Posted: 10/01/04

Medical ministry focuses on patients
as people, not problems to diagnose

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

SAN ANTONIO–It may sound like a cliché, but people are not patients; patients are people. And that is the heart of medical ministry, a leader in the Baylor Health Care System insists.

It is easy for doctors–even those who view their occupation as a ministry–to fall into the rut of viewing each patient as a diagnosis, said Jim Walton, senior vice president of community health in the Baylor Health Care System. Physicians want to correct physical ailments or prevent future breakdowns.

But when doctors move beyond that to uncover the life stories of their clients, ministry begins taking place, Walton said during a healthcare conference sponsored by the Baptist General Convention of Texas Missions Equipping Center.

When the patient and the doctor begin to connect as people, each has something to contribute to the relationship, Walton continued. Physicians are giving medical treatment, but patients also are giving of themselves.

“When you are sitting in their house, you're close,” he said. “When you're sitting in the kitchen, you're closer.”

Walton described his ministry with a paraplegic man who came to Dallas from El Salvador. He was working in this country and sending money back to his wife and three children who remained in El Salvador. When he was injured, his wife traveled to be with him.

During the two years Walton has treated the man, he has become acquainted with how the man felt so far from his children. Walton saw a family, not a patient.

The doctor uncovered his own tendency to see himself as the minister and the patient as someone in need. While that is true, Walton said, he now recognizes each patient is ministering to him as well.

Citing the biblical story of the Good Samaritan, Walton noted each person is made in the image of God and has something to give.

“Your neighbor has gifts and assets,” he said. “It isn't all about you and your sacrifice.”

Walton now is looking for a missionary in El Salvador who can care for this man. That will allow him to return to be with his children while continuing to get the help he needs.

Posted: 10/01/04

Mainstream pop music:
Hip-hop spirituality

By Aymar Jean

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–Both pious and theatrical, rapper Kanye West's new video is not typical of MTV.

A prison inmate, arms extended and back rigid, stands resolute on a barren field. His guard blindsides him with a gun. A Ku Klux Klansman drags a burning cross up a hill and is himself consumed by the flames. And, sitting in a back seat during a car chase, a drug mule utters with her crimson lips, “I want Jesus.”

All the scenes are set to an intoxicating, militant beat from West's hit single “Jesus Walks.”

West's success highlights the noticeable increase of religious or spiritual lyrics in mainstream music.

Many songs, artists and albums have embraced spirituality in recent years. Some advocate religion, often Christianity, while others couch their lyrics in more universal themes. Some artists are crossovers, and a few have made mainstream hits without ever crossing over.

What binds them together are their spiritual messages and their incredible success.

Today, alongside "Jesus Walks," which has spent 16 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, are the Los Lonely Boys' hit single "Heaven" and Switchfoot's even bigger hit "Meant to Live." Alter Bridge, comprised of three former Creed members, has some spiritually oriented songs on "One Day Remains," which debuted at fifth on the charts in August.

Other notables include R. Kelly's “U Saved Me,” Lenny Kravitz's “Baptism” and the House of God-influenced Robert Randolph & the Family Band.

Creed split up in July. But both remnants of the band are continuing its reputation for veiled religiosity.

Mark Tremonti, Scott Phillips and Brian Marshall make up Alter Bridge along with Myles Kennedy, once of the Mayfield Four. Meanwhile, former lead singer Scott Stapp is pursuing a solo career. His first single, “Relearn Love,” is featured on “The Passion of the Christ” soundtrack.

Stapp said he wrote “Relearn Love” to express that he had become both emotionally and spiritually healthy.

“I basically had gotten to a point in my life where I was kind of dried up emotionally,” he said. “I was asking God in my relationship with him if I could have a heart.”

Alter Bridge's new album, a melodic throwback to 1970s rock, also has spiritual references. Lead singer Kennedy calls it “uplifting.”

“To truly see well, you must have faith. Oh, the righteous they can't wait. A saving grace that we all know. Let us pray. Let us hold on,” Kennedy sings on “Watch Your Words.”

“We definitely don't have any sort of agenda religiously. We're not trying to push that on anybody,” Kennedy said. “Watch Your Words,” he added, is somewhat sarcastic.

Switchfoot's “Mean to Live” does not mention the words “Jesus” or “Lord,” but it does contain Christian themes, said Russ Breimeier, an associate editor for Christianity Today's online section and director of the publication's music page.

The band's recent album, “Beautiful Letdown,” which has been on the Billboard 200 more than 70 weeks, reached No. 1 on the contemporary Christian charts.

Breimeier lists Switchfoot with Amy Grant, Stacie Orrico and Evanescence as artists who have crossed over from Christian music to the mainstream with faith intact.

“They've been very cerebral with their lyrics,” he said. “Now they've found a way to do it that's meant for a broader audience, to make people think.”

The distinction is subtle but significant. There are “Christian artists” and then there are “artists who are Christian.” The latter may or may not write religious songs while the former write worship or praise music for the contemporary Christian audience.

“Artists who are Christian,” Breimeier said, are more likely to produce “uplifting” songs that embody Christian ideals.

These musicians have to balance the demands of the secular market with their Christianity. For example, Evanescence ran into some trouble last year when the members announced that they were not a “Christian band,” even though they had sold countless albums in Christian bookstores.

Singer R. Kelly presents other issues for the religious community. He recently released a double album and, according to many critics, a double message. The record, titled "Happy People/U Saved Me," is at once a sanguine party album and a penitent spiritual album.

Kelly's lifestyle also has come into question. Child pornography charges against him were recently dropped in Florida after a judge ruled that allegedly illicit photographs were illegally seized by detectives. He still faces similar charges in Illinois.

There is a long history of religion making inroads into popular culture.

“Religion and American culture almost dance with each other,” said Philip Goff, director of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University.

Culturally, Americans are very comfortable having their pop culture served with a side of religion, Goff said.

He noted that blues songs often contained prayers and Elvis Presley's first Grammy was for gospel.

After Elvis, the country saw a string of its rock icons wax spiritual from time to time. Bob Dylan released a Christian album in the late 1970s, and Bruce Springsteen, of the Dylan tradition, consistently has heeded a higher call.

Bono, both in U2 and Bono and the Edge, has also developed a reputation for musical spirituality. In fact, Creed's Stapp counts Bono as his biggest influence. As a child, Stapp successfully convinced his parents that Bono and the Edge was a Christian band so that he could listen to them.

And although the Beatles sometimes had wanton tastes, George Harrison in the late 1980s covered an old Rudy Clark gospel number called “Got My Mind Set on You.”

Still, some in the Christian music industry theorize that this music is influenced in part by the rise of the contemporary Christian music industry.

According to the annual report of the Recording Industry Association of America, the industry doubled its market share from 1994 to 2002, even though that has since dropped slightly. Nielsen SoundScan reported that gospel album sales increased by 10 percent from 1998 to 2003, while overall album sales declined by 10 percent.

As the mainstream continues its dance with spirituality, artists like Kanye West will continue to push the proverbial envelope.

“They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus–that means guns, sex, lies, videotapes,” he raps in “Jesus Walks.”

“But if I talk about God, my record won't get played, huh?”

Lyrics carry a soulful message

A sample of lyrics with a spiritual message from mainstream and crossover musical artists:

Los Lonely Boys, “Heaven” (Epic)

Save me from this prison.

Lord, help me get away.

'Cause only you can save me now from this misery. …

How far is heaven?

MercyMe, “Here With Me” (INO)

You are holy, and I fall down on my knees.

I can feel your presence here with me.

Suddenly I'm lost within your beauty,

Caught up in the wonder of your touch.

Scott Stapp, “Relearn Love” (Wind-Up)

I was selfish

But you still loved me.

You gave the greatest gift of all

And it set me free.

Posted: 10/01/04

Baptist volunteers continue clean-up,
recovery after 'Ivan the Terrible' hits

ORANGE BEACH, Ala.– “Ivan the Terrible” is gone, but Baptist volunteers will be hard at work quite awhile cleaning up the mess he left from the Caribbean to the Alleghenies.

The storm first made landfall in the United States Sept. 15 near Pensacola, Fla. But its lingering effects–tornadoes, straight-line wind damage and flooding from torrential rains– spread destruction along the East Coast as far north as West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

It also caused significant damage on several Caribbean islands, such as Jamaica, Grenada and the Bahamas.

In the wake of Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan, nearly 6,000 Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers have helped prepare more than 1.6 million meals and completed nearly 5,000 cleanup and recovery projects so far.

And more Southern Baptist relief workers were being deployed to Florida after Hurricane Jeanne hit.

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship mission volunteers were heading for the Bahamas and Grenada beginning Oct. 2, working through the Virginia Baptist Mission Board and its partnership with the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship. CBF volunteers will go to Jamaica in mid-October, with volunteer effort continuing through mid-December.

“It's nothing but rubble on the sand.” That's the news Paul Smith, pastor of Romar Beach Baptist Church in Orange Beach, Ala., received from congregation members who watched televised reports of Hurricane Ivan smashing into the beachfront church building.

Baptist churches on the coastal region of Alabama and Florida–including Pensacola, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Fort Morgan–sustained major wind and water damage from Ivan.

Perhaps hardest hit was Romar Beach Baptist Church, on a barrier island near Mobile.

“I don't think we have a church left,” Smith said. “I haven't seen it yet, but I have been told that it's totally destroyed.”

Elsewhere in Alabama, structural damage was fairly severe for First Baptist Church in Summerdale, First Baptist Church in Atmore and Fulton Road Baptist Church in Mobile. All lost their steeples during the storm. New Life Baptist Church in Bay Minette, Fairmount Baptist Church in Red Level and First Baptist Church in Seminole also all sustained major water and wind damage.

In Florida, 27 Baptist church buildings were damaged by Hurricane Ivan, 12 of them heavily.

At Pensacola's First Baptist, Ivan ripped two holes in the sanctuary's roof, sucked out the windows and frames from the church's educational building and peeled the top off the building where a Korean congregation meets. A hairline crack in the brick mortar stretches from the sidewalk pavement to the third story.

North Carolina Baptist Men started serving meals out of the fellowship hall at Pine Grove (N.C.) Baptist Church on Sept. 21, said Mark DeBardelaben, a deacon at the church that is situated about a mile from where a landslide hit. Recovery teams also were working in the area, he said.

Harold Ball, pastor of First Baptist Church in Franklin, said North Carolina Baptist volunteers were helping people get back on their feet.

“We've sure been blessed with the disaster-relief people here,” he said. “They've been a great blessing and still are.”

In addition, North Carolina Baptist disaster-relief units set up at churches in Clyde, Canton and Spruce Pine, N.C. Many of those towns already had experienced flooding a week earlier, due to rains from Hurricane Frances.

In Pensacola, volunteers coordinated through the Florida Baptist Convention set up an operations center at the Olive Baptist Church. Oklahoma Baptist disaster relief volunteers worked there, feeding area residents and relief workers.

Compiled from reports by Associated Baptist Press, Baptist Press and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Posted: 10/01/04

Author Jenkins sees Texas as
laboratory for global Christianity

By Alison Wingfield

CBF Communications

DALLAS–How Texas handles its ethnic diversity and recognizes the opportunities for missions in the next 20 to 30 years can be a model for the United States as a whole, says author Philip Jenkins.

Jenkins sees Texas, California and Florida on the front lines of changing demographics and as a kind of laboratory of how these changes will affect global Christianity.

“Ethnic diversity means that Texas will be confronting these issues and opportunities that are going to face the whole country soon,” said Jenkins, who will be a featured speaker at the We Love Missions Conference sponsored by Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Missions and Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio, Oct. 21-23.

One of the issues Texas churches face is how to incorporate and work with different cultures. Texas will have the “ability to draw on different kinds of experiences and the strengths of different groups,” Jenkins said.

Texans can learn from and create partnerships with different ethnic churches in the state and use those relationships as a way to build up missions work in their countries of origin, he said.

Jenkins pointed out Houston is known as the Nigerian capital of the United States because of the strong Nigerian community located there.

In his award-winning book, “The Next Christendom,” Jenkins maintains that by the year 2050, the heart of Christianity will move to the Southern Hemisphere, with the majority of Christians living in Latin America, South America and Africa.

When Jenkins addresses an audience, he asks them to think about what kind of church presence in their cities represents the “Global South.” He finds it surprising how many people do not know about these churches.

“If you don't know,” he said, “it's a good idea to find out, because those people have a good connection to their home countries.”

Because of what Jenkins calls “global Christianities”–reflecting many different denominations and traditions–the face and meaning of missions is changing.

“For one thing, it changes the whole idea of mission as sending. That suggests you're sending from a Christian world to a non-Christian world. We need to consider the whole world as a missions area. A lot of the mission arrows are going South/South,” such as Asia to Africa and Latin America to Asia, he said.

This global shift will have ramifications not only for Christians, Jenkins said, but also the growing Muslim world, as the two religions find themselves in political/religious clashes as the world population changes.

“Muslim and Christian nations will expand adjacent to each other, and often, Muslim and Christian communities will both grow within the same country,” he notes in “The Next Christendom.”

As those populations grow, so does the rivalry, with struggles for converts, and “competing attempts to enforce moral codes by means of secular law. Whether Muslim or Christian, religious zeal can easily turn into fanaticism.”

Religious struggles facing the world today will only continue to escalate, Jenkins believes.

“It might be that regardless of what Christians do, what churches do, we are in for an age of religious struggle,” he said. “I don't see much chance of avoiding religious confrontation.”

Although confrontations might be inevitable, one of the first things Jenkins recommends that Christians in the western tradition do is change their perceptions and concepts of what it means to be a Christian. “Recognize that this situation is changing,” he said. “It also affects language. When people say today, 'Christians today believe …,' who do you mean?”

He also encouraged Christians to think more about their concept of history, particularly the history of Christianity.

“We need to be aware that Christianity is much more of a global thing,” he said.

Christians need to look at “what is cultural and what is the core of our religion,” he added.

Jenkins is distinguished professor of history and religious studies at Penn State University. “The Next Christendom” was awarded the 2002 Theologos Award for best academic book of the year by the Association of Theological Booksellers and the 2003 Christianity Today Book Award for the best book in the category of “Christianity and Culture.” He also is the author of numerous other books, including “The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice” and “Images of Terror: What We Can And Can't Know About Terrorism.”

Posted: 10/01/04

BWA president says Korean Christians
praying for United States election

By Marv Knox

Editor

DALLAS–Christians in Korea are praying for the United States presidential election, Baptist World Alliance President Billy Kim told a banquet audience at Dallas Baptist University.

Kim, pastor of Central Baptist Church in Suwon, South Korea, visited Texas Sept. 28-29 to receive an honorary doctorate from Dallas Baptist University.

Kim told the banquet crowd about the reaction of a second-grade Korean child who traveled with his group to America.

“Just after we got off the plane in the Atlanta airport, this little boy asked his mother, 'Why has God blessed this country so abundantly?' She told him, 'Because they have so many Christians.'

“I believe God has blessed this country abundantly,” Kim added. “And institutions like Dallas Baptist University are the key to God's blessing on this nation.”

Because the United States has been so blessed, it impacts other nations, he said.

“The Korean church is praying for the American election,” he reported. “There are no other super powers left. What happens in your election will affect every person on earth. We pray God will continue to sustain this great nation.”

Kim expressed sorrow for the Southern Baptist Convention's vote last summer to withdraw from the Baptist World Alliance, comprised of 211 Baptist groups from around the globe.

The SBC's departure stemmed from the BWA's decision to admit into membership the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a group that split from the SBC after fundamentalists gained control of the convention.

Kim lamented tactics used by SBC leaders to justify their pullout from the worldwide alliance.

“They said the BWA is anti-American, that we believe in same-sex marriage, that we don't believe Christ is the sole path for salvation,” he said, denying all three charges.

The SBC's vote in June made news in Seoul, and Kim was besieged by reporters who wanted to know what he thought, he reported.

“I explained to the press corps, BWA is not anti-American,” he said, noting his American-born wife would quit serving his meals if he were anti-American.

“We're also not for same-sex marriage,” he added, noting he knows of one man in his huge Korean church who was gay, “but his family, members of my church, don't believe that way.”

“We as the Korean Baptist Convention don't believe in same-sex marriage, because the Bible condemns it,” he said.

“And if I don't believe Christ is the sole source of salvation, then I have no business being president of the BWA.”

The SBC's vote to leave the BWA has caused “so much hurt” around the world, he said, noting he pleaded with SBC leaders to delay their departure at least until after the summer of 2005, when the BWA will celebrate its 100th anniversary.

“God knows best, and we trust God that things will work out for Southern Baptists as well as BWA,” he said.

Besides, “the world is too big” to linger on hurt and allow it to sidetrack the BWA from helping Baptists around the globe, he added. For example, world Baptists need to support members of the lone Baptist church in Turkey, as well as the 4,000 Baptists in Poland who are out-numbered by their 40 million countrymen, and persecuted Baptists in other parts of the world.

“There is a great task to be done,” Kim insisted. “I believe Baptists united will make the difference in the world.

“I still pray for the SBC. I pray God will use the SBC, the BWA, the CBF, the Baptist General Convention of Texas, the American Baptist Churches … to fulfill the Great Commission.”

DBU President Gary Cook praised Kim, whom he called “Mr. World Baptist,” for his leadership, not only of his strong church in Korea but of Baptists globally.

Kim has close ties to the Dallas university, Cook said, noting numerous young people from his church are part of DBU's large international student body.

Thirteen Korean businessmen traveled with Kim to the DBU campus to be present for the ceremony where he received the honorary doctorate. At the banquet, they presented Cook with a check for what he described as a “very large scholarship.”

It will be placed in the fund that supports a scholarship named in Kim's honor, he added.

Posted: 10/01/04

TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM
Alabama gratitude

On behalf of all Alabama Baptists, I want to thank your Disaster Relief team for helping us during this time of cleanup and community support following Hurricane Ivan. “Ivan the Terrible” is the worst weather-related event in my lifetime as an Alabamian.

Food service, chain-saw work and other cleanup, as well as witnessing and counseling, have all been a vital part of the ministry of your people.

I tried to thank every one of them, but I didn't get to see them all. Would you do it for me, please?

God bless, and thanks from a friend.

Rick Lance

Executive Director

Alabama Baptist Convention

Montgomery, Ala.

Christian radio

Several weeks ago, a letter writer lamented he was not able to find a Christian radio station that broadcast the hymns and great gospel songs we have known and loved for so many years.

Well, I have good news for anyone who loves the beautiful grand hymns of the faith. The Bible Broadcasting Network has satellite and translator stations all across the United States.

You can find the local station nearest you by logging on to www.bbnradio.org. There are at least six stations across Texas on the low FM band.

This station has meant a lot to this life, and I trust it will be to many folks in Texas.

Bill Ussery

Springdale, Ark.

Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptists

As a native Midwesterner, I would like to correct some misinformation in the article “Texas Baptists connected by family ties to churches in Minnesota-Wisconsin Convention” (Sept. 20).

It states, “Texas Baptists were integral in launching Baptist ministry in Minnesota and Wisconsin 50 years ago, as Texas pastors and laypeople moved north to start the initial Baptist churches in the region.”

In fact, Baptists have been alive and well in the region for well over 150 years and did not come from the South.

The article also states that “less than 5 percent of people (in Minnesota and Wisconsin) are evangelical Christians.” The Evangelical Covenant Church of America is the seventh-largest denomination in Minnesota and has churches throughout Wisconsin. The Evangelical Free Church of America is also very pervasive in both states. There is a large and active Greater Minnesota Association of Evangelicals that sponsors evangelical activities throughout the state. I am confident many more than 5 percent are evangelical.

Finally, the article closes by implying that people in Minnesota and Wisconsin are religious but do not have a personal relationship with Jesus. While these two states are not part of the traditional “Bible Belt,” many of the people there are born-again Christians and experienced personal relationship with Jesus without ever meeting a Southern Baptist.

I applaud the work of the Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention but urge them to acknowledge the presence of other evangelicals and Baptists doing kingdom work in my home state and its neighbor state.

Roger E. Olson

Waco

Double standard

In years past, those nominated for presidential and vice presidential posts of the Southern Baptist Convention were regularly labeled by many in our state convention as unfit for such offices because of feeble support for the Cooperative Program.

I always believed they had a point, based on Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The application: If your treasure is not in the convention, your heart's not in it; and if your heart's not in it, what qualifies you to lead it and significantly influence its direction?

What is puzzling is that–in recent years–that same standard has been abandoned by some of those same critics of the SBC. The Baptist Standard (Sept. 20) reported that the man to be nominated for the first vice presidency of the BGCT serves as pastor of a church that–last year–gave only $1,800 to the BGCT Cooperative Program unified budget in a church that averages over 300 in worship.

So, meager Cooperative Program support is now acceptable for office holders who have a substantial influence over the future direction of our convention? Why the double standard?

Gary Dyer

Midland

Ticket to heaven?

I am ashamed of the letter written by F.A. Taylor (Sept. 20). He says, “Finally, with tongue in cheek, I cannot understand how a Christian can be a Democrat.”

He found many faults of the Democrats. I could list many faults of the Republicans. I will not.

Read and study the Gospel of Matthew, especially Matthew 7:1, 23:13, 28:19-20. I'm glad the loving God is my judge, not Taylor.

When Taylor gets to heaven, will his ID card say, “I'm a Republican”? Will that help him get into heaven?

E.L. White

Wilbarger County

Jesus & partisanship

I am not amused by the letter by F.A. Taylor.

Let me tell you how you can identify a right-wing conservative “Christian” Republican:

First, he has given serious thought that Christ would declare himself a Republican or a member of any other party for that matter.

He probably thinks: Feeding 5,000 homeless made Jesus too compassionate for dealing with tough issues like terrorism. Providing health care (healing) to the sick, blind, elderly and crippled was helping to create a welfare state. A bunch of disgruntled ex-followers who accused Christ of not really being injured or dying on the cross and that his service medals (scars) were somehow invalid, and that he was a traitor for opposing the Pharisees. Jesus was a tax-and-spend liberal for declaring we render unto Caesar. Because he cried “Lord, Lord” in the public schools, he somehow made the world less sinful. Because Jesus changed his mind when first delaying, then deciding to go to Lazarus, Jesus was a flip-flopper.

Second, Satan delights in the right-wing conservatives segregating who's a “real” Christian and who's not.

Finally, with no tongue in cheek, I cannot understand how a Christian can assume Christ to be anything but non-partisan.

Mark W. Clark

Flower Mound

Bad name

The odd comments of F.A. Taylor are an example of the close-minded, unloving, colloquial remarks that have made the name “Baptist” a pejorative within American culture.

Taylor seems to position his fellow believers who hold a different political view as pro-Satanic “fault finders” who position themselves alongside darkness rather than Light.

Can it be any surprise that the non-Christians who watch us see no reason to examine the deeper convictions of our faith?

Fortunately for Jesus, he was not a registered voter, nor did he think too highly of any millionaire who didn't give all his money to the poor.

I suspect both presidential candidates would have been crossed off Jesus' list–no matter what they claim as a personal spiritual belief. No telling how severely we Baptists would have criticized the Nazarene or how we would have berated him in our letters to the editor.

David Maltsberger

Boerne

Feeling unwelcome

I have been a Southern Baptist for 46 years. I am also a Democrat. I no longer feel welcome in my denomination.

I am tired of being indirectly told I am not a good Christian because I do not agree any abortion should be illegal or that same-sex marriage is one of our greatest threats.

I believe the destruction of our environment, the crisis in health care, the shortage of good jobs, the lack of government support for public education and the invasion of Iraq are serious moral issues.

The political remarks I hear in church and read make me believe many Southern Baptists do not want my fellowship, so I need to find another, more loving (and thinking) denomination.

I wonder how many more Baptists believe this.

William L. Reddick

Mesquite

Out of Focus

I would like to express my disappointment in your coverage of the Focus Conference. In the article, the writer makes it sound as if Dennis Wiles' breakout session was all there was to this conference. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Over 3,000 college students were led in worship by the Smith Band. Vodie Baucham challenged students on three occasions to be students of the word and be prepared to defend their faith. Over 1,000 college students did mission projects throughout the Metroplex. Mission Arlington, First Baptist Church in Arlington and the University of Texas at Arlington were just some of the beneficiaries of these students. Several breakout sessions and focus groups were conducted during the conference, as well.

Focus was also a celebration of what God did through over 450 Texas Baptist college students who surrendered their summer, Christmas break, and/or semester to serve the Lord all over the world. We saw videos and slide shows that helped us visualize the passion these students expressed regarding their experiences.

God is doing some awesome things in this generation of college students, many perhaps unprecedented. It's time all Texas Baptist appreciate what God is doing with this generation and consider what the rest of us need to do to have a matching passion for the glory of his name.

Jeff Parsons

Amarillo

Excellent resource

On behalf of all those in Broadway Baptist Church's Bible study ministry who are utilizing the BaptistWay resources provided through the Baptist General Convention of Texas, please know of our support and appreciation for the supplementary commentary now being provided each week by the Standard.

I trust other churches are also making use of this excellent resource.

David Wilkinson

Fort Worth

Another option

I enjoyed the article on theological education in Texas. Texas Baptists do indeed have many good options for theological education.

As a recipient of a quality Baptist education (M.Div. and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary), I appreciate these many options.

In one paragraph, the article mentioned three non-Baptist options for seminary education in Texas (certainly not intended to be exhaustive)–Dallas Theological Seminary on the conservative end and Brite Divinity School and Perkins School of Theology on the more liberal.

I would like to point out one option that the article did not include. Houston Graduate School of Theology is a multi-denominational seminary located in Houston. The school offers four degrees–M.A., M.A. in counseling, M.Div. and D.Min., all accredited by the Association of Theological Schools. Its students are as diverse as the city in which the school is located–ethnically and denominationally.

The school's faculty includes Friends, Southern Baptist, United Methodist, Episcopalian, Nazarene and Presbyterian. The school is committed to a broad evangelical education to produce spiritual leadership for the kingdom of God in the 21st century. The school has been in existence for over 20 years, even though its existence remains relatively unknown in many circles. The fall 2004 schedule included 25 courses offered during the day, in the evening and on Saturday.

Chuck Pitts

Houston

What do you think? Submit letters for Texas Baptist Forum via e-mail to marvknox@baptiststandard.com or regular mail at Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267. Letters must be no longer than 250 words. They may be edited to accommodate space.

Posted: 10/01/04

New PBS documentary examines Lewis,
Freud and their views about God

By Ted Parks

Associated Baptist Press

BOSTON (ABP)–The British Christian and the Austrian atheist both were shaken by war and personal tragedy that left them clinging to the bitter end to their acceptance–or rejection–of the divine.

The ideas of C. S. Lewis, a leading 20th century Christian apologist, and Sigmund Freud, psychiatrist and architect of modern secular thought, are juxtaposed in a new PBS documentary that allows the two intellectual giants to address anew life's most perplexing questions.

Titled “The Question of God: Sigmund Freud & C. S. Lewis,” the two-part, four-hour PBS show is based on a book of the same title by Harvard professor and practicing psychiatrist Armand Nicholi. The series also is available on videocassette and DVD from PBS Home Video.

Though Freud, who worked in Vienna, and Lewis, who taught literature at Oxford and Cambridge, were born a generation apart, the documentary brings the two together by putting their words on the lips of actors dramatizing key moments of their lives. And contemporary panelists–believing and unbelieving–bring the thought of Freud and Lewis to bear on modern questions in the film through nine roundtable discussions moderated by Harvard's Nicholi.

The unusual linking of the Viennese psychiatrist with the Oxford don grew out of a Harvard course where Nicholi at first taught only the philosophy of Freud.

Nicholi said that, while students responded favorably to the class, they said it struck them as “unbalanced.” As counterweight to the denials of Freud, Nicholi introduced the affirmations of Lewis. With the change, “the class discussion ignited,” Nicholi says in a PBS study guide accompanying the series.

In a recent interview, the Harvard professor linked his interest in Lewis with his own professional struggle with suffering.

At Bellevue, Nicholi happened on a copy of Lewis' “The Problem of Pain” in a hospital library. He then read Lewis's book and found it helpful as he confronted tragedy as a physician.

While the documentary contrasts how Lewis and Freud understood the world, it also shows certain parallels in their personal lives. Both experienced the devastation of World War I. Both men lost beloved family members, Freud a daughter, Lewis his wife.

But despite the parallels, Freud and Lewis explained human existence and the role of the divine in vastly different ways.

Freud saw a heavenly Father as the mere human projection of an earthly one. For the Viennese psychiatrist, the Father and the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, were “the idealized parents of childhood,” commented Harold Blum, executive director of the Sigmund Freud Archives and one of several experts interviewed in the film.

Lewis, on the other hand, argued for a divine origin to human concepts of good and bad. He reasoned that people's shared sense of right and wrong reflects a universal "moral law" given by a divinely moral lawgiver. Rather than the product of human development, that law had to come from some transcendent outside source, Lewis believed.

While Freud and Lewis lived and wrote in the past, Nicholi believes they still speak to a postmodern world that dethrones reason and discounts knowledge of absolute truth.

He also believes that revisiting Freud can help people of faith better understand how their secular neighbors think.

Posted: 10/01/04

LifeWay trustees adopt 2005 budget;
vote to revitalize Glorieta, Ridgecrest

By Chris Turner

LifeWay Christian Resources

RIDGECREST, N.C. (BP)–LifeWay Christian Resources trustees adopted a $446 million operating budget for 2005 and approved a significant investment in the company's conference centers to fast-track their revitalization efforts.

LifeWay expects revenues this year of $427.5 million, $13.2 million more than last year but $21 million short of budget, Chief Operating Officer Ted Warren told trustees during their semiannual meeting at LifeWay's Ridgecrest Conference Center near Asheville, N.C. The fiscal year ended Sept. 30.

“The fact that we plan to achieve record revenues is good news,” said Warren. “Yet every one of our divisions' revenues will come in below budget. That means we've had less than a successful year.”

Still, he cited major accomplishments in 2004, including the introduction of the Holman Christian Standard Bible, which in a few months has become one of the best-selling Bibles in the United States, and LifeWay's commitment of $1.6 million to help 13 Baptist state conventions and one association double baptisms in 2005.

For the new fiscal year, Warren said, all LifeWay divisions have plans for revenue growth. But along with that are increased expenses as the LifeWay Christian Stores division plans to add new stores, and the church resources and Broadman & Holman divisions will add staff. These factors will require LifeWay to execute its business plan with precision.

“The 2005 budget is based on what we believe to be an achievable revenue target of $446 million, which assumes a continued recovery in the economy,” Warren said. “The revenue budget reflects an $18.2 million or 4.3 percent increase over 2004 projected revenue.”

In 2004, funds provided from operations–money for reinvestment in ministry expansion after all expenses are paid–are expected to be $13.4 million, or 3.1 percent of revenue, consistent with LifeWay's goal of financial performance. The same amount is budgeted for 2005.

In a move to hasten revitalization efforts at LifeWay's conference centers, the trustees approved a business plan that includes an investment of $27 million over the next four years.

At Ridgecrest, the business plan calls for construction of a new 120-room hotel, new convention and indoor recreation centers, renovation of Pritchell Hall and demolition of seven aging and expensive-to-maintain buildings.

At Glorieta, plans call for a new 140-room hotel, a new indoor recreation center, a renovated chapel and demolition of 24 outdated buildings, reducing the center's adult capacity but nearly tripling its youth capacity to better fit seasonal demand.

LifeWay expects revenues this year of $427.5 million, $13.2 million more than last year but $21 million short of budget.

Posted: 10/01/04

Louisiana evangelical vote played key role
in passing prohibition on same-sex marriages

By Bruce Nolan

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–Analysis of Louisiana's statewide vote to ban same-sex marriage shows that areas with a large number of evangelical Christians played a key role.

In 10 of the state's 64 parishes, voters spoke with a unified voice extraordinary in electoral politics. In those parishes, at least 90 percent of voters supported the constitutional amendment. Among the 10 were six of the most heavily evangelical parishes in the state.

Major religious groups supporting traditional marriage made passing the amendment a priority. Backers said it would protect the traditional understanding of marriage from court decisions such as those that have opened the door to same-sex unions in other states.

LaSalle Parish in central Louisiana favored the amendment by an overwhelming 94 percent. LaSalle has the state's heaviest concentration of evangelical Christians; 81 percent of the population belong to one of several evangelical congregations, according to a 2000 survey by the Glenmary Research Center.

At the other end of the spectrum was New Orleans, where the amendment found the least support. It won there with 55 percent of the vote. The amendment attracted no less than 71 percent of the vote anywhere else.

Running up to the election, evangelical groups such as the Louisiana Family Forum launched a statewide drive on behalf of the amendment, educating pastors and encouraging them to launch voter registration drives in their churches.

Louisiana's Catholic bishops also issued a public statement urging the state's 1.5 million Catholics to vote for the amendment.

The amendment seemed to do slightly better among evangelicals than among Catholics. The level of support in the 10 most heavily evangelical parishes was 88 percent; it was 80 percent in the state's 10 most heavily Catholic parishes.

Statewide, 78 percent of voters supported the measure, meaning opponents fell well short of the 30 percent vote they had hoped for.

The amendment prohibits state judges and officials from recognizing same-sex marriage and civil unions sanctioned in other states. On Nov. 2, residents in as many as a dozen states will be voting on similar measures banning same-sex marriage.

Posted: 10/01/04

On the Move

Leighton Allen to Henderson Street Church in Cleburne as interim minister to students.

Casy Blanton to Parkside Church in Denison as interim youth minister.

James and Becca Cain to Northside Church in Highlands as youth directors.

Johnny Funderburg to First Church in Pampa as pastor from First Church in Whitesboro.

Jason Hannam to Redeemer Community Church in Katy as assistant pastor.

Mack Helms has resigned as pastor of First Church in Sheridan.

Tim Medley has resigned as minister of youth at Hagerman Church in Sherman.

David Murrell to Fairplay Church in Carthage as pastor.

George Thomas has resigned as pastor of Cass Church in Atlanta.

Darrell Tomasek to Lexington Church in Corpus Christi as pastor from First Church in Ganado.

Posted: 10/01/04

Paris church knows broadcasting high
school football is ministry in Texas

By George Henson

Staff Writer

PARIS–Cable television viewers in Paris know the call-letters “FBC-TV” stand for First Baptist Church. But each fall, they represent the Football Channel.

The church has had a local cable channel since 1985, and it started broadcasting local high school football games about 10 years ago.

"We do it as a public service to the community," said Travis Jackson, director of media and public relations for the church. But Jackson readily admits it also raises the church's level of visibility in the community.

“It serves to get a lot of people to the channel that might not ever know it was there otherwise,” he pointed out.

The church also has aired a health talk show and a local business talk show as a part of its programming.

An all-volunteer crew tapes the football games. Paris has two high schools, Paris High School and North Lamar High School, and the church films the home game with the greatest appeal, making sure to keep the number of games for each team even.

“We're fortunate enough to have a real nice mobile production unit that is all logoed up with the church's logo, and our crew has their T-shirts” so there is no escaping the fact that First Baptist Church is broadcasting the local high school gridders on television, Jackson said.

“It lets the people here know that we're not just a bunch of stuffed-shirts at that church downtown,” he said.

The church doesn't even accept sponsorships for the football games “except for maybe a free meal for the crew at a local restaurant,” Jackson said.

Jackson started out as a volunteer member of the crew eight years ago.

Then in January 2001, he felt God leading him to make media ministry his full-time vocation. And in May of that year, the position opened up at his church.

“God gave me an opportunity to serve here, and I'm very grateful for that,” he said.

Jackson has attended several conferences dealing with church-run television ministries. Almost always, First Baptist Church in Paris is the smallest congregation represented, he observed.

“This kind of ministry is a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun, too,” he said.

“There's just so much potential with this type of ministry for churches.”

Posted: 10/01/04

House vote would strip courts' ability to rule on pledge

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would strip the Supreme Court and all other federal courts of the ability to decide cases involving the Pledge of Allegiance.

The House voted 247-173 to pass the “Pledge Protection Act.” Although the vote broke down largely along party lines, 35 Democrats joined most Republicans in supporting it. Six Republicans opposed it.

The bill would ban federal courts from hearing or deciding cases “pertaining to the interpretation of, or the validity under the Constitution of, the Pledge of Allegiance … or its recitation.”

Sponsors said the bill was a pre-emptive measure to prevent future challenges to the pledge's constitutionality under the First Amendment. In 2002, the California-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the teacher-led recitation of the pledge–including the words “under God”–in public schools violates the amendment's ban on government establishment of religion.

The case was Elk Grove Unified School District vs. Newdow. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 9th Circuit's decision earlier this year. However, they did so on technical grounds, leaving the question of the pledge's constitutionality open.

Nonetheless, the Newdow decision made the proposed bill a solution in search of a problem, argued House opponents of the bill.

“You have won the lawsuit. Newdow has been reversed.” Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) said to his colleagues during floor debate. “Get a grip!”

But bill supporters said the court's silence on the case's constitutional issues left the pledge vulnerable.

“The Supreme Court's decision not to reach the merits of the case is apparently an effort to forestall a decision averse to the pledge,” said Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), a bill supporter and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. However, he said, if the bill becomes law, “a few federal judges sitting thousands of miles away will not be able to re-write your state's pledge policy,” he said.

The move came just a few weeks after the House approved a similar “court-stripping” bill that would remove from federal judicial review cases involving the Defense of Marriage Act. In addition, a broader court-stripping bill that would remove from the federal courts authority to decide a much wider array of cases involving governmental endorsement of religion remains in the House's legislative pipeline.

Democrats said the onslaught of court-stripping proposals vindicated their earlier warnings about the danger of the “Marriage Protection Act.”

“If this debate was really about whether 'under God' was going to be in the Pledge of Allegiance, I'd be right there” with the bill's supporters, Watt said. “But this debate is about much, much more than that. It's about whether there's going to be a constitutional framework under which we operate.”

Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.), who had been one of the bill's original sponsors before Sensenbrenner's committee added the Supreme Court to the list of courts it would strip of jurisdiction in pledge cases, said such a move would make it unprecedented in American history.

“There is no direct constitutional precedent where the Supreme Court is cut off entirely from review of an issue,” Biggert said.

Watt offered an amendment to the bill that would have restored jurisdiction over pledge cases to the Supreme Court, but not other federal courts. It lost on a largely party-line vote.

Bill supporters said Congress has the authority, under Article III of the Constitution, to except many areas of law from federal judicial review. The prospect of a future court again declaring the pledge to be unconstitutional is a sufficiently grave threat to exempt this area of the law, said Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.).

“At what point would you, as a member of Congress, get up and say, 'Enough is enough'” of judicial overreach, he asked his colleagues.

Several bill opponents pointed out a 1943 Supreme Court decision striking down a West Virginia law that forced all schoolchildren to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

The decision was highly unpopular at the time. However, it protected the rights of Jehovah's Witnesses and other groups whose theology prevents them from reciting oaths or swearing allegiance to any entity other than God.

Though opponents worried the bill would cut off religious minorities from legal recourse in such cases, supporters said state magistrates could protect minority rights in pledge cases. "Nothing in (the bill) would allow state courts to depart from Supreme Court precedents" in pledge cases, Sensenbrenner said.

But Watt and other bill opponents objected that leaving the issue to states could set up a patchwork of different state interpretations of the Constitution's protections.

“Fifty different states–50 different rules under your rule?” he asked bill supporters. “What happened to the word 'indivisible'–'One nation, indivisible, under God?'”

The bill is H.R. 2028. Although it has passed the House and a similar bill has been proposed in the Senate, sources say it is unlikely to pass that chamber this year.