STILLWATER, Okla.—Texans on Mission volunteers spent two weeks responding to needs after wildfires tore through Stillwater, affecting about 200 homes in the area and 74 campers at nearby Lake Carl Blackwell.

While Texans on Mission teams battled high winds and blowing ash as they helped survivors sift through the ashes for valuables, the final day was markedly different.

A series of stormfronts dumped rain on the volunteer crews, turning the ash into a fine mud that caked onto their protective suits as they worked.

Ernest McNabb was unit leader for the disaster relief team, working primarily with members of Paramount Baptist Church in Amarillo. He said his team was responding to a fire scene that was “really kind of crazy.”

“The fires that came through here in Oklahoma, in this area, they acted like a ball of fire that was just bouncing around from house to house,” he explained. “And it (the fire) would just land on a house and burn it down, and then it would move on to another house.”

McNabb said Texans on Mission teams had “been cleaning up the ash and getting the metal and stuff out of it. It’s just really a mess. These people, they lost everything.”

Volunteers worked “in the mud and in the ash and in the rain … just trying to salvage a little memento or two,” he said.

In addition to cleaning homesites, the team also cleared burned trees.

“In the week or so we’ve been here, we’ve probably cut down 120, 130 trees that have burned up,” McNabb said.“So, it’s a lot of cleaning up, getting them ready to rebuild, and a lot of tree trimming. And it’s really, really sad.”

‘Give them a little bit of hope’

When asked about the impact on survivors of the fires, Amarillo team member David Pinales, a retired firefighter, became emotional.

“Well, I heard about the fires, but I had no idea that it was to this extent,” he said. “This is my first full year of deployment … and this has been a real eye-opening. …”

He paused, choked with emotion, before continuing: “I can’t imagine what these people think, and I can’t imagine what the people living next door to all this devastation must feel. You know, all their neighbors and friends that quite possibly may not even move back.

“Lives have definitely been changed for a long time. And I’m just really happy that maybe through the little bit of work that we do that we can give them a little bit of hope. I’m really thankful that the Lord is able to use us to do that.

“And we may never say one word to them, but when they come and they see what we have done, we’re hoping that they see the love of Jesus through that work.”

‘My spirit’s been so blessed’

Working in Stillwater marked the first disaster relief deployment for Rhetta and R.J. Rogers of Lubbock.

“I was retiring, and I needed to find something to do,” he said.

A friend at church, Brad, operates a Texans on Mission skid steer. Brad recommended R.J. consider volunteering for disaster relief, and he signed up.

Then Rhetta retired the day before they departed for Oklahoma. She had been a hairstylist for 48 years and didn’t plan to retire.

“I thought I would do it until I was 100, because I loved it,” she said. “And so then he found this and I thought, ‘Oh, I could do that.’

“I retired on Thursday, and we deployed out on Friday, and I think it’s so cool to be deployed.”

She called the fire’s impact “amazing—how fires just jump around different houses. (Someone) was telling me a while ago that the family in this house said it was like a giant fireball, that it was just a ball that bounced from house to house.

“I feel so sorry for them and glad that we can be here to at least share our faith and spirit,” she said. “And my spirit’s been so blessed.”

McNabb called the volunteer response “our calling to help people in need, and it doesn’t make any difference where they are, what the situation is, we’re willing to be the hands and feet of Christ and come up and serve.

“As one of our chaplains told us the other day: ‘We’re also the voice of Christ.’ So, we get to talk to homeowners and witness to them and tell them … Christ still loves them and that things will be better.”

NASHVILLE (BP)—Five cases addressing religious liberty ranging from parental rights to age verification on pornographic sites will be decided when the Supreme Court announces its decisions in the coming months.

The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention has released explainers for all cases and their potential implications for the future. The entity also joined several amicus briefs, including one alongside both Baptist state conventions in Texas.

“The number of high-profile and important cases in this term speaks to the broad scope of the work done by the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission,” said ERLC President Brent Leatherwood.

“In our legal strategy, we are continually looking for opportunities to advance the cause of life, advocate for religious freedom, and proclaim the goodness of God’s design for marriage and family.

“This year is no different. Whether it’s defending the ability of states to protect children from radical transgender interventions or supporting online age verification laws that put needed barriers between minors and harmful pornographic material or fighting for the ability of religious ministries to serve others consistent with their deeply held convictions, we consider it a privilege to communicate the principles of our convention of churches before the nation’s highest court.”

Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton

Age verification is crucial in protecting minors from sexually explicit material online, argues a Texas state law from June 2023 that requires websites capable of distributing “sexual material harmful to minors” to include such a step.

NetChoice, LLC, a lobbying organization representing more than 35 tech companies, is leading the push against the law. The group’s argument is that such steps violate the companies’ free speech and instead the courts should apply “strict scrutiny” standards typically used by the federal government.

That standard, explained the ERLC, is the same one used to enforce federal laws as they relate to religious liberty. The thread attempting to be drawn is hardly accurate, according to the ERLC and others.

“As originally understood, the First Amendment existed primarily to protect political speech and speech on matters of public concern,” stated an amicus brief presented by the ERLC, the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. “It was not originally understood to protect obscene expression, especially when such expression might be received by minors.”

U.S. v. Skrmetti

A Tennessee bill approved in March 2023 and going into effect that July prohibited all medical procedures intended to “affirm” gender identity for those under 18. “Necessary protection” came from the bill, said the ERLC Explainer, from procedures like hormone therapy, puberty blockers and surgery.

The Biden Administration’s Department of Justice joined the plaintiffs—three transgender individuals, their parents and the American Civil Liberties Union—and won an injunction that continued the allowance of hormone therapy and puberty blockers. A Tennessee appeal, though, placed the law back to full effect.

There are 27 states with laws in place prohibiting doctors from performing such surgeries and procedures on minors. Many of those are undergoing litigation, with the outcome of Skrmetti helping determine if they remain in place.

Medina v. Planned Parenthood

A 2018 executive order by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster disqualified abortion providers from participating in the state’s Medicaid program under the position the state should not be forced to support such organizations even if funds didn’t go directly to abortions.

In effect, it defunded Planned Parenthood in that state. Several Medicaid beneficiaries objected and filed a lawsuit saying that federal law guaranteed their right to choose any qualified provider. Lower courts agreed with them, setting up the state’s appeal that is supported in a brief by several groups, including the ERLC.

The case could have far-reaching implications, explained the ERLC, on how states administer Medicaid as well as the general discussion of taxpayer-funded abortion.

“As we saw in the aftermath of Dobbs, some states are making laudable efforts to protect preborn children, provide legitimate health care for mothers and foster a culture of life. South Carolina’s efforts to exclude abortion providers from its Medicaid program reflect those efforts,” said Miles Mullin, ERLC vice president, in comments shortly after the case was argued before the Supreme Court.

Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission

In June 2023 the ERLC joined an amicus brief that included the Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention in support of religious liberty at the state’s Supreme Court.

Central is the work of the Catholic Charities Bureau and terminology as to it being “charitable” or “religious.”

Wisconsin offers an unemployment insurance program to provide relief for those out of work. Religious organizations can request tax exemptions for paying into the program. The Catholic Charities Bureau did this to provide funds for an alternative program not funded by taxpayers.

The organization was denied its request. An appeal to the Circuit Court of Douglas County, Wisc., ruled against the group, saying their work was not religious in nature since their ministry included non-Catholic and non-church members.

The Bureau argues that their charitable actions are an extension of their religious beliefs.

“By imposing the state’s view of what it means to be religious, based on organizational structure and the who and how of charitable service, the Commission and the appeals court are prescribing a single form of religious orthodoxy in the context of the state unemployment law,” said the brief. “That violates the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses, together with the well-recognized ‘church autonomy doctrine’ that is grounded in both Clauses.”

Mahmoud v. Taylor

More than 300 parents across multiple faiths protested a decision by a Maryland school board. Their case will be heard in front of the Maryland Supreme Court on April 22.

In 2022, the Montgomery County Board of Education introduced a policy that required elementary schoolchildren to participate in instruction on gender and sexuality without parental notice or the ability to opt out over religious objections. After initially indicating such parental objections would be honored, the board reversed its position.

In an amicus brief filed last October, the ERLC and others highlighted the rights of parents in the upbringing and education of their children without being coerced to go against their religious beliefs.

Furthermore, schools should respect diverse religious beliefs and the Free Exercise Clause in protecting parents from government-compelled ideological indoctrination, the brief argues.

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo.—Carla Robinette recalled the March 14 tornado that hit Poplar Bluff, including her home. She said she experienced the event “with a lot of fear.”

“I was laying in my bed, then I heard crashing and thundering, and I just asked the Lord to help me,” she said. “He did, and I thank him every day.”

After the storm, she discovered trees down on the back of her house.

“My back porch is just demolished, fence damaged, just a lot of debris, limbs down,” she said.

Her experience was mirrored by thousands in the area after the EF3 tornado hit the Southeast Missouri town. Several tornadoes carved a trail of destruction in 27 Missouri counties, leaving 12 dead across the state, including one in Poplar Bluff.

Robinette told her story as members of the Texans on Mission Harmony-Pittsburg disaster response team cleared downed limbs and removed debris from her house and yard.

Watching the team’s efforts, she responded: “You don’t know what it means (to me). It means a whole lot. It means gratitude. It means appreciation.

“And I just thank the Lord that y’all are Texans on Mission, and that y’all are able to help do this sort of work.”

She described team members as “very nice, very polite, very friendly and very gung-ho to do their work. They love the Lord, and I appreciate that.”

Harmony-Pittsburg Unit Leader Bruce Slaven described the damage in Robinette’s neighborhood: “If you walk around this block, you’ll see a number of homes that have been damaged from the tornado, and you’ll see Texans on Mission groups from all over helping these people here in Poplar Bluff.

“Today, we’re going to be taking some limbs off this house. We’re going to be cutting them up and moving them out the front so the city can pick them up. And hopefully before the end of the day, these people will look like they just didn’t have any damage at all.

“But our first duty in this job is to tell others about Christ,” Slaven said. “These people, a lot of them, they’re sitting there—they’re hopeless. They need help, and that’s why we’re here: To help them and then to give them the hope that they can carry on with their lives.”

Steve Gilbert, who served as a chaplain with the Texans on Mission Collin County response team, agreed.

“My role as a chaplain is not as much to take care of our chainsaw team members, which I also do, and looking out for their safety, but my heart is really dedicated to helping and ministering to the homeowners—those that were affected in many ways by the tragedies that have happened.”

“With one homeowner,” Gilbert said, “I am sensing that there actually is a spiritual need there, so I always try to get inside their heart a little bit during the time I can minister (to them).

“We always present a Bible that everybody (on the team) has signed, and I usually leave a Scripture with them, and we give that as a personal presentation, just helping them understand that we do not do this for any compensation other than ministering to them and their needs,” Gilbert said.

“And we know we are at any given place on any given day because that is where God wanted us to be. That speaks to everybody’s heart, whether they are a believer or not.”

‘Phenomenal damage’

The recovery effort spans the length of the city, according to a map of the tornado’s path. Wendell Romans, Texans on Mission’s state chainsaw coordinator, called the scale of the damage and response “a huge deployment for Texans on Mission.”

“The devastation that we’re finding is so widespread that we’re going to need probably every chainsaw team we have, and we’re talking about bringing in some outside teams also. But the damage is just phenomenal.”

Romans said leadership and assessment teams were deployed to Poplar Bluff within hours of the storm. “We were contacted by Missouri (Baptist Convention) Disaster Relief to come help them with the chainsaw relief. We responded just as soon as we could and were here within probably eight hours after they contacted us.

“It was a pretty quick response because we know what it’s like to go through something like this,” he added.

“We brought everything we possibly could to this. It’s like a little city when we move in. We have our own chainsaw teams, of course, plus we have our own shower and laundry.

We have our own cooking team. We have our own electrical team. We’re pretty self-sufficient, and we have to be that way in order to do what we do. Because when a disaster hits, you never know what you’re going to get into.”

The team, which numbered more than 60 Texans on Mission by the second week, set up its response operations at Temple Baptist Church. Church member Steve Davis, who also has served as a city councilman and mayor of Poplar Bluff, shared his appreciation for the team’s response … as well as for the removal of five of his own giant trees lost in the storm.

“We weren’t injured or anything, and our house was not damaged that much either,” he said. “And praise the Lord, you guys got up here quickly to help this area, and that’s a blessing. You’re doing a wonderful job. We’re glad to have you here and we thank you, Texans on Mission.”

Editor’s Note: This story was written in the second of an estimated four weeks of response by Texans on Mission. By April 3, Texans on Mission volunteers had provided more than 814 volunteer days of work, conducted 85 chainsaw jobs and fed volunteers 1,815 meals.

DALLAS (BP)—Leaders of 13 Southern Baptist ethnic groups approved a joint statement on immigration seeking religious liberty protections, compassion without demonization and enforcement options including fines or other penalties in lieu of deportation.

Signers of the statement said they share the “federal government’s desire to protect citizens, promote legal immigration and refugee policies, and robustly safeguard the country’s borders.”

However, “enforcement must be accompanied with compassion that doesn’t demonize those fleeing oppression, violence, and persecution,” the statement reads.

Bruno Molina, executive director of the National Hispanic Baptist Network and a signatory, provided the statement to Baptist Press. Haitian, Hispanic, African American, Chinese, Filipino, Nigerian, Liberian, Ghanaian, Korean, Burmese, Thai and Vietnamese leaders signed the statement, Molina said.

Among the ethnic leaders who signed the statement is Jesse Rincones, executive director of Convención Bautista Hispana de Texas.

Victor Chayasirisobhon, another signatory and director of the Southern Baptist Convention Asian Collective representing all Asian fellowships in the SBC, said all groups in the collective approved the statement individually and collectively.

Sixteen leaders representing about 10,900 churches signed the statement on behalf of their groups amid immigration changes that leaders have said will heavily impact Southern Baptist Haitian and Hispanic congregations. The changes include orders that end humanitarian parole for 532,000 Haitians, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Cubans April 24 and end Temporary Protected Status for an estimated 1.1 million others in August.

A federal judge on March 31 blocked an order that would have forced 350,000 Venezuelans to leave April 7.

Fear rising ‘among both the guilty and the innocent’

“Threats of mass deportation by the Trump administration and its lack of assurance to churches that ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents will not enter churches to carry out immigration enforcement duties has caused fear to rise among both the guilty and the innocent,” ethnic leaders wrote.

Attendance has dropped significantly, leaders said, threatening religious liberty and immigrants’ access to spiritual care in their local churches.

“While we reject and oppose criminal activity or harboring criminals, all people should have the freedom to receive spiritual care from churches within a church building in America,” the statement reads.

Ethnic leaders urged Southern Baptists “to stand firm for religious liberty and speak on behalf of the immigrant and refugee.”

“We ask that consideration be given to their paying a fine and/or other penalty in lieu of deportation,” the statement reads.

Call for advocacy and prayer

It encourages churches to advocate to government leaders for immigrants forced to return to countries from which they fled civil unrest, murder, rape, religious and political persecution, gang violence, food insecurity and other ills.

“We call on our Southern Baptist brothers and sisters to pray for the Trump administration,” ethnic leaders wrote.

“Please ask God to grant wisdom as they deal with this important and complex issue that will determine the course for many who have already experienced great atrocities in their native country, and whose deportations will cause their American-born family members who reunite with them in a foreign country to experience the same dire conditions.”

Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, thanked the leaders for the statement.

“I am grateful these pastors and leaders have put into words the experiences that so many of our fellow Southern Baptist brothers and sisters are living through right now. The administration’s efforts to secure America’s borders and cut illegal entry into our nation represents a serious attempt to restore order for a system that, for decades, has been overwhelmed,” Leatherwood told Baptist Press.

“Moreover, many of these moves are consistent with elements of a comprehensive approach to border security and immigration reform long called for by the Southern Baptist Convention.

“Yet, as these pastors have indicated, some of these actions and public statements are raising alarm and fear among those who are here legally.”

Leatherwood referenced a statement Trump made in his first presidential term, in 2019, saying that Trump “has personally and publicly stated he wants people to come to America ‘in the largest numbers ever,’ but to do so through legal means.”

‘Care for the vulnerable with compassion’

“We agree with that objective,” Leatherwood said of the ERLC. “Fostering an environment that creates uncertainty in those who are permitted to be here is at odds with that goal.

“Given that, as I have said previously, we’d ask the administration to provide more clarity in this area, so that our pastors, churches and compassion ministries will be free to minister and proclaim the Good News of Christ’s life, death and resurrection to all.”

Keny Felix, president of the SBC National Haitian Fellowship, said in addition to the top ethnic leaders who signed the statement, several pastors affirmed it.

“As leaders within the SBC, we believe we must work collaboratively in support of our brothers, sisters and vulnerable families. It’s not just advocacy. It’s fulfilling our biblical mandate,” Felix told Baptist Press.

“To care for the most vulnerable with compassion is at the heart of God’s redemption story and also makes for strong and healthy communities.”

NASHVILLE (RNS)—A federal judge ruled against former Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt on March 31, rejecting his claims of defamation against Guidepost Solutions and nearly all the former megachurch pastor’s claims against the Southern Baptist Convention and its Executive Committee.

Judge William Campbell of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee issued an order granting summary judgment in the case, with a memorandum detailing the judge’s decision forthcoming.

“We are grateful for this decision and the forward progress in our legal process,” said Jeff Iorg, SBC Executive Committee president.

Hunt had sued Guidepost, an investigative firm, and SBC leaders for defamation and other damages after Guidepost published allegations of sexual assault against Hunt in a May 2022 report on an investigation into how SBC leaders had dealt with sexual abuse.

At issue was a 2010 incident in which Hunt allegedly kissed and fondled another pastor’s wife. Hunt, who had kept the incident secret for years, at first denied it occurred and then claimed it was consensual.

In their court filings, Hunt’s lawyers claimed Guidepost had ruined his reputation and claimed the pastor’s sins were no one else’s business.

Hunt, the former pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., and a former vice president of the SBC’s North American Mission Board, claimed Guidepost and the SBC had cost him millions, and he sought more than $75 million in damages.

All counts of defamation, emotional distress and the public disclosure of embarrassing private facts were dismissed against the SBC and the Executive Committee.

However, one claim alleging a tweet about Hunt from Texas Baptist Pastor Bart Barber, who was SBC president from 2022 to 2024, was defamatory has not been dismissed.

Hunt served from 2008 to 2010 as SBC president and remained a popular speaker before the Guidepost report. Court-ordered mediation on the case failed last fall. A trial had been scheduled this summer.

The Executive Committee has spent more than $3.1 million in legal fees related to the Hunt lawsuit and a second lawsuit related to the Guidepost report.

Last month, the SBC’s Executive Committee decided to ask the denomination for an additional $3 million for the upcoming year to cover its legal bills, including those for the Hunt suit.

In his lawsuit, Hunt alleged Guidepost Solutions acted negligently during its investigation, ignoring evidence that would have cast doubt on the allegations against him, and that Guidepost and the SBC intentionally sought to paint him in the worst light possible. Hunt also said the woman who accused him of sexual assault, known in court filings as Jane Doe, was an unreliable witness.

But Campbell ruled Hunt had provided no evidence to support his claims, while Guidepost provided substantial evidence of the thoroughness of the investigation into the allegations.

Hunt’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment. Guidepost Solutions declined to comment.

In a 74-page opinion, Judge Campbell examines Hunt’s claims at length and rejects them. He points out that investigators spoke with a counselor who had talked with Hunt about the alleged assault and three Southern Baptist pastors who had heard of the alleged sexual encounter as well to corroborate the allegations.

The judge also recounts Hunt first denied the incident had occurred or that he had kissed or fondled Doe, made no claims that Doe was unreliable at that time or that Doe had instigated the incident. Guidepost also gave Hunt an additional two days to provide any initial information to Guidepost.

Campbell ruled Guidepost could not have ignored or withheld any evidence about the encounter because Hunt had “squandered” the opportunity to provide evidence that countered Doe’s allegation. Hunt did not acknowledge the incident until after the Guidepost report was published and has since claimed the encounter was consensual and that Doe was unreliable. His arguments did not sway Campbell.

“Hunt ignores that much of Doe’s information was independently verified by other sources whose credibility he does not challenge,” Campbell wrote

Campbell also rejected the claim the Guidepost report had caused negligent emotional distress to Hunt.

“The Court has already determined that the record does not contain evidence that any defendant acted with negligence in connection with the Report,” Campbell wrote. “Moreover, Hunt has failed to point to evidence of mental and emotional injuries as a result of any of the statements which would disable a reasonable, normally constituted person from adequately coping with the alleged mental stress.”

Campbell also wrote that one of Hunt’s claims—the assertion former SBC president Bart Barber had defamed him in a tweet—could not be decided at this time. It was unclear, he wrote, whether or not Hunt could be considered a public figure at the time or whether or not Barber tweeted in his official capacity as SBC president or not.

“This determination is subject to reconsideration upon further development of evidence and argument concerning Hunt’s status at the time of the Tweet,” the judge wrote. “Hunt has presented evidence from which a jury could conclude that Barber’s Tweet was in his capacity as SBC president. Therefore, judgment cannot be granted in favor of the SBC or the Executive Committee on this basis.”

After Campbell’s ruling, Alisa Womack, who had been known as “Jane Doe,” issued a statement, saying the ruling helped lighten the burden she had carried for years.

“Justice peeked out from behind the dark clouds, shining light on my path and propelling me forward into freedom,” she told RNS in a statement.

Womack also detailed some of her experience of being interviewed for the Guidepost investigation and then being drawn into the Hunt lawsuit, including being subpoenaed and deposed.

“In 2022, I recounted painful details I would have preferred to forget to investigators with Guidepost Solutions. I also described the years of emotional, mental and spiritual weight in the journey toward healing. Silence gave way to voice, which finally had a true hearing,” she said. “In the year following the release of the report, I was dragged into a lawsuit, not of my own making or desire.”

Womack also said she tried to protect her family’s privacy during the legal process. And she said that process has made her understand why few abuse survivors come forward.

“The risk is obvious, the chance for justice obscure,” she said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Eight paragraphs were added April 2, one day after the article originally was posted, after RNS distributed an updated version of the article that included the quotes from the judge’s legal opinion. Subsequently, another six paragraphs were added to include the statement from Alisa Womack, previously referred to in the lawsuit as “Jane Doe.”

MIAMI (BP)—They are pastors, deacons and other clergy, actively working among the 500 Haitian churches in the Southern Baptist Convention—at least for another four weeks.

They are active ministers and members of the 3,500 Hispanic congregations—Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Cubans—that have united with the SBC.

But they also are among an estimated 534,000 Haitians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Cubans ordered to return to their home countries no later than April 24, the result of the United States ending the humanitarian parole program.

The program had granted the individuals safe refuge here while their home countries broil in gang violence, governmental upheaval, poverty, religious persecution and other ills.

John Voltaire, Florida Baptist Convention Haitian multicultural catalyst, tells of a young mother who greeted him at a Haitian congregation in Florida, where 72 percent of Haitian Southern Baptists live and worship.

“At first, it was the threat of ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents coming to church and trying to arrest people and deport people,” Voltaire said. “But now, I have people contacting me directly, crying, asking, ‘What do we do?’” in light of the upcoming deadline.

Many stopped attending churches in January when the sensitive locations limitations were lifted on ICE arrests—impacting churches and schools. But the end of the humanitarian parole program, and the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program in August, will together inflict a multilayered wound upon churches, families and gospel witness, Haitian and Hispanic leaders said.

Southern Baptists among those told to leave

“Nobody wants to have criminals running around, but in the process, we have people who are good neighbors, who are members of our churches, deacons and pastors, and we have a lot of clergy also,” Voltaire said. “They came through those programs. Now, they are actively working in our churches.”

Bruno Molina, executive director of the National Hispanic Baptist Network, said “very significant” numbers of those ordered to return to their home countries are members of Southern Baptist churches, but he didn’t have specific numbers.

“This is really impacting all SBC churches with immigrant populations,” said Molina, who recently transitioned to a fulltime role as executive director of the National Hispanic Baptist Network.

“It’s resulting in a decrease in attendance, giving and personal wellbeing. Churches will experience a decrease in membership, funding and certainly gospel collaboration. We’ll just have to continue to be light and salt and keep on keeping on.”

Some Hispanics impacted by the immigration terminations are active ministers, Molina said.

Generally, they have no choice but to obey the immigration orders, which are perhaps more dangerous than defying the orders and remaining in the United States illegally, leaders have told Baptist Press.

“It’s not like when they go back (to their home countries) the governments are waiting for them with open arms, looking to ensure their welfare,” Molina said.

“They’re going to return to the turmoil from which they fled, and many of them will suffer imprisonment, political persecution, violence and very difficult to impossible economic conditions. They’ll be seen as pariahs in their own countries, both by government, and by others who may resent the fact that they left.

“It should be noted also that those currently under the Temporary Protected Status, are people who’ve been vetted as suffering under extraordinary circumstances,” he said.

“They aren’t considered a security threat, and they even have financial sponsors. So, it’s not like they’re considered criminals or are a threat to their communities.”

About 864,000 individuals from 16 countries are enrolled in TPS in the United States, the National Immigration Forum said in a March 14 fact sheet, based on Sept. 23, 2024, numbers. That includes 344,335 Venezuelans, 200,005 Haitians and 180,375 El Salvadorans, as well as about 50,000 who fled the war in Ukraine, more than 8,000 from Afghanistan and others.

Dignity Act seen as a solution

Molina and Keny Felix, president of the Southern Baptist Convention National Haitian Fellowship and a vice president of the Haitian Christian Leaders Coalition, are among advocates for the revival of the Dignity Act—a bipartisan immigration bill its key sponsors say is aimed at stopping illegal immigration, providing a dignified solution for undocumented immigrants, strengthening the workforce and economy, and ensuring U.S. prosperity and competitiveness.

On behalf of the National Hispanic Baptist Network, Molina signed a proposal for congressional immigration reform by the National Hispanic Pastors Alliance that is based on the Dignity Act.

Felix, on a trip to Washington March 2, met with John Mark Kolb, the chief of staff of U.S. Rep. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.), chief sponsor of the Dignity Act alongside Veronica Escobar (D-Texas). Salazar planned to reintroduce the act in the coming months, Felix said.

Felix ranks the immigration emergency as more difficult than the crisis the church endured during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The pandemic was pervasive, everyone exposed. This one is targeted,” Felix said. “These actions are going after seeming Black and Brown people, to put them back into life conditions that no one would ever want to experience.”

Felix doesn’t see the end of the humanitarian parole program as hinging on protecting the borders, because everyone enrolled in the program came legally. And he doesn’t believe it’s about protecting jobs, because of the federal government firings.

“It’s stripping them from the opportunity to live securely, surrounded by friends and loved ones, and being part of church communities,” said Felix, who pastors Bethel Evangelical Baptist Church in south Florida. “This will definitely impact the local church … across ethnicities.”

The first thing many of those enrolled in the parole program did was connect with a local church, Felix said, where they were able to grow in their faith.

“And they began to be active members of our churches,” he said. “And so, churches are about to lose a good portion within their membership. But it’s not only losing the people, but it’s also the connections that all these folks had as a result. It’s a loss that is multilevel.”

While the program was temporary, those enrolled had connected with families, schools and jobs, and were beginning new families. Felix questions why the program was ended so abruptly with “complete disregard for the lives of those that will be put at stake of danger in returning to these violent situations in their homelands.”

Leaders point to mercy, care, prayer and love in responding to the crisis as the church.

“I, of course, feel terrible for the people who are suffering under those circumstances,” Molina said. “And I think that one of the things we need to remember as Southern Baptists, is we are told to treat others as we would like to be treated.

“And so, this begs the question, ‘If you were forced to leave the U.S. and flee to a foreign country whose language and country are alien to you to protect yourself and your family from political and religious persecution and violence and possibly economic challenges, how would you like to be treated?’”

Felix prays the church will not lose what he terms as central to the Christian identity: “God’s love that leads us to be compassionate to others, especially our Southern Baptist brothers and sisters.

“The church needs to be the church for such a time as this—to do what is right.”

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo.—Three Texans on Mission disaster relief leaders motored down a country road in southeast Missouri where a tornado had devastated homes and trees. Then they had what Paul Henry later called a “divine appointment.”

Jacob Moneybrake, Texans on Mission’s new associate director of disaster relief, was in the truck with Henry and Wendell Romans.

“I had never seen anything like it, the devastation,” Moneybrake said of the scene in southeastern Missouri. “The further we went, the worse it got. I thought, ‘We’re here to take trees off homes, but the houses were beyond saving.’”

Henry, the Texans on Mission incident commander, said: “As we neared the end of the damaged area, a man named Jake was sitting in his pickup truck by the side of the road next to a driveway and waved us down.

“He was curious about what we were doing in the area,” Henry said. After the Texans on Mission team explained, Jake “pointed and shared that his brother had been killed in his home, and his sister-in-law had crawled out of the rubble that was once their house.”

No damaged trees threatened what structures remained, so Wendell Romans suggested the Texans on Mission team “follow Jake to his brother’s homesite and assess what he wanted us to do,” Henry said.

“As Jake explained the trees that needed to be cut and removed, he became visibly emotional.” Henry said. “Through it all, we were able to guide Jake to accept the Lord.”

Earlier in the day, the team had experienced various delays in getting to the scene of the worst damage.

“What made this experience even more profound for us was reflecting on how the events of the day had initially gone wrong, delaying our trip to Jake’s brother’s property. It was clearly a divine appointment.”

Moneybrake walked away from the others to retrieve mail from the mailbox for Jake. It had been a difficult morning for the team, and he had an “honest conversation with the Lord” as he walked.

Moneybrake was focused on the work that needed to be done but the challenges that day made it difficult to plan what work to do. When he got back to the others, Jake had made his profession of faith in Christ.

“Then I prayed: Lord, give me your heart for these survivors,” Moneybrake said. “It was a life-changing experience. … I went on a work trip and came home from a mission trip.”

After the team returned to the command center at Temple Baptist Church in Poplar Bluff, wind gusts reached 55 mph and “blew the back steps of the command center across the parking lot,” Henry said. “Later, another gust of wind caught one of the church’s double glass doors—the doors we use to access the building—slammed it open, and tore it off its hinges.

“I’m still trying to understand the deeper meaning behind these disturbances in the otherwise quiet tranquility of this disaster,” he said.

Moneybrake said he and Romans returned the next day to the property where Jake’s brother had died. “We went back to the valley of death. I watched the Lord, with our ministry, wrap arms around these people.”

As of Sunday, March 23, 59 Texans on Mission volunteers were working in the Poplar Bluff area, with multiple pieces of equipment from around Texas.

GREENVILLE (BP)—A Northeast Texas director of missions has announced his plans to nominate Greenville pastor Tommy Mann to serve as SBC second vice president at the 2025 SBC annual meeting this summer.

Hunt Baptist Association director of missions Jim Gatliff said Mann’s “refreshingly strong expository preaching, positive ‘can-do’ leadership style … (and) his amazing ability to cast compelling vision,” have helped Highland Terrace Baptist Church in Greenville in its revitalization process.

Mann is originally from Orlando, Fla., and has served churches in Georgia, South Carolina and Texas since 2004, according to the Highland Terrace website.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from Arlington Baptist University, a master’s degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Th.D. and D.Min. from Covington Theological Seminary.

“Dr. Mann has a great passion for all aspects of the Southern Baptist Convention,” Gatliff told Baptist Press. “He is a strong biblical conservative and a man with a tremendous vision for the future of our convention.”

In its 2024 Annual Church Profile, Highland Terrace reported 28 baptisms and undesignated receipts of $1,599,789, of which $182,750 (11.42 percent) was given through the Cooperative Program.

The church also reported $64,218 given to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and $13,805 to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, as well as 467 people in average worship attendance.

Mann and his wife Alicia have two children.

“The Mann family in my estimation is a model of what a pastor’s family should be,” Gatliff said. “His kids are simply wonderful, and his wife is beloved by the congregation.”

Nominations for SBC offices may be received up until the time of voting at the 2025 SBC annual meeting in Dallas June 10-11 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.

The Baptist World Alliance issued an urgent call for Baptists globally to give, pray and “Stand in the Gap” in solidarity with suffering people at a time when humanitarian aid is being cut.

“Over the last 100 days, there has been a rapid deceleration of government-supported humanitarian assistance around the world,” BWA General Secretary Elijah Brown said in a video posted on the BWA website.

“Now, whether you think those decisions were right or wrong, what is undeniable is the impact on people on the ground as suddenly there are these massive gaps of care in communities just like yours.”

BWA has heard from Baptists in refugee camps along the Myanmar/Thailand border, in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in other places where political unrest and violence are creating a humanitarian crisis, he said.

While no Christian group can replace the millions of dollars of aid that have been cut, Baptists “cannot sit on the sidelines” when people are suffering, Brown said.

Stand in the Gap Solidarity Sunday set

So, BWA declared March 30 as Stand in the Gap Solidarity Sunday.

Churches are encouraged to set aside time that day—or another dedicated day of worship—to pray for suffering people around the world and give financially to enable BWA to provide food, water, health care, shelter and other basic needs.

BWA has produced a prayer guide that can be downloaded, duplicated and distributed for individual or congregational use.

The guide offers specific suggestions for intercession such as praying for peace with justice in areas of conflict, restored health care infrastructure, clean water and “strength and resilience for church leaders and humanitarian workers as they mobilize to support the displaced and impoverished.”

BWA also has slides, videos and social media resources that can be downloaded to increase awareness about the Stand in the Gap initiative.

“Together, we must hear the voice of Jesus calling us to stand in solidarity with the suffering,” BWA stated on its website. “The needs are overwhelming and the situations complex, but we must do everything we can to help.”

GULU, Uganda—Doug and Cathy Hall made their first trip to Uganda this winter to learn more about Texans on Mission’s Water Impact work in the central African nation.

Doug Hall summed up his experience by saying: “It’s not just about a hole in the ground that provides clean water. It is about comprehensive generational change in each one of those communities.”

The Halls, members of Community Life Church in Rockwall, visited three villages with wells drilled by Texans and Ugandans on Mission. At a fourth village, the Halls were present when the team hit water digging a new well.

“Our drillers sleep at the well site in tents,” Doug Hall said. “They live with the village people, and a community member cooks for them. … They live with the people, talk with them, eat meals with them.”

The Texans on Mission drillers do this because they actually are on mission with Christ to the villagers.

“Our head driller is an evangelist who drills water wells. He’s not a water well driller they’ve talked into preaching,” Hall said.

The head driller’s name is Godfrey. He is a gifted speaker, and the Holy Spirit speaks through him, Hall said.

“I watched him challenge and comfort people. Anything that you would hope a pastor would do, he did it,” Hall said.

Godfrey, in fact, previously pastored a church in South Sudan, said Mitch Chapman, director of Texans on Mission Water Impact. “In 2017, Godfrey gave up his pastorate to escape from the war there.”

“He’s a great leader, and he loves to worship the Lord,” Chapman added. But Godfrey also “does a great job of getting the (drilling) crew going and moving forward, even to the point now that we’re looking at splitting into two drill teams.”

Cathy Hall said of the Texans on Mission ministry: “Organization of all of the details is mind-blowing. Our Ugandan mission-minded staff continues to work hard to make lives better for the villagers in the name of Christ providing access to both clean and living water.”

And the people in the villages left a deep impression. “The Ugandans are the most gentle and soft-spoken people,” she said. “They are generous and kind. Texans and Ugandans on Mission Water Impact ministry is making a huge positive impact one well at a time.”

Texans on Mission’s Uganda ministry starts Bible studies in every village, and some already have become churches.

As a result, Texans on Mission sponsored a Church Leaders Conference in February for pastors and other ministry leaders in the villages. Ninety-one leaders attended and received instruction in pastoral self-care, biblical interpretation, Bible study methods and children’s ministry.

NASHVILLE (RNS)—Lawyers for the Southern Baptist Convention said March 12 the U.S. Department of Justice has ended an investigation into the denomination’s response to allegations of sexual abuse committed by Southern Baptist pastors and institutional leaders.

That investigation was launched in 2022 after the release of the Guidepost report that demonstrated SBC executives had mistreated abuse survivors and sought to downplay the effects of abuse in the convention.

“Earlier today, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York informed us that the investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention and Executive Committee has officially concluded,” SBC attorneys Gene Besen and Scarlett Nokes told Baptist Press, an official SBC outlet.

Megan Lively, an abuse survivor and activist, said she was disappointed to hear from an FBI agent the investigation was over. She had hoped, she said, the investigation would move the SBC to take abuse reforms seriously.

“It’s just a mess,” she added.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.

No abuse charges have been filed as a result of the Guidepost report. Matt Queen, a former Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary professor and provost, pleaded guilty last fall to lying to the FBI, and recently was sentenced to six months of house arrest, a year of supervised release and a $2,000 fine.

But aside from Queen’s case, few details of the investigation have been made public. Given that national SBC leaders have no direct control over pastors or churches, it always was unclear what crimes SBC leaders might be charged with.

Leaders from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where Queen was once a professor as well as provost, stated: “For more than two years, Southwestern fully cooperated with the DOJ throughout the investigation and is pleased that there were no findings of wrongdoing against the institution or current employees. We remain committed to ensuring the safety of all members of the seminary community.”

This is the second time the SBC’s attorneys have announced an end to the Department of Justice investigation. Last March, those attorneys said the investigation into the Executive Committee, which oversees the denomination’s day-to-day operations, was over, but later clarified the investigation into the denomination as a whole continued.

‘Grateful we can close this chapter’

Southern Baptist leaders have spent more than $2 million on legal fees related to the investigation. Those fees, along with more than $3 million spent defending lawsuits filed by a pair of former SBC leaders named in the Guidepost report, and the cost of the Guidepost investigation itself, have drained the Executive Committee’s reserves and left it unable to pay its legal bills.

Jeff Iorg, president and CEO of the Executive Committee, gave thanks for the investigation’s end, saying, “We’re grateful that we can close this chapter in our legal proceedings and move forward.”

The SBC’s attempts to manage accusations of sexual abuse have occupied the leadership for more than a decade, and the convention’s governing body, the annual meeting of messengers from local churches, has demanded reform, forcing the Executive Committee to commission the Guidepost investigation in a floor vote in 2021.

But critics of the reform efforts point to the cost of the Guidepost investigation to claim it was a mistake. Abuse advocates worry those critics now will use the end of the Justice Department investigation to derail reforms.

The Guidepost report led Southern Baptists to pass a series of reforms intended to address abuse in churches, including more training and publishing a database of abusive pastors. Those reforms largely have stalled.

While the SBC has distributed training materials and hired a national staffer to help oversee reforms, the database has been tabled for now, with SBC leaders saying last month it is no longer a priority.

Abuse survivors now worry the end of the investigation and the tabling of the database signal abuse reforms have run out of steam.

“Everything seems to be falling apart,” Lively said.

NASHVILLE (RNS)—Southern Baptists long have been known as a large branch of evangelical Christianity and a dominant force in the Southern states.

But an analysis of recent statistics supplied by congregations across the country revealed New England is the sole region where Southern Baptists gained congregants overall from 2018 to 2023.

Churches in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont grew by 10 percent, a Lifeway Research analysis released March 11 said, based on data from the Southern Baptist Convention’s 2023 Annual Church Profile.

“Every other region saw declines in overall church membership,” the report stated.

Just 2 percent of Southern Baptist churches are in the Northeast region, compared with 78 percent located in the South.

The SBC annual report often is used to indicate the statistical state of the national denomination, which decreased to 12.9 million members according to the most recent profile in May 2024. That marked the lowest numbers since the late 1970s for a denomination that reached its peak at 16.3 million in 2006.

Analysis over five years offers wide view

But analyzing SBC’s results over time can give a wider view of where the growth and decline of Southern Baptists is occurring within the United States, as the Lifeway analysis over five years demonstrates.

“The growth in New England is driven by numerous years of church planting in the region and faithful reporting of continued growth in many of those churches,” Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, told RNS via email.

Two Southern regions—one comprising Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee, and the other including Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas—saw the smallest drop in church membership in the five-year period at 8 percent.

“The rapid population growth in Texas is definitely driving the growth in the West South Central region of the U.S.,” McConnell said.

The five-year regional comparisons included only churches that reported non-zero data in both 2018 and 2023 for total membership, an executive summary noted. While 69 percent of Southern Baptist churches nationwide contributed to the 2023 Annual Church Profile, McConnell said 99 percent of SBC churches in New England contributed to that statistical census.

“The membership growth (in the Northeast) is not enough to cover losses in southern states, but it is still noteworthy,” McConnell added.

Older churches in the South have lost members

Outside of the South and New England, 11 percent of Southern Baptist churches are in the Midwest and 9 percent are in the West.

“Southern Baptists have the most churches in the South, and those older churches have lost many members over the last two decades,” McConnell said.

“Newer churches tend to reach more new people through baptism, though older churches still may have many baptisms as they reach the next generation of their existing families.”

The region with the largest drop in church membership was the Pacific region, with a decline of 18 percent.

Lifeway Research provided the caveat that Delaware, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Maine, Utah, Nebraska and South Dakota each had fewer than 30 churches to consider in calculations and, as such, their analysis needs “to be considered with caution.”