Posted: 12/16/05

Mercer taps Baylor interim for school's presidency

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

MACON, Ga. (ABP)–Baylor University Interim President Bill Underwood has been elected president of Mercer University, promising to retain the school's historic Baptist identity despite a recent break with the Georgia Baptist Convention.

Mercer trustees elected Underwood unanimously during a regularly scheduled meeting in Greensboro, Ga., Dec. 2. He will become president July 1, when Kirby Godsey, 68, retires after 27 years at Mercer's helm.

“The presidential search committee was very deliberate in its national search for the next president of Mercer,” said David Hudson, chairman of Mercer's board of trustees and the search committee.

“Kirby Godsey has left an indelible mark on this university, and we knew the next president would have to be someone who could continue to chart a strong course for the institution. We have found that leadership in Bill Underwood.

“Bill is a strong academician, committed to excellence in both the classroom and scholarly research. He has powerful communication skills that enable him to build bridges and break down barriers between different constituents. His understanding of what it means to be a faith-based institution allows him to appreciate the importance of the university's Baptist heritage in the context of academic and intellectual freedom. We have found the right leader for Mercer in Bill Underwood.”

Underwood, 49, comes to Mercer at a crucial time of transition for historically Baptist universities, including Mercer. In recent years, conflict between several Baptist universities and their Baptist constituents has led to severing or reducing historic ties.

A 172-year relationship between Mercer and the Georgia Baptist Convention ended when the convention voted Nov. 15 to end support for the school. Baptist leaders complained a recent student event promoted homosexuality. The convention's relationship with Mercer in recent years primarily has been tied to providing scholarship funds for Georgia Baptist students.

Some Mercer supporters said the break with the convention will be a good thing, clearing the decks for Underwood to make a fresh start without an ongoing feud with the state's conservative Baptist leaders.

But Underwood said the break doesn't make his job easier. “I think the loss of that relationship is a sad thing,” he said.

Meanwhile, the head of the Georgia Baptist Convention seemed to rule out the possibility of reconciliation.

The next year will be invested in an orderly dissolution of the relationship with Mercer, Executive Director Bob White said. The convention's Nov. 15 decision initiated a two-year process of severing ties.

Underwood was considered a leading candidate for the presidency at Baylor before removing his name from consideration in September. Trustees of the Texas Baptist school elected Nevada educator John Lilley as president Nov. 3.

Underwood said he withdrew from the Baylor search because the university needed a leader who hasn't been involved in any campus conflicts.

“I was not willing to accept the presidency at Baylor because I had been a part of the controversy at Baylor,” he said. “That job was not for me.”

Underwood said when he first accepted the Baylor interim position he hadn't considered being the permanent president at Baylor or elsewhere. But he changed his mind while he served as interim.

“I … realized how rewarding the job can be and what a tremendous opportunity it is to influence thousands of lives,” he told the Lariat, Baylor's student newspaper. “My experience at Baylor made me think this was something I may be interested in doing, especially at another Baptist university.”

A Mercer leader who met with Underwood Nov. 8 reported Underwood was asked if he might return to Baylor as president at a later time. Underwood reportedly declined interest, saying Mercer has more potential for growth than Baylor. Mercer also has not had the deep divisions within its trustee board that have characterized Baylor, the largest Baptist university in the world.

After his election, Underwood declined to say Mercer was a better place to serve than Baylor.

“Baylor is a premier Baptist university,” he said. And so is Mercer, he added. “I think the potential for growth (at Mercer) is significant.”

A graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University and the University of Illinois College of Law, Underwood practiced civil trial law in Dallas before joining the Baylor faculty in 1990. He and his wife, Leslie, have two children–Jessica, 16, and William, 11. They are members of Seventh and James Baptist Church in Waco.

Baylor faculty members recently adopted an affirmation of Underwood's leadership as interim.

“Over the past four months, he has demonstrated an attitude of acceptance and respect for all faculty members, provided sound and transparent leadership, encouraged and modeled administrative efficiency, and undertaken concrete and intentional actions toward healing the university community,” the statement said.

Posted: 12/16/05

Warren urges ministry to AIDS victims

By Phillip Jordan

Associated Baptist Press

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (ABP)–Megachurch pastor Rick Warren used a conference timed to conclude on World AIDS Day to announce a new commitment to caring for the millions of people infected with HIV and AIDS.

Warren, pastor of Saddleback Community Church and author of The Purpose-Driven Life, hosted nearly 1,700 senior pastors from evangelical churches nationwide for a conference on AIDS called “Disturbing Voices.”

Warren, who admitted most evangelicals have been on the wrong side of the AIDS issue, said ministering to those suffering with AIDS is another responsibility Christians must take seriously.

“The church has the moral authority to say, 'Hey, it's not a sin to be sick,'” said Warren. “The gospels repeatedly show that Jesus loved, touched and cared for lepers–the diseased outcasts of his day. Today's 'lepers' are those who have HIV/AIDS.”

Warren earlier this year announced his “PEACE Plan” for changing the focus and structure of international Christian involvement. PEACE stands for planting churches, equipping leaders, assisting the poor, caring for the sick and educating the next generation.

Throughout the conference, Warren encouraged attending pastors to establish volunteer groups to help care for those suffering with HIV and to offer free counseling and HIV testing at their own churches. Warren said his wife, Kay, helped focus his attention on the plight of those living with AIDS. She delivered one of the keynote addresses at the meeting.

“The evangelical church has pretty much had fingers in our ears, hands over our eyes and mouths shut completely,” she said. “We're not comfortable talking about sex in general and certainly not comfortable about talking about homosexuality–and you can't talk about HIV without talking about both of those things.”

Other speakers at the conference included Bill Hybels, senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in suburban Chicago. Medical experts and other leaders in the AIDS community also spoke.

This year's World AIDS Day theme was “Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise.” World AIDS Day began in 1988 following the first international health summit that met in London to address the issue from a global viewpoint. According to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS, there are 38 million adults and 2.3 million children living with HIV worldwide. Some 4.9 million people will become infected with the virus in 2005.

Posted: 12/16/05

Gonzales ministry aids
'suffering church of Chiapas'

By Craig Bird

Special to the Baptist Standard

SAN CRISTOBAL, Mexico–Christmas 2005 will be a little more hopeful for some families in Acteal, Mexico, thanks to a Texas Baptist woman's ministry. But for the eighth consecutive year, prison walls will mute the celebration.

Eighty-four men, most of them evangelical Christians, remain in a maximum-security prison in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, charged with the 1997 attack in the tiny mountain village of Acteal that left six men, 21 women and 18 children dead.

Evangelical leaders consistently have insisted the men are scapegoats and the real killers never have been arrested.

Fatherless children in Chiapas receive toys and other gifts at a Christmas party provided by a Gonzales-based ministry.

“Only God can ease the pain of these women and children as they try to survive without their husbands and fathers,” said Norvi Mayfield, a member of First Baptist Church in Gonzales, who just returned from another visit to Chiapas. “But we can be faithful to the opportunities we have to minister to the families any way we can.”

The latest opportunity came from an unexpected $1,000 donation to Norvi Mayfield Ministries that will fund a Christmas gathering for the fatherless families. Local Mexican pastors who work with the ministry plan to bring the women and children together in two groups, where they can participate in a Christmas feast and receive Christmas gifts.

More importantly, it will allow them to function as support groups so they can minister to each other.

“Because they live at a subsistence level and because they are from many different villages, it is rare that they can meet,” Mayfield explained. “Every time I visit, I am humbled and awed by their faith and perseverance. But even saints need times they can be encouraged and when they can simply enjoy life.”

In addition to special foods and toys and providing necessary clothing, the women will receive yarn to use in the crafts they make to raise money. If funding allows, the women will receive live chickens to take home that can be used as another source of food.

The Christmas gathering is an extra, laid alongside the ongoing work Mayfield has been doing for four years to assist what she calls “the suffering church of Chiapas.”

The plight of the prisoners and the on-going violations of evangelical's religious freedoms are distinct but related. While there is a well-documented, decades long pattern of persecution of Indians when they cease participating in traditional Mayan religious rituals–calling them idolatrous–most of the men charged in the Acteal massacre seem to have been prosecuted because they had no political power.

And they had no political power because, as evangelicals, they did not support either the Mexican government or the Zapatistas whose uprising against the government was almost 4-years-old when the attack occurred, according to Esdras Alonso, pastor of Wings of Eagles church in San Cristobal.

Norvi Mayfield (left) prays and cries with a wife of one of the men imprisoned since 1997 for the Acteal massacre.

The international community took notice of Chiapas when the then unknown Zapatistas emerged from the jungles on Jan. 1, 1994, and seized control of major sections of the southern Mexican state in the name of improving the lot of the indigenous tribes. After several weeks of fighting, both the Zapatistas and the government have maintained military camps for most of the past decade in an uneasy ceasefire. In November, the Zapatistas formally announced the end of armed resistance and an intention to seek continued change through political means. The Acteal massacre happened when local support and opposition to the Zapatistas still was an issue in many indigenous communities.

The Christian world also learned, for the first time, of the rapidly growing evangelical Christian movement and the attending persecution.

“International reporters came to write about the revolution but also saw what was happening to us and wrote those stories too,” Alonso pointed out.

Now though the media spotlight no longer is on Chiapas–but the persecution continues.

The Mayfield ministry funds regular food distributions to the families, assists in transporting the women to the prison to visit their husbands–although often the visits are four to six months apart–and provides limited medical care. It also provides training and books for evangelical pastors, supports a school in a town where evangelical children are not allowed public education and even provides congregations with musical instruments.

Village children received pencils, educational material and toys.

“But first and foremost, we pledge to pray for the suffering church unceasingly and to share their story with other American Christians,” Mayfield added.

The November trip included people from two Texas Baptist churches, as well as two Christians from Salem, Ore.

They were allowed to meet with the accused inside El Amate Prison–a visit that took six months to negotiate. They also met with one large group of “widows”–the term Mayfield's ministry uses to refer to wives of the prisoners–and worshipped with five evangelical groups while getting an up-close look at persecution.

“Evangelicals are growing at a tremendous rate in Chiapas precisely because of the persecution,” Pastor Alonso told the visitors. “In the past 30 years, 30,000 evangelicals have been evicted from their homes because they refused to continue traditional Mayan religious practices because they are idolatrous. Outright killings are rare now–the last pastor was assassinated two years ago. But evangelicals often are still beaten, their homes and churches burned and they are denied access to water, electricity, transportation, education and even the opportunity to sell their crops.”

Robin Lester of First Baptist Church in Gonzales compared the persecution to the experiences of first century Christians.

“Now that I've touched so many of them and seen how joyful they are despite it, how much family means to them, I'll know how to pray specifically,” she said.

Mark Kemper, Oregon state coordinator for the Christian Motorcycle Association and chairman of the board of Mayfield's ministry, made his second trip to Chiapas with Mayfield.

“The big difference this time is that I was not experiencing it all for the first time, so the emotional shock was not the same,” he said.

“But I was still touched deeply by the faith and courage these brothers and sisters show in such tough situations. We met a lot more people individually this time, so I got a more direct picture of specific persecution. It made me glad that (the Mayfield ministry) is not only helping but is blessing these people on a continuous basis, that they know we will keep on and not just come here once and forget them. We can't forget them. Ever.”

First Baptist Church in Gonzales and Woodland Baptist in San Antonio supported projects on the November trip for a school in Paste, Mexico.

Evangelical children were chased from the local schools last March, at the same time about 90 families from the church were cut off from the town's water and electric grid and denied the right to buy or sell in the markets.

The economic pressure was relieved after nine days, when state government authorities intervened. But the school ban remains. So, Pastor Antonio Mendez, with help from Mayfield's ministry, led the church to open its own school.

The AWANA group from First Baptist in Gonzales decided to raise money to purchase Bibles for the students, aiming for $65, which would pay for 10 copies of the just released translation in the tribe's dialect.

“The kids didn't collect donations–they contributed from their own money,” Director Terry Clay said. “And they gave $150.63. And we're not through yet.”

Two Woodland groups took part. An adult group that promotes community within the congregation gave the ministry $450 to purchase school supplies, and a women's sewing group put together about 70 brightly colored, individualized fleece hats to protect the children from the mountain cold.

“It was the most fun project we've ever undertaken,” Nadine Holt pointed out. “We had 10 women that worked on them for six months. Norvi had given us pictures of some of the children, so we could put faces to the children we were praying for as we worked. It was pure joy for all of us.”

Mayfield, a frequent speaker at Woman's Missionary Union meetings, says she will continue to rally prayer and financial support for the “suffering church” at every opportunity.

“God has placed a very specific call on my life to minister with these people,” she said. “I am a Mayan from Honduras, and I often wondered why God had brought me to America and has given me so many blessings. When I met the prisoners and widows in 2001, I understood why.”

LEFT: Fatherless children in Chiapas receive toys and other gifts at a Christmas party provided by a Gonzales-based ministry. ABOVE: Norvi Mayfield prays and cries with a wife of one of the men imprisoned since 1997 for the Acteal massacre.Photos by Craig Bird

Posted: 12/16/05

North Carolina moderates consider
alternative giving approaches

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (ABP)–Moderate Baptists in North Carolina are talking seriously about alternative ways to support the state's Baptist institutions, a move that could divert millions in contributions from the conservative-controlled Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.

Interested moderates and representatives from virtually all of the convention's institutions met privately Dec. 1 to discuss alternatives for the future, now that ultra-conservatives have solidified control of the convention and indicated they will install sympathetic trustees and leaders for the institutions.

No plan was announced at the meeting, hosted by St. John's Baptist Church in Charlotte, but participants said there is more momentum for action than ever before–with a major shift in funds from moderate churches expected as soon as January 2007.

Participants agreed to form a committee to explore options, but no one was ready to predict if the outcome will be a simple network of churches, an alternative budget, or–least likely–a “shadow” convention.

Some North Carolina moderates have talked about breaking away from the state Baptist convention for at least four years but have feared their beloved colleges would suffer financially. Leaders said this was the first time all the agencies participated in a conversation about alternative methods of financial support.

North Carolina Baptists support five colleges, as well as a newspaper, children's home ministry, retirement center and foundation. The colleges receive $6.1 million from the convention. But lumped with funds for the other agencies–as well as mission offerings and other sources–the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina controls about $16 million that benefits institutions and other mission causes in the state, the leaders were told Dec. 1.

The meeting's objective, according to participants, was to make sure moderate and progressive Baptists have a way to support the institutions they like–particularly colleges–without funding the state convention, which they say has excluded them and their views.

Most of the North Carolina agencies are led by moderates, or conservatives not aligned with the convention's power structure. And moderates say it was their past contributions that built the institutions. But the convention's power structure clearly is in the hands of fundamentalists, who have won a string of elections by a widening margin.

Convener Richard Kremer, pastor of St. John's Baptist, declined to name the participants or discuss the content of the Charlotte meeting. “We agreed at the beginning this would be an off-the-record meeting,” he said. “We just needed a level of honesty.”

He declined to predict the outcome of the talks, except to say, “North Carolina churches and colleges are all examining the nature of their relationships.”

More significant gatherings, with more substantive results, will follow now that churches and the agencies are walking together, he said.

The key to the new resolve, other participants said, is getting the colleges to act in unison. In other states, Baptist colleges have parted ways as fundamentalists have come to power. Some have courted the favor of conservative leaders, forging closer ties, while others–such as Furman, Mercer, Belmont, Wake Forest and Stetson–have fought for greater independence.

The five colleges still related to the North Carolina convention–Campbell University, Chowan College, Gardner-Webb Univer-sity, Mars Hill College and Wingate University–recently asked for a formal study of their relationships with the convention. Meredith College already has broken away. The study by the Council on Christian Higher Education is expected by August 2006.

Moderates are expected to wait for the outcome of the study before taking drastic steps. If the colleges are freed to elect their own trustees and still can get some convention funding for scholarships, then a continued relationship with the convention is possible, leaders say. But most moderates suggest that's not likely.

Until now, most moderates in North Carolina have been content to channel their money for institutions through the state convention, which offers four budget channels.

But attempts to eliminate those options–allowing only support for Southern Baptist-approved causes–have become a regular occurrence at the state's annual convention meeting and now are viewed by both sides as inevitable.

Ultra-conservatives, who have a goal of “cleaning up” their denominational house before the Southern Baptist Convention meets in Greensboro in June, did achieve other objectives during the Nov. 14-16 state convention–electing their candidate as president, toughening the convention's stance against churches “welcoming and affirming” of homosexuals and approving new institutional trustees despite complaints the process excluded moderates.

A search committee currently is looking for a new executive director for the convention, and fundamentalists promise to replace the retiring executive–viewed by many as sympathetic to moderates–with a clear-cut “conservative.”

Larry Hovis, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, said moderates in North Carolina could turn to the state CBF as the alternative structure to support the institutions.

But others said the state CBF won't be enough. There are many moderate churches not ready to align with the Fellowship, otherwise they would have done so by now, one agency leader said. Although support for North Carolina Baptist institutions remains strong, most observers agree there's no energy for starting another convention–as has been done by moderates in Missouri and fundamentalists in Texas and Virginia.

Posted: 12/16/05

Welcome Center shelters,
helps inmates' families

By George Henson

Staff Writer

AMARILLO–After years of raising money and months of watching bricks and mortar going up, Harold Scarbrough finally has the satisfaction of seeing inmates' families occupy the Amarillo Home Welcome Center.

Shortly after Scarbrough's arrival in 1997 on Amarillo Area Baptist Association's staff, he recognized that families journeying to Amarillo to visit loved ones in the two area prison units needed an inexpensive place to stay and someone to meet their spiritual needs.

At first, church leaders in Amarillo tried a multi-denominational approach, but "we met monthly and accomplished nothing," Scarbrough said.

Soon after Amarillo Baptists decided to take on the project, property became available, and Scarbrough started raising the $300,000 necessary to build the motel-type structure. Fund-raising took four years as Scarbrough solicited grants from various charitable foundations, area churches and individuals.

Among other donors, High Plains Christian Ministries Foundation supplied $100,000, the Meadow Foundation gave $102,000, South Georgia Baptist Church in Amarillo provided $23,000 and the Baptist General Convention of Texas contributed $20,000.

At times, Scarbrough admitted, it would have been easy to quit.

"I just felt led of God to pursue it," he said. "Two or three times, I was ready to give up, and then someone would do something or say something that would make me realize that God wants this done."

And seeing the end result has made the effort worth it, he said.

Volunteers from across the state joined workers from the Amarillo area to build the motel-style structure. It includes eight bedrooms, bathrooms, a large commons area and a full-sized kitchen and dining area.

The facility also includes an apartment for the live-in directors–Patrick and Venus Skipper of Bykota Baptist Church in Amarillo–with two bedrooms, a living room/dining room area, kitchen and utility room.

"It's really beautiful," Scarbrough said.??The welcome center's need for a director came just at the time when God was directing him to find a place to serve, Skipper said.

"There was a notice in the association's newsletter about them needing a director, and I noticed that, but I didn't do anything about it," he recalled. "But each time the newsletter came out, it was still there. Each time I saw it, it tugged at my heart a little more.

"The Lord has something planned for everybody, and I was looking for a way to serve him more, and God showed me this."

While traffic at the welcome center started slowly, the number of guests has increased as news has spread word-of-mouth among inmates' families. Some of those who have stayed there have sent letters of thanks and donations to help sustain the ministry.

People wishing to make reservations to stay at the welcome center can call (806) 378-9967 or e-mail hopewelcomecenter@hotmail.com.

Posted: 12/16/05

Appeal denied convicted Mexican evangelicals

By Craig Bird

Special to the Baptist Standard

SAN CRISTOBAL, Mexico–Sixteen men, mostly evangelical Christians, implicated in the 1997 Acteal massacre in southern Mexico now face 36 years in prison after their final appeal was denied by a three-judge panel Nov. 30.

Sergio Nafare, defense attorney for the 16 men, as well as 68 others charged in two separate cases, notified San Antonio-based Norvi Mayfield Ministries of the verdict Dec. 1. Mayfield provides limited funding for legal expenses, as well as for helping care for the families of the men who have been in prison eight years.

“I continue to believe in the innocence of these men,” Nafare said. “I do not know who was responsible for the brutal and senseless murders in Acteal, but I know it was not these defendants. Justice is not served by holding them liable for what so much evidence shows they didn't do.”

Rulings are expected on the second group of 24 men by mid-December and on the third group of 44 in January. Both the victims and the accused are Tzotzil Indians.

The evidence Nafare cites was not introduced in the original trials. Nafare and his co-counsel, Roger de los Santos, joined the cases three years ago–five years after the men first were convicted and long after international interest had died down. The first group was so far along in the appeals process that the new defense lawyers were restricted to arguments based on existing evidence and testimony. Some of the new evidence has been accepted into the cases of the second and third groups.

Nafare is appealing to human-rights groups as well as concerned Christians to focus on the cases once again.

“I remind myself every day that I made a commitment to God to stay with these men,” said Nafare, who became a Christian two weeks before being asked to take over the cases.

“I believe God called me to this place, and I believe they are innocent. As evangelicals, they did not support the government or the Zapatistas (who were waging a civil war at the time). So they were easy targets.”

Nafare and de los Santos have “fully documented” evidence they say supports the men's innocence. Among the major assertions:

No bullet holes in the walls of the small Catholic church against which the assault supposedly was launched Dec. 22, 1997.

Ballistics tests on the alleged murder weapons did not match the shell casings collected at the site.

No gunpowder residue on the suspects' hands.

Fingerprints of the accused were not found on the guns.

Eighty-four men were imprisoned for illegal possession of firearms (types restricted to use by the military), but only 17 weapons were produced as evidence, “leaving an image of the men firing and then passing the rifle to another man so he could fire,” Nafare said.

The accusations were made by a 14-year-old boy who was not, as required by the Mexican constitution, accompanied by a parent, legal guardian or close relative.

No photographs were taken of the location where the boy claimed the weapons had been buried, in violation of legal requirements.

The documentation, in Spanish, is available to legitimate news media, human-rights and religious groups via e-mail at norvintouch63@ yahoo.com.

The first 40 arrests came after the boy pointed out suspects attending the funerals of the victims. The men were asked to come to the police station to provide evidence and then were arrested and charged.

“They were entrapped, were not expecting to be charged because they were offering to help as witnesses,” Nafare said. “From the first, their legal protections were less than they should have been.”

Numerous human-rights groups, including Amnesty International and spokesmen for survivors of the Acteal attack, have pointed out that no high-ranking officials have been convicted.

In January 2004, the Mexican government an-nounced it would conduct a judicial review of the situation. The month before, more than 100 pastors and church leaders met with authorities at Gante Street Methodist Church in Mexico City to press for such a review.

In April 2004, according to Compass News Service, about 500 Tzotzil Christians from Chiapas journeyed to Mexico City and staged a peaceful march urging the government to complete the review.

Samuel Ruiz Garcia, who was Catholic bishop of the area at the time of the killings, criticized those actions, saying evangelicals were trying to shift the case from its legal basis to one of religious persecution. The Acteal survivors group, Las Abejas, issued a statement noting the marchers had permitted “their Christian dignity to be stained with that lie.”

Nafare said the defendants' arguments had been favorably received by the review task force, “but they have asked us why we are not present every time they meet every-other month.”

Mayfield said the two lawyers never received a salary since taking over the case at the request of Chiapas evangelical leaders, and what support they had went for expenses. For the past year, they have been covering some expenses out of their own pockets.

“Other supporters have had their own funding problems or moved on to other issues, but we have provided as much funding as we could,” Mayfield explained. “But there is not enough for the lawyers to travel to Mexico City for the meetings or even to go interview witnesses like they want to.

“I hope Americans will pray for Sergio and Roger, as well as the prisoners and their families and the government officials still making decisions in these cases. And I hope people will donate to help pay for the defense so the prisoners can have the best possible chance to prove their innocence.”

Posted: 12/16/05

Ouachita president may lead Samford

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP)–Andrew Westmoreland, president of Arkansas Baptists' Ouachita Baptist University, is the leading candidate to become president of Samford University in Birming-ham, Ala.

Westmoreland visited the Samford campus Dec. 6 to meet with three constituent panels–faculty/staff, students and alumni/ donors–as well as university leaders.

No date has been announced for the election of a Samford president. Although the Samford search committee recently announced it had narrowed the search to a short list, sources say Westmoreland is the committee's first choice.

Samford's next president will replace Tom Corts, who is retiring. Samford, affiliated with the Alabama Baptist Convention, reports 2,882 undergraduate students, 1,558 graduate students and 264 faculty members.

Westmoreland, in his late 40s, has served his entire career at Ouachita, in Arkadelphia, Ark. President since 1998, he has been an administrator at the Arkansas Baptist school for more than 19 years. He is best known for his successful fund-raising for the 1,700-student school.

He served as vice president for development until 1995, when he became executive vice president.

A graduate of Ouachita, Westmoreland received a bachelor's degree in political science in 1979. He earned a master's degree in political science from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and a doctorate in higher-education administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Posted: 12/16/05

South Africa OK's same-sex marriage

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

JOHANNESBURG, South Afri-ca (ABP)–South Africa's highest court has ruled the nation's constitution requires it to legalize same-sex marriage.

The Constitutional Court delayed implementing its ruling for a year to give Parliament time to rewrite the nation's 1961 marriage law to include homosexual couples. If legislators refuse to act within that time period, the decision automatically will take effect.

When it does so, South Africa will become only the fifth country and the first on the African continent to grant nationwide legal status to gay matrimony.

The court was unanimous in saying the nation's post-apartheid 1996 constitution gives gays an equal right to marriage and its attendant benefits and responsibilities. The charter explicitly bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

South Africa will join Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Canada as the only countries to recognize gay marriage nationwide. The commonwealth of Massachusetts is the only jurisdiction in the United States with legal gay marriage. Other states and European nations offer marriage-like status to gay couples through civil unions or domestic partnerships.

The decision affirmed a lower court's 2004 ruling that required the government to recognize the marriage of two Pretoria women. According to the Washington Post, Cecelia Bonthuys and Marie Fourie wed in a church ceremony performed by Pastor Andre Muller, who was forced out of the nation's Dutch Reformed denomination because of his homosexuality.

“In the past, gay people have always been ridiculed, belittled,” Muller told the newspaper. “Now that this ruling has come, they are on an equal footing. Justice has been done.”

But the nation's Council of Muslim Theologians condemned the ruling, saying, “Same-sex marriages are a violation of the limits prescribed by the Almighty, a reversal of the natural order, a moral disorder and a crime against humanity.”

There is little indication that politicians will attempt to amend the South African Constitution to block legalized gay marriage. Only one small political party–the African Christian Democratic Party–has announced support for such an amendment, the New York Times reported.

Posted: 12/16/05

Man convicted in missionary murders executed

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

SAN'A, Yemen (ABP)–A Muslim convicted of plotting the December 2002 terror attack that killed three Southern Baptist missionaries in Yemen was executed, several news sources reported.

Ali al-Jarallah died at the hands of a firing squad in a prison in San'a, Yemen's capital, the Associated Press reported. The gunman, Abed Abdul Razak Kamel, is still in prison.

Yemeni officials said al-Jarallah masterminded the Dec. 30, 2002, attack on the former Jibla Baptist Hospital in Jibla, Yemen.

Kamel burst into a hospital staff meeting and opened fire, killing hospital director William Koehn, physician Martha Myers and administrator Kathleen Gariety.

The missionaries were in the process of working out logistics for the transfer of the hospital's ownership to the Yemeni government from its founders, the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board. The institution now operates as Peace Hospital.

Al-Jarallah also was convicted of murdering a Yemeni Socialist Party official.

The Yemeni government suspected him of other terror plots, including being an associate of the international Al Qaeda terrorist group.