Posted: 5/30/03

TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM
Who's good enough?

In the summer of 2001, I had the distinct pleasure of going to Spain on a mission trip through the Baptist General Convention of Texas with a group from Howard Payne University's Baptist Student Ministry.

One week was spent in Alcobendas, at the only Baptist seminary in Spain. David and Susie Dixon served there, and I had the honor of meeting them.

While there, David and I pondered the possibility of International Mission Board missionaries being required to sign the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message. I remember his statement that he would never sign it. Recent reports of his termination indicate he kept his word.

My memories of David and Susie Dixon are of wonderful, God-fearing ministers who loved the people around them and served with integrity.

If people of their caliber are not good enough for the IMB, who is? God forbid that the IMB prefer less-qualified people who will be controlled by a man-made document over God-fearing people of integrity like the Dixons.

David Tankersley

Abilene

Heritage upholds termination

Historically, Baptists have opposed creeds when the state enforced them against the conscience of its citizens or when they were implemented as a means of salvation.

While avoiding connectionalism, 19th and early 20th century Southern Baptists did not, however, oppose creeds as means of doctrinal accountability for missionaries, administrators, professors, pastors or church members.

B.H. Carroll, James P. Boyce, John Broadus and E.Y. Mullins all used confessions of faith in this creedal manner. Carroll's book “Baptists and Their Doctrines” and Mullins' selected writings in the 1997 edition of “Axioms of Religion” make this indisputably clear. These men even used the word “creed” in a positive fashion with the above qualifications.

The IMB's termination of missionaries over the 2000 BF&M is consistent with SBC heritage and history in general and the IMB's stance in particular.

David Mills

Auburn, Ga.

No. 1 responsibility

As a pastor's wife, I appreciate your recent article giving a small glimpse of this life I live (May 19). It's not something that can be defined, described or even comprehended at times.

While the church very often gets the idea that we pastors' wives belong to them, the truth is we don't. My husband is, in a sense, “theirs,” but I am delightfully my husband's!

In spite of the misconception, my No. 1 responsibility in the role of pastor's wife is to make my husband's role as pastor easier. I have the privilege of listening to, encouraging, challenging, admonishing, adoring and standing beside the love of my life.

It's really that simple, if I'll let it be.

Tessa Hall

Haskell

Main gift

I enjoyed the article on pastors' wives (May 19). I'm a pastor who is lucky enough to have a wife who looks like a doll, plays the piano, sings and cooks all exceptionally well.

But I want to also mention something the article did not: Whether most will admit it or not, a pastor's wife's main gift is encouraging her husband and increasing his confidence.

Even though my wife is talented in many ways, her most important quality to me is her encouragement. I would not be near as confident in ministry without her, and it has nothing to do with how talented she is musically or with culinary arts.

Jason Covington

Aspermont

Christian flag

During Memorial Day weekend, we paid tribute to those who gave their lives for our freedom. Our adult Sunday School department is made up of senior adults age 85 and older. On Sunday, we paid tribute to those who gave their lives that we might enjoy the Christian freedoms we have.

We owe a great deal to Jesus, the apostles, the early church and others, who gave their lives that we might have the freedom to read Scriptures. To honor them, we recited the pledge to the Christian flag.

I had not done that since Vacation Bible School days. If all of us would commit an allegiance to that pledge, we would be truly “one brotherhood in service and in love.”

Robert Dillard

San Angelo

Guilt offering

We pass by them every day. The homeless people begging for money with a sign that ends with, “God bless.”

Every once in awhile, the thought of driving on without doing anything causes us to feel guilty, and we already have enough guilt. So, to cure our guilt, we reach into our pockets, hoping not to be stuck with only 10s and 20s, and pull out a couple of wrinkled bucks.

We hold our offering out the window knowing we have accomplished something for the good of humanity and liberating ourselves from guilt for another day.

And they say money can't buy happiness.

But then those ladies come to church. Most good Baptist know them well–Lottie, Annie and Mary. They come with their missionaries, who show slides of pitiful-looking people in pitiful places. They remind us we can't go on without doing something. We even listen to sermons that leave us with guilt, the kind that must be paid for. So, we reach deep into our pockets, hoping not to be stuck with only 10s and 20s, and pull out a couple of wrinkled bucks.

We hide our guilt offering in an envelope because we know we shouldn't give our alms for people to admire. We lay our offering in the plate, knowing we have accomplished something for the Kingdom and, again, having liberated ourselves from guilt.

Is it guilt or concern for souls that controls your pocketbook as you give to missions?

Jason Burden

Chilton

Tension of differences keeps faith vibrant

When men start messing with God's work and with God's called men, then they are setting themselves up as gods.

How can one find a man whom God has called to do his work? Note the prediction of Herschel Hobbs in “The Baptist Faith & Message”:

“At times one hears the prediction that Southern Baptists are about to divide over their faith. In this writer's judgment, this is most unlikely.

“Baptists have always agreed on basics but have had their differences on details. This is because they have a living faith rather than a creedal one. The tensions created by these differences have kept their faith vibrant.

“In all likelihood, the only thing that would divide Southern Baptists with regard to their faith would be for one group–to the right or left of center or even in the center–to attempt to force upon others a creedal faith. So long as they hold to the competency of the soul in religion, they will remain as one body in the faith.

“The very differences which disturb some will serve as counter balances between extremes, with the vast majority remaining in between as always.”

Percy Calk

Comstock

Suspicious instead of accepting

I've just read your editorial about the mission boards' use of the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement, making it creedal (May 19).

I'm afraid the younger generation of Baptists, especially those who have not studied Baptist history, are not aware of how the enemies of Baptists have used religious creeds to harass them and to try to force them into theological molds counter to their consciences and contrary to their understanding of Scripture.

Statements of faith have always been acceptable to Baptists as indicators of what the majority thinks the Bible teaches, but not as “instruments of doctrinal accountability” requiring theological conformity.

In the past, Baptists could cooperate even when they did not completely agree with all the points in a statement of faith. Sadly, that no longer seems to be the case. Apparently there are some who are so afraid of “liberalism,” however they may define that, that they feel they must force all who cooperate with them to pledge allegiance to their formal statement of faith or else be forbidden to cooperate.

Such fear certainly is not the product of love, for “perfect love casts out fear.” Lack of love makes people suspicious instead of accepting.

David King

Marshall

Playing God

Why the firing of the International Mission Board missionaries who will not affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message?

Is it because they have committed some great sin or have they been teaching false doctrine? No! It is because they will not sign a document of man. These missionaries have proven themselves to be sound in doctrine and faithful in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, this is nothing less than persecution of our very own. With such evil in our own ranks, will God bless?

What about the calling of God in these missionaries lives? Did that change when they refused to sign? Again, no! The leadership has taken the role of determining God's will for these saints. Where they once recognized their calling into missions, they now deny for reasons that are unbiblical. Is this not playing God? Is this not wickedness? Of course, it is!

Is the Bible their real authority? Not anymore. It is the 2000 BF&M. They judge men by it now.

And after all, when a president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention stated, “The Bible is not enough”, the leadership of the SBC said, “Amen.” Oh, ye hypocrites, will you not repent?

Kenneth Martin

Ira

Heart aches for those who must decide

I awoke with a prayer for our Southern Baptist missionaries. I tried to imagine what it would be like to feel and answer the call from God to take the gospel to all the world. What is it like to devote yourself to training and education for years so you can better lead lost people from other cultures to know Jesus Christ? What is it like then, when years later, you face an ultimatum to either sign a list of interpretations of what the Bible says or lose the support that allows you to share the gospel with your assigned people?

Do you sign because you agree with every statement?

Do you disagree with one or two statements, but sign because God wants you to continue taking the gospel to the lost?

Do you sign because what matters most is reaching the lost, not teaching what Baptist believe?

Do you refuse to sign, because in your understanding of God's word, signing a statement that says you support all these interpretations would be a lie?

Which is most important, continuing to tell others the good news of Jesus Christ or standing up for your Baptist heritage and beliefs?

I am thankful to God that I do not have to make these decisions. God knows my heart aches for those who must.

May God have mercy on souls who will remain lost forever because of actions taken by religious leaders.

Charles McFatter

Semmes, Ala.

Time of resurrection

Val Borum's explanation of the day of Jesus' crucifixion (April 14) fails to take into account Jewish law connected to the first day after the day of Passover.

Since the day after the preparation (Passover) is a “High Sabbath” (Leviticus 23:7), it would have been impossible for Joseph to place the Savior into the tomb Thursday. Joseph rolled the stone to the opening, but did not finish. These two events can only mean that Joseph stopped for a reason, and that is Thursday being a High Sabbath. No work on that day. This means it was imperative that Christ be placed in the tomb, on Wednesday, close to 6 p.m.

Necessary for Christ to fulfill the type of Jonah, three full nights and three full days. No other scenario will fit Scripture than Jesus Christ being placed in the tomb almost at the stroke of 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Placed in the earth Wednesday 5:59 P.M. Thursday to 6P.M. Friday. 1st day. Begin 6P.M. Friday to 6P.M. Saturday 2nd day. Begin 6P.M. Saturday to 6P.M. Sunday 3rd day.

Scripture proves our Savior arose on the third day, which was at the close of the Jewish day, on Saturday closing the Old Testament, for the dawning of a new day, Sunday. Matthew 28:1 states dawning (drawing near) toward the first day of the week Sunday would be 6 p.m. When the women arrived, our Savior had already arisen.

James Parks

Dallas

Verdict is in

What has fundamentalist leadership done for the Southern Baptist Convention and, more importantly, for the kingdom of God? The verdict is in.

Since 1991 and the completion of the national fundamentalist revolution, average church membership has fallen from 400 to 380.

Fewer church members are enrolled in music ministry and missions education. Sunday School enrollment, once the preferred vehicle for evangelism, has decreased despite a 5.7 percent growth in church membership.

Most troubling, our baptismal rate is flat. Today, Southern Baptist churches average 9.23 baptisms per year. In 1979-80, as the fundamentalist movement began, that number was 11.99 annually.

Since the national fundamentalist revolution came to fruition, each Southern Baptist church on average is baptizing three fewer new believers annually.

One area has seen significant growth. Total gifts to Southern Baptist institutions have increased 77.2 percent since 1991. So, while local churches have fattened the coffers in national, state and associational offices, Southern Baptists have lost ground in the battle for souls.

Behind these statistics are stories of faithful Christian workers brought down, not by misdeeds, slothfulness, false teachings or immorality, but because they cling to the priesthood of the believer, the authority of Christ as the Word and a non-creedal ecclesiastical authority.

The fundamentalist appetite will not be satisfied until every paying job in an SBC organization is held by someone clearly identified with the movement and willing to sign a man-made creed as a display of total allegiance.

What hath the revolution wrought?

Bobby Quinten

Bedford

Autonomy of the church trampled

You accused some of fighting when they cried from slander and lies.

You said, “Follow the wisdom and guidance of God-appointed leadership, whether we necessarily understand or agree.”

You replaced the Bible with rules as the doctrinal guideline.

You told God women couldn't teach men. “Lord caused the donkey to speak” (Numbers 22:28). Would you prefer donkeys?

Your approval of women as missionaries but not as pastors or chaplains is hypocritical.

Your decreeing a wife should stay home shows your attitude of superiority.

You made the partnership of husband and wife a pecking order.

You made 'inerrancy' above God's word of loving your brother.

Your jealousy of another convention kept $125,000 from the Baptist World Alliance.

You say you're right because of the money given you.

You requested all money for yourself regardless of others doing God's work.

You said individual priesthood was too much freedom, so you buried what was born at Calvary.

Your required creed signing removed and prohibits many called by God.

Your triumph of dominance and control has trampled me.

I am the autonomy of the Church, and you have fooled the majority into changing Baptist principles, which earns you more than enough rope to hang yourself.

Rex Ray

Bonham

Attack on Iraq was illegal

Charles Wade did not speak for me and many other Baptists I know when he wrote about our government's premeditated, unprovoked military attack on the people of Iraq in such antiseptic terms. Neither the people nor the government of Iraq has done anything to justify calling them our “enemies.” Therefore, the word “victory” was also inappropriate.

The attack was illegal and immoral. Jimmy Carter explained why this was not a “just war” in the traditional Christian sense. The UN Charter is a treaty adopted by the U.S. Senate. The attack was illegal because it clearly violated Article 2, Sections 3 and 4, of the UN Charter. It also defied the will of the UN Security Council.

Now that the fighting has ended, we know Iraq did not have “weapons of mass destruction.” We also know our government misled us about that fact.

My prayer is for the rebuilding of America–that we would live up to our hopes and not down to our fears; that we would restore the national character and values that existed before 9/11.

My prayer is that Baptists would have the courage and integrity to rise above the idolatries of nationalism, political ideologies and political figures. If we cannot stand for the teachings of Jesus, and stand against the killing of innocent human beings, what could we possibly have to say to the rest of the world?

We might do well to consider the words of Joshua 24:15: “Choose this day whom you will serve.”

Charles Reed

Waco

What do you think? Submit letters via e-mail to marvknox@baptiststandard.com or regular mail at Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267. Letters must be no longer than 250 words.

Posted: 5/30/03

Cartoons

See second cartoon here

“It's my new invention for impromptu preaching–the inflatable Port-a-Pulpit!”

Posted: 5/27/03

'People who are dying are still living,' author reminds

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

“People who are dying are still living.”

That's the key message of a new book based on 10 years of interviews with people who are terminally ill. And it's a message the author, David Kuhl, wants caregivers, ministers and family members to understand before it's too late.

Kuhl, a medical doctor, developed a palliative care program for cancer and AIDS patients in Vancouver, British Columbia. From that, he obtained a grant from the Soros Foundation to study the emotional, spiritual and physical issues facing those who know the end of life is near.

His book, “What Dying People Want,” draws on both biblical and non-biblical texts to illustrate the stories told to him by people from their mid-20s to their mid-80s who had been diagnosed with terminal cases of cancer or AIDS.

His subjects ranged from members of his own family to his own patients to individuals he never knew before.

The book begins with Kuhl's own confession of wishing he knew earlier what he knows now–a desire applied to watching both a roommate and a father-in-law die.

“In the case of my father-in-law, my wife and I would not have left his room the last night of his life just because the hospital staff told us to go home,” he writes. “The change in his breathing pattern was such that they must have known that he was dying. We left without saying the goodbye we would have said, without speaking the truths we would have spoken. We were not there to hold his hand even in his unconsciousness. That time was so precious, but the opportunity to complete our relationship evaded us because we didn't know what to do or to say–other than to believe the doctors and nurses.”

From this platform, Kuhl addresses health-care providers, the dying and loved ones of the dying, imploring them to demonstrate greater sensitivity and seize the time that remains.

Out of his interviews with the dying, Kuhl identifies nine common concerns, ranging from changing perceptions of time to the importance of physical touch to the need to speak and hear truth to the search for spiritual meaning at the end of life.

“For the most part,” he concludes, “they wanted to be heard and to be understood simply for who they were in the world.”

The announcement of a terminal diagnosis marks a change in the way people perceive time, Kuhl reports. It signals not only an ending but a beginning–“an opportunity to ask what the time remaining in your life means to you.”

He quotes the work of two other researchers–James Diggory and Doreen Rothman–who asked 550 people to prioritize seven consequences of death. The No. 1 concern expressed was the grief their death would cause relatives and friends.

Kuhl confirms this finding, but adds that this fear actually may reduce the quantity and quality of conversation that occurs between the dying and their loved ones.

“For some people, the need to take care of others is greater than their desire to alleviate their own fears and anxiety by speaking about those emotions,” he explains.

Anxiety may be reduced by engaging in a life review, Kuhl suggests. This exercise “simply means living in the present while looking at the past,” he writes. “It enables the individual to reconsider life events, relationships, successes, failures.”

Like Adam and Eve facing expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the pronouncement of a terminal illness moves a person into a new reality, Kuhl contends. “Our naivete about life as we know it ends. Dying becomes part of our reality. We can't go back.”

Life review ultimately should lead to an experience of transcendence, “a spirituality that extends from the core of their being to a spirit that cannot be contained,” Kuhl writes.

Among a number of practical tips Kuhl addresses:

The importance of physical touch. To illustrate the power of touch, he draws on the biblical story of the woman with a 12-year hemorrhage who touched the hem of Jesus' garment and was healed.

“People who are dying often feel 'out of touch' physically and emotionally. They feel that no one knows their experience. They feel isolated. They crave physical contact.”

The sources of pain. The physical pain of a terminal illness may be intertwined with emotional pain of regrets, conflict and mistakes made in life, Kuhl said. “Pain is always a combination of physical and psychological features, and for some it has a spiritual component as well. Pain must be assessed from the perspective of wholeness.”

The need for family members to talk openly. “When the death of a close family member has occurred, it must be talked about–again and again and again. Until that happens, meaningful topics will not be engaged, potentially intimate conversations won't get started–nothing will change until someone has the courage to speak what seems to be unspeakable.”

This applies both before and after the death, and it concerns both the dying and those they love, Kuhl asserts. For those who have trouble getting started, he offers this simple formula: “I feel (name the emotion) because (state what happened).”

At several points, Kuhl offers pointed suggestions to his colleagues in the health-care profession.

Chief among his advice is to develop better communication skills: “Poor communication can render ineffective all the good in medicine, as it has the potential to increase suffering.”

Good communication skills are essential for telling a patient about a terminal diagnosis and for talking about realistic treatment options, he contends.

The book ends as it begins, with Kuhl recounting the death of a family member. But the experience of walking through a terminal illness with his sister differed from the earlier experience with his father-in-law, he reports, because of what he had learned from the dying patients he interviewed.

“We were able to do and say what needed to be done and said,” he reports. “For that, I will be forever grateful.”

Posted: 5/30/03

NAMB identifies two issues with BGCT

By Ken Camp

Texas Baptist Communications

The president of the North American Mission Board has identified two “weighty issues” that must be addressed in a proposed cooperative agreement between NAMB and the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

NAMB trustees at their May 7 board meeting did not approve the cooperative agreement, choosing instead to appoint a task force to study “substantive issues” surrounding the matter.

In a letter dated May 9, NAMB President Bob Reccord told BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade that he recommended the trustees place the cooperative agreement on hold.

“While you see our differences as 'semantics,' we consider them to be weighty issues that must be addressed before we can move forward toward a new cooperative agreement,” Reccord wrote.

BGCT and NAMB staff members have been working on the proposed cooperative agreement for months. The issue stalled first when members of the BGCT Executive Board objected to language about NAMB's requirement that jointly funded missionaries must conform to the 2000 Baptist & Message.

Staff members thought that issue was resolved when the BGCT Executive Board approved the agreement as adopted by NAMB trustees with one clarifying statement. Now, however, NAMB officials have raised new objections.

Reccord identified two problem issues–the BGCT retaining funds in Texas that normally would be routed through NAMB before returning to joint mission projects in the state, and disagreements regarding the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.

Retaining Cooperative Program funds is “at the center of our concerns,” Reccord stated in the letter. This practice, he said, violates the historic practice and agreement established in 1928 between state conventions and the Southern Baptist Convention, as well as the 1991 cooperative agreement between the BGCT and the SBC Home Mission Board, NAMB's predecessor.

Retention of those funds, however, is not a new issue. The BGCT began the practice in January 2002. The BGCT does not retain all Cooperative Program funds going to NAMB, only the portion that would have come back to Texas. The change was made, BGCT officials said, to reduce bureaucracy and delays in funding.

NAMB trustees approved a version of the cooperative agreement with the BGCT in October 2002 that acknowledged the retention of Texas funds, noted E.B. Brooks, director of the BGCT Church Missions and Evangelism Section.

Regarding the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, adopted by the SBC but rejected by the BGCT, Reccord wrote: “As an SBC agency, it is the doctrinal standard by which we operate. When the BGCT chose to reject this document, it placed NAMB and the BGCT on separate doctrinal ground.”

While acknowledging “no two Baptists agree 100 percent on issues,” Reccord declared the faith statement is a “critical issue” because any personnel jointly funded by NAMB and the BGCT must affirm it.

“This includes pastors of churches that receive congregational assistance for more than three months,” Reccord explained.

Reccord's observation that the BGCT and NAMB are on “separate doctrinal ground” could be “misleading,” Brooks replied. “NAMB and the BGCT have never tested their working agreement with doctrinal statements. To begin such a practice now is inappropriate and seems to make the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message a test of fellowship. I am certain this is not what Dr. Reccord wants.”

Brooks also questioned Reccord's statement in the letter that the breakdown was not about “semantics.”

The motion adopted by NAMB trustees in May stated: “Rather than enter into an argument about semantics, we move that the president and chairman of the NAMB board of trustees jointly appoint a response task force to review the substantive issues underlying the impasse.”

“That term is theirs, as indicated in the motion approved by their board,” Brooks said. “To the contrary, we have taken the statement regarding the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message very seriously.

“We have spent significant time with commissions, committees and boards making every effort to honor their requirements while remaining true to the position of the BGCT on the issue. We recognized in adopting the cooperative agreement their right to make requirements. We indicated our willingness to work with those requirements in dealing with jointly supported missionaries.

“If there is an impasse, it is an arbitrary, unilateral position taken by the North American Mission Board trustees,” Brooks said. “The Baptist General Convention of Texas sees no impasse, only a delay on their part in acknowledging that the agreement is in effect.”

Posted: 5/30/03

Texan's musical moves from patriotism to faith

By George Henson

Staff Writer

CARROLLTON–Mike Harland hopes the patriotic musical he took the lead in creating helps its hearers remember God and country–and in that order.

Harland, associate pastor for worship at First Baptist Church in Carrollton, was the creative force behind LifeWay Christian Resources' newest patriotic musical “America, We Must Not Forget.”

The project originated prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that have forged a renewed sense of patriotism across America.

Harland, who has been a part of two previous LifeWay projects and a third for another publisher, was approached about creating a patriotic musical in the summer of 2001.

“Then Sept. 11 happened, and we realized this was going to be a bigger thing than we at first thought,” Harland said.

Despite the immediate connection, LifeWay decided not to accelerate the schedule already in place.

“I'm now glad it worked out that way, because it allowed me to have a deeper, broader perspective, rather than just reacting to one event,” Harland said.

Actual work on the project began with a brainstorming session with Chris Machen of Plano, who collaborated on the project.

“One of the things I noticed in our country's response to the attack on Sept. 11 was 'We must not forget.' Everywhere you looked after Sept. 11, there were posters, bumper stickers, T-shirts, just everything that said 'We must not forget.' Chris and I were talking about how there were other things we must not forget other than the attacks.”

As he and Machen tried to pin down the things that should be remembered, Harland's wife, Teresa, who had been sitting across the room overhearing, said: “We must not forget our heritage, our heroes and our hope.”

“She took all she had heard us talking about and said it in one sentence,” Harland recalled.

Those three areas now form the outline of the musical.

Every song but one and all the narration were written specifically for this project, Harland said. He and singer/songwriter Luke Garrett wrote “Sea of Glory” prior to the musical.

Harland's vocations as songwriter and minister of music meld into one in this project.

“I don't compartmentalize my life,” he said. “I'm never not a songwriter, but I'm never not a minister of music either. I hope the day never comes when I have to make a choice between the two. I would not ever want to not be a minister of music, and I know that God has given me a talent as a writer that needs to used for his glory.”

First Baptist Church in Carrollton is not asking him to make that kind of choice, and neither is LifeWay.

“It takes a lot of understanding on both entities' part,” Harland admitted. “LifeWay knows I'm a minister of music. I rarely if ever have felt any pressure put on me like they might a full-time writer living in Nashville.”

“First Baptist Church has a real impact-the-world mindset, and I think they see this as an extension of this church's ministry–as a way to touch the world,” he said.

The church has supported this project in several ways. The choir presented the musical in San Antonio and San Diego at music conferences and also will perform this summer at Glorieta, N.M. In another show of support, Harland's pastor, Brent Taylor, accompanied him to Nashville for the taping of the project.

Harland is careful to guard against short-changing his church, however.

“I don't write songs every day. I'm more of a project writer, and on projects you know when your due date is. I budget that time. My work here at the church is the pressure I feel every day, and I work on the project as time comes.”

His music ministry enhances his writing ministry, Harland said.

“I love getting to interact on a day-in, day-out basis with people through the music ministry here,” he said. “People who just create choral product don't get to see how it affects people, but I do. I love seeing how it affects lives.”

A number of churches around the state and country are deploying “America, We Must Not Forget” into their music programs. At least seven churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex alone plan to perform the music around July 4.

If people outside the church are drawn to listen because of the patriotic flavor of the production, that's fine with Harland, because he knows they also will get a large dose of evangelism.

“This music probably goes farther from a spiritual standpoint than any patriotic music I've seen,” he said. “We certainly wave the flag strongly, especially in the opening pieces, but it is strong enough scripturally to lead someone to Christ. From the outset, we wanted to do more than wave the flag; we wanted to bring people to the altar.

“We want to honor America, but we want to worship God,” Harland said.

That emphasis was precisely what encouraged Jonathan Aragon, minister of music at First Baptist Church in Duncanville, to join his choir with that of Hampton Road Baptist Church in DeSoto for two presentations of the music.

“This musical appealed to me because it is as religious as it is patriotic,” he said. “It calls America to not only remember its patriotic heritage, but its religious heritage as well.” The choirs will perform at the DeSoto church June 29 and the Duncanville church July 6.

A devotional reading of Isaiah 41:20 was pivotal in writing the music, Harland said. In that passage, Isaiah reminds the Israelites that they were not blessed because of their inherent goodness or greatness.

That's a message for America, Harland said.

“God blessed America, not to show the world how great America is, but to show how great he is.”

Posted: 5/30/03

Heritage: Dissenters maintain 'good company'

By Ken Camp

Texas Baptist Communications

BELTON–Baptists are a dissenting people who have been hated for their dissent–sometimes even by fellow Baptists who found their views disturbingly close to New Testament teachings.

That's what happened to William Henry Brisbane, who went from supporting Southern slaveholders to advocating abolition, according to his great-great grandson Wallace Alcorn.

Alcorn, a Baptist educator from Austin, Minn., told his ancestor's story in his award-winning sermon, “Dissenting Baptists: The Glory of a Hated People.”

He received the top award in the annual Baptist Heritage Preaching Contest and preached the sermon for the annual Baptist History & Heritage Society.

Brisbane became the most hated man in Beaufort County, S.C., for the sake of the gospel, Alcorn said.

“For turning from a pro-slavery position to anti-slavery activities; for selling and then freeing his own field slaves; for freeing his domestic slaves; for becoming a nationally known and strongly influential abolitionist; and for aiding fugitive slaves to escape the country through the underground railroad–for all this he was hated as a traitor to the South,” Alcorn said.

That meant Brisbane was in the long line and “good company” of deeply despised dissenting Baptists, he noted.

“Baptists–if not necessarily by theological definition then at least by historical description–are dissenters, and being hated has been part of our glorious heritage,” Alcorn said.

In addition to recognizing Alcorn for his prize-winning sermon, the Baptist History & Heritage Society also presented its Distinguished Service Award for outstanding contributions to Baptist history to Bill Reynolds of Fort Worth.

Reynolds is distinguished professor of church music emeritus at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, former director of church music at the Baptist Sunday School Board, and a prolific historian of gospel songs.

Others honored at the historical society's meeting included Charles Wade, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and Bill Pinson, executive director emeritus of the BGCT. They received the society's officer's award for their commitment to historic Baptist principles, history and heritage.

Posted: 5/30/03

Heritage: Baptists need new ethics 'scouts,'
Tillman tells gathering of historians

By Ken Camp

Texas Baptist Communications

BELTON–Trails blazed by Baptist pioneers in ethics have grown over from neglect, and new scouts are needed to “beat out the pathways” for this generation, an ethicist told the Baptist History & Heritage Society.

Bill Tillman, professor of Christian ethics at Hardin-Simmons University's Logsdon School of Theology in Abilene, participated in a panel discussion on “Frontiers in Baptist Ethics” at the society's annual meeting, May 22-24 at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.

Tillman described two 20th century Christian ethics professors–Henlee Barnette of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and T.B. Maston of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth–as “scouts” and “pioneers” in Christian ethics who helped Baptists engage the culture.

“We need them, or their kind, more than ever because, as a friend has insightfully observed, the pathways grow over. The frontiers reappear with each succeeding generation,” he said.

Christian ethics is “on the wane” in Southern Baptist Convention-supported seminaries, Tillman reported. At the same time, he noted, few of the “moderate” seminaries and divinity schools created in recent years have made Christian ethics an educational priority.

“Both Barnette and Maston have understood that the pathways can grow back over. The basic landscape remains the same. Issues of money, sex and power–which cover the landscape–are ever with us,” he said.

“Another point of identification for Barnette and Maston is that human nature is such that ethical matters have to be revisited. Our sense of ethical direction has to be retuned and resharpened from time to time.”

Tillman identified Maston and Barnette as “identifiers of ethical topography” who were able to “communicate the lay of the land” to people in the pews of Baptist churches. They contextualized and interpreted the ethical insights of globally recognized ethicists Walter Rauschenbusch and Reinhold Niebuhr for Baptists in the South.

Maston and Barnette influenced generations of Baptist leaders not only through their prolific writing for scholarly and popular audiences, but also through their classrooms. Maston taught at Southwestern Seminary from 1922 to 1963, and Barnette taught at Southern Seminary from 1951 to 1977.

“They had ways of getting into your convictional DNA,” Tillman said. “They operated as encouragers, inspirers, investors in the future. They stirred in others the passion they felt.”

David Stricklin, associate professor of history and chairman of humanities at Lyon College in Batesville, Ark., described the contributions of Martin England on what he called “the far frontiers” of Baptist ethics.

“In the annals of Southern Baptist history, few persons covered themselves with more distinction in the areas of racial justice, civil rights and peace activism than Martin England. And few labored in these areas with greater anonymity,” he said.

England and his wife, Mabel, served as Northern Baptist missionaries in pre-World War II Burma. After the Japanese army overran Burma, they returned to Louisville, Ky. There England met Clarence Jordan, a Southern Baptist New Testament scholar and civil rights advocate.

“The two of them realized they shared a dream of creating an intentional community in the southern United States based on modern agricultural economy, a commitment to biblical ethics and a dream of racial reconciliation for the South,” Stricklin said. “They and their wives moved to Sumter County, Ga., bought some land and started Koinonia Farms (an interracial community) in 1942.”

The Englands left Koinonia to return to Burma, but they were forced to return to the United States due to health concerns in 1953, and England went to work for the Northern Baptists' Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board. Technically, his job was to serve as American Baptist field representative meeting the needs of Northern Baptist ministers and missionaries who retired and were living in the South.

“His covert assignment was to be a minister to persons who got into various kinds of trouble as part of the struggle for civil rights for African-Americans in the South in the 1950s and '60s. He often appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, to visit people in jail, help their families and do whatever he could to help without calling attention to himself,” Stricklin said.

England secured a life insurance policy for Martin Luther King Jr. when he was considered a bad risk, and England carried the policy in his coat pocket for months before one of King's aides convinced the civil rights leader to sign it.

The central theme of England's ethics–learned from the Kachin people of Burma as they left the worship of tribal chieftains to follow Jesus–was “the ongoing requirement of believers to avoid ceding spiritual authority to earthly figures instead of to God,” Stricklin observed.

Estelle Owens, professor of history and chairwoman of social sciences at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, examined the racial justice commitment of Bill Marshall.

Marshall became president of Wayland in 1947. In May 1951, he led the school to admit African-American students into its classes, dormitories and dining hall. “Wayland thereby became the first four-year liberal arts undergraduate college–public or private–in the former Confederate South to be so integrated,” Owens noted.

“Throughout his life, Bill Marshall fought racism and bigotry. He stood up to be counted when the easiest course would have been to go along with the prevailing mores of his day. A true Christian pioneer in the area of race relations, he was one good man who would never stand idly by and allow evil to triumph.”

Posted: 5/30/03

Heritage: Baptist women can thank
pioneer pair for opening doors

By Ken Camp

Texas Baptist Communications

BELTON–A pair of Texas Baptist pioneers opened doors for women in missions and education, according to panelists at a recent meeting of the Baptist History & Heritage Society.

Rosalie Beck, an associate professor in the religion department at Baylor University in Waco, and Portia Sikes McKown, administrator at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, participated in a panel discussion about Baptist women on the frontier.

Beck examined the contributions of frontier missionary Mina Everett, and McKown described Elli Moore Townsend's role in providing educational opportunities for women–particularly poor young women–on the Texas frontier.

“Mina's life was filled with firsts,” Beck observed. Everett's time in Brazil marked her as the first single woman missionary appointed by the Southern Baptist Convention's Foreign Mission Board for service in the western hemisphere.

She went on to be appointed the first paid missionary in Texas to work with Hispanics and the first female missionary employed by the state missions arm of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

In 1889, she became corresponding secretary and organizer for the Baptist Woman's Mission Workers in Texas, the first paid woman staff worker for Woman's Missionary Union in any state. The SBC's mission boards and the BGCT jointly provided her salary.

“Mina's employment with the state and Southern Baptist Convention boards ended because of her willingness to speak to mixed audiences in an effort to raise support for and consciousness of missions. Through her time as a BGCT employee, some powerful pastors criticized her 'forwardness' in speaking to both men and women,” Beck said.

One of Everett's most outspoken critics was B.H. Carroll, pastor of First Baptist Church in Waco and later the founder of the Baylor University religion department and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“Although First Baptist Waco had women deacons, in Carroll's public statements he did not support women in ministry,” Beck noted. Carroll was chair of the BGCT state missions board in 1895 when that body voted to forbid Everett from speaking in public meetings “because such action was unseemly for a woman.”

Leaders among Baptist women in Texas convinced Everett to leave the state so they could argue in principle for a permanent Texas Baptist staff position for women's mission work, without getting entangled in personality conflicts.

“Mina Everett succeeded in many areas of her frontier work, but she crashed on the ministry barrier between genders in Victorian Texas. She always believed that one day, no barriers would separate God's people in their work for and worship of the Lord,” Beck said.
Likewise, Elli Moore Townsend opened up new vistas educationally for “girls of ambition and limited funds,” McKown observed.

She served as “lady principal” and presiding teacher for 12 years at Baylor Female College, now the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. In the early 1890s, she launched Cottage Home, where poor but deserving students could live while working their way through school by milking cows, tending the garden and keeping house in exchange for college tuition and expenses.

When money for Cottage Home ran short in 1893, she sold a silver box of heirloom jewelry to buy groceries for the girls who lived there. After she married E.G. Townsend, dean and Bible teacher at the school, together the couple developed a cottage system of seven homes.

“Elli Moore Townsend was certainly an incredible lady who was a legend in her own time,” McKown said. “Strong-willed and determined from youth, she set out to help educate young women of her time and those to follow through the Cottage Home System, considered a forerunner of the modern work study program in college.”

Posted: 5/30/03

Evangelical group urges
temperance in talk about Islam

WASHINGTON (RNS)–While affirming their right to proselytize, leaders of the evangelical Christian community issued guidelines last month to foster better relations between Christians and Muslims and criticized some prominent evangelicals' strongly negative generalizations about Islam.

The guidelines were issued at a half-day forum sponsored by the National Association of Evangelicals and the Institute on Religion and Democracy. The forum was attended by 50 representatives of mission, advocacy and educational evangelical organizations.

It is dangerous to oversimplify Islam by labeling it, said Clive Calver, president of World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals.

“As evangelical Christians, we disagree with Islam, and we are allowed to disagree, but how we disagree is important,” he said. “The question is: How do you disagree without being disagreeable?”

Although not mentioned by name, participants were acutely aware of the public scrutiny of evangelical groups since Franklin Graham, head of the aid organization Samaritan's Purse, called Islam a “wicked” religion. Similar views have been voiced by evangelical broadcasters Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, as well as former Southern Baptist Convention President Jerry Vines.

SBC officials, through a release in Baptist Press, criticized the national media for drawing a connection between the conference statements and the previous firestorms created by Graham, Robertson, Falwell and Vines.

At the conference, NAE President Ted Haggard warned that everything evangelicals say is public rhetoric now.

The Washington-based IRD, a conservative think tank that monitors religious freedom issues, released guidelines authored by IRD Vice President Alan Wisdom on what is appropriate and inappropriate in Christian-Muslim communication.

The document's first recommendation called on evangelicals to “seek to understand Islam and Muslim peoples.”

Paul Marshall, a fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House, a Washington organization that promotes global human rights, noted that Muslims “know much more about the West than we know about them,” pointing out that many Muslim extremists obtained advanced degrees in Europe or America.

But sometimes understanding can go too far and “attempts to meld Christianity and Islam” by overemphasizing commonalities is damaging, according to Wisdom.

While dialogue, both locally and abroad, is a good start, it must have a goal, Marshall said, asserting that communication could stimulate cooperation between Muslims and Christians on relief work, religious freedom and human rights issues.

However, IRD President Diane Knippers noted that evangelicals “always want to talk about Jesus.”

A spokesperson from the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations said it's OK for evangelicals to want to spread their faith.

“That's something that is not particular to evangelicals, and in the marketplace of ideas, that's fine,” said Hodan Hassan. “The problem is when the line gets crossed and leaders within any faith begin to demonize another faith.”

Posted: 5/30/03

Nigerian e-mail scams taking on language of faith

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

Mrs. Sikiratu Seki Adams of Nigeria doesn't really want to donate $6 million to your church.

In fact, the e-mail that says she does probably wasn't sent by anyone with that name. It's just another variation on one of the most prevalent frauds perpetrated over the Internet, according to the FBI, Secret Service and a host of other scam-watcher groups.

Last year, Nigeria ranked first among all countries beyond the United States as the source of Internet scams, according to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center, a joint effort between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center. Most were variations on what law-enforcement officials call a “419 scam,” a reference to the section of Nigerian law that covers advance-fee fraud.

One of the latest variations begins by offering “Calvary greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The writer then claims to be a new Christian convert dying of breast cancer and the widow of a former military official killed in the Gulf War. She wants to donate $6 million of her late husband's money to your church or ministry to further evangelism and ministry to the poor.

Another new version claims to be from the legal adviser to a Nigerian Christian couple who died in a plane crash last year and left him $20 million to distribute to Christian ministries. If you will use these funds “honestly for things that will glorify God's name,” then he would like to give you the money.

Previous versions of the Nigerian scams have outlined a person's urgent need to get money out of the country before it is seized. The writer wants to deposit millions of dollars in the recipient's bank account for safekeeping and pledges to pay 10 percent to 15 percent to the recipient.

The scam-busting website Urban Legend Zeitgeist (www.urbanlegends.com) explains the set-up: “If you take the bait, you'll be contacted by the perpetrators, who'll attempt to establish their credibility as government officials, businessmen or bankers. They will offer you apparently valid bank accounts and documentation. But before you can collect your money, some problem arises. A bribe must be paid to an official or a fee or tax must be paid so the money can be transferred. And you as the victim will be asked to pay up in order to receive the promised big payoff. There is no end to the fees, bribes, even outright blackmail, that will be extorted from you.”

In some cases, those caught up in the scam have traveled to Nigeria or other African or European countries to try to collect their money and have met with violence, the website reports.

The Internet Fraud Complaint Center reports that Nigerian scams like this produced the highest median dollar losses among all Internet fraud last year. The median loss of all reported cases was $3,864, higher than reported cases of identity theft ($2,000) and check fraud ($1,100).

The FBI warns Internet users to “be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as Nigerian or other foreign government officials asking for your help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts. Do not believe the promise of large sums of money for your cooperation.”

Further, the FBI warns, do not give personal information about savings, checking, credit or other financial accounts to people who solicit you by e-mail.

For more information, visit the Internet Fraud Complaint Center at http://ifccfbi.gov/ strategy/nls.asp.

Posted: 5/30/03

Layman's whodunit book takes on
the case of Jesus' empty tomb

By George Henson

Staff Writer

MIDLOTHIAN–It's a classic whodunit. Only the mystery isn't in the murder–scores of people witnessed that–but in who took the body.

The stage is set for a private eye with an attitude to strut in, follow the clues and finger the culprit.

That's the setting for “Jake Palestine P.I. and the Case of the Empty Tomb,” the latest effort by Robert Nix to expose people to the gospel in a creative way.

“My goal is to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ who might not have that great an interest and in a creative way that will make them pay attention,” Nix said. The novel portrays the hard-boiled detective being hired by Pilate and Jewish religious leaders to find the body of Jesus before rumors of a resurrection gain steam.

“Jake Palestine” is the Texas Baptist layman's first book, but he has written a number of humorous plays and skits that are available through Parable Ministries, which he founded. “The book is targeted toward a younger audience, but truthfully I think more older people have actually read it,” Nix said. “No matter how old they are, the goal is to reach people who may not read another type of religious book.”

He wanted the story to be entertaining so people would read it, but the crucial part is that “the tomb was empty,” he said. “There is not a more important message in the world than that.”

A Sunday School teacher at Longbranch Community Baptist Church in Midlothian, Nix and his wife teach kindergarten through fourth grade. He also works full time in technology sales.

To prepare for writing the book, Nix studied not only Jewish history, but Roman history as well.

“As Christians, we spend time reading the Bible and studying the Bible, but we lose sight of the impact of the Romans,” he explained. “They would not have rested, could not have rested, until the body was found–if it could have been found.”

He readily acknowledges, however, that his book is a fictional work inspired by the truth of the Bible.

“Not every page is historical, but I've tried to place a context that is historical,” he explained. “Why was Pilate frightened of the Jewish leadership? I tried to place a very accurate historical background along with actual biblical references and then insert a fictional character into all of it.”

Along with the dramas, the book is just one more way Nix hopes Parable Ministries can help churches and youth groups “illustrate the gospel creatively.”

Currently, he is creating a study guide to go along with the book.

Dramas published by Parable Ministries center on the lives of Jesus, Noah and David.

In the dramas and the book alike, his goal is evangelistic.

“I think there will be some who read the book and decide if Jesus isn't in the tomb, he's someone they need to get to know more about.”

Posted: 5/30/03

AMY NOBLES:
Woman of worship

By Leann Callaway

Special to the Standard

At an age when most children make music by banging on pots and pans, Amy Nobles began setting herself apart by tackling the piano.

Today, Nobles still distinguishes herself from the world as a worship leader.

She graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary this spring with a master of divinity degree, but she got her start in the family living room.

“I began playing the piano around age 3 or 4,” Nobles explained. “My dad told me that I crawled up on the bench and picked out 'Jesus Loves Me' at that young age, and he immediately knew God would use music in my life.

“I never set out to make my own music ministry or be a worship leader. I have tried to follow the Lord where he leads, and, as a result, he has cultivated the opportunity to lead worship and bless people with that. The Lord has been training me as a musician since the age of 5, and he has given me more than a song; he has given me a message.”

Nobles began leading worship while attending Texas A&M University. She was asked to sing with a college praise team at church and there began to sense God's call on her life.

“During those years, the worship movement among college students was new,” she explained. “I remember going to Choice, a Bible study at Baylor led by Louie Giglio–this was long before people even knew who Louie Giglio was. I will never forget those nights of worship in Waco and the two tapes I got with all the worship music from that Bible study. Those songs gave me a deeper reason to sing. For the first time, I felt like I was singing songs that matched my thoughts about God.

“In a sense, that Bible study and the music there gave me a passion for worship music. From that point on, I knew I wanted to be involved with worship.”

A desire to be available to serve anywhere has taken her from small Texas towns like Giddings to Bonn, Germany.

Her first worship album is titled “To the Ends of the Earth.” It features songs that focus on God's heart for every nation.

After graduation, she plans to find more ways to serve the local church and the church abroad.

“I have met many Christian workers from around the world as a result of these mission opportunities,” she explained. “It has been a privilege to encourage them by leading worship for them. I have led worship for people who are persecuted in their countries for open displays of religion. To serve them in worship is quite humbling and amazing. I thank Jesus that he has opened my eyes to see all he is doing in the world. God is so much bigger to me now, and as a result, worship is sweeter.”