Posted: 6/13/05

Congressional leaders reappoint
three to religious-freedom panel

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Congressional leaders have reappointed three long-time advocates for religious liberty to a federal panel charged with monitoring worldwide conditions for freedom of conscience.

The leaders reappointed Felice Gaer, Ricardo Ramirez and Nina Shea to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The commission is a nonpartisan, independent government panel that reports and makes recommendations to other government agencies on religious liberty. It consists of nine voting members—three of whom are picked by the president, two by congressional leaders of the president’s party and four by congressional leaders of the opposition party.

Gaer directs the American Jewish Committee’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights. She has extensive experience with United Nations affairs and has been a member of the UN’s Committee Against Torture since 1999. She also has served as the commission’s chair. She was reappointed by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (R-Calif.).

Ramirez is the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces, N.M. He is a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ International Policy Committee and has served as an adviser to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He was reappointed by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Shea directs the Center for Religious Freedom of Freedom House, a Washington-based human-rights group. She has been an international human-rights lawyer focusing on religious-freedom issues for almost 20 years and wrote a book on global persecution of Christians called In the Lion’s Den. She was reappointed by House Speaker Denny Hastert (R-Ill.).

All of the reappointments are for two-year terms.

Posted: 6/13/05

Court upholds law assuring
inmates' religious freedom

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—A unanimous Supreme Court upheld a federal law that makes it easier for prison inmates—and others—to assert their religious freedom.

The justices validated the constitutionality of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. The law was passed by Congress and signed by then-President Bill Clinton in 2000. It was designed to make it harder for government entities to curtail significantly a group’s or individual’s religious rights.

One section of the law requires states to accommodate religious practices by inmates in their prisons—such as providing a special diet or allowing them to wear a particular kind of religious dress—unless prison officials can show a compelling reason not to grant such requests. If the officials can provide such a justification, they must then also show they have burdened the inmate’s religious exercise in the least restrictive manner possible.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, authoring the court’s opinion, said the relevant section of the statute “does not, on its face, exceed the limits of permissible government accommodation of religious practices.”

At stake was whether Congress can pass laws creating special protections for religious practices among institutionalized persons. But the court’s decision also had the potential to extend far beyond prison walls—to any laws making it easier for individuals or organizations to practice their faith.

The case, Cutter vs. Wilkinson, involved several current and former inmates of Ohio prisons who sued the state to gain accommodations for their various non-mainstream religious practices. They included practitioners of Satanism, the Wicca religion and a white-supremacist form of Christianity.

Although the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act passed with support from a broad spectrum of political and religious leaders, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2003 used the lawsuit to overturn the section of the law that relates to prisoners.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court said the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act’s Section 3 violates the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which prevents Congress from establishing a religion or giving any religion a legal preference. By specifically accommodating religious rights, the appeals court said, the act advances religion in general and gives religious prisoners preference over non-religious prisoners.

Its primary effect “is not simply to accommodate the exercise of religion by individual prisoners but to advance religion generally by giving religious prisoners rights superior to those of nonreligious prisoners,” wrote Judge Ronald Gilman in the court’s opinion.

But other federal appeals courts have upheld the law’s constitutionality. The Supreme Court’s decision settles the question in their favor, reversing the 6th Circuit.

The court found the act’s institutionalized-persons provision “compatible with the establishment clause because it alleviates exceptional government-created burdens on private religious exercise,” Ginsburg wrote.

Attorneys for the state of Ohio argued that the law could effectively encourage inmates to “get religion” by offering them “benefits” that were not available to non-religious prisoners. But the Supreme Court dismissed that argument. Ginsburg noted Ohio already provides accommodations to Christian, Jewish and other prisoners who practice mainstream religions.

The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act “presents no such defect,” she wrote. “It confers no privileged status on any particular religious sect, and singles out no bona fide faith for disadvantageous treatment.”

The justices also rejected Ohio’s argument that the burdens the law imposed on corrections officials would create problems in the unique prison environment.

In the court’s opintion, the act does not “elevate accommodation of religious observances over an institution’s need to maintain order and safety,” Ginsburg wrote, noting that both the law’s legislative history and previous court precedent on similar cases suggest courts should generally defer to the judgment of prison officials when such questions arise. “Our decisions indicate that an accommodation [of religion] must be measured so that it does not override other significant [state] interests.”

Ginsburg also said the court would have to endanger many other government allowances for religious freedom if it were to uphold the 6th Circuit’s reasoning in the case. “Were the Court of Appeals’ view the correct reading of our decisions, all manner of religious accommodations would fall,” she wrote. For example, she said, “Congressional permission for members of the military to wear religious apparel while in uniform would fail, as would accommodations Ohio itself makes.”

Ohio Solicitor General Douglas Cole, who argued the state’s case before the Supreme Court in March, said the decision was a “mixed bag,” but that he was encouraged by parts of it.

“We are, of course, disappointed that the court reversed the 6th Circuit, but at the same time we are encouraged that the court recognized that there are some very serious safety concerns at issue, so courts will have to defer,” he said.

“All along, from our perspective, this has been all about prisoner safety. We believe that prison officials can and should and do accommodate all legitimate religious requests, but our concern was when the statute seemed to force them to change the balance they strike between safety and accommodation.”

A broad array of religious and civil-rights groups had backed the inmates’ case, including the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

“Where government acts to lift a substantial government-imposed burden on religion, it allows religion to flourish,” BJC General Counsel Holly Hollman said. “The decision properly protects the religious rights of people who depend on the government for the permission and accommodation to practice their religion.”

Posted: 6/13/05

Church in anti-Muslim controversy leaves SBC

N.C. Biblical Recorder

FOREST CITY, N.C. (ABP)—The church that received national media attention in late May for a sign that said the Muslim holy book should be put in a toilet has withdrawn from the Southern Baptist Convention.

Danieltown Baptist Church in Forest City, N.C., also voted to leave the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and the Sandy Run Baptist Association, a local affiliation of churches.

Creighton Lovelace, the church’s pastor, said the June 5 vote to become an independent Baptist church was unanimous. About 22 people—a typical number for the church—attended the regular monthly business meeting in which the vote took place, he said.

Lovelace’s sign had read, “The Koran needs to be flushed!”

It was an apparent reference to a now-retracted Newsweek article saying American military officials had mistreated the Quran in handling war prisoners and suspected terrorists incarcerated at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba. The article quoted an unnamed official as saying an internal government report had confirmed one inmate’s accusation that a guard at the prison had flushed pages of the Islamic scriptures down a commode.

Reports about the accusation reportedly inflamed an anti-American mob in Afghanistan, which erupted into a riot that resulted in 16 deaths. Although Newsweek retracted the story when its source backed away from the claim, Pentagon officials admitted May 26 that an investigation had uncovered other intentional mistreatment of the Quran at the hands of American personnel.

As for Lovelace’s sign, an American Muslim civil-rights group first brought it to national attention. Soon, other civic and religious leaders were criticizing it, including a critique from the head of the SBC Executive Committee.

“Now I realize how offensive this is to them, and after praying about it, I have chosen to remove the sign,” Lovelace said in a written statement. “I apologize for posting that message and deeply regret that it has offended so many in the Muslim community.”

Lovelace said the church pulled out of the organizations for several reasons. Some church members indicated a desire that the church become independent before the sign controversy, he said. Meanwhile, according to Lovelace, some raised concerns that the sign issue could endanger Southern Baptist missionaries serving in majority-Muslim countries.

Church members had also read what Lovelace called “editorials” by Tony Cartledge, editor of North Carolina Baptists’ Biblical Recorder newspaper. Lovelace said the articles were “scathing” in their opposition to the church and to him.

The “editorials” Lovelace referred to did not appear in print but rather were entries in an interactive weblog on the paper’s site called “Editor’s Journal.” Weblogs, rapidly growing in popularity, are online communities in which a “blogger” provides background information not ordinarily found in news stories, or expresses brief opinions about various topics. Registered users are then invited to respond with further information or their own opinions.

Lovelace said he had also read an article called “Why I am not Southern Baptist,” distributed by the Fundamental Baptist Information Service. In the article, the author, David Cloud, lists 13 reasons, including his belief that the SBC is ecumenical, that SBC churches are not governed scripturally because their deacons have too much authority, and that worldliness is rampant in SBC churches and schools.

With additional reporting by Robert Marus

Posted: 6/13/05

Wilshire ministers spice up
VBS with original songs

By George Henson

Staff Writer

DALLAS—Andrew Daugherty and Brad Jernberg are prayerful that the new song they penned will help children better understand some old stories.

Daugherty, pastoral resident at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, and Jernberg, the church’s music ministry resident, were assigned the task of writing a song for Vacation Bible School. The pair wrote a chorus to be sung each day. In addition, a new verse incorporated each day helps children understand that day’s Bible story.

The pair, who both had written songs—but not for VBS—took about a day to write each verse.

“What we tried to do is re-imagine the stories and arrest the imaginations of the children so that might think about it and get a better grasp of what was happening,” Daugherty said.

For example, on the day the 270 children in attendance learned about Daniel and his friends Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego, the verse told how the four friends made A’s in school and ate spinach and drank water.

The church downloaded the Tejas Trails curriculum without charge from the BaptistWay Publishing website and Minister to Children Tricia Hays is very pleased with the outcome.

“We chose this curriculum for its very, very solid Bible study and the activity-based learning methods. It’s very hands-on for the children,” she said.

The material did not contain pictures or other traditional pieces, but that turned out to be an asset, she said.

“We had to work a little harder to prepare, but because of that, we probably value what we’ve done a little more,” Hays said.

And the work has had good results. Diane Lane, children’s consultant in the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ Bible study/discipleship center, had high praise for Daugherty and Jernberg’s musical composition.

“It’s the best song I’ve seen for Vacation Bible School, because it not just gyrations or meaningless words, but every word explains the Bible story the children will be studying that day,” Lane said.

Posted: 6/13/05

CYBER COLUMN:
Relationships

By Berry D. Simpson

I’ve have spent a large portion of my post-adolescent life immersed in the world of spiritual disciplines—Scripture memory, daily Bible reading, writing and meditating, worship and church, teaching and study, and prayer. Not that I’m such a holy guy on my own initiative; I was well trained by my parents and well-coached by the Baptist Student Ministries when I attended the University of Oklahoma.

I started down this path for the same reason a young baseball player plays catch and takes batting practice and lifts weights. He wants to build skills, develop physical reflexes and create instinctive responses for high-pressure game situations. I was memorizing Bible passages to build skills and create spiritual instincts.

As a young boy, I knew I could have a personal relationship with God and that it started with salvation and baptism. But I thought all the relationship-building that came afterward was up to God. I didn’t think there was anything for me to do other than behave myself. I didn’t understand the concept of relationships at all.

I wasn’t alone. Most young men enter the adult world with no idea how to build relationships. Girls seem to understand this instinctively, but we guys are out of our league and over our heads. Especially young men like me who never played team sports and never learned the give-and-take of friendships.

Nowadays, I’ve grown up a little and I have lots of great friends and even a few guys I think of as best friends. I’ve learned how to be someone’s friend from living with Cyndi. Early in our marriage, I made my relationship with Cyndi a high priority: I studied her, how to please her, how to Light Her Fire (an actual book I read), how to be the husband and friend and lover she needed. I thought it was my job and responsibility to work hard at my marriage relationship. And I’ve learned I need to work just as hard on my relationship with God. To my surprise it requires a lot of time and effort and focus on my part.

Well, my results from all those years of practicing spiritual disciplines haven’t been what I expected. Memorizing Bible passages and meditating hasn’t made me a stronger guy; they’ve made me a better friend. Those passages and stories and insights have become the shared storied of our relationship—God and me. Going over our “old stories” together, over and over, year after year, has glued me to God in the same way going over old stories with Cyndi bonds us together. Those shared stories define Cyndi and me as a couple, and the shared spiritual experiences define my relationship with God.

And I’ve learned the value of getting away to Promise Keepers, or Wild at Heart Boot Camp, or even solitary backpacking trips in the mountains. They are relationship builders.

I used to feel guilty if I came back from one of those trips without something new and exciting and fresh to share with Cyndi and my Bible study class or to write about in my journal. I felt like I’d been self-indulgent and wasted my time and money. I was wrong to think that way. Those focused spiritual experiences and retreats are not for learning a new message, but more like simply going on a date with God.

Well, now that I’ve said it on paper, that phrase, “going on a date with God,” makes me uncomfortable. It sounds trivial and feels goofy. But I don’t know any other words for it.

Cyndi once told me about how the concept of Jesus as lover, falling in love with Jesus, came up in her women’s group and how that picture of Jesus was comforting and powerful to them. She asked if men thought of Jesus that way. I told her that I didn’t, and I’d never heard other men use those phrases. We don’t know how to distinguish “falling in love with Jesus” from “romantic love with Jesus,” and that sort of thinking about Jesus was unsettling, certainly not comforting.

But lately, the lessons I’ve taught in Bible study classes about faith have pushed me up against this topic of my loving relationship with God, and I can no longer ignore it. Leonard Sweet writes: “God calls into a relationship. Christianity is much more than a wisdom tradition or a moral system or a path leading to higher states of existence. God created us for companionship.”

So, to get more comfortable, one of my goals for 2005 is to find more ways to deepen my personal relationship with God. I need to go on more dates with God.

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: 6/10/05

Michael Morrison	Randall O’Brien	Paul Powell

Baylor interim president makes key appointments

By Marv Knox

Editor

WACO–Baylor University's interim president steered the rudder of Baptists' flagship university during his first day at the helm.

Bill Underwood announced three high-level administrative appointments, most pointedly replacing the university's top academic officer, David Lyle Jeffrey, with whom he previously debated academic freedom.

Randall O'Brien, professor and chair of Baylor's religion department, takes Jeffrey's place, becoming interim provost and vice president for academic affairs. Michael Morrison, a professor in the Baylor School of Law, succeeds Tommye Lou Davis as Underwood's chief of staff. And Paul Powell, dean of Baylor's Truett Theological Seminary, is special assistant to the president for denomination relations, a position that has been vacant.

Underwood became interim president at Baylor June 1, after Robert Sloan left the post he held exactly 10 years.

The “Baylor family” squabbled publicly the last two years of Sloan's administration. Tension swirled around the university's long-range vision, called Baylor 2012, and more particularly Sloan's implementation of it.

Supporters said Sloan was ensuring Baylor's place among the “top tier” of American universities by integrating strong Christian faith and high academic standards. Critics claimed he was leading Baylor from its Texas Baptist roots, undermining classroom teaching, pricing the school out of range of middle-class families and amassing monumental debt.

The division spilled into the boardroom, where Baylor regents voted on Sloan's future at least three times, once reportedly coming within one vote of removing him.

Division also spread across campus. The faculty senate twice voted “no confidence” in Sloan. And in a faculty referendum, 418 of 838 eligible teachers–85 percent of the votes cast–called for his dismissal.

Finally, this winter, Sloan and regents Chairman Will Davis announced the president would step down at the end of the spring semester. The regents named him chancellor, and he is to focus on fund raising, student recruitment and promoting the university.

In late April, regents elected Underwood, a Baylor law professor and former general counsel for the university, as interim president.

At the time, a reporter asked if Underwood would be a “caretaker president.” Chairman Davis immediately debunked that notion. Underwood will be “president of Baylor University until we elect a new one,” he said. “He is not 'caretaker' of anything.”

He apparently took Davis at his word. Most regents learned about his appointments when they received an e-mailed press release that afternoon, Davis said.

Underwood told Davis in advance about the provost and chief-of-staff appointments. “I was consulted, but I did not concur,” Davis said.

“I have great respect for the provost, David Lyle Jeffrey. I thought he did a good job,” he added. “But I don't question the authority of Dr. Underwood to make the decisions he made.”

Bill Underwood

Underwood said he made the changes on his first day in office in order to strengthen Baylor.

“These changes signify one of the central themes of this period–my desire to bring about healing in the Baylor community,” he explained. “That includes the academic community in Waco, as well as our alumni, and healing among some of the organizations we've been associated with.”

So, Underwood made the specific changes in light of that desire, he said.

“Regarding the pro-vost, Dr. Jeffrey and I are friends. I am a great admirer of Dr. Jeffrey,” he noted. “But what I wanted at this critical juncture in the university's life is a different skill set. Dr. O'Brien is a reconciler and a healer, and he has a track record of taking on difficult situations like this. That made him a perfect fit.

“This change is not a reflection of Dr. Jeffrey as much as it reflects my respect for Dr. O'Brien's skills as a healer and reconciler.”

As he made the transition back to full-time teaching, Jeffrey said: “Mr. Underwood is endeavoring to do something he thinks will achieve greater unity at Baylor. Dr. O'Brien has spoken movingly to the faculty and invited folks to move into that process.”

Jeffrey added he doesn't have the proper perspective to predict if Underwood's moves will achieve that unity.

“Time alone will tell. There are a lot of things happening at Baylor. … It would be fair to say there are a lot of things I haven't understood well,” he said, specifically citing the university's politics. “I'm not a prophet or the son of a prophet. (But) Baylor needs them–Bill and Randall–to succeed very badly, and I wish them well.”

Underwood did not intend to change his chief of staff, he said, noting he asked Tommye Lou Davis to stay on. But she chose to remain Sloan's chief of staff and move into the chancellor's office for the sake of continuity and a smooth transition, he said.

Consequently, Underwood looked to his law school colleague, Morrison. “Mike is about the most talented person I know,” he said. “He is a bright and capable man, a former mayor of Waco. He has the right skills for this task.”

Powell, a former Baptist General Convention of Texas president and longtime pastor in the state, will strengthen Baylor's ties to the BGCT, Underwood surmised, adding, “We'll be looking for ways to work with the BGCT in common projects.”

Underwood predicted the leadership team will help him accomplish three major goals of his administration.

“One of my priorities is to restore trust within the Baylor family,” he said. “I'd like to bring us together and bridge the divide that's existed among the faculty and our alumni and, really, our governing board.”

Acknowledging his administrative shakeup, particularly Jeffrey's removal, has been viewed by some in the Baylor community as divisive, Underwood said: “Sometimes, in the course of rebuilding relationships and unity, there are tough decisions that have to be made. … This gave us the best opportunity to pull things together in the long run, and that's what I'm looking for.”

Focusing on his second priority, he noted: “Another goal is to make sure the university is running smoothly. It looks like we may have our largest freshman class in history this fall. We want to make sure they are welcomed and everything goes smoothly for them.”

And Underwood stressed he wants to help Baylor “advance toward the goals set out in 2012.” Asked if he embraces the university's vision statement, which was a focal point of controversy during Sloan's latter years, he said, “Absolutely.”

Baylor 2012 is the school's “statement of aspiration,” he said. “We're trying to go where no one's ever been. In the process of getting there, you're going to make some mistakes. The important thing is to learn from those mistakes and not repeat them.”

The replacement of Jeffrey does not mean Underwood intends to change the direction of the faculty, he said. “The Christian faculty is how you maintain the Christian character of the university. So, preserving the Christian character of our faculty is essential to preserving the Christian character of our university. …

“I am very excited about the future of Baylor University. We have tremendous opportunities ahead of us. People who love Baylor should be excited about the future of the university.”

Regent Chairman Davis declined to speculate on how Underwood's administrative changes will impact Baylor.

“I can't predict the future,” he said. “These are important positions at the university, and I trust they will work out to the best interest of the university. I have no reason to expect these people will not perform at high levels. … I know them all, and they're all very competent.”

In a prepared statement, Underwood elaborated further on the trio of leaders he appointed and the changes he made.

Randall O'Brien “will be a powerful proponent of Baylor 2012, which articulates our shared aspirations for Baylor University,” Underwood said. “As one of our finest classroom teachers, Dr. O'Brien is committed to ensuring that our students continue to receive the finest-quality teaching available anywhere in higher education. He is also a fine scholar and appreciates the relationship between quality scholarship and outstanding teaching. Randall is also devoted to the integration of faith and learning at Baylor.”

Religion faculty led by O'Brien have made some of the most notable recent achievements in scholarship at Baylor, he added.

“Dr. O'Brien is an individual of unparalleled integrity, whose respect and trust among faculty across campus will be instrumental in facilitating needed healing among the deep divisions that have existed in recent years,” he predicted.

O'Brien has been a member of the Baylor faculty since 1991. During the Sloan administration, he was named religion department chair and also served as executive assistant to the president and acting dean of Truett Seminary. He was selected as the university's outstanding faculty member by the Baylor Student Congress for 1996-97 and by the graduating class in 1995-96.

He has been pastor or interim pastor of churches in Texas and Arkansas, and he has written five books.

O'Brien expressed gratitude for Underwood's confidence and the opportunity to serve in the new capacity.

“It is an honor and a privilege to serve our Lord at Baylor University, where President Underwood is assembling an outstanding team to carry us forward to even greater heights as a Christian university in the Baptist tradition,” O'Brien said. “Bill Underwood is a man of incredible character and competence. His commitment to Christ, to Baylor, and to our vision of academic and Christian excellence makes working with him an inspiration and a pleasure.”

David Jeffrey became Baylor's provost in June 2003 and was the lead player in implementing Sloan's interpretation of how to integrate faith and academics. Last fall, he and Underwood debated the role of academic freedom in a religious university. At the time, Underwood warned against the evils of “autocratic dictates,” leading some faculty to see him as the champion of the academic freedom they felt they had lost under the Sloan/Jeffrey administration.

Still, Underwood said he appreciates Jeffrey's contributions.

“Dr. Jeffrey has served the university ably during a difficult and tumultuous period. Perhaps his most significant contribution has been to challenge our faculty to achieve even higher standards of excellence in research and teaching,” he said. “I have enjoyed working with Dr. Jeffrey and look forward to many years of continued close association, consultation and friendship with Dr. Jeffrey as a leader on the Baylor faculty.”

Jeffrey remains at Baylor as distinguished professor of literature and humanities.

Michael Morrison “has been a highly respected and effective member of the Baylor faculty for nearly 30 years,” Underwood said of the new chief of staff. “He is a trusted colleague and has impressed me throughout the years as an individual of unquestionable integrity and uncommon common sense.”

Morrison said he accepted the new challenge out of love for Baylor.

“The chance to work for Baylor in this capacity, particularly with someone like Bill Underwood, who has been my colleague for 15 years, is an opportunity I jumped at,” he said.

“I've been at Baylor for 28 years, and while I didn't go here (as a student), you can't be at Baylor for any length of time without loving it. I felt this was a critical time in Baylor's history, and Bill is going to need all the help the faculty and staff and student body and alums are able to give.”

Although neither he nor Underwood sought their new jobs, Morrison said, this period in Baylor's history is time “for all of us to roll up our sleeves as well as get on our knees–to work and pray for the future of Baylor.”

Morrison holds the William Boswell Chair of Law and has been a faculty member since 1977. He was named an outstanding professor in 1997.

Prior to becoming an administrator, Tommye Lou Davis, who moved with Sloan to the chancellor's office, was a senior lecturer in Baylor's classics department. She has been designated as one of the university's master teachers.

“No individual is more respected among Texas Baptists than Paul Powell,” Underwood said. “I am pleased that Dr. Powell will work with me to enhance our already close relationship with Texas Baptists, including the Baptist General Convention of Texas.”

Powell has been dean at Truett Seminary since 2001 and will continue to serve in that capacity, Underwood announced.

“Texas Baptists have been my spiritual family for over 54 years,” Powell said. “They took me in as a young preacher, gave me a view of the whole world in need of the gospel and gave me a means of fulfilling my obligation to it. All along the way, they loved and nurtured me. I owe Texas Baptists more than I can ever repay.

“I am pleased to be asked to work with President Bill Underwood as we all work together for the great cause of Christ and his church. He has a deep desire for Baylor to be closely tied to Texas Baptists and indeed all Baptists. I will do all I can to help fulfill his vision and dream. It is my dream also.”

Powell is a former president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and former chair of Baylor's board of regents. He has received numerous Baylor honors, including the Distinguished Alumnus Award, the Herbert H. Reynolds Award for Exemplary Service to Baylor and the George W. Truett Distinguished Church Service Award.

He was pastor of Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler 17 years and was president of the Southern Baptist Annuity Board. He has written 36 books.

Asked if the appointments would impact Baylor's presidential-selection process, regent Chairman Davis said, “I certainly hope not.”

He previously indicated Baylor could have a new president by September, and he stuck to that prediction. “If the search committee works at an average and normal productive pace, we can have a new president identified by early fall of this year, unless there is an unusual delay,” he said.

“I think it's in Baylor's best interest to identify the long-term president as soon as possible. We don't want to rush, but I don't think it's an abnormal rush to have someone by early fall.”

In addition to the three changes, two top administrators said they will leave Baylor at the end of the month.

Eileen Hulme announced she would resign as Baylor's vice president for student life, and Marilyn Crone said she will resign as vice president for enrollment and retention management.

Posted: 6/10/05

Wayland coach combines love
for God, baseball on mission trip

By Jonathan Petty

Wayland Baptist University

PLAINVIEW–Brad Bass long has regretted backing out of an Athletes in Action tour 20 years ago. This summer, he finally gets a second chance.

Bass all but had his bags packed in 1985, ready to spend a summer touring with an Athletes in Action baseball team in Asia, where he could combine his love of baseball with a commitment to missions.

Wayland Pioneers Baseball Coach Brad Bass will coach an Athletes in Action team in Alaska this summer.

His plans changed, however, when he was hired at Texas Wesleyan University. Faced with the pressure of starting a baseball program from scratch, Bass had to stay home that summer.

“I had to back out of the commitment, but I have always known it was something I was supposed to do,” he said.

Twenty years later, Bass, now head baseball coach at Wayland Baptist University and a member of First Baptist Church in Plainview, finally is getting a chance to pack his bags. He will spend much of the summer in Alaska, coaching a team sponsored by Athletes in Action that will play in an NCAA Division I summer baseball league. Before leaving for Alaska, he was slated to spend 10 day in San Jose, Calif., working with his team both on the field and in various outreach initiatives.

Throughout the years, Bass has worked closely with Athletes in Action, encouraging many of his players to join summer league teams. This summer, three Wayland Pioneers will play for the Christian organization's teams in various locations. Trey Roberson, a junior outfielder from Lubbock, will play with a team in the New York league, while freshman Todd Jeffress and sophomore Armando Garza, both of Plainview, will play in Europe.

“Coach Bass showed us a brochure. Then he recommended us,” Jeffress said. “We will learn more about God and more about baseball. We will get to see how they play it overseas.”

While Roberson will stay within the state of New York, Jeffress and Garza will play games in France, the Czech Republic and Germany. Garza, who never has been on an airplane, is somewhat apprehensive about flying from Texas to Atlanta, then two weeks later boarding a plane for Europe. But he is taking it in stride.

“It's a whole summer in Europe, so that isn't bad,” Garza said. “And when is the next time you are going to get a chance to play baseball in Europe?”

The players had to raise the money for their trips, more than $4,000 per player. But Bass said he has seen many fund-raising attempts such as this go off without a hitch.

“If it's a trip you are supposed to make, the money is going to be there,” he said.

Two years ago, Jason Lester, an administrator with Athletes in Action, approached Bass about coaching a team. Lester, who is one of the first three players Bass signed at Texas Wesleyan, has been working with the Christian athletic organization since his first summer in college.

After going through the application process, Bass received a summer sabbatical from Wayland, freeing him to work with the team in Alaska.

Bass and his team will spend six weeks playing against teams made up of NCAA Division I players. The Athletes in Action team will hold devotionals and Bible studies, as well as give their testimonies and hand out tracts in the stands after games. They also will spend their off days working on mission projects.

“We probably all have a few things in life that we would like to scratch off the list of things we would want to do. This is one of those things,” Bass said. “This is a long-time commitment that I am finally going to be able to scratch off.”

To top it off, Bass is taking his family with him. He and his wife, Sally, have three children: Calvin, 16; Meredith, 15; and Will, 10. Bass looks forward to spending a summer with them, noting that his family has reached the age that everyone is going their separate directions, and they don't get to do many things together as a family.

“We don't even sit together at church,” he said. “Sally is at the piano. Calvin is with his friends. Meredith is with her friends, and Will is with his. I occupy space, and hopefully somebody will sit with me at times.

“But this is going to be a summer that we get to spend together as a family, doing mission work.”

Posted: 6/10/05

God gives honky-tonk crooner
new voice, reason to sing

By Craig Bird

Baptist Child & Family Services

LULING–Johnny Bush, who has made a career singing about–and much of his life living–hard times, recently performed a benefit concert for people who understand exactly what those ballads really are about.

“Some people think it's strange to see a honky-tonk singer at a Baptist function,” he told the crowd at Baptist Child & Family Services Youth Ranch near Luling, where he headlined a benefit concert for the emergency shelter for abused children.

“But I think it is every Christian's duty to help others less fortunate. These kids know what it's like to get the back of a hand. This is a chance to give them a helping hand instead.”

The Texas Country Music Hall of Famer now is in his fifth decade as a performer. But the extra emphasis on “Christian duty” is just a few years old.

“You're hearing a miracle tonight,” he explained. From 1972 to 1986, he couldn't talk except in a strangled, raspy whisper. And for a lot longer than that, he ran from a personal relationship with God.

One night in 1972, with his recording of “Whiskey River” at No. 1 on the charts and his cross-country tours sold out, his vocal chords clamped shut. Doctors couldn't find a cause or a cure–even though they tried everything from acupuncture to addictive-level doses of Valium.

His professional world crumbled. With pain, Bush could force enough air through his vocal chords to perform an occasional small show, though the soaring range that led fans to call him the “Country Caruso” was cut in half.

But in the mid-1980s, two events–one medical and one spiritual–changed his life. In 1985, new speech therapy exercises gave back 75 percent of his range and some limited speech. And in 1986, he talked with Buckner Fanning, then-pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio, about faith, God and vocal chords.

“I wanted God back in my life, but I thought God was mad at me for my music,” Bush explained. “Plus, I didn't want to embarrass my daughter by showing up at Trinity (where she had been an active member for several years) and having folks feel I shouldn't be there.”

Fanning told Bush that, while God certainly wanted to play an active part in everyone's life, he also wanted his children to be healthy and whole. So in 1986, Bush joined Trinity. Since then, every Sunday and Wednesday when he is in town, Bush is seated in his familiar pew. And if some people still condemn his material and venues, his fellow musicians have welcomed his open faith.

“They ask, 'Would your church really let somebody like me come to worship with them.' And I just grin and say: 'You bet. Why don't you try it and see,'” Bush said.

Through 2002, the throat exercises kept him singing–but just barely. Then his daughter, Gayle Litton, approached him about helping out Alpha Home–a Trinity ministry to women with alcohol and drug abuse problems.

“His response, 'What can I do? I can't even read bedtime stories to my grandchildren?'” she recalled. “My response was, 'How should I know? Ask God yourself.' But I guarantee that if you turn your life over to servanthood, he'll give you the tools to do what he wants you to do.'”

Days later, a throat specialist called about a new procedure to treat the symptoms of spasmodic dysphonia–injecting Botox directly into the throat. Suddenly, he could talk–and sing–without pain.

“Since then, I've been doing about 100 concerts a year and packing in as many benefit performances for folks like the Youth Ranch and Habitat for Humanity as I can,” Bush said.

He remains convinced his honky-tonk songs have a solid a moral lesson.

“These are tormented souls who have made some bad mistakes, and if you make those same mistakes you'll wind up in torment too,” he insisted.

Real country music and real Christianity share a common commitment to one thing, Bush feels–“to be honest about the realities of life.” But for Johnny Bush, that now includes the honest reality of a loving Lord who cares about everybody–even folks who go to honky-tonks.

In one of his hits from 40 years ago, Bush protested that God had made his life tough. “This time you made me a mountain, a mountain that I may never climb,” he sang. He certainly felt that way many times as he struggled with his throat problems.

But the renewed Johnny Bush is seen in a Christian song he recently wrote: “I want a drink of that water that the Man turned into wine.”

Posted: 6/10/055

CBF General Assembly will have Hispanic flavor

By Amy Walker

CBF Communications

ATLANTA–The 2005 Coop-erative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in Grapevine will offer meetings and breakout sessions to reach bicultural and bilingual Hispanics.

“Having bilingual events at the convention is very important,” said Alcides Guajardo, president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas. “Though a majority of Hispanic Baptists speak English or speak both, there are some who do not speak English at all, or their English is so limited that they prefer to hear seminars in the Spanish language.”

The Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas and the Fellowship are in partnership to jointly start at least 400 Hispanic churches throughout the United States by 2010.

“We have about 100 Hispanic churches affiliated with CBF. It's one of the fastest-growing segments of our constituency, and this is one of the reasons we want to offer more opportunities at General Assembly,” said Bill Bruster, CBF networking coordinator.

The Fellowship's 15th annual assembly is June 30-July 1 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center, with auxiliary events June 29 and July 2. Albert Reyes, president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and president of the Baptist University of the Americas, will be a keynote speaker.

Events at the General Assembly specifically for Hispanics include:

“Companions in Christ” training session in Spanish presented by Carmen Gaud, international editor for Upper Room Ministries, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m., June 29. “Companions in Christ” is a 28-week spiritual formation resource designed to strengthen unity and spiritual maturity in congregations through small-group Bible study, prayer and contemplation. Cost is $100 for the first person from a church, $85 each additional person. Materials and lunch included. For more information, contact Rick Bennett at (770) 220-1605 or rbennett@thefellowship.info.

Hispanic Network Dinner, 5- 6:45 p.m., June 30. Cost of the dinner is $35, and reservations are required. For more information, contact Bernie Moraga at (505) 247-4781 or b_moraga@yahoo.com.

Hispanic Network Continental Breakfast, 7-8:45 a.m., July 1.

Workshop on “Hispanics in Global Missions” led by Reyes, 2-3:10 p.m., July 1.

A rondalla, which consists of 15 to 20 people playing Mexican music on guitars, will perform in the Resource Fair exhibit hall when the booths are open.

Other events that provide an opportunity for non-Hispanics to learn about Hispanic culture and worship include a workshop on the CBF Hispanic Initiative; a workshop on “Reaching Third- and Fourth- Generation Hispanics” led by Gus Reyes, Hispanic evangelism consultant with the Baptist General Convention of Texas; and bilingual worship services.

For more information on the 2005 CBF General Assembly, visit www.thefellowship.info.

Posted: 6/10/05

Texan named to CBF Global Missions committee

ATLANTA–Harriet Harral of Fort Worth has been named to a seven-member search committee to select the new coordinator of Global Missions for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Harral is principal of The Harral Group, specializing in organizational effectiveness and communication. She also directs Leadership Fort Worth and is chair of the deacons at Broadway Baptist Church. She is in her second year on the CBF Coordinating Council and chairs its personnel committee.

Jack Snell, Global Missions associate coordinator for field ministries, is acting coordinator of Global Missions following Barbara Baldridge's resignation June 1.

The other members of the search committee are:

Committee chair Tim Brendle of Richmond, Va., is a retired pastor, former missionary and missions administrator.

Jana Benjamin of Tullahoma, Tenn., is a member of King's Cross Church and a former missionary in Hong Kong, Macau and the Philippines.

Rusty Brock of Ardmore, Okla., is pastor of Northwest Baptist Church.

Frank Broome of Macon, Ga., is coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Georgia.

Beth Fogg of Richmond, Va., is a member of Second Baptist Church and former president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia.

Earl Martin of Jefferson City, Tenn., is senior professor of missions at Carson-Newman College and a former pastor and Baptist missionary.

Posted: 6/10/05

Texas couple promotes HIV awareness

By Sue Sprenkle

International Mission Board

MMAMETLHAKE, South Africa–Andy and Gay Wilkinson view their work in South Africa as a matter of life and death.

For the last two years, the couple from First Baptist Church in Grapevine has worked with a group of young adult volunteers promoting HIV awareness.

In a country where one person in six is believed to be HIV-positive and where more than 600 people each day die of AIDS or HIV-related illnesses, their work takes on tremendous urgen-cy.

Andy Wilkinson prays with a South African True Love Waits team before a program begins. Wilkinson and his wife, Gay, trained the young adult volunteers in the program transported from the United States.

The Wilkinsons serve with the International Ser-vice Corps, a two-year program of the Southern Baptist International Mis-sion Board. They train local volunteers in True Love Waits sexual purity presentations and in chronological Bi-ble storying.

“The best way to reach South Africans is not through me,” Wilkinson said. “The way to reach people with this message is through one of their own. We pretty much just found some people who were committed to the message and trained them.”

Hardly anyone talks about HIV/AIDS in this area. Villagers all know the symptoms, but to openly discuss the disease is taboo. People who experience the telltale symptoms of rapid weight loss and lesions are ostracized.

As the disease progresses, a person with AIDS typically ends up hiding in his family's tin shack. Volunteers trained by the Wilkinsons go on daily visits to the shacks. They pray with the sick and their families. They read Scripture and talk about God's love.

The Wilkinsons smile as they talk about many terminally ill people who made decisions to accept Christ as Savior.

One woman dying of HIV-related tuberculosis refused Christ at first. But, after reading some Scrip-tures in her own language, she came to make a profession of faith in Christ.

Her mother no-ticed an immediate change. Despite be-ing emaciated and sickly, the mother noted how bright she was. The daughter told her mother about Jesus.

Two weeks after her daughter died, the mother sat outside her home reading the Bible, and she committed her life to Christ.

“People are dying right and left,” Wilkinson said. “Yes, AIDS is a pandemic, but it's also the greatest opportunity to bring people to Christ. We can't miss his appointed time.”

Posted: 6/10/05

Holy superheroes! Baylor prof
explores spirituality of comics

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

An orange, rock-like behemoth called “the Thing” drops to his knees on a New York City street and voices a Jewish prayer. A blind lawyer-by-day, superhero-by-night in Hell's Kitch-en enters a confessional to acknowledge his sins.

These comic book scenes from the Fantastic Four and Daredevil represent the “transparently religious” side of the superhero universe, said author Greg Garrett, professor of English at Baylor University.

But he also sees a spiritual underpinning for comics in less religiously explicit comics.

Themes of justice, mercy, the proper use of power and the restraint of evil have permeated superhero comics since Superman first took flight in 1938, Garrett noted. He explores the spiritual foundations of comic books in Holy Superheroes, recently released by NavPress.

Garrett acknowledges he has been a comics fan since around age 10, but he first “got a little bit of the comic book mythology” when he and Chris Seay, pastor of Ecclesia in Houston, worked together on The Gospel Reloaded: Exploring Spirituality and Faith in the Matrix.

As they examined spiritual implications of the science fiction trilogy, Garrett encountered cultural observers who compared the movie characters to superheroes like Superman and Batman.

At the same time, Garrett and Seay linked the Matrix characters to biblical themes of judgment and redemption through a messiah–“the idea of somebody who comes out of nowhere with special powers” to deliver powerless people from the forces of evil.

Superman presents a Christ-like figure who was sent by his father to Earth and who uses his “God-given abilities to protect us without regard for self,” Garrett noted. Batman dispenses Old Testament-style justice to evildoers. And Spider-Man wrestles with the great responsibility that comes with great power.

Garrett made the connection between comics and spirituality. Then he began to connect those observations to society in general.

“Justice in comics almost always is retributive, and that's the operating mythology of Western culture, particularly in America,” he observed.

At the same time, comic book creators also demonstrate concern for social justice. Superhero stories about the evils of racism, the horror of war and the plight of the poor became trendy in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but stories about systemic evil and social injustice emerged early in the history of comics.

“The early Superman stories were hardly recognizable. He was as likely to take on a slum lord as a super-villain,” Garrett said.

Writers and illustrators of early superhero comic books–many of them first-generation immigrant Jews in New York City who had firsthand knowledge of what it meant to be a poor minority in urban America–presented superheroes as defenders of the weak, “particularly against corrupt systems,” he noted.

In the last 20 years, Garrett points out, some “dark vigilantes” emerged in comic books. Characters like Wolverine and the Punisher “broke the superhero code: Don't kill,” he noted.

“But even negative examples can be powerful spiritual examples for us. Even when they are violent and seemingly amoral, clear moral lessons are being drawn.”

Garrett hopes his book will attract both Christian and secular readers, just as his earlier work with Seay on the Matrix films did. And he hopes it will prompt them to ask hard questions about virtues and vices, personal ethics and social justice.

“What can we learn to help us live more virtuous lives?” he asks. “We don't have superpowers, but what is the responsibility of America as an economic power? What can help us decide how to use power selflessly?”

Those kinds of questions resonate best with the young generation Garrett encounters in the classroom when they are cloaked in familiar pop culture references, he observed.

“They come to popular culture for spiritual content, not to the church. They may not attend a Bible study, but they will get on a blog and tell everybody what they take away from Sin City,” Garrett said.

“Let's find the spiritual where we can and develop discernment about what to take away from popular culture and what not to emulate.”