Posted: 2/02/07

New school rises near site of Amish killings

By Monica Von Dobeneck

Religion News Service

NICKEL MINES, Pa. (RNS)—An Amish one-room schoolhouse takes shape in a field at the end of a private drive behind a row of houses, within walking distance of the site of the school where a gunman shot 10 Amish girls Oct. 2, killing five of them.

An Amish man who did not give his name said the construction crew expects to open the school in March but would not comment further. The Amish community knocked down the original schoolhouse Oct. 12.

“We just want to be left alone,” he said.

Nickel Mines became the center of worldwide media attention after Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, lined up 10 girls and shot them after releasing the boys in the school. He then killed himself.

The boys and four of the surviving girls are attending classes in a garage. The fifth girl is disabled.

Mike Hart, treasurer of the Nickel Mines Accountability Committee, said Amish families whose children attended the old school will bring their children to the construction site several times while the building is going up to ease the transition to the new school.

“From what I’ve heard, it’s a bittersweet thing,” Hart said. “This is the final part of the process of moving on.”

At the nearby Bart Township Volunteer Fire Company, 60 percent of the firefighters are Amish, but they don’t talk about the shootings much, Chief Curt Woerth said.

“It’s been a tough couple of months. We’re just trying to move on,” he said. “I would say this is a new start, a way to leave the past behind. … Their strong faith has gotten them through it.”

A “comfort quilt” hangs in the front of the firehouse. It was made by children at a school in Ohio who sent it to children affected by the Sept.11 terrorist attacks in New York. From there, it went to comfort children affected by Hurricane Katrina. Now, it is in Nickel Mines.

Woerth said it will be passed on if there is another national tragedy affecting children—so for that reason, he hopes it never leaves.

Contributions are trickling into the Accountability Committee from people around the world who were touched by the shootings and the Amish reaction to them, which included forgiving the gunman and welcoming his widow.

The $3.6 million raised is being used for medical bills, counseling and transportation for the affected families. Some of the money will go toward the schoolhouse.

“The Amish school board has not presented us with the bills yet, but we don’t want that to be a burden to anyone,” Hart said.

The firehall gets about 100 letters a week from well-wishers, Woerth said. Immediately after the shootings, it received 800 letters a day.

“It’s amazing, the support of the world,” he said. “But there’s also something the Amish gave the world.”

Hart hopes the world doesn’t forget the Amish message of forgiveness.

“This has changed a lot of people’s lives,” he said. “Hopefully, the message is not a short-lived one.”

Monica Von Dobeneck writes for The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 2/02/07

Around the State

• The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor College of Christian Studies and church relations office are partnering with Bell Association to present a seminar titled “Avoiding the Rattlesnakes: Integrity in Ministry.” The seminar will begin at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 10 at Memorial Church in Temple. Featured speakers include Bill Carrell, dean of the College of Christian Studies; David How-ard, director of the Marriage and Family Christian Counseling Center; and Tom Henderson, director of missions for Bell Association. For more information, call (254) 295-4606.

• The seventh annual Baylor University Sacred Harp Singing is set for Feb. 10 in the Great Hall of Truett Theological Seminary. Singing school led by Donald Ross will be held from 9:30 a.m. until 9:50 a.m. The singing will be held from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. with a break for lunch. For more information, call (254) 644-2181.

• Dallas Baptist University has announced a doctoral program for educators—the Ed.D. in educational leadership. It will include both higher education and K-12 study tracks. The 60-hour program will require about three years to complete.

• Howard Payne University has announced the addition of five faculty members. Full-time faculty are Bill Fowler, assistant professor of Christian studies; and Derek Smith, assistant professor of physical science. Adjunct faculty additions include Donna Bowman, Christian studies; Peggy Hickey, modern languages; and Debra Powell, business administration.

• Twenty-one East Texas Baptist University students will be included in the 2007 edition of Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges.

• Betty Donaldson, vice president for institutional advancement at Wayland Baptist University since April 2004, has announced her retirement. Donaldson received a master’s degree from Wayland in 1989 and the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2003. During her tenure at Wayland, giving has steadily increased.

Anniversary

• Don Hessong, 15th, as pastor of Union Valley Church in Nixon, Jan. 7.

• Candido Gonzales, 40th, as pastor of Emmanuel Church in Bay City, Jan. 20.

Retiring

• Larry Heard, as director of missions of Top O’ Texas Association, Dec. 31. He served the association 20 years and was in ministry 50 years. Prior to serving the association, he was pastor of Rockdale Church in Stamford, First Church in Wellman, First Church in Matador, First Church in Bovina and First Church in Idalou. He and his wife, Ann, have moved to Amarillo, and he is available for supply and other ministry at (806) 355-3599.

Deaths

• James Bozeman, 89, Nov. 27 in Amarillo. He surrendered to preach in 1949 out of the oilfields of West Texas. He was asked by First Church in Kermit to be the first pastor of North Side Mission, later North Side Church. He then was pastor of Fullerton Church in Andrews, Inspiration Point Church in Fort Worth, First Church in Plains and Temple Church in Hereford, where he retired in 1980. He and his wife, Evelyn, participated in several mission trips and served several churches as interim in retirement, including International Church in Harrogate, England. He was preceded in death by his first wife in 1999. He is survived by his wife, Thelma; daughter, Ann Heard; three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

The Heights Church in Richardson is offering a 10-week music program for infant to toddler children. They can interact with a parent or grandparent in a time of music and movement. A class for babies birth through 17 months meets on Tuesdays from 9:30 a.m. until 10:20 a.m., and a class for toddlers 18 months through 3 years meets the same day from 10:30 a.m. until 11:20 a.m. Registration is required for the classes that begin Feb. 13. The cost is $35 per child. For more information, call (972) 231-6047, ext. 266.

• Jack Harris, 77, Jan. 9 in Rockport. A retired Baptist pastor, his last pastorate was at First Church in Hutto. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Michelle Harris; and brothers, Zane, Hazen and Kenneth. He is survived by his wife, Virginia; sons, Trey and Craig; daughters, Patti Malone and Carla Barron; brother, Don; sisters, Jewel Faught and Margie Frizzell; nine grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

• Bruce McKinley Sr., 85, Jan. 20 in Houston. He was a deacon 56 years, serving as chairman of deacons at Little York Church in Houston for many of those years. He was preceded in death by his grandson, Phillip McKinley; and great-granddaughter, Paige McKinley. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Louise; sons, Bruce Jr., Ron and Joe; daughter, Debbie Douglas; 11 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

• Tom McMillan Sr., 75, Jan. 21 in Fairfax Station, Va. A career missionary with the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, he served in Tanzania from 1959 until 1984. He twice served as missionary-in-residence at Hardin-Simmons University, first during the 1976-1977 school year and again during the 1981-1982 year. He was presented with an honorary doctorate from the school in 1984. Trustee James Parker established an endowed scholarship at HSU to honor McMillan and his wife in 1993 to benefit the children of missionaries. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Marilyn. He is survived by his wife, Linda; son, Tom Jr.; daughters, Melody Misu and Deborah Pillow; step-sons, Jason and Travis Mustain; step-daughter, Erin Mustain; and four grandchildren.

Events

• First Church in Dallas, in cooperation with the Dallas Area Parkinsonism Society, will host free weekly group exercise therapy beginning Feb. 8 at 10 a.m. For more information, call (214) 969-2452.

• Southwest Chinese Church in Stafford held an appreciation dinner for retired International Mission Board missionaries as a part of a winter emphasis on missions. The missionaries also told the congregation how they could best pray for missionaries. Mission-aries taking part and their places of service included Bob and Joan Caperton, Colombia; Titus and Fulga Dan, Australia; Doris Barnes, Kenya; Sam and Marian Longbottom, Vietnam and Taiwan; Todd and Doris Hamilton, Philippines; Gayle and Norma Stimson, France; Norman and Jeannie Wood, Africa; Vincente and Chonchita Co, Taiwan; Buddy and Sherry Gregg, Philippines and Europe; and Peter and Grace Huen, China. Peter Leong is pastor.

• First Church in Grapevine will host “Double Vision” Feb. 23-24. The conference encourages churches to embrace the vision of doubling Sunday school or small-group attendance within two years. Help is offered with outreach, fellowship, ministry and teaching. Church growth expert Josh Hunt will be the speaker for the adult track. Children and student tracks also will be available. Cost for the conference is $25, and includes a pizza dinner Friday night, continental breakfast on Saturday, and a copy of Hunt’s book You Can Double Your Sunday School in Two Years or Less. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. Register or get more information at www.fbcgrapevine.com. Mike Mowery is pastor

Revival

• First Church, Victoria; Feb. 24-25; evangelist, Michael Gott; pastor, Jim Shamburger.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 2/02/07

Beatles’ spiritual journey
followed long & winding road

By Bob Carlton

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Rock music writer Steve Turner grew up in a Christian home in Daventry, England. Like other teenagers who came of age in the 1960s, Turner was a huge Beatles fan.

“At that time, Christians weren’t too keen on rock and roll music, so people in the church generally weren’t too keen on the Beatles,” Turner said. “Yet, after a few years, the Beatles became interested in religious topics, so there was this interplay between religion and rock music that I became interested in.”

Forty years after John Lennon made his infamous and often misunderstood comment that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus”—spawning ban-the-Beatles protests—Turner explores the Fab Four’s spiritual quest in his latest book, The Gospel According to the Beatles.

Beatles (from top) George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr arrive in Portland, Ore., for a concert in 1965.

The 57-year-old Turner first wrote about the Beatles in 1969, and has since written A Hard Day’s Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song; The Man Called Cash: The Life, Love and Faith of an American Legend; and Trouble Man: The Life and Death of Marvin Gaye.

Although more than 1,000 books have been written about the Beatles, Turner says none has looked at their religious influences and insights as in-depth as his does.

The Beatles weren’t banned in Turner’s house when he was growing up—in fact, his parents bought him a copy of Beatles for Sale for Christmas in 1964—but they weren’t em-braced, either.

“I suppose my parents were like most parents at the time,” he recalled. “They thought their hair was too long, their heels were too high, their trousers were too tight and their music was too loud.”

Long before they became the Fab Four, though, each of the Beatles was influenced by religion—Paul McCartney and George

Harrison in the Roman Catholic Church and Lennon and Ringo Starr in the Church of England, Turner said. As he grew older, Turner embarked on a spiritual odyssey of his own, and he found inspiration in the music of the Beatles.

“They sort of validated the search for God, if you like,” he said. “For a long time, it seemed like rock music or pop music was almost like an alternative to religion.

“Religion seemed sort of dull and conformist, and rock and roll was sort of shiny and exciting, and the two didn’t seem to meet at all. Then when the Beatles started asking questions about meaning and singing songs like ‘Nowhere Man,’ they actually investigated religion.

“You had George Harrison quoting bits of the Bible—the kingdom of heaven is within, and things like that—and I was thinking, ‘Hmm, I think I’ve heard that before.’

“It seemed like the Beatles were suddenly on to something that you’ve been on to for a long time.”

“Nowhere Man,” which was off the Rubber Soul album, was “kind of the beginning of the (spiritual) quest” for the Beatles, Turner said.

“The music up until Rubber Soul had been sort of jaunty, I-love-you, you-love-me type of songs,” he said. “Then they started asking questions about the meaning of life, so you get ‘Nowhere Man,’ which is all about not having anything to believe in.

“Then there’s ‘Let It Be,’” he adds. “That has a reference to Mother Mary. Paul McCartney’s mother was called Mary, but he was aware that it had, I think he called it, a quasi-religious sort of gloss to the song.”

For the Beatles, and Turner, it was another step along a long and winding road.

“The Beatles were doing such great things,” he says. “I thought if you could absorb whatever the Beatles were absorbing, you could probably be as great as they were.”

Bob Carlton writes for The Birmingham News in Birming-ham, Ala.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 2/02/07

Texas CP 2006 receipts up slightly

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—Texas Baptists’ giving to the Baptist General Convention of Texas Cooperative Program increased by 2 percent in 2006.

Texas Baptists contributed nearly $40.9 million to the Texas Cooperative Program in 2006, enabling the BGCT to reach 99 percent of its adopted budget.

Giving to worldwide mission efforts through the BGCT also increased last year from $15.63 million to $15.85 million. Texas Baptist churches gave $13.9 million to the Southern Baptist Convention, $1.51 million to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and nearly $796,000 to BGCT worldwide causes.

The number of Texas Baptist churches following the BGCT adopted giving plan in 2006 increased 2.2 percent to 42.6 percent of BGCT-affiliated congregations.

“This is a continuation of a trend we’ve seen over the past four or five years that more churches are embracing the Texas adopted plan,” said David Nabors, BGCT chief financial officer.

Giving to Texas Baptist offerings also increased in 2006. Texas Baptists increased giving to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions 12.5 percent. They donated almost $4.9 million to the offering, just short of the $5.1 million goal.

Giving to the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger increased 10 percent in 2006 to about $738,000, which is slightly below the goal of $750,000.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 2/02/07

Book Reviews

Beyond Racial Gridlock: Embracing Mutual Responsibility by George Yancey

(IVP Books)

University of North Texas sociologist George Yancey is willing to ask the hard questions and talk about the tough issues that build barriers between races in this country. And he does it out of love of God and love for God’s people. This is a book written mainly for the church—that it would take the lead in racial reconciliation.

Yancey critiques four major models the secular world uses to try to fix racial problems in America. These approaches don’t work, he says, because they don’t take into account that sin is a reality and that humanity is full of it—depraved.

What are you reading that other Texas Baptists would find helpful? Send suggestions and reviews to books@baptiststandard.com.

As an African-American, Yancey adds to the humble tone of the book by vulnerably sharing some of his own hurts and sinful tendencies that give insight into the pains, fears and reactions of other minorities. Only by the different races listening to each other, owning up to sin and embracing mutual responsibility can Christians grow together and change the course of the past, he notes.

If pastors and lay leaders were to read this book and humbly take its principles to heart, we could see a change in race relations in this country, and our churches could be a mulitiracial witness to the world of reconciliation, healing and grace—all to the glory of God!

Greg Bowman, student minister

First Baptist Church

Duncanville

Lending Your Leadership: How Pastors are Redefining Their Role in Community Life by Nelson Granade

(Alban Institute)

Lending Your Leadership is about pastors and their leadership in the community. Granade, pastor of First Baptist Church in Wilkesboro, N.C., makes the case that the ministry of the church and the pastor is extended by the pastor’s community leadership.

Granade writes with detail and insight about leadership in our fast-changing culture. He combines background study and personal experience.

This North Carolina pastor maintains that the larger issues of the community call the pastor to be involved in more than just the role of critic or complainer.

Pastors’ schedules often leave little time for community in-volvement, and some are not inclined to that role, but the author makes the biblical and theological case for this broader role.

Bill Blackburn, president

Partners in Ministry

Kerrville

I Saw Him in Your Eyes by Ace Collins

(Vision Press)

Although I devoured I Saw Him in Your Eyes in one sitting, I wish I had savored each chapter, using them as 20 inspiring daily devotionals.

Ace Collins profiles such well-known Christians as television and movie star Dale Evans Rogers; Florida State University football coach Bobby Bowden; singers Larry Gatlin, Pat Boone, Charlie Daniels, Don Reid, Woody Wright and Cynthia Clawson; former Miss Alabama Denise Davis; Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy; authors Karen Kingsbury, James Scott Bell, Crystal Bowman and Terri Blackstock; ministry leaders Nancy Coen (Servant Ministries), Richard Stearns (World Vision), Jerry Burden (Gideons), John Cathcart (World Missionary Evangelism) and Fern Nichols (Moms in Touch).

Then he tucks into the book the not-so-famous Elizabeth Swank and Ron Bal-lard, a Sunday school teach-er and her paralyzed student, who tore down physical barriers for the handicapped in Fort Worth and throughout the United States.

However, Collins doesn’t dwell on the accomplishments of the famous. The book’s subtitle reads “everyday people making extraordinary impact.” So instead, he tells the stories of the everyday people who impacted them—the people in whom they saw Jesus—from family members to pastors, from acquaintances to unassuming church members.

Collins writes with assurance that as everyday people we can make an extraordinary impact if we, too, reflect Jesus in our eyes.

Kathy Robinson Hillman,

former president

Woman’s Missionary Union

of Texas

Waco

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 2/02/07

Baptist Briefs

Ethics conference scheduled. Christian Ethics Today will sponsor an ethics conference June 27 in Washington, D.C., to address “The minister and politics: How to be prophetic without being partisan.” The free conference is scheduled prior to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s general assembly, June 28-29. Featured presenters are prominent evangelical author Tony Campolo, Sojourners founder Jim Wallis, Minneapolis pastor Greg Boyd and Melissa Rogers, former general counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty.

Organizers deny politics behind Atlanta convocation. An ambitious plan to unite Baptists in North America around the compassionate message of the gospel is not secretly a plan to get Baptists to elect Hillary Clinton as president, one of the plan’s leaders said. Bill Underwood, a co-organizer of the effort with former President Jimmy Carter, said former President Bill Clinton’s offer to lend his star power to the upcoming Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant is not a covert political move. On Jan. 9, leaders of 40 Baptist denominations and organizations in the United States and Canada—led by Carter and “cheered,” as he put it, by President Clinton—announced a commitment to put aside social and theological differences to unite most Baptists behind an agenda of compassionate ministry. The effort will begin with the celebration, which is set for January 2008. But Richard Land, head of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and Rick Scarborough, a Lufkin-based Baptist minister who heads the Vision America organization, questioned the timing. Scarborough noted the January 2008 celebration is “not coincidentally nine months away from the next presidential election.”

South African pastor killed during Bible study. Phillip Mokson, founding pastor of Masiphumelele Baptist Church near Fish Hoek, South Africa, was shot and killed Jan. 22 as he taught a Bible study inside the church building. Family members including his wife, children and grandchildren witnessed the event. The gunman also shot and seriously wounded a young woman, who was known to have spurned his romantic advances, despite the efforts of another pastor to protect her. After others had left the church, the man reportedly reloaded, turned the gun on himself, and took his own life. The gunman had been baptized as a member in late 2006, and Mokson had sought to counsel him during a period of deep depression. The man, known as Vusi, had attempted suicide at least twice. On one occasion, Mokson had discovered him hanging inside the shack where he lived and cut him down.

Mission opportunities open in China for students. Short-term mission opportunities for college or university students are available between May and August through Volunteers for China. Students may work with fulltime Christian teachers at a medical college in Suzhou, May 14-31, to sponsor American culture events for Chinese college students. Students can participate in a cultural exchange with 150 Chinese college students in Changzhi, July 17 to Aug. 5. Participating exchange students who choose to remain in China Aug. 6-19 have the opportunity to lead an English-language camp for Chinese high school students in Changzhi. Also in July and August, students may teach conversational English or medical English for two-, three-, four- or six-week terms in Changzhi. Tentative cost per participant for each project is $1,000 to $1,200, plus roundtrip airfare. Longer term oral English positions also are available that provide a stipend, room and airfare. A valid United States passport is required for all projects. For more information, contact Ann or David Wilson at (865) 983-9852 or e-mail cen29529@centurytel.net.

Mercer student engagement ranks high. Mercer University has scored significantly higher than its peers on a major survey of student engagement and learning. The National Survey of Student results showed Mercer ranks above its peers in all five benchmark areas of the study—level of academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction, enriching educational experiences and supportive campus environment. Mercer also earned high marks for spiritual development, academic rigor and overall learning. The national survey assesses student involvement in the educational opportunities provided by colleges and universities nationwide. This year, approximately 260,000 first-year students and seniors on 523 college campuses nationwide participated in the survey.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 2/02/07

Carter defends Palestine book at Jewish university

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Religion News Service

WALTHAM, Mass. (RNS)—Former President Jimmy Carter faced critics at predominantly Jewish Brandeis University, apologizing for failing to make clear in a new book that terrorism is never justified as a political tool.

But Carter defended his book”s controversial title—Palestine Peace Not Apartheid—by telling a capacity crowd of about 1,700 that he aims to be “provocative” and draw attention to the fact “Palestinians are being terribly treated” in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Carter’s one-hour visit came amidst an ongoing storm of protest that erupted when his book hit store shelves in November. Prominent Jewish groups have denounced the man they regarded as a friend of Israel, and more than a dozen advisers at the Carter Center in Atlanta resigned in protest.

Carter received a standing ovation upon arrival and applause for many statements during the event, but student questioners nevertheless grilled him.

One asked whether he had meant to justify the use of terrorist tactics as a bargaining chip in a passage that says, “It is imperative that the general Arab community … make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the Roadmap for Peace are accepted by Israel.”

“That sentence was written in a completely improper and stupid way,” Carter said to applause.

“I apologize,” Carter said, adding that “acts of terrorism are not justified at any time or for any goal.”

In introductory remarks, Carter recast his book’s central argument, telling the crowd: “Israel will never find peace until it’s willing to withdraw from its neighbor’s land and to permit the Palestinians to exercise their basic human and political rights.”

Carter urged Brandeis students to visit the West Bank. There, he said, they will see firsthand how Palestinians have lost access to major roads and to much of their best land, and how the force behind some 500 checkpoints “makes the lives of Palestinians almost intolerable.”

One questioner suggested that the term “apartheid,” which is most often used to describe racially segregated South Africa, might exacerbate Middle East tensions rather than soothe them. But Carter stood by his decision to use it in the title.

“My bottom line is there have been no peace efforts for five years,” Carter said. “Palestinians are being terribly treated, and that treatment in this country is not well known. So I chose that word to be provocative.”

Carter’s indictment of Israel for building a security wall beyond its borders packs a sting in part because of his credentials. As president in 1978, he brokered the landmark Camp David Accords, which established a framework for peace between Israel and Egypt. In 2002, he received the Nobel Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts.”

Students said they turned out to hear arguments from a man who long had presented himself as an ally.

“He had always been pro-Israel and defending Israel, so I was surprised” by the book, said Lauren Papiernik, a freshman from Miami.

Carter confided surprise of his own as he recalled reaction he has received to the book.

“I’ve been hurt, and so has my family, by some of the reaction,” Carter said. “This is the first time I’ve been called a liar, a bigot, an anti-Semite, a coward and a plagiarist.”

Carter also rebutted suggestions that Saudi donations to the Carter Center have swayed his views: “I’ve received no benefit at all from these sources, and I never will.”

After the talk, graduate student Adam Kancher of New Orleans shared mixed reactions.

“When you use words like ‘apartheid,’ just like ‘holocaust,’ you bring up historical references, and it becomes a loaded word,” Kancher said. “I don’t think he addressed it well enough, (but) he didn’t have to come (to Brandeis), and he came, and for that I give him credit.”

Speaking at the same podium 40 minutes after Carter, Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz took the former president to task for trafficking in “simplicities” rather than “complexities.”

Palestinians have had numerous chances since 1938 to establish a state but “never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity,” Dershowitz said.

Despite an honorable track record as a peacemaker and mediator, Carter has taken sides now, he asserted.

“President Carter has become an advocate for a maximalist Palestinian view, rather than a broker for peace,” Dershowitz said.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 2/02/07

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 2/02/07

DOWN HOME:
How neat: Scholars defend messiness

Joanna walked into the room, a look of triumph lighting her lovely face. She carried a new edition of Time magazine, opened to a book review, which she laid in my lap.

“See?” she said.

What she meant was: “See, I’ve been telling you this for 30 years. I’m right; you’re wrong. Now, somebody has gone out and done a bunch of research that debunks your myth. It’s in a book, for everybody to read. So, I’m right and you’re wrong.”

That’s what she meant. But we’ve been together so long, all she had to say was, “See?”

Immediately, I saw. The headline told the tale: “Messy is the new neat.”

For years, she’s been trying to tell me I’m “too neat.” To my way of thinking, that’s like saying a slice of her chocolate pie is “too big” or a pot of coffee is “too fresh” or the Texas sky after a spring rain is “too clear.”

Some things just aren’t “too” anything.

And that goes double for neatness.

Of course, my friend Dan says he thinks my mother potty-trained me at gunpoint, and that’s why I’m so obsessive-compulsive about many things, including neatness.

So, I have developed (and I realize this may sound weird) a theology of neatness.

Think of the precise order of God’s universe. Consider the elegance of mathematical equations, the majestic structure of musical chords and the irrefutable symmetry of a DNA double helix. Ponder the clean and logical balance of an Oreo cookie, the delineation of light from darkness or the way unskilled and untrained bees build a perfect honeycomb. You just know God meant the world to be neat and orderly.

But Jo found this article about a book called A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder, by Eric Abrahamson, a professor at Columbia University, and David Freedman, who teaches at the University of California at Berkeley.

Abrahamson and Freedman contend that being neat “costs” too much. Neat people spend too much time picking up and straightening up, and that is counter-productive. Of course, Abrahamson admits he’s “a bit of a mess,” so how’s a neat person really supposed to trust him?

Abrahamson and Freedman’s best argument for maintaining a “moderately messy” lifestyle is creativity. As Exhibit A, they point to Earl Sutherland, whose cluttered desk somehow inspired him to discover how hormones regulate cells, a scientific feat that won him the Nobel Prize.

For all our married life, Jo’s been insisting what the Time article says Abrahamson and Freedman’s research proves: Time, energy and money can be better spent on something other than neatness.

Still, I can’t shake the holy notion that God, who created order out of chaos, wants us to go and do likewise—making messy things neat.

And if the Swedes ever give a Nobel Prize for being able to dress in a dark closet and come out with socks matching slacks and tie, shirt and jacket perfectly coordinated, only neatniks will make the final cut.

–Marv Knox

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 2/02/07

EDITORIAL:
Confusing, illogical, irresistible prayer

Sometimes, technology can be a burden. These days, it shadows most of us wherever we go. E-mail piles up faster and deeper than snow in a Panhandle blizzard. Take a trip, and you come home to a stream of voicemails long enough to make your ear fall off. And don’t even get me started about programming the video recorder.

But one area of modern technology is absolutely sweet, golden, wonderful. That would be speed dialing on my cell phone. At any moment, I can punch one of three numbers, and a moment later, I’m talking to one of the three most precious women in my life—my wife and our two daughters. They’re scattered from Coppell to Waco to Orlando. But thanks to cellular technology, their voices are never more than seconds away.

Maybe my mind is quirky, but I thought about my love affair with four cell phones—mine, and Joanna’s, Lindsay’s and Molly’s—as I contemplated our feature story in this edition of the paper. In a way (and I know this is a mundane analogy), prayer is very much like cellular technology. Hard as it is to imagine when I think about how much I love talking to my three girls, prayer is even better. Can you comprehend the significance of prayer? You can pause, redirect your thoughts and, in an instant, converse with the Creator of the universe, God Almighty.

Seems like I’ve been praying all my life. In fact, I can’t remember a time when prayer was not central. Almost as soon as I could speak, my parents taught me to pray—simple prayers of thanksgiving to God. As a child and later as a parent, mealtime prayers spiced breakfast, lunch and dinner as much as the black pepper and Tabasco sauce I love to pour on food. Most workday mornings for the past 11 years, I’ve “redeemed” the almost-unbearable Dallas morning commute by communing with God. And my favorite moments of our worship service are when the lights dim, heads bow and we spend time in solitude with God.

Still, I’ve got to confess. Prayer is the hardest part of my Christian life. Maybe that’s not true for you. I hope it’s not. But it is for me. A couple of things about prayer prey on my mind, and I doubt I’ll ever reconcile them:

• Sometimes, prayer seems like a dropped call on a cell phone. You know—you’ve been talking and realize nobody’s been on the other end of the line for several minutes. Prayer can be like that. Of course, this says more about me than it does about God. But sometimes, the complete otherness of God is disquieting. I find myself wishing God would speak. Preferably in English, but I’d take Spanish and try to figure out at least a few of the words.

• Intercessory prayer is the hardest. At least it’s hardest to make sense. If God is loving, then why must we beg God to do loving things for hurting people? If God is sovereign, then what difference does prayer make? God’s going to do what God’s going to do. And if God will indeed change God’s mind, then is prayer something like a cosmic referendum, where majority wins or at least a plurality rules? X-number of Christians pray for Mrs. Jones, and she goes into remission. X-minus-1 Christians pray for Mrs. Jones, and she dies. That doesn’t seem very just.

OK, maybe you’ve never struggled with prayers that bounce off the ceiling and back onto your head. And maybe you’ve never stayed awake late, late into the night wondering about the efficacy of baring your soul on behalf of someone you love. Good for you. But in the world where I live, rubber-ball prayers and serious questions about intercession are just part of the messy stuff of faith.

Still, I find myself irresistibly drawn to prayer. I’m compelled by two forces—obedience and need.

First, I pray because Jesus commanded us to pray. He said, “When you pray …,” not, “If you pray ….” We have the Lord’s command and model, so how could we refuse?

Second, and at least as important, I pray because I must. Just as I must talk to Joanna several times a day and I must visit with my young-adult daughters at least every few days, I must talk to God daily. So what if my pleas do not change God’s mind and shape God’s intentions? God loves me more than I love myself and wants to visit with me, to share my life. (Genesis clearly teaches this was God’s intention. Experience clearly confirms this is God’s desire.) The importance of prayer is building and maintaining a relationship with God, not dictating a cosmic wish-list. Prayer has much more to do with discerning God’s will for my life and conforming my will to God’s than bending God to my wishes. And for that matter, the best prayer happens when I am silent before God—listening, even when I cannot “hear.”

Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 2/02/07

Faith Digest

Christian literature distributors to merge. Two of the world’s largest distributors of Christian literature— the Colorado-based International Bible Society and British-based Send the Light—have announced their intention to merge. The Bible society, founded in 1809, has been focused on distribution of Bibles, working with partners such as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Campus Crusade for Christ, as well as churches and individuals who use its Bibles for evangelism. Send the Light, founded in 1957, helps Christian companies in the United States distribute a range of products—including books, music, tracts and home schooling materials—to European and other international locations.

Church of the Nazarene reports growth. Worldwide membership in the Church of the Nazarene has increased by one-third during the past decade, according to its recently released annual report. The church has 1.6 million members, having gained nearly 700,000 members since 1999. The church’s biggest increases have been outside the United States. Last year the church grew by 5.7 percent overseas, while domestic growth was less than 1 percent. The church has experienced a slight decline in service attendance in the United States and Canada, although Sunday school participation has gone up 1 percent. There are nearly 19,000 Church of the Nazarene parishes across the world; about 700 new churches were added in the last year.

Court nixes teachers’ scarves. A Bavarian court ruled Muslim teachers in southern Germany may not wear headscarves or any other symbol of their faith that could be construed to clash with Western or Christian values. The Islamic Religious Community of Berlin had filed a lawsuit to protest a Bavarian ban on teachers wearing headscarves. The Bavarian constitution calls for religious freedom, but it also calls for children in public schools to be raised by Christian standards. The court ultimately decided a constitutionally endorsed education was the more important goal, and allowing certain clothes and symbols could endanger the educational system in Bavaria. But the court ruling still means a nun’s habit is acceptable garb for a teacher, since that garment adheres to the constitution’s Christian standards. The case likely will be appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court.

Muslims disturbed by TV drama’s plot. When a terrorist network set off a chain of suicide bombs on the new season of Fox’s hit drama 24, the fictional plot line mirrored the nightmares of many American viewers—including American Muslims. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Islamic civil rights group in the United States, criticized the story line, suggesting it could foster discrimination against American Muslims. The council also expressed concerns the program’s impact would help build public support for measures to deny civil liberties to Muslims. Fox responded to the council’s concerns by issuing a written statement, noting that past seasons of 24 have portrayed villains such as a “shadowy Anglo businessman, Baltic Europeans, Germans, Russians, Islamic fundamentalists and even the (Anglo-American) president of the United States.” The council also protested when Islamic terrorists were portrayed on the show two years ago. To help allay its concerns, Fox ran a commercial reminding viewers that the plot was fictional and not representative of all Muslims.

Former Salvation Army leader named NAE chief. The National Association of Evangelicals has chosen Todd Bassett, former national commander of the Salvation Army, as its executive director. His new role will include oversight of the National Association of Evangelicals’ administrative, communications and financial activities.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.

Posted: 2/02/07

Employees of Justice, Homeland
Security receive religion training

By Katherine Boyle

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The departments of Justice and Homeland Security have begun training employees to better understand and protect the civil liberties of American Muslims, Sikhs and other minority ethnic and religious groups in the wake of Sept. 11.

They also are attempting to involve Muslims and Sikhs in the homeland security effort “in a positive way,” said Daniel Sutherland, who was appointed as the first officer for civil rights and civil liberties at the Department of Homeland Security in 2003.

Both Muslim and Sikh Americans have dealt with increased prejudice, according to studies and crime reports, though Sikhs adhere to a religion founded in India that is not associated with Islam.

The discrimination ranges from the inconvenience of airport searches to the death of Balbir Singh Sodhi, a turban-wearing Sikh from India who was gunned down just days after the Sept. 11 attacks by a man who mistook him for a Muslim.

The Department of Homeland Security now holds regular forums in Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Washington and Buffalo, N.Y., to ensure agency officials are meeting with people from Arab and Muslim communities. Local FBI officials and federal prosecutors often attend.

The Department of Homeland Security tries to ensure all its employees “understand how to work with American Arabs and American Muslims, as well as travelers from the Arab and Muslim world,” Sutherland said.

“We’ve produced a couple of training products on that (topic), which you might call cultural competence training,” he added.

“We emphasize to our work force that we are not asking them to engage in something that is politically correct or what some people call sensitivity training; we’re just trying to give them the skills they need to do their jobs most effectively.”

Their most recent release is a DVD called “Introduction to Arab American and Muslim American Cultures Course for DHS Personnel.”

“Lastly, we’re looking for ways to increase our employment of people with experience in the Arab-Muslim world or specialized language skills,” Sutherland said.

The Justice Department also has used videos to train its staff. In recent weeks, the department released “On Common Ground,” a film for law enforcement officials that educates them about Sikhs and other South Asian Americans.

Sharee Freeman, director of the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service, said her organization partnered with the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund after witnessing how “shaken” the Sikh-American community was after Sept. 11.

Previously, the Justice Department released the video “The First Three to Five Seconds” to help law enforcement officials distinguish between “a threat or a cultural norm” when interacting with American Arab and Muslim communities.

DHS also used the film to educate its employees.

Both the Justice Department and DHS need “to draw the communities into the homeland security effort and ask about recommendations on how we can do better. Our goal is to develop strategic partnerships with key parts of the American Arab and Muslim communities,” Suther-land said.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.