Posted: 10/03/06

Bill hinders suits over violations
of church-state separation

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—After impassioned debate on the separation of church and state Sept. 26, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would make it harder to sue the government for violations of church-state separation.

House members voted 244-173 in favor of H.R. 2679, called by supporters the “Public Expression of Religion Act.” In cases involving the First Amendment’s establishment clause, the proposal would prevent federal courts from requiring government entities to reimburse the legal costs of the individual or group that sued the government agency—even though the agency was found in violation of the constitution.

The establishment clause bars the government from endorsing or inhibiting religious groups or doctrines. Currently, federal judges routinely require the government entity to pay the legal expenses of a plaintiff who successfully asserts an establishment-clause violation.

Supporters contended that the bill would keep special-interest groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union from “abusing the system” when filing challenges to government actions that may endorse religion.

“Too often today, overzealous courts have infringed an individual’s right to worship,” Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), a supporter of the measure, said on the House floor. “These attacks on our religious heritage are frivolous.”

But opponents said it would have a chilling effect on the ability of religious minorities to defend their freedoms.

“Mr. Speaker, let’s be clear—there’s nothing benign about this bill. This bill makes it more difficult to enforce the First Amendment to the Constitution and the very words thereof designed to protect the religious freedom of every American,” said Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas).

Without such reimbursements, many church-state separationist groups and other civil-rights groups could not afford to file such lawsuits in the first place.

The bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.), said some such groups file lawsuits and use the threat of hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to pressure municipalities and states into settling before the case reaches court.

“Without that ability for the ACLU and others to go into these closed-door sessions and say to the mayor … we’re going to sue, we’re going to win, and you’re going to have to pay our attorneys’ fees, these cases will go to court,” Hostettler said, referring to the American Civil Liberties Union.

But Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) asked the bill’s supporters if they would feel the same way about limiting attorneys’ fees in such cases if government agencies were being sued for advancing other religions.

“Let’s assume in some town Sunni Muslims became a majority. And let’s assume that everyone in that town…was forced to recite ‘There is but one God, and Allah is his name,’” he said, quoting Islam’s most common affirmation of faith.

“They think that only the majority religion is ever going to be in the position to dominate the local government or any government. Maybe so, but the whole reason we have the First Amendment is because you can’t be sure.”

Although a companion bill has been introduced in the Senate, that body is virtually certain not to address it before Congress ends its current term.

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: 9/29/06

Family practice residency
teaches Christian service

By Elizabeth Staples

Communications Intern

HARLINGEN—Valley Baptist Medical Center’s family practice residency program not only provides medical training, but also teaches health care professionals how to help from the heart.

Bruce Leibert has been working in residency programs with his wife since they married 22 years ago.

The need for a residency program that trained residents in medicine and the gospel simultaneously became apparent almost immediately.

“We opened the doors of our (family practice residency) training program in July 1996. Forty-two graduates and 11 years later, we’ve seen God really do incredible things in the lives of faculty, residents and the community,” Leibert said. The program offers a three-year residency at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen. Trained by seven doctors on staff, five residents graduate each year. They are equipped in a variety of medical fields including family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics and general surgery, Leibert said. But it doesn’t stop there.

“This program is different from most because of the three C’s—Christianity, curriculum and community outreach,” he said.

Christianity permeates the program. Physicians are trained spiritually through family retreats, daily devotions, examples of Christian doctors and Bible studies. Every day, they pray in the name of Jesus with most of the patients, Leibert said. “I’d say 99.9 percent of the patients want to pray with the doctors. They’ve never seen anything like this before,” Leibert said.

The family practice residency program curriculum is different from other residency programs. Leibert describes it as an apprenticeship model in which the doctors work in the clinic, and the majority of their time is spent on the floor.

“We have the first-ever blended curriculum,” Leibert said.

Community outreach involves weekly work in areas where the income is low and the needs are great.

“We go to colonias, small communities without electricity or air conditioning, each Wednesday and reach out to fill their needs,” Leibert said.

For the past six summers, the Summer Medical Institute has brought many young medical students to the Valley where they learn to share their faith.

“We pray that we would be pleasing to the Lord in our attitude and actions as an institution,” Leibert said. “The truth must be shared so lives can be saved—anything else would be wrong for us.” 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: 9/29/06

RIGHT or WRONG?
Being vs doing

I heard a preacher insist Christian “being” and “doing” should reflect the same thing. What does that mean?

I am hesitant to get into the mind of another preacher. Here is one possibility: Perhaps the preacher was intent on addressing the plague of consumerism Christianity. Maybe he was speaking to the notion that a person can claim a strong faith with little evidence of commitment.

A Christian can wear a witness T-shirt, carry a Christianized coffee cup, put on sacred jewelry, and lay a Bible in the back window of the car, just above the “Icthus” emblem pressed onto the trunk lid. And yet with all of those outside trappings, the person can demonstrate very little commitment to the body of Christ. All the outward signals are in place, but little personal commitment is given in worship, fellowship or service. The Sunday-morning question of joining the body of Christ for worship is equal to the lightweight Saturday-night question, “Do you want to go to a movie?” Maybe that kind of life of opposites is what the preacher had in mind.

Perhaps the preacher is giving reference to James 1:22-25, which says: “But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.”

If the preacher you heard was addressing the temptation to take faith as mental assent without the transformation of life and service, then this text from James would support such an idea. It is possible to hear the gospel without being changed by the gospel. Faith can be more form than substance.

Jesus spoke to this temptation in Mark 7. His audience was worried about the form of tradition without the substance of faith. His opponents were more concerned about washing hands and hiding assets in the temple than they were about worshipping God and caring for the poor. When they heard the call of Jesus, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand,” they turned away and pretended it was intended for someone else. Perhaps the preacher you heard was calling his listeners to quit pretending they are people of faith and start living the faith by serving.

In trying to get into the mind of the preacher, I have taken two roads that naturally lead to caustic preaching and demoralized listeners. Let me suggest another option: In a life, transformed by the gospel and led by the Spirit, there should be little difference in who we are and what we do.

Sometimes, the peer pressure to be “spiritual” is just as great as the teenage pressure to be a “rebel.” And the simplest way to project the image is to buy a shirt or put a symbol on your car. The outward witness eases the inner struggle.

Here is a Scriptural portrait of what we are to be and do in the name of Christ: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against such things” (Galatians 5:22-23).

Stacy Conner, pastor

First Baptist Church

Muleshoe

Right or Wrong? is sponsored by the T.B. Maston Chair of Christian Ethics at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. Send your questions about how to apply your faith to btillman@hsutx.edu. 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: 9/29/06

Visitors see same friendly face 52 years

By Angela Best

Communications Intern

DALLAS—For 52 years, whenever someone has visited the offices of Grace Temple Baptist Church in North Oak Cliff, Betty Hatfield has been there to greet them.

Hatfield, who retired recently as the church’s pastoral and financial secretary, started working at Grace Temple in 1954.

Born and raised with two siblings in Pickton, Hatfield’s family didn’t have enough money for her to attend college. So, in 1953, she moved to Dallas to find work.

She landed a job as a secretary in the trust department at First National Bank. She also began attending Grace Temple, since she and a roommate lived three blocks from the church.

But she wasn’t entirely satisfied.

“The Lord had been working on me,” Hatfield explained. “I felt that maybe I needed to quit my job at the bank and go to college and become a schoolteacher.”

Shortly after she told her parents about her plan, Buell Crouch, Grace Temple’s pastor, and his wife asked Hatfield out to lunch.

“I had no idea what they could possibly want to talk to me about,” she remembered, laughing.

She had met the pastor and his wife and also was very involved in the church. But Hatfield didn’t know the Crouches had spoken with her uncle, who was pastor of nearby Hampton Place Baptist Church, because they were considering asking her to become a secretary at Grace Temple.

“The Lord was in it from the very beginning,” she said. “When I was told about the opportunity, I knew it was what God wanted me to do.”

And in 1954, she became the church’s pastoral and financial secretary.

Hatfield maintained active involvement as a lay member of the church. And there she met her late husband, James Hatfield, in 1955.

The Hatfields had two sons, and she continued her work and brought her children to the church’s daycare.

Besides her position as secretary, Hatfield also directed the youth Sunday school department for almost a decade. She planned parties for the young people and counseled them. She also went on youth mission trips and ski trips.

“I remember one ski trip when the youth wanted me to get on the skis, but I never would,” she recalled. Now, she directs the Adult 3 Sunday school department.

When someone has a question at the church, the common reply is simple and straightforward: “Go ask Betty.”

Throughout her career, Hatfield spent her typical day answering phones, taking care of people who have come to the church, maintaining the finances and making sure all the office tasks get completed.

But her first responsibility was to the pastor, she noted, and in 52 years as secretary, Hatfield worked for seven pastors.

“When new pastors would come, I would always tell them that I didn’t have to stay, and that I wanted them to feel free to get someone else to take my place,” she said. “Well, they all declined and said they wanted me to stay, and I am here to this day. “I’ve become a permanent fixture.” Hatfield acknowledges a simple reason for 52 years of permanence: “I felt that it was something I enjoyed, and I felt like I was needed. There have been a lot of happy times.”

While she never dreamed of working for a church, Hatfield has valued five decades in the Grace Temple office.

“It’s been a joy to work here,” she reflected, smiling at the thought. “It’s been my life for all these years. I felt that it was God’s will that I stay as long as I have, and it’s just been very special to me. I wouldn’t take anything for my life here as pastor’s secretary and financial secretary.” 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: 9/29/06

Snapshots of piety in America

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

WACO (ABP)—Americans may not be losing their religion after all, according to a new Baylor University study on faith in the United States. The results of the recently released study by Baylor’s sociology department and Institute for Studies of Religion show, among other things:

• The majority of people not affiliated with any religion still believe in God, and one-third pray at least occasionally.

• Nearly 11 percent of people who claim no affiliation with a religion attend church at least once a month.

• One out of 10 people with no religious affiliation firmly believes Jesus is the son of God.

The study, called “American Piety in the 21st Century,” is the most extensive of its kind. Funded by the John Templeton Foundation and developed with help from the Gallup Organization, it involved data from 1,721 people who responded to a mailed survey. The questionnaire contained 350 queries, dealing with everything from prayer habits and religious labels to Christian consumer spending and belief in the paranormal.

The survey sheds new, detailed light on America’s religious picture, Baylor President John Lilley said.

Byron Johnson, co-director of the institute and a professor of sociology at Baylor, explained that the report had significance in another way, too. While other noted religious surveys asked general questions—like “Do you believe in God?” and “Do you pray?”—the Baylor report followed those preliminary questions with more probing inquiries.

For example, if respondents answered that they did indeed pray, they also had to detail when they prayed, to whom, why, and the reason for the prayer. In general, the research team aimed to “dig down deep,” Johnson said.

That probing apparently paid off, particularly in the data the survey gathered regarding religious self-identification.

In recent years, other studies have concluded that Americans are becoming more secular, at least when it comes to church attendance and membership in faith communities. From 1988 to 2004, for instance, the number of religious “nones”—people who claim no affiliation with any congregation or religious group—rose from 8 percent to 14 percent, according to one study.

But Kevin Dougherty, a Baylor sociology professor and research fellow at the institute, thinks supposed secularization is mainly a function of how survey questions are asked, rather than a real decline in religious belief or practice.

“A fundamental question for anyone studying religions is, ‘Are Americans losing their religion?’” he said. “The reason why this is such a big question is there is some evidence … that some people in fact are losing their religion. If it is true, it reveals a tremendous amount of secularization occurring in our society.”

Fortunately, that’s probably not the case, he said. In fact, the new study suggests fewer Americans live their lives completely outside of organized religious life than previous survey results have suggested.

That, Dougherty said, is because the Baylor study asked far more detailed questions of respondents than previous studies.

When researchers take the time to ask about people’s religious activity on the local level, only about one in 10 Americans ends up having no connection to a religious community, he noted.

“We found that almost a third of people who said ‘I don’t know my religion’ five questions later gave us the name of a congregation” whose services they attend, the sociology professor said. “There were 10 million Americans over-counted as religious ‘nones.’”

Previous surveys in the area would not have picked up that subtlety, Dougherty said. He added the new results also indicate a larger trend: People are better able to identify with a local place of worship than with a national denomination. For instance, fewer people today think of themselves as Southern Baptists than as members of a particular congregation.

Many survey respondents may not even know the name of the denomination to which their church or synagogue belongs.

“Rick Warren is a Southern Baptist preacher. (Warren’s) Saddleback Church is a Southern Baptist church,” Dougherty said, referring to one of the nation’s largest and most prominent congregations, located near Los Angeles. “Do the 20,000 people who worship there every weekend know they are Southern Baptist? For many, probably not.”

For Dougherty and his colleagues, the survey’s bottom line is the discovery that, when religious classifications are dismissed, statistics change. Case in point: 2006 estimates by the highly respected Barna Group list 20 million evangelicals in America. According to the Baylor report, fully a third of Americans are affiliated with evangelical Protestant congregations, even if they don’t exactly identify with evangelicalism as a whole or with an evangelical denomination. Given current population figures, that translates into about 100 million Americans affiliated with evangelical Protestantism.

“Denomination just doesn’t mean as much to people today as it has in the past,” Dougherty said.

Such differences could usher in a new methodology for religion surveys—and a more accurate picture of the nation’s still-vibrant religious life.

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: 9/29/06

Americans hold four views of God, research shows

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

WACO (ABP)—Americans believe in four different Gods—or at least view God in four distinct ways, a new study from Baylor University revealed.

Researchers from Baylor’s sociology department and Institute for Studies of Religion conducted the survey. Called “American Piety in the 21st Century,” it used survey data from 1,721 American citizens and was the largest such study ever conducted. Its 350 questions asked Americans their thoughts on a gamut of religion-related topics—from piety to politics to the paranormal.

Among the survey’s most publicized results was its finding that most non-atheist Americans believe in one of four main views of God’s personality, which the researchers characterized as Authoritarian, Benevolent, Critical or Distant.

Which view of God one ascribes to, the survey found, can determine a lot about that individual’s beliefs—more than other factors commonly studied, such as income, race, location and political affiliation.

Christopher Bader, an assistant professor of sociology at Baylor and research fellow at the institute, said the research team made the report unique by rephrasing some of the routine questions usually asked on religion surveys. Such polls consistently report about nine in 10 Americans believe in God, but Bader and his colleagues thought views of God were complex enough to probe further.

The Baylor survey also asked whether respondents believed God is angry with sin, if he is involved in worldly affairs, if he is concerned with a person’s well-being—and even if they believed he is a “he.”

Then, after asking dozens of probing questions, the team analyzed the responses and placed the results on a continuum. When they saw the answers fell naturally into four general areas on the spectrum, they grouped the responses into the four distinct views of God’s character. According to the report, those perceptions of God significantly influence what people think about issues like gay marriage, divorce, premarital sex and the death penalty.

“What we find is this is terribly important because it can predict all kinds of things about an individual,” said Paul Froese, a Baylor sociology professor and researcher. “It relates to their religious practices. It relates to their ideas about morality. It relates to their political opinions.”

One interesting result, Froese said, was the distribution of each of the four God-types. While Catholics and mainline Protestants were rather evenly distributed across each view of God, African-American Protestants and evangelical Protestants tended more heavily toward the Authoritarian God—at 68 percent and 52 percent, respectively.

The Authoritarian God is characterized by a high level of involvement in daily life and world affairs. People who believe in the Authoritarian God believe he helps them in decision-making and punishes the unfaithful.

On the other hand, the Benevolent God is mainly a positive force in the world, still active in daily life but not condemning of individuals. Catholics were most likely to believe in this view of God, with nearly 30 percent adhering to the Benevolent view.

The Critical God, also a popular one among Black Protestants and mainline Protestants, stays mostly out of world affairs, providing critique of them from afar. People who believe in this God expect to receive judgment in the afterlife, Froese said.

Almost 42 percent of Jewish respondents and 36 percent of those unaffiliated with any specific religion believe in the Distant God. This God is not active in the world and not especially angry, either, according to the report. People who hold this belief tend to think of God as a cosmic force that set nature into motion.

The distribution is significant, Froese said, in that several seemingly random topics dramatically relate to an individual’s perception of God.

Take geography, for instance. According to the report, the region with the most widespread belief in the Authoritarian God—44 percent—is the South. In the Midwest, 29 percent of people believe in a Benevolent God, which is the most of any region. In the East, 22 percent of people believed in a Critical God, and more than 30 percent of people in the West adhere to the Distant God view—more popular there than elsewhere.

Other significant relationships emerged, too. “The higher your income, the less likely you are to think God is angry,” Froese said. “The lower your income, the more likely you are to think God is angry. Gender is another big relationship. Women tend much toward the Benevolent God. Men are more likely to think God is angry.”

Thinking God is angry, however, does not necessarily lead people to a place of worship. According to the report, church attendance has less to do with perception of God and more to do with a relationship with him. Fire and brimstone sermons do little to get people in pews, Froese said.

“What we’re finding is that people are sitting in the pews because they feel personally engaged with God or that God is personally engaged in their lives,” he said. “It’s really the personal relationship with God that brings them around and gets them involved.”

The study also found Americans’ religious self-description often has more to do with their own view of what the ideal religious community is than the self-description of the congregation or denomination to which they actually are connected.

For instance, while nearly half of Americans identify themselves as “Bible-believing,” only 15 percent of the population identifies itself as “evangelical”—and only 2 percent of Americans say that’s the best description for them.

Perhaps most surprisingly, more people in mainline Protestant denominations identify themselves as “evangelical” than people who attend churches or are part of denominations historically viewed as part of evangelical Protestantism.

Kevin Dougherty, a research fellow and sociology professor at Baylor, said the survey results suggest terms that researchers, journalists and political analysts often use interchangeably to describe evangelicals or other religious groups are, in reality, not quite so interchangeable.

“When we asked about people’s religions identities … the overwhelming response, almost half, of Americans say ‘Bible-believing’ captures me,” Dougherty said. “About a quarter say ‘born-again.’ About a quarter say ‘mainline Christian.’ Far less salient were labels such as ‘fundamentalist’ and ‘charismatic.’”

That’s why estimates of the percentage of Americans who are evangelicals vary so widely, Dougherty said. It all depends on who is doing the labeling.

One thing is certain, though, he said. “Faith matters, and people know faith matters.” Baylor officials plan to continue conducting the survey every-other year, inserting new questions about current topics and trends each time.

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: 9/29/06

Navy chaplain convicted for protest

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

NORFOLK, Va. (ABP)—A Navy chaplain who has accused his superiors of violating his religious freedom has been convicted by a court-martial for appearing in uniform at a rally to protest military policy on chaplains.

A military jury in Norfolk, Va., recommended that Lt. Gordon Klingenschmitt be docked $250 a month in pay for the next year and sent a letter of reprimand. The panel convicted him of violating a superior officer’s orders by wearing his uniform at a March 30 press event in front of the White House.

The rally was held to protest Navy rules that forbid chaplains from leading sectarian prayers at events where sailors of multiple faiths are present. Klingenschmitt offered prayers and read Scripture at the event, but changed back into civilian clothes before answering reporters’ questions.

But the commanding officer at Klingenschmitt’s base, Capt. Lloyd Pyle of the Norfolk Naval Station, had earlier ordered him, in writing, “not to wear your uniform for this or for any other media appearance without my express prior permission.” Pyle’s order came shortly after Klingenschmitt spent 18 days last December on a hunger strike in front of the White House to protest the policy on sectarian prayers.

Of the conviction, Klingen-schmitt said he was only “guilty of praying in Jesus’ name,” according to the Norfolk Virginian Pilot. His attorneys claimed he had the right to appear in uniform at the event because he was conducting a bona fide religious service.

But the jury agreed with prosecutors, who argued the evangelical Episcopalian’s uniformed presence at the press conference alone was sufficient to determine he had violated Pyle’s order and military policy.

During the trial’s sentencing phase, character witnesses both for and against Klingenschmitt described him as firm in his beliefs. His wife, Mary Klingenschmitt, said he was “passionate and dedicated” to his Christian faith, according to the Virginian-Pilot.

But the base’s head chaplain, Capt. Norman Holcomb, said he found Klingenschmitt “to be untruthful, unethical, insubordinate, contemptuous of authority … and a totally frustrating independent operator.”

Klingenschmitt, in a press conference following his conviction, vowed to fight the decision to the Supreme Court, if necessary. “I will continue to pray in Jesus’ name, I will continue to worship in public, and I will not be broken,” he said.

The issue of whether military chaplains may offer sectarian prayers at events where personnel of multiple faiths are present has stirred significant controversy in the past two years. The controversy was first sparked by accusations that evangelical Protestant officers and cadets harassed cadets of other faiths at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.

As Klingenschmitt’s sentence was handed down, legislators were wrangling on Capitol Hill over a provision in a defense-spending bill designed to undercut the Navy and Air Force prayer guidelines.

In May, the House added a provision to the bill that said chaplains “shall have the prerogative to pray according to the dictates of the chaplain’s own conscience, except as must be limited by military necessity, with any such limitation being imposed in the least restrictive manner feasible.” There is no such provision in the version of the bill that passed the Senate.

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: 9/29/06

Thailand coup's impact uncertain

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

Representatives from three Baptist agencies declined to speculate what long-range impact a coup in Thailand could have on missions in the region, but they confirmed the safety of all field personnel in the country.

Spokesmen for the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Missions and American Baptist Churches International Ministries reported all their workers in Thailand had been contacted and were safe as of Sept. 20.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was in New York at a United Nations session when military forces entered Bangkok at night and surrounded government buildings with tanks. General Sonthi Boonyaratkalin declared martial law, and the army declared its allegiance to Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Paul Montacute, director of Baptist World Aid, had just returned from a trip to Thailand with Baptist World Alliance President David Coffey when he heard the reports of tanks rolling through the streets of Bangkok.

At the time of his visit, people in Thailand were “a little apprehensive” about elections in the country, but news of the coup “came as a surprise,” he said.

“Thank God there appears to have been no violence,” he said.

Hours after the bloodless coup, the IMB issued a brief statement: “The International Mission Board is asking Southern Baptists to pray for the people of Thailand after a military group has led an attempted coup against the government’s prime minister. No reports of violence have been reported at this time, and all International Mission Board personnel in Bangkok have been accounted for and are safe. Pray for the continued safety of people living in Thailand, and pray workers will continue to spread the gospel throughout the country.”

Shawn Hendricks with the IMB news office said the mission board’s area director had been in contact with personnel throughout Thailand who reported “business as usual at this point.”

The IMB would not release the number of workers serving in Thailand.

The four families serving with CBF Global Missions in Thailand had been urged to take precautions to ensure their safety, but there was no indication any Baptist workers were endangered, said Jack Snell, director of field personnel. CBF personnel in Thailand work in community development, agricultural and educational ministries, he noted.

“We’ve been in touch with all of them, and they all are safe,” Snell said. “It’s too early to say what the future holds, but we are hopeful. We know very little about what has happened there, but we have every reason to be optimistic because there has been no violence. Our people have reported seeing tanks in the streets, but there have been no threats of violence or any violent demonstrations.”

All of Thailand’s schools—including ones attended by some missionary children—were closed on the day after the coup, but they were expected to reopen the next day, he noted.

“We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds,” Snell said.

American Baptist missionaries reported “everyone is safe, and the situation is calm,” said Stan Murray, area director for Southeast Asia and Japan with American Baptist Churches International Ministries.

“We have 15 International Ministries missionary personnel there, four of whom are out of the country at present. We have currently only three volunteers there, though the number ebbs and flows substantially, with several due to arrive soon,” Murray said.

American Baptist missionaries work under the umbrella of the Thailand Baptist Missionary Fellowship, a group that includes Baptists from seven agencies based in six countries, he explained.

The fellowship has a crisis management team in place that “has encouraged specific ways in which missionaries can exercise prudence and be prepared, should the national situation take a turn for the worse,” he said.

Murray expressed hope conditions would remain calm in Thailand.

“An interesting tidbit is that one of our personnel told us that there are two words used in Thai for coup d’etat, and the one that the Thai news is using is a much softer word than what is normally considered when the expression … is used,” he noted on Sept. 20. “There is no violence to date, and the TV is back on, airports are expected to be functioning normally again as of tomorrow. Banks are still closed, but schools reopen tomorrow as well.”

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: 9/29/06

Committee approves amendment
requiring more financial disclosure

By Robert Marus & Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

NASHVILLE (ABP)—The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee approved an amendment to governing documents that urges SBC leaders toward greater financial responsibility. Southern Baptist messengers will hear the recommendation at the June 2007 annual meeting in San Antonio.

The move came in the wake of a trustee investigation of North American Mission Board President Bob Reccord. He resigned April 17 amid allegations of financial impropriety and conflicts of interest.

Rumors of lucrative salaries and perks for other SBC agency executives have circulated for years—none verified—partly because the convention does not require disclosure of compensation.

But last June at the SBC annual meeting, Ernest Hallmark, a messenger from Parkview Baptist Church in Arlington, asked the Executive Committee to “conduct an administrative expense analysis of all Southern Baptist agencies and institutions that receive support from the Cooperative Program.”

Hallmark’s motion said the study should evaluate administrative budgets, especially reimbursable expense accounts, travel expenses, housing expenses and the amount of Cooperative Program dollars spent, if any, to maintain the private residences and staff of those entity executives.

With components relating specifically to executive compensation, financial reporting and conflicts of interest, the resulting document calls on trustees to remember their duty of fiscal responsibility and good stewardship. It doesn’t target any one agency for reform.

The recommendation calls for SBC entities to include annual audits signed by the chief executive officer or chief financial officer of the organization. The motion also asks agency boards to avoid appearances of impropriety so as not to diminish a “positive Christian witness.” It requires boards to certify the expenses and perquisites of the president are not excessive.

Along with the certification stipulations, the motion said all corporate expenses should be “reasonable and incurred to accomplish the entity’s … mission statement … ministry assignments and any other responsibilities previously approved by the messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention and still in force.”

The Executive Committee also approved an amendment dealing with the hiatus period between terms of service on SBC boards. It doubled the amount of time, from one year to two years, that a person must wait after rotating off the board of one SBC entity before being eligible for appointment to another entity’s board.

C.J. Bordeaux of North Carolina, chairman of the body’s administrative subcommittee, said the measure was intended as a way to “broaden the tent” of nominees to Southern Baptist boards.

The Executive Committee declined to move forward with most of the motions referred to it from the SBC’s annual meeting, including:

— A motion that the Executive Committee complete a comprehensive study of the make-up and function of the boards of trustees of all SBC agencies. The committee’s staff recommended no official action on the motion, but noted in a subcommittee meeting dealing with the referral that much of the information that the motion called for is already available to Southern Baptists in the SBC Annual and its governing documents, all of which are available online.

— A motion to amend SBC Bylaw 26 to reduce the voting threshold—from a two-thirds majority to a simple majority—for overturning a decision to refer a motion made from the floor of an SBC annual meeting. Several messengers at the convention’s annual meeting attempted to establish internal inquiries into controversies at the denomination’s two missionary-sending agencies—the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board. However, those motions were referred to the boards themselves.

The convention’s staff recommended killing the motion because “issues involving the internal operations or ministries of the several (convention-related) entities should be sufficiently compelling to sustain the two-thirds vote required to preempt the referrals normally made to the entities involved.”

— A motion attempting to limit the terms of service on the boards of SBC agencies to single seven-year terms. Currently, agency trustees serve terms of four or five years, and are routinely elected to second terms. Several Southern Baptist bloggers disaffected with the denomination’s conservative elite noted, in the months prior to the SBC annual meeting, that many SBC trustees are drawn from a small pool of large-church pastors, their spouses and other family members.

— A motion that the convention instruct its nominating committee to “appoint no less than one pastor or layman under the age of 40 to each of our committees and boards” in order to broaden participation by younger leaders. Many SBC boards—including the Executive Committee—are heavily weighted with members who are male, white and over the age of 50.

Members of the workgroup that first dealt with the referral said such a move could open the floodgates for quota-type systems for underrepresented groups on SBC boards, and should not be mandated. The convention’s staff recommended that the motion be declined so the denomination would not “depart from the long-established and well-accepted selection process for service by Southern Baptists who are well qualified, without regard to their age, gender or ethnicity.”

The committee also declined to act on two motions referred to it dealing with the Cooperative Program, the convention’s unified budget.

One would have required convention officers to come from churches that give at least 10 percent of their undesignated receipts through the program. The Executive Committee accepted the advice of staffers, who said the body had already dealt with the issue in their previous meeting by adopting the report of an ad hoc study committee on the Cooperative Program. It included several measures designed to encourage better giving to the program, but Executive Committee members nixed a portion of the report that had language similar to that of the motion.

The committee also declined to act on a motion that recommended gifts to SBC causes done outside the current Cooperative Program structure—such as designated gifts to SBC causes that bypass state conventions—be counted as Cooperative Program giving. Executive Committee members accepted the staff's recommendation that “the motion is already satisfied by the current definition of total mission expenditures” in the denomination's annual report on giving by churches.

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: 9/29/06

Father of 19—14 by adoption—speaks with authority

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

When Pat Williams discusses fatherhood, he speaks with the authority experience brings. Williams, senior vice president of the Orlando Magic National Basketball Association team, has 19 children—14 of them adopted.

All 19, who range in age from 21 to 34, are grown and out of their parents’ house now. But Williams insists a father never stops being a father.

“Children need a blessing—they need to be affirmed by their father—and that never changes,” said Williams, a layman at First Baptist Church in Orlando. “Even though they are grown, I think they need that blessing from me more now than ever.”

When he's not helping run the Orlando Magic, Williams is a popular motivational speaker.

Williams and his first wife, Jill, had been married 10 years and already had three biological children when they started adding to their family by international adoption. First, they adopted two sisters from South Korea, and then two Korean brothers. Later, they adopted children from the Philippines, Romania and Brazil.

“There was no program—no plan. As we learned about these kids, we just answered, ‘Yes,’” he said.

Nearly 11 years after the first adoption, Williams’ marriage dissolved, and he spent the next three years as a single father.

“I don’t recommend that to anybody,” he said.

When he remarried, his new bride, Ruth, entered a household with 16 children still at home—good preparation for the doctorate she currently is pursuing in organizational leadership.

“It’s very demanding—very hard,” Williams said, reflecting on the challenges of parenthood. “Of course, there’s the challenge of time. Obviously, it couldn’t be the same with 19 children as it would for any only child. But we made the time. We always tried to be together at breakfast.

“And I did everything I could to be there for all their sporting events. That’s 21 years of Little League baseball. To do that, it means you’ve got to give up some stuff—no golf, no fishing trips. They needed me to be there.”

Williams sees fatherhood as a sacred calling and one of the vital dimensions of manhood, along with character, boldness and leadership.

He writes about these aspects of biblical manhood in a new book, The Warrior Within, drawing his inspiration from a fairly obscure Old Testament character—Asher—whose legacy was tucked away in the middle of a tedious genealogical list in 1 Chronicles.

“Asher had a terrible press agent,” Williams quipped.

Williams discovered Asher about two years ago when he was in Peoria, Ill., to speak at Northwoods Community Church. After the Sunday morning worship service, Pastor Cal Rychener drove him to the airport, but Williams learned his flight to Orlando was delayed due to Hurricane Frances.

As he waited at the ticket counter hoping to catch a flight home, Rychener told Williams if he ended up being marooned in Peoria all week, at least he could be his guest at the Seven-Forty Club—a men’s prayer breakfast and Bible study that meets at 7:40 a.m. on the first Saturday each month.

Williams asked why the group meets at such an odd time, and Rychener explained the men take their cue from 1 Chronicles 7:40. The verse describes the 26,000 descendents of Asher as “heads of families, choice men, brave warriors and outstanding leaders.”

Williams decided the descendents of Asher embodied the key qualities to which godly men should aspire, and that example inspired his book.

His publisher rejected the book’s original working title, Four Secrets of Asher. Williams settled on the warrior metaphor because of his own background in athletics.

“In sports, it’s the ultimate tribute to call someone a warrior,” he said. “It means he’s a gamer. In baseball, he’s a grinder. He shows up every day. You don’t have to push him; he’s self-motivated. He plays hurt. And he never cuts a corner. Those are high words of praise to an athlete.”

Most men want a challenge, and being a godly father is a tough assignment, Williams asserted.

“There’s no question,” he said. “These are tough times to be raising children.”

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: 9/29/06

Cottagemates reunited at
TBCH Reunion after 40 years

By Miranda Bradley

Children At Heart Foundation

ROUND ROCK—Clutching an old black-and-white photograph securely tucked in a plastic zipper bag, Neal Green got out of his car and set foot on the Texas Baptist Children’s Home grounds for the first time in more than 40 years.

It didn’t take Green long to find exactly what he wanted. And when he did, he burst into tears.

He saw Butch Duty and other former cottagemates from his days at the children’s home for the first time since they lived on campus together. This year’s alumni reunion brought together the two childhood friends, along with two other cottagemates. As boys, they had been inseparable.

Green, who had been removed from an abusive home, cried most nights, remembering his previous experiences. The boys in his cottage, he said, reassured him, comforting him until he was peaceful enough to sleep. “When I met Butch, all of these guys, it was like finding the other part of me,” Green said. “These guys put sunshine into my life.”

As residents, the boys lived in one of many cottages that still stand on the children’s home grounds. Not much has changed since their stay in the 1960s. Even the children, they noted, are basically the same. Each cottage provides a structured environment for children, just as it did back then. Children still adhere to a curfew, and there still are consequences for disobeying campus rules.

“I can remember buffing those hardwood floors” in the cottage as punishment for rule-breaking, said former resident Dan Kinney. “I was so little, I could walk under the handle of the buffer. I certainly don’t think I did a very good job; I bumped into every door in the place.”

Green, Duty and their cottagemates had their share of chores, especially after some of their shenanigans. Duty recalled sinking a bus—accidentally, of course—during a cottage camping trip.

“We were all just goofing around while the bus was parked, you know, pretending we were driving, when we noticed someone heading our way,” he said. “In my rush to get out of the bus, I guess I flipped off the emergency brake, and down the hill it went. Just the taillights were sticking up out of the lake.”

That incident went unpunished because no one would confess to the crime. Four years and two alumni reunions ago, Duty finally came clean. “I figured they couldn’t do much to me now,” he joked.

Another time, the boys accidentally destroyed a hay barn on campus land that had been leased to a cattle-owner. “We had to work for that farmer an entire summer to make up for that one,” Kinney said.

Eventually, the boys went their separate ways, but they never forgot their friends at Texas Baptist Children’s Home.

“We were like family,” Duty said. “It was like having a bunch of brothers. We fought like brothers and loved like brothers.”

Green agreed, saying: “Coming to the home was my first introduction to God. I saw the same parents show up every day, dependable people to rely on, and they helped me set guidelines for myself that I wanted to give to my children. I have been so very blessed, so very blessed.” 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: 9/29/06

Focus on missions involvement highlights student event

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

ARLINGTON—More than 2,500 college students traveled across Texas to learn how they could make a difference on their campuses this year in the name of Christ—and many of them started by making a difference in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

More than 1,000 participants in Focus, a Baptist General Convention of Texas-sponsored event for college students, worked to repaint church walls, minister to children and meet physical needs of people in the area.

January Crumpton, who attended Focus with other students from Navarro College Baptist Student Ministries, said the missions projects are a vital part of the overall Focus learning environment, which also included seminars, messages by Matt Chandler from The Village Church in Highland Village and music by worship leader Charlie Hall.

The group from the Navarro BSM worked with a team from Monument Baptist Church in Deer Park to paint the walls of a church in an apartment complex and ministered to children who attend the congregation’s services.

Holly Clark, who just started at Navarro, said Focus helped her get to know other people involved in the school’s BSM, a sentiment echoed by other college students. Fellowship between students helped them understand there are friends who can help them through tough times, she noted. People grow together while studying the Bible and doing ministry projects together, she added.

“If you’re a new student or even if you’re not, you’re not the only one going through struggles,” Crumpton said. “God is there for you, no matter what.”

Sacha Towery of Monument Baptist Church enjoyed the opportunity to help people, especially the children.

“Being able to help makes me feel proud—makes me feel like I’m doing something, makes me feel like I’m making a difference in the kid’s lives,” she said.

Emily Wilcher, Bible study leader at the apartment church, said the college students strengthened the church’s ministry to a complex that consists of 367 units.

“It’s just like we’re multiplying ourselves—hands and feet,” she said. “We’re doing things that we couldn’t do. (The students) bring energy. It helps us grow the church.”

In addition to hands-on missions involvement, Focus participants also donated about $9,000 to support Go Now Missions, the BGCT student mission program. Focus raised an additional $2,000 for Go Now Missions through a silent auction of items collected by student missionaries this summer.

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.