PRAGUE, Czech Republic (ABP) — Nearly 400 delegates to the Baptist World Alliance's annual gathering in Prague, Czech Republic, raised their voices in prayer and singing as the July 21-25 meeting began with a rousing worship service.

The three-day gathering enables Baptists representing many of the 214 national and regional Baptist groups that make up the BWA to gather for worship, fellowship, study and planning.
 
Chief among issues scheduled to come before the gathering is a report from the BWA Implementation Task Force. The panel was charged with determining how organizational changes recommended by an earlier study group called the 21st Century Committee would be implemented.

After hearing the task force's initial presentation, delegates had an opportunity to ask questions and make suggestions. A follow-up session was held July 23, with a vote on the proposals scheduled for July 25.

Since the full Baptist World Congress meets only every fifth year, officials hoped that the process could be agreed upon in time for changes to be implemented by the next BWA Congress meeting in 2010 in Honolulu.

Specific recommendations for implementation initially included:

— The BWA General Council would remain unchanged.

— The size of the group's Executive Committee would be trimmed to 24 (six representatives selected by the regions, 15 at-large members, three BWA officials — general secretary, president and the treasurer).

— The nominating committee would have 17 members and recommend names from across the globe to the General Council.

— The number of global regions would be kept at six despite the disparity in geographical size and population. The six are North America, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East, Africa, and Asia and the Pacific Rim.

— Recognizing that resource potential differs from region to region, covenants would be developed for each region outlining mutual responsibility for supporting BWA and how regions may apply for grants for assistance.

Following the presentations on both days, lively discussions took place, with questions focusing primarily on constituency representations since each region would have only one official representative.

Other concerns expressed were over the method of member selection, regional autonomy and whether regions received preferential treatment based on their ability to contribute to the BWA budget.

A vocal Caribbean contingency raised questions about what impact the changes, if implemented, would have on the office of BWA General Secretary Neville Callam. Callam — the century-old organization's first non-white chief executive — was installed last year after many years of ministry in Jamaica.

A joint meeting of the BWA Doctrine and Interchurch Cooperation Commission and Freedom and Justice Commission is to take place to formulate a response to a letter from 138 Muslim scholars titled, "A Common Word Between Us and You." The letter was sent to world Christian leaders, including BWA President David Coffey, last October. Baptists who have experience in Islamic studies, or have lived in an Islamic country, will present papers on the question.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (ABP) — Global Baptist pastors' problems are as different as the countries and regions in which they minister, according to speakers at the July 21-24 Baptist World Alliance annual gathering in Prague.

Over the past year, the worldwide Baptist umbrella organization's church health and effectiveness workgroup has focused its attention on the health of pastors. Three presenters provided glimpses into the particular difficulties pastors experience in North America, Bulgaria and Chile.

David Laubach, the North American presenter, emphasized the stress pastors feel in relating to a culture increasingly at odds with their Christian heritage. He cited statistical evidence indicating a move away from church attendance as the norm in American and Canadian life.

Although statistics from 50 years ago show that 80 percent of Americans attended church regularly, that figure has fallen to somewhere between 42 and 20 percent — depending on whether one relies on individuals' self-reported attendance or actual Sunday-to-Sunday seat counts.

75 percent of US church have plateaued

According to Laubach, 75 percent of churches in the United States are plateaued or declining and 24 percent are growing because they are poaching new members from those declining churches.

Only 1 percent of U.S. churches are growing because they are reaching the unchurched population, he said.

Since most American churches are small, the issue of survival assumes critical importance and depletes energy and resources. Across denominational lines, those in churches of fewer than 100 members said that "keeping the church going" was their chief concern. That concern was only slightly less important in churches with fewer than 250 members.

"Shrinking resources, absence of biological growth, aging mainline denominational populations, mobility, consumerist/entertainment culture, a sometimes-hostile environment, increased pastoral expectations and role overload, dramatically shifting ecclesiology, church change and conflict" are among the stress producers North American clergy deal with regularly, Laubach asserted.

The stress can create its own problems, he noted, because "emotionally drained pastors can succumb to moral failure and personal and family breakdown."

Bulgarian Baptist problems different

The problems Bulgarian Baptists are experiencing are in sharp contrast to their North American brothers and sisters. Baptists in the former Eastern bloc nation are blessed with such rapid growth that they cannot produce leadership and build buildings fast enough to keep pace with conversions, reported Teodor Oprenov, their leader. Baptists in other former communist nations face similar problems.

The challenge in Bulgaria, he said, isn't the post-modernist philosophy feared by many Western theologians, but rather the post-communist philosophical vacuum left among the general populace.

"They don't believe in God, but are waiting to be told what to do," reasoned Oprenov.

Nonetheless, the rapid growth of Eastern Europe's Baptists has created a backlash from religious groups more traditional to the region. Bulgaria has a very strong Orthodox presence, and religious authorities are often seen as mediators between humans and God.

In some Eastern European areas, Orthodox leaders have led aggressive and even violent protests against Baptist churches, often with the tacit or explicit cooperation of local authorities.

Baptist pastors in Bulgaria are almost uniformly men and are not recognized as clergy by the government. Indeed, they often are seen as troublemakers. To gain entrance to some places of ministry, sometimes Baptist pastors dress in black, as Orthodox priests do.

Baptists in Chile are growing

The third presenter was the head of Chilean Baptists, Rachael Contraras, who represented a Latin American perspective. As in Bulgaria, the Chilean church is growing and experiencing opposition from more established religious groups.

But poverty is their main problem. According to Contraras, a typical Chilean Baptist pastor is a married man over 30 who has at least two children. The pastors tend to be poor and poorly educated.

Limited access to education and theological training creates problems. First, outreach to well-educated young adults can be difficult. Those who have had access to good education through the university level often find it hard to relate to unlettered pastors.

In addition, as evangelicals have gained influence in Chile, pastors are sometimes invited to participate in governmental or social work. Those who are organizationally inexperienced and uneducated may not reflect well on the churches and denominational tradition they represent — one still unfamiliar to the majority of Chileans. This can hinder Baptists from gaining the kind of social respect and influence that would benefit their work, Contraras said.

But the greatest problem affecting the health of Chilean pastors is their poverty. "Their income is very low compared to the people in his church and in society in general. He will live in a society in which everyone has a car, but he won't. Others will have houses, but he will not. He will live in a parsonage. Not having a place to live in retirement, he will preach until he dies," Contraras said.

Chilean pastors often work long hours in secular jobs to support their families. The stress of being the family provider and pastoring a church simultaneously has created such health issues as ulcers, burnout and depression, she said.

In Latin America generally, and in Chile in particular, pastors do not have access to public-health services, because the government does not provide any official recognition to the profession of pastoring.

CINCINNATI (ABP) — Two civil-liberties groups are asking a federal appeals court to stop state funding for a Kentucky Baptist agency, saying the agency uses the money to promote its religious beliefs to the detriment of employees and children.

On July 17, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union asked the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to take another look at Pedreira v. Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children, Inc.

In the suit, which a lower federal court dismissed in March, a group of Kentucky taxpayers asked that state funding for the agency (which has since changed its name to Sunrise Children's Services) be halted. Like many of the dozens of child-care agencies affiliated with state Baptist conventions, Sunrise has long contracted with Kentucky officials to house and care for children who have been taken into state custody.

"Indoctrination"

The agency "uses its public funding to indoctrinate youths — who are wards of the state — in its religious views, coerce them to take part in religious activity, and convert them to its version of Christianity, and does so in part by requiring its employees to reflect its religious beliefs in their behavior," the plaintiffs' brief to the 6th Circuit states.

The lead plaintiff is Alicia Pedreira, who was fired from her job with the agency in 1998 after her employers discovered that she was a lesbian. She had gotten positive performance reviews prior to her termination.

"This case illustrates the all-too-real dangers of the government funding religious organizations without adequate safeguards," said Ken Chloe, an ACLU attorney, in a statement. "The Constitution's promise of religious freedom guarantees that the government won't preference one form of religion over another. Yet that's exactly what happened to Alicia Pedreira, who was fired because she didn't conform to the religious beliefs of her government-funded employer."

The plaintiffs' brief also notes a report from an independent Kentucky government contractor charged with monitoring child-care agencies. It said children under the agency's care reported being coerced to attend church services and being barred from attending other faiths' services.

Attorneys for Sunrise have countered that they do not use government funds to coerce or indoctrinate the children in its care.

A spokesperson for the agency said July 22 that it did not have any response to the latest development in the case other than the same arguments asserted to the lower court.

"We do not coerce our children to believe"

"They have followed their judicial right to appeal, and we continue to stand our ground in terms of our policies and our service to at-risk youth and children in Kentucky," said Karen Taylor, director of communications for Sunrise. "We are unapologetically faith-based [but] we do not coerce our children to believe any one certain way. They certainly are invited to go to church but don't have to go, they are invited to Bible studies but don't have to go — but they're also invited to go do fun things that every kid wants to …. While we've been accused of coercion, it's just not there."

The lower federal court dismissed the suit in March, citing a 2007 Supreme Court decision that limited taxpayers' ability to file suits based on the First Amendment's guarantee against government establishment of religion. While many experts at the time said the decision was very narrow, some federal judges have interpreted it as instituting a broad bar on taxpayer lawsuits against government funding for religion.

Washington, D.C.—Two months after Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar in early May, relief workers report conditions remain desperate.

Rescue24—a search, rescue and relief effort by Baptist World Aid, the relief and development arm of the Baptist World Alliance—has reported “huge unmet basic needs for the victims of the disaster.”

In a comprehensive 25-page report sent to the BWA, BWAid Rescue24 workers in Myanmar stated, “Many families are living under makeshift shelter … made of clothes, branches of trees or even under debris.”

The document added: “Most of the water sources are completely destroyed or contaminated with human and animal carcasses. There is no proper facility for storing drinking water.”

The BWAid Rescue24 report lists the most urgent needs as food, drinking water, hygiene products, psycho-social support, shelter and livelihood support.

Torrential rain 

Conditions have been made worse by the onset of the rainy season which lasts from May to November, and which brings frequent torrential rainfall. 

BWAid Rescue24 is working closely with the Myanmar Baptist Convention, who formed the Nargis Relief and Rehabilitation Central Committee. The convention is sending food, drinking water, clothes, mosquito nets and medicine daily to nearly 100,000 survivors.

“The relief material is being delivered directly to the survivors in the Irrawaddy River Delta areas by ferries, boats and cars from Rangoon,” BWAid Rescue24 aid and relief workers reported.

Vocational training 

The Myanmar Baptist Convention Women’s Department, which is also engaged in relief work, informed the BWA Women’s Department that “there are many people who are homeless, as well as jobless,” and stated plans to begin vocational training in some of the hardest hit areas.

Estimates vary widely as to the number of those who have died from the worst natural disaster to hit Myanmar, with figures ranging from 134,000 to near one million dead. Several million more are estimated to have suffered directly from the cyclone. More than 10,000 Baptists have been confirmed dead, and more than 94,000 Baptists were severely affected, losing homes and agricultural fields, and being displaced.

Even though Myanmar is largely Buddhist, Baptists have a strong presence among some of the marginalized ethnic and language groups in the country, with the Myanmar Baptist Convention having more than 1.1 million members in more than 4,500 churches.

ATLANTA (ABP) — Why would some Baptist writers go out of their way to create the impression that the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is not even Christian?

CBF Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal said he is trying to answer that question after the Southern Baptist Convention’s news agency published a column claiming the Fellowship was neither Baptist nor Christian at all.

“It pained me that people have been offended and hurt by this confusion about what CBF believes. I want to make clear that CBF is Christ-centered and trinitarian in its theology,” asserted Vestal. “CBF is clear in its affirmation of the core commitment to the triune God. Our commitment to Christ as the savior for the whole world stems from our trinitarian faith.”

Vestal responded to the column by James Smith, editor of the Florida Baptist Witness, which Baptist Press published nationwide June 25.

“Here's the bottom line,” Smith wrote. “It's long past time to declare the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is no longer truly Christian, let alone Baptist.”

Promotion of "heresy"

Smith conceded that some — perhaps even most — individuals in the CBF are Christians. But he contended they are ill informed about what he called CBF’s promotion of “heresy.”

Smith’s words were apparently inspired by comments made at CBF’s recent annual meeting by John Killinger. The Presbyterian pastor and author led three of about 60 breakout sessions at the meeting.

According to multiple reports, in one session Killinger said: “Now we are re-evaluating and we’re approaching everything with a humbler perspective and seeing God’s hand working in Christ, but not necessarily as the incarnate God in our midst. Now, that may be hard for you to hear depending on where you are coming from, but we can talk more about it.”

Some of Killinger’s comments were first reported by BP, which sent reporters to cover the CBF general assembly in Memphis, Tenn.

Killinger is currently executive minister and theologian-in-residence at Marble Collegiate Church in New York — the pulpit from which the late Norman Vincent Peale rose to fame.

"Jesus is Lord" only confession of early Christians

Vestal denounced the theology Killinger expressed. “The only confession of the [early] Christian church was ‘Jesus is Lord,’” he said. “To make that confession cost many people their lives because of its radical claim. To say and believe that Jesus is Lord was to say and believe that Jesus of Nazareth is God. It was a clear affirmation of the deity of Jesus. And the Incarnation of God in the man Jesus is the cornerstone of the Christian faith.

“And so for somebody in one of our workshops to question the Incarnation is simply very painful for me,” Vestal continued. “I have known John Killinger to be a popular Presbyterian preacher. He was a professor at Samford University. … But we had no idea that his views on Christ were what he declared in this breakout session. His perspective is deeply troubling to me.”

Vestal’s own views on the lordship of Christ are made clear in his book, Being the Presence of Christ, just published by the Upper Room. The book’s premise, according to Vestal, is “that all the gospels were written from the perspective of the Resurrection, and the living Christ is none other than the incarnate Christ that was proclaimed in the pages of Scripture.”

Regrets giving Killinger a platform

Vestal said he regretted allowing Killinger to challenge such christological views at a CBF event. “I feel like that we gave him a platform at the general assembly,” he said. “We do allow freedom of exchange and ideas that people disagree on. But if we had known then what we know now about his christology, he would not have been invited.”

Vestal conceded, however, that CBF planners should have paid more attention to Killinger’s theological shifts. “I accept the responsibility for that. Obviously the staff and I had heard him speak. We knew him to be a popular preacher, but we did not know of his christological views. Should we have known that? Yes, we probably should have, and we will do more due diligence in the future.”

He continued, “We try to invite people who have different perspectives on a lot of issues, but the issue of the Incarnation is foundational. That’s central. That’s core gospel.”

But Vestal strongly objected to Smith’s characterization of the CBF as non-Christian.

“This is very personal for me and also very personal for Cooperative Baptist Fellowship,” he said. “… For some editors to write and insinuate that we are not Christians is very painful for me.”

Vestal questioned BP’s motives in regularly investing thousands of dollars in denominational resources to send reporters to cover the annual meeting of CBF, a group that is dwarfed in size by the SBC.

He said he believes they attend “to find things in our assembly, either in a breakout session or in a line that someone makes, that they can use then to somehow paint everybody in the CBF in a certain way.”

BP: "No comment"

Will Hall, executive editor of Baptist Press and the SBC’s chief public-relations officer, said his only reaction to Vestal was, “I really don’t have any comment. We’re a news service.”

The SBC agency sends reporters to the event annually. In the past, they have frequently produced stories highlighting general assembly speakers, workshop leaders or exhibitor organizations who may hold beliefs that some conservative Southern Baptists would find questionable.

In 2000, many general assembly attendees accused BP writer Russell Moore of inaccuracies and blatant fabrications in several stories — most notably a report where he claimed that a former missionary attending the meeting physically assaulted him. Moore is now a dean at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Vestal said  BP missed a great opportunity at this year’s assembly to celebrate a fellow Baptist group’s successes in kingdom work.

“This was one of the best gatherings we have had. It was just a wonderful, wonderful meeting. Wednesday night we had a special commissioning service. We appointed 18 new missionaries that are going to some of the most difficult, dangerous places in the world.”

According to Vestal, the meeting was “a high and holy moment” that included inspiring worship, corporate prayer and discernment about the organization’s future, and affirmation of CBF’s commitment to the Millennium Development Goals and the Micah Challenge.

Jim White is editor of the Religious Herald. Robert Marus contributed to this story.

Read more:

James Smith BP column attacking CBF

ST. LOUIS (ABP) — Southern Baptist student missionary Gregory Gomez IV died July 5 in a bus crash in Peru.

The 22-year-old Gomez was serving as a short-term field worker with the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board.

According to Baptist Press, the SBC’s news outlet, Gomez was traveling with a Peruvian translator when the accident occurred near the town of Abancay. The translator received minor injuries.

Gomez graduated in May from the University of Mississippi with a degree in mechanical engineering. He was an active member of the Baptist Student Union, Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and served as president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Gomez was a member of Bethel Baptist Church in Troy, Ill., near St. Louis.

"Greg was on what they call an Extreme Team, and they were going to some of the most rural, rugged areas of Peru, finding what they call micro-people groups," Bethel Baptist Pastor Tim Lewis told KSDK-TV, the St. Louis NBC affiliate in nearby St. Louis. "They were finding out where those communities are, the kinds of language they speak and then preparing the way for other missionaries who try to come in and plant churches."

Mo Baker, director of the Baptist Student Union at the University of Mississippi, told the school paper, the Daily Mississippian, that he remembers Gomez as an inspiring person with great character and enthusiasm about God.

"His smile would brighten up a room the moment he stepped in," Baker said. "He influenced people by being an encourager. He led by serving others."

Gomez is survived by his parents, Elida and Gregory Gomez III, of Glen Carbon, Ill., and two sisters.

RALEIGH, N.C. (ABP) — Jesse Helms, the Baptist former senator who battled communist oppression but backed right-wing dictators and opposed abortion while appealing to racist sentiment, was a polarizing figure who was lionized by some conservatives and vilified by many liberals.

The Republican, who died July 4 at age 86, may also be a remembered as an example of the vast diversity still found in mainstream Baptist life.

Helms represented his native North Carolina for three decades in the Senate before retiring in 2003. His body lay in repose in the sanctuary at Hayes Barton Baptist Church in Raleigh July 7, and his funeral was held at the church July 8.

Ultra-conservative member of moderate church

The ultra-conservative senator’s long-time membership in the moderate congregation — affiliated with both the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Southern Baptist Convention — may surprise some observers. Baptist historian Bill Leonard said July 8 that he knew Helms was a Hayes Barton member, but was “floored” to learn that the late senator had been a deacon at the church, which employs a female associate pastor.

“I think that’s part of the irony and complexity of Baptist local autonomy,” said Leonard, who is the dean of the Wake Forest University Divinity School in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Helms “was a man of consistent conviction to conservative ideals and courage to faithfully serve God and country based on principle, not popularity or politics,” said Billy Graham, in a statement released shortly after Helms’ death was announced. The long-time evangelist had been friends with his fellow North Carolinian for years.

Richard Land, head of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said it was appropriate that Helms died on Independence Day. “He was a patriot. … He was a very strong pro-life, very strong pro-family and very strong anti-communist advocate,” he noted, according to an article from Baptist Press, the SBC’s news agency.

But moderates, liberals and some conservatives noted several of the dark spots on his record, most notably Helms’ strenuous opposition to virtually all civil-rights legislation that came before Congress during his tenure.

Stains on his record

He first rose to prominence in North Carolina as a television journalist in the 1960s. As an executive of the company that owned Raleigh’s WRAL-TV, a CBS affiliate, he became famous for delivering five-minute nightly commentaries during the station’s evening news broadcast. In them, he frequently railed against “the so-called civil-rights movement,” big government, taxes and those he viewed as cultural elitists. He once infamously referred to the University of North Carolina in nearby Chapel Hill as “the university of negroes and communists.”

After Helms was elected to the Senate in 1972, he opposed civil-rights legislation and backed the racist apartheid regime in South Africa. In 1983, he led an unsuccessful filibuster to prevent the creation of the federal Martin Luther King Jr., holiday, claiming that historians had not adequately explored King’s and other civil-rights leaders’ alleged ties to communists.

Helms never apologized for any of his views on civil rights and in later years defended himself, saying he opposed the movement not on racial grounds, but on states’-rights principles. He — and his defenders, such as Land and former Kansas senator Bob Dole — pointed to his personal friendships with African-Americans, including some who worked on his Senate staff. One of them was James Meredith, the black man who integrated the University of Mississippi.

But his fellow conservative David Broder, writing a column about Helms’ retirement from the Senate in 2001, called him “the last prominent unabashed white racist politician in this country — a title that one hopes will now be permanently retired.”

He faced similar criticism for his foreign-policy views. After Helms was elected to the Senate in 1972, he used his perch as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to battle the threat of communism in the Third World, and particularly Latin America. He gained a reputation as a supporter of many right-wing military dictatorships, most notoriously that of former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet.

"Blind spots"

Helms also had a close association with right-wing El Salvadorian leader Roberto d’Aubuisson. He was identified by the State Department as the man who ordered the murder of San Salvador Archbishop Oscar Romero — done while the anti-poverty activist presided over the cathedral altar at a communion service.

Helms also came under heavy criticism for his staunch opposition to funding for AIDS research and relief, once saying that responsibility for every instance of the disease could be traced, ultimately, to “sodomy.” Late in his career, Helms changed his mind on AIDS relief — thanks to the efforts of rock musician and global activist Bono — and supported $500 million in funding to help fight the global scourge.

The SBC’s Land acknowledged that Helms had “blind spots,” noting the late senator’s staunch support of the tobacco industry. “And, while there was ample evidence that he was not personally a racist, when he opposed the Martin Luther King Holiday as vigorously as he did, it was not one of his finer moments,” he said in the BP article.

But Helms was reportedly well regarded at his Raleigh church, where he served as a deacon and in other roles. The congregation has long been active in moderate Baptist life, with many members serving in leadership roles with CBF and other organizations that resisted the SBC’s rightward movement in the 1980s.

Helms also donated his personal papers and endowment funds to Wingate University, one of two moderate Baptist schools (along with Wake Forest) he attended. They are now housed at the Jesse Helms Center on the university’s campus in Wingate, N.C.

Wake Forest’s Leonard said that Helms’ long-time support of a church and a school that many of his political allies would regard as liberal or even heretical is illustrative of “the complexity of Southern religious life, particularly with regard to the Southern Baptist Convention.”

Mentioning Helms alongside fellow Baptist Jimmy Carter, Leonard said, both “have, apparently, maintained deep ties to what I would call a kind of traditional pre-controversy Southern Baptist identity.”

One way to explain that, the Wake Forest University Divinity School dean said, is that, “Just as all politics is local, all … Baptistness is local. And apparently Jesse Helms invested his life in a congregation and decided to stay in that congregation even though he had differences with … the direction of that congregation in the [SBC] controversy.”

ATLANTA (ABP) — Dee Donalson grasped a tiny hand and helped an Ethiopian kindergartener trace over stones lined in the shape of the numeral 2.

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field worker, whose front porch serves as a makeshift classroom, teaches nine students about letters, numbers and shapes. She uses whatever educational tools she can find locally — including stones, wheat straw and juice boxes — to instruct the students and two teacher trainees.

Before Donalson arrived in Hossana, Ethiopia, last year, most of the village’s young children did not attend kindergarten, because the closest one was too far away. Nationwide, Donalson said, only 20 percent of Ethiopia’s children attend any sort of school, because the government does not have the financial resources to provide enough classrooms or teachers.

Donalson is working to build a kindergarten at Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church Ministry Training College in Hossana. She expects the school, with six classrooms, running water and furnishings, will cost about $100,000.

“Kindergarten taught in a developmentally appropriate way gives them a foundation to build the rest of their education,” she said. “It also teaches them to problem-solve, investigate, explore, examine and experiment.”

Donalson, 65, of Sanibel Island and Ft. Myers, Fla., spent her career establishing schools for young children and training teachers in the United States. In 2004, she felt called to serve in Ethiopia. From 2004-07 she served as a teacher trainer and director of a kindergarten in Butajira, Ethiopia. But then she felt the Lord was calling her to do more.

“I had a definite message from God that I was to train many more teachers in Ethiopia to teach the thousands of children who were school age, but didn’t have a space in the classroom,” Donalson said.

Soon, she knew God was calling her to the Bible college in Hossana. The school is one of seven Bible colleges in Ethiopia run by the Kale Heywet Church, the country’s largest evangelical denomination, with about 3.5 million members and 6,000 churches. Kale Heywet, which translates as “word of life,” sends missionaries worldwide, including some countries where American missionaries are not welcomed, she said.

“I love the idea that [CBF Global Missions Coordinator] Rob Nash put forth when he said that ‘the church is God’s missionary to the world,’” Donalson said. “And I feel that there are many opportunities to bridge with other organizations like the Kale Heywet Church in Ethiopia.”

In addition to her kindergarten work, Donalson has taught English at the college. Learning English is a critical tool for indigenous missionaries, she said, since it is the most commonly used language both in Ethiopia and abroad.

She also is helping the community improve its access to water, plant vegetable gardens and learn good health practices. When Donalson learned the campus had no running water, she contacted David Harding, a CBF field worker who brings clean water to Ethiopian communities.

Harding’s team evaluated the college’s well and recommended a submersible pump. CBF donated the pump, a holding tank and a platform. Donalson’s home church, Sanibel Community Church, is raising funds to pay for pump installation and pipes.

When the pump begins operating, more financial support will be needed to cover additional electricity costs and to pay a guard to oversee the well.

Once the school is constructed, about $1,080 a year will be needed to provide salaries for two kindergarten teachers. Donalson hopes to add a grade level each year after the kindergarten is established.

She often reminds herself of Acts 17:28, “It is in Him that I live and move and have my being.” That verse helps her focus on being the presence of Christ.

“I hope that as I am in His presence I will be totally submissive in allowing the Holy Spirit to manifest itself through me to help fulfill the Great Commission,” she said.

PHILIPPI, W. Va. (ABP) — Michael Clyburn began his duties July 1 as president of Alderson-Broaddus College , an American Baptist school in Philippi, W. Va.

Clyburn, who previously served as president of Louisburg College in North Carolina, became the eighth president of the 127-year-old college. He replaced Stephen Markwood, who retired June 30 after 20 years of service.

The four-year, liberal-arts school, which has about 750 students, is noted for its programs for medical professionals. Alderson-Broaddus is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA through ABC National Ministries, and is also connected to the West Virginia Baptist Convention.

Clyburn has also served as vice president for academic affairs and provost at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn. He has a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Tennessee. He has had a 20-year career in several areas of higher-education administration.

“American Baptists welcome Dr. Clyburn as he begins ministry as president of Alderson-Broaddus,” said David Laubach, National Ministries’ liaison to American Baptist schools. “We look forward to joining him along with the other ABC-related college presidents at Estes Park, Colo., in July for the National Gathering of American Baptist Youth.”

According to the Clarksville, W.Va., Exponent-Telegram John Thralls, chair of the search committee that hired Clyburn, said: “We thought he brought a combination of factors well-suited to the presidency at Alderson-Broaddus…. In the early years of his career, he was a pastor. Since [we] are a faith-based school, we thought that background as well would equip him to serve as our president.”

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (ABP) — Baptists, of all people, should defend the rights of minorities against the majority, an American Baptist leader told supporters of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty June 20.

“To live with the minority experience is to live with the fear of being forgotten and excluded. It is the feeling of foreignness, of not belonging. It is to live in the reality of what Ralph Ellison called the ‘Invisible Man’ — to be present, but not counted; speaking, but not being heard,” said Aidsand Wright-Riggins, executive director of the American Baptist Churches USA’s National Ministries. He spoke to about 425 guests at the annual luncheon meeting of the Religious Liberty Council, the BJC’s organization for individual donors. The luncheon was held during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in Memphis, Tenn.

The road to somebody-ness

Wright-Riggins said identification with the minority experience should be at the center of Baptist and Christian identity. “The road to somebody-ness is always about resolve and resistance. And Baptists, my brothers and sisters, have always pulled alongside those who were dedicated to resolve and resistance on the road to somebody-ness,” he noted.

“Baptists respect human nature and human dignity. Baptists fight for the rights of others to speak their own mind and live their own truths. … We believe in a free state — but we also believe in a free church, where the god of the majority is never forced upon the consciences of the minority.”

Wright-Riggins, who is African-American, said the question of race had reared its familiar head in this presidential election for all Americans — but it was hitting home for him especially.

He noted that his organization runs Judson Press, American Baptists’ publishing arm. Judson has published several books by Jeremiah Wright, the controversial former pastor to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, and Wright-Riggins said he has gotten letters he described as “vicious” and “vitriolic.”

Asked to denounce Wright

They asked him to denounce Wright. But Wright-Riggins responded, “Let the church be Baptist and affirm the right of all of us to speak.”

He read a passage from Joshua 22 that detailed the experience of the ancient Israelite tribes that lived across the Jordan from the rest of their kinsmen — and eventually became regarded as something less than true Israelites.

The other Israelites dismissed them, the passage says, telling them, “You have no part in God.” In defiance, the Reubenites, Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an altar to Yahweh in their territory to assert their Jewishness.

“In an attempt to affirm their own somebody-ness, somebody told them, ‘Let’s build an altar, to say that we count too….’ Isn’t it interesting how the Bible itself can be used as a tool — as a divisive instrument and a ‘thingification’ tool?”

Permanent building plans

In other business, BJC supporters heard an update on the group’s capital campaign to establish a permanent building for the BJC, called the Center for Religious Liberty, on Capitol Hill. Reginald McDonough, the campaign chairman, said BJC has received commitments for about half of the $5 million goal. Of that, $2 million is already in the bank, allowing the organization to move ahead with picking out a property.

“The good news is: We’re halfway there.” McDonough said. “The challenge is: We’re halfway there.”

Religious Liberty Council supporters also re-elected their officers and approved four new board members to serve three-year terms.

Hal Bass, a professor at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark., and a member of First Baptist Church there, was re-elected co-chair, along with Cynthia Holmes, a St. Louis attorney and member of Overland Baptist Church. Henry Green, pastor of Heritage Baptist Church in Annapolis, Md., was re-elected the group’s secretary.

Supporters affirmed the board appointments of Terri Phelps, a member of Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky.; Joey Kennedy, a member of Southside Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.; Mitch Randall, a member of NorthHaven Church in Norman, Okla.; and Beverly McNally, a member of Christ Congregation in Princeton, N.J.

ATLANTA (ABP) — In response to controversial comments at the recent Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly, a group of younger CBF supporters has called for an end to “old rhetoric” and for renewed attention to the world’s needs.

Seven leaders issued an open letter June 24 to Cecil Sherman, one of CBF’s founders and its first coordinator, over comments he made at the June 19-20 meeting in Memphis, Tenn.

During the June 19 morning business session, Sherman made remarks after accepting author copies of his new book, By My Own Reckoning, a personal recounting of the CBF’s history. In asking listeners to use the lessons of the past to help chart the future, he made a reference to the Holocaust.

“Every once in a while, I meet someone of the younger generation who says, ‘Don't talk about that anymore,’” Sherman said. “Why don't you tell a Jew not to talk about the Holocaust anymore? You need to remember the events that called us into being and be guided by them as you wisely chart your future.”
 
Sherman was among moderate Baptists who fought the fundamentalists’ takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention beginning nearly 30 years ago. He has often been the target of intense criticism by conservatives.

Reference to Holocaust “misguided”

While acknowledging Sherman’s leadership and contribution to the CBF movement, the open letter’s seven signers called his reference to the Holocaust “misguided.”

 “…[Y]ou juxtaposed our relatively small amount of pain — where no one was injured or killed — to the 6 million killed in the Holocaust. In our opinion and the opinions of many others, your analogy was misguided,” the letter said.

David Burroughs, president of Passport Inc., CBF’s partner for youth and children’s camps and conferences, was among the seven signers. “We all have high respect for Cecil Sherman…but there are some of us who are ready to lay that [the pain of the SBC takeover] down and move forward,” he said by phone June 25. “We felt the need to say that out loud.”

Burroughs noted that younger leaders within the CBF movement do not wish to discount the organization’s history, but believe in “using the lessons of the past.”

“We do want to remember the past…. There are plenty of forums, including Baptist history [courses] at the seminaries and breakout sessions at the General Assembly,” he said. The 45-and-under leaders “want to give proper respect for the past, but don’t want to be defined by it.”

Fuel for some people's fire

The problem with repeated references to the past, Burroughs added, is that CBF’s critics can use them against the entity. “When we keep referencing the past … it just gives fuel for some people’s fire. [They can say], ‘They keep defining themselves by what they did.’”

Younger CBFers, Burroughs continued. “are not defined by what happened and have grown tired of hearing about it.”

In the letter, the leaders called for a focus on the future.

“Of course, remembering what happened [in the past] will help us avoid repeating mistakes. But we will no longer wish for this conversation to have center stage — nor be the focus of who we are and what we do,” they wrote.

“Young Baptist leaders are ready to embrace new opportunities for ministry and discipleship. Remembering the past but not dwelling on it, many Baptists are excited and enthusiastic about ministering with the most neglected people around the world….”

They invited Sherman and, by implication, other leaders from that era to “lay down the pain of the past and join us as we focus on a future, bright with possibility.”

In addition to Burroughs, other signers included R. Scott Ford, CBF of Georgia associate coordinator for missions; Nikki Hardeman, CBF of Georgia associate coordinator for congregational life; Jeremy Lewis, manager of Together for Hope, CBF’s program to assist the 20 poorest counties in the United States; Brent McDougal, coordinator of Alabama CBF; Christina Whitehouse-Suggs, CBF of South Carolina associate coordinator for congregational life; and Mike Young, Tennessee CBF associate coordinator for missions.

ARKADELPHIA, Ark. (ABP) — In appreciation for “consistent and generous support” for Ouachita Baptist University , trustees named the Arkansas school’s social-science division for Buddy Sutton, a prominent Little Rock attorney.

Trustees voted June 12 to honor Sutton, a long-time Ouachita supporter and Arkansas Baptist lay leader. Adopting a resolution noting that Sutton “readily lent his name, reputation and influence to strengthen the standing of the university,” board members named the division the W.H. Sutton School of Social Sciences “with sincere appreciation for the life and service of their dear friend and colleague.”

Sutton, who served 10 years as chairman of Ouachita’s trustee board, is a former president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention .  He served in private practice for more than 45 years with the Little Rock law firm of Friday, Eldredge & Clark until his retirement in 2005. He is a longtime member of Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, where he has served for decades as a deacon and Sunday school teacher.

“Buddy is a rare individual who brings a blessing to whatever he touches and whatever he is part of,” Ouachita President Rex Horne said. Horne was Sutton’s pastor at Immanuel prior to his Ouachita post.

Horne said the trustees’ decision to link Sutton’s name with the School of Social Sciences will allow Ouachita “to continue to benefit from the influence and character Buddy has now and for generations to come.”

Hal Bass, dean of the Sutton School, enthusiastically affirmed the board’s decision.

“What we want to do in the social sciences is emphasize learning beyond the classroom; the world is our lab,” Bass, who also is the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s moderator-elect , explained. “The Sutton name will give us entrees for various settings beyond the classroom into the broader world.”

Sutton said he is deeply committed to Ouachita’s mission of providing students “a solid and excellent education in the Christian environment that is so important to family life and Christian life.”

The School of Social Sciences, which includes the departments of history, political science, psychology and sociology, “is a very important bridge to service in the Christian life,” he said.

In addition to honoring Sutton’s life and work, Horne said the school’s new name will “help strengthen a fine school in our university.” He is working with Sutton and Terry Peeples, Ouachita’s vice president for development, to enhance endowed scholarship funds for the school.

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