Faith films still not flooding big screen

Posted: 3/14/08

Faith films still not flooding big screen

By Kim Lawton

Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

LOS ANGELES (RNS)—This year’s batch of Academy Awards nominees for Best Picture portrayed some complex moral dilemmas: A pregnant teen figuring out what to do; a lawyer in an ethical crisis; a Western saga overwhelmed by evil; a romance doomed by lies; a clash between an oil man and a greedy evangelist.

But except for the unsavory clergyman in There Will Be Blood and maybe the title Atonement, there’s little explicit treatment of religion.

Mel Gibson (right) directs Jim Caviezel in his portrayal of Jesus for The Passion of the Christ. Movie executives have been chasing “Passion dollars” since the 2004 motion picture became a megahit worldwide, taking in more than half a billion dollars. (RNS photo/Philippe Antonello/Courtesy Icon Distribution Inc.)

In 2004, Mel Gibson’s controversial movie The Passion of the Christ took in more than half a billion dollars.

Film studios began looking for the next big hit to rake in what became known as the “Passion dollars.”

“Hollywood discovered there was money to be made off of those pesky Christians,” said religious author and broadcaster Dick Staub.

Amid the widespread perception that Hollywood finally had found religion, numerous new projects were launched. But four years later, faith-based blockbusters are still not flooding the big screen.

“What people in Hollywood hoped was that they would find a formula that would be a cash cow, kind of printing money off the backs of religious people. It hasn’t turned out that way so far,” Staub said.

Evangelicals in particular had long felt shut out by Hollywood. Many were thrilled in September 2006, when 20th Century Fox launched a new division, Fox Faith. The announcement was greeted with the expectation of many new movies for Christians.

Fox executive vice president of home entertainment, Simon Swart, said his company wanted to target what he calls an “underserved” segment of the market.

“What this initiative was about was releasing and distributing films that reflected back Judeo-Christian values (and) weren’t necessarily evangelical or preachy, but basically great story telling that reflected those values,” Swart said.

Since 2006, Fox Faith has focused on acquiring already-produced projects to release for video sale and rental. Some have overt faith themes, but many are marketed as “family-friendly.”

There have been few original productions. Many Fox Faith films have not done well at the box office, although they’ve been more successful on DVD.

Several Fox Faith projects have been based on bestselling Christian books, such as the popular Love Comes Softly romance series and Saving Sarah Cain. Sarah Cain wasn’t released in theaters; it debuted on the Lifetime cable network and was then released in January on DVD.

Swart acknowledged Fox Faith is re-evaluating whether even to attempt future releases in theaters.

“There’s so much competition for every screen out there, and you’re really competing with the mainline pictures,” he said. “And that’s really risky because … it’s very hard to get that money back again.”

Critics say it comes down to the resources Fox is willing to commit.

“Generally to make a good film, you’ve got to spend money,” said Staub. “Fox Faith has not spent good money. Therefore, they’re not making good films. Therefore, they’re not successful.”

Some film insiders raise concerns about labeling. Last year’s The Ultimate Gift was a heart-warming lessons-about-life story with big-name actors who were not aware they were part of a “Christian” movie.

The producers later questioned whether the Fox Faith label scared off a mainstream audience.

Even veteran insiders are seeing how tough it is to make a good faith-related film, with or without big studio backing.

David Kirkpatrick, former president of Paramount Pictures, is an evangelical who co-founded a Christian entertainment company called Good News Holdings.

“Historically, there really hasn’t been, in the past 50 years, a platform for Christians in the areas of movies, but (the situation) gives those who really want to try to make a difference and create an alternative voice an opportunity,” he said.

One of Good News’ first projects was a film adaptation of novelist Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, about Jesus at age 7. With Rice’s blessing, they hired actors and were doing readings of the script.

The project quietly was scrapped last year.

Other Good News movie projects apparently also were put on hold. No one answers the phone at the old corporate number. The website hasn’t been updated in months.

Kirkpatrick, who’s now working on a reality TV project in Plymouth, Mass., declined to comment.

Many observers say a big part of the problem is a lingering disconnect between the Hollywood establishment and religion.

“People in Hollywood have no clue how religious people, conservative religious people, think. Therefore, they have no idea how to green-light a film that would actually make sense to religious people,” said Staub.

Fox’s Swart countered: “I think it actually goes back the other way, also. I don’t think the church quite understands Hollywood. And Hollywood’s very much for profit.”

Swart said he frequently is approached by Christian filmmakers who propose new projects with an overt faith message.

“It’s very powerful, but I would ask them the question who will pay $10 to see this,’“ Swart said.

But despite the fits and starts, filmmakers and studios alike say they remain committed to exploring faith-related movies on many fronts.




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What has Hobbiton to do with Jerusalem?

Posted: 3/14/08

What has Hobbiton to do with Jerusalem?

By Jay Smith

Howard Payne University

Bible Belt Christians have struggled long with literature and film espousing a view of reality that confronts the values of our Christian life.

In general, if a book or movie challenges what generally are perceived as Christian values or morals (for example; the existence of God, sexual propriety, general human dignity or a gratuitous emphasis on the supernatural), then we tend to be wary of it.

Christians tend to value literature and films in two different ways. On the one hand, Christians long have enjoyed and promoted the imaginative literature and films produced by openly professing believers such as Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia and even Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.

See Related Articles:
Should Christians use violent video games to lure teens to church?
• What has Hobbiton to do with Jerusalem?

On the other hand, books and films such as J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter installments or Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, which raise serious theological questions, force Christians to take a harder look at the fantasy genre and the role it plays in Christian spiritual formation.

When we investigate the role of fantasy and its effect on our discipleship, we must be aware of the powerful influence it has on our imaginations. The imagination is a powerful part of the human mind.

As one of the three primary mental faculties, the imagination creates our functional reality by focusing what our senses perceive through the filter of reason and memory. In this sense, we literally live through our imaginations.

As a secondary function, the imagination can daydream or fantasize. In other words, when allowed to “idle,” our imaginations can use our memories or experiences to envision a different version of reality than the one playing out before us.       

When the Bible speaks of imagination, it is usually in a negative fashion. For example, the Old Testament writers located the imagination in the heart. As the seat of the affections, the heart was subject to corruption. Indeed, both Jeremiah and Ezekiel affirmed the need for God’s people to have “new hearts” in order to see, hear and obey as God’s people and given only at God’s initiative.

The New Testament does not directly reference the imagination as such, but several passages help us to understand its role in the life of faith. When Paul, in Ephesians 1:18 references “the eyes of your heart” or when in Hebrews 11, we are asked to understand how in faith we can envision the unseen, or throughout the gospels, where Jesus speaks in parables, we begin to understand how critical the imagination is to the life lived in faith. 

Ultimately, we affirm that the gospel itself—with the life, death and resurrection of Christ at its center—is the reality for which the imagination was created to grasp.       

Our imaginations enable us to learn, to perform, to solve and to envision. In a child with few cumulative memories, the imagination is especially impressionable.

Though the fantasy genre is appealing to people of all ages, it is especially so to children, for it allows their imaginations unlimited “room to run.” This is the effect attained in The Chronicles of Narnia as well as in The Lord of the Rings, for when we find ourselves walking the woods of Narnia or the roads of Hobbiton in the Shire, we find ourselves imagining a new, different and hopefully better world.

Indeed, the imagination helps us to draw correlations from these tales with “the greatest story ever told”—the gospel.       

Yet, it is this “world-inhabiting ability” of the imagination that also makes the fantasy genre problematic. Caught up in their fantastic nature, we tend to disregard the fact that ideologies—both positive and negative—are embedded in every story.

For parents, this means that there is a responsibility to either monitor what their children are reading/viewing or to help their children understand what they are experiencing according to their belief.

As adults, we have an opportunity to continue to grow in Christ as we experience different worldviews through the various perspectives of the fantasy genre. The key is Christ, who must be Lord of the imagination, if he is to be Lord at all. As C.S. Lewis suggested, if Christ is Lord in our life, then we posses a “baptized imagination.”

Consequently, fantasy can have a role to play in our lives and should not be outright rejected, especially if our imaginations are first lashed firmly to the cross.


Jay Smith is assistant professor in the School of Christian Studies at Howard Payne University in Brownwood.




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Some analysts say Huckabee may be new face of the Religious Right

Posted: 3/14/08

Some analysts say Huckabee may
be new face of the Religious Right

By Adelle M. Banks

Religion News Service

ASHINGTON (RNS)—With the race for the Republican presidential nomination now behind him, former candidate Mike Huckabee has many possibilities ahead: Potential vice president to John McCain? GOP adviser? Another run for the White House?

Anyway, many observers note, one thing seems clear: Huckabee is now a kinder, gentler fresh face of the conservative evangelical movement, poised to follow the path laid out by Pat Robertson, who transformed his failed 1988 campaign into a powerful movement of the Religious Right.

Mike Huckabee

“I think (Huckabee) reflects in many ways what I would call the new evangelical center,” said author Ron Sider, the president of Evangelicals for Social Action. “He simply is not the old Religious Right.”

The evangelical “old guard”—Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and the late Jerry Falwell—no longer represent the newer aspects of the movement, which seek to marry fresh issues (environmental preservation) to traditional causes (the sanctity of human life), observers say. In fact, Dobson didn’t endorse Huckabee until almost all the other Republican candidates no longer were running.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that Huckabee has much greater potential to pull a much wider constituency and because of that, he has a lot more staying power, I think, on the national stage,” said Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University in Houston and author of Faith in the Halls of Power.

Huckabee campaign spokeswoman Kirsten Fedewa said continuing to work with evangelicals would fit with Huckabee’s vision—and version—of American conservatism.

“He is certainly well-positioned to lead a conservative—or a Christian conservative—movement in this country,” she said.

Richard Cizik, who heads the Washington office of the National Association of Evangeli-cals, said Huckabee differentiates himself from earlier evangelical leaders, in part because of his “appealing” de-meanor.

“Is he a culture warrior? No,” Cizik said. “But you can be for principles without being a culture warrior and obnoxious. He’s just not obnoxious.”

But the extent to which Huckabee sticks with the broadening concerns of evangelicals, such as fighting global hunger and opposing torture, will determine his staying power as a movement leader, Cizik added.

David Kuo, Washington editor for Beliefnet.com, has predicted Huckabee, a onetime Southern Baptist pastor and former governor of Arkansas, could emerge as a Republican kingmaker.

“At the end of the day, Mike Huckabee has followed Pat Robertson’s 1988 model better than Pat Robertson did,” Kuo said.

Both candidates, he noted, had strong showings in an Iowa GOP primary and ended up with lists of donors that translated into new evangelical voters for the Republican Party.

But Family Research Council President Tony Perkins doesn’t think it will be as easy for Huckabee to gain a post-campaign platform as it was for Robertson.

“Pat Robertson had a TV network around which he could base his operation,” said Perkins, co-author of the new book, Personal Faith, Public Policy. “You’ve got to have some infrastructure. Just a list of names is not going to be enough.”

Perkins thinks Huckabee could help the Republican Party refocus its attention on issues important to social conservatives, but he views the former candidate as just one leader of the evangelical movement, not the only one.

“I would clearly see him as an evangelical leader,” Perkins said. “Is he the next Jerry Falwell? I don’t think there is a next Jerry Falwell. We’re in a different time.”







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IN BETWEEN: Mentoring: Is someone coaching you?

Posted: 3/14/08

IN BETWEEN:
Mentoring: Is someone coaching you?

I retired from working with our Baptist General Convention of Texas churches in March 2006. I determined more work was needed to help pastors and other church leaders because too many ministers were being terminated, and little preventive (pro-active) help was coming forth from our offices. I felt it was time for me to focus on developing leaders as a “free agent” and not as a staff person.

Soon I found myself working with a colleague, Kerry Webb, in training ministers and laypersons as leaders, not just followers. One of the extremely interesting discoveries for the two of us was the need to build a mentoring dimension into our training. Of course, how could we mentor others unless we were committed to going through that process ourselves?

We found a wonderful lady who became our coach. Actually, she was an executive coach, formally trained in a nationally recognized coaching certification process. Later, we determined each of our participants needed to experience that same coaching.

The Bible is loaded with examples of mentoring relationships. Some were with older-to-younger models (Paul/Timothy), others were with models in which age was not a big difference (Paul/Barnabas). It appears to me that younger ministers/laypersons today seem to be more open to the Paul/Timothy model. Regardless, this kind of relationship is vital to leaders today.

Paul Stanley and Robert Clinton have described how this works in very practical ways in their book, Connecting: The Mentoring Relationships You Need to Succeed in Life. Some mentoring involves “intensive work—disciplers, spiritual guides or coaches. Others are more occasional, such as counselors, teachers or sponsors. Then, there are passive mentors—folks who are deceased but inspire values for life, ministry and profession.”

All believers have the Holy Spirit as a crucial internal mentor. But we also need someone else to walk with us, listen to us, encourage us or discipline us. The Bible sometimes calls these people “shepherds.” Jesus even describes himself in John 10 as the Good Shepherd.

One of the most profitable and difficult times in my life was to have a coach walk with me, asking me tough questions and holding me accountable for issues I had never settled since childhood. For those moments, I am eternally grateful. In fact, I believe the Lord has given me ministry opportunity because I was willing to learn and grow at 65 years of age. I turned 67 this week. I wish I could be done with learning, but I know better and am willing to keep looking for those coaches God places in my life.

Contact Dan McGee, interim director of the BGCT Congregational Leadership Team, for mentoring suggestions.

Jesus coached his first-century apostles. Those men became mentors to many, many leaders. I wonder who walks with you—a coach, not just a nice friend but someone who tells you the truth when you do not want to hear but desperately need to know. Is someone coaching you?




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Christian rocker Larry Norman launched genre

Posted: 3/14/08

Christian rocker Larry Norman launched genre

By Kristi Turnquist & Grant Butler

Religion News Service

SALEM, Ore. (RNS)—Christian rock lost one of its pioneers when Larry Norman, 60, died of heart failure Feb. 24 at his home in Salem, Ore.

“We’re receiving thousands and thousands of e-mails,” his brother, Charles Norman, said.

“Every time I read one, it’s from someone who says he changed their life. He met them somewhere, and he bought them lunch, or they were on drugs and meeting him turned them around.”

Norman’s death brought renewed attention to his role as a pioneer in what’s now a thriving category in the music industry.

Norman’s 1969 solo album, Upon This Rock, is “considered pivotal in the development of Contemporary Christian music,” according to the Billboard Guide to Contemporary Christian Music.

Norman was born April 8, 1947, in Corpus Christi. His family moved to San Francisco when Norman was young, and he developed an interest in the music of Elvis Presley.

He accompanied his father on Christian missions to prisons and hospitals, and was inspired to write rock songs that included spiritual messages, Charles Norman said.

Norman had his biggest commercial hit as the lead singer of the folk-rock band People! The band’s cover version of the Zombies song I Love You peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard chart in June 1968.

In later years, Norman started his own independent label, recording additional solo albums while discovering other Christian artists.

Larry Norman was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2001, and for all his influence, Norman was ahead of his time with his mixture of blunt lyrics, rock rhythms and Christian message.

“I’m sure he was surprised at the resistance that he got from the church,” Charles Norman said. “But he wasn’t trying to address them. Like a pioneer having to hack his way through the woods to blaze a trail, he met a lot of resistance.”

In a message posted on his website, written the day before his death, Norman said he knew death was imminent.

“I feel like a prize in a box of Cracker Jacks with God’s hand reaching down to pick me up,” Norman wrote, adding that he planned to be buried in a “simple pine box with some flowers inside.”




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Texas Baptist Forum

Posted: 3/14/08

Texas Baptist Forum

Positive 1st impression

Randel Everett made a positive impression the day he was elected executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Jump to online-only letters below
Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.

“What we evangelicals should have known before and have now demonstrated again … is that we aren’t quite as popular in the public square as we like to think. We may carry a pretty strong Word, but we also carry a fairly limp stick.”
Joel Belz
World magazine founder, writing about the need to “end the illusion” about the political force of evangelicals (World/RNS)

“There is a tendency on the part of some religious folk to see God with human characteristics, and then they assign to God some of the most damaging and destructive of human characteristics. I think there is a danger of having God conform to our image, rather than trying to conform to his.”
Ted Strickland
Governor of Ohio (RNS)

“The separation of church and state is like oxygen to the fire of religious liberty.”
Jon Meacham
Newsweek editor (CBS News Sunday Morning)

I was impressed by his strategy, which will allow us to direct our focus on our genuine passion for the lost people of Texas. I sensed we have elected an authentic leader who can guide us without hesitation.

His convictions help me define what type of leader he will be for this moment—a leader whose focus is God’s priority to save the lost ones.

The Holy Spirit caused me to ask, “In what way can I help my brother implement this noble project?” Then I realized this is a great opportunity to unite all Texas Baptists for a common cause to spread the gospel of Christ.

This can be the time to set aside our differences and small distractions and regain our attention on the people who live around us who are spiritually desperate and in great need.

I congratulate the search committee, and also I would like to express to new Executive Director Everett a warm welcome and tell him, “Here we are, the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, to help you in any way to accomplish the vision God put in your heart.”

Baldemar Borrego, president

Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas

Wichita Falls


Personal problem

Joe Worley had an interesting slant in his letter (February 18). His statement, “It is apparent that their CBF affiliation was important in order for them to be on the (BGCT executive director search) committee” has no foundation.

Did he attend even one of the hearings this committee hosted across Texas? I did, and members of this committee were open, listening and gracious to all who cared to have input.

Worley’s bias is clearly chronicled by his openly excusing the “fallible Southern Baptist Convention,” while implying those affiliated even nominally with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship are somehow tainted with no substance to support his claim.

We are all fallible, but having an obvious bias against all but the SBC is a problem for Worley, according to his own words.

Nancy Rooney

China


High-order hypocrisy

The New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta (Feb. 18) was hypocrisy of the highest order.

Clinton, Gore and Carter talked about how we should love each other and be able to disagree agreeably, then they go out on the campaign trail and slam and take verbal shots at President Bush, John McCain or anyone else who doesn’t agree with them.

I wish the Baptist Standard would stand up and call this meeting what it was, an effort to make the Democratic Party more palatable to evangelicals. When it comes to politics, these guys pay lip service to what they say they stand for at these so-called Christian gatherings.

Steve Kent

Dallas

Where was SBC?

The New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta sounded like a breath of fresh air.

SBC, where were you?

Roy Roberts

Irving




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Judge rules for Windermere; Missouri convention to appeal

Posted: 3/14/08

Judge rules for Windermere;
Missouri convention to appeal

By Vicki Brown

Associated Baptist Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP)—Windermere Baptist Conference Center acted legally when it changed its articles of incorporation, a circuit judge ruled. But Missouri Baptist Convention officials immediately announced they plan to appeal the decision.

The ruling by Cole County (Mo.) Circuit Judge Richard Callahan was the latest action in a lawsuit the Missouri Baptist Convention filed against five formerly related entities—Windermere, the Baptist Home retirement-home system, the Missouri Baptist Foundation, Missouri Baptist University and Word & Way newspaper—more than five years ago.

“We are very thankful for Judge Callahan’s decision,” Windermere President Dan Bench said. “After carefully considering the merits of the case, the judge made the decision we have always believed was right. We look forward to putting this unhappy event behind us and to have all the Baptists of Missouri rejoicing and serving together.”

The convention plans to appeal, according to MBC lead attorney Michael Whitehead in an article on the website of the convention’s newspaper, The Pathway.

The convention is disappointed the Windermere case did not go before a jury, Whitehead said. Representatives from the Missouri convention said they plan to ask the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District to offer a ruling rather than to return the case to the circuit court.

The convention first filed suit Aug. 13, 2002, in an effort to force the five institutions to rescind changes they had made in their corporate charters. The Baptist Home changed its articles of incorporation in 2000 to elect its own trustees. The other four agencies took similar actions in 2001.

The March 4 ruling centered on two aspects of the convention’s argument—corporate membership and a contractual relationship with Windermere. The judge ruled the Missouri convention is not a member of Windermere’s corporation and no contract exists between the two entities.

Until August 2000, the convention had governed Windermere through its executive board. Messengers to the 1999 state convention annual meeting approved a reorganization plan that included incorporation of Windermere and Word & Way as separate entities. Windermere’s charter, drawn up in 2000, noted the new corporation would have no members.

The Missouri convention has acknowledged the original incorporation articles declare Windermere has no members. But attorneys argued that because Windermere had granted the convention permission to elect the center’s trustees, the action made the convention, de facto, the only member of Windermere’s corporation.

Callahan said Missouri law dictates that individuals can participate in election of an agency’s board without becoming a corporate member of that organization. A corporation without members does not become a corporation with members just because it grants limited rights to a third party, he ruled.

Windermere also has the right to change its charter without convention approval, Callahan said. “The ‘rights and privileges’ given to the MBC and/or its messengers under Windermere’s original articles were not ‘fixed, unalterable, irrevocable’ rights, but were rights or privileges subject to amendment by Winder-mere,” the judge wrote.

He added that while the law protects the convention’s rights, trustee election is merely a privilege Windermere’s original incorporating articles granted to the convention. He also noted that as a drafter of the original charter, the Missouri convention could have clearly spelled out rights to be granted.

The judge dismissed the idea that Windermere’s articles of incorporation and the MBC’s governing documents created a contract between the two entities. The charter, he said, constitutes a contract only between the center and the State of Missouri.

The court also noted that a binding covenant agreement did not exist between the convention and Windermere because the agreement did not list obligations for both parties. The convention could change the agreement unilaterally by changing its governing documents, and the convention had the right to terminate a covenant agreement at any time, Callahan said.

Furthermore, Callahan said, no mutual obligation between the two existed because under the governing documents’ provisions, the convention was not obligated to support the center and could withdraw any support it provided at any time.




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On the Move

Posted: 3/14/08

On the Move

Brian Barkley to First Church in Edmonson as pastor.

Warren Camp to First Church in Silverton as youth minister.

L.D. Green to First Church in Spade as pastor.

Mike Johnson to Bethel Church in Plainview as interim pastor.

Scott Jordan to Cannon Church in Van Alstyne as interim pastor.

Kristopher Kelso to Mesquite Hill Church in Madisonville as interim pastor.

Lynn Matthews to Arnold Creek Church in Blue Ridge as pastor.

Brad McClenny to Country Chapel in Sherman as interim pastor.

Jeff Moore to North Coleman Church in Coleman as pastor.

Willis Moore Jr. to First Church in Odem as pastor from Hillside Church in Camden, Ark.

David Phillips to First Church in Schulenburg as minister of worship and youth.

Dale Pogue to Bethel Church in Ingleside as interim pastor.

Emmanuel Ramirez to Templo Salem in Lockney as youth minister.

Billy Roberts has resigned as pastor of North Coleman Church in Coleman.

Kevin Schaub to Claytonville Church in Claytonville as interim pastor.

Bill and Ivy Jean Sky-Eagle have completed an extended tenure as interim minister of music and interim music associate and are available for revivals, interims or supply at (817) 572-4333.

Paul Stripling to Waco Baptist Regional Network as interim executive director.

Ben Talcott has resigned as minister of music at Central Church in Italy.

Chris Talleri to Central Church in Italy as minister of youth.

Davis Thornton to Open Door Church in Crockett as pastor.

Leon Veazey to First Church in Whitewright as pastor.

J.K. Weger has resigned as minister of music and worship at First Church in Paris.

Will Yates to Cowboy Church of Houston County as pastor.




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Oxford researchers get $4 million to study origins of belief in God

Posted: 3/14/08

Oxford researchers get $4 million
to study origins of belief in God

By Brittani Hamm

Religion News Service

LONDON (RNS)—Oxford University researchers have been given nearly $4 million to investigate the origins of belief in God.

The three-year project titled “Empirical Expansion in Cognitive Science of Religion and Theology” is designed to determine if belief in a deity is instinctive or learned. It will be funded by the Pennsylvania-based John Templeton Foundation.

Justin Barrett of Oxford University’s Center for Anthropology and Mind and Roger Trigg of Oxford’s Ian Ramsey Center for Science and Religion will lead the investigation.

“We don’t presume (that) this scientific research of what the causes of belief are necessarily undermines the beliefs,” Barrett said. “On the flip side, just because something is natural doesn’t mean it’s true.”

Barrett said developmental psychology has determined that faith in God is a universal human impulse, found in all cultures and grasped from a young age. Researchers will use a variety of methods to try to determine if faith in a deity is inherent to cultures worldwide and throughout human history.

Both religious believers and non-believers will make up the research team, said Barrett.

“I’m certainly not smug enough to think that in three years’ time we’ll have all the answers, but we’re building on things we know, and fully optimistic we’ll make progress,” Barrett said.




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Houston pulpiteer urges: Be a blessing

Posted: 3/14/08

Houston pulpiteer urges: Be a blessing

By Stephanie Orr

Texas Baptist Communications

HOUSTON—Be an avenue for God to work, not simply a pool of his blessings, pastors urged participants at the recent Baptist General Convention of Texas-sponsored African-American Leadership Workshop.

Louis Patterson, pastor of Mount Corinth Baptist Church in Houston, challenged the crowd to be a channel of blessing rather than simply a reservoir of praise.

Louis Patterson

Patterson, who has been recognized by Ebony Magazine as one of America’s greatest black preachers and inducted into the Morehouse School of Religion’s Hall of Preachers, described how the first generation of Israelites who were delivered from Egyptian bondage missed the blessings of the Promised Land. God allowed them to experience 40 years of pain, suffering and wandering in the wilderness in order to eliminate their pride, he said, comparing the Israelites’ attitude to modern Christians.

“We are proud, pious people—persistent to have our own way,” he said. God allows times of pain in order to break down pride and self-reliance, teaching Christians to rely fully on his provision and grace, Patterson stressed.

Patterson urged the audience to have a spirit like Caleb’s, in Numbers 13 and 14. While the Israelites were groaning and complaining, Caleb remained humble. He was a progressive thinker, positive in spirit and prompt in obedience, and God rewarded him by allowing him to see the land of inheritance, Patterson said.

Pastor James White of Abiding Faith Baptist Church in Baytown challenged conference participants to “know your purpose, your mission and your objective.” He pleaded for leaders to quit checking public opinion polls to see what others are saying about Christians. He reminded the crowd not to stage a production, preach a feel-good sermon or put on their “Sunday best,” in order to please others.

“It only matters what we think about ourselves and our purpose in Christ,” White said. People may try to bring Christians down because they do not understand their devotion to Christ, he warned.

“But don’t be afraid of people criticizing your God-given purpose,” he said.




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After a long dry spell, church gives revival meetings another try

Posted: 3/14/08

After a long dry spell, church
gives revival meetings another try

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

KILGORE—Pastor Eddie Hilburn hadn’t held a revival meeting at least five years in a church he had served. First Baptist Church in Kilgore had gone even longer without scheduling a revival—at least the last decade.

That all changed recently, when the congregation held a four-day series of events it called Life Fest featuring Jon Randles, who leads the Baptist General Convention of Texas Evangelism Team.

Food figured prominently. Life Fest began with a free steak dinner that attracted about 150 people—one-third of them not members of First Baptist Church.

The church also held lunch meetings designed for business people in its facilities, centered on a discussion of topics that would interest them. About 120 people turned out each day for lunch, including members who brought their entire offices for the meal.

And the meals achieved their desired effect. Nearly 250 people attended the nightly worship services.

Hilburn praised God for working through the church members. They enthusiastically prayed for their non-Christian friends and invited them to the church’s services. The invitation was natural, and their friends wanted to come to the church, he said.

“I think our church responded well,” Hilburn said. “They showed up. They kept bringing their friends. I felt so proud of them.”

During the services, Hilburn—who described the BGCT’s recent Engage evangelism conference as a time of “personal renewal”—at least a dozen people professed Christ as Lord for the first time. Other people made other spiritual decisions.

The events also created new relationships, including some on the campus of Kilgore Junior College, which the congregation hopes to build upon. Hilburn hopes to schedule a similar effort next year.




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




Science has contributions, limitations in end-of-life issues

Posted: 3/14/08

Science has contributions,
limitations in end-of-life issues

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

SAN ANTONIO—Science has made great contributions in helping people with end-of-life issues, but it also has limitations, Allen Verhey, professor of Christian ethics at Duke Divinity School, told the Texas Baptist Christian Life Conference.

“Today I invite your attention tonight to the end of life—and to the contributions and limitations of science at the end of life,” he said.

“I want to ask about the place of science at the end of life, its contributions to care at the end of life and its limitations, and I want to suggest that when those limitations are not recognized, care at the end of life can be distorted.”

Watch Christian Life Conference video clips here.

Science has helped extend life and lessen people’s pain in some instances, Verhey noted. The advances in medicine have helped all of humanity.

But at the places of limitations—such as when someone is “brain dead,” but still “alive” because of respirators—faith plays an integral role in making ethical decisions, Verhey said. One’s belief system helps a person determine what death actually means, whether that is measured by loss of brain activity, the loss of functioning organs or the loss of both.

“Death is a human event,” he said. “It may not simply be reduced to the objective criteria used to determine it or a flat line on paper. When the criteria are not acknowledged as insufficient, we risk the sort of reductionism to which the neurologist gave voice. The tidy and eminently reasonable criteria for the determination of death do not quite fit with the messy and not altogether manageable experience of death.”




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