Posted: 6/16/04

Land wants Southern Baptists to 'vote values'

By Randy Cowling

Kansas-Nebraska Digest

INDIANAPOLIS—In a year when citizens have the opportunity to choose their president and many other public officials, more than one-third of Southern Baptists are not registered to vote, said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission

Land, who recently completed 15 years with the ERLC, called on Southern Baptists to register and to vote their values.

"We believe it is absolutely essential that Christians be involved in the public policy process," Land said. "We face issues of titanic importance. This is a life-changing election cycle in the United States.

"Voting is an act of stewardship. We can reclaim America for the Lord Jesus Christ."

The ERLC has launched the iVote Values initiative to help Christians examine critical issues.

The campaign features an 18-wheel tractor-trailer that will travel across the country. The 67-foot-long "iVote rig" is loaded with digital capabilities, interactive games, online voter registration, multi-media screens and non-partisan voter information.

The tractor-trailer will travel to key American cities to promote voter awareness. The ERLC has joined forces with the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family for three simulcast events, the first of which will be from Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn.

Land encouraged Southern Baptists visit www.iVoteValues.com to get more information about the initiative.

Posted: 6/16/04

Draper warns of serious challenges confronting SBC

By Tony Martin

(Mississippi) Baptist Record

INDIANAPOLIS—LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention has seen many accomplishments recently, but it serves a denomination that faces serious challenges, according to LifeWay President Jimmy Draper.

In a candid address to messengers at the SBC annual meeting, Draper countered reports of expanding programs at the Southern Baptist publishing house with concerns about the denomination's future.

Among LifeWay's accomplishments, Draper said, are the more than 100,000 professions of faith churches saw as a result of Vacation Bible School, the opening of 10 new LifeWay Christian Stores and the production of more short-term Bible studies, such as Extreme Love and Know Fear.

"It's a great privilege to be a part of what God is doing at LifeWay," Draper said. "God has allowed us to present a great new translation of the Bible—the Holman Christian Standard—and we've been able to present copies to all of our seminary students."

But Southern Baptist churches serve in a country where people are confused about God, said Draper, who blended personal comments with video segments. Several "man in the street" video interviews showed the confusion many people have with such familiar themes as sin or life after death.

"A lot of people just don't 'get' God," Draper said. "They don't understand him. As a result, they don't know what sin is or what happens when we die."

Concerning the "culture wars," Draper said, "At Columbine High School, school administrators pried up 90 of the 2,100 ceramic tiles in a school highway which were painted with messages referring back to the massacre there. The offense? The tiles were painted with messages such as 'God is love,' and they were deemed objectionable.

"They're reflecting the culture. The business of the day is situational ethics; the sport of the day is hedonism; and the religion of the day is moral equivalence. Two-thirds of Americans believe Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists are simply praying to the same God by a different name. We're to engage the culture. Are we able to rise to the challenge?"

But challenges don't exist just beyond the church or denomination, he added, citing what he called his two greatest areas of concern.

"One is the decrease in baptisms for the fourth consecutive year," he said. "It reflects a denomination that has lost its focus. More than 10,000 churches didn't baptize a soul. There's a lack of urgency in our churches to baptize. Many people say that a profession of faith is enough. But perhaps our denomination is simply failing to reach people for Christ."

Draper's second concern dealt with demographics.

"Walk around this building and notice how many people you see who are under the age of 40," he said.

"There's not many. There is a lack of denominational involvement and loyalty among young ministers. We haven't shown them the relevancy of being Southern Baptist.

"We battle in many churches over trivial issues like forms of worship or who's in charge. The younger folks may not do it the way you and I do it, but who said our way is the only way to do it?"

Draper also asked how non-Southern Baptists perceive the denomination and its churches.

"How do others view us?" he asked. "We should be proud of our stand on the authority of Scripture, our affirmation of the Baptist Faith and Message, our faithfulness to sound doctrine in the face of a cultural backlash. At the same time, many people see Southern Baptists against everything and trusting no one—even each other.

"The struggle for the last 25 years in this convention was for scriptural fidelity, and we won," Draper continued. "Now let's do something with this victory. Let's pass it on to the next generation."

In the final video segment Draper shared, a young pastor named Jeff asked, "Is there a place for us at the table?" referring to the future of the Southern Baptist Convention.

"I don't know about you, but that question hits me in the gut," said Draper. "All they (the young pastors in the video) are asking for is a voice, to help determine the future direction of the Southern Baptist Convention.

"There needs to be a greater connection between them and those of us in positions of leadership, from the associational level to the state convention and on to the Southern Baptist Convention," Draper stated.

Draper concluded his report by asking all the ministers 44 years old and younger to stand. Then, he asked older ministers, 45 and above, to "go and put your arm around these young men, get their names, and pledge to pray for them daily." He closed by praying a blessing over the younger ministers.

Posted: 6/15/04

Criswell professor contends Luke not a gentile

By Keith Hinson

Baptist Press

INDIANAPOLIS (BP)—The New Testament book of Hebrews probably was written by Luke who was Jewish—not gentile as is widely believed, said David Allen, professor of preaching at Criswell College.

"I am suggesting to you that the entire New Testament was written by Jewish believers; there's not a gentile in the bunch," Allen told the Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship gathering in Indianapolis prior to the June 15-16 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting.

"Nowhere in the New Testament is Luke given an ethnic background. Nowhere are we told that Luke is a gentile. It is an assumption that New Testament scholars have been making for several hundred years," said Allen, who will become dean of the School of Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary on Aug. 1.

"We are not even told during the early church, during the patristic period … that Luke was a gentile. That is an assumption we make."

Allen acknowledged many Bible scholars have concluded Luke is a gentile because of a reference in Colossians 4:10 to "they of the circumcision" followed by a separate reference to Luke a few verses later.

"This is not a supposition; it is an inference," said Allen, director of the Jerry Vines Institute of Preaching at Criswell College.

He cited a variety of biblical, linguistic and historical scholarship and evidence to support his belief in Luke's authorship of Hebrews, as well as Luke's Jewishness.

During a business meeting, the fellowship elected as officers: president, David Hecht of Panama City, Fla., a student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, N.C.; vice president, Jim Sibley, coordinator of Jewish ministries for the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board; secretary, Diana Owen, a graduate student at Criswell College; and Penny Isbell, a member of Beth El Shaddai Messianic Congregation in Bessemer, Ala.

Posted: 6/11/04

Church starts in Belton, San Antonio
get boost from CBF, BGCT, local associations

By Craig Bird

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

DALLAS–Two innovative church-starting efforts in Texas recently got a $60,000 boost from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

A weeks-old congregation promoting itself as “a unique Baptist experience” in Belton received $10,000, and a church launch effort in the late stages of planning in San Antonio received $50,000.

“These are just two more opportunities God has given us to join with the Baptist General Convention of Texas and with local associations in planting strategic churches,” said Phil Hester, the Fellowship's associate coordinator for church starts. “We are excited to be able to partner in this way.”

The San Antonio project was sparked by the San Antonio Baptist Association, which approached the BGCT Church Multiplication Center with the need.

Hester conducted a focus-group study to identify the prime location–a booming area in the northwest part of the city.

“This church's evangelism focus will be among the professional, English-speaking Hispanics,” said Abe Zabaneh, director of the Church Multiplication Center.

“We have done a few other plants like this, including Northwest Baptist Church in San Antonio.”

The BGCT has invested $50,000 in the project.

Hope Community Church in Belton held its first service the Sunday after Easter. The 66 who attended included numerous “boosters” from other congregations, according to Pastor Mike Bergman. The next two Sundays, attendance leveled off to a core group of 35.

The church will be built around small groups heading up various ministries, such as global outreach, resource management, students and discipleship.

Some of the grant from the Fellowship helped fund a pilot program to train small groups with Lifetogether Ministries, an organization dedicated to launching and sustaining a healthy small-group movement in churches of all denominations across the country and around the world.

The BGCT earlier made a $10,000 grant to the church, in addition to providing monthly support.

Bell Baptist Association also provides monthly support.

Hope Community Church just signed a contract to purchase a 10-acre tract of land in a prime location.

The BGCT Church Multiplication Center is expected to provide funds to underwrite part of that expense.

Posted: 6/11/04

Importance of discipleship
emphasized at Hispanic Baptist Convocation

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

AUSTIN–Men of faith follow God's word and take to heart Christ's commandment to make disciples, speakers told participants at the Hispanic Baptist Convocation of the Laity at Betania Baptist Church in Austin.

Christians should follow the example of Hebrew patriarch Abraham, said Jose Luis Sanchez of Goodwill Baptist Church in Temple.

Abraham believed God would provide for all of his needs, and he obediently followed God's will, Sanchez explained.

Under God's guidance, Abraham moved from his home to Canaan, and he demonstrated obedience even when he was commanded to sacrifice his son, Isaac, he continued.

“Men of faith are characterized by action,” Sanchez said during the Texas Baptist Men-sponsored event.

Several hundred Hispanic men have attended the regional meetings this year, with what could be the largest still to come in conjunction with the Hispanic Baptist Convencion meeting, June 23-26 at South Padre Island.

Action should follow God's “primary plan” of making disciples around the world, said Roland Lopez, pastor of Northwest Hispanic Baptist Church in San Antonio and professor at the Baptist University of the Americas.

Believers need to pour their biblical knowledge into others as someone once gave it to them, Lopez said.

Christian ministry is not evangelism alone, but building the faith of younger believers, he emphasized.

And for that to occur, pastors must stick to their biblical calling of “equipping the saints,” feeding “the flock” and guiding believers, Lopez continued.

“If you're not discipled, how is it you're going to be a disciple-maker?” he said.

Pastors should help Christians understand their calling to strengthen the faith of others, Lopez said. They must know they are to share their knowledge with believers and nonbelievers.

Ministers must continue feeding their congregations biblical knowledge for them to pass on, Lopez added. Believers must build their knowledge pool that can be poured into others.

“If they are going to work, they need to eat,” he said.

Finally, pastors are called to guide Christians in discipling efforts, Lopez said.

The pastor cannot reach everyone, so the minister has to steer church members in their efforts to spread the faith, he said.

If Baptist men remain committed to faith in action and pastors follow their calling, God will move mightily, Sanchez and Lopez said.

“God wants to do great things through Texas Baptist men,” Sanchez said.

Posted: 6/11/04

Bush expands faith-based
community initiatives partnership

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–President Bush has used his administrative powers to make it easier for churches and other religious organizations to receive federal money for social services.

Bush recently announced an executive order–his third since 2002–creating new "faith-based and community initiatives" offices in three federal agencies. The creation of such offices in the Department of Veterans' Affairs, the Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration brings to 10 the number of federal departments with liaison offices for religious charities.

Bush also ordered those agencies to remove administrative and procedural barriers to churches and other thoroughly religious groups applying for, and receiving, funding for social-services programs they administer.

Bush's plan for faith-based initiatives has been a centerpiece of his domestic policy since he took office in 2001. But the plan largely has been thwarted in Congress, where legislators' concerns over church-state separation and religious discrimination in hiring have stymied bills to accomplish it.

“So, I got frustrated and signed an executive order” accomplishing many of the same goals, Bush said.

Bush was addressing nearly 2,000 clergy and other religious-charity leaders who had gathered in Washington for a national conference on government partnerships with faith-based charities. The White House previously hosted a dozen similar regional conferences around the country.

In a speech that the supportive crowd frequently punctuated with applause and shouts of “amen,” Bush lamented previous government barriers to deeply religious groups receiving federal social-service funds.

“I believe it is in the national interest that government stand side-by-side with people of faith who work to change lives for the better,” Bush said. “I understand in the past, some in government have said government cannot stand side-by-side with people of faith. … I viewed this as not only bad social policy–because policy bypassed the great works of compassion and healing that take place–I viewed it as discrimination. And we needed to change it.”

Noting “we're changing the culture here in America,” Bush touted the $1.1 billion in grants federal agencies gave to faith-based organizations in 2003–a 15 percent increase, he said, over the previous year.

Bush and other supporters of the faith-based plan argue religious groups should be able to compete for federal funds on a “level playing field” with secular charities.

They also contend faith-based groups are more efficient at delivering social services than government agencies, although recent studies on the subject have shown little difference in results between secular and religious service providers.

“Governments can hand out money. But governments cannot put love in a person's heart or a sense of purpose in a person's life,” Bush said.

“The truth of the matter is that comes when a loving citizen puts their arm around a brother and sister in need and says, 'I love you, and God loves you, and together we can perform miracles.'”

Federal case law has long held that government cannot fund religious proselytizing, education or worship activities because that would violate the First Amendment's ban on government support for religion.

Bush repeatedly has said his program would not provide funds for prohibited activities.

The plan's critics argue it would be nearly impossible for the government to monitor churches or other small religious charities to make sure no government money was going to such activities. They also contend such monitoring would cause unconstitutional entanglement between the government and religious groups.

But Bush has said that debate misses the point–the ultimate goal is to provide the best services possible to the needy.

“If you're a results-oriented debater, you say, all I care about is making sure that the addict receives help. And if it takes changing a person's heart to change addiction, we ought to welcome the power that changes a person's heart in our society,” he said.

Posted: 6/11/04

Leading worship offers Johnson
oppportunity to share struggles, victories

By Leann Callaway

Special to the Baptist Standard

GRAPEVINE–Any given week, Jeff Johnson can be found leading worship at Bible studies in several North Texas churches, sandwiched between DiscipleNow weekends, camps, conferences and retreats.

Sunday nights, he leads worship for a college Bible study at University Baptist Church in Fort Worth. Monday nights, he leads worship for Dallas Metro Bible study at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano. Twice a month, he leads Sunday morning worship at Fellowship of Stonebridge, a new church in McKinney. And that doesn't even include serving at his home church, 121 Community Church in Grapevine.

He also has led worship for Baptist General Convention of Texas student missions gatherings and a fall retreat for the student ministries of the Baptist Convention of New York, as well as participating in a mission trip to southern Australia, where he led worship for a chapel being started on the ski slopes.

While leading worship, Johnson shares his life experiences in hopes of connecting students to Christ.

“I have found that when I share my life struggles, it is more powerful than any textbook wisdom that I could ever share,” he explained.

“Sometimes it's a hard thing to do, but it allows people to relate to something real so they can connect with someone who is even more real–Jesus.”

Johnson was reared in a Lutheran church, but when he was at Texas Tech University, he began attending Indiana Avenue Baptist Church in Lubbock and the Paradigm Bible study for students. He believes God used those influences–along with the Passion conference for students–to change his life.

At Passion '98, Johnson realized that while he had been taught about God all of his life and attended church, he didn't have a personal relationship with Christ.

“Christy Nockels (of Watermark) was singing a song called 'Knowing You,' and it was the words of the song that impacted me,” he said. “I knew so much about God growing up in church, but I did not actually know Christ as my Savior. Through this song, I was also inspired to be on stage–singing about him and proclaiming who he is.”

At the Passion event, Johnson also learned worship is more than music; it is a lifestyle that glorifies God through a daily walk with Christ. That idea has become the central theme of his message as a worship leader.

“The most important thing when talking of worship and music is to understand that worship is not just music … although music can speak directly to people when nothing else can,” he said. “Music is a powerful form of communication, and it is often a way for people to remember words and messages. It is a way for us to be ushered into God's throne room and to allow us to respond to what God is doing in our lives.”

After graduating from Texas Tech, Johnson was ready to enter a business career. But when he went for a job interview, he became convinced God had other plans.

“I applied for a position at a bank and interviewed with a man named Michael Moss,” he explained. “After seeing my resume and noting that I was on a church praise team (at Indiana Avenue), Michael mentioned that he was helping to start a church in the Dallas area and asked if I would want to help with the music side. After talking for an hour about the church start and nothing about the job at the bank, I felt God calling me to Dallas to be a part of 121 Community Church.”

Johnson moved to the Dallas area to lead worship part-time at 121 Community Church while beginning a career with a computer programming company. The church began in 1999 with 49 people meeting in small groups in area homes. Today, 121 Community Church in Grapevine has three Sunday morning services.

After three years of working full-time in the corporate world and leading worship only on the weekends, Johnson prayed for God's direction as he felt called to begin an itinerant ministry.

“It was a huge step of faith,” he said. “I left the company I was working for in November 2002, and I began walking in God's will. If there is one word to proclaim what God has been throughout the course of my life, it is 'faithful.' God rewards his children greatly for listening to him and following his will and not our own. He will always provide, and that has been amazing to experience.”

As God continued opening doors for Johnson, it led to the production of a worship CD, “Shaken.” Johnson wrote the title song as an expression of his desire that people become so shaken by God's love they can't help but be moved to the next step in their walk with him.

“My prayer is wherever God leads, I would be able to look back and say that he used my life to make his name known,” Johnson said. “I am thankful every day for where God has brought me and for the opportunities to lead worship. I pray that the music I make promotes the kingdom, changes lives and leads people to a deeper love of our Creator and our Savior.”

Posted: 6/11/04

Rose Nanyonga:
Healing spirits

By George Henson

Staff Writer

DALLAS–Rose Nanyonga's faith pilgrimage has been a journey of transformation–from an African witch doctor-in-training to a nursing student in Dallas.

She attends classes at Baylor University's Louise Herrington School of Nursing and works as a nurse at Baylor Medical Center's universal intensive care unit–a striking departure from her beginnings as a witch doctor's acolyte in Uganda.

She still is uncertain how her father was able to get her approved for witchcraft training, which usually is restricted to males. But she knows a witch doctor's prophesy before she was conceived played a part.

“My mother had four sons and no daughters, so she was taken to the witch doctor. My father was on the verge of turning her out because daughters were valued for the dowry they would bring at marriage. The witch doctor told my mother she would have a girl, and she would be significant to the family,” Nanyonga recalled.

Her training as a witch doctor began when she was about 8 years old, just after her mother died. Nanyonga's family went to great expense in paying trainers, building a shrine used exclusively for training exercises and paying for large semi-annual gatherings where family members monitored her progress. But they knew if she succeeded in training, as a female witch doctor she would have celebrity status and could command top price for her services.

“The family had risked a lot, but they would soon be seeing a lot of gain for that,” she explained. “I would become a witch doctor and a famous witch doctor that people would come from across the country to see. They would have to pay a lot to see me, and my family would gain ultimately and become very rich.”

Every training session began with cleansing rituals in which she was covered with animal blood. Her training was about two things–learning about plants with healing properties and learning self-discipline.

“There was a great deal of focus on discipline. That was the reason for the cleansing process–to make you a good medium and a conduit for the spirits,” she said.

The spiritual turning point in her life began when she was about 15 years old. She was sitting in a class alone reading, when, she believes, she heard a voice distinctly saying: “You must be born again.”

“I had been trained to hear voices as a witch doctor, so the first time I thought it must be the spirits. That didn't feel right, though,” she recalled.

After hearing the voice again, she told her father about it and asked what the message meant. He referred her to witchcraft instructors, who adamantly told her not to listen to such voices.

A month later, a Christian evangelistic crusade came to the village. And the message they were preaching was familiar: “You must be born again.”

She initially resisted the message but accepted the gift of a Bible, which she read from cover to cover in three days. And she began attending worship services at the Christian church in the village.

Her father said it was fine for her to attend church services, as long as it did not interfere with her witch doctor training.

For two years, it didn't. Each week, Nanyonga entered the church, sat in the back and did not speak to anyone.

“Looking back, I am so glad I went to those church services. I think hearing that teaching for those two years–something was getting through. Even though I was not offering any challenges to my teachers, a change was taking place inside me,” she said.

“During that second year, I became aware that the two worlds I was trying to live in were a total opposite, and I could not be a part of those two worlds. I had to choose between them.

“Witchcraft runs so deep that if the spirits said sacrifice a child, you had to sacrifice a child. In many aspects, it was a dark world, where Christ was a world of light.”

Still, leaving witchcraft was a difficult decision.

“I was passionate about my role as a witch doctor. I had learned a lot,” she said. “I had mastered the discipline. I was a person of stature. I was the hope of my family. I was the person who was going to make everything all right.”

Finally, she decided to embrace Christianity openly. She told the pastor of the village church that if he would stay and pray with her, she would skip the upcoming family gathering to celebrate her training as a witch doctor.

“When we had these large gatherings, the family would travel many miles to be there, but nothing would begin until I entered the shrine,” she recalled. “Then the alarm would sound, letting everyone know that the ceremony would begin. This time my family met and waited and waited and waited. I didn't show up.”

When she returned home, her father was furious.

“I've never seen a man so angry. I was frightened,” she said. “He threatened to kill everybody–the pastor, other Christians, anyone who was influencing me. He threatened to close the church. In the end, he locked me up.”

One of Nanyonga's brothers was foreman at a remote cotton gin. She was taken there and locked in a storage room with only a mattress, a blanket and just enough food to keep her alive.

Her father and brothers threatened every Christian in the village with death if they ever spoke to Nanyonga again. But one Christian found out where she had been taken. He came and slipped her pieces of paper with Bible verses on them. She read them, meditated on them and then ate them to keep her family from discovering the evidence.

After 30 days of isolation, she was brought before a disciplinary committee made up of her family and the village elders.

Her father made a lengthy speech, stating his reasons why his daughter should obey his wishes. Then he told the assembled gathering that she should be given three days to decide.

“If you continue this path of Christianity, you will no longer be a part of the family or the village,” he told her.

“I don't think I've ever felt as lost as I did those three days,” she said. “I was so angry at whoever this God was, whoever this Jesus Christ was. When you first hear the gospel, it's always about the hope and the joy. They don't tell you about the sacrifice and the struggle that can be involved. I didn't know if this Christianity was worth it.”

Making matters worse, Nan-yonga had always been taught that if she ever turned her back on witchcraft, the spirits would kill her. And she felt sure if the spirits didn't, her father and brothers would.

“I thought I was going to die, and I began to realize that I wanted to die for something more liberating than enslaving. So, I went on faith. … I finally decided that if God was who he said he was, he was worth dying for,” she said.

After three days, she appeared before the assembly. She told them she wanted to remain in the village as a Christian.

Her father said that would not be allowed. She was not killed, but she was cast out.

“I became a disgrace. As I left, everyone spit on me. I walked out of there not knowing where I was going,” she remembered.

She did not go to the other Christians in the village for fear she would bring reprisals on them. She simply started walking. She walked for a week, sleeping in the bush with no food or water.

Finally, on the verge of collapse many miles from home, she stopped at a hut to beg for food and water. She recognized the woman who answered the door as the mother of a Christian in her home village.

The woman took her in for a month. Then a Christian she had known in school told her about a missionary from Belfast, Ireland, who was looking for help to set up a clinic about 60 kilometers away.

The woman gave her money for transportation, and Nanyonga met the people who she now refers to as her Irish parents, Ian and Ruby Clarke.

“It was so far away from my family and people who would know me. It was a place to start over,” she said.

She worked with them for the next few years, and their relationship evolved into much more than coworkers. They became the family she had lost.

“My Irish family recognized I had potential and enrolled me in nursing school in Uganda,” she said.

After graduating in 1995, she returned to what had grown to be a hospital and also began working at a nearby orphanage.

In 1998, she came to the United States with a performing group of children from the orphanage who came to spread awareness about the AIDS epidemic.

During that trip, she met a congressman. He helped her make connections that ultimately resulted in a scholarship to a nursing school in Arkansas.

Nanyonga's desire is to return to Uganda and make changes in public health care policy. To be heard, she will need at least a master's degree, she explained.

After learning of Baylor's family nurse practitioner program, she knew it was what she had been looking for. After financial aid was established, she enrolled and is set to graduate in about a year.

Nanyonga sees the hand of God evident in her life.

“This is not my own doing. I couldn't really have played any part of it,” she said.

She still is estranged from much of her African family, although she reconciled with her father three days before his death.

“There was no anger left in his eyes, just a lot of sadness. On his death bed, he reached out and said, 'Rose, I'm sorry.' That was more liberating that 100 'I love yous.'”

But even more liberating, she said, was the love of her heavenly Father, whose love reached a witch doctor in the heart of Africa.

Posted: 6/11/04

Federal judge declares partial-birth
abortion ban law unconstitutional

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

SAN FRANCISCO (ABP)–A federal judge in California has declared unconstitutional a law that attempts to ban “partial-birth” abortion procedures.

Federal District Judge Phyllis Hamilton of San Francisco ruled the law–passed last year by Congress and signed into law by President Bush–was unconstitutionally vague in its definitions of the acts and procedures it prohibits.

Hamilton accepted virtually all the arguments put forth by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which filed suit to block the law.

She also said the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act violates previous Supreme Court and appeals-court decisions requiring any law limiting abortion procedures to grant exceptions in cases where a woman's health may be at risk.

In addition, Hamilton determined the law is unconstitutional because it bans procedures physicians could be forced to use due to complications from otherwise legal abortion procedures, which she said would discourage abortion providers from performing all abortions.

Most obstetric and gynecological experts do not use the term “partial-birth abortion,” referring instead to “intact dilation and extraction.”

It occurs when a fetus is partially removed from its mother's womb, and then a medical instrument is inserted into its skull to enable the physician to suction out its contents, thus decompressing the skull and making it easier to remove the fetus from the mother's body.

However, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act does not explicitly ban only intact dilation and extraction procedures, making the law too vague, Hamilton stated in her decision.

"Accordingly, the court concludes that the definition of 'partial-birth abortion' contained in the act encompasses several second-trimester abortion procedures" in addition to intact dilation and extraction, she wrote. Physicians may perform each element contained in the act's definition in the course not only of certain induction abortions, but also in the treatment of spontaneous miscarriages, she noted.

In faulting the law for its chilling effect on all abortion procedures, Hamilton said, “A majority of the physicians who testified noted that because they 'fear prosecution, conviction and imprisonment,' the wide net cast by the act could have and has already had the effect of impacting all pre-viability second trimester abortion services that they provide to their patients.

“Even if this court were to accept the government's argument that the phrase 'partial-birth abortion,' as used by Congress, is commonly associated with the intact D&E procedure, the use of that phrase does not limit the scope of the act to intact D&Es.”

Congress attempted to get around the constitutional restrictions by including a set of “findings of fact” along with the bill. The findings–drawn from the testimony of physicians who oppose the procedure–concluded the procedure was never medically necessary to preserve a woman's health.

However, conclusive studies on the rare procedure do not exist, and many other medical professionals and organizations disagree.

The White House quickly condemned Hamilton's decision.

“Partial-birth abortion is an abhorrent procedure that must be ended once and for all,” Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, said in a statement released shortly after the ruling became public.

Noting the law passed with large, bipartisan majorities in both the House and Senate, McClellan continued: “The president strongly disagrees with today's California court ruling. … The president is committed to building a culture of life in America, and the administration will take every necessary step to defend this law in the courts.”

Other abortion opponents went further in their criticism of the decision, claiming Hamilton was attempting to thwart democracy.

“The decision … is a sign that courts are not afraid to ignore democratically enacted laws in favor of the abortion-on-demand agenda,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Family Research Council. “Her decision is not simply a threat to unborn children but to the democratic process.”

Both Perkins and Christian Coalition President Roberta Combs took special note that Hamilton was an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, an abortion-rights supporter.

Justice Department officials vowed to appeal the decision. Similar lawsuits opposing the law are pending in federal courts in Nebraska and New York, and the case is likely to end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hamilton's ruling applies to about 900 Planned Parenthood clinics around the country, as well as Planned Parenthood physicians performing abortions in other facilities.

Judges already had halted enforcement of the law's penalties on physicians, pending the case's ultimate outcome.

Posted: 6/11/04

Postmodernism is about seeing
the mortar between the bricks

By Jonathan Petty

Wayland Baptist University

PLAINVIEW–Wayland University's Micheal Summers explains postmodernism by pointing to a brick wall.

"Postmodernism is really looking at the structures that modernity built and saying that the bricks are not what matter. It's the mortar … (that) allows you to place the bricks however you want to place them," says Summers, who offers seminars on postmodernism and its effect on the church.

Postmoderns focus on building relationships and connections–an ideal that directly affects how the church as an organization relates to the church as the body of Christ, he adds.

Summers, director of church services at Wayland, knows some people view postmodernism as a generational peculiarity or passing fad. But he believes postmodernism is here to stay.

“The reality is that it is here and it is not going away,” he says. “It is a worldview concept some philosophers believe will last 2,000 to 5,000 years, if not longer. The tab in human history is modernity, not postmodernism.”

Summers agrees with pastors, scholars and theologians who predict the 21st century will see a return to the “apostolic” model of the church, in which Christians focus on making disciples instead of converts.

“The church rolls are full of converts that we see in the pew week after week,” Summers says. “To the postmodern mind, that is invalid. If it is something you believe with all your heart, mind, soul and spirit, then you have to demonstrate it through your life.”

It's not enough for a postmodern thinker to read the Bible or listen to a sermon and take what is said or read as absolute. Instead, the postmodern mind will only accept it if it is demonstrated, he explains.

“These younger generations who have been raised with all of this multiple input and diversity see non-Christian world religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam that are much more committed and demonstrate their faith daily in a visible way,” Summers says. “They look at the Christianity that they grew up with and see nothing but people telling them not to do something, then turning around and doing it.

“There is no huge difference in our divorce rates between those who claim to be churched and those who don't, … in our teenage alcohol rates, … in our teen pregnancy rates. We are not seeing a distinction of the lifestyle of those who profess to be Christians from those who don't. For the postmodern, that has invalidated the authenticity of the gospel.”

Fred Meeks, chairperson of Wayland University's religion and philosophy division, observes this type of thinking also influences the classroom.

“Rather than talking about authorities and standards, people are far more concerned about personality issues,” Meeks says. “They want to know how you feel about things. Sometimes, for students, where authority comes from is the person making these comments. Is he an authentic person? Is he perceived to be an authentic person?”

The key to reaching these students is to open up personally, revealing your own weaknesses and thoughts, Meeks suggests.

“Coming across as a know-it-all with all the answers can cause problems. But if you say: 'Look. This is my position, and here is why I think this way. I respect your right to disagree.' It appears that students are more open to this mindset.”

Many popular church-growth models don't fit postmodern thinking, Summers notes.

“Postmodernism doesn't define church growth by numbers or statistics,” he says. “The church-growth movement is purpose-driven. It says you have a purpose, and it can give you the steps: 1-2-3-4-5. Postmodernism is passion-driven, and there is only one step: Walk with God.”

Postmodern thinkers use experiences, participation and images to build connections. And postmoderns use images as symbols, Summers says. “What postmoderns are looking for is a symbolic image that means something.”

For instance, Summers uses Play-Doh molding clay to illustrate being shaped by God's hands. A postmodern sees the Play-Doh and knows it is always malleable and changeable, just as a postmodern Christian sees his relationship with God as ever-changing.

“They can understand it. They have to be willing for God to remake them and reform them for another task in their life,” Summers says.

When it comes to choosing a church, postmoderns will seek out a form or style of worship that best shapes their relationship with God. But Meeks points out there are pitfalls to certain “cafeteria style–something for everybody” forms of worship.

“The biggest criticism we have of user-friendly churches that do anything to get you to come is that they leave out the key things that Jesus required of all of his disciples–commitment and sacrifice,” Meeks says.

Chris Seay, pastor of the postmodern Ecclesia church in Houston, agrees. He sees danger in offering Bible studies that are “divorced from the church” and offering worship apart from accountability.

“It's really a strange thing to get together with people and study Scripture and read it and not have any sense of structure and accountability,” Seay says. “That scares the heck out of me.”

This approach becomes a “hyper-individualistic pursuit of faith,” he observes.

“People are really saying: 'It is just about getting my needs met.' And that is what much of the church-growth movement is founded on. They are saying faith is an inward journey of having our 'needs' met.”

People need to realize many of their felt needs aren't needs at all, but “wants,” Seay insists. “Our only real needs are to love God and love our neighbor, and these are outward things.”

Meeks says it is a challenge to maintain the integrity of basic theology while accommodating the changing environment.

“How do we find a way in this postmodern world to say to them, 'You want a meaningful relationship'?” Meeks asks. “What better place to offer that than a church built on the model of Koinonia, with genuine fellowship.”

Posted: 6/11/04

Austin-based Salvador wants
to point listeners to the Savior

By Leann Callaway

Special to the Baptist Standard

AUSTIN–The Latin-flavored, Austin-based worship band Salvador has played the big venues–Billy Graham evangelistic crusades and Promise Keepers rallies.

But lead singer Nic Gonzales insists he and his colleagues stay grounded by focusing on Jesus Christ.

“When people talk to us, they realize that we're very, very normal,” he said. “I eat what everybody else eats. I dress just like everybody else. I think that the sincerity of being normal people has helped us a lot.

“People feel like they can talk to us on an everyday basis. Even though I don't know all the people who come to our shows, I think by the end of the show, people feel like they know us.”

Gonzales said the band's desire is to honor God through their music and to create a worship experience for their audiences.

“We want people to have a night of true worship,” he explained.

“On stage, we're not trying to be cool or be something we're not, because it's not about us. We just want people to honor God every night.”

Before each concert, the band has a devotional and prayer time together.

“After that, we have a little bit of quiet time where we turn everything off in our hotel rooms or on the bus, and we each have our own quiet time with the Lord,” Gonzales explained.

“Because I do the speaking at the concerts, I want to make sure I've read something that day that I can share that will hopefully minister to someone.”

Salvador's original songs are inspired by everyday living, Gonzales said.

“The people that I'm writing with and the situations in their lives have helped inspire some of the songs. Whatever that day brings for the person I'm writing with or maybe for myself, we talk about it, and we just write whatever God lays on our hearts.”

Mixing Latin rhythms with contemporary Christian music, Salvador presents a unique worship experience at their concerts.

“We want people to have a night of worship and maybe hear music that they wouldn't normally hear,” Gonzales said.

“Also, we want them to take a little bit of our heritage, maybe a little knowledge about it, back with them.”

Salvador maintains a busy touring schedule, performing 150 concerts each year.

The band will perform at the Texas Baptist Youth Evangelism Conference June 25-26 at Reunion Arena in Dallas.

“We're always on the road,” Gonzales said. “We've worked hard because we've always been taught that if you're going to do something, do it right.

“Most musicians anticipate that music will take them somewhere, but we really weren't anticipating that at all. We weren't trying to do this for a living; it just kind of happened. We were signed to a record deal when I was 21, and we went from having regular jobs and playing at our church services to performing around the country.

“When you're not looking for something to happen, that's when God will honor you, and I think that's what he did with us.”

Posted: 6/11/04

BWA withdrawal, public education
may top agenda at SBC meeting

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention June 15-16 in Indianapolis will vote on a proposal to withdraw money and membership from the Baptist World Alliance–and possibly a call to withdraw children from public schools.

Convention messengers may consider a motion to solidify SBC control over New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and will vote on a recommended change in the Annuity Board's name and scope of work.

Jack Graham, pastor of Pres-tonwood Baptist Church in Plano, will preside over the two-day meeting. Graham is completing his second and final term as the convention's chief elected leader.

Bobby Welch, pastor of First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., is the only announced nominee to succeed Graham as president.

During business sessions, messengers will vote on a recommendation from the SBC Executive Committee to pull out of the Baptist World Alliance and stop funding the 99-year-old international fellowship, effective Oct. 1.

The SBC currently provides about one-fourth of the income for the BWA, which represents 211 Baptist bodies worldwide with a combined membership of 43 million people.

A study committee, chaired by Executive Committee President Morris Chapman, recommended the withdrawal, charging the BWA with a “leftward drift” and an “anti-American tone.” The committee's recommendation–endorsed by the Executive Committee–includes a proposal that Southern Baptists create a new organization of “conservative evangelical Christians around the world.”

BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz disputed the charges leveled against the BWA, saying his organization has “rejected the theology of liberalism” and has affirmed historic Christian doctrines such as the divinity, atoning death, resurrection and second coming of Christ.

Southern Baptists led in founding the BWA in 1905, and the SBC has been its largest financial contributor, providing up to $425,000 a year. Last year, SBC messengers voted to cut funding to $300,000 and reallocated the $125,000 difference to a Southern Baptist global initiative.

Convention messengers almost certainly will consider some kind of resolution on public education. But they will have to wait until they arrive in Indianapolis to see how the SBC Resolutions Committee reconciles two opposing statements on the subject.

One resolution, submitted by attorney Bruce Shortt from North Oaks Baptist Church in Spring and T.C. Pinckney of Virginia, urges Southern Baptist parents to remove their children from “godless” public schools. The other, proposed by Tennessee pastor Jim West, affirms Christians who serve in public education.

From 1947 to 1978, Southern Baptists passed seven resolutions supporting public education and opposing government funding for private schools.

Since the SBC moved sharply to the right in 1979, SBC messengers have passed nearly twice that many resolutions supporting government funding of private education, endorsing home schooling and criticizing public schools for everything from teaching sex education to promoting secularism.

Texans appointed to the SBC Resolutions Committee are John Mark Caton, pastor of Cottonwood Creek Baptist Church in Allen; Penna Dexter, radio talk show host and Prestonwood member; and Barbara O'Chester from Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin.

Messengers also may consider whether the SBC should be the “sole member” of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary corporation. The seminary is the only convention institution or agency that has not amended its charter to declare the convention as the sole member of its corporation, clarifying SBC ownership.

The SBC Executive Committee urged all convention entities to adopt the sole membership corporate model to ensure that they not leave the convention's control, as some institutions related to state Baptist conventions have done.

But New Orleans Seminary leaders have argued the Executive Committee is violating historic Baptist polity by seeking to centralize authority. They also have asserted sole membership would present special problems under Louisiana law and increase SBC exposure to legal liability.

At their April meeting, seminary trustees voted to present to SBC messengers next year two alternatives about how best to assert convention ownership of the seminary–either the sole membership approach or an as-yet-undetermined alternative legal means.

But with the Executive Committee pressing for the issue to be resolved, messengers might vote on the matter this year.

Messengers will vote on an Executive Committee recommendation to change the Annuity Board's name to GuideStone Financial Resources.

The recommendation also would include allowing the renamed entity to offer financial planning and investment services not only to employees of Southern Baptist churches and institutions, but also to staff members of other evangelical ministry organizations.

Messengers also will:

Elect officers. In addition to considering Welch as president, messengers will vote on a full slate of officers.

Gerald Davidson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Arnold, Mo., will be nominated for first vice president.

Three nominees have been proposed for second vice president–John Hays, pastor of Jersey Baptist Church near Columbus, Ohio; Mark Stephen Hearn, pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Indianapolis; and David Young Hwan Gill, pastor of Concord Korean Baptist Church in Martinez, Calif.

John Yeats, editor of the Oklahoma Baptist Messenger, will be nominated for another term as recording secretary.

Hear sermons. Preachers include Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association; Roy Fish, evangelism professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Steve Gaines, pastor of First Baptist Church in Gardendale, Ala.; David Jeremiah, pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, Calif.; and Jay Strack, youth evangelist from Orlando, Fla.

Choose trustees. New Texas trustees who will be presented for election at the SBC are Jim Caldwell of Prestonwood Baptist for the Annuity Board and Penna Dexter of Prestonwood for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; Bob Graham, retired pastor of Field Street Baptist Church in Cleburne, for the International Mission Board; and Geoffrey Kolander of Paramount Baptist Church in Amarillo and Stacy Taylor of First Baptist Church in Houston for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Prestonwood, Paramount and First Baptist in Houston are dually aligned with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Field Street Baptist in Cleburne is affiliated with the BGCT.

Bruce Coe, pastor of First Castle Hills Baptist Church in San Antonio, will be presented for the SBC Committee on Order of Business. First Castle Hills is uniquely aligned with the SBTC.