Posted: 1/07/05

DOWN HOME:
New look reflects change in direction

Usually, this column chronicles the goings-on among the Knoxes. Joanna, Lindsay, Molly and I aren't all that different from most Baptist families, so I enjoy contemplating the events that shape our lives, hoping they resonate with yours.

But this time, I'd like to talk about a larger family–the Baptist Standard family. If you're a subscriber or regular reader, sit down at the table; you're our kin.

You've probably noticed we remodeled the “house” over the Christmas holidays. As with all changes in our life together, some folks will like what we've done to the paper, and some won't. But I hope you'll decide the new Standard is an improvement.

Our new design is more than cosmetic. Sure, we're printing on brighter paper, using larger pictures and offering more visual elements. We've updated our typefaces and added new logos. We think these will make the paper more inviting.

But design changes are only part of our plan to strengthen the Standard's support for our readers and their churches.

For example, we've been publishing articles about heart-warming, effective ministries. We get excited when we describe a ministry that can be reproduced all across the state. We plan to keep on doing this, but we're going to showcase the stories better and make them easier to use.

We'll emphasize how your church can find and use resources that will help you make a difference in your community and even around the world.

We're going to review good books that can strengthen your faith and make you a better Christian. We'll also review movies and music, and we'll ask you to give us input so our reviews will get more and more practical and helpful.

We're also strengthening the connection between the print and online editions of the Standard. Since timing and space are major print-media obstacles, we'll use the web (baptiststandard.com) to get more information to you faster than ever.

But the most significant change can be summed up in two words: Moving on.

For two and a half decades, the Standard has been one of the foremost chroniclers of the battle for the soul of the Southern Baptist Convention. Some Baptists have lauded our efforts, while others have held the Standard up to ridicule. We make no apologies for telling the story of the most significant shift in American Christianity in 150 years. That's been our God-given task.

Now, we're moving on. That doesn't mean we'll never write a story about the SBC again. We're just as committed to the principle of “tell the truth and trust the people” as we ever were. But the truth for today is the SBC no longer impacts Texas Baptists the way it once did. We don't intend to spend a lot of time worrying about that.

We're going to focus on the future–the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead of us, not the heartache and trauma that riddle our past.

So, if you know folks who quit reading the Standard because they're sick of “the controversy,” invite them to look again.

And next time, I'll tell you what Molly and I saw at the museum.

–Marv Knox

Posted: 1/07/05

Faith-based Initiatives plan will continue in Bush second term

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—The man spearheading President Bush's effort to increase government grants to religious social-service agencies said the initiative will continue in Bush's second term, although he offered few specifics as to how that will happen.

Speaking during a Washington conference on Bush's program, Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, said the president interprets his Nov. 2 re-election as a public endorsement of the plan.

"As he looks at his second term, President Bush is not only looking at his general priorities, but is renewing his commitment to the faith-based initiative," Towey said. "He very clearly staked out where he stood, and the majority of Americans supported that."

Towey was vague about what Bush could do in his second term to further expand the initiative. Although Bush was unable to pass the plan through Congress as a whole in his first term, he instituted many of the changes required to increase funding for churches and other faith-based groups piecemeal—via administrative rule changes in the various agencies that administer federal social-service grants.

"The president will continue to look at what are his tools as chief executive, what other executive actions he can take," Towey said.

Although Congress became slightly more Republican in the elections, observers of the faith-based controversy said it was still unlikely that Bush can pass any sweeping faith-based plans through the Senate.

"I think we will not have enough votes to kill the president's initiatives in the House, but even in the new Senate, I think we still have enough votes to stop it," said Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas), one of Congress' most outspoken supporters of church-state separation.

Towey said efforts to oppose faith-based initiatives in the federal courts will continue. Even though a broad challenge to the initiative as a whole was recently dismissed by a federal judge, several other federal lawsuits challenging social-service programs funded under the faith-based plan have been resolved in favor of the plaintiffs or are pending.

"I think this will continue to be opposed," Towey said. "Quite frankly, I think you will continue to see great opposition, because I think that there will be a continued outcry from the secular extremists."

Edwards, who spoke after Towey, took umbrage with that description. "I'm a little bit bothered by his reference to 'secular extremists,'" Edwards said "This issue is too important for either side or any side to fall back into the temptation of name-calling."

Posted: 1/07/05

Tennessee Baptist named President
of Fellowship of Christian Athletes

By Art Toalston

Baptist Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)–Former NFL and college football coach Les Steckel has been selected as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes' new president and chief executive officer.

Steckel, who has participated in FCA activities since 1974, will succeed the national ministry's retiring president, Dal Shealy, March 1. Shealy will remain involved in the operations of the Kansas City, Mo.,-based organization as director of the new FCA Football Coaches Ministry.

Steckel, 48, said he is "humbled and honored to have been chosen to be the next president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. In Dal Shealy's tenure over the last 13 years, the ministry has experienced tremendous growth. As he passes the baton … he will leave a legacy of integrity and servanthood. With God's guidance and grace, I will do the same."

FCA, founded in 1954, is one of the nation's leading ministries to student athletes and coaches. FCA "Huddles" meet regularly on nearly 8,000 junior high, high school and college campuses for Bible study, prayer and other faith-based activities. Other FCA initiatives include summer camps, coaches and community ministries, Sharing the Victory magazine and the nationally recognized anti-drug program, "One Way 2 Play—Drug Free!"

Steckel, a coach for more than 30 years, currently is a national motivational speaker and member of Brentwood (Tenn.) Baptist Church where, as "coach in residence," he has led several men's discipleship programs.

During his 22-year NFL coaching career, Steckel served as the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings and helped guide two Super Bowl teams as offensive coordinator—the 1984-85 New England Patriots and the 2000 Tennessee Titans.

In addition to the Vikings, Patriots and Titans, Steckel has been on the staff of five other NFL teams and, earlier, the University of Colorado, U.S. Naval Academy and Brown University.

He also was an infantry officer in Vietnam and has retired from 30 years of service in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas and a master's degree in athletic administration from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.

A native of Northampton, Pa., Steckel and his wife, Chris, have three grown children, Christian, Lesley and Luke.

Shealy, a member of First Baptist Church in Raytown, Mo., and former head coach at the University of Richmond during 28 years of football coaching, recounted in his column in Sharing the Victory that he and his wife, Barbara, "I often share that coaching football was the first half of my life, and FCA was the second. Now I'm moving into overtime.

"As I pass the baton of FCA presidency to Coach Les Steckel during our semiannual board meeting at the end of February, I do so with a positive and excited attitude of joy and confidence that Les will lead FCA with integrity of heart and skillful hands.”

"Barbara and I are FCA life-timers, and we will continue to lead the FCA Football Coaches Ministry. We will serve the coaches and their families, their players and overall programs. We want to focus on the truth of Christ and help the football coaches understand the impact they have on and off the field," Shealy wrote.

"Just as quarterbacks and running backs are only successful through the work of the offensive line, Barbara and I have been successful through the great 'offensive line' at FCA," he continued. "We've had great Board of Trustee members, Home Office staff, regional directors, field staff, coaches, athletes, volunteers, local leadership board members and donors who have given unselfishly. All have gone above and beyond to lead and serve the Lord through the ministry movement of FCA.

"I want to thank each and all of you for giving to the Lord through FCA. The leadership team that we have now is the best ever, and they don't care who gets the credit, as long as the job gets done. They truly are fulfilling Colossians 3:23, which states: 'Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men….'"

Posted: 1/07/05

Religion in film pushes boundaries, finds receptive market

By David Briggs

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–2004 was an extraordinary year for religion in film because:

A. A film about the last hours of Jesus made in two dead languages–Aramaic and Latin–is the third-highest grossing movie of the year.

B. Religious filmmakers broke traditional artistic boundaries to tell their stories in R-rated movies that pushed the Jesus-film envelope in depictions of violence, drug use and sexuality.

C. In some markets, filmgoers could walk into a commercial movie theater this past year and view a retelling of the Passion by a major Hollywood filmmaker, a drama centered on an evangelical revival, and biographies of the Catholic saint Therese of Lisieux and the Islamic prophet Mohammed.

The answer most longtime observers of religion and film would give, of course, is D: All of the above.

And with the Hollywood Hills alive with the sound of box-office registers ringing to the tune of $370 million for “The Passion of the Christ” in domestic release alone, many people expect to see a lot more movies with explicit religious themes in 2005.

The 2004 movies raised numerous concerns–that “The Passion” would promote anti-Semitism, that the films would be either too reverent or not reverent enough and that religious movies would have no staying power at the box office. Yet one point of consensus emerged: The movies got people talking in Los Angeles and around the country about questions of art and faith.

In the end, the film did not provoke riots in the streets. But it did make for an unusual twist in the culture wars, with liberals talking about the moral limits of artistic freedom and conservatives saying it would be unfair to censor films because they have the potential to inflame anti-Semitism by sticking close to biblical texts.

“There is a sense people of faith feel under attack, under assault,” said William Blizek, editor of the journal Religion and Film at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

So even if the film recently was snubbed by the Golden Globes, the breakout box-office success of “The Passion” was an important affirmation in the marketplace, Blizek said.

Movies such as “The Passion” and “Woman, Thou Art Loosed” also showed filmmakers could break out of the

G-rated costume drama approach and be embraced by religious audiences even as they pushed back artistic boundaries.

One immediate beneficiary of Gibson's groundbreaking effort was the television evangelist T.D. Jakes, who promoted the movie “Woman, Thou Art Loosed” based on his best-selling book in private showings for pastors across the country.

The gritty screen adaptation included scenes of child rape, drug use, domestic violence and murder in telling the story of a young woman searching for hope after a lifetime of abuse, poverty and addiction.

His pitch was that while “The Passion” told how Jesus was crucified, his film told why Jesus was crucified, to offer hope to people suffering today. The low-budget film has taken in $7 million.

Evangelicals were not the only group in this breakout year for religion and film to emerge from church, synagogue or mosque halls or basements to see religious films. “Therese,” a film about the life of St. Therese of Lisieux, and the animated film “Mohammed: The Last Prophet” also drew audiences.

What about the future for religion in film?

“Next year is going to be even more interesting,” Blizek said. “It really is going to open up a lot of things.

“If this is making money, you've got to figure lots of people are going to be making movies of this sort.”

Posted: 1/07/05

Hunger, malnutrition kill 5 million children a year

By Peggy Polk

Religion News Service

ROME (RNS)–Hunger and malnutrition kill more than 5 million children a year and cost developing countries billions of dollars in lost productivity and national income, a United Nations report asserts.

“The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2004,” issued by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, estimated the number of hungry people in the world at 852 million in 2000-2002, up by 18 million from the mid-1990s.

The total includes 815 million people in developing countries, 28 million in countries in transition from communism and 9 million in industrialized countries, the report said.

Unless the international community changes its priorities, the world will not meet the target set by the World Food Summit in 1996 of halving the number of the hungry by 2015, the annual report said.

“And this is already a modest goal. We should be eliminating hunger,” said Hartwig de Haen, assistant FAO director-general for economic and social development. He accused industrialized countries of failing to provide the development aid they have pledged.

Contending that investing in the fight against hunger makes economic sense, the report estimated the direct costs of dealing with damage caused by hunger are roughly $30 billion a year.

This is more than “five times the amount committed so far to the global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria,” it said. “Conversely, every dollar invested in reducing hunger can yield from five to 20 times as much in benefits.”

“Under-nourishment and deficiencies in essential vitamins and minerals cost more than 5 million children their lives every year,” the report said.

In addition, it said, they “cost households in the developing world more than 220 million years of productive life from family members whose lives are cut short or impaired by disabilities related to malnutrition, and cost developing countries billions of dollars in lost productivity and consumption.”

The report urged a “twin-track approach” to fighting hunger–helping the poor increase their ability to produce food or earn income to buy it, while giving immediate aid to the most needy families. It recommended large-scale national programs to promote agriculture and rural development.

Under this strategy, 31 countries with a total population of 2.2 billion people–nearly half the population of the developing world–reduced their percentage of hungry people by at least 25 percent during the 1990s and have made “significant progress” toward the millennium goal, the report said.

Posted: 1/07/05

Baptist Briefs

New Orleans seminary names dean of students. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary President Chuck Kelley appointed Craig Price, pastor of Hot Springs (Ark.) Baptist Church, as dean of students. Price has 25 years of pastoral experience serving churches in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Texas. He is a graduate of the University of Florida and earned his master of divinity and doctor of philosophy degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a former assistant professor at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark., and was a teaching fellow at Southwestern Seminary during his doctoral studies.

BWA withdrawal, missionary murders top 2004 stories. Baptist state newspaper editors responding to a survey by the Associated Baptist Press news service named the Southern Baptist Convention's withdrawal from the Baptist World Alliance the top Baptist news story of 2004. The murder of four SBC missionaries in Iraq–including David McDonnall of Fort Worth–was the second most significant story, followed closely by President Bush's re-election with support from so-called "values voters." Other top stories included same-sex marriage, four hurricanes that hit Florida and the Caribbean and led to a massive disaster relief effort, and the blockbuster success of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" movie. (See expanded story here)

Warren makes Time magazine list. Baptist pastor Rick Warren has been listed by Time magazine among the "People Who Mattered 2004" in the same issue in which President Bush was named "Person of the Year." In its Dec. 27 edition, Time says of Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California: "Spirituality sold well in 2004, but none did better than Pastor Rick and his faith-based self-help book, 'The Purpose-Driven Life,' which hit 20 million copies sold. Though criticized for preaching Christianity lite, Warren led by example, giving away 90 percent of his royalties, campaigning against hunger and expanding a drug-recovery program for prison inmates."

Samford honors WMU executive. Wanda Lee, executive director of the Southern Baptist Woman's Missionary Union, has been named an alumnus of the year by Samford University. A 1969 Samford nursing graduate, Lee served as president of WMU from 1996 to 2000, when she was named to her current post. She is the first woman in WMU history to hold both positions. Samford University is affiliated with the Alabama Baptist Convention. (See expanded story here)

Posted: 1/07/05

Operation Inasmuch prompts ministry to the 'least of these'

Ten years ago, Snyder Memorial Baptist Church in Fayetteville, N.C., was a church ready for a new challenge. To revitalize the congregation, staff members envisioned a brief local-missions blitz with the ambitious goal of involving more than half of the people attending Sunday morning services.

What resulted was a one-day effort to minister to “the least of these” in and around Fayetteville, a military town. Blending military and biblical terminology, they called the project “Operation Inasmuch,” taking inspiration from Jesus' parable in Matthew 25.

The first event drew 450 participants from the church–two-thirds of the average Sunday attendance.

“The day after, … some members came to me and said, 'That's our idea of missions,'” recalled David Crocker, at the time the church's new pastor. “Operation Inasmuch became the heart of the church's mission statement. It changed the identity of the church in the community. From that point on, the church was sold on it.”

So, apparently, were a lot of others.

A decade later, more than 300 churches representing many denominations now participate, as the idea has spread from North Carolina into Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Florida and even across the Atlantic. Burton Latimer Baptist Church in England held an Operation Inasmuch last year.

“When you start something like this,” Crocker said, “you have no idea where it's going.”

People of all ages gravitate toward expressing their concern for missions in local and personal ways, he noted. “They want hands-on involvement,” he said.

Operation Inasmuch attempts to get church members outside of the church and into the community. But it's not about church image. “It's about doing what Jesus said,” Crocker explained. “It's practicing what we say we believe. I grow weary of how often we gather in comfortable places and talk about doing missions. And I know that when you offer a way to do missions, laypeople in particular are very enthusiastic about it.”

An event last spring in Knoxville, Tenn., where Crocker now is pastor of Central Baptist Church in Fountain City, included Presbyterians and Methodists and provided hands-on missions activities for almost all age groups.

That is a key to involvement, said Martha Johnson, a registered nurse who has been Central's volunteer coordinator for three Operation Inasmuch efforts.

Janet Busman cares for a young girl while her parents shop in the rummage sale as part of Operation Inasmuch.

During the April event, children in the church were part of a pizza party given for guests at a Ronald McDonald House, which offers temporary housing for families of ill children. The church children also packed personal-care kits that were distributed to people in local homeless shelters. Senior adults participated in light assembly projects.

Other church members prepared and froze 112 casseroles for the Fellowship Center, another organization that houses out-of-town families of local hospital patients. Central sponsored a baby shower, with all gifts donated to a home for unwed mothers. They prepared 500 “compassion bags.” Each item inside had a Bible verse attached. Church members sorted food and clothes that had been donated to the Fountain City Ministry Center, an interdenominational project of eight churches housed at Central Baptist.

Youth and adults, working under the direction of project leaders, completed 20 construction-related projects during the one-day event, including painting, roofing, landscaping and installation of a wheelchair ramp in a home.

Even when construction is involved, the costs are kept to a minimum, Crocker said. It's often possible to partner with local groups that are “pass-through organizations” for projects funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“HUD makes money available to almost every community in the nation for repair of resident-owned property for people who are unable to do the repairs themselves,” Crocker said. “These organizations are looking for volunteers. Our proposal is: 'You provide the materials. We provide the volunteers.'”

The Operation Inasmuch churches provide lunches for all participating volunteers. And churches must purchase items to be used in the personal-care kits. But the average out-of-pocket cost for Central Baptist for an Operation Inasmuch with approximately 500 volunteers is only $3,000. “So often people are willing to donate things,” Crocker said. “Lots of businesses are eager to help out when they understand what this is.”

In many Operation Inasmuch projects, those ministering and those ministered to are in direct contact. Does this then become an evangelism effort? And, Crocker was asked, how do you keep the recipients from feeling patronized?

In home-repair projects, volunteers are asked to take time to visit with homeowners, get to know them, share with them, and pray with and for them. Operation Inasmuch gives homeowners a Bible with the names of the volunteers listed inside.

“While volunteers are putting on a new roof, other volunteers are meeting and talking with the owners,” Crocker said. “We do ask volunteers to inquire about their spiritual situation and, to whatever extent they will allow, to share with them. But we don't want it done in a heavy-handed way.”

Operation Inasmuch has contributed to church growth at Central Baptist. “We've had people join the church because they were impressed that people would do such things,” Crocker said.

But public relations and church growth are not the goals of Operation Inasmuch, Johnson emphasized.

“You have to be careful about the image you want to project,” she said. “We don't want to imply that we're doing something that nobody else is doing.

“It's not an opportunity to brag about your church. It should be done more quietly than that. It's an opportunity to know that our church has a presence in the community. And people know that we are out there helping other people. Not that it's something great. It's just something that we are supposed to do. With just a little bit of effort,” she said, “you can help a lot of people.”

A manual for Operation Inasmuch is available for a nominal charge from the ministry's website, www.operationinasmuch.com.

Posted: 1/07/05

Suit would prevent teaching of 'intelligent design'

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Two civil-liberties watchdog groups have filed the first known lawsuit to prevent public schools from teaching the theory of "intelligent design."

Critics of the theory, including supporters of evolution, call it "junk science" and say it is a back-door way to teach creationism. Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit against the Dover, Pa., school board to bar the district from teaching intelligent design.

The theory argues that an "intelligent agent" guided the development of life on Earth, using that assertion to explain alleged gaps or inconsistencies in the theory of evolution. Conservative evangelical Christians have been intelligent design's main promoters.

Many mainstream scientists, including many Christian biologists and anthropologists, have criticized intelligent design as pseudo-science.

On Oct. 18, the Dover Area School District Board passed, by a 6-3 vote, a resolution requiring students to "be made aware of gaps/problems" in evolutionary theory. The district—in a small town near the state capital of Harrisburg—then produced a statement that ninth-grade biology teachers at Dover High School would have to read to their classes.

The statement asserts that "gaps in the theory (of evolution) exist for which there is no evidence" and points to an intelligent-design text, "Of Pandas and People," as available for students who "would like to explore this view."

The groups filed the lawsuit on behalf of 11 Dover parents who oppose the teaching of intelligent-design theory in their children's classrooms. It charges that such teaching violates the First Amendment's ban on government endorsement of religious views.

The Supreme Court has previously ruled that public schools could not teach creationism, which is the belief that God created the world—according to many advocates, in six literal, 24-hour days several thousand years ago.

"Intelligent design is a non-scientific argument or assertion, made in opposition to the scientific theory of evolution, that an intelligent, supernatural actor has intervened in the history of life, and that life 'owes its origin to a master intellect,'" the suit charges.

Dover science teachers opposed the policy at the time of the board's vote, and the three board members who voted against it later resigned in protest.

The suit further contends that "Of Pandas and People" was published by a group that promotes so-called "creation science" and Christianity, and that the school board's purpose in recommending it was religious.

"As far as we know, this is the first (legal) challenge of the intelligent-design concept being taught in science classes," said Americans United spokesman Joe Conn. Intelligent design is "clearly not coming from the science community; it's coming from ideological sources," he said.

A statement posted on the school district's website said that the schools' attorney was reviewing the lawsuit and that administrators would not comment on the case until the review was completed.

The Seattle-based Discovery Institute, which promotes intelligent design, nonetheless called the Dover school policy "misguided" and said it should be "withdrawn and rewritten."

"When we first read about the Dover policy, we publicly criticized it because according to published reports the intent was to mandate the teaching of intelligent design," said John West, associate director for the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, in a Dec. 14 press release. "Although we think discussion of intelligent design should not be prohibited, we don't think intelligent design should be required in public schools.

"What should be required is full disclosure of the scientific evidence for and against Darwin's theory," he continued.

The case is Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District.

-30-

Posted: 1/07/05

TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:

Faith is foundation for all knowledge

The ongoing situations at Baylor and Louisiana College open the question of the very nature of academic freedom. Following Michael Polanyi, the late missologist Lesslie Newbigin (hardly a fundamentalist) observed: “Truth is not a fruit of freedom. It is the precondition for freedom.” In other words, freedom extends to the discovery of the truth and no further. Once the truth has been ascertained, academic freedom works within those bounds. Polanyi, a first-rate scientist, understood that all fields of knowledge—not just theology—begin on a foundation of faith. William Dembski understood this when he used Polanyi’s name for his ill-fated center at Baylor. In all fields, the sciences included, knowledge is “credo ut intelligam”—“I believe that I may know.” The question for a Christian university is not a conflict between academic excellence and “holding as a matter of faith that certain truths already are definitively settled.” The question is: Which truths are held by faith as settled, those of the Christian or those of the naturalist?

Tom Whitehouse

McAllen

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

“We're seeing devastation and death beyond belief. I've been through many disasters around the world, but I've never seen anything like this. There's really nothing to compare it to.” Michael Elmquist United Nations assistance director in Indonesia (New York Times) “If I just fed people and that's all I did–if I clothed people and that's all I did–I would be cheating people. I would be holding back the most important information that I have to give them. It would be a sin for me not to share with them my faith.” Franklin Graham Evangelist and head of Samaritan's Purse (Newsweek) “There are those people who are an anchor or a cornerstone in each congregation. Roy Honeycutt was (an anchor). At the center of his life was a deep love for the church. This love informed his scholarship, his teaching, his leadership, his service. He loved the body of Christ.” Bill Johnson Minister of spiritual formation at Crescent Hill Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., speaking at a memorial service for former Southern Seminary President Roy Honeycutt (BP)

More on the Star of Bethlehem

“Star of wonder” (Dec. 20) was correct on one point: It was subtle and unspectacular, as was the King it announced. Modern scientists attempting to explain the star of Bethlehem contradict one another, because they omit the only reliable source of information—the Bible. Left unexplained is why an eclipse or a conjunction of stars and planets should provoke Persian astrologers to undertake a journey requiring several months to accomplish (Matthew 2:16). Ordinary celestial objects cannot pause and change direction in such a manner that would guide travelers. Following a star in the eastern sky would have led the wise men in the wrong direction; an ordinary star would have led about in circles. The Bible foretold the star 1,500 years previously: “There shall come a star out of Jacob” (Numbers 24:17). The wise men could have known the prophecy of Balaam, who was a fellow Mesopotamian.

“We have seen his star in the east” should be read as, “We in the East have seen his star.” When Jesus was born, God caused a supernatural light to appear in the west, contrary to nature, seemingly rising out of Israel as seen in the east. This miracle prompted the wise men to find the fulfillment of Balaam’s prophecy. The star, specially created to announce the birth of the King of Israel, rose in the west, hung in the western sky long enough to lead the wise men to Bethlehem. Ordinary heavenly objects were as unnecessary as they were unsuited for the purpose.

Wes Duckett

Odessa

Government should maintain social order

I would like to bring up some counterpoints to the views expressed by two letters in the Nov. 1 issue of the Standard. First, the state is ordained by God to establish laws and social order (Romans 13). Marie Hartzfeld is misled about the job of government. Since our country is a government “by the people and for the people,” when we elect them, we have the right to request them to make laws that promote the social order. Gay marriage was illegal until some crackpot judges in Massachusetts decided 200-plus years of American law was wrong. Abortion was illegal until the High Court overturned it in 1973. So, I contend that it is the government’s job to maintain the social order. I am proud that in 11 states people have exercised their rights to ban gay marriage. Genesis 1 and 2 set the social order; it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. Second, I must contend with the statements made by Charles Lee Evans about our founders’ faith. While I have read these quotes before, it does not tell the whole story. I challenge my brother to read the Mayflower Compact and the Articles of Confederation of Connecticut. America was founded as a Christian nation. She is not a perfect place, because she was founded by imperfect people, but she did use Christian values and ideas to lay her foundation.

Michael L. Simons

Cleburne

Shortage of organs for transplants

This nation faces a tragic shortage of human organs for transplant operations. That shortage kills more than 6,000 Americans every year. Most of those deaths are needless. Americans donate only half the organs that could save lives and reduce suffering. They bury or cremate the rest. The solution to the organ shortage is simple: If you don’t agree to donate your organs when you die, then you go to the back of the waiting list if you ever need an organ to live. A grassroots group of organ donors called LifeSharers is making this idea a reality, one member at a time. LifeSharers is a nonprofit network of organ donors. Members agree to donate their organs when they die, and they give fellow members “first dibs” on their organs. This gives other people a strong incentive to sign donor cards and join the network. More donors means fewer deaths on the transplant waiting list. LifeSharers also helps make sure that organ donors get their fair share of organs. About 70 percent of the organs transplanted in America go to people who haven’t agreed to donate their own organs when they die. As long as we let people refuse to sign a donor card and still jump to the front of the waiting list if they need a transplant, we’ll always have an organ shortage. Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers at www.lifesharers.com. Membership is free. LifeSharers has 2,562 members, including members in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

David J. Undis

Nashville, Tenn.

U.S. was provoked

I am compelled to answer the letter written by Bob Cheateam, who said, “… we went to war with Germany, and they did not provoke us” and “Hitler did nothing to us.” Germany declared war on America shortly after America declared war on Japan following their attack on Pearl Harbor. Germany and Japan were allies. One nation declaring war against another nation certainly rises to the level of a “provocation.”

Jim Wallace

Richardson

Call country back to obey God

When our country was founded, there were no ugly or pretty people, just people with beautiful souls, seeking a homeland where they could worship God without persecution. For a number of years, we grew closer to the Lord. Then we started to do as Eve did when she was tempted by the devil. The devil told Eve, “You shall not surely die,” although God had said she would. We started to believe that same lie, that God was mistaken in how he told us to live our lives, so that we would know peace, happiness and prosperity. I noticed it first in our doctors, who used to live by their oath. I think Norman Rockwell captured the idea in one of his paintings where a family doctor had made a house call on a sick little girl. The little girl was holding up her rag doll, and the doctor was listening for the heartbeat of the doll. But now so many of the doctors are only in it for the money, as they raise the cost of office visits when you receive Medicare. Look at all the documented cases of how some have taken advantage of the system to gain greater wealth. God has told us to love one another, even love our enemies, and to return good for evil. We still think we know better. When will we learn and return back to the peace and prosperity we once knew?

Daniel Younger

Itasca

Champions of faith

Over the Christmas holiday, the world of professional sports and the body of Christ suffered two significant losses. Reggie White and Johnny Oates exemplified Christian character and stood for biblical principles.

White's intensity on the football field, and most notably his knack for punishing opposing quarterbacks, earned respect around the NFL. Yet it was his religious convictions, especially his stance against homosexuality, that drew general attention. Refusing to bow the knee to the postmodern idol of tolerance and drawing severe criticism, White refused to let go of his convictions and continued to preach that homosexuality is a sin and not a biological condition.

For every pound of intensity White had for football, Oates had a pound of intensity for baseball. He assumed the coaching reins of the mediocre Texas Rangers and led them to three division titles in six seasons. Yet Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Jim Reeves described how Oates will be remembered not only as a passionate baseball coach but as a loving husband and father who had a healthy relationship with God.

Professional sports and the American church will surely miss Johnny Oates and Reggie White. They were not only champions of the arena, but champions of the faith. Will we follow their example?

Lance Higginbotham

Arlington

Hitler's aggression

Letter writer Bob Cheateam suggested the United States went to war against Hitler's Germany without provocation (Dec. 6). Actually, Germany first declared war on us. We had little choice but to respond on Dec. 11, 1941.

For all his faults, Saddam Hussein never suggested that he was planning to initiate a war against the United States. He wasn't that stupid.

James O. Morse

Woodway

About time

I read the article about Eugene Florence (Dec. 6) with great joy and great sadness. With joy, because, at 100, he finally obtained his degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. And with sadness, because I wonder how many black students died without the blessing of getting a degree from one of the Baptist seminaries.

However, I thank God that Eugene Florence and the black students who died without a degree, probably having earned one, got an Eternal Life Degree from God the moment they accepted Jesus as Savior.

J.R. Aldape

Corpus Christi

'Body chemistry'

Your article on free teaching materials that help parents and youth ministers prevent drug abuse in teenagers (Dec. 6) is great. It's about time somebody came to the rescue and help in such serious subjects.

However, as far as the drug abuse of alcoholism, it would serve more folks by using the term “body chemistry” rather than “genetic predisposition.” That merely means one drink is enough to begin the road to becoming an alcoholic, no matter what age they start the drinking process. Drinking alcohol for any reason doesn't mean that God approves of such activity.

Dorothy Taylor

Lockhart

Heathen theories

Anybody who teaches the “evolution of man” is making God a liar (1 John 5:10).

God created Adam to be an adult male without parents and Eve to be an adult female made from the bones and flesh of Adam. That is the record God left behind of his son Adam to be the progenitor of Immanuel, called Christ.

Evolution theory is for animals/ beasts, and Neanderthals were the highest form of animal/beast. They were never the progenitors of Adam and Eve, who were created in the image of God with a soul.

Because scientists disavow God in their sciences, they have dug pitfalls for their own heathen-concocted theories and have caused our teachers and academic professors to practice making God a liar, which is satanic.

B.D. Norman

Dallas

Posted: 1/07/05

On the Move

Franklin Atkinson has completed an interim pastorate at Friendship Church in Marshall.

R.L. Clay has resigned as pastor of New United Church in Greenville.

Don Crum to Friendship Church in Marshall as pastor.

Bill Heston to First Church in Rising Star as interim pastor.

Posted: 1/07/05

BGCT president's tenure already bearing fruit

By Marv Knox

Editor

SAN ANTONIO–No matter what else happens this year, Albert Reyes' tenure as president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas will hold eternal consequences for Homer Carrejo and his family.

Reyes and Carrejo met when they were 14-year-olds in Corpus Christi, but they lost touch years ago.

Then Reyes got elected president of the BGCT last November, and Carrejo saw a newspaper story about him.

Carrejo tracked down his friend at Baptist University of the Americas, where Reyes is president. Until then, neither knew they both lived in San Antonio.

They reunited after 18 years and brought their families together. Soon, the Reyeses invited the Carrejos to visit their church, Trinity Baptist in San Antonio.

During a Christmas holiday trip, Reyes received good news from his pastor, Charlie Johnson.

“Charlie called me on my cell phone,” Reyes recalled. “He said: 'Albert, I have good news. I just left the Carrejos' house, and all four of them prayed to receive Christ as their Savior.'”

So, when the Carrejo family stands in Trinity's baptistery, Reyes will celebrate their birth into the kingdom of God.

The Carrejos' conversion experience represents in microcosm Reyes' goals for his tenure as BGCT president. He wants Texas Baptists to do everything they can to reach people for Christ.

At the end of the year, one of the BGCT's major headlines will be “Texas Baptists reinvented themselves,” Reyes predicted, pointing to the convention's biggest reorganization in 50 years.

This year, BGCT messengers will consider a second vote on constitutional revisions, as well as new bylaws. In the meantime, BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade will reorganize the convention staff to implement new mission, vision, values and priorities statements.

“My role is to make sure we don't forget to do what we said we would do” in reorganization, Reyes said.

Part of the reorganization plan is controversial, he acknowledged, noting Baptists in West Texas and rural East Texas are concerned about representation on the Executive Board.

“We need to ensure that everyone is fully informed and heard, that Texas Baptists can support the reorganization,” he said. “But I want us to keep our focus where it needs to be. Being a Baptist does not mean being a better organization. That's just a means to an end, and the end is to glorify God through missions.”

And that, Reyes hopes, will be the topic of the other three headlines that will summarize the BGCT in 2005: Texas Baptists prayed, went and gave to support missions.

Prayer provides the grounding for missions, he explained. “Every time we meet, I'm going to ask our people to pray. We need to pray for people without Christ. We need to pray for missions, whether it's across the street or all the way to Southeast Asia. And we need to pray for unity in our Baptist family as we work through our governance/reorganization situation.”

Reyes will ask Texas Baptists to “Pray the 5th” by gathering in Austin for a prayer rally May 5, the National Day of Prayer.

“If possible, we will meet on the steps of the Capitol or at one of our Texas Baptist churches in Austin,” he said. “This gives us one thing all of us can do together–pray for our state, pray for people who need Christ, pray for convention unity.

“If you can't make it to Austin, go to your church to pray, gather with others in your community and pray.”

Texas Baptists also need to put feet to their prayers by going on missions and crossing cultures with the gospel, Reyes stressed. He envisions Texas Baptists going to minister to victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami. He urged BGCT institutions, churches and individuals not only to pray for the people of that region, but also to go and help them.

“I hope we'll see wave after wave of churches and institutions going there; it's such a huge area, and the needs are so vast,” he said. “God didn't cause this tragedy to happen. But since it has happened, it's time for us to rise up and do what we do best.”

He also hopes sensitivity gained by the tsunami disaster will help Texas Baptists to “be aware of the other cultures around us” and serve all Texans more effectively.

Financial giving is vital if Texas Baptists are going to do missions as they should, Reyes said. He is urging the convention to conduct a campaign to promote the Cooperative Program, the BGCT's missions/ministry budget.

“Texas Baptists can do more together than we can do apart,” he insisted. “The money we give through the BGCT supports missions in Texas and around the world. And every Texas Baptist can be involved in missions–from Texas to the other side of the world.”

Reyes pointed to missions resources, saying: "One of the best ways to get connected to missions is through WorldconneX. I want to invite every Texas Baptist who wants to be involved in missions to start by visiting the WorldconneX website (www.worldconnex.org) to discover how to directly connect to missions locally and globally."

Missions is Reyes' passion, and it's the BGCT's stack pole, he said. “If we don't stand together for missions, we lose our vitality, passion and purpose for being a family.”

Expect him to explain that to the Carrejo family very soon.

Posted: 1/07/05

Baptist Standard has a new look

The Baptist Standard begins 2005 with a new look, and its editor hopes the changes–both in appearance and content–will prompt non-subscribers to take another look at the Texas Baptist news journal.

The redesigned publication features larger photos, an updated typeface, brighter paper, a new banner and logos intended to make the paper more user-friendly and appealing to readers. But Editor Marv Knox insists the changes run deeper than type styles and paper stock.

“We hope the redesigned Baptist Standard signals the beginning of a new era in Texas Baptist life,” he said. “The Baptist General Convention of Texas has been involved for more than a year in a re-visioning process. Our convention's leaders have spoken of the need to move beyond the controversies and conflicts of the past and to follow the vision Texas Baptists believe God has given them. Likewise, the Baptist Standard wants to focus on the future and report on how that vision becomes reality.”

New elements include:

An in-depth cover story exploring a missions opportunity, ministry challenge, developing trend or other topic of interest to Texas Baptists.

Practical articles featuring ideas that have worked for churches and could be a model for others to follow. “We already have been telling many of these inspiring stories, but we want to do a better job of packaging them so readers can take the ideas and run with them,” Knox said.

A brief, concise overview of national news in the print edition. For up-to-date, comprehensive coverage–including expanded versions of some condensed articles–visit the Baptist Standard website at baptiststandard.com.

Book, music, movie and software reviews designed to help Texas Baptists engage the larger culture. “We want to spark a dialogue, not deliver a monologue,” Knox said. In addition to feature stories about authors and artists, the Standard will encourage everyday Texas Baptists to tell other readers briefly what they are listening to, watching and reading–and why it's worth their time, he explained.

The Baptist Standard will continue to provide Bible study commentaries for the BaptistWay, LifeWay Family Bible and LifeWayExplore the Bible series, but the lessons will appear only on the website, not in the print edition.

Due to paper and printing costs, devoting three pages to the lessons in the print edition no longer was feasible, Knox said.

“We recognize the importance of providing a Texas Baptist perspective on the Bible study lessons, and we remain committed to making these lessons available on our website,” he said.

“We encourage ministers of education, Sunday school superintendents, teachers and others who have Internet access to download and print multiple copies of the lessons and distribute them to church members who may not have access to them.”