Posted: 7/25/03

In Houston, Flores has a flair for finding fishers of men

By Karen Simons

Union Baptist Association

HOUSTON–Moises Flores is preparing laity for ministry, following the model that drew him from work as a civil engineer in Mexico to a multi-tasking minister in Houston.

During a Promise Keepers gathering in Houston in the mid-1990s, Flores met Jorge Camacho, now a Union Baptist Association consultant but then pastor of Iglesia Bautista Del Redentor in Houston. Camacho invited Flores to become the church's mission pastor.

Moises Flores (right) receives congratulations after a recent class graduation. He is director of the Bible Institute for Church Planters.

Flores knew God had called him to ministry, but he also knew he needed to study. Camacho offered him not only a ministry role but a place for training as well through the Bible Institute for Church Planters–Instituto Biblico para Plantadores de Iglesias, which he founded.

Flores graduated from the institute in the summer of 2000, and today he is pastor of Iglesia Bautista Del Redentor. He also directs and teaches at the institute, serves on a leadership development training team for Union Baptist Association and juggles the demands of husband and father to four children, ages 1 to 12.

Meanwhile, his church has sponsored five church starts in the Houston area since September 2000.

That's the model of multiplication in ministry he advocates through the Bible Institute for Church Planters.

Since its launch in 1998, the institute has graduated 47 students. The recent class of 12 came from five local churches and attended weekly Monday night classes for 16 months to complete the 11 required courses.

Each course takes five to seven weeks of three-hour sessions and covers topics such as Old Testament, New Testament, methods of Bible study, cults, church starting, pastoral ethics and preaching.

“We are doing an important role to engage the lay person to become a leader–or pastor if the Lord calls him,” Flores said. “It changes their vision. We have laypeople we are training to become cell group leaders or even church planters. We have the testimony of students who come with no idea (they could start a church) but the Lord opens their eyes.

“The Lord is moving,” he explained. “When the Lord calls someone, my role is to facilitate God's movement. I need to be aware. I want to be a part of those movements among church planters.”

Flores sees church starting as an effective tool to reach non-Christian people. For example, three of the churches recently started by Del Redentor have a total attendance equaling the sponsoring church.

So Flores keeps recruiting people from the pews to consider what God may be asking them to do by way of leadership and church starting.

“We try to provide tools for leaders, to help them become a better leader or teacher in the churches. And we always include the information and passion to plant churches,” he explained.

Of the 35 students who completed the course work prior to the latest graduates, 12 have moved from lay leadership roles to pastoral roles.

Posted: 7/25/03

Gay marriage question confronts more candidates

WASHINGTON (RNS)–Leaders in the Democratic race for president expressed commitment to homosexual-rights issues at a mid-summer forum, but most stopped short of endorsing gay marriage.

Speaking to the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay-rights organization, the seven Democratic presidential candidates who attended endorsed measures to prevent discrimination against gays.

But only three candidates–Al Sharpton, a minister from New York City; Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio; and former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois–said they supported homosexual marriage. All three are considered longshots for the nomination.

Other candidates were more ambiguous in their statements, saying they supported civil unions that would grant homosexual couples most of the rights heterosexual married couples enjoy, such as hospital visitation rights and survivor's benefits under Social Security.

Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut both said they favor civil unions but added marriage is a “historic, cultural” institution between men and women.

With the Supreme Court's ruling to overturn a Texas law that criminalized sodomy and Canada's recent legalization of homosexual marriage, presidential candidates are facing pressure to state their views the issue, which may prove a stumbling block for Democrats seeking votes from both liberals and social moderates.

Americans remain split on the issue, according to a recent Gallup poll, which found that 55 percent of Americans oppose gay marriage.

Meanwhile, conservative Republican leaders, including President Bush, have spoken out against homosexual marriage.

Republican leader Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., told reporters he favors upholding the Defense of Marriage Act, which was signed into law by Democratic President Bill Clinton.

“The restatement of that is that marriage is very simple–a union between one man and one woman, not two men or three men or four men, or one man–or one woman–or two women, three women, or three women and three men. It's not that. It's one man, one woman. It's what the law of the land is. I will support that,” Frist said.

Posted: 7/25/03

Graceview offers new perspective
for special-needs families

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

TOMBALL–Graceview Baptist Church is giving disabled people and their caregivers freedom to worship by offering them a little joy.

For about eight years, trained church members have cared for disabled individuals during Sunday School and worship services through the church's Joy program. It enables parents or caregivers to join the rest of the congregation for spiritual enrichment.

Volunteers lead the disabled people–whose afflictions include cerebral palsy, autism, retardation and Down syndrome–in Bible studies and recreational activities.

Some of the people attend mainstream Sunday School classes at a level they can understand, but special classes for the disabled also are offered.

The outreach enables caregivers to attend the church, said Denise Briley, mother of a child with cerebral palsy and founder of the program.

Many parents feel uncomfortable taking their disabled children to worship services because of their special needs, she said.

The attention directed toward parents when their children require a feeding tube or breathing apparatus makes them feel unwanted, she added.

But unless workers are trained to help disabled people, the church cannot handle them, she said.

“If you think about it, you can't take a baby on a feeding pump into the nursery and say, 'Here you go,'” Briley said. “They're stuck at home.”

Briley encountered similar feelings as she searched for a church with her son, she said. Soon after joining Graceview Baptist Church, she shared her vision for a place where disabled people could safely study the Bible in classes designed for their needs.

To her surprise, 16 people volunteered immediately after she testified about her desire, and the Joy program was born. The program continually expanded until about 80 volunteers provided a weeklong Vacation Bible School for 15 disabled people this summer.

Millie Bass, a volunteer in the program, said she is amazed at how the people responded to Bible studies during the years. Music and pictures especially are effective in communicating the gospel to them, she noted.

Parents and children have become closely connected to her paintings of the people “as God sees them,” without disabilities, she noted. Disabled individuals comprehend the love and many times the message of the outreach, she said.

But the students are not the only people who are blessed, she continued.

“The greatest reward is the hugs and smiles from the kids,” Bass said. “The kids are so honest and open with their love. It's unconditional. You couldn't run me off with a stick.”

Special-needs individuals are a segment of the population that primarily has not been touched by the gospel, but the church is discovering this mission field, Briley commented.

“It is an untapped mission field,” Briley said. “There are so many families who give up. They don't want to be rejected anymore. Churches just don't know how to reach out.”

The outreach has caught the attention of other congregations, and Graceview leaders gladly have helped 300 churches start a special-needs program and hope to assist many more.

“My vision is that one day it won't be a question; there will be something there,” Briley said.

Posted: 7/25/03

HBTS volunteers make more storage

SAN ANTONIO–Forty volunteers from 10 churches spent the first week of June building 20 storage sheds at Hispanic Baptist Theological School.

The 8-by-10-foot sheds will be used by students living on campus and by the school to store seasonal items, donations to the Agape House clothing ministry, library materials and maintenance equipment.

The volunteers are part of a newly formed group called Lone Star Builders.

Volunteers pose amid a field of storage units they constructed on the campus of Hispanic Baptist Theological School.

In addition to labor, the group brought about $13,000 to buy materials. Funds were donated not only by the churches and individuals doing the labor, but also by three other churches and another donor.

Teams where organized to build floor frames, walls and roof trusses. A kitchen staff provided lunch and dinner each day in the school's dining hall.

Rain slowed the work somewhat, preventing the volunteers from having time to paint the sheds. However, Victor Perez, a student who also is a painting contractor, stepped forward to finish the job.

HBTS Project Manager Jim Fowler praised this group and others who have worked on the San Antonio campus within the past year.

“These groups have provided money, material and a lot of labor of love to fix, repair and paint areas all over the campus,” he said. “We now are beginning to see an end to major projects that can be handled by volunteer groups and can begin to focus on areas that will require contractor support such as repairing the chapel parking lot base and repaving, removal of tile flooring in the kitchen area, installing additional security lights at the parking areas and replacing exterior doors.”

Churches represented among the Lone Star Builders crew were Wilshire, Dallas; Lakeshore Drive, Weatherford; First Baptist, Roby; First Baptist, Rule; First Baptist, Tulia; Garner, Weatherford; Pioneer Drive, Abilene; Harlandale, San Antonio; Christian Faith Fellowship, Argyle; and Broadview Baptist of Temple Hills, Md.

Lone Star Builders is led by Luther Thomas of Weatherford.

Posted: 7/25/03

Author lauds literary lilt
of King James Version's language

By Kevin Eckstrom

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–Their names are mostly lost to history now–Geoffrey King, Lancelot Andrewes, Miles Smith and dozens more–but the book that brought them all together, the King James Bible, remains “the greatest work of English prose” ever written.

So says British author Adam Nicolson, whose new book, “God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible,” explores the committee of about 50 scholars whose 1611 Bible remains one of the world's most authoritative religious texts.

With its “thees” and “thous,” the King James Bible has an immediate, almost impenetrable, air of authority and seriousness. If we could hear God talk, it's almost as if he would surely sound as he does in the King James Bible.

But Nicolson argues it is the translators' poetry–that kind of language that touches the heart as well as the head–that is its greatest strength. It's a type of divine discourse that has been lost in newer, more popular translations, he said.

“What people think they need now is hard, reliable information,” Nicolson said in an interview. “There's a concentration on the identifiable substance of the thing. Whereas (the translators) think what really matters is the mythos, the surrounding atmosphere of beauty and mystery and musicality. If religion loses all of those things, then it loses what actually matters about it.”

In other words, while the King James language may seem intimidating or even inaccessible, its 20th century competition is, in a word, boring.

According to a 2000 Gallup Poll for the American Bible Society, 41 percent of Americans who own a Bible have a King James Version. Yet 88 percent of Bible shoppers said they want something that is “easy to understand,” making the 1978 New International Version the No. 1 seller.

“If you read these 20th century translations, there is this tremendous sense of ordinariness,” Nicolson said. “The ordinary is not the Bible's subject. It is this very, very odd thing of a God being involved in the world.”

When King James I summoned the scholars from Oxford and Cambridge in 1604, he had political as well as divine intentions. James, a Scotsman who was new to the throne, wanted desperately to unite his kingdom by bringing together the high-church Anglicans who were loyal to the king and the Puritans who were suspicious of the monarchy and had “flirted” with Presbyterianism.

The loyalists embraced the 1568 Bishops' Bible, which was popular among the hierarchy but never was accepted by the people. The Puritans favored the Geneva Bible, produced in the 1550s by Calvinists who translated “king” as “tyrant.” The book's notations were brimming with anti-royalist sentiment.

The translators were divided into six “companies” of eight members, each with a supervising director. Each company was assigned a different portion of the Bible, relying heavily on William Tyndale's translation from 1526.

The final revisions were done orally, to make sure the text has a consistent, almost musical, flow to it.

What emerged, Nicolson said, was a “kind of language that can reach up and down at the same time.” The text reflects the grandeur of God with equal parts clarity, simplicity and “that great sense of the huge.”

Take, for example, the Bible's opening verse in which God famously creates heaven and earth. Tyndale's version said “the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the water.”

In the King James Version, “the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

Nicolson concedes the difference is subtle, slight and easily overlooked. Yet he says the use of the word “face” is a stroke of genius.

“The Spirit of God moving on the face of the waters has a mysterious and ghostly humanity to it which neither the modern translations nor Tyndale's blankness can match,” Nicolson wrote. “'The face of the waters' carries a subliminal suggestion that the face of God is reflected in them.”

Or consider the difference between the beloved 23rd Psalm in the King James Version–“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over”–with the 1978 New International Version–“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”

So what's the big deal about the King James Bible? Nicolson argues the language of 1611 has become the rhetorical benchmark for everything from the Gettysburg Address to Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech. What Shakespeare did for drama, the King James Bible did for the spoken word.

“For generation after generation, it gave the English, and the English in America, a template against which to measure their own utterances,” he wrote.

“The King James Bible … gave the English, more than any other book, a sense of the possibilities of language, an extraordinary range of richness, more approachable than Shakespeare, more populist than Milton, a common text against which life itself could be read.”

Posted: 7/25/03

TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM
Tricky numbers

Paige Patterson generally is being credited with great success at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (June 30). I must disagree.

He has led in academic flim-flam. For proof, ask any Southern Baptist if he has heard of Southeastern College at Wake Forest. I doubt if you will find one in 50 who has. The college was begun at Southeastern Seminary in 1994 under Patterson's leadership and is one of the new undergraduate endeavors that fundamentalist leaders are operating under the auspices of the Southern Baptist Convention seminaries.

According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, in the fall of 2001, Southeastern had a total enrollment of 2,044, of whom 556 were undergraduates. That same academic year, about one-third of the degrees awarded were undergraduate. Keep your eyes open for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's undergraduate program, especially if the seminary's numbers begin to falter.

The seminaries have entered direct competition with Baptist colleges and universities–a mission for which they were not designed, to which they were not appointed, and one which they can hardly accomplish with a quality result.

Why aren't these truth-loving denominational leaders being more forthcoming with Baptists about their activities? The seminaries bear little resemblance to what they were before fundamentalist control, and the numbers that are reported represent very different things than what most Baptists would expect.

The new leadership may be honest by their own definition, but I would not buy a used car from them.

Wayne Barrett

Huntsville

Southwestern praise

First, I do not feel under pressure nor intimidation to speak my mind. I am a student and part-time worker at Southwestern Seminary.

Second, I have gotten to know Dr. and Mrs. Ken Hemphill well. They are good people, and I believe them.

Third, I also have become familiar with many Southwestern trustees. They did not force Hemphill out or force him to remove David Crutchley as the dean.

Fourth, while it is sad to be losing Hemphill and possibly losing Stephen Stookey and Karen Bullock, there still are many top-notch professors here whom I have learned a great deal from.

Fifth, I used to take what was written in this paper with a grain of salt, but not anymore. You do not want to report the facts of stories. You seem too eager to forget about grace and love. You would rather cause strife. I am never reading this paper again.

I look forward to getting to know Paige Patterson and finding out what he really is like before I make any judgments about him.

Thomas Smith

Fort Worth

Trivializing incident

What value is there in an award given to oneself? Paige Patterson chose his own search committee. Every Southwestern trustee owes his seat to Patterson. No one serves as a trustee of any SBC institution without his tacit approval.

Prayer and God's will are trivialized by incidents like this.

Phil Lineberger

Sugar Land

Crystal clarity

Not since Galileo was forced out of the church has a man been as forceful in expressing the “crystal clear” interpretation of biblical teaching as that expressed by Paige Patterson (June 30).

Galileo spoke of a round Earth, while the Bible speaks of the corners of the Earth. Like Galileo in his day, today missionaries are being removed from church vocations because they do not subscribe to the “crystal clear” understanding of Patterson.

To understand the “crystal clear” understanding expressed by Patterson, look at Galatians 3:28 to understand why women have no place in leading Christian congregations. God needs help in selection of leaders, and Patterson stands ready to speak for God. God's word is not dependable in that task. If God calls a woman to a place of leadership, do not tell Patterson.

Neither share with him that the Earth is a sphere. He probably believes, as those who believed in the days of Galileo, that if the Scripture is without error, then the Earth is flat.

God's word is definitely without error; however, all of us, including Patterson, make errors in Bible interpretation.

Bill Osborne

Houston

Faith & football

I couldn't believe my eyes when I read Gerald Johnson's comment in “Patterson & Parcells” (July 14). He said, “Anyone who does not think Southwestern Seminary will be better with Paige at the helm because he is a 'fundamentalist' might as well say the Dallas Cowboys won't be better with Bill Parcells because he was a New York Giant.”

Comparing our standards of faith to football? Wake up, Texas Baptists!

Marci Parrott

Denton

God's accountability

As a graduate of both Southern and Southwestern Baptist seminaries, I've seen firsthand the change wrought in God's name.

Jesus called such doctrinal “purists” hypocrites. They sought their own interpretation of God's word and destroyed those who did contrary. The Apostle Paul would have had another word for what Southwestern's trustees have done: “anathema”!

Karen Bullock was right stating one of the “viruses” infecting the church is ministers being god rather than showing God.

The effect of the change of leadership will undermine the ministerial integrity and capability of the seminary's mission.

Speaking of integrity, I give you a definition, not mine: “Integrity is a choice. It is constantly choosing the purity of truth over popularity.” The trustees have sought man's popularity and glory rather than God.

The rigid doctrinalism coming from Southern Baptist leadership denies any grace and academic freedom.

The world is dying and going to hell while these trustees serve themselves and their position. They should heed Jesus' words, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” before they condemn the innocent. Already, the wounds from this coup d'etat are manifest in mean-spiritedness.

The trustees should beware. God will not share his glory. They will be held accountable by God for their actions. God is more powerful than the SBC.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “They that have despised the word of God, from them shall the word of man also be taken away.”

Austin R. Robinson

Arlington

Freedom vs. bondage

In the letter to the churches in Galatia, the Apostle Paul said: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:6).

As I understand what Paul is expressing to the churches, he is advocating that legalistic rules-based religion moves a person toward spiritual bondage, as opposed to the spiritual freedom that believers have in our Lord Jesus Christ.

What might be a parallel to the teachings of the Judaizers today? Is it possible that a document of theological accountability that Southern Baptist missionaries are required to sign could be something Paul might describe in the same terms as he did the advocacy of circumcision?

I wonder if the most influential missionary of the first century would say that the signing of a document has no value. If we believe the Scripture to be true, and I do, then “the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

Charles Risinger

Gilmer

New requirement

Pete McGuire claims, “In 'The Baptist Heritage,' Leon McBeth writes, 'In 1920 the Foreign Mission Board drew up a 13-point doctrinal statement to be signed by all its missionaries'” (June 9).

If this is an accurate quote, it apparently never was implemented.

We were appointed in 1952 and served for 41 years as missionaries in Uruguay. At appointment, we were simply asked to write up our principal doctrinal beliefs. I believe mine was very simple and brief, less than one page in length.

Occasionally, the personnel department would question the doctrinal statement presented by a candidate, but once he/she arrived at this stage, it was almost a given that the appointment would be approved.

I never heard of a 13-point doctrinal statement that all missionaries had to sign. We did not have to sign any list of doctrines prepared by others. I have talked with numerous veteran missionaries, and they say the same.

So, I think it is important that McGuire's statement be challenged. He attempts to use the quote from McBeth's publication as the basis for saying that the present requirement of signing the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message is nothing new. If the present requirement can be justified, other grounds that are valid must be found for supporting it.

James Bartley

Waco

Missions challenge

As a director of missions, a former International Mission Board missionary and now a trustee of the IMB, I would like to challenge Texas Baptist churches.

The Standard reported on the financial shortfall the IMB is facing. I was in the Framingham meeting of the IMB where we were discussing how to address the $10 million dilemma.

Visiting our committee meeting was a missionary recuperating from injuries his family sustained by a terrorist attack. In the midst of our discussions, this missionary demonstrated Christian values when he observed that we have about 5,000 missionaries. He stated that if we as a board would cut the salaries of the missionaries $2,000 per year, we would cover the shortfall in one year. While our board would never entertain that suggestion, our committee noted his commitment to the Lord's work.

Leaving the meeting, it occurred to me that in Texas we have as many churches as we have missionaries on the field. If a missionary would be willing to make such a sacrifice, how much more should we who enjoy churches like “ivory palaces” be willing to sacrifice?

If each church in Texas gave $2,000 more to the Lottie Moon Offering, in one offering the shortfall would be covered.

What a tragedy to turn away or delay the people God is calling because we must build bigger buildings or remodel our palace instead of caring for God's called.

I challenge every church to increase their offering this year.

Kyle Cox

Galveston

Weaker program

What I admired most about the Southern Baptist Convention was the missions program. Now that they have substituted confrontation for love, it appears weaker, and the program suffers. What a shame.

R. Terry Campbell

Big Canoe, Ga.

Baptist unity

Thank you for your honest plea, “Support at least one missions cause” (July 14). Perhaps sagging finances for missions will be the proverbial 2×4 board the Holy Spirit will use to gain the attention of our denominational leadership.

Jesus prayed for our unity in John 17:20-23. He said our unity would validate his own mission here. Did not God answer Jesus' prayer for our unity? I think the answer must be an emphatic “no.”

So, why do we see such disunity in our Baptist ranks? Only one explanation comes to mind–the father of lies and vanity has led us into such a state of willful and selfish rebellion that we have become apostate–beyond God's unifying touch, until we repent.

Leaders on both sides have lowered sarcasm, criticism, boasting and pettiness to new depths of hedonism (their rhetoric makes them feel good and they are praised by some for their rhetoric).

Sadly, we now see that lack of unity is financially detrimental to all camps and hinders the gospel of Christ in our state, nation and world. Perhaps the day of our leaders' repentance is not so far off.

Marcus W. Norris

Amarillo

Heart condition

Speeches are interesting to study.

The standard collegiate rule for determining if a statement is true or false is if any part of the statement is false, then the entire test statement is to be considered false.

On the basis of this premise, Tony Campolo's “messages” to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (July 14) can be classified like the image of Daniel 2 as a mixture with “its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay” (Daniel 2:33).

Society “may” be willing to have its surface issues dealt with “if” the heart is left alone. The surface social issue–problem–is the evidence of the condition of the heart. God's salvation through the Lord Jesus is the heart solution of all social problems.

Will we ever learn?

Ernest V. May Jr.

Livingston

Talking 'trash'

After reading the article on Tony Campolo (July 14), I now understand the problem with all Southern Baptist organizations, including the BGCT. Why do we have an American Baptist member speaking such trash at an assembly of one of our associations?

To admit his wife believes homosexuals should be allowed to marry is the most disgusting thing I have heard of at any meeting of any Baptist association or convention. His statement on dispensationalism as being unbiblical and “weird” only shows why sociologists should stick to sociology and let theologians handle theological issues.

Mick Tahaney

Port Arthur

Baptist mockery

As I read articles about the SBC and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, I wonder what has happened to the old Southern Baptist denomination I joined 40 years ago.

I disagree with both sides on some issues. I think a mistake was made when Paige Patterson was elected president of Southwestern Seminary. Al Mohler from Southern Seminary seems to think he is the only one to have the true doctrine.

Then I read about Tony Campolo speaking to the CBF convention. I would have thought they would have gotten someone else than an American Baptist to speak. From what I have read, he is too liberal for me. He says that the “Left Behind” series is false theology; then he says human governments are the Babylons of Revelation. Does he know more than the authors of “Left Behind”? By the way, I don't fully agree with those authors.

Brian McLaren was supposed to speak at one of the seminars. I have read several of his books, and while I agree with him on some ideas for church growth, I feel that he leans too much to postmodernism.

I would have no problem with a woman pastor if she has been called. I believe homosexuals should not be discriminated in the secular workplace, but there should be no homosexuals leading churches or marrying.

I feel that both sides are making a mockery of the church and leading to the average Christian getting disgruntled and dropping out of “Baptist” religion.

Robert McIver

Garland

Sharp divide

I was astonished by David Currie's remarks calling Paige Patterson “arrogant, asinine and ignorant” and a “theological pervert” as not only hateful, but un-Christian (July 14).

There are many issues that my Bible is very clear. On the Christian stage of ideas and seeking truth, Christians should be able to express their views on these matters without resorting to such detestable behavior.

Currie owes Patterson and Texas Baptists an apology. This kind of rhetoric defines the sharp divide we have among Texas Baptists.

Steve Joiner

Buffalo Gap

Political correctness

I was almost ecstatic to read the remarks made by Ergun Caner at the Southern Baptist Pastors' Conference about “political correctness” and about “hyphenated” Americans (June 23).

Those remarks are way overdue! It is startling that so many today accept and promote this claptrap without a thought.

One of the most arrogantly self-righteous and patronizing terms is “Native American” to refer to the American Indian. (Does that make the rest of us “Alien Americans”?) Anyone born in this country is a native American. That is what the language plainly means, and 99 percent of us are both thankful for and extremely proud of this.

The second verse of the hymn “America” says this beautifully, beginning with the words “My native country, thee … .” Multitudes of our citizens have given their lives for our “native” land, so please spare the insults!

Our country, contrary to the politi-correctors, is not populated by various sub-species of Americans. Note the Great Seal of the United States as it appears on a $1 bill. The motto is “E Pluribus Unum.” It is not “E Pluribus Pluribus”!

James W. Mims

Midland

Legalized attack

I regret our Supreme Court justices have no theological education toward knowing that God has no blindness to “privacy of persons” and nothing can be hidden from his vision.

How did they miss the point that this is a Christian democracy under God and Immanuel called Christ who destroyed the city of Sodom, from which the satanic behavior derives its name?

Freedom without discipline breeds a heathen, but this nation was set aside by God to await the “coming of Christ/Immanuel,” and it was by him that this landmass could become a Christian anything!

These supreme justices have lost sight of God's precepts of morality and godliness, and they need to be removed. America's blessings have always been under satanic attack, but we do not need it legalized.

B.D. Norman

Dallas

Supreme Judge

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that forbids homosexual sex. They said, “The state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime.”

It was reported as a 6-3 decision, but, actually, the decision was 6-4.

They left out the dissenting vote of the Supreme Judge who wrote: “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death” (unless you repent).

Every problem we are plagued with today would be solved if we just allowed the Supreme Judge to guide us.

Roland A. Baylor

San Antonio

Ten Commandments

I am sorry Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore lost his battle to keep a granite monument containing the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the state judicial building. Most people probably paid very little attention to it. Yet he was attacked with two lawsuits demanding its removal.

The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the constitutionality of the Ten Commandments on display on public property.

In West Chester, Pa., a group of atheists said they were offended and intimidated by a plaque of the Ten Commandments on a wall of the Chester County Courthouse, which had been there since 1920.

They hired the ACLU. A U.S. District Judge ruled in favor of the ACLU and the atheists. Chester County is appealing this case.

Moore is committed to upholding the written law of the Alabama Constitution and the U.S. Constitution with a First Amendment that has only one purpose, “to allow the freedom to worship that God upon which this nation was founded,” Moore said.

Moore was defending his rights under federal and state law to acknowledge God as the ultimate authority in the land and thereby stand true to the original intent of our Constitution.

This isn't just about a granite monument with the Ten Commandments on it.

It's about protecting our religious freedoms and Christian principles.

Marilyn Green

Dallas

Crime statistics

Regarding the article on the authors who wrote about the faith connection in “The Matrix” (July 14), yes, violence is part of Scripture.

Show me the statistics on the number of violent crimes committed by people who said they were reading violent episodes in the Bible and got the idea for committing a violent crime. Then show me the statistics on the number of violent crimes committed by people who said their idea came from seeing violence on TV or in a movie.

Get my point?

Judy Norman

Dallas

Posted: 7/25/03

Muslims cite increased woes

By Hannah Lodwick & Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)–A Muslim-American civil-rights group has released a report claiming “evangelical leaders and neo-conservatives” contributed to a 15 percent increase in reports of anti-Muslim incidents in 2002.

The report, conducted annually by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, compiled what the agency called “credible reports” of anti-Muslim discrimination, harassment and action in the United States during 2002.

It also catalogued what the group considered public incidents of anti-Muslim bias, blaming Religious Right figures like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and former Southern Baptist Convention President Jerry Vines, among others, for inciting anti-Islamic actions with their statements.

“Calling this report 'Guilt by Association' is appropriate,” said Nihad Awad, the council's executive director. “Tens of thousands of people have been impacted in a negative way.”

From January to December of 2002, 602 incidents of anti-Muslim discrimination were reported. That represents a 15 percent increase over the 525 incidents in the previous reporting period. Researchers also said reports of violent physical attacks on Muslims increased by 8 percent in 2002.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations changed its reporting period this year from the previous period, which ran from March 15, 2001 to March 14, 2002–meaning incidents from Jan. 1 to March 14, 2002, were counted twice. But Mohamed Nimer, CAIR's research director, said that either way, the number of incidents in a one-year reporting period increased significantly.

Since CAIR first started compiling such statistics in 1995, reports of anti-Muslim discrimination and bias have increased more than seven-fold.

The report also contains harsh criticisms of the federal government, particularly singling out post-Sept. 11 U.S. policies. It says such policies as the USA Patriot Act of 2001 allow the executive branch to get around the Fourth Amendment's requirement of probable cause when conducting police searches.

Religious Right figures who have spoken negatively about Islam previously have responded to critics of their comments by saying they are merely preaching the truth of the Bible.

Posted: 7/25/03

O'Brien: With no forgiveness, no peace

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

WACO–The inability to forgive is the major obstacle preventing people from spiritually maturing, a Baylor University professor told participants at the Texas Baptist Church Weekday Education Conference.

Sin creates barriers of separation between people as well as a divide between individuals and God, said Randall O'Brien, a professor of religion.

“We've all got skeletons in our closet,” O'Brien said. “Some of us have so many skeletons we have walk-in closets.”

People, including followers of Christ, tend to mentally relive emotionally painful events over and over, and rage and resentment builds, he indicated.

“If you have been sinned against … please don't clobber yourself over and over and over again,” O'Brien urged. “To refuse to forgive is to become a prisoner to your pain.”

Christians must forgive people who hurt them, just as Christ commanded, he encouraged. Forgiveness removes the obstacles between people and renews Christians' relationships with God.

Christians need to stop waiting for individuals to repent of their errors before forgiving them, O'Brien said. Believers should model the grace Jesus showed on the cross and forgive others before they repent.

Forgiveness is an effective evangelism tool, he added.

“Maybe if we forgive, they will become everything they are to be,” O'Brien said.

Forgiveness is not always easy, he acknowledged. It can be a slow process when the sin is especially painful or hard to face. Reconciliation begins with the victim, not the perpetrator in American society, he continued.

In all cases, believers should begin with prayer, O'Brien noted. God can help people take “baby steps” toward forgiving other people if they pray. God can lead people to want to forgive when they initially resist it, he said.

“If you and I have not tried prayer, we have not tried God's way to deal with rage,” O'Brien said. “I can't think of another way to take a big step toward maturation than forgiveness.”

O'Brien outlined four stages of forgiveness. The process begins with the initial pain of sinning or being sinned against and then progresses to feelings of alienation and estrangement from another person or God.

Giving the alienation and pain to God is the third necessary step in forgiveness, according to O'Brien. The last step is reunion of friendship and the return of a proper relationship with Christ as Lord.

By “giving the pain to the Lord,” a believer can resolve a painful past or a difficult situation, he said. The forgiveness process reconciles Christians to other people and the Lord, he noted.

“Only forgiveness liberates you from a painful past.”

Posted: 7/25/03

On the Move

James Adams to First Church in Carlsbad as pastor from Harriett Church in San Angelo.

Rodney Allen has resigned as minister of education at Ovilla Road Church in Red Oak.

H.O. Bilderback has completed an interim pastorate at Velasco Church in Freeport.

Shane Burdick has resigned as pastor of Forestburg Church in Forestburg.

John Collis to First Church in Ozona as pastor from First Church in White Deer.

Rod Cordsen to Ferris Avenue Church in Waxahachie as interim minister of youth.

Michael Godfrey has resigned as minister of education and program administration at First Church in Waco.

Stewart Holloway to Forestburg Church in Forestburg as pastor from Bellevue Church in Hurst, where he was associate pastor.

Ron Langley to Highland Lakes Church in Kingsland as pastor from First Church in Center Point.

Chris Moore to Velasco Church in Freeport as pastor from Happy Hill Youth Farm and Academy in Granbury, where he was chaplain.

Keith Moore to First Church in Hillsboro as minister of education.

George Mosier to Pleasant Terrace Church in Dallas as pastor, where he had been interim.

Phillip Smith to Westoak Woods Church in Austin as minister of music from Woodlawn Church in Austin.

Posted: 7/25/03

Patterson says adios to Southeastern

By Steve DeVane

N.C. Biblical Recorder

WAKE FOREST–Paige Patterson hopes to do his part to bring revival to Texas, he told trustees of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary July 21 as he departed for a new role in his home state.

“If there's a state anywhere that needs a great movement of God, it's my home state of Texas,” said Patterson, who will assume the presidency of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth Aug. 1.

Texas, like North Carolina, is only one of about three states where conservatives have not “overwhelmingly taken the day,” Patterson noted.

Patterson asked Southeastern's trustees to pray for Southwestern and for Texas Baptists. Based on media accounts of him, Texas might be expecting the worst, he noted, speculating some might be headed for their tornado shelters.

He asked trustees to pray that God will give him wisdom regarding “interpersonal relationships and decisions.” Despite his reputation, he said, it pains him to hurt people.

In asking for prayer for Texas, Patterson also noted that Robert Sloan, the president of Baylor University, is taking heat from some critics because he is attempting to make Baylor “again an evangelical institution.”

Patterson told Southeastern trustees he is glad to have helped the North Carolina seminary return to “biblical Christianity.”

The transformation of the Southern Baptist Convention-owned seminary in the past 11 years has been “one of the most miraculous stories of the intervention of God in Christian history,” he declared.

Patterson thanked trustees for helping move Southeastern from “a seminary known for liberalism and neo-orthodoxy” to a school known for its “faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Trustees voted unanimously to name their highest award the Paige Patterson Faithful Servant Award. They also named a professorship of women's studies for his wife, Dorothy. The campus center, under construction, will be named for the Pattersons.

Bart Neal, vice president for institutional advancement at Southeastern since 1993, was named interim president. He told trustees he would not be a candidate for president.

Posted: 7/25/03

RAP REDEEMED:
Teen minister takes to stage as 'Bloodbought'

By Jenny Hartgraves

Staff Writer

DUMAS–A Texas Baptist youth minister is “rapping” the gospel in a new package.

Elden Kaeo, youth minister at Temple Baptist Church of Dumas, has taken on the name Bloodbought as a Christian rap artist.

His mission is “to expose adults and young people alike to the dangers behind secular rap” and provide a “God-glorifying, lyrical substitute in rap form to our Christian youth and those seeking an answer for the truth of life.”

In 2002, rap music outsold all genres of music worldwide. Eminem, a white rapper-turned-actor, had the biggest commercial hit of 2002 with “The Eminem Show” selling 7.6 million albums, according to retail figures by Nielsen SoundScan. Eminem's movie “8-Mile” ranked fifth in take for the year, grossing more than $114 million.

To Kaeo, the success of Eminem and other secular rappers proves that America's children and youth are headed for trouble.

At his concerts, Kaeo demonstrates rap's influence on children by staging a variation of “Name That Tune.” He offers a free CD to any child who can identify a rap artist upon hearing a few lyrics.

Without fail, children and youth rush the stage after only a few words. Kaeo deliberately picks the smallest child who came forward to prove a point. Parents, he said, are appalled to see the expansive knowledge of lyrics coming from children as young as 6.

Kaeo then recites a simple Bible verse and asks again for volunteers to identify the phrase. Normally, fewer than five or six kids know the answer, and they respond timidly.

Kaeo's mission as Bloodbought grew from his own experience as a child and youth. Now 27, he was born in Killeen to a military family. His father was heavily involved with drugs, both using and selling on military bases, and he paraded the family across the country during his relocations.

The family's life changed one day, however, when his father went for a haircut and the barber shared the gospel. His father became a Christian that moment.

Outside the base barber shop, Kaeo's father had enough drugs in his car to “put someone away for life,” Kaeo said. His father immediately went to the dumpster and unloaded the drugs. Moments later, drug dogs arrived onto the base, the first his father ever had seen there.

His father made a drastic life change and led his son to become a Christian at 6 years of age. Despite his father's moving testimony and strict Christian upbringing from that point forward, Kaeo was a rebellious teen. He moved out of the house at 16 and started rapping in underground clubs in Missouri.

Like his father's previous life, Kaeo soon developed a debilitating addiction to drugs, even after accepting a scholarship to play basketball at Baptist Bible College of Springfield, Mo.

“The only way you can explain why I was never locked up was because of God's love and mercy,” Kaeo said. “His love supercedes all of that.”

Kaeo met and married his wife, Dana Melia, in 1998 and began working at Mount Vernon Treatment Center, a maximum security unit for youth who have committed felonies.

Ironically, what put Kaeo in a dark place and what brought him out was one in the same thing–rap music.

While working the night shift at a juvenile detention center, Kaeo experienced God's love through rap music. In the dark, lonely quarters of the detention center, Kaeo played a CD his wife had bought him. He expected to make fun of the Christian rappers Brothers Grimm.

Instead, he immediately connected with their powerful lyrics.

“I was just crying uncontrollably,” he said. “I realized these guys had experienced the same lifestyle I had lived, and the song just broke me.”

Soon, he and his wife sold all their belongings, packed the car and drove off in search of God's will for their marriage and their lives. During those rocky months, Kaeo said, God provided for them along the way.

His marriage struggled. Eventually, the couple attended a marriage seminar in Springdale, Ark., where they met Jay McGaughey, pastor of Temple Baptist Church in Dumas.

When McGaughey met Kaeo, “I saw a young man with opportunity,” he said. “When he told me he was looking for a job, I invited him to come and stay with me in Dumas while he worked to save money for seminary.”

In Dumas, which McGaughey called a small “cowboy-oriented community not more than two miles long and a mile wide,” Kaeo felt strangely out of place. While Kaeo was visiting McGaughey, the church's youth minister left the congregation unexpectedly and quickly.

Kaeo stepped in to fill the void. “The kids just kept asking, 'Brother Kaeo, what do we do? Why is this happening?' and I felt called to stay,” he said.

He's been there nearly two years now, and “the youth department is like it's never been,” McGaughey said.

“Kaeo is a tremendous and wise counselor, and he has a burden for these kids unlike anything I've ever seen. He's an excellent preacher and Bible teacher, and the kids really admire him.”

Despite his gift for teaching, Kaeo still believed God was calling him to do something with his passion for rap music. He asked: “How can I use these desires for God's work? How can I glorify the kingdom?”

He was soon overwhelmed with God's quick response, he said.

Every year, Temple Baptist Church holds an annual Crusaders conference, a week-long “invasion of the Lord,” McGaughey said, that started in 1984. Last year, the special performer was Kaeo, who billed himself as Bloodbought.

In his first-ever performance of Christian rap, 156 people dedicated their lives to Christ–not just kids but people of all ages, 12 to 42 years old.

“Dumas is the last place you'd think a rapper could make an impact, but he did. He made a big impact,” McGaughey said.

“I knew then that this was a legitimate, God-glorifying ministry,” Kaeo said.

Inspired by the success of that event, Kaeo began researching the effects of rap music in today's culture, spending more than 80 hours in books and data to build his defense. He dedicates himself to helping parents understand how rap affects their children.

“I understand the sensitivity in the area of Christian rap in some circles, but I have answered God's calling to fight Satan in this area, and it's a very serious matter to me,” he said.

His research shows that 80 percent of secular rap's music buyers are Caucasian, destroying all preconceived notions of racial preferences in rap music. Nine out of 10 16-to-24-year-olds watch more than five hours a week of MTV. More than half that group (67 percent) report buying a new rap CD after seeing the music video on MTV.

As Bloodbought, Kaeo believes his music is a call to fight Satan's hold over secular music.

“The Bible must be brought out in Christian music to combat subliminal messages, and the key is bringing it in forms of music that our young people will listen to,” he said.

Bloodbought released his first single April 11, with three songs–“Jesus,” “He Gotz the Whole Wide World,” and “Do U Wanna Come With Me.”

“He Gotz the Whole Wide World” has been a hit in the Christian rap community. While juggling a busy summer with the youth in Dumas, including three youth camps, Kaeo also has made plans to perform in Puerto Rico, the Philippines and, closer to home, in Dalhart.

Last year alone, Bloodbought led 216 people to faith in Jesus Christ through his concert ministry.

“I don't care how much money (he gets) or how many people come. If God provides me with a place to perform, then I'll go,” he said. “God's literally dropped all this in my lap, and he's provided me with opportunities all along the way.”

One of his biggest problems, he said, is that he can't seem to sell any of his CDs. He gives them all away. He enlisted his wife to manage the sales, but she couldn't turn down the kids either.

“I just can't stand to sell this to young people who really want to listen,” he said. “I want all kids to have a chance to discover how God can use this music to speak to you.”

The greatest reward, Kaeo said, is not just hearing his music on the radio, but hearing his music come from the lips of his kids. “They never ask me for my autograph, because I'm too hard on them. But I know they like the music.”

“They really admire him,” McGaughey said. “He's winning over some rough kids in this community.”

Elden Kaeo takes the stage name Bloodbought to perform Christian rap.

Posted: 7/25/03

Christian Right frustrated
by lack of political progress

By Mark O'Keefe

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–With such fellow believers as President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft in office, religious conservatives never have had more friends in high places.

But a growing sense of frustration is enveloping the leadership of the political movement that began nearly 25 years ago when Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority burst onto the national scene. A generation later, most Americans don't stand with the Christian Right. Its big agenda items have fizzled.

And as the impact of the recent sweeping Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay sex sinks in, the movement stands at a soul-searching crossroads.

“Obviously, in some ways Christians are losing the culture war, certainly on this issue (gay rights),” said James Kennedy, head of Coral Ridge Ministries in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and a religious broadcaster with a national following. “The time has come for us to re-examine the situation we're in.”

Some see opportunity in a new battle arising from the June sodomy ruling–gay marriage. Handled correctly, strategists say, it could re-energize religious conservatives, putting them in a posture of defending heterosexual marriage instead of attacking gay rights.

A consensus appears to be growing that the movement must find a way out of its current predicament–being dissatisfied with the status quo but reluctant to criticize it because allies control the White House and Congress.

“They're at a moment where they have to reinvigorate themselves or reinvent themselves, or they'll just slowly fade away,” said John Green, a professor at the University of Akron and co-editor of a new book, “The Christian Right in American Politics.”

Most social movements do better rallying against enemies than helping allies govern, Green said. Many Christian Right organizations thrived when Bill Clinton was in the White House.

With gay rights marching on, abortion an established right, no return to teacher-led school prayer in sight and public vouchers for private schools a messy proposition at best, the Christian Right has learned over time that it's easier to fulminate than to legislate. Even when laws are passed, the courts can and do overturn them.

Some see history repeating itself, as when President Reagan spoke the language of religious conservatives but wasn't able or willing to deliver on key policy goals.

A handful of national leaders, such as outgoing Family Research Council President Ken Connor, advocate a more demanding tone, even if it means criticizing Bush for not doing enough.

That appears unlikely, however, because Bush remains immensely popular among the white evangelical Protestants and conservative Catholics who make up the movement. It's a constituency that makes up as much as 18 percent of the entire electorate, according to surveys, but it has no realistic place to go outside the GOP.

In a dozen Gallup surveys over the last five years, the share of Americans identifying themselves as “born-again” or “evangelical” ranged between 41 percent and 49 percent. That grouping is much larger than the Christian Right because it includes blacks, who vote strongly Democratic, as well as some Catholics, mainline Protestants and non-voters who may identify with those spiritual terms but not the same political agenda.

Connor, who left the Family Research Council this summer, says fellow leaders of the Christian Right have been used, accepting rhetoric instead of results and confusing access with influence.

“They go to an East Room ceremony or a Rose Garden signing or to the White House Christmas party and say, 'Look at all the influence I have,'” he said. “In reality, they've been bought off cheap.”

Paul Weyrich–head of the Washington-based Free Congress Foundation, co-founder of the Moral Majority and a man some call the father of the Christian Right–shares some of Connor's frustration, without criticizing Bush.

“The president is a religious conservative. The Senate majority leader is a religious conservative. The speaker of the House and the House majority leader and the majority whip are all religious conservatives,” Weyrich said. “Yet we make only marginal, incremental progress. We really have to rethink our strategy.”

Justice Antonin Scalia, in his blistering dissent in the recent sodomy case, said the court's majority had decreed “the end of all morals legislation” and made gay marriage the logical next step.

Meantime, an appeals court in Canada ruled in June that a gay marriage ban was unconstitutional. Pending court decisions in Massachusetts and New Jersey could sanction gay marriage in this country as well.

“I don't think the bomb has gone off yet. It will go off and go off soon. It's the marriage bomb,” said Matt Daniels, president of the Alliance for Marriage, a Washington-based group promoting a constitutional amendment defining marriage as solely a union between a man and a woman.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has endorsed the effort, saying “Western values” and the “sacrament” of marriage must be protected.

In Michigan, legislators are working to rewrite the state constitution in a similar manner. Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, predicts gay marriage will become the ultimate wedge issue, with every 2004 candidate forced to answer where he or she stands.