WASHINGTON (BP)–President Bush signed into law Dec. 23 a bill to strengthen efforts to fight human trafficking in the United States and other countries.

The president signed the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act during an oval office ceremony attended by supporters from Congress and the coalition that worked for the measure's enactment. Among those attending was Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC).

"It's a tremendous victory," Land told Baptist Press after the ceremony. "I think all of us who were there were pinching ourselves that this bill actually got passed. The later in the day this got in this administration, the more unlikely [it was to become law]. We all were delighted and surprised.

"This bill will significantly assist the United States government in impeding the trafficking of women and child for sexual purposes," he said. "It's a tremendously important new tool available to law enforcement officials in prosecuting those who traffic in human flesh. It will make a real difference to the victims of sex trafficking."

Both the House of Representatives and Senate approved the bill without objection Dec. 10.

Enactment of the legislation followed a lengthy, contentious debate over competing pieces of legislation. Activists in the diverse, anti-trafficking movement strongly favored a measure approved overwhelmingly by the House last December over one proposed in the Senate. In the end, Congress passed a new bill more closely resembling the House version.

A majority of those trafficked across international borders are victims of sexual slavery or exploitation, though trafficking also includes forced commercial and domestic labor, as well as coercive recruitment of children by military forces.

About 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year, according to the Trafficking in Persons Office. This does not include millions of victims who are trafficked inside their own national borders, the office says. About 80 percent of the transnational victims are females, and as much as 50 percent are minors.

The trafficking office has estimated as many as 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States each year.

The legislation, supporters say, will:

— Significantly increase the ability of the State Department's Trafficking in Persons Office to thwart sexual and other forms of trafficking overseas;
— Strengthen prosecution efforts against trafficking in the United States;
— Increase punishment for traffickers;
— Enhance protections for trafficking victims in this country;
— Empower U.S. attempts to halt the use of children as soldiers in other countries;
— Require the Justice Department to produce a model law for states to use in investigating and prosecuting trafficking;
— Clarify federal law cannot be interpreted to consider prostitution as an acceptable mode of employment;
— Authorize a presidential award for exceptional efforts in the fight against trafficking.

At one point in the disagreement over the competing bills, Land and 13 other advocates for the House version warned Bush his own Justice Department was threatening to tarnish his legacy in the battle against trafficking. The Justice Department led opposition to the House-approved legislation while supporting a Senate version the ERLC and other anti-trafficking coalition members considered weaker.

Calling the Justice Department "out of step with your bold stance against slavery and human trafficking," Land and the others urged Bush in an August letter to bring the department into compliance with his policy goals and to provide unwavering support for the House-passed bill.

The Justice Department reportedly contended its opposition to the House measure was based on prosecutorial limitations placed on it by states' rights and a lack of resources.

Wilberforce, the English legislator after whom the new law is named, was an evangelical Christian who led the effort in Parliament year after year to outlaw the British slave trade, a campaign that finally succeeded early in the 19th century.

Compiled by Baptist Press Washington bureau chief Tom Strode.

WASHINGTON (ABP) — President-elect Barack Obama's surprise pick of Purpose Driven Life author Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration Jan. 20 isn't the first time the ceremonial prayer has created controversy.

Eight years ago Kirbyjohn Caldwell, senior pastor of Windsor Village Methodist Church in Houston, drew criticism for closing the benediction at President Bush's first inauguration with: "We respectfully submit this humble prayer in the name that's above all other names, Jesus, the Christ. Let all who agree say, 'Amen.'"

At Bush's second inauguration in 2005, Caldwell was more inclusive, modifying his closing to: "Respecting persons of all faiths, I humbly submit this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."

Franklin Graham also offered the invocation at the 2001 inauguration in Jesus' name, drawing rebuke from non-Christians. Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz called it "particularistic and parochial language" that "excluded tens of millions of American Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Shintoists, Unitarians, agnostics and atheists from his blessing." Graham said the backlash was evidence that "there are factions of society today that hate God and everything that He stands for."

Atheist Michael Newdow, best known for his fight against the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, sued unsuccessfully in 2005 to block prayer at Bush's second inauguration, claiming that inaugural prayers violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Invoking God's blessing has been a part of the presidential inauguration ceremony since 1789, when George Washington added the words "So help me God" at the end of his oath and proceeded to St. Paul's Chapel, where the Senate chaplain read from the Book of Common Prayer.

Modern tradition started with FDR 

The prayer was moved from the church to the Senate chamber for the 1937 inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Every inauguration since has included prayers by one or more clergymen invited by the president-elect.

For years Billy Graham was a fixture of inaugural prayers, befriending every president since Eisenhower. Unable to attend the first inauguration of George W. Bush because of illness, Graham sent his son as a substitute to deliver the invocation in 2001.

Joseph Lowery, an icon of the civil rights movement and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, is scheduled to pronounce the benediction at Obama's inauguration, but garnering most of the attention is Obama's selection of Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., for the invocation.

The high-profile invitation particularly upset supporters of gay rights. Warren has compared homosexuality to incest, pedophilia and polygamy. He also spoke on behalf Proposition 8 a California referendum to ban gay marriage, which homosexuals regard a civil right.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., one of three openly gay members of the House of Representatives, said he was "very disappointed" by the choice.

"Religious leaders obviously have every right to speak out in opposition to anti-discrimination measures, even in the degrading terms that Rev. Warren has used with regard to same-sex marriage," Frank said. "But that does not confer upon them the right to a place of honor in the inauguration ceremony of a president whose stated commitment to LGBT rights won him the strong support of the great majority of those who support that cause."

Choice called "chilling," "divisive"

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, wrote in the Washington Post that inviting Warren "sends a chilling message to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans" and "makes us uncertain about this exciting, young president-elect who has said repeatedly that we are part of his America, too."

Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, called it "a divisive choice, and clearly not one that will help our country come together and heal."

Obama defended Warren's selection by saying there will be a "wide range of viewpoints" presented at the inauguration. "We're not going to agree on every single issue," he said, "but what we have to do is be able to create an atmosphere where we can disagree without being disagreeable, and then focus on those things that we hold in common."

Warren commended the president-elect for "courage to willingly take enormous heat by inviting someone like me, with whom he doesn't agree on every issue" and called it an effort "to model civility in America."

While Warren differs with Obama on homosexuality and abortion rights, they share values like fighting AIDS in Africa. Warren took heat from fellow religious conservatives for inviting Obama to speak at a conference on the subject at his church in 2006.

Some evangelicals not happy, either 

Joseph Farah of World Net Daily expressed "profound and abject revulsion" at Warren's acceptance of the invitation to ask God's blessing on Obama's policies, which he called "evil."

"Yes, we are commanded to pray for our leaders," Farah said. "But there is no suggestion in the Bible that we are ever to be used as political pawns by praying at their events — especially when they are promoting the wholesale slaughter of innocent human beings."

Warren's selection also disappointed the religious left, who say his non-partisan image belies a social agenda in lockstep with the religious right. Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State called Warren "a kinder, gentler Jerry Falwell in a Hawaiian shirt."

Don Byrd, who blogs on church-state issues at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, said regardless of their stances on controversial issues, he hopes both Warren and Lowery "manage broad, all-inclusive, non-sectarian approaches to this solemn occasion that should be for all Americans" and if Obama wants to offer a specifically Christian prayer with the religious leaders that it be done before or after the public event.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

LEAWOOD, Kan. (ABP) — A Baptist pastor thinks he has a solution to the dilemma about whether it's more appropriate to say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" in secular settings like department stores.

Mike McKinney submits that tensions that flare between Christians and secularists this time of year aren't about "taking Christ out of Christmas," as some religious observers believe, but rather because Christians have allowed their holiday to become too secularized by blending the celebration of Christ's birth with non-religious symbols like Santa Claus.

McKinney, pastor of Leawood Baptist Church in suburban Kansas City, is calling for a "reformation" of Christmas by separating secular and sacred aspects of the holiday.

McKinney says Christians and non-Christians alike would benefit from recognizing they are in fact celebrating two different holidays — one a religious commemoration of Christ's birth and the other a winter festival marked by hustle and bustle with secular roots.

Fixing Christmas 

McKinney wrote the booklet titled Fixing Christmas for Everyone: A Plea for the Reformation of the Christmas Season proposing an un-blending of the "winter holiday" and "birth of Christ" traditions.

"It is simply not right to sing 'Silent Night' and 'Jingle Bells' as if they belong to the same holiday," McKinney says. "It is not right to honor the birth of Christ the Lord and to celebrate the arrival of Santa Claus the jolly old elf within the context of the same holiday."

McKinney says there is nothing wrong with singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" or "Frosty the Snowman" in December — in fact he enjoys much about the season — but they simply don't have anything do to with Jesus Christ.

He says he is alarmed at how comfortable that both Christians and non-Christians have become with how Christmas is observed in America.

"Lots of folks are comfortable with blending Jesus with Santa, the Nativity with the North Pole, Angels with Elves, and Shepherds with Reindeer," McKinney says. "I am not!"

He says the mingling of secular and sacred is behind the conflict that arises every year over holiday greetings in the marketplace. The word "Christmas" is technically a religious title associated with the Christian faith, he reasons, so non-Christians can rightfully ask what winter shopping has to do with Christianity.

McKinney says for centuries Christians have commemorated the birth of Jesus Christ in their homes and churches with traditions, carols and Bible stories. Until fairly recently, he says, many Christians began their holiday on Christmas Day and followed it with 12 days of festivities ending with Epiphany on Jan. 6.

Many of the images now associated with the Christmas season didn't come along until the last century. The story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer appeared as part of a Christmas promotion in 1939 by Montgomery Ward and became even more popular when Gene Autry released it in song in 1949. Frosty the Snowman joined the Christmas lexicon in a song written and performed in 1950. A 1957 book by Dr. Seuss How the Grinch Stole Christmas introduced another character now affixed to the holiday.

McKinney says Christmas in the United States has evolved into a highly secularized and commercialized winter festival supporting various stories, traditions, characters and activities. Christians have adapted to the trend by ending instead of beginning their Christmas on Dec. 25.

In fact, he says, the phrase "Merry Christmas" no longer carries religious connotations in the public marketplace, but rather refers to a massive winter holiday season celebrated by people of all kinds.

Two separate holidays 

"We truthfully have two separate and distinct holidays," he writes. "We should admit it and do something about it!"

McKinney says Christians and non-Christians together could "reform" the Christmas season by "slight modifications in our thinking and practices." He says doing so would benefit everyone, and no one has to lose anything.

"I suggest we separate the 'Winter Christmas' traditions from the 'Christian Christmas' traditions," he suggests. "I believe the two traditions can be 'unblended' without harming either. They can exist side-by-side in ways that can affirm both."

McKinney says people of all faiths would benefit from a clear distinction between a non-religious winter holiday and a highly religious Christian Christmas. He proposes the term "Christmas" be used only by Christians in a religious sense, while the secular celebration be renamed a "Winter Holiday."

The Winter Holiday would continue to begin many weeks before Dec. 25, enjoy the non-religious elements now associated with Christmas and end with post-Christmas sales on Dec. 26.

The Christian Christmas would follow preparation through Advent, begin Christmas Day, and continue into the New Year.

McKinney says Christians could choose to observe one or both holidays, while many non-Christians would be relieved to have the issue of Christ removed from a secular holiday.

McKinney said in an email he first went public with the idea two years ago, but didn't prepare the booklet until this year.

Last year he went on a radio talk show popular in Kansas City and talked with listeners both pro and con for two hours. He was recently interviewed for an upcoming article in the Kansas City Star.

McKinney said he has received emails from clergy supporting his idea since it received mention two weeks ago in a newspaper columnist's blog.

McKinney said Leawood Baptist Church, which is affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, is learning to think of Dec. 25 as the beginning of the Twelve days of Christmas.

The church brings out decorations on Christmas Eve and leaves them up through Epiphany. Many small groups and Sunday school classes have their Christmas parties after Dec. 25.

"We strive to think of Dec. 25 as the beginning of our sacred holiday and with the idea of spiritual renewal carrying the spirit of Christmas (Christ) into the New Year," McKinney said.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)—Eleven percent of the people who participated in a LifeWay Research survey said they or an immediate family member are the primary full-time caregiver to an elderly parent or a special needs child, a statistic also shown in two other national studies.

About 14 percent of American children under age 18 have special health care needs, according to the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs. That survey defined children with special health care needs as “those who have or are at increased risk for a chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional condition” and require health care beyond the amount required by children generally. Presumably, not all children included in the survey require full-time care.

The National Center for Health Statistics reports 36 out of every 1,000 Americans 65 and older live in a nursing home while 277 per 10,000 require home health care.

What do the findings from LifeWay's survey reveal?

According to the LifeWay study, marital status and race signal the most significant differences in people’s status as primary full-time caregivers. People who are unmarried and living with a partner (18 percent) are acting as primary caregivers for elderly parents or special needs children far more than either married people (11 percent) or single people (9 percent).

The online survey was conducted this fall using a national sample of Americans representative of the U.S. population in terms of gender, age, race/ethnicity, marital status, education, income and region of the country. The survey used an online panel weighted to be representative of the population. The sample size of 1,580 provides 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed +2.5 percent.

Females (14 percent) are caregivers for elderly parents or special needs children more often than males (9 percent), according to the LifeWay Research data.

Neither education nor income level make much difference in a person’s likelihood of being a full-time primary caregiver to a child or parent. There is also no significant difference based on region of the country. However, people most able to outsource care to others—individuals making $100,000 or more—actually provide full-time care just as often (13 percent) as other income groups.

Eighteen percent of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders are primary caregivers for elderly parents or special needs children, compared with 14 percent of blacks, 11 percent of Hispanics and 10 percent of whites.

Age and gender also are factors that correlate with differences in caregiving status. Those age 65 and older (6 percent) care for an elderly parent or special needs child less than any other age bracket. Fourteen percent of people ages 35 to 49 are primary caregivers, as are 12 percent of those ages 25 to 34, 12 percent of those ages 50 to 64 and 10 percent of those ages 18 to 24.

'Hands and feet of Jesus' or not?

“This research should open our eyes to the number of people in our churches and communities that are looking for people to be the hands and feet of Jesus,” Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, said.

“Many American church leaders and members that I know reject the idea of increased government involvement in establishing universal health care. But, for the most part, the American church continues to ignore the emphasis that Jesus himself placed on the poor and the sick. We disregard James’ exhortation to not forget the widows and orphans. Until caring for the sick and the poor becomes as cool as church planting and rapid church growth, the church should not be surprised when the government steps in to do our God-called work.”

What can churches do?

Too often church members are hesitant to provide support for people who are primary caregivers to an elderly parent or a special needs child, usually because they don’t know what to do.

Carmen Leal, author of The Twenty-Third Psalm for Caregivers, noted various ways churches can support the growing numbers of caregivers in an e-mail newsletter produced by LifeWay Research:

• Assume that most caregivers won’t ask for help. “Instead, have a plan in action to find out if basic needs are being met due to the onslaught of medical bills and the possible loss of income,” Leal wrote. “Suggest that the church benevolence fund can offer limited help and guide the caregiver through the application process.”

• Find the caregiver an advocate within the church. Leal noted many people in a church won’t have the experience or skill set to establish a ministry for caregivers, but they could advocate for one person. This person can help the caregiver access resources inside and outside the church such as helping him or her connect with a Bible study group or finding local community assistance programs such as the Salvation Army and the United Way that might help pay for items such as utilities, groceries, and other needs,” she wrote. It’s important, Leal said, for a person in the advocate role to work hard at keeping the caregiver connected with others in the church rather than taking on all of the needs of the caregiver. “In taking on too much personally, it would be very easy for the advocate to become overwhelmed and then to simply drop out of the picture for the caregiver—potentially doing more harm than good,” Leal wrote.

• Create a church culture that “finds a need then meets it.” After David’s diagnosis doctors suggested a 5,000-calorie a day diet to help with his rapid weight loss,” Leal wrote of her husband’s battle with a neurodegenerative disease. “His loss of swallowing ability led to a feeding tube and the need for supplements such as Ensure or Boost. The best thing my home church did before we moved was to set up an opportunity for members to bring six packs or cases of Ensure to church for us. “Others clipped coupons to help defray the cost of purchasing Ensure. This simple act of kindness kept David alive and allowed me to use our money to buy groceries for growing teens,” Leal said.

• Track resources that are available to families in financial need. Church members with an interest in ministering to caregivers should be familiar with resources that offer free or reduced cost prescription drugs, vision and dental care, Leal said. Such resources include pharmaceutical patient assistance programs such as RX Assist or NeedyMeds.org and vision assistance programs such as Vision USA or Eye Care America. “Be aware of the caregiver’s ever-shrinking world and make calls and visits,” Leal also wrote. “There are also many communities online so the caregiver can connect with others.” ther advice Leal offered includes helping caregivers learn about where to find free or inexpensive household items such as Habitat Resources or freecycle.org. Also, help caregivers learn more about the diseases they are dealing with, such as by directing them to the National Alzheimer’s Association, the American Cancer Society or another applicable group.

• Provide an old computer and basic computer skills. If caregivers don’t have a computer, there may be a church member who has upgraded their equipment and would be willing to donate their old desktop or laptop to a homebound caregiver needing online support, Leal said. Perhaps most importantly, Leal said, churches should not overlook the spiritual needs of a caregiver or of the one needing the care. Personal visits and prayer are the minimum a caregiver should expect from their faith community, she noted, and one of the most crucial matters to address is whether the person in need is trusting Jesus for salvation.

With additional reporting by Erin Roach

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Barack Obama chose Joe Biden, and John McCain turned to Sarah Palin, but in the end, the most sought-after running mate in the 2008 campaign never appeared on a single ballot.

God, it seems, couldn’t be entirely wooed by either party.

The unprecedented and extraordinary prominence of religion in the 2008 election was easily the year’s top religion story. Both parties battled hard for religious voters, and both were forced to distance themselves from outspoken clergy whose fiery rhetoric threatened to become a political liability.

In the end, the top prize went to Obama, the Christian son of a Muslim-born father and an atheist mother, who spent much of the campaign fighting off persistent—and untrue— rumors that he was a closet Muslim. His party, after years of consistently losing churchgoers to Republicans, decisively won Catholics, Jews and black Protestants and made small but significant inroads among some evangelicals.

McCain, meanwhile, managed to shore up his dispirited base of religious conservatives, winning three out of four born-again or evangelical voters, but his troubled campaign could not overcome an onslaught of negative economic news that, in the end, trumped all other issues.

“It’s very tempting, but a bit dangerous, to over-interpret what happened,” said Luis Lugo, executive director of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. “Clearly Obama improved across all religious groups, but the economy just overwhelmed every other issue.”

Still, the 2008 campaign was remarkable for the ways religion—or religious figures—played such a prominent role. Obama was forced to sever ties with his fiery pastor of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, for sermons deemed racist, anti-American and at times downright bizarre. McCain, in turn, was forced to reject the endorsements of Texas mega-church pastor John Hagee and Ohio’s Rod Parsley.

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson tried to play kingmaker by first saying he would not vote for McCain “under any circumstances” and later calling the Palin pick “God’s answer” to prayer. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the candidate who proved most popular among religious conservatives and who won the Iowa Republican caucuses in January, failed to gain traction despite ads that dubbed him a “Christian leader.”

Obama and Biden both faced strong opposition from Catholic leaders over their support of abortion rights. One American cardinal, James Stafford, called Obama’s election “apocalyptic,” and a South Carolina Catholic priest told Obama supporters to head to confession before receiving Communion.

All of that, Lugo said, shows that voters want their politicians to be at least somewhat religious—but prefer to make up their own minds, without the interference of politically outspoken clergy.

“People still do not want religious institutions or religious leaders to weigh in on politics,” said Lugo. “There’s strong opposition to it, and a strong consensus against it.”

Yet one religious leader whose politics are fairly well known—and not always embraced by the American public—received a 21-gun salute when he arrived at the White House in April for a six-day U.S. tour.

When Pope Benedict XVI arrived for his first U.S. visit, many Catholics still clung to fond memories of his predecessor. But by the time he wrapped up his whirlwind spin around New York and Washington, Benedict left with higher approval ratings than when he arrived.

“What I saw in the faces of the people who waited to greet him, who had a chance to hear his message, was more than just happiness. It was a sense of profound joy,” said David O’Connell, who hosted the pope as president of Catholic University in Washington.

The pope surprised his U.S. flock with an unexpected attention to the clergy sex-abuse crisis. He told American bishops the scandal had “sometimes been badly handled” and said they had a divine mandate to “bind up the wounds … with loving concern to those so seriously wronged.” He met privately with a small group of abuse victims and told a stadium Mass of 46,000 “no words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse.”

“There was an expectation and a hope that the pope would say something comforting and consoling to a wounded church, and I think he accomplished that,” O’Connell said.

Other top issues 

Despite their loss at the polls, conservatives continued their winning streak on the volatile question of gay marriage in California (where the state Supreme Court voted to allow same-sex marriages in May), Arizona and Florida. The high-stakes and expensive California fight, which still is being battled in the courts, reflects conservatives’ ability to rally the troops at the ballot box in opposition to gay marriage.

A related fight over homosexuality continued to roil the Episcopal Church, which saw dioceses in Fort Worth, Quincy, Ill., and Pittsburgh secede to realign with a more conservative Anglican province in Argentina. Related big-ticket legal fights resulted in a $2.5 million deficit for the national church.

In August, Episcopalians emerged from a once-a-decade summit of Anglican bishops in England relatively intact despite calls for discipline from conservative Anglican bishops, most of whom boycotted the three-week Lambeth Conference.

That fragile unity will be tested in 2009, however, as conservatives move to establish a separate-but-equal province on U.S. soil.

Conservatives have launched a new branch of the Anglican Communion—the Anglican Church of North America. The Common Cause Partnership, as the conservatives’ umbrella group is known, still needs to gain recognition from leading Anglican archbishops, win the favor of the Archbishop of Canterbury and overcome serious theological discord among its own members.

The United Methodist Church voted to keep its traditional stance on homosexuality, maintaining rules that call homosexual activity “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

The Presbyterian Church (USA), meanwhile, voted to remove a constitutional rule that requires clergy to maintain “fidelity in marriage … or chastity in singleness.” However, a majority of local presbyteries must approve the amendment, which may prove too high a hurdle.

Religion and secular law collided at a fundamentalist Mormon polygamist compound in Texas and controversial sect leader Tony Alamo’s compound in Arkansas over charges of sexual abuse of minors. In Oregon and Wisconsin, three sets of parents were charged in the faith-healing deaths of children who were denied routine medical treatment.

In November, the small, Utah-based Summum sect asked the U.S. Supreme Court for the right to erect monuments to its “Seven Aphorisms” alongside existing Ten Commandments markers in a case that could decide how much government can—or should—memorialize religious tenets.

Interfaith relations continued their difficult dance in 2008 as several high-level attempts at dialogue—by the United Nations, Saudi King Abdullah, the Vatican and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair—sought tentative common ground between the Muslim world and the largely Christian West.

The world lost some leading religious figures in 2008, including Mormon President Gordon Hinckley and philanthropist Sir John Templeton, both 95; Lutheran theologian Krister Stendahl at age 86; Transcendental Meditation guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, thought to be 91; and W. Deen Mohammed, who broke with the racially tinged teachings of the Nation of Islam founded by his father, at age 74.

While Scripture advocates taking care of orphans and widows, the church has abdicated that responsibility to the state, some Christian child-advocates insist.

“It shortchanges people and the church,” said Robbi Haynes of marketing and recruitment for Missouri Baptist Children’s Home & Family Ministries, a corporation of the Missouri Baptist Children’s Home.

With more than half a million children in the foster care system, according to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, the church has an opportunity and a responsibility to minister to children and their families, Haynes said.

The need is great, she emphasized. “There are never enough foster homes—ever.” Often, one foster parent will have around eight children, because the system is desperate, she said. Many foster families get overloaded and quit completely.

“Many are willing, but they don’t know about the opportunity,” Haynes said. And the church can help with that.

Church needs to be in forefront 

“The church needs to have at the forefront that foster care is a ministry,” she said. “Missions doesn’t have to be on the other side of the world. It can be down the hall—in a bedroom at your house.”

John Marshall, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Springfield, Mo., regularly addresses the need for foster parents from the pulpit.

“People are allowed to indicate on their information cards if they would like to be contacted by MBCH to find out more about it,” Haynes said.

“Also, they have volunteers in the church who encourage and support foster parents by prayer and encouragement, child care, camp scholarships, help with birthday and Christmas, etc.”

The cost to a church wanting to be involved is minimal, she said. Training and licensing are available at no cost. Churches only need to provide space and publicity. “The cost is in annoyance,” she said. “These are not easy kids, but they need a church family, and the church will benefit.”

Studies have found that families who have a connection with a church do a better job at fostering than those not in church, Haynes noted.

How to help 

Churches can assist foster families in a variety of ways. Simply be an encourager to a family and give them a pat on the back, Haynes suggested. Provide childcare or respite care. Involved individuals will need to go through background checks, but the process isn’t difficult, she said.

Churches can help with financial obligations such as school supplies, class rings, prom dresses, sports uniforms and summer camps. “Foster parents are reimbursed, they are not paid,” Haynes said. “Most don’t break even.”

Churches also can present a welcoming environment for foster children. “Most have never been in church,” Haynes said. “They have no training in how to behave.”

It’s important for the church to let foster parents know they are on the same team—not an “Oh, there they are again,” mentality, she said.

Churches can provide space for foster parent training by letting organizations that place foster children know the church is available.

Other ideas include organizing a support group for parents or hosting the county appreciation dinner for foster families. “Most counties have a dinner and need to find a place,” Haynes said.

“Foster care is not glamorous,” she said. “It’s not like getting to jet off to India. It’s just hard work, but it’s worth it. I think it’s what Jesus would want us to do.”

TRAPPIST, Ky. (RNS)—This month, many contemplative Christians—including an ever-growing number of evangelicals—are remembering the life of Trappist monk Thomas Merton, who died 40 years ago in a freak accident.

Merton, who influenced generations of believers with both his monastic lifestyle and his prodigious writings—some 60 books were published during his lifetime, and about as many in the 40 years since his death—is especially noted for bringing spirituality to the laity.

“The essence of Merton’s spirituality is, I think, the humanity of it, that he really speaks to ordinary people,” said Paul Pearson, director and archivist of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky.

“He knows so well the great classics of Christian spirituality, but he can interpret them in a way that people in our world today can understand and relate to.”

At the time Merton rose to prominence, the Roman Catholic Church did not encourage personal study of Scripture and meditation on it apart from the church.

“Spirituality really belonged to the monks and nuns and bishops and what have you,” Pearson said, “whereas your ordinary lay person went to Mass on Sundays, the Mass was in Latin, they said the rosary, and that was the extent of it. And Merton, I think, really opened up the whole realm of contemplation and spirituality for people.”

Merton’s own spiritual journey was complex. He was an aspiring writer and had—by his own account—lived a rootless and hedonistic life.

He converted to Catholicism in 1941 and shortly thereafter arrived at the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani in the hills outside Louisville. In 1948, when he was 33, he published his autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, an overnight bestseller now considered a Christian classic.

Merton’s fame allowed him to correspond with presidents, popes and Nobel Prize winners. But as his public reputation grew, he retreated further and further into solitude and silence. Later, his abbot gave Merton permission to live for lengths of time as a hermit in a small cottage about a half-mile from the monastery.

In the 1960s, Merton’s spiritual journey found him taking on the issues of the day—civil rights, materialism, the nuclear arms race and the Vietnam War.

His superiors blocked the publication of some of his most strident anti-war writings.

“As he changed from the world-denying monk to the world-embracing monk of the ’60s, people began to think: ‘Why should he be writing on these issues? He’s away in a monastery. What does he know about them?’” Pearson said.

In 1968, Merton was electrocuted in a Bangkok hotel room after touching a fan with faulty wiring. Since then, Merton’s reputation and influence have continued to grow. Scholars have published about 60 more of his books, including seven volumes of his personal journals.

As a monk, Merton left behind just a few personal possessions—his work shirt, a cup, boots and his eyeglasses.

“With the death of Thomas Merton,” Pearson said, “we lost … one of the great prophetic figures within the Catholic Church, and I think that’s why his books are still selling, why they’re still being translated, because that message is as relevant today as when he wrote it.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Bill Gaither may not be an A-list celebrity in some circles, but over a half century he has sold 20 million recordings and 20 million DVDs—more than any other gospel performer. And his impact exceeds mere sales figures.

He and his wife, Gloria, have written more than 600 songs, including many published in hymnals used in churches around the world, such as “Because He Lives.”

If he wanted to rest on his laurels, Gaither certainly has enough accolades and money to do so. But at 72, he’s still busy writing, recording and traveling with his current 32-city Homecoming tour. Friends ask Gaither if he plans to slow down any time soon.

Bill Gaither has sold more albums than any other Christian recording artist and, at age 72, shows no signs of slowing down. (RNS PHOTO/Courtesy Lobeline Communications)

“Retire? And do what?” he asks in his signature soothing baritone voice. “If I had to sing high C’s every night, or play keyboard at a high level, it would be better to back off. By myself, I’m not really that fantastic. But what I do is bring together talent. And I’ll continue to do that gladly.”

Gaither was a college student in 1956 when he formed the Bill Gaither Trio with a brother and sister.

After he married, Gloria became his primary partner in life, songwriting and performing. The Trio recorded more than 40 albums and filled arenas nationwide.

In 1980, he founded the Gaither Vocal Band. The quartet’s 30 albums feature everything from old-time Southern gospel chestnuts to pop-based contemporary songs.

No one has been more successful than Gaither at bridging the often-contentious divide that separates Christian music’s traditionalists from its harder-rocking contemporary fans.

“Christian music is about a theology and a message and can’t be pinned down by any one style,” he said.

“Over the centuries, that message has been wrapped in a lot of different styles. The wrapper is always changing, but the basic message is always going to stay. I don’t think God really cares about the wrapper, but he cares very much about the content.”

Through the Vocal Band and other activities, Gaither also has promoted and mentored some of the most popular Christian artists of the past four decades, including Sandi Patty, Larnelle Harris, Carman, Steve Green, Don Francisco, Michael English, David Phelps, Russ Taff and Mark Lowry.

“It sounds (like a) cliche, but he really is in a category all by himself,” said John W. Styll, president and CEO of the Gospel Music Association, who credits Gaither with “single-handedly re-energizing” Southern gospel, the genre he’s called home for the most recent phase of his career.

Gaither was working on Homecoming, the Vocal Band’s 1991 album, when he stumbled across the formula that has proved remarkably—and unexpectedly—successful.

He invited about a dozen gospel music pioneers to join in on the classic song, “Where Could I Go But to the Lord.”

After the recording session, the singers ate fried chicken and gathered around a piano to shoot a music video. Before they knew it, someone started playing the piano and the singers all joined in.

Three hours had passed before the singing finally stopped, Gaither recalled, and he realized the video camera had captured nearly an hour of the impromptu session. Four minutes were used for the music video.

The remaining footage gave birth to a Homecoming phenomenon that has spawned dozens of CDs, more than 60 DVDs, broadcasts on more than a dozen cable outlets like TNT and a popular concert tour that in 2004 outsold tours by Rod Stewart, Elton John and Fleetwood Mac.

Homecoming’s success has provided steady work for a revolving roster of musicians and singers.

And Gaither has plowed some of his earnings into the Gospel Music Trust Fund, which supports aging or ailing artists. In 1991, the fund had about $20,000 in its bank account; today, it is worth nearly $3 million.

Gaither is surprised by the popularity of the Homecoming franchise, which he attributes to the sense of community and shared collective memory the music creates among both the artists and fans.

“The Christian church has often been guilty of neglecting its history,” Gaither said. “But if you show me a person who does not know where he’s been, I’ll show you someone one who does not where he is going. The result is spiritual arrogance.

“What we’re trying to do with the music we sing at the Homecoming concerts is salvage the best of the past.”

Lutheran publisher announces cutbacks. Augsburg Fortress, publishing arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is cutting back operations, closing nine bookstores in the United States, laying off more than 50 employees and declining to publish new books in its consumer-oriented line. The publisher will concentrate on congregational resources and academic texts, said Sheryl Burmaster, Augsburg’s director of customer care. The publisher will retain 242 full- and part-time employees, according to the ELCA. 

 
Judge orders Arizona to allow pro-life plates. A federal court has ruled the Arizona License Plate Commission must approve an anti-abortion group’s “Choose Life” specialty license plate. The Arizona Life Coalition applied for the specialty license plate in 2002, but the Arizona License Plate Commission rejected its application. Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund and the Center for Arizona Policy filed suit in 2003. Last January, the 9th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the commission had violated the Arizona Life Coalition’s First Amendment right to free speech by rejecting its application. The commission appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the decision, but the high court refused to hear the case. U.S. District Judge Paul G. Rosenblatt ordered the commission to convene by Jan. 23 and approve the license plates.
 

Disney corrupts children, Catholic Brit charges. A top Roman Catholic cleric in England has accused Disney of corrupting children, encouraging greed and turning its make-believe world—as embodied at its theme parks—into a latter-day pilgrimage site. Christopher Jamison, the abbot of Worth Abbey, in southern England, charges Disney with “exploiting spirituality” and helping to generate a culture of materialism while pretending to provide movie, book and theme park stories with a moral message. Jamison, a candidate to succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor as leader of Catholics in England and Wales, lodged the accusations in his new book, Finding Happiness.
 

Bob Jones University apologizes for racist policies. Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian school in Greenville, S.C., that did not admit African-American students until 1971 and banned interracial dating until 2000, has apologized for its past racial policies. The school posted a statement about race at Bob Jones University on its website, saying the school’s past policies were shaped “for far too long” by “the segregationist ethos of American culture” rather than by biblical principles. “Though no known antagonism toward minorities or expressions of racism on a personal level have ever been tolerated on our campus, we allowed institutional policies to remain in place that were racially hurtful,” the statement said. Five university alumni launched a website, Please-Reconcile.org, to collect signatures for an open letter to Bob Jones leaders saying they were “troubled” by the school’s racist reputation. They collected more than 500 signatures. The statement by the university was released before the group sent its signed open letter to the administration.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—’Tis the season for Christmas pageants everywhere to dramatize one of Scripture’s most familiar scenes and cast a cold-hearted innkeeper, who shoos away the holy family to a lowly stable.

But pageants and sermons castigating the infamous innkeeper give him an underserved bad rap, scholars say, and feed dangerous misconceptions about how Jesus’ contemporaries received him.

“We’re so brainwashed into this idea of the mean old innkeeper and no room at the inn, we don’t even notice that this is a violation of the text that we’ve just read,” said Kenneth Bailey, a Bible scholar and author of Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes.

The innkeeper’s reputation stems from a single, oblique reference in Luke 2:7. The verse says Mary wrapped the newborn Jesus in cloth “and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” From this text, Christian communities through the centuries have inferred that their Savior was rebuffed at birth.

The reality possibly was much different. The “inn” (or “lodgings” in some translations) was not a hotel or hostel but perhaps a guest room in the private residence of one of Joseph’s relatives, according to Mikeal Parsons, a Baylor University New Testament scholar who’s writing a commentary on Luke.

Because that room already was occupied, Parsons suggests, hosts may have made room for Mary and Joseph within their own family quarters and cleaned up an animal feeding trough—a manger—to serve as a crib.

Such details are important, scholars say, in part because the birth narrative is rich with symbolism. The divine infant’s portrayal in modest circumstances suggests, for instance, God humbled himself to join the commonest of humankind. Hence for later generations to conjure a fictitious innkeeper and make him into something of a villain may be to read a new, unwarranted and potentially misleading significance into the story.

“It’s kind of a ‘gotcha’ moment to recognize there is no innkeeper or reason to castigate an innkeeper, but that’s what we tend to do,” said Thomas Stegman, associate professor of New Testament at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. “It’s an easy thing to cast judgment on this figure, (but) anything that gives us an out from examining ourselves first is not a good thing in the spiritual life. … We need to consider instead, ‘How hospitable have we been?’”

Surrounding the innkeeper’s image is the question of who welcomed Jesus and who rejected him. Bailey cautions that Christians need to be careful not to let presuppositions about an innkeeper perpetuate harmful stereotypes about Jews.

“It’s important for us as Christians to look at our text and say, ‘We have read an anti-Jewish undercurrent into a lot of stories where it’s not there, and here’s one of them’,” Bailey said.

Scholars continue to press for a new image of an anonymous host who never hesitated to show respect—and who now deserves a little reciprocity.

“Luke is highlighting the hospitality of the anonymous householder (friend or relative) and not condemning the inhospitality of an insensitive innkeeper,” Parsons said.

WASHINGTON (ABP)—The global financial crisis makes it even more urgent that the United States not only take care of its own economy, but also redouble efforts to aid the world’s poorest, according to a new report and several development experts.

The 2009 edition of the Christian anti-poverty group Bread for the World’s annual hunger report calls for the government to streamline international development efforts through renewed focus and a series of reforms—despite, and because of, the international economic downturn.

“At a time like this, we ought to use our foreign assistance effectively, and we ought to distribute more of our aid to struggling families around the world who are trying to overcome hunger and poverty,” said Bread for the World President David Beckmann. “This crisis has been a huge setback in the world’s progress against hunger, poverty and disease.”

Massive increases in food costs

Massive increases in the cost of basic food items in many places around the globe have driven approximately 100 million more people into extreme poverty in the last two years, Beckmann said. The report estimates 75 million more people are malnourished than two years ago.

The United States should not use its own economic woes as a reason to cut back on foreign aid, Beckmann insisted.

“It would just be wrong for us to be so preoccupied with our own problems that we forget the nearly billion people in the world who do not get enough to eat,” he said.

The report calls for several reforms in the way U.S. development and aid work is conducted, including:

• Elevating development and poverty reduction “as specific goals in U.S. foreign policy, distinguished from political, military and security goals, with distinct and secure funding.”

• Coordinating development assistance with recipient nations “to meet their long-term development goals and focus on outcomes with measurable goals and objectives.”

• Maintaining civilian leadership in U.S. development-assistance efforts, with the U.S. military’s role “limited to its operational strengths in logistics and stabilization.”

• Creating one “effective, streamlined agency” to channel all U.S. development assistance, now spread across 12 Cabinet departments and dozens of federal agencies and offices.

“We need to have a consolidated agency that is separate from AID,” said Peter McPherson, president of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, referring to the U.S. Agency for International Develop-ment. McPherson was the agency’s administrator during the Reagan administration.

Polls show the majority of voters want to increase the aid the United States provides to the world’s poor, Beckmann noted.

“Their main motive is humanitarian,” he said. “People know that people on the other side of the world are desperately poor, and so that if Americans think that they can really help, they are willing to help.”

World hunger threatens national security 

Another motive is national security, because Americans know after 9/11 that misery in far-off places can breed terrorism at home, he added.

Beckmann noted the food and economic crises will increase instability in the world if not addressed properly.

“We’ve seen economic progress in many poor countries—and then suddenly a disappointment,” he said. “That’s an explosive situation.”

Several Baptist organizations—the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A., Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Baptist World Aid—cosponsored the report along with several other Christian denominational and parachurch groups. The report includes a Bible study guide for church groups to use in exploring what Scripture has to say about hunger and caring for the poor.

ATLANTA (ABP) — Greenhouse-gas emissions continued to rise in 2007, according to two new studies. But Southern Baptists are still divided over what, if anything, to do about it.

The World Meteorological Organisation said Nov. 26 that concentrations of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide reached new highs in 2007, and methane had its largest annual increase in a decade. 

The gases are thought to contribute to the "greenhouse effect" that the vast majority of climatological scientists believe is causing a gradual warming of the planet.

A government study released Dec. 3 showed that, despite increased public awareness about global warming and numerous policy changes, 2007 greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States increased 1.4 percent over the 2006 total.

CO2, methane and nitrous oxide

The WMO report found that levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), the single most important gas thought to affect global temperatures, increased 0.5 percent from 2006 to 2007. That growth rate is consistent with recent years.

Methane, another gas created by both natural and human activities, increased last year at the highest rate since 1998.

A third gas, nitrous oxide, also reached record levels in 2007.

The study says Earth's greenhouse-gas levels were fairly consistent for 10,000 years until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Atmospheric carbon dioxide, which accounts for 63 percent of greenhouse gases, has increased 37 percent since the late 1700s, primarily due to emissions from fossil fuels and, to a lesser degree, because of deforestation.

According to Reuters, WMO expert Geir Braathen told a news briefing in Switzerland there is no sign that carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide are leveling off, and it is too early to tell if methane would keep rising.

Scientists warn that the gradual warming of Earth's atmosphere caused by greenhouse gases will lead to rising sea levels, more damaging severe weather and increased heat waves and droughts.

Kyoto Protocol 

The current international pact curbing greenhouse-gas emissions, the Kyoto Protocol, expires in 2012. World leaders hope the United States, which did not ratify the accord, will sign on to a new pact, and that developing nations like China and India will commit to emissions targets.

The Energy Information Administration study blamed increased U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions on two factors: unfavorable weather conditions — which increased demand for heating and cooling in buildings — and a drop in hydropower availability that led to greater reliance on coal and natural gas for generating electricity.

In the United States, evangelicals remain divided over how seriously to regard rising levels of atmospheric gases linked to climate change.

Jonathan Merritt, spokesperson for the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative, said the new data is significant not only from a climate standpoint, but for theological reasons.

"Keep and tend the earth"

"As Southern Baptists, we believe in the truth of God's word, which includes the command to keep and tend the Earth and see it flourish," Merritt said. "Regardless of one's stance on climate change, everyone can agree that pumping record levels of gas into our atmosphere isn't a good idea and certainly wouldn't be consistent with the idea of stewardship."

A number of prominent Southern Baptists, including current Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt, signed a declaration in March urging increased action to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. So far a total of 550 individuals have endorsed "A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change." 

Those signers don't include the convention's official representative for moral and public-policy concerns, who maintains the globe is actually getting colder instead of warmer.

Global warming called a "hoax"

Richard Land, head of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, called global warming a "hoax" and a "scam" on his weekly radio program Nov. 22.

Land attributed fluctuations in global temperature to "cycles of nature that God has allowed in the cosmos" and labeled human activity "a minor contribution to global warming."

"The sunspots have faded, the solar cycle has peaked, the sun is going into a quiescent period and everybody but [former Vice President and anti-global warming activist] Al Gore is cooling off," Land said. 

Merritt said people who selectively quote data to support a contrarian view on the evidence for global warming "are driven more by an ideology than a theology."

Merritt said he has spoken to Southern Baptist missionaries around the world who thanked him for speaking out on the issue.

"They say that they use the creation as a starting point for sharing the gospel," he said. "Furthermore, they say that the Western world's witness is hurt by our wasteful and consumptive habits. When we speak with a unified moral voice and put feet to our faith, the gospel is stronger both at home and around the world."

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.