Posted: 12/14/07

Baptist Briefs

Three of ten recent SBC seminary grads are Calvinist. Nearly 30 percent of recent Southern Baptist Convention seminary graduates now serving as pastors identify themselves as Calvinists, according to findings by LifeWay Research and the North American Mission Board Center for Missional Research. In the SBC at large, by contrast, the number of pastors who affirm the five points of Calvinism is about 10 percent, said Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research.

Pastor’s name found on hit list. Suspected terrorists included a Baptist pastor on what appears to be a hit list, the Baptist World Alliance reported. Ertan Mesut Cevik, pastor of a Baptist church in Izmir—Turkey’s third-largest city—received increased police protection after his name was found on a list carried by three suspected terrorists. The three, who have been arrested, are suspected of planning wide-scale attacks after a large cache of weapons was found in their possession. Cevik has been under police protection since April, after he hosted a funeral service for one of three Christians who was killed in Turkey. After the funeral, a Turkish newspaper article accused Cevik and his church of engaging in “coercive evangelism” by using money and drugs to attract young people. The church denied those charges.

African-American woman named president of academic society. An American Baptist theologian has become the first African-American woman elected president of the nation’s largest professional society for religion professors. Emilie Townes, the Andrew Mellon Professor of African-American Religion and Theology at Yale Divinity School, is the new president of the American Academy of Religion. The group’s membership includes thousands of academics who teach religious studies or theology at institutions of higher learning.

Baptist Heritage Preaching Contest entries solicited. The Baptist History and Heritage Society, in cooperation with the H. Franklin Paschall Chair of Biblical Studies and Preaching at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., is accepting sermon submissions for its annual Baptist Heritage Preaching Contest. Sermon manuscripts are due by Feb. 15, 2008, and the first-place prize is $400. The winner will preach the winning sermon during the 2008 annual meeting of the Baptist History and Heritage Society, May 22-24, in Atlanta. The winner’s expenses will be paid to attend the meeting. For more information, visit http://baptisthistory.org/preachingcontest.htm.

CBF MKs get tuition break at N.C. schools. Seven Baptist colleges and universities in North Carolina will offer undergraduate tuition scholarships for children of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missionaries. The schools are Campbell University in Buies Creek, Chowan University in Murfreesboro, Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, Mars Hill College in Mars Hill, Meredith College in Raleigh, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem and Wingate University in Wingate. Each school will offer an eight-semester scholarship for full-time study to missionary dependents who meet the school’s admission standards. Room, board and other costs will be funded through one of CBF’s endowments. The group is working to increase the existing $870,000 endowment to $2.5 million in order to provide for these expenses. Bluefield College in Bluefield, Va., and Mercer University in Macon, Ga., offer similar scholarships.

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

Posted: 12/14/07

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

Posted: 12/14/07

DOWN HOME:
Topanga’s lucky tree wasn’t aglow

You almost have to be a hurdler to get around our house these days.

Blame the dog. Or the Christmas tree.

We should’ve seen this coming when we got a new puppy last spring. But we were in love with our little flicker of fur and gave no heed to the morrow—or at least to the Christmas season.

Topanga made herself right at home from Day One. Very soon, Joanna and I understood what the breeder meant when she told us, “This dog wants to be a person and sees no reason why she shouldn’t be a person.”

In many ways, Topanga reminds me of our daughters, Lindsay and Molly, when they were toddlers, except that she’s way better at fetching. No matter when, she wants to be in the same room with us. If we’re in the kitchen fixing dinner, she’s there with a toy in her mouth, bumping my leg, begging me to throw it. During dinner, she’s at my side, paws on the chair, sniffing my napkin like it’s about to turn into raw steak. When we watch TV, she’s on the back of the couch, dropping a toy on my shoulder, sniffing my ear like it’s about to turn into raw steak and begging me to throw. And if I’m in the back trying to work, she’s jumping up in the chair, sniffing my laptop like it’s about to turn into raw steak, then grabbing a toy and begging me to throw.

I remember when the girls were, oh about 2, and I would pretend to go to the bathroom, just to get a break, and, of course, it wouldn’t work. A little girl would be banging on the door, “Daddy!”

Topanga’s like that, except that the girls were way better at saying, “Daddy!” With Topanga, it comes out more like, “whhhhhhn-whnn-whnn-whnn-humphf.”

So, the evening Jo and I put up the tree, we enjoyed a wonderfully quiet dinner. Suddenly, the silence overwhelmed us, and we asked at the same time, “Where’s Topanga?”

Well, I didn’t have to search the whole house. I walked straight into the living room, and Topanga looked up with the light cord from the tree still in her mouth, hanging by the teensiest slivers of copper.

If we had plugged the lights in, I’d be writing Topanga’s brief but thematic obituary.

So, I replaced the light cord, and we went out and bought child gates for two doors. Now, if you want to go from the rest of the house into the living room, dining room and back bedrooms, you’ve got to hurdle.

If we weren’t protecting the light cord, we’d be protecting the ornaments, which Topanga fervently believes in her canine cranium are really toys for her to—what else?—fetch.

Topanga’s fascination with the tree reminds me of Lindsay and Molly’s toddler fascination with Christmas decorations. And for all our warnings of children and protection of dogs, only one person in our family ever knocked over a Christmas tree. Me.

–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: 12/14/07

EDITORIAL:
The gospel in one stunning eyeful

Christmas pageants often remind us Baptists of something we’re all too prone to forget: Worship can engage all the senses. The Baptist branch of the Christian family tree grows mighty close to the huge Protestant Reformation branch, which rejected the Roman Catholics’ statuary and the Orthodox’s icons, so precious few visual elements remind us of the God we worship and the Christ we adore. We also don’t go in for all that incense, which just might cause us to think of the Holy Spirit, whose pervasive presence we desperately need. Since most Baptists long ago substituted juice for wine and unleavened chicklets for bread, we gave up on the sense of taste in worship. And with screens flashing songs and Scripture, many of us don’t even enjoy the tactile sensation of holding a hymnal and caressing a Bible anymore.

Maybe an ear should be the Baptists’ symbol for worship. We’re all about listening to fine singing and good sermons. But you could check your eyes, nose, tastebuds and fingertips in the foyer of most Baptist churches and get along in worship just fine.

Except at Christmas. One of the best things about our Christmas pageants is they remind us worship should be a sensory experience. If your church is anything like ours, this is the one time of year when you can go to a worship service and enjoy a sensory feast. Even if your shepherds don bathrobes and your wise men drape themselves in bedsheets, a Christmas pageant is a celebration for all the senses. (OK, unless your pageant’s “actors” include a donkey, sheep, goats and/or a camel or three, your sense of smell probably isn’t stimulated.) Often, after the music has ceased, we recongregate in the fellowship hall to enjoy Christmas goodies. Let’s hear it for the tastebuds.

Our church’s 2007 Christmas pageant certainly did not disappoint. We’re blessed with a terrific choir and an excellent orchestra, so music always floods our sanctuary with vibrant, joyful reminders of the splendors of this season. This year was no exception. Truly superb.

But the part of the pageant that moved my heart more than any other was a visual moment, just a few seconds that transcended time and eternity. It focused every eye—and heart and mind—on “the reason for the season,” as folks like to say this time of year.

Not so long ago, our church added “angels” to the Nativity section of the pageant. Maybe we had standing-still angels before, but these representatives of the heavenly host add a rhythmic vitality to the story of Jesus’ birth. Translation: They’re dancers. Now, don’t get your dander up. They perform ballet and maybe even some gymnastics, and their elegance and joy multiply the beauty and majesty of the Greatest Night on Earth.

Near the end of the Nativity, after Mary, Joseph, the Baby, shepherds and wise men all gathered, four angels entered the stage, carrying two long, shimmering golden strips of cloth. They caused the cloth to ripple, and the effect was lovely, and I made a mental note to congratulate the choreographer. Then, just as the music reached its climax, the angels popped their strips of golden sheen high into the air, and two of the women held tight to the ends of their cloth and dashed underneath the other cloth. In an instant, the music peaked and the dancers pulled their cloths tight, and there it was:

The Cross.

We glimpsed the gospel in one stunning eyeful: Right beside the manger, overshadowing Mary and Joseph and the Babe, stood the Cross. Altogether in poignant splendor—the Christ, and the sole-holy reason he came to Earth on that star-drenched, melodic night.

Remember the Cross this Christmas. We love the Most Innocent of all innocent babies at Christmas. But remember why he came to Earth. Tell others the story—the whole story. It’s the best present you can give.

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

Posted: 12/14/07

Christian website offers YouTube
alternative for wary Baptists

By Grace Thornton

The Alabama Baptist

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (ABP)—Move over, YouTube. Baptists have video cameras. And they’re using them, now that they have a “safe” place to share their videos online, said Bill Nix, CEO and president of Axletree Media.

Axletree’s E-zekiel, a website builder and host used by churches and other nonprofits around the world, has come out with a video counterpart to its popular web service: E-zekiel.tv, which launched in early November.

“E-zekiel.tv is the answer to the question many churches have been asking,” said Nix, a member of First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala. “Many of our churches whose websites are on E-zekiel have been wanting to share videos online, but the option of going to YouTube wasn’t an option.”

With YouTube, Nix explained, the possibility always exists that users could encounter sexually explicit content.

Videos posted on E-zekiel.tv are monitored for such content so that the site remains Christian-based and family-friendly. And anyone can use it for free, Nix said: “You don’t have to have an E-zekiel website to use E-zekiel.tv.”

Jim Jackson, director of missions for Elmore (Ala.) Baptist Association, can attest to that. Nix handed Jackson and several others small video cameras at the recent Alabama Baptist Pastors’ Conference in Mobile, Ala., and asked them to give it a try with the E-zekiel.tv site.

Jackson tried it, and he said he’s sold.

“It’s very simple. You just have to sign in and create an account, then you can start uploading,” he said. Elmore Baptist Association’s site isn’t powered by E-zekiel, but Jackson said there are plans to link its site to E-zekiel.tv so videos can be posted.

“We’ve been thinking of some of the ways we could use it,” said Jackson, who’s already envisioning his churches using it for online videos welcoming visitors, among other things.

The site already has made an impact on his family, too. Jackson’s son-in-law, Brian Gay, recently went to Guatemala and was able to upload videos of mission work in that nation while still on-site.

“It was really neat for us because he had left an itinerary behind so we could be praying for them, but when we could see the video and see the folks they were working with, that made it even more real,” Jackson said.

Nix noted that YouTube and GodTube.com, one of the pioneers in Christian video sites, plowed some of the ground for E-zekiel to get into this line of ministry.

GodTube, the “video-driven social network,” launched officially in August and offers video-sharing, chatting, messaging and blogging.

Currently the Plano -based service is the largest broadcaster of Christian videos on the Internet, with more than 500,000 unique visitors hitting the site each month.

Nix is getting on board with that trend, but said he has different plans for his site than the one-to-one relationship that happens on YouTube and GodTube.

“I imagine that there will be churches setting up groups and using this to communicate with their members,” Nix said, explaining that churches could use it for all kinds of purposes, such as sending videos to their members.

“I can envision a person visiting a church, filling out a visitor card and providing the church with an e-mail address,” he said. “Then when that person gets home, there’s an e-mail invitation asking them to be a part of the church’s video group online. That person then has access to videos explaining the church’s mission, giving a virtual tour of its facilities and ministries — the list could go on and on.”

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

Posted: 12/14/07

Faith Digest

Court rejects faith-based prison program. An Iowa prisoner rehabilitation program run by evangelicals oversteps church-state boundaries and should not receive government funds, a federal appeals court has ruled. InnerChange Freedom Initiative runs a program “dominated by Bible study, Christian classes, religious revivals and church services,” according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. While participation in the program was voluntary, prisoners who signed up got better cells, were allowed more visits from family members and had greater access to computers than other inmates, the court found. The prison program, affiliated with Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship Ministry, received state funds from Iowa beginning in 2000. Part of that money must be returned to the state, the court ruled, but it reversed the decision of a lower court that would have required InnerChange to repay the entire $1.5 million it received in government funds.

Religion website acquired by Fox. Beliefnet.com, one of the country’s leading websites devoted to religion and spirituality, is under new management as part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and the Fox Entertainment Group. The acquisition adds to News Corp.’s $64 billion media empire, including the 20th Century Fox film studios, the Wall Street Journal, MySpace, the Fox Faith film division, and HarperOne and Zondervan, two of the biggest names in Christian publishing.

Christian broadcaster’s son takes reins of network. Gordon Robertson, 49, son of religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, has been elected chief executive officer of the Christian Broadcasting Network. The elder Robertson told CBN directors that he would remain as board chairman but wanted to relinquish his duties as CEO of the network. Pat Robertson, who will turn 78 in March, has been the ministry’s CEO since he founded it in 1960.

Missouri Synod Lutherans report membership decline. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has reported a drop of 22,867 members in 2006, bringing membership to just over 2.4 million. The denomination saw decreases in the number of children baptized and the number of teenagers and adults who were confirmed, but the church saw increases in the numbers of students attending weekday religion classes and enrolled in Sunday school. Despite the lower membership numbers, giving and average weekly worship attendance have increased, church officials said.

Mardel founder conditionally pledges $70 million to ORU. Mart Green, founder and CEO of the Mardel store chain, and his family gave troubled Oral Roberts University $8 million to help with immediate needs and pledged an additional $62 million in 90 days—but only if an in-depth business review confirms that ORU has straightened out financial, leadership and governance concerns. The pledge was announced after the university’s regents unanimously accepted the resignation of embattled President Richard Roberts and began a search for a new president.

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

Posted: 12/14/07

GodTube offers Christian
alternative to YouTube

By Heather Donckels

Religion News Service

DALLAS (RNS)—Chris Wyatt and the Internet have something going.

In the late ’90s, the young television producer helped start Communities.com, the world’s first social networking website. The site exploded into the Internet’s largest pre-MySpace network.

Now, less than a decade later, Wyatt runs Plano-based GodTube.com, which was rated the fastest-growing online site when it launched in August. The site aims to “help the church get people back into the pews,” he said.

Wyatt started GodTube.com, a Christian video-sharing and social-networking site, and now he is the CEO of a company that employs about 20 people and has a distinctly Christian outlook.

“We’re a traditional Christian site,” said Wyatt, a 38-year-old student at Dallas Theological Seminary. “Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, period.”

According to comScore Inc., which tracks the growth of websites, GodTube grew nearly 1,000 percent in its first month, and it had 1.6 million unique visitors every month. There currently are more than 38,000 videos on GodTube.

Wyatt came up with the idea for GodTube after reading a survey about falling church attendance. And while churches can upload video-sermons to the website, Wyatt insists Christians still need to attend an actual church—not just a virtual one.

“GodTube is by no means a substitute or alternative for church,” he said. “We’re here to help the church.”

Christians aren’t the only ones using the Internet to share their faith. For Jews, there’s JewTube.com, and for Muslims, IslamicTube.net. Though the two sites are considerably smaller—JewTube gets about 175,000 visitors per month and IslamicTube 23,000—the two sites are similar to GodTube in their mission to promote their individual faiths and surrounding cultures.

JewTube founder Jeremy Kossen said he has a “very positive” opinion of GodTube.

“Go to YouTube and type ‘Jewish’ or ‘Israel,’” he said. “Tell me what you find. Eighty percent of it is anti-Semitic. Now go to GodTube and type the same thing. What do you get? Ninety-nine percent pro-Israel and pro-Jewish.”

In spite of its smashing success, not everyone has such a rosy view of GodTube.

Dan Smith, pastor of Momentum Christian Church in Valley View, Ohio, created the video “Baby Got Book,” which GodTube used to launch their site. Though the spoof on the rap song “Baby Got Back” has been viewed more than 603,000 times on GodTube, Smith wonders how effective the site will be in reaching non-Christians.

“Most Christians want to reach un-churched people,” Smith said. “But you have to be really smart about where you reach unchurched people.”

Tim Ellsworth, the director of media relations at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., has his doubts, too. Although he thinks GodTube can have a positive impact on believers, he thinks it’s yet another example of American Christians copying elements of pop culture—from Christian breath mints and energy drinks to a Christian version of American Idol.

“It’s comfortable and convenient for us to surround ourselves with Christian versions of everything rather than to interact with the broader culture,” Ellsworth said.

Ellsworth would love to see a larger Christian presence on YouTube, because there the videos would have a better chance of being viewed by non-Christians. He thinks Christians’ tendency to withdraw from the world reflects badly on them.

“It indicates to … nonbelievers that we don’t care as much about them … whenever we try to make Christian copies of everything,” he said.

Nevertheless, Wyatt sees GodTube as his ministry, a way “to bring as many people to Christ … as possible.” He doesn’t think he is the reason for the site’s success. Rather, it’s the result of “God in GodTube.”

“I’m not really the CEO,” Wyatt said. “I feel like I’m the CEO’s man on the ground.”

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

Posted: 12/14/07

Does ‘Compass’ point
kids in the wrong direction?

By Heather Donckels

Religion News Service

NEW YORK (RNS)—The holiday season means it’s time for another Hollywood wintry blockbuster with a cast of talking animals, witches and an earnest child to point the way to truth and justice.

But some Christians who applauded the Christian allegory in The Chronicles of Narnia or The Lord of the Rings now worry that The Golden Compass, the recently released silver screen adaptation of Philip Pullman’s book, will poison kid’s minds with atheism.

Kiera McCaffery, a spokeswoman for the New York-based Catholic League, says the film is a hook to lure kids into a series of what she calls deeply anti-Catholic books.

“Once parents know about the books … they’re going to want to keep their children away from reading the books,” McCaffery said.

The Golden Compass, the first installment in avowed atheist Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, follows a young girl, Lyra, through a world dominated by a governing authority Pullman calls the Magisterium—the same name Catholics use to refer to their church’s teaching authority.

Although New Line Cinema has said it watered down the anti-religious themes in the movie, Plugged In, the entertainment-review sector of Focus on the Family, said there still is reason for concern.

“Even if they were (watered down), the theatrical celebration of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials stories will likely introduce many more viewers to a worldview that’s wholly opposed to the gospel message of Jesus Christ,” a Plugged In statement said.

Several critics base their concern on Pullman’s books since they had not yet seen the film. Ted Baehr, president of Movieguide, which uses “biblical principles” to rate about 20 films every month, is one of them.

“Since we haven’t seen it, we won’t boycott it,” a Movieguide statement said. “But since it’s based on a book … that can only demean, devalue and diminish life, we do urge people of faith and values not to bother to corrupt their children with this odious atheistic worldview.”

Pullman has said his books “are about killing God,” but he talks about the value of “the religious impulse” on his website. However, he goes on to condemn organized religion that has “burned, hanged, tortured, maimed, robbed, violated and enslaved millions” in the name of God.

“That is the religion I hate,” Pullman writes, “and I’m happy to be known as its enemy.”

It’s the same type of religion Pullman sets up as the bad guy in The Golden Compass. The General Oblation Board of the Magisterium is responsible for kidnapping children and cutting away their souls, outwardly manifested as animals called daemons.

So is the film specifically anti-Catholic? Nicole Kidman, who was raised Catholic and plays the role of the sinister Mrs. Coulter, the head of the General Oblation Board, doesn’t think so.

The Golden Compass is the first installment in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.

“The Catholic Church is part of my essence,” she told Entertainment Weekly in an interview. “I wouldn’t be able to do this film if I thought it were at all anti-Catholic.”

Donna Freitas, professor of religion at Boston University, agrees. In fact, she said reading the trilogy “reinvigorated” her concepts of God, salvation and the soul.

“This trilogy is actually responsible for helping me stay Catholic,” she said.

Freitas, who recently wrote Killing the Imposter God: Philip Pullman’s Spiritual Imagination in His Dark Materials with Jason King, interprets Pullman’s books quite differently than other Catholics. In her mind, it isn’t God who’s killed in the end, but an angel who has set himself up as a false god.

Freitas doesn’t see Pullman’s books as dangerous for children either, because “kids read things very differently” than adults. Earlier this month, she had the chance to watch children ask Pullman about his series. Not a single kid asked why he killed God in his books, she said.

Opposition to the movie and books coming from the religious community makes her sad, Freitas said. It’s one thing to express your point of view, she said, but quite another to get people to boycott or ban books and ideas.

“Secrecy is a terrible thing, especially in the context of the church,” she said.

Atheist groups, including the New Jersey-based American Atheists, have mixed feelings about the film. They say Hollywood should make more films that aren’t afraid to challenge religion, but also chide New Line for watering down some atheist themes in The Golden Compass.

Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheists, thinks the religious community made a strategic error in coming out against Pullman’s books and the movie.

“Now people want to read what’s in there,” she said. “What’s the forbidden message, and why is it forbidden?”

For his part, Pullman seems equal parts puzzled, amused and saddened by all the critics, especially Bill Donohue, head of the Catholic League.

“To regard it as this Donohue man has said—that I’m a militant atheist, and my intention is to convert people—how … does he know that?” he asked in an interview with Newsweek. “Why don’t we trust readers? Why don’t we trust filmgoers? Oh, it causes me to shake my head with sorrow that such nitwits could be loose in the world.”

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

Posted: 12/14/07

Practical tips on helping the homeless

By Heather Donckels

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Steve Burger, former executive director of the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, urges Americans not to give money to homeless people on the streets.

“If you give a dollar to a panhandler, often you are really funding the local tavern or drug dealer,” Burger said. “Most Americans do not know how to give effectively or wisely. I wish that people would stop giving spare change to the homeless, because it can promote irresponsible and self-destructive behaviors.”

Here are Burger’s tips for how people can help homeless men, women and children:

• Don’t give money hand-outs. Instead, purchase food items yourself, refer the person to an agency that can provide food or shelter, or give coupons to restaurants or grocery stores that can be redeemed for food.

• Donate food to a local agency. Food usually is in short supply at rescue missions; they especially need items such as juices, meats, soups and stews.

• Donate clothes (jackets, sweatshirts, new underwear, socks, shoes, knit hats and gloves) that can be used by both men and women.

• Babies and children—Because the fastest-growing groups of homeless people are children and women with children, there is a need for disposable diapers, baby food and formula, clothing and blankets.

• Homeless children dream of new toys such as dolls, trucks and games. These donations may be the only gifts they receive for a birthday or Christmas.

• Soap, shampoo, toothpaste, hairbrushes, combs and shaving lotions always are welcome.

Used with permission of the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions.

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

Posted: 12/14/07

‘Can you spare some change?’
Many Christians unsure how to respond

By Heather Donckels

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Every day, Lawaune Stockton stands with her cup in front of a downtown McDonald’s, jingling the change inside as customers come and go. She cinches the strings on the hood of her sweatshirt to keep out the damp air.

Stockton, who’s only been homeless four months, knows some passersby think homeless people ask for money to buy drugs and alcohol, but the stereotype doesn’t stop her.

“You can’t judge a book by its cover,” said Stockton, who makes about $20 a day in change.

As winter sets in, increasing numbers of Americans will be confronted with the harsh reality of homelessness—bundled, shivering souls, hands held out for loose change.

But many people are unsure how to respond: Show a little charity with a dollar or two, or risk funding someone’s drug or alcohol habit?

Herb Smith, president of the Los Angeles Mission, has an easy answer: Just don’t give. Money given straight to the homeless “generally goes toward supporting a drug or alcohol habit,” he said.

Smith, whose LA Mission offers meals, beds, education and counseling to the poor in what he calls the “homeless capital of the U.S.,” said he learned not to give new shoes or sleeping bags when he heard homeless people sold them and took the money to buy drugs.

What’s more important than money, he said, are the few seconds it takes to spend a little time treating the homeless as human beings.

Joe Little, a spokesman for the New York City Rescue Mission, agreed.

“Yes, they’re looking for money, yes, they’re hungry … but what they’re really after … is acceptance and some variation on intimacy,” Little said.

Unlike Smith, Little doesn’t object to someone giving a dollar to a homeless person. Sure, you don’t know where the money will end up, but neither do you know what anyone will do with anything.

Each day after Mass, the homeless approach exiting worshippers on the steps of St. Matthew’s Cathedral, several blocks from where Stockton stands outside the McDonald’s. Teresa Volante runs the cathedral’s homeless ministry, which includes a Monday morning breakfast of eggs, casseroles, fruit and croissants.

She personally prefers to give food and clothing, but stops short of saying people shouldn’t give money.

“I think it really comes down to an individual call,” she said.

From a safety perspective, though, she advises against it. Some parishioners give a dollar to a homeless person, only to have $5 or $10 demanded the next time.

Not all homeless are looking for money or a handout, however.

Lamar McCoy, for example, had parents who raised him to support himself. Even though the former machine operator has been homeless 17 years—15 in shelters and two on Washington streets—he insists he never asks for money.

“Just because you’re homeless doesn’t mean you have to lose your principles,” McCoy said.

Once, he said, he found a wallet full of money and turned it in to a pharmacy instead of keeping it. He sometimes feels belittled and demeaned when people offer him cash.

Offering money and food isn’t going to solve homelessness anyway, some say. Joel John Roberts, the CEO of People Assisting the Homeless in Los Angeles, wants to teach the homeless what McCoy’s parents taught him—how to support themselves.

“Our goal is not to provide ‘three hots and a cot,’” he said, referring to the traditional work of soup kitchens and shelters. Instead, Roberts’ agency provides job training and tries to help homeless people secure permanent housing.

David Sefton, a junior at Chicago’s Moody Bible Insti-tute, has less tangible concerns—hopelessness, despair and self respect. A few nights each week, he and 25 or 30 other students try to build relationships with the homeless. They strike up conversations about anything, from sports to spirituality to what’s on the menu at the nearby homeless shelter.

As a general rule, they don’t give money to the people they meet, unless they know about a specific need, like a bus pass or medicine, or know the individuals and really trust them.

“I don’t know what I’m supporting, and I know that … drugs and alcohol … are a big problem on the streets,” Sefton said.

Sometimes, the students pass out sandwiches, but Sefton said the focus of their work is less on providing physical needs and more on rebuilding shattered self-image. After being ignored and avoided, Sefton said, “Your dignity gets pretty shot.”

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

Posted: 12/14/07

Laredo ministry seeks to offer
children in need a healthy start

By Haley Smith

Baptist Child & Family Services

LAREDO—Imagine going 24 hours without electricity or running water. Consider what it would mean to someone in an emergency if they had to walk blocks to meet an ambulance because it would not cross the county line into their neighborhood.

Cristina De Bosquez doesn’t have to imagine. She works daily with people who live in exactly those situations.

De Bosquez directs Healthy Start Laredo, a Baptist Child & Family Services program designed to provide comprehensive medical care for women either pregnant or raising a child under the age of 2. The program’s goals are to reduce infant mortality, prevent child abuse and assist families in meeting basic health needs.

Healthy Start Laredo has reduced the number of infant deaths in Laredo over the past six years during the life of the program, reaching more than 300 families—about 1,500 individuals—per year, 150 pregnant women and 150 families with children under age 2.

It also serves another 500 non-clients through educational services and workshops.

Healthy Start partners with Laredo’s Gateway Clinic to provide medical services for families who cannot afford health care—particularly pregnant women and families with young children.

The majority of Healthy Start clients live in small colonias—often 30 miles outside the Laredo city limits. The colonias generally lack running water, and residents often are isolated because they do not have a phone or car.

Baptist Child & Family Services recruits clients and provides transportation to a mobile medical unit, parked at a different location daily throughout the five colonias served.

“We have one and only one focus—to protect babies, born and unborn,” De Bos-quez said.

A Baptist Child & Family Services case manager follows each family until the child turns 2, developing nurturing plans and teaching parenting skills, while working to empower clients by helping them achieve independence.

“Our program is a strength-based program and equips these families with skills to make it on their own,” De Bosquez noted. “We give our clients hope and permission to dream and set goals, which is priceless.”

Healthy Start Laredo not only helps people who specifically request assistance, but also goes into areas where people who need the services live. 

Client Amelia Perez and her family live in an empty horse stall where her husband works, and they are exposed daily to quarantined horses and dangerous pesticides. Without transportation, she sometimes has to pay a neighbor $30 per trip to take her to get groceries. This family is only one of 15 families originally discovered living on the property who now are served by Healthy Start Laredo.

“The program requires aggressive outreach,” Gateway nurse practitioner Patricia Tijerina said. “People need to know that these services are available to them. Awareness is an ongoing need.”

“It’s a very good program that has helped my family a lot in the process of delivering our baby,” client Carmen Sanchez said, after completing her two-week check up after a C-section. “It’s very convenient, and I’m grateful that I didn’t have to travel far for my appointments.”

Although the Healthy Start Laredo staff may never know the full impact made in the lives of clients, the staff believes in the work they do and can see God’s hand in it, De Bosquez noted.

“It’s not about the pay or the hours we work,” she explained. “Working here is a humbling experience that allows us to go home daily with renewed and appreciative attitudes.

“We are a faith-based organization and simply live out our faith by meeting our clients’ needs. We demonstrate by example, so when asked, we tell our clients that we’re ‘doing God’s good work.’”

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

Posted: 12/14/07

Texas Baptist Forum

God & science

Too often, Christians believe science is an enemy of the Bible. On the contrary, the sciences magnify the glory of God.

• Jump to online-only letters below

Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.

“The coldest of seasons, winter is like the 4-year-old crashing a birthday party. No matter if it’s his or not, all of him says, ‘I’m here, and I’m taking over.’” Don Newbury President emeritus of Howard Payne University “I had a wedding or a funeral, I can’t remember which. Anyway, I don’t pre-empt a wedding or a funeral for a presidential candidate. Because I’m a pastor.” Leith Anderson President of the National Association of Evangelicals, describing how he reacted when contacted by a presidential campaign to meet with a candidate (Associated Press/RNS) “Health care should be part of foreign policy; it makes friends. Does God have favorites? Yes he does; he loves the poor.” Rick Warren Pastor/author/poverty advocate (RNS)

In the Old Testament, Joshua 10:12-14 can be explained through science. Astronomy tells us Earth revolves around the sun. Physics tells us that if Earth were to stop turning, it would be the end of all life on earth. Phenomenology tells us we experience physical life through the phenomenological perceptions of our senses; therefore, we can understand this Scripture reference was inspired in the terms of the writer’s phenomenological understanding. Through science, we know the sun did not actually stop, but Earth stopped turning for about a full day, and the moon held its place. The magnitude of this miracle demonstrates the awesome power of God.

This is a compact example of how the church can—from behind the pulpit and in Sunday school classes—make Holy Scripture relevant in today’s culture. “The very core of the secular culture in the United States today is their view of knowledge through the senses … they see any thing outside the realm of the senses as a matter of how one feels about it … a dangerous philosophy,” notes J.P. Moreland of Biola University.

The sciences are a door opener that we should all know how to use and how to follow up with an introduction of our knowledge of faith in Jesus Christ, which does in fact produce empirical evidence to its validity, both individually and collectively.

Larry Judd

Dickinson

What do you think? Send letters to Editor Marv Knox by mail: P.O. Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267; or by e-mail: marvknox@baptiststandard.com. Due to space limitations, maximum length is 250 words. No more than one letter per writer per quarter.

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