Posted: 6/08/07

Sexual predators often fly
under the radar at church

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

EW YORK (ABP)—Most people think they can spot a sexual predator. He’s the pale loner with greasy hair and quivering lips or the grinning lech who hugs too long and slowly rubs the backs of female co-workers—or church members.

Could be. But for every overt pervert, there are plenty more who go unnoticed—and unsuspected.

Predators gravitate to vulnerable people. They move into places where they are the highest authority and where that authority remains unquestioned. In some cases, that place is the local church.

Experts say there is no standard profile of a predator, no personality trait or background history that would link them in one group. Rather, predators have similar behavior patterns and desires, no matter whom they victimize. Pastors who have affairs, for instance, are much different from those who molest children. The former are morally wrong but usually not criminals. The latter are both.

Some experts insist philandering men typically fall into two categories. The “wanderer” gets emotionally involved with a woman, crosses boundaries, gives in to temptation and regrets it later. The “predator” actively looks for vulnerable women, takes advantage of them and moves on to other victims.

Whether with a vulnerable woman or a naïve child, however, the abuser always breaks a bond of trust. And while there’s no unique predator profile, in the end, they’re all the same— abusers rarely offend once, whether or not they planned the event and whether or not they regret it.

“We have this feeling that we could pick out a child molester in the crowd, but they look like your average, normal, trustworthy person. Sometimes they look more-than-average trustworthy,” Dave Mallinak, pastor of Berean Baptist Church of Ogden, Utah, said. “Another thing is we have this conceit that we could pick out a liar from a crowd—that I would know if someone is lying to me.”

Mallinak should know. He is working on a book for pastors counseling sex-abuse victims and has spent years tracking a former pastor whom he said molests teens in local churches before church leaders find out and fire him. Mallinak recently outed the accused pastor on his blog, sharperirony-.blogspot.com.

The naiveté of people who think they can discern a liar coupled with the trust people give to pastors can be a dangerous combination, Mallinak said.

“They become good liars,” he said. “Of course, we naturally want to trust our pastor and believe him, but once they’ve crossed that line, telling a lie is certainly not a hard thing.”

Gregory Sporer, an author and founder of Keeping Kids Safe Ministries, has spent almost 20 years counseling both abusers and the abused.

Staff or church member sex-offenders have two weaknesses, he said. The “give-away categories of behaviors” are boundary violations and generally suspicious behaviors. Most church offenders have months of boundary violations, or “grooming,” prior to the first sexual offense. They’ll choose children who seem emotionally vulnerable and gain their trust with seemingly innocuous contact. For most, he said, it’s a gradual spiral down from there.

“Pastor sex-offenders are not mentally ill, and they rarely have a criminal history,” Sporer said. “Christian men and women do not become sex-offenders overnight. For many, it starts with porn or an emotional bond with a teen or child, and over a period of time, a secret sexual sin with the teen or child emerges.”

Many predators start out as men or women addicted to porn or inappropriately attached to specific children, Sporer said. And according to Sexual Abuse, a Journal of Research and Treatment, church attendance and religious practices in sexual offenders is positively related to the number of their victims and the number of their sexual offense convictions.

Sporer said in his 35,000 hours of sex-abuse counseling, he has seen that dynamic multiple times.

“Some use adult porn, which may lead to teen porn,” he said. “Eventually, the porn doesn’t meet their sexual needs, and they look for teens or kids. Some pastors … develop emotional attachments to kids. Eventually the emotional attachments become sexual, and a child is molested.”

The cycle of pornography leading to abuse grows darker and deeper on a gradual basis, Sporer said, noting many offenders reported hating sex offenders before they became one.

What’s more, many predators report that after each offense, they would go weeks avoiding their victims, have intense self-loathing, increase Bible reading and beg God to “take their sin away” so they don’t go to jail.

And contrary to popular opinion, many sexual abusers were not themselves abused.

In the 1980s, Sporer said, several reports claimed most sex offenders were molested as children. It was used as an excuse for the chain of abuse, he said, but times have changed since then, especially with increased use of the polygraph test.

“Offenders thought they gained more sympathy if they lied about being molested as a child,” Sporer said. “There are some offenders with a history of being molested as a child, but it is not as significant a number as once thought.”

What is significant is that all clergy predators seem to desperately need what they abuse their position to get—power, pleasure, admiration and autonomy.

Mallinak, who became outraged when he saw a former pastor grope teen girls, said the pastor was obviously taken with the pursuit of pleasure and idle amusement. He also loved to be admired, Mallinak said.

“There was something intoxicating about the adoring eyes of his followers,” Mallinak said, adding that even he looked up to the pastor as a hero. Sadly, Mallinak later wrote on his blog, the pursuit of admiration “is like a tapeworm. It is always eating and never filled. A man who craves admiration, no matter how much he gets, will never be satisfied.”

The root of that commonality is sin, Mallinak tells his congregants. It’s not a “fundamentalist” problem or an organizational problem, he said. “It comes from (the predator’s) own flesh.”

Even though the cause of the abuse comes from within, historic Baptist autonomy can be a problem in tracking predators, experts agree. For Mallinak’s Utah congregation, which is an Independent Baptist church, “ultra-autonomy” is something of which to be proud. Predators take advantage of that, he said.

That tension between Baptist autonomy and accountability is one factor in learning to profile predators. Another is the question of whether predators can be rehabilitated.

Mallinak said all predators should spend the rest of their life in jail or “something more severe than that.” In his opinion, predators must never be allowed back in the pulpit in any capacity, since they have “violated a trust and are incurable.”

“Repentance—genuine repentance as opposed to the kind that demands that everybody forgive me right now—would involve a confession that what he did has limited his future,” Mallinak said. “In other words, if he really repented, then he would never seek another pulpit.”

Sporer, on the other hand, has called the idea that sex offenders do not change a “myth.” According to him, many of the 550,000 registered sex offenders in the United States attend church. Most of the church-attenders claim to be Christians with a strong desire to serve Christ, and most offenders who have been convicted and are registered are successful at not re-offending, according to a 2001 report by the Center for Sex Offender Management. The report said the average sex-offence recidivism rate, defined as re-arrest or reconviction, was 12 percent for child molesters over a five-year period.

Mallinak tells embittered victims that clergy predators are counterfeits who stand in the place of a real pastoral shepherd.

“When a pastor violates their trust … I think we have to remember that this is why we need Jesus Christ. This is exactly the reason. We have to rest on his grace and rely on that,” he said. “If it weren’t for the grace of God, none of us would make it.”

Posted: 6/08/07

Sex-abuse victims speak up to help
others & find healing themselves

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

NEW YORK (ABP)—Debbie Vasquez was 14 when her pastor started touching her inappropriately. She was 15 when he raped her and 19 when she had his baby.

Tina Boyd first was molested at age 11. Later, she was raped by her church bus driver. The rapist, whom she eventually married and divorced, has been arrested for dabbling in child pornography.

Vasquez told members in her church about the abuse but was disbelieved and accused of lying. Both women ultimately clammed up, refusing to acknowledge the molestation and living with their pain for years. Now, they’re using that pain to alert others to the danger of clergy sex abuse.

“The hurt from it is life-long. It’s not something that ever goes away,” Vasquez, 48, said. “The way that you’re treated if you ever tell anybody anything makes it worse. It makes it really hard to even have a relationship with anybody else, to even trust anybody. It’s not a hurt that ever goes away.”

Vasquez has filed a lawsuit against her former minister at the now-defunct Calvary Baptist Church in Lewisville. Pastor Dale Amyx acknowledged in court documents that he had a sexual relationship with Vasquez and had fathered her child. Texas court records also show Amyx was convicted in 1967 for giving alcohol to a minor.

Amyx used the Bible and his position to justify his actions, Vasquez said. And that made her situation even worse.

“Being molested by a minister is twice as bad as any other kind because of the spiritual and physical aspects,” she said. “Here is someone who is supposed to be a man of God. And if you’re made to feel guilty because of it, it’s a very strong message to that person for the rest of their life.”

It’ll take the rest of her life to heal from the abuse, she said, and it hasn’t been easy. Vasquez used to have panic attacks during sex, ended up getting a divorce and even tried to kill herself after she learned her abuser had taken up with a teenage girl.

Like Boyd, though, Vasquez decided to tell her story to anyone and everyone who will listen. It has helped her feel stronger, she said. They both think their openness could save others from a similar fate.

“It took me 10 years to admit to myself that this happened,” Boyd said. “I think I’ve healed as much as I’m going to heal. There are times when I still have moments of unforgiveness. Other than that, maybe I can heal by just finding a way to just let it go and be forgiving and to help as many people as I can.”

To that end, Boyd has created a website, www.notmyfamily.org, aimed at helping victims of sex abuse. A web-developer by trade, the 38-year-old mother provides a listening ear for abuse survivors and helps them connect with the tools they need to recover.

Boyd was married 11 years to the man who molested her. He has since been in jail and now has supervised custody rights to their three daughters.

Her current husband encouraged her to start the site after a friend confided that her daughter had been molested by a youth pastor. Earlier, the couple had learned at least five other families in their church had daughters who had been inappropriately touched.

“My husband comes home from work and said: ‘We have to do something. We have too much information and too much experience not to help people,’” Boyd said. “From that day, we began working on the website.”

Boyd and Vasquez are typical survivors of abuse; both went through periods of self-doubt, guilt and isolation. Boyd said she’d lie in bed at night and pray God would make her a better wife. When Vasquez became pregnant, church leaders forced her to go before the congregation and ask forgiveness as an unwed mother.

“Considering how bad I was doing, I’m definitely doing a lot better,” Vasquez said. “But I think the (difficult) thing is … trying to overcome the feelings of the guilt itself. I felt like there was nothing I could do. I thought I had to protect myself and my kids.”

Besides displaying their lives as a warning for other victims, the decision to file custody suits and lawsuits and become involved in a healthy church has helped each woman as well.

Their attitudes toward church, especially, are striking. Neither woman is bitter against God or their current pastoral leaders for the abuse. Boyd said she still believes God can make good things come out of bad things. Her life now, with a loving husband and well-adjusted daughters, is “totally unexpected.” Vasquez blames “the person, not really the church.”

“I know there have been other people who have been hurt, and they are extremely bitter. I really do believe in God,” she said, adding that she is unhappy with church leaders for not taking appropriate action and wishes denominational leaders would take an active stance against abuse.

In spite of her continued belief in God, it was more than 20 years before Vasquez and her children returned to church.

Her time back has been a “mixed bag,” she said. On one hand, some people have supported her journey through sex abuse and her desire to talk about it. On the other hand, some have made it clear it’s not a subject they want to discuss.

The topic of sex makes people uncomfortable, she said. But knowing that staying quiet allowed her abuser access to others pushed her forward. She said she realized that if she didn’t tell her story, “more and more people (could) get hurt.”

“I’m trying hard to be able to trust people again,” Vasquez said. “I’m trying hard to trust churches again. I want to have that ability. I would like to be able to have a relationship, to get married. I feel like I’ve gotten stronger since I’ve started talking about it. I’ve gotten stronger since I’ve realized there are other people than just me.”

Posted: 6/08/07

Are atheists now becoming
the new fundamentalists?

By Benedicta Cipolla

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Despite its minority status, atheism has enjoyed the spotlight recently, with several books that feature vehement arguments against religion topping bestseller lists.

But now even some secular humanists are saying they should embrace more than the strident rhetoric poured out in books like Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion and Sam Harris’ The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation.

At a recent conference marking the 30th anniversary of Harvard’s humanist chaplaincy, organizers sought to distance the “new humanism” from the “new atheism.”

“At times, they’ve made statements that sound really problematic, and when Sam Harris says science must destroy religion, to me that sounds dangerously close to fundamentalism,” humanist chaplain Greg Epstein said in an interview after the meeting. “What we need now is a voice that says, ‘That is not all there is to atheism.’”

Although the two can overlap, atheism represents a statement about the absence of belief and is thus defined by what it is not. Humanism, meanwhile, seeks to provide a positive, secular framework for leading ethical lives and contributing to the greater good, its advocates insist. The term “humanist” emerged with the “Humanist Manifesto” of 1933, a nonbinding document summarizing the movement’s principles.

The Harvard event linked up via video to a conference on global warming at the Baptist-affiliated Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.

Addressing both meetings was biologist E.O. Wilson, whose book, The Creation, urges the faith community to join the environmental movement.

Even as he complimented the “military wing of secularism” for combating the intrusion of dogma into political and private life, Wilson told the Harvard audience that religious people “are more likely to pay attention to that hand of friendship offered to them … than to have suggested to them, let us say, Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, which sets out to carpet-bomb all religion.”

In his book, Dawkins likens philosopher Michael Ruse, a Florida State philosophy professor who has worked on the creationism/evolution debate in public schools, to Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister best known for his appeasement policy toward Nazi Germany.

Ruse, in turn, accuses “militant atheism” of not extending the same professional and academic courtesy to religion that it demands from others. Atheism’s new dogmatic streak is not that different from the religious extremists it calls to task, he said. Dawkins was traveling and unavailable for comment.

The suggestion that atheists may be fundamentalists in their own right has, unsurprisingly, ruffled feathers.

“We’re not a unified group,” said Christopher Hitchens, author of the latest atheist bestseller, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. “But we’re of one mind on this: The only thing that counts is free inquiry, science, research, the testing of evidence, the uses of reason, irony, humor and literature, things of this kind. Just because we hold these convictions rather strongly does not mean this attitude can be classified as fundamentalist.”

More than a kinder, gentler strain of atheism, humanists insist their philosophy seeks to propose a more expansive worldview.

“Atheists don’t really ask the question, ‘What are the vital needs that religion meets?’ They give you the sense that religion is the enemy, which is absurd,” said Ronald Aronson, professor of humanities at Wayne State University in Detroit.

“There are some questions we secularists have to answer: Who am I, what am I, what can I know? Unless we can answer these questions adequately for ourselves and for others, we can’t expect people to even begin to be interested in living without God.”

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

Posted: 6/08/07

East Texas cousins keep Bible Drill
competition all in the family

By Barbara Bedrick

Texas Baptist Communications

ATLANTA—A family legacy took two East Texas teenagers to the national stage.

Fulfilling a commitment they made to their great-grandmother, cousins Tanner Shirley and Jessie Price from First Baptist Church in Atlanta advanced to the national round of Bible Drill competition in North Carolina June 8.

Last month, they won the Texas State Bible Drill, outranking about 1,000 other students from more than 170 churches and 60 Baptist associations.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas coordinates Texas Baptist Bible Drill competition each year.

Jessie captured the Texas junior high Bible Drill title in her fifth year of competition.

Tanner, who plays on his high school’s football and basketball teams as well as in the band, has learned the importance of discipline. This strategy paid off in Bible Drill, as he won first place in the state high school division.

It marks his second time at the national competition. In 2004, he competed for the national championship at the junior high level.

“We’re tickled to death and very, very proud of him,” said Sherri Shirley, his mother.

“He’s very excited to be headed back to nationals. And at state, it was clear he was motivated not to be outdone by his cousin.”

The trip to the national Bible Drill contest culminates a commitment Tanner and Jessie made to their great-grandmother, who died earlier this year at age 95. She was dedicated to their involvement in Bible Drill and emphasized the impact it could have on their lives.

Tanner’s mother used her grandmother’s commitment to motivate her son and his cousin.

“I told them their great-grandmother would be tapping on everyone’s shoulders, saying, ‘Look at those two great-grandchildren of mine.’ You go get up there, and do it for Grandma,” she said.

Other top-ranking high school students in the state competition were A.R. Mareno from First Baptist Church in Belton and Brittany Mayfield from Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cleveland, who tied for second place, and Elizabeth Rasmussen from First Baptist Church in Temple, who placed third.

In the junior high school division, Faith Walters from First Baptist Church in Albany and Blake Borenstein from Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano tied for second place, and Christa Juneau from Cornerstone in Cleveland placed third.

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

Posted: 6/08/07

Book Reviews

The AIDS Crisis By Deborah Dortzbach and W. Meredith Long (InterVarsity Press)

Baptist churches in Texas, as elsewhere, are becoming more open in talking about AIDS. Twenty years ago, we discovered how the virus is spread. But we haven’t yet discovered a cure. Worldwide, 8,000 people are dying every day. By 2010, it is estimated, 25 million children will have been orphaned.

How will we respond? The authors, working with World Relief, are experienced in the attempt. They tell stories about victims in Africa and Asia, and these people do not seem far away. Then they encourage American Christians to get proactive in our own communities, locking arms with any organization concerned with ministry to AIDS victims.

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

Abstinence from sexual relations before marriage is championed. Yet the book faces the fact that education must go further. “Our youth have to know now. Our strategies in youth groups and our instructions in homes and churches need to be fresh and relevant.”

This book gives suggestions about how to do it.

Bob Beck

Intentional interim pastor

Fort Worth

Finding God Beyond Harvard: The Quest for Veritas By Kelly Monroe Kullberg (IVP Books)

The follow-up to her 1996 award-winning Finding God at Harvard, Kelly Monroe Kullberg now sets out to tell her own story. She describes finding God at Harvard and several other campuses across America and the world through her work as founder and director of The Veritas Forum. Her organization assists university students and professors in creating campus events “that engage students and faculty in discussions about life’s hardest questions and the relevance of Jesus Christ to all of life.”

Where Finding God at Harvard is a captivating collection of essays by Harvard professors and former students, this “sequel” is part Kullberg-memoir, part Veritas Forum history, part apologetic for God’s truth and the beauty of his handiwork. Kullberg writes with an intellectual and outdoorsy sense of wonder and fascination that not only inspires the reader to contemplate more deeply the love and truth of God, but to then go into the world and share it with others through winsomeness and humility.

Greg Bowman, minister to students

First Baptist Church

Duncanville

The Election By Jerome Teel (Howard Books)

It appeared to be nothing more than a small-town murder, an open-and-shut case. But things are not what they appear. Small-town lawyer Jake Reed takes the case out of sympathy, guilt even, and soon finds himself embroiled in a political plot that extends as far as the White House.

If you’re a John Grisham or Tom Clancy fan, The Election is a must-read. Jerome Teel masterfully builds multiple plots and brings them together for a truly suspenseful story. Murder, intrigue and power struggles keep you on the edge of your seat, while the message that all things happen for a purpose keeps it in perspective.

Teel, himself a lawyer in Jackson, has done a superb job of creating a world-class suspense novel that won’t offend Christian sensibilities. How nice to read an intelligent story that hasn’t been mangled by words and events inserted merely for their shock value. For good, clean fun with a strong sense of danger, try The Election.

Kathryn Aragon

First Baptist Church

Duncanville

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

Posted: 6/08/07

Baptist Briefs

N.C. colleges may elect trustees, lose funding. Five colleges affiliated with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina would be able to elect their own trustees under a plan adopted by the convention’s board of directors, but the schools will lose the convention’s direct financial support. The plan, which would be phased in over four years, is intended to avoid a showdown over how much control the Baptist convention should have over the schools—Campbell University, Chowan University, Gardner-Webb University, Mars Hill College and Wingate University. The board overwhelmingly approved the proposal from the state convention’s council on Christian higher education. To become policy, messengers to the Baptist State Convention must approve it two consecutive years.

N.C. state paper set to elect editor. Norman Jameson has been recommended as the new editor of the Biblical Recorder, the North Carolina Baptist state newspaper. The paper’s board of directors was expected to vote June 7. Jameson, executive leader for public relations for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, would succeed Tony Cartledge, 55, who has announced plans to become a professor at Campbell University Divinity School in Buies Creek, N.C. Cartledge will remain editor through July 31. Jameson, 54, graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, was feature editor of Baptist Press, associate editor of the Oklahoma Baptist Messenger and communications director for Baptist Children’s Home in North Carolina before joining the North Carolina state convention staff. Jameson and his wife, Sue Ellen, have three adult children and are members of Hayes Barton Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C.

Kentucky paper names news director. Drew Nichter, an associate director and news producer for a television station in Louisville, Ky., has been named news director of the Western Recorder, the Kentucky Baptist newspaper. Nichter, 30, succeeds David Winfrey, who resigned after 10 years to accept a position as a marketing strategist. He is a graduate of Indiana University Southeast, where he was assistant editor of the university’s campus newspaper.

Asian Federation changes name. At the recent Asian Baptist Federation Congress in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the group voted to change its name to the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation. Officials said the new name more accurately reflects the composition of the regional body, which includes countries in the South Pacific such as Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand. The federation consists of 60 conventions and unions in 20 countries with about 30,000 churches that claim more than 5 million members.

Princeton Review recognizes Mercer. The Princeton Review has named Mercer University in Georgia one of the nation’s best value undergraduate institutions. Mercer is featured in the 2008 edition of America’s Best Value Colleges. The guide profiles 165 colleges chosen for their excellent academics, generous financial aid packages and/or relatively low costs of attendance. Mercer was one of only 75 private institutions to be named a “best value.” The Princeton Review selected the schools based on data obtained from administrators at more than 650 colleges during the 2005-06 academic year and surveys of students attending the schools.

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

Posted: 6/08/07

Buckner seeks supplies
for international orphans

DALLAS—Humanitarian aid supplies are rapidly decreasing from the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid in Dallas, leaving orphanages without basic personal, medical, infant and educational supplies, officials with the agency reported.

Around 1,200 people will travel with Buckner on mission trips this year, and many of them fill backpacks or suitcases with supplies from the warehouse to distribute to the orphanages in which they will serve.

“Many bags are going to orphanages empty because our supplies are rapidly depleting,” said Matt Asato, Buckner humanitarian aid coordinator.

Buckner needs supplies for:

• Personal Hygiene—Tooth-paste, toothbrushes, lice shampoo and deodorant.

• Medical—Adhesive bandages, cotton-tipped swabs, antibiotic ointment, cotton balls, anti-itch cream, cough syrup, ibuprofen, child pain reliever, vitamins, infant pain reliever, stomach reliever, infant cold and allergy medicines, and antacid tablets.

• Infants—Baby powder, baby wipes, baby oil, diaper rash ointment and diapers. All of these are major needs, but “baby rash ointment is on top of the list for our baby homes in Guatemala and Africa,” Asato said.

• School & crafts supplies— Particularly watercolor markers, school scissors and construction paper.

All humanitarian aid supplies can be shipped or delivered to Buckner International Humanitarian Aid, 4830 Samuell Blvd., Dallas 75228.

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

Posted: 6/08/07

Harral to begin term as CBF moderator

ATLANTA—Harriet Harral, a member of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth and an organizational consultant, will begin her one-year term as moderator of the national Cooperative Baptist Fellowship at the conclusion of the Fellowship’s general assembly in June.

 “Harriet brings so many gifts of leadership to the responsibility of moderator,” said Daniel Vestal, the Fellowship’s executive coordinator. “She also has a well of love and life wish for CBF that is contagious. I look forward to working with her next year.”

 A native of Devine, Harral is the president of The Harral Group, a consulting firm that specializes in organizational effectiveness. As moderator, Harral will preside over the Fellowship’s Coordinating Council, which meets three times a year, and the 2008 general assembly.

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

Posted: 6/08/07

2nd Opinion: Called to witness Christ’s peace

By Beth Newman

A few nights ago, just at bedtime, my husband and I heard some kind of owl—at least we assumed it was an owl—announcing its presence among the oaks in our backyard. A little research on the Internet led us to believe it was a screech owl. I was excited, because I’m a budding bird enthusiast; my husband was excited, because he saw an end to his mole problems. According to what he read, once an owl establishes a territory, he will hunt it over until he exhausts the prey.

Unfortunately, as we waxed eloquent about the bloody demise of the rodents tunneling through our yard, our 6-year-old son overheard and burst into tears over the slaughter of his friends whom he pronounced “tiny and shiny black.”

“Isn’t there enough room for the owl and mole and us?” he wondered.

It was the neighborhood version of Rodney King’s “Why can’t we all just get along?”

The simple answer, of course, is that we just can’t. What the mole wants and what the owl wants and what my husband wants are in irreconcilable conflict. Of course, the promise of Scripture is that this will not always be so. At the consummation of the kingdom of God, the mole and the owl will lie down together, and they and the gardener will be reconciled members of the peaceable kingdom, not varying levels in the food chain.

But what about the meantime?

Memorial Day has come and gone. The sad fact is that for most of us, it was a day when we failed to remember. For most of us, it was a day off, the first trip to the beach or pool, the unofficial beginning of summer. Any remembrance of the lives given and taken was perfunctory, at best. Just as, for most of us, the current war in Iraq has made very little difference in our day-to-day lives.

But might it be otherwise?

The results of a recent survey of Muslim Americans provided an occasion for “good news/bad news” commentary.

For me, the most intriguing reaction involved the statistic that sizable portions of the Islamic population regard themselves as Muslims first and as U.S. citizens second. At least one Christian pundit viewed this as a cause for alarm, since he viewed it as a threat to peace. He reasoned that unless we can all agree about what we value most, it will be extremely unlikely that we all can get along. Therefore, it is our duty to subordinate that which divides to that which unites us. I would state his opinion more bluntly: If we as Christians or Muslims or Americans want peace, then we must be willing to kill other Christians or Muslims who don’t happen to be Americans.

Here is a profound failure of the Christian imagination. Here is the poverty of Christian memory in 21st century America. An argument I often encounter from my students is that our freedom to worship has been purchased at the price of the blood of our fellow citizens; therefore, we owe our nation our allegiance. My response is that as precious as those lost lives are, if our country tomorrow withdrew that freedom, would we cease to worship?

It is my conviction that the church is not better, purer or more virtuous than the world that surrounds it. It is that the church knows the one thing that someday all the world will acknowledge: In Jesus, God has broken the walls of enmity that separate us from each other and from God. And we are called to live in witness to this peace.

Will we pledge allegiance to that?

Beth Newman is professor of theology and ethics at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. Her column is distributed by Associated Baptist Press.

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

Posted: 6/08/07

DBU students reach out
to orphans in Guatemala

By Blake Killingsworth

Dallas Baptist University

ELA, Guatemala—Twenty-five Dallas Baptist University students shared the love of Christ with orphans during a recent 12-day trip to Guatemala—and fell in love with the children in the process.

For the last four years, DBU students have made the trek to Latin America under the auspices of Buckner International. Recently, DBU entered a formal partnership agreement with Buckner. In addition to the school’s pledge to continue its hands-on involvement in Guatemala and Buckner’s promise to facilitate the trips, DBU also established a scholarship for Buckner’s Guatemalan staff to take classes through the school’s online education program.

The DBU students traveled to Xela, a town about seven hours away from Guatemala City, where they taught Bible lessons, repaired and cleaned buildings and shared Christ’s love with orphaned children.

“When we first walked in, we were immediately met with huge smiles and kids wanting to be scooped up, held, twirled and put on our shoulders,” Jill Beard said.

Beard and Preston Hagaman—both seniors at DBU—had journeyed to Peru last summer to participate in a mission trip with Buckner. That experience “really developed a special place in my heart for orphan children,” Hagaman said.

“When we came back home this year, I left again with a very heavy heart and a renewed feeling of responsibility,” Hagaman continued. “As Americans, we have been greatly blessed, but we have not been blessed simply to become increasingly selfish. Rather, we are to share the great blessings bestowed upon us with those who are less fortunate and in great need.”

Echoing these sentiments, DBU doctoral student Justin Gandy added: “Jesus encouraged us all to go to the ends of the earth to share God’s love. I have had the opportunity to travel to other countries and minister in orphanages before, and while everyone is not necessarily called to a life of full-time mission work, we are richly blessed in this country, and ‘to whom much is given, much is required.’”

The Guatemala trip was Chris Hendricks’ first foreign missions experience. In fact, he said: “I had never traveled out of the country and had only once before been on a plane. But I wanted to go to Guatemala because I knew that it would be a special trip. I did not know what to expect, but I knew that God would teach me something, somehow, and in some way.”

The children hungered for attention and eagerly responded to any act of love, Gandy noted.

Dallas Baptist University student Chris Holloway sits with Guatemalan children Alexander (left) and Chito (right).

“Children are children, no matter what language they speak or what country they live in,” he said.

“We all have a need for attention and love, and these children craved those things like anyone their age.”

The DBU students spent eight days in one orphanage, giving them an opportunity to bond with the children, Hagaman noted.

“I grew very attached to a 2-year-old boy named Jason,” he recalled. “He was a great kid, and some of the best times that we shared were us just sitting outside together or playing catch.”

Hendricks also formed bonds with the children—especially one boy whose shoes showed signs of wear and tear.

“I’ll never forget Chito and his broken shoes,” he said. “He wore a pair with a sole that had come undone from the shoe. Every time he would kick a soccer ball, the sole would drag on the ground, and it got worse and worse every day.”

Hendricks and fellow DBU student Chris Holloway pooled their money to buy Chito a new pair of shoes.

Dalla Baptist University student Jonathan Galvan, who helped lead singing for the children throughout the trip, plays outside with one of the children at the orphanage in Xela, Guatemala.

“We got the shoes on the last day that we were there, and it was good timing, because when we went to give them to Chito, we noticed that he was totally barefoot. His old shoes finally went to the trash,” Hendricks said.

“I remember one of the days, Chito fell asleep in my arms for a couple of hours. During his nap, I prayed for him, asking God to grant him peace and comfort and the knowledge that he is deeply loved by his heavenly Father, even though his earthly parents abandoned him. I know that I will probably never see him again in this life, but I pray that I will have a chance in the next.”

“Every trip that our students make with Buckner to orphanages around the world, something special happens,” said Jay Harley, DBU dean of spiritual life and sponsor for the trip. “Our students have the chance to put their faith to action. It is exciting to see them share the love of Christ with kids who may not receive much love on a regular basis. God uses all of these trips to teach students about his work around the world and about his calling to serve others with our lives.”

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

Posted: 6/08/07

DOWN HOME:
Who knew 28 is the ‘water’ anniversary?

Well, that was a wedding anniversary we won’t forget.

Late Saturday afternoon, I hopped in the shower after a day of yardwork and other chores. A moment later, Joanna ran into our bathroom.

My wife is not known for ecstatic utterances or glossolalia, but I immediately guessed she had taken to speaking in tongues. Couldn’t understand what she was talking about.

She dashed away as quickly as she appeared. The look of fright and panic communicated the point of her message as I thought hard and translated three distinct words: “den,” “floor” and “water.”

Fortunately, I hadn’t lathered up yet, so I hopped back out of the shower and trailed water behind me as I ran to the front of the house, wrapped in a towel.

I skidded into the den in time to see water flowing past the bookcases and into the kitchen. Sloshing into the laundry room, I turned off the valves to the overflowing washing machine, saying a fervent—and I mean fervent—prayer that every twist of the knobs was turning us away from a flood.

Joanna threw towels onto the floor as I sloshed to the kitchen and yanked the phone book out of the drawer. Scanning the “rentals” section, I called the first number I could find.

“Are you open now?” I asked the guy on the other end of the line.

“Well … we’re open ’til 5,” he drawled.

“What time is it?” I demanded. (Apparently, encountering a flood in your kitchen causes you to unlearn how to tell time.)

“’Bout 4:30, give or take,” he replied.

“I need a wet-vac and a large fan,” I told him. “Will you hold them for me?”

“Well … if you get here ’fore 5,” he said. And hung up.

I decided to risk “wasting” about 51 seconds to pull on cutoffs and a T-shirt. Fortunately, I didn’t encounter any of Coppell’s Finest as I speeded to the rental place and raced back home.

Our friends Steve and Debbie showed up about the time I arrived with the wet-vac. By then, Jo had soaked two five-gallon buckets of water out of the kitchen, one hand-wrung towel at a time. Steve helped me carry the couch and loveseat out of the den. Thirty minutes later, we stood in the middle of a dry—and clean—floor.

Six days later, the washer repairman explained this happens all the time. A return hose vibrated off, so the washer didn’t know the tub was full. The water kept running.

The repairman told Jo about a woman who started a load of clothes, took a sleeping pill and woke up to find eight inches of water throughout her house. So, things could’ve been worse.

But if two of every kind of animal had started showing up, I would’ve bought Jo a boat for our 28th anniversary. A very large boat.

—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: 6/08/07

EDITORIAL:
Hold churches accountable for abuse

We need another directory to document clergy sexual abuse. When we learn churches knowingly allow—or force—an abusing minister to move on without doing something to warn others, let’s publish their names.

This sounds harsh. But it’s nothing compared to the pain and anguish victims go through when their ministers violate their trust and abuse them sexually. So, churches that know about it but don’t help stop it should be shamed as if they actually aided and abetted this heinous act. They did.

Because of our polity, Baptists have struggled with deciding how to report sexual abuse by their ministers. We don’t have an ecclesiastical hierarchy to enforce rules and regulations, no bishop to render justice or warn other congregations. We don’t require ordination for service, so we can’t pull a clergy’s credentials to block a job with a church after violating trust with another congregation. And, of course, we don’t tell churches what to do, so we can’t require them to report abuse, just as we can’t tell them who or who not to hire as ministers.

Baptists also have been understandably cautious about reporting sexual abuse. Short of legal conviction or confession, making a claim of clergy misconduct is fraught with legal peril. Churches and convention officials have been reticent to risk charges of libel and slander in order to stop a perp from plaguing a new set of parishioners. And they have been appropriately reticent to publicize names of accused perpetrators unless the charges have been substantiated.

Fortunately, the Baptist General Convention of Texas has been a leader among Baptists in stepping up to stop clergy sexual abuse. For more than five years, the BGCT Executive Board has maintained a file of clergy sexual misconduct based on convictions, confessions and reports from congregational officials. An elected search-committee leader can file a notarized form asking if a prospective pastor or staff member is on the list.

Now, however, the convention has taken a significant new step. It has posted a list of registered sex offenders who were or are staff members of BGCT-affiliated churches. The list is available at this website: www.bgct.org/brokentrust. Eight names made the original list, and convention staff will keep the list up to date and provide it to the churches. We can hope and pray this updated system will remove the possibility that ministers who abuse the people who trust them will gain access to new victims.

Still, we could strengthen the system by employing the power of our polity. We honor the autonomy and independence of our congregations. But we should hold them accountable, too. Nobody can tell a church who to hire, and nobody can force a church to report ministerial misconduct. But we can make them own up to their responsibility for the good and well-being of other congregations. If a church shoos an abusing pastor away rather than deal with a violation, other churches should know what that church has done. Similarly, if a church fails to conduct a background search and hires a known abuser, the congregation should be reported. We won’t always learn about these shortcomings and violations, but when we do, we should follow up. The prospect of being reported should prompt more churches to do the right thing.

Most churches that turn a blind eye to clergy sexual abuse do so because they want to avoid conflict and shame. But in turn, they also violate every victim of the minister who gets to move on without showing up on the sexual-abuser list. They should realize that if they make further abuse possible, they will own a share of the shame, and others will know about it.

This is a difficult, painful topic. But if it makes you feel uncomfortable, then try—just try—to imagine how victims of abusive clergy feel every day of their lives.

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.