Posted: 3/18/05

Posted: 3/18/05

Is politics headed to a church near you?

By Miles Benson

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–The half-century-old tax laws that forbid churches from directly engaging in partisan political activities are fraying. Some say they should be discarded. Others think that would be a sin.

Acting on complaints, the Internal Revenue Service is conducting inquiries into political activities at churches and other tax-exempt institutions across the country, even as Congress considers legislation to ease legal restrictions and encourage preachers to peel off the kid gloves.

Under federal law, churches are tax-exempt. But as such, they are banned from partisan political activities; preachers are prohibited from endorsing candidates from the pulpit.

Both liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans are among opponents of relaxing those rules, fearing it would bring political combat into the pews and damage religious institutions.

“We don't want to see red churches and blue churches,” said Joseph Loconte, a research fellow in religion at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Constitutional issues aside, Loconte said, “It's a horrible idea for church ministers to endorse candidates from the pulpit because it's so inherently divisive.” It splits congregations and alienates people, he said.

But the practice already is well along, many political leaders maintain, and candidates of both major parties benefit. Indeed, the law banning church political activity and endorsements resembles, to some, the Prohibition- era ban on alcoholic beverages–on the books but widely ignored.

Former Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe recently told reporters he was “dismayed” by the stance of many Roman Catholic churches in last year's election. “The way they went into their pulpits and told people it was a sin to vote for John Kerry was nothing short of outrageous,” said McAuliffe, who describes himself as “a strong Catholic.”

Kerry, also Catholic, was criticized by many Catholic theologians for his pro-choice position on abortion.

Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, brushed aside McAuliffe's complaint. “We address public policy issues, not politicians,” she said. “We don't get involved in electoral politics. Whoever is elected we deal with and make decisions based on the teachings of the Catholic Church and the bishops' policies. We don't get into the issues of whether they are elected or defeated.”

Walsh called McAuliffe “a partisan seeing things from a partisan point of view.” She said she attends Mass daily and never heard anyone “say from the pulpit that it is a sin to vote for anybody.” But she couldn't say it never happened. “We have tens of thousands of priests. I can't judge what every one said every time.”

McAuliffe's successor, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, also is concerned about priestly political activism but more cautious in talking about it. If anything, Dean said, Catholics should back Democratic candidates because his party's social mission “is almost exactly the same as the social mission of the Catholic Church.”

An IRS spokesman declined to comment on the progress of IRS church inquiries.

But Pamela Gardiner, Treasury Department deputy inspector general for audit, said in a report that 34 such inquiries were undertaken in connection with last year's election.

Only once in recent memory has the IRS stripped a church of tax-exempt status. That case involved the nondenominational evangelical Church at Pierce Creek in Binghamton, N.Y., after it purchased newspaper advertisements on the Friday before Election Day in 1992, calling Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton a sinner unfit for the presidency.

Nobody is suggesting the tax-exempt status of the Catholic Church or any other major church is in serious danger. “We're never going to tax the churches, no matter what they do,” said Stephen Wayne, a political scientist at Georgetown University. “It ain't going to happen.”

Quite the contrary. On Capitol Hill, there is a push to invite even greater direct church partisanship in political campaigns. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., now claims 174 co-sponsors for legislation he has reintroduced (it was unsuccessful in past years) to remove what he calls the “absolute ban” on political speech by the clergy. He calls his bill the “Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act.”

“As a convert to Catholicism, I am a firm believer that churches and rabbis have a moral obligation and a calling to defend the teachings of the Bible and to speak out,” Jones said. Right now, he said, the law inhibits them from endorsing candidates from the pulpit and can be used to “intimidate” the clergy, though he said that law “cannot be enforced.” Said Jones, “It's a free-speech issue.”

Far from an absolute ban on political speech by the clergy, the Internal Revenue Service tax guide for churches and other religious organizations specifically states the law “is not intended to restrict free expression on political matters by leaders of churches or religious organizations speaking for themselves, as individuals. Nor are leaders prohibited from speaking about important issues of public policy, or inviting candidates to speak at a church, if opposing candidates are also invited.”

But, the guide warns that to remain tax-exempt, religious leaders “cannot make partisan comments in official organization publications or at official church functions.”

Barry Lynn, executive director of the nonpartisan Americans United for Separation of Church and State, is hoping for an IRS crackdown.

“I think we're likely to see some results over the next year or so, because the level of church electioneering in 2004 was unparalleled in modern history,” said Lynn, an attorney and a minister in the United Church of Christ.

Some members of the clergy “went way over the top in partisan endorsements” of both Republican and Democratic candidates, Lynn said, though he believes Republicans were more often favored. He said he heard of one black church in Florida where a pastor hailed Democrat Kerry from the pulpit as “the new Moses.”

But Lynn challenges suggestions that the law, like the prohibition against alcohol, is widely ignored. “Most pastors do not endorse candidates,” he said. “They don't want to break up their congregations. It's tough enough to talk about issues like the war in Iraq. Endorsing candidates makes it a bigger firestorm.”

John Baker, an expert on political philosophy at Louisiana State University, is among those concerned about political warfare spreading into religious territory.

“For 200 years we've been successful in avoiding it,” Baker said. “Anything that gets the Internal Revenue Service involved in religion is not a good thing. It seems to me people once understood you don't stir up the religious hornets' nest.”

Posted: 3/18/05

Rural churches face unique options

By Gary Farley

In 1950, most rural Southern Baptist churches were very different from what they are today. Most shared a preacher with one or more other congregations. Most did not have worship services every Sunday. Most met in a one-room church building. Most drew their congregation from their immediate neighborhood.

A few members in that day recalled how much the church had changed since 1900. All-weather roads, electricity, nice materials for Sunday school and screens on the windows would have been on most lists. In parts of Texas, the emergence of the oil industry, the expansion of railroads and highways, and the growth of towns had changed the distribution of people during the first half of the 20th century. This impacted rural churches both positively and negatively. Members of a rural church that dates from the 1850s can find in the old church minutes a very different picture of how the church operated then. It may have been biracial. It practiced church discipline for those who violated the church covenant. It probably met only once per month. It may not have had a Sunday school until the 1870s.

And if one reviews records of Baptist associations across this same period, one will learn churches have waxed and waned. Some have died. Many have been born. The Baptist movement has continued through many changes, both internally and externally. Again and again, churches and associations of churches have responded to change. Today, many rural and village congregations are confronted by declining population bases or racially changing populations.

Based on my studies, let me suggest a core principle for rural church leaders and then identify 10 options. Some of the options are those of the past; some are new. Some readers will offer other, better ones than those I identify. I just want to get the conversation started.

Principle: Do not focus on the survival of your church. Prayerfully seek God's will, whatever it may be. Realize there is not one will for every rural church.

Now, for the options. Many are mutually exclusive:

Redefine your “church field.” Most rural churches were founded to serve about three miles in each direction. This was when people traveled to church by foot or on horseback. A church field 30 miles across is more appropriate today.

Do not necessarily try to be a “general store.” Discover a “niche” ministry that God has gifted your church for. Become the church within this new field that is known as the one that does that ministry very well.

Be a “remnant” people. Be faithful as long as your church can continue. Then let it “die with dignity.”

Consolidate. Merge with other Baptist churches in the area. Or become a union church. For some, this will be a return to its origin.

Be reborn. Die as an Anglo church and become a Hispanic one. Change from a farmers' church to a lake peoples' church.

Grow the family. Since many rural churches are “family chapels,” one option might be to make the family bigger. This can happen naturally or by adoption.

Become bivocational again. Many churches became “full-time” in the 1950s when there were lots of children in their communities. This was appropriate. But given changing demographics, it may no longer be needed.

Become “part-time” again. Some churches in declining rural communities should be yoked with other churches and served by a pastor or staff which they share.

Be served by a lay pastor from within the congregation. This was common among Baptists in the days when the “West was being won.” It worked then. It can now.

Become again a community Sunday school, but one that gathers with similar groups once a month or quarterly for celebration and sharing, perhaps in the trade town of the region.

If space permitted, I could put a name or names and places with each of these options. I have been there. They are happening in rural America. And certainly there are other options to be identified and tried. The main concern is following the principle–seek God's unique will for your rural congregation.

Gary Farley is director of missions for Pickens Baptist Association in Alabama and a partner with the Center for Rural Church Leadership.

Posted: 3/17/05

Memoirs of a Soldier:
The Progress of American Troops in Iraq

Editor’s Note: This column first was used in the Hardin-Simmons University campus newspaper, the Brand, and was written by Brandon McClellan, 26, a junior political science student who serves with the 490^th Civil Affairs Unit in Abilene. He is a veteran of overseas service in Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo. He was wounded in Iraq and earned a Purple Heart medal.

By Brandon McClelland

In late 2002, when I knew that my Army Reserve unit was going to participate in then upcoming operation in Iraq, I did not know what to expect. At the time, my mindset was that we would be going into Iraq during wartime and doing our part to support one of the active army divisions as they battled Iraqi forces and fought to free the country from the role of Saddam Hussein.

As it happened, my unit was still in the United States when Operation Iraqi Freedom began.  By the time we actually crossed into Iraq it was the end of April of 2003. By the first of May, when President Bush declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq, I was working in the town of Ar Ramadi, in the Al Anbar Province of western Iraq. My unit was tasked with finding as much information as we could about the infrastructure of the Al Anbar Province, as well as helping the people of Al Anbar.

During my time in Iraq, I worked in the towns of Ar Ramadi and Al Hadetha, and I finished the last few months of my tour working in the Sadr city, section of eastern Baghdad.

“Ours is not reason why, ours is but to do or die.” That phrase ran through my mind quite a bit while I was in Iraq. That last part of the phrase was especially troubling because it was a reality. There were times when enemies of the United States tried to kill my fellow soldiers and me. There were two occasions in particular in which I came close to losing my life. Such occasions caused me to question whether it was worth losing my life in doing my part to help the people of Iraq, people that could seem ungrateful and even hostile at times.

I left Iraq and returned to the United States in March 2004.  Since that time, there have been increased attacks on solders and Iraqs, and many people have died. I take a great interest in the news, but I do not always agree with the media’s coverage of Iraq. They focus too much on what is doing wrong in Iraq, such as the deaths of soldiers and Iraqis, and they fail to properly cover what is going right.

I was pleased when watching a late night news program the night after the elections to see that they had turned out well. Even the city of Fallujah, that had been ravaged by an American led offensive to regain control of the town, produced a surprising number of people at the polling sites.

Since the United States of America invaded Iraq I have lost friends, both military and Iraqi civilians, to the violence generated by people who did not agree within our mission in that country. However, I can be confident that the work that I did along with the rest of the unit contributed to the success in that country.  It may be many years before some people decide that we did the right thing by invading Iraq and removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power. There will be others who will not change their minds, maintaining the belief that we had no business going there, but I say that I am proud of having served there, and I believe that my time was not wasted. When I see that Iraq was able to hold successful democratic elections, despite the violence and the skepticism, I know that my time spent in that country was worth it.

Posted: 3/17/05

CYBERCOLUMN:
Comfortable

By Berry D. Simpson

I sat in the living room floor to watch Pirates of the Caribbean on DVD. Cyndi was at the computer, looking for running shoes, since none of the local athletic stores carried her model, which, of course, had been discontinued by Nike.

I was surrounded by my stuff—a giant pile of bank statements and receipts and W-2 forms and all the debris required to do our taxes. It was a year’s worth, a big pile.

In addition to paperwork I also had some new blue jeans fresh from the store and a small seam ripper. I always cut away those unnecessary and unwanted brand-name tags and extraneous patches attached to my jeans by the manufacturer. I like my things to be simple, stripped down and plain. I don’t need a lot of bling in my life; no rickrack. I like my jeans the same way I like my coffee—straight, no candy and no ice cream.

The pants modifications went quickly, even though it was hard to see the dark-colored threads against the blue fabric. But this exercise is something I’ve done many times over the past 35 years, so I knew what to do.

One of the perks of my current station in life as an independent oil and gas investor is that I can wear blue jeans almost all the time. It’s great. Wearing jeans is a treat for me, and I look forward to “jeans days,” which are almost every day. Blue jeans are comfortable and indestructible, and they match any color shirt, and they never need ironing. I’ve thought about changing to cargo pants, the jeans of a different generation and new millennium, but I’m too old to wear cargo pants convincingly. I do try to wear khakis at least twice a week to please Cyndi. She likes it when I wear grown-up clothes, and I want to make her happy.

By the time those cursed pirates from the Black Pearl, led by the dreaded Captain Barbossa, ransacked the town of Port Royal in search of Aztec gold and kidnapped beautiful Elizabeth Swann, I was finished working on my jeans. With that, I switched to accounting.

That is, if you call what I do accounting, which most folks don’t. Doing anything accountant-like confirms to me that I made the correct decision to study engineering. For me, accounting—getting ready to figure taxes—consists of sorting and piling. First, I sort my giant stack of paper into broad categories, like charities, investments and auto repairs. Then, if the movie is still playing, which it was, I go through those big piles one by one and sort each into smaller piles, dividing bank statements by account and investments by broker, and all that. What I hope will happen is after I’ve sacrificed sufficient time sorting and stacking those piles, which are now tiny and specific, they will turn themselves into an IRS 1040 form, and I will be finished.

An entire year sorted into piles is a lot of paper, but even then it didn’t represent the best parts of the year. Those stacks did not include my journals, or book lists, or running logs, or Bible studies, or personal letters and e-mails. The IRS, in all its wisdom, doesn’t care about really important things. They only care about money.

This year, for the first time ever, I’m going to hire someone to help figure my taxes. It’s a bold and scary move for me to get help. Not because help costs money, which it does, but because the helper will have firsthand knowledge of how disorganized and improvisational I am underneath my structured and precise engineering exterior. Normally I wouldn’t let anyone have a peek at that part of me, but in my new life, the one that lets me wear blue jeans almost every day, I need help. It’s hard enough staying afloat as a self-employed engineer without adding the risk of poorly done taxes.

Well, Cyndi and I went to bed before Captain Jack Sparrow and young Will Turner broke the curse on the mysterious Isla de Muerta. I was falling asleep in the middle of the living room floor and missing the movie anyway, finally finished with Phase One of my stacking.

I guess my point in all this is that I just like things to be comfortable; and in my world, that usually means the way things already are. I don’t need much change in my life. But lately I’ve been thinking about different worship experiences and different language to express my faith in God, and even new ways of thinking about my relationship with God.

Nothing radical, just a blue-jeans-to-cargo-pants kind of change.

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: 3/18/05

DOWN HOME:
A memorable walk through the water

Our youngest daughter, Molly, and I waded into the water at the same time. It wasn't too deep, but we both were a little nervous and just a bit uncertain in our steps.

She glanced up at me with those beautiful blue eyes. Her look conveyed the kind of girl I'd always known her to be–trusting, attentive, eager.

As I placed my hand on her shoulder, she gave me a little smile, and my heart melted. “How my baby's grown up,” I thought. “Can it be? She's ready for this moment. I can't imagine how a daddy could be any prouder than I am right now.”

Something, maybe the coolness of the water, brought me back from my reverie, into the present. “It's time,” I said to myself. “She knows what she's doing. She's prepared. She's waiting on you.”

And so I looked down and stared into her eyes. In that instant, she looked so small, yet confident. My turn.

“Molly,” I asked, “will you declare your faith?”

“Jesus Christ is Lord,” my little girl said, loud and strong, so even folks on the back row of the church could hear.

“Then, upon your profession of faith and in obedience to our Lord's command,” I declared, slowly lowering Molly into the water, “I baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. …”

Welcome to my favorite Easter memory. It happened more than a decade ago. Our church didn't have a pastor at the time, but we planned to celebrate the Resurrection by baptizing several new Christians who recently accepted Jesus as their Savior.

Bill, our loving and sensitive minister of education, asked if I would like the honor of baptizing Molly. I said yes before you could say, “immersion.”

Several months later, our new pastor allowed me to baptize Molly's sister, Lindsay. I could tell he wasn't thrilled about the idea. But since we already had established a precedent, he gave us his blessing. As long as I live, I never will experience joy greater than what I felt on those two Sunday mornings years ago.

Both girls already had committed their lives to Christ before the days of their baptisms. But as they stepped into that water, they joined a long line of saints who identified with Jesus, symbolically re-enacting his death, burial and resurrection, as well as their own death to sin and new life as a Christ-follower. Nothing better can happen to them.

Easter always causes me to think about Lindsay and Molly. God offered his Son, Jesus, as the perfect sacrifice, so that Molly and Lindsay and you and I and every other sin-sidetracked soul might have ultimate joy in this life and eternal life in the next.

You see, I don't think I could do that. In fact, I'm sure I couldn't.

If your eternal life depended on my willingness to sacrifice one of my daughters, you'd be in trouble.

So, how dare I take that love lightly–at Easter or any day of the year.

“Amazing love, how can it be, that you, my King, would die for me?”

Posted: 3/18/05

Waxahachie woman safe at home
after detention in Middle East

By Toby Druin

Editor Emeritus

WAXAHACHIE–Marie Bush has a heart for missions, and it's still beating strong–even after a brush with the law in Dubai, a coastal city on the Persian Gulf. In fact, her experience there and in India more than ever convinced her God is in control and will sustain his people.

Upbeat but exhausted, Bush returned to Waxahachie this month after she and a companion, Vivian Gilmer of Myrtle Beach, S.C., were detained 12 days in the United Arab Emirates–north of Saudi Arabia–for distributing Bibles and other materials in a marketplace.

Bush, 55, a member of First Baptist Church in Waxahachie, and Gilmer, 72, from First Baptist Church in Myrtle Beach, were among 19 people who took a side trip to Dubai following a 10-day mission trip to India.

They and 40 others from across the United States held medical clinics and evangelistic services in tribal villages in three areas near the southeastern coast. Tom Cox World Ministries of Mountainburg, Ark., sponsored the trips to India and Dubai. It was the 24th annual trip for the Cox group, and members of the Waxahachie church have been involved with the Coxes in India for several years.

Bush served as a counselor and witnessed to women at the medical clinics, and she led the children's service at the church dedication. She is a veteran of nine mission trips, but this was her first to India and to Dubai.

“I took the trip to Dubai because information about the trip said we would be able to create relationships with the people there and be able to talk about Jesus,” she said.

The Cox Ministry brochure on the trip describes activities in Dubai: “Shop, Drop Material and Prayerwalking.”

Kay Cox, who directs the ministry with her husband, Tom, said she had advised the group going to Dubai that “there is always a chance there could be a problem, but technically it is not illegal to pass out Bibles” there.

“I honestly didn't know anything I did was against the law,” Bush said. “We had been told there were restrictions, but we thought what we were doing was OK. We knew we were not to give out tracts or witness verbally, but that it was OK to offer a gift.”

The mission volunteers went to a vast international marketplace, Global Village, which features pavilions with products from many countries in Europe and Asia. They were assigned to various areas and given disposable cameras.

“We were told in the van on the way to Global Village that we were to focus on children, asking the parents if we could take their pictures and if we could have their names and addresses so we could send them the picture and a gift from America. The gift would be a Bible,” Bush recalled.

After “getting our feet wet” with a brief visit to Global Village the first day, the second day went very easily, she said. Although the Arab women were shrouded in black except for their eyes, they were easily approachable, and most spoke English.

“Women are just women,” she observed, and they talked freely, carrying on normal conversations.

On the third night in Global Village, they passed out DVDs with several stories on them, including “Jesus the Carpenter,” Bush said. On succeeding nights, they gave out the DVDs and Bibles, explaining to those who asked that it was not the Quran, but “our Holy Bible,” and some gave them back.

She said she could not remember any particular instance that might have led to their arrests, but she recalled offering a Bible to an elderly man in a wheelchair surrounded by his family. She told the man's granddaughter the Bible was a gift from America, but when he asked if it was the Quran, she told him it wasn't, and his son took it from him.

She also offered a Bible to a shopkeeper, she said, but he said he already knew a lot about the Bible and declined to accept it.

“It could have been one of those times, or maybe just the fact that I was being followed,” Bush said. “But I have no idea who turned me in.”

She said she and Gilmer were in the Czech pavilion, near the back door, when she heard a policeman say: “You! Come!” She looked and saw two policemen and three policewomen, and she replied, “Me?”

The policeman said, “What do you not understand about the word 'come'?”

Bush said she responded: “Oh my. Mercy,” and im-mediately thought, “'I am about to disappear.' That was the first thing that ran through my mind.”

She responded by running a few feet around a corner in search of Gilmer.

“She was right there,” Bush said. “It was a God thing. She could have been anywhere.”

The police officers treated them well, she said, but asked “forceful” questions about what they were doing and where they had gotten the Bibles they were distributing, the name of their hotel and how many were in their group.

When Bush and Gilmer pleaded ignorance to many of their questions, they were taken to the Dubai police station, where they were asked the same questions. One police officer brought in and emptied onto a desk the 19 Bibles they still had with them when they were arrested and many, if not all, of those they had given away.

By that time, Bush said, they should have been meeting with the others of the 19-member group at the lake in Global Village. “We knew that when we didn't show up, they would know we had been taken. They were already looking for us, but there was nothing they could do.”

That morning, while packing to leave the next day, Bush said, she had discarded all the phone numbers of the Coxes and other group members. Gilmer, however, remembered that she had a bulletin from the Emirates International Baptist Convention where they had gone for Bible study one night. It had Pastor Dan Marshall's phone number on it.

“It was another God thing,” Bush said. “If I had called the others, it could have gotten them in trouble, too. Pastor Dan's visa lists him as a pastor, so it didn't get him into trouble.”

That morning, before going to Global Village, she had prayed for divine intervention and “our intervention came when Pastor Dan walked into the station with two of his church members who spoke Arabic,” she said. “I felt God had sent us three angels. I felt it was what I had prayed for, because had it not been for them, we would have seen jail.”

Although they were at the police station and never actually in jail, Bush said she was reconciled to going to jail, if it happened. She had survived 10 days in Third World conditions while in the villages in India, she reasoned, and Dubai was the richest nation in the world.

“I felt it wouldn't be that bad,” she said. “But it didn't happen. I never had a sense of fear, although I wanted to come home, to be at home. But I knew that when young girls in Dubai get pregnant and aren't married, they are placed in jail. I thought that I could be a mother to them, and what would it hurt if I witnessed to them in jail?”

They were allowed to leave the police station at 1:30 a.m. and told they could get their passports at 7:30 that morning. When they got their wakeup call at 6 a.m., they were informed the hotel wanted them to check out. And at 10:30, they were told their case had been bumped to a higher court.

“Our interpreter told us to use any connection we had in the States,” Bush said, “that this was not good.”

Although it was 4 a.m. in Waxahachie, she called her husband, Ronnie, and told him to call the church and her Sunday school teacher, Wayne Willmon, because she needed prayer warriors talking to God on her behalf. He also alerted their children–Matt in Iraq, his twin sister, Heather, who is a member of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., and their oldest son, Heath, a member of First Baptist Church of El Campo. They organized a worldwide prayer network.

After that, she felt every day that she and Gilmer would be allowed to leave that day. Her husband called every day, sometimes two or three times daily, to encourage her.

But each day when the courts closed at 2 p.m. and they hadn't received their passports, they knew the wait would go on at least another day. They received some assurances that they probably would be released, but the penalties for violating Dubai's laws on promoting Christianity can be harsh, including prison sentences and heavy fines.

The day the news came they received their passports and were allowed to leave, Bush said, she had been reading the book of Job during her Bible study, and it occurred to her God was telling her to be patient.

“I thought: 'Oh, God, you are so awesome. You reveal yourself in your word.' I knew he had orchestrated our trip to India and then to Dubai, and he was still in control. He was just teaching me patience.”

Although the courts closed at 2 p.m., at 4:30, Bush and Gilmer were informed they would receive their passports if they could get confirmed airline tickets. That presented a dilemma, since it usually is impossible to get a ticket without a passport, but with Pastor Marshall's help, they got a statement from the airlines that their seats had been confirmed, and their passports were released. They left the following morning.

Bush praised Marshall, a Texan who attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and whose work in Dubai is affiliated with the European Baptist Convention. After having to leave the hotel, Bush and Gilmer stayed with Marshall and his family. “They were very hospitable,” she said.

She had kind words for the Dubai officials. “It could have been a lot worse,” she said. “They were very gracious to us.”

She's already thinking about her next mission trip, she said, although she doesn't know where it will be.

“I would love to go back to India,” she said. “I have loved every mission trip, but on this one, you could truly feel the presence of God.”

Posted: 3/18/05

EDITORIAL:
Don't bet on gambling saving the day

A classic battle is about to play out in Austin: Can decency and justice overcome money and greed?

We'll learn more about the answer to that question as lawmakers begin to process the 13 gambling bills filed in this session of the Texas Legislature.

Ironically, some legislators don't seem to know an important truth good parents drill into their children even before they start school: If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

They're the ones who buy the Big Lie: Gambling can solve Texas' financial woes. They're the ones who pretend to believe video lottery terminals and casinos will provide the state with more than enough money to educate our children. If they fall for that, then we need to educate more than our children; we need to teach remedial rational thought to the Legislature.

Some people naturally look for religious folks to oppose gambling. They expect us to employ ancient theological reasoning about the sin of seeking something for nothing. They think we're against fun in all its forms, so why shouldn't we oppose gambling?

But many Texans oppose the expansion of gambling for a more pervasive and compelling theological reason: It's a bad bet for Texas.

The costs far outweigh the benefits. And if we're not careful, we'll pay the costs for generations while the benefits roll right into the bank accounts of people who don't care one bit about the welfare of our state.

How is gambling bad for Texas? Let me count the ways:

Gambling is regressive. It disproportionately impacts the people who can least afford it. Never mind the official line from the Texas Lottery Commission, which claims lottery, at least, is played by higher-income Texans. Rob Kohler of the Campaign for Common Sense and Sound Public Policy has demonstrated the contrary. Kohler's research clearly shows per capita income spent on lottery goes up as family income goes down. And don't expect different results when video lottery terminals are as pervasive on the Texas landscape as convenience stores.

Gambling is addictive. Video lottery terminals, the alleged cash cows of several bills that claim gambling will save our schools, have been called the “crack cocaine of gambling.” They're designed to rewire brains so players “need” to keep on playing.

Beyond that, gambling addiction–just like any addiction–is a matter of numbers. A percentage of all participants possess the pathology for addiction. So, the more the state expands gambling to “fund” education or solve any other financial shortfall, the more addicts the state creates.

Gambling is expensive. Look at states with casinos and other widespread gambling. You'll find gamblers who bring financial ruin upon their families. Gambling addicts and others run up astronomical credit card bills, lose their mortgages, steal from their loved ones, make poor employees.

Gambling also is expensive to the communities. Bankruptcies increase in towns where casinos are located. The price tag for “unfunded mandates” upon cities and counties–such as increased costs for police and public safety–must be paid, no matter what happens at the state level. And don't forget the costs for declines in job productivity and increases in counseling, child protection and spouse abuse.

Gambling corrupts government. Austin observers say legislators can't reach for their purses or wallets without touching the hands of gambling lobbyists. And the lobbyists are offering curious advice: “Tell the voters to decide. Make them vote on a gambling referendum.” Sounds like democracy, huh? Except we already decided. We sent these senators and representatives to Austin to make this decision. They didn't campaign on expanding gambling. They know what we really want, and it's not video lottery and casinos. They need to do their jobs and stand up to the gambling interests.

You can participate in the Common Cents! No Slots Rally in Austin March 31. It's sponsored by, among others, the BGCT Christian Life Commission, Southern Baptists of Texas, Eagle Forum, Texas Conference of Churches and Texas Impact. Orientation is at 9:30 at First Baptist Church, located at Ninth and Trinity. The rally begins at 11 a.m. on the south steps of the Capitol. After that, participants will visit their legislators. RSVP to clc_austinoffice@bgct.org. For information, call (512) 473-2288.

And even if you can't attend the rally, you can contact your legislators directly. If you don't know their names and contact information, you can look them up on the Internet: www.capitol.state.tx.us/fyi/fyi.htm. Let them know expansion of gambling is a bad bet for Texas.

Posted: 3/18/05

Evangelicals embrace broad
range of social concerns

By Tom Strode

Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission

WASHINGTON (BP)–The National Association of Evangelicals has issued a call for a broader approach to public policy issues than conservative Christians have been known for in the past.

The NAE recently released a document that promises policy efforts related not only to such issues as abortion, marriage and religious liberty but poverty, human rights, peace and the environment.

While it says evangelicals “have failed to engage with the breadth, depth and consistency to which we are called,” the statement lists seven guidelines for political engagement by Christians:

To guard religious liberty and freedom of conscience.

To promote family life and defend children.

To uphold the sanctity of human life.

To gain justice and compassion for the "poor and vulnerable."

To safeguard human rights.

To work for peace and the restraint of violence.

To protect creation.

Nearly 90 evangelical leaders signed on to the document, including Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship; James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; and Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California and author of The Purpose-Driven Life.

Other signers included NAE President Ted Haggard; Jack Hayford, president of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel; Walter Kaiser, president of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary; Diane Knippers, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy; David Neff, editor of Christianity Today magazine; John Perkins, founder of Voice of Calvary Ministries; Ron Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action; and author and apologist Ravi Zacharias.

The NAE represents 30 million people in 45,000 churches and has 51 member denominations.

The statement, “For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility,” addresses not only issues and goals but the method of influencing public policy. While it does not endorse specific legislation, the document calls for Christians to work for the transformation of “both individuals and institutions.” It also says evangelicals should act with humility, civility and integrity in the process.

“While we may frequently settle for 'half-a-loaf,' we must never compromise principle by engaging in unethical behavior or endorsing or fostering sin,” the statement says. “As we rightly engage in supporting legislation, candidates and political parties, we must be clear that biblical faith is vastly larger and richer than every limited, inevitably imperfect political agenda and that commitment to the Lordship of Christ and his one body far transcends all political commitments.”

In addition to opposing abortion, euthanasia and same-sex “marriage,” the document urges care for the poor, the disabled, the persecuted, the elderly, minorities and refugees both in the United States and overseas. It calls for churches to “model good race relations.”

The statement encourages governments to use their militaries only under “just-war” criteria and after pursuing peace nonviolently. “Just-war” theory is a classical Christian approach to the use of force that requires certain standards, such as a just cause and its utilization as a last resort.

At the presentation of the statement, some concern was expressed that the NAE not lose its way while calling for engagement on a wider array of issues.

During the discussion time, Focus on the Family Vice President Tom Minnery urged the association not to “make this about global warming.”

He said the evangelical movement has strong agreement on issues like the sanctity of life and the family but was not united on global warming, which he described later in a written statement as a “very controversial area.”

Although the document does not mention global warming, The New York Times reported the same day as the discussion that NAE leaders are supporting policies to combat it, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman spoke on the issue during his address to the group of evangelicals. Lieberman is co-sponsoring a bill on global warming he described as a “moderate effort.”

At the event, Sen. Sam Brownback encouraged evangelicals to continue their work in the needy places of the world. He also urged them not to become “shrill” or “hateful.”

Church historian Mark Noll called the NAE statement “compassionate … thoughtful, humble.” Joe Loconte, a fellow in religion and a free society at the Heritage Foundation, said the document provided evidence that evangelicals “are thinking soberly.”

The statement may be accessed online at www.nae.net.

Posted: 3/18/05

Godcasting may be portable
players' first 'killer app'

By Kathleen Murphy

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–The radio preacher is finding new life in cyberspace.

Godcasting is the latest advancement in online religion, in which preachers convert their sermons to audio to be heard on portable digital audio devices.

Using iPods or any portable MP3 player, “podcasting” lets people download audio programs that can be listened to whenever they like. It's a form of audio syndication that musicians, businessmen, tech talk show hosts and political commentators like Al Franken have already adopted.

There's lots more God on iPod than jazz, theater or movie reviews. Pod preachers, including Christians, Buddhists and Wiccans, are among the most prolific users of the new technology. Just as sermons were among the first type of broadcasts when radio caught on in America in the 1920s, podcasting is creating a new form of wireless parson.

To get the audio feeds, listeners connect an MP3 player to a computer, go online and sign up for podcasting feeds. Audio content then is pushed from the original source and makes its way to a subscriber who can listen to it anytime–in the same way VCRs time-shifted TV and services like TiVo have provided television programs on demand.

“Based on the number of religious-themed programs being distributed, though, it looks like Godcasting may be the podcast's first killer app,” said Podcasting News, a website that features a directory of podcasts.

Kevin Seger, minister of youth and education at Pitts Baptist Church in Concord, N.C., one of the first churches to podcast weekly sermons, said: “You don't normally see the churches on the cutting edge of technology. If we can utilize tools and technology to get the gospel out, the better we are. It's portable. It's compact. People can listen in the car or when they're working out. It fits like a beeper on the side of your belt.”

Recently launched podcasts include Catholic Answers Live, an hour-long daily call-in radio program run by a San Diego-based lay group.

The RevTim Podcast with host Tim Hohm, and Lifespring with Steve Webb devoted recent podcasts to discussing how God could allow a devastating tsunami to happen in South Asia.

Religious podcasters said they like the medium because it's an inexpensive way to reach the masses.

Nick Ciske, media coordinator for Minneapolis Vineyard Church, also called Bluer church, said: “It takes a lot of money to run a TV show, it takes millions of dollars, and it seems a lot of the focus is on money. Podcasting is basically free. There is never a mention of asking for money. There's no need.”

Podcasting also can connect a dispersed flock–snowbirds, in particular. Part-time members of Mount Pleasant Christian Church in Greenwood, Ind., listen to podcasts of sermons as they spend the winter in Florida, said Bill Todd, network administrator for the 2,400-member church just south of Indianapolis.

Non-Christian religions also are using podcasts. In January, the Pagan Power Hour started providing spells, cooking crafts and information about Wicca.

The borderless Internet, unfettered by Federal Communications Commission guidelines, allows people to enjoy freedom of speech without fearing retribution, said Malcom Waterstone, host of Pagan Power Hour.

“People have the freedom to hear what they want and respond how they want,” he said.

Craig Patchett of San Diego started The Godcast Network at Godcast.org in November, a site that mirrors religious-themed podcasts so the feeds can be more widely distributed. Patchett said he started the network to reach seekers, and people in 75 countries have downloaded podcasts during the past three months.

Patchett said he would have registered the name Godcast.com instead of “dot org,” but the person who reserved it wanted $250,000 for the “dot com” name.

Despite its mass-market promise, listening to podcasts is, for now, the pastime of an elite, gadget-oriented group, said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a nonprofit group that analyzes the real-life impact of the Internet through national surveys. But as the price of MP3 players–ranging from around $100 to $600–continues to drop, it will make podcasting more accessible, Rainie said.

A 2004 Pew Internet Project report said 82 million Americans have used the Internet for spiritual and religious purposes. Podcasting is a logical, virtual extension of the connection between minister and the congregation, and time-shifting is what makes it noteworthy, Rainie said.

“You can get your dose of your worship service when you want it, not necessarily when it's taking place,” Rainie said.

Posted: 3/18/05

Habitat nails down Fuller decision

By Adelle Banks

Religion News Service

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (RNS)–Habitat for Humanity's governing board has unanimously affirmed its decision to fire Millard Fuller, the founder of the house-building organization.

Meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, board members made their second decision after Fuller and his supporters had attempted to pressure them to change their minds. The board originally voted to terminate both Fuller and his wife, Linda, after months of differences over alleged inappropriate conduct by him.

“The vote by the board demonstrates our resolve to put this matter behind us and to move confidently and faithfully ahead in the mission that unites us,” Habitat board Chairman Rey Ramsey said. “No longer can we stand silently while people question our dedication to this ministry or to its Christian principles.”

A loose-knit group of volunteers called Habitat Partners had urged the Habitat board to reconsider its January action. The volunteer group called on supporters to pray that board members “be given the courage to put an end to the tragic series of events that have brought us to this unfortunate place.”

Fuller, 70, denied wrongdoing after being accused of inappropriate behavior with a former female employee of the organization based in Americus, Ga. He said that if he wasn't reinstated, he would like to start another organization that would continue to support Habitat projects.

While Ramsey said Fuller's “founding vision” always would be appreciated, Habitat CEO Paul Leonard said Fuller's ideas about the future are unwelcome.

“Millard's threat to create a new organization is very harmful,” Leonard said in a statement. “Staff, volunteers, affiliates all have grown weary of Millard's behavior and want to move on. So does this board.”

Posted: 3/18/05

Kim's world is big enough for Baptists

By Trennis Henderson

Kentucky Western Recorder

WILLIAMSBURG, Ky. (ABP)–Korean pastor Billy Kim, president of the Baptist World Alliance, declined to criticize a Southern Baptist plan to bring “like-minded Baptists” together to form an alternative to BWA.

Kim said there are enough human needs around the world for all Baptists to address. Concerning a planned July meeting in Poland between Southern Baptist Convention leaders and sympathetic Baptist groups, Kim said: “Let's pray for them. … We hope they can help other struggling Baptists around the world. We don't want to alienate any Baptists for any personal reason.”

Last June, the Southern Baptist Convention withdrew its membership and financial support from BWA, an international fellowship of 210 mostly national Baptist unions. Southern Baptist leaders complained the alliance is too influenced by “liberal” Baptists, including the rival Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which recently gained BWA membership.

Southern Baptists set aside some of their financial support withdrawn from BWA–until recently $425,000 a year–to establish an alternative organization of “like-minded” Baptists worldwide.

Southern Baptist leaders confirmed the July meeting in Poland, which conflicts with BWA's 100th anniversary celebration, but downplayed its importance.

“To call the meeting with some of the European Baptist leaders an 'organizational' meeting would be a mischaracterization,” said Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee.

BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz called the Poland meeting “a slap in the face to Baptists in the rest of the world.”

Kim, a conservative widely praised by SBC leaders, said Baptists around the globe “ought to be working together to help out struggling Baptists who are in the minority.”

Kim, who retired in December after 45 years as pastor of Central Baptist Church in Suwon, South Korea, will conclude his five-year presidency of BWA this summer at the Baptist World Congress in England.

“The places I've been, they're very, very positive about BWA, and they also are still working with the Southern Baptist Convention,” he said.