Posted: 12/05/03

Must states recognize same-sex marriage?

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–Will the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's decision to legalize same-sex marriage lead to gay marriage in all 50 states?

Although many on both sides of the gay-marriage issue have predicted the Massachusetts decision will force gay marriage on the rest of the states, that outcome is by no means clear, according to two legal experts.

Some activists have insisted that one state's decision to legalize same-sex marriage would apply to the other states because of a part of the U.S. Constitution called the “full faith and credit clause.” That clause requires states to recognize the legal decisions of other states.

"We don't have to recognize those marriages." —Todd Gaziano, director of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Legal and Judicial Studies

That would seem to make it simple for a gay couple legally married in Massachusetts to move to Alabama and demand legal recognition of their union. However, according to a legal scholar at a conservative Washington think tank, full-faith-and-credit-clause law is a bit more complicated than that.

“The full faith and credit clause does not apply automatically for two reasons,” said Todd Gaziano, director of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.

The first reason, Gaziano said, is because the clause applies to judgments or court orders of the states–“and a marriage isn't a final judgment in a lawsuit or a court order in a lawsuit.”

The second reason the clause may not apply to same-sex marriages, Gaziano noted, is because “Congress has the authority–and the states themselves have full authority–to take things outside the scope of the full faith and credit clause.”

For instance, Congress already has passed a measure–signed into law by former President Clinton–that bans gay marriage at the federal level. The federal Defense of Marriage Act also became the model for similar same-sex-marriage bans on the state level. As of Nov. 18, the date of the Massachusetts decision, 37 states had their own state Defense of Marriage Act laws.

That could mean, according to Gaziano, that gay marriage “offends the public policy” of those states. If the courts agreed, then previous case law suggests such a state would not have to recognize a gay marriage performed in another state.

“Even without the federal legislation, the area of marriage recognition is one where the states have been able to reserve certain issues with respect (to) public policy,” Gaziano added. For example, he said, some states allow first cousins to marry, while such a union would explicitly contradict the public policy of other states.

“We don't have to recognize those marriages,” Gaziano said.

A supporter of same-sex-marriage rights agreed that the issue isn't entirely clear. Paul Cates of the American Civil Liberties Union's Gay and Lesbian Rights Project said gay-rights activists may have to rely on arguments other than the full-faith-and-credit one.

Referring to the U.S. Supreme Court's June decision in Lawrence vs. Texas overturning state bans on sodomy, Cates said, “while the court said in Lawrence that lesbian and gay people (were welcomed) into the American family and said that our relationships should be protected, they specifically said it didn't affect marriage.”

Both Cates and Gaziano said an argument leading to legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states may have to hinge on the due-process and equal-protection clauses of the Constitution.

However, one thing the Massachusetts decision almost certainly will do in the legal realm is provide gay couples, for the first time, with legal standing to challenge the federal Defense of Marriage Act in court.

“By operation of law, all married couples should be extended the more than 1,000 federal protections and responsibilities administered at the federal level,” the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights organization, said in a Nov. 18 press release.

“However, the so-called Defense of Marriage Act purports to discriminate against same-sex married couples and deny them these protections. Because no state has recognized civil marriage for same-sex couples in the past, this law has not yet been challenged in court.”

Posted: 12/05/03

Grand Prairie sewing ministry mends
broken hearts, covers fragile lives

By George Henson

Staff Writer

GRAND PRAIRIE–The women of Fairview Baptist Church handcraft gifts of love for people who need a unique kind of shelter.

Their ministry began with crafting turbans for female cancer patients who had lost their hair. Now, the group of 15 women have expanded to make baby blankets and bears for children.

Frankie Bilbrey works on a baby blanket that will assure an infant goes home from Parkland Hospital appropriately wrapped. The women from Fairview Baptist Church in Grand Prairie sew to aid both babies and women who lose their hair due to cancer treatments.

Laverne Swiney began making the turbans on her own after seeing a sewing program on television about how to use sewing to help others. She didn't have a lot of time at that point in her life, however, because she was helping her husband fight his battle with the deadly disease. By the time the disease eventually claimed him, she had seen first hand the need for turbans in countless waiting rooms.

“That's probably what keeps most of us coming here–that feeling that we are doing something to help people when they are in such a bad way,” she said.

Like Swiney, a number of the group know how bad cancer can be. Marvis Frazier is a cancer survivor, as is Frankie Bilbrey. Nita Gearhart's husband is a cancer survivor. One of the group's number, Peggy Duncan, died from the disease.

Bilbrey recalled once waiting to see her oncologist and recognizing a Fairview-made turban on one of the other women in the waiting room.

“It was such wild colors, I knew it had to one of ours,” she said. “Then I heard her tell her daughter: 'We're going to have to do something about this turban. It's getting so dirty, and I can't do without it.' I told her there were some more in a box in another room and she should go pick out a couple. She was timid, but eventually she did. Then she asked me how I knew about it, and I told her I was a part of the group that made them. She just looked at me and said, 'What a blessing.'”

Patients who wear turbans made by the group often donate material or money so the women can buy more material. That donated material has led the group to branch out into other projects.

Some of the material didn't seem right for turbans but worked well for baby blankets or lap robes for senior citizens and battered women. Other material seemed right for teddy bears and walker caddies for senior adults.

One member of the group is not able to make it to the group sewing sessions but crochets about 60 baby caps each month. Those caps often are used to clothe stillborn babies for a photograph to be given to grieving parents.

The group started making baby blankets after dropping off the turbans at Parkland Hospital in Dallas. While on a tour of the facility, they were taken by the nursery, where they learned a disturbing fact.

“When they told us that some of those babies went home in their daddies' jean jackets because they didn't have anything else to wrap them in, we said that wasn't going to happen any more,” Carolyn Crabb recalled.

Crabb also was the one who came up with the idea of making the walker caddies. The caddies strap around the cross bar of the walker, and the patient can use the pockets to carry things they no longer can carry in their hands.

Frazier, a spunky 84 years old, said she is delighted to help despite the fact that arthritis limits what she can do.

“I was a cancer patient and survived,” she said. “Now I take a pill every day. It's my hallelujah pill. Any pill I can take that will keep me alive and off chemotherapy is my hallelujah pill. But I know God has been very good to me and I need to be doing something every day to help other people.”

Fay Bell feared there would not be a job for her with the group because she could not sew. But friends told her to come on and they would find a job for her.

“I found I had a talent for putting the stuffing in the teddy bears,” she said. “I'm just proud the Lord has given me something I can do to help other people.”

The bears sometimes are given to sick children, but most often they are given to children of cancer patients who are visiting an ill parent.

Gearhart has found her niche in helping with the bears as well. “I enjoy it so much. I love cutting out bears, because I can visualize the smiles of the little ones when they get their bears. I just love cutting out and cutting up.”

The women work three consecutive days for two months in a row. This allows them to leave their materials out and not have to spend time setting up and taking down each day, Swiney said. The third month, they deliver the things they have made.

They supply products to Parkland Hospital, three cancer centers, four nursing homes and a home for battered women and their children.

Since the group began in 1999, they have made 2,811 turbans, 311 bonnets, 168 lap robes, 12 walker caddies, 492 baby blankets, 625 bears, 481 baby caps and 36 pillows.

Posted: 12/05/03

Can tax-funded church schools discriminate?

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–If a church-run school takes public money in the form of vouchers, can it expel gay students on moral grounds?

This once-theoretical question has sparked a real-life debate in Denver. Denver Public Schools and the school district in neighboring Jefferson County initially rejected the application of Silver State Baptist School in Lakewood, Colo., to participate in a new voucher program established by the state legislature. The program provides scholarships to students in poorly performing public schools who want to attend private schools, including religious ones.

However, the legislation creating the program allows school districts to deny participation to any school that “teaches hatred” of any group.

At issue is a Silver State school policy that lists “premarital sex, homosexuality and sexual perversion” as grounds for a student's expulsion. Public school officials in Denver were quoted in local news outlets as saying the policy constitutes hatred of gays and lesbians.

School officials cited the policy when denying Silver State the right to participate in the voucher program in late October. However, a few days later, Denver officials accepted the school into the program after the school changed wording on its application and its disciplinary code.

The code now reads, “Premarital sex and sexual perversion, between opposite and/or same sex students, will constitute grounds for disciplinary action, including suspension or expulsion.”

The new wording means “the school isn't singling out a group of students–homosexuals–as the first, original application did,” said Tanya Caughey, a Denver Public Schools spokesperson.

However, the school's principal said the policy's thrust won't change.

“That hasn't changed, nor will it change in the future,” Rodolfo Gomez said. “Our board is in the process of evaluating our policy to make sure that it is strongly, clearly written to present a biblical position.”

Gomez declined to say what the school would do if it discovered a student was gay but not sexually active. He noted the policy is unfinished. He also said the school in nearly 40 years of existence never had to deal with the issue of an openly gay student.

Opponents of government money for parochial schools and other religious organizations have long argued that government funding inevitably would lead to excessive government regulation of such organizations, thus compromising their religious freedom.

Last year, a closely divided Supreme Court declared that a Cleveland school voucher plan including religious schools did not violate the Constitution's ban on government support for religion. The Cleveland program also contained language banning participating schools from “teaching hatred of any person or group.”

In the dissenting opinion to that case, authored by Justice David Souter and joined by three of his colleagues, Souter argued that the “teaching hatred” ban in the program “could be understood (or subsequently broadened) to prohibit religions from teaching traditionally legitimate articles of faith as to the error, sinfulness or ignorance of others, if they want government money for their schools.”

Posted: 12/05/03

Conservatives fail to gain ground in Tennessee

JACKSON, Tenn. (ABP)–Several attempts to place more conservatives in leadership of the Tennessee Baptist Convention and its institutions failed during the convention's annual meeting.

The convention's 1,905 messengers also adopted resolutions supporting the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment and the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. A 2003-04 budget of $35.55 million was adopted, which is 4.4 percent less than the current budget. The Southern Baptist Convention will receive 37.5 percent of undesignated funds, while 62.5 percent will finance the state convention's ministries.

Led by a group called Concerned Tennessee Baptists, conservatives offered seven substitute nominees to those presented for election by convention committees. All seven nominations from the floor failed.

Some conservatives are concerned that too many members of the committee on committees and the committee on boards–which nominate leaders–are associated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a moderate group that differs from the more conservative Southern Baptist Convention. A motion to consider changing the qualifications for those serving on the two committees was narrowly defeated.

The defeats caused some conservatives to question their financial support of the Tennessee Baptist Convention.

“It's going to cause many of us to rethink the way we support state mission giving,” Glenn Denton, pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Lebanon, told the Nashville Tennessean.

Former Nashville pastor Bill Sherman of Fairview said screening committee members for support of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is at odds with the traditional Baptist belief of soul liberty. “It will be a can of worms we will regret from now on,” Sherman said.

In other business, messengers elected Mike Boyd, pastor of Wallace Memorial Baptist Church in Knoxville, as president over Randy Davis, pastor of First Baptist Church in Sevierville, 53 percent to 47 percent.

Davis, described as an inerrantist in his nomination speech, was endorsed by Concerned Tennessee Baptists in a “2003 Conservative Voters Guide” distributed to messengers.

Robert Tyson, a director of missions from Springfield, was elected first vice president with no opposition.

Millington pastor Steve Flockhart, who was endorsed by the conservative group, was elected second vice president over Michael Smith, pastor of First Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, 57 percent to 43 percent. Flockhart, pastor of Crosspointe Baptist Church in Millington, was nominated by prominent conservative pastor Jerry Sutton of Nashville.

Posted: 12/05/03

Texas religious leaders convene to consider human needs

By Ken Camp

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS–Shared concern about human needs in Texas, particularly criminal justice and immigration issues, recently brought together leaders of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Texas Conference of Churches.

Severe cuts in funding for prison chaplains, together with growing anxiety about the plight of immigrants, prompted the group to explore ways they cooperatively can develop ministries and influence public policy, according to Phil Strickland, director of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.

Strickland and Bishop Michael Pfeifer of San Angelo, president of the Texas Conference of Churches, convened the mid-November meeting that included BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade and other BGCT staff, as well as key ecumenical leaders.

“We went back to Matthew 25 as the basis for our concern,” Pfeifer said. “That reminds us the call to all of us as Christians, and indeed as human beings, is to reach out to strangers and aliens among us and to reach out in compassion to the prisoners.”

The group appointed two study committees, one to examine the prison chaplaincy shortage, and the other to explore immigration issues in close cooperation with the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas and other religious groups.

“All concerned came away with a sense that these are not just Catholic or Episcopal, Methodist or Baptist issues, but they are issues that the Christian community as a whole cares about,” said Randall Smith of Texas City, president-elect of the Texas Conference of Churches.

In the last Texas Legislature, “lawmakers slashed funding for chaplaincy programs in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, creating a critical shortage of chaplains in state correctional facilities,” Strickland said.

The national chaplaincy standard is a ratio of 500 inmates per chaplain. Even prior to the reduction in force this year, the ratio in Texas Department of Criminal Justice institutions was double that recommendation.

But since the legislature reduced the chaplaincy budget by $1.8 million, that cut the number of chaplains from 153 to 80, changing the 1,026-to-1 ratio to 1,962-to-1.

Regarding the immigration issue, Strickland pointed out that both the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas and the BGCT at their annual meetings passed resolutions calling for “proactive involvement of ministry activity among immigrants, documented and undocumented.”

The Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas resolution also called on Hispanic Texas Baptists to speak “forcefully and clearly in opposition to the current immigration system that hinders the search for freedom and prosperity,” and it said the Hispanic Convention “encourages the adoption of new legislation that would unshackle the immigrant.”

More than 13 million immigrants entered the United States between 1990 and 2001, Pfeifer noted. In September, he was one of seven Catholic bishops serving along the Texas/Mexico border who called for comprehensive reform of U.S. immigration laws.

Posted: 12/05/03

Texas Tidbits

ETBU honors nine. The College of Marshall and East Texas Baptist University honored nine alumni during homecoming weekend: Madeleine Hall of Marshall received the Sallie Duncan Life Enrichment Award; Louise Bates of Mount Pleasant received the Frank Groner School Development Award; Clarence Parker of Dallas received the John Hugh Hill Scholarly Achievement Award; Rita Storie Turner of Tyler received the Wesley Smith Achievement Award; Lonnie "Bo" Pilgrim of Pittsburg received the W.T. Tardy Service Award; Rudy Robbins of Bandera received the Alumni Achievement Award; Dana Rice of Longview received the Young Alumnus Award; Bobby Spross of Orange and Frank Beeman of Crescent City, Fla., each received Unsung Hero Awards.

Joe Sharp

Sharp re-elected to lead HSU board. Joe Sharp of Granbury has been re-elected chairman of the Hardin-Simmons University board of trustees. Other trustee officers include Hilton Hemphill of Dallas, vice chairman; Inez Kelley of Houston, secretary; and Fred Aurbach of Dallas, vice chair and assistant secretary.

DBU honors Hamilton and Estes. Dallas Baptist University honored Wayne Hamilton and Weldon Estes during the Alumni Homecoming Banquet. Hamilton, currently the longest serving executive director of the Republican Party of Texas, received the 2003 DBU Distinguished Alumnus Award. Hamilton and his wife, Kara, live in Elgin and are members of Highpointe Baptist Church. Estes, who has served as a professor at Dallas Baptist University 30 years, was named the Honorary Alumnus. He and his wife, Elizabeth, are members of First Baptist Church of Dallas.

HSU seeks military alumni. Alumni of Hardin-Simmons University who are currently serving in the armed forces of the United States or who have done so in the past are invited to attend a veterans reunion at the 2004 HSU homecoming. A steering committee headed by Lt. Col. Earl Garrett, director of HSU's human resources office, is planning the reunion. Alumni who are military veterans are asked to send their mailing addresses and e-mail addresses to Garrett at egarrett@ hsutx.edu or HSU Box 16030,Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene 79698.

Weir scholarship named. The Leeman Weir Endowed Memorial Scholarship has been established at Hardin-Simmons University by Joe and Amy Weir of Colleyville. It was named in memory of Joe Weir's father, Marvin Leeman Weir, who was a farmer and rancher in Childress. Joe and Amy Weir are both 1995 graduates of HSU. Both serve on the HSU Board of Young Associates. First preference for this scholarship will be a science major who is a Childress County resident.

HBU will match church scholarships. For the first time, Houston Baptist University will match dollar for dollar, up to $1,000, any scholarship given by a Christian church in Texas to a full-time undergraduate student. The new financial aid incentive will begin in the 2004-2005 academic year.

DBU honors Stricklin. Gil Stricklin received an honorary doctor of humanities degree from Dallas Baptist University during fall convocation. Stricklin is founder and president of Marketplace Ministries. He and his wife, Ann, are members of First Baptist Church of Dallas.

Singles celebration planned. San Jacinto Baptist Association plans a Singles Celebration Dec. 31 from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. It will be held at Northside Baptist Church in Baytown. Singles of all ages are invited for games, a talent show and food. For more information, call (281) 422-3604 or visit sjbaptist.org.

One more issue. The Baptist Standard's final issue for 2003 will be dated Dec. 22. Due to the Christmas holiday, the first issue of 2004 will be dated Jan. 12.

Posted: 12/05/03

TOGETHER:
Advent transforms darkness to light

While serving a Baptist church in Germany nearly 40 years ago, I learned about Advent, the season of anticipation and preparation for many Christians who celebrate at Christmas the birth of Jesus Christ. And it was a time of awakening for me.

As our family observed Advent, it made sense to me. It reminded me that darkness can be penetrated by light. The first step of Advent is to consider anew the darkness, the confusion and the hopelessness that prevailed before the coming of Jesus. There had been 400 years of prophetic silence before Jesus' birth. The Jews, God's covenant people, had suffered greatly under Greek and Roman tyranny. They awaited the Messiah. Would the promise be fulfilled?

CHARLES WADE Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

The angel Gabriel said to a virgin girl: “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” And it scared her. It would me too! “Don't be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.”

Mary's astonishment can be heard in her question, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

The angel had the answer: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you … . For nothing is impossible with God.”

Mary didn't understand that any more than we do, but she said in holy faith: “I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said.” As the Spirit of God moved over chaos and brought worlds into being at the Creation, the Holy Spirit of God who created all life brought new life into being in the womb of the virgin Mary. The Word that brought light into being on that long-ago first day of creation became tiny flesh in Mary's body that he might dwell with us and become the long-awaited Light in our darkness.

Those of us who have been Christians since we were children often have little appreciation for the depth of the darkness that surrounds the hopeless, the broken and the discarded peoples of the earth. We can be so impatient with their hurts and their unbelief.

That is why Advent helps. It makes me feel and think my way back into a time I have never known much about. How empty would my life be without Jesus? How desperate would I be for light in my darkness if I had no friendship with the One who lights the way for me? Every time I have experienced fear or disappointment or shame, Jesus has been there to comfort, encourage and forgive. He has called me to make right what could be made right, and he has given me courage to move forward when I wanted to stay where I was, my shoes nailed to the floor.

“O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, That mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.”

And Mary said to the angel, “Let it be to me according to your word.” That is what I want to say to God at Advent and all through the year: “Let it be, dear Lord, let it be!”

We are loved, indeed!

Posted: 12/05/03

Virginia threatens Averett's funding

By Robert Dilday

Virginia Religious Herald

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP)–As expected, Virginia Baptists have taken action that could end their 144-year-old tie to Averett University unless a conflict over homosexuality and biblical authority is resolved.

Meeting Nov. 13-14 in Richmond, Va., messengers to the Baptist General Association of Virginia annual meeting escrowed more than $350,000 they would have contributed to the Danville, Va., school next year.

But messengers enhanced their relationship with the John Leland Center for Theological Studies based in Falls Church, Va., increasing their allocation by 300 percent and moving it from a world-missions budget to the Virginia portion of the budget.

Messengers also cut by 40 percent funds to the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies, created four years ago when the BGAV ended its ties to the University of Richmond.

The $14.3 million BGAV budget adopted for 2004 is $700,000 less than the current $15 million budget.

For the first time in more than a decade, messengers elected as president a pastor whose church contributes to national mission causes primarily through the Southern Baptist Convention. Don Davidson, pastor of Mount Hermon Baptist Church in Danville, was elected without opposition.

Since BGAV officers have been successfully nominated for many years by a network of moderate pastors, the election was widely seen as a signal that churches sympathetic to the SBC are welcome in BGAV life.

The vote to escrow Averett's allocation was recommended by the BGAV budget committee and passed decisively.

But the university attracted the ire of some Virginia Baptists in August when John Laughlin, chair of its religion department, wrote an article in a newspaper endorsing the recent action of the Episcopal Church to ordain an openly homosexual bishop and criticizing a literal method of interpreting the Bible.

Also, in September, John Shelby Spong, a controversial retired Episcopal bishop, lectured on Averett's campus, reportedly saying that the God who is revealed in a literal reading of Scripture is “immoral” and “unbelievable.”

Averett President Richard Pfau read portions of a resolution adopted Oct. 24 by the school's board of trustees, expressing regret at “any perception that Averett University has diverged from its commitment to being Virginia's flagship Christian university.”

Posted: 12/01/03

For use on Dec. 21

Luke 2:8-20

The birth narrative

By Gary Long

I got some good news the other day. It seems that the state of North Carolina (my home state, though I’ve been away since 1994) has some money for me. I bought an insurance policy in 1992 from a company that went bankrupt. However, the courts are now distributing the proceeds from the company’s sell-off. I’m apparently entitled to $58.93. Granted, it’s not a lot of money, but it is still good news.

$58.93 pales in comparison, though, to the good news I was first told as a little child back in Carolina. The good news was that in a tiny stable in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago, God decided to reach humanity in a most unusual way. Long time Christians know this story. It’s been read to us on countless Christmas Eves. We’ve seen the living nativity. We adorned the crèche and advent wreaths in our home.

We should have tired of all this long ago. Yet somehow the power of the story never fades, and though it has almost a fairy-tale aura, we know and sense the truth it proclaims. We must tell the story again and again. We must decorate and celebrate, give gifts and feast with loved ones. We know without being told by our preacher: This is truly good news, too good not to celebrate it. I’m guessing that heaven might be like this, where we celebrate the wonder and limitlessness of God’s loving-kindness. Maybe, just maybe, our Christmas ritual is rehearsal for that ultimate advent of God.

”Good News” as used by the angel in Luke 2:10 is the same word Luke will use throughout his gospel to refer to Jesus’ coming. In a real sense that announcement from the angel to shepherds is an announcement to us as well. We stand today as amazed as the shepherds that night. Our amazement is in part due to the glorious nature of the angel of the Lord. After all, not many of us encounter angels that way, and we certainly raise a wary eyebrow at those who relate having had such a glorious encounter. But our amazement runs deeper. Our amazement is connected to the real substance of the message the angel brings. In Bethlehem, God is doing something. Jesus is born, and the angel wants us to know he is the Savior, the Messiah and Lord.

Imagine it this way. (If you’re not a college basketball fan, hang with me. Someone in your class will relate to this.) You basically have Dick Vitale (the angel) announcing the “diaper dandy” (baby Jesus) with praises for delivering the perfect “trifecta” (Savior, Messiah, Lord). Dicky V then would have wrapped up his commentary with, “Give that kid the rock (Peter, upon whom he will build the church), baby!”

Maybe that’s a stretch for you. But you have to know that this angel was delivering big, big news. All of the hope of Israel as a nation was wrapped up in this one little baby who would be Messiah, Savior and Lord. The fulfillment of an entire nation’s longing was announced that night. Good news? You bet. Let’s explore just how Jesus’ birth is good news for all people, including us.

Good news would have meant “joy” for the Israelites. Although traditional messianic thought of the day anticipated a messiah who would deliver Israel politically and economically, awaiting those who heard and believed the message of Jesus was a new understanding of Messiah and Savior. Surely Jesus was a deliverer, but it certainly wasn’t what was expected. The birth of Jesus is good news that would be met with joy.

Additionally, it was good news that God was coming to Israel as promised. Latent in the story, yet prominent in the nature of God, is this: God’s promises are fulfilled. Jesus’ birth is another huge kind of proof of God’s ongoing plans to redeem and restore. Israel had been promised, “For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11). Throughout her history, the petition of Israel has oft been “Deliver us!” It is good news that God has heard that cry for deliverance and answered with Jesus.

The angel’s proclamation is good news for all people in the world, not just the Israelites. For humanity it is good news that God’s grace was headed to earth. Of course, we view this story through the lenses of history. We understand the birth of Jesus as the beginning mark of God moving in a new way. We understand Jesus also through the eyes of faith and have a much clearer understanding of what “Savior,” “Messiah” and “Lord” mean because of our standing on this side of the cross.

Ultimately, the reality of who Baby Jesus was in the cradle is but a foreshadowing of the powerful Savior Jesus upon the cross, and that pales completely when held up next to the power of the resurrection of Jesus. Yet that resurrection is empty if God was not really human in Jesus. The resurrection celebration of Easter is meaningless if real flesh and real blood and real bones had not been birthed of Mary and laid in the manger.

We will do well this season to look past the giggly gurgling baby wrapped in the swaddling clothes to behold the birth itself. Birthing a baby is bloody and messy, and that applies no matter who the baby or the mother is. The full experience of humanity was God’s in Jesus’ flesh, and he emerged from Mary’s womb—just as you and I emerged from our mother’s belly.

That makes Jesus’ birth good news because in the full experience of humanity, Jesus knew human struggle, human pain, human frailty, as well as human cravings and desires, human hungers and human hurts. That makes Jesus’ sinless life and sacrificial death on the cross all the more meaningful because his life was fraught with the same temptations as us and yet he conquered sin long before he was nailed to the cross, although clearly his battle with sin culminated there.

Many commentators suggest that one piece of good news in this story is that God now identifies with humans. However, this seems to put God in a position of lacking some ability or experience to identify with humanity before Jesus was born. That interpretation suggests that God could not relate to humans before Jesus came, and that is a rather narrow and limited understanding of God’s abilities.

Rather, I would suggest the proper way for us to frame this is instead of God identifying with humans through Jesus, that humans are able to identify with God through Jesus. This subtle shift of interpretation could actually produce a keener awareness that God is not deficient in God’s ability to relate to us. Rather, we must consider that humans have the deficiency in relating to God because of sin. The good news about this birth is that Jesus’ humanity provides a portal of reconnection to the God we know innately, yet from whom we have been disconnected.

More good news is the family into which Jesus was born can be a strong reminder to us of the value of families in God’s sight. Clearly, if Joseph and Mary were a couple in our church today, there would be trouble. Hushed whispers and unkind gossip would surely abound because their situation is not socially acceptable. Joseph and Mary didn’t follow the cultural norm for a family in their day.

Although the texts never allude to this point directly, we can assume certain monikers upon the family, and although it is only conjecture, it is highly plausible that this family was stressed to the max.

That is good news to families in our churches. If God can still work through their unusual family circumstances, how much could God do through our varieties of families today? There is a place in God’s church and God’s plan for all kinds of families – blended families, single-parent families, families where grandparents raise grandkids, families with adopted children, foster families, and even highly dysfunctional families. God has a plan and use for all families, and a plan to redeem and nurture through the means of families. Surely this is good news to us!

The story has been told. By the time your class studies this text together, the celebration will almost be finished. Probably on December 26th some will be experiencing the post-Christmas “blues” that always come after a big party (and accompanied by credit card bills). Yet if we celebrate the truth of the holiday – that Jesus is God’s gift to us of a Savior who is Christ and Lord – our party will last for all eternity and our “hopes and fears of all the years” are met in Christ today. That is good news!

Questions for Discussion

What is the best news you’ve gotten this week? In what way was this a blessing of God? How does it relate to the good news of today’s lesson?

How might understanding the real “good news” of Christmas help us deal with the end of celebrating? Can God’s real presence in your life provide comfort when all the packages are opened and the family has gone back home?

How does the good news of the incarnation help you relate to God?

Understanding that God can use all kinds of families, how is your family especially equipped to share God’s good news? For example, consider: What talent(s) do we have that might be a venue to share God’s good news? What tragedy has our family endured that has equipped us to help share Gods’ love to others who hurt?

What struggle do you face today with which God’s good news can help you deal?

Posted: 11/24/03

TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:
Doctrine & missions

Keith Eitel's letter, supported by Paige Patterson and sent to trustees of the International Mission Board, states that doctrinal issues, especially those involving women in places of authority over men, form the foundation for jettisoning all involvement with heretical missionary groups (Nov. 3).

E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

Women are denigrated, as usual, and missionary groups who fail to follow the leader should be dropped.

Eitel, described as “one of the cutting-edge missiologists of our day,” can be seen, perhaps, as the user-friendly spokesman for fundamentalists. The “cutting” has already been accomplished in seminaries and workplaces across the convention. Those who were uprooted and cast out with neither grace nor concern are still feeling the rough “edge” to these actions.

Will we ever realize this movement to control, condemn and castigate those who refuse to kneel in homage to selected doctrine and political mandate is designed to ferret out the Christians who believe in grace without politics, service without bias and commitment without contempt?

It is clear that doctrine divides us. If what has happened to educational scholars over the last 20 years of fundamental control is an example of current leadership, then it was then, is now and will continue to be a deplorable doctrine.

Eitel's paper concludes with this statement of appeal to the IMB: “Recruit administrators committed to theological renewal of the board.” This, as always, demonstrates that this is politics. When did the board accommodate unto itself a theology?

Edward Clark

Danville, Ky.

Trap of polytheism

Malcolm Yarnell of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary warns against the heresy of modalism (Nov. 10). The Trinity is not just God putting on three different faces or modes.

But Yarnell also needed to warn Christians that the doctrine of the Trinity does not present a “social group” of three Gods. Such a social trinity would deny the indisputable witness of both Old and New Testaments that God is one.

Yarnell's insistence that adding the one word, “triune,” to the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message guards against the heresy of modalism deserves a lot more explanation than his article presented. The early church councils carefully crafted the doctrine of the Trinity in order to preserve biblical monotheism and establish the full divinity of the Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Avoiding modalism by insisting on a social trinity of three distinct divinities falls into the deadly trap of polytheism, or three gods.

Baptists' statements on the Trinity did not contribute to nor create modalists for over two centuries. Judge for yourself. Yarnell seems more intent on defending the 2000 BF&M than he is in defending the doctrine of the Trinity.

Cyrus B. Fletcher

Baytown

Church & state

Former Alabama Justice Roy Moore and his Religious Right comrades would like America to become a Christian theocracy. Church and state would be one and the same; the effect of such a union would be political corruption big-time. Non-Christians and unbelievers would be treated like second-class citizens.

A theocracy established in Jesus' name would displease Christ. Jesus rejected the temptation to rule a political kingdom. The last would be first in his kingdom. He mingled with sinners, talked to prostitutes, touched lepers.

Never-failing love dominated everything Jesus did. He did not coerce anyone to follow him.

Separation of church and state has worked very well in our country for over 200 years and must be maintained. Were Roy Moore's actions done in love, or were they done to promote a self-serving political agenda?

Paul L. Whiteley Sr.

Louisville, Ky.

Being 'Baptist'

Regarding the editorial on being “Baptist” (Nov. 10), we Baptists need to review occasionally what we profess to believe and check ourselves to see that we not only “talk the talk” but also “walk the walk.”

We sometimes get wrapped up in organization and procedure and forget what the Bible says about our basic tenets.

God has blessed us for many years because we have adhered to our strong beliefs.

Let us not stray.

James E. Biles

Lufkin

Doctrine upheld

I sadly disagree with Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson regarding his criticism of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

I have been a pastor in Dallas since 1977 and am a 1980 graduate of Southwestern Seminary. I have had three children born at Baylor University Medical Center, and I am a member of the Dallas Baptist Association's committee on committees.

But the Lord has led me to attend CBF annual meetings for 11 years.

I always have been welcome to express a mission agenda at CBF meetings. I have experienced genuine and Spirit-led movements of Jesus.

I have never heard or felt any attempt on CBF's part to entice Southern Baptist Convention churches. Nor have I seen any hint of acceptability of homosexual practice.

But I have seen CBF strongly uphold the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, authority of local churches and equality of male, female and the poor and the rich.

“CBF is a Jesus people,” said Daniel Vestal, the CBF's national coordinator, said at 2003 general assembly. This clearly refutes Patterson's statement that CBF denies the exclusivity of Christ for salvation.

Yoo J. Yoon

Dallas

Lift up Jesus

Malcolm Yarnell's speech to a seminary audience, praising the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message for adding “triune God,” is like bragging about a Band-Aid on a scratch of a severed arm.

A letter from seminary professor Keith Eitel accused the International Mission Board of pervasive theological error and needing to synchronize with the theological convictions of the Southern Baptist Convention. It seems the IMB errs by placing women as strategy coordinators.

Being under fire before, IMB President Jerry Rankin said he saved the IMB by asking missionaries to sign the 2000 BF&M. Accountability to the SBC was the reason Rankin gave for firing missionaries.

Causing women strategy coordinators to be fired will be another notch on the gun that terminates workers for the Lord.

The question should not be: Do we save the IMB or missionaries, but how far do we remove troublemakers?

The SBC should stop downgrading women, sticking its nose into the autonomy of the church and individual priesthood, and maintain its priority to reach a lost world. Not by arguing the Bible, but by lifting up Jesus.

If leaders won't do that, God help Baptists to get some who will.

Rex Ray

Bonham

What do you think? Submit letters for Texas Baptist Forum via e-mail to marvknox@baptiststandard.com or regular mail at Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267. Letters must be no longer than 250 words. They may be edited to accommodate space.

Posted: 11/24/03

GIVE A GOAT:
Alternative Christmas gifts

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

A number of Christian ministries have borrowed a page out of the Neiman-Marcus Christmas Catalog.

Like the upscale Texas retail chain, these ministries use the seasonal catalogs to offer unique gift ideas, ranging from the simple to the extraordinary.

But unlike the purveyor of gifts such as the luxury ice fishing house and custom-made mermaid outfit, these ministries provide alternative Christmas gift options that benefit third parties.

As an extension of their year-round efforts to fund ministries to the world's neediest people, organizations such as World Vision, Samaritan's Purse and even Texas-based Buckner Baptist Benevolences publish Christmas catalogs. The idea is to shop for something to help a person in need and then send a gift card to a friend or loved one announcing that this item has been donated in their name.

A pioneer in this field is Heifer International, a non-profit organization based in Little Rock, Ark., that works to end world hunger by providing livestock and small animals to farmers and impoverished families.

The Heifer Christmas catalog features a barnyard variety of gift ideas, ranging from a flock of chicks or ducks for $20 to a sheep or goat for $120, a llama for $150 or a heifer for $500. The extravagant giver may choose The Ark for $5,000, which will provide a veritable Noah's Ark of animal sets.

For the listed price, Heifer will purchase and transport animals to those who need a sustainable source of nutrition and income. They, in turn, are asked to share the gift with someone else.

For example, a family that receives a heifer obtains a source of protein to nourish children and adults alike. A good dairy cow, Heifer reports, can produce four gallons of milk a day–enough to feed the family and have some additional to sell. Further, a healthy cow may bear a calf once a year, furthering the supply of nourishment for a community.

A family that receives a heifer is asked to donate to another family in need the first female calf born to their cow.

Heifer International works in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, Asia and the South Pacific.

This year's Heifer International catalog features a plethora of celebrity endorsements, from Walter Cronkite to Jimmy Carter to author Barbara Kingsolver.

World Vision, an international Christian humanitarian relief organization based in Federal Way, Wash., offers a similar catalog, but one that stretches beyond animals.

Through World Vision, donors may give Christmas gifts of water wells in Haiti ($10,000), wheelchairs for disabled children ($250), education for an orphan child for one year ($150) or immunizations for a child in a developing country ($25).

This is the eighth year for World Vision's Christmas catalog. Last year, the catalog raised $5.8 million from more than 30,000 donors.

“The gift catalog vividly communicates the needs of our global neighbors and explains the help that caring individuals like you can provide,” explains a promotional piece. “It's a great educational tool for families that also helps instill compassion in children.”

The gift catalog originally was developed as a way to help World Vision's existing donors, explained spokeswoman Karen Kartes. However, it quickly became a way to introduce new donors to the world's needs, she added.

About 70 percent of those who give gifts through the catalog are women, Kartes said, and many of those women are mothers of young children. Giving alternative gifts from a ministry catalog provides children a personal illustration of the greater meaning of Christmas, she said.

Officials at Heifer International agreed, noting in a news release: “While kids might have difficulty understanding what it means to write a check to charity, they can easily grasp the power of giving an animal … to poor families in 48 countries around the world.”

Samaritan's Purse, the international relief ministry headed by Franklin Graham, is best known for its Operation Christmas Child drive of shoebox gifts. However, the North Carolina-based ministry also offers a Christmas gift catalog. Available gifts include wheelchairs for disabled people who cannot afford them ($75), Bibles in a variety of languages ($10), training for international evangelists ($25) and airfare to transport sick children to the United States for specialized care ($2,000).

One of the newest organizations to offer a Christmas catalog is Buckner Baptist Benevolences, a ministry affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

For the second year, Buckner has produced a catalog featuring gift opportunities for its retirement services, international orphan care work and statewide ministries of child and family services.

Featured items include supplemental medications for senior adults who cannot afford all their medicine ($15), large-print Bible study materials for senior adults ($20), winter coats for orphans ($30), medicine for an orphanage for one month ($50), diapers and formula for an infant in foster care ($30) and counseling for a child who has experienced personal trauma ($200).

“We've realized the attitudes of many of our donors are changing. Many people want to see a tangible use of their contributions, and the gift catalog approach is a practical way for us to show them how their money is used,” explained Scott Collins, vice president for communications.

“This is only our second year, so our constituents are just getting used to the idea,” he added. “But because most consumers use catalogs, this is an easy transition. The gift catalog approach also translates easily to the Internet because people today are so accustomed to shopping online. Ultimately, we believe that holds the most potential for non-profit organizations.”

In addition to the specific gifts available in Christmas catalogs, all Texas Baptist ministry organizations–including child-care agencies, family ministries, schools and hospitals–rely heavily on year-end donations. These agencies often will provide acknowledgement cards to those in whose name gifts have been made.

Buckner Baptist Benevolences

www.buckner.org

World Vision

www.worldvision.org

Heifer International

www.heifer.org

Samaritan's Purse

www.Samaritan.org

Posted 11/25/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
Preparing for Christmas

By Brett Younger

Those of us who don’t count shopping days until Christmas are counting the days until we have to start counting shopping days until Christmas. We need to stop and ask, “What do we really want for Christmas?”

Brett Younger

In addition to a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream, Cotton Bowl tickets and an IOU for a copy of “Who Moved My Pulpit: A Brief Amusing Guide to Almost Everything Ministerial” by Brett Younger (available in March, Smyth & Helwys Publishing) we are all waiting for a moment when we feel the Spirit of Christmas. Some of the busyness of the holidays comes from our attempts to create a lump in the throat.

Such moments are fabulously unpredictable. Sometimes flickering candles and “Ave Maria” leave us yawning. At other times Alvin and the Chipmunks singing “Deck the Halls” bring tears to our eyes. The randomness of moments of Advent grace does not mean we cannot be more open to those possibilities. What activities make the experience of the Christmas Spirit more likely? What is less likely to lead to Christmas joy?

More Likely	Less Likely
• Watching a child tell the Christmas story with porcelain figures of Mary and Joseph	• Watching a child tell the Christmas story with “The Lord of the Rings” action figures
• Singing “O Little Town of Bethlehem” with a choir	• Singing “Jingle Bells” with the barking dogs
• Taking a walk and looking at the stars	• Walking in the mall parking lot looking for your car
• Reading a note on a Christmas card from a dear friend	• Reading an e-mail Christmas card from your bank
• Watching Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life”	• Watching “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”
• Taping a story book for your grandchildren	• Buying your grandchildren an X-Box
• Listening to Rutter’s “Angels’ Carol”	• Listening to Puff Daddy’s Christmas album
• Spending your time on a gift that costs no money	• Spending lots of money on a gift because you don’t want to feel embarrassed
• Eating freshly baked cookies with children	• Eating cookies Mrs. Fields baked by yourself
• Giving clothes to someone who needs them	• Giving handkerchiefs to someone who has handkerchiefs
• Eating a meal with three people you love	• Attending a big party with people you don’t know
• Spending Christmas Eve at your church	• Spending Christmas Eve at Toys-R-Us
• Wishing for a more loving Christmas	• Wishing for a more organized Christmas

Even if we pay more attention to music, friends, and silence there’s still no guarantee we’ll see angels and stars. It’s helpful to remember that nobody at the first Christmas was prepared. Christmas happened for them because they were there. We would do well to stop trying to make something out of the ordinary happen and notice what’s always happening, stop trying to create a love that isn’t there and recognize the love that is there, and stop watching for something we’ve never seen and see the joy we usually miss.

Brett Younger is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth