Posted: 6/08/07

Book Reviews

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

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

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

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

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

This book gives suggestions about how to do it.

Bob Beck

Intentional interim pastor

Fort Worth

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

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

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

Greg Bowman, minister to students

First Baptist Church

Duncanville

The Election By Jerome Teel (Howard Books)

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

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

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

Kathryn Aragon

First Baptist Church

Duncanville

Posted: 6/08/07

Baptist Briefs

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

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

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

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

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

Posted: 6/08/07

Buckner seeks supplies
for international orphans

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

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

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

Buckner needs supplies for:

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

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

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

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

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

Posted: 6/08/07

Harral to begin term as CBF moderator

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

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

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

Posted: 6/08/07

2nd Opinion: Called to witness Christ’s peace

By Beth Newman

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

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

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

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

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

But what about the meantime?

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

But might it be otherwise?

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

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

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

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

Will we pledge allegiance to that?

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

Posted: 6/08/07

DBU students reach out
to orphans in Guatemala

By Blake Killingsworth

Dallas Baptist University

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted: 6/08/07

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—Marv Knox

Posted: 6/08/07

EDITORIAL:
Hold churches accountable for abuse

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard.

Posted: 6/08/07

Elder statesman Fletcher
lauded as educator, writer

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

INDEPENDENCE—Texas Baptists honored educator and author Jesse Fletcher as recipient of this year’s Elder Statesman Award in a special service at Independence Baptist Church June 3.

The award is given each year by the Independence Association to honor significant contributions to Baptist education in Texas.

Fletcher is president-emeritus of Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, where he served as president 1977 to 1991. Fletcher also is widely known as author of 10 books, including Bill Wallace of China, a classic book about Baptist missions, and The Southern Baptist Convention, which was published during the SBC’s sesquicentennial.

The event’s program said Fletcher has “contributed significantly to Baptist life as a teacher, missions leader, pastor and educator. Through his preaching teaching, writing, and service on numerous denominational boards and committees, he has enhanced both individuals and institutions.”

Bill Pitts, a professor at Baylor University and president of Independence Association, called Fletcher’s book about Wallace “maybe the best-known biography of a Baptist in the 20th century.” Pitts said Fletcher depicted Wallace as a real human being—believable and human and yet inspiring.

Charles Wade, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board, said he read Fletcher’s book about Wallace years ago, and it “caused me to want to be the best I could be” in service to Christ.

Russell Dilday, former president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, delivered the message at Independence Baptist Church. He and Fletcher met as students at Southwestern about 50 years ago and became study partners.

Speaking from Hebrews 13, Dilday urged worshippers to “remember your leaders.” Godly leaders are those who have spoken the word faithfully, lived godly lives, died confidently and left noble examples to follow.

Vernon Davis, retired dean of the Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons, presented the Sunday school lesson from Isaiah 40:27-31.

Waiting is a prominent theme in Scripture and it can be painful, Davis said. Using the analogy of what an orchestra does while waiting to begin a symphony, he said during the waiting times of life “you tune your instrument, you practice your part … and you wait for the music to begin.”

Fletcher is a graduate of Texas A&M University and Southwestern Seminary, where he received master’s and doctorate degrees. Prior to becoming the 12th president of Hardin-Simmons, he served in an administrative role with the Foreign Mission Board of the SBC from 1960 to 1975. He was pastor of First Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., 1975 to 1977.

Posted: 6/08/07

Faith Digest

Creation Museum opens. The Answers in Genesis Ministry opened a $27 million Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., just across the state line from Cincinnati, Memorial Day weekend. The main hall of the 60,000-square-foot building features animatronic dinosaurs and figures of young children playing near each other in a way its owners believe life really occurred some 6,000 years ago. The state-of-the-art museum includes vibrating seats and sprays of water in a theater that depicts Noah’s flood, and extensive exhibits that claim the Grand Canyon could have formed around the time of that flood rather than millions of years ago as suggested by most scientists.

Crusade crew reunites for library opening. Song leader Cliff Barrows, 84, and soloist George Beverly Shea, 98, joined their longtime crusade partner Billy Graham in a rare public appearance at the dedication of the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C. Graham, 88, also was joined by his son, Franklin, who heads his father’s ministry and by three former presidents—George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton—who took turns praising the evangelist. The $27 million library and history complex includes a barn-styled building reminiscent of the dairy farm where Graham spent his boyhood years, with a 40-foot glass cross as its entrance.

Lausanne movement to host South Africa conference. The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization has announced it will hold its third International Congress on World Evangelization, Oct. 16-25, 2010, in South Africa. Evangelist Billy Graham convened the first congress in 1974 in Lausanne, Switzerland. It attracted more than 2,700 evangelical leaders from 150 countries. The second, in 1989, brought together 3,600 leaders from 190 countries to Manila, Philippines. The first meeting produced the Lausanne Covenant, which declared a theological basis for collaborative evangelism across the globe. The covenant was reaffirmed at the 1989 meeting.

Worshippers at church in bar don’t drink enough, owner says. A Welsh church that meets regularly in a Cardiff nightclub faces difficulties because people attending aren’t drinking enough to suit the proprietor. Baptist minister James Karran devised the church, called Solace, as “a church for non-church-goers.” It meets on Sundays from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. in various venues near the city center, including a nightclub called Clwb Ifor Bach. It costs the owners about $1,200 to open the place for the church, and rent is only $100.“The bar is open, and people do buy drinks—but not nearly enough to make up the shortfall,” Karran said.

Falwell’s sons take up mantle. Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., voted to call Jonathan Falwell, 40, the late Jerry Falwell’s younger son, as senior pastor. He succeeds his father, who died May 15. Since 1994, Jonathan Falwell has been executive pastor of the church. He also succeeded his father by writing Falwell Confidential, a weekly e-newsletter of the Moral Majority Coalition. Falwell’s older son, Jerry Falwell Jr., 44, is chancellor and president of Liberty University, the school his father founded in 1971.

Posted: 6/08/07

Immigration issues reveal disparity
between views in pulpits and pews

By Daniel Burke

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—As Congress debates immigration policy, many prominent religious leaders—from all shades of the theological spectrum—have called for a “comprehensive and compassionate” reform of existing laws. It’s part of what they see as their biblical mandate to care for the stranger.

But it’s unclear if their flocks in the pews agree. More than 60 percent of white evangelicals said immigrants are a “burden” to the United States because they take jobs, housing and health care, according to a 2006 poll conducted by the non-partisan Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Fifty-six percent of white Catholics and 51 percent of white mainline Protestants agreed, according to the survey.

John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Center, said religious leaders—particularly evangelicals and Southern Baptists—sometimes are caught between the law-and-order conservatives who fill their pews and the Latino immigrants who populate their mission fields.

“There really is a tension there. They know that many of their parishioners are skeptical—if not actively opposed” to immigration reform, Green said.

“On the other hand, this is a group that puts an imperative on evangelization.”

Sometimes ministers need to take prophet positions different than the views of their church members, said Jim Wallis, a best-selling author and head of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, a progressive Washington-based social justice group.

“Pastors and preachers aren’t pollsters,” Wallis said. “You’ve got to love your congregation enough to preach the gospel.”

Wallis and others recently launched Christians for Compre-hensive Immigration Reform, a coalition of mainline and evangelical Christians, including Church World Service, the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and United Methodists’ General Board of Church & Society.

A consortium of 12 faith traditions also has launched a “New Sanctuary Movement” to protect illegal immigrants in danger of deportation.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is lobbying lawmakers behind the scenes as well as pushing grass-roots efforts in about 100 dioceses, said Kevin Appleby, the bishops’ director of migration and refugee services.

Posted: 6/08/07

Texas Baptist Forum

Falwell’s legacy

I was surprised at the article concerning Jerry Falwell’s legacy (May 28). No mention was made of the evangelical outreach that showed the road to salvation for thousands and thousands of souls over his 50-year ministry.

Actual evangelism as an evangelical Christian will always be his greatest legacy. It wasn’t the television, radio, university or controversial comments that his ministry was built upon. It was the winning of souls at every opportunity.

• Jump to online-only letters below

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

“The tragic thing is to think how many churches this Sunday will be treated to safe, nice, harmless, insignificant, intramural and Trivial Pursuit sermons. There are going to be an awful lot of sermons preached in Christian churches … that actually probably help the world become a worse place.” Brian McLaren Author and former pastor (ABP) “I feel like I’ve been attending my own funeral.” Billy Graham Evangelist, joking about the dedication ceremony of the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C. (RNS) “I share with my comedian friends who primarily work comedy clubs that if they want a real challenge, come try to make a roomful of Baptist deacons laugh without a two-drink minimum! Then we'll see how funny you really are!” Chondra Pierce Christian comedian (Today's Christian/RNS)

That is the thing that all ministries should be based upon.

Daryl Lott

Houston

Huckabee’s politics

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee responded to President Carter’s criticism of George W. Bush’s foreign policy by withdrawing from the New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta next year (May 28). Why? He did not want to appear “to be giving approval to what could be a political, rather than spiritual, agenda.”

When I heard Huckabee might be invited to speak in Atlanta, I questioned the wisdom of inviting him. I was concerned a presidential candidate would use this meeting to further his or her own political ambitions. My concern was, unfortunately, brushed aside by those who, though well-intentioned, were eager to “balance” the Baptist Democrats on the podium with Baptist Republicans.

Now Huckabee has, predictably, politicized the spiritual, unable to separate faith from politics.

Either he is using the event to play to his Religious Right base, or he truly cannot understand a Jimmy Carter, who can offer his counsel on political matters, yet—as a real, traditional, mainstream Baptist—can leave those matters at the door and worship with those with whom he disagrees in spirit and in truth. Or maybe it is a little of both.

The New Baptist Covenant meeting promises to be a time of worship, healing and moving people to respond to the challenges that Christ gave us in the Sermon on the Mount.

But it will fulfill its promise only with the absence of those who, in the manner of Mike Huckabee, would turn it into a political rally.

Bill Jones

Plano

Newspaper’s role

Have you heard the one about the ace reporter who comes into his news office with an accurately researched, cogently written story about inner city crime? “This is some of the best work I’ve ever read,” his editor says, “but we’re not going to publish it because our focus is farm and ranch life. City crime isn’t our beat.”

Or this one? I peruse several stories in the Baptist Standard and discuss them at the church that provides me with the subscription. “You know,” I say, “the Standard says Candidate A believes X, while Candidate B believes Y,” and, without thinking, I add, “so obviously Candidate B is the one Christians should vote for.” And suddenly my church, formerly a haven of nonpolitical fellowship characterized by the spirit of brotherly love, becomes a hotbed of political animus.

I was dismayed to read stories and analysis of the better-known U.S. presidential candidates in a recent issue of the Baptist Standard, even though I didn’t fault the information provided. I’m interested in politics and am a political party member, but I believe in separation of church and state.

I don’t argue politics at church, and I don’t argue religion at political party meetings. I wouldn’t read a government publication or a party flyer to help me decide whether to be a Christian or which denomination to join, and I don’t read the Standard to help me decide how to vote.

No matter how well-written the articles, politics isn’t the Standard’s beat.

Ann Carson

Amarillo