Posted: 1/18/08

Baptist Briefs

Church compensation survey under way. The 2008 compensation survey for Southern Baptist churches, a joint effort of Baptist state conventions, LifeWay Christian Resources and GuideStone Financial Resources, is online at www.LifeWay.com/compensationsurvey. All ministers and employees of Southern Baptist churches are encouraged to participate. Answers to the online survey are kept confidential and are not reported individually. The survey takes, on average, less than 10 minutes to complete. In addition to salary and benefit information, participants in the survey will need to have available their church’s average weekly worship or Bible study attendance, resident membership and annual budget. LifeWay and GuideStone are pooling resources to conduct the online survey, compile the data and make available an online reporting tool for users to access results. Southern Baptist church ministers and employees may complete the survey through April 15. For staff at churches without Internet access, a paper copy of the survey may be obtained by contacting GuideStone Financial Resources at (888) 98-GUIDE (984-8433).

CBF to lease building from Mercer. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has signed a 10-year lease with Mercer University for offices previously occupied by the Georgia Baptist Convention. The state convention recently moved to new office building in Atlanta’s northern suburbs. CBF will rent the offices—which are part of Mercer’s Atlanta campus—in an agreement that solidifies the existing partnership between the two groups. CBF has occupied offices elsewhere on the campus since 1997, occupying space on the second floor of Mercer’s McAfee School of Theology building. With the new lease, the Fellowship will move into a 19,000-square-foot space on the first floor of a facility that houses administrative offices and conference facilities. The building also is the new home of the Baptist History and Heritage Society, which moved into the facility last year. The American Baptist Historical Society is scheduled to occupy space in the building as well.

Jeffress to nominate Mohler. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, has announced plans to nominate Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, for Southern Baptist Convention president in June. Mohler is former pastor of Union Grove Baptist Church in Bedford, Ky., and former editor of the Georgia Christian Index. Mohler earned a bachelor of arts degree from Samford University and both a master of divinity degree and doctorate in philosophy from Southern Seminary. He and his wife, Mary, have two children—Katie, a freshman at Union University, and Christopher, 15. Mohler is the second candidate to be named for SBC president. Bill Wagner, president of Olivet University International and pastor of Snyder Lane Baptist Church in the San Francisco area, announced in September he would allow his nomination. Wagner is a former missionary and professor of missions.

More gray hair at SBC annual meeting. A new study of attendance at Southern Baptist Convention annual meetings shows the percentage of messengers under age 40 declined steadily since 1980 and dropped sharply since 2004. The percentage of messengers age 60 or older increased dramatically. Conducted by LifeWay Research, the study showed messengers ages 18 to 39 represented 33.6 percent of the total in 1980 but dropped to 13.1 percent by 2007. Registrants age 60 and above accounted for 12.9 percent of the messengers in 1980 but 35.4 percent in 2007.

Lawsuit against Nashville church dismissed. A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by about 50 current or former church members of Two Rivers Baptist Church against Pastor Jerry Sutton and church leaders. Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman ruled she didn’t have jurisdiction in the lawsuit, which sought, among other things, Sutton’s removal as pastor as well as the removal of other directors and officers in the Nashville church. The suit also asked the court to require a church business meeting be held to address specific issues, and it requested court costs. But the judge did give the plaintiffs, as members of the church, access to records—including meeting minutes and financial documents. The lawsuit claimed Sutton and other church leaders “misapplied, misappropriated, and mishandled the finances” of the church and that they prevented the church from being governed according to its constitution and bylaws.

Former Baylor dean named Mercer provost. Wallace Daniel, a history professor and former dean at Baylor University, has been named provost at Mercer University, effective July 1. He will succeed Horace Fleming. Daniel was selected from among 50 candidates for the provost’s position after a national search. He currently serves as editor of the Journal of Church and State, a publication of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies. He was dean of Baylor’s College of Arts and Sciences from 1996 to 2005. He also is a former chair of Baylor’s history department and past director of the honors program.

Queen honors BWA president. Baptist World Alliance President David Coffey recently was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for his service to interfaith relations. Coffey served 15 years as general secretary for the Baptist Union of Great Britain and was moderator of the Free Churches in Britain several years. He also was a leader of Churches Together in England, an ecumenical group.

Christians killed, churches burned in India. Ten Christians were killed, and about 90 churches and 600 homes torched by Hindu militants in eastern India around Christmas, a Baptist official there reported to the Baptist World Alliance. “Fifty to 70 Hindu radicals pulled out Pastor Junas Digal from a parked bus, paraded him on the road, all the way beating him with sticks and hands, and finally shaved his head to claim him a Hindu,” said Swarupananda Patra, general secretary of the All Orissa Baptist Churches Federation. In Bamunigham, in the Kandhamal district of Orissa, two Christians were shot and injured, shops operated by Christians destroyed, 20 churches damaged, and three churches razed on Christmas Eve, Patra reported. On Christmas, Christians were terrorized, Christmas worship services disrupted and churches forced to close, while Christians hid in “forests to evade attacks from these Hindus,” Patra continued. The attacks affected about 5,000 Christians, leaving most homeless. They allegedly were the work of Vishwa Hindu Parishad or the World Hindu Council. BWA General Secretary Neville Callam condemned the attacks and urged Christians, especially Baptists, to remember “our Christian brothers and sisters in Orissa state in our prayers.”

Posted: 1/18/08

Posted: 1/18/08

2nd Opinion:
Looking for something reliable

By Bruce Lampert

The tradition of Groundhog Day came to the United States from Northern Europe. Legend has it the groundhog awakens from his winter sleep on the second day of February. He sticks his head out of his den and looks around. If the sun is shining, he can see his shadow. The shadow frightens him, so he scampers back into his hole—six more weeks of winter! But if it’s cloudy that day, then the groundhog can’t see his shadow, and he will stay outside his hole. This means spring is on its way.

Obviously, there’s nothing scientific about Groundhog Day, but there was at least some scientific observation involved in its origin. Somewhere in the misty past, somebody figured out the relationship between the weather on the second day of February and the weather patterns of the following several weeks. Then they associated that relationship with a familiar woodland creature, and they passed the information along. Soon it became part of folk wisdom.

We shouldn’t be too hard on folk wisdom. There’s actually some real wisdom in it—like the Farmer’s Almanac, which still enjoys a wide circulation. For some reason, people who plant their gardens by the signs in the moon seem to make better gardens than those who just plant when they get a chance.

It’s all an attempt to get a handle on the world we live in, to bring some order into what doesn’t always seem too orderly. Before the days of electronic, digital, computer-operated weather-forecasting devices, people had to depend on their observations of what the atmosphere was like before weather changes occurred. Then they could make plans and bring some order to their lives.

We’re always looking for things we can count on. Life brings too many surprises, so we turn to whatever is within our reach to help us understand our world and order our lives.

There really is very little in life that we can always count on. But the Bible does tell us we can always count on God. Psalm 102:25-27 says: “Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will endure; they will all wear out like a garment. You change them like clothing, and they pass away; but you are the same, and our years have no end.”

Although change constantly is happening around us, God is consistent. In every situation and circumstance, he offers salvation and strength, help and hope. The weather may not cooperate, the economy may falter, personal situations may deteriorate, but God stays the same.

Whether or not the groundhog sees his shadow on Groundhog Day, remember that God will be at work in your life for the next six weeks, the next six months—and forever.

Bruce Lampert is director of pastoral care at Hendrick Health System in Abilene.

Posted: 1/18/08

Stop complaining, and life
becomes more enjoyable

By Shona Crabtree

Religion News Service

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (RNS)—Last year, Will Bowen gave a sermon challenging listeners not to complain for 21 consecutive days. He handed out purple bracelets as a reminder.

One year later, 4.6 million people in more than 80 countries have taken up the challenge. Bowen’s recent book, A Complaint Free World: How to Stop Complaining and Start Enjoying the Life You Always Wanted, extols the spiritual virtues of a complaint-free life.

Bowen, 47, is a minister in Kansas City, Mo., and a former self-described constant complainer. He says 21 days is the length of time it takes to form—or break—a habit.

Q: Where did this idea come from?

A: I was looking for a unique way to get people to focus on what was working in their life as opposed to what was not. Whatever you focus your attention on, you expand or draw to you. And so many people are complaining that they’re drawing negative things in their life.

I gave out these little purple silicon bracelets and invited everybody to put them on either wrist, and when they catch themselves complaining, take the bracelet off and switch it to the other wrist, and keep switching it back and forth.

Complaining is like bad breath, you notice it when it comes out of somebody else’s mouth, but not your own.

Q: 4.6 million is a lot of people; why do you think it become such a phenomenon?

A: People can agree on two things. One, the world is not the way they’d like it, and two, there’s too much complaining going on in the world. In my opinion, there’s a correlation between the two.

People think you need to complain to get things done. I invite them to focus beyond the problem, as Martin Luther King did in his “I Have a Dream” speech. He painted a bright vision for all of us. When we can focus beyond the problem, we can effect positive change in our world.

Q: How hard was it for you to reach three consecutive weeks without complaining?

A: Well, it took me about three and a half months, and it takes the average person anywhere from four to eight months.

Q: Were there ever times when you felt you didn’t want to do it anymore?

A: Absolutely! But what I noticed was that my church was watching me. Had I not done it and proved that it could be done, then I don’t think this would have taken off. It was kind of like Roger Bannister running the four-minute mile and then all of a sudden, lots of people did it.

Q: Is there ever a good time to complain?

A: Absolutely. The definition of “complain” is to express grief, pain or discontent. And it makes sense to express grief, pain or discontent.

Most people, though, their default setting is griping, myself included. They complain all the time and they don’t realize the damaging effect that complaining has on their health, their relationships, their career and their happiness.

I think it makes sense to complain maybe once a month. But beyond that, it’s really not healthy. If you have a problem, talk directly and only to the person who can resolve the problem. That’s really what I’m advocating—healthy communication.

Q: You link gossiping and criticism to complaining. How so?

A: To me, criticism is just complaining with a sharp edge directed at someone to make them feel bad. There’s no problem with gossip. You can gossip all you want, but there’s two criterion: No. 1, what you’re saying has to be positive about the person, and No. 2, you have to be willing to say it in the exact same intonation if the person were standing in the room. And most people say that takes all the fun out of it. I say then, “Well, you’re complaining.”

Q: What are the spiritual benefits of not complaining?

A: Peace of mind. I think that’s the one thing we’re all looking for.

Q: You say not complaining can lead to a successful, happy and lucrative life. But there are plenty of poor people who don’t complain, and rich people who do. So, which is it?

A: If a person is wealthy and complaining, then that doesn’t necessarily mean they have prosperity as I define it, which is having health, relationships that work, a life path or a life career that they love and find fulfilling.

And for a person who is poor, I think the fastest way to get out of it is to begin to be grateful. The opposite of complaining is gratitude. Begin to focus on what you are grateful for and to accept that you have an opportunity to create a different reality for yourself.

Bracelets are available at www.acomplaintfreeworld.org.

Posted: 1/18/08

Death penalty opponents find
new allies among evangelicals

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Religion News Service

CARRBORO, N.C. (RNS)—Stephen Dear has spent the past 10 years waging an uphill battle to abolish the death penalty in the American South—with virtually no help from the region’s powerful evangelical ministers.

But unlike in years past, Dear has new confidence that within six months, he can round up 100 conservative clergy in North Carolina alone to sign an open letter denouncing the current system of capital punishment.

“Even five years ago, I wouldn’t have thought of doing this,” said Dear, executive director of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, based in Carrboro, N.C. “It’s easier now to be an abolitionist church leader who opposes the death penalty on biblical grounds and to be accepted for that.”

These are hopeful times for death penalty opponents. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this month on whether death by lethal injection violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. New Jersey recently became the 14th state to ban executions. And Gallup Poll data show public support for the death penalty in murder cases has slipped from a high of 80 percent to 69 percent the past 13 years.

In this shifting environment, religious leaders who oppose the death penalty are seeking high-profile venues where they can portray executions as inherently immoral.

But the fate of the death penalty in America, observers say, hinges largely on whether its rank-and-file evangelical and Catholic supporters can be persuaded en masse to reconsider.

“One of the pillars that the death penalty has rested on is religious support in certain areas of the country,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes the death penalty.

“If that support goes—and I think it is weakening because people don’t support the death penalty as it’s being practiced—then the political leaders have less to turn to for why they support it.”

Catholic clergy have been among the most visible—and influential—in making the moral case against capital punishment. Catholic bishops provided key testimony, Dieter said, before New Jersey lawmakers voted to abolish the death penalty.

Parish priests are spreading the message that “pro-life” also means anti-death penalty. For more than two years, they’ve used sermons, bulletin inserts and a DVD titled “A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death” as part of a campaign to keep the issue before churchgoers.

“A parishioner is more likely to oppose the death penalty if his or her pastor is strongly opposed to it,” said political scientist Gregory Smith.

Plus, minds can change. A 2005 Zogby poll found 29 percent of U.S. Catholics once favored the death penalty but later came to oppose it.

Clergy from mainline Protestant denominations that have opposed the death penalty for decades recently joined hands with pragmatists who fear the death penalty can claim innocent victims or doesn’t effectively deter crime.

For the moment, the death penalty has support from at least two-thirds of Catholics, evangelicals and mainline Protestants, according to a 2007 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. White evangelicals show the strongest support, at 74 percent, but that’s down from 82 percent in 1996.

Catholic bishops hope evangelicals will come to seek consistency on pro-life issues by opposing the death penalty along with abortion and euthanasia, said Thomas Shellabarger, domestic policy adviser at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

He has reason for hope. At least three prominent evangelicals—Joel Hunter, Ronald Sider and Tony Campolo—are calling for an end to the death penalty in new books coming out early this year.

Whether Southern evangelicals as a group will come to embrace either moral or pragmatic arguments against the death penalty remains a wide-open question.

But Dieter sees potential every time conservative Christians explain publicly why they’re also abolitionists.

“There’s something to that ‘life’ perspective” that resonates with evangelicals, Dieter said.

“If (opposition to the death penalty) is brought up by a liberal, then it doesn’t go as far with evangelicals. But when it comes from the pope, then there’s some common ground in the idea that life is to be respected on all levels.”

Posted: 1/18/08

DOWN HOME:
Comic’s nonmarriage not funny

Did you see where comedian Eddie Murphy’s New Year’s Day wedding on the South Pacific island of Bora Bora to movie producer Tracey Edmonds was “only symbolic”?

I wonder if Edmonds’ daddy is scouring all the wedding photos, looking to see if he can find evidence that Murphy had his fingers crossed behind his back. Maybe Murphy walked his new bride back down the aisle, looked over his shoulder, lit up the room with his zillion-watt grin, and shouted, “Just kidding!”

Now, I’ll be the first to admit Murphy is a talented comedian and a very, very funny guy. I still crack up remembering some of his “Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood” and “Buckwheat” skits on Saturday Night Live. His Beverly Hills Cop franchise had its moments of jocularity. And his sidekick Donkey stole every episode of Shrek.

But this just ain’t funny.

Of course, Murphy and Edmonds are grownups, and they have a right to back out of a marriage. And, apparently, even a non-marriage, for that matter.

The big news was they decided to get “married” in the first place. So many people, especially people with famous names and faces and Hollywood ZIP codes, don’t seem to bother. And when they do, they present two big questions: Can you count the number of previous marriages on one hand or two? How long will it last?

In Murphy and Edmonds’ case, it didn’t last at all. Their ceremony didn’t count, but they will “remain friends,” Murphy’s publicist said.

All morning, I’ve been trying to figure out why this episode of disposable matrimony has crawled all over me. While I’ve laughed at and with Murphy for years, I’ve never idolized him. Besides, “stars” do stuff like this all the time.

Well, the bone in my throat is this line: “Murphy has six children from previous relationships.” Six kids. “Relationships,” plural.

My youngest daughter, Molly, and I are preparing to speak to other daughters and dads in our church’s True Love Waits program. And I’ve been re-reading research by sociologists Barbara Dafoe Whitehead and David Blankenhorn.

They’ve discovered the most significant factor in determining whether girls will be promiscuous and boys will be violent is whether their fathers live at home with them. We may be portrayed as dumb and clueless, but loving, present fathers make a profound difference in children’s lives.

Maybe Murphy is a wonderful father, but I don’t see how he can be present and available for six children in at least more than one location when his primary objective seems to be how far and wide he can scatter his seed.

OK, I know I’m preaching to the choir. And I haven’t even tried to be funny this time (like I succeed very often). But please do this: Pray for and encourage fathers. And teach your sons and grandsons to be faithful.

Posted: 1/18/08

EDITORIAL:
Countries, conventions need free press

A friend forwarded an e-mail citing the “memoirs” of Vo Nguyen Giap, a general in North Vietnam during its war with the United States. The e-mail quotes Giap as saying: “Your media was definitely helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields.” It then makes a contemporary application: “The exact same slippery slope, sponsored by the U.S. media, is currently well under way. It exposes the enormous power of a biased media to cut out the heart and will of the American public. … Do not fear the enemy, for they can take only your life. Fear the media far more, for they will destroy your honor.”

The quote is bogus (debunked by websites snopes.com and about.com), but the e-mail illustrates a common perception—a free press is dangerous for freedom. Such thinking is broad-based—in society and among Baptists. How ironic that free people don’t seem to value one of the freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment. Some considerations:

Even if you were to believe in this quote, a communist general isn’t exactly the most reliable commentator. We fought a war with his kind precisely because they deny freedom. And what do communists and other despots do upon seizing power? They take over the media, so that they control exactly what the people hear and read, what they believe they know, and, eventually, what they think. This is the polar opposite of democracy.

Still, some Americans reflexively complain about the media. They say they want Supreme Court justices to interpret law based exclusively upon what the Founding Fathers wrote in the Constitution. But these same people seem to think the Founding Fathers were out of their minds when they included freedom of speech and freedom of the press in the First Amendment. The Fathers knew what they were doing. And people today can’t have it both ways.

In fact, a free press is the grease that keeps the wheels of democracy turning—in a country, in a convention. Sure, it’s messy. Of course, some journalists are incompetent, and some good ones make mistakes. But this happens in every endeavor. Some pilots show up intoxicated and others flip the wrong switches, some doctors operate on the wrong patients, some baggage handlers put bags on the wrong carts, some preachers sleep with women they counsel.

Journalists I know take their journalistic freedom seriously. When I cover an event or approach a powerful person and ask for information he or she would prefer to keep private, I don’t go on behalf of myself. I represent all the Baptists who depend upon me to tell them the truth. I don’t demand freedom because I want to do whatever I want; I demand freedom because the people to whom I report have a right to know. And even when that knowledge is messy or uncomfortable, knowing it helps us to face our challenges, make better decisions and improve our life together.

Ironically, the “liberal media” is much more potent in imagination than reality. The owners of the major media are some of the wealthiest corporations in America. It often appears they’re making most of their decisions based upon what’s good for their bottom line, not the public trust. Likewise, as editor of a news organization owned by a large convention, I often worry about whether I will make decisions to please the “corporation,” because that is the easiest path. Our assignment, unquestionably more difficult, is to represent pew-sitting Baptists who have a right to know about all the details of their denomination.

So, a free press, like a democracy, sometimes is messy. Sometimes it makes us uncomfortable. Sometimes it disturbs and disgusts us. Sometimes, of course, the media make mistakes. But I’ll take that risk. We’re far better off with a free press—in a country, in a convention—because ultimately, the people will know the truth. Truth is power.

Posted: 1/18/08

ENGAGE:
The most effective evangelism tool?
The one Christians will use

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

ROCKWALL—The most effective evangelism tool for any Christian is the one he or she actually uses, speakers told participants at the Engage evangelism conference, sponsored by the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

James Lankford, student ministry and evangelism specialist with the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, said Christians have made evangelism seem complicated, creating an environment where laypeople don’t feel qualified to share their faith.

Jon Randles, evangelism director for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, told the Engage conference that Christians must be intentional about living evangelistic lives by seeking to build relationships with non-Christians and praying for people around them.

Leaders have come up with multitudes of classes to teach people, invented set presentations, created guidebooks and developed tools that can be used to convey the gospel, he observed.

The most effective evangelism method “is the one you actually use,” Lankford said. “Just do that one.”

“Don’t make it so structured that the only time we do evangelism is when we have a homework assignment. … We need to figure out how we can talk about religion outside of church. … We need to bring the gospel off the top shelf and put it down where everybody can grab it.”

Citing Jesus’ story of the farmer sowing seeds, Lankford said each follower of Christ already has what he or she needs to be evangelistic. Christians have a testimony of how Christ changed their lives. They simply need to feel a need to share it and be comfortable enough to follow through.

The gospel “is not just for professionals on closed courses,” he said. “It’s just a guy scattering seed.”

James Lankford, student ministry and evangelism specialist with the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, reminded participants at the Engage conference that the best evangelistic gospel presentation is whichever one Christians actually use.

Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, La., affirmed Lankford’s sentiment as he shared the story of Hurricane Katrina flooding his church and home. Just as God brought Luter and his congregation through the storm, he pulls people through the trials of life, giving them a testimony about the power of Christ.

Even so, Jerry Pipes, director of event and personal evangelism at the Southern Baptist Convention North American Mission Board, noted research indicates 95 percent of Baptists never lead someone else to faith. Between 75 percent and 85 percent of young people involved in evangelical congregations turn away from them at some point.

God sets divine appointments through which he can change lives, evangelist Jose Zayas told the Texas Baptists. God orchestrates the intersecting of people’s lives, but his followers must play an active role in being obedient.

If they’ll do that, miraculous events will take place, Zayas insisted.

“Wherever you are, you are there by design,” he said of ministers who follow God’s call upon their lives.

Jerry Pipes, director of personal and event evangelism at the North American Mission Board, tells participants at the Engage evangelism conference in Rockwall that the family should be the primary place of discipleship.

It’s at the intersection of two lives that one person can become significant to another, said Jon Randles, evangelism director for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. There, one person can serve as a conduit for God to pour himself into another person. One disciple of Christ creates another, who makes another and so on.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that most of the most significant people are folks that you’ve never heard of,” he said.

Randles noted people must be intentional about living evangelistic lives by seeking to build relationships with non-Christians and praying for those around them.

Then, he added, churches must persevere in the work of putting together events that provide opportunities for people to get involved in congregations. While some have argued event evangelism doesn’t work, Randles said he sees people come to faith every week where he’s preaching a special church event.

For Christians to intersect the lost, they’re going to have to be intentional about knowing their community, said Gary Dyer, pastor of First Baptist Church in Midland. They need to understand the needs of people around them so they can address them physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Wayne Shuffield (left), director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Missions, Evangelism & Ministry Team, visits with (left to right) Jerry Raines, pastor of Hampton Road Baptist Church in Dallas; and Associate Minister Gary Jones and Pastor Oscar Epps, both from Community Missionary Baptist Church in DeSoto.

“We are servants,” Dyer said, citing the biblical story of the master inviting the community to a great banquet. “We are to obey our masters. He told us to go into the streets and the alleys. He told us to go into the country lanes.”

Dyer and Alex Himaya, senior pastor of the Church at Battle Creek in Tulsa, Okla., encouraged Texas Baptists to remain steadfast in their commitment to evangelism. When presented with the gospel, some people will find excuses not to follow Jesus. But Christians are commanded to continue sowing the seed of the gospel wherever they go. God honors the actions of those who follow his commands.

“You don’t flirt with Jesus,” Himaya said. “You don’t date Jesus. And by the way, you don’t flirt with evangelism. You don’t date evangelism. It’s a marriage.”

Steve Keenum, area president of Big Country Fellowship of Christian Athletes gives a testimony at the Engage evangelism conference about how God uses events to bring people to Christ.

Himaya particularly challenged Texas Baptists to make sure their churches are places where “people who have a past” feel welcome and where they experience God’s grace.

“To allow people to run from God because they think we will judge them is to run from the One who took their punishment,” he said.

“Preparing the soil” for the seed of the gospel to take root “means loving people” as they are, Himaya stressed.

“You don’t have to change your character. You don’t have to change your standard,” he said. “You do have to love people.”

With additional reporting by Managing Editor Ken Camp

Posted: 1/18/08

Faith Digest

Evolution and religion compatible, scientists insist. A top panel of scientists has published a new book asserting that belief in the theory of evolution and religious faith “can be fully compatible,” and creationism has no place in science classes. The 88-page Science, Evolution, and Creationism, produced by the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, is an updated version of two previous books supporting evolution scholarship. The 2008 version is different, according to the 15-person committee that designed it, because it is aimed at clergy and school board members and discusses the role of faith in human knowledge. “Science and religion address separate aspects of human experience,” the book says.

‘In God We Trust’ will move from edge to surface of coins. By popular demand, the national motto “In God We Trust” will move from the edge of new dollar coins honoring U.S. presidents to the front or back of the currency. A provision in the $555 billion domestic spending bill for 2008 calls for the change to take place “as soon as is practicable.” The U.S. Mint began producing presidential one-dollar coins in 2007. The words “In God We Trust” were placed along the edge of the coins, as instructed by Congress. But critics complained about the placement and thought the words belonged on the front or back of the coins instead. The dies already have been produced for the 2008 coins, so those will still have the motto along the edge. But the motto will be moved on 2009 coins.

Polls should count evangelical Democrats, advocates insist. Several influential evangelical leaders have called on pollsters to ask Democrats—and not just Republicans—if they are evangelicals when future primaries occur. Nine evangelical spokesmen, including Sojourners founder Jim Wallis and Christianity Today editor David Neff, sent a letter to polling and political directors of media outlets that are represented by the National Election Pool, which supplies poll data to ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, NBC and the Associated Press.

Two Georgia ministries not cooperating with probe. Two of the six ministries with finances under investigation by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, have been unwilling to cooperate, citing privacy rights and questioning Grassley’s focus on groups that preach the “prosperity gospel.” Creflo Dollar Ministries in College Park, Ga., and Eddie Long’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., have refused to submit financial records first requested by Grassley last November. Dollar’s attorney had told Grassley the church would not comply by the original Dec. 6 deadline. In an op-ed column in Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Long’s attorney James M. Hunter called Grassley’s inquiry an “inquisition.” Two of the six ministries—Kenneth Copeland Ministries in Newark, near Fort Worth, and Joyce Meyer Ministries in Fenton, Mo.—have provided materials that are being reviewed by Senate staff, Grassley said. Two other ministries—Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Fla., and Benny Hinn Ministries in Grapevine—have sent mixed signals about their plans to cooperate.

Posted: 1/18/08

Redeemed Klansman reunites with long-ago victim

By Roy Hoffman

Religion News Service

MOBILE, Ala. (RNS)—Stan Chassin, a 59-year-old investment counselor, had been nervous all day. He had heard a bully from his youth was coming back to town.

Tommy Tarrants had terrorized Chassin in high school by cursing him for being Jewish, grabbing him by the throat and threatening to kill him.

Chassin had watched from afar as Tarrants left school, joined the Ku Klux Klan and was wounded in a police ambush while attempting to blow up the home of a Jewish man in Meridian, Miss.

“I realized he could have killed me,” Chassin said.

Tarrants, now 60, was returning to Mobile not as a Klansman but as a profoundly changed man. Years before, he had published a memoir, The Conversion of a Klansman, and a decade ago had become president of the C.S. Lewis Institute, a Washington, D.C., organization dedicated to helping people grow spiritually.

Tarrants was to be the guest speaker at a dinner at Spring Hill Presbyterian Church. Chassin, wary about what he had heard of Tarrants’ transformation, wanted to see for himself.

“My father always taught me to confront my fears,” Chassin said. “I had a chance to unload my demons. But the closer I got to that day, I wondered, ‘Do I have the internal fortitude to go through with this?’“

When he walked into the fellowship hall at Spring Hill Presbyterian Church and saw Tarrants, Chassin had a flashback to high school. “I thought: ‘He’s not so big. I could have taken him!’”

Tall and slightly stooped, Tarrants had no hint about him of the long-ago teenager’s swagger or rant. As Tarrants was introduced by Pastor Norman McCrummen, Tarrants seemed to Chassin “almost frail.”

With his gently modulated voice, and touches of a dinner speaker’s humor, Tarrants spoke of his slide toward militant bigotry, how he learned to despise blacks and loathe Jews. He talked about sin as “a cancer” that had come into his body and heart.

He told of being in a prison cell, of reading classical philosophy and Scripture, of a profound change in his heart as he came to understand the true meaning of God in his life. He spoke of grace and forgiveness.

After Tarrants finished his speech, he asked for questions. Chassin hesitated. Then he stood.

“It’s hard facing you,” he told Tarrants.

Chassin recounted the story of how Tarrants had grabbed him by the throat at school, cursed him, called him “a kike” and swore, “If I ever see you again, … I’ll kill you.”

A few others in the audience were worried, at first, what Chassin might do—getting even after all these years for the long-simmering aggression.

As Chassin’s voice got stronger, he grew calmer. As he spoke, he saw a look of pain on Tarrants’ face. McCrummen, watching, said he saw Tarrants “almost crumble. It was so obvious, the remorse of the memory.”

Chassin recalled how a few weeks earlier, sitting in synagogue on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, he had heard the voice of God.

“God told me: ‘You have to forgive him for what he did to you. And then, for all the hatred and disgust you felt toward him, you have to ask Tommy to forgive you.’” Chassin said, his voicing breaking.

The hall fell silent. Quietly, Tarrants answered: “I appreciate you being so gracious and forgiving. I’m very grateful, Stan, for your having the courage to come and share your forgiveness.”

Chassin walked forward and held out his hand to shake. The two men embraced. Chassin was weeping.

Tarrants, who had never had anyone approach him from his past like this, felt anguished to know of the pain he had inflicted on Chassin all these years. He wondered who else from his past might still be carrying old wounds, who else he must still reconcile with.

McCrummen returned to the podium, tears in his eyes at the extraordinary event he had just witnessed.

“In the fullness of your love, you give us a heart and a mind, to recognize this,” McCrummen prayed. “Thank you for seeing us and hearing us and not giving up on us.”

Chassin said his life has been changed.

And Tarrants said the encounter “‘raises questions that may lead to a new phase” in his own life, “a new journey.” What more can he do to combat racism and anti-Semitism? “Where will this lead me?” he asked.

Several weeks later, Chassin returned to his old high school to walk the grounds and recall the encounter that “joined our lives.” He, too, spoke of reconciliation, of God’s presence, of “a new phase of my life.”

Then he turned a corner on an alley and spotted a swastika spray-painted on a wall. For a moment, Chassin is taken aback.

“It makes me so sad,” he said.

He realized what lies ahead for him. His mission now, like that of Tarrants, is to further education about hatred and about forgiveness.

“The ignorance,” he said, “never goes away.”

Posted: 1/18/08

Trial date set for suit by dismissed female prof

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

UPLAND, Ind. (ABP)—Sheri Klouda sparked denominational—and national—debate when she cried foul last year over her dismissal from teaching at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, allegedly because of her gender.

Ten months later and anticipating a year of legal proceedings, media interviews and medical procedures for her ailing husband, the professor says she hopes to come out of it with “resolution and closure—having a final decision made on the matter and a righteous and just decision being rendered.”

She’ll get her first taste of the decision, whatever it may be, when Klouda v. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary begins trial proceedings June 2.

Preliminary work on the case began in March 2007, when Klouda filed a cause of action in federal court against the Fort Worth school and its president, Paige Patterson. The suit charged fraud, breach of contract and defamation.

By Sept. 14, United States District Judge John McBryde had denied Southwestern’s motions to dismiss the suit and accepted an amended complaint that added “sex discrimination” to the charges. He also ordered Klouda, Patterson and their advisers to discuss settling the case.

Klouda requested $1.1 million to settle the lawsuit, Patterson refused to counter-offer or settle, and the parties now await the verdict on a request for a summary judgment. That means the judge would decide the case without a jury trial.

If, upon review, McBryde decides a jury could possibly side with Klouda, he will reject the summary-judgment request and proceed with plans for a full trial. It is not clear how much Klouda’s attorneys will seek in damages should the case go to trial.

Experts say the case will hinge on whether the seminary falls under the free-exercise clause of the First Amendment, which prevents the government from interfering in the employment relationships between churches and ministers.

Should the courts decide that a seminary is not technically a church—or that its faculty members are not ministers—Klouda could come away with a big win.

Klouda said she thinks governments should have no jurisdiction over churches, but a seminary is not a house of worship.

“The seminary would have been well within its rights not to hire me in the fist place,” she said. But, since Southwestern hired her and allowed her to teach for several semesters “and then turned around and decided it was against its faith tradition, that is contradictory.”

“Defendant Patterson, based upon his social and/or personal beliefs, disingenuously used religion as a pretext for (his) actions in failing to renew her contract,” the complaint said. “Southwestern itself and by and through its agents intentionally engaged in unlawful employment practices involving (Klouda) because she is female. Patterson, using his social belief but calling it ‘religious interpretation,’ blatantly discriminated against Dr. Klouda based on her gender.”

Another complication, Klouda argues, has to do with the Southern Baptist Convention’s 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement. It says women should not serve as pastors.

But Southwestern’s website lists 11 women, including librarians and Dorothy Patterson, wife of the president, as faculty members. Should seminary officials claim all faculty are ministers—in an attempt to fall under the free-exercise clause—the school might be hard-pressed to explain to a secular jury how “ministers” are different from pastors, and how some women are qualified to teach, while Klouda’s gender bars her from doing so.

In addition to the lawsuit, Ben Cole—a former Arlington pastor—filed complaints last January with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and Association of Theological Schools, asking them to investigate “a serious breach” of accreditation guidelines by Southwestern. An ATS spokesperson said her agency’s policy is not to investigate a complaint while the complainant is engaged in a civil suit against a member school.

Southwestern officials repeatedly have failed to respond to requests for comment on the Klouda matter since it began last year.

In the meantime, Klouda continues to teach at Taylor University in Upland, Ind. She and her husband have since sold their home in Texas and taken out a loan on her retirement funds to help pay for a house they’re renting in Indiana.

Posted: 1/18/08

Texas Baptist Forum

Happy-clappy or ‘Amen’?

What a marvelous letter from Richard Berry concerning banning “applause-attracting” parts of the worship service (Jan. 7).

• Jump to online-only letters below

Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.

“I’m an optimist—by choice. It’s because of Christ in me, the hope of glory, that I can chose to be an optimist rather than a cynic, which is much easier. It is because of that hope that I still run, that I still love, that I still play.” Berry Simpson Sunday school teacher, petroleum engineer, writer, runner and member of the Midland city council (http://berry.voxtropolis.com) “The success I’ve had has given me a platform to try to let people know what’s really important in life. If you’re not feeding the poor, not looking out for the troubled kid on the block, not giving yourself away, you’ve totally missed it.” Michael W. Smith Contemporary Christian singer (Associated Press/RNS) “There is a self-righteousness, a glibness in their writing. They are too sure of themselves. They've backed themselves into a fundamentalist mode.” Bill Hamilton A leader of the “death of God” theological movement of the 1960s, describing recent books by militant atheists (RNS)

It will never happen, because our folks are so entrenched in the “entertain me” philosophy they will never be able to admit the truth that we gather to worship God, not to please and entertain ourselves.

For years, I have been dismayed by the “Christian artists,” the happy-clappy services and the hand-clapping, finger-snapping presentations that draw attention to themselves rather than to an omnipotent God. I recently saw a clip on TV where a young boy did a “cannonball” into the baptistry to the surprise of the preacher. Everyone thought it was hilarious.

We now have “contemporary services,” “alternative worship,” etc. Why? To please and satisfy folk, that’s why. Why don’t we forget “performance,” “artists” and other such words and get back to the very serious business of focusing on a wonderful God?

Where is that church? Help me find it. I know it is out there.

Charles Downey

Conroe

We believe in church autonomy, so why do some folks continually try to tell another congregation how to worship?

Applause is like saying “amen” in our culture today. One cannot limit the Holy Spirit to one form of worship.

Have you heard the quote “dry as a sermon”? Worship should not be dry or void of emotion. Worship should be God-centered. God is our focus. We offer our worship to God, for he is the audience. Sometimes, that might lead to an overflow of the heart that leads to applause. I know it can be overdone, but still I believe one must be careful, for he might quench the Holy Spirit by not allowing this form of expression in worship. Let’s choose our battles wisely.

Doug Simon

Grand Prairie

True discipleship

Thank you for suggesting it is time to revamp our discipleship programs (Jan. 7). However, we must remember it is not our training programs that prepare men and women to be fruitful disciples. Only a special relationship with the Lord can accomplish that goal.

We need to return to the same principles Jesus used while preparing his first disciples. He simply said, “Come, follow me.” That is, “Come, let us develop a close relationship by spending time with each other.” The disciples accepted that offer of relationship. They recognized only by being in close contact with Jesus could they become like him. They established a relationship with him that would last forever, and so can we.

In time, Jesus returned to heaven, but then the Holy Spirit returned to Earth at Pentecost. He filled his disciples with his presence and power, and they became like him. Jesus continues to empower his servants through his presence within them.

Our new discipleship programs must major on the believer’s relationship with the Lord. Only in partnership with Jesus can any believer be fruitful in his service.

Jesus expressed this principle in John 15:5: “Without me, you can do nothing.”

So, whatever else our new programs might teach, the major emphasis must be on the believer’s relationship with the Lord Jesus and the atmosphere in their lives that is produced by that relationship.

Dan Keeney

San Angelo

No ‘hirelings’

In my first pastorate in 1938, I never heard the term “hired a pastor.” For 46 years, I was pastor of some Baptist church. Not once did I send any church a resume. Not once did I ask any person to recommend me to any church. I always figured if God wanted me to be pastor of a church, he could manage it his way. And he did!

I could write volumes of experiences that God has given me and other like-minded men whom God called to the pastorate.

It is said that a committee came to George W. Truett seeking help in finding a pastor. “What are you seeking in a pastor”? he asked. “Oh, someone under 40 who is a premillennialist,” they said. In the parlance of the day, the old pastor countered, “Has it ever occurred to you that instead of a pre-38, God might want you to have a B-29?”

Does anyone doubt the terribly critical condition our country and the world is in today? It will never be solved by the hireling (John 10:13).

Marvel Upton

Orangevale, Calif.

What do you think? Send letters to Editor Marv Knox by mail: P.O. Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267; or by e-mail: marvknox@baptiststandard.com. Maximum length is 250 words.