Posted: 1/04/06

Family Bible Series for Jan. 15

Money has its place, but it’s not first place

• Matthew 9:18-36

By Donald Raney

Westlake Chapel, Graham

According to the Bible, humans were created in the image of God. While it is not clear exactly what this phrase encompasses, it is clear that this characteristic makes humans unique in all of creation. Indeed, the biblical prohibition against taking a person’s life is closely connected to God’s desire to protect this divine image (Genesis 9:6). Put simply, human life always has been important to God.

Today, we deal with issues related to the sanctity of human life that the biblical writers never could have imagined. Debates over abortion, euthanasia and quality-of-life issues fill the newspapers.

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While the Bible does not directly address these specific issues, it does provide us with teachings that can help us as we seek God’s guidance in these debates.

The Bible offers consistent support for the sanctity of human life. Its central message on this topic is that God always acts in ways that are intended to protect and improve human life and calls his people to similar acts.

This strong interest in preserving human life and health clearly is evident in the life and ministry of Jesus. The second half of Matthew 9 presents an excellent demonstration of this. While many may have viewed the three brief episodes presented as interruptions, Jesus used each to reveal to us the heart of God.

Matthew 9:18-19, 23-36

While reading the gospel accounts, one gets the clear impression that, following the beginning of his ministry, Jesus quickly gained a reputation as a miracle worker. The blind were receiving sight. The deaf were hearing. The lame were walking. All of this was happening as these individuals were encountering Jesus.

One particular day, a synagogue official came to Jesus and asked for the ultimate miracle. His daughter had died, and he asked Jesus to restore her life. Notice that this is not specifically a request. This official was making a statement that if Jesus simply placed his hands on her, she would live again. This was an amazing expression of deep belief stated as a straightforward fact by a religious leader within the Jewish community.

Also, notice there is no stated basis for such a request. Apparently the official was basing this solely on the idea that the life of a young girl would be valuable to Jesus. Jesus agreed to go with him, and they set out to go to his home. When they arrived, they found the expected band of mourners already gathered. Jesus sternly called them off and informed them the girl was not in fact dead, but was merely asleep. The people ridiculed Jesus. Surely they could tell the difference between someone who was asleep and a dead body. The official apparently still was with Jesus and sent the people from the room. Jesus then placed his hands on the girl, and she immediately arose.

As one might expect, the story spread throughout the country, increasing Jesus’ reputation even more.

In this short story, we have clear indication all human life is important to Jesus. Despite the urgency of his teaching ministry, Jesus took time to go out of the way to restore the life of a young girl.

Matthew 9:20-22

As Jesus and the official were traveling to his home, a woman who had suffered with a bleeding disorder 12 years interrupted Jesus’ mission. Having such a strong faith in this miracle worker, she believed that even touching his cloak would heal her. She apparently did not want to cause a scene by stopping him and asking for help. Such a disorder also would have rendered her ceremonially unclean, and she possibly felt unworthy and likely did not want to call attention to herself and her condition.

As she reached out and touched Jesus, however, Jesus turned to face her. He assured her that her deep faith indeed had healed her. Once again, an apparent unplanned interruption had become an opportunity for Jesus to demonstrate God’s concern for human life. Not only did the woman receive physical healing, but Jesus’ response to her also raised her spirits and took away any shame or perceived uncleanness.

Thus God is shown to be interested not only in our physical health, but also in restoring and preserving the dignity of all people.

Matthew 9:27-31

Not only is God interested in protecting our life and health, he also wants us to experience the fullness of life he gives. After raising the official’s daughter, Jesus met two blind men.

These two men followed Jesus, crying out to him for mercy. After Jesus had gone inside the home where he was staying, the two men came to him, asking that he restore their sight. Jesus asked the two if they truly believed he was able to do what they were asking. After the two affirmed they did believe, Jesus touched them, and they received their sight.

Despite Jesus’ request that they not tell anyone, the story quickly spread. These men were not sick or dying. While they likely were poor, the Bible does not refer to them as beggars as it does in other places. Yet these men were not able to experience life and creation fully.

Thus, in these verses, the writer strongly demonstrates that the fullness of human life is indeed important to God. Life, health and wholeness all are aspects of our existence that God desires to protect. Regardless of what he was doing, Jesus never dismissed an opportunity to preserve or improve the life of another and thus revealed to us where we stand in the heart of God.

Discussion questions

• What are some other biblical teachings concerning the sanctity of human life?

• What are some appropriate actions we can take to affirm the sanctity of human life?

• What are some other contemporary issues related to this topic? How can we respond to those issues appropriately?

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: 1/04/06

Explore the Bible Series for Jan. 15

The elderly are to be loved and respected

• Leviticus 19:32; 2 Samuel 19:31-39; 1 Timothy 5:1-2

By Trey Turner

Canyon Creek Baptist Church, Temple

It is reported that in the last 22 years, the expected average life span has gone up 3.7 years for men but only 1.7 years for women. Medical advancement is allowing men and women to live longer, yet how will we find people to be treating us when we live the fullness of those years? Are people more hurried? Are they more frustrated with jobs, families, friends and so many responsibilities?

Some of my friends talk about not wanting to be a burden, dependent on anyone. I can appreciate people who do not want to be a burden on anyone; I do not want to be a burden, either. But have we crossed a threshold into believing that if we cannot be fully self-supporting, we have lost our value?

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It will be good to carry this discussion of human value into the church and look at biblical examples and mandates for respecting our elders. This will be a good reminder for us to wash off the dirt of this culture’s disrespect and put on our Lord’s commitment to respect all people.

Honor the elderly (Leviticus 19:32)

God thought it important enough to include as one of his commands to stand physically in the presence of those who are our elders. Respecting elders speaks highly for a society. God says his people will have respect for this segment of society. The reason he gives—because God is the Lord!

Care for the elderly (2 Samuel 19:31-36)

It is by example that David demonstrates respect for his 80-year-old friend. Barzillai had served David, and now David honors him and makes personal decisions that show David’s care in not casting him aside. David honors Barzillai.

Does our society show care for the elderly? Do I? Does the church demonstrate care? Here David was not uncomfortable with Barzillai, nor was he burdened by him. His actions reveal what is in his soul.

Accept decisions of the elderly (2 Samuel 19:37-39)

Continuing the story about Barzillai, David hears the wishes of his dear friend and helps make them happen. David does not take over the decisions for his friend, but blesses his wishes.

Today’s families are faced with questions of dignity and respect in the face of some of the most heartbreaking decisions. I have seen some of my friends struggle with the decision to take a parent’s automobile keys away. Others have struggled in regard to housing and living independently. Still others have labored through decisions of resuscitation in the last stages of life.

There are no simple answers for some of these situations. A spirit of honor and respect must be foundational before these issues are faced. Still, for believers, those decisions are made with humility before God and with solid respect for life.

Without cataloging situations and applying solutions, it will suffice for us simply to affirm the principle behind David’s respect toward Barzillai’s personal decisions.

Treat the elderly as family (1 Timothy 5:1-2)

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul gives counsel to Timothy in regard to his own humility. Timothy is in a position as a leader, but his position does not supersede his need to give personal and willful deference to those older than he. This is basic humility, which demonstrates the servant leadership central to New Testament leadership. He still is called to lead his flock; what should be his style if he cannot drive his sheep?

Paul says Timothy should reason and encourage older people with the word of God. By exhorting these brothers and sisters, one shows respect and allows the Holy Spirit to apply the words of exhortation. The relationship advocated is that of a family member. Speak to an older man as if he were your father, older women as mothers. Younger people are to be treated as little brothers and sisters.

Discussion questions

• How would you describe the way our society values or devalues senior citizens?

• What are some specific incidents you have seen positive treatment?

• Describe your participation or occasions where you have interacted with seniors.

• Do you feel you are being affected by society’s view of the elderly, or are you affecting others and their treatment?

• Is the church doing an adequate job of including and ministering to the needs of seniors? Describe how or how they are not. Who should do a better job?

• Can you make a positive difference with regard to any of these questions?

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: 12/23/05

Wishing you the blessings of Christmas

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: 12/23/05

Message to Graduates,
Baylor University, Dec. 17, 2005

I.
Your years here at Baylor have been years of personal growth. They have been transformational for each of you. They've been transformational for our University as well. Certainly there has been a transformation in the face of the University, with the addition of splendid new facilities like the Sciences building, the Mayborn museum, the North Village and the Umphrey law center. You have witnessed Baylor athletics rise out of the ashes of the Patrick Dennehy tragedy to experience the greatest period of success in the history of the University, including the first two NCAA national championships in Baylor's history – in men's tennis the year before last, and then that thrilling national championship by the Lady Bears in basketball earlier this year. You have even witnessed Baylor beat the Texas A&M aggies in football.

II.

Even more significant than new buildings and success in intercollegiate athletics, you have witnessed and perhaps participated in a fascinating conversation about the nature of Christian higher education. A conversation among good people that should occur at a place like Baylor.
• A conversation about how truth is sought.
• A conversation about individual freedom of thought, and about responsibility to the community.

You have witnessed a conversation that has captured the attention of much of the Baylor community and even the world of Christian higher education. A conversation about two ideas that throughout history have been in endless antagonism.

III.
Representing one of these ideas, a prominent, provocative and influential theologian at another university recently said: No task is more important than for the Church to take the Bible out of the hands of individual Christians in North America. Let me repeat that: No task is more important than for the Church to take the Bible out of the hands of individual Christians in North America.

This theologian continues:
I certainly believe that God uses the Scripture to help keep the Church faithful, but I do not believe, in the Church's current circumstance, that each person in the Church is thereby given the right to interpret the Scripture. Such a presumption derives from the corrupt egalitarian politics of democratic regimes, not from the politics of the Church. The latter . . . knows that the right reading of the Scripture depends on having spiritual masters who can help the whole Church stand under the authority of God's word.

Consistent with this view, a colleague here at Baylor has described the idea that individual believers have the freedom to reach their own conclusions regarding the Scriptures as "incoherent or simply a bad idea." Taking this idea from churches to universities, others have suggested that there is no place in a Christian university to advocate contrary to what university authorities choose to declare as orthodox. Taking this idea to an extreme, a prominent Baptist denominational leader has declared that if we say pickles have souls, then our schools "must teach that pickles have souls." Under this idea, we would have spiritual masters to tell us what to teach, what to learn, and what to believe.

IV.
Of course, there is nothing new about this idea. There have always been those who have claimed the status of spiritual master over others – those who have taken it upon themselves to decide what others must believe. The scribes and the Pharisees fancied themselves experts on what the Scriptures meant. They set themselves up as the spiritual masters for others. Yet Jesus specifically warned his disciples to "beware" of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Indeed, in what would prove to be the last public sermon of his ministry, Jesus rebuked the spiritual masters of his day in Matthew 23 saying:
Do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. Do not be called leaders, for One is your Leader, that is, Christ.

V.
What Jesus taught us in Matthew is fundamental to understanding individual freedom of conscience and self-determination. You see, God has given us intellects. God has given us the gift of reason. And Jesus has commanded us to use our minds – to love God with our hearts and our souls – but also to love God with our minds. Surely, keeping this greatest of all commandments requires us to think for ourselves and come to our own conclusions. Indeed, when we stand before God on judgment day, it would hardly be a defense to say that we just believed as we were told. You see, we are responsible for our souls. It is this responsibility that requires us to think for ourselves and come to our own conclusions.

This does not mean that there is no objective truth – that just anything goes – that one person's conclusion is just as valid as that of another, no matter what it might be – that we embrace some sort of "radical subjectivity" – that we are "cultural relativists," as some have asserted.

There is truth. There is right. There is wrong. And sometimes we are wrong. Sometimes our ideas are lousy and ought to be rejected by others. Our great theologians are sometimes wrong. Our philosophers can be wrong. Even our university presidents are sometimes wrong. We know and acknowledge that no one of us is perfect – that no one of us has perfect knowledge. How, then, can any of us be so certain that we have discovered truth that we would discourage others from continuing to inquire, from continuing to question, from perhaps even daring to disagree? How can any of us be so arrogant? At the same time, the fact that we are free to think for ourselves does not mean that we should ignore the thoughts of others. There are many great thinkers among us. And there have been many great thinkers who have gone before. It would be equally arrogant for us to ignore their ideas. Indeed, given what is at stake, it would be foolish.

VI.
Our responsibility to use our intellects, to think for ourselves, to come to our own conclusions has important consequences for Christian higher education. As centers of learning, Christian universities must be committed to the pursuit of truth. This pursuit of truth requires exposing our students to the great thinkers of today and yesterday. Not so that they will blindly accept the conclusions of others. But instead to aid them in their search for truth. Christian universities must also equip our students with the critical thinking skills needed for a lifelong pursuit of truth. This requires encouraging our students to think for themselves and then to test their ideas in free and open discourse with others, even ideas that are controversial – even ideas that challenge prevailing viewpoints.

This free exchange of ideas is most likely to lead to the discovery of truth. That's the idea behind the First Amendment. A great thinker named Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. put it best when he wrote that "the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market." Consistent with this metaphor of a free marketplace of ideas, the United States Supreme Court has recognized that our future as a people "depends upon leaders trained through wide exposure to that robust exchange of ideas which discovers truth out of a multitude of tongues, rather than through any kind of authoritarian selection." If we are to be a great Christian university, we cannot be afraid to pursue the course of truth, wherever that course might lead. Indeed, if our pursuit of truth leads us to question our existing view of God, it may just be that God is trying to tell us something.

VII.
You are entering a world where you will be discouraged – sometimes even repressed – from thinking for yourself. You will be discouraged from challenging what you see, hear and read in the media. You will be discouraged from challenging political authority. You may well be accused of being unpatriotic if you do. You will be discouraged from challenging ecclesiastical authority. You may well be accused of being a heretic if you do.

Let me suggest that you owe it to yourself not to give in. Your responsibility to yourself demands that you not be discouraged from thinking for yourself. Your responsibility to yourself demands that you exercise your individual freedom of conscience. Let me go further. Let me suggest that your responsibility to others – to your community – demands that you exercise your freedom of conscience. Just during my lifetime, too few Christians in the South resisted community orthodoxy when it came to segregation of the races. When Baylor refused to admit African-American students on religious grounds as late as the 1960s, what this community desperately needed were more free thinkers who would exercise their individual freedom of conscience – free thinkers who would challenge the prevailing orthodoxy – free thinkers with the courage to say "this is wrong."

How many other beliefs at one time firmly held as true have been proven false with the passage of time? What so-called "truths" that we hold dear today will the passage of time prove false? And how will we know if we accept what others declared as orthodox without question?

Let me close – not just this speech but my term as your president and my tenure on the faculty of this great university – by charging you to think for yourselves. Use the intellect that God has given you. Think critically. Have courage. And acknowledge – no embrace – the right of others to disagree.

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: 12/23/05

Federal court issues sweeping judgment
against teaching of intelligent design

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. (ABP) — A federal judge has ruled that, while "intelligent design" may itself be intelligent, it isn't science — and shouldn't be taught as science in the public schools.

The Dec. 20 decision by U.S. District Judge John Jones III is a broad — and strongly worded — defeat for advocates of intelligent design being taught in public-school science classrooms. It is the federal courts' first foray into the raging controversy over teaching the theory as an alternative to evolution.

Jones found unconstitutional the Dover, Pa., school district's practice of requiring teachers to preface a high-school biology course with a statement suggesting that evolutionary theory "is not a fact" and that intelligent design is a plausible alternative. ID theory posits that some life forms are too complex to have arisen from naturalistic evolutionary processes without the aid of an unseen, super-intelligent designer.

The statement also directed students to an ID textbook, titled "Of Pandas and People," as a resource for those wanting to learn more about the theory.

In November, all eight members of the school board who favored the ID policy were ousted by voters and replaced with candidates who oppose the policy. As a result, the board is not expected to appeal the court ruling.

In a far-reaching and often-scathing opinion — weighing in at 139 pages — Judge Jones said, "the disclaimer singles out the theory of evolution for special treatment, misrepresents its status in the scientific community, causes students to doubt its validity without scientific justification, presents students with a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific theory, directs them to consult a creationist text as though it were a science resource, and instructs students to forego scientific inquiry in the public-school classroom and instead to seek out religious instruction elsewhere."

After reviewing an extensive trial record that includes weeks of testimony from some of the nation's foremost scientific and legal experts, Jones found that ID theory, as currently formulated, cannot be separated from its creation-science antecedents. The Supreme Court has already ruled that theories about the origins of species based on the creation accounts in the Christian and Jewish Scriptures cannot be taught in public-school science classes.

"The evidence at trial demonstrates that ID is nothing less than the progeny of creationism," Jones wrote. "ID uses the same, or exceedingly similar, arguments as were posited in support of creationism. One significant difference is that the words 'God,' 'creationism,' and 'Genesis' have been systematically purged from ID explanations, and replaced by an unnamed 'designer.'"

In particular, Jones noted how earlier versions of the "Of Pandas" text, published prior to a 1987 Supreme Court decision on creationism, used "creationism" where the book now inserts "intelligent design."

Jones also said ID theory, as presently formulated, is fundamentally not scientific because it deals with the supernatural.

"While supernatural explanations may be important and have merit, they are not part of science," he said. "ID is reliant upon forces acting outside of the natural world — forces that we cannot see, replicate, control or test — which have produced changes in this world. While we take no position on whether such forces exist, they are simply not testable by scientific means and therefore cannot qualify as part of the scientific process or as a scientific theory."

The decision is binding only in the central Pennsylvania district. However, the strong wording and breadth of the opinion will likely serve as warnings to school boards elsewhere in the country considering teaching intelligent design.

Jones heaped scorn on the actions of the Dover school-board members who voted to establish the policy in 2004, saying they clearly had religious aims, but then misrepresented them for legal reasons.

"Accordingly, we find that the secular purposes claimed by the board amount to a pretext for the board's real purpose," Jones wrote, "which was to promote religion in the public-school classroom, in violation of the establishment clause" of the First Amendment, which bars government endorsement of religion.

In particular, he cited members of the school board whose testimony he determined was not credible and, in some cases, amounted to outright perjury.

"The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the board who voted for the ID policy," Jones wrote. "It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID policy."

Intelligent design theory has gained national attention in recent years, with many religious conservatives pushing for it to be taught alongside traditional evolutionary theory in public schools. President Bush recently caused a stir when he endorsed teaching ID. However, the Dover case is the first major legal and scientific airing of the theory's appropriateness for science classes.

Jones, an appointee of President George W. Bush, gave a nod to the social controversy surrounding ID and launched a pre-emptive attack on social conservatives who might characterize his decision as judicial activism.

"Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge. If so, they will have erred, as this is manifestly not an activist court. Rather, this case came to us as the result of the activism of an ill-informed faction on a school board, aided by a national public interest law firm eager to find a constitutional test case on ID, who in combination drove the board to adopt an imprudent and ultimately unconstitutional policy," he wrote. "The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources."

But the lead lawyer for the school board said the judge's decision was "silly" and wouldn't put the controversy to rest.

"A thousand opinions by a court that a particular scientific theory is invalid will not make that scientific theory invalid," said attorney Richard Thompson, according to the New York Times. "It is going to be up to the scientists who are going to continue to do research in their labs that will ultimately determine that."

Thompson is president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, a conservative Christian group.

Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, said Jones' decision was a "slam dunk" for those who support separation of church and state, because it rightly determined that "ID is just gussied-up creationism and cannot be taught in public-school science classes."

Walker also praised the decision for noting that many ID advocates set up a false dichotomy between God and evolution. "One can be religious and embrace the best of science at the same time," he said.

But an ID advocate said Judge Jones' reasoning was flawed, because if ID goes beyond testable scientific theory, so does a key component of Darwinian evolutionary theory.

"I would argue that intelligent design is not science, but neither is natural selection," said Hal Poe, a Christian studies professor at Baptist-affiliated Union University in Jackson, Tenn. Poe referred to the Darwinian theory of natural selection, which says that evolutionary change can be attributed to the survival and reproduction of species most fit for their environments.

"The only reason for teaching intelligent design is if you're teaching philosophy of science," Poe said, "but the only reason for teaching natural selection is also if you're teaching philosophy of science."

The opinion in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District was the result of a lawsuit filed on behalf of 11 Dover parents by attorneys from Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union. The parents claimed the school board's policy violated the First Amendment and undermined their rights to instruct their children in religious matters.

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: 12/23/05

DBU group sings at White House

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: 12/23/05

Senate narrowly passes budget cuts
opposed by anti-poverty leaders

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP) — Vice President Dick Cheney had to cut short an official trip to Pakistan and rush back Washington to cast a tiebreaking Senate vote for budget cuts Dec. 21.

The chamber was deadlocked 50-50 on the $40 billion in cuts to growth in federal programs. Because most of the programs being squeezed — such as Medicaid and student-loan programs — serve the poor, many religious and anti-poverty leaders have spoken out against them.

Cheney, in his role as president of the Senate, cast the tiebreaker. The Senate's 44 Democrats were joined by five moderate Republicans and one left-leaning independent in opposing the cuts.

The budget-cutting measure trims nearly $40 billion from those programs and others over the next five years. However, that represents less than one half of one percent of the estimated trillion-plus dollars in federal spending over the same period.

The House passed a similar budget-cutting measure Dec. 19, but the Senate version differs sufficiently that it must return to the House for further approval.

In appealing for the vote, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said it would be a step toward reducing the federal budget deficit. "This is the one vote you'll have this year to reduce the rate of growth of the federal government," he argued on the Senate floor.

But Democrats and other critics said the bill would harm the poor, and noted that the same Republican leaders who are pushing it are also pushing many billions more in tax cuts.

"While proponents will likely declare this a victory for fiscal responsibility, it must be noted that for every dollar in spending cuts, more than two dollars will be spent for additional tax cuts if a companion tax bill is accepted by both chambers," read a statement from the Center for American Progress. "And all of the cuts combined add up to little more than one fifth of the already enacted tax cuts for the top 1 percent of the population."

A group of 115 Christian leaders were arrested Dec. 15 for blocking the entrance to a House office building to protest the cuts.

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: 12/23/05

Katrina 'put a face on poverty,'
but will long-term picture change?

By Greg Warner and Ken Camp

(ABP) — The dispersion of 1 million Hurricane Katrina evacuees is straining a social safety net that's already stretched to the limit by the needs of the country's 36 million poor people.

But those engaged in the long-term fight against poverty see a silver lining: Caring for Katrina's newly homeless is forcing Americans "to put a face on poverty" — an entrenched social ill they say is often overlooked in a consumer society.

The recent disasters — and the response they triggered — have made life worse for poor people nationwide, said Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, a charity-watchdog group in Chicago.

With supplies and workers stretched so thin, Borochoff said, people outside the Gulf region who need assistance have to wait longer to get help. For instance, subsidized housing is harder to get all across the country, he said, because the diaspora of Katrina's homeless into 33 states has overloaded the cities that have taken them in.

The Katrina tragedy evoked an outpouring of both money and volunteerism , particularly from young adults, say social-service workers. In addition to the $2.8 billion donated to hurricane victims, many good Samaritans wanted to "get their hands dirty" by donating their time as well.

That's been a good thing, and it could have lasting impact, said Ginger Smith, executive director of Baptist Mission Centers in Houston. “The greatest challenge in communicating poverty in America is discovering a way to personalize it," she said.

"We [in Houston] had 200,000 neighbors that had lived through a horrific experience and were suddenly at our doorstep in need," she said. "The multitudes presented opportunities that could not be ignored.”

“Many volunteers who went into the shelters had life-changing conversations with people that days earlier had only been faces on TV," said Smith, whose organization operates three mission centers in Houston that feed an average of 3,200 people a month.

In the days after Katrina, Baptist Mission Centers decided against turning one ministry center into a shelter for evacuees. "I had several reasons for not opening as a shelter, and one was that I couldn’t imagine telling a community homeless man I knew by name that he couldn’t stay in the shelter because it was only for people from Louisiana and Mississippi,” Smith said. “I felt like that would be more damaging in the long run of our ministry to choose who we serve.”

When a crisis occurs, it places a special burden on community ministries that provide ongoing ministry to local people in need, she explained. After Katrina, Baptist Mission Centers combined two children's programs from different sites to make room for other ministries, only to see attendance drop from 50 kids to as few as four.

“We serve the impoverished, and their needs did not change through this disaster,” Smith said. “Our initial commitment was to them and our community, which meant we had to maintain our ministry as it is.”

Nationwide, 12.7 percent of the population (or 37 million people) lives below the poverty level, according to 2004 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, and the number continues to rise each year — even before Katrina's impact is measured.

"The abject poverty revealed by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans exists in every urban area of the United States," said Robert Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches. "It's poverty so severe that it kills people."

Edgar criticized legislators who warned paying for the Katrina recovery will require cuts to traditional social programs. "It's simply a sin for Congress to cut spending for other poor people to make up for unplanned but essential spending elsewhere," he said in a statement.

Others worry that Americans have become callused to long-term, intractable poverty.

The poor "blend into the background of our communities as we drive by, and they just become part of the landscape,” said Jim Young, director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Missions Equipping Center. “It’s a theological problem when we look at the poor and don’t see the image of God the way we should. When we look at 'the least of these,' we should see Jesus.”

Addressing long-term poverty needs will be more difficult after Katrina, Borochoff predicted. It's always harder to raise money for long-term programs, he said. People are naturally drawn to the disaster of the moment and tend to ignore unseen, unpublicized poverty. And while people want to get involved in hands-on ways — like passing out food at shelters — what's really needed is money for long-term solutions, he said.

Borochoff urged donors not to abandon their traditional charities in order to help disaster victims. Contributions to those organizations tend to dip in the wake of disasters, he said, increasing the hardship on the poor. "These people should not do without because people are serving disaster victims."

Despite those concerns, some anti-poverty voices say the enormity of the Katrina disaster may change the anti-poverty debate.

"To be poor in America was to be invisible," wrote Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post soon after the hurricane, "but not after this week, not after those images of the bedraggled masses at the Superdome, convention center and airport. No one can claim that the post-Reagan orthodoxy of low taxes and small government, which does wonders for the extremely rich, also inevitably does wonders for the extremely poor. What was that about a rising tide lifting all boats? What if you don't have a boat?"

Borochoff is one who believes Katrina may change how Americans respond to hunger. "Kartina increased knowledge that there are working poor in America," he said, and it also energized more people, particularly young adults, to get involved in the solution.

Jimmy Dorrell, who runs a community ministry in Waco, Texas, agreed. “Among churches that opened their doors, housed people in their buildings, and got to know them, it could have a long-term positive effect,” Dorrell said. “But the jury’s still out. It could go the other way.”

Some potential donors may think they already have done their part for meeting human needs by giving to disaster relief, noted Dorrell, director of Mission Waco. That could create a problem for community ministries that rely heavily on year-end gifts to sustain them through lean months, he said.

“Maybe what’s happened will raise awareness about poverty and need,” he said. "Or maybe people will think they already have given and don’t have any discretionary money left."

For the answer, Dorrell said, they will simply have to wait and see.

Tom Prevost, who directs a long-term anti-poverty program for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, looks overseas for hopeful signs. He said the unprecedented international response to the South Asia tsunami, as well as the debt-relief campaign for Africa, have awakened previously uninvolved Christians.

Some of those mobilized Christians have volunteered in overseas projects, and that creates a positive "spillover effect," he continued. "Those who have seen some of this face to face in these poverty-ridden counties are more sensitive."

"There seems to be a growing awareness that it's going to take more than a quick fix" to reduce poverty at home and abroad, said Prevost, national coordinator of Together for Hope, the CBF's rural poverty initiative, a 20-year commitment to fight poverty in the nation's poorest counties.

The CBF initiative is "a long-term commitment to self-sustainability" in historically poor communities, Prevost said. The program helps the poor recognize they have the resources to change their economic destiny.

"They just feel alone," he said of the entrenched poor. "And to know someone is going to be with them for 20 or more years, that's the thing that really seems to change the conversation. … They are tired of hit-and-run missions."

A long-term solution to poverty will require all these elements — volunteerism, money and a long-term commitment — as well as political action to change public policy.

"There needs to be more concern for what is happening in our communities, more concern for the public witness that we have," Prevost concluded.

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: 1/03/06

CYBER COLUMN:
All in the Baptist family

By Brett Younger

It isn’t easy being Baptist. I’ve asked non-Baptist ministers to preach at our church about 10 times. The conversation goes something like this:

“You want a Methodist/Disciple/Presbyterian/fill-in-the-blank to preach at a Baptist church?”

“Yes, that’s why I asked you.”

“I’ve never preached at a Baptist church. Can I borrow your overalls?”

While many Baptist churches are filled with intelligent, sophisticated people like you and me, Baptists as a group don’t have the most cultured reputation. I’d like to complain, but it’s hard for even lifelong Baptists to know how to categorize us. Baptists are a mixed bag.

Politically speaking, we’re all over the map. Jesse Helms is a Baptist, but so is Jesse Jackson. Tom DeLay is a Baptist, as is Al Gore. If that’s not confusing enough, two of four Baptist presidents (Warren Harding, Bill Clinton) had scandals that embarrassed the WMU, but the other two (Jimmy Carter and Harry Truman) would make fine presidents of the Brotherhood.

Contrary to some opinions, Baptists not only read, but also write. John Bunyan (Pilgrim’s Progress), Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest), Will Campbell (Brother to a Dragonfly) and John Grisham (A Time to Kill—not a particularly Baptist book, but it sold pretty well) are Baptists.

Preacherwise, you can pick and choose who you’re proud to say is a Baptist: Martin Luther King Jr., Billy Graham, Walter Rauschenbusch, Harry Emerson Fosdick, Rick Warren, Charles Haddon Spurgeon and Jerry Falwell. (Picture those seven sharing a table at the prayer breakfast.)

Johnny Cash was a Baptist—enough to put to rest the idea that Baptists are dull. If there’s a Baptist choir in heaven it will be amazing: Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Whitney Houston, Donna Summer, Mahalia Jackson, Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Otis Redding, Al Green, Chuck Berry, George Jones, Roy Orbison, Hank Williams Sr., (I’m guessing Hank Jr. doesn’t make it to church most Sundays, but I could be wrong) and Gladys Knight (no word on how many Pips are Baptists). Louis Armstrong can play the trumpet, Glen Campbell the guitar, and my church’s own Van Cliburn the piano.

Baptists may be better musicians than athletes, but take a look at Joe Frazier, Jim Brown, Reggie White, Payne Stewart and Maury Wills—all Baptists.

Queen Latifah is a Baptist (try picturing her as GA Queen Latifah with scepter). Baptist parents can decide if they want to tell their children that Jessica Simpson is a Baptist. Harry Longbaugh, the Sundance Kid, was a Baptist. (I realize he was a bank robber, but isn’t it encouraging that Robert Redford played a Baptist?)

Ava Gardner was a Baptist, but Howard Hughes wasn’t. Sometimes I wish more Baptists were rich like Baptist John D. Rockefeller.

Chuck Norris could have starred in Walker, Texas Baptist. You can argue that DeForest Kelley, Dr. “Bones” McCoy on Star Trek, is the best-known Baptist of the 25th century. I like to think that the Baptist in Kevin Costner is responsible for Field of Dreams, and that during Waterworld he wasn’t going to church much. Kevin was directed by a Baptist, Ron Shelton, in Bull Durham, a movie my Baptist mother would not want me to see.

Imagine throwing a “Baptists Only” party and having this crowd show up: Pat Robertson, Bill Moyers, Sam Rayburn, Trent Lott, Anita Bryant, Clarence Thomas, Marian Wright Edelman, Marian Anderson, Gene Autry, Kris Kristofferson and Eddie Murphy.

Some historians claim that Czar Alexander I of Russia was secretly a Baptist. If he was and didn’t want people to know, it’s understandable. Our family is hard to explain.

Brett Younger is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth and the author of Who Moved My Pulpit? A Hilarious Look at Ministerial Life, available from Smyth & Helwys (800) 747-3016. You can e-mail him at byounger@broadwaybc.org.

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: 1/03/06

BaptistWay Bible Series for Jan. 8

God’s standards are the only ones that count

• Luke 12:1-12

By Fallon Curry

Logsdon Seminary, Abilene

What are you afraid of? Fear can prevent us from hurting ourselves. However, fear often paralyzes us into lives of inaction. Is that the way Jesus wants us to live? Is that the way he wants us to serve? Are there things we should fear? The passage for this lesson calls us to look at ourselves and our fears, and consider how we will respond to Jesus’ leadership in our lives.

In Luke 11:37-53, a Pharisee had invited Jesus to dinner with hopes of “catching” him in doing or saying something wrong so that they might have grounds for accusations. At the dinner, Jesus noticed the Pharisee’s surprise that he had not ceremonially washed his hands before the meal. Jesus pointed out how obsessed the Scribes and Pharisees were with how clean they seemed to the world. All the while, their insides rotted like corpses in pretty tombs. Jesus declared that the maker of the outside also makes the inside. Both should be cared for and cleaned.

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In 12:1-12, Jesus returned to his disciples. Thousands gathered to see him perform a miracle. Jesus used this as an opportunity to warn his disciples about the dangers of hypocrisy.

Jesus began by clarifying, in verses 4-7, not to fear someone who can end one’s earthly life. Earthly life always is temporary. He explained that the one to truly fear is the One who has all ultimate power and authority. That One, God, knows and values each of his children. He even knows every hair on our heads! Therefore, the One to fear and trust is the Creator and not the created.

The fear of people feeds into pride which often leads to hypocrisy. It usually starts when a person becomes self-conscious or fearful of what someone else will think, say or do in reaction to certain weaknesses or faults. Sometimes the same type of fear can arise in people who live lives of faith and those who do not. Some people seek ways to cover or hide who they truly are in order to impress and gain favor with those around them. These are people are hypocritical as a result of the fear of people. This is what Jesus condemned.

In verses 2 and 3, Jesus explained that hypocrisy is futile. Everything kept in secret will be exposed for all to see. The Pharisees would be seen as the cruel, legalistic, evil people that they were before God and be required to give account.

This statement also prepared the disciples to fight the temptation to hide the truth they knew. In the near future, they would be tempted to hide in order to avoid hostility from others. This way Jesus was preparing the disciples for a time when their acknowledgement of Jesus as the Christ would become public truths that must be proclaimed.

Followers of Jesus who hide or downplay their faith to gain favor with others also will be exposed. So, if everything eventually will be revealed as it truly is, then hypocrisy is useless.

How do we, then, trust and not fear? Most of us have had the experience as children of jumping off the edge of a dock or pool side into their parent’s arms. Initially, the process for many was somewhat stressful. However, once the child determined to trust his or her parent and jump safely into those waiting arms, the child is not afraid anymore and, usually, they want to “do it again!”

Sometimes overcoming our fears means facing them head-on. In order to get over our fear of people and live in the manner that Jesus would have us live, we must acknowledge Jesus publicly. This does not necessarily mean we must stand on our desks at work and shout or pray obnoxious, loud and lengthy prayers in the middle of restaurants.

Most of the more effective ways we can acknowledge Jesus is to simply put into practice what we have learned from him. Be the only supervisor at our work place that truly lives by “the golden rule.” Be the one willing to befriend those who are difficult to befriend. We acknowledge Jesus by the way we live day-to-day. Verbalizing our faith usually is more effective after our listeners have seen us first prove our beliefs in actions.

Living out our faith takes a lot of help from the Holy Sprit. It is not something that comes naturally. It is something we can learn to do by seeking God daily in prayer and Bible study. The Holy Spirit often teaches us how to conduct ourselves and present our hearts before God in those times that we seek him in various forms of worship. By doing this on a regular basis, we come to know his voice and as verse 10-11 says, he will instruct us on what to say when the hostility or trouble that we might fear comes into our lives.

So, if we are going to be concerned about the thoughts and actions of someone other than ourselves, let us be concerned with the only One that counts. Let us seek God’s approval and will for our lives. Only he knows what is best for us. We can trust our Heavenly Father and jump into his arms. Don’t be afraid. He will catch us and hold us forever.

Discussion question

• How can trusting God help you overcome the fears in your life?

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