NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) – Belmont University trustees voted to add sexual orientation to the historically Baptist school’s anti-discrimination policy.

In December, Belmont parted ways with a successful women’s soccer coach after she told her team that she and her same-sex partner were expecting a baby. The move gained national attention in sporting news and prompted discussions among campus groups about whether the private, Christian university discriminates against gays.

President Bob Fisher said the addition of sexual orientation to the school’s policy against discrimination simply puts into writing what was already being practiced. During his 11 years as president, Fisher said sexual orientation “has not been considered in student admissions nor in hiring, promotion, salary or dismissal decisions.”

Fisher said the trustees also added a preamble to the policy stating that “Belmont is a Christian community, and the university’s faculty, administration and staff uphold Jesus as the Christ and as the measure of all things.”

The policy, which also covers non-discrimination on the basis of race, sex, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability or military service, still retains, under federal law, the university’s right to “discriminate on the basis of religion in order to fulfill its purposes.”

For more than 50 years Belmont was affiliated with the Tennessee Baptist Convention. Those ties ended in 2007, with settlement of a lawsuit over whether trustees had the right to elect their own successors instead of those selected by the convention.

Randy Davis, executive director of the state convention, told Baptist Press that Belmont had walked away from its “Christian heritage and roots.”

Lisa Howe, the former soccer coach who reportedly stepped down in mutual agreement with the administration, told local media she is pleased with the new anti-discrimination policy, but she is pursuing several job leads and doesn’t plan to reapply at Belmont.

Previous ABP stories:

Fallout continues over departure of gay soccer coach

Belmont center of gay-rights dispute

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP)–Christine Gregory, national Woman's Missionary Union president from 1975–1981, died Jan. 22, in Danville, Va. She was 89.

She served on the 1980s Southern Baptist Peace Committee that studied the controversy between conservatives and moderates. She also served as vice president of the Baptist World Alliance and as first vice president of the SBC.

"Christine was always a source of encouragement and support for the work of WMU both past and present, as well as to me personally as I have visited and communicated with her throughout my years of service," said Wanda S. Lee, executive director/treasurer of national WMU. "WMU has been blessed throughout its history with strong, missions-focused national leaders. Christine was no exception as she followed in that path, leading WMU through times of expansion. She leaves a great legacy for today's leaders in WMU to follow."

As WMU president, Gregory served alongside Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler, executive secretary of national WMU (1974–1989).

"She became my best friend," Crumpler said. "We traveled to so many places … she was so down-to-earth, comfortable with all people, and always ready to make them feel comfortable with her. Christine's husband and sons were never neglected as she traveled. She was an example to all women, and we are grateful for her life and ministry."

Crumpler described her friendship with Gregory and her many contributions to WMU as "a blessing."

"She led with a positive approach, and faced any opposition that came her way with determination and a smile," Crumpler added.

Born to Willis L. Burton and Bessie Hollingsworth on Apr. 15, 1921, Christine Burton (Gregory) described herself as plain, even ordinary. But what others noted was her extraordinary devotion to missions.

In her childhood home of Greenville, S.C., Gregory enjoyed piano and voice lessons, but she also witnessed her family give to those in need. She grew up observing her mother setting aside money in a sugar bowl for missionary offerings, carrying food in a basket to the needy in their community, and reading Royal Service (now Missions Mosaic) magazine for missions involvement.

On her 12th birthday, her father gave her a Bible. Later, while attending Girls' Auxiliary (now Girls in Action) at church, she wrote in her Bible that she was "committed to doing whatever God wished about service in missions" — a commitment she honored.

When Gregory went off to Winthrop College in Rock Hill, S.C., she became president of the school's Baptist Student Union. After college, she worked as a teacher in Cowpens, S.C., for one year, and following that, became promotional secretary for First Baptist Church of Greer, S.C. Her responsibilities included maintaining the financial records of the church, the educational program and the youth program.

For four years she taught seventh grade at Greenville Junior High, and on Aug. 20, 1948, she married Clemson graduate A. Harrison Gregory when he returned from World War II. The couple moved to Danville, Va., where Gregory's husband had accepted a position at the Dan River textile company.

At age 38 with three young sons, she became WMU president of First Baptist, Danville. In 1961, she became associational WMU director, and in 1968, she served as missions action chairman for Virginia. When the then mother of teenagers became concerned that she was doing too much, her husband reassured her. With that extra boost, it was not long before Gregory was elected as president of Virginia WMU, and therefore served on the executive board of national WMU (1971–1975).

Gregory was elected as president of national WMU and served from 1975–1981. During her tenure, she not only maintained her focus on order and organization, but she also selected missionaries and leaders who would provide a variety of perspectives for the WMU organization and publications.

After she retired, she was elected as first vice-president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the first woman to hold that particular office, and the third woman ever to hold a convention office, according to WMU. In 1982, she was nominated to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary's board of trustees and also became adviser to Averett College in Danville. The school had awarded her an honorary doctorate in 1976.

From 1981–1983, she served on the SBC Annuity Board to help study its church pension plan. She described her service on this committee as a "most significant" opportunity because the board was able to provide secretarial and janitorial workers in churches with fair pensions. Also in 1983, she was awarded another honorary doctorate, but this time by the University of Richmond.

In 1987, Gregory authored the book "I Can Be a Mirror: My Role in Mission Action and Personal Witnessing." She was an active member of First Baptist Church in Danville until her death.

Gregory was preceded in death by her husband and is survived by three sons: Harrison Burton Gregory of Marietta, Ga.; Eugene Allen Gregory of Casonova, Va.; and Joel Patrick Gregory of Danville, Va.

BUENA PARK, Calif. (ABP) — A former Southern Baptist Convention vice president criticized by denominational leaders two years ago for controversial comments concerning Barack Obama is considering allowing his nomination for SBC president in 2011.

Wiley Drake

Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., elected as the convention's second vice president in 2006, sent out a press release Jan. 24 seeking "prayer and counsel" about the following question: "Should I allow my nomination for the position of president of The Southern Baptist Convention in June 2011, and make a run for this position?"

"In my opinion we have left our traditional biblical positions and become a large group being led by a small group of leaders who are out of touch with what the average Southern Baptist desires for our ministry under the leadership of the Holy Ghost," Drake explained.

In a telephone interview Jan. 25, Drake said he sees things going on today in convention life that are "sort of a repeat" of the situation that existed prior to the "conservative resurgence" grassroots movement that redirected the denomination beginning in 1979.

Drake said he also sees parallels in the Tea Party movement in secular politics. "People are just saying, 'We're tired of you guys up there running things and not asking us, and even if you do ask us, you are not paying any attention.'"

Drake said he has heard similar things from fellow pastors. "I'm hearing people say, 'I'm not going to convention any more. Nobody listens. They just ramrod it. They run it through.' That concerns me, because I'm a convention kind of guy."

For many years, Drake was a fixture at SBC annual meetings with his perennial motions made from floor microphones during business sessions, including a resolution calling for a boycott of the Disney Co. in the 1990s. Messengers rewarded him at the 2006 annual meeting in Greensboro, N.C., by electing him among four nominees to the office of second vice president.

Drake was outspoken during his one-year term in the office, but he became even more controversial in 2009 when he said on Fox New Radio that he was praying for Obama to die. The comment was in response to a question by host Alan Colmes about Drake's use of "imprecatory prayer," directing certain Psalms containing prayers for divine judgment on enemies back to God. 

Drake, who ran as Alan Keyes' vice presidential running mate on the American Independent Party ticket on the California ballot in the 2008 presidential election, has a pending lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of Obama's presidency. The suit, now under appeal to the California Supreme Court, says Obama's election should be voided because he does not meet the constitutional requirement that the president be "a natural born citizen" of the United States.

Drake is among a minority commonly referred to as "birthers" who believe Obama was born outside the U.S. and that documents recording his birth in Hawaii are fake.

After his comments about Obama's death, one SBC official described Drake as out of the denomination's mainstream. A resolution at the 2009 convention applauded the election of America's first African-American president, while opposing many of President Obama's policies. The resolution did not mention Drake by name, but the chairman of the resolutions committee said one reason for recommending it was "irresponsible" statements by "some Southern Baptists."

Drake later lifted his call for imprecatory prayer against Obama. Recently he issued a similar edict against Fred Phelps, founder of the controversial anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., for being "an embarrassment to Bible-believing, pro-life and pro-family Christians, especially for those who are proud to be called Baptist."

Drake, 67, has kept a low profile in denominational life the last two years. "It had to do with the fact that I was being criticized, that I was always outspoken and nobody was listening to Wiley," he said. "Why should I invest money? Why should I invest time to go to a state or national meeting when nobody was listening?"

If he were to be elected as SBC president, Drake pledged to travel around the country holding "town hall" church meetings to find out what people desire and to use the input to "lead our denomination back to the Baptist Faith and Message."

Drake said he has been praying and fasting for about a month and believes the Lord is leading him to allow his nomination, but that he sent out his press release seeking prayer and counsel because: "I don't want it to be a Wiley thing. I want it to be a God thing."

"I believe God wants me to do it, but I want to hear from the family," he said. "I am honestly seeking not only prayer but counsel."

Either way, Drake said it is time for him to get re-involved in Baptist life.

"I'll be back in the swing of things, whether I run or not," he said. "I'm going to do what I can to bring Southern Baptists back to all the things that we used to do."

"I am back in the battle," Drake said. "I am going to fight. I figure if I could fight from the top down it would be easier, but if not I will fight from the bottom up."

Previous ABP stories:

Drake, former SBC officer, says he's praying for Obama to die

African-American pastor says SBC leaders should repudiate Drake

SBC spokesman disavows statements by former second VP

SBC praises Obama's election, criticizes policies, in resolution

Drake won't repeat as SBC 2nd VP but won't rule out higher office

Reform-minded Wiley Drake won’t accept traditional obscurity of SBC's 2nd VP

‘Immoral behavior’ cited in Missouri convention resignation. The Missouri Baptist Convention announced the resignation of Executive Director David Tolliver. “With deep regret we announce Dr. David Tolliver has resigned as executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention due to immoral behavior with a woman,” a release, posted by the convention’s in-house news journal, The Pathway, said. “His resignation is effective immediately. Jay Hughes, associate executive director of support services, will serve as acting interim executive director until a permanent interim executive director is named by the Executive Board.” Tolliver, who was named to the position permanently in February of 2009 after serving nearly two years in an interim capacity, first joined the state convention’s staff in 2005. He previously was the long-time pastor of a St. Louis-area church. Convention officials did not respond to phone calls and e-mails asking for additional information or comment.

BJC chief honored. Baptist Joint Committee Executive Director Brent Walker received an award from the Richmond, Va.-based First Freedom Center for his work advancing freedom of conscience and basic human rights for people of all faiths, traditions and cultures. Walker was named winner of the Virginia First Freedom Award, one of the three awards given annually by the education organization to recognize extraordinary advocates of religious freedom who have made remarkable contributions. The First Freedom Center also bestows international and national First Freedom Awards. Walker is both a member of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar and an ordained minister. He began his tenure at the Baptist Joint Committee in 1989 and became executive director in 1999. 

Professor named to detainee task force. David Gushee, distinguished university professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University, has been named to the Constitution Project’s bipartisan task force on detainee treatment. The goal of the task force is to investigate and report on past and current treatment of detainees by the U.S. government as part of its counterterrorism policies. Gushee, director of Mercer’s Center for Theology and Public Life, is the only Christian ethicist on the panel, which includes attorneys, law professors and physicians, as well as former ambassadors and generals. The task force will be chaired jointly by Asa Hutchinson, former undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security during the George W. Bush administration; Eleanor J. Hill, former staff director for the Joint Congressional Inquiry on the Sept. 11 attacks and inspector general of the Department of Defense under President Bill Clinton; and James R. Jones, a former member of Congress from Oklahoma who served as ambassador to Mexico under Clinton. The task force should release its final report in 12 to 18 months.

Summer service opportunity available in China. Volunteers for China needs Christians to teach conversational English in China next summer. Program cost is estimated to be $1,200 to $1,300, plus airfare estimated at $1,000 to $1,500. For more information, contact David or Ann Wilson at (865) 983-9852 or visit www.volunteersforchina.org.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (ABP) — An international student ministry and historical partner of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has received a $750,000 Lilly Endowment grant to help theologically moderate churches discover God's calling for both clergy and laity.

The grant will support a new program called Echo Initiative by Passport, Inc., a non-profit ministry organization started 19 years ago by husband-and-wife team of David and Colleen Burroughs while they were still in seminary.

The Echo Initiative — referring to God's call as a repeated sound throughout a Christian's life — will enable the ministry originally conceived as a summer camp for students in grades 6-12 to produce needed resources it cannot currently provide, said Colleen Burroughs, executive vice president for the organization based in Birmingham, Ala.

Developed in conversation with creative thinkers, ministers and theologians, the initiative will seek to broaden the conversation of call beyond paid vocational ministries to reach into the daily lives of children, youth and adults. It will produce tangible resources such as Vacation Bible School and retreat materials designed around the question, "How can I be a minister as a follower of Christ today?"

It will be funded by the largest independent donation in Passport's history and its first free-standing grant from the Lilly Endowment. "Christmas came early for our office this year," said Passport President David Burroughs. "We are very excited about the ability to implement the carefully crafted vision that this grant makes possible."

The Echo Initiative includes three phases.

An education initiative will produce resources for children, youth and adults designed to be flexible enough to allow for varied settings but cohesive enough to connect the conversation of God's call to follow over time.

An empowerment initiative will include training of college-age leaders for annual Echo events for youth and mini-grants for practicum experiences through PASSPORTexpeditions, a program that provides students with individual opportunities around a specific interest like ministry to victims of sex trafficking or addressing poverty through Passport's Watering Malawi well-drilling initiative.

An encouragement initiative will provide professional development support for youth ministers both to reaffirm their personal vocational calls and to cultivate a culture of calling with students in their ministries.

Colleen Burroughs said the Echo Initiative is particularly interested in offering the new resources in Spanish and is working out relationships to enable not only word-by-word translation from English but also considering cultural context.

She said Passport has already received the Lilly check and plans to "hit the ground running." Two expeditions are tentatively planned for next summer. Producing solid resources takes a bit more time, she said, but planning is already underway.

Though it is the first direct grant, this isn't the first time that Passport has participated in a program funded by Lilly.

Previously Passport worked with CBF in a Lilly-funded three-year program to create leadership "ecosystems" and with Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond in the Samuel Project, a Lilly-funded project that included a weeklong Echo experience for high-school students in 2005.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

ATLANTA (ABP) — The American Civil War led Baptists in the South to forsake their historic commitment to the separation of church and state and embrace Christian nationalism, the head of a Baptist history organization says on a new website.

While Southerners later would claim the Civil War wasn't fought over slavery, Bruce Gourley says, for Baptists of the day it was a defining issue.

Bruce Gourley, executive director of the Baptist History and Heritage Society, says the Civil War challenged Baptist convictions that had been hard won by a persecuted minority fighting for religious freedom in Europe and Colonial America.

Defending slavery as an institution ordained by God, Gourley wrote on a new website coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, many Baptist leaders in the South became convinced the newly formed Confederate States of America was God's chosen nation and viewed battlefield service as honoring to God.

"The Christian nationalism embraced by many Baptists in the Confederate States of America watered down their commitment to the separation of church and state and reduced God to the God of the South," Gourley wrote in an article on American Civil War: In Their Own Words, a website he launched several weeks ago.

Gourley said a similar mistake was made in the late 20th and 21st century when "many embraced the myth of America's founding as a Christian nation and denied their own faith heritage of separation of church and state."

Gourley

Gourley launched the website to make research behind his forthcoming book, Diverging Loyalties: Baptists in Middle Georgia During the American Civil War by Mercer University Press, available to the general public. Though it is a personal project, he is inviting organizations, businesses and individual to become sponsors of the public service by donating $1,000 or more to the Baptist History and Heritage Society.

Gourley said things like news coverage of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War focused on controversies like "secession balls" that polarize whites and blacks and reports linking white supremacist groups with the Tea Party movement prompted him to develop the site out of "a simple desire to tell the historical truth."

In the decades that followed the Civil War, for example, Gourley said many white southerners, including Baptists, came to deny that slavery was the cause of the war — a denial that remains widespread today. For Baptists of the day, however, it was clear that slavery was a root cause.

When Southern Baptists gathered in 1845 Augusta, Ga., to organize a new convention, Gourley said, much discussion was given to differences over missionary strategy and funding with Baptists in the North. He said the record is clear, however, that Baptists in Augusta believed northern abolitionists were responsible for Baptist division and that Baptists in the South had been patient long enough.

One statement from the meeting expressed outrage that a northern Baptist missionary had "actually remitted money to the United States to aid in the assisting of slaves to 'run away from their masters.'"

While many, if not most, white Baptists in the South believed that slavery was ordained by God and necessary for the southern economy, Gourley said they were not monolithic on the need for secession.

Privileged white slaveholders had the most to lose, Gourley said, but many southern whites did not own slaves. To rally their support, slaveholders argued that even the poorest whites were superior to blacks and warned that if Lincoln's campaign succeeded that blacks would take away white jobs.

Even with that, Gourley said, many white southerners were unconvinced but joined the Confederate Army anyway to defend families, fight alongside friends and in hopes of earning a better life.

The Civil War lasted from April 12, 1861, the day that Confederates fired on federal Fort Sumter, S.C., until Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Va., on April 9, 1865. In between, as many as 8,000 hostile engagements took place between Union and Confederate forces and hundreds of major battles. An estimated 620,000 Americans died from battle and disease, nearly as many casualties in all other U.S. wars combined.

A main feature of the American Civil War: In Their Own Words website is a daily snippet of history about events that occurred on the same day 150 years ago. 

CARROLLTON, Ga. (ABP) — Two decades after settling the question of biblical inerrancy, Southern Baptists are battling about booze.

Seeking to remain relevant in today's culture, many Baptists have abandoned former taboos against social activities like dancing and going to movies. Now some are questioning the denomination's historic position of abstaining from alcohol, prompting others to draw a line.

The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina recently passed a motion to "study a policy of the social use of alcohol" related to funding of church plants, employment of personnel and nomination of persons to committees and boards of trustees.

"We as Southern Baptists in the North Carolina Baptist State Convention want the world to know that we promote the King of Kings, not the King of Beers," Tim Rogers, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Indian Trail, N.C., told fellow messengers at the Nov. 8-10 annual meeting in Greensboro.

That is the same city where the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution in 2006 expressing "total opposition" to alcoholic beverages and urging that no one who uses them be elected to a position of leadership in the denomination.

It was hardly groundbreaking — the convention has spoken against drinking more than 50 times dating back to 1886. What made it news, however, was a number of well-known conservatives who rose to speak against a statement calling for total abstinence.

The ruckus — and the post-convention blogs that kept the argument alive — prompted Peter Lumpkins, a Southern Baptist pastor for more than 20 years before turning to a writing ministry, to pen his first book: Alcohol Today: Abstinence in an Age of Indulgence, in 2009.

"One would be hard-pressed to locate a belief — outside believers' baptism by immersion itself — which reflects more unity among Southern Baptists than abstinence from intoxicating beverages for pleasurable purposes," Lumpkins said in an e-mail interview.

Lumpkins, who blogs at SBC Tomorrow, said younger Southern Baptist leaders do not appreciate that history and instead view teetotalism as extra-biblical and nothing more than "Pharisaical legalism."

Lumpkins is among Southern Baptists who view relaxed attitudes about social drinking as the biggest controversy facing the Southern Baptist Convention since the "conservative resurgence" debate over Scripture in the 1980s.

He writes in the book: "Make no mistake: the popular, trendy appeal for Bible studies in bars; pastors leading men's groups at cigar shops to puff, preach and partake; conference speakers who openly drink alcohol nevertheless are invited to college campuses as they carve out yet more influence into the youngest generation of Southern Baptists — all this makes an impending moral crisis among Southern Baptists predictably certain."

Lumpkins describes "a cataclysmic moral shift away from biblical holiness expressed in biblical Lordship toward the relativistic, postmodern norms of American pop culture, including its hedonistic obsession with fulfilling desires."

Unless the "Christian hedonism" trend is halted, Lumpkins fears "the largest Protestant voice for abstinence soon will succumb to the ominous lure of an age of indulgence. We will forfeit our biblical heritage to the whims of an obsessive pop morality that wildly sniffs the wind but for the faintest scent of pleasure fulfilled."

Lumpkins, a binge drinker in his youth, says the church has "conceded its historic role as the moral conscience of our culture, particularly as it forfeited its once-strong position on abstinence from intoxicating beverages for pleasurable purposes."

Without the abstinence standard, he argues the church either consciously or unconsciously helps promote a message in the larger culture that drinking is "cool."

In the book Lumpkins debunks a "common but untrue myth" that the Temperance movement leading to Prohibition was composed mainly of backwoods fundamentalists and uneducated moral legalists. To the contrary, he says the abstinence-only movement was led by the brightest theologians, Bible scholars, university presidents and medical professionals of the day.

He also lays out a biblical case for abstinence. While there are verses that seem to praise wine, he says, there are others that condemn wine, a point overlooked by those who argue the Bible only condemns drunkenness and not drinking.

His final hurdle is the story in the Gospel of John about the wedding feast in Cana where Jesus turns water into wine. Lumpkins says the Greek and Hebrew words translated "wine" don't distinguish between fresh and fermented grape juice, and he doubts the Son of God would "manifest forth his glory" by sprucing up a party that had run out of alcohol.

Lumpkins also critiques Baptists who abstain from drink for different reasons. He suspects most Southern Baptists hold a view similar to those expressed by Richard Land and Barrett Duke of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission that drinking is an "unwise" practice best to be avoided. Lumpkins says the question isn't whether drinking is wise but if it is moral.

"The way I've come to see it, forfeiting moral scruples toward the consumption of alcoholic beverages for pleasurable purposes forfeits the only biblical model we possess to biblically gauge moral scruples toward all other intoxicating substances for pleasurable purposes," he said in his e-mail.

"In other words, if the moral case is correct that consuming intoxicating beverages for pleasurable purposes remains ethically acceptable (if consumed in moderation), then it morally follows that consuming any other intoxicating substance is also ethically acceptable (if consumed in moderation). At least theoretically, the moral case is made for drug legalization. I realize this sounds radical. Yet, from the way I see the issue argued from the moderationist perspective (especially young Baptists), I can come to no other conclusion."

What about missionaries serving in countries that have no moral scruples against drinking faced with the prospect of offending a host offering them a glass of wine? Lumpkins called that a case of "conflicting absolutes" in a fallen world that qualified missionaries must figure out for themselves. On the other hand, he said the last person one would want to appoint to such a mission field is someone before qualifying who would answer "yes" to the question "do you believe in or practice social drinking?"

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

(ABP) — The year 2010 began badly with a deadly Jan. 13 earthquake in Haiti that killed an estimated 230,000 people and affected 3 million. The 7.0 magnitude quake left what was already one of the world's poorest countries in shambles, but it prompted unprecedented compassion in the United States.

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is part of a cooperative effort to rebuild homes in Haiti. Using rubble from a family's previous home, permanent housing for earthquake victims can be built for about $3,000

News of Baptist groups reaching out to earthquake victims dominated Associated Baptist Press in the months that followed. In all, ABP published 37 stories on relief efforts between Jan. 13 and Nov. 12. Subjects ranged from immediate response, fund raising and cooperation between Baptist organizations, projects like fitting victims who lost limbs with prosthetic devices and rebuilding permanent homes from earthquake rubble to recent medical response to a cholera outbreak.

Other newsmakers from 2010 included:

— "Bloated bureaucracies." The term first used in a chapel address by a seminary president advocating a "Great Commission Resurgence" in the Southern Baptist Convention stuck as shorthand for work of a task force studying ways to improve efficiency of the second largest faith group in the United States.

Recommendations approved at the SBC annual meeting in June included a major revamping of how Baptist associations, state conventions and the North American Mission Board will cooperate in church planting.

The sea change coincided with several high-profile leadership changes. Kevin Ezell, a pastor known for working outside official mission-funding channels like the Cooperative Program unified budget and Annie Armstrong Easter offering for home missions, proved a controversial choice as new president of the North American Mission Board. After taking office in mid-September, Ezell immediately offered a retirement-incentive package to senior employees with a goal of reducing staff by 25 percent. By year end he surpassed the goal, downsizing the 250-member staff by 99 jobs.

Two key posts were vacated — presidencies of the Executive Committee and International Mission Board. The Executive Committee chose former SBC president Frank Page to succeed Morris Chapman, who retired at the end of September. IMB trustees haven't announced a successor to retired President Jerry Rankin.

Similar conversations got underway this year at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. After several years of stalled funding, a group of CBF leaders went on a retreat in April to discuss the organization's future. It led to formation of a two-year study by a task force expected to report in 2012. Listening sessions are underway.

— Ken Starr. The choice of former Whitewater prosecutor Ken Starr as president of Baylor University in February took nearly everyone by surprise. Baylor is one of the world's most famous Baptist universities. Starr's religious background is Church of Christ, but he pledged to join a Baptist church after moving to Waco.

— Ergun Caner. After years of earning a reputation among Southern Baptists and other evangelical groups as an expert on Islam, the president of Liberty Theological Seminary became controversial after videos of him exaggerating his testimony from a Muslim to a Christian surfaced on the Internet. Claiming to have grown up overseas and trained as a terrorist, documents showed that Caner actually spent most of his childhood in Ohio. After an investigation, Liberty trustees voted in June to remove Caner as president.

— The "Idaho 10." What began as a mission of mercy for two Southern Baptist churches in Idaho turned into a cautionary tale of good intentions gone awry when 10 volunteer missionaries were arrested in Haiti while trying to remove 33 children from the country illegally. Officials said they suspected human trafficking, while the Baptists insisted they were just trying to find the earthquake victims temporary shelter in the neighboring Dominican Republic. Eight of the 10 were released after spending three weeks in a Haitian jail. A ninth was freed March 8. The last to be released, team leader and organizer Laura Silsby, remained jailed until May 17, when a judge found her guilty of reduced charges and sentenced her to time already served.

— Arson. A rash of 10 church fires in January and February set off a wave of fear in East Texas. Residents breathed a sigh of relief Feb. 21 with the arrest of two suspects. Jason Bourque, 19, and Daniel McAllister, 21, who had attended youth group together at a Southern Baptist church before drifting away a few years ago, pleaded guilty Dec. 15 to setting five fires. They await sentencing Jan. 10.

— Belmont University. After being out of the news since settling a lawsuit that severed ties with the Tennessee Baptist Convention, Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., became an unlikely symbol in debate over gay rights in recent weeks. Lisa Howe, women's soccer coach at Belmont for six years, left her job suddenly Dec. 2 after telling her team she is a lesbian. Student and community protests accused Belmont's administration of firing her because of her sexual orientation. Belmont President Robert Fisher said the university does not discriminate against gays. Belmont's faculty senate voted Dec. 17 to recommend adding "sexual orientation" to existing nondiscrimination policies in faculty, staff and student handbooks.

— 20th anniversary of Associated Baptist Press. OK, so it probably isn't on anybody else's top-story list, but 2010 marked the 20th anniversary of the founding of Associated Baptist Press. Charles Overby, ABP's first board chair, accepted an award in October on behalf of board members and Baptist state paper editors who founded the news service. July 17 marked the actual anniversary of the firing of two top editors of Baptist Press in 1990 that led to formation of an alternative news source not subject to censorship by denominational leaders.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

(ABP) — Here are some notable Baptist newsmakers who died during 2010.

— Bill Hogue, 82, former executive director of the California Southern Baptist Convention, Jan. 13.

— Max Lyall, 71, a concert and church pianist who taught for 25 years at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Feb. 18.

— Emmie Cecelia Mears Webb, 8, daughter of Amy Mears, co-pastor of Glendale Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn., killed Ash Wednesday when a deer crashed through the windshield and fatally injured her as she sat between two siblings in the back seat of a sedan driven by her father.

Fletcher Allen

— Fletcher Allen, 78, former editor and associate editor of Baptist state newspapers in South Carolina, Maryland/Delaware and Tennessee, Feb. 27, after a long battle with cancer. 

— Tom Logue, 88, who led Baptist Student Union work in Arkansas for more than three decades and in retirement was founding coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Arkansas, March 6.

— Nancy Schaefer, 74, a conservative Christian activist and former two-term state senator in Georgia, found dead with her husband March 26 in their north Georgia home in what was described as a murder-suicide.

— David Mueller, 80, longtime theology professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, March 26.

— Michael Spencer, 53, acclaimed "Internet Monk" blogger, April 5, following a four-month battle with cancer.

Cecil Sherman

— Cecil Sherman, 82, one of the most visible moderate leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention controversy of the 1980s and first coordinator of the breakaway Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, April 17, from complications of a heart attack. At a memorial service in Asheville, N.C., attended by hundreds, historian Walter Shurden recalled Sherman as someone who "stood on a higher hill" than his contemporaries.

— Douglas Green, 85, husband of seminary president Molly Marshall, May 23.

— Stephen Carter, 51, a former Baptist camp director awaiting trial on six child-sex charges, of an apparent suicide May 24. 

— Andy Lester, 70, a professor of pastoral care and counseling popular with a generation of Baptists who attended Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the 1970s and 1980s, June 10, after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer.

— Robert Bratcher, 90, the New Testament translator for the Good News Bible, July 11.

— Avery Willis, 76, a former Southern Baptist missionary and administrator best known as developer of the MasterLife discipleship materials used around the world, July 30, nearly eight months after being diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia.

Clark Pinnock

— Clark Pinnock, 73, an influential theologian whose spiritual pilgrimage led him from a fiery fundamentalism as a young professor to an openness that caused some to brand him a heretic, Aug. 15, of a heart attack.

— Warren Hultgren, 89, pastor of First Baptist Church of Tulsa, Okla., from 1957 until 1992, Nov. 14.

— Edgar Cooper, editor of the Florida Baptist Witness from 1971 until 1983, Nov. 14, one day shy of his 92nd birthday.

—Morgan Patterson, 85, a historian who taught at four Southern Baptist seminaries and was president of a Georgetown College, Nov. 19.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

(ABP) — Here are some of the more memorable quotes that appeared in Associated Baptist Press stories and commentaries during 2010.

"In the midst of your concern for me I want you to compare my situation with the 4 billion oral learners who haven't heard and don't understood the Words of Life. At least 1.5 billion people have never heard of Jesus. They are the ones who need our attention and prayers." (Southern Baptist missions leader Avery Willis, who died July 30, on his diagnosis with leukemia. After retiring from the International Mission Board, Willis worked with populations that are functionally illiterate.)

"Love trumps evil." (Linda Dulin, telling her son-in-law Matt Baker, a former Baptist pastor convicted of killing her daughter in 2006, why she must forgive him.)

"T-shirt fronts serve as great tissues."

(Jinny Henson, on lessons she learned in the first six months after her daughter died from injuries received in a church-bus accident.)

"There are scads of photos of Baptist university and seminary presidents being inaugurated and a good number of images of presidents kneeling for the 'laying on of hands' as an act of spiritual blessing. I dare say there are none depicting the baptism of a new president." (ABP Executive Director David Wilkinson, on the choice of Kenneth Starr, son of a church of Christ minister, as president of Baylor University.)

"I thought the way Cecil spoke truth intimidated his adversaries and scared the daylights out of his friends." (Baptist historian Walter Shurden at the April 23 memorial service for Cecil Sherman, first coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.)

"There are no barriers in God's love. There should be no barriers in God's house." (Ginny Thornburgh, director of an interfaith initiative for the American Association of People with Disabilities.)

"People are always saying 'Why don't you appoint more funded missionaries?' The fact is we don't have the money. What is amazing is that we have not had to call any missionaries home." (Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal.)

"Let's stop worrying about our name and start reclaiming our witness." (Historian Bill Leonard, speaking at the CBF General Assembly.)

"It's too bad that I didn't take homiletics, because I have been preaching ever since." (Former WMU executive director Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler on study in the School of Religious Education at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. She took all her electives in the School of Theology but could not enroll because she was a woman.)

"A translator — especially a translator of the Scriptures — should not be known, because the important things are the words and the message that come through those books and not the person who did the translation." (Bob Bratcher, lead translator of the Good News Bible, who died July 11 at age 90.)

"A free flow of news remains vital for any democracy, and Baptist polity is the purest form of democracy." (Baptist Standard Editor Marv Knox, on the 20th anniversary of the firing of two Baptist Press editors that prompted formation of Associated Baptist Press.)

"We threw a rock at Goliath. We don't know yet whether or not we are Davids." (Shirley Taylor, on demands by a Christian women's right group that the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood apologize for teaching that subordinates women.)

"Some of us who have been speaking for so long need to be quiet and do some listening…. If we listen to each other, we'll have wiser words to say to each other." (North American John Upton, new president of the Baptist World Alliance.)

"The faithful are often the most susceptible to fear." (Bill Shiell, pastor of First Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn.)

"These are perfect projects for churches." (Tim Brendle, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's relief in Haiti, on a new technique for building permanent homes for earthquake victims using rubble created by the January quake.)

"If you're not willing to lose an election over important principles, then you don't deserve to ever win an election." (Rep. Chet Edwards)

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

TYLER (ABP) — Two men accused in a string of East Texas arsons fires early in 2010 pleaded guilty Dec. 15 to burning five churches in a Smith County court.

McAllister

According to the Tyler Telegraph, Jason Bourque, 20, pleaded guilty to five counts of arson. Daniel McAllister, 22, pleaded guilty to two counts of arson and two counts of attempted arson. Prosecutors said they will seek life in prison for the duo when they are sentenced Jan. 10.

The charges stemmed from fires that destroyed Dover Baptist Church, Tyland Baptist Church, First Church of Christ, Scientist, Prairie Creek Fellowship Church and Clear Spring Missionary Baptist Church, all in Smith County.

In all the men are suspected of setting 10 churches on fire in three counties between Jan. 1 and Feb. 8. They were arrested Feb. 21 after more than a week of surveillance after calls to a tip line. The investigation included state, local and federal law enforcement.

A Smith County grand jury indicted both men for the crimes in May. Since their arrest they have been held in the Smith County jail on bonds of $10 million apiece.

On Dec. 9 they waived their right to a jury trial. They entered guilty pleas Dec. 15 to all of the charges against them, with of the charges reduced or dropped.

As teenagers Bourque and McAllister attended youth group together at First Baptist Church in Ben Wheeler, Texas. McAllister dropped out of church and started hanging out with the wrong crowd after his mother died from a heart attack and a stroke in October 2007. Bourque's attendance dropped off after family moved to another town about 20 miles away.

Previous ABP stories:

Grand jury hears evidence in Texas church-arson cases (5/14)

Two former Baptist youth-group members suspected in church arsons (2/22)

CUMMING, Ga. (ABP) — A trustee has resigned from the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board saying he does not share the vision of the agency’s new president.

“I believe that throughout my life, and particularly as I’ve gotten older, that it’s very important to take your body where your heart is,” Lester Cooper, pastor of Concord Baptist Church in Cumming, Ga., told church members Nov. 28. “If you’ve got your body somewhere where your heart’s not, that just not where it ought to be.”

“I just wanted to share with you this morning — for whatever it’s worth to anybody — that this past week I resigned as trustee of the North American Mission Board,” he said.

Cooper added in an interview with Associated Baptist Press that “My heart is not with the North American Mission Board.”

Cooper, former director of missions of the Atlanta Association of Southern Baptist Churches elected as a NAMB trustee in 2008, said watching changes made since the election Sept. 14 of Kevin Ezell as the agency’s president “is not what I signed on for.”

On Sept. 30 Ezell announced an early retirement incentive for employees age 54 and over. The goal is to reduce staff by a net 25 percent by year-end, including new people brought in by Ezell.

Cooper said he agrees with the strategy of focusing on church planting in urban areas with large populations but doesn’t think the way to do it is by losing senior staff members recognized as leading experts in the field.

“I can’t imagine how you can see 80 people leave an organization that has 260 people in it and have any idea of how you are going to function or come to the conclusion of who is going to go before you have been there two months,” Cooper said. “It’s not reasonable, and I cannot get a satisfactory answer from anybody where we are going.”

He also said that since a Great Commission Task Force report adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention calls for a restructuring of NAMB within seven years, he doesn’t understand why decisions are being handed down so quickly and without vote by the board of trustees.

Cooper, 64, said if he were to serve out his term and be re-elected he would be a NAMB trustee until he was 70 and that at that age “I don’t need any more stress in my life.”

“I do not really see the direction I see it going in as being something that I think is helpful,” he said. “I don’t think that I should stay and stand in the way of what others think need to be done.”

Cooper said three NAMB staff members taking the early retirement option are members of his church.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Cooper, a pastor for more than 30 years with a long record of denominational service. “It’s a new day for Southern Baptists, and I really don’t know what it looks like.”

Ezell said in a statement Dec. 8 that he admires Cooper and appreciates the service he has given as a member of the board of trustees. Ezell said the timing of the voluntary retirement incentive package was driven primarily by changes being implemented by Guidestone Financial Resources.

“The package we offered was as generous as we could make it and we are also providing employment assistance for those who are seeking work after leaving NAMB,” Ezell said. “These reductions are driven by my firm belief that we need to send more resources to the North American mission field.”

Ezell said just over two months on the job he is moving forward as quickly as he can.

“We haven’t shared details of a new direction yet because we are still in the important phase of meeting with and listening to our state partners,” he said. “We will have a clearer direction to share after NAMB’s next board of trustees meeting in February.”

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

Related ABP stories:

Update: Ezell elected NAMB president on split vote (9/15)

Ezell elected NAMB president (9/14)

NAMB presidential nominee defends church’s giving record (9/13)

La. Baptist Convention exec challenges Ezell pick at NAMB (9/9)

Al Mohler’s pastor recommended as new NAMB president (9/2)