Posted: 4/28/06
| Cain’s sacrifice never had a prayer of a chance to please God. |
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: 4/28/06
| Xianz.com bills itself as a Christian alternative to social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook |
By Hannah Elliott
Associated Baptist Press
DALLAS (ABP)—The Internet can be a scary place, at least for the parents of teenagers flocking to social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook. Teens see them as places to keep up with friends and make new ones online. But many parents imagine only faceless predators trolling chat rooms for unsuspecting teen victims.
Enter Xianz.com, a “social networking platform” that caters to a Christian crowd, offering some of the same socializing tools as MySpace but in what organizers call a “safe environment for teens.”
Xianz.com—pronounced “zans,” with the “x” representing the Greek initial for “Christ”—began at the end of 2005. Still in its beta mode—a high-tech trial run—the website has only about 4,500 members so far. But founders Robbie Davidson and Bob Hutchins see great things ahead.
Backed by a marketing company called Buzzplant and Praiz.com, the Nashville-based Xianz started in part in response to the bad press directed toward MySpace—vulnerability to predators, questionable postings, and the like.
“MySpace was really letting anything go,” Davidson said. “A lot of people are wanting a safe alternative.”
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Thanks to pressure from school and law-enforcement officials, MySpace recently hired Hemanshu Nigam, director of consumer security outreach and child-safe computing at Microsoft, to oversee safety and privacy programs.
That’s quite a task for MySpace, which has more than 66 million users and gains 250,000 new ones each day. It’s the fourth-largest site on the net in terms of pages viewed, according to Financial Times.
For some competing websites, stats like those are intimidating. For the founders of Xianz.com, however, such staggering numbers only underscore the need for a safe Christian alternative.
Just last month, MySpace removed 200,000 “objectionable” profiles from its site in an effort to protect against predators and identity theft—especially for the teen users who tend to gravitate to networking sites.
The items removed involved “hate speech” or sex-related material, said Ross Levinson, head of the Internet division of News Corp, Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate, which bought MySpace for $580 million.
Davidson said Xianz uses safeguards like invite-only login rights and chat rooms segregated by age.
Some observers see such safeguards as only a minor impediment to hackers with less-than-charitable motivations.
“Sounds to me like an open invitation for pagan hackers to have some fun,” said blogger Alan Hartung, general editor of the Christian website theooze.com and former host of the radio show, A Different Perspective.
There’s another problem with Christian-alternative sites, say Hartung and others. “Xianz does not appeal to me, nor do I want my children to blog their lives inside an artificially created goldfish bowl that only seems like it will be safe from undesirables … namely non-Xianz,” Hartung wrote.
Ken Satterfield, a father and marketing specialist, said anonymity of the Internet causes people to divulge personal information they ordinarily wouldn’t share. The Christian label on Xianz.com or Swordwalk, another Christian site, causes some people to let down their otherwise careful guard against strangers, he said.
“There is a tremendous freedom in sharing information with a faceless person via the Internet,” Satterfield, marketing coordinator at the Missouri-based Baptist newspaper Word & Way, said in an e-mail interview. “The acceptance found when sharing personal information online that you wouldn’t do in person and (the) ability to find an accepting audience is why good marriages break up and hate groups thrive online.”
As a parent, Satterfield said, he also struggles with the choice between shielding his children from potentially harmful media and letting them learn how to navigate the world on their own.
“I welcome a safe environment for my boys, but … I think there is too much of a tendency to isolate ourselves behind the church walls,” he said. “The key is developing young adults who can interact with the world in a discerning way and who avoid going too deep in uncharted waters without a parent or trusted adult, teacher or student minister.”
Contrary to popular belief, the site organizers say, Xianz.com is not a “Christians-only” site. Davidson said any and all users are welcome, as long as they abide by site rules. Site rules were not posted on user pages at the time of this writing.
Xianz.com’s “growth-rate has been absolutely incredible,” Davidson said, and organizers plan to unveil an updated version May 25.
Davidson said the lack of questionable advertisements is reason enough for Christians and non-Christians alike to want to join. New users find the site “refreshing,” he said. “The advertising is enough to get a lot of people interested.”
Most of Xianz.com is accessible by invitation only, and it is geared toward providing Christians with “a good time of fellowship,” Davidson said. Nonetheless, he and Hutchins—who met while working together at another Christian website—concede users with malicious motives might be able to access the site.
New technology, which allows dynamic content updates and real-time conversations, separates Xianz.com from other networking sites, Davidson stressed. Mood tags for users and welcome notes to new members lend a sense of community and personality, he said.
The Christian site also offers similar services to MySpace—customized profiles, music, video clips, instant messaging and blogs.
It’s the bloggers, though, who have spoken out most vehemently against the new site. While some welcome it as a place for Christians to interact in an inviting atmosphere, others decry it as a sorry excuse for marketing to an unsuspecting Christian crowd.
Some, like the bloggers at Bene Diction, said it was inevitable that a Christian social networking site would appear on the heels of the MySpace success. In a recent post on Bene Diction, a blogger wrote that, while social networking plays a “critical” role in “our busy world,” faith communities should not charge money for “righteous MySpace wannabes.”
“The sad thing is the market is there, the fear is there, the money is there, the self-righteousness is there, all offered up as healthy alternatives,” one blogger wrote. “Sooner rather than later, the difficulties any social networking site deals with will also be there. Technology is only an extension of real life, and people are going to be hurt.”
Counselor Vicki Hollon first got involved in MySpace as a way to shield her 17-year-old son from that possible hurt. She thought if she created her own MySpace page, she could keep closer tabs on her son’s online activities. Now, all her grown children have pages as well, and the family—with members in New York, Kentucky and Illinois—uses those pages as a way to communicate.
Hollon, executive director at the Wayne Oates Institute in Louisville, Ky., said sites like MySpace can provide healthy ways to express creativity and individuality. While she doesn’t think there’s anything “inherently evil” with either a secular or a Christian chat room, she said the Christian affiliation will do nothing in itself to exclude adult predators.
The “bottom line is going to depend on who is present,” Hollon said via e-mail. “Do the youth have friends, or are they isolated and searching for friends? Who is facilitating the site? Who is setting and supervising ground rules? (Xianz.com) can be used for good or bad. It depends on who feeds the vacuum.”
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: 4/28/06
Volunteers for China—a Christian humanitarian organization—needs teachers to serve in a variety of settings this summer.
The China Christian Council English program needs one additional teacher for a team that will provide English instruction to pastors and other church leaders. The volunteers will leave the United States June 27 and return Aug. 6.
Qingdao University in Shandong Province has requested two English teachers for its summer program. Volunteers would need to leave the United States by June 28 in order to begin service July 1. They will return Aug. 17.
The Amity Foundation summer English program has a team of three volunteers that needs a fourth teacher who can leave the United States July 1 and return July 31.
Changzhi Medical College needs teachers in medicine and related professions to lead basic courses and workshops to students and staff. Volunteers will leave the United States July 6 and return July 23.
Changzhi Vocational College needs additional team members to teach college students and middle school English teachers. Volunteers will leave the United States July 6 and return Aug. 6.
College students are needed to participate in a cultural exchange program with Chinese college students. The program offers the opportunity to learn Chinese culture while making friends and building relationships. Groups depart the United States June 29, and students may return either July 21 or Aug. 6.
For more information, visit www.volunteersforchina.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: 4/28/06
By John Hall
Texas Baptist Communications
DALLAS—The Baptist General Convention of Texas’ Christian Life Commission set a goal of raising $750,000 through the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger this year.
The money will be distributed to specific projects throughout Texas, the United States and the world through the BGCT, other Baptist state conventions, the Coopera-tive Baptist Fellowship and the Baptist World Alliance.
Groups send requests for funds to the Christian Life Commission, which then chooses which can be funded and at what level.
“In the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger, Texas Baptists have the opportunity to fund carefully chosen, holistic Baptist ministries to people in need across the globe,” said Joe Haag, CLC director of program planning. “The offering is a remarkable mission opportunity to be the presence of Christ in the very places Jesus calls us to be present.”
Last year, more than $755,000 was given to the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger. Funds given through the offering in one year establish the budget for projects the next year.
If the budget is met, $323,000 will be used for hunger relief projects in North America. The money will be spent in Canada and Mexico, as well as in Texas, Alabama, California, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, New York, Wyoming and Washington, D.C.
Eastern Europe is slated to receive a larger amount of money from this year’s offering than last year. More than $61,000 is to be distributed in Estonia, the Republic of Georgia, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania and Ukraine.
Africa will get nearly $111,000 from the offering. That money will go to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia.
The budget allocates $40,000 to South America—$30,000 for the extensive ministry of Reencontro in Niteroi, Brazil, and $10,000 for ministry in Ecuador.
The Texas offering will send $40,000 to the Middle East, including Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey.
Ministries in countries such as Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos and Thailand are each to receive a portion of the $174,450 slotted for the Far East. Asia and the Far East are allocated a greater portion of this budget compared to the previous year’s budget.
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: 4/28/06
By Eric Guel
Texas Baptist Communications
HOUSTON—A Fort Worth pastor urged more than 2,500 Hispanic youth and singles at the Texas Baptist Hispanic Youth and Singles Congreso to “get into Jesus.”
“I’m here to ask you tonight: What are you into?” said Julio Guarneri, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Getsemani in Fort Worth. “We want to belong to a group, a community; we’re looking for meaning. I’m here tonight because I’m into Jesus.”
| Julio Guarneri |
While urging the young people to direct their passions toward Jesus, he offered several clarifications, helping conference participants to not misconstrue the meaning of “getting into God.”
Guarneri warned of the danger of searching for a spiritual feeling, because when the feeling fades, people tend to blame the church and God.
“It’s not about getting into a feeling,” he said. “You know when you get goose bumps when you’re in a place of worship? That’s when you get a feeling. There’s nothing wrong with feelings, but what happens when the feeling is gone?”
He urged listeners to not equate religious activity with commitment to Christ.
“Activity is how some people measure their spirituality,” he said. “The assumption is that the less involved you are in activities, the further you are from God. I think activity can be an idol in our lives that takes the place of intimacy with God.”
| See Related Articles: • Hispanic Baptist youth challenged to get into Jesus • Hispanic Texas Baptist Congreso calls for immigration reform |
Guilt is not tantamount to spiritual growth, Guarneri explained.
“God’s purpose for putting conviction in your heart is to restore communion with you,” he said. “If you’re moving from guilt trip to guilt trip, you’re missing the point. He wants to lead you to repentance.”
The focus, Guarneri emphasized, should be a growing personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
“Get into Jesus as a person,” he said. “Get to know him, get to love him. He loves you.”
Congreso, sponsored by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, drew participants from more than 130 Hispanic Texas Baptist congregations.
“Our goal was to really push for the fact that we can impact our world,” said Tiny Dominguez, BGCT Hispanic student events coordinator. “Hispanics aren’t a missions project. We’re called to do missions to the world.”
Sabrina Perrazas from Christian Fellowship Church in Midland said Congreso changed her life.
“This was the first time I have really felt the Holy Spirit inside of me,” she said. “I’m going to live for Jesus.”
Perrazas’ experience was not an anomaly, Congreso President Victor Cuellar said.
“Quite a few people made decisions for Christ; we actually ran out of decision cards on Thursday night,” he said. “By that standard, it was an awesome weekend.”
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: 4/28/06
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| Alcides Guajardo (left), president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, and Albert Reyes, president of the Baptist University of the Americas, addressed the Texas Baptist Hispanic Youth and Singles Congreso. | |
By Eric Guel
Texas Baptist Communications
HOUSTON—Hispanic Texas Baptist youth and single young adults have called for immigration reform.
Their proclamation, issued April 15, called on government leaders to “pass just and compassionate legislation that addresses stronger border security, respect for the law and a process for citizenship with regard to U.S. undocumented immigrants.”
The proclamation was read to more than 2,500 Hispanic Texas Baptists gathered for a “solemn assembly,” by Alcides Guajardo, president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas. The assembly took place at the end of the Baptist General Convention of Texas-sponsored Texas Baptist Hispanic Youth and Singles Congreso.
The formal announcement focused on Jesus’ ministry to the downtrodden.
“Jesus placed the poor and the oppressed at the center of his mission on earth,” the proclamation states.
Albert Reyes, president of the Baptist University of the Americas and BGCT immediate past president, presided over the assembly.
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| Read the text of the proclamation here. |
“You have come together today in solemn assembly to pray, to seek God’s face and to pray for our nation’s leaders,” he said. “You have come to seek liberty and justice for all.”
The event—juxtaposed against recent school walkouts and massive demonstrations throughout the nation—was tranquil and contemplative.
“I think it’s critical for Texas Baptist leadership to demonstrate that, in the midst of crisis, we respond peacefully, in a law-abiding fashion and that we respond by prayer and action,” Reyes said.
Some assembly participants or their family members could be undocumented immigrants, Reyes noted, and this issue is pertinent to their lives.
“It’s not only about them; it’s about us,” he said. “It’s about how we’re going to respond to this issue.”
John Sanchez, a graduate student at Baylor University who attended the assembly to show his support for a peaceful resolution to the immigration issue, echoed Reyes’ sentiments.
| See Related Articles: • Hispanic Baptist youth challenged to get into Jesus • Hispanic Texas Baptist Congreso calls for immigration reform |
“My parents were immigrants to this country,” he said. “This is an issue that’s very dear to me. I want to see our leaders—Baptist and otherwise—make the right decision on this because it’s going to impact the future of this nation for decades to come.”
Reyes urged young people at the assembly to seize the moment and take action.
“Do not let this moment die,” he said. “Follow the issues, continue to pray for our leaders, encourage your pastors and look for ways God will use you this week to minister to the poor, the prisoner, the blind and the oppressed in your community.”
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: 4/28/06
DALLAS—Twelve children gather in one apartment, shoving, climbing and maneuvering around the table, straining to listen to a couple of college students.
Every week, students from Dallas Baptist University take part in missionary journeys like this one to neighborhood apartments, making a practical difference in children’s lives.
“What can you tell me about Egypt?” DBU student Denae Johnson asked, as she held a laptop computer, displaying scenes from her recent trip to the Middle East. Her audience was a dozen youth at an efficiency apartment in Arlington.
| Dallas Baptist University students Megan Routh (left) and Denea Johnson share stories from the Bible with children at an Arlington apartment complex. |
“It’s sandy,” one boy answered.
“It looks like Mexico,” another said.
Each week, Johnson and her classmate Megan Routh host a one-hour Kids Club at this apartment complex. They share Bible stories and snacks, allow children to tell about their day, and then go out with them and play.
Partnering with Mission Arlington through DBU’s Baptist Student Ministry, several student teams hold Kids Clubs at various apartments throughout the week. A typical afternoon has 10 to 15 children from kindergarten to middle-school age.
“We have to bring God to where they understand, to show that he cares about their school work, their mom’s apartment and their everyday lives,” DBU student Sonia Lee said. “It’s more challenging than I thought it would be, but it is very rewarding too.”
Mission Arlington pioneered the apartment-ministry model two decades ago.
“Our definition of church is what we do 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Tillie Burgin, founder of Mission Ar-lington. She reports that Mission Arlington currently operates 265 apartment ministries a-cross Arlington, Grand Prairie and Dallas. Com-munity feedback is great, particularly from parents who appreciate volunteers helping children with homework and offering a safe after-school environment, she said.
Ashley Pinkston, a junior at DBU, has been working with Kids Clubs more than a year. “We’re able to have weekly interactions with the kids and develop a lasting relationship with them, which is unlike taking a short mission trip,” she explained, “I think that is really important when ministering to kids.” 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: 4/28/06
Sometimes, our mail carrier is so annoying. If he were a nicer and more thoughtful guy, he would sort through our stack every day and throw away all the junk that obviously doesn’t belong in our mailbox.
Come to think of it, he could provide a terrific public service by surveying his route and trashing stuff we don’t want. You know what I mean: Flyers for aluminum siding and credit cards and time-share condominiums and alternative sources of essential vitamins and nutrients. The only benefit all this mail provides is the exercise I get by carrying it straight from the mailbox by the front curb to the recycling bin in the garage out back.
Initiating a preemptive strike on junk mail would be nice and good, and I’d appreciate it enormously. Conversely, I’d like to see our postal carrier held personally responsible for delivering malicious, offensive and mean-spirited mail.
Sometimes, of course, he can’t know, unless he develops X-ray vision and can see if people actually sign their letters. But anonymous mail doesn’t bother me, since my assistant at work, Beth, tosses it for me, and I never know it arrives. Call that “stress-reduction by mail-elimination.”
But some of the offensive mail comes clearly marked to my home. Like the packet of material that recently arrived from the American Association of Retired Persons, who cordially invited me to join their Baby Boomer-burgeoning ranks. Who (or maybe it’s what) do they think I am?
I don’t have any problem being associated with “American,” “Association” or “Persons.” But receiving an invitation to participate in something that insinuates I might now be or soon be “Retired” is, well, a bit insulting.
Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate retirees. Some of my favorite people are retired. I hope to be retired one day. But that seems like a long way off. And thinking about it very hard right now seems sorta morbid, like pondering who’ll replace my knees or what kind of casket I’ll want.
Just because I’m going to have a nice-round birthday this year doesn’t necessarily give them the right to pretend I’m about to vault over the next 15 years (give or take) and start thinking of myself as, well, retired.
On the other hand, I’ve heard an AARP membership card can get you into places cheaply. Half-price movies sound good. Maybe by the time I receive my card, it’ll get me half-off on other things, too, like having my ears waxed and the top of my head shined. This is too painful to contemplate.
Which is precisely why I try to avoid it. And why the AARP package came as such a shock. We live in a youth-oriented culture. We value energy, exuberance and enthusiasm of youth. Many of our close friends have started claiming “50 is the new 35,” which sounds great to a bunch of folks who quit buying birthday candles years ago.
Still, God did a good work by structuring life in phases. Each one has blessed Joanna and me uniquely, surprisingly, refreshingly.
So, maybe “Retired” won’t be such a bad label. Someday.
–Marv Knox
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: 4/28/06
The last time we met on this page, we talked about immigration and education. We discussed Texas’ march toward Hispanic-majority status and the necessity of educating Hispanic Texans. Specifically, we looked at two opportunities for improving lives as well as making our state stronger: (a) lowering the Hispanic dropout rate by at least 2 percentage points a year for at least 10 years, and (b) making education at the nine universities affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas accessible to Hispanics.
Elsewhere in that issue of the paper, we reported on how Albert Reyes, president of the Baptist University of the Americas, has called for U.S. immigration policy to reflect Jesus’ demand for justice for all people.
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Predictably, some readers appreciated neither the editorial nor Reyes’ remarks. Their complaints followed a familiar theme: The church should take care of poor people, and the state should butt out. Of course, none of the complainers could cite a single church that is providing its prorated share of service to the poor—a proportionate ministry that, if copied by all the other Christian churches in the community, would be sufficient to meet the needs of the very young and very old and the disabled and vulnerable who live there. None of them offered to demonstrate that they have anted-up tithes-and-offerings sufficient to provide their share of their church’s share of all the care they say “the church” is supposed to offer. By the way, I’m batting 1.000 on that request—never have had anyone take me up on it.
As I listened to one long and angry voicemail (she said “socialist” at least three times and threw “liberal” in for good measure), I recalled one of the final—if not the last—speeches made by Phil Strickland, the longtime executive director of the BGCT Christian Life Commission and one of the finest champions of care for those whom Jesus called “the least of these.” In his last days, he asked a question that consumed him for decades: Why—in the buckle of the Bible Belt, in the state with the largest Baptist population, with churches on practically every corner, with a CLC in operation for 50 years—why does Texas rank at or near the bottom in so many indicators of compassion: Support for abused and disadvantaged children, education, single-parent families, the elderly, the disabled, and on and on?
Suppose you concur with the rationale that care for poor people is the job of “the church” and not “the government”—Phil Strickland’s question remains: Why are vulnerable people so bad off in Texas? With all our churches and all our Christian wealth, if we truly believe it’s our job to minister to “the least of these,” why don’t we? Even if you don’t believe in charity, then why don’t we have enough church-run and church-funded programs to train all the able-poor up out of poverty, provide Christian foster care and adoptive homes for every neglected and abused child, and offer dignified care for every person who gets old between the Red River and the Rio Grande? And even if you say, “The job’s too big,” then why don’t we at least try?
The reason stems from a classic paradox: Our strength is our weakness.
Texans, particularly Texas Baptists, always have been big on personal responsibility. We value independence, strength and self-reliance. So, we tend to question or look down on people who don’t possess those virtues. Similarly, we historically emphasized personal morality. We even joked about being known for what we’re against—smokin’, drinkin’ and dancin’. Joking aside, we defined morality as sins of the flesh. And just as we exalted personal responsibility, we made personal morality—sins we don’t commit—our talisman of virtue. Moreover, the raunch and promiscuity of our media-soaked culture has narrowed our parameters of morality to sex: We’re moral people if we don’t fornicate, adulterate, engage in homosexual acts and abort babies.
Problem is, that’s too narrow a definition of morality. Jesus talked about caring for the poor many times more often than he talked about sex. In fact, he seemed to have a soft spot—a measure of grace that makes us squirm when we think about it—for sexual sinners.
If we’re going to recapture the morality of Jesus, we’ve got to become a people who care about the things Jesus cared about. The gospels don’t mince words: Jesus cared an awful lot about poor people. If we want to think of Texas as being a moral place, then Texas ought to be known as the state that cares the most for the youngest and oldest, for the least and lost and vulnerable.
Our public morality must eclipse our private virtue.
Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard.
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: 4/28/06
By Robert Marus
ABP Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (ABP)—President Bush’s lieutenant for promoting government funding for faith-based social programs announced he is leaving his post.
Jim Towey, director since 2002 of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, will leave at the beginning of June to become president of St. Vincent College, a small Benedictine Catholic school in Latrobe, Pa.
“Under his leadership, the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives has applied the compassion of America to help solve some of our most challenging problems,” Bush said. “His work on behalf of the poor and the sick has improved lives. I admire Jim for his compassion, his faith and his sense of humor.”
| Jim Towey resigned as director of the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Before coming to work at the White House, he served as a pro bono lawyer for Mother Teresa for a dozen years. (Photo by Tyrone Turner/RNS) |
In his White House role, Towey has pushed hard to boost the faith-based plan—garnering him both plaudits from some religious conservatives and criticism from supporters of strong church-state separation.
At a press conference following his announcement, Towey told reporters he still believes in the project.
“President Bush’s faith-based and community initiative is deeply rooted in America’s heartland. It’s established. It will continue to bear fruit for years and years to come,” he said. “And I thank God for President Bush’s leadership on an initiative that has faced a steady headwind from Day 1.”
Towey’s tenure, and the office itself, have proven controversial. Opponents of direct government funding for pervasively religious charities cited church-state concerns in criticizing Bush’s move. Some successfully sued programs funded under the plan for violating the First Amendment’s ban on government endorsement of religion.
Towey, in characteristic style, was dismissive of such criticism during his farewell press conference.
“This is the death rattle of the voices that were heard when President Bush first took office, because the wall between church and state is still standing,” he said. “But faith-based groups have been welcomed into the public square, and the poor have benefited from having access to their effective programs.”
Both his predecessor in the office, John DiIulio, and a former Towey aide, David Kuo, ended up criticizing the White House’s handling of the issue after their departures. They and other former supporters of the plan have suggested Bush’s political operatives simply have been using it to gain support among religious voters—without actually expanding funding for social services.
But Towey said he believes the initiative is close to Bush’s heart.
“What I find exciting … is that this initiative, whenever it’s needed President Bush’s engagement, he’s been there. Never once in over four years when I went into see him was he opposed to a new initiative,” he said.
He also predicted the program’s continued existence, no matter who succeeds Bush in office when his term expires in 2009. “I think you’ll be talking about this for generations. Because we will never help our poor if we don’t give them reasons to change, and government can’t love, and government cannot bond and connect with our poor. They will never have the trust of the poor like a rabbi or a preacher or some of these grassroots groups that may have no particular faith at all,” he told reporters.
Towey’s sometimes-pugnacious rhetoric in defense of the plan has frustrated its critics. For instance, during his departure press conference, Towey twice called those critical of the initiative “secular extremists,” echoing a charge he has made in the past.
One critic of the faith-based plan, Holly Hollman of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, said that sort of rhetoric is unnecessary.
“On several occasions, the BJC voiced its concerns to him and sought ways to work together more constructively,” she said. “Unfortunately, Towey never seemed to recognize that people of faith criticized the initiative precisely because of their faith. The initiative diminishes the role of religion by threatening the independence of houses of worship, funding religious discrimination and blurring the line between church and state that protects religious freedom.”
Welton Gaddy, president of the Washington-based Interfaith Alliance and pastor of Northminster Baptist Church in Monroe, La., called on Bush to use the occasion to disband the faith-based office.
“Mr. President, for the sake of religious liberty, please stop mixing religion with politics in the appropriations process and stop violating the Constitution by sponsoring and funding favored religious groups,” he said in a press release issued shortly after the announcement.
In his press conference, Towey touted the program’s successes during his tenure.
“I’ll leave this office, after proudly serving here for four years, deeply grateful for the results and accomplishments that we’ve achieved,” he said. “The court has upheld repeatedly the initiative is constitutional.”
Chip Lupu, a law professor who monitors the legal state of the initiative for the nonpartisan Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy, said Towey’s assertion isn’t entirely accurate. While federal courts have turned away two broad challenges to the entire program, results for the other recent lawsuits challenging specific religious programs as First Amendment violations have been far more mixed.
“It is true, no court has said the initiative taken as a whole is unconstitutional,” said Lupu, who teaches at George Washington University Law School. “But (Towey) knows that, in the cases in the lower courts that are initiative-related, there are five or six—and they’ve lost almost every one.” In addition, he noted, similar lawsuits are pending in other federal courts.
Lupu also criticized Towey’s use of rhetoric. The faith-based chief has been counter-productively combative in his characterizations of the initiative’s critics, he said.
Lupu also questioned two of Towey’s favorite assertions that, when read together, could reasonably be viewed as mutually exclusive. The first is that people’s spiritual needs must be addressed when providing social services, so government should fund groups that do so. The other is that the administration is, nonetheless, ensuring that explicitly religious activities provided by those groups won’t receive tax dollars, because that would be a clear constitutional violation.
“Jim Towey left office the same way he occupied it; he never wanted to take that stuff seriously, he never wanted to engage it straightforwardly,” he said.
The 49-year-old Towey is a Florida native who previously headed a nonprofit group dedicated to helping the elderly. He also served under Gov. Lawton Chiles (D) as the head of Florida’s Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. Towey, who holds a law degree, also served 12 years as the chief U.S. attorney representing the late Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity order of nuns.
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: 4/28/06
| BGCT Church Starter Roy Cotton and leaders of High Pointe Baptist Church and the Fellowship at High Pointe examine the demographics of their community. |
By John Hall
Texas Baptist Communications
CEDAR HILL—The neighborhood around High Pointe Baptist Church is 43 percent African-American, but the church was nearly all Anglo.
The church unsuccessfully tried multiple times to minister to its neighbors, but families simply were not interested in coming to the church.
So High Pointe started an African-American church, The Fellowship at High Pointe, and the community has responded. More than 50 people attend the new church’s services. Because they see High Pointe cares about its community, African-American families also have started attending High Pointe Baptist Church.
The growth has convinced Keith Thompson, High Pointe’s minister of missions, that church starting is key to expanding God’s kingdom.
“That’s what we see as the most strategic and effective way to grow the kingdom,” Thompson said.
Church starting has become an integral part of High Pointe Baptist Church, said Pastor Toby Snowden. Members see people professing Christ as Lord, and they see lives changing.
The church believes in church starting so much that it is looking to create a resource and training center for church planters called the Southwest Center for Church Planting. Through this new entity, Thompson hopes to help start congregations across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
High Pointe Baptist Church has joined the Baptist General Convention of Texas in its effort to start 1,500 churches by the end of 2010. High Pointe has voted to start 15 churches by the end of 2010.
Snowden believes the goal of 1,500 churches could revolutionize the spiritual landscape.
“If churches took it seriously, I think it’s touching the hem of the garment of revival.”
Church starting already has changed High Pointe.
“We’re excited about it,” Thompson said. “We think church starting is the way to go.” 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: 4/28/06
By George Henson
Staff Writer
WICHITA FALLS—While he believes in the importance of immigration reform, a Wichita Falls pastor doesn’t feel the May 1 boycott called for by many Hispanic leaders is the best approach. Instead, he has offered an opportunity for Christians to unite across ethnic and denominational lines for a prayer walk May 6.
Baldemar Borrego, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Nueva Esperanza in Wichita Falls and former officer of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, said he could not support the boycott because it would hurt the U.S. economy. He also fears many workers might lose their jobs because of their absence and feels children should be in school unless given permission from school officials to do otherwise.
Some other Hispanic religious leaders have looked askance at Borrego for his decision, but he insists he is doing the right thing. In Wichita Falls, a May 1 rally also was slated to include prayer, but Borrego said missing school or work to pray was unnecessary.
He is asking people who choose to attend the May 6 prayer walk to wear white T-shirts and carry only American flags.
The decision not to display Mexican flags initially met some opposition, he noted, but now most understand. Borrego told people that if many came carrying the flag of Mexico, “they will feel like they have been invaded by a bunch of illegal aliens.”
Borrego also asked people to consider how it would look if the situation were reversed.
“I am sure that if Americans paraded with American flags in another country, they would be immediately reprimanded by the local authorities,” he explained.
Borrego has asked that people of many ethnic backgrounds participate, and he pointed out many of the Hispanics planning to participate now are American citizens.
The prayer walk’s primary focus will be to pray for legislators as they make decisions concerning immigration reform, to pray for the families affected by those decisions and to pray for unity when opinions differ on so many important issues, he explained.
Borrego, a naturalized American citizen who was born in Mexico, said, “I am not ashamed of my origin, but I believe that if we think to live in this wonderful country, we must be participants and not only spectators.”
While some people have disagreed with his decision not to support the boycott, Borrego said his church has given him “100 percent support.” He feels the prayer walk is an important way to address the immigration reform question.
“This great nation has a lot of heart. They send missionaries all over the world, but right now, the world is already here,” he said.
Borrego has publicized the walk on the radio program he hosts on a local Hispanic radio station and expects 2,000 to 3,000 people to attend. The prayer walk is slated to begin at 9 a.m. at Third Street and Indiana Avenue in Wichita Falls.
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.