Posted: 10/19/07

DOWN HOME:
About time for a technology sabbath

My buddy Greg had a really bad day.

He woke up in a hotel far from home, with a slate of activities stretching out before him. He got busy, checked out of the hotel and took off.

Unfortunately, he left his briefcase in the parking lot. Worse still, by the time he realized what had happened and returned to the hotel, somebody else had driven over his briefcase, crushing his cell phone and laptop computer.

He called around asking for phone numbers because, like me, he doesn’t memorize or write them down anymore. His cell phone stored them all. Until his phone went to the big cellular relay station in the sky.

My pal Ken had an almost-as-bad day.

His cell phone still worked, but his computer crashed. I was there. It went mouse-up dead.

He’s a conscientious guy and did a pretty good job of backing up material. But weeks later, he’s still backtracking, trying to round up bits and pieces of information that floated off to oblivion when that blasted computer recorded its last data entry.

My wife, Joanna, had a bad morning.

The power went off in her office. And, you guessed it, her computer stopped working. The whole place practically shut down.

She ran errands and got an early lunch while the folks from the power company got the electricity flowing again. But her incapacitated computer blew a big hole in her day.

In a few weeks, I’m heading to Guatemala on a mission trip with some other members of my church. At least for most of every day, I won’t have computer access and cell-phone coverage.

To tell you the truth, I haven’t figured out if that’s good or bad. Just like I’m not sure if I love or hate technology.

On the up side: Communication keeps Jo and me connected to our daughters. Lindsay lives in Florida, and Molly is a student at Baylor. But one or the other of us communicates with them almost every day—at least several times a week. We don’t feel nearly as distant as the miles that separate us.

Also, work is more accessible. Like right now: I’m writing a column while somebody fixes my flat tire. No months-old magazines for me; I’m doin’ bidness.

But laptops and cell phones also keep us so connected to work and other urgent distractions that we can lose track of the truly important.

You know one definition of anything that ends with “-holic” is that you sneak off to enjoy it, and you hope nobody catches you. That includes folks who check e-mail during church and call the office to check voicemails between dinner and dessert.

Maybe we’d all be better off if we took a “technology sabbath.” How about leaving the laptop in the briefcase and quit checking voicemail?

Maybe we’d find time to hear the voice of God and the voices of the people we love.

–Marv Knox

Posted: 10/19/07

EDITORIAL:
Look to horizon for BGCT perspective

“Just keep your eyes on the horizon,” my friend Brent advised me the first time I went deep-sea fishing. “If you start feeling queasy, look at a fixed point—like trees on the tip of a peninsula or the top of a condo on the beach. That will help you keep your equilibrium, and you’ll be OK.”

Brent gave good advice for a breezy outing off the Florida coast. We didn’t catch many fish, but we had a great day.

That’s good advice for Texas Baptists these days, too. Our Baptist boat is bouncing on a sea of controversy. Folks are looking a little green around the gills. They’re responding in various ways. Some feel sick; others are mutinous.

So, we’d all benefit by looking to the horizon. Here are some fixed points on which to gaze. They’ll help us ride out the stormy seas:

• The Baptist General Convention of Texas is more than the BGCT Executive Board.

A huge part of our problem is an identity crisis. For ages, we’ve said “BGCT” when we meant the convention’s Executive Board and the staff who administer its programs—the Baptist Building. They’re not the same thing. The BGCT includes the Executive Board, but it also includes almost 5,700 churches, more than 100 associations, 27 institutions and agencies, and Lord-knows-how-many Baptist people. All together, that’s the BGCT.

Unfortunately, our shorthand language has stuck, and when people talk about the Executive Board, they say “BGCT.” Worse, the Executive Board is the weakest part of the BGCT right now. It’s the part that’s making so many Texas Baptists heartsick, if not seasick. So, we tend to think the convention is much worse off than it actually is.

Fortunately, the other components of the BGCT are resilient and vital. Sure, they’re not perfect. But we have enormous human, material and spiritual resources. And the Executive Board can be repaired. The “BGCT” is much stronger than we’ve been letting on.

• The BGCT political process is opening up.

For years, when Southern Baptist Convention-style fundamentalism threatened to gain control of the state convention, Texas Baptists Committed provided a valuable service by galvanizing so-called moderate Texans around one slate of candidates for BGCT leadership. In recent years, that political threat has diminished. Consequently, some among us have chafed at the specter of one relatively small group choosing the convention’s officers in advance of the annual meeting. This year, messengers will pick from at least two strong candidates for president. And Texas Baptists Committed has indicated it will discontinue the recent practice of nominating a first vice presidential candidate to become the next year’s presidential nominee. So, all messengers have an equal voice in selecting officers.

• $50 million still is a lot of money.

Although the proposed BGCT budget is diminished and should be larger, Texas Baptists still can do a powerful lot of ministry with $50 million. We should not belittle legitimate financial strength.

• BGCT institutions are vitally strong.

Our state convention provides the denominational home for 27 agencies and institutions—more than any other Baptist body and most other religious groups. What’s more, most of them are tremendously creative and effective. Yes, we need to support them better and collaborate more closely with them. But when you think “BGCT” and realize the convention includes our institutions, you begin to recognize its strength and relevance.

• We’re living in the middle of a mission field that calls for outstretched hands, not wringing hands.

Much of our malaise has been brought on by hand-wringing and navel-gazing. Those are hardly worthy endeavors for Baptists who live in a state with more than 10 million neighbors who make no claim to faith, plus millions who are hurting and needy.

Look to the horizon. We’ve got fish to catch.

Posted: 10/19/07

Scholars say evangelicals
and their votes are shifting

By Heather Donckels

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The face of evangelicalism is changing, two authors at the Pew Research Center said, and with that change comes uncertainty about who evangelicals will vote for in next year’s presidential election.

Using the AIDS crisis as an example, Michael Lindsay, author of Faith in the Halls of Power, said the present generation of evangelicals has a broader, more international perspective than their forebears.

While many evangelical leaders in the 1980s denounced AIDS as “God’s scourge on the homosexual community,” evangelical Michael Gerson—President Bush’s former speechwriter—was the man who brought AIDS back to the forefront 20 years later, Lindsay said.

“That is a really big change in the evangelical community,” Lindsay said. “The amazing thing is that once that initiative was announced, some of the very same evangelical movement leaders who had denounced” the crisis “praised the White House for being bold and courageous.”

Hanna Rosin, author of God’s Harvard, a book about Patrick Henry College in Virginia, hopes that in 20 more years, evangelicals will have examined their traditional stance on the environment and made similar changes.

Lindsay and Rosin attributed part of this change to a heightened appreciation for Reformed theology, which recognizes the problems in the world while at the same time compelling people to do something about them.

Lindsay also sees the change as “a maturing of the evangelical movement.” As evangelicals have moved into positions of influence, they have become more optimistic about changing the world. He sees “the mantle of leadership” passing from evangelicals like Billy Graham—who focused primarily on saving souls—to people like megachurch pastor and author Rick Warren, who believes social justice and saving souls go hand in hand.

These shifting views cause Rosin and Lindsay to wonder who evangelicals will vote for in the coming presidential primaries and election. Gone is “the idea that evangelicals are in the back pockets of Republicans,” Rosin said.

Some of the “most extensive outreach” from evangelicals is directed at Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, not Republicans Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain, she said.

Posted: 10/19/07

Faith Digest

Religious references OK on flag certificates. Americans who ask for a flag to be flown over the U.S. Capitol now will be able to include religious references on the accompanying certificate under new guidelines. Some House members were angry after an Ohio Eagle Scout requested a flag be flown in honor of his grandfather’s “dedication and love of God, country, and family.” The accompanying certificate left out the word “God.” Acting Architect of the Capitol Stephen Ayers, who supervises the flag program, said guidelines from 2003 would be revised to allow whatever messages a member of Congress deems appropriate. After an internal review, Ayers determined the existing policies had been “inconsistently applied.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after initialing downplaying the dispute, later said Ayers’ office should not “be in the role of censoring what members want to say.” Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, who received the flag request that sparked the policy change, said he would pursue legislation that permanently allow flag certificates to acknowledge God.

Publisher offers environmentally friendly Scriptures. If the “What Would Jesus Drive?” campaign aimed to get Jesus into a fuel-efficient hybrid, now there’s an answer to “What Would Jesus Read?” Publishing giant Thomas Nelson Inc. has released the first-ever “green” Bible. The Charles Stanley Life Principles Daily Bible uses paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and includes an FSC logo on its packaging that indicates it met the council’s standards in every stage of production, from the forest to the paper mill to the printer. The new Bible comes as part of a larger effort at Thomas Nelson to practice stewardship and implement environmentally friendly practices. “We are committed to trying to learn more about how we can reduce our carbon footprint as a company,” said Lindsey Nobles, director of corporate communications at Thomas Nelson.

ORU president faces charges. Oral Roberts University, which made headlines 20 years ago when its namesake founder said God would “call him home” unless he raised $8 million, finds itself embroiled in controversy again. A lawsuit filed by three former professors at the charismatic Christian university in Tulsa alleges illegal political activity and lavish, unchecked spending by President Richard Roberts and his wife, Lindsay, for personal purposes, including using the school’s jet for their daughter’s senior trip to the Bahamas. Tim Brooker, who coordinated the university’s government program, alleges the university president pressured him to use ORU resources and students to campaign for a Tulsa mayoral candidate, despite laws prohibiting such activities by tax-exempt organizations. At a recent chapel service at the 5,300-student university, Roberts said God told him: “We live in a litigious society. Anyone can get mad and file a lawsuit against another person, whether they have a legitimate case or not. This lawsuit … is about intimidation, blackmail and extortion.” Oral Roberts’ board of regents voted unanimously to hire an independent outside auditor to review the claims and the university’s financial statements. Roberts announced Oct. 17 he would take a temporary leave of absence.

Posted: 10/19/07

Wayland nurse takes healthcare
expertise, servant’s heart to Brazil

By Teresa Young

Wayland Baptist University

LAINVIEW—Josie Gomez normally sees dozens of Wayland Baptist University students and employees in a typical week.

But recently, her caseload increased significantly. Fortunately, Gomez didn’t have to meet the needs alone.

She took a week off from her job in Plainview as Wayland’s full-time registered nurse and traveled to Brazil for a medical mission trip with other area medical professionals.

Gomez, a member of First Baptist Church in Hale Center, found out about the coming trip through a presentation by Gene Meacham, director of missions for Caprock-Plains Baptist Area.

Josie Gomez (right) helps another patient into a boat for consultation and treatment during the team’s long days of running a medical clinic aboard the boat docked in remote areas of Brazil that normally lack medical care.

“I felt like this would be where I could use the talents God gave me for him,” said Gomez, who has been at Wayland nine years. Though international mission trips were nothing new to Gomez—she has been to Mexico and Brazil before—this trip held a new twist for the longtime nurse.

The mission was conducted almost exclusively aboard a boat as part of the Evangelistic Mission Assistance to Fishermen project. The team of 12 short-term missionaries included Lubbock physician Hugh Wilson, formerly of Hale Center; dentist Donna Winchester of Slaton; two other nurses; a speech therapist; a physical therapist and several others.

The group traveled each day from Isla Grande off the coast of central Brazil to remote villages where no medical assistance regularly is available. Luiz Alcantara, a physician from Brazil, traveled with them to provide translation and additional medical help.

Docked a short distance from the shore, the boat became a clinic for the villagers who traveled to wait for help. Lines formed quickly and stayed long for most of each day.

“It was very busy. People were in and out all day long for four days straight,” Gomez said. “We used every part of that boat to see people and treat them. We treated lots of intestinal worms, anemia and some scabies, and the dentist pulled teeth left and right because their dental hygiene was not good.”

Gomez noted that while the medical team stayed on board to run the clinic, others traveled into the villages to meet people and share the gospel message in various ways. Flexibility and creativity proved valuable for the team.

“One day the wind was too high, and we had to move the clinic into an elementary school on the island,” Gomez recalled. “When we heard that morning we might not get to stay on the boat, we prayed and prayed for God to calm the storm. But we ended up in the school anyway, and it was such a blessing. I think God had already planned this ahead for us.”

While the clinic continued on more solid ground, the rest of the team made good use of their time closer to the villagers. Ron Hanby, an accountant from Plainview, presented a paint talk for a group, using an illustration on large canvas to share the gospel story.

Gomez fondly re-called the blessings she gained from being able to use her medical expertise on the mission field.

“The biggest blessing for me came from giving a shot to one lady who could barely walk from painful arthritis and had been that way for eight months,” she noted. “She said through the interpreter that it was the first shot she’d had that didn’t hurt, and the next day she came up to me and was saying, ‘Thank you’ and hugging me and telling me how she didn’t hurt anymore.”

Gomez also recalled one woman who brought her 14-year-old daughter to see the speech therapist, saying she had never spoken. Within a few hours of therapy, the girl was making simple noises and moving toward speech for the first time.

The incident—and others like it—made an impact on Gomez.

“I think we just take it for granted here, that we can just go down to a clinic and get medicine for any little thing. They can’t do that there.”

Posted: 10/19/07

Iraqi Christians face choice
– flee or live in fear

By James Palmer

Religion News Service

BAGHDAD, Iraq (RNS)—Nabil Comanny and his family endured the dead bodies left to decompose along the road in their southern Dora neighborhood. They accepted the criminal gangs that roamed the area, searching for targets to kidnap. And neither the utility failures nor the mountains of trash in the street could drive them away.

As Christians, the Comannys learned to keep a low profile. They even stayed in their house after many Muslim neighbors fled the daily chaos when sectarian bloodshed between Shiite and Sunni militants broke out in 2006, making this one of Baghdad’s most embattled districts.

But the hand-scrawled note at their door was the final straw. The message commanded the family to select one of these options: Convert to Islam, pay a fee of nearly $300 monthly for protection or leave the area.

Failure to comply with one of the three would result in death.

“We don’t have weapons, and the government doesn’t protect us. What else can we do?” said Comanny, a 37-year-old journalist whose family abandoned its modest home of 11 years.

Extreme Islamic militants increasingly are targeting Christians in Iraq, especially here in the capital.

The Apostle Thomas has been traditionally credited with taking Christianity to Mesopotamia.

As a result, Iraq’s Christian community—long the minority in a largely Muslim country—continues to dwindle.

While meaningful numbers are difficult to come by, the last Iraqi census, conducted in 1987, counted 1 million Christians, although many fled after the United Nations imposed sanctions in the 1990s. Today, national aid groups estimate that between 300,000 and 600,000 Christians remain among an estimated 25 million people.

The first sign of trouble for Commany’s family arrived last spring when Muslim militants imposed Islamic law over the area.

The proclamation came via an 18-point document posted along shops and blast walls. The decree listed stringent rules for all residents.

Among other things, women were required to wear burkahs, which are draped over the head, covering the face and entire body.

“It’s not our tradition,” Comanny said. “How can Christian women be expected to do this?”

In the end, most Christian families decided to pay a bribe, Comanny said, “because it gave them time to prepare to leave. But most can’t afford to keep paying.”

Comanny, who shared a small house in Dora with his mother, three brothers and four sisters, finally decided to move his family on the advice of someone he described as a “sympathetic” insurgent—a lifelong acquaintance.

Because militants in Dora frequently attack families returning home to fetch their belongings, Comanny paid his insurgent contact 1 million Iraqi dinars, or about $800, for safe passage from the neighborhood.

Today, the Comannys live in the New Baghdad section of the capital, where hundreds of Christian families relocated. The families move cautiously among a majority Shiite population who rely on the Mahdi army to protect the area.

In addition to the direct threats, Iraq’s Christians also must cope with subtle obstacles.

William Warda, the founder of Hamorabi, a Christian-led national human rights group in Iraq, said most Christians here no longer feel safe embracing the lifestyle they once enjoyed, such as wearing Western apparel.

Most Christians still in Iraq are Chaldean Catholics who acknowledge the pope’s authority but remain sovereign from the Vatican.

Other denominations include Syrian Catholics, Armenian Orthodox and Armenian Catholics. Small groups of Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholics also practice, as do Anglicans and evangelicals.

One common thread among most of the groups is a concern that church leaders have not spoken out to protect their rights.

“The church is not defending us,” said Bashar Jamil John, a 24-year-old engineering student at the Baghdad Technical Institute. “This is part of the problem.”

Mokhlous Shasha, 32, a first-year priest at the Lady of Our Salvation Syrian Catholic Church in central Baghdad, argued the clergy here are as equally threatened as the ones they serve.

Since 2006, militants have killed three priests and kidnapped 10 others, church officials said.

“Priests live in the same situations as their parishioners,” said Shasha, who added he never walks the streets of Baghdad in his collar.

The one thing most Christians agree on is their view of the future—bleak.

While at least a dozen churches here simply have closed, some seminaries and convents have shifted their bases to the north.

For those still open, such as the Chaldean Catholic Virgin Mary in central Baghdad, attendance at Mass is down by more than half, officials said.

For one, Hamorabi’s Warda predicts a mass exodus of Christians from Iraq if Western countries relax their immigration policies.

“If the U.S. and Europe open their doors, the Christians in Iraq will be finished,” Warda said. “They will all leave.”

Posted: 10/19/07

Faith changed best-selling novelist’s world

By Nancy Haught

Religion News Service

VANCOUVER, Wash. (RNS)—Karen Kingsbury, the reigning queen of Christian fiction, lives on a hilltop just outside Vancouver in a spacious modern Tudor house, with a sweeping driveway and a large, landscaped pool.

This is the house that Life Changing Fiction built. That’s her trademark, says the winner of the 2007 Christian Book Award, because that’s how her fans describe her work.

She started writing inspirational fiction in 1998 and now has 6 million books in print. Last year alone, the 44-year-old sold 2 million copies and made from 25 cents to $2 for each one sold, she reported.

She earns enough that her husband, Don, a former high school Spanish teacher, volunteers as a freshman football coach at a nearby high school only because he wants to. Their six children—ages 10 to 18, with three boys adopted from Haiti—don’t need to worry about college tuition. Kingsbury’s payroll includes her only daughter, her mother and her two sisters. The money she earns for lectures, she donates to charity.

Some may dismiss her as a marvel of Christian marketing, but consider this: Kingsbury’s novel Just Beyond the Clouds ranked No. 17 on the New York Times best-seller list for paperback trade fiction for Oct. 7; Summer ranked 15th the previous week.

That’s the list that includes Water for Elephants (No. 1) and The Kite Runner (No. 3). Kingsbury, who claims her own shelf in religious and general bookstores—and at many big-box discount retail stores—is a crossover Christian author.

Clearly, religious publishing is thriving. A survey in August of Americans who read books found that two-thirds choose the Bible and other religious books—more than any other category. Last year, religious book sales increased 5.6 percent in net revenue, the largest increase in dollar sales of all the categories tracked by the Book Industry Study Group, a leading trade association.

In an industry in which publishers are delighted if a novelist finishes two manuscripts a year, Kingsbury hammers out five, mostly in the five hours a day at her home office while her children are in school.

She wrote Ever After, the story of two couples divided by the war in Iraq and winner of the Evangelical Christian Publishers award, in five days.

“Karen finds writing therapeutic,” said Rick Christian, founder of Alive Communications and Kingsbury’s agent for nine years. “A conversation on a soccer field can become a whole book. Her imagination is just like one of those magical gardens in a Dr. Seuss book.”

The prolific Kingsbury rules online and in person, too. Her website—www.karenkingsbury.com—got about 29,000 new hits in July. She receives about 500 letters and e-mails a week. She travels a couple of times a month to lecture and sign books. She insists on taking a digital photo with every reader who wants one. She spends a few minutes in conversation with everyone who stands in line to meet her. She listens to their stories. In her mind, her fans are important—the people she writes to—but on her working list of priorities, readers come after God and family.

“I have wanted to be an author since I was 5,” Kingsbury said. “I wanted to be the next Danielle Steel. But newspapers were my Plan B.”

As often happens, Plan B came first. In 1988, when Kingsbury was a young newspaper reporter in Los Angeles, she met her future husband at a health club.

“He was clean-cut, an athletic guy who didn’t drink, smoke or do drugs,” she said. He brought his Bible with him on their first date. That three-way relationship—Karen, Don and the Bible—had its ups and downs, but eventually she bought her own Bible and rethought her faith.

By 1991, the couple married, and when their first child came along, she wanted to work from home. She wrangled book deals for four true-crime novels. Her writing met with mixed reviews, but Kingsbury’s first book deal tripled her annual reporter’s salary.

But her work, the career she dreamed about, was depressing.

“I had to post Scripture on my computer screen to keep going,” she said. So, she tried something else.

By then the family lived in Arizona, and she wrote Where Yesterday Lives, about five adult siblings called home when their father dies. She wept when she wrote it. Years later, her books still strike at the heart—without happily-ever-after endings.

“I write tear-jerkers,” she said, “not romance novels.” Her writing includes “a layer of romance,” but her characters tackle real-life problems, from abuse to war. In her books, characters die. Loved ones walk away. Relationships don’t work out.

“But the endings are hopeful,” she said, “if you have faith.”

Kingsbury writes about redemption, reconciliation and forgiveness, said Sue Brower, her editor at Zondervan.

“She reaches into you, rips out your heart and helps mend it with stories,” Brower said.

Kingsbury targets her demographic—women ages 25 to 65, said Jana Riess, religion book review editor at Publishers Weekly. But Kingsbury’s editor sees a readership beyond that.

“The crowds at her book signings are old and young, white and black, urban and suburban,” Brower said. “If Karen writes for a demographic, it’s the Hallmark demographic, people like me who cry over Hallmark commercials—people coming through tragedy, distress, pain and hurt, coming through it with hope.”

Posted: 10/19/07

Texas Baptist Forum

Spirit & pastor searches

After reading Roger Olson’s 2nd Opinion column on the pastor-search process (Oct. 1), I find it difficult to agree. Yes, I believe pastors as well as church members are led by a call of the Holy Spirit daily. I would hope his church’s pastor-search committee didn’t browbeat or bribe a pastor or member to join his church. We do not need to look to help-wanted ads of pastors wanting to leave a difficult situation.

• Jump to online-only letters below

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

“I believe there is a universal God. I believe the God that the Muslim prays to is the same God that I pray to. After all, we all came from Abraham. I believe in that universality.” George W. Bush U.S. president, (Al Arabiya television/The Washington Times/RNS) “When we started talking about the Holy Spirit, people said: ‘Oh, that’s kind of dangerous. You don’t know what may happen.’ I’m kind of hoping something unexpected does happen.” Cindy de Jong Coordinator of worship at Calvin College, about a worship series on the Holy Spirit (RNS) “Torture undermines victim and torturer alike. It corrodes the society that permits it. It overthrows the rule of law and then destroys the tyrannies that it spawns. Corrupting the soul, it eventually corrupts everything in its path. Torture is itself the ticking bomb.” George Hunsinger Founder of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (RNS)

Our church lost our pastor 18 months ago. Even though my heart cried, I could still praise God that he will continue to minister through that young man. I hope my church’s search committee is looking for someone who is going through the door that the Holy Spirit opens, not the door that is listed “Exit.” Praise God for pastor-search committees that bathe their work in prayer and listen to the Holy Spirit’s leadership.

Robert Dillard

San Angelo

Global warming

Exploitation of the one degree/100 years global warming (Oct. 1) was frightening. Not because of the minuscule temperature change but because of the wild assumption that humans could cause a temperature change.

Our sun gives us heat. Solar variations with spots and flares cause greater temperature differences than we could possibly accomplish with atom bombs, forest fires, coal fires or any carbon dioxide source.

The imagination of your Christian “environmental experts” is frightening. They would best serve the poor by promoting the decontamination of drinking water.

Harold Flynn

Houston

Art in church

I was encouraged to read about how congregations are using art and symbolism in the designs of their houses of worship (Oct. 15).

Growing up a Baptist and an artist, I was frustrated to learn of the God of creation and yet worship in sanctuaries void of creativity, beauty and art. What we create should be a reflection of the beauty of the message we teach and share.

Ken Parks

Mansfield

Model for ministry

The article about Red Springs Baptist Church (Sept. 17) was very interesting. I have been a member of First Baptist Church in Seymour since 1933 and have known most of the pastors of the Red Springs church. The earliest Red Springs pastor I remember was a good friend, Bob Barker, who was a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Red Springs pastor in the mid 1930s.

Years later, I asked Bob why the Red Springs pastors were so successful as missionaries, pastors, college presidents, etc. He said they used the laymen of the Red Springs church as an example and tried to be as good a man as they were. The result was the fine leaders mentioned in the article.

Thank the Lord for the fine people of Red Springs.

Jack Jones

Wichita Falls

‘Greatest strength’

The article on Bob Ray’s retirement included this quote: “Bob’s greatest strengths as I have observed are his steady and unwavering commitment to serve everyone.  No one and no ministry is unimportant to Bob Ray” (Sept. 3).

Bob Ray’s greatest strength is how he has loved his wife and three boys. He has often said his greatest achievement and joy was leading his three boys to Jesus Christ. Bob Ray’s greatest strength is loving his family unconditionally.  

Richard Ray

Wink

Posted: 10/19/07

Midwestern Seminary board meeting
ends without action against Roberts

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (ABP) — Despite a public conflict with the chairman of his trustees, the president of a Southern Baptist seminary survived a board meeting Oct. 16.

According to a press release from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, trustees agreed, during the two-day meeting, to “affirm” both president Phil Roberts and board chairman Gene Downing as well as “the overall direction and mission of the seminary.”

But the statement, released through the Southern Baptist Convention’s information outlet, also noted “recent concerns and criticisms made public.” It said board members had “rallied to address these concerns and to affirm seminary administrative leadership and the quality-assurance processes of the trustees.”

The statement said the seminary had experienced rapid growth in recent years and that its finances “are in good condition.” However, it added that “the processes and procedures of the seminary needed to be commensurate with the positive financial condition of the school.”

Tensions among the seminary’s leaders first made their way into the news when Associated Baptist Press reported Sept. 21 on the resignation of the college’s chief financial officer, David Hodge, after a disagreement with Roberts.

Downing, an Oklahoma City businessman, said at the time that he and other trustees were concerned about Roberts’ “leadership” and the reasons Hodge resigned.

According to Downing and other sources close to the seminary, Roberts placed Hodge on administrative leave Sept. 20 after Hodge declined to give Roberts a copy of a confidential financial analysis. Hodge, who had left a bank presidency in Wichita, Kan., just six months earlier in order to take the position at Midwestern, prepared the analysis at Downing's request.

In a subsequent Kansas City Star story, Downing said the analysis “substantiated the lack of administrative skills on Dr. Roberts’ part.”

Downing continued: “I’ll put it this way. He’s a great preacher, a great family man. He represents the seminary well. But he’s lacking in administration and people skills. And in order for the seminary to grow, you have to have these things.”

Roberts and his trustees have been in behind-the-scenes conflict in recent months over his leadership style as well as alleged financial “irregularities,” according to sources close to the seminary. Some expected an attempt to oust Roberts to materialize at the meeting. However, the factions appeared to have papered over their differences during the trustee meeting.

Nonetheless, the statement made it apparent that some trustees were dissatisfied with Roberts’ administration of the school.

“With the rapid growth of the seminary in recent years in terms of 1) student body enrollment, 2) the addition of an undergraduate degree program through the creation of Midwestern Baptist College, 3) the expansion of the faculty and staff, and 4) with increased financial contributions, the seminary trustees acknowledged that its policies and procedures must be as up-to-date and as effective as possible,” it said.

The statement concluded by noting that Roberts and Downing “overwhelmingly affirmed their desire to work together for the good of the college and seminary, promising to apprise the trustees of the steps taken to improve the processes and procedures of the school as a result of several trustee directives issued during the two-day meeting.”

According to Baptist Press, the Southern Baptist Convention’s information outlet, trustees spent almost the entire meeting in “executive session,” meaning the sessions were closed to the media and the public. They twice excused both Roberts and Downing from the meetings.

Posted: 10/19/07

Theology keeps Mormons from
entering Christian mainstream

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—While a Mormon presidential candidate continues to occupy a prominent place in the race for the White House, a recent study has found most Americans say they know little about the practices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and large majorities say their own faith is very different from the Mormon religion.

The survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, found 51 percent of Americans have little or no awareness of the precepts and practices of Mormonism, and 53 percent say they have a favorable opinion of Mormons.

The Mormon religion has gained national visibility in recent years. Founded in 1830 in New York, it now boasts 13 million members worldwide, and the church’s official website lists it as the fourth- largest denomination in the United States.

But when asked to describe their impression of the Mormon religion in a single word, 27 percent of survey respondents gave negative words like “polygamy” and “bigamy.”

Among the 23 percent of respondents who used positive words to describe them, “family” was the most frequent response—reflecting the church’s prominent pro-family ad campaigns.

When Pew researchers further divided survey results, they found just 46 percent of white evangelical Protestants reported having a favorable impression of Mormons. Officials from the Latter-day Saints church headquarters did not respond to a request for comment on this survey.

The rise of former Massachu-setts governor Mitt Romney on the national political scene has contributed to growing awareness of the Mormon religion, especially among evangelicals, since the two groups share concerns regarding issues like gay marriage and abortion rights.

Nancy French, who maintains the website www.evangelicalsformitt.org, said she is encouraged by the 53 percent approval rating listed in the survey.

“There’s a lot of people in the South who have these really deep theological issues with Mormonism, and they don’t want Governor Romney teaching a Sunday school class, but they realize that we’re so close on the social issues, that Mormons and evangelicals are married on these issues,” she said.

The differences in theology are distinct in theory but sometimes subtle in conversation. Latter-day Saints believe divine apostolic authority was lost after the death of the biblical apostles and then restored by Joseph Smith in the early 1800s.

Adherents say Smith received new divine revelation. Therefore, in addition to the Bible, Latter-day Saints adhere to the Book of Mormon, subtitled “Another Testament of Jesus Christ, the Doctrine and Covenants,” and the Pearl of Great Price, all of which are writings from Smith and other Mormon presidents.

When it comes to salvation, Mormons believe in a “plan of salvation” that includes a “pre-mortal” state and the ability to become heavenly beings after death. The post-death state continues earthly relationships, like marriage, and temple rites can be performed for those who already have died.

Latter-day Saints also refer to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit as “the Godhead,” which includes the Heavenly Father and the Son, both with glorified physical bodies, and the Holy Ghost.

They also have a doctrine of the Heavenly Mother, wife of the Heavenly Father.

Among other distinctives, Latter-day Saints abstain from alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee.

Their churches employ no full-time vocational clergy and strongly encourage one- or two-year-long mission trips for young people.

In a May conference on religion, politics and public life, Richard Bushman, a former professor at Columbia University and expert on Mormon history, discussed the relationship between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and American politics. He also addressed a question that nags at the conscience of many evangelical voters: Are Mormons Christians?

Most modern Latter-day Saints consider themselves Christians—and as a reform group from the early 19th century, the church has historically identified itself as Christian.

But most evangelical groups do not recognize the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a Christian entity.

Rob Bowman, the manager of apologetics and interfaith evangelism at the Southern Baptist-affiliated North American Mission Board, said the issue for evangelicals is whether the Mormon Church is “a valid, authentic, faithful expression of the Christian faith,” he said.

On that question, it seems evangelicals and Mormons must agree to disagree.

“From an evangelical perspective, Mormonism is not faithfully or soundly Christian because it deviates from historic, biblical standards of orthodox Christianity,” Bowman said, adding that “the New Testament instructs us as believers in Christ to dissociate ourselves religiously from groups that teach … doctrines that deviate in crucial ways from the apostolic message.”

According to the Pew report, one’s view of whether or not Mormonism is a Christian religion has a greater impact on overall opinions of Mormons than knowing a Mormon personally.

Among non-Mormons who say Mormons are Christian, 68 percent expressed a favorable view of Mormons, twice as many as those who say Mormonism is not a Christian religion. A full 42 percent of those who said the Mormon religion is not Christian also said they would be less likely to vote for a Mormon for president.

While they may not win over evangelicals, Mormons may form a bond with Protestants and Roman Catholics. The latest Pew results say 62 percent of white mainline Protestants and 59 percent of non-Hispanic Catholics say Mormons are Christians.

Posted: 10/19/07

On the Move

• Brian Avery to Lake Shore Drive Church in Weatherford as youth minister from First Church in Palo Pinto.

• Lee Bates to First Church in Longview as minister of music and worship from First Church in Palmetto, Fla.

• Jeff Berger to Westbury Church in Houston as pastor.

• Justin Bindel to First Church in Wichita Falls as interim junior high minister, where he was assistant youth minister.

• Cody Broussard to Central Church in Luling as pastor.

• Patrick Burg to First Church in Breckenridge as youth minister.

• Sam Burgeson has resigned as minister of education/administraton at First Church in Mineral Wells.

• Charles Cole to FIRM Area as director of missions.

• Larry Collins to First Church in Kaufman as pastor of worship and senior adults/pastoral care.

• Charles Covin to First Church in Edna as minister of music and senior adults.

• Chance Cutts to First Church in Lexington as minister of youth.

• Jerry Douglass to First Church in Seguin as senior adult director.

• Guy Earle to First Church in Eastland as associate pastor.

• Salvador Estrata has resigned as pastor of Primera Iglesia in Royse City.

• Todd Ferguson to Willow Meadows Church in Houston as associate pastor for children and youth.

• Reagan Finch to First Church in Joshua as interim minister of music.

• Larry Floyd to Lake Shore Drive Church in Weatherford as education minister, where he had been minister of youth and education.

• Jim Furgerson to Tilden Church in Tilden as interim pastor.

• Bob Garringer to Westover Church in San Marcos as pastor.

• Clay Giddens to Colonial Hill Church in Snyder as minister of education from Rosen Heights Church in Fort Worth, where he was interim minister of education and administration.

• Rick Grant to Wylie Church in Abilene as associate pastor for music and education.

• H.B. Graves has completed his term as a seminary instructor in Vermont and has returned to Knox City as a missionary.

• Amber Harrington to First Church in Roanoke as children’s minister.

• Brandon Helm to Calvary Church in Harlingen as pastor from First Church in Perrin, where he was minister to students.

• Howard Hudiburg to First Church in Seguin as minister of music, where he had been interim.

• Joseph Kirby to Coastal Bend College in Beeville as Baptist Student Ministry director.

• Doug Knight has resigned as pastor of First Church in Maud.

• Brian Lambert to First Church in Breckenridge as pastor.

• Brian Mullins to First Church in Bovina as pastor.

• Derek Neese to Southwest Park Church in Abilene as interim music director.

• Brynden O’Grady to The Rock Church in Round Rock as worship leader.

• Chris Pace to Waller Church in Waller as young adults minister.

• Ira Pinkston to Del Norte Church in Albuquerque, N.M., as worship pastor from First Church in Waxahachie.

• Les Reed to First Church in Silverton as pastor from South Georgia Church in Amarillo, where he was youth minister.

• Reagan Reeves resigned as pastor of First Church in Somerville.

• Rita Remington has resigned as children’s director at First Church in New Braunfels.

• Tommy Richardson to Greenwood Church in Midland as minister of education from First Church in Cameron, where he was minister of administration/education.

• Bob Rutherford to Belmont Church in Denison as pastor.

• James Sain has completed an interim pastorate at First Church in Silverton and is available for supply or interims at (806) 994-0119.

• Chris Scales to Hamby Church in Abilene as youth minister.

• Shane Scott to Walnut Creek Church in Azle as pastor from First Church in Copperas Cove, where he was associate pastor.

• Ken Smith to First Church in Carbon as pastor.

• Wayne Spoonts has resigned as minister of music at McKinney Street Church in Denton.

• Larry Strandberg to RiverPointe Church in Conroe as pastor.

• Jay Tracy to First Church in Rosebud as minister of youth.

• Robby Wynn to Trinity Memorial Church in Marlin as pastor, where he had been interim.

Posted: 10/19/07

Young people see Christians
as judgmental, study shows

By Adelle Banks

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Young people have graded Christianity, and so far, the report card doesn’t look good.

Majorities of American young people describe modern-day Christianity as judgmental, hypocritical and anti-homosexual. What’s more, many Christians don’t even want to call themselves “Christian” because of the baggage that accompanies the label.

A new book based on research by the California-based Barna Group research firm found church attitudes about people in general and homosexuals in particular are driving a negative image of the Christian faith among people ages 16-29.

“The Christian community’s ability to take the high road and help to deal with some of the challenges that this perception represents may be the … defining response of the Christian church in the next decade,” said David Kinnaman, Barna Group president and author of the book, UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity.

“The anti-homosexual perception has now become sort of the Geiger counter of Christians’ ability to love and work with people.”

The findings were based on surveys of a sample of 867 young people. From that total, researchers reported responses from 440 non-Christians and 305 active churchgoers.

The vast majority of non-Christians—91 percent—said Chris-tianity had an anti-gay image, followed by 87 percent who said it was judgmental and 85 percent who said it was hypocritical.

Such views were held by smaller percentages of the active churchgoers, but the faith still did not fare well—80 percent agreed with the anti-gay label, 52 percent said Christianity is judgmental, and 47 percent declared it hypocritical.

One of the biggest surprises for researchers was the extent to which respondents—one in four non-Christians—said modern-day Chris-tianity no longer is like Jesus.

“It started to become more clear to us that what they’re experiencing related to Christianity is some of the very things that Jesus warned religious people about … avoiding removing the log from your own eye before trying to take the speck out of someone else’s,” Kinnaman said.

Some Christians—including those in the entertainment industry—preferred to call themselves “followers of Jesus” or “apprentices of Christ” because the word “Christian” could limit their ability to relate to people, he noted. Even Kinnaman, 33, described himself as “a committed Christ-follower,” though he has called himself a Christian in the past.

In addition to reporting on the negative statistics, Kinnaman used the book to also give advice—from himself and more than two dozen Christian leaders—on new approaches.

“Our goal wasn’t simply to say here’s all the problems, but to hopefully point a way forward,” Kinnaman said. “When Jesus pursued people, he was much more critical of pride and much more critical of spiritual arrogance than he was of people who were sinful. And today’s Christians, if you spend enough time looking at their attitudes and actions, really are not like Jesus when it comes to that.”

Megachurch pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren of Saddle-back Church in Lake Forest, Calif., used the book to say he hopes the church will become “known more by what it is for than what it is against.”

“For some time now, the hands and feet of the body of Christ have been amputated, and we’ve been pretty much reduced to a big mouth,” Warren wrote. “We talk more than we do. It’s time to reattach the limbs and let the church be the church in the 21st century.”

The research reported in UnChristian reflected larger Barna Group studies with about 1,000 respondents, as well as the specific study of young people. The sample of 440 non-Christians had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points, and the sample of 305 active churchgoers had a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percentage points.