SEYMOUR, Tenn. (BP)—Dan Spencer, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Sevierville, Tenn., has become the sixth nominee for president of the Southern Baptist Convention at the 2024 SBC annual meeting June 11-12 in Indianapolis.

Chris Kendall, senior pastor of Oak City Baptist Church in Seymour, Tenn., informed the Baptist and Reflector April 11 of his intention to nominate Spencer, who has been the pastor at First Baptist in Sevierville since 2011.

Kendall said he is a Southern Baptist by choice, and he loves the SBC for two primary reasons—the autonomy of the local church and the spirit of cooperation.

“Over the past several years, our Southern Baptist network has been marked by controversy and contention. I believe that Dan Spencer is the unifier that would benefit our collective to refocus on what matters most. It’s the people that God has put before us to reach with the gospel and make disciples,” he said.

“His love for God and people has positioned him to make the necessary biblical decisions (as a leader) when it comes to faith and practice. … Dan is competent to lead at the denominational level. He also has what’s most essential—the character to back it up.”

Spencer has a long Southern Baptist heritage. He is the great-great nephew of M.E. Dodd, “the father of the Cooperative Program” and the great-great grandson of George Martin Savage, who was president of Union University and Dodd’s father-in-law.

His father, Jerry Spencer, has been a Southern Baptist evangelist and pastor since 1957.

Spencer was called to ministry in 1986 while on a youth choir tour/mission trip to Toronto, Canada, from his home church of Brownsville Baptist Church in Brownsville, Tenn.

Spencer has been involved in Southern Baptist life more than two decades. He preached at the SBC Pastors’ Conference in 2001 and was a member of the SBC Committee on Committees in 2005. Spencer served as president of the Georgia Baptist Convention from 2009 to 2011 and served as a director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board from 2015 to 2019.

During his tenure at First Baptist in Sevierville, the church has been one of Tennessee’s leaders in baptisms and in giving through the Cooperative Program.

In 2023, the church gave $542,915 through the Cooperative Program, or 9.09 percent of $5,972,068 in undesignated gifts. Also last year, the church reported 64 baptisms and $659,425 in gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.

Kendall believes Spencer has the ability to “rally the diverse collective of churches and pastors together to master and major on the main thing—the Great Commission.”

Kendall added he believes Spencer would complement the work of Jeff Iorg, the new president / CEO of the SBC Executive Committee.

“He would be the right fit for Dr. Iorg in this inaugural annual meeting for our new EC president,” he said.

Spencer joins fellow Tennessee pastor Jared Moore of Cumberland Homesteads Baptist Church in Crossville as a nominee, as well as Bruce Frank, pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church, Asheville, N.C.; Clint Pressley, Hickory Grove Baptist Church, Charlotte, N.C.; Mike Keahbone, First Baptist Church, Lawton, Okla.; and David Allen, professor and dean at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Cordova, Tenn.

Kelly Knott resigned as pastor of Iglesia Bautista Getsemani in Fort Worth effective April 12.

More than a dozen Christian leaders—including the executive director of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention—sent a letter to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson April 17 urging Congress to protect religious liberty in Eastern Europe by supporting Ukraine.

“We remind Congress that religious freedom is a basic human right that must be protected everywhere. We pray Congress has the courage to stand in solidarity with people of faith. Ukrainian Christians deserve the freedom to worship in peace and embrace their faith without fear,” the letter states.

“We call on Congress to provide Ukraine with the financial and military support required to defend herself, stop the bloodshed, and secure freedom of religion within her borders.”

Previously, the Ukraine Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches made a similar appeal to Johnson in a March 26 letter, and a group of Southern Baptists and Ukrainian Baptists sent an April 8 letter to Johnson urging support for Ukraine.

‘Widespread, vicious persecution’

The April 17 letter from a coalition led by Gary Marx, president of the Defenders of Faith and Religious Freedom in Ukraine, states Evangelical and Protestant Christians in Russian-controlled areas “are being persecuted, harassed, intimidated, imprisoned, tortured, mutilated and killed—simply for worshipping God as they see fit.”

“We are pained and shocked by the widespread, vicious persecution of our brothers and sisters in Ukraine by Russian forces. Russia is waging a war against Evangelical and Protestant Christians at a scale likened to ‘cultural genocide,’” the letter states.

The letter accuses Russian forces of damaging and looting churches and of killing pastors and priests “in cold blood.”

“We cannot stay silent in the face of this evil. … We must rise together to protect and defend our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being persecuted and killed for their faith,” the letter states.

“We have a duty to stop Russia from expanding its religiously oppressive legacy to Ukraine. We implore Congress to fight back against the horrors being committed by the Russian Federation in Ukraine.”

Arkansas Baptist leader Rex Horne signed the letter to Johnson, joining Shonda Werry, president of the Ukraine Orphans Project; Tim Head, executive director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition; and popular author Adam Hamilton, senior pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kan.

Other signers included Mike Hamlet, senior pastor of First Baptist North Spartanburg in South Carolina; Ty Childers, pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Spartanburg, S.C.; Steve Durham, senior pastor of Sunset Hills Baptist Church in Brentwood, Tenn.; Dale Armstrong, director of the American Pastors Network International; and Chad Connelly, president of Faith Wins.

Hkalam Samson, former president and general secretary of the Kachin Baptist Convention in Myanmar, has been released from Myitkyina Prison in Burma’s Kachin State.

Sources related to the Baptist World Alliance and 21Wilberforce confirmed Samson’s release, one year after receiving a six-year prison sentence.

Ah Le Lakang, general secretary of the Kachin Baptist Churches USA, said Samson was released at 1 p.m. on April 17 as part of an amnesty in celebration of Myanmar’s New Year.

Samson was “warmly welcomed” by convention staff and church members “in the hall of the Kachin Baptist Convention,” he added.

He quoted Samson’s attorney, Dau Nan: “He was freed from Myitkyina Prison today to mark Myanmar’s New Year. He is at home now.”

Ah Le Lakang thanked Samson’s attorney, religious leaders and the international community “for their tireless support and effort” in securing Samson’s release.

Samson, chairman of the Kachin National Consultative Assembly and critic of human rights abuses by the ruling Burmese military, was sentenced last year on charges of unlawful association, defaming the state and terrorism.

At the time, BWA General Secretary Elijah Brown called Samson’s sentence “a grave injustice” and called on churches to pray for an end to his “unjust imprisonment.”

Samson had been arrested on Dec. 5, 2022, at the Mandalay International Airport. At the time he was attempting to travel to Bangkok, reportedly for a medical procedure.

Samson was president of the Kachin Baptist Convention in Myanmar from 2018 to 2022, and he previously served two terms as the convention’s general secretary, from 2010 to 2018.

In April 2021, two months after the military coup in Myanmar, Samson joined in issuing a call for global prayer and advocacy on behalf of the nation.

Roy Medley, general secretary emeritus of the American Baptist Church USA and executive director of the Burma Advocacy Group, expressed thanksgiving for Samson’s release.

“The hearts of all who are part of the Burma Advocacy Group rejoiced at the news of Dr. Samson’s release from prison. Collectively, we have prayed and worked for this day. To God be the glory,” Medley said.

“This fiercely courageous spokesperson for religious liberty and freedom chose to suffer with and for the people of Burma when he turned down the offers of asylum that were presented to him when he was last in the U.S. to testify about religious persecution in Burma by the junta.

“Even while he was in prison, he continued to minister to others and through his example and preaching many embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, the Burma Advocacy Group pledges to continue our prayers and work until all of Burma is released from the shackles of tyranny.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was updated about an hour after it initially was posted to include the statement from Roy Medley and the Burma Advocacy Group. On April 18, The Irrawaddy online news outlet, founded by Myanmar exiles in Thailand, reported Samson was taken back into custody, along with his wife, in the predawn hours after his release. The Baptist Standard will continue to monitor the situation and report new developments when they are confirmed.

Roger A. Paynter, former Texas Baptist pastor, died March 6 after complications from a stroke. He was 74. He was born in Ardmore, Okla., to Roger Allen Paynter and Juanita Goss Paynter. He attended Oklahoma State University to play football as a redshirt freshman but transferred to Baylor University. While he was at Baylor, he served as youth minister at Seventh and James Baptist Church in Waco. After graduating from Baylor in 1972, he pursued a Master of Divinity degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and served as a pastoral intern at Crescent Hill Baptist Church in Louisville. He later completed his Doctor of Ministry degree at Texas Christian University’s Brite Divinity School. He was ordained in 1975 and served as associate pastor at The Church at Highland Park in Austin. He went on to be senior pastor at Austin Heights Baptist Church in Nacogdoches, Lake Shore Baptist Church in Waco, Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss., and First Baptist Church in Austin, retiring in 2014. He most recently led the congregation at First Christian Church in Smithville. Paynter served 12 years as adjunct professor of homiletics at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest and adjunct professor of spirituality for two years. He was also a visiting lecturer in homiletics at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and at International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague, Czech Republic. He was president and founding board member of the first Texas location of the Samaritan Pastoral Counseling Center, providing free and low-cost counseling services—first in Nacogdoches, then in Waco and Austin. He was appointed co-chair of the Racial Reconciliation Task Force by the mayors of Jackson, Miss., and Austin. He created a chapter of Interfaith Hospitality Network in Austin, recruiting and organizing places of worship around the city to provide shelter for the unhoused. He also served on the boards of Baptist Women in Ministry, Seton Cove, Habitat for Humanity, the Baptist House of Studies at Duke, the Baptist Board at TCU, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Alliance of Baptists. He is survived by son Grayson Paynter and his wife Kelly, daughter Mary Kathryn Paynter, two grandchildren, sisters Maita Smith and Laura Lee Graham Flynn, and his former wife of 44 years, Suzii Youngblood Paynter March.

Lott Carey, a historically Black Baptist missional organization, expressed “unwavering solidarity with the people of Haiti during this time of unprecedented crisis.”

In an April 16 public statement, Lott Carey pledged continued support for missions partners in Haiti and called on the international community to “join in prayer and support for Haiti.”

Turmoil in Haiti—still reeling from a devastating hurricane in 2010 that displaced hundreds of thousands of people—grew worse after the July 2, 2021, assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.

Violent criminal gangs have seized control over large areas of the country. The United Nations Human Rights Office reported 4,451 people killed and 1,668 injured due to gang violence last year. Already in the first quarter of this year, at least 1,554 have been killed and 826 injured.

“The current situation in Haiti is dire. Gang violence has escalated, leading to a humanitarian disaster that has left millions in need of urgent assistance,” Lott Carey stated. “The recent gang war has resulted in thousands of deaths and has displaced more than 362,000 people, creating a state of fear and uncertainty.”

While violence initially centered on the Port-au-Prince area, its impact has spread into rural areas, as supply lines have been disrupted and grocery prices have increased dramatically.

“This has exacerbated the hunger crisis, with 4.4 million people facing crisis levels of food insecurity,” Lott Carey stated, pointing out it likely will grow even worse during the rapidly approaching hurricane season.

Texans on Mission—historically known as Texas Baptist Men—announced earlier this month it sent funds to help its in-country missions partner, Good for Haiti, respond to immediate hunger needs in rural areas.

“In response to these challenges, Lott Carey pledges our support for the Strategic Union of Baptist Churches, the Haiti Baptist Convention, Mission of Grace and other partners in Haiti,” Lott Carey stated. “We have provided emergency aid, supported education and sent volunteers to assist in relief efforts. Our commitment to the Haitian people remains steadfast.”

Lott Carey has maintained a partnership with the Strategic Union of Baptist Churches of Haiti (L’Union Strategique des Eglises Baptistes d’Haiti) since 1916.

 “We call on the international community to join us in prayer and support for Haiti,” Lott Carey stated. “We urge an end to the conflict and for peace to be restored.

“It is our fervent hope that through collective efforts, we can help alleviate the suffering and bring about a brighter future for Haiti.”

Artwork created by seven Wayland Baptist University seniors will be on display April 19 to May 17 at Abraham Art Gallery. The exhibitions are part of a capstone class for art majors and required for graduation. “For most students it will be the first solo show in their professional exhibition record,” said Candace Keller, art professor and university curator and art director for the gallery. “The students are responsible for all aspects of development, design and installation of their professional visual art exhibition.” Students with artwork in the senior exhibition are Paten Denton, graphite, acrylic paint, oil pastels and charcoal; Alli Ferguson, digital and mixed media; Blanca Murillo, traditional and digital art; Daniel Hartman, primarily street photography with some acrylic paint and pencil; Selma Sutaj, painting and drawing; Ashlyn Holmes, drawing, painting and animation; and Zeah Clark, acrylic, block printing and ceramics. Some of the works on display will be on sale, either as originals or prints. Abraham Art Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday; and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., Friday and Saturday. For more information or to schedule a group tour, call the gallery at 806-291-3710.

For more than a decade, Wayland Baptist University has celebrated Creation Care Week. The emphasis acknowledges God as creator, sustainer and redeemer of all things, and it recognizes many still believe God’s creation is an exploitable commodity. Creation Care Week reminds the university family one cannot honestly declare love for God while destroying his creation. “Creation care is about caring for God’s creation in the same ways that he does,” said Matthew Allen, professor of biological sciences in the Kenneth L. Mattox School of Mathematics and Sciences. Allen will be the featured chapel speaker at 11 a.m. on April 17, as he presents “Tree Tales.” He will discuss tree species found on the Plainview campus, detailing both their ecology and the ways humans interact with them. As part of Creation Care Week, the university offers a special screening of Deep in the Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story, a film narrated by Matthew McConaughey. The critically acclaimed documentary will be shown at 7 p.m. on April 17. On Thursday, Wayland will gather to put creation care into action at “Come Plant with Us,” where students, faculty and staff are scheduled to help beautify outdoor planter boxes.

Renovations recently were completed for a microbiology lab in Howard Payne University’s Winebrenner Memorial Hall of Science, thanks to funding from HPU supporters. “It is now a state-of-the-art space that will better support the student experience in our classes each day,” said Kristen Hutchins, dean of the School of Science and Mathematics. Winebrenner Hall was built in 1962 and named in memory of longtime faculty member O.E. Winebrenner. The updates to the microbiology lab are the most recent in a series of lab and classroom renovations made within the facility in the last several years. Dale Meinecke, HPU’s vice president for Advancement, expressed the university’s gratitude to supporters of the renovation project. “We extend our appreciation to Waldrop Construction, the Central Texas J.R. Beadel Foundation and several other alumni supporters and friends who gave generously to make this renovation possible,” Meinecke said. “In total, nearly $170,000 was given in support of this project.”

Houston Christian University held a groundbreaking ceremony for Founders Hall 2, the final building in the Morris Family Center for Law & Liberty complex, on April 2. HCU President Robert Sloan joined the Morris family, past and former members of HCU’s board of trustees, members of the Executive Council, faculty and staff, and Brookstone Construction contractors to mark the beginning of construction on the final phase of the five-building complex. The $7 million 18,438-sq.-ft. building will mirror the size and dimensions of the adjacent Founders Hall 1 building. The new academic building will house nine classrooms, seven faculty offices and a conference room. Slated for completion in January 2025, the building will provide additional space to support HCU’s Institutional Strategic Plan, “Husky 2030,” and help the university continue its mission—instilling in students a passion for academic, spiritual and professional excellence as a result of their central confession, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Faculty in the College of Science & Engineering at Houston Christian University will be able to enhance student performance in traditionally challenging freshman-level math and science courses thanks to a $500,000 project grant funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.  Established by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, the foundation’s top priorities are to promote discovery in science and engineering, accelerate technology and innovation and advance diversity in science and engineering.  Submission of the federally funded grant was spearheaded by faculty members Illya Medina Velo, assistant professor of chemistry and director of science sesearch, David Meng, associate professor of mathematics and engineering, and Kamela Gallardo, assistant professor of biology. Katie Evans, dean of HCU’s College of Science & Engineering expressed her appreciation for the team’s efforts.  “I am especially thankful for their leadership and effort in support of student learning, and I am eager to provide whatever administrative support is needed to ensure success of this important work,” Evans said.

Attachment 2 – Photo Caption: HCU student in a lab in the College of Science and Engineering | Photo credit: Carnegie | Houston Christian University

Hundreds of students gathered inside a large white tent in the middle of campus for the 25th annual spring revival at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor April 8-10. This year’s theme was “Called by Name.” Shane Pruitt, the National Next Gen director for the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board, was the featured speaker. Jimmy McNeal and Austin Stone Worship led worship for the three-day event. “Revival 2024 has seen more than 100 students respond to calls to salvation, rededication and repentance. In addition, 29 students accepted a call to serve in ministry leadership roles,” said UMHB’s dean of spiritual life and university chaplain Jason Palmer. A thunderstorm on the second night of the revival required a move from the tent to Walton Chapel, where participants worshipped acapella and responded to a call to repentance delivered without a microphone. “The simplicity of the gospel was on display, and it was beautiful,” said a post on the UMHB Spiritual Life Instagram page.

Anniversary

30th for Allen Frans as youth and family pastor at Central Baptist Church in Round Rock. He also has served more than two decades as chaplain for the baseball and football teams at Round Rock High School and for the Round Rock Express minor league baseball team.

LENEXA, Kansas (BP)—David Crowther, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Wichita, Kan., will be nominated for Southern Baptist Convention first vice president.

Steve Dighton, pastor emeritus of Lenexa Baptist Church in Lenexa, Kan., announced he will nominate Crowther at the 2024 SBC annual meeting June 11-12 in Indianapolis.

“David Crowther is a young dynamic leader and one who would thrive in this position of leadership,” Dighton said.

“He is humble, a servant leader, a gifted preacher and a loving shepherd. He is a consensus builder and desires to see us flourish in the years to come.”

Crowther became Immanuel’s senior pastor in November 2019. He previously served churches in North Carolina, South Carolina and Kentucky.

He currently is first vice president of the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists.

Dighton says Immanuel Church “has grown numerically, increasing baptisms, mission offerings and mission giving,” under Crowther’s leadership.

Crowther has also helped the church to increase Cooperative Program giving, Dighton added.

In 2023, the church reported 557 people in average worship attendance and 41 baptisms, according to the SBC Annual Church Profile. The church gave $72,636 (5 percent) of $1,455,921 in undesignated offerings to the Cooperative Program; $25,833 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and $992 to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering.

Crowther holds a bachelor’s degree from Anderson University, a Master of Divinity degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctorate in philosophy from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

He and his wife Laura have three children.

He joins Michael Clary as an announced candidate to be nominated for SBC first vice president.

WASHINGTON (BP)—Many turn to LinkedIn for updates on industry insiders, but among the billion professionals featured alongside respected companies are sexual exploitation leaders such as Pornhub and OnlyFans.

CashApp is popular for electronic payments, but a 17-year-old boy committed suicide after he became a victim of sexual extortion or “sextortion” by criminals who threatened to ruin his life unless he paid them, and only through CashApp.

Nude photos of your daughter are all over the internet, but she pleads innocence. Turns out, her classmates snapped her photo and generated “deepfake” nude images, likely using software shared on Microsoft’s GitHub, where more than 100 million software code writers worldwide collaborate in developing programs.

GitHub’s open-source design allows “anyone to access, use, change, and share software” developed by such giants as Google, Amazon, Twitter, Meta, and Microsoft, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation said, making GitHub the “most prolific space” for AI development and “a major facilitator of the growing crimes of image-based sexual abuse.”

LinkedIn, CashApp and GitHub are among those making the center’s 2024 Dirty Dozen List for “facilitating, enabling, and even profiting from sexual abuse and exploitation.”

“No corporation should be hosting any type of sexual abuse and exploitation but we certainly don’t expect places like LinkedIn to be hosting and perpetuating sexual abuse and exploitation,” said Lina Nealon, vice president and director of corporate advocacy for the center.

“So, we found that LinkedIn is providing a platform for many exploitative companies, most particular PornHub. LinkedIn is normalizing them as a job like any other, as a company like any other.”

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation accused industry leaders of various forms of exploitation including child sexual abuse, rape, sexual extortion, prostitution, sex trafficking, image-based abuse and other evils, documented by the center’s staff including researchers and legal experts.

“These (12) entities exert enormous influence and power politically, economically, socially and culturally, with several corporations on this list enjoying more resources in global recognition than entire nations,” Nealon said.

“Most of the companies we’re calling out have lofty corporate responsibility statements and have launched ethical AI task forces,” Nealon said. “We’re challenging them to actually live up to those statements and fulfill their social obligations to do something.”

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation calls out:

• Apple, accusing the tech giant of facilitating abuse by refusing to scan for child sex abuse material, hosting dangerous apps with “deceptive” age ratings and descriptions, and neglecting to set default safety features for teens.
• Cloudflare, a “a platform for sex buyers and traffickers” that claims a desire to “build a better internet,” but provides services “to some of the most prolific prostitution forums and deepfake sites.”
• Discord as a “hotspot for dangerous interactions and deepfakes.” Exploiters and pedophiles easily contact and groom children on the site, luring children away from home, enticing children into sending sexually explicit images, and sharing sexually explicit images and deepfakes with each other.
• Meta, with its launch of end-to-end encryption, open-sourced AI, and virtual reality “unleashing new worlds of exploitation.” Meta platforms Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp “have consistently been ranked for years as the top hotspots for a host of crimes and harms,” the national center said, noting pedophile networks where members share child sex abuse material, contact children and promote children to abusers. The sites enable sex trafficking, sextortion, and image-based sexual abuse, the center said.  In an April 11 blog post, Instagram announced it was implementing new tools to protect users—particularly young people—from sexual exploitation, including a feature that automatically blurs nude images in direct messages.
• Reddit is a hotspot for sexploitation, the center said, citing child sex abuse material, sex trafficking, and image-based sexual abuse and pornography. The content will be further monetized if Reddit succeeds in going public, the national center said.
• Roblox, where users with such names as “RaipedLittleGirl” regularly target children among Roblox’s 54 million daily users, bombarding them with sexually explicit content generated through artificial intelligence, grooming them for sexual abuse and luring them from their homes. The center calls out the $2.8 billion platform, popular with preteens, for not embracing “common sense child protection measures.”
• Spotify, a music streaming app the center said also hosts sexually explicit images, sadistic content and networks trading child sex abuse material. The national center accused Spotify of pervasive hardcore pornography and sexual exploitation.
• Telegram, promoted as a dark web alternative, has instead unleashed a new era of exploitation, the center said, describing the app as a safe haven for criminal communities globally including sexual torture rings, sextortion gangs, deepfake bots and ot

In a March 26 letter, the Ukraine Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches urged U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson to vote on providing aid to Ukraine without delay.

Citing the 1,000-year history of Christianity in Ukraine, pastors representing the Evangelical Council zeroed in on the bourgeoning of evangelical Christianity since gaining independence from Russia in 1991 to build their case.

“Thousands of new churches were planted, dozens of seminaries and Bible schools were established, and thousands of missionaries went to numerous countries. Almost every city and town has Christian Summer Camps where the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed,” the letter read.

But despite efforts to “break away from the godless, misogynistic Soviet past with its totalitarianism and tyranny of communism. The evil spirits of darkness push the Kremlin leaders to forcefully claim Ukraine again, capture us into their empire, destroying Ukrainian spiritual treasures,” it continued.

Writers of the letter mentioned church buildings being taken away, ministers being arrested and tortured, the Russian bombings of an East Ukraine church, Feb. 28—which killed the pastor—and an apartment building, March 2—which killed 12, including five children and an evangelical pastor’s daughter and infant grandson.

“We have lots of stories like that … Someone gets killed daily … Children get hurt every single day … And the enemy keeps turning our beautiful cities and towns into ruins,” the letter said.

‘The Lord is our hope, but we expect you to act’

The letter implored Speaker Johnson to come to the aid of evangelical churches in Ukraine because “as Evangelicals, we are being accused of working for the interests of the American Government. Every Evangelical Christian becomes a target for the russian [sic] FSB [counterintelligence agency which succeeded the KGB] on the occupied territories, using the russian [sic] Orthodox Church as their asset.”

Appealing to Johnson’s shared evangelical faith—Southern Baptist—the letter closed by asking for “prayers and action on behalf of 8,000 Evangelical churches in Ukraine.

“Approval of military help depends on you today; otherwise, many of our brothers and sisters in Christ will die. Yes, the Lord is our hope, but we expect you to act … vote without delay and approve a military and economic help package.”

The letter was signed by Anatoliy Kozachok, acting chairman of the Ukraine Council of Evangelical and Protestant Churches and senior bishop of Ukranian Pentecostal Church and 15 additional denominational leaders and pastors, including Valerli Antoniuk, president of the All-Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists.

A group of Southern Baptist leaders also sent a letter to Johnson April 8, shortly after the appeal from the Ukraine Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches, urging support for Ukraine.

Pastor Felix Treviño knew the metric stating a healthy church should have one baptism per year for every 15 people in average worship attendance, but First Baptist Church of Mathis simply was not seeing God move in that way.

Treviño became pastor of First Baptist in Mathis last August. When he arrived, the church was running about 30 in attendance and was not reaching its changing community of about 5,000 effectively.

Despite being a 25-minute drive from his home in Calallen, he took on the challenge of leading the struggling congregation, because he sensed the people there were open to change.

“They wanted to rebuild and give back to the community,” he said. “It was predominantly an Anglo church originally, but they are in a mostly Hispanic area, and they wanted a younger, bivocational pastor with more of a missional mindset. Being a church planter, that transitioned well for me.”

Treviño signed up to attend a Pave church revivalization workshop offered by Texas Baptists’ Center for Church Health. In February, he joined a cohort to work through Pave principles of church revitalization with other pastors in similar situations.

Within a month, the church began to see results.

Highlighting baptism

“When we left the cohort, [director of Church Health and Growth] Jonathan Smith said: ‘Don’t microwave the brisket. You can’t rush this process, but there were things you can do already,’” Treviño recalled. “We had one woman who wanted to be baptized. So, we implemented the plan for baptism that Jonathan had shared with us.”

Smith’s baptism plan included three phases: show a video of the woman answering three questions about her salvation the week before her baptism, baptize her the following week, and then show a celebratory video of her baptism one week later.

Treviño modified the plan to fit his congregation and made sure the woman being baptized was comfortable with it.

“She’s a new member of the church,” Treviño said. “And since then, our church has been really ecstatic about seeing growth happen.”

Treviño said no one in the church could remember when the baptismal waters at the church in Mathis had been stirred. A 2017 Facebook post from the church was the last instance of a baptism they could find, meaning it had been at least 2,429 days since their last baptism.

‘Alive and active again’

The new baptism sparked a flame across their small community.

“Using the baptism allowed us to promote that the church was alive and active again,” said Treviño. “We shared the video on Facebook and with local community groups. The area Baptist association shared as well, and that helped people to get excited about what God was doing.”

The church already is planning the next such celebration. Treviño’s sermon on obedience to God stirred something within a man who had been attending for about a year and was seeking truth.

“One man came up and said he wanted to surrender to Christ and be baptized as well. There’s impact already,” Treviño said. “He had been searching for a while and had grown a lot in the past few months. Seeing that really pushed him to make that commitment.”

While that first baptism was a catalyst, Treviño said, additional growth has occurred as he’s implemented many familiar church planting techniques in addition to the baptism emphasis since his arrival.

He contacted community leaders, including the Mathis Economic Development group, and expressed the church’s interest in getting involved. The congregation participated in a local parade and a Trunk or Treat event that attracted around 2,000 community members. They connected with the local school district to deliver Bibles and met with area business leaders. Already, church attendance has grown to about 60.

“We went big on social media and utilized that free resource to reach the younger generation. We have a basketball court in our parking lot, and we share that with a youth team in our neighborhood. So, we’re starting to connect with the community and meet the physical and spiritual needs of people here,” Treviño said.

Committed to church growth

As a bivocational pastor, Treviño works full-time as a firefighter for the local refinery. He’s also a firearms instructor who regularly holds church security trainings.

He and his wife Sara also operate one of the largest outdoor markets in South Texas, attracting more than 100 vendors and food trucks every other month.

Still, they are committed to seeing the church in Mathis grow, as nearly the entire family serves in some capacity. Son Ryan, a senior who will attend Wayland Baptist University in the fall, leads worship and plays guitar. The Treviños also have a sophomore son, Zach; an eighth-grade daughter, Skylar; and a niece living with them who is a high school senior.

“We’re excited about the process, and we haven’t even started scratching the surface of what we want to do,” Treviño said.

“The most beneficial thing about Pave is the structured process. For someone bivocational like me, I need that structure and the accountability of my cohort group.”

NAPERVILLE, Ill. (RNS)—In their own ways, Jim Wallis and Donald Trump each profess belief the Bible can save America.

Trump, who recently endorsed Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA Bible, a book that combines the King James Version with the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, has characterized the Christian Scripture as both a symbol of power and a sign to his followers that their way of life is under threat.

“We must make America pray again,” the former president said in a YouTube and social media promotional video released in Holy Week.

For Wallis, the evangelical Christian minister and longtime social justice activist, the Bible’s substance, not its symbolism, holds the power to address America’s ills and save democracy.

Speaking at a suburban Chicago bookstore April 8, Wallis quoted a passage from the Book of Genesis that asserts all human beings are made in God’s image. As such, he said, any attack on democracy is an attack on something holy.

Wallis agrees American democracy is in crisis and needs to be saved, but it won’t be accomplished by Americans giving in to their “worst demons” and tearing each other apart.

“We need to go deeper than politics,” he told the 20 or so people who had come out to hear him talk about his new book, The False White Gospel. The book turns to a series of biblical stories—from Genesis’ creation account to the parable of the good Samaritan—largely calling to end the polarization and fear that divide the country.

Despite the decline of organized religion, faith and politics still make a volatile combination in a country where the Republican candidate, a thrice-divorced former reality TV star with a history of sexual misconduct, is running as a defender of the Christian faith.

That fact was apparent in the past few weeks as Wallis’ book tour has taken him to cable news shows, yielding segments remarkable for their ardent questions about the meaning of Christianity, not from the evangelical Christian minister and longtime social justice activist, but from his hosts.

The day after Easter, Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” expressed exasperation as he asked Wallis about Trump’s followers: “Why do they have to embrace a failed reality TV host and take him on as the other Jesus, their new savior?”

Joy Reid, host of “The ReidOut,” another MSNBC show, called Trump’s Bible pitch blasphemy. “To Donald Trump, a Bible is no more sacred than a Trump board game. Or Trump water. It’s just another cheap tchotchke to sell to his followers.”

Amanda Henderson, director of the Institute for Religion, Politics & Culture at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver and host of the “Complexified” podcast, said Trump is one of a long line of politicians and leaders in history who understand the power of religion as political tool.

“At a time when so many people feel a sense of loneliness or disconnection, he is tapping into the desire we all have to be part of something bigger,” she said. “We can’t dismiss that underlying need that people have to feel a sense of connection and belonging and to be a part of something bigger than themselves.”

Even as some religious leaders oppose Trump’s use of faith, said Henderson, they can’t afford to cede the discussion of faith to the candidate. The outrage expressed by Reid, Scarborough and others shows the debate has spread beyond clergy to liberal Christians in the media and other sectors.

Civil religion promoted in mid-20th century

Brian Kaylor, author of Baptizing America, said mainline Protestants’ role in promoting “God and country” patriotism in the mid-20th century has resulted in religion becoming one more thing tearing the country apart today.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Americans rallied to a broad, consensual civil religion, reflected in the adoption of “In God We Trust” as the national motto and to add “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, Kaylor said.

When translators of one of the most popular English translations of the Bible, the Revised Standard Version, finished their work after 15 years on the job, Kaylor pointed out, they presented President Harry Truman with a commemorative copy of the new translation in a Rose Garden ceremony.

At the time, 90 percent of Americans were Christians and largely viewed religion in a positive light, Kaylor said. Today, 80 percent of Americans say religion’s influence is on the decline, according to a new poll, while more than half of Americans rarely or never darken a church door.

“Civil religion worked in the 1950s and 1960s,” said Kaylor. “It no longer works today.”

Weaponized ‘God and country’

Calvin University history professor Kristin Kobes Du Mez said the “God Bless the USA Bible” is an attempt to fire up those who remain devoted, though even the number of evangelical Christians is declining.

Trump is “going to need every one of those evangelical votes,” Du Mez said.

But Trump may be appealing to “comfort food Christian nationalism,” a version of “God and country” patriotism familiar to older Christian voters who remember the heyday of civil religion.

“It was this more inclusive kind of Christian America—though if you weren’t Christian, you just had to be quiet and go along,” Du Mez said.

In Trump’s hands, that idea has been turned into a weapon, with his Christian followers portrayed as the “real Americans” pitted against not only non-Christians but Christians who don’t share their political views.

“You are either for us or against us,” said Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne.

In this sense, Trump is trying to turn a bygone Christian consensus into a source of power, a message he made plain earlier this year at a meeting of evangelical Christian broadcasters in Nashville, Tenn., telling them, “If I get in, you’re going to be using that power at a level that you’ve never used before.”

Defending democracy or undermining it?

Tobin Miller Shearer, a professor of history at the University of Montana, points out civil religion appealed to faith in defense of democracy. Trump, Shearer argued in a recent essay, is instead using God to motivate people to undermine democracy.

“Regardless of the outcome of the 2024 election, the switch from historical claims of divine authority for democracy to divine authority to challenge democracy is already obvious and apparent,” he said.

Princeton historian Kevin Kruse, author of One Nation Under God, a study of Eisenhower-era “God and country” politics, said some of Trump’s supporters may still recall that earlier version of civil religion and long for that era, even if the former president has a different goal in mind.

When they hear “One nation, under God,” that means “We are all in this together,” Kruse said. “Not—if you don’t toe the line, you are out.”

Viewing Trump as ‘champion’ for evangelicals

Those who see Christianity as important to many Americans are exasperated at the gap between those teachings and the rise of Trump, said NPR political correspondent Sarah McCammon, even those who don’t embrace the Bible or Christianity but know its teachings.

McCammon, whose book The Exvangelicals was prompted by her experiences covering Trump’s 2016 campaign and his surprising hold on evangelicals, said she often gets asked, “How can Christian people think that this is what Christianity is all about?”

“I don’t think most white evangelicals are supporting Trump because they think he’s a devout Christian,” she said. “It’s not because they think Trump is one of them. It’s because they think he will be a champion for them. That distinction is really critical.”

 Even if many Americans no longer read the Bible—Trump’s endorsed version or any other—Christianity still is embedded for many in what it means to be an American. And it remains a force in American culture, McCammon said.

“Flannery O’Connor talked about how Christ-haunted the South was,” she said, referring to the mid-20th-century author from Georgia. “In a way, Christ has haunted America. We can’t get away from that history.”

For his part, Wallis said he still is hopeful about America’s future. During his bookstore talk, he spoke of the short-term goal of saving democracy. But the bigger goal, he said, is to transform the nation into the kind of inclusive community Christians—and all Americans—can share.

Hope is needed to make that possible, he said, turning to the New Testament Book of Hebrews. Faith, he said in quoting that book, “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”