Texas Baptist leaders uniformly expressed grief and pledged prayer after a mass shooting in El Paso, but some also called on Christians to “do more than pray” and condemn the white nationalist ideology that apparently motivated the shooter.

Law enforcement officials believe the alleged killer, a 21-year-old white male from Collin County, published an online anti-immigrant “manifesto” prior to the shooting and targeted Hispanics as his victims.

Condemn ‘evil ideologies’

That makes the tragedy “especially painful,” said Jesse Rincones, executive director of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas.

“As believers in Christ, we know the power of praying for God’s peace, comfort and strength for all those affected by this loss. We will pray. But we must do more than pray,” Rincones said.

“It is especially painful to know that those murdered in El Paso were targeted because they were Hispanic. Because they looked like the people who worship in our churches, preach in our pulpits, serve in our communities and minister on our mission trips. Targeted because they look like our mothers, fathers, children and family.

“It isn’t enough to just denounce this act of domestic terrorism. We call upon every Christian—in the pastorate, in politics, and in their personal lives—to condemn the evil ideologies of white nationalism and racial hatred wherever they are found, including our national dialogue.”

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught his followers that evil thoughts and murder come “from the heart,” Rincones noted.

“May God transform our hearts to experience healing, renewal, and forgiveness. And may he give us the courage to act—personally and politically—to protect innocent lives from having to experience such tragedies in the future,” he said.

‘Deep-seated fear and hatred’

Singling out Hispanics as targets, as the shooter in El Paso apparently did, reveals “deep-seated fear and hatred,” said Gus Reyes, director of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.

“The murder of any person should grieve our souls. When a group of people are murdered because of their ethnic background, it pushes us to even deeper levels of grief because it’s not just loss of life; it’s an expression of deep-seated fear and hatred,” Reyes said.

“This is so contrary to the gospel and to Jesus’ message to love all people. In moments like these, because of our faith, we can be ambassadors of Christ, offering his help, his hope and his peace.”

‘Horrific ideology’ of ‘ethnic replacement’

In his Aug. 6 daily email and online devotional, Texas Baptist theologian and cultural commentator Jim Denison wrote about the “horrific ideology” of “ethnic replacement” described in the online document police link to the alleged shooter.

Denison, chief executive officer of the Denison Forum, described ethnic replacement as the belief that “white Europeans” are being reverse-colonized by immigrants of color.

That racist ideology also motivated the shooter who killed 51 people at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, the shooter who killed 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue, and the shooter who killed nine African Americans at a church in Charleston, S.C., he asserted.

“The El Paso shooter and other mass murderers see immigrants as a threat to our nation, culture and way of life. Christians should view them in a completely opposite way,” wrote Denison, former pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas and later theologian-in-residence at the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

He quoted Exodus 22:21 and Leviticus 19:34, verses that command God’s people to love—not oppress—the “stranger who sojourns with you.”

“The way we treat the ‘stranger’ is the way we treat Jesus,” Denison said, citing Matthew 25:38, 40.

“Rather than seeing immigrants as a threat to our way of life, let’s lead them to the One who is ‘the way, the truth and the life,’” he wrote, encouraging Christians to view migration as “a missional opportunity for the gospel.”

Both prayer and advocacy

BGCT President Michael Evans, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Mansfield, called Texas Baptists to prayer and to advocacy.

“Our hearts go out to the victims. We pray for all those who have been victimized by this tragedy that was perpetrated on innocent people,” Evans said. “The posture of the church should be one of prayer as well as advocacy on behalf of victims of gun violence.”

Evans offered Ephesians 6:23 as a benediction to the hurting: “Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Gratitude for El Paso churches

BGCT Executive Director David Hardage expressed thanksgiving for the ministry El Paso churches provided in the wake of the mass shooting.

Texas Baptist Men disaster relief volunteers from churches in the El Paso area responded in the hours immediately after the shooting, offering support to first responders and to everyone at the family reunification center.

More than 400 people attended a Sunday evening prayer service at First Baptist Church in El Paso led by pastors of seven Baptist churches in the area.

“Our Texas Baptist family is heartbroken over the tragic and senseless shooting of this past weekend in El Paso,” Hardage said. “We are so grateful for the wonderful churches and pastors in that city who have responded so well with the love of Christ and will continue to do so. Thank you for all your prayers for those individuals and families personally impacted and for those providing care and comfort.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Protestant churchgoers say they can walk with God just fine by themselves, but they also say they need other believers to help them do it.

A LifeWay Research survey sponsored by the Center for Church Revitalization at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary finds majorities of those who attend U.S. Protestant or non-denominational churches at least monthly agree with the two sentiments that are seemingly in conflict.

Three in four Protestant churchgoers (75 percent) say they need other believers to help them to grow in their walk with God, with 38 percent strongly agreeing.

About one in 10 disagree (11 percent), while 14 percent neither agree nor disagree.

Despite that, about two-thirds (65 percent) of Protestant churchgoers say they can walk with God without other believers, with 36 percent agreeing strongly. One in five (20 percent) disagree, and 15 percent aren’t sure.

‘A discipleship issue’

Kenneth Priest, interim director of the Center for Church Revitalization at Southwestern Seminary, sees those two statements as contradictory, and he believes churches need to help those in the pew recognize the conflict.

“I believe this is primarily a discipleship issue,” Priest said. One factor he said has led to a “spiritual apathy” in the pews is “the lack of pastors and spiritual leaders equipped to effectively preach and teach a text-driven life application of God’s word.”

This lack of discipleship, Priest said, has caused many churchgoers to be confused or even to see the church as irrelevant to meet their spiritual needs.

“The ‘needing, yet not needing’ responses demonstrate an internal turmoil of individuals desiring community, but not seeing the church as the place to have those needs met,” he said.

Who acknowledges they need other Christians?

Some specific groups of churchgoers are more likely to say they need other believers to help them grow in their walk with God.

Those attending church in the South (41 percent) are more likely to strongly agree than those attending in the Midwest (35 percent) or the Northeast (33 percent).

Younger churchgoers, those ages 18 to 34 (41 percent) and those 35 to 49 (40 percent), are more likely to strongly agree than churchgoers 65 and older (34 percent).

Evangelical Protestants (42 percent) and black Protestants (37 percent) are more likely to strongly agree than mainline Protestants (28 percent).

‘Value and depend on each other’

“Seeing the value other believers can add comes easily for many churchgoers,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. “But less than half of them also acknowledge their dependence on other believers. The biblical metaphor of the body illustrates that believers should both value and depend on each other.”

Other believers see their faith as more of a solo act.

Women (38 percent) are more likely to strongly agree than men (33 percent) that they can walk with God without other believers.

African Americans (50 percent) are most likely to strongly agree.

Christians who believe they can walk with God without others are missing out on something essential to their growth as a disciple of Jesus, Priest asserted.

‘Solo Christianity’ or ‘biblical community’

“Solo Christianity is an inward desire to seek after spiritual matters without the realization biblical community is what will fulfill the desire they are seeking,” he said.

Perhaps the American emphasis on self-reliance and individualism has an impact, McConnell suggested.

“Americans don’t like to admit they can’t do things themselves. That is true of Christians as well,” McConnell said. “One’s walk with God should include dependence on God and mutual dependence among believers.”

The online survey of 2,500 Protestant churchgoers was conducted Jan. 14–29, 2019. Respondents were screened to include those who identified as Protestant or non-denominational and attend religious services at least once a month. Analysts used quotas and slight weights to balance gender, age, region, ethnicity, income and denominational affiliation.

The completed sample is 2,500 surveys, providing 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 2 percent. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

EL PASO—Even by Glenn Pennington’s standards, Saturday was going to be busier than usual.

He just came home from leading a weekly men’s Bible study and was preparing to run errands to get his daughter ready for college when an alert on his phone stopped him in his tracks.

There was an active shooter at the shopping center 15 minutes away.

He and his wife turned on the television and discovered with the rest of the nation that a shooter had killed 20 people and injured 26 more.

“It was shock—disbelief. I’ve lived here since 1997. It really is a family-oriented community. I’ve never had any problems. People help each other out,” said Pennington, a member of Del Sol Baptist Church in El Paso.

“Just to see what happened at that Walmart was shocking. My wife and daughter went there the night before. It could have been them there.”

TBM called to respond after tragedy

The phone rang shortly afterward. Mike Moss from Del Sol Baptist Church was letting Pennington know Texas Baptist Men volunteers needed to respond.

TBM mobilized volunteers to serve in partnership with the Salvation Army to feed first responders, serve at the family reunification center and meet other needs, said Dwain Carter, TBM state disaster relief director.

Moss and Pennington met at a police station, where they directed traffic, accepted donations and loaded them on trucks for distribution for the next six hours.

They worked alongside a growing number of people from the community, each wanting to make a difference in some tangible way.

“When we got the call, that’s what we’re trained for—whether it’s feeding migrants at a migrant center or responding in the wake of a disaster,” Pennington said. “We’re just here to do whatever is needed.”

‘Love is stronger than hate’

Pennington estimates they unloaded hundreds of cases of water and bags of ice. TBM volunteers thanked people for the supplies and offered an encouraging word when possible.

“Young kids, old people, college and high schoolers brought in cases and cases of water and supplies,” Pennington said. “I’ve never seen so many cases of water or ice before. It was pretty amazing.”

A day after the shooting, Pennington said the community was resolved to push forward.

People are making a distinct effort to reach out to each other, he noted. People are friendlier, he observed

El Paso is a community where people care about each other, Pennington concluded.

“Love beats hate every time,” he said. “You can see hate on social media. It’s just toxic. What we do at TBM and other people do in the community, it just shows love is stronger than hate every time.”

EL PASO—One day after a mass shooting in their city that claimed 20 lives and injured another 26 people, Baptists from El Paso churches met together to pray at First Baptist Church.

More than 400 people attended the prayer service, led by seven local Baptist pastors who spoke of healing in the midst of an unthinkable tragedy in their community.

Mark Rotramel, pastor of First Baptist in El Paso, organized the event on Saturday evening, just a few hours after the shooting occurred at a shopping center a few miles away from the downtown church.

“Our intent is to say our churches stand together, and we want the community to know that,” Rotramel said.

Other congregations represented included Del Sol Church, Grace Chinese Baptist Church, First Baptist Church of Horizon City, Scotsdale Baptist Church and Coronado Baptist Church.

Mayor: ‘We will overcome’

Addressing the prayer meeting, El Paso Mayor Dee Margo, a member of First Baptist, reflected on the events that had unfolded over the previous 24 hours.

“This tragedy will not define El Paso,” he said. “We are a special community, and we will overcome.”

Margo said he saw great courage throughout the city. He commended the first responders for their quick action following the shooting. Margo visited survivors in the hospital on Sunday afternoon, including a 10-week old baby who lost his mother and father in the shooting.

“I hope and pray this will bring us together as a community like never before,” he said.

Pastoral prayers offered

Pastors from each church led in times of prayer for families, government officials, medical personnel, first responders, the country and churches in the community.

Walter Mueller, lead pastor of Del Sol Church, read Psalm 34:18: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

Mueller prayed for the victims’ families and employees of the Walmart where the shooting occurred.

“Lord, we pray for these families,” he said. “We pray that they will not grieve and weep as people without hope, but that they will know that Jesus is our hope. …  Lord, use us as messengers of hope, messengers of the Good News.”

Ariel Martinez, Del Sol East Montana Campus pastor, prayed for medical professionals and those on the scene in hands-on ministry to victims and families.

“We are thankful for the men and women God uses to heal these bodies that are broken,” he said.

‘Be light in the darkness’

Patrick Six, pastor of Scotsdale Baptist Church, prayed for the nation.

“God, your word tells us to be strong in the Lord and in his might. I pray we would be strong in the Lord, that our light would shine in the darkness, that we would minister to those who are hurting, in the name of Christ … We trust you to heal this land,” he said.

Later, Six noted the need for additional prayers for Christians in the city.

“The biggest thing is for us to be light in the darkness,” he said. “Christ is our light. El Paso, like every city, needs the hope of Christ. Pray that we would be strong and courageous with that message and with God’s love.”

Mike Woods, pastor of Coronado Baptist Church, led a prayer of repentance, seeking the will of God and asking God to show believers how they can be part of the healing of their city.

“I believe the Lord will use us as the church to bring revival here in this city,” he said.

Need God, need continued prayer

At the conclusion of the service, the congregation joined together in singing “Lord, I Need You” as a declaration of the need for God in the midst of grief and sorrow.

“It’s impossible for us to give and meet the needs of this community in the coming weeks and months if we are not full of Christ,” said Elvin Porflit, worship pastor at First Baptist in El Paso. “Let’s join together and sing of our need for him.”

Following the service, Rotramel expressed gratitude to Texas Baptists for reaching out through emails and calls over the first 24 hours. The support he received from fellow pastors and churches provided comfort in a very difficult time, he said.

“Continue to pray for all of our churches,” Rotramel said. “This is a great opportunity for us to point our city to Jesus and for him to give the comfort only he can give.

“We are concerned about the people involved—their spiritual and physical condition. … Our concern is how do we not lose these people and double down on ministry to them.”

Rotramel reminded attendees at the prayer meeting that first responders and medical personnel will be dealing with trauma in the weeks and months to come, and he urged El Paso Baptists to continue to pray for them.

He also asked Texas Baptists to continue praying for their city, even after the news cycle had moved on.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Several board members have resigned from a neo-Calvinist evangelical group that released a trailer of a planned film linking prominent Southern Baptists with a conspiracy to promote social justice advocacy in evangelical churches.

The resignations, announced August 1 by Founders Ministries President Tom Ascol, come as some Southern Baptist leaders interviewed for the film have distanced themselves from it.

The trailer for By What Standard? highlights remarks in support of women, such as Southern Baptist Bible teacher Beth Moore, who have spoken in pulpits on Sundays. The Southern Baptist Convention’s 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement says only men can serve as pastors.

Sex abuse ‘different from social justice issues’

The four-minute trailer also shows panel discussions on racial reconciliation at the 2019 annual SBC meeting and on sexual abuse on the eve of that meeting. The abuse-related panel, hosted by the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, featured Moore and Rachael Denhollander, both sex abuse survivors and advocates for churches addressing the issue.

According to statements from two of the three resigning board members—which Ascol said were published at their request and with their permission on his organization’s website—the inclusion of Denhollander in the trailer released July 23 appeared to have been a particular sore point.

“Her presence in the trailer, along with other sexual abuse survivors, seemed to conflate sexual abuse with other problematic views of social justice,” wrote now-former board member Tom Hicks. “All the board members agreed that sexual abuse is very different from social justice issues, but we disagreed about how to go forward in light of the trailer.”

Fred Malone, a board member who said he was resigning after working with the group for almost 36 years, acknowledged in his statement that he was chagrined by the initial inclusion of Denhollander.

Although he said the board had agreed to remove the “confusing image” of Denhollander from the trailer, he resigned because the board did not agree on what he saw as the sinfulness of its use.

“By associating her image closely with a confusing statement about powers of darkness, it appeared to many that we were somehow disapproving of her work against sexual abuse,” said Malone, who described himself as “an advocate against sexual abuse, a counselor of numerous victims for almost 35 years in my pastoral work, and a reporter of several cases.”

Denhollander tweeted that the use of her image “was not an accident.”

‘A painful separation’

Ascol, in his announcement, called the resignations “a painful separation” but vowed to keep going with the film, which is featured on a fundraising website with a bit more than a third of its $75,000 goal raised as of Friday.

“Founders Ministries is continuing with the film project unabated, convinced that the issues we are confronting are of vital importance,” he said.

In an earlier “About That Trailer” posting on his ministry’s website, Ascol said the “1-2 second clip” of Denhollander “was not our wisest editing moment” and had been removed.

“We are grateful for so many of Mrs. Denhollander’s efforts to serve victims of abuse,” he added.

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler is shown in the trailer being interviewed by Ascol about complementarianism, a doctrine about women having different roles in church and family from men. Mohler is one of several Southern Baptist leaders involved in the filming who has now questioned the project’s worth.

“I do not believe that the documentary from Founders Ministries can serve a healthy purpose at this time,” he said in a statement published in Baptist Press, the SBC’s official news service. “I stand entirely by my own interview, but do not want it presented in this context.”

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (RNS)—Connections between Christianity, Confederacy and civil rights—along with the history of slavery—are in plain sight here in Alabama’s capital.

Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church is known for its most famous pastor, Martin Luther King Jr., but one of its early locations was once a slave pen.

St. John’s Episcopal Church, where Confederacy President Jefferson Davis worshipped, is across the street from the building where Rosa Parks was tried after she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man.

Just beyond downtown, Old Ship African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, a congregation that dates to before the end of slavery, sits across the street from the memorial that opened in 2018 to remember more than 4,400 lynching victims.

As the nation marks the 400th anniversary of the forced arrival of Africans in Virginia—and Alabama has its bicentennial—a walk through Montgomery’s streets reveals the legacy of slavery in America.

“It is the cradle of the Confederacy and the birthplace of the modern civil rights movement,” said Kathy Dunn Jackson, volunteer historian of Old Ship AME Zion Church.

Telling the truth about lynching

Religion sometimes played a role in the violence that followed slavery, as seen at the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice.

Amid the 800 6-foot orangey-brown steel columns memorializing those lynched from 1877 to 1950—often by white Southerners—is an example of a religious ceremony being cited as a reason to kill.

“Arthur St. Clair, a minister, was lynched in Hernando County, Florida, in 1877 for performing the wedding of a black man and white woman,” reads a sign.

The memorial, on a 6-acre site, is described by its creators as “a sacred space for truth-telling and reflection about racial terrorism and its legacy.”

About a mile away, the EJI’s Legacy Museum, which traces history “from enslavement to mass incarceration,” features holograms of black men, women and children, held in pens singing spirituals like “Lord, How Come Me Here?” and speaking of missed loved ones from whom they have just been taken.

Like Dexter Avenue’s early location, the site of the museum was once a slave pen. “You are standing on a site where enslaved people were warehoused,” read words on a wall at its entrance.

Legacy of slavery

Another sign points out that in 1860 Montgomery, there were more places for trading slaves than hotels and churches.

The current site of the Montgomery church where King served was purchased for $270 in
1879, and that spot also has ties to slavery—specifically the heart of the Confederacy in 1861.

“It’s one block from the state Capitol,” said Montgomery historian Richard Bailey. “Jefferson Davis was inaugurated within sights of what became that church.”

At the time of Davis’ inauguration, slaves made up almost half (45 percent) of the state’s population, or 435,080 people, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Steve Murray, director of the Alabama Department of Archives & History, said the Capitol steps and that nearby church continued to be at the vanguard of major events a century after the start of the Civil War.

“At the bottom of those steps is where the Selma to Montgomery march culminated,” he said. “You pack an awful lot of really significant American history into a few square blocks.”

A half a century later, tour director Wanda Howard Battle pointed out the lectern in the red brick church’s basement that was placed on a tractor-trailer flatbed for King’s speech when then-Gov. George Wallace would not allow the civil rights leader to speak on the Capitol steps.

Christian faith inspired civil rights champions

Over the last 200 years, there has been a transformation on the street that changed from Market Street to Dexter Avenue and from slave markets to other kinds of commercial business.

The first pastor of the church that has been on one corner for most of that timespan was born a slave. The middle-class blacks who created the Second Colored Baptist Church changed its name twice, first to the street’s new name and then to honor King. Two blocks west, in an area where slaves were once confined, a fountain flows and signs recognize “outstanding Alabamans,” including King.

Curtis Evans, a historian of American religions at University of Chicago Divinity School, said the city’s changes particularly are striking because slave owners may have originally hoped to use Christianity as a “form of social control” but a century later many black clergy became active in the civil rights movement.

“What happened, ironically, is that many enslaved people adapted Christianity to their own circumstances and used it as a very different form of imagining justice in the United States—compared to, for example, white evangelical Protestants who have such different views about the role of government and political issues,” Evans said.

While historians call the overall change pivotal, Battle, a member of an AME Zion church, prefers to consider it providential.

“I just see it as God moving everybody into place,” she said.

TRINITY—When Anita Parrish supervises the SOUL Soup Kitchen in Trinity, she not only manages the cooking area, but also enlists volunteers and assigns food preparation duties.

In addition, she supervises probationers who perform court-ordered community service at the soup kitchen. Burning Hope Baptist Church views it as one more opportunity to touch the lives of people in its small Southeast Texas community, about 80 miles north of Houston.

Serving food for body and soul

As ministry coordinator at Burning Hope and supervisor of the SOUL—Sharing Our Unconditional Love—Soup Kitchen, Parrish provides food for people experiencing hardships in Trinity.

“Whether it’s food for hungry bodies, or food for hungry souls, we’re here to help,” Parrish said.

Every month, Burning Hope receives a check made possible by the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering. Burning Hope uses those funds to buy food that feeds low-income people in the community.

On Tuesday and Friday evenings, about 40 people gather in the fellowship hall for a nutritious meal of a meat, two vegetables, bread, dessert and tea. All the staff are volunteers.

“People in the Trinity area look forward to our twice-weekly meals,” said Tim Nixon who volunteers at the SOUL Soup Kitchen. “They become like family and are concerned about their neighbors.”

Birthed from community tragedy

Started in 1996, the soup kitchen developed after a tragic incident in the community of 2,700, when a 19-year-old young man was killed in a drug-related shooting.

The bereaved mother’s sister-in-law, who was a member of Burning Hope, asked the church to pray for the grieving family. The congregation ministered to the family, and they started attending church.

During a Wednesday night prayer service, the mother of the young man who had been killed suggested Burning Hope start feeding people in the community who were in need.

“I’ve been cooking beans and chili for the drunks in the bar for 25 years. Why can’t I cook for the folks at Trinity who don’t go to the bar?” she asked.

At the time, the church was meeting in a storefront location in a strip shopping center. Although it had no kitchen, members began cooking with crock pots and toaster ovens. Eventually, the church installed a sink, range, water heater and counters.

Four years later, God opened the door to relocate the church to a former restaurant, where a kitchen was available. In another four years, the congregation was able to move into its present location.

“Wherever we’ve located, there has always been a soup kitchen,” Parrish said. “Men, women, and children have taken advantage of the free food and worship at every site. Of course, over the years, the faces have changed. But regardless of the address, the needs are still the same for food, acceptance and fellowship.”

Obeying Jesus

Jesus commanded his disciples to “feed the hungry,” Parrish noted.

“We never require anyone to listen to a sermon or attend our church to receive food. But we have a short devotion reading and prayer before each meal,” she said.

“There isn’t an invitation given. However, we sit and visit with the people and invite them to visit our church if they aren’t attending another one. Volunteers want to show them the love of Jesus and let the Holy Spirit do his job of drawing folks to our Father God.”

People who receive a meal often relate a prayer need, such as an upcoming surgery, need for  employment or family concerns.

Jim Parrish, pastor of Burning Hope Baptist Church, mentions each prayer need when he thanks God for the meal that the soup kitchen serves. If a meal guest is hospitalized, he visits them.

Many of the same people attend each week, becoming like family, said Anita Parrish, the pastor’s wife.

During the years, God always provides for the needs of the soup kitchen, she noted. Brookshire Brothers donates bags of groceries. Vegetables from local gardens arrive just when they are needed. The Houston Food Bank contributes. The YMCA Camp and Trinity Pines Conference Center donate surplus meals. God supplies without the ministry having to solicit support, Parrish said.

Burning Hope is fortunate to have volunteers who support the program, she added. The volunteer dishwashers, cooks and helpers faithfully keep their commitments. When one moves away, there is always someone to take his or her place.

Parrish insists the ministry has changed her life.

“I personally have learned to listen to people and to treat everyone with respect,” she said.

“We are all loved by our Father God, and everyone should be treated with dignity and respect.”

Carolyn Tomlin writes for the Christian magazine and newspaper market. She teaches the Boot Camp for Christian Writes.

This is part of an ongoing series about how Christians respond to hunger and poverty. Substantive coverage of significant issues facing Texas Baptists is made possible in part by a grant from the Prichard Family Foundation.

EL PASO—Texas Baptist Men disaster relief volunteers were asked to serve first responders and families affected by a mass shooting at an El Paso shopping center.

“This is a deeply tragic event today in El Paso,” said Dwain Carter, TBM Disaster Relief director. “We are praying for everyone affected by this event. We have mobilized TBM volunteers to serve in partnership with the Salvation Army feeding first responders and at the family reunification center.”

The volunteers will continue serving as long as needed.

Gov. Greg Abbott confirmed 20 people were killed in the shooting, and more than two dozen were injured. Abbott called it “one of the most deadly days in the history of Texas.”

A 21-year-old suspect from Allen was in custody, police officials said. At a news conference, El Paso Police Chief Gregory Allen said the shooting appeared to have “a nexus at this point in time to a hate crime.”

This story will continue to be updated as information comes available.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Since they first were offered an opportunity to pool resources and buy background checks on volunteers and employees at a discount 11 years ago, about a third of Southern Baptist churches have signed up for the OneSource program from LifeWay Christian Resources.

Earlier this year, LifeWay reported that 16,000 congregations and other church organizations ran background checks on men and women it hired through a service called  backgroundchecks.com. The Southern Baptist Convention has so far resisted calls to set up a database of its own, saying the national registry was more dependable.

Other denominations are also increasingly using searchable databases on prospective employees as the #churchtoo movement begins to shift church attitudes toward sexual abuse and prevention.

What background checks can and cannot do

Most background checks sift through more than 600 million felony, misdemeanor and traffic records. Perhaps most importantly, they also check the nationwide sex offender registry.

But that may give churches and other religious groups a false sense of security about preventing abuse, experts say.

“We make it clear to folks you will have to do a more in-depth search,” said Josh Weis, executive vice president of Ministry Brands, a provider of church management software that also sells screening products for some 30,000 congregations, mostly Protestant. “Not all background checks are created equal.”

Federal law requires all 50 states to implement sex offender registries. But the law does not address lower-level sex abuse convictions and state laws regarding sex abuse vary from state to state.

That means some sex offenders can slip through the cracks.

Jeffrey Epstein, the New York financier charged with sex trafficking underage girls, is a good example.  Epstein was registered as a sex offender in Florida. But in New York, where he owns a residence, he was not required to show up for periodic check-ins required by law after he changed his address to the Virgin Islands, The New York Times reported.

And in New Mexico, where Epstein owned a 26,700-square-foot mansion south of Santa Fe, he was able to avoid inclusion in the state’s registry altogether because his conviction involved a 17-year-old. That is the age of consent in New Mexico.

Deeper background searches needed

Churches need to invest in deeper background searches for employees and volunteers and not settle for less expensive searches in the state where the congregation is located, Weis and representatives of other background check companies insist.

Ministry Brands recently released an audit of the 29,768 churches that have used its “Protect My Ministry” brand, a product for churches. It showed that 40 percent of those church and ministry clients do not take advantage of deeper, more thorough searches of each of the 50 states.

The report also recommended that congregations require applicants to provide Social Security numbers for background checks so it can detect people using false names or aliases.

Recently, the Sarasota County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office charged Charles Andrews, a minister, with 500 felony counts of possession of child pornography. Andrews, who served Osprey Church of Christ in Osprey, Fla., is registered as a sex offender in Alabama.

Officials said Andrews used email addresses and a social media account that were not reported to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Orlando Sentinel reported. It was not clear if church members knew Andrews was a registered sex offender in Alabama. The church’s telephone number was disconnected.

Elizabeth L. Jeglic, a professor of psychology at John Jay College, City University of New York, who studies sex offender registries, said such cases are pretty rare. Only 5 percent of people on the sex offender registry are repeat offenders, according to a recent study in New York state. The vast majority are first-time sex offenders.

Sex offender registry useful but data is limited

Running potential employees through the sex offender registry is useful, said Jeglic. But the data it provides is limited.

The national registry became law after a series of child rapes and murders, perhaps the most famous being that of Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old girl from New Jersey who was raped and murdered by her neighbor in 1994. Her murder led to a series of bills requiring a sex offender registry, with a database tracked by the state and community notification of registered sex offenders moving into a neighborhood. President Clinton signed Megan’s Bill into law in 1996, making sexual offender registries required by all 50 states.

But in recent years, the effectiveness of the national sex offender registry has been called into question. For one thing, the database is not updated in real time. It can take months or years before the database is updated with people who have been released from prison on sexual offenses. For that reason, companies providing churches with database searches recommend that all employees be screened every year.

“Churches have this idea of one-and-done,” said Weis. “We recommend they do it annually.”

In addition, a 2010 South Carolina study showed that many sex offenders plead down charges to a nonsex crime so they aren’t included in the registry.

Need for improved policies and procedures

That, plus the variability of state laws on sex abuse, leads researchers to conclude that screening people through databases such as the national sex offender registry or the state’s criminal database won’t guarantee a sex-abuse-free church environment.

“We’re spending a lot of time and money on enforcing restricted policies that don’t prevent recidivism instead of working on prevention,” said Jeglic.

She recommended that congregations work on policies or procedures to reduce the incidence of sex abuse. That could mean, first and foremost, establishing clear training protocols that forbid church workers to be alone with a child, even in the bathroom, and submitting all new hires to a period in which they are shadowed.

“As a woman and as a mother, it feels nice to be able to look (someone) up and know,” Jeglic said. “But as a researcher the data doesn’t help prevent any future sex crimes. A lot of the information on the registry is incorrect. It gives us a false sense of security.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Baptist General Convention of Texas makes training and resources from MinistrySafe available to Texas Baptist churches. The MinistrySafe system includes awareness training, a “Skillful Screening” process for churches as they evaluate job applicants and volunteers, recommended policies and procedures for congregations, background checks, and tools for monitoring and oversight. 

MITYANA, Uganda—When Joseph Eunice learned about a need in Uganda, he knew he had to respond to orphaned and vulnerable children there.

Eunice, a graduate of the physical therapy program at Hardin-Simmons University, is director of operations for Just a Guy Ministries. In that role, he raises funds to provide food, school fees, wells, homes, livestock and vaccinations for orphans in Mityana, Uganda.

The ministry began in 2017 when Eunice was reading his Bible. He could not shake the idea of working with orphanages. Although he had no idea how to make it happen, he committed to praying about the ministry.

Soon after, a friend connected him with Pastor Patrick, a Ugandan minister who was caring for 38 orphans in Mityana. When Eunice realized that Pastor Patrick had no steady income to provide for the children, he decided to begin Just a Guy Ministries.

The organization draws its name from Acts 4:13, a New Testament verse that says people recognized the apostles Peter and John as ordinary people who had been with Jesus.

“The name is to remind everyone that God still uses ordinary people to do amazing things. We just have to say yes,” Eunice said. “When I first started putting everything together, people would always say things like: ‘That’s so cool. I wish I could do something like that!’ And I would always respond with, ‘Well, I’m just a guy who said yes to a need, so there is nothing stopping you.’”

In addition to accepting year-round donations, Eunice plans three large fundraising events a year.

“I knew nothing about fundraising, nonprofits or really anything that was being asked of me when God put it on my heart to stand up and provide for these orphans,” he said. “I’ve just been learning on the go—just trusting God to show up and be faithful in what he has called me to do.”

A trip to Peru with the physical therapy program at HSU helped Eunice develop a servant’s heart, he said. In Peru, Eunice cared for individuals with special needs and their families.

Working with Joni and Friends and Wheels for the World, Eunice was able to share the gospel and fit mobility devices for those in need.

HARLINGEN—As churches in the lower Rio Grande Valley recover from devastating floods, neighboring congregations and Baptists around the state continue to respond to their needs.

The National Weather Service called it “déjà vu all over again.” Little more than a year—367 days—after the Rio Grande Valley endured a major flood, more than 15 inches of rain fell in six hours on June 24. Floodwaters destroyed or seriously damaged more than 1,100 homes, and about 45,000 people lost electricity.

Steven Parker, pastor of First Baptist Church in Weslaco, remembers the 2018 flood vividly.

“My home flooded last year,” he said. “It gives a whole new meaning to ministry after a flood when you’ve experienced it yourself.”

TBM offers disaster relief

The summer 2018 flood was one in a series of disasters Parker experienced since he became senior pastor at the Weslaco church in February 2008, about five months before Hurricane Dolly hit South Texas.

“I’ve developed a good relationship with Texas Baptist Men and their disaster relief ministry through the years,” he said. “It’s become far too common an occurrence, but it’s always a blessing to work with those folks.”

Within days after the most recent storm, TBM disaster relief volunteers set up an incident command center at First Baptist Church in Weslaco, which provided housing for the crews.

“TBM volunteers worked on about 150 homes,” said Dwain Carter, TBM state disaster relief director. TBM crews—working alongside South Carolina Baptist Men—tore out damaged drywall, removed soaked flooring, and treated surfaces to mitigate mold.

Baptist disaster relief volunteers prepared more than 1,000 meals and distributed 1,500 boxes to allow flood-affected families to collect and store their belongings. The volunteers washed about 150 loads of laundry and provided access to more than 250 showers. They also distributed more than 30 Bibles.

Flood-damaged churches discovered

TBM assessors and Jorge Zapata, associate coordinator of missions and Hispanic ministries for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Texas, discovered several flood-damaged churches in the area. The first church they identified was Iglesia Bautista Avondale in Harlingen.

Pastor Roberto Reyes and his wife, Lorena, live half a block from Iglesia Bautista Avondale. When Reyes waded from his home to the church building the morning after the storm, he discovered the facility filled with floodwater.

“I surrendered it to God,” he said in a video posted on Facebook. “I told him: ‘You know our situation. You know our finances. It’s in your hands.’ God began to send all kinds of help.”

Zapata had coordinated a mission trip for a group from First Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tenn., who planned to work in colonias along the border. The group was housed at Cone Oasis Baptist Camp in La Feria when the flood occurred.

The young people from Tennessee helped Cone Oasis staff deal with rising water that threatened to damage the encampment kitchen, Zapata noted. Then, since the group was unable to travel to the colonias where they planned to serve, Zapata redirected them to Avondale.

The youth group from Tennessee removed wet carpet and water-damaged furniture from the building, and TBM volunteers removed buckled paneling and soaked insulation from interior walls.

Helping sister congregations

Parker and Jose Aguilar, pastor of First Baptist Weslaco Español, recognized an opportunity to help a neighboring congregation. So, they planned a weekend project to replace the interior walls at Avondale, using drywall and other supplies TBM provided.

Joined by volunteers from New Beginnings Fellowship in Sinton and working in partnership with Christian Aid Ministries, a Mennonite organization, the Weslaco crew hung sheetrock throughout Avondale’s facility.

In the weeks ahead, First Baptist Weslaco hopes to work with Zapata on several “other projects on a smaller scale,” Parker noted.

In addition to Avondale, Zapata identified three other Hispanic churches in the area that sustained significant damage and lacked flood insurance.

The storm damaged the roofs of both the parsonage and worship facility of Iglesia Bautista Emanuel in Harlingen, resulting in damage to their interiors. The storms and subsequent flooding also damaged Iglesia Bautista Getsemane in Elsa and Iglesia Bautista Sublime Gracia in Progreso.

Continuing assistance

CBF Disaster Response provided $10,000 to help the churches, and CBF Texas contributed an additional $1,000 grant. Fellowship Southwest is seeking to raise $25,000 to cover the cost of repairing what the churches lost and replenishing the CBF Disaster Response emergency fund.

In addition to providing financial assistance, Zapata also is coordinating mission teams to help with construction projects at the affected churches.

For more information about the Fellowship Southwest Rio Grande Valley flood-recovery effort, click here.

To contribute financially to TBM disaster relief, send a check designated “disaster relief” to Texas Baptist Men, 5351 Catron, Dallas, TX 75227, call (214) 275-1116 or click here.

NASHVILLE—Most Americans say they find their identity in relationships and achievements, according to a new study.

LifeWay Research asked more than 1,000 Americans about their sense of identity and what matters most about themselves.

Few Americans say religion in general or faith in Christ specifically is at the forefront of their identity.

Who do you think you are?

Researchers asked the open-ended question, “When you think about who you are, what are the first three things that come to mind?” Only 8 percent say Christian. Fewer say religious/spiritual (2 percent), child of God (2 percent) or blessed (1 percent).

More Americans mention being a parent (25 percent), intelligent (12 percent), their job (11 percent), compassionate (11 percent), husband (10 percent), kind (10 percent), trustworthy (10 percent), wife (8 percent), friend (8 percent), hardworking (8 percent) and honest (8 percent).

Most characteristics volunteered were positive or merely factual. However, some Americans chose potentially negative traits as one of the first things that came to mind about themselves, such as lonely (4 percent), anxious (2 percent), overweight (1 percent), angry (1 percent), bored (1 percent) or poor (less than 1 percent).

“There is no single lens or identifier Americans use to think of themselves,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. “Ironically, that means the personal identity people have or seek may not be what others see in them.”

What is most important to your identity?

When given a list of potential facets that could be “very important” to their identity, most respondents point to their role in their family (73 percent) and the good they do (57 percent). Around half say what they have achieved (51 percent) and their role as friend (49 percent) is vital to their identity.

Fewer choose their interests or hobbies (44 percent), what they have endured (39 percent), their religious faith (37 percent), their talents (35 percent), their job (32 percent) or their education (29 percent).

Even fewer point to their country of birth (26 percent), political views (18 percent), looks (17 percent), ethnic group (16 percent), sexuality (12 percent) or favorite sports team (7 percent) as a very important part of their identity.

When asked to choose the most important part of their identity, Americans are most likely to say their familial role (44 percent) is top among those characteristics that are very important.

Around one in six (18 percent) name religious faith as the most important part of their identity. For 10 percent of Americans, the good they do is most vital. Fewer than one in 10 chose any of the other options.

Identity and behavior

The LifeWay Research survey also found Americans evenly split on the relationship between identity and behavior.

When asked which statement best described their opinion, 42 percent say, “What I do determines who I am,” and 42 percent say, “Who I am determines what I do.” Around one in seven (15 percent) aren’t sure.

“These two equally common perspectives on life have very different assumptions,” McConnell said. “Working to achieve a reputation presupposes you have less value unless you do. Seeking to genuinely live who you are assumes you had value from the start.”

LifeWay Research conducted the study September 21-23, 2018. Analysts used sample stratification and base weights for gender, age, race/ethnicity, region, metro/non-metro, home ownership, education and income to reflect the most recent U.S. Census data.

The completed sample is 1,010 surveys, providing 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.