Posted: 1/07/05

Posted: 1/07/05

Church-state issues will remain prominent in new Congress

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—As the 109th Congress goes to work in an atmosphere already charged with partisanship, legislative battles over religious and moral issues are virtually certain to remain as prominent as they were in the last session, according to two Washington observers of church-state issues.

Holly Hollman of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and Roger Limoges of the Interfaith Alliance agree many of the religious-freedom and moral issues that arose in the 108th Congress will come up again.

And with a handful of conservative Republicans in the Senate replacing moderate Democrats, some church-state legislation passed by the House but halted in the Senate could have more hope of passing.

Hollman, BJC’s general counsel, said she expects “three major issues will be back”—another attempt to allow churches to engage in partisan political campaigning while maintaining their tax-exempt status; a series of bills that would strip federal courts of their jurisdiction to rule on various church-state issues; and President Bush’s continued efforts to expand the government’s ability to fund social work through churches and other religious charities, also known as the “faith-based initiative.”

Limoges, the Interfaith Alliance’s deputy director for public policy, agreed with Hollman’s assessment, but also said he expects church-state issues to arise in likely Senate fights over confirming Bush’s nominees to federal courts — especially one or more possible vacancies on the Supreme Court. He said his group would be particularly concerned with nominations “that are going to be couched in (terms of) whether someone is a good Catholic or a good person of faith.”

Limoges also said his group considers the Federal Marriage Amendment—a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, which failed in the last Congress but is almost certain to come up again—a religious-freedom issue.

Church electioneering

Both Hollman and Limoges said they expect another attempt from Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) and Religious Right forces to pass the Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act. They have pushed the bill in the past two sessions of Congress, including forcing a floor vote in the House. Although it has failed, it also has steadily gained support.

Hollman noted that some of the bill’s chief opponents in the House “are no longer there.” Chief among them is retired Rep. Amo Houghton (R-N.Y.), who chaired a key subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee that dealt with the proposal. His departure “might make the bill more likely to get through the committee process,” Hollman said.

“Court-stripping” bills

Last fall, the House passed two bills that would strip federal courts of their ability to rule on marriage issues and on the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance. While the Senate never acted on the proposals, they are likely to come up again, Hollman said.

“We saw last term that court stripping is a new popular strategy for addressing issues that may not do as well (for them) in the federal courts,” she said.

She also noted that a third “court-stripping” proposal that ran out of time in the House is likely to gain publicity and momentum because of two high-profile court cases that will be in the news this spring. The bill would have removed jurisdiction from federal courts in cases involving displays of the Ten Commandments on government property.

“Given the attention that will be on the Ten Commandments because of the Supreme Court’s decision to hear cases this term, we will likely see legislation designed to protect government displays of the Ten Commandments,” Hollman said.

Faith-based initiative

Bush’s faith-based initiative is likely to come up again too, Limoges and Hollman agreed, although they differed slightly on how. Because of many conservative religious leaders’ perception that President Bush’s stances on religious and moral issues are why he won re-election in November, Hollman said, they may try to pressure more moderate Republicans into legislative advancement of the faith-based plan.

“I think that there will be some members of Congress coming back with more confidence post election that will try again to move faith-based legislation,” she said.

“Some who interpret the president’s win as a mandate for ‘moral values’—including his top kind of faith-related domestic priority, which is the faith-based-initiative—may push to pass something akin to the CARE Act,” Hollman continued. That bill was left languishing in the last Congress, but in its original version would have made it easier for government to provide social-service funding through churches.

Limoges predicted Bush would make a renewed attempt at writing the faith-based plan into federal law. In his first term, he attempted to push authorization for funding of virtually all social services through churches and other deeply religious charities. The effort was stymied in the Senate. He then used his administrative powers—executive orders —to accomplish much of the same in individual federal agencies.

But a future president can undo such orders, while laws have to be repealed or overturned by federal courts. Emboldened by his perceived mandate on the subject, Bush “is going to go for the complete package again,” Limoges predicted.

Judicial nominations

Limoges noted that Bush had re-nominated several of his appointees to federal courts whom Senate Democrats had halted because of their perceived judicial extremism —including on church-state and abortion-rights issues. Many Washington observers agree the move signals Bush plans to fight to get all his nominees through, causing a significant shift to the right on the federal courts.

Gay marriage

Limoges also said he fully expects supporters of a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage to bring the issue up again. The amendment proposal failed on a procedural vote in the Senate last year, but it is a favorite of social conservatives. “We certainly believe that they will be back again,” he said. “For us, it’s a religious-liberty issue. It always has been. The government cannot be telling churches whom they can and cannot marry.”

Highlighting the prominence such issues are sure to have, several Religious Right leaders have warned members of Congress who oppose them on these issues to back off.

In a recent letter to his supporters, popular Christian radio host and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson singled out Democratic senators up for re-election in 2006 in states with large evangelical Christian populations. He said they should not oppose Bush on court nominations or other matters, or the senators “will be in the ‘bull’s-eye’ the next time they seek re-election.”

And Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Family Research Council, used his daily e-mail newsletter to supporters Jan. 4 to ask Bush and Congress to focus on “values” issues.

“Clearly, this recent election was influenced by a strong turnout of ‘values voters,’ who understand the seriousness of the issues at stake in the battle over our culture,” he wrote. “We are grateful that there are strong leaders in Congress who also see the importance of legislative action to defend the American family from a growing and ever more pervasive secularism. However, we ask President Bush and congressional leadership to make social issues a priority of this Congress.”

Posted: 1/07/05

Supreme Court set to hear two
cases on display of Commandments

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Two friend-of-the-court briefs filed recently in the U.S. Supreme Court present differing views on the role of the Ten Commandments in American history and whether government entities can display them.

The Bush administration, represented by the Justice Department, and a group of religious leaders, led by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the Interfaith Alliance, have filed briefs in two highly anticipated cases involving government displays of the Decalogue.

The Baptist Joint Committee submitted its brief to the Supreme Court in Van Orden vs. Perry, a Texas case the justices will hear next year. Bush administration officials submitted a brief in McCreary County vs. Kentucky.

In the Texas case, BJC General Counsel Holly Hollman and University of Texas Law School professor Doug Laycock ask the high court to overturn a decision delivered last year by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In it, a three-judge panel of the appellate court ruled unanimously that a massive, freestanding granite monument of the Protestant translation of the Ten Commandments, located on the grounds of the Texas Capitol in Austin, does not violate the First Amendment's ban on government establishment of religion.

In that ruling, Judge Patrick Higginbotham, writing for the court, said the commandments monument had a secular purpose in teaching about the history of the development of the state's legal system, and could not be viewed by a reasonable observer as an endorsement of religion.

"Even those who would see the Decalogue as wise counsel born of man's experience rather than as divinely inspired religious teaching cannot deny its influence upon the civil and criminal laws of this country," Higginbotham wrote.

But the BJC brief argues that the display, as it currently exists, cannot be viewed as simply or primarily secular in its purpose or effects.

"The alleged secular effect of demonstrating the commandments' important role in the development of American law is not explicitly stated at the site of the display, is not known to the reasonable observer, and depends on a premise that is demonstrably false," it says.

The brief notes that the introductory line of the commandments, "I am the LORD thy GOD," appears in larger type than the rest of the text, near the top of the Texas monument.

The religious leaders' brief further observes that, although a few of the commandments mirror prohibitions against murder and theft found in laws of societies around the world and throughout history, the Decalogue begins with a set of explicitly religious instructions on idolatry, honoring the Sabbath, blasphemy and other topics.

"The two tables of the commandments are a unified whole, and Texas displays them as such," the brief says. "So even 'Thou shalt not kill' is not a mere statement of secular ethics, or of Texas law; Christians and Jews believe it to be a direct command from God, personally delivered to Moses on Mt. Sinai."

But, the brief contends, the very arguments that attorneys must put forth in support of government-sponsored displays of the commandments can undermine the texts' religious meaning. For such a display to avoid running afoul of the First Amendment's ban on government support of religion, government lawyers must prove that it has neither a primarily religious purpose nor effect.

"Structuring the litigation in this way demeans the religious teachings that governments set out to endorse," the brief reads. "Time after time, in litigation that is nearly always highly publicized, government minimizes the religious significance of government-sponsored religious practices or displays. Government insists that sacred texts are really primarily secular in their meaning, or that they have been displayed primarily for secular purposes and have primarily secular effects.

"In this process, government lends its weight to distorted readings of sacred texts; indeed, government litigators deliberately desacralize these sacred texts. Secular readings of the text are promoted; the religious understanding of the faith groups to whom the text is sacred are deemphasized or ignored.

The Bush administration's brief came in McCreary County, Ky. vs. ACLU. In that case, a divided panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found in late 2003 that Ten Commandments displays in courthouses and a school district in three different Kentucky counties violated the First Amendment. The majority judges said the displays were not erected with a sufficiently secular purpose and that they appeared to endorse religion, even though they had later been modified to incorporate legal and historical documents beyond the commandments.

In the Bush administration brief, Acting Solicitor General Paul Clement and a group of Justice Department attorneys argue that the Kentucky displays do not violate the First Amendment, in part because "justices of this court, decisions of lower courts, and the writings of countless historians and academics have long recognized the significant influence that the Ten Commandments have had on the development of American law.

"As this court has repeatedly recognized, the political and legal history of the United States is infused with religious influences, and the (First Amendment's) establishment clause does not require government to ignore or minimize that reality," they argue.

The Justice Department officials also decry one of the requirements set forth for such displays by the lower court.

"To hold, as the court of appeals did here, that any acknowledgement of religious history must be accompanied by elaborate disclaimers or explanations bespeaks a fundamental hostility to or suspicion of religion that has no place in establishment clause jurisprudence," they contend.

But in BJC brief for the Texas case, the religious groups note assertions that the Ten Commandments have had a significant influence in forming the nation's laws may be ill-founded, no matter what judges may have said in the past.

"To say that the Ten Commandments exercised 'extraordinary influence' on American law…is to wrap a kernel of truth in such a vast overstatement as to demonstrate that the statement is a pretext to justify displaying the commandments," they contend.

"What is plausibly true is that three of the Ten Commandments are an early example of prohibitions on homicide, theft, and false witness … and that the commandments have been more visible than other ancient sources because they are part of the sacred text of the dominant religious tradition in Western culture. It is hard to plausibly claim any more than that."

Furthermore, the brief argues, "Penalties for murder, theft, perjury, and defamation tend to appear early in the development of all legal systems, including those of ancient civilizations with no reliance on the Jewish scriptures."

And, it continues, early American prohibitions on such crimes stemmed directly from long-accepted tenets of English common law, the forerunners of which were pre-Christian in origin:

"The American law of murder, theft, perjury, and defamation thus traces back through centuries of English law to the barbarian laws of non-Christian Germanic tribes—and this line of development is far more direct than any development from the Ten Commandments."

The U.S. Supreme Court often agrees to hear cases to resolve conflicting decisions between different appeals-court circuits. However, these cases mark the first time since 1980 that the high court has dealt with the issue of Ten Commandments displays on government property. That year, the court decided Stone vs. Graham, in which they found unconstitutional a Kentucky law requiring public schools to post the commandments on the walls of each classroom.

Since then, the lower federal courts have developed a hodge-podge of rules on allowing Ten Commandments displays in public settings—with some displays found acceptable when they are included as a part of a larger exhibit on the development of America's legal system and some displays are found unconstitutional. In their brief, BJC and the Interfaith Alliance ask the court to create a clear standard for what is constitutionally acceptable in such cases.

"By holding governmental units to an objective standard, much sham litigation will be avoided, and this court will no longer invite governmental units to desacralize sacred texts," they write.

The justices will hear oral arguments in Van Orden vs. Perry (No. 03-1500) and McCreary County vs. ACLU (No. 03-1693) March 2 and are expected render decisions in the cases before the court adjourns in July.

Posted: 1/07/05

Author explores ways comic books shape character

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

When David Zimmerman talks about comic book character development, he doesn't mean Clark Kent's progression from Superboy to Superman.

Zimmerman refers to development of moral character, and he believes superheroes offer a larger-than-life canvas for exploring questions of right and wrong, strength and weakness–even life and death.

Sometimes the answers X-Men, Spiderman and Daredevil offer correspond with real-life Christian experience, and sometimes they don't, he acknowledges.

“But as testing a car in extreme weather conditions flushes out its strengths and limitations, so by testing what appears to be virtuous or axiomatic in the extreme caricatures of comic book superheroes, we can discover what is true, good, right and noble. And once we've fixed our mind on these things, we can get on with living a heroic life,” he writes in his new book, Comic Book Character.

Zimmerman, an InterVarsity Press associate editor and self-described “fanboy,” wrote the book primarily for other “true believers”–comic book fans who are both immersed in the minutiae of the comics culture and interested in exploring the mythic themes of comics with a critical eye.

“A secondary audience would be those who are interested in having a relationship with fanboys and true believers–parents, youth ministers and culture watchers who care about the intersection of faith and culture,” he said. “I see myself as a mediator between the two groups.”

Zimmerman–a suburban Chicago-based writer whose parents now live in Dallas–grew up in Iowa as a Catholic. And he grew up reading comics.

“When I graduated from high school, I thought I had graduated from faith,” he said. “I stopped going to church. But I found myself surrounded by evangelicals, and there was something about them that was compelling to me.” Eventually, he made a personal faith commitment to Christ.

When Zimmerman went to see the “Daredevil” movie in 2003, he was struck by its Roman Catholic imagery and reminded how the comic books he read as a youngster shaped his own understanding of right and wrong. He decided to write a book to explore the moral and religious lessons comics teach–consciously or unconsciously–and compare those teachings to a Christian understanding of life.

Zimmerman's book takes what he calls an “inductive approach” to examining superheroes' cultural significance as moral guideposts–or at least barometers of social ethics.

“I begin with the person's understanding of self–issues like strength and weakness, justice and vengeance, identity and body image,” he said. “That's a critical developmental project of adolescents.”

He then explores relational issues such as race, gender and nationalism before moving on to religious issues such as good and evil.

For instance, he sees Superman both as a Christlike figure and as similar in some respects to Pontius Pilate. Like Jesus, Superman was sent by his father to a far-off world where he used his extraordinary powers for good and stood for truth and justice. But whereas Jesus challenged the status quo and was crucified for it, Superman is its defender.

“As dramatic as superheroes' stories can be, at heart they are serving the interests of the status quo,” Zimmerman said. “Like Pilate, Superman keeps the peace using the power at his disposal.”

Zimmerman also offers tips to help parents, youth ministers and other people who are not part of the comic book culture learn how to select and read stories in what may be an unfamiliar medium.

Although many adults see comics as juvenile, most modern comic books are written for an older audience, he notes.

This provides their creators a platform for exploring some mature themes, but it also means some material may not be suited for children or even young adolescents, he cautions.

“It's important for parents to know what their kids are reading and to show discernment,” he said.

Posted: 1/07/05

CYBER COLUMN:
Hope abounds

By John Duncan

I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, pondering the horrors of the devastating tsunami. I find myself grieving at a distance as I observe the pain and misery.

I saw a picture of a girl standing in a crowd of onlookers. She held a sign scribbled with letters: “Looking for lost parents, brothers and sisters.” I cannot imagine the pain, the emotion, or, in the poetic words of W.B. Yeats in his poem, “The Second Coming,” the loss: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned.”

I think of a little girl who suddenly has to grow up. Her innocence lost, darkness surrounds, and life leaps forward with fury. Still, hope abounds in human existence.

We live in historic days. Amid the triviality of Dallas Cowboy losses and paying off Christmas debt, history has been made. According to a government web site, the 2004 tsunami appears to be the most deadly in recorded history. The most deadly tsunami prior to this was the result of an earthquake near Awa, Japan, in 1703 that killed 100,000. Forty-thousand people were killed in 1782 by a tsunami in the South China Sea, and the tsunami created by the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa is thought to have resulted in 36,000 deaths. The most deadly tsunami between 1900 and 2004 occurred in Messina, Italy, on the Mediterranean Sea, where an earthquake and tsunami killed 70,000 in 1908. The most deadly tsunami in the Atlantic Ocean resulted from the 1755 Lisbon earthquake that, combined with the toll from the earthquake and resulting fires, killed more than 100,000. Still, hope abounds in the center of history.

Nature rampages at times and presents itself a monster on the march—earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, winds that turn over trucks, rains that drench earth while flooding city streets, and fires that blacken places like Yellowstone National Park.

The poet Gerard Manly Hopkins was right, “Nothing is so beautiful as spring / When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush.” But he was also right in declaring in despair that life “yields to the sultry siege of melancholy.” Life captures us, takes us prisoner and instigates a sorrowful sadness not soon satisfied. Nature marches like a monster. Pain arrives as an unwelcome guest. Life hurts. Still, hope shines like a ray of sunlight at the center of nature.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, “We must continue to emphasize that Christ is truly the center of human existence, the center of history and now also the center of nature.”

Jesus simplified life, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).

A new year stands before us. Grief looms, relief efforts unfold, dreams generate in the mind, and God invites us into the center of life. In the midst of human existence in its misery, history in its data and nature on rampage, the hope of Christ still invites us to find comfort and strength. Make Christ the center of your existence—your existence, your history and your nature.

John Duncan is pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, and the writer of numerous articles in various journals and magazines.

Posted: 1/07/05

Study reveals declining Southern Baptist churches

By Adelle Banks

Religion News Service

NEW ORLEANS (RNS)–The percentage of “declining” Southern Baptist churches increased in the last two decades, a church growth study has found.

The Leavell Center for Evangelism and Church Health at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary found 23.9 percent of churches aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention in the period ending in 2003 were declining, compared to 17.6 percent in the period ending in 1983.

A declining church is defined as one that saw a decrease in its total membership of 10 percent or more in a five-year period.

“The passion for conversion growth appears to be fading at every level of the SBC,” concluded Bill Day, associate director of the center in New Orleans. “The SBC is moving from plateau to decline.”

A growing church is defined as one that had an increase in total membership of 10 percent or more in a five-year period. Plateaued churches are those that do not fit in either the growing or the declining category.

The Leavell Center study found the percentage of growing churches has not changed significantly in the last 20 years. In the period ending in 2003, 30.3 percent of Southern Baptist churches were designated as growing compared to 30.5 percent in the period ending in 1983.

But the number of plateaued churches has decreased–from 51.9 percent at the end of 1983 to 45.8 percent at the end of 2003.

In other findings, Day reported that churches with more than 5,000 members are almost twice as likely to be growing congregations as churches of other sizes. The study also found more than 30 percent of congregations 10 years old or younger are considered to be growing.

Posted: 1/07/05

DOWN HOME:
New look reflects change in direction

Usually, this column chronicles the goings-on among the Knoxes. Joanna, Lindsay, Molly and I aren't all that different from most Baptist families, so I enjoy contemplating the events that shape our lives, hoping they resonate with yours.

But this time, I'd like to talk about a larger family–the Baptist Standard family. If you're a subscriber or regular reader, sit down at the table; you're our kin.

You've probably noticed we remodeled the “house” over the Christmas holidays. As with all changes in our life together, some folks will like what we've done to the paper, and some won't. But I hope you'll decide the new Standard is an improvement.

Our new design is more than cosmetic. Sure, we're printing on brighter paper, using larger pictures and offering more visual elements. We've updated our typefaces and added new logos. We think these will make the paper more inviting.

But design changes are only part of our plan to strengthen the Standard's support for our readers and their churches.

For example, we've been publishing articles about heart-warming, effective ministries. We get excited when we describe a ministry that can be reproduced all across the state. We plan to keep on doing this, but we're going to showcase the stories better and make them easier to use.

We'll emphasize how your church can find and use resources that will help you make a difference in your community and even around the world.

We're going to review good books that can strengthen your faith and make you a better Christian. We'll also review movies and music, and we'll ask you to give us input so our reviews will get more and more practical and helpful.

We're also strengthening the connection between the print and online editions of the Standard. Since timing and space are major print-media obstacles, we'll use the web (baptiststandard.com) to get more information to you faster than ever.

But the most significant change can be summed up in two words: Moving on.

For two and a half decades, the Standard has been one of the foremost chroniclers of the battle for the soul of the Southern Baptist Convention. Some Baptists have lauded our efforts, while others have held the Standard up to ridicule. We make no apologies for telling the story of the most significant shift in American Christianity in 150 years. That's been our God-given task.

Now, we're moving on. That doesn't mean we'll never write a story about the SBC again. We're just as committed to the principle of “tell the truth and trust the people” as we ever were. But the truth for today is the SBC no longer impacts Texas Baptists the way it once did. We don't intend to spend a lot of time worrying about that.

We're going to focus on the future–the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead of us, not the heartache and trauma that riddle our past.

So, if you know folks who quit reading the Standard because they're sick of “the controversy,” invite them to look again.

And next time, I'll tell you what Molly and I saw at the museum.

–Marv Knox

Posted: 1/07/05

Faith-based Initiatives plan will continue in Bush second term

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—The man spearheading President Bush's effort to increase government grants to religious social-service agencies said the initiative will continue in Bush's second term, although he offered few specifics as to how that will happen.

Speaking during a Washington conference on Bush's program, Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, said the president interprets his Nov. 2 re-election as a public endorsement of the plan.

"As he looks at his second term, President Bush is not only looking at his general priorities, but is renewing his commitment to the faith-based initiative," Towey said. "He very clearly staked out where he stood, and the majority of Americans supported that."

Towey was vague about what Bush could do in his second term to further expand the initiative. Although Bush was unable to pass the plan through Congress as a whole in his first term, he instituted many of the changes required to increase funding for churches and other faith-based groups piecemeal—via administrative rule changes in the various agencies that administer federal social-service grants.

"The president will continue to look at what are his tools as chief executive, what other executive actions he can take," Towey said.

Although Congress became slightly more Republican in the elections, observers of the faith-based controversy said it was still unlikely that Bush can pass any sweeping faith-based plans through the Senate.

"I think we will not have enough votes to kill the president's initiatives in the House, but even in the new Senate, I think we still have enough votes to stop it," said Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas), one of Congress' most outspoken supporters of church-state separation.

Towey said efforts to oppose faith-based initiatives in the federal courts will continue. Even though a broad challenge to the initiative as a whole was recently dismissed by a federal judge, several other federal lawsuits challenging social-service programs funded under the faith-based plan have been resolved in favor of the plaintiffs or are pending.

"I think this will continue to be opposed," Towey said. "Quite frankly, I think you will continue to see great opposition, because I think that there will be a continued outcry from the secular extremists."

Edwards, who spoke after Towey, took umbrage with that description. "I'm a little bit bothered by his reference to 'secular extremists,'" Edwards said "This issue is too important for either side or any side to fall back into the temptation of name-calling."

Posted: 1/07/05

Tennessee Baptist named President
of Fellowship of Christian Athletes

By Art Toalston

Baptist Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)–Former NFL and college football coach Les Steckel has been selected as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes' new president and chief executive officer.

Steckel, who has participated in FCA activities since 1974, will succeed the national ministry's retiring president, Dal Shealy, March 1. Shealy will remain involved in the operations of the Kansas City, Mo.,-based organization as director of the new FCA Football Coaches Ministry.

Steckel, 48, said he is "humbled and honored to have been chosen to be the next president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. In Dal Shealy's tenure over the last 13 years, the ministry has experienced tremendous growth. As he passes the baton … he will leave a legacy of integrity and servanthood. With God's guidance and grace, I will do the same."

FCA, founded in 1954, is one of the nation's leading ministries to student athletes and coaches. FCA "Huddles" meet regularly on nearly 8,000 junior high, high school and college campuses for Bible study, prayer and other faith-based activities. Other FCA initiatives include summer camps, coaches and community ministries, Sharing the Victory magazine and the nationally recognized anti-drug program, "One Way 2 Play—Drug Free!"

Steckel, a coach for more than 30 years, currently is a national motivational speaker and member of Brentwood (Tenn.) Baptist Church where, as "coach in residence," he has led several men's discipleship programs.

During his 22-year NFL coaching career, Steckel served as the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings and helped guide two Super Bowl teams as offensive coordinator—the 1984-85 New England Patriots and the 2000 Tennessee Titans.

In addition to the Vikings, Patriots and Titans, Steckel has been on the staff of five other NFL teams and, earlier, the University of Colorado, U.S. Naval Academy and Brown University.

He also was an infantry officer in Vietnam and has retired from 30 years of service in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas and a master's degree in athletic administration from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.

A native of Northampton, Pa., Steckel and his wife, Chris, have three grown children, Christian, Lesley and Luke.

Shealy, a member of First Baptist Church in Raytown, Mo., and former head coach at the University of Richmond during 28 years of football coaching, recounted in his column in Sharing the Victory that he and his wife, Barbara, "I often share that coaching football was the first half of my life, and FCA was the second. Now I'm moving into overtime.

"As I pass the baton of FCA presidency to Coach Les Steckel during our semiannual board meeting at the end of February, I do so with a positive and excited attitude of joy and confidence that Les will lead FCA with integrity of heart and skillful hands.”

"Barbara and I are FCA life-timers, and we will continue to lead the FCA Football Coaches Ministry. We will serve the coaches and their families, their players and overall programs. We want to focus on the truth of Christ and help the football coaches understand the impact they have on and off the field," Shealy wrote.

"Just as quarterbacks and running backs are only successful through the work of the offensive line, Barbara and I have been successful through the great 'offensive line' at FCA," he continued. "We've had great Board of Trustee members, Home Office staff, regional directors, field staff, coaches, athletes, volunteers, local leadership board members and donors who have given unselfishly. All have gone above and beyond to lead and serve the Lord through the ministry movement of FCA.

"I want to thank each and all of you for giving to the Lord through FCA. The leadership team that we have now is the best ever, and they don't care who gets the credit, as long as the job gets done. They truly are fulfilling Colossians 3:23, which states: 'Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men….'"

Posted: 1/07/05

Religion in film pushes boundaries, finds receptive market

By David Briggs

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–2004 was an extraordinary year for religion in film because:

A. A film about the last hours of Jesus made in two dead languages–Aramaic and Latin–is the third-highest grossing movie of the year.

B. Religious filmmakers broke traditional artistic boundaries to tell their stories in R-rated movies that pushed the Jesus-film envelope in depictions of violence, drug use and sexuality.

C. In some markets, filmgoers could walk into a commercial movie theater this past year and view a retelling of the Passion by a major Hollywood filmmaker, a drama centered on an evangelical revival, and biographies of the Catholic saint Therese of Lisieux and the Islamic prophet Mohammed.

The answer most longtime observers of religion and film would give, of course, is D: All of the above.

And with the Hollywood Hills alive with the sound of box-office registers ringing to the tune of $370 million for “The Passion of the Christ” in domestic release alone, many people expect to see a lot more movies with explicit religious themes in 2005.

The 2004 movies raised numerous concerns–that “The Passion” would promote anti-Semitism, that the films would be either too reverent or not reverent enough and that religious movies would have no staying power at the box office. Yet one point of consensus emerged: The movies got people talking in Los Angeles and around the country about questions of art and faith.

In the end, the film did not provoke riots in the streets. But it did make for an unusual twist in the culture wars, with liberals talking about the moral limits of artistic freedom and conservatives saying it would be unfair to censor films because they have the potential to inflame anti-Semitism by sticking close to biblical texts.

“There is a sense people of faith feel under attack, under assault,” said William Blizek, editor of the journal Religion and Film at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

So even if the film recently was snubbed by the Golden Globes, the breakout box-office success of “The Passion” was an important affirmation in the marketplace, Blizek said.

Movies such as “The Passion” and “Woman, Thou Art Loosed” also showed filmmakers could break out of the

G-rated costume drama approach and be embraced by religious audiences even as they pushed back artistic boundaries.

One immediate beneficiary of Gibson's groundbreaking effort was the television evangelist T.D. Jakes, who promoted the movie “Woman, Thou Art Loosed” based on his best-selling book in private showings for pastors across the country.

The gritty screen adaptation included scenes of child rape, drug use, domestic violence and murder in telling the story of a young woman searching for hope after a lifetime of abuse, poverty and addiction.

His pitch was that while “The Passion” told how Jesus was crucified, his film told why Jesus was crucified, to offer hope to people suffering today. The low-budget film has taken in $7 million.

Evangelicals were not the only group in this breakout year for religion and film to emerge from church, synagogue or mosque halls or basements to see religious films. “Therese,” a film about the life of St. Therese of Lisieux, and the animated film “Mohammed: The Last Prophet” also drew audiences.

What about the future for religion in film?

“Next year is going to be even more interesting,” Blizek said. “It really is going to open up a lot of things.

“If this is making money, you've got to figure lots of people are going to be making movies of this sort.”

Posted: 1/07/05

Hunger, malnutrition kill 5 million children a year

By Peggy Polk

Religion News Service

ROME (RNS)–Hunger and malnutrition kill more than 5 million children a year and cost developing countries billions of dollars in lost productivity and national income, a United Nations report asserts.

“The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2004,” issued by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, estimated the number of hungry people in the world at 852 million in 2000-2002, up by 18 million from the mid-1990s.

The total includes 815 million people in developing countries, 28 million in countries in transition from communism and 9 million in industrialized countries, the report said.

Unless the international community changes its priorities, the world will not meet the target set by the World Food Summit in 1996 of halving the number of the hungry by 2015, the annual report said.

“And this is already a modest goal. We should be eliminating hunger,” said Hartwig de Haen, assistant FAO director-general for economic and social development. He accused industrialized countries of failing to provide the development aid they have pledged.

Contending that investing in the fight against hunger makes economic sense, the report estimated the direct costs of dealing with damage caused by hunger are roughly $30 billion a year.

This is more than “five times the amount committed so far to the global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria,” it said. “Conversely, every dollar invested in reducing hunger can yield from five to 20 times as much in benefits.”

“Under-nourishment and deficiencies in essential vitamins and minerals cost more than 5 million children their lives every year,” the report said.

In addition, it said, they “cost households in the developing world more than 220 million years of productive life from family members whose lives are cut short or impaired by disabilities related to malnutrition, and cost developing countries billions of dollars in lost productivity and consumption.”

The report urged a “twin-track approach” to fighting hunger–helping the poor increase their ability to produce food or earn income to buy it, while giving immediate aid to the most needy families. It recommended large-scale national programs to promote agriculture and rural development.

Under this strategy, 31 countries with a total population of 2.2 billion people–nearly half the population of the developing world–reduced their percentage of hungry people by at least 25 percent during the 1990s and have made “significant progress” toward the millennium goal, the report said.

Posted: 1/07/05

Baptist Briefs

New Orleans seminary names dean of students. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary President Chuck Kelley appointed Craig Price, pastor of Hot Springs (Ark.) Baptist Church, as dean of students. Price has 25 years of pastoral experience serving churches in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Texas. He is a graduate of the University of Florida and earned his master of divinity and doctor of philosophy degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a former assistant professor at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark., and was a teaching fellow at Southwestern Seminary during his doctoral studies.

BWA withdrawal, missionary murders top 2004 stories. Baptist state newspaper editors responding to a survey by the Associated Baptist Press news service named the Southern Baptist Convention's withdrawal from the Baptist World Alliance the top Baptist news story of 2004. The murder of four SBC missionaries in Iraq–including David McDonnall of Fort Worth–was the second most significant story, followed closely by President Bush's re-election with support from so-called "values voters." Other top stories included same-sex marriage, four hurricanes that hit Florida and the Caribbean and led to a massive disaster relief effort, and the blockbuster success of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" movie. (See expanded story here)

Warren makes Time magazine list. Baptist pastor Rick Warren has been listed by Time magazine among the "People Who Mattered 2004" in the same issue in which President Bush was named "Person of the Year." In its Dec. 27 edition, Time says of Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California: "Spirituality sold well in 2004, but none did better than Pastor Rick and his faith-based self-help book, 'The Purpose-Driven Life,' which hit 20 million copies sold. Though criticized for preaching Christianity lite, Warren led by example, giving away 90 percent of his royalties, campaigning against hunger and expanding a drug-recovery program for prison inmates."

Samford honors WMU executive. Wanda Lee, executive director of the Southern Baptist Woman's Missionary Union, has been named an alumnus of the year by Samford University. A 1969 Samford nursing graduate, Lee served as president of WMU from 1996 to 2000, when she was named to her current post. She is the first woman in WMU history to hold both positions. Samford University is affiliated with the Alabama Baptist Convention. (See expanded story here)