Posted: 3/30/07

DOWN HOME:
Pucker up for some really good news

Now, here’s some useful news:

Kissing is good for you.

And I’m not making this up.

Heart-Healthy Living magazine puts it out there in black and white in its spring issue. “Couples who kiss often are eight times less likely to feel stressed or depressed.” Ta-da!

OK, for those of you who are more peeved by bad syntax than excited by the prospect of kissing, the magazine didn’t say “eight times less likely” than what. We would assume “eight times less likely” than nonkissers and infrequent kissers. It also didn’t define “often,” but that’s a highly subjective word, anyway.

A smooching survey of 3,300 Americans conducted for the Chicago-based Berman Center documented the benefits of bussing.

Most women I know will be glad to learn the most stress-reducing, anti-depressing kind of kissing is “done for its own sake, not as a prelude to something else,” the magazine declared.

“And it’s not just a peck on the cheek we’re talking about. It’s more about spending some time canoodling,” reported Laura Berman, president and director of the center that bears her name. “If you’re doing it right, you’ll elicit squeals and groans from your kids.”

Maybe one reason kissing lowers stress and cures depression is because it improves relationships.

Author René Yasenek gets the idea, explaining, “Kissing is a means of getting two people so close together that they can’t see anything wrong with each other.”

Now, if you’re feeling depressed because you haven’t been puckering up much lately, or if you don’t have a clue what “canoodling” means, Berman offers a prescription for remedial lip-locking. Each time you or your spouse leaves the house, say goodbye with a 10-second kiss.

“If you’re like most couples, you’ll see that 10 seconds seems like a really long time at first,” Berman concedes. But maybe that’s like driving to a new place; the trip always seems longer the first time.

In a semi-related development, the Today show reported most guys actually like so-called chick flicks. These are the boy-meets-girl, boy-does-dumb-stunt-and-loses-girl, girl-helps-boy-see-the-error-of-his-ways, boy-gets-girl-again movies.

Most of them are sappy and unrealistic. And most of them include at least some kissing but no nekkidness.

When surveyed, a majority of men said chick flicks are at least “OK.” (Sorry; I don’t have statistics. I was shaving in a hotel room when Meredith Viera broke the happy news.)

Guys like these movies precisely because they make their chicks happy. Sorta like kissing “for its own sake.”

Of course, if you were to try to describe precisely why kissing is so good for you, you probably couldn’t do it. Not without singing, anyway.

But that’s just one of the mysteries of God’s wonderful creation.

—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: 3/30/07

EDITORIAL:
Worse than crashing a $1.5M Ferrari

Did you hear the one about the actor and the sportscar?

No joke. Comedian Eddie Griffin was practicing for a charity car race to promote his upcoming movie, Redline, when he lost control of a rare Ferrari Enzo and crashed it. (See the wreck on YouTube here.) Griffin totalled the car. It cost $1.5 million.

Wrap your brain around that: A $1.5 million red sportscar, gone in a nanosecond. Can you even comprehend anything on four wheels costing $1.5 million?

The car’s owner took the wreck pretty well. Redline producer Daniel Sadek reflected: “I’m glad Eddie came out of the crash OK, but my dream car got destroyed. I went to my trailer for about 15 minutes, and I thought: ‘There’s people dying every day. A lot of worse things are happening in the world.’”

Good for him. At least Sadek realizes the injury-free crash of a car, even a $1.5 million Ferrari, is not a huge loss. Worse things happen to people in practically every city and village around the world every day, even if they don’t make YouTube.

Bad for him. He wasted $1.5 million on a sportscar. Even if Griffin hadn’t run it into a wall, Sadek would’ve wasted money on that car. No automobile—not even one that will go 225 miles an hour—is worth that money. Especially when “there’s people dying every day” and “a lot of worse things are happening in the world.”

When I read about Griffin’s wreck, I couldn’t help but think about Baptists, and budgets, and a world of need. Seems like only movie people, sports stars and a few tycoons live in such rarified air that they actually know what the leather seats in a Ferrari Enzo smell like. But wealth is relative. If you’re following this editorial, you’re among the minority of global citizens who not only can read, but also can read the dominant language for commerce on the planet. If you’re part of a Baptist church in Texas or elsewhere in the United States, then no matter what your income may be, you’re among the richest people in the world, particularly compared to multiplied millions who live on less than $1 per day. Still, the greatest practical limitation to ministry is a shortage of cash. (I know: The bigger issue is a shortage of faith and a lack of spiritual maturity. We’ll get to that later.)

Whether we’re focusing on your local church or on the far-flung institutions and ministries of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, the fact is the same. We could do more ministry if we had more money. Sure, we need volunteers to do much of the work. But we need cash to make the work possible, whether it’s providing support for people in need or reaching people who never have heard an understandable presentation of the gospel. Seven of the 20 poorest counties in the country are in Texas. Our state wallows near the bottom of multiple indicators of human misery. Millions of people in Texas never step over a church threshhold, much less even pretend to have a relationship with Jesus. We could do much to help them if we had more money.

A fairly common response to my recent editorial on creating “a new kind of convention” touched on this theme: “These ideas may be fine, but we don’t have enough money.” Right. Since Uncle Sam would frown if we started printing money in the Baptist Building basement, we’ve got two options:

• Convince Texas Baptists to give more.

This challenge is part spiritual, part confidence and relationship. Our churches and all God’s work would be stronger if God’s people began with a tithe and presented offerings on top of that. We need more preaching and teaching about the spiritual dimensions of faithful giving. Beyond that, the convention must strengthen its relationship with Texas Baptists and demonstrate that their Cooperative Program and offering contributions are the best use of their money. As noted before, the convention exists on behalf of the churches. The ministries our cooperative giving supports transcend the tasks we could do alone. We don’t give to a bureaucracy; we give to endeavors that change lives—both now and for eternity. If our relationships grow stronger and confidence increases, funding will follow.

• Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize.

As stewards of God’s resources, we must evaluate how we allocate church and convention funding—not against a zero base or alongside activity, but in light of effectiveness. No matter how well Texas Baptists give, we’ll always face other needs. So, we must be willing to make hard decisions about budgets and ministries. That can be painful, but probably not as painful as watching a comedian drive your car into a wall.

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

Posted: 3/30/07

ETBU nursing students put
training into practice in Mexico

By Mike Midkiff

East Texas Baptist University

MARSHALL—East Texas Baptist University Department of Nursing students took time away from the books and put their training to use, conducting free medical assessment clinics during a weeklong mission trip to Mexico.

The eight nursing students accompanied 28 students involved with the Baptist Student Ministry, traveling to Monterrey, Mexico, during spring break.

Other ETBU students participated in a Habitat for Humanity project in Laredo.

BSM students helped International Mission Board journeyman Josh Walton with his duties as minister on the campus of Tech de Monterrey University.

Meanwhile, the nursing students conducted clinics in a nursing home, an orphanage located in a remote village and a church in Monterrey.

“At the clinics, we did a health history, head-to-toe physical assessment and blood glucose test on each patient,” said trip sponsor Carla Smith, ETBU assistant professor of nursing.

Freshman Brittney Robinson emphasized that in spite of the language barrier, people in Monterrey responded positively because they could see the students wanted to help them.

“I went on this mission trip to serve God and for the experience. I am discerning a call to medical missions and thought this experience would give me an affirmation of that calling,” said Robinson, whose home church is First Baptist in Mount Pleasant.

“I believe God taught me how he wants me to serve him for the rest of my life. This trip inspired me to work harder on becoming a nurse.”

The clinic held at a nursing home for indigent geriatrics became an emotional time for nursing student Eric Luesvanos of Richmond.

“The whole experience was more than I expected and has changed me in a way that is unexplainable,” Luesvanos said. “I do want to continue doing medical mission work.”

Smith observed her students serving as ministers.

“The students were gentle, kind and caring as they provided care to the Mexican citizens,” she said.

“The love the students displayed amazed me. It left me thinking that this was probably similar to how Jesus ministered to the sick and injured.”

“Jesus healed the sick, and then he preached. He even instructed his disciples to heal the sick first. Jesus knew that tending to the sick provided a unique opportunity to reach people at a deeper level than could be achieved simply by preaching to them.”

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

Posted: 3/30/07

Faith Digest

Survey says moral values weakened. Three-quarters of Americans believe moral values in America have weakened in the last 20 years, and almost half think they have significantly weakened, according to a survey released by the Media Research Center. The survey found 74 percent of American adults said they believe moral values in the United States are weaker than they were two decades ago, while 48 percent said moral values were “much weaker.” Sixty-eight percent of Americans surveyed said the media—both entertainment and news—have a detrimental effect on moral values. More specifically, 73 percent said entertainment media had a negative influence on moral values, and 54 percent said the news media do. Eighty-seven percent of Americans said they believe in God, while 36 percent agreed that people should always live by God’s principles and teachings. The study was conducted by the polling firm Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates and the center’s Culture and Media Institute. The results were based on 1,000 surveys of American adults ages 18 and older by telephone and 1,000 surveys completed online in December. It had an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

Wipe out malaria, first lady urges. Laura Bush congratulated religious and community organizations involved in the fight against malaria and urged others to join in the campaign at a White House conference. She highlighted the President’s Malaria Initiative, called PMI, which was launched in 2005 and aims to spend $1.2 billion over five years to address malaria in 15 countries. The first lady cited several groups—from Catholic Relief Services to megachurch pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in California—that are fighting the disease, which kills about 1 million people, many of them children, each year.

Canadian philosopher wins Templeton Prize. Charles Taylor, a Canadian philosopher whose work has touched on questions of spirituality, violence and culture, will receive the 2007 Templeton Prize. Taylor, 75, teaches law and philosophy at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and is a professor emeritus at McGill University in Montreal. He is the first Canadian to be awarded what often is called the most prestigious prize in the world of religion. The award—valued at 800,000 pounds sterling, or about $1.5 million—has been given out annually since 1973 by the John Templeton Foundation. In its early years, the prize went to prominent religious figures such as Billy Graham and Mother Teresa. More recently, the prize has been given to scientists, theologians and ethicists whose work has focused on the burgeoning field of science and religion. Taylor, the author of more than a dozen books, will receive the honor at a May 2 ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London.

Supreme Court hears ‘Bong Hits 4 Jesus’ case. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case, a free speech conflict that has caught the attention of religious litigators nationwide. Morse v. Frederick concerns an Alaska high school student who displayed a banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” as the Olympic torch passed through his town in 2002. After he was suspended, the student, Joseph Frederick, now 23, said his banner was a “free speech experiment” that had no religious or political message. Frederick sued his principal and has been backed by several national Christian law firms, including the Christian Legal Society, Alliance Defense Fund and the American Center for Law and Justice. Though they disdain the speech in question, the Christian lawyers are concerned schools may gain the power to censor certain views, from anti-abortion rallies to Bible clubs.

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

Posted: 3/30/07

HBU students take local & global missions plunge

Two groups of Houston Baptist University students recently stepped out of their comfort zones and into places where they could meet urgent human needs in Christ’s name.

One team spent spring break taking an “urban plunge” into Houston’s Third Ward—one of the city’s most impoverished areas. Another group dug wells, helped offer medical clinics and led Vacation Bible School in Nicaragua.

A village girl in Nicaragua enjoys the pure, clean water a new well provides.

The inner-city missions experience, coordinated with the school’s Center for Student Missions, included visiting an adult day-care center, leading a museum field trip for schoolchildren from the Third Ward and helping at the Harbor Light shelter sponsored by the Salvation Army. An inner-city church provided lodging for the students during their three days of service with nonprofit organizations in the area.

“Initially when the students arrive in these impoverished areas, they arrive with the comprehension and interpretation from what they’ve seen on television—the crimes, the poverty, the struggle. We immediately take them to these neighborhoods they’ve heard about from the news and show them around. Then, they are connected with people who live in these neighborhoods,” said Jason Shaffer, HBU coordinator of spiritual life, community service and missions. “Students’ stereotypes and fears fade as they recognize the humanity in those that society casts aside.”

At the Bering Omega adult day-care center, students played games and decorated Mardi Gras masks with clients.

“I learned that these people come to Omega for friendship and interactio,” student Miranda Tucker said. “After holding a woman’s hand for more than 15 minutes and seeing the impact that had on her, I noticed God’s impact on my heart.”

HBU students spent time at a children’s museum where they interacted with students from the Yellowstone Academy, a private, Christian school designed especially for children from Houston’s Third Ward.

“While in the Third Ward, I felt like I was in a totally different city, yet I realized through those children that we are all interconnected. My goal was to make them smile, and that’s what we did,” HBU student Nagma Meharali said.

“It is amazing how someone’s life can be so different from mine, yet a smile can connect you instantly. It’s those connections that are so precious.”

Brittany Myer noted the inner-city immersion “was a way for me to find out about ways I can help out day-to-day, without having to dish out a lot of money—only love.”

“I never knew so much poverty existed right around us, under the freeway, in abandoned buildings, just a few streets down from people with laptops at Starbucks and overpriced hot dogs at Minute Maid Park,” she noted.

After spring break, the group agreed to continue to meet together for Bible study and additional community service.

Another student group took part in a “mission learning opportunity” in Nicaragua, offered by HBU in collaboration with Memorial Hermann hospital and several businesses, churches and donors in the Houston area.

HBU nursing and pre-med students teamed up with physicians from Memorial Hermann to set up several clinics where they provided medical care to about 300 patients in five days.

Students also held a Vacation Bible School for about 100 children each day, drilled a water well at a Nicaraguan village where 75 families had never had access to clean water and taught hygiene classes.

“A song we repeatedly sang—‘Give Us Clean Hands’—had particular meaning and symbolism for me,” said Celia Tirado, an HBU student. “The men, women and children were able to learn that there are certain things they could do with the water, such as keeping their hands clean, that would help prevent sickness. It was such a simple lesson that will drastically impact their lives.”

Based on reporting by Sara Hawkins of Houston Baptist 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: 3/30/07

Keep ‘dream stealers’ at bay, keynote
speaker urges lay leaders & ministers

By Barbara Bedrick

Texas Baptist Communications

PLAINVIEW—Pastors and lay church leaders should “recognize those things that are dream stealers” and exercise mountain-moving faith, keynote speaker David Mahfouz told participants at Inspire ’07.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas and Caprock Plains Baptist Association sponsored the inaugural Inspire event March 24 at College Heights Baptist Church.

Mahfouz, pastor of First Baptist Church in Port Neches, encouraged nearly 100 pastors, Sunday school teachers and youth and women’s ministry leaders to avoid church members who spew pessimism or negativity about outreach efforts. He called statements such as “Well, some things you just can’t change,” or “You can’t expect the impossible,” troubling impediments to reaching others for Christ.

Keynote speaker David Mahfouz, pastor of First Baptist Church in Port Neches, calls on Texas Baptists attending Inspire ’07 to renew their faith and reach the lost because “millions are in hell because the church has not been urgent in the harvest.”

Mahfouz urged church leaders to get people to move past their “dream stealers” and go share the gospel.

“Millions are in hell because the church has not been urgent in the harvest,” Mahfouz emphasized. “A ripe harvest awaits an urgent church.”

Often, church members get excited about evangelism and begin to share their faith, he noted. But then their evangelistic efforts and enthusiasm falter. They don’t lose the desire suddenly, but gradually they witness less and less.

Turning to a New Testament passage in Matthew 17:14-20, Mahfouz noted Christ’s disciples’ lack of faith when they asked Jesus why they could not heal the boy and Jesus’ reply, “Because you have so little faith.”

“What are we expecting God to do in our churches and through our ministries?” Mahfouz asked. “Are our expectations limited by our unbelief? A world of lost people faces us.”

Encouraging leaders to “draw the lost into the church,” Mahfouz also underscored the need for churches to disciple new Christians after baptizing them.

“Get them involved in meaningful Bible study,” he urged. “And walk with them as new children in Christ.”

If Jesus returned today, Mahfouz believes there would be compassion and love in his eyes, but a great concern over “overripe fields.” Illustrating his point, he referred to the parable where Jesus said, “Look unto the fields. They are white unto harvest. But the reapers, where are they?”

Mahfouz encouraged leaders to pray expecting God to do great things.

“Most Baptists have forgotten what it is to be lost—no peace, no promise of eternity in heaven,” he said.

“Today’s mountain could be tomorrow’s miracle” if Christians just come with a burden, a prayer and an expectation that “God is still in the business of saving people and can use us and our church to do this.”

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

Posted: 3/30/07

Evangelical support for Iraq
war apparently wavering

By Julie Sullivan

Religion News Service

DAMASCUS, Ore. (RNS)—Suzanne Brownlow shivers on an Oregon highway overpass as a cutting wind whips her sign: “Honk to End the War.” Her weekly demonstration is the latest turn in a fractious journey that has taken the evangelical Christian mother from protesting abortion clinics to protesting the war in Iraq.

“I feel like at least we are doing something,” Mrs. Brownlow said, waving to passersby along with her husband, Dave, and two youngest children.

No polling data conclusively demonstrate that opinion has shifted among the broad national base of conservative evangelicals. But some prominent national evangelical leaders say that debate about—and, in some cases, outright opposition to—the war is breaking out among Christian conservatives whose support was key to President Bush’s election victories.

For those evangelicals, they say, frustration with Republicans’ failure to overturn abortion rights has fueled their skepticism. Others decry the war’s human toll and financial cost, and they’re concerned about any use of torture.

“This war has challenged their confidence in the party,” said Tony Campolo, an evangelical Baptist minister, author and professor of sociology who lectures across the country on social issues. “Add to that that they feel the Republicans have betrayed them on the abortion issue, and you are beginning to see signs of a rebellion.”

The National Association of Evangelicals, which represents 45,000 evangelical churches, recently endorsed an anti-torture statement saying the United States has crossed “boundaries of what is legally and morally permissible” in its treatment of detainees and war prisoners in the fight against terror.

The Brownlows voted for Bush in 2000 because of his conservative views. But a month before the 2003 invasion, the Damascus, Ore., couple began campaigning against his Iraq policies. Dave Brownlow ran for Congress three times, twice on an anti-war ticket for the Constitution Party. Since November, the couple has lobbied lawmakers to bring the troops home.

Recently, they founded Believers Against the War to influence other evangelical Christians.

On a recent Saturday, a motorcyclist, sleek in black leather, spotted the Brownlows’ banners, raised his gloved fist and flipped an obscene gesture. The Brownlows smiled, because many others were honking their support. Then a woman driver slowed and screamed, “Get over it.”

Suzanne Brownlow’s serenity finally broke.

“How can I get over it?” she said. “My son is in Iraq.”

To be sure, many mainline Christian churches and several dozen prominent evangelicals opposed the war from the beginning. Others were ambivalent.

But since 2003, polls have shown that a higher rate of conservative Christians than other Americans favored military action. The National Association of Evangelicals, the same group that condemned torture tactics, even linked evangelical “prayer warriors” to the successful killing of Saddam Hussein’s sons.

Before the war in Iraq, the Brownlows shared the concerns of the religious right.

Suzanne and Dave Brownlow met at a church singles group in Houston 26 years ago. As born-again Christians, they vowed to be a politically active married couple. He picketed Planned Parenthood clinics; she organized for Concerned Women for America.

They had Jared, now 20; Desi, 19; Jace, 15; and Sierra, 12, and moved to Oregon in 1990. They home-schooled their children, were foster parents for three medically fragile youths for Heal the Children and housed eight foreign-exchange students. They campaigned on behalf of Republican candidates. In 2001, Suzanne Brownlow won the Concerned Women for America’s National “Diligence” award.

But by 2002, troubled by the lack of progress on the anti-abortion front and the legality of the president’s war powers, they joined the Constitution Party. Soon after the invasion, Dave Brownlow began writing articles opposing the war.

Meanwhile, Jared Brownlow—long fascinated by military histories, movies and photos of his grandfather, a World War II tail gunner—joined the Army.

The Brownlows say their eldest son has not objected to their anti-war efforts. He’s serving in the Army near Baghdad.

Suzanne Brownlow has found herself increasingly overcome with worry. She has trouble eating and dreams of helicopters landing in her yard. Her husband starts every day clicking onto casualty websites. The couple keep two clocks in their living room, one set for Oregon and one for Iraq.

Although many churchgoers are active against the war, the Brownlows still feel self-conscious sharing their views with their Christian friends. People have told them freedom isn’t free or that they must support the troops.

“As if to say that by allowing our sons and daughters to languish in a vast Iraqi shooting gallery,” Dave Brownlow said, “we are somehow supporting them.”

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

Posted: 3/30/07

Texas Baptist Forum

God & Allah

Charles Kimball claimed Islam and Christianity worship the same God: “Allah is simply the Arab name for God” (March 5).

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

“As I thought of what may await me, I felt a feeling of great trust. No one raised in the kind of church environment I grew up in totally leaves behind the acrid smell of fire and brimstone, but I felt an overwhelming sense of trust in God.” Philip Yancey Author, on awaiting news of whether injury sustained in a car crash would threaten his life, before he was released with a neck brace to be worn for 10 weeks (www.philipyancey.com/RNS) “There has been a great deal of talk lately about the role of religion in politics. Yet, if the religious voice were truly a factor, then 45 million Americans—and 8 million children—would not be uninsured.” Marla Feldman Director of the Joint Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism (RNS) “Saddam Hussein is developing at breakneck speed weapons of mass destruction he plans to use against America and her allies.” Richard Land President of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, in 2002 (Baptist Press/ethicsdaily.com) “My justification for the war was not based upon weapons of mass destruction.” Richard Land In 2007 (BeliefNet/ethicsdaily.com)

This is a ploy by Muslims to encourage the widespread use of this falsehood by nonbelievers so the non-Islamic world might be tranquilized into thinking Islam is just another harmless religion, one that might some day be persuaded to convert to Christianity, if we don’t antagonize them by political incorrectness.

A comparison of the characterizations of Allah in the Qur’an and Jehovah God in the Bible will reveal vastly different beings the most casual eye can easily detect. 

The Qur’an in Surah 8:12-14: “Remember your Lord inspired the angels; ‘I am with you; give firmness to Believers; I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers; you smite above their necks and smite all the finger-tips off them.’  This because they contended against Allah and His Messenger; if any contended against Allah and His Messenger, Allah is strict in punishment.”

Thousands of Christians and Jews have been beheaded for refusing to affirm Allah and Jehovah God are the same, and thousands more have publicly affirmed it without an inner belief.

William B. Crittenden

Houston

If you are a Christian who speaks Arabic, you pray to Allah. A Christian who speaks Spanish prays to Dios. If German, you pray to Gott.

However you pronounce it, you are praying to the same God, the one who commanded us to love our neighbor as we love ourself.

Religion may not be the best reason for feeling superior to others, but it’s a good excuse.

Robert Flynn

San Antonio

Baugh: Gentle, determined

In the 1980s, I hosted an early meeting of Laity for the Baptist Faith and Message, through which influential Texas Baptist laymen sounded warnings of the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. This precursor to Texas Baptist Committed was led by John Baugh, Dewey Presley, Maston Courtney and others.

The greatest personal benefit to my involvement, other than the cause that united us, was a lasting friendship with Mr. Baugh. I have never known a more gracious man. My files contain personal letters from him, which are among my most treasured professional papers. Grace and integrity were hallmarks of this gentle, but determined, man.

I have been privileged to know a number of people of substantial means. But only a few of them understood the stewardship of what they possessed. Mr. Baugh was just such a person.

My fear is that while such rare persons are passing from the scene, few if any can or will succeed them. Since he and his dear Eula Mae chose to invest in the eternal, I am grateful his influence and ministry will continue among us until the Lord’s return.

Paul Kenley

Lampasas

Baptist convocation

I have just finished reading Charles Wade’s column requesting prayer for two events coming up in Baptist life (March 19).

While both deserve prayerful consideration, the latter will require more on our part if anything good can come out of it. I am referring to the convocation on the New Baptist Covenant in Atlanta next year.

I have spoken to Mr. Wade about the dangers of this meeting being politicized, since it has been organized by Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and we will be in the middle of a presidential campaign. He gave me his word that it will not be political, although there are representatives of both political parties present.

The work of following Jesus’ agenda should be our first consideration.

He also referred to a pastors’ conference where Clinton expressed sorrow and repentance for how he had harmed the country. The American people did not hear that message nor one similar.

Betty Westbrook

Plano

‘Fixed’ slot machines

Regarding “Casino proposal predicted to roll” (March 19): The first issue to be asked in the gambling debate—setting aside whether or not slot machines should be allowed—is whether reel slot machines even conform to proper gambling standards.

Roger Horbay, the Canadian gaming machine expert, and I have explored the internal workings of reel gaming machines, and we are dismayed at what we have found.

We have written a paper, “Unbalanced Reel Gaming Machines,” which exposes a hidden asymmetry in the design of the reels. The paper explains clearly and in detail the uncomfortable parallels between the internal design of reel gaming machines and cheating mechanisms in casino and carnival games. This paper has formed the basis of complaints to federal authorities in Canada, the United States and Australia.

The paper may be downloaded from the CitizenLink website.

Put bluntly, the machines incorporate a deceptive technique similar to the gaffed carnival milk bottle or cat rack games. They have a “devilishly clever” internal design, which gives near misses and limits winning combinations. These machines are very dangerous for the player and, in Victoria, Australia, account for at least 80 percent of the problem gambling. 

Tim Falkiner

Melbourne, Victoria

Australia

What do you think? The Baptist Standard values letters to the editor, for they reflect Baptists’ affirmation of the priesthood of believers. Send letters to Editor Marv Knox by mail: P.O. Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267; or by e-mail: marvknox@baptiststandard.com. Letters are limited to 250 words.

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

Posted: 3/30/07

On the Move

• Amanda Bludworth has resigned as minister of youth at Salt Creek Church in Brownwood.

• Louis Brewer has resigned as pastor of College View Church in Abilene.

• Herb Bullock to Pleasant Hill Church in Austin as pastor from High Pointe Church in Austin, where he was senior citizen’s pastor.

• Seth Carnes has resigned as pastor of students at Southside Church in Brownwood.

• Amy Chestnut to First Church in Cleburne as minister of preschool/missions/outreach.

• Denver Dugle to New Prospect Church in Nemo as pastor.

• Sean Ferry has resigned as youth pastor at First Church in Devine.

• Drew Finch has resigned as minister of youth at First Church in Bangs.

• Clyde Larrabee to First Church in Navasota as pastor.

• Roy Norman to Westwood Church in Waco as minister of music.

• Danny Rogers has resigned as pastor of Living Proof Church in Grandview.

• David Sandez to Iglesia Nuevo Esperanza in Longview as pastor.

• Chad Shaw to First Church in Cisco as youth minister.

• Billy Simpson has resigned as pastor of Moro Church in Ovalo.

• David Skinner has resigned as minister of youth at First Church in Pearsall.

• Tim Stary to Southside Church in Brownwood as interim student pastor.

• Kris Thompson to First Church in Hallettsville as youth minister from Jones Chapel Church in Early.

• David Warren to Elmcrest Church in Abilene as pastor from Field Street Church in Cleburne, where he was minister to students.

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

Posted: 3/30/07

More Americans exercise choice in religion

By Andrea Useem

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—When Aurora Turk was growing up in Mexico City, being Catholic was a given.

“It was taught to me by the nuns at school and my mother at home,” she recalled. “My whole world was Catholic.”

But Turk’s adult life has been marked by religious exploration. Married to a Brooklyn-born Jew, the 38-year-old mother now follows the teachings of an Indian spiritual teacher.

While Turk’s story seems unique, her experience of switching religious identities is common for many Americans. According to experts who study the phenomenon, spiritual seekers are exercising their freedom of choice more than ever before.

Sixteen percent of Americans have switched their religious identities at some point in their lives, according to the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey, one of the largest studies of its kind.

“People are making more choices in everything, from lifestyle to sexual identity. It’s not surprising if they are making more choices in religion,” said Peter Berger, professor of sociology and theology at Boston University.

In other words, the era when religion was determined solely by accident of birth is over, he said.

Barry Kosmin, co-author of the 2006 book Religion in a Free Market: Religious and Non-Religious Americans, which is based on the 2001 survey data, predicted more switching is to be expected.

“Family and ethnic loyalties—the old glue that maintained inter-generational religious identification—has weakened,” he said. In addition to moving more frequently, Americans also are more likely to be “searching” for religious truth, often outside their own traditions, wrote Kosmin, who directs the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

The 2001 study showed clear winners and losers in the competition to attract and retain members: Twice as many Americans left Catholicism as joined the faith, while evangelical Chris-tianity registered a net gain, with more than three times as many people joining than leaving.

The biggest change, however, was registered among Americans who said they had no religious identity at all, increasing from 8 percent of the U.S. population in 1990 to 14 percent in 2001.

While religious switching may bring satisfaction to individual seekers, the phenomenon can be unnerving for religious leaders, who are vying for “customers” ever more aware of new options, Kosmin said.

“We have a supply-side religious market with more competing firms each year,” he noted. Megachurches are successful in part because they actively reach out to “potential” members, of which there are many in high-mobility suburbs and exurbs, Kosmin wrote.

But success in attracting new members doesn’t necessarily translate into success at keeping them, reported Daniel Olson, a sociologist at Indiana University South Bend who studies religious competition.

The 2001 survey found, for example, that while the Mormons welcomed a relatively large number of converts, an equal number left the faith. Jehovah’s Witnesses and Buddhists displayed similarly high levels of turnover.

Surprisingly, smaller religious groups are better at recruiting new members, Olson said. Most switching happens through social relationships, like marriage and friendship, and members of a small religious group are more likely to have lots of relationships with nonmembers, whom they are able to pull into the faith.

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

Posted: 3/30/07

Students find missions calling through BSM

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

NACOGDOCHES—When Ashlee Stricklin was a high school senior, Stephen F. Austin State University barely made the list of colleges she considered attending. But when she visited, she found God calling her to the campus.

Stephen F. Austin State University pray during Beach Reach at South Padre Island. Students Minister at Spring Break • Beach Reach volunteers immersed in missions service • Baylor fraternity brothers serve God in the Ozarks • DBU students build homes in South Carolina & South Dakota • HBU students take local & global missions plunge • ETBU nursing students put training into practice in Mexico • Students find missions calling through BSM • More than a day at the beach

She stopped by the school’s Baptist Student Ministries, where a speaker told students God brought each one of them to the BSM that night for a reason.

Stricklin sensed the speaker was addressing her directly.

“I just really felt at that moment that this is where God wants me to be,” said Stricklin, a member of South Garland Baptist Church in Garland.

Stricklin isn’t alone in her experience. Several students who serve through the BSM said they came to SFA in part because of the BSM’s reputation for being missions-minded. The student ministry is known for encouraging and empowering young adults to serve in the community and around the world.

Students go on mission trips during spring break, the Christmas holidays and during the summer. In between trips, they are serving in homeless shelters and nursing homes in the community.

Missions is integrated into everything the school’s BSM does—small groups, Bible study, worship and fellowship, according to BSM Director Chris Sammons.

“For a number of years now, even before I came three years ago, there was a strong base of missions,” he said.

“It’s kind of become part of our culture. When students come in here as freshmen, one of the first things they hear is how God has a heart for the nations and how he wants them to be a part of that.

SFA students prayerwalk in Boston during spring break.

“It’s a constant thing we talk about, because for us, missions is not something someone else does; it’s something God calls everyone to do.”

Deborah Perry, who served in Boston during spring break, said the emphasis on missions is attractive to her because she feels called to mission work. She doesn’t know what form that calling will take in her life, but the variety of missions opportunities offered through the BSM is helping her clarify that call.

“I’m just trying to see where I’m supposed to be,” she said.

Mission trips give students a bigger picture of how God is working, Sammons said. They see how he cares for people around the globe. They learn new ways of serving him. And that changes students’ spiritual journeys.

“We believe that our relationship with the Lord is ultimately about the transformation of life,” he said.

“We are convinced that what God does on mission trips is transform people from the inside out.”

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

Posted: 3/30/07

Two generations of Wiesers
serve as student missionaries

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

ALVIN—The Wieser family sees student missionary service as more than a family tradition. For two generations, they believe it’s been God’s instrument for confirming a calling to Christian service.

Ken and Judy Wieser both became involved in missions through what was then called the Baptist Student Union at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches. Their three children—Keith, Jana and Kris—not only followed their parents’ lead in their college choice, but also each served terms as student missionaries.

“They made their own choices about where God was leading them,” said Wieser, associate pastor at Heights Baptist Church in Alvin. “Of course, growing up, they did hear stories from us about our experience at SFA, and they knew the emphasis we place on missions.”

Ironically, Wieser applied for a summer missionary position only because a friend insisted he do it. “I didn’t think I was summer missions material,” he said. “I didn’t think I was good enough or talented enough.”

Nonetheless, Wieser spent the summer of 1971 in a coffee house ministry on Padre Island—sharing the gospel one-to-one during the daytime and spending his evenings strumming a guitar and singing at the makeshift coffee house, set up in a tent near the beach.

“It opened my eyes to the potential God put into me,” he said. “I learned God can use ordinary people. You can be useful in ministry if you make yourself available to God.”

Mrs. Wieser served in summer missions with a drama team that performed in camps, churches and state parks around the state.

Independent experiences as student missionaries influenced the Wiesers’ shared life together after they married, she added. “From that time on, missions became an important part of our lives as a married couple. Our children participated in mission organizations as children and went on mission trips as they became teenagers,” she said.

Perhaps not surprisingly, when all three children went to school at Stephen F. Austin State University, they became involved with the Baptist Student Ministry. And each served as a student missionary—Keith to Estonia, Jana to Southeast Asia and later as a missions mobilizer in the BGCT collegiate ministry office and Kris to Germany and later as semester missionary in the Northeast on several college campuses.

The year after Keith served in Estonia, one of his college friends, Paige Dickerson, served a missions term there. They found out they had more than that experience and a passion for missions in common, and Keith and Paige married. They now serve as USC-2 missionaries with the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board in collegiate ministry in the Northwest. He is Baptist campus minister at Washington State University, and she is Northwest Collegiate Missions Associate.

Likewise, Kris felt a calling to collegiate ministry, and he currently is studying at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.

“Ken and I are eternally grateful for to God for what he has done in our lives and in the lives of our children,” Mrs. Wieser said.

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