Posted: 11/27/07

California Baptists adopt budget, reject
measure related to Baptist Faith & Message

By Terry Barone

California Southern Baptist

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (ABP)—Messengers to the California Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting adopted an $11.6 million budget, turned down a constitutional amendment related to the Baptist Faith & Message and re-elected the body’s president.

“Connecting to Accomplish the Work” was the theme of the 67th annual meeting at Russian Baptist Church in West Sacramento, Calif., where 518 messengers and 270 guests registered.

Messengers approved a 2008 budget of $11,647,222, a decrease of $358,823 from the 2007 budget. The decrease primarily is due to the adjustment of the California Mission Offering goal from $1.34 million to $525,000. There is no change for 2008 of the $8,316,472 Cooperative Program objective.

Several changes were reflected in the 2008 spending plan over 2007, primarily percentages allocated for each of the convention entities—California Southern Baptist Convention, Southern Baptist Convention, California Baptist University and California Baptist Foundation.

The amount going to the SBC for world missions increased from 28 to 29 percent. Executive Board Chairman Milton Steck said the percentage will increase another point in the 2009 budget. The amount budgeted for SBC is $2,411,777.

Under the spending plan, California Baptist University will receive 13 percent, or $1,081,141, a decrease of 3.438 percent. The decrease came after a resolution from university trustees asking the university’s Cooperative Program allocation be reduced to 10 percent over a two-year period.

The California Baptist Foundation will receive 1 percent, or $83,165, of the CP objective.

The remaining 57 percent, or 4,740,388, of Cooperative Program gifts is allocated for Executive Board ministries to churches statewide.

The proposed budget calls for receipts received over the basic objective to be distributed equally between the SBC for world missions and the state convention.

Messengers also turned away a constitutional amendment requiring the Baptist Faith & Message most recently adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention as the one to qualify churches for membership in the state convention.

Sid Peterson, a messenger from Westchester Baptist Church in Bakersfield, Calif., introduced the proposed change in 2006.

The most recent Baptist Faith & Message was adopted by the SBC in 2000. Two other statements of faith were adopted by the SBC—one in 1925, the other in 1963.

Re-elected by acclamation to a second, one-year term as president was Paul Wilkerson, a retired director of missions and current interim pastor of Desert Springs Church in Hesperia, Calif.

Don Conley, pastor of Encanto Baptist Church in San Diego, Calif., was elected as first vice president. Conley was elected over Rick Bennett, pastor of Central Coast Baptist Church in Grover Beach, Calif.

Alton Vines, pastor of New Seasons Church in San Diego, was elected as second vice president. He defeated Jeff McCulty, pastor of The Church on Pearl in Santa Monica, Calif.

Paul Plunk, minister of music at Del Cerro Baptist Church in La Mesa, Calif., was elected music director by acclamation.

Another constitutional amendment to change the state convention’s name to the “Network of California Baptist Churches” was introduced by Tom Stringfellow, messenger from First Baptist Church of Beverly Hills in West Hollywood, Calif. The amendment will be brought to messengers at the 2008 annual meeting.

During miscellaneous business, Ron Wilson, messenger from First Baptist Church in Thousand Oaks, Calif., introduced three motions. Two of the motions dealt with salaries and financial packages for convention entity executives, while the third dealt with including Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in the convention budget. All three of the motions were overwhelmingly defeated.

In other business, Chris Clark, messenger from East Clairemont Southern Baptist Church in San Diego, asked California Southern Baptists to become involved in efforts to amend the California Constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

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Posted: 11/27/07

Georgia Baptist resolution
criticizes Baptist blogs

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

AUGUSTA, Ga. (ABP)—Georgia Baptists at their annual meeting approved a record budget and a controversial resolution against using blogs to critique Baptist life.

Gathering in Augusta, more than 1,400 messengers attended the Georgia Baptist Convention meeting, themed “Back to the Basics.” They also approved a 2008 Cooperative Program budget, added 62 new churches and missions, and approved the distribution of money previously given to Mercer University. Mercer is no longer affiliated with the GBC.

Wayne Bray and William Harrell, pastors at Beulah Baptist Church in Douglasville, submitted the anti-blogging resolution, which said blogs are used by “certain people … for divisive and destructive rhetoric at the expense of peace among the brethren.”

A group of younger blogger-pastors have risen to prominence in Southern Baptist Convention affairs in the past two years, with many calling for reform in the denomination’s structure. But the Georgia resolution said blogging has become a tool for personal attacks on Christians and promotes a negative view of the SBC “in the eyes of the society we are striving to reach with the gospel.”

It further stated that “the messengers of this convention oppose blogging when it is used to cause division and disharmony among the members of our Southern Baptist family…. All personal attacks should cease immediately …

“(We) call upon bloggers to cease the critical second-guessing of these elected leaders; and be it further resolved that all Georgia Baptists respectfully request and expect that individuals who disrupt the fellowship through blogging repent and immediately cease this activity and no longer cause disharmony for the advancement of their own personal opinions and agendas.”

Several bloggers have already condemned the resolution. Roger Ferrell, pastor of the SBC- and GBC-affiliated Woodland Creek Church in suburban Atlanta, said most Baptist blogging does not center on personal differences but focuses on philosophical disagreements.

Besides, Ferrell added, all Baptists have the right to disagree respectfully with the actions of their institutions and to suggest better ways of doing things, he said in a column on www.sbcimpact.net.

“There is plenty of backbiting, backstabbing and unharmonious talk going on in Southern Baptist life and would be even if blogs never existed,” Ferrell wrote. “It is not the fault of the medium but the messengers. And many of those who blog as ‘reformers’ really feel there are some deep problems in the SBC, things that desperately need to change.”

In other business, messengers elected Bucky Kennedy, pastor of First Baptist Church in Vidalia, Ga., as president Other officers elected include: Bray, one of the anti-blogging resolution sponsors, James Reynolds, associational missionary for the Floyd Baptist Association, as second vice president; Robert Richardson, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Waycross as third vice president; and Royce Hulett, pastor of Oakland Baptist Church in Hazelhurst, as fourth vice president.

Convention messengers unanimously approved a $52.3 million 2008 Cooperative Program budget.

The ad hoc committee in charge of the redistribution of funds previously allocated to Mercer proposed that $2,412,946 be divided between the three remaining GBC-affiliated schools—Brewton-Parker College, Shorter College and Truett-McConnell College. The remainder of $1 million will be divided between the state mission budget and a special challenge budget for new state ministry projects. Messengers adopted the proposal without dissent.

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Posted: 11/27/07

Oklahoma Baptists vow to continue
ministering to illegal immigrants

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

MOORE, Okla. (ABP)—Messengers to the annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma passed a resolution emphasizing non-discriminating ministry to illegal immigrants and adopted a record budget of $24.6 million.

“Finishing the Task” was the theme of the convention, which brought almost 900 messengers to First Baptist Church of Moore.

The resolution dealt with a new state law making it a felony to associate with undocumented immigrants. Messengers, in approving the resolution, said they don’t “necessarily agree (with) or oppose the new law,” but will continue to minister to anyone.

Convention spokeswoman Heidi Wilburn said Christians should place their “No. 1 focus” on God and look to government as a second priority, according to news reports.

The resolution states: “Christians are under biblical mandate to respect the divine institution of government and its laws. Let it be known that House Bill 1804 related to illegal immigration will not change their ministry to any people.”

Bruce Prescott, the executive director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists, called the resolution a move in the right direction.

“More often than not I am a critic of the resolutions adopted by the BGCO,” Prescott wrote on his blog, mainstreambaptists.blogspot.com. “I commend them for passing this resolution—timid, as it is, in opposing an unjust law.”

The local Catholic archdiocese and the Muslim community of Oklahoma City have also sent letters of protest to Gov. Brad Henry (D).

Oklahoma messengers also adopted a record-setting budget for 2008, anticipating $24.6 million in Cooperative Program gifts from convention churches. That’s an increase of $1.1 million from last year’s budget. The convention uses 60 percent of the budget for in-state ministries, while the remaining 40 percent goes to the Southern Baptist Convention for national and international ministries.

Alton Fannin, pastor of First Baptist Church in Ardmore, was elected as president by a 292-208 vote over Ernie Perkins, a retired director of missions. Doug Passmore, pastor of First Baptist Church in Lawton, was elected as first vice president. Aaron Summers, pastor of First Baptist Church in Perry, became second vice president. Pat Wagstaff, a member of First Baptist Church in Maysville, was elected as recording secretary.

The messengers adopted 10 other resolutions, including ones opposing “any hate-crimes legislation that potentially criminalizes speech and belief;” opposing the sale of alcohol in Oklahoma grocery and convenience stores; and affirming the so-called conservative resurgence in the SBC, which “returned us to our historic roots of commitment to the Bible as the infallible and inerrant Word of God.”

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Posted: 11/27/07

South Carolina Baptists OK
move toward 50-50 CP split

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

FLORENCE, S.C. (ABP)—South Carolina Baptists have approved budget projections that will gradually result in the state convention forwarding 50 percent of all undesignated receipts to the Southern Baptist Convention.

Messengers at the South Carolina Baptist Convention meeting, held in Florence, S.C., also elected an Aiken, S.C., pastor president and passed resolutions addressing predatory lending, homosexuality and gambling.

According to the Baptist Courier, the convention’s newspaper, the budget move came in response to a motion made at last year’s convention meeting by Hans Wunch, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Ware Shoals, S.C. Wunch had asked that the convention move toward a 50-50 allocation of funds between state and national causes.

Convention officials studied the convention’s longtime 40-60 percent distribution of funds between SBC and in-state causes and ended up recommending the gradual move to an even allocation.

In the first step, messengers approved increasing the 2008 percentage forwarded to the SBC to 40.35 percent. They approved an overall 2008 budget of $33,950,000. For any funds beyond the budget goal, 55 percent will go to the International Mission Board, 25 percent will be sent to the North American Mission Board, and 20 percent will help fund scholarships to send South Carolina Baptists on mission trips.

Dennis Wilkins, chairman of the executive board’s budget committee, said the panel conducted extensive research and compared South Carolina Baptist giving to that of other large SBC-related state conventions.

“We are very pleased with the work done by our state convention ministries and realize that it is important to continue this work and make it even better,” he told messengers when recommending the budget change.

“All of our research and meeting with leadership of our state convention led us to one very important conclusion: Whatever changes we make in the percentage given to the Southern Baptist Convention must not damage the excellent work being done in our state.”

The South Carolina plan distributes all budget increases over the 2007 level on a 50-50 basis between the state convention and the SBC. For example, the 2008 budget represents a $1.2 million increase over the 2007 figure. Of that, $600,000 will go to SBC causes and $600,000 will remain in South Carolina.

“As we studied this plan, we began to get excited about the potential that it offered,” Wilkins said, noting that increasing the SBC allocation will mean that in-state ministries continue to be funded at the same level each year.

In other business, messengers elected as president Eddie Leopard, pastor of Millbrook Baptist Church in Aiken, over Richard Porter, pastor of Branchville Baptist Church in Branchville, S.C., by a vote of 326-223.

For first vice president, David Little, director of missions for Lakelands Baptist Association in Greenwood, S.C., beat Jim Oliver, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Roebuck, S.C., by a vote of 242-182 in a runoff election. Brian Harris, pastor of Rock Springs Baptist Church in Blacksburg, S.C., was elected second vice president in a 363-181 vote over Wunch.

Messengers also passed a resolution opposing the expansion of gambling in the state, specifically denouncing a decision by the Catawba Indian tribe of York County, S.C., to start a bingo operation.

Other resolutions denounced predatory lending practices as “unscrupulous, unethical, and un-Christian” because of excessive fees and interest rates; encouraged South Carolina Baptists to participate in anti-abortion events in January; and encouraged pastors, when discussing human sexuality, to “deal honestly and forthrightly with the word of God, teaching the subject of homosexuality in its intended context of sin.”

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Posted: 11/27/07

Louisiana Baptists pass measure
taking full control of institutions

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

ALEXANDRIA, La. (ABP)—Messengers to the Louisiana Baptist Convention annual meeting passed without discussion a measure that ensures the convention has complete control of its college and other affiliated institutions.

The measure amended the charter of convention-related entities to clarify that the convention owns the institutions, according to the Baptist Message, the Louisiana Baptist newspaper.

The entities affected include Louisiana College, the only institution of higher education related to the convention, as well as the Louisiana Baptist Foundation and Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home.

The move was necessitated by the convention’s decision to incorporate a year ago, said convention’s Executive Board Chairman Frances LaRocque, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Lake Charles, La.

The messengers, gathering in Alexandria, La., also elected a president and second vice president in contested elections and adopted a $21.2 million budget for 2008.

Mike Holloway, pastor of Cook Baptist Church in Ruston, La., was elected president over Chuck Pourciau, pastor of Broadmoor Baptist Church in Shreveport, La., on a vote of 513-314.

For first vice president, messengers elected Mitch Harris, a member of Jefferson Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, La., 380-325 over Lindsey Burns, pastor of First Baptist Church in DeRidder, La. Mickey Bounds, a member of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Farmerville, La., was elected second vice president by acclamation.

The budget represents an increase of nearly $200,000 over last year’s budget. The budget distribution remained unchanged from last year, with 64.5 percent retained in the state for Louisiana Baptist ministries and 35.5 percent forwarded to the Southern Baptist Convention.

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Posted: 11/23/07

N.C. Baptists cut WMU
funding, loosen ties with colleges

GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP)—Messengers changed the face of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, loosening ties to its five colleges and retirement home and cutting funding to Woman’s Missionary Union.

During their annual meeting in Greensboro, messengers adopted a 2008-09 budget that includes nothing for WMU, accepted the recommendations of a study committee whose chairman said “Baptist Retirement Homes will no longer be a ministry of the convention,” and approved the first of two steps required to relinquish trustee selection of its five colleges.

Only 2,784 messengers, or delegates, attended the annual meeting, even though convention officials expected 4,500 to vote on several significant measures. It was the lowest attendance since 1985.

The final session on Wednesday morning seldom draws a crowd. In fact there were just 120 people in seats when opening music started, but by the time the budget debate began there were closer to 1,200—probably double last year’s final-session attendance. Many observers concluded they were there for the two major issues—the budget and the committee report on the retirement homes.

Messengers approved a $39 million budget for 2008—a 3 percent increase—and $39.3 million for 2009. But the budget total was irrelevant to the discussion because debate focused instead on allocations for the North Carolina Missions Offering, which included nothing for WMU.

WMU, an autonomous auxiliary that has worked voluntarily among North Carolina Baptist churches since 1888, has been the single largest recipient of funds through the mission offering. However, many North Carolina Baptists were peeved over recent WMU decisions that put their personnel policies at odds with convention policies.

Prior to the annual session, WMU voted to vacate offices it has shared with Baptist State Convention staff since 1947 and give up convention-funded logistical support of $400,000 annually. Its leadership considered this fall, then rejected, initiating a separate offering for its own support, in favor of remaining part of the mission offering.

While WMU was budgeted to receive $865,000 of a $2.5 million offering goal in 2007, convention leaders dropped the 2008 goal to $2 million, with nothing for WMU—even though WMU traditionally has taken the lead in promoting the offering among the churches.

In a rare move during debate at the annual meeting, Roy Smith, former executive director of the convention, offered an amendment that the 2008 mission offering be increased to $2.5 million with $500,000 designated for WMU.

Donice Harrod, a messenger from First Baptist Church in Wilmington, said she and thousands of other women have supported the mission offering in North Carolina Baptist churches.

She asked that WMU remain in the mission offering budget at least two more years, because without it, “Our financial base is being taken away from us.”

David MacEachern, pastor of Bat Cave Baptist Church in Bat Cave, said the rift between the convention and WMU was avoidable and that WMU “messed up by not going through the bylaws of this convention.”

The budget was approved with the cut for WMU.

Meanwhile, the proposal from the colleges, brought by the Council on Christian Higher Education, offered to give up funding from North Carolina Baptists in exchange for electing their own trustees.

The schools involved are Chowan University in Murfreesboro, Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, Mars Hill College in Mars Hill, and Wingate University in Wingate. Wake Forest University and Meredith College split from the convention years ago.

Discussion centered on the schools’ assets and Baptist identity. Messengers who spoke against the proposal said North Carolina Baptists were giving away many millions of dollars in assets and warned the schools would shed their commitment to be Baptist once the convention loses the power to elect trustees.

Jesse Croom, president of the Council on Christian Higher Education, assured messengers that being “Christian and Baptist is at the heart and core” of the North Carolina Baptist schools.

Campbell University President Jerry Wallace, designated spokesman for the four educational institutions, assured messengers that the schools’ presidents “wholeheartedly support” the proposal and “pledge continued fidelity to our Christian heritage and to the Baptist churches of North Carolina.”

Allan Blume, president of the convention’s board of directors, reminded messengers that the convention has never owned the institutions but “have a trustee relationship in which they own the institutions.”

Ultimately messengers responded to Wallace, who asked, “Please support us on this.” They approved the first of two required steps to release control of trustee elections for the four universities and one college. It must be approved again next year.

The bulk of the increase in the convention’s $39 million budget goes to church planting, which rises from $865,000 in 2007 to $1.3 million in 2008. Slight changes were made in the convention’s four giving plans, which divide funding between the state convention and national mission causes.

Three of the plans will increase the portion retained by the state convention by one-half percent. Two of the plans increase the portion for the Southern Baptist Convention by one-half percent, while one decreases SBC funding by the same percentage. Another plan decreases by one-half percent the portion going to moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in favor of the state convention.

Messengers accepted the recommendations of the Baptist Retirement Homes study committee, which includes a provision for the retirement agency “to officially sever its relationship with the convention” and then seek to establish a new relationship.

Study committee chair Joanne Mitchell, told messengers it appears Baptist Retirement Homes “will no longer be a ministry of the convention because the convention will no longer have a voice in choosing the leadership.”

No one was present from the agency to participate in the discussion. The study committee report recommended that the convention not sue the retirement homes to reverse any decisions. The convention will explore other ministry options for senior adults.

North Carolina Baptists also elected Rick Speas, pastor of Old Town Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, as their new president; voted to extend their partnership with Hawaii and Pacific Rim churches through 2009; and heard about the final push to finish 700 houses in hurricane-ravaged Gulfport, Miss., before Dec. 31.

Based on reporting by Norman Jameson, editor of the Biblical Recorder of North Carolina.

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Posted: 11/23/07

Words of Hope ministry changes
outlook for people with AIDS

By Sue Sprenkle

International Mission Board

MAKOPE STATION, Uganda (BP)—Saidat Makop is sick. To look at her, a casual observer would never know. She looks as healthy as the next person. Her cheeks are rosy. She works in the garden for hours. Her eyes might look a little tired at times, but all mothers suffer the same.

The truth is Makop carries HIV in her body.

Squeezed between her mother and another woman, this young Ugandan girl entertains herself during a Bible study at Saidat Makop’s home. This girl’s mother is HIV-positive. Her father left when the mother revealed her test results, leaving all the children behind and victims of HIV/AIDS.

She is just one of more than 40 million children and adults globally who live with HIV/AIDS. Sub-Saharan Africa, where Makop’s country of Uganda lies, bears the heaviest burden of the pandemic. UNAIDS estimate 28.5 million, or 64 percent, of the people living with HIV/AIDS call Sub-Saharan Africa home. About 97 percent of all AIDS-related deaths in 2005 occurred in this region.

Even though Makop is healthy and takes antiretroviral drugs for the disease, she knows her odds of surviving. She lives in a country where AIDS education is a top priority, but it’s not the numerous government sponsored billboards or radio programs that tell Makop she’s been given a death sentence. It’s personal experience. After all, she’s watched family and friends die from AIDS-related illnesses ever since she was a young teen.

“When I tested positive for HIV, I lost all hope,” the Ugandan woman said. “I had so many thoughts about my children. If I died, where would they go? Who would take care of them?

“Then, one day, hope came to my house.”

Saidat Makop looks healthy, but within her body she has the HIV virus. She invited the Baptist program Words of Hope to her home to share about health issues, but they brought more than vitamins. They brought hope in Christ.

Enock Kategaya and Nabeth Atusasire sit under the shade tree in Makop’s yard. The two counselors from the HIV clinic in Mbarara talk easily with this mother about the physical and social aspects of her health problems. Like most HIV programs, they check up on her medicines and talk about healthy living.

Then, the conversation takes a turn that distinguishes these counselors from other organizations. They talk in-depth about a God who forgives.

Makop looks up, surprised. For the first time in months, a small flicker of hope stirs deep within her. A devout Muslim for years, Makop invites the counselors to return. She wants to learn more about forgiveness.

Kategaya and Atusasire are from a Baptist organization called Words of Hope. A group of Ugandan Baptists and International Mission Board workers visit the homes of those who come to the HIV clinic in Mbarara. They educate people about HIV and eating healthy, and they share the gospel.

Grassroots programs like this one have been credited to help Uganda reduce infection rates. In the 1990s, HIV prevalence was estimated to be around 14 percent. A well-timed public campaign by the Ugandan government and church organizations, combined with the disease’s natural leveling-out, brought the prevalence rates down to 7 percent in 2005, according to UNAIDS reports.

Even though HIV prevalence in Uganda is much lower than it once was, it still remains high, and AIDS still claims more than 91,000 lives each year.

Kategaya said one of the reasons organizations like Words of Hope works is that it has Ugandans educating their peers.

Millions of children have been orphaned by AIDS or heavily affected by the multiple impacts of AIDS on their families and communities.

“This is something that has to be tackled from a Ugandan perspective,” Kategaya said. “We sit with our clients in their homes. We try to break down the stigma that goes with HIV/AIDS, not just with education but by our presence.”

The Baptist program reaches out to clients who live within a 25-kilometer-radius of the clinic. They care for their clients’ physical and spiritual needs, concentrating on offering words of hope as their name implies. A church and several Bible studies have started from these home visits. In this small area alone, Words of Hope counselors visit hundreds of clients like Makop, offering a new life in Christ.

Makop sits waiting under the shade tree with the Bible the Words of Hope counselors gave her. This time, she is not alone when Kategaya and Atusasire arrive. Several friends and neighbors also want to hear about forgiveness and how to live a healthy lifestyle.

“You should see how the lives here have changed,” Kategaya said proudly after months teaching Bible lessons under the tree. “People are healthier because we’ve taught them to eat fruits and vegetables.

“People are forgiving their neighbors because they understand God forgave them,” he said. “People are coming to Christ here.”

Makop smiles shyly with Kategaya’s words. She explains that Words of Hope changed her own life. They introduced her to the hope she was looking for. She no longer goes to the mosque searching for answers; she looks in her Bible and prays.

Saidat Makop

Physically, life with HIV has not changed for Makop. She still tires faster than she did when she was healthy. She still wonders if she will live long enough to see her children become adults.

Spiritually, Makop is a different person. Her eyes shine bright with hope and a passion for her newfound faith.

“Because of Words of Hope, I now have hope in God,” the Ugandan mother said. “All my hope is now in God. I trust God to take care of my children when I am gone.

“All my trust is in God.”

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Posted: 11/23/07

Ugandan Baptist pastor
counsels people with AIDS

By Sue Sprenkle

International Mission Board

MBARARA, Uganda (BP)—Dressed in a suit coat and tie, Nabath Atusasire looks a little out of place as he picks his way through an overgrown banana grove.

The humid heat of southern Uganda presses on him. Slick-soled dress shoes provide little traction as the Baptist pastor treks along a well-worn, rocky path to an isolated village. He yells a greeting to a young woman as she walks out of a crumbling, mud home.

Atusasire came to counsel her husband who recently tested positive for HIV at the clinic where Atusasire works, but the woman asks him to pray for her. She says she is also sick.

Nabath Atusasire teaches a Bible lesson to some clients from the HIV clinic where he works. With the Baptist program Words of Hope, Ugandans go to homes and sit down to visit. "It's a more cultural way of doing things," Atusasire said. "We sit and visit and find out how our clients are really doing. We don't promise them anything but a listening ear."

A wave of concern passes across the young pastor’s face as he realizes she too is most likely HIV-positive.

“It is like this in Uganda,” Atusasire stated matter-of-factly. In this country where more than 1 million out of 24 million people live with HIV, “Husbands don’t tell wives and wives don’t tell husbands … everyday someone finds out they are HIV-positive. This is a problem that affects everyone, whether you have it or not.”

Atusasire has lived with the effects of the disease his entire life. Born in the 1970s—the same decade AIDS appeared in the African nation—he remembers watching family members waste away and eventually die.

“They died off like mosquitoes,” Atusasire recounted, snapping his fingers repeatedly for emphasis. “Like mosquitoes, I tell you.”

He lost more than 20 relatives to the disease; seven aunts and uncles died the same year.

Back then, no one talked about AIDS. It was kept hidden. Now more than 30 years later, AIDS has made its way into every Ugandan household.

Atusasire doesn’t have to look farther than the children around his breakfast table to see how the pandemic can affect a family. Every morning 18 freshly scrubbed faces smile back at him. Only four of the children were born to him and his wife, Esther. The others are AIDS orphans

“I don’t really know how we ended up with so many kids,” the softhearted Atusasire said as Esther rolled her eyes affectionately at his statement.

The pastor met some of them through his counseling job with a Baptist HIV program called Words of Hope. Still others found their way to this home through members of his congregation or the community.

Every orphan has a tale of hardship. Some carry the pain of watching a beloved parent or relative suffer and die while others were ostracized by their village. Some villagers believe AIDS orphans spread the disease. Still others were treated like slaves, doing the work of adults during the day, forced to sleep with the chickens at night.

“Part of our ministry is to love children who think they do not have hope,” Esther Atusasire said. “We want to give them hope and a good family life.”

Offering hope to those who feel there is none is what Atusasire enjoys most. Whether playing with his children or counseling an HIV-positive client, the pastor’s goal is to show Christ’s compassion and forgiveness.

He points out that when people learn they have HIV, most have feelings of guilt and anger. Like the husband he hiked up a mountain to counsel, many are afraid to tell their spouse. They fear they will be left to die alone, ostracized by their village for having the disease.

“It is the way of Uganda,” the pastor said with a shrug. “Everyone knows about HIV/AIDS and it touches everyone’s life, but when it comes to you personally, most do not want to disclose.

“They fear death. They fear the reactions of their family and friends,” he said. “They fear for the future and lament about the past.”

As a counselor, Atusasire encourages people to talk about those fears.

“We sit and give them words of hope,” he said. “We tell them of a God who forgives and takes away our fears.”

Atusasire knows all too well that one of the most important steps in beginning to live with HIV/AIDS is forgiveness—accepting God’s forgiveness and forgiving those who brought the disease into your life.

“Once you experience this forgiveness,” Atusasire said, “the fears go away as you live a new life in Christ.”

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Posted: 11/23/07

Ecumenical group wants to mobilize
Christians to abolish genocide

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

NEW YORK (ABP)—Leaders from a number of Christian traditions met in New York recently in an attempt to mobilize Christians to “reflect on their responsibility in the face of genocide.”

Armenian, Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian representatives met on the 69th anniversary of Krystalnacht, the 1938 attack on Jews and their property in Nazi Germany. The Nov. 9 panel was designed to be a “point of departure” on which other Christian groups could model similar meetings, organizers said.

Calling the remembrance a “heavy burden from which we must find the will and the determination to bring about a future without genocide,” Vicken Aykazian, president of the National Council of Churches USA, said the united front encouraged him.

“The new alliance to abolish genocide will serve as a bright light in the defense of human rights and as a defense of the truth,” he said in his opening remarks.

“Together we stand united and speak with one voice. Together we will defeat the scourge of genocide and the ongoing consequences of genocide denial. Together we will create a genocide-free future.”

First coined in 1943 by the Polish-Jewish scholar Raphael Lemkin, the term “genocide” means the deliberate and systematic destruction of an ethnic, religious or national group. The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted its legal definition in 1948.

Lemkin had first published the word in 1933 to refer to the Assyrian massacres in Iraq and the slaughter of Armenians during World War I. He later used the term in 1944 with reference to countries occupied by the Nazis during World War II.

Since 1948, there have been at least 45 major genocides around the world, according to Gregory Stanton, founder and president of Genocide Watch.

“This problem really goes back to the beginning of human history,” he said. “It’s part of all our heritage. Americans have committed genocide against our own people, against our Native American population and also against African-Americans during the slave trade. We all are part of this problem.”

“The anti-slavery movement is really the model” for eliminating genocide, he continued. That effort took a century to accomplish, he said, “and it may take that long to abolish genocide in the world. But we must start, and we must start now.”

Juan Mendez, president of the International Center for Transitional Justice, said the United Nations uses four strategies when working in cases of genocide—protection from harm, humanitarian assistance, accountability for the crimes and peace negotiations.

Darfur—the site of conflict since 2003—has posed such an international conundrum because each of those four factors is viewed as a precondition for accomplishing the other three, when they should be acted upon simultaneously, Mendez said. Countries shouldn’t wait to send humanitarian aid until peace negotiations begin, he noted.

“You can’t always say peace trumps justice,” said Mendez, a human-rights lawyer who was tortured in an Argentinean prison for his work. “We owe it to ourselves to look for arrangements that may be more difficult because of the justice paradigm but may have (lasting results) for peace.

“Justice is punitive but it can always be restorative. It is what everybody in every culture understands to be the righting of wrongs.”

Although not the focal point of the discussion, Darfur was mentioned by several speakers. The region in western Sudan has been plagued by ethnic cleansing, political instability, famine and a murderous ideology of Arab supremacy.

Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2004, Colin Powell, the former U.S. Secretary of State, used the term “genocide” to refer to the situation in Darfur. But since then, no other permanent member of the United Nations Security Council has done the same.

“If we saw Darfur not in isolation but as a continuation of something that has been going since independence (in Africa) …, if we had focused on that to see Darfur in the proper context … and put the energy into finding a proper solution, we might have made some progress,” said Francis Deng, the U.N. special advisor for the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities.

Deng said in extreme cases of genocide, international bodies should “develop the capacities to intervene in a meaningful way.”

“I’m still inclined to build on the concept that these issues are in the first place the responsibilities of the (nations),” Deng said. But he later added that if people start dying in large numbers and local governments don’t do anything about it, the “world is not going to sit and just watch. They will find one way or another of intervening.”

Born and raised in traditional African religions, Deng attended a Catholic school in southern Sudan, but his siblings attended a Muslim school in the north. He later attended Khartoum University and Yale University, so he saw “from within (each of) those institutions how the other religions were perceived.”

Deng said religion can have a negative impact when religious identities become “conflictual.”

“If genocide has to do with the conflict of identities, we become zero-sum … because it becomes either you or me when it becomes extreme,” he said. “And, yet, religion has values that are truly universal across different religions.”

Milan Sturgis, a Serbian Orthodox priest and former officer for the U.S. Foreign Service in the Balkans, also spoke about the important role churches should play in combating genocide. Like in Sudan, religious identity was central to the conflict in Bosnia, he said.

During the Bosnian War in the 1990s, identity in Bosnia was derived from religion. Serbs were Orthodox. Croats were Roman Catholics. Bosnians were Muslim. And religion became a new dimension of statecraft, he said.

“Religion was perverted into identity, into political identity,” Sturgis said. “There’s no other way to say it. It was an absolute perversion of what religion is.”

He spoke from firsthand knowledge of genocide’s toll: Twelve of his Bosnian relatives were murdered during the conflict in 1991, he said.

At this point, Sturgis said he isn’t interested in laying blame. The fact is, many Serbian priests looked the other way while militias killed hundreds of people, he said.

“I think we need to be more focused on forecasting and prevention than on the laying of blame right now,” he said. “The facts speak for themselves. Some people did things that they probably regret. Some people were heroes.”

It’s easy for observers to point fingers and ask why members of the clergy didn’t do anything to stop the killing in Bosnia, but judgmental outsiders don’t have armed gangs barging in on them like those Serbian priests did, he said.

“On the national level, yes, there were some bishops in the Serbian Orthodox Church that did not speak out. And there were some bishops that did,” he said. “It’s a hard mirror to look in. To say, ‘Did we do enough? Did we do enough? Did we do the right thing?’”

Michael Kinnamon, for one, said the National Council of Churches has “not been sufficiently prophetic” and “too reactive to the world’s evil.” Genocide will continue to be a living concern for the organization, he said.

“We are called to love all those whom God the universal Creator loves, and therefore to hate all those things which threaten all those whom God loves, especially the ultimate crime of genocide,” he said.

The panel was organized by the National Council of Churches USA, Genocide Watch, the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, and the Center for International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University.

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

Posted: 11/23/07

Will neurotheology cause faith
to wane? Not likely, experts say

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

NEW YORK (ABP)—If science asserts that prayer is more neurological than metaphysical, will it cause the believers to abandon their faith? It’s highly unlikely, experts in the field of neurotheology agree.

Neurotheology is the study of the correlation between neurological and spiritual activity. Its aim is to find a neurological basis for belief-based experiences like trances, perceived oneness with the universe and altered states of consciousness. Proponents say it can also help explain the daily habits of religious life, namely prayer, meditation and senses of the presence of God.

Some observers worry the emerging field may affect the faith of countless churchgoers. Others are not so worried.

“The ordinary person who attends church will dismiss this as a minor blip on the screen,” said Paul Simmons, a clinical professor of family and community medicine at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. “It will make them angry at the world of science in a way that they should not be, but it’s understandable.”

For Christian fundamentalists, it likely will be a call to arms, he said.

“It proves what they are saying—(that) science is their enemy,” said Simmons, a former professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. “And it’s true, science is their enemy. There is an irreconcilable conflict there.”

Despite the disapproval of some, neurotheology pioneer Brian Alston said he is hopeful for the future of the discipline he has devoted himself to forming. Neurotheology will help scientists and theologians alike navigate through a world that is increasingly becoming a single community, “a backyard,” he said.

“It has tremendous implications in how we see and interact with others in the world, tremendous for how we do our politics, tremendous for how we look at the environment…,” Alston said. “When people study these things and know what people believe around the world, they’re less likely to be caught off guard.”

Alston, who started looking at the correlations between the brain and belief in the 1980s at Yale Divinity School, is now pursing a doctorate in clinical psychology from Argosy University. His book, What is Neurotheology?, was published this spring.

A large component of the field is the impact it can have on ideas, and when Christians study their ideas, they can better understand other religions, he said. Eastern psychologists and religions traditionally have encouraged the study of meditation and mind-body wholeness, Alston continued, citing the success of a book by the Dali Lama about Buddhism and the brain.

Indeed, Eastern religions, including Buddhism and Hinduism, have long respected the connections between the mind and the body. And a lot of Muslim intellectuals will be “turned on” by the interest in neurological activity, Simmons added.

Among intellectuals, some scientists will give up what they call “infantile” beliefs in favor of believing that religion is fabricated by chemicals in the brain, but other scientists will continue “an emotional attachment” to religion, Simmons said.

That’s fine by him. Good theology always stays in touch with the insights of science, but it never simply accepts the conclusions some scientists reach in religious matters, Simmons said. And it never tells people what to think or believe.

“Science does not give us religious conclusions. If a scientist says there is no God—now wait a minute, that’s not your province,” Simmons said. “As the same time, science can tell us about some people who make claims about God. You cannot prove religious assertions one way or another, but you can say something about the corollary assertions.”

Neurotheology, for instance, can help determine the difference between someone who is mentally unstable and someone who is a visionary, Simmons said. Joan of Arc heard God, or at least she thought she did. But there are too many bizarre things in her life to think she had a direct line to God, he added.

“We cannot just say, ‘Now you’ve got the answer, sure.’ No. The same activity that gives one person a religious experience gives someone else a breakdown,” he said.

On the other hand, Martin Luther King Jr. never claimed to have a vision from God, Simmons pointed out. He never claimed “direct insight into God. He had a strong God-consciousness but never made claims to the bizarre or the unusual, as you get with some people who claim to be prophets,” Simmons said.

Simmons, who wrote Freedom of Conscience: A Baptist/Humanist Dialogue in 2000, said his first reaction to someone who says they have “a direct word from God” is “extreme skepticism and maybe cynicism.”

He noted that Jesus warned that some people would make claims about being the savior, so “someone has to stand up and say, ‘Wait a minute, we know too much about the brain’s chemistry to be taken in by charlatans.’”

“Those are dangerous people,” he added. “Sincere? Well, yes. But sincerity is no test for truth.”

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

Posted: 11/23/07

CYBER COLUMN:
Impossible dreams

By Brett Younger

My family recently went to see Man of La Mancha at Bass Hall in Fort Worth. The critics have not been kind. In “A not-so-dreamy Man of La Mancha,” The Dallas Morning News said, “Maybe I might actually like Man of La Mancha if I could ever catch a really good production, but then, maybe not.” In “Musical not all we dreamed of,” The Fort Worth Star-Telegram didn’t hold back either: “Is it possible that a musical revival can look fantastic and sound even better, yet still be dull? Yes. It’s hard to say where the fault lies.”

The critics missed the point. Man of La Mancha is not about lights, sound or sets. It’s about idealism, hope and dreams.

Don Quixote is an eccentric romantic in pursuit of dreams. Everyone think he’s mad, because he doesn’t live in the “real world.” One realist criticizes him saying, “A man must come to terms with life as it is.”

The peculiar visionary responds: “When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams—this may be madness. To seek treasure where there is only trash. Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.”

Do you remember Don Quixote’s theme song, The Impossible Dream? (Feel free to sing along):

Christians are idealistic, eccentric romantics in pursuit of God’s dreams. The followers of Jesus don’t follow the rules of the “real world.” They don’t give in to practicality, but hold on to the hopes we see in Jesus. Christians live not for the church as it is, but for the church as it should be.

God calls us to dream impossible dreams, fight unbeatable foes, bear unbearable sorrows, run where the brave dare not go, right unrightable wrongs, love pure and chaste, and try when our arms are weary to reach unreachable stars.

God gives us the courage to share the scars of Christ, fight losing battles, stay with hopeless causes, turn the other cheek, spend time with people who can give us nothing, stand with those who are underdogs, care for people who have made terrible mistakes, do good that will earn us no applause, share food with the hungry, become a better friend to someone with cancer, do tasks we find discomforting, lovingly hold hands stiffened by arthritis, play catch with other people’s children, listen to a lonely person, and treat discarded people as the children of God.

Because the ultimate victory belongs to God, we can dream impossible dreams.

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

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