Posted: 3/07/06

Racketeering law can't be used against
abortion clinic protests, court rules

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP) — A unanimous Supreme Court declared Feb. 28 that a federal law originally aimed at mobsters can’t be used to shut down abortion-clinic protests.

The high court already ruled in 2003 that one federal anti-racketeering law cannot be used to ban protests that simply interrupt business at abortion clinics. That didn’t entirely resolve the dispute, however. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later said abortion providers could use a related law to sue protestors.

But the Supreme Court Feb. 28 sided with the protesters again, apparently bringing an end to a two-decade battle over the use of anti-racketeering laws to stop clinic protests.

The complex dispute had its beginnings in the 1980s, when a series of coordinated protests by anti-abortion-rights groups such as Operation Rescue caused havoc at abortion clinics nationwide. Abortion-rights groups sued, citing the racketeering laws in saying that the anti-abortion groups had entered a criminal conspiracy to shut down abortion clinics through a combination of protests, intimidation and threats of violence.

In its 2003 ruling, the Supreme Court invalidated a federal jury’s finding that the Pro-Life Action Network had violated anti-racketeering laws in 117 incidents. The justices said the protesters did not extort goods or money from the clinics.

But the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, reviewing the case, ruled that there were four other incidents that involved threats of violence by abortion clinic protesters rather than the interruption of commerce—and that those threats were still punishable under federal law. The abortion protesters appealed that ruling back to the Supreme Court.

In the most recent ruling, the court said one of the laws in question, the Hobbs Act, doesn’t apply to violent acts or threats associated with interstate commerce but unrelated to extortion, rendering the abortion-rights groups’ complaints moot.

“We hold that physical violence unrelated to robbery or extortion falls outside the scope of the Hobbs Act,” wrote Justice Stephen Breyer for a unanimous eight-member court. Justice Samuel Alito, who was not on the court when the case was argued last November, did not participate in the ruling.

The court’s opinion turned on a narrow reading of the statute’s language, noting that the broader reading the abortion-rights groups sought would have unintended consequences.

“Respondents’ Hobbs Act interpretation broadens the act’s scope well beyond what case law has assumed,” Breyer wrote. “It would federalize much ordinary criminal behavior, ranging from simple assault to murder, behavior that typically is the subject of state, not federal, prosecution.”

The decision was rendered on two cases that the court combined, Scheidler v. National Organization for Women and Operation Rescue v. National Organization for Women.

NOW said the decision endangered women’s abortion rights.

“By vacating the injunction on narrow, technical grounds, the Supreme Court sided today with thugs and bullies, not peaceful protesters,” NOW President Kim Gandy said in a public statement released after the ruling.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 3/01/06

BaptistWay Bible Series for March 12

Samuel answers the Lord’s summons

• 1 Samuel 2:21-3:19

By Joseph Matos

Dallas Baptist University, Dallas

With Caller ID, we have the ability to know either the number or name of a caller, or both. But this technology has both a benefit and a drawback. The benefit is knowing before we answer who is calling. The drawback is the same as the benefit—we know before we answer who is calling.

This presents us with a dilemma—to answer or not to answer. Everyone at one time or another has screened calls. We tend to answer those calls from people we recognize, and sometimes we tend not to answer calls from those we do not recognize.

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In 1 Samuel 3, Hannah’s answer to prayer and the book’s namesake, Samuel, received a call from God. At first, Samuel misidentified who was calling him. Once he realized who was calling, however, Samuel had to decide whether to answer the call, and whether to obey God’s command. What were the circumstances under which Samuel heard from God? Let’s look at the situation.

While chapter 2 brings Hannah’s story to completion—in addition to Samuel as answer to her prayer, she had five more children (v. 21)—there appears not to be a similar happy ending awaiting Israel as a whole.

The spiritual depravity among Israel’s spiritual leadership was deplorable. Despite his own sincerity and devotion, the conduct of Eli’s sons was most reprehensible. Hophni and Phinehas were introduced in chapter 1 without description. Here a more complete picture forms—they were selfish, immoral priests, who ignored the rebukes of Eli. They showed disrespect for the sacrifices and engaged in illicit sexual behavior with women. The Lord now determined to put them to death and look elsewhere for suitable leadership.

God’s plan for Israel is alluded to in three ways in this chapter. First, in contrast to the sons of Eli, Samuel serves faithfully and grows spiritually. In language similar to that used later in describing Jesus’ maturation process (Luke 1:80; 2:40, 52), 1 Samuel 2:26 states “the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men.” The narrator impresses on the reader again that Samuel will play a special role in God’s work.

Second, God’s displeasure with Eli came via a “man of God” with predictions about the deaths of Hophni and Phinehas and with disconcerting news about Eli’s family legacy.

Third, within the description of Eli’s demise, the Lord offered assurance that “good will be done to Israel” (v. 32). This no doubt will be accomplished once the Lord raises up for himself a faithful priest, who will be obedient to his will, and one who would minister before his anointed one always (v. 35). How and when will this take place?

Chapter 3 opens with two comments that set the context for moving God’s plan forward. First, we again are given insight into the life of the boy Samuel: “he ministered before the Lord under Eli.” Second, we are told that “the word of the Lord was rare” in those days. However, the drought of God’s word was about to end.

One night, Samuel went to bed, taking his usual place in the tabernacle near the ark of God. But what occurred that evening was unexpected. Three times Samuel heard someone calling his name. It was the Lord, but he did not know this. Each time he heard the voice, Samuel ran to ask Eli what he wanted. However, Eli told Samuel he was mistaken; he had not called him.

The text then gives the reason for Samuel’s inability to identify the voice calling him. “Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him” (v. 7). For whatever reason, either the rarity of God’s word or the lack of instruction by Eli on how to identify the voice of the Lord, Samuel did not know who was speaking to him.

The text is instructive here because it says after this third time, Eli “realized that the Lord was calling the boy” (v. 8). Why was Eli himself slow in identifying the voice as the Lord’s? It’s only speculation, but the statement that the word of the Lord was rare in those days (v. 1) may indicate even Eli had forgotten how to identify it.

In any event, Eli instructed Samuel to return to bed and await the voice. If it came again, Samuel was to respond respectfully and receptively (v. 9). On the fourth time, the Lord “came and stood there” (v. 10) and called Samuel. With the identity of the voice recognized, Samuel answered.

God already had spoken to Eli of his fate, but in this encounter he charged Samuel with the unenviable task of communicating to Eli this fate was now immanent. Understandably, Samuel was fearful of delivering this message (v. 13). The next morning, however, after Eli’s pleadings, Samuel overcame his fear and told Eli what God had said.

After this, the Lord entrusted Samuel further with his word. He was with Samuel as he grew and Samuel handled the word of Lord faithfully (“he let none of his words fall to the ground,” v. 19). Even the people of Israel came to recognize Samuel’s status as a prophet of God.

Samuel would continue to serve the Lord in important ways. But it all came to pass because Samuel answered that first call.

Discussion questions

• How do you recognize God’s calling?

• What need might God be calling you to meet?

• How much courage will be required to serve the Lord?

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 3/06/06

Paynter named interim CLC director

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS – Suzii Paynter, director of citizenship and public policy for the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, has been named interim director of the CLC.

Paynter was named interim director effective March 2. She assumes leadership of the commission weeks after the death of Phil Strickland, longtime CLC director. Her appointment was made by Charles Wade, BGCT executive director, with the assistance of Ron Gunter, BGCT associate executive director/chief operating officer.

Wade praised Paynter’s advocacy efforts in Austin and thanked her for her willingness to lead the CLC in a time of transition. She has led the CLC’s recent efforts to improve the lives of children and consistently led the charge to ward off the expansion of gambling in Texas.

“Texas Baptists are fortunate that we are able to call on Suzii Paynter to be our interirm director,” Wade said. “She has proven herself to be highly effective in advocating in the state legislature for the issues that Christians and Baptists hold dear.”

Paynter is the first woman to lead the CLC for any amount of time in the group’s history.

Paynter will continue serving as interim director until a permanent director is named. Seven people experienced in Baptist life were named to a search committee the same day Paynter was named CLC interim director.

Search committee members are: Jim Nelson, vice chairman of the BGCT Executive Board and member of Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin; Ken Hugghins, chairman of the CLC and pastor of Elkins Lake Baptist Church in Huntsville; George Mason, pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas; Michael Bell, BGCT president and pastor of Greater St. Stephen First Baptist Church; Patsy Ayres, member of First Baptist Church in Austin and former member of the CLC; Janie Sellers, member of First Baptist Church in Abilene and a member of the CLC; and Ellis Orozco, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in McAllen and a former member of the CLC. Nelson will serve as the chairman of the committee.

The search committee will be building a profile of the ideal director and will work with “all deliberate speed” to name a new director, Wade said.

Paynter has served as the CLC citizenship and public policy director for five years. She served as a national literacy professional, professor and consultant for 25 years. In these roles she advocated for state and federal policy to provide systemic remedies for hard-to- teach populations.

Previously on the faculty at Stephen F. Austin University and Baylor University, she has been an advocate for religious liberty issues, literacy and early intervention for high-risk children.

Paynter has served in leadership in many Baptist groups and institutions. Currently, Suzii serves on the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Coordinating Council and is a recent board member and officer of the Baptist Joint Committee, Religious Liberty Council and Whittsett Baptist Heritage Society.

In the Austin community, Paynter has served as president of the Samaritan Counseling Center Austin and is a board member of Texas Impact and the Literacy Coalition of Central Texas.

Her husband, Roger Paynter, is senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Austin, where Suzii is a frequent teacher and ordained deacon.

Paynter earned a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and master’s degrees from Stephen F. Austin University and the University of Louisville.
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 3/06/06

Getaway car found in Alabama church fires

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP)—As they continue to evaluate evidence in a recent string of 10 church fires in rural Alabama, federal investigators have come one step closer to solving the case: They found the getaway car.

“It was a key piece of the puzzle,” said Jim Cavanaugh, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. “That puts our investigation back more focused than before.”

While the vehicle didn’t prove to be the same dark-colored SUV authorities initially sought, it came as an “important discovery” in a case that continues to mystify investigators.

Arsonists burned 10 Baptist churches in rural Alabama in less than a month. Nine of the fires, including five on Feb. 3 and four on Feb. 7, are related. Investigators called a 10th fire on Feb. 11 arson, but they have yet to determine its relation to the others. They also continue to withhold some details of the case, saying they need to conceal some of their work in order to “leave no stone unturned.”

Subsequent fires in Mississippi and Georgia have caused alarm as well. A fire described as arson burned Spring Beulah Church in McComb, Miss., Feb. 26. Harmony Grove Baptist Church in Roswell, Ga., sustained major fire damage Feb. 27. Authorities said neither of the latest fires are related to the Alabama fires.

As they continue to wade through more than 700 leads, investigators suspect the culprits are two men in their 20s or 30s who may be close friends, based on information taken from witnesses and behavioral profiles. News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 3/06/06

Funding halted for Silver Ring Thing program

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

BOSTON (ABP)—The federal government will stop funding a teen-abstinence program that bills itself as an evangelistic ministry and gives teenagers silver rings inscribed with a Bible passage.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which in May sued the Department of Health and Human Services to cease grants to the Silver Ring Thing program, announced the out-of-court settlement Feb. 23.

“We are pleased that the government has agreed to stop using taxpayer dollars to fund the Silver Ring Thing’s religious activities,” said Julie Sternberg, an ACLU attorney, in a statement. “The ACLU supports the right of Silver Ring Thing to offer religious programming, but it may not do so using government funds.”

Sternberg and her colleagues had contended in court filings that the program violates the Constitution’s ban on government establishment of religion.

According to court papers, the program received over $1 million in federal funding in the past three years. Also known as the John Guest Evangelistic Team, the group’s newsletter said the program’s mission is to “call our world to Christ,” and that one way to do that is “to saturate the United States with a generation of young people who have taken a vow of sexual abstinence until marriage and put on the silver ring. This mission can only be achieved by offering a personal relationship with Jesus Christ….”

According to the ACLU’s announcement, Health and Human Services officials agreed to decline further grants to the group unless they prove they are not spending government dollars on religious activities and agree to ongoing monitoring to ensure compliance.

In August, the agency suspended its grant to the program pending an internal investigation. In September, Silver Ring Thing agreed to terminate the grant.

Denny Pattyn, the president of the Silver Ring Thing, told Associated Baptist Press he is “pleased, ecstatic” with the settlement and suggested the program will continue to receive federal support.

“We did not lose one penny. We’re fully able to get a grant in the future,” he said. “We never wanted to become dependent on the federal government…. We’ve worked with the federal government to look at some ways to more clearly show the public the separation between the federal dollars and the private dollars.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 3/06/06

South Dakota legislature passes abortion ban

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—A wide-ranging abortion ban that South Dakota legislators passed Feb. 24 is poised to head exactly where its backers want it—the Supreme Court.

But despite the addition of two new conservative justices, the high court still may lack the votes needed to hear a challenge to basic abortion rights, warned some abortion opponents.

“In essence, we don’t think that there is much of a chance that the court will even review this law,” said Daniel McConchie, vice president of the Chicago-based Americans United for Life.

Members of the South Dakota House of Representatives gave final approval to the ban, sending it to the desk of Gov. Mike Rounds (R). It would ban all abortions in South Dakota except for those performed to save a mother’s life. Doctors who perform banned abortions could face $5,000 fines and prison sentences.

The bill’s backers hope it will challenge Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that recognized a woman’s right to abortion in the Constitution. The new bill does not contain exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape or incest or those whose continuation could endanger the mother’s health.

Rounds reportedly is likely to sign it after a legal review. The legislature sent him a similar bill in 2004, but he declined to sign that one, citing a technical glitch in the bill’s language.

“I’ve indicated I’m pro-life and I do believe abortion is wrong and that we should do everything we can to save lives. If this bill accomplishes that, then I am inclined to sign the bill into law,” Rounds said in a Feb. 25 news conference.

South Dakota is one of the nation’s least populous states, but the law would be the most thoroughgoing ban on abortion since the Roe decision was handed down. It would take effect in July if Rounds signs it into law. But both supporters and opponents expect courts to prevent its enforcement until resolution of the lawsuits that are virtually certain to challenge it.

Such lawsuits are exactly what bill supporters have said they want.

“I think the stars are aligned,” said Matthew Michels, the Republican speaker of the South Dakota House, according to the Associated Press.

The nation’s largest abortion provider also predicted a long legal battle. “South Dakota’s ban is the most sweeping abortion ban passed by any state in more than a decade,” said a statement Planned Parenthood released in response to the bill. “Planned Parenthood will go to court to ensure women, with their doctors and families, continue to be able to make personal health-care decisions—not politicians.”

The organization operates South Dakota’s only abortion clinic, located in Sioux Falls. About 800 abortions a year take place there.

Prior to Roe, access to abortion was entirely regulated by the states, with some banning abortions and others allowing them. If Roe is overturned or modified, the states could revert to their pre-1973 status on the availability of abortion.

With two recent additions to the Supreme Court—Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito—both abortion supporters and opponents have said the court could move to the right on a number of issues. Roberts replaced late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, an abortion opponent. But Alito replaced retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, an abortion-rights supporter. Many of the court’s abortion decisions since Roe have come on 5-4 votes, but not all.

Both justices were nominated by President Bush, an avowed opponent of legalized abortion. During their confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, neither Roberts nor Alito directly addressed questions about their views of whether the Constitution protects a right to abortion. But Alito, as a young government attorney in the 1980s, expressed the belief that abortion is not a constitutional right.

Some advocacy groups on both sides of the abortion struggle cast the bill and the legal struggle that will surely result as Roe’s battle royale.

“Clearly emboldened by President Bush’s judicial appointments, South Dakota has passed dangerous and unconstitutional legislation that its supporters admit is a direct attack on Roe v. Wade,” said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, in a statement.

A spokesman for the American Life League, a Virginia-based anti-abortion group, told Reuters that South Dakota is “fertile ground” for the test case.

Indeed, South Dakota legislators were informed that an anonymous donor had pledged $1 million to help the state cover its legal bills in defending the law. Lawmakers reportedly set up an account for further donations.

But McConchie of Americans United for Life cautioned that the law could prove to be counter-productive. He noted there are five justices who remain on the court—associate justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter and John Paul Stevens—who have voted in the past to uphold the core of Roe.

Since the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision, when a majority of justices affirmed a basic right to abortion, “there have been at least 10 attempts to get the court to reconsider Roe, and the court has simply demurred each time,” McConchie said. “And it’s very likely this time that the court would do so again.”

For example, in the 1990s, the court declined to hear appeals of lower courts’ decisions to overturn similar abortion bans in Utah and Louisiana. The court chooses to hear only a small percentage of the hundreds of cases that are presented for its consideration every year.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 3/06/06

Earl Stallings, Alabama pastor caught
in civil rights squeeze, dead at 89

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

LAKELAND, Fla. (ABP)—A white Baptist pastor who was made both famous and infamous by Martin Luther King Jr.’s legendary “Letter From Birmingham Jail” has died.

Earl Stallings, who was pastor of Birmingham’s First Baptist Church when King penned his famous missive in 1963, died Feb. 23 at a retirement home in Lakeland, Fla. He was 89.

Stallings was one of a group of eight prominent white Birmingham clerics—including a Jewish rabbi, Catholic, Methodist and Episcopal bishops, and the pastor of the city’s First Presbyterian Church—calling themselves the “Reconciliation Committee.” In the midst of King’s protests against the city’s segregated public facilities and notoriously racist government, the group penned a public statement April 12, 1963.

In it they urged King and other African-American leaders to back off their protests because, they believed, the protests were counter-productive. “When rights are consistently denied, a cause should be pressed in the courts and in negotiations among local leaders, and not in the streets,” they wrote.

King’s letter, written in response while he was jailed four days later, was a scathing denunciation of the attitude of white Southern moderates toward the movement.

“I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate,” King wrote.

“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action;’ who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’ Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”

But King also singled Stallings out in the letter with praise for the stance he took on integrating his congregation.

“I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership. Of course, there are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on this issue. I commend you, Reverend Stallings, for your Christian stand on this past Sunday, in welcoming Negroes to your worship service on a non-segregated basis,” he wrote.

As a result of his moderate stance, Stallings became the target of both conservative segregationists and liberal integrationists. Tension over the issue so divided the church that it eventually split over the issue, following Stallings’ departure.

In 1965, he became pastor of the First Baptist Church of Marietta, Ga., where he stayed for 11 years. He ended his career working in senior adult ministries for the Arizona Baptist Convention.

James Netherton, president of Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tenn., praised Stallings, an alumnus of the school. “Dr. Earl Stallings was a wonderful witness for Christ and a man who understood first-hand that doing what is right transcends doing what is easy,” he said. “He welcomed everyone to church when closing the door would have provided him more job security and spared him death threats.”

Stallings was born on March 20, 1916, in Durham, N.C. After graduating from Carson-Newman, he earned a master of theology degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. Prior to his pastorates in Alabama and Georgia, he served churches in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Ocala, Fla.

His wife, Ruth, preceded him in death. Survivors include one son, James Stallings of Wauchula, Fla.; one grandson, James Stallings of Wauchula; one granddaughter, Meredith Beeson Stallings Bolinski of Atlanta; and several nephews, including Carl Bowen of Albemarle, N.C., and Bryant Stallings of Cary, N.C.

He was buried Feb. 26 in Florida.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 3/06/06

CD kindles passion through Song of Solomon

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

DALLAS (ABP)—Guy Bickel says romance and passion come before sex, instead of the other way around. And he’s using the Bible as proof.

Bickel, a Tampa, Fla., resident, spent months studying six different Bible translations, developing music in a specific frequency, and working with various recording artists to create The Original Love Songs: Guidelines for Passion from the Song of Solomon.

The CD, which features the biblical book Song of Solomon read over a score of ambient music and nature sounds, comes as Bickel’s answer to the dearth of “godly” aids for enhancing emotional and sexual intimacy in a married relationship, he said.

“It’s not about sex, it’s about romance, passion, love and communication,” Bickel said. “It’s about when you catch your partner’s eye across the room and you just know….”

A successful sound engineer who has worked with the likes of Diana Ross and Frank Zappa, Bickel created The Original Love Song when he failed to find any similar product as a wedding anniversary present to his wife.

“I went looking for it and found nothing,” Bickel said. “Everything I found was either on the other side (non-biblical, adult material) or nothing. I couldn’t find anything else.”

Inspired, Bickel took matters into his own hands. He called longtime friend and award-winning composer Alan Howarth for musical support and then connected with musical artists he knew from church and his days in the music industry.

“I told Al, ‘I need goats, sheep, tambourines and natural sound effects,’” Bickel said. “A month later, he sent me a CD for the project.”

Psychologist, marriage counselor and author David Clarke also contributed to the project his Rules for Men and Suggestions for Women, a 12-page booklet listing suggestions for fostering intimacy between spouses.

“It is … to help a married couple revive and keep their romantic/physical passion going strong,” Clarke said. “We stand on our purpose of using the Word of God to enhance and even change the romantic and sexual part of any marriage.”

The book tells men to “tell the woman often and to her face” that she’s physically, emotionally and spiritually beautiful. For women, Clarke instructs that thanking the man for helping provide for the family, or complementing him on completed household chores, goes a long way in fostering intimacy.

Seemingly simple overtures benefit both parties, former agnostic turned Christian Bickel said.

“It’s a wonderful way to open your eyes and see your spouse in a new way,” he said. “And a happy spouse is good for everybody.”

After the soundtrack development and final production, Bickel and his financial partner distributed the CDs to anyone who would take them. Of course, with a subject matter like sex, people tended to have strong responses.

Most guest callers on the Detroit-based Bob Dutko Show supported the new product, which was recently featured in an on-air radio discussion. But Clarke addressed even the one caller who objected to the use of a Bible book for sex.

“Even though we expected these types of responses, it still genuinely saddens us,” Clarke said. “These critical type responses could cause many to miss out on the message portrayed in the Song of Solomon. We believe that listening to The Original Love Song will help married couples rekindle their real passion for each other, on all levels."

While Bickel’s product is new, using the Bible as a way to address romance and sex in a biblical way is not. Tommy Nelson, the pastor of Denton Bible Church in Denton, has used the Song of Solomon to help kindle passion at the Song of Solomon conferences he has led for nearly 10 years.

And Christian psychologist Kevin Lehman, who recently discussed sex in a For Faith and Family radio broadcast, wrote in his book Sheet Music that once people get “permission to talk about sex in a non-threatening environment, you can’t shut them up.”

"We joke about sex, degrading it through filthy stories, movies, and magazines, but we never talk about marital sex in the way the Creator designed it,” Lehman said. “Martial sex … gets ignored, and couples pay a fearful price when this sad reality happens. Once they get going, they want to talk about sex because they know that sex is a powerful force in our married lives."

Of course, a product this powerful comes with a warning. And Bickel gives it with a twinkle in his eye.

“The Original Love Song is deeply personal, and we found out that doing it (listening) in a room with too many people gets strange,” Bickel said. “We highly recommend that you not listen to it while driving in traffic, with a group of co-workers, or in any large group of people.”

Bickel serves as vice president of Book 22, Inc., the independent record label that publishes The Original Love Songs: Guidelines for Passion from the Song of Solomon. The CD is also bundled with Clarke’s new book, A Marriage After God's Own Heart.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Storylist for week of 2/20/06