Posted: 12/27/07

Hispanic social conservatives may
leave GOP over immigration stance

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

NEW YORK (ABP)—Republican presidential candidates who appeal to fears over immigration in the primary campaigns risk alienating an important constituency—conservative Hispanics—religious leaders in several early primary states said.

In a conference call with reporters, Hispanic evangelicals and other leaders urged candidates to “reject hateful speech” regarding immigration.

The event came just days after a Pew Hispanic Center study found that many conservative Hispanics have reacted negatively to Republican stances on immigration and are even considering leaving the party because of it.

Leaders of the conference, hosted by Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, said Republican candidates are manipulating immigrants for political gain by issuing attack ads that accuse competitors of being “soft” on immigration.

Luis Cortes, president of the Latino evangelical group Esperanza USA, confirmed the survey’s results. A visible ally of President Bush during the 2004 elections, he has since reconsidered his political alliances.

“The Republican Party, in an attempt to galvanize the states … has blamed the individuals as opposed to the government for inaction,” said Cortes, who founded the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast. “With Hispanic people today, there is a lot of fear in our communities.”

Indeed, the Pew study found that more than 50 percent of all Hispanic adults in the United States “worry that they, a family member, or a close friend, could be deported.” Nearly two out of three said congressional failure to enact immigration reform has made life more difficult for all U.S. Latinos.

That has caused some Hispanic clergy to move away from Republican positions they previously held—and away from the perception that the GOP is the party of family values, Cortes said.

“More and more of our people are being turned off by the Republican Party and are being turned off to the point that they say they will not vote for a Republican candidate,” he added.

In the survey of 2,003 Hispanic adults, 57 percent identified with the Democratic Party, while 23 percent considered themselves Republicans. Two years ago, that gap was much narrower.

Cortes noted that his organization, which represents more than 10,000 Hispanic churches and organizations nationwide, has struggled to get public statements supporting their position from “celebrity” evangelical leaders. However, he said, Catholic leaders have been more eager to engage in the discussion.

The current level of debate has failed to advance the political process toward immigration reform, Bishop Thomas Wenski of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando, Fla., said.

The nation deserves to hear “some solid proposals” from those “who want to be entrusted with leading,” he said. Wenski serves as the international-policy chairman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“The failure of Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform last June has kept the debate alive … and unfortunately our presidential candidates are allowing themselves to be co-opted into the divisiveness of the debate,” Wenski said. “The debate has been basically political posturing, and we don’t see any of the candidates rising to address the issue as a leader of vision should.”

In the last two years, Congress twice has tried and failed to pass a comprehensive plan to deal with illegal immigration, although federal, state and local governments have enacted regulations aimed at mitigating the problem. Many of the new procedures include increased workplace raids, deportations and restrictions for illegal immigrants.

The new state and local policies have hit undocumented Hispanic workers the hardest. Of the 47 million Hispanics currently living in the United States, about 25 percent are illegal immigrants, according to the Pew survey.

Churches should set the tone for how such regulations take effect, Hispanic evangelical leaders said.

“Being tough on immigration doesn’t mean you’re tough on undocumented people,” Cortes said.

Derrick Harkins, pastor of Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, said one of his responsibilities as a minister is to ensure his church members understand it’s never right to speak or act in ways that “dehumanize and endanger others.”

Hard work is needed to craft national legislation, but “pandering” in the political realm destroys the chance of realizing that goal, he said.

“The speech that is destructive and inflammatory and hateful is absolutely counterintuitive,” Harkins contended. “Wherever we are in the spectrum of this, we do not have the right to speak in ways that marginalize.”

Cortes added that, in his travels around the country in attempts to garner support for his group, he tells churches that morality and legality are two separate things.

Posted: 12/27/07

Bible Studies for Life Series for January 13

Breakthrough in Forgiveness

• Psalm 32

By Steve Dominy

First Baptist Church, Gatesville

One of the things that I appreciate most about David is his honesty. When we read the stories of David’s life and we read through the Psalms, we see a man who plays both hero and goat and is not afraid to admit it. Such is the case with Psalm 32, David does not sing of the blessings of forgiveness in the abstract. He sings of the blessing of forgiveness because he has received forgiveness and knows the joy that comes from forgiveness personally. One of the strengths of this Psalm is its personal nature. David does not claim that this forgiveness is unique to him, but encourages all to seek forgiveness and the joy it brings. It is almost written in a manner that there is a blank at the end where we can fill in our name and make it our own.

David starts the psalm noting the blessed nature of the one who is forgiven. Blessed is a word that gets a lot of use in religious life these days, in many cases it is wrongly used. Blessedness is much better understood as a result rather than as a reward. To make blessing a reward would mean that we have somehow achieved a state of blessedness. This immediately leads to a hierarchy within the people of God and is divisive rather than unifying. Understanding blessing as a result of God’s gracious forgiveness is to understand ourselves as recipients of God’s grace. Psalm 32 rings the same note as Ephesians 2:8-9, “ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the figt of God – not by words, so that no one can boast.” To be blessed is not the reward for a sinless life, it is the result of God’s forgiveness. David would never be able to write of a sinless life, he has confessed to too much sin already!

David speaks of this blessing from personal experience. In verses 3-4 of Psalm 32, David describes the grief that characterized his life before forgiveness. When he kept silent and refused to acknowledge his sin before God he suffered the consequences of his sin. While David might not have been physically ill, it would not be too far a stretch to believe that he was. With all of the news of the effects of stress on the body, it is not difficult for us to imagine the sin that ate away at David literally ate away at him. At the very least David’s words of grief and pain reveal the effect of sin upon a person.

The consequences of unconfessed sin in our lives are no different than they were for David. It eats away at us and causes us to be less than God intends for us. It decays our relationships and keeps them from being as fulfilling for either party as they were intended. David’s experience is our own, we know the pain of unconfessed sin whether it comes from the fear in being discovered, or our change in behavior in trying to hide our sin.

Psalm 32 echoes the truth that rings throughout the Bible; the worst does not have to be the last. When David acknowledged his sin and confessed his sin to God the result was that God forgave the guilt of his sin. The good news is that sin does not have the last word, God does. Confession has to happen for forgiveness to be received. One author has compared unconfessed sin to waters building pressure behind a dam. The water flows into the dam, creating pressure on it, but when the floodgates are opened the waters subside and the pressure is released.

Knowing the joy of forgiveness, David beckons others to God for the same forgiveness. All of the godly are invited to pray, David’s call excludes none of them. This is evidence of real blessing. David does not keep the blessing for himself, he calls others to the joy that he has experienced. It might better be said that David cannot keep this to himself, it is a joy that must be shared. He does more than tell people what he has experienced, he leads them before the God who can forgive them that they might experience the same. That is the evidence of blessing; it is always shared.

Why is it that we have to learn this lesson over and over again? The godly person is advised not to be stubborn like a horse or mule that constantly need restraint, but to be ready to run to the Lord for forgiveness. It may be that we have difficulty in confessing our sin because we are so hard on ourselves. We would rather wallow in our guilt to punish ourselves rather than experience the joy of forgiveness that God readily offers. God beckons us to a life of assurance, lived in his love by the acts of confession and repentance.

Posted: 11/02/07

Church welcomes the ‘Scum of the Earth’

By Susie Oh

Religion News Service

DENVER (RNS)—The people who worship with Pastor Mike Sares are mostly young, many of them students, some clean-cut, some a little raggedy. More than a few of the 300 worshippers have grappled with depression, abortion, drugs and homelessness. Some still wrestle with their demons—and at this church, they talk openly about it. They call themselves Scum of the Earth.

Scum and similar churches around the country draw in young adults disenchanted with suburban megachurches and the denominational churches of their parents. But Sares, for seven years, has tapped into a group at the outermost edges. He fosters relationships with God and peers, makes church as accessible as possible and doesn’t expect worshippers to change as soon as they come through the doors.

“I want everyone to attend,” said Sares, a 52-year-old former steel mill worker with four kids the same age as many in his flock. “It’s ridiculous to say you can’t talk to Jesus until you get your life cleaned up.”

Observers say his is a fresh approach to meeting the spiritual needs of young Christians.

“I think the reaction (in Denver) is, ‘That’s great that someone is doing that,’” said Craig Blomberg, a New Testament professor at Denver Seminary who mentors several Scum leaders. “The unspoken implication is, ‘Boy, we wouldn’t know how to do it, or want to do it, or be good at doing it.’”

The seed for Scum of the Earth was planted when members of Sares’ young-adult Bible study at a downtown Presbyterian church envisioned a new church where they would feel more at home. They came up with a list of 150 ideas:

“Stay away from words like ‘fellowship.’ Use ‘hang-out-time’ instead.”

“Don’t build upon a foundation of rebellion, but upon God.”

“No cliques.”

The first services were held in a coffee house with several members of the popular Christian ska band Five Iron Frenzy. Sares initially wasn’t crazy about the name Scum of the Earth—“I am not that cool,” he said. He even stalled by asking his young advisers to pray about the name for another week. In the end, he went with it. It was, he says now, the wisest thing he did.

“To reach people, use like people,” he said. “They know their culture, their peers, better than me.”

That sentiment reflects Scum’s avante-gard approach to ministry. Too many churches, Sares said, seem to ask people to change just to get in the door—hide your tattoos, remove your piercings, get up early on a Sunday morning.

Scum takes a domestic-missionary approach. Sares submerses himself in his flock’s culture rather than wishing they would be more like him.

Services—held at 7 p.m. on Sundays—give way to im-promptu gatherings at coffee shops. Bible studies feature poker and the irreverent newspaper “The Onion.”

Scum is influenced by the large number of artists, musicians and other creative types who prefer the unconventional. Scum, Sares said, is a church for “the left-out and right-brained.”

Pastor Mike Sares leads the Scum of the Earth congregation at a rented facility in downtown Denver. “It’s ridiculous to say you can’t talk to Jesus until you get your life cleaned up,” Sares said.

And while Scum may be unique in its attract-the-fringes approach, it’s not alone among groups with their own ideas about how to do church.

Simmering disaffection with the mainstream evangelical movement has spurred the growth of the “emerging church movement,” a loose affiliation of churches that seek to practice Christianity within contemporary culture, said Scot McKnight, a religious studies professor at North Park University in Chicago.

Some churches, like Scum, try to tap into inner-city life and the marginalized. Others emphasize the liturgical elements of Christianity with crosses, candles and icons. Still more embrace a new kind of monasticism by living among the poor, McKnight said.

That desire to be intimately connected with the community resonates with young people who shun fast-food chains and megamarts for local mom-and-pops, McKnight said. Scum’s free meal every Sunday attracts neighbors and homeless people. Some stay for the service.

Part of Scum’s appeal, worshippers say, is its come-as-you-are style. Some members see themselves in the Gospel story of the Prodigal Son.

Kate Makkai, 30, grew up in a church-going family but later turned rebellious.

“I wandered away from the church in my early 20s,” she said, recalling the drugs and casual sexual encounters. “I spent the first few years of my 20s in the waiting room of Planned Parenthood. I’m not proud of that.”

Friends introduced Makkai to Scum. Sares never approved of her lifestyle, she said, but he did offer support, calling weekly to check on her.

That’s part of what makes Scum unique, said McKnight.

“There’s a genuineness about providing for people and not condemning them right up front but saying, ‘Come join us, participate with us, and we welcome you,’” McKnight said. “That’s a kind of church I think is fresh and innovative around the United States and Canada.”

Posted: 12/26/07

Florida sanctuary gutted by
early-morning fire before Christmas

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP)—The 50-year-old sanctuary of Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., was totally destroyed by fire two days before Christmas.

When the first of 70 firefighters arrived on the scene about 5 a.m. Sunday morning, flames were shooting out of the roof, an official said. Firefighters poured 300,000 gallons of water on the blaze before bringing it under control 90 minutes later.

Although they were unable to salvage any part of the 10,000-square-foot sanctuary, firefighters kept the flames from spreading to other church structures. There was significant water damage to the adjacent church offices.

When the sun came up, only part of the brick walls and the heat-twisted steel frame of the roof remained. No cause for the fire has been determined. An arson-investigation unit representing local, state and federal agencies was called in—standard procedure in the case of church fires.

Fire officials estimated the damage at $2.5 million. The building is insured for at least $2 million, a church official said.

A ladder crew still was spraying water down on the smoldering ruins as somber members gathered in the church’s gymnasium at 11 a.m. to worship and comfort one another. They sang hymns and prayed during the abbreviated Christmas service.

Members of neighboring churches and former members joined them to share their grief, crowding the gym to capacity.

A nearby Dunkin Donuts provided breakfast. And members of All Saints Episcopal Church nearby brought food for an impromptu lunch after the service.

Several other nearby churches have already offered their facilities for worship during the recovery, said Pastor Kyle Reese, who has been at Hendricks Ave. only a year and a half. Reese served previously as pastor of First Baptist Church in San Angelo.

"In our strategic planning process, we've been trying to think of ways to reach out and embrace our community, but this morning we've seen how our community has reached out and embraced us," Reese told worshippers during the service.

Asking why and worrying about the future are normal responses in such times of tragedy, he said, but "I can't help but look at the hope candle we light on this Advent and be hopeful."

Brett Foster, minister of youth and currently the longest-tenured ministerial staffer, offered an emotion-filled prayer, recalling countless weddings, baptisms, baby dedications, concerts, funerals and worship experiences that had taken place in the sanctuary. Those memories don't exist only in the building but "continue to exist and are still real to us," Foster said through tears.

The 750-seat sanctuary, completed in 1958, celebrated the congregation's devotion to sacred music and included a 48-rank pipe organ added in 1989 and a rare harpsichord. The night before the fire, the sanctuary hosted a benefit performance of Handel's "Messiah" by Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra musicians, who have been locked out of their performance hall since November in a labor dispute.

The highlight of a remodeling of the sanctuary in 2000 was the full-height, stained-glass window that dominated the front wall—an image of "The Welcoming Christ," whose open arms greeted worshipers as well as travelers along busy Hendricks Ave. The window, the largest in Florida, was completely destroyed.

The window and organ were part of original plans for the church, which was founded in 1946. The congregation delayed construction of a sanctuary for more than a decade for financial reasons, instead building its ministry around an elaborate recreation program, perhaps the first of its kind for a church in the United States.

The gymnasium, centerpiece of the recreation program, was the congregation's first building and housed worship for the first 12 years.

"Ironically, here we are 61 years later," Reese told parishioners gathered in the gym Dec. 23, "back where we started."

Reese said he is convinced the congregation will move ahead with determination and hope. Many other members echoed his confidence.

Looking over the damage, longtime member Debbie Barnes said such tragedies have a way of overshadowing a congregation's struggles and differences. "A lot of those things are going to be put into perspective," she said, allowing the congregation "to put God's will in the forefront."

Posted: 12/21/07

Daehnert elected interim
BGCT executive director

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

Jan Daehnert, a retired Baptist Building employee who led the state convention’s intentional interim pastor program several years, has been elected interim executive director for the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.

Board directors elected Daehnert by e-mail ballots Dec. 20-21. He will start work in mid-January, meeting with Executive Board staff. He will begin service as interim executive director when Charles Wade retires Jan. 31 and will continue in that role until a new executive director assumes duties.

The interim executive director will assume leadership of a staff that went through a round of layoffs in recent months and has experienced significant changes in key executive staff posts.

In early October, 29 full-time employees—12 program staff and 19 in support and clerical positions—received notice their positions were being eliminated at the end of that month. Several part-time staff positions also were cut.

Then Ron Gunter—chief operating officer for the BGCT and the person most responsible for implementing Executive Board staff reorganization over the last two years—resigned effective Nov. 30.

Daehnert said he hopes to “begin the healing,” encourage and affirm staff, ensure fiscal responsibility and “plow the ground to make sure the transition for the new executive director is as smooth as possible.”

Daehnert expects his time as interim to be relatively brief, but he hopes during his short tenure to model inclusiveness and listen to Texas Baptists.

He noted particularly the contested presidential race—and close vote—at the BGCT annual meeting and the need to be attentive to all churches that relate to the state convention.

“I’d like to make sure nobody feels left out,” he said.

Daehnert, 66, headed the BGCT Executive Board staff’s leadership team before he retired in March 2006. Previously, he was director of the minister/church relations office and director of the bivocational/smaller church development department.

Daehnert joined the BGCT Executive Board staff in 1967 as a director of student ministries at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. Later, he served at the University of North Texas. From 1975 to 1983, he was associate director of student ministries and from 1983 to 1993 was director of personnel administration.

He served two years with Drug Prevention Resources in Irving. He has been a pastor and has served as interim pastor for more than 50 Texas churches.

He is a graduate of Howard Payne University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and earned a doctor of ministries degree from Fuller Theological Seminary.

Posted: 12/21/07

CYBER COLUMN: A gift

By Berry Simpson

The story we were discussing was about Zechariah and Elizabeth, a Jewish couple who lived in the first century. Luke politely described them as “well along in years.” The Bible also says they were childless.

One day, Zechariah was selected from a list of 20,000 priests to offer incense in the holy of holies, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was such serious work they tied a rope around a priest’s ankle so his body could be pulled back out if God struck him dead. (So much for job security!)

According to the story, Zechariah saw an angel beside the altar while he was worshipping, and he was paralyzed by fear. The sudden appearance of anyone in the holy of holies would have been a shock, even more so the appearance of an angel. Who knew if seeing an angel were the first step toward being drug out by that rope?

The angel, no less than Gabriel himself, told Zechariah his prayers had been answered–he and Elizabeth would have a son named John who would lead the way for the Messiah.

Zechariah then did something that seems reasonable to me, he asked: “How can I be sure?” The angel answered with an unmistakable sign from God—he struck Zechariah speechless. Zechariah was physically unable to utter a word until the baby John was born nine months later.

I wrote in the margin of my Bible: “This seems harsh; surely he was allowed one question. Moses argued in front of a burning bush and nothing happened to him.”

Well, in class, we talked about this for a long time: Why would Zechariah get into trouble over one question? Some thought maybe he’d actually stopped praying long ago and given up hope for a baby. Others thought he wasn’t so much in trouble as it was he received an unmistakable sign from God that confirmed all the other prophecy about his son, John. Some thought the nine months of silence might not be punishment, but a gift of solitude, time to ponder his good fortune and learn to be at peace with God.

For Zechariah and Elizabeth, well along in years and childless and, according to Luke, “upright in the sight of God,” it must have seemed like they’d missed their turn. I’m sure all their peers had babies, and even grandbabies, but they didn’t have anyone. And they’d diligently lived their lives to honor God. The text says “observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.” I’m sure they prayed and prayed for years, day after day, for a baby, for a family.

It’s hard to know when to stop praying for something that hasn’t happened. To stop praying feels like a lack of faith, but to keep praying year after year seems pointless and maybe even irritates the very God you are trying to serve.

They might’ve given up hope for an answer long before they actually stopped praying—too hopeless to keep believing, but too God-fearing to stop praying. I can imagine all this because I’ve been in the same place—praying day after day, month after month, with no indication that God was listening, no sign from Gabriel, and no hope. Zechariah and Elizabeth must have been beyond hope; they’d missed their turn at happiness, and all they had to look forward to was living out their lives alone.

It’s hard to watch other people, who don’t seem all that “upright in the sight of God,” get all the cool things. Why do they have success and new houses and brilliant kids and perfect pets when we are the ones praying every day? We wonder—when will it be our turn? When will the good stuff happen for us?”

The story of Zechariah reminded me of the little boy named Billy in the great Christmas movie Polar Express, who simply said, “Christmas just doesn’t work out for me.” After a lifetime of poverty and lost dreams, it was easier for Billy to decide it would never be good than to keep on hoping. Maybe Zechariah and Elizabeth decided “family just doesn’t work out for us.” It would be easier than maintaining lost hope.

But that isn’t how the story ended. Not only did God answer the priestly prayer for the redemption of Israel, he answered their personal prayer for a son. God promised to save the world, and bless one small family, all at the same time.

Now I think Zechariah wasn’t being punished for asking his question or for his lack of faith. He was given nine months of silence as a gift—plenty of time to hear God say: “I love you. This is for you.”

Berry Simpson, a Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church in Midland, is a petroleum engineer, writer, runner and member of the city council in Midland. You can contact him through e-mail at berry@stonefoot.org.

Posted: 12/21/07

Agency gives party for foster
families who give year-round

By Haley Smith

Baptist Child & Family Services

SAN ANTONIO—Baptist Child & Family Service threw a Christmas party to honor foster families who display the Christmas spirit of giving all year long.

After experiencing pregnancy complications, doctors advised Ernest and Margaret Casillas not to keep trying to have children, although they wanted a bigger family.

After passing a sign advertising a need for foster parents and chatting with Baptist Child & Family Services case workers, the myth that they could not afford to foster was put to rest. Shortly afterward, they received their first foster child, David, who was classified as a special-needs child.

“We found that foster parenting made us better parents because you learn patience on a whole different level,” said Margaret.  “It’s amazing to be part of these children’s stories and watch a change take place in their lives.”

The Casillas family has grown to six children—two biological and four foster—all between the ages of six and eleven. They have learned to laugh at the looks they receive when they all pile out of the family van.

“Christmas is much more meaningful because these kids know they’re finally spending the holiday with a family who loves them,” Ernest said. “You have no idea how they spent Christmas last year, but you know that you want to make sure this one is a good one.”

Trinity Baptist Church and San Antonio businesses donated gift cards and services for the Christmas party.

The foster care Christmas party serves as an annual opportunity for families to network with others who are dealing with similar challenges.

Two families, the Zamagos and Romeros, sat together at the party, sharing a meal and discussing their recently adopted children, Matthew and Shan.  Both families participating in the BCFS foster-to-adopt program could not have guessed what this Christmas would look like one year ago.

David and Melissa Romero were fostering both Matthew and Shan last year, with only Matthew eligible for adoption and no children of their own. When Shan unexpectedly became available for adoption and the Romeros conceived after being told they were unable to become pregnant, they went from having no children to potentially having three.

“We’ve always treated our foster family as our real family, but thankfully we now know it’s forever,” Melissa said.

At the same time, the Zamagos were told that the child they were fostering to adopt was going back with his biological family, leaving them disappointed.

When the Romeros realized that they could not financially handle three children; Baptist Child & Family Services approached the Zamagos about adopting Matthew, who gratefully accepted.

“We’re just so thankful that Matthew ended up in a good home and we still get to see him at things like this,” Romero explained.

He also noted during the discussion that although he and his wife fostered four children, he was not always open to the idea of foster parenting.

It actually was only after a parent-teacher conference with one the mothers of a student in his class at school that he became open to the concept.

“She’s the reason we began foster parenting,” he said, referring to Lawonda Patterson, who runs a group home for high-risk teenagers.  She currently has ten young adults in the home—eight girls and two boys.

“My goal is that they leave the house healthy young adults,” Patterson said.  “I want to model a spirit of giving, which is what I try to instill in them.”

She considers last year as the best Christmas yet “because it was our first in the newly built home, and it was amazing to see the gratitude of the girls.”

Posted: 12/21/07

Foster youth create own Christmas traditions

By Haley Smith

Baptist Child & Family Services

SAN ANTONIO—Foster children seldom inherit family traditions.

That helps explain the growing success of the annual Christmas party for San Antonio, Kerrville and surrounding area youth involved with the Preparation for Adult Living (PAL) program of Baptist Child & Family Services.

What started three years ago with PAL staff cooking a meal for a handful of young adults has grown to attract 300 to this year’s event at the University of the Incarnate Word.

“This is the only Christmas most of these kids experience that they can truly call their own,” said Elizabeth Maria Garcia, 21-year-old PAL volunteer and foster alumni. “PAL often serves as more of a family than their foster families or group homes, and they are grateful to have people who care and support them like this.”

PAL teaches independent living skills to youth who have aged out the foster care system—or who are about to age out—while also providing a support system as they go out on their own.

The entertainment for the evening included vocalists from the University of the Incarnate Word singing Christmas carols, while the youth enjoyed their Christmas feast and mingled in a ballroom decorated in a candyland theme.

“The PAL Christmas party is my chance to bring a little bit of who I am into my job,” said Gayle Davis, San Antonio PAL site coordinator who planned the party. “I want to give these youth the big Christmas I grew up with and let them create their own traditions as they age out of the system.”

“The celebration has grown every year, becoming more and more spectacular each time,” said Jessica Medellin, PAL administrative assistant. “Our goal is that the community does not forget about these kids. They need love and hope, and that’s what we’re trying to give them.”

Efforts made by the PAL staff were rewarded with smiles and laughter echoing over the music as youth stuffed themselves on the turkey and the generous array of sweets.

“I am very thankful for PAL. The staff did a great job in helping me figure things out and get my benefits,” said Antonio Ortega, age 19, who is attending St. Phillips College. “This is my first Christmas on my own, and I am thankful that I get to spend it here.”

Many PAL youth spend their Christmases growing up in a variety of foster and group homes, often changing one year to the next. Ortega—an exception to the rule—spent 15 years with the same family.

“I still call them ‘Mom and Dad’ and will visit them during the holidays,” he said.

However, many PAL youth have nowhere to go and will experience no other Christmas celebration.

For Myra Caballero, age 18, the party isn’t just about celebrating the season; it also provides an opportunity to renew old friendships.  After living in three foster homes and two independent living homes, the PAL Christmas party is her only chance to catch up with former roommates, listening and sympathizing with their stories.

“If I could give them any advice, I would remind them not to take PAL for granted. The staff is great and the program offers invaluable resources and support,” explained Caballero, now a freshman at San Antonio College.

Many foster families also attended the party with their youth to see and participate in the festivities. One example was Steve and Judy Foster who attended with their seven children. They have adopted four and have legal guardianship of the other three.

“We’re big advocates of PAL. We began our involvement with the program in Tyler for three of our young adults.  We’re now going through the program here in San Antonio with our son Terrence,” Foster said.

The Foster family continues to spread their passion for foster care as more members of their family get involved.

“I guess Christmas was always a big deal to us, but now we’re opening the door for others to celebrate who might not otherwise have the opportunity,” Foster explained.

PAL staff explained their reason for throwing the party is simple. They want to spread the joy of Christmas.

“I love that the atmosphere represents a child’s fantasy land—especially considering that most of these youth don’t have a magical Christmas,” said Janie Cook, BCFS executive director of Community Based Services-San Antonio.

“We simply want these youth to know that they are so important that we put all of this together for them,” explained Terri Hipps, executive director of Youth and Transitional Living, including PAL.

Posted: 12/21/07

Novelist Grisham joins New
Baptist Covenant speakers lineup

By Greg Warner

Associated Baptist Press

ATLANTA (ABP)—Best-selling author John Grisham, whose recent novels have revealed his deeply rooted Christian faith, will deliver a rare public speech at the New Baptist Covenant meeting in late January.

Grisham, a member of University Baptist Church in Charlottesville, Va., joins a lineup of Baptists who will address the three-day interracial meeting in Atlanta, including former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, and Republican senators Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Charles Grassley (Iowa).

“The Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant,” organized by Carter, will seek to unite an estimated 20 million Baptists Jan. 30 – Feb. 1 around an agenda of Christ-centered social ministry. Forty Baptist organizations in the United States and Canada are participating, including the four main black Baptist conventions and most of the other Baptist denominations except the Southern Baptist Convention.

The 53-year-old Grisham, a lifelong Baptist, has taught Sunday school to young couples and 4-year-olds and regularly goes with fellow church members on mission-service trips.

In announcing the addition of Grisham to the Covenant lineup, program co-chair Jimmy Allen described the author as “a Baptist churchman, not only in regular worship but also in active service. The subthemes of his fiction reveal his understanding of the plight of the poor, his commitment to seek justice in our criminal system, his concerns for environment, and his descriptions of the challenge to reach across the racial lines that divide us.”

Allen said Grisham will speak Jan. 31, during the second evening session of the pan-Baptist meeting, on the topic of “Respecting Diversity.”

Grisham, a self-described “moderate Baptist” whose 21 books have sold more than 100 million copies, has said he probably wouldn’t even be a novelist if weren’t for a concern for social justice. As a young attorney in Mississippi, he said, he heard the testimony of a 12-year-old rape victim. He determined to write about the tragic consequences, leading to his first novel, A Time to Kill.

Since 1993, Grisham has made almost yearly mission trips with his church to Brazil. “We went down there for the purpose of constructing a church in this little town sort of in the outback,” he told USA Today. “And it was such a rewarding experience that I’ve done it several times since.”

Those experiences surface in his novel The Testament, in which the lead character, an attorney, goes to Brazil in search of a missionary who has inherited the bulk of a billionaire’s fortune.

Although intensively private about his charity work, Grisham and his wife, Renee, have set up a charitable foundation that supports mostly Christian efforts, raised $8.8 million in grants for victims of Hurricane Katrina, and built six Little League baseball fields in his hometown of Oxford, Miss.

A member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1983 to 1990, Grisham is a longtime Democrat who frequently donates to Democratic candidates and recently hosted a fundraiser for Hilary Clinton.

Although the New Baptist Covenant meeting will occur in the heat of the presidential-nomination season—and the lineup includes the famous husband of Democratic front-runner Clinton—Carter has said there is no political intention for the gathering. Instead Carter and co-organizer Bill Underwood, president of Mercer University, are seeking to unite Baptists around an agenda of ministry, inspired by Jesus’ sermon in Luke 4:18-19.

The themes of the sermon comprise the core of a statement drafted in April 2006 by Carter and other Baptist leaders. The statement commits the Covenant group “to promote peace with justice, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick and marginalized, welcome the strangers among us, and promote religious liberty and respect for religious diversity.”

Those same themes will provide the framework for the gathering’s plenary sessions, Carter said.

Republican Grassley and Democrat Bill Clinton will speak the evening of Friday, Feb. 1. South Carolina Senator Graham, a Republican who served on the Clinton impeachment panel, will speak Thursday morning. Nobel Prize winner Gore will deliver his presentation on global warming during a luncheon Thursday.

Grisham, the latest addition, fills a keynote slot vacated by commentator Bill Moyers, who withdrew because of a schedule conflict.

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist pastor and governor of Arkansas, originally was announced as a speaker but withdrew four days later to protest Carter’s characterization of President Bush’s administration as “the worst in history.”

Joining Grisham and the politicians as keynote speakers are sociologist and activist Tony Campolo, seminary professor Joel Gregory, African-Americans pastors Charles Adams and William Shaw, Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, and Atlanta-area pastor Julie Pennington-Russell.

Several dozen special-interest sessions will focus on religious liberty, poverty, racism, AIDS, faith in public policy, stewardship of the earth, evangelism, financial stewardship, prophetic preaching and other topics.

Posted: 12/21/07

Missouri leader who warned of Islamic
takeover hired to aid world-mission effort

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP)—David Clippard, the former Missouri Baptist Convention executive who earned national headlines when he said Islam has a plan to “conquer and occupy” the United States, was hired Dec. 10 by the Southern Baptist Convention’s world-missions agency to enlist Baptist churches to spread the gospel to non-Christians worldwide.

According to a news release from the International Mission Board, Clippard will serve as managing director of the IMB’s church services team. He will use his new position to enable all Southern Baptist churches to reach the world’s 6,000 unreached people groups, the release said. He is especially interested in involving young pastors in the outreach.

Clippard won national attention in 2006 when he preached a sermon to the Missouri convention claiming the “real threat” to the United States is that “Islam has a strategic plan to conquer and occupy America.”

He claimed the Saudi Arabian government paid for 15,000 Muslim college students to come to North America to study and funded scores of Islamic study centers and mosques here with the intention of taking the continent for Islam. “They are after our sons and daughters, our students,” he said.

Hired in 2002 as executive director-treasurer for Missouri’s Southern Baptist-related convention, Clippard was later fired by the same fundamentalist leaders who hired him. Himself a conservative, Clippard ultimately failed in demonstrating the solidarity for which convention leaders had hoped.

He was fired April 10 after divisions within the convention’s Executive Board emerged regarding leadership styles, spending and real estate. He had recently settled a harassment lawsuit involving convention controller Carol Kaylor and been charged with having an “autocratic and dismissive” leadership style.

Clippard, who has also worked with the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma and Evangelism Explosion International, spent much of his tenure at the Missouri convention working with projects involving El Salvador, Romania, Iraq and Turkey.

Posted: 12/21/07

CBF to lease building from Mercer

ATLANTA (ABP)—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 headquarters 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.

It also links CBF with other Baptist organizations that have moved or are moving into the facility.

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 is also the new home of the Baptist History and Heritage Society, which moved into the facility earlier this year. The American Baptist Historical Society is scheduled to occupy space in the building as well.

Posted: 12/21/07

Baptist outreach defuses
Ebola fear in western Uganda

By Sue Sprenkle

International Mission Board

FORT PORTAL, Uganda (BP)—When the deadly Ebola virus began spreading in western Uganda, Southern Baptist missionaries and Baptist Global Response moved to respond.

Thirty-five people have died since the Ugandan Health Ministry documented a new strain of the virus. Although now apparently declining, the deadly hemorrhagic fever broke out in Uganda's Bundibugyo district in August, killing a number of people before tests confirmed it was Ebola Nov. 29.

As word about the deaths spread throughout the district, panic set in. Most people remembered the last Ebola outbreak in Uganda. In 2000, 425 people caught it, and more than half died.

Missionaries Lew and Brandi Johnson worked in partnership with Baptist Global Response to educate their neighbors about the deadly fever. Flyers explaining how Ebola is spread were handed out in the local language of Rutooro, as well as in English.

The virus is thought to be transmitted by consuming infected bush meat and also can be spread by contact with the blood secretions of infected people.

“In the beginning, the people did not understand how Ebola was transmitted. The people have heard lots of rumors but not many facts,” Johnson said. “Anyone who gets sick is suspected of having Ebola. It was rumored that different tribes were the cause. It is also thought to be a curse from God.”

About 7,000 flyers have been circulated through businesses, churches and individuals. As Ugandans in this district learn about Ebola, they also learn about the gospel story, which is printed on the reverse side. The educational flyer is turning up in villages all over the region. One Muslim man asked for a Bible because he was scared of Ebola and thought he might find answers in Scripture.

“Just as Ebola is affecting us all, the people are having hope and truth put in their hands and can share it with others,” Johnson said. “The Batooro are getting the story—creation to resurrection—in their language. This is turning into a mass seed-sowing distribution.”

Mark Hatfield, Baptist Global Response area director for sub-Saharan Africa, said this distribution found a niche response ministry to Ebola that is appropriate for Baptist Global Response and the International Mission Board.

“We are not equipped to provide primary care to people suffering from Ebola, but we were able to assist in controlling the fear that was running rampant in the districts surrounding the outbreak,” Hatfield said.

“It has taken courage on the part of Lew and Brandi to keep living close to the outbreak with their new baby. They demonstrated by their actions that when we have knowledge about the disease and confidence in our Lord, we provide assistance to others—people who care responding to people in need.”

The Johnsons plan to follow up the flyer distribution with hygiene classes in areas ripe for new church plants.