Posted: 7/09/04

Posted: 7/09/04

Church-state watchdogs won court
battle, lost PR war, attorney notes

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP)–In facing down Alabama's “Ten Commandments judge” and winning, Richard Cohen admitted he and other supporters of church-state separation won a legal battle but may have lost the public-relations war.

“The real battle here wasn't in the court of law, where we were comfortable,” said Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala. “It was in the court of public opinion.”

Cohen addressed supporters of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs at a luncheon during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly in Birmingham, Ala.

Cohen's group and two other civil-rights organizations represented several Alabamians who successfully sued Roy Moore, who was once chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. Two federal courts declared a monument to the Ten Commandments that Moore had placed in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building in Montgomery an unconstitutional state endorsement of religion.

In August, Moore defied a federal judge's order to remove the monument. The incident ultimately led to Moore losing his job for violating the state's judicial-ethics code. Moore had contended that the Alabama Constitution required him to “acknowledge God,” and that the monument was a proper way to do so. But the vast majority of legal scholars agreed that Moore's argument did not pass constitutional muster.

However, Cohen said, Moore's stance made him enormously popular among Alabamians and supporters of the Religious Right nationwide. Cohen noted that scientific polls at the conflict's height showed that 75 percent of Alabama residents supported Moore's position.

Cohen read excerpts of some of the hate mail he received as a result of the case. One stated: “I hope God strikes you dead. If you're ever in Florida, why don't you stop by. There's a few of your teeth (32) I want to smash down your throat. Have a nice day.”

Such vehemence compared with “the virtual silence” of religious people who supported the separation of church and state, Cohen said. Many Alabama religious leaders who shared his organization's views on the case were nonetheless afraid to anger their congregations by speaking out against Moore, he said.

Cohen thanked the Baptist Joint Committee and several dozen members of the Alabama clergy who filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the plaintiffs' argument. But he said that didn't result in the kinds of public demonstrations and outpourings of support that Moore's supporters showed.

“There were more Justice Moore supporters out there in the streets than there were Justice Moore opponents,” he said. Cohen said that caused “lazy” media to portray the battle simplistically–as between hundreds of Christian pro-Moore supporters who demonstrated at the courthouse and the handful of atheists who consistently showed up.

Because the battle for public opinion in favor of separation of church and state is so difficult, Cohen told the participants, “We need your help. … Even if Justice Moore is finished, the other Justice Moores of this world are not through.”

Participants at the luncheon also heard an update from Baptist Joint Committee staffers, including a run-down of the group's activities in the past year by BJC General Counsel Holly Hollman. She received applause when noting their success in the Moore case, but sounded a note of warning on a piece of legislation working its way through Congress.

The proposed “Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act,” which would allow churches to endorse political candidates and parties while retaining their tax-exempt status, would endanger religion's prophetic role in being the conscience of the state, Hollman argued. “It's difficult for churches and houses of worship to maintain their independence and not be compromised by politicians and their partisan political goals,” she said.

James Dunn, the BJC's retired executive director, encouraged participants to support the newly announced First Freedoms Project. The project is an educational and fund-raising collaboration between BJC, Associated Baptist Press and the Baptists Today news journal. The three groups will provide churches with resource materials to promote religious liberty and freedom of the press, while encouraging churches to fund the three organizations with an annual offering or budget gift.

“Religious freedom and freedom of the press are indissolubly linked,” said Dunn, now a professor at the Divinity School at Wake Forest University. “If either … is lost, we go with it.”

Also at the meeting, members of the BJC's Religious Liberty Council conducted their annual business. The RLC is the Baptist Joint Committee's arm for individual donors. They re-elected Reginald McDonough of Tennessee and Sharon Felton of Texas as co-chairpersons, as well as re-electing David Rogers of Virginia as the group's secretary.

In addition, RLC members elected three new representatives of the group to the BJC's board, and re-elected three others. The three new representatives are Chris Chapman of North Carolina and Chris Lawson of Arkansas, who were both elected to three-year terms, and Michelle McClendon of South Carolina, who was elected to fill out the remaining two years on an unexpired term. Pat Anderson of Florida, Cynthia Holmes of Missouri and David Massengill of New York were re-elected to three-year terms.

Posted: 7/09/04

Two Texans named to Fellowship task force
on partnership with Baptist World Alliance

By Lance Wallace

CBF Communications

ATLANTA–The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's new moderator has appointed a task force on the Baptist World Alliance to explore ways the Fellowship can be a good partner with the goal fellowship.

When Bob Setzer, pastor of First Baptist Church in Macon, Ga., became moderator of the Fellowship at the close of the CBF general assembly in Birmingham, Ala., his first official action was naming the task force.

“Fellowship Baptists are excited about being admitted into our world Baptist family,” Setzer said. “We look forward to joining hands and hearts with our Baptist brothers and sisters from all over the world.”

Walter Shurden, executive director of the Center for Baptist Studies at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., will serve as chair of the task force, and Hardy Clemons, retired pastor of First Baptist Church in Greenville, S.C., will serve as vice chair. Other task force members are:

Carolyn Anderson, coordinator, Florida CBF, Lakeland, Fla.

Marv Knox, editor, the Baptist Standard, Dallas.

Emmanuel McCall, retired pastor, Christian Fellowship Baptist Church, College Park, Ga.

Julie Pennington-Russell, pastor, Calvary Baptist Church, Waco.

Guy Sayles Jr., pastor, First Baptist Church, Asheville, N.C.

Barbara Baldridge, co-coordinator of CBF Global Missions, and Setzer will serve on the committee as ex officio members.

“You can see from the caliber of the people on this task force that the Fellowship is serious about being a good, contributing partner to the BWA,” Setzer said.

The task force will begin its work immediately. Setzer hopes the task force will have a preliminary report to the Coordinating Council in October.

Posted: 7/09/04

Being near the right Son opens doors, theologian preaches

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP)– Being near the right Son can open doors for you, Virginia theologian John Kinney told participants at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's general assembly.

Speaking during the opening session of the moderate Baptist group's annual meeting in Birmingham, Kinney noted that his son, Erron, is a tight end for the NFL's Tennessee Titans. When visiting his son in Nashville, Kinney said, he often gets into places or gets the sort of treatment not available to most people.

That's taught him something: “Some of the promise and possibility in your life is not because of who you are, but because you're connected with the right Son,” Kinney said, making the application to Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

Kinney is dean of the school of theology at Virginia Union University, a historically African-American Baptist school in Richmond. Addressing the meeting's theme of “Being the Presence of Christ: Today … Tomorrow … Together,” he drew from Luke's account of the encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus to note that being Christ's presence in the world first requires Christians to recognize Christ's presence among them.

That was difficult for the two people in Luke 24:30-34, whose world had just been upended by the death of their leader, Kinney said.

“Could that day be much of the character of today?” he asked, citing “wars and rumors of wars, trouble at every hand.”

But, Kinney said, despite the disciples' dejected condition and inability at first to recognize their Lord in his resurrected state, “he still drew near.”

And as soon the pair realized Christ was sitting with them, he disappeared, Kinney said.

That caused them to realize their hearts had been “burning within” them when Jesus was walking with them along the road, explaining the prophecies about his coming and resurrection, he continued.

“What was something I didn't know and could only hear facts about is now burning as a part of who I am,” Kinney said.

Once believers are in close contact with Christ and feel in that relationship a burning passion, they can be that presence in the world, Kinney said.

He noted the people in Emmaus immediately got up and returned to Jerusalem to tell the others of their experience.

“They do not respond with a doctrine or a formula. They do not come at you with a form to follow. They come at you with a life that has been transformed, and invite you to be transformed,” he said.

“They tell you, 'There's something that has gotten a hold of me, and my life has been changed!'”

Posted: 7/09/04

San Antonio missions minister, pastor
from College Station named CBF-Texas officers

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.–A San Antonio missions minister and a College Station pastor assumed the elected leadership of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-Texas during the group's annual meeting, held in conjunction with the national CBF general assembly in Birmingham.

Debbie Ferrier, minister of missions at Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio, became moderator of the Texas group after serving a year as moderator-elect.

Rodney McGlothlin, pastor of First Baptist Church in College Station, was chosen moderator-elect and will succeed Ferrier in 2005.

CBF-Texas also nominated three members to the national CBF Coordinating Council.

Sandi Elizondo, a staff member at Baptist University of the Americas and a member of Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio; Bill Shiell, pastor of Southland Baptist Church in San Angelo; and Glen Schmucker, pastor of Cliff Temple Baptist Church in Dallas, later were confirmed by participants in the larger meeting.

In addition, CBF-Texas elected 12 members of the state Coordinating Council.

They are Chris Breedlove, Dellview Baptist Church, San Antonio; Ron Edwards, Minnehulla Baptist Church, Goliad; Antonio Estrada, South Main Baptist Church, Houston; Isaac Flores, Primera Iglesia Bautista, San Antonio; James Hanes, First Baptist Church, Arlington; Cindy Johnson, Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth; and Scott Jones, Royal Lane Baptist Church, Dallas.

Also, Charles McLaughlin, Western Hills Baptist Church, Fort Worth; Karen Murphy, First Baptist Church, Harlingen; Kyle Reese, First Baptist Church, San Angelo; Brad Russell, The Springs Baptist Church, San Antonio; and Cynthia Wise, Second Baptist Church, Lubbock.

Posted: 7/09/04

Volunteers from churches in Springtown, Keller and DeLeon join members of First Baptist Church in Comanche in painting and renovating homes for unchurched, low-income residents in their communities. It's part of Community Rehab, a ministry launched by the Comanche church.

Community rehab volunteers seek to
show 'what the church ought to be'

By Janelle Bagci

Staff Writer

COMANCHE–Five years ago, members of First Baptist Church in Comanche launched a community project repairing homes in their town. This year, the project spread to surrounding counties, and the volunteers–mostly teenagers–reconstructed 17 homes.

First Baptist Church founded Community Rehab as an inexpensive alternative to World Changers, a North American Mission Board-sponsored program.

“The youth at First Baptist Church in Comanche spent a long time raising the money to go to World Changers, and we had a hard time seeing where it all went,” said James Stone, youth minister at First Baptist. “We decided we could do something similar right here in Comanche.”

The vision of Community Rehab is to give “tangible evidence to what the church ought to be–serving and making people better. That's what the gospel's all about,” said J.C. Baker, pastor of First Baptist Church in Weinert, who served as Community Rehab pastor during the building project.

The Comanche church put an ad in the local newspaper, asking people who need repairs on their homes to apply. Applicants had to be low-income and not affiliated with a church, because the ministry's goal is to reach unchurched people.

Community Rehab raised funds through local donations of materials and money. The project collected more than $30,000 from the city, businesses and individuals. A specialty grant from the federal government allowed a partnership with the project to reconstruct five houses. Even churches without the people to participate were able to donate funds to the cause.

More than 200 workers restored and rebuilt the 17 homes this year in DeLeon, Gustine and Comanche counties. Tasks ranged from roofing and painting to building new porches and tearing down chimneys. Participants worked five days for five hours a day.

By the end of the week, the volunteers had completed two houses more than expected.

“It meets the needs of our kids almost better than youth camp,” said Bob Whitney of First Baptist in Comanche, one of the originators of the project. It promotes team building, evangelism and service in one week, he said.

In addition to repairing homes, workers prayerwalk during their spare time and gather children for daily Bible lessons.

“We wanted to work on some houses, and maybe we'd have a presence in the neighborhood. It's gone way beyond that to Bible study and evangelism; it's getting deep,” Whitney said.

Volunteers held a worship service every night. About half of the homeowners attended the services, and several made commitments to Christ.

The project has grown each year, and churches participate from Keller, Springtown, DeLeon and Comanche.

“It's become a ripple effect,” Stone said.

“Our gifts have put us in touch with people so that when people see us, they'll give us time to tell them about Jesus,” said Charles Carroll of First Baptist in Comanche, Community Rehab construction coordinator/ supervisor.

The high school custodian's house was one of the 17 homes Community Rehab rebuilt. She has a huge impact on a lot of people because the community knows her, Stone said.

Community Rehab “is as much for us as it is for them; it got us out of our comfort zone,” Whitney said.

The homeowners especially were excited about their new homes.

“I love it. I'm so proud of it; it's beautiful,” Dixie Markham said of her new front door and window. “I feel so privileged; they worked so hard.”

Prior to Community Rehab's work, Markham's front door would not close or lock. She was forced to wire it shut.

“Now I've got a new door with a lock,” she said. “This is the first time I've ever had anything given to me. I've always had to work for everything. I just feel so privileged.”

For more information about Community Rehab, contact James Stone at (325) 356-2051.

Posted: 7/09/04

Compensation survey shows BGCT
churches rank #2 in pay for pastors

By Trennis Henderson

Kentucky Western Recorder

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP)–The average salary and housing for full-time Baptist pastors is $46,505, according to a national compensation study. That is a jump of 6.7 percent from a similar study conducted two years ago.

The average total pay package, including insurance and annuity benefits, is $56,236 nationally–an increase of 7.6 percent over the previous study. The study includes more than 20,000 parti-cipants from 8,600 Southern Baptist churches in all 50 states.

The average salary-and-housing packages for full-time pastors range from $34,397 in Montana to $63,818 in the District of Columbia. Full-time pastors in the Baptist General Convention of Texas rank second at $56,581.

“The joint study provides a much larger database so churches can compare compensation to churches more like their own,” said Don Spencer, director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention's annuity department, who has been compiling a biennial compensation study for Kentucky Baptist churches since 1986. The Southern Baptist Annuity Board–recently renamed GuideStone Financial Resources–also helped facilitate the study.

“Our hope is that churches will use this information to evaluate their compensation arrangements for current and future staff,” explained Bob Henry, head of GuideStone's church retirement marketing department.

In addition to compensation for full-time pastors, the study provides compensation information about bivocational pastors and full-time and bivocational church staff ministers as well as office personnel and custodians.

“One of the values of this is it allows a church to not make compensation decisions in a vacuum,” Henry said.

“It helps churches get a more global view of what is happening in the area of compensation for pastors and church staff members.”

Bivocational pastors' salary and housing average $14,788 nationally, an increase of 6.5 percent since 2002. Their average total pay package is $16,340, a gain of 8.4 percent in the past two years.

Among full-time church staff ministers, the average salary and housing is $44,730 nationally, and the total pay package averages $54,184. Among bivocational church staff ministers, average salary and housing is $10,725, and the total pay package averages $11,576.

Citing other findings in the study, Spencer said he is pleased that ministers' compensation has outpaced inflation in recent years. The 6.7 percent increase in full-time pastors' average compensation since 2002 compares to a 4.3 percent inflation rate. Since 1996, full-time pastors' average compensation has jumped 40.4 percent, doubling the inflation rate of 20.2 percent.

“The level of increased compensation is significant since ministers traditionally have been underpaid when compared to secular positions requiring similar background and responsibilities,” he said. “Little by little, compensation for church staff is improving.”

Churches and individuals can access the full study and compile customized compensation reports online through the "2004 Compensation Study" link at www.absbc.org.

Posted: 7/09/04

Court rules Child Online
Protection Act appears unconstitutional

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–A federal law attempting to make it harder for children and teenagers to access Internet pornography cannot be enforced because it likely violates the First Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.

The justices decided a lower court's order barring enforcement of the law could stand and the law probably wouldn't survive a challenge on free-speech grounds.

In Ashcroft vs. American Civil Liberties Union, a sharply divided court ruled that the Child Online Protection Act should not be enforced pending a trial on its constitutionality.

COPA–passed in 1998 and signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton–was Congress' second attempt to block children's access to pornography and other harmful materials on the Internet.

“Content-based prohibitions, enforced by severe criminal penalties, have the constant potential to be a repressive force in the lives and thoughts of a free people,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, in the opinion for the 5-4 majority.

COPA imposes fines of $50,000 and six months' imprisonment on owners of commercial Internet sites who knowingly post materials “harmful to minors.”

The act defines such material as any that “the average person, applying contemporary community standards” would find “designed to appeal to … the prurient interest.”

However, COPA exempted website administrators from the penalties if their sites used age-verification software, required credit-card numbers or employed similar tactics to ensure that minors could not gain access to the restricted material.

In 1996, Congress passed a similar but broader law, the Communications Decency Act. The high court struck it down in 1997, saying its provisions went too far in restricting free speech.

Congress passed COPA in response, and a coalition of Internet content providers and free-speech groups filed suit against it. A federal district court barred its enforcement, saying the law would likely prove to be a violation of the First Amendment. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision, saying the law's “community standards” language made it too sweeping an imposition on free-speech rights.

In 2002, the Supreme Court reversed the 3rd Circuit's decision to uphold the injunction on those grounds and sent the case back to that court. The 3rd Circuit responded by upholding the injunction again but on different legal grounds–that COPA was not written narrowly enough and that there were less restrictive ways to satisfy the government's purposes.

President Bush's Justice Department appealed that ruling, which landed the case at the Supreme Court again.

But their opponents–including the ACLU–said that while the government's purpose in COPA may be noble, its effects would unconstitutionally restrict the freedom of speech. They also argued the law would be ineffective, since many Internet content providers are based overseas and thus could not be successfully prosecuted.

The court's majority said encouraging owners of computers used by minors to get Internet-filtering software was a better solution. Such software “is an alternative that is less restrictive than COPA and, in addition, likely more effective as a means of restricting children's access to materials harmful to them,” Kennedy wrote.

He added: “Under a filtering regime, adults without children may gain access to speech they have a right to see without having to identify themselves or provide their credit-card information.”

In a separate concurring opinion, Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she understood the government's reasons for the law.

“As a parent, grandparent and great-grandparent, I endorse that goal without reservation,” she wrote.

“As a judge, however, I must confess to a growing sense of unease when the interest in protecting children from prurient materials is invoked as a justification for using criminal regulation of speech as a substitute for, or a simple backup to, adult oversight of children's viewing habits.”

Posted: 7/09/04

Colorado Supreme Court strikes down
state's school-voucher pilot program

DENVER (ABP)–Colorado's highest court has ruled unconstitutional a state law that would have set up a school-voucher program, including religious and other private schools.

On a 4-3 vote, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled the state's Colorado Opportunity Contract Pilot Program violated a state constitutional provision regarding local school boards' control over educational instruction in their districts.

The program was passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Gov. Bill Owens (R) last year.

It is the only statewide voucher bill to become law since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that an Ohio voucher program that included religious schools didn't violate the First Amendment's ban on government support for religion.

Shortly after the Colorado plan was signed into law, a coalition of parents, public-education advocates and civil-liberties groups sued the state.

They claimed the program violated a section of the Colorado Constitution that says local school boards “shall have control of instruction in the public schools of their respective districts.”

The state's courts have interpreted that provision in the past to mean that locally raised school-tax revenues should be spent only on instruction controlled by local school boards. The new voucher program would direct both state and local funds for scholarships that would be given to low-income students in public school districts. Those students could then spend the scholarship funds at private schools, including religious academies.

The ruling leaves legislators the option of crafting a new voucher program that satisfies the constitutional requirements by using only state or federal funds.

That may be unlikely anytime soon, since the previous bill passed with a narrow majority and many state legislators are up for re-election in November.

However, if a similar bill passes again, then an attorney for one of the groups that sued Colorado said the coalition would likely file suit on religious-liberty grounds.

“If–and it's a big if–the Colorado legislature tries to repass the law looking like the current law … then I feel very strongly that we and others are very likely to file a suit based on the Colorado religion clauses,” said Elliot Mincberg of People for the American Way Foundation.

The state's constitution has a clause that is more explicit than the U.S. Constitution's religion clauses in banning direct or indirect government funding of religion.

“I don't think we'll know until after November,” Mincberg continued. “We're very hopeful that there won't need to be a second lawsuit.”

Posted: 7/09/04

CYBERCOLUMN:
Skating the issue

By Berry D. Simpson

The vote was 14 in favor of installing signs around the church property that said, “No Skateboarding,” and 17 against. I was one of the 17 who voted against the recommendation, and I have been wondering since if I did the right thing.

Earlier that same night, we voted unanimously to create a new worship service on Sunday evenings, a seeker service aimed at people unlikely to join one of our regular worship services. I couldn’t square a vote in favor of reaching unchurched people with a vote to tell young skateboarders, “Go away.” Not in the same night. Maybe I’ll change my vote next time it comes up, but I don’t know.

This skateboarding issue is a hard decision. Is it about accepting people who are not like us and who don’t seem to know how to behave properly around others, or is it about being good stewards and protecting church property and church members from damage and injury?

It’s a hard decision, because I don’t feel comfortable saying, “People who need Jesus, go away.” Yet if those same people were spraying graffiti on the building or playing strip poker in the parking lot, I wouldn’t hesitate to send them away.

It’s a hard decision, because it strikes at the heart of the role of the church.

Jesus lived his life in such a way that sinners ran toward him. yet we spend much of our time finding ways to protect ourselves from sinners. We complain that public schools have turned away from God, yet we add to the problem by removing our own kids and the Holy Spirit that lives within them. We complain that the skaters who hurl curse words at the men assigned to police the parking lot don’t know how to behave and don’t show respect, yet we want them to learn behavior and respect somewhere else.

It’s a hard decision, because most of the skateboarders have no intention of following any rules or guidelines we may lay down.

One of our parking lot monitors said, “Even quiet obedient kids change personalities with a skateboard under their feet.” Who am I to say we should tolerate them when I’m not one of the men who’ve stood out in the heat and cold for the past two years trying to protect skaters and church members and minister to these kids?

It’s a hard decision, because these skateboarders often ride directly in front of moving cars, cut in front of SUVs full of young families, and are often verbally abusive to church members who dare to walk in their skating path.

It can be very frustrating, and I’ll admit I might not hesitate to drive my Jeep over the top of a stray skateboard that happened to role in my path, taking at least one board out of action. Yet I wonder, are we so determined to park in our favorite places week after week, use our favorite entrances year after year, that we can’t move around to the other side of the building and avoid the confrontations?

It’s a hard decision, because if we allow them to skate, we could be legally liable should a skater get injured.

What if their parents, who probably don’t care where the kids are or what they are doing, decide to take advantage of our benevolence and sue us? Are we willing to risk our substantial missions budget to pay off a frivolous law suit? Yet surely our church has a higher calling than mere risk containment. Surely we live in a bigger story than that. Surely we aren’t like Jonah, who was afraid to minister to scary people not like him, afraid he would get hurt.

It’s a hard decision, because while I may argue we should let them skate and treat this like a serious ministry, I won’t be out on the parking lot watching after them.

I will be teaching classes, actually two classes, and going to rehearsal. It’s easy for me to tell someone else to minister to those pesky kids. Easy to be generous with someone else’s time.

I’m sure we are not finished with this issue, and I don’t know how I’ll vote next time. I don’t know the right answer. I’m a pilgrim in search of answers, not a prophet with a message to proclaim. I want to learn. Living this Christian life is more messy and unpredictable than we usually make it out to be. It’s full of hard decisions.

Berry Simpson, a Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church in Midland, is a petroleum engineer, writer, runner and member of the city council in Midland.

Posted: 7/09/04

Posted: 7/09/04

DOWN HOME:
Maybe purgatory is infinite spam

Whoever said, “No good deed goes unpunished” must have known the person who discovered the Law of Unintended Consequences. And they both must've been thinking about my e-mail.

Last year, my friend Mark and I decided to rid ourselves of all unwanted e-mail, known the world over as spam.

We already had anti-virus and spam-protection programs on our computers, but we still were getting spammed. All day, every day.

So, we decided to click on the “unsubscribe” links that appeared on virtually all spam. I might as well have sent them all an e-mail that said, “Make sure everyone who runs a bogus business on the Internet gets my address.”

Because that's what happened.

Maybe all those spammers did take my computer off their lists. But they apparently sold my address to even more spammers, who sold it to other spammers. These things multiply faster than rabbits in spring.

The other day on the way to work, I heard a guy on the radio say spamming has become a big problem. He guessed 85 percent of e-mail is unwanted. I'd guess he guessed low.

Based on my non-scientific survey, spam covers six basic topics:

Medicine. You don't have to drive to Canada or Mexico to acquire cheap drugs. You can buy pills to make you happy or happier still. And you can buy pills that will make parts of you smaller and other parts larger. Just click (and send your credit card number).

Mortgages. At the risk of sounding un-American, I'd settle for higher interest rates if they'd drive mortgage spammers off the Internet and out of my e-mailbox.

Pornography. One of the strangest events of my childhood happened when I took a shortcut down an alley and discovered my first “girlie” magazine. Well, I never. Now, creeps send much worse through cyberspace. No alley required.

College degrees. So, why did I spend four years at a university and three more at a seminary? According to at least a dozen spammers a day, I can buy those degrees for a few bucks.

Software. You can buy name-brand computer software over the Internet at “low, low prices!” The software I'd like to buy would shut down the computer of every spammer who messes with my e-mail.

Random stuff. I keep getting an e-mail written in an alphabet I can't read. But from the picture, they're trying to sell me either a stun gun or a Russian garage-door opener.

See what I mean about unintended consequences? Life is like that: We do something, not thinking about end results, and unintended consequences clog up our lives like e-mail spam on Monday morning. Fortunately, God's grace covers a multitude of unintended consequences and poor choices.

Now, if God would just smite spammers.