The last time a president attempted comprehensive reform of America’s health-insurance system, it went over like the proverbial lead balloon. And conservative religious groups were prominent in the coalition that helped do in the plan.

President Clinton’s health care reform bill went down to defeat in 1993, due in large part to the opposition of the Religious Right, and the political fallout helped usher in a Republican takeover of Congress and nearly crippled the rest of his presidency.

Unless there is consensus, the attempt at health care reform could go down like the Hindenburg. Many conservative religious groups continue to oppose a major overhaul of the health care system, while centrist and liberal religious groups have large coalitions in favor of comprehensive reform.

But the religion-and-politics landscape is quite different today. Although many conservative religious groups continue to oppose a major overhaul of the health care system, centrist and liberal religious groups have large coalitions in favor of the kind of comprehensive reform President Obama is proposing.

“Right now, I think it’s fair to say that there is a real sense of effervescence and energy among progressives, who are forming coalitions with centrist groups, and some sense of disarray among the Christian Right,” said Robby Jones, president of the Washington-based Public Religion Research group. “In 1993, the Christian Coalition was really flexing its muscle; today, it’s a struggling organization, and Focus on the Family is laying people off.”

One coalition of centrist and progressive religious groups, Faith in Public Life, co-hosted an unprecedented Aug. 19 Internet-based conference call with Obama, religious leaders, reporters and more than 100,000 other participants to boost a religious case for broad-based reform.

“I believe that nobody in America should be denied basic health care because he or she lacks health insurance, and no one in America should be pushed to the edge of financial ruin because an insurance company denies them coverage or drops their coverage or charges fees they can’t afford for care that they desperately need,” Obama said during the call.

The difference between the participation of religious moderates and liberals in the debates over the Clinton plan and the Obama proposal has to do with both the different religion-and-politics climate as well as the difference in the facts on the ground in 2009 versus 1993, many experts agree.

“There’s a sense of urgency across the board, because things are even worse than they were in 1993” when it comes to uninsured and underinsured Americans, said Jennifer Butler, executive director of Faith in Public Life. Many religious leaders, including some conservative evangelical pastors, with whom her group works are seeing firsthand the effects of the health care crisis on families, she said.

Many Americans find their health care is hanging by a thred.

“They’re just overwhelmed with the human need around them, in their congregations,” she said. “Some of them are active in these collaborative (local health care) clinics that have been set up, and there’s just this overwhelming sense of urgency or need, that the system is broken.”

But if the system is broken, it’s clear many Religious Right groups don’t trust President Obama or Congressional Democratic leaders to fix it.

“President Obama continued to mislead the American people by casually dismissing the concerns of millions of Americans who have deep moral objections to their tax dollars paying for abortions,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Family Research Council, responding to Obama’s Sept. 9 address to a joint session of Congress.

Abortion is a major sticking point on the bill for many conservative religious leaders. Groups like the Family Research Council claim the health care proposals being considered do not currently contain adequate safeguards to ensure government funds will neither directly pay for abortions nor subsidize private insurance plans that include abortion coverage. Obama and his supporters, meanwhile, have insisted the reform they support does not include abortion.

Some Christian conservatives also have raised suspicions about other sanctity-of-life issues, including assertions that parts of Obama’s plan could, eventually lead to “rationing” of health care services that would involve government agents making decisions about whether vulnerable patients receive lifesaving treatments.

“Conservative groups of any variety will be—and are—skeptical of any expansion of government’s scope of influence and responsibility,” said Laura Olson, a political science professor at Clemson University in South Carolina and an expert in religion and politics. “For conservative religious groups, this general fear seems to be giving rise to more specific fears about how life issues—abortion, euthanasia, etc.—will be handled under a reformed health care system.”  

But, Olson added, conservative Christian groups are disheartened and weakened by slipping support and the back-to-back drubbings conservative candidates took in the 2006 and 2008 elections—and they might see an issue in health care reform to re-ignite their base and re-assert their authority.

“Life issues are, of course, the natural province of conservative religious groups, so their current emphasis on these issues should come as no surprise from a substantive perspective,” she said. “At the same time, I think Religious Right activists notice that the health care debate represents a window through which they might reassert their overall relevance in American politics. So for conservative religious groups, it makes sense both substantively and strategically to be hammering on questions regarding life issues.”

Anecdotally, at least, the health care debate has already re-energized supporters of conservative religious groups. Democratic congressional leaders “have done more to energize Christian conservatives than any conservative leader could have done with this health care package,” Richard Land, president of the Southern Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told the Washington Post. “I, who never believed that we were dead, did not believe that it (the Religious Right’s revival) would happen this quickly.”

But Christian leaders supportive of comprehensive health care reform also assert sanctity-of-life arguments.

“Progressive religious voices are speaking up to claim that this is a moral and religious failing, and that the sanctity and dignity of life is also threatened by an inability to receive basic health care in a country with this many resources and wealth,” said Jones of Public Religion Research.

The main religious dividing line seems to be between those—particularly traditional evangelical right-wing groups—who are highly skeptical of any overarching government initiatives and those who are open to reform as long as it respects differences over abortion and other sanctity-of-life issues.

“One of the most enduring fault lines that distinguishes progressive and conservative groups is a theological ethic that is oriented more toward individual morality or more toward social justice,” Jones said. “These theological differences also predispose each group to have a different view of the proper role of government, and these differences are clearly alive in the health care debate.”

Evangelical association with the Republic Party also is a key factor, he added. “There are new voices, however, calling upon evangelicals to think more theologically on these issues and let the partisan chips fall where they may.”

At a glance

• In 2007, 45 million non-elderly people in the United States lacked health insurance the entire year.

• About 83 percent of the uninsured population in the United States live in families headed by workers, and 63 percent of the uninsured workers have an employer who does not offer coverage.

Source: Employees Benefit Research Institute

www.ebri.org/pdf/briefspdf/EBRI_IB_09a-2008.pdf

• About $2.2 trillion was spend on health care in the United States in 2007—more than 16 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.

Health care costs more than tripled from 1990 to 2007.

Source: www.healthaffairs.org

• There were about 8.1 million uninsured children in the United States in 2007.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

www.census.gov/hhes/

www/hlthins/historic/hihistt5.xls

Faith-based health care providers can lead the way in developing new models that emphasize wellness and prevention—and create accountable-care organizations focused on the needs of patients and their families, the president of Baylor Health Care System believes.

Eighty years after it pioneered a health-insurance plan that became Blue Cross, Baylor wants to be at the forefront of health care reform—regardless what lawmakers do this year, said Joel Allison, president and chief executive officer of the Dallas-based health care system.

In 1929, Baylor University Vice President J.F. Kimball and Baylor Hospital Superintendent Bryce Twitty developed “the Baylor Plan,” enrolling more than 1,300 Dallas schoolteachers in a prepaid health-insurance plan for 50 cents per person per month.

Initially, many other hospitals opposed the Baylor Plan. But within five years, after it gained a national following, the American Hospital Associ-ation created a central office through which individual hospital plans could be administered. It became Blue Cross, forerunner to Blue Cross-Blue Shield.

That plan kept hospitals afloat during the Great Depression, and it served as a lifesaver for many participants who otherwise would have been unable to receive medical care.

Allison believes Baylor—and other faith-based hospitals around the United States that share its sense of mission—can provide similar leadership in the current health care crisis.

The emergency department at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas will see more than 75,000 patients this year. The newly renovated facility is one of only two adult Level 1 trauma centers in Dallas/Fort Worth.

“We are in a ministry of healing. We are here to serve, and we are blessed to work with many people who have a sense of calling,” he said.

“We need change, and we need to address change in the right way. We need a new model of care that addresses the needs of patients and the communities we serve.”

Rights and responsibilities both should be emphasized in discussions about health care reform, Allison said.

“Everyone has a right to affordable health care insurance. At the same time, there’s a responsibility of individuals to take care of their own health. Discussion of the right to health care should be tied to accountability,” he said.

Allison characterized as “timeless” the question raised in 1903 by George W. Truett, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, regarding the founding of Baylor: “Is it not now time to build a great humanitarian hospital, one to which men of all creeds and those of none may come with equal confidence?”

That question touches on at least three key issues—accessibility, affordability and appropriateness of setting—that should frame the health care debate today and serve as guiding principles for developing a working model, Allison observed.

Accessibility

Accessibility means making health insurance available, affordable and portable—regardless of pre-existing health conditions, he explained.

“It’s imperative that any plan allow for choice of physician and hospital. That is a sacred relationship between patients and physicians,” he said. “It’s very important that nothing intervenes in that relationship.”

Educating patients and families is important part of recovery. There are 1,250 physicians on staff at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas who see patients.

Allison opposes any public plan that would underfund providers by paying Medicare-level rates.

“I would like to see us keep the private-insurance option, giving companies a chance to make the changes that are necessary rather than rushing to move to a public (insurance) option,” he said, referring to a contentious aspect of insurance-reform plans currently before Congress.

At the same time, he supports the possibility of a government “trigger” that would kick in to create a public option to compete with private insurance after three to five years if private insurers didn’t get the job done. That, he said, would give insurance companies incentive to move toward meaningful reform.

He also strongly supports full funding for public safety net programs, particularly coverage for children.

But having access to health insurance and having access to a health care provider are not synonymous, Allison observed.

“Just because people are given coverage doesn’t mean they have access to physicians,” he noted. “Many people covered by Medicaid and Medicare cannot get in to see a physician. That is due in part to the shortage of primary-care providers and in part to low reimbursement—doctors can’t afford to see them.”

Baptists and other Christians can help deal with one aspect of the provider shortage by giving scholarship support to nursing schools, teaching hospitals and other educational entities that provide training for health care professionals, he observed.

Accessibility also means taking health care into communities where it is most needed, and reform should include offering incentives for providers to serve in underserved areas, Allison said.

Baylor, for instance, is a partner in Project Access Dallas, a network of volunteer health care providers who offer free medical care and support services to the working uninsured in Dallas County. Last year, 54 doctors in the HealthTexas Provider Network—Baylor’s affiliated physician group—donated about 1,000 hours of volunteer time to charitable and faith-based clinics.

Affordability and Appropriateness of Setting

Jim Young, who directed community ministries with the Baptist General Convention of Texas and Baptist Child & Family Services, has been working to launch Faith Family Clinic next month on the west side of San Antonio to provide health care for the working poor. In Bexar County, 24.9 percent of the population lacks health insurance, he noted.

Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.

“Because they don’t have insurance, they wait about seeing a doctor until they are sick enough to go to the emergency room, and then they walk out with huge medical bills. And those bills end up being a leading cause of bankruptcy,” he said.

For many uninsured people, the emergency rooms of nonprofit hospitals become primary-care providers. Last year, Baylor provided $107,522,750 in unreimbursed charity care—much of it through the emergency room, Allison noted.

Factor in more than $20 million in unreimbursed cost of government-sponsored indigent health care through Medicaid, more than $308 million in unreimbursed cost of government-sponsored health care through Medicare and about $16 million in other community benefits, and Baylor provided in excess of $452 million in benefits to its community last year, he reported. Any health care reform proposal should recognize the role of safety net hospitals—mostly faith-based nonprofits—that provide a disproportionate share of charitable care, Allison observed.

Rather than pay the high costs of emergency-room treatment for primary health care, health care should be reformed to reward wellness and prevention programs—as well as recognizing proven quality, such as lowered readmission rates, he asserted.

He stressed the importance of developing a continuum of care with careful physician alignment and the creation of “medical homes”—a setting that facilitates partnerships between patients and their personal physicians.

“We should start paying for quality and value, recognizing those physicians and hospitals that can demonstrate evidence of positive outcomes,” Allison said. “In some cases, current reimbursement rewards volume rather than outcomes and quality.”

Allison sees Baylor’s diabetes initiative in southern Dallas County as a model for community-based delivery of care, as well as education and prevention. Baylor breaks ground this month on its Diabetes Health and Wellness Institute at the Juanita J. Craft Recreation Center in South Dallas. Prevalence of diabetes in Dallas County is 11.4 percent—higher than the state or nation—and is disproportionately high among the low-income African-American and Hispanic residents of South Dallas.

Baylor Health Care System has committed $15 million over three years to plan and develop the institute, which will create a community-based health delivery model that not only provides care in neighborhoods where diabetes if most prevalent, but also stresses prevention through exercise classes, nutrition and cooking classes, and wellness education.

Similarly, Young hopes Faith Family Clinic in San Antonio will be able to work in partnership with churches to promote nutritional education and healthy lifestyles.

“The church needs to reclaim its position in teaching health and wellness,” he said. “We particularly want to work with smaller churches to do health and wellness training where it’s needed most.”

Regardless whether lawmakers reach consensus on health care reform, community-based clinics will continue to serve a vital need, Young predicted. “There will always be gaps in service. If Congress does pass something, it will help those at the upper end of the spectrum among the working uninsured, but those at the lowest end will not be touched. In particular, undocumented immigrants are not in the picture, and they are a population that needs somebody to help meet their needs.”

Taxpayers may resist the idea of paying for the health care of undocumented aliens, but Christian caregivers do not have the option of turning those people away, Young and Allison agreed.

“We have a responsibility to the alien and stranger in our land,” Young said.

WACO—The United States does not have a health care problem as much as it has an insurance problem and an income problem, two economists at Baylor University have asserted. And they insist those problems can be solved with minimal government involvement.

“When it comes to health care, the proper role of the government is as referee. Government shouldn’t be in the game, acting like a quarterback calling plays. It should be getting the playing field ready for fair competition,” said Earl Grinols, distinguished professor of economics in Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business.

Grinols and his colleague, James Henderson, academic director for the school’s MBA program in health care administration, have presented their proposal for universal health care in Health Care for Us All: Getting More for Our Investment.

For most people, lack of insurance is a temporary situation often associated with a job loss, and the uninsured population in the United States constantly is changing, they have asserted. Half get insurance within six months, Grinols said.

Government can level the playing field and make insurance more accessible through “a few little legal changes,” he insisted.

Specifically, Grinols and Henderson call for legislation requiring insurance companies to guarantee renewability, guarantee issue of a policy “to anyone who comes in the door” and create “homogeneous risk pools” based solely on age, sex and geographic location.

These homogenous risk pools would lower the price of health insurance for the most-uninsured demographic in the population—the young and healthy, the Baylor economists asserted.

To eliminate “cherry picking and cream skimming”—practices where insurance companies seek to create pools composed only of clients who are good risks for them, Grinols has suggested creating a national pool to set the average.

Grinols and Henderson want to create incentives to induce people to buy their own health insurance. For instance, Grinols describes a system where a general value-added tax is imposed on goods, but consumers who show proof of insurance receive an immediate discount.

A revenue tax also would be imposed on providers of health care and insurance under the Baylor economists’ plan, with the proceeds used to provide temporary income subsidies targeted to people who otherwise cannot afford to buy their own insurance.

Grinols and Henderson believe a system can be developed that enables truly needy people to buy insurance without creating an ongoing system of entitlement or threatening the insurance coverage or health care of Americans who already have coverage.

The economists believe private-market competition will keep prices down—provided consumers have good information.

“The only known reliable self-regulating mechanism requires competition,” Grinols said.

He wants to see health care providers required to post their prices and charge all consumers who buy the same service on the same terms that same price. While not everyone will shop around for medical services, enough people will do it to bring about lower prices, he said.

“In the marketplace, it doesn’t require everyone to do comparison shopping. The market only needs a few consumers who are comparison shopping to self-regulate,” Grinols said.

BELTON—While a parish nurse could be a boon to the health of congregations across the state, the likelihood of a Texas Baptist church having one is hampered by the fact that most congregations—and most nursing students—have little awareness the ministry exists, a University of Mary Hardin-Baylor nursing professor said.

Parish nursing has a greater visibility in the Deep South and the Midwest, but only small pockets of parish nursing exist in Texas, and those generally are in churches of other denominations, said Linda Pehl, distinguished professor of nursing at UMHB. Some parish nurses in rural areas may serve the needs of seven or eight congregations.

Some Baptist churches, such as Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, have parish nurses, but those are few in number.

Parish nursing fits in well, however, with the teaching at most Baptist nursing schools that health is a combination of “bio-, psycho-, social and spiritual health,” Pehl said.

“In parish nursing, the spiritual component is very strong and overrides everything else,” she said. “It really is the ideal that the parish nurse would be a part of the health ministry of the church—that is a specific ministry just like you have adult ministry and children’s ministry, this would be a health ministry, and the parish nurse would be in charge of that.”

Parish nursing is tailored to meet the needs of each congregation. While the nurses’ work includes some universal things like education concerning good eating habits and exercise routines, other duties would be dictated by the congregation’s makeup.

Some congregations may include people who need training in dealing with chronic conditions like diabetes, and others may need a parish nurse to invite a county public health officer to the church to administer inoculations to school children.

In general, parish nurses seek to integrate faith and health, serve as personal health counselors, act as health educators and advocates, serve as referral agents, coordinate volunteers, access the needs of the congregation, develop programs to meet those needs and organize support groups.

Parish nurses generally are facilitators rather than direct caregivers, Pehl said. For instance, instead of administering inoculations, a parish nurse either would bring someone else in to give the shots or set up transportation to a clinic.

But if parish nursing is such a good thing, why don’t more Baptist churches have them? While some nurses already are involved in hospital nursing or public health nursing and don’t have time for another role, an even greater problem is ignorance, Pehl stressed.

Most churches have not decided against parish nursing, she said. “They are not even aware it exists.”

And the flip side is that if most nursing students were asked about parish nursing, “I don’t think they would recognize that at all,” she acknowledged.

Pehl hopes to combat that in the next few years by teaching a parish nursing seminar at UMHB. Baylor University’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing also teaches a parish nursing seminar periodically.

Pehl wants to teach the course because she feels the need for parish nursing will increase in coming years.

“I think the need will increase because of the situation we’re in with our health care in general. It’s in a crisis right now, and people are looking for alternatives to improve our situation—to decrease costs. Obviously, if you can increase the health state of the nation, it’s going to decrease the cost of health care.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—As Congress debates whether to mandate health insurance for all Americans, several Christian ministries whose members share each other’s medical costs are hoping the final version of health care reform doesn’t put them out of business.

Officials of three major “health sharing” organizations say they are watching the Capitol Hill discussions closely and suggesting legislative language to ensure they qualify if Congress requires a mandate that all Americans carry health insurance.

“We don’t just want to be left out in the cold,” said Robert Baldwin, president of Florida-based Christian Care Ministry, which offers a “Medi-Share” program to its members.

Generally speaking, members of health-sharing groups—all of whom are professing Christians—pay a monthly fee that can range from $285 to $450 a month for a two-parent family. That fee is either sent to the ministry, which in turn passes it on to other members with certain medical bills, or sent directly to members in need.

It’s an unorthodox way to pay medical expenses—and insurance regulators remain leery—but members say it’s simply the latest incarnation of a 2,000-year tradition of Christians carrying the burdens of other believers.

Baldwin is working with another organization, Illinois-based Samaritan Ministries, in the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries to inform legislators about the more than 100,000 members of organizations who have chosen their alternative to health insurance.

“We are actively trying to get language inserted into any bill that would have health care sharing ministries considered quality coverage under a mandate,” said Joel Noble, public policy team leader for both the alliance and Samaritan Ministries.

He pointed to a specific provision in Massachusetts—which already mandates individual insurance—that permits an exemption for “any health arrangement provided by established religious organizations comprised of individuals with sincerely held beliefs.”

As leaders of these ministries hope for a similar provision in federal legislation, they are fielding calls from curious customers, who help one another pay as much as $2 million in medical bills each month.

“We do have our members who will contact us saying … ‘What is this going to do to us?”’ said Howard Russell, executive director of Ohio-based Christian Healthcare Ministries, who supports the alliance’s efforts. “That’s one of the reasons that we’re encouraging them, helping them in contacting their legislators.”

All of the organizations have a range of guidelines and offer programs for members to donate additional money to meet costs of pre-existing conditions or bills that exceed maximum limits.

“We’re facilitating this matching process,” said Baldwin, of the links members make with each other. “The organization itself doesn’t take on that risk of paying your medical bills. … We tend to say, in general, we’re here to share the burdens with one another, not the minor inconveniences.”

For example, Noble said members might get a form that “said ‘John Smith broke his arm. Please pray for his healing.’ And it gives his address and they write a check directly to him and send it.”

The nonprofits have particular expectations from the members. For example, participants may be expected to shun alcohol and tobacco, and their clergy member may be interviewed to verify regular church participation.

The health care sharing ministries have received support from the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.

“It is a benefit to people of faith to have access to a voluntary cost-sharing ministry that does not deny people membership, raise their monthly financial gifts or cancel their participation based on a medical condition,” the caucus said in a resolution adopted in December.

But insurance commissioners offer cautions—and outright warnings—about the sharing arrangements.

“At the end of the day, you just have a promise that they’ll cover you,” said Maine Bureau of Insurance Superintendent Mila Kofman, who did research on faith-based health sharing ministries several years ago while she was on the faculty of Georgetown University.

In other words, there’s no guaranteed coverage.

“This is why we really need reform. … People are really desperate and what’s out there right now is not really meeting their need, and then they’re forced to look at these alternatives that may or may not pay for them when they’re sick.”

Overseas Mormon missionaries won’t count. Mormon missionaries serving abroad will not be counted in the 2010 U.S. census, despite the hopes of Utah congressmen that the missionaries would be included, the Census Bureau said. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, has led efforts by fellow members of Congress from the state dominated by Mormons to get missionaries included in the count. They have argued that if missionaries were included in the 2000 census, the state would have received a fourth seat in the House of Representatives. Instead, that seat went to North Carolina. “Past experiments, including in 1960 and 1970, have demonstrated the difficulty of getting anywhere near a complete and accurate count of private citizens living overseas,” said Shelly Lowe, a spokeswoman for the Census Bureau. 

Focus on the Family staff cuts go deeper. Focus on the Family announced additional layoffs, cutting its staff by 8 percent to a total of 860 people. The 75 layoffs are augmented by a decision not to fill 57 vacancies as the prominent evangelical ministry in Colorado Springs, Colo., addresses a 5 percent shortfall in its budget. Focus spokeswoman Lisa Anderson said the shortfall in the $138 million budget was due mostly to a decrease in giving from large donors affected by the economic downturn. The latest layoffs come less than a year after the ministry laid off 200 employees in November 2008. Economic conditions also were cited for those layoffs. At its peak, Focus on the Family, founded by religious broadcaster James Dobson, had 1,400 staffers. 

Council urges Pakistan to repeal blasphemy law. The World Council of Churches is calling on Pakistan to repeal the mandatory death penalty for blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad. The ecumenical council’s governing body issued a statement urging Pakistan to “guarantee the rights of all religious minorities in the country.” The church council said the blasphemy law has become “a major source of victimization and persecution” of religious minorities who are living “in a state of fear and terror.” Since Pakistan’s penal code was amended in 1986, Christians particularly have become targets of harassments and persecution, the World Council of Churches noted.

Zondervan to publish updated NIV. The copyright holder of the New International Version announced plans to release an updated version of the popular Bible translation in 2011. The NIV was created by the Committee on Biblical Translation, which began its work in 1965. Published by Zondervan, it has more than 300 million copies in print worldwide. Previous versions of the NIV were published in 1978 and 1984. A decade later, an updated version known as Today’s New International Version divided the evangelical community over its use of gender-inclusive language. Douglas Moo, chairman of the Committee on Bible Translation, said the new edition will include a “complete review of every gender-related change since the publication of the 1984 edition.”

ATLANTA (ABP) — There are paths between science and theology, and both can find value in interaction, noted author and professor of science and theology Robert Russell told an audience at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology Sept. 15.

Russell, founder and director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences and a professor at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif., delivered McAfee's second annual D. Perry and Betty Ginn Lecture on Christian Faith and Modern Science. He used his address to take on some common historical misconceptions about the roles of science, philosophy and religion.

Robert Russell lectures on theology and science at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta on Sept. 15. (Mercer photo)

“Philosophy mediates between theology and science,” Russell said. “Science doesn’t prove God, but it does show that life is very much at home in this universe. This is not a proof of God, but an invitation to take the universe and give it a sense of purpose and value in a way that the science I grew up with did not.

“It isn’t as much of a leap to say that God created the universe as it is to say there are an infinite number of universes out there,” he said. “It tends to be unanswerable because it’s beyond the laws of science and observation.”

Russell has spent his career studying these interactions. An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, he is a member of the Society of Ordained Scientists and has written or edited numerous books on science and theology. He holds a Ph.D. in experimental physics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, a master of divinity and a master of arts in theology and science from the Pacific School of Religion and a master’s degree in physics from the University of California at Los Angeles. As an undergraduate at Stanford University, he triple-majored in physics, religion and music.

One example of philosophy influencing science, he said, surrounds the “big-bang” theory about the creation of the universe. Russell said some theorized a single event beginning the universe, while physicists said this created the philosophical paradox: “How could the universe have a beginning?

A competing theory, called the steady-state or ever-expanding-universe theory, was rejected by Albert Einstein in 1927 and called “an abomination.” But in 1931, after reviewing the theory and considering his own position, Einstein changed his mind and called his original opinion his “greatest blunder.”

“In my opinion,” Russell said, “this shows that philosophy can play a creative role in science” because evidence can be proven false as part of the scientific process. The big-bang theory and the steady-state theory are still being debated today, Russell said, and philosophical and theological considerations influence theory choice.

Objections to the big-bang theory have also arisen on theological grounds. Some said the theory supported creation, while others disagreed, saying it would promote atheism. Other scientists said if the theory is relevant to theology, it should be abandoned.

An audience member listens to Robert Russell as he delivers the Ginn Lectures on Christian Faith and Modern Science at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology. (Mercer photo)

Russell said he thinks science is only indirectly relevant to theology. “Science provides confirmation for theology, and science and theology are in consonance with each other,” he said. “Science plays a secondary role in Christian faith, which primarily has its basis in Scripture, tradition, reason and experience.”

Even though the theory of evolution is often vilified by Christians, Russell said for believers, theology can offer an explanation. “Evolution biology requires a specific set of circumstances to exist. There’s a very subtle connection to God, because if any of the circumstances had been any other way, we wouldn’t be here.

“The existence of life puts constraints on the type of physics you have,” he said. “It ties physics and biology together. It’s not a design argument; it’s an argument against cosmic meaningless. Philosophy mediates between theology and science.”

The Ginn Lectures were endowed at McAfee by Perry Ginn to encourage a deeper understanding by clergy and students of science and how it relates to the biblical revelation. Ginn is former pastor of several Georgia congregations, including the First Baptist Church of Gainesville and Peachtree Baptist Church in Atlanta. He is semi-retired and currently serves as pastor of the North Clarendon Baptist Church in Avondale Estates, Ga.

–Bob Perkins Jr. is an Atlanta-based writer who has written for Mercer University and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

PENSACOLA, Fla. (ABP) — A federal judge in Florida ruled Sept. 17 that a blessing at an athletic banquet did not violate her court order telling a school district to refrain from promoting religious activity at school events.

Following a day-long hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Casey Rodgers acquitted Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and Athletic Director Robert Freeman of criminal contempt of court. If convicted the two men could have faced up to $5,000 in fines and six months in jail.

In January Rodgers ordered school officials to discontinue practices promoting prayer at school-sponsored events, including graduation; planning or financing religious baccalaureate services; promoting religious beliefs to students in class or during school-sponsored events and activities and holding school-sponsored events at churches.

The injunction stemmed from a lawsuit filed in August 2008 on behalf of two students by the American Civil Liberties Union. It accused school officials, including Lay and school-board members, of using their governmental positions to promote their personal religious beliefs in public schools in violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.

Nine days later Frank asked Freeman to lead a blessing of the food at a banquet honoring people who contributed to the school’s new athletic field house. The ACLU alerted the judge, and she ordered the two men to face criminal contempt proceedings.

The case is the latest battleground in the culture war over school prayer. In June about 400 seniors at Pace High School stood up in protest of the ACLU at their graduation and recited the Lord’s Prayer. In May Lay spoke during a Sunday-night service at Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, where he is a member and deacon, proclaiming that America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles and saying that every day he walks school hallways and sees kids who “need Jesus.”

During their Sept. 17 hearing, however, both Lay and Freeman testified that they acted as they did out of habit. After the hearing Rodgers ruled the two did not intentionally violate her temporary injunction banning school prayer.

Afterward, Lay spoke to about 1,000 supporters who held vigil outside the courthouse throughout the rainy day. “Above all I want to thank chief counsel, God the father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit,” Lay told the cheering crowd, according to the Pensacola News-Journal.

ACLU attorney Benjamin Stevenson told the newspaper that despite the ruling in Lay and Freeman’s favor, Judge Rodgers made it clear that “the unconstitutional promoting of religion by public school officials will not be tolerated.”

The lawsuit filed by the ACLU alleged a repeated pattern by school officials of “promoting and endorsing prayers at graduation ceremonies and other school events, of sponsoring religious ceremonies and holding official school events at churches.”

A teacher handbook introduced as evidence said all high-school personnel are expected to “embrace every opportunity to inculcate, by precept and example, the principles of truth, honesty and patriotism and the practice of every Christian virtue.”

“Parents, not the public schools, should be responsible for deciding whether their children receive religious education,” Benjamin Stevenson, staff attorney with the ACLU of Florida’s Northwest Region office, said in a press release. “Religious freedom is eroded when the government endorses any particular religious viewpoint.”

A supporter of Lay and Freeman, Ted Traylor, pastor of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, said the goal of the ACLU was to create a Jesus-free zone on public school campuses. Traylor, a former president of the Florida Baptist Convention who in 2000 was first vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention, helped raise money for a defense fund for the two men, which totaled nearly $70,000.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

LOS ANGELES—Early on a weekday morning, dozens of Latino evangelical leaders stream into a large church on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Greeting one another in Spanish, they sip coffee and share pastries until they are informed that class is about to begin.

The first course of the day? Hebrew.

They are here as part of a program sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, a global organization that supports Jewish life and promotes pluralism, to teach Latino evangelical leaders about Judaism.

“We started this course three years ago to tear down this wall and construct a bridge,” said Randall Brown, director of interreligious and Israel affairs for the American Jewish Committee’s Los Angeles chapter, as a group of professionally dressed Latino leaders applauded.

“Who wants to go to the Holy Land?” Brown asked the room full of students. The majority raised their hands.

Brown says his course—“The Essence of Judaism”—breaks down misconceptions evangelical Latinos may have about Jews and builds ties between the two communities. Although the Los Angeles chapter is the only one to offer such a program so far, the organization hopes to expand the course to other places, including New York, Miami and Atlanta.

“They are thirsty for more knowledge of the Hebraic roots of their faith so that they can become better religious leaders,” Brown said.

While Jews have made inroads among evangelicals on Israel, their outreach to Latinos is part of a new push on a rapidly growing group.

Teaching Latino evangelicals about Jewish history may be a key to securing Israel’s political future, according to demographic trends.

Evangelicals are the second largest religious group among Latinos, after Catholics, comprising nearly 15 percent of the population, and even many Latino Catholics are converting to evangelicalism, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Hispanic Center.

As of 2007, there were more than 45 million Hispanics in the U.S. and by 2050, they will comprise 29 percent of the U.S. population, Pew predicts.

And many Latinos view world politics through the lens of their faith.

Hispanic evangelical leaders gather to learn about Judaism at a class in Los Angeles hosted by the American Jewish Committee. Scholars say the rising numbers of Latino evangelicals and their views on Israel are destined to become a factor in Midddle East politics. (PHOTO/RNS/Lilly Fowler)

“The roles Latinos play in U.S. politics and public affairs are deeply influenced by the distinctive characteristics of their religious faith,” the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life wrote in a 2007 reporton Latinos and American religion. “Most Latinos see religion as a moral compass to guide their own political thinking, and they expect the same of their political leaders.”

Brown expects more than 100 Latino evangelicals to participate in the program this year, meeting every month to learn Hebrew, study Jewish history and learn about its culture. For some, the nearly yearlong course will culminate in a trip to Israel.

For others, the highlight of the program will come in a few weeks when they gather with local Jews to celebrate Sukkot, a Jewish holiday that celebrates the biblical account of Israelites wandering through the desert for 40 years and dwelling in huts.

Although for many Latinos the Sukkot celebration will mark the first time they step into a Jewish temple, Brown said he knows firsthand Latino evangelicals’ zeal for the Holy Land.

Brown says he first noticed the connection Latino evangelicals had to Israel when he visited their churches. Many hung Israeli flags outside of their buildings and incorporated Hebrew in the names of their congregations.

Evangelical Latinos, Brown said, are “enamored with Jewish culture.”

Gaston Espinosa, a professor of religious studies at Claremont McKenna College, said the affinity Latino evangelicals feel for Israel can be explained by their reverence of the Bible and its prescription for the apocalypse.

“It’s just part of their spirituality,” Espinosa said. “The Jewish people are part of God’s economy.”

Many evangelicals—including Latinos—view the Jews’ habitation of Israel as the fulfillment of a plan God outlined in the Bible and a prerequisite for the Second Coming of Jesus.

Combining biblical prophecy with practical politics, in recent years American evangelicals have become some of Israel’s staunchest supporters and a group to be reckoned with. Scholars say Latino evangelicals’ role in Middle East politics is likely to grow for some time to come given their growing numbers and religious zeal.

Espinosa sees the American Jewish Committee’s program as a way to reach out to two powerful voting blocs—evangelicals and Latinos.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP) — Samford University basketball player Jim Griffin was found dead in his dorm room Sept. 8. School officials believe he died in his sleep from an undetectable heart condition, but results from an autopsy won't be available for about two weeks.

A senior sociology major from Chicago, Griffin had played in a pick-up basketball game and did some weight training the previous day before returning to his room at Beeson Woods residential village on the campus in Birmingham, Ala.

Griffin, 23, a 6-foot-7-inch forward, was a bench player often inserted late in tight games because of his hustle and passing skill. During his junior year in 2008-09, he received one of Samford's annual Practice Hard Awards, which are given to players who exhibit the best work ethic and hustle in practice throughout the season.

"The Samford community is profoundly saddened by the death of Jim Griffin," Samford President Andrew Westmoreland said in a press release. "He was a popular student on campus in addition to being a member of the men's basketball team. It never is easy when any life is lost, but it is more difficult to lose one of such great promise."

Jimmy Tillette, head coach of the Samford men's basketball team, described Griffin as a "gutsy" player beloved by teammates and extremely popular on campus.

"This is a tremendous loss for our university and our team," Tillette said. "Our objective now is to help Jim’s family and his teammates and friends deal with the situation."

Before enrolling at Samford as a red-shirt freshman in 2005, Griffin was a star at Marist High School, a Catholic school for boys and girls in the Chicago area. A three-year starter and team captain, he led the RedHawks to a 50-9 record over his last two seasons, guided the team to back-to-back Illinois High School Association regional championships and finished his career ranked second in school history for assists.

"He's was everything that every coach would hope for," Marist basketball coach Gene Nolan told the Southtown Star, a Sun-Times suburban Chicago newspaper published in Tinley Park, Ill. "He was a really special kid. It's just a really difficult time."

Survivors include his parents, Marge and John Griffin. His older sister Meg played volleyball at DePaul University and older brother John played basketball at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa

A memorial service for Griffin was scheduled for the night of Sept. 10 in Samford's Reid Chapel.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press. 

WASHINGTON (RNS)—As college students return to campus, a new study suggests some could be in danger of losing their religion.

Economics professor Miles Kimball and researchers from the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research determined certain academic majors can influence students’ religiosity—positively or negatively—over time.

More than 26,000 U.S. students responded to questions regarding importance of religion and religious attendance over a six-year period, beginning in high school and continuing through the year after college graduation.

Compared to survey participants who did not attend college, education majors showed the most dramatic increase in religious attendance and religious importance, followed by students in vocational and clerical programs, then business majors.

Biology, engineering, physical science and math majors all show an increase in religious attendance and a decrease in religious importance.
Humanities and social science majors’ religious attendance dips slightly, and religious importance plunges.

College is an appropriate setting for measuring religious trends, Kimball said, because a campus acts like a microcosm, with each academic major representing a real-world profession.

“College is one of the few times you have a neat little label about the sorts of ideas a person has come in contact with,” he said.

Kimball admitted that the survey utilized “fairly crude data,” and said the findings more accurately reflect students’ contact with “science, developmentalism and postmodernism” than religious experience.

Social science and humanities majors—which generally employ the scientific method, are committed to truth, freedom and progress, and probe questions of truth and morality—are more likely to prompt students to question their religious upbringings and ultimately become less religious than other majors, Kimball asserted.

A 2004 UCLA study tracked students’ religious growth according to major. Consistent with Kimball’s study, education majors led the way in religious and spiritual growth over the first three years of college.

But unlike Kimball’s study—in which social science and humanities majors show decreased religiosity—the ULCA study found fine arts and humanities majors experience the second- and third-highest rates of religious and spiritual growth.

Why the different outcomes between studies? Sam Speers, director of religious and spiritual life at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., said studies often assume students’ religious identity should be static. Looking at students five years after college, Speers said, would paint a more accurate picture of their religious identities.

“Just as students are questioning lots of things about who they are, they are also asking questions about religious identity,” he said. “Reli-gious faith and practice is also something that’s evolving and changing.”

PLANO—Millions of the nation’s most vulnerable lie in bed each night struggling to win a seemingly hopeless battle—the rumbling sound of their empty stomachs drowning out any word of hope.

But Christians nationwide  involved in ministries to the poor insist hunger is waiting to be abolished.

Roughly 36 million Americans are food insecure—unsure where their next meal is coming from. They are neighbors, friends and family, but many hide their need, causing most people to be unaware of their struggles.

Who are they? And why are they hungry? There is no single answer.

“Hunger has no face and no personality,” said Cheryl Jackson, founder of The Giving Movement , a Plano nonprofit organization. “It has no respect for one type of person. It is the working poor and the people devastated by an unexpected loss.”

Food insecurity is defined as the uncertainty of being able to acquire enough food for a healthy lifestyle. According to the Texas Food Bank Network, 1.3 million Texans are food insecure. The state is also highest in child food insecurity.

Many people believe the hungry are the continually nonworking, but Texas Hunger Initiative Director Jeremy Everett said that rarely is the case.

“The overwhelming majority of SNAP- (food stamps) eligible families are employed. They just need supplemental help to keep food on the table for their families,” he said. “I’ve heard of people pulling up in Escalades to food pantries because the month before, they were the executive of a company. With our economic situation, a lot of families’ most basic needs are not being

Inexcusable situation

State Commissioner for the Texas Department of Agriculture Todd Staples termed the current situation inexcusable.

“Texas is a leader in many things; children who are food insecure should not be one of them,” he said. “Our future work force is being formed today, and our children are being educated today. We must break this cycle.”

Hunger is linked to many circumstances. Among the greatest is poverty. Susan Edwards, director of the Baptist Crisis Center in Midland, said some families would rather keep utilities running than buy groceries.

“When all else fails, you have to get to work, put gas in the car, pay your bills and insurance and wear appropriate clothes to work. So, food becomes an expendable item,” she said.

This leaves many parents unable to provide for their young, leaving children to search for their own source of sustenance.

“Where kids go hungry is when they don’t have access to food, like when they go home at night, on the weekends or during the summers,” said Jeremy Everett, director of the Texas Hunger Initiative , a partnership effort of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Com-mission and the Baylor  School of Social Work.

To provide food access, the U.S. government established the National School Lunch program—a federally assisted program that provides low-cost or free meals to more than 3 million children in Texas. It ends each year when school dismisses for summer.

Texas programs provide summer aid

Texas developed its own extension of the federal feeding program called Seamless Summer Option to help schools continue to provide meals for low-income children throughout summer months.

The Texas Department of Agriculture also developed the Summer Food Service Program, which partners with nonprofit organizations to provide summer feeding locations across the state. Texas has set up 3,200 feeding sites where any child 18 years and younger is eligible for free meals.

“We have made these programs a priority because the future of our state is dependent upon our youngest generation,” Staples said.

But Everett said there still are many barriers.

“We have 3 million kids who are on free and reduced lunch programs during the academic year, but only 78,000 children participate in summer feeding programs,” Everett said. “So, where do the others eat during summer months? Our biggest obstacle is connecting these dots.”

Faith-based organizations, food banks, the government and nonprofit service organizations are seeking to discover who the hungry are and how to effectively feed them. So, hunger becomes an issue for everyone, hunger experts said. If ignored, it will create turmoil for the future. Hunger causes long and short-term problems. From health and physical concerns to emotional issues, malnutrition causes stress to the mind and body.

“If every church in Texas would look, they would realize that in their city there is an area where there are children who are not eating because they don’t have food,” said Don Lane, pastor of CityChurch in Amarillo. “They don’t need to travel far to be involved.”