Posted: 9/13/05

CYBER COLUMN:
Learning trust from tragedy

By Brett Younger

When we began seeing the first horrific images from Hurricane Katrina, I thought about Max. On a mission trip to New Orleans in 1997, my job was leading a daily Bible study for 15 homeless men with drug or alcohol addictions. Ex-convicts, victims of abuse, and only a few high school graduates made it a Saturday night crowd rather than one of the Sunday morning crews with whom I usually share Bible study. On the first day, while discussing the parable of the Good Samaritan, I said something like: “It’s hard to know what to teach my children about strangers. I don’t want them to trust everyone, but if I teach them to be afraid, I may also be teaching them to hate.”

Max reacted angrily, shouting: “You don’t know what it’s like in my world. I was 8 years old the first time I saw a man murdered. I’ve lost count of how many murders I’ve seen since then. I have an 11-year-old daughter. I’m going to teach her to fear everyone. If hating them keeps her alive, then I hope she hates them.”

For just a moment, I wished that there were metal detectors on the doors of the mission. A few participants who had only been marginally aware of our Bible study were suddenly interested. I shakily admitted that I really don’t know what it’s like in his world, but I understand that if I lived with his concerns I’d raise my children differently.

During the week, Max and I talked about the way environment shapes our attitudes. Our conversations led us to the conclusion that the poor and the wealthy often start with the faulty assumption that everyone on the other side of the poverty line is untrustworthy. Max helped me understand more about the wisdom that comes from struggles beyond my experience, the dignity born of suffering, the spiritual strength that comes with genuinely thanking God for getting through another day, the honesty of those who have plunged to the depths and come up alive.

It’s been eight years since I’ve seen Max. Maybe he was far away when the water started rising. People move, but he was a native of New Orleans and may still have been among the most vulnerable. I can only hope he’s OK and will get to see his 19-year-old daughter making her way.

And I wonder if, like me, he’s still learning about the limits of self-sufficiency and the need to trust. Strength like Max’s could help him survive a great deal of hardship, but this tragedy has made it clear that none of us can be certain of making it on our own. Hating everyone won’t work. Thousands of evacuees now have no choice but to trust strangers. People who are used to taking care of themselves will find it hard to rely on others for shelter, clothing and friendship.

In the days, weeks and months to come as we find ways to care for those who are hurting, it will require us to trust. It can be frightening to extend kindness to a stranger, but in the midst of this horrible tragedy, we may learn something.

Brett Younger is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth and the author of Who Moved My Pulpit? A Hilarious Look at Ministerial Life, available from Smyth & Helwys (800) 747-3016. You can e-mail him at byounger@broadwaybc.org.

Posted: 9/09/05

Diary of an Astrodome Volunteer

By Michelle M. Guppy

Graceview Baptist Church, Tomball

It was Sunday.

I went there with one mission— to pass out Bibles that another volunteer said were needed, and to find children with disabilities so that at least I would feel useful. I knew how I could help them, and their parents. I have a child with autism.

The 10 minute-orientation for the volunteers did little to prepare us for what would be experienced over the next eight hours.

When I made the trek from the volunteer center to the “community,” I didn’t quite know what to expect. From what I’d seen on the news about the Superdome, I prepared myself for panic and chaos. I pictured people scurrying around in fear. But what I saw was calmness—Jesus on the boat holding up his arms to calm the waves and quiet the worried disciples.

There were post-it notes of sisters separated from brothers, husbands looking for their wives. People walking by looking at the names on the board, hoping to see one they knew. With hardly any communication—actually no communication—all one could simply do was watch the signs as people walked around advertising who they were looking for. Instead of being ungrateful that more was not being done, they were simply thankful. Thankful to be out of the sweltering hell they called the Superdome, with the stench so great they would rather take their chances sleeping outside on cement than inside on a cot. Seeing all those lists of missing friends, family members, relatives made me think of those who I loved and whether their name would be on the list of eternal life that God would be searching through one day. I vowed to be a better Christian witness to them.

It wasn’t so much a question of where to volunteer; it was a question of where not to volunteer. The needs were so great. The volunteers and help they could provide so few in comparison. I wanted to go where I would truly make the most difference and feel worthy. Much to my surprise, that turned out to be picking up garbage in the hallways, bathroom and eating area. In the bathroom, I saw mothers giving their babies baths in the dirty sink with no soap. I closed my eyes and saw Jesus washing his disciples dirty feet and knew that the job I was doing was worthy indeed.

The only thing identifying me as a volunteer and not a “guest, was the peach wristband given to me at training. We were told that as volunteers, we could eat upstairs away from everything— and everyone. But no one I saw did that. There was no need for barriers. There were no walls of division, race, rank, or status. It was simply people among people. The VIP’s carrying boxes of supplies, the janitorial crew being served by community leaders. God’s children among God’s children. Very much living, I saw how heaven would be.

I found myself taking a break and sitting at a table where one woman was sharing her experiences of waiting out the hurricane in the Superdome as the roof was ripped off and the rain came pouring in. She’d witnessed the craze of those taking advantage of others. She stood in lines where the military had rifles pointed ready to shoot anyone who got unruly. When she asked what would happen to them, they simply stared forward and said nothing.

“How could our own people turn against us?” she said in anguish. “We were treated like we were less than human,” she recalled, as those in charge would completely stop the food distribution for everyone, when a handful of people got out of control.

“Just not knowing” was the hardest. There was no communication. No T.V. She knew buses would be coming. But she didn’t know when. Nor really where to go. So every morning her family would wake up at 4am and stand in a line, and wait. 6 p.m. came, and after she had watched dozens pass out from heat and exhaustion, her family finally gave up, only to do it all over again the next day.

She knows she was one of the lucky ones. She ended up in Houston, only missing one sister out of four. There was more she wanted to share, but she just couldn’t. All she could say was, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for making us feel human again.” Thank you for showing us love. I asked if I could hug her, and while doing so pictured the scenes in the Bible where Jesus embraced those whom no one else would.

It was time for the clothes and supply distribution lines to open. My job—to get people what they needed. It was here that I learned the true meaning of what a “food and clothing drive” should be. Often when I would participate in those efforts, I gave what I didn’t need, or didn’t want and thought I would be doing someone a great service.

Here, today, I experienced being a recipient of my past generosity. And what a realization that was. Digging through piles and piles of people’s old and discarded outdated clothes showed me how truly selfish I had been. How could these people who have no homes, no money and no clothes ever hope to go out and rebuild their lives wearing mismatched outfits, purple sequined stained shirts, and wearing no socks or underwear? I know some would say that they should be thankful for what they have. And trust me, they were. They would have gladly taken used underwear – if there were any. From now on I will give only what I would want to wear. I will give gifts worthy of a carpenter turned King.

I mingle with men and women among the masses of cots lined neatly row by row—an odd feeling in itself. Keenly aware that I was invading the privacy that no one really had. One elderly woman lying all alone seemed like she needed a friend. So I asked her, “Do you mind if I stay and talk with you?” She said, “Sure, if you like.”

She was fine. But with the wisdom of her years, she knew that I was saying that more for me than for her. We both knew I couldn’t offer her anything she really wanted, which was to be in her own home and in her own bed. I pictured the little drummer boy who had nothing to offer the king— except for himself. And so that is what I gave her for the next 10 minutes.

On to the next row a woman was sitting on her cot. “What can I get you?” I cheerily asked. This was one of the many times that I wished I had a delete button to hit before the words actually came out of my mouth. But too late?—the look in her eyes in response was about as empty as the box of possessions beside her. I don’t know how else I could have asked that, but hearing myself ask it seemed so lame in light of what brought her here. Here was a woman who deserved the most expensive bottle of perfume poured on her feet. Instead, I gave her socks and moved on.

Out in the hallway where the children were playing was the only sense of normalcy. Five or six little boys who found a football were on either end of the hallway, playing catch and trying to see if they could hit the light fixture hanging from the ceiling. Typical. At least for some in that shelter, life seemed unchanged.

Back in the food area, life was changing. I stop and listen as a mother has her middle school aged children sitting around the table—lecturing them on how to make the right choices by staying in school and getting good grades, and not getting pregnant until married, and going to college to earn a degree to get a career—all so that they would never have to find themselves in the position that she was in. No husband, no education, no job, and no home. A mother facing the reality of the importance of training up your children in the way they should go—and her children seeing the results of what could happen if they don’t.

There were many young mothers holding babies and toddlers all day long because they could not bring their strollers or didn’t have time to get them. I asked mom after mom if they would like me to hold their baby while they ate. None would allow me. For them, I think, their babies were the only things they had left in this world, their only true possession, and they would not part with them for anything. I felt instantly warmed by God’s arms wrapped tightly, possessively, around me. Not ever wanting to let me go either.

The bright spot to me were the pregnant mothers. I met a mom who was very, very, pregnant, and wondered how many baby girl Katrina’s there would be….reminders of how even in the midst of destruction and despair, God brings new life, new hope, new rainbows.

My Bibles are gone, but I go back in the area where the cots are one more time. I still had not found who I was looking for. It was getting late in the day, and my main mission was not yet accomplished. I didn’t know his name, but I knew that I would know when I found him. And there he was. Rocking back and forth, with his mom holding his hands. I go up to her and ask just to confirm what I knew was true.

“Yes, he does have autism,” she says.

“Do you need anything? Anything at all?”

“No,” she responds.

“Do you have a place to go?”

“Yes, we will be leaving shortly.”

We exchange names and I give her my number so that if it doesn’t work out, she can call me. I stay for a while and talk.

Joshua was doing fine as long as his mom was there holding him. I guess that would be one benefit of being in your own world and not understanding what is going on around you.

As I get up to leave, I ask, “Will you call me when you get to where you are going?” I want to make sure they were OK.

She smiles, nods, and says, “I will.”

I tell her why I needed to find her son. I tell her about my son who has autism and how I needed to know that if he and I were in that position, that someone would come looking for us. I sigh in relief, grateful that there is a shepherd who won’t rest until every lost sheep is found and brought safely home.

It’s dinner time, and I find myself serving in the food line. By this time I am really trying to process all that I took in from the day. I find myself obsessed with trying to put the shredded beef neatly in the middle of the bun so as to not make a mess. Thinking that a “perfect sandwich” will somehow cancel out the imperfect conditions our guests must endure until they get their lives back in order, but it’s to no avail. With so many to feed, neatness is mission impossible!

The line leader shouts, “I need more sandwiches!” The people didn’t care about neat sandwiches anyway. Most were thankful to just have a hot meal in an air-conditioned building with chairs to sit on. They gladly took the plates, smiled and said, “Thank You.” I make a mental note to be as thankful myself when I go back home.

Finally home, I sit down and put my feet up. They did hurt, but not nearly as bad as my heart. I wondered as I fell asleep that night how much more Jesus’ feet hurt as he carried the cross that day. How much more did his heart hurt for the entire world? Would he do it again?

As bad as life seems sometimes, and as little hope as we something think there is for humanity, it is times like this that you see that people do care and that there is hope. Sure, there were those who complained that I couldn’t find them a brown bag instead of the black one, or the tennis shoes instead of dress shoes. There were those who weren’t happy with shredded beef on a bun, no matter how neatly it was made. But overall, I saw people—not evacuees, not refugees and not even the victims of an event. I saw people in need of help from other people. I saw unselfishness and servanthood at its best. I saw what community is all about. I saw what being an American is all about. I saw people doing for other people exactly what Jesus would do for them.

I wake up the next morning with the answer to the last question that I went to bed with the night before.

“Yes,” Jesus answers, “I would……”

And I make room in my schedule to volunteer as long as it is needed.

It was nice to experience a sermon for once, and not just hear one.

–Michelle M. Guppy, Cypress, Texas

MichelleMGuppy@yahoo.com

Posted: 9/09/05

Evacuees trust Huntsville
church's facilities and care

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

HUNTSVILLE—About 250 evacuees from New Orleans packed into the facilities of First Baptist Church in Huntsville, but they would not leave for another newly opened shelter because they felt safe and secure, said Pastor David Valentine.

“We’ve opened another shelter in town, but they won’t budge,” Valentine said. They want to stay because “they got burned so badly at the Superdome,” where they had sought shelter from Hurricane Katrina.

A total of 340 evacuees arrived at the church at 1:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 2, after a 16-hour ride from New Orleans to Houston—where they were turned away from the Astrodome—to Huntsville. The church had 30 minutes advance notice.

Valentine boarded each bus and gave them a simple message. “I know you’ve been in hell; welcome to heaven,” he remembers telling them. “I can’t imagine what you’ve been through, but there’s a warm cot, hot meal and hot shower waiting for you here. You’re in the safest place in the United States.”

The church’s facilities are next door to a prison operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and the congregation has regular, ongoing ministries with the prison and its workers.

The evacuees arrived in terrible condition. They wore clothes stained with blood and human waste, the pastor said. “It was the nastiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

First Baptist Church took the people in and made them feel welcome.

“Our people have been good,” Valentine said. Most of the evacuees now want to stay in Huntsville, he added.

The church expects to house evacuees for 12 to 16 weeks, but the building can handle no more than 150 people over such a long term.

Crowding is so great now that the people cannot sit at tables to eat, said Jerry Phillips, associate pastor for community ministry.

The church, however, has been aided in handling the evacuees. The prison is doing all of the laundry, and the TDCJ staff is partnering with the Huntsville Police in providing security.

The local telephone company provided five telephones for evacuees to contact family members; a university set up a computer room; and 12 portable showers were put in place. Also, First Baptist is a certified Red Cross shelter and thus has liability protection.

Valentine traced the church’s successful ministry in this situation back to a $5,000 gift from the Baptist General Convention of Texas that helped established the criminal justice ministries that are now in place. The church has taken that initial ministry investment and turned it into a variety of community ministries that served as the foundation for its hurricane response.

Posted: 9/09/05

Texas, Tennessee churches make
impact in local communities, Baton Rouge

By Carla Wynn

CBF Communications

ATLANTA – Two churches located more than 850 miles apart are meeting significant needs in Baton Rouge, La., and in their hometowns.

In addition to sending major supply shipments to University Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, First Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., and Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas are making a local impact.

On Saturday, First Baptist Church became an American Red Cross shelter in Knoxville, capable of housing up to 130 evacuees.

"I’m so proud of my church. All of us were just hungry to do something. We just had no idea it would be our privilege to house these [evacuees]," said the church’s pastor Bill Shiell.

The church has been supplying meals to evacuees and Red Cross workers, with plans to help supply meals for more evacuees at the Civic Coliseum, which is opening as a shelter. Supply donations have been pouring into the church, according to Sandy Wisener, who is coordinating the church’s relief efforts.

"We just think about it, and someone will donate it," she said.

On Wednesday afternoon, the church sent a shipment of supplies ranging from 200 pillows to 24,000 pounds of bottled water to University Baptist Church.

"It was a 50-foot trailer packed to the brim," Wisener said. "The people in our church have just come alive and are doing everything."

Wilshire Baptist Church has collected more than $50,000 for relief efforts, much of which has been used to purchase additional relief supplies. At least three shipments of supplies have been sent to Baton Rouge, including items such as 2,500 pairs of shoes donated by Buckner Benevolences and more than 10,500 diapers.

Donations haven’t come from church members alone. Community members have donated anywhere from $200 to $1,000 since Wilshire began collecting funds, said Mark Wingfield, the church’s associate pastor. One woman got a list of needed supplies and returned later that day in her vehicle packed with those priority items.

"We gave her that opportunity to give feet to what she wanted to do to help," Wingfield said.

Church members have assembled approximately 8,000 personal hygiene kits that have been distributed in Baton Rouge and to evacuees in the Dallas area.

"We’ve turned them out like a factory," Wingfield said.

Working with the Interfaith Housing Coalition and Buckner Benevolences, the church will adopt at least 10 refugee families, who will be housed in donated apartments stocked with furniture and household items.

"The response has been absolutely overwhelming. People desperately want to help, but they want to help in more ways than just giving their money. People want to get in and do something tangible," Wingfield said

For the latest information on the Fellowship’s hurricane relief efforts, visit www.thefellowship.info/landing/relief.icm.

Posted: 9/09/05

Baptism goes on, even after
'total immersion' of church

By Dee Ann Campbell

Associated Baptist Press

GULFPORT, Miss. (ABP)—When Tom MacIntosh baptized his two oldest daughters, it was in the war-torn islands of the Philippines, with destruction and chaos all around. He had hoped the baptisms of his youngest two children would be under more tranquil circumstances.

But on Sunday, Sept. 4, MacIntosh baptized his third child, Connie, in the midst of the destruction of Gulfport, Miss., a city decimated by Hurricane Katrina.

A former missionary to the Philippines, MacIntosh spent 13 years on the islands, returning home to the United States last May.

He and his family tried to stay in their Gulfport home through the hurricane. But when flood waters began to rise inside their house, they were forced to leave.

“We had to evacuate in the middle of the storm,” he said. “The water was rising and we had to climb through the window. We went through the water about a quarter mile to a neighbor’s house.”

During his years as a missionary, MacIntosh said, he spent much of his time ministering to people who had suffered at the hands of disasters, both man-made and natural. Human suffering and hardship are not new to him or his family.

But those hardships had, until now, affected the lives of the people to whom he ministered, not his own.

“As missionaries, we’ve been through floods, through wars, through attacks and fights, and even kidnapping threats,” MacIntosh said. “We were on the other end of coordinating relief efforts as missionaries. But now we’re on the receiving end. Now people are giving us food, helping us when we need it. God works both ways.”

After Connie made a profession of faith a few weeks ago, her church, First Baptist of Gulfport, scheduled her baptism for Aug. 28. But with the hurricane looming off the coast, those plans were postponed. And when the storm destroyed their church, it seemed that the baptism would have to be postponed indefinitely.

But six days after the storm, MacIntosh and his family were among hundreds of worshipers from their church and others who gathered at Crosspoint Church, a congregation planted by First Baptist about a year ago, whose building sustained only minor damage.

It was during that service, with no electricity, in a borrowed portable baptistry, that MacIntosh baptized his 10-year-old daughter, making her the third MacIntosh daughter to be baptized amid destruction. MacIntosh’s two older daughters, Bethany, 14, and Julia, 13, were baptized in the Philippines in 1999 and 2001, respectively.

“They were baptized after a war, along with Muslim converts,” said MacIntosh, who now serves as missions director for First Baptist. “Last week, before the hurricane, I told Connie that her two sisters were baptized under incredible circumstances but that she would be baptized in peace. Now she’s been baptized in the aftermath of Katrina.”

Connie’s baptism was part of an emotional service that was filled with tears and hugs and shared pain, with many of those in attendance no longer having homes. But, MacIntosh said, Connie’s baptism provided a sweet statement of God’s love and providence.

“Before the storm, when we prayed the Lord’s Prayer, we were praying for more comfort, more prosperity,” he explained. “But today we are really asking just for our daily bread.

“Our home was flooded, but we have a place to stay. We lost both vehicles, but a stranger loaned us a car. People we don’t even know have given us things we needed. God has provided.”

“This just shows us that there are things that are bigger than our petty, material things,” MacIntosh added, smiling down at Connie. “Now we have work to do. We have to preach the gospel with deeds, not just words. That’ll speak louder than anything.”

Connie had her own thoughts about the storm and God’s presence. “I think he’s testing our faith,” she said. “We survived, and he’s blessed us.”

With three of his four daughters baptized, Tom MacIntosh turned his attention to the youngest, Katie, 7.

“We don’t know what the circumstances will be when she is baptized,” MacIntosh said with a laugh. “But if it’s any indication, her name in the Philippines is Katrina.”

Posted: 9/09/05

Baptists help battered shrimpers in Alabama

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

BAYOU LA BATRE, Ala. (ABP)—In Forrest Gump, the hero scores an economic coup when his boat is the only one in the Bayou La Batre, Ala., shrimping fleet to survive a hurricane.

Sadly, for the real-life Bayou La Batre, Forrest Gump was fiction.

This blue-collar hamlet south of Mobile, where Mobile Bay meets the Gulf of Mexico, may be the place in Alabama hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina, at least economically. The destruction is not nearly as dramatic as in New Orleans and along the Mississippi coast. But it may have crippled the entire town’s way of life, which is tied to the sea.

“It’s just unreal. It’s the worst I’ve seen anywhere,” said Joseph Rodriguez, a shrimper and boat builder, who is a native of the area. Katrina’s surging waves lifted one of his two shrimp boats, the Integrity, from the bayou and involuntarily dry-docked her at a shipyard, right below the drawbridge in the town’s center.

Junior Wilkerson, skipper of the Integrity, rode out Katrina on the boat, along with his wife and children. He fought the 100-plus-mph winds and 15-foot storm surge in a vain effort to keep Integrity from breaking loose from its moorings.

Wilkerson said he was never scared during the ordeal. He’s ridden out many hurricanes on his boats, including 1969’s Camille.

“It’s the safest place to be,” he said. “But you might not be on the water” when the storm stops.

Rodriguez, Integrity’s owner, plans to bring in a crane to lift his boat back into the harbor. Other stranded vessels won’t be that easy to rescue. And until they are, many shrimpers won’t have an income.

Rodriguez said he will survive Katrina because of two other businesses his family owns. But many of the town’s other shrimpers won’t.

“I got enough money in my pocket that I’m going to survive. I’m not as bad off as the other people in the area,” he said.

A tour of the area five days after the storm’s passage revealed scores of shrimp boats in situations worse that Rodriguez’s.

“I went up the bayou the other day, and I counted 87 boats” that had been tossed from the port, some deposited hundreds of yards inland, he said. “I know for a fact that there’s about 30 that are in the woods up here.”

The effects on the town’s economy will likely be devastating, said George Myers, director of the faith-based and community resource center for Volunteers of America, based in Mobile. “It was already hanging on by a thread.”

Myers, a retired Baptist pastor, was directing disaster-relief work in Bayou La Batre with a team from First Baptist Church of Pensacola, Fla., distributing donated food and other necessities to area residents on this Saturday.

Volunteers of America—a 100-year-old offshoot of the Salvation Army—is working in Bayou La Batre in partnership with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship organizations of Alabama and Florida.

Myers noted the same dilemma that Rodriguez did. Shrimpers’ cost of doing business is going up, but the wholesale price of shrimp is going way down.

“With fuel costs and everything, the area has been depressed for a couple of years, actually,” he said.

The prices for the fuel to run the boats have been very high in recent years. Nonetheless, Gulf shrimpers must now compete with the cheap frozen shrimp imported from countries with lower labor costs.

Rodriguez showed a reporter the latest wholesale prices for 31-to-35-count Gulf shrimp—$3.40 per lb. He noted that the price five years ago was nearly double that.

“The imported shrimp is killing them,” Myers said.

That situation was made worse when Katrina put much of the town’s fleet out of commission, at least temporarily. Besides the lost profits and wages, many of the shrimpers will have to absorb the losses to their boats because of a lack of insurance.

“A lot of them are small-business owners, so it’s up to them to fix it,” said Michelle Brooks, an administrator at Alma Bryant High School in Bayou La Batre. She was assessing the numbers of her students who have been made homeless and told a reporter that about 1,700 people in the area were left homeless after the storm.

Many of them, of course, are shrimping families. “So these people down here have lost everything,” she said.

Myers backed that up.

“This was a death-blow for many of these people,” he said. “I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but without some sort of government aid, I imagine the fishing industry here is pretty much wiped out.”

Rodriguez noted an additional complicating factor. Not only is Bayou La Batre’s shrimping fleet out of commission, but so are many of the local seafood wholesaling businesses that buy the shrimp.

And it’s not just the boat owners feeling the losses. Shrimp boats typically employ three-member crews. Every day the boats are out of commission is a day crew members don’t work.

Wilkerson, a veteran shrimper and lifelong Bayou La Batre resident, said it would be hard to change professions now.

“It’s in your blood. You don’t want to do nothing else,” he said.

Greg Warner contributed to this story.

Posted: 9/08/05

BaptistWay Bible Series for Sept. 18

God’s miracles mark beginnings, not endings

• Joshua 3:7-17; 4:15-24

By Ronnie Prevost

Logsdon Seminary, Abilene

“The difficult we do now; the impossible takes a little longer.” Most of us would like to have the bravado and confidence that saying exhibits. But, many of life’s challenges and difficulties intimidate us. They cause us to quail and quiver. The barriers seem insurmountable.

The children of Israel had seen much in the previous 40 years. They and their forebears had been miraculously freed from bondage in Egypt. They likewise had been preserved through their wilderness experience. Though excited about finally entering the Promised Land, they were certainly aware of the challenges before them. Although the “faithless generation” of Numbers 13-14 were gone, the stories that had instilled fear in them—stories of great cities and giants—almost certainly were preserved.

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Now, in our Scripture passage, Israel stands ready to enter and claim Canaan. But something was in the way. The Jordan River normally is not very imposing. At the place where Israel stood on its banks, the Jordan usually is a shallow, not very wide, river—especially at the fords. However, 3:14 indicates this was the harvest time, probably in April. Spring always brought warmer weather which would melt the snows on Mount Hermon many miles to the north. The snow melt would typically bring Jordan to flood stage at this time.

Many people can attest to the dangerous torrent that even just a few inches of rain can make out of a dry creek bed or a low-lying area of a road. This—and perhaps more—was what Israel faced. And this is what God, in 3:8, ordered the priests who carried the ark and led the people to enter. They broke camp the next morning and, in faith, obeyed God’s command.

That was when yet another miracle of God occurred. As the priests stepped off the bank into the edge of the river, the water stopped flowing from upstream and the river was emptied. God made it possible for Israel to safely follow him into Canaan.

Often we like to leave miracle stories at that point. God ordered. People obeyed. God worked. End of story. Nice and neat.

However, Joshua 4:15-24, reminds us there still is something to be done after the miracle. As Israel had walked across the Jordan, 12 stones had been picked up off the dry river bed. At Gilgal, just a few miles north of Jericho, Joshua had the 12 stones set up as a monument to God’s work.

Further, in verses 21-24, Joshua commanded the people to tell their descendents the meaning of the stones. And the ultimate purpose is given in verse 24: “… So that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”

Everyday life can be much like the Jordan River—sedate and easily dealt with one moment and incredibly difficult the next. And just as with Israel, we are called to walk and follow God in faith, regardless of what is before us.

What we often forget is that we are “at the edge of the waters” every day. Our lives of faith must become consistent. We should live as people of faith in good times and bad. Many can testify to how, as with Israel as they crossed the Jordan, God led them to victory over seemingly insurmountable situations—when, step by step, they followed him in faith. But all too seldom those difficult situations are the only times we turn to God in faith. We are in need of God’s help and guidance every day. Even when life seems easy. Like the wonderful hymn goes, “I need Thee every hour.”

Of course, God’s miraculous is most apparent to us when we face life’s most trying times. But perhaps we need to examine what we do after moments such as those. What monuments to God’s work do we erect? All too often, we say and do nothing—not even speaking a word of thanks to God. Sometimes we may thank God and, maybe, share a word or two to friends, family or church about what has happened.

Joshua had Israel do even more than that. The stones they gathered —and out of which they erected the monument—were, themselves, testimony to the work God had done. They had been exposed and, therefore, available as a result of the miracle. For us to do similar, we must look not only at what God has done for us, but what we will do with what has resulted. That is, we must ask what kind of stewards we are of God’s work in our lives. How do our lives incorporate God’s miracles as testimonies to God’s power and greatness?

Discussion question

• What makes it difficult for you in the everyday, and when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds, to follow God in faith?

• When God provides for you in the everyday—and in times of difficulty—how can you live “… so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God” (Joshua 4:24)?

Posted: 9/08/05

Family Bible Series for Sept. 18

Finding purpose starts with loving God

• Ecclesiastes 3:10-14, 12:13-14; Mark 12:28-34

By Donald Raney

Westlake Chapel, Graham

Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? These are some of the nagging questions that have haunted humanity for centuries. As we have seen in the previous lessons, humanity has spent a great deal of time and effort seeking the answers to these questions in a variety of pursuits that have failed to lead them to their divinely created purpose.

As we look back to the book of Ecclesiastes and into the words of Jesus today, we find that our purpose has less to do with what we pursue in life and more to do with the condition of our hearts and attitudes. Discovering this may well help us to put the first things first in our search for meaning in life.

Ecclesiastes 3:10-14, 12:13-14

The writer of Ecclesiastes certainly appears to have had what many would consider to be an enviable life. His descriptions paint a portrait of a person with the means and ability to spend much of his time in the somewhat philosophical pursuit of the meaning of life.

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In chapters 1 and 2, Qoheleth describes how he had sought for significance and purpose in a personal quest to acquire wisdom, pleasure, possessions and personal achievements. These pursuits, however, did not lead him to fulfillment but to the realization of the futility of such activities.

Before continuing his description of other specific examples, the writer offers a few of his general observations and conclusions. Qoheleth begins chapter 3 with his well-known presentation of opposites.

Through his endeavors, the writer has learned there is an appointed time for everything that happens, whether positive or negative. God has established a world in which both constructive and destructive activities are needed. The implication of this seems to be that one should thus not be surprised by whatever happens.

Yet to prevent humanity from claiming any exhaustive understanding of God and God’s actions, God has placed a sense of eternity in the heart of humanity. This sense of the eternal continually reminds us of the brevity of human life. Because of this brevity, the best thing for a person is to enjoy both the life and the work which God grants as a gift from God.

God has specially blessed humanity and allows each person to uniquely participate in creation. All that God has done is complete and lasting. Through their efforts, humanity cannot add nor take away from God’s creative acts. Yet humanity was created with a divine purpose. Humanity is to live in reverent fear of God and to follow God’s commands. This will bring each person to a sense of purpose in life.

Mark 12:28-34

While Qoheleth had reached a conclusion which seems to have satisfied him, questions of the purpose of life continued to be asked for centuries by people from all backgrounds. Wherever he went, Jesus quickly was perceived as being a wise teacher as well as a miracle worker. Many people appear to have recognized him as a rabbi. Because of this, Jesus often faced many questions about God and the meaning of life.

On one particular occasion, a scribe approached Jesus and asked him which of God’s commandments was most important. While such questions often were posed to Jesus as a means of building a case against him using his own words, this scribe appears to have been genuinely interested in what Jesus might say.

Even by the first century, Jewish tradition had long held that the way to experience blessings and fulfillment in life was through adherence to the law passed down from God to Moses at Mount Sinai. That tradition held that the purpose of humanity was to please God by obeying God’s law. Thus the scribe may have been asking for Jesus’ thoughts on which of the laws was most effective in securing divine pleasure on an individual.

In answering the scribe’s question, Jesus did not point to one of the Ten Commandments or to any of the specific laws found in the Torah. Jesus instead recited the Shema. This statement of faith, found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, has served as the foundational declaration of Judaism even through today.

This one statement clearly summarizes both the uniqueness and unity of Israel’s God as well as humanity’s essential purpose in relationship to that God. All of the other commandments of God were seen as incorporated into this declaration.

According to Jesus then, humanity’s primary purpose is to love God with all of our being and to demonstrate that in all we do, say and think. Jesus then goes on to give the scribe the second most important commandment: Love your neighbor. For Jesus, all other laws pale in the light of these two. Jesus was telling the scribe that God’s law is not about a legalistic system of dos and don’ts. It is simply about living a life of love for God and others that reflects our relationship to the God who is love.

So, what is the purpose of life? It is not found in any overt quest or specific action. It is found only in a renewed perspective on life by which we love God with all we are and in all we do. It is what we were created for. It involves taking on a lifestyle that sets its focus on things higher than those which we experience as part of this world. God grants us the freedom to choose where we invest our energies in seeking meaning and purpose. But there is only one place where true significance can be found. That is when we accept all of life (the good and the bad) as a gift of God and choose to love him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Discussion questions

• What does “he has set eternity in their hearts” mean to you?

• What changes do you need to make in order to put the first things first?

• What does it mean to love God with all of your heart? All of your soul? All of your mind? All of your strength?

Posted: 9/08/05

Explore the Bible Series for Sept. 18

Jesus asks for more than morality

• Romans 2:1-24

By Trey Turner

Canyon Creek Baptist Church, Temple

No excuse (Romans 2:1-2)

Possessing a vacuum cleaner can help a person clean floors, but it does not guarantee a person’s floors are clean. Similarly, Paul says to the Roman Christians in 7:7 that the law of God shows truth, but knowing its demands still is apart from fulfilling it.

People often will agree with the declarations God makes about good and evil even though that person may not live up to those standards. It is important to realize there is no extra merit for those who verbally hold to the same moral standards expressed in God’s word.

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Whether the person Paul addresses here is a Jewish person or a Gentile, no one is a safe in the bosom of eternal rewards because he or she agrees with the moral position God speaks from in his word. A person’s behavior is the evidence of internal or eternal commitments. Speaking from this position is like saying, “Do as I say, not as I do.” But as Paul shows, these people are not admitting that they fall short; they simply are expressing the high moral standard.

No escape (2:3-8)

How do men and women acknowledge the value of Scripture while denying the judgment on their own shortcomings? John R.W. Stott quotes Sigmund Freud and Thomas Hobbes who both comment on people who condemn others while giving their own personal behavior a pass. Freud called this “gymnastic projection.” Hobbes showed how people “are forced to keep themselves in their own favor by observing the imperfections of other men.”

Amazing how seemingly natural it is to have such a high standard for other people and a pitifully low standard for ourselves. Doing so makes it easy to lob accusations at others while heaping grace on people in one’s own personal circles.

Should Christians feel surprised when God doesn’t excuse the same behaviors? Forgiveness can come to these individuals only when they admit the discrepancy. As it stands, people who know God’s expectations, but do not hold to them have no free pass. In fact, a person who refuses to face up to the discrepancy “stores up wrath” for a great calamity.

No favoritism (2:9-11)

Paul uses the word “every” in these verses bringing the discussion out of accusation to a sobering reality of judgment for all people. Behavior will sort out those who believe God’s commandments. God is the impartial judge between righteousness and unrighteousness.

Showing people’s tendency to partiality, Brian Larsen relates a story about a Chicago banker who asked for a recommendation on a young Bostonian who wanted a job. The investment company raved about the young man pointing out his outstanding pedigree—his father was a Cabot, his mother was a Lowell, adding how they come from the blood lines of Saltonstalls and Peabodys. The bank sent a clarification letter telling why the supplied information was inadequate. “We are not contemplating using the young man for breeding purposes. Just for work.”

God also wants to see our work, not our bloodline. No person gets special treatment because of heritage. The Jewish person is not shown special favoritism.

No superiority (2:17-21; 23-24)

More than moral standards, Paul is talking to Jewish men and women who are proud of their identities. The ones Paul writes about sound much like Nicodemus, who was proud of his first birth and could not consider minimizing his pedigree.

Romans 2:24 is a humbling truth: While the word of God reveals the character of God, his priesthood, those called by his name, carry his name. When the word does not match the behavior of its adherents, those adherents blaspheme God’s name. God’s reputation is to be that of transformation.

This week’s verses portray the person who for whatever reason cannot or will not experience the transformation God intends. Christians read and confess God’s word so that in recognizing a gulf will humbly receive the corrective measures in behavior.

People are to understand the universal need for salvation as they look at God’s standard and how the spirit of that law reveals truth about God. Possessing it does not divide people into first-class and second-class humanity. Instead, the privilege of having God’s word means that besides God’s standard, people also have the record of God’s redemptive activity from Genesis forward. There is no moral way that bypasses the cross of Jesus Christ. The point of these verses is to take blinders off so that every person can see Jesus properly and their own need for him.

Discussion questions

• How does going to church blind some to their own need for a personal relationship with Jesus?

• Give an example of how someone might know what the Bible says, agree with its teaching and yet not be able to live it out.

• What is the most difficult part of ministering to someone in this position?

Posted: 9/02/05

Texas Baptist Forum

Signs of Jesus

In my congregation on any given Sunday morning, I can see at least two of the three indicators Mike McNamara offers up as evidence that Christian culture has been lost within the church: Some women wear hair styles shorter than men, and a few women have tattoos (Aug. 22). The saints in my congregation are too poor to afford breast augmentation surgery or–who knows –I might see examples of that, too.

Funny, though, until he mentioned it, I never realized the absence of those things indicated one's status as a Christ-follower. But I distinctly remember Jesus' saying the world would know us, instead, by how we love one another.

• Jump to online-only letters below

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

"We have the ability to take (Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez) out, and I think the time has come to exercise that ability." Pat Robertson Televangelist, on his 700 Club program "The Southern Baptist Convention does not support or endorse public statements concerning assassinations of persons, even if they are despicable despots of foreign countries, and neither do I." Bobby Welch SBC president and pastor of First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., responding to Robertson (BP) "Religious citizens have the same rights as nonreligious citizens to argue their side. But disagreement with those positions is not automatically anti- religious bigotry or hostility to faith." Melissa Rogers First Amendment attorney and visiting professor of religion and public policy at Wake Forest University Divinity School in Winston-Salem, N.C. (RNS) "The church is not the four walls. The church is like Home Depot. You go there to get what you need to return home and fix what's in disrepair." Tom Fortson Jr. Promise Keepers president (The Tennessean/RNS)

I've studied, taught and preached from the book of Acts. What I keep seeing as marks of the early Christian culture are things like devoting oneself to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship with other believers, being of one heart and mind within the church, sharing one's possessions with those in need, praising God, being filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit, prayer, being in awe as God works his wonders within the body, and sharing the gospel with a world that desperately needs to hear it.

I thank God every day that those are the indicators I see in my brothers and sisters–so much so, in fact, that on most days I hardly notice the hairdos and the tattoos.

Pamm Muzslay

Pasadena

Gavel of justice

I would like to respond to two letters in the Aug. 22 Baptist Standard, “Danger of relevance” by Richard Berry and “Cultural decline” by Mike McNamara.

If this doesn't describe what is going on in our churches and society today, we are completely missing the point that the Holy Bible is giving to us for the life of the church and our lives.

I know there might be exceptions, but the outward appearance of a man or woman usually reflects the inward personality of that person.

I asked myself this question: Does the so-called “Christian rock music” performed by a group that call themselves Christians and look like the devil add any spirituality to a meaningful worship service (being conscious of the presence of God's Spirit)?

Don't let the beat of the so-called music lull you into subconsciousness that doesn't recognize God's presence.

Listen up, ye people on planet earth; the gavel of God's court of justice is about to fall, calling us to accountability.

George W. Luther

Chandler

Grace on a tightrope

Letters by Richard Berry and Mike McNamara (Aug. 22) decried the loss of identity in the church, one claiming identity has been sacrificed on the altar of relevance, another claiming women are to blame.

To the latter, I say surely men have contributed to a “loss of culture” as well. Also, all three of the characteristics listed apply only to outward, physical appearance and not to inward, character issues, in which Jesus seemed far more interested.

To the former, I affirm that relevance can indeed subsume identity. However, as Jürgen Moltmann stated in The Crucified God, Christianity always faces a double crisis of identity and relevance. We can consume ourselves with questions of identity so much that we no longer matter to the culture surrounding us.

Jesus spoke to two churches in Revelation that dealt with a different side of this coin. The Ephesians hated false doctrine, but they left their first love. Robert H. Mounce in The Book of Revelation suggests this meant they cared more about correct doctrine than loving one another. Little effort is required to find parallels in contemporary Baptist life. On the other hand, Pergamum had not defended enough against false teaching and had slipped into error.

As the people of God, Christians must walk a dangerous tightrope between identity and relevance, love and correct doctrine, and only God's grace makes that possible.

David Tankersley

Eastland

Child baptism

Roger Olson’s conclusion raised some interesting questions regarding baptism of children (Aug. 8).

He suggests not to baptize before 16 because the person is not ready to be a full voting member of the church. Is baptism an initiation process into a club or a symbol of a spiritual conversion? Maybe Baptists need to think in terms of membership differently. I’m sorry that he can barely remember his baptism. Many people I’ve questioned remember their childhood baptism as a wonderful spiritual experience.

His conclusion to wait until 16 because the person isn’t ready for serving on committees or becoming a deacon is strange. I know very few 16-year-olds who are ready. Maybe, we should raise the age to 25 or 30?

Susan Allen

Harlingen

Will SBC let "sleeping dog lie?"

Thank you for the article on Jimmy Carter’s admonishment against the exclusive practices of fundamentalists (Aug. 8). I wish I could have been there to hear Carter and to participate in the joyous celebration of diverse and friendly Baptists from around the world testifying to their one great common bond, Jesus the Christ.

Now that the Baptist General Convention of Texas has been granted official membership status with the Baptist World Alliance, how will the Southern Baptist Convention respond? Will the SBC pull away from the BGCT as well? For the SBC to be consistent with their convictions, it begs the question and examination of their current financial relationship and fellowship with the BGCT.

If a more definitive “split” between the SBC and BGCT is inevitable, as some predict, then let us pray that it’s done so peaceably and with irenic sensitivity. Although Paul and Barnabas parted from one another, they continued advancing the gospel of Christ. In so many ways both Paul and Barnabas have much for the SBC and Texas Baptists to observe. Their irenic parting may yet prove to be a model for the future relationship of the SBC and BGCT.

Will the SBC be consistent and remove their association with the BGCT? Or will money be enough for the SBC to continue to let this “sleeping dog lie.”

Christopher Breedlove

San Antonio

Ethics not situational

The first tenet of Humanist Manifesto I states: “Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created.” Humanist Manifesto II states: “We affirm that moral values derive their source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational, needing no theological or ideological sanction. Ethics stems from human need and interest. To deny this distorts the whole basis of life.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment grants the same protection and limitations on “the religion of humanism as are applicable to other religions.” Justice Clark also stated, “The state may not establish a ‘religion of secularism’ in the sense of affirmatively opposing or showing hostility to religion, thus, preferring those who believe in no religion to those who do believe.” Yet many schools promote humanism by teaching character to the exclusion religious faith.

The Dallas Morning News reported, “Grand Prairie students scored more likely to lie, cheat, steal and bully others around than the national average,” but why? Adolph Hitler once said that you don’t have to tell people the truth. Just tell them a lie long enough and they’ll start believing it.

If we continue to allow our schools to teach character to the exclusion of religious faith, to teach that human life is an accident of nature, to teach situational ethics, while calling it character, then we should not be surprised when they think it is alright to lie, cheat, steal and bully others around. After all, they are just doing what they have been taught.

Larry Dozier

Grand Prairie

Does God have a hearing problem?

I agree with Richard Berry, the church is becoming a “cult of comtemporaneity” (Aug. 22). We hear so often the warning of a new pastor in a new setting: If the church does not change to the contemporary, it will die. We succumb to the relevance of a superficial spirituality that must believe that God has a hearing problem.

Berry’s observation is the best that I have read, and it needs to be repeated until it becomes a part of the spiritual nature of Baptist people.

Dale Geis

Norman, Okla.

Care for the body

The cover photo illustrating the “Bible goes to school” articles unsettled me. It is clear that the french fries are from McDonald’s. I think it is inappropriate to promote McDonald’s and fast-food eating.

I am a nutritionist and am involved in educating families about healthy eating practices. Most of us are aware of the disease of obesity that is rapidly growing in this nation. It would have been more beneficial to show a healthy food choice rather than the norm—fast food. We all learn and are affected by the examples we see in media. The example shown in the photo is a poor one.

Jesus encourages us to care well for our bodies. We are responsible to encourage others to do the same. I hope next time the photo of a similar article would be more carefully chosen. 

Kirsten Granberry

Dallas

Robertson's comments and their effect on missionaries

Pat Robertson has called for the United States to assassinate the elected leader of another country. The Bush Administration has called his comments “inappropriate” and says Robertson is a “private citizen.”

Is Robertson only a private citizen? He is part of a group, referred to as the Christian Right, that takes credit for the re-election of George W. Bush in 2004.

His broadcasts are heard all over the world.

If assassinations of other world leaders were lawful according to U.S. law (and they’re not) and you agreed with Robertson that this is a good idea, should he make such a pronouncement all over the world?

The answer should be obvious. What is the effect on the safety of our citizens in other nations, especially Christian missionaries?

The Bush administration’ reaction to Robertson’s comments is more disturbing than the comments. We call on other world leaders to denounce terrorism, yet we respond in this lukewarm, mealy-mouthed fashion when a prominent member of the ruling party is guilty.

Carl L. Hess

Ozark, Ala.

Don't get between an individual and the Holy Spirit

Roger Olson stated that children should not be baptized until they are 16 years of age (Aug. 8). I strongly disagree.

I was enrolled in the cradle roll of Memorial Baptist Church in Temple when I was born. I sang my first solo, “In the Garden,” in church when I was 3 years old. During a revival service, I came from the front row back to where my mother was sitting and told her that I wanted Jesus to come into my heart. I was baptized when I was 5 years old. I started teaching 4-year-olds in Sunday school when I was 14 years old. I graduated from high school when I was 16 years old. I sang in the church choir and was a soloist many times. I have continued to be active in Baptist churches wherever we lived, serving as teacher, GA director, choir member, committee member, and am still teaching a Sunday school class at age 72.

What would my life have been like if I had been denied the opportunity to be baptized when the Spirit of the Lord spoke to my heart? I’m sure I would have greatly resented being told I was “too young.” Having the Lord in my heart was a great protection during my teenage years, because I took seriously the commitment I had made and tried to be the best Christian I knew how to be and therefore would not “go along with the crowd.”

Setting an arbitrary age for a child to be baptized seems to be placing man between an individual and the Holy Spirit. When a person accepts Christ, it is an event that should be celebrated and confirmed, not delayed and perhaps discouraged. I hope Professor Olson will rethink his suggestion and encourage all people to make a profession of faith when they feel led by the Holy Spirit, be baptized and grow in a fellowship of baptized believers.

Franciene Baker Johnson

Haskell

Carter's comments at BWA were childish

The article on Jimmy Carter (Aug. 8) reminds me why I left the moderate ranks of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. He labeled Southern Baptist Convention conservatives, as part of “fundamentalism characterized by rigidity, domination and exclusion.” He has a right to his opinion, but to parade him as a voice for Baptists is very disturbing.

Carter implies from Galatians 3:28 that females have equal access to any position of pastoral ministries. Yet the context of this passage refers to everyone having equal access to Christ. Positions of service, therefore, must be treated from other passages.

Southern Baptists have long recognized women in many areas of pastoral ministries. Women have served as chaplains, music ministers, children’s ministers, teachers, conference leaders and professors. It is that senior pastor role for women where most SBC conservatives draw the line in order to stay in line with the Scriptures as we interpret them. Calling us “authoritarian males” who “want to keep women in their place” is childish and perjurious to those who have a different standard for biblical interpretation.

Carter’s rhetoric attacks “fundamentalists” rather than allow them to interpret God’s word as they understand it. SBC conservatives want God’s word to say exactly what God meant for it to say. Carter wants it say whatever it needs to say at any given moment under any given cultural setting. If left unchallenged, this type of “Bible” study will only lead to driving a further wedge into the world of Baptists.

Johnnie R Jones

Blue Ridge

A great big family of Baptists

We were touched by Marv Knox’s editorial on the Baptist World Alliance (Aug. 8). He captured our feelings as disenfranchised Southern Baptists. The BWA was truly a taste of heaven.

But we weren’t the only ones experiencing the joy of unity with our worldwide Baptist family. We went to England from Ethiopia, where we serve as Texas Envoys with the BGCT Texas Partnership.

Traveling with us was Ermias Zenebe, the general secretary for Addis Kidan Baptists, a denomination of 63 churches that is a product of Southern Baptist work that began in 1967. As a result of SBC strategy changes, they have been on their own for the past seven years. At times, they became discouraged, but they kept trusting God and kept growing. Now they have applied to the BWA for membership.

Ermias Zenebe was overjoyed to meet and worship with so many Baptists from all over the world and to find such love and unity. He returned to Ethiopia with the message for his fellow Baptists that they are not alone. They are a part of a great big family of Baptists who love Jesus and each other, and their goal is to share that love in every corner of the globe.

Lauralee Lindholm

Desoto

Robertson example of need for separation of church and state

Pat Robertson, the millionaire businessman/politician/evangelist, wants our government to assassinate Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. I am starting to wonder about the views of some “compassionate” conservative Christians. Their ideology doesn’t always coincide with the views of Jesus.

Jesus didn’t support assassinations, executions, torture or pre-emptive strikes. He believed in peace, love, forgiveness and the Golden Rule.

If you disagree, then ask yourself, “Who would Jesus assassinate?” Pat Robertson has just given us the perfect example of why our country needs the separation of church and state.

Chuck Mann

Greensboro, N.C.

Defense of the curriculum

The concerns of Mark Chancey and Ryan Valentine about the NCBCPS’s curriculum, The Bible in History and Literature, is not without merit. However, I would like to make a few observations.

First, Mr. Chancey and Mr. Valentine seem to offer conflicting criticisms on how the curriculum portrays the Bible in the public school classroom. On the one hand Mr. Chancey criticizes the curriculum for referring to the Bible as “the word of God”, while Mr. Valentine criticizes the curriculum for making “our Scriptures look trivial.” In my opinion, referring to the Bible as the word of God is by no means trivial.

Second, Mr. Chancey states that the whole reason for his opposition to this curriculum is “to make sure the Bible receives the respect and the treatment it deserves.” However, one must ask who should set the standard for the respect and treatment the Bible receives in the public school classroom? Should it be Mr. Chancey and other Biblical scholars? Should it be the conservative religious right? Should it be churches, seminaries, or religious schools? Or should it be the public schools in which the curriculum is being taught? Believe me, if all Christians insisted on the Bible receiving the respect and treatment it deserves in public schools, it would never make it. There would be too much controversy. The Bible would go the way of prayer in public schools. (Sad, but true.)

I hope that Mr. Chancey and Mr. Valentine have had a chance to read the revised edition of The Bible in History and Literature (August 2005). I have and I believe the revisions that have been made answer many of the concerns that Mr. Chancey and Mr. Valentine have. I found the curriculum to be completely objective it presenting its subject matter – a general survey of the Bible and its influence on world and U.S. history, literature, and the arts. I also found the curriculum to be non-sectarian by going out of its way in addressing the views of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews alike. The curriculum continually makes references to the Hebrew Bible/ Christian Old Testament and there is an entire unit dedicated to the history of the Intertestamental period and the literary influence of the Apocryphal books. In addition, the curriculum encourages the use of outside speakers to address certain subjects (i.e. using a Jewish rabbi to explain the role of the Torah in Jewish life and the meaning of certain Jewish holidays).

In the New Testament units, the curriculum presents the four gospels as both historical documents giving us much information on the life of Jesus, and as documents of faith, being a record of the events and teachings upon which the followers of Jesus based their beliefs and hopes. However, nowhere in the curriculum are students encouraged or influenced to make faith decisions concerning the person or nature of Jesus, his birth, life, death, or resurrection. Nowhere in the curriculum is the Bible presented as the “inspired” or “inerrant” word of God to be accepted as true and factual. That is a decision that is left to the students to decide for themselves. Rather, the curriculum simply presents the Bible as a collection of books that have had a profound impact on the history and culture of Western Civilization.

Is this curriculum perfect? No. Is it without controversy? No. But then again, show me any curriculum on any subject matter used by public schools in Texas that is perfect and without controversy. The fact of the matter is that The Bible in History and Literature meets all the requirements as set forth by the U.S. Department of Education and the Texas State Board of Education to be taught as an elective course in Texas public high schools. Instead of encouraging Christians to “lead the charge against this (curriculum) in the schools”, we should be encouraging Christians to defend this curriculum and others like it for use in our public schools.

We should remember what Paul says in Philippians 1: 18, “But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.” The bottom line is that the Bible is being taught at Brady High School. And because of this I praise God and rejoice!!!

Blake O’Dell, Pastor

First Baptist Church of Brady

Member, Brady ISD Board of Trustees

What about men?

Mike McNamara listed three indicators of cultural decline in the churches—women’s short hairstyles, tattoos and breast augmentation (Aug. 22). It is interesting to note that he did not mention men’s long hairstyles, tattoos or the use of steroids and Viagra.

The indicators he mentioned re-enforce the world’s idea that every time the church makes an effort to become closer to the Lord or more conservative, the first thing done is to set up new rules altering or restricting the behavior of women.

It sounds as if the writer of this letter believes if we could just get the women to become more self-effacing and drab, men would not have such difficulty living a Christian life. I’m not championing the practice of these three things. It’s just that there are other, and deeper indicators of the cultural decline in our churches. And the guilty parties are not exclusively women.

Rita Palmer

Big Spring

Them and us

I am so glad Mike McNamara (Aug. 22) so clearly pointed out the reason for problems within our churches:  The need to blame “them” because they do not think and act like “us.”

Lynda Schupp

Flower Mound

A speck in our eye

America’s dropping atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II in 1945 set a precedent that has not been repeated since those fateful days 60 years ago. We can be thankful for that, but there is no guarantee that today’s more powerful nuclear weapons won’t be used on another nation in our much more dangerous world. In fact, it is much more likely than not that nuclear weapons will be used again in the not-too-distant future.

While millions are starving to death in Africa and other places, nuclear powers are racing to make more destructive nuclear weapons. There is no major movement to reduce or abolish growing nuclear arsenals. Our greatest fear, a legitimate one, is that evil terrorists will somehow acquire and use a nuclear weapon to kill multitudes of people living in one of the world’s large cities. 

President George W. Bush calls the struggle against worldwide terrorism a confrontation of good versus evil. What is good about using unlimited resources to make more powerful, sophisticated nuclear weapons while hungry people are dying around the world? We will never overcome evil with good until we acknowledge that only God is good. We cannot call ourselves good until we remove the evil specks from our own eyes.

The “love of money is the root of all evil.” Who, among the world’s nations, is free from evil greed and its devastating effects? I hope civilization does not end where it began: In the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

Paul L. Whiteley Sr.

Louisville, Ky.

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Posted: 9/06/05

Gulf coast residents dazed by fury of Katrina

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

BILOXI, Miss. (ABP)—Hurricane Katrina punished the sacred and profane alike as it came ashore on the Mississippi Coast Aug. 29, gutting sturdy brick churches and glittering casinos, historic oceanside homes and modest tin-roofed bungalows.

From New Orleans to Mobile, Ala., Katrina was indiscriminate in its destruction. Much of the Mississippi coastline was dotted Sept. 1 with nondescript mounds of debris—wood, concrete, household items. Bibles and casino manuals, library books and bottled cooking oil—all swept up by the churning sea—shared a square yard of sand where they came to rest.

Over and over, storm victims voiced shock they didn’t believe a hurricane could be this bad. Even hurricane-savvy, lifelong residents of the Gulf Coast were stunned by the storm’s power and scope. Old-timers who previously measured hurricanes against 1969’s Camille conceded Katrina set a new standard.

Pass Christian, Miss., resident Ginger Adams, in front of what remains of her and her neighbors' beachfront homes. (ABP photo by Lindsay Bergstrom)

“There’s no comparison between the storms,” said Maureen Hudachek, 76, whose Ocean Springs, Miss., house survived Camille but not Katrina. She and her husband, Ray, 79, stayed in the house for both hurricanes—and smaller ones in between—but they barely escaped with their lives this time.

Unlike refugees trapped in New Orleans, most hurricane survivors on the Mississippi coast were bewildered but not despairing. Many residents in Biloxi, Ocean Springs, Gulfport and other towns rode out the Category-4 storm in their homes, only to find them virtually gutted and uninhabitable.

“You could hear people screaming in the dark, ‘Help me!’ It was terrible,” said Donna Springer, longtime resident of Ocean Springs, across the bay from Biloxi. “We never thought it would be over. It kept going and going and going.”

Springer’s home, a few blocks inland, was heavily damaged but not destroyed. But only a slab of concrete remains of Verna Margroff’s Biloxi home. Margroff was one of 14 people taking refuge in Springer’s house. Three days after the hurricane, Margroff still had no idea what she would do next. “I don’t know. I’m just in a daze.”

For Bob Storie, a Baptist chaplain from Ocean Springs, this was the second time a hurricane flooded him out of his home.

“Our home east of Pascagoula was a total loss (to Hurricane Georges), so we moved here to this home, where we were told that there was no chance of a flood,” said Storie, who remained in his house on Fort Bayou with his wife, Maude, and his 91-year-old mother-in-law.

Although the house is 19 feet above sea level, and somewhat sheltered from ocean winds, it was swamped by the 22-foot storm surge, destroying much of the contents.

“Just last year, we dropped flood insurance because there was no evidence that we would ever have a 100-year (record) flood,” said Storie, 71, a chaplain at Singing River Hospital in Pascagoula. “That is what this was, a 100-year flood.”

On the Mississippi coast, the worst damage was in a quarter-mile-wide strip along the oceanfront. Almost all homes and businesses were splintered by 130-mph winds or obliterated by the 20-to-30 foot storm surges. A few blocks inland, most structures remain standing, but many will be too damaged to repair. Several wood-framed houses were lifted and dropped into the middle of city streets. Residents wandered the streets looking for food and water.

Three days after the storm, only scattered locations on the Mississippi coast had received any food from the outside.

First Baptist Church of Gulfport was totally destroyed by Katrina, but pastor Chuck Register pleaded for more immediate help for the city’s residents. “Please tell Southern Baptists…,” he said, choking back tears, “we need some feeding work. These people need to eat.”

Some residents whose homes survived have essential supplies, such as food and water—though none have electricity and likely won’t for weeks. As news of chaos in New Orleans trickled in, some Mississippians wondered aloud what would happen when the food in their homes ran out in a few days.

Mike Barnett, pastor of First Baptist Church in Ocean Springs, offered his church’s parking lot if a Baptist feeding operation could bring in help. His brick church survived Katrina well. More importantly, Barnett said, none of the church members were killed or injured, though several dozen families lost homes.

“We want to honor the Lord and give thanks,” he said as he readied the activity building to house out-of-town police officers on their way to help.

Many churches of all denominations met the same destruction as homes and businesses. First Baptist Church of Biloxi, however, which moved away from the waterfront when the casinos moved in, fared better than most.

Along Biloxi’s waterfront, where other churches stand in uneasy co-existence with gambling facilities, both were suddenly thrown together by Katrina. Massive casino barges—the size of football fields and three stories high—were tossed 200 yards inland by the 30-foot storm surge, wiping out houses, shops and cars in their paths and coming to rest on strange angles in strange places. One casino barge tossed by the storm surge came to rest across the boulevard beside the shell of St. Michael’s Catholic Church.

Stories of survival seemed to mock Katrina’s awesome power.

Matthew and Jean Meissner were in the third floor of their Biloxi apartment—a converted 130-year-old mansion across the road from the ocean—as the 30-foot storm surge carved out the bottom two floors of the sturdy structure. Afterward, they escaped through a rear staircase, and they’ve remained in the shell of the house for three days.

“This is what we’ve got,” Matthew Meissner said with resignation.

“If the Red Cross would give us a place to stay, we would take it,” he said as he carried his first hot meal, delivered by a Red Cross vehicle. “If we can get a hot meal twice a day, that’s a godsend.”

Meissner is a maintenance manager at the McDonald’s restaurant on the casino strip. His wife was a maid at a hotel that no longer exists. A day earlier, a body was recovered from the demolished hotel apartment building next door. This day, the couple sat in lawn chairs, not facing the now-calm Gulf but staring back into the remains of their home.

Half a block away, as the rescue workers and TV crews trickled out, nightfall brought an eerie quiet to the seaside neighborhood. Half a dozen friends gathered on the steps of one heavily damaged house and toasted their survival with a salvaged bottle of liquor.

Maureen and Roy Hudacheks “were fresh from Iowa” when Camille struck Ocean Springs in 1969. “We didn’t know (better),” she recalled.

This time they hid in their house until the winds and waves started destroying it, piece by piece, from the west. The Hudacheks, who are members of nearby St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, escaped by going outside into the storm and huddling behind the home’s eastern wall as the storm devoured the western half. A detached garage was totally destroyed, throwing their two classic cars—a 1950 MG and 1970 Cadillac Eldorado—into a ravine behind the house.

“I was never afraid during the storm,” she said. “I never thought I would perish. I prayed a lot…. I had my rosary in my pocket and I prayed. The wind was howling. It seemed like that loud, piercing, howling sound would never stop.”

“We will rebuild right here,” she said as her husband, who has Parkinson’s, picked through possessions in the living room, which is now exposed to the outside. “We can’t afford to build back what was here. But we will re-build. This is our home. This is where we want to be.”

Tim Norton contributed to this story.

Posted: 9/06/05

Structures, lives turned into rubble by Katrina

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

SLIDELL, La. (ABP)—Katrina has passed on to the north. Communications are out in Covington, La. Slidell, La., is a mess. And virtually nothing’s left of Pass Christian, Miss.

Such stories have been repeated all over the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina made landfall Aug. 29 the most destructive storm in American history.

The maelstrom of wind and water has killed coastal residents numbering at least in the hundreds and set off a still-growing urban catastrophe from which New Orleans may never recover.

But it was also a disaster of personal stories—costing Ginger Adams her home and family heirlooms, making Chris Wallace ponder how he would rebuild his life in Slidell and imposing a logistical nightmare on Dempsey Haymon as he began to figure out how he was going to take care of all the people he had been called to Covington to feed.

Pass Christian was once a gracious Southern community of beachfront mansions, crepe myrtles and antebellum bed-and-breakfast inns.

But by Sept. 1, as far as the eye could see along the beach and for at least six blocks inland, the city of Pass Christian was virtually bereft of man-made structures. The town now seems inhabited solely by the massive, denuded live oaks that had survived both the Civil War and the other major hurricane for which it served as the bull’s-eye—1969’s Camille.

Adams lost her rented home, located half a block from the beach on Pass Christian’s Henderson Point, to the massive storm surge and howling winds. Although she had only been a resident for two years, her roots go deep in the area. The house was located just behind one that had belonged to her great-grandfather. Her parents were in another historic town, just across the now-obliterated U.S. 90 bridge from Henderson Point.

“My parents have—well, had—a house in Bay St. Louis that has been in our family for 150 years,” Adams said, after picking through what was left of her belongings.

Adams returned to Pass Christian Sept. 1 from Florida, where she had evacuated during the storm. She managed to salvage little more than an antique pitcher and a box of family-heirloom jewelry. She showed a reporter a metal pin from it, token of a Mardi Gras ball she attended as a young debutante in New Orleans. “That has to be from 25 years ago,” she said.

It weathered the storm, but little else of Pass Christian’s historical artifacts did. “All these houses that have survived Camille and Betsy (in 1965), and the 1947 hurricane are gone,” she said. “These are houses that had been here a long time.”

Meanwhile, Haymon led a team of Louisiana Baptist disaster-relief volunteers operating a mobile kitchen in Covington, a rapidly growing area across Lake Ponchartrain from New Orleans.

They were there to cook meals for residents of less-historic homes—as well as other workers. The Louisiana team joined several similar ones from Oklahoma, Nevada and other states in a staging area at Covington’s First Baptist Church.

But Haymon, in the midst of cooking a stew for Red Cross workers to deliver to local households, said he was having difficulty communicating with other volunteers scheduled to arrive.

“Communication is such a problem,” he said at midday Sept. 1. “I haven’t talked to anyone (at Louisiana Baptist Convention offices) in Alexandria since I got here.”

Mobile phone service and electric power are virtually nonexistent in Covington and other areas near the heart of the massive hurricane’s path. Haymon, of Hornbeck, La., said he was waiting on a refrigeration truck to complete his kitchen, making it possible for him to serve all kinds of meals.

“Half of my crew hasn’t arrived,” he said.

Katrina took grand mansions and humble residences alike.

About 30 miles to east of there, in Slidell, Wallace stood outside his uncle’s modest home on Walnut Street and helped him air out soaked clothing, rugs and linens.

Although the house is, by his estimation, more than six miles from the Lake Ponchartrain waterfront, the historic storm surge flooded it with two feet of water.

Wallace hasn’t even seen his newly purchased mobile home yet. There were still too many trees blocking his street Sept. 1 for him to get a look.

“I’m afraid I’ll have to start over,” he said.

His uncle, Vincent Santilla, is fortunate enough to have federally subsidized flood insurance. “We’re just going to try to clean up,” Santilla said.

That may be difficult in the near term, as a massive oak tree still leaned against the home’s roof, and he was sure that the hole it made would leak the rain that was starting to fall.

Still, Wallace and Santilla were thankful that they and their families escaped alive, after a harrowing 14-hour evacuation Aug. 28. They went northwest to Winfield, La., a town that should have been about a four-hour drive.

Wallace also was glad not to be among the thousands of people trapped in New Orleans, across the lake to Slidell’s southwest.

“It’s chaos over there,” he said.

Back in Pass Christian, Mitch Kegley pointed to his three-story home far from the beachfront, and several blocks from St. Louis Bay. It survived the storm, but the surge still got up to the second floor, destroying many of his possessions. Although he had evacuated to Mobile, he returned Sept. 1—at his children’s behest—to look for their pets.

“The cats were alive,” he said, amazed. He found one in the house, and the other on a nearby building. Kegley surmised that one had been washed out of the house, but tried to swim back.

“Before they left, our kids said their prayers, and they both prayed for their cats,” he noted. When a reporter said maybe the youngsters’ prayers had been effective, Kegley smiled and agreed. “Yes, their prayers were answered,” he said.