glad to know DFW had the highest hand-washing score for women and second-highest score for men of all U.S. airports. The microbiologist hand-counters reported 92 percent of women and 69 percent of men stopped by the lavatory before exiting restrooms here in Texas.

The only airport that scored better was Toronto, where the SARS outbreak apparently scared everybody who touched that corner of Canada into a hand-washing frenzy.

The worst places to shake hands? Just wave at the women in San Francisco, where only 59 percent washed. Ditto for the guys in Chicago, who washed only 60 percent of the time.

I traveled through several airports during the summer and noticed you almost don't need to use your hands to wash them anymore. The water in most sinks turns on when you wave your hands under the faucet. And more high-tech bathrooms have installed motion-detector paper-towel dispensers or hot-air dryers. Now, if they'd make hands-free soap squirters, you could come clean and only touch the things that actually wash your hands.

Airports already were ahead of the (literal, in some places) curve as far as the undoing of hand-washing goes. You exit most airport bathrooms through little mazes instead of doors, so you don't bring your hands to full antiseptic readiness only to soil them by grabbing a door handle recently polluted by Dingy Don.

Besides sort of grossing me out, the hand-washing survey reminded me of a spiritual truth.

Jesus warned about washing your hands but leaving your heart impure. And while I imagine Jesus would promote proper hygiene, I'm confident he's more concerned about the cleanliness of our souls. So, when you wash your hands, pray the words of Psalm 51:10: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”