Posted: 2/3/06

DOWN HOME:

Is talking to God like c-card fiasco?

We must’ve overlooked some fine print.

Maybe it was written just above a space we initialed, or below a dotted line we signed. Perhaps it was printed in 2-point type in a box we checked. Or didn’t check.

Somehow, Joanna and I signed up for a set of new his-n-hers credit cards.

They came with ultra-low interest rates. Unless, of course, we violated one of the credit card rules.

Credit card companies operate with enough rules—written by lawyers who used to be accountants who flunked Plain English in school—to make the Old Testament seem brief and uncomplicated. And they promise to punish credit card rule-breakers with all the vengeance of an Old Testament battle. I’m pretty sure words like “smite” and “lay waste” are in the contract.

But mostly, they punish rule-breakers by taking some of their money. You might think they would punish offenders by taking away their credit cards. You would be wrong. This would only punish the credit card companies, which make their profits by encouraging cardholders to run up enormous bills and then charging humongous fees for breaking rules about payments.

If they really wanted to punish rule-breakers, they would make them talk to credit card service representatives.

This is what we did, because we decided we didn’t want the shiny new credit cards.

Joanna went first. She’s stronger-willed than I, and we knew she’d do a better job of getting past the first guy we called. His job was to refuse to acknowledge that we didn’t want his precious credit cards.

Finally, he admitted he didn’t have “authority” to cancel our credit cards. After cajoling, he gave Jo another phone number for the credit-card-cancelling center.

The woman who answered the phone did a pretty good impersonation of the first guy, acting like she couldn’t understand the phrase “we don’t want your cards.” I think this was about the time Jo got tired and handed the phone to me.

Sensing we had brought in a fresh mouth, the woman quickly retreated, confessing that she, too, was not the person who could cancel our cards.

Believe it or not, we talked to two—or was it three?—more credit card people before I got through to somebody who understood my Texas accent when I said, “I’ve got scissors in my right hand, and I’m holding your cards in my left hand, and I’m about to cut them into six pieces, each.”

“Very well, Mr. Knox,” he said. “I’m cancelling your cards.”

After I talked to all those credit card people, I thought about prayer. At first, I was grateful God is a lot easier to reach and talk to than credit card people.

But then I wondered about the other side of it: Does God get as frustrated with me as I got with the credit card people? Does God get totally annoyed by my hard-headed refusal to listen? Do I miss out on the blessing of doing what God wants because I’m so fixated on my own agenda?

I need to listen more and talk less.

—Marv Knox

Posted: 2/3/06

Hill Country church gains from exchange

By George Henson

Staff Writer

DRIPPING SPRINGS—Participation in an international student exchange program provided Pastor Lonny Poe of Sunset Canyon Baptist Church with a real-life example of the effectiveness of worldwide Texas Baptist missions.

Texas Baptists built this church in Spain about 40 years ago.

When Poe read an e-mail soliciting host homes for international high school students, he told his wife, Deanne, “I’ve got something for you to think about.”

That conversation started a process that brought 15-year-old Maria Lopez of Castellon, Spain, to live with the Poes and their four children in Dripping Springs.

One reason the family had considered opening their home to an international exchange student was the opportunity to share their faith in Christ, Poe noted.

However, Lopez not only came from a Christian home, but a Baptist one—an affiliation claimed by less than 1 percent of Spain’s population.

And the Poes also learned—with a tinge of pride—that more than 40 years ago, Texas Baptists built the church the Lopez family attends in Spain.

“I think it’s quite a testimony to Texas Baptists,” Poe said.

While the Poes were unaware of the situation initially, the Lopez family had requested that Maria be placed with a Baptist family.

“I guess we qualified,” Poe quipped.

But just to be certain, the Lopez family traveled to Texas unannounced last May to attend services at Sunset Canyon Baptist Church. Poe recognized them from photographs the exchange agency had sent and introduced himself.

The families spent the next four days getting acquainted. In the process, they allayed any fears the Lopez family held for their daughter—much to the delight of the Poes.

“Maria has been an absolute joy,” Mrs. Poe said. “She knows all about us—all about our warts, all about our strengths and weaknesses, all our challenge areas.”

In the course of the year, the Poes also have been able to watch her faith grow. Shortly before December, she made her profession of faith in Christ public, and Poe baptized her. Sunset Canyon sent a video of the baptism to her parents so they could have a record of the experience.

“To be able to shepherd her faith experience has been humbling but a complete joy,” Poe said.

Having Lopez in the church also has been a blessing for members of Sunset Canyon Baptist Church, because she is a living representation of effectiveness of worldwide missions, he said.

Dripping Springs may sound like a remote rural outpost, but many Sunset Canyon members have traveled around the world, and other exchange students have come through the church, Poe noted.

Even so, learning to love a young woman who came to faith in Christ at a church in Spain started by Texas Baptists and who made her faith public at their church in the Texas Hill Country made a deep impression on church members, he noted.

Involvement in relief efforts for families effected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita—as well as assisting a local woman with home repairs—also helped give the church a more global missions perspective.

“Our folks in the last year have increased in their commitments to missions both financially and in a hands-on way, but I really don’t know if I can attribute that all to Maria. But seeing that they can have an impact on people’s lives, I do believe has made a difference,” he said.

While the end of the school year is only months away, the Poes expect the relationship to extend far beyond that. Lopez already has invited the Poes’ oldest daughter, Salim, to come to stay with her in Spain.

The families also expect to continue to keep in touch via webcam and Christmas gifts. Poe knows some people might consider that wishful thinking, but the same might have been said to those Texas Baptists 40 years ago who went overseas to build a church where Baptists were hard to find.

Posted: 2/3/06

EDITORIAL: Qing vases and teen sexual purity

Sometimes, personal decisions and individual carelessness create catastrophic consequences.

Ask the staff of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England. A shoelace cost the museum three priceless vases.

On Wednesday, Jan. 25, a visitor walked around the museum with at least one of his shoelaces untied. Eventually, he tripped on the shoelace, stumbled down a flight of stairs, slammed into a wall and sent the Chinese Qing-dynasty vases crashing to the floor.

The vases are—were—about 300 years old. They sat safely on a window sill beside the staircase for decades. They were among the museum’s best-known artifacts. Nobody knows how many people admired their porcelain beauty through many generations. And a guy who tripped on his untied shoelace reduced them to shards in an instant.

“It was a most unfortunate and regrettable accident, but we are glad that the visitor involved was able to leave the museum unharmed,” museum Director Duncan Robin-son told the Associated Press, exhibiting both grace (he declined to name the man) and the British penchant for keeping a stiff upper lip.

Of the vases, Margaret Greeves, the museum’s assistant director, said: “They are in very, very small pieces, but we are determined to put them back together.”

Ironically, this story broke just as we prepared a package of articles on teen sexuality, abstinence and sexual purity for this paper. The Fitzwilliam Museum’s shoestring-broken Qing vases provide an appropriate metaphor for the tragic consequences of premarital sex and infidelity.

Let’s acknowledge this up front: Premarital sex isn’t the unpardonable sin. With the exception of AIDS, it isn’t even the end of the world. God is in the business of redeeming our sinful actions and bad choices. Birth parents often love and nurture babies conceived outside marriage. Countless families receive blessings from adopted children conceived by teenaged mothers. Many lives bruised by teenage sex have been made whole. Still, like vases put back together with glue, they’ll never be exactly the same again.

The easy reaction is to rail against secular society, decadent media and the absence of morals in the prevailing youth culture. I thought about this recently, as I passed through an entertainment district near a major state university. I wondered how students there possibly graduate as virgins. But as a father of daughters, I also grieved that so many young women feel compelled to use their bodies as bait for something that passes for a relationship.

Whether we like it or not, our children grow up in a sex-saturated culture, where God’s beautiful gift has been degraded to the degree it is almost unrecognizable. If we expect teens to be pure and chaste, we must immunize them against the perils. We can take several actions:

• Tell ’em they’re loved. Nothing says “I love you” quite like “I love you.” Every day.

• Give out hugs. Psychologists have confirmed people’s deep need for tactile affection. We need to be hugged. Isn’t your child better off hugged by you in your kitchen than by a boy or girl in the backseat of a car? If they need X-number of hugs, give X-plus-10.

• Build self-esteem. Telling them you love them and hugging them is a great start on self-esteem. But reinforce all their great, valuable characteristics by talking about them. Often. You may think your children know their value, but they’re barraged by messages that denigrate those qualities. You’ve got to help them see the truth in a world of doubt.

• Teach high standards. Turn embarrassing, awkward moments (especially from TV) into teachable moments. My girls got tired of hearing me say, “You know, we don’t do that!” when someone on TV talked about nonmarital sex. But now, when the subject comes up, they look at me, smile, and say, “We don’t do that!” Amen.

• Provide role models. Obviously, many single parents do an exemplary job of raising their kids. But researchers David Blankenhorn and Barbara Dafoe Whitehead have demonstrated teens desperately need opposite-sex role models and encouragers. Parents are the first line. But especially if you’re single, keep those children in church, where they are surrounded by caring, responsible, upright men and women.

• Set boundaries. When your kids were toddlers, you didn’t let them cross a busy street, because they could get hurt. Now, it’s the same with curfews, as well as their access to music, movies, TV and the Internet—and their friends.

• Encourage commitment. The True Love Waits abstinence pledge isn’t foolproof, but it radically increases the odds that teens will remain sexually pure until marriage.

Posted: 2/3/06

Trial by fire

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

RINGGOLD—When Kristi Caldwell talks about the fires that torched Ringgold, she doesn’t mention the size of the flames or the extensive damage they caused.

She names nearly every family affected by the fires—the Andersons, Grissoms, Dukes and Moraleses, just to name a few. She remembers each of their stories and knows where they currently live.

Caldwell recalls children looking for a sense of normalcy at school, days after their families lost everything. She remembers her second- and third-grade students crying in her classroom. Some wept all day long.

The images are stuck in her head and her heart.

“I’ve just gotten to know these people. It’s a wonderful community. The people are nice. They will go out of their way to help you. When you see people hurting, your heart goes out to them,” she said.

Caldwell was joined by many other kindred spirits in her congregation, First Baptist Church in Henrietta. While she and her fellow elementary school teachers collected clothes, furniture and toys, church member Mike Campbell began recruiting volunteers to remove debris and repair buildings in Ringgold.

Two Cameron students clean the bathoom of a home damaged by smoke.

Word spread quickly about what the church was doing and soon volunteers were calling from as far away as Wichita Falls and Lawton, Okla. On Jan. 28, more than 100 people—as many people as live in Ringgold—showed up to pitch in.

“It’s overwhelming,” said Tracy Douthitt, secretary at First Baptist Church in Henrietta. “There’s a lot of love there. Our church has been really good at supporting everyone inside the church, but to see them reach out is phenomenal.”

Volunteers divided into groups and worked in multiple locations throughout the town, each time at the request of residents. Some picked up barbed-wire fence and cleared land. Others cleaned homes. Caldwell manned a gym filled with items for those affected by the fires.

A Cameron University volunteer scrubs the ceiling of a Ringgold home that sustained substantial smoke damage.

“This is our Katrina,” said Ricky Guenther, pastor of First Baptist Church in Henrietta, referring to the hurricane that ravaged the Gulf Coast. “We wanted to get involved and help.”

Texas Baptist churches provided most of the volunteers. Leaders from several congregations replaced ceiling tiles in Ringgold Baptist Church. The congregation’s facilities were surrounded by fire but sustained only minor smoke damage.

Volunteers promoted the work of Ringgold Baptist Church everywhere they went. The workers may have a quick impact, but Ringgold Baptist Church will continue to be with the residents, said Doyl McMurry, pastor of Joy Baptist Church near Henrietta. Members of the church can continue ministering to those in need.

“I hope we can represent Christ well enough that they will take notice of the church and possibly be reached for Christ,” McMurry said. “More than anything, they need to know they are loved by God, the Creator of the universe.”

Eldon Johnson, pastor of Ringgold Baptist Church, said the volunteers are inspiring for his congregation and other congregations in the area. Believers are moved to action when they see other Christians living out their faith, he said.

“It’s a real boost not just to our people, but also to people in surrounding areas,” he said.

Cooperative efforts like this encourage Caldwell, as well. She sees people working across denominational lines to improve the community. Companies donated equipment. People without a connection to Ringgold wanted to help.

With the help of many who care, Ringgold can rebuild, Caldwell said. Workers cleared much of the debris. Some structures already have been replaced with portable buildings. Families are preparing to reconstruct their homes.

“I think this community is going to come out and be far better,” she said.

Posted: 2/03/06

Republic of Georgia getting
heat again; needs still remain

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

TBILISI, Georgia – A supply of natural gas into the Republic of Georgia has been restored and parts of the country’s capital city again have heat and electricity.

A Jan. 22 explosion destroyed a Russian pipeline that supplied much of the country’s natural gas, leaving Georgians to fight through the coldest winter in decades without heat or electricity. The pipeline was repaired Jan. 28 and natural gas is now flowing.

Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili of the Baptist Union of Georgia said gas has been restored in much of the capital city of Tbilisi, but some areas remain without an energy source for heat and electricity.

Georgians receive badly needed bread during a church service in Tblisi. On top of an energy crisis, many people are struggling to find food. (Photo courtesy of the Baptist Union of Georgia)

After days of staff members working around the clock with a wood-burning stove to keep a Baptist aging care facility warm, the home now has gas. All the residents remain healthy.

The crisis may be waning, but its effects remain, Songulashvili said. Many elderly injured themselves trying to get kerosene or diesel. Others are sick.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas has wired $10,000 to the Baptist Union of Georgia to meet needs there. The funds will be used to purchase blankets and food.

Texas Baptist support helps the bishop and other Georgian Baptist ministers be the presence of Christ in their communities, Songulashvili said. They are meeting needs and sharing the gospel.

“You help me and my colleagues to help the most vulnerable in the society,” he said.

For information about mission opportunities in the Republic of Georgia, call the Texas Partnerships Resource Center at (214) 828-5181 or send an e-mail to Texas_Partnerships@bgct.org.

Posted: 2/3/06

Online pornography: Helpful tips for parents

Parents to be involved in their children’s lives, urges Leighton Flowers, who leads the Baptist General Convention of Texas youth ministry efforts. Internet activity is one area where parental guidance can be especially helpful.

He recommends parents follow these tips if they are concerned about their children viewing pornography:

• Keep the computer with Internet access in a public location such as the living room or den of the house.

• Have set times of the day that the Internet can be accessed. For example, cut off the computer by 10:30 p.m. and limit the amount of time each child spends on the computer.

• Make sure there are filters and/or accountability software on the computer so online activity can be monitored. Teenagers are smarter than most adults when it comes to working a computer, he noted. Many know how to erase their tracks and fool their parents. Become educated on what filters and accountability programs are available.

• Educate children about online dangers, and make sure they know nothing really is anonymous while they are on the Internet. Then hold them accountable for their behavior online. “Whether they are willing to admit it or not, teenagers like boundaries, and those boundaries must be clearly defined by parents. Don’t take the easy way out. Protecting your child requires parental involvement,” Flowers said.

For more tips on how to deal with Internet pornography, visit www.onlinepurity.com.

Posted: 2/3/06

Video shows peace activists held hostage in Iraq still alive

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—New video footage of a British Baptist and three other Christian peace activists held hostage in Iraq has buoyed hope among their friends and loved ones—weeks after their captors’ deadline for executing them.

After more than a month of silence, their abductors released a videotape Jan. 28 showing all four Christian Peacemaker Teams hostages alive. It was aired on the Arabic satellite news network Al-Jazeera, warning American and British officials to seize their last opportunity to save the captives by releasing all Iraqis detained by U.S.-led forces.

The tape did not include a deadline but bore a Jan. 21 time stamp. The hostage-taking group, which calls itself the Swords of Righteousness, had previously announced it would execute the four if their demands were not met by Dec. 7. It then reportedly extended that deadline to Dec. 10.

The hostages include Norman Kember, 74, a British Baptist; Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32; and American Tom Fox, 54. They were abducted Nov. 26 in Baghdad while on their way to meet with a Muslim group. In one of the story’s many ironies, the four were in Iraq to protest the very war and treatment of detainees that their captors also oppose.

The news of the videotape came only a day before Christian Peacemaker activists and supporters in Washington and Toronto were to culminate a series of events protesting the war and the treatment of Iraqi detainees. They included protests at U.S. government buildings.

“All of us in Christian Peacemaker Teams remain very disturbed by the abduction of our teammates,” read the organization’s statement. “James, Harmeet, Norman and Tom are peace workers who have not collaborated with the occupation of Iraq and who have worked for justice for all Iraqis, especially those detained.

“We continue to believe that what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the U.S. and U.K. governments in their illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people. We continue to call for justice and human rights for all who are detained in Iraq. The innocent should not suffer in the place of those who have done wrong.”

The crisis also has involved the government of New Zealand, where Sooden is in graduate school. That nation’s prime minister, Helen Clark, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that several countries were continuing efforts to save the hostages.

Posted: 2/3/06

Restorative justice consortium proposed

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

SAN ANTONIO—The Baptist General Convention of Texas and the University of Texas at San Antonio’s community and restorative justice office may create a consortium of restorative justice leaders.

The group would fall under the university’s College of Public Policy and would be a place to bring together academics and practitioners in restorative justice for discussion and research, said Tomi Lee Grover, restorative justice specialist for the BGCT.

Restorative justice ministries commonly are thought of as prison ministries, but the term actually refers to a larger effort, Grover said.

Ministers serve at multiple levels to prevent people from turning to a life of crime—ministering to inmates or working with former inmates to build productive lives, she noted. They also serve as volunteer chaplains with law enforcement agencies and work as advocates for the rights of victims of violent crime.

A consortium of leaders could aid this process by providing statistical information about how methods are working and developing new ministry models, she continued.

A cooperative effort between academicians and ministers is needed to have significant impact on society, Grover said. “It’s going to take a multifaceted approach to address the issues that are so difficult.”

Professors bring information and research to the forum, Grover said. They often know about worldwide trends that can help inform people interested in restorative justice.

Ministers offer practical stories and a passion for the field, she said. They often practice restorative justice by mentoring young people, counseling families, leading Bible studies and serving families touched by the criminal justice system.

The consortium is one way Grover is trying to raise awareness of restorative justice issues. She teaches classes on the topic at Howard Payne University and is talking with Baylor University and Dallas Baptist University about adding a community and restorative justice component to each school’s curriculum.

“The church can intersect with the criminal justice system in many, many ways,” she said. “Our goal is not only to get people involved at the educational level, but at the grassroots level.”

Posted: 2/3/06

N.C. executive director nominated

By Tony Cartledge

North Carolina Biblical Recorder

ASHEBORO, N.C. (ABP)—Leaders of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina have nominated for the convention’s executive post a candidate with support from across the spectrum of the deeply divided statewide body.

The convention’s board of directors voted, without opposition, Jan. 24 to recommend Milton Hollifield Jr. as its new executive director-treasurer. Hollifield currently is executive leader of the convention’s missions growth evangelism group.

His nomination must be ratified by convention messengers at a special called meeting April 11 in Winston-Salem.

A search committee chaired by Robert Jackson, pastor of Peninsula Baptist Church in Mooresville, N.C., first recommended Hollifield to the group’s executive committee. His nomination then was passed on to the board of directors, who gave Hollifield standing ovations after he made remarks and as he returned to the auditorium following the vote.

The executive director-treasurer position became vacant when Jim Royston resigned unexpectedly last July to return to the pastorate. He held the post seven-and-a-half years.

Hollifield, 55, has worked for the convention 12-and-a-half years, coming in 1993 as director of the evangelism division. During a restructuring in 1999, he became executive leader of the newly formed mission growth evangelism group. In that role, he supervised the church growth and evangelism team, the church planting team and the campus ministries team.

Hollifield’s North Carolina Baptist roots go deep. He is a native of Swannanoa, N.C., and a graduate of nearby Mars Hill College and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

Hollifield previously has served as an associate pastor of West Asheville Baptist Church in Asheville, N.C., and as pastor of First Baptist Church in Stanley, N.C. Hollifield worked two years as director of missions for the Gaston Baptist Association near Charlotte prior to joining the state convention staff.

Posted: 2/3/06

ON THE MOVE

• Art Allen has resigned as pastor of Salt Creek Church in Brownwood.

• William Allen to Spring Street Church in Waco as interim pastor, where he was music minister.

• Cory Ash to First Church in Bangs as interim minister of music.

• Shelly Barber to Highland Church in Denton as interim children’s minister.

• H.G. Barnard to England Grove Church in Commerce as pastor.

• Dennis Bell to Bethel Church in Graham as pastor from Illmo Church in Scott City, Mo.

• Darrick Bledsoe to St. John Missionary Church in Waco as pastor from Spring Street Church in Waco.

• Scott Blevins to First Church in Plainview as youth minister.

• Stan Brister has resigned as pastor of Pottsville Church in Hamilton.

• T.J. Burgett to Meadowbrook Church in Rockdale as youth pastor.

• Wade Cashion to Ida Church in Sherman as pastor.

• Don Casper to First Church in Kempner as pastor.

• Robert Cheatheam to Elmdale Church in Abilene as pastor.

• Justin Coffey to First Church in Sulphur Springs as minister to middle school students from Central Church in Marshall, where he was youth pastor.

• Andrew Crosby has resigned as minister of youth at First Church in Lampasas.

• Robert Crowder to First Church in Avinger as pastor.

• Gary Day to First Church in Zephyr as pastor.

• Daniel Downy to First Church in Memphis as pastor from First Church in Lorena, where he was associate pastor.

• Randal Eberle to First Church in Whitewright as minister of music.

• Laura Edmondson to First Church in Waxahachie as minister to children.

• David Edwards to First Church in Corsicana as pastor.

• Candelario Espinosa has resigned as pastor of Primera Iglesia in Chilton.

• Drew Finch to First Church in Bangs as minister of youth.

• Diane Garcia to My Father’s House in Lubbock as resident assistant.

• Jimmy Gilbert has resigned as pastor of Cornerstone Fellowship in Caddo Mills.

• Tim Hale to First Church in Midlothian as minister of worship.

• Jerry Hall has resigned as pastor of Oak Crest Church in Midlothian.

• David Harbour to Mount Gilead Church in Keller as pastor from First Church in Orangefield.

• Tye Howard to Iglesia de los Vaqueros in Waxahachie as pastor.

• Matt Isabell to Calvary Church in Mexia as interim music minister.

• Kevin McCullough to Calvary Church in Brenham as worship leader for the contemporary service.

• Billy Morse to First Church in Natalia as pastor.

• Tim Neely to Midway Church in Springtown as pastor.

• Carr Parrish has resigned as pastor of Buel Church in Cleburne.

• Tim Penney to First Church in Gonzales as minister of students from First Church in Monahans.

• Russ Polson to Rayburn Parkway Church in Bronson as pastor.

• Brian Roberson to Live Oak Church in Gatesville as minister of youth.

• Steven Schafer to Highland Church in Denton as interim youth minister.

• Joseph Schaloff to Lebanon Church in Cleburne as pastor.

• Ted Spear to Faith Church in Iowa Park from First Church in Colorado City.

• Phillip Thomas to Calvary Church in Cisco as pastor.

• William Tollett to Northside Church in Corsicana as minister of education/administration.

• Jim Watson to First Church in Charlotte as interim pastor.

• Glen West to Caps Church in Abilene as minister of music.

• Phil Williams has resigned as minister of music at Forest Avenue Church in Sherman.

• Wesley Willie to Forest Glade Church in Mexia as pastor.

• J.B. Word has completed an interim pastorate at Riverwood Church in Corpus Christi and can be contacted at (361) 854-1618.

Posted: 2/3/06

Oprah’s message makes spiritual impact

By Rachel Pomerance

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—For millions of people struggling with their daily woes, there is a lifeline. Her name is Oprah Winfrey.

Despite a recent on-air admission that she “made a mistake” in promoting a discredited book about addiction recovery, Oprah is a spiritual force.

In telling stories of hard-won triumph, including her own, Oprah is known for a piercing optimism twinned with a you-can-do-it toolkit for improving one’s lot. She also gives her face to her mantra—“Live Your Best Life”—radiating an exuberant smile and winning gestures on the cover of each issue of her best-selling O magazine.

But Oprah is even more than a trusted fountain of helpful hints on everything from relationships to shoes. In her book, The Gospel According to Oprah, Marcia Nelson compares Winfrey to evangelical icon Billy Graham. The book is the latest in a series that have explored the spiritual components of pop icons, beginning in 1965 with The Gospel According to Peanuts.

Nelson writes that Oprah “is not really in the business of pastoring, but she can be described as pastoral. A good deal of what she is about is edifying, uplifting and wholesome. She complements rather than rivals those institutions that promote spirituality.”

Indeed, Oprah’s message of empowerment resonates with viewers seeking answers and encouragement amid the tension in their personal lives and a world in turmoil. Preaching that message, Oprah recently found herself in trouble regarding A Million Little Pieces, a book by James Frey, a recovered drug addict whose memoir she promoted, pushing it to best-seller status.

The book’s claims later were discredited by The Smoking Gun, an investigative website. During a Larry King interview with Frey on CNN, Oprah called in to defend the maligned author and urge readers who had found hope in his tale of addiction to redemption to “keep holding on.”

But later, with Frey as a guest on her show, Oprah reversed course.

“I made a mistake,” she told her viewers, “I left the impression that the truth does not matter, and I am deeply sorry about that because that is not what I believe.”

In publicly admitting her wrong, Oprah follows a long line of television preachers who confess, inevitably receiving forgiveness from loyal followers.

According to an unscientific poll last year by Beliefnet, a website that explores religion and spirituality, 33 percent of some 6,000 people said Oprah has a greater “spiritual impact” on them than their clergyperson. “People find in Oprah what they can’t find in other religious or spiritual leaders,” Nelson said. “People relate to Oprah because Oprah has paraded her problems on stage for 20 years.”

At the same time, Oprah is no stranger to God-talk, drawing on the power of faith easily and frequently. “God uses good people to do great things,” she said last year at the Washington, D.C., memorial service for Rosa Parks.

Speaking last April at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, Oprah began by describing herself as a child in segregated Mississippi, finding in church the encouragement and attention that she found nowhere else. She recalled her grandmother showing her how to wash clothes by hand and telling her to watch carefully because she’d be doing the same kind of work some day.

“The voices of the world told me I was poor, colored and female” and therefore not worthy of a glorious future, Winfrey said. “But God had another vision for me.” Despite her appeal, comparing Oprah to an ordained spiritual leader is problematic, said Steve Salerno, author of SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless.

People are putting their faith in a business, motivated by ratings and earnings, and not necessarily someone’s best interests, he said.

Salerno said of Oprah’s company, “Harpo Productions is very much a billion-dollar profit-making company, and if you start talking about spirituality in that context, I worry about the sincerity of it all.”

Others say the industry Oprah peddles, while making her one of the world’s richest women, also has done a lot of good.

“Oprah embodies hope,” said Steven Tipton, who teaches sociology and ethics at Emory University and its Candler School of Theology in Atlanta. “Not only for success in work, love and weight loss. But hope for living a life of loving, giving care that extends from friends and family to the larger community.

“She exemplifies the ideal of being a person who does well and does good, of being seen and accepted for who you are, not what you are, across the dividing lines of caste, class and gender.”

Posted: 2/3/06

Buckner Family Pathways provides circle of support

By Felicia Fuller

Buckner Benevolences

DALLAS—For more than a decade, Cawindy Spead’s downcast eyes revealed things she can talk about only now.

“I was the classic abused wife,” said Spead, a 36-year-old mother of two. “My first marriage was to my son’s father. Day One was terrible. He hit me. I was more like a maid service than a wife. I ended up staying in the marriage about five years.

“My second husband, we married in 2003. He was a minister and an addict. He put us out—me and my children. He didn’t want his family any more. We are in the process of divorce.”

Cawindy Spead and her two children, ages 12 and 1, live in one of 14 Colonial-style apartments designated for Family Pathways participants on the Buckner Children’s Home Campus in east Dallas. (Photo by Tasasha Kelly)

After the couple separated, Spead—pregnant with her second child—moved in with a fellow church member. Soon thereafter, she ran into an old friend who told her about Buckner Family Pathways.

“She gave me hope, told me I could get my life together. This place, she said—I could stay there for two years, finish my education and get assistance with childcare, transportation and other necessities.”

“Too good to be true,” she wondered aloud.

“Too good to pass up,” the friend assured.

On faith, Spead completed her application and waited.

She recalls the same friend was praying with her when she received word her candidacy was being considered. “I wasn’t going to answer the phone, and she said, ‘No, answer it.’” On the other end, Family Pathways manager KaSandra Jones invited Spead for an interview.

Through a partnership with El Centro Community College, Buckner assists Family Pathways participants with college admissions, financial aid paperwork and scholarship resources. (Photo by Tasasha Kelly)

“They did a criminal background check, and about three-and-a-half, four months later, I was accepted,” she said. “I was in shock.”

Today, she and her two children, ages 12 and 1, live in one of 14 Colonial-style apartments designated for Family Pathways participants on the Buckner Children’s Home Campus in east Dallas. And with a B average in her nursing studies at North Texas Professional Career Institute in downtown Dallas, Spead’s financial future finally is coming into focus.

“I took (the college entrance exam) two times, and I kept failing,” she said. “The last time, I prayed about it, and I took it again, and I passed. Sometimes I still can’t believe my good fortune. God has given me a second chance. I have a sense of peace. I tell God I am willing to make whatever sacrifice it takes for me to get wherever I need to be.”

Founded in August 2004, Family Pathways is the latest version of the Family Place model implemented in 1997 in Lufkin and repeated in Amarillo and Midland to aid single mothers seeking self-sufficiency. What began in Dallas with eight families today is at capacity with 14 families, including 28 children.

“Buckner Children’s Home is excited about the opportunity to serve families in need of a safe and healthy environment, giving single moms an opportunity to complete their education and transition into a better way of life,” said JoAnn Cole, administrator for Buckner Children and Family Services of North Texas.

“Program participants are provided a continuum of support through affordable housing, quality childcare, vocational training, parenting education, mentoring, budget training and life skills.”

Through a partnership with El Centro Community College, Buckner assists participants with college admissions, financial aid paperwork and scholarship resources. The college also gives Family Pathways participants a stipend to help defray childcare and transportation expenses. Mentoring is offered through Christian Women’s Job Corps onsite at Buckner.

“It’s all in an effort to eliminate barriers to advancement,” Cole said. “Families are strengthened and so are our communities as these women move from dependency to self-sufficiency.”

For Spead, that means no more downcast eyes.

“Being here has really lifted my spirits. I wasn’t even aware of the blessing that I had, because I was so down in the dumps at the beginning. But then God just lifted my head and said: ‘Girl, look up. Look at what you have.’”

Much like Family Place in Lufkin, Amarillo and Midland, criteria for acceptance into the program include college readiness—successful completion of the Texas Higher Education Assessment exam. And Buckner keeps close tabs on participants’ academic progress, requiring a minimum 2.0 grade-point average—3.5 for health majors.

“The structure works perfect for me, especially since I have not been in school in 10 years,” noted Nia Willis, a 30-year-old mother of two.

Willis moved to Family Pathways in December 2004 after an unsuccessful bid for Family Place in Lufkin.

“I didn’t know I was pregnant with my daughter. I got accepted, but I couldn’t go,” she explained. “My sister said, ‘Let me try,’ and she went down to Lufkin and got accepted. There was nothing on the Internet that said Dallas had a program, but I called anyway. They called me and interviewed me, and I got accepted.

“You don’t get an opportunity once and mess up and then get it a second time. My confidence in being here is that I am clearly shown this is where I’m supposed to be.”

Like Spead, Willis is studying nursing at North Texas Professional Career Institute, where she maintains a B average.

“I am considered a sophomore now in the LVN (licensed vocational nurse) program. There are four semesters, so I graduate Aug. 29,” she said, crediting the emotional and spiritual support Buckner provides with helping her stay the course.

“They have Bible study. (Manager KaSandra Jones) is very spiritual, and if I need to come to her and talk, she’s open to that,” she said. “They minister to us … a circle of support … women reaching out to other women.”

And the children are equally blessed by the experience, participants stressed.

“When I moved here around Christmas time (2004), I told my boys, don’t expect anything real big,” said nursing student Patrice Leonard, a 28-year-old mother of three. “I told them, ‘You probably won’t be getting any gifts.’ I wasn’t working, so my money went toward moving in here. (Buckner) helped a lot. They received bikes, clothes—an abundance of things.”

Patrice’s son Latra, 10, remembers the day well. “I didn’t think I was going to get anything. I was like, ‘My mama doesn’t have any money right now.’ And then me and my brothers woke up, and there was toys all over there in the living room by the tables and stuff. I told my brothers, ‘We have to go wake my Mama up.’ It was great. I like it here.”

For more information about Buckner Family Pathways, contact KaSandra Jones at (214) 319-3462.