Posted: 1/21/05

Student develops resource to help
churches grasp immigration issues

By Sarah Farris

Special to the Baptist Standard

WACO–A growing number of Texas Baptists in recent years have started looking for ways to minister to undocumented immigrants, particularly after both the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas passed resolutions about immigration in 2003.

In direct response, the BGCT named an immigration task force chaired by Jim Young, director of the convention's Missions Equipping Center, to coordinate ministries and services to immigrants in Texas.

And a Baylor University graduate student, Leigh Jackson, stepped forward to help develop a congregational education project, seeing it as an opportunity to integrate her interest in public policy and passion for service to people in need.

Leigh Jackson, a graduate student at Baylor University's Truett Theological Seminary, created curriculum to help churches teach members about immigration issues.(Photo by Sarah Farris)

As part of her master of divinity and social work program at Truett Thelogical Seminary and Baylor University, Jackson developed church education materials aimed at teaching church members about immigration issues. She worked closely with the Suzii Paynter, director of public policy and Christian citizenship for the BGCT's Christian Life Commission in Austin.

“The issue of immigration is a sensitive subject,” Jackson said. “People have a lot of unanswered questions, especially regarding undocumented immigrants.

Education may be one of the best ways to overcome the hurdles that prevent churches from ministering effectively.

The three-hour program she developed, “Showing Hospitality to the Least of These,” was designed to be taught during three Sunday school classes or as a three-hour seminar. “Immigration is a big issue right now,” Jackson said, adding many Christians are reluctant to talk about public policy because it is controversial and they wonder what those kind of issues have to do with everyday Christian living.

The curriculum is split into three parts–the tension between love and justice, biblical views of immigration and public policy education.

Jackson described the tension between love and justice as seeing a homeless drug addict on the street and not giving him money because of the fear that he would spend it on drugs. Loving like Jesus, Jackson said, is to love the way he commanded in Matthew 25, which means to give to everyone who asks. Jackson defined justice as “putting parameters on love.”

Jackson contends that to overcome this tension, Christians must see themselves foremost as citizens of God's kingdom.

“Thinking this way causes us to look outside of ourselves,” she said.

The curriculum explores the lives of biblical immigrants, including Abraham, the people of Israel and even Jesus, Mary and Joseph, who fled to Egypt to escape King Herod.

Using these stories and recent accounts of immigrants to the United States, Jackson looks at how Christians should approach immigration.

“There is something holy about hospitality,” she said. “Entertaining a stranger in the Old Testament is linked to the holy.”

Jackson's look at immigration policy ranges from vocabulary to understanding current policies and bills in Congress. This knowledge lets people be better-educated members of their community and better equipped to engage in ongoing immigration dialogue.

“This does not end with resolution but a changed way to look at things,” she said. The curriculum leads people to look at their church and how it practices hospitality.

The most difficult part of the project was finding churches to participate, she noted. “Many churches I talked to said that they believed the project sounded like a good idea, but they were not in a place where they were ready to engage the topic,” she said.

Two churches participated in the curriculum. Jackson said the reception was good, even though many of the participants were highly educated and already aware of social justice concepts as they apply to immigration.

Jackson now is director of community ministries at First Baptist Church of Waco, where she is jointly employed by the church and by Buckner Baptist Benevolences.

The church is in a transitional neighborhood, and the immigration project is not necessarily an aspect of her job there, but she says the premise of seeing the world as a Christian citizen influences her as she works in her community.

“Our faith goes beyond our small area,” she said. “We don't want to turn off our faith, … especially when it comes to the policy arena.”

Jackson has presented her curriculum to several churches across Texas, and she hopes it will continue to benefit Texas Baptists.

Through her seminary and social work training, Jackson said: “I was challenged to think about the big questions surrounding God and our society. However, I was also challenged to apply my thinking to practical ministry. This is where the hard work began.”

For more information about immigration issues, contact Jim Young in Dallas at (888) 311-3900 or jim.young@bgct.org or Suzii Paynter in Austin at (512) 473-2288 or suzii.paynter@bgct.org.

Additional Resources on Immigration:
• Proposed federal Legislation to Legalize Undocumented Farm Workers: The Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2003

• Undocumented Immigrants: Fact and Figures from the Urban Institute Immigration Studies Program, 2004

• The Border Security and immigration Reform Act of 2003, section by section summary

(PDF files will open with the free Adobe Reader available here.)

Posted: 1/21/05

Louisiana College trustees elect new president

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

PINEVILLE, La. (ABP)–Joe Aguillard, 47, was elected president of Louisiana College Jan. 17 after a marathon trustee meeting that included protesters and a last-minute alternate nominee.

Aguillard, assistant professor and chair of the education division at the Louisiana Baptist school, was the favorite of the trustee board's conservative majority. But interim president John Traylor, 76, also was nominated by moderate-leaning trustees and interviewed by the board.

As trustees met for more than four hours, mostly behind closed doors, about 250 students and others marched on the campus with signs opposing Aguillard. Meanwhile, a smaller group wore yellow tags supporting him. Earlier, the faculty voted 53-12 to oppose Aguillard.

Louisiana College has been in turmoil for more than a year, since conservatives gained control of the trustee board. After a dispute over textbook and faculty-election policies, the college's president, chief academic administrator and trustee chair resigned.

In December, SACS placed the college on probation–one step short of withdrawing accreditation–for violating the association's standards for academic freedom and proper governance.

Now the school faces a lawsuit over Aguillard's nomination and election.

The alumni and former faculty members who filed a lawsuit claim the new president's election violates the school's bylaws because he was not nominated by the original search committee. Trustees appointed a special committee Jan. 6 to bring Aguillard's name before the board for a vote.

The original search committee was replaced after its first choice, seminary professor Malcolm Yarnell of Fort Worth, turned down the job two months after accepting it.

The committee offered its second choice, New Orleans seminary professor Stan Norman, but was rebuffed by other trustees, who appointed a new committee.

Before electing Aguillard, trustees voted 19-8 to affirm the new search committee. Aguillard assumed the presidency immediately, trustees said.

Aguillard, a Louisiana native, received a bachelor's degree from Louisiana College, two master's degrees from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La., and a doctorate of education from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

He held a number of administrative positions with the Beauregard Parish School Board between 1984 and 2000, rising to superintendent, before taking a teaching position at Louisiana College.

Louisiana College has been in turmoil for more than a year after conservatives gained control of the trustee board. After a dispute over textbook and faculty-election policies, the college's president, chief academic administrator and trustee chair resigned.

In December SACS placed the college on probation—one step short of withdrawing accreditation—for violating the association's standards for academic freedom and proper governance.

Posted: 1/21/05

Southern Baptists plan
alternative to Baptist World Alliance

By Robert Marus & Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Southern Baptist Convention leaders will meet with international Baptists leaders in July to create an alternative to the Baptist World Alliance, a Southern Baptist agency head announced.

Richard Land, president of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told a Washington audience, “I am going to a meeting with other Southern Baptist leaders and with Baptist leaders from around the world in Warsaw, Poland, this July to form a new alternative to the Baptist World Alliance.”

Land, addressing a Jan. 18 panel discussion on an unrelated subject, defended the SBC’s decision last year to withdraw from the worldwide umbrella group for Baptists.

Southern Baptist leaders, who recommended the SBC withdraw from the Baptist World Alliance over an alleged “liberal drift,” have said they want to create a new alternative for “like-minded” Baptists, but they have not announced any details.

A July meeting would compete with the Baptist World Congress July 27-31 in Birmingham, England, when BWA will celebrate its 100th anniversary.

Morris Chapman, the SBC’s chief executive, confirmed the July meeting in Poland will take place, but added: “To call the meeting with some of the European Baptist leaders an ‘organizational’ meeting would be a mischaracterization. Over the next several years we hope to travel to several continents meeting with like-minded Baptist leaders with the thought of developing a network or fellowship.”

Meanwhile, Denton Lotz, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, said he was “shocked” SBC leaders would attempt to form an alternative body to the BWA.

“I would hope that the SBC and its people would not further divide the Baptists of the world by trying to start a competitive organization to the Baptist World Alliance,” he said. “It goes against everything they’ve told us in meetings that we’ve had—that they would not start another world organization.”

Land’s statement came in a question-and-answer session during a panel discussion on the role of religion in public and political life. Leslie Tune, Washington news director for the National Council of Churches and a Baptist minister, asked Land how the decision to withdraw from BWA squared with Land’s assertion that Southern Baptist leaders are happy to work with people of differing views of faith and public discourse.

Tune said the BWA decision seemed like it would cause the SBC to become “more of a cocoon unto itself in terms of working with other people of faith who are Christians. … How are the conversations going to happen if the Southern Baptist Convention is pulling out of the table where the conversation could happen?”

Land responded that the feeling among Southern Baptists “was that the Baptist World Alliance was moving in a liberal theological direction by and large, and it was not serving a lot of the needs of a lot of the Second- and Third-World countries. We have the same phenomenon in Baptist life that you have, for instance, in Anglican life, where Anglicans in the Second and Third World are somewhat appalled by the liberalism of Anglicans in Northern Europe and North America.

“And we are not cocooning ourselves,” Land continued. “In fact, I am going to a meeting with other Southern Baptist leaders and with Baptist leaders from around the world in Warsaw, Poland, this July to form a new alternative to the Baptist World Alliance.

“We just felt like that, when the majority of the Baptist World Alliance wanted to go in one direction and we wanted to go in another and we were paying 80 percent of the bills, then we had the right to try to form something that was more in line with what our belief system is. … In no way, shape or form should this be seen as a withdrawal from a commitment to fellowship with Baptists in other countries and other continents.”

In 2004, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting adopted the recommendation of a special study committee, which included Chapman, to withdraw from the BWA. SBC leaders cited a “drift” toward liberalism and “anti-American” attitudes among BWA leadership as justifications for the split.

Land’s assertion that BWA is not responsive to the needs of the Second- and Third-World countries is a new charge.

BWA’s Lotz called that assertion “ridiculous.” He said BWA’s “work in Eastern Europe for religious freedom was known more than anything else during the Cold War and the communist period.” He also said he had never heard the charge previously in his discussions with SBC officials.

Nor had he heard about the July meeting in Poland, Lotz added. If the SBC intentionally planned a meeting to set up a competing group around the same time as the Baptist World Congress, he said, “then that would be a slap in the face to Baptists in the rest of the world.”

Before making any further comment, Lotz said, he “would like to receive an official report that this is happening.”

Phil Roberts, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., is in charge of arranging the trip for SBC leaders, said Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee in Nashville. Chapman said the meeting is open to members of the Great Commission Council, the SBC’s interagency group.

Roberts was not immediately available for comment.

Chapman said the SBC has “no desire” to compete with the Baptist World Alliance. “In fact, we hope for the BWA God’s blessings in every work they do for the Kingdom’s sake and pray for them a meaningful and fulfilling World Baptist Congress in England this summer.”

He added: “All along we have said that while the convention voted to withdraw its membership from the BWA, it by no means voted to withdraw our fellowship from Baptists around the world. If anything, we hope to have a closer relationship with our Baptist brethren by developing a more personal and cohesive fellowship with those whose primary goal coincides with ours, the evangelization of the masses.”

Posted: 1/21/05

THE BORDER SECURITY AND
IMMIGRATION REFORM ACT OF 2003

Section-by-Section Summary

Section 1. Short Title

Section 2. Definitions

Title I-Authorization for Establishment of Guestworker Programs

Section 101. Guestworker Programs

The DHS and State Secretaries shall establish a guest worker program with eligible foreign countries. Eligible countries must enter into agreements with the U.S. to develop standards of enrollment, procedures for providing health care, training of workers and monitor information regarding departure and return of workers.

Individuals may work in the U.S. on a seasonal or nonseasonal basis. Seasonal workers are authorized to stay 9 months at a time. Nonseasonal workers are authorized a full 12 months, not to exceed 36 months total. Workers are able to travel across borders while in the program and will be provided a photo ID. The Secretaries of DHS and State shall establish and maintain a computer database for entry and exit of workers. Workers are able to apply for legal permanent residence status after 3 years in the program and from their home country.

Workers who apply to the program as undocumented workers must show proof of residency in U.S. by date of enactment and employment. A worker in the program is absolved of all prior illegal behavior relating to their immigration status.

Workers are ineligible for participation in the program if under the age of 18, a convicted felon or who comes to the U.S. illegally after the date of enactment.

The DHS Secretary shall establish an evaluation system to give priority to guestworkers’ applying for LPR based on their participation in the program.

Section 102. Employer Applications and Petitions for Guest Workers

Employers seeking temporary guest workers must apply/file with Labor Department with information on jobs including nature of work, anticipated period and wages to be paid. The employer shall attest to the Labor Secretary that they are insufficient workers to perform these jobs and that hiring guestworkers will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers. The employer must advertise the job and pay at least the minimum wage to guestworkers.

The Labor Secretary will compile a list (by employer and job classification) of the applications filed. Once applications are reviewed and certified, the Labor Secretary will transmit a report to the employer containing the name, contact information and specific work permit information of each guest worker authorized to perform the work.

The Secretary will recommend adjustments to the size of the guest worker program based on the regional economic assessments. The DHS Secretary, in consultation with the determinations by the Secretary of Labor regarding regional economic conditions and the size of the guest worker program, may annually adjust the total number of green cards available.

Any employer in the guestworker program that violates labor and safety laws will be subject to the same penalties as if employing U.S. citizens as well as being debarred from participation in the guestworker program for up to 10 years. An employer in the program shall be absolved of all prior illegal behavior as pertains to the immigration status of employees.

Section 103. New Nonimmigration Guest Worker Categories

The Immigration and Nationality Act is amended by adding category (W)(i) for seasonal and nonseasonal guestworkers.

Section 104. Prohibition on Adjustment of Status to Permanent Resident Status

Any guestworker employed less then 3 years or has violated the terms of the program is prohibited from adjusting their immigration status to legal permanent residence.

Section 105. Guest Worker Investment Accounts

The Treasury Secretary shall quarterly transfer S.S. and Medicare taxes from guestworkers into an investment account. The investment accounts will be the property of the guest worker and be invested in funds created and managed by the Secretary of the Treasury. The guest worker can access these investment accounts only after the worker permanently leaves the program and returns to their home country. These accounts are exempt from taxation in the U.S.

Title II-Adjustment of Status of Certain Unlawfully Present Aliens to Nonimmigrant Guest Worker Status

Section 201. Adjustment of Status

The DHS Secretary shall adjust the status of any undocumented aliens who apply for the guestworker program within 12 months after the date of enactment and if the guestworker is employed by a U.S. employer.

Section 202. Enhanced Civil Penalties for Employed of Unauthorized Aliens After Termination Date for Adjustment of Status

The DHS Secretary shall impose civil penalties upon any U.S. employer that knowingly employs an unauthorized alien after the expiration of the application period. The employer is also barred from participation in the program for several years based on the number of violations.

Posted: 1/21/05

Judge orders school to remove
evolution disclaimer from textbooks

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—A federal judge has struck down a suburban Atlanta school district’s policy of placing disclaimers about evolution in science textbooks, saying the policy violates the Constitution’s ban on government establishment of religion.

United States District Judge Clarence Cooper issued a ruling ordering the immediate removal of textbook stickers that caution evolution is “a theory, not a fact.” The disclaimer is placed in public-school science texts in Cobb County, Ga.

The Atlanta-based judge said the school board’s policy ordering the stickers be placed in middle-school and high-school textbooks sends “a message that the school board agrees with the beliefs of Christian fundamentalists and creationists.”

The ruling came in response to a group of Cobb County parents who filed a lawsuit against the school board asking for a halt to the policy.

Cooper, applying a test prescribed by a 1971 U.S. Supreme Court decision to determine if a government action violates the First Amendment’s establishment clause, said a reasonable observer would conclude that the stickers represented the school board’s endorsement of the religious view that God created the world a few thousand years ago in six literal days.

Such a reasonable observer, Cooper said, “would interpret the sticker to convey a message of endorsement of religion. That is, the sticker sends a message to those who oppose evolution for religious reasons that they are favored members of the political community, while the sticker sends a message to those who believe in evolution that they are political outsiders.”

In a preface to the opinion, Cooper took pains to note that his findings concern only a narrow legal issue and was not a pronouncement on other issues surrounding the controversy over the origin of species.

“First, the court is not resolving in this case whether science and religion are mutually exclusive, and the court takes no position on the origin of the human species,” Cooper wrote.

“Second, the issue before the court is not whether it is constitutionally permissible for public school teachers to teach intelligent design, the theory that only an intelligent or supernatural cause could be responsible for life, living things, and the complexity of the universe,” he continued.

“Third, this case does not resolve the ongoing debate regarding whether evolution is a fact or theory or whether evolution should be taught as fact or theory.”

The policy stems from a petition drive organized by Cobb County parent Marjorie Rogers in 2002. Rogers, who according to the opinion describes herself as a “six-day biblical creationist,” had complained about the lack of a disclaimer in the textbooks.

But, Cooper noted, the board didn’t order disclaimers regarding other theories that have some religious implications. “However, there are other scientific topics taught that have religious implications, such as the theories of gravity, relativity, and Galilean heliocentrism,” he wrote.

The head of a Washington-based group that supports strict church-state separation hailed the ruling as a “great decision.”

“These textbook disclaimers are part of a national campaign to undercut the teaching of evolution in public schools in accordance with fundamentalist Christian beliefs,” said Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “Today’s court decision will throw a major roadblock in the path of that crusade. Public schools may not be used to advance religious dogma, and the court has rightly upheld that principle.”

Posted: 1/21/05

Bush criticized for saying he won't push for amendment

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Despite clarifications from the White House, some socially conservative groups are criticizing President Bush for comments suggesting he will not pressure senators to pass a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage.

The comments, first published in a Jan. 16 Washington Post story based on an interview with Bush, suggested that he would not expend significant political capital in an attempt to pass the amendment.

According to the Post, Bush said it is not necessary to press for the amendment because so many senators have said a federal law known as the Defense of Marriage Act is sufficient to prevent the spread of gay marriage across the country. Massachusetts is currently the only jurisdiction in the country where same-sex marriage is legal.

“Senators have made it clear that so long as (the Defense of Marriage Act) is deemed constitutional, nothing will happen,” Bush told the Post. “I’d take their admonition seriously. … Until that changes, nothing will happen in the Senate.”

The proposal, also known as the Federal Marriage Amendment or Marriage Protection Amendment, died in Congress last year, after it failed on a procedural vote in the Senate. Several Republicans joined most Democrats in opposing it.

Dan Bartlett, the White House’s communications director, sought to clarify Bush’s statements on Sunday television news shows Jan. 16, saying the statement simply reflects Bush’s perspective on the legislative reality and “does not change President Bush’s view” on the amendment or his support for it.

But conservative Christians—whose high turnout rates on election day was credited by many pundits for Bush’s re-election—have campaigned heavily for the proposal. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, in a press release responding to Bush’s comments, said the voters who elected him to office expect him to push hard for the amendment.

“Let’s be clear. Both here and abroad, the judicial assault on man-woman marriage is well underway,” Perkins said. ”For our nation’s leaders to be advocating that we wait for the Defense of Marriage Act to be struck down by the courts before they act to protect marriage is like a fire chief telling a local hotel to wait until there is a fire to install a sprinkler system.”

Posted: 1/21/05

Bush faith statements raise concerns
about separation of church & state

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—President Bush said recently he doesn’t understand “how you can be president without a relationship with the Lord.” But that testament brought a protest from one of the country’s top Jewish leaders.

Bush made the comment in an interview with editors and reporters from the conservative Washington Times.

David Saperstein, director of the Washington-based Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, told reporters he is “deeply troubled” by Bush’s remarks.

“Such an assertion violates the spirit of the Constitution’s ban on religious tests for political office and endangers the strength of the religious pluralism and tolerance that the president has so often affirmed—and re-affirmed in the same interview,” Saperstein said.

The newspaper reported Bush prefaced his statement with an assertion that he supports the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom for all Americans, including those who have no faith.

“I fully understand that the job of the president is, and must always be, protecting the great right of people to worship or not worship as they see fit,” he told the Times. “That’s what distinguishes us from the Taliban. The greatest freedom we have—or one of the greatest freedoms—is the right to worship the way you see fit.”

But Saperstein said Bush needs to explain himself further. He noted the Religious Action Center had already “called on the president to act affirmatively to prevent Americans from misunderstanding his remarks by clarifying that he rejects any religious test for the office of the presidency.”

Bush, a Methodist who often discusses his faith using terminology common among evangelical Protestants, has raised the profile of the role of religion in a president’s life. Both his detractors and supporters have cited Bush’s use of religious terminology among their reasons for opposing or supporting him.

Elsewhere in the Times interview, Bush defended the right of non-religious Americans to challenge the government when they believe it has unconstitutionally endorsed or supported a religious view.

Referring to atheist Michael Newdow’s efforts to get a phrase he views as offensive removed from the Pledge of Allegiance, Bush said, “The great thing about our country is somebody can stand up and say, ‘We should try to take “under God” out of the Pledge of Allegiance.’”

However, Bush noted, “the backlash” to a federal appeals court decision in 2002 endorsing Newdow’s view “was pretty darn significant.”

“This is a country that is a value-based country,” Bush said. “Whether they voted for you or not, there’s a lot of values in this country, for which I’m real proud.”

While a handful of Bush opponents have criticized Bush’s regular use of religious language and imagery while speaking in an official capacity, many others—including some conservatives—have criticized the president for supporting policies they say endanger the First Amendment’s guarantee of church-state separation. Saperstein’s comments came as an aside during a press conference in which several moderate religious leaders discussed threats to that separation they believe will arise as the 109th Congress begins its work.

One of the speakers, Brent Walker, noted that, while “the metaphorical ‘wall of separation’ (between church and state) does not block religious values from playing a role in public life,” one of the many upcoming threats to religious liberty he perceives is an effort to pass legislation that would make it easier to display the Ten Commandments on government property.

“The posting of the Ten Commandments by government officials in a way that demonstrates endorsement of them—such as in a monument on Capitol grounds or in a county courthouse—clearly crosses the line drawn by the First Amendment,” said Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. “The government has no business singling out one favored religious tradition, choosing the preferred Scripture passage and displaying it in a way that creates a religious shrine.”

The Supreme Court will hear two cases in March regarding the display of the Ten Commandments on government property.

Posted: 1/07/05

2nd Opinion:
Ultimate disaster: Life without Christ

By Ebbie Smith

News of Asia's tragic tsunami impacts us emotionally with a force not unlike the horrendous strength of the waves that crushed the shorelines. Christians are gripped as they view the destruction of life and property. The waves brought death to more than 150,000 people, left millions homeless and placed multitudes in danger from disease and further suffering. Christians must respond to the physical needs.

Christians perceive an even more heart-wrenching and desperate tragedy. Some of the areas hardest hit by the consuming waters are among the neediest from the standpoint of Christian evangelism. Many in these areas have never known the joy of living in Christ, the peace of facing reality through Christ or the assurance of entering eternity with Christ.

Among the 3.5 million people in Indonesia's Aceh province in northern Sumatra, less than 50 people are known to be Christians. With losses in Aceh reaching over 80,000, the enormity of the spiritual lostness is profound. Another people group, the Aneuk Jamee, with 15,000 people, reside on the western coastline around small bays and low plains. These people must have suffered major losses, and less than five members of this group are known to be Christians. How many of the Aneuk Jamee people drowned without knowing of Christ?

The 25,000 Singkil people, who also live along the western coast of Aceh, have houses built on stilts that would provide almost no protection against the tsunami waves. No known Christians are among the Singkil, and no churches serve them. How many among these people faced death without Christ?

The Simeulue people live on a group of islands 200 kilometers off the western coast of Aceh. The 30,000 people in this group are primarily followers of Islam with less than five known Christians among them. No Simeulue churches exist. Thankfully, many people on these islands were spared by a centuries-old tradition that called for fleeing to the higher levels in the face of earthquakes. Still, the losses mount on these peaks of land.

The terrifying tsunami waves rushed over the coastal areas of India. Tamal Nadu province (65.3 million people) and Andhra Pradesh Province (79.7 million people) suffered losses as high as 18,000. Less than 10 Christians per 100 residents are estimated in this entire region.

The 38 islands of the Andaman and Nicobar region rise slightly above the waters in an area roughly between the earthquake's epicenter and India. The 350,000 inhabitants of these islands suffered staggering losses.

More than 20 million people live on the island of Sri Lanka. Estimates of the loss of over 41,000 in the tsunami waves are being heard. The evangelistic tragedy is that less than eight people per 100 in Sri Lanka are Christians.

Thailand's 66 million-plus people are 92.34 percent Buddhist and 5.24 percent Muslim. Christians of all groups number only 1.62 percent of the population. Almost 5,000 lives are being reported as lost in Thailand. Further losses occurred in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh and even on the shores of Africa.

Since this disaster hit at a high point in the tourist season, thousands of tourists populated the region. In addition to multitudes of local vacationers, thousands of European, Asian and American visitors lost their lives in the swirling waters. Many remain among the missing and most likely are among those who perished.

The Bible speaks of no salvation for those who die without Christ. Christians consider this truth to be the tremendous terror and the ultimate disaster of this tsunami. Christians will join in the efforts to aid the victims and contribute to rebuilding these countries. We must, however, repent of our lack of efforts to share the Good News with them before Dec. 26, 2004.

What other regions of the earth face such devastating tragedies in the coming months? Christians must respond to the challenges.

Ebbie Smith, a former missionary to Indonesia with extensive experience in Southeast Asia, lives in Fort Worth.

Posted: 1/07/05

EDITORIAL:
So, how could a good God allow … ?

The question crept across sensitive minds, much like the tsunami body-count “crawl” scrolled across our TV screens: How could a good God allow such a tragedy to happen?

The first–and most honest–answer also is uncomfortable. We don't know. We understand the physics of the tsunami of '04. Tectonic plates, the foundations on which continents rest, shifted. Miles beneath the Indian Ocean's surface, the most powerful earthquake in a half-century shoved waves outward as fast as a jumbo jet can fly. When the waves met the resistence of continental shelves, they rose up, high as hotels, slammed the earth and destroyed everything for miles.

That's the easy part. Simple mechanics. But human beings want to know something more important and infinitely more complicated: Where was God in all this?

The atheist says that's a stupid question. God doesn't exist. This is all nature. Earth spins, and its continental plates inevitably move. Nature is blind to human consequence. And those poor people were unlucky to be, geologically speaking, in the wrong place at the wrong time.

At the other end of the spectrum, the extreme sovereigntist says God triggered the tsunami and orchestrated its tragedy. God decided when and where to move the continents, and God selected the victims and the survivors. God has God's reasons–maybe to demonstrate divine power, maybe to punish the wicked, maybe to warn the righteous.

Both explanations fail. The atheist ignores evidence for God's activity as recorded in Scripture, but also as seen in the intricacy of nature as well as the testimony of Christ and the experience of people. The extreme sovereigntist, while admirably attempting to give God due credit for God's infinite power and knowledge, likewise ignores one of God's defining characteristics. The Bible says clearly, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). The gospels demonstrate God loves people so much that God sent his only Son to receive the burden of our sin, so that we might live with him forever in paradise (John 3:16). That kind of love is not characteristic of a god who would capriciously slaughter several hundred thousand people, the majority of them innocent children.

So, we come back to the hard question: How could a good God–and a God whose primary description is “love” surely must be good–allow such a cataclysmic tragedy?

We cannot comprehend God's power. God created millions–some say billions–of solar systems with millions of stars each. We cannot grasp God's infinite reach and power. And yet God's love also is infinite, as demonstrated in his wilfull sacrifice of his Son to save us from the consequences of our sin. So, let's attempt to reconcile.

The Bible–especially the Genesis account, but also the prophets, the gospels and the epistles–teaches us God created people for relationship. God didn't “need” people to respond to divine love, but God wanted to bestow that love upon creatures who could reciprocate. And as we all eventually learn, coerced love is not love at all. In order for humanity's love for God to be true and valid, we must have the opportunity not only to receive God's love but also to reject it. Free will, that human randomness, provided the gateway for sin to enter the world. But God decided that risk was worth it, because it also offered humanity the freedom to truly know and love God.

While humans are the apex of the natural order, we also are part of the natural order. So, we may surmise that the capacity for randomness present in human free will has its corollary in the rest of nature. Cells can mutate and cause cancer. Inexplicable events can change the course of history. An earthquake can trigger a tsunami that kills hundreds of thousands of people, wipes out villages and breaks the heart of every person who possesses a scintilla of humanity.

God doesn't will the waves to slaughter children and their families. But God allows horrible things to happen in a world broken by sin and its natural twin, randomness. Such is a cost of our most uniquely human heritage–the freedom to accept or reject God's love. With a pricetag so high, we dare not take it for granted.

You may not agree with this theory. In fact, I may not agree next week. But it is an honest attempt to explore the inexplicable in light of God's infinite power and unfathomable love.

As Christians created in God's image, we are compelled to reflect both that power and that love–however faintly–by doing everything we can to meet the human and spiritual needs of the tsunami victims.

Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard

Posted: 1/21/05

Tsunami summit set at Epicenter

The Baptist General Convention of Texas has convened a “tsunami summit” in conjunction with its Epicenter missions and evangelism conference, Jan. 28-29 at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Irving, to help churches and their members discover ways to respond to the disaster in South Asia.

Representatives from Texas Baptist Men, the WorldconneX missions network and the BGCT church missions and evangelism staff will lead breakout conferences and general sessions to present opportunities for involvement in recovery and long-range rebuilding efforts in the region.

Participants also will learn about Texas Baptists' role in initial and ongoing disaster relief in countries impacted by the tidal wave.

For more information about the Epicenter conference, call (800) 345-5251 or visit www.bgct.org/epicenter.

Posted: 1/21/05

Young pastor serves church his
family has attended for generations

By George Henson

Staff Writer

MONT BELVIEU–Like many college students, Jake Porter returned to his hometown following graduation from college. Unlike most recent college graduates, however, Porter came home to become pastor of a church his family has attended for five generations.

Porter insists that being the pastor of the church he grew up in has more plusses than minuses.

“There are a lot of people in this congregation who have changed my diapers, literally,” he said. “All my Sunday school teachers–they're out there. But I don't think about that when I'm preaching. I really don't.

"As a matter of fact, that part of it is really a blessing, because I didn't have to gain their trust or any of that, because it was already in place.

“It's hard is when a couple you've known all your life comes into the office and says that they're thinking about a divorce. That's when it's hard–not the counseling part, but separating the role of pastor from hearing this from people I've loved all my life. That part is difficult.”

Being a pastor of any church wasn't part of his plans when he graduated from Barbers Hill High School in 2000. He planned to attend the University of Texas, pursue a degree in music and become a band director.

None of those things happened.

Even though Porter wanted to attend college in Austin and already had been accepted, a member of First Baptist Church in Mont Belvieu continually trumpeted the merits of Elmira College in Elmira, N.Y. Porter never had heard of the small liberal arts college and had no desire to go there, but to appease the man he submitted an application. He not only was accepted, but also was offered a scholarship that eventually prompted him north for an education.

Before he left for college, Porter attended a youth rally, and he surrendered to ministry. So, he decided to pursue a triple major in music, psychology and philosophy of religion.

As a part of his degree program, he worked as a summer intern at his home church, First Baptist in Mont Belvieu, beginning in April 2003.

“I did a lot of things. I did an inventory of everything in the church; I attended all kinds of committee meetings as a liason; directed Vacation Bible School and a lot of other things,” he recalled.

In June, the church's pastor resigned, and the church asked Porter to fill in as preacher. “I was really excited,” he said. “I love to preach.”

Porter had some experience preaching while in college. His pastor in New York, Kerry Krissel, mentored and discipled him and allowed him to preach when Krissel needed to be away. Krissel now serves the Mont Belvieu church as minister of education.

When it came time for Porter to return for his senior year at Elmira, the Mont Belvieu church called an interim pastor and began searching for a pastor. Several members asked him to submit his resumé, which he did after some hesitation.

“During the sermon I preached when I came in view of a call, I just laid it out straight for them. I told them: 'I have no experience as a pastor. I have no formal training in a seminary. I'm 22 years old, so I don't have a lot of life experience. So, if I am to be your pastor, you will all have to be ministers,'” he recalled.

At that time, about 70 people were attending worship services. Now, less than a year later, the church holds two worship services with a combined average attendance of 225. Since April, Porter has baptized 27 people.

Porter doesn't take credit for that, however, but says much of it is the result of an enthusiasm among the congregation born out of events God orchestrated to coincide with his arrival.

One involved David and Terri Beck. The couple had been living together for about three years but had not married. They were having difficulties in their relationship and had separated when a friend led Beck to faith in Christ and urged him to get involved in a church.

His first Sunday also was Porter's first Sunday. Beck called his estranged girlfriend to tell her about his life change and invite her to attend church with him. She did and three weeks later made a profession of faith in Christ. A week later, they were married in First Baptist Church with Porter officiating, barely a month into his pastorate.

“Things like that and other families joining really energized the people here, as they could see that God was so obviously working,” Porter said. “It's kept the people excited.”

Porter is excited about a few things himself. He has started attending seminary extension classes in Houston and is engaged to marry Ashley Willumson, whom he met while attending college.

Porter is taking all the good things that are happening at First Baptist with a quiet assurance–not in himself, but in his calling.

“I'm really sure that this is where the Lord wants me and he is sovereign–that I am sure of. There are a lot of times when I'm sure I'm not qualified, and that I'm going to mess things up, and I have plenty of times. But I also know that God has put me here, that he is in control and that he is always faithful.”

He said he also relies on people in the congregation to share their expertise, advice and ministry skills.

“A lot of what goes on here is the congregation–the people. I'm just blessed to be in a congregation that is so willing to minister to one another,” he said. “This is a doing church.”

As an example, the church took out a $50,000 loan last spring to renovate the buildings, make roof repairs and expand the parking lot. The congregation already has repaid the loan while at the same time exceeding the budget.

Porter admits being a little surprised at the pace at which things have progressed.

“I didn't think it would take off like it has,” he said. “I thought I'd have more time to plan. As it is, I feel like I'm needing to run to catch up.”

Posted: 1/21/05

WMU provides pure water for Indonesia

National Woman's Missionary Union is sending more than $37,000 in water purification equipment to Indonesia through an effort called “Pure Water, Pure Love.”

In 2004, Texas Baptists donated about $44,000 to Pure Water, Pure Love through 118 gifts.

The shipment of personal water cleaning equipment, which will be delivered by volunteers and disaster relief teams, depletes WMU's supply of water filters.

But Christine Hockin-Boyd, who encourages mission involvement through Woman's Missionary Union of Texas, said the South Asia tsunamis present a unique chance to share the gospel.

“First, it is overwhelming the opportunity to meet the physical needs–the food, the water,” she said. “We can show we care. Secondly, we can share why we are there.”

Hockin-Boyd also noted the relief effort provides an occasion for Texas Baptists to learn more about mission needs in South Asia. Christians can study the religious makeup of the region and examine ways they can share the gospel in that part of the world, Hockin-Boyd added.

Donations also can be given to help Baptist women's groups in South Asia through WMU's Humanitarian Emergency Aid for Rebuilding Tomorrow Fund.

Gifts can be made online at www.wmufoundation.com or by sending checks payable to WMU to WMU Foundation, HEART Fund-Tsunami Response, P.O. Box 11346, Birmingham, Ala. 35202-1346. More than $20,000 already has been collected.