Christians should counter cultural chaos with acts of compassion, Baptist General Convention of Texas President Danny Reeves told members of the BGCT Executive Board during their spring meeting May 22-23.

“The world is a mess. … Our world is in chaos,” claimed Reeves, pastor of First Baptist Church in Corsicana. To illustrate, he cited racial unrest, terrorism, moral depravity and U.S. political upheaval.

“We’re seeing the sudden and violent overturning of everything,” he said. “In the midst of chaos, what are we supposed to do? What are God’s people supposed to do? Stay compassionate.”

Reeves read the Apostle Paul’s advice to first century Christians, emphasizing, “May the Master pour on the love so it fills your lives and splashes on everyone around you” (1 Thessalonians 3:12).

“In this difficult day of chaos, there’s going to be stress and tension,” he said. “We can double down on love, patience, kindness, forgiveness—compassion. We can choose with all our heart, soul, mind and strength to love.”

Of course, “compassion isn’t logical,” Reeves acknowledged. “Want to know why? It doesn’t come from us. It comes from the Holy Spirit.” Nevertheless, it produces “devoted followers of Christ who are at their best when the clouds come out.”

That’s what the world needs, Reeves said, asking, “If these are the chaotic days the Bible describes, couldn’t it be true—wouldn’t it be true—the world needs us now, more than ever?”

Covering a light business agenda, the Executive Board:

• Elected five new members to fill vacancies on the Executive Board for the balance of this year—Daniel Ho of Chinese Baptist Church of Houston, Dale Pond of Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Lee Laine Terry Willis of Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston, Lance Wood of First Baptist Church in Clarendon and Kevin Woolley of Mount Sylvan Baptist Church in Tyler.
• Converted two positions on the Howard Payne University board of trustees from board-elected to BGCT-elected. Those positions are held by Steve Ellis and Leonard Underwood, both of First Baptist Church in Brownwood.
• Named three members to the convention’s Evangelism Strategic Planning Council—Jerry Joplin of Bacon Heights Baptist Church in Lubbock, Carl Love of First Baptist Church Moffat in Temple and Vince Smith of Murphy Road Baptist Church in Murphy.
• Allocated an additional $100,000 for demolition of the former campus of Baptist University of the Américas in San Antonio, which now is owned by the convention. Bids for asbestos abatement and demolition remained under the original $400,000 allocation, but costs related to vandalism—security, fencing and generators—caused the project to exceed that amount.
• Changed a governance policy for the convention’s Hispanic Education Initiative Council, allowing the chair of the council to be a member who is not also a director of the Executive Board.
• Revised a personnel policy that will allow non-ministry support staff of Baptist Student Ministries on college campuses to be people who are not members of BGCT-affiliated congregations. These positions are not funded by the convention’s Cooperative Program unified budget.

RIDGELAND, Miss.—Grady Cothen, who served as president of the Baptist Sunday School Board from 1975 to 1984, died May 19 in Ridgeland, Miss. He was 96.

Before his time at the Sunday School Board—now LifeWay Christian Resources—he was president of Oklahoma Baptist University and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

In 1961, he was elected first vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention. At the time, he was executive secretary-treasurer of the California Southern Baptist Convention.

He was nominated as SBC president in 1984, but he placed second in a three-way race won by Atlanta pastor Charles Stanley.

Cothen, who championed the so-called moderate cause during a contentious time in Southern Baptist life, wrote two books about it—What Happened to the Southern Baptist Convention? and The New SBC: A Moderate Looks at Fundamentalism.

Cothen was born in 1920 in Poplarville, Miss. He earned an undergraduate degree from Mississippi College and a master of Christian training degree from New Orleans Seminary.

He served as a Navy chaplain in the Pacific during World War II and was a pastor 15 years, leading churches in Chattanooga, Tenn.; Oklahoma City, Okla.; and Birmingham, Ala. He held multiple honorary doctorates.

His wife of 63 years, Martha “Bettye” Cothen, preceded him in death in 2005.

He is survived by his wife, Mary Colmer Cothen; brother, Joe H. Cothen of Jackson, Miss.; three children, Carole Shields Westbrook of Miami, Fla, Grady Cothen Jr. of Cheverly, Md., and Mary Thompson of Schertz; along with grandchildren, great-grandchildren and a great-great grandchild.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally was posted May 23.  Late on May 24, the Texas House of Representatives voted 101-45 to reject the Senate-supported voucher-type program.

AUSTIN—The Texas Senate attached an educational savings account provision to a public school finance bill, but the voucher-style program faces stiff opposition in the House.

The Senate voted 21-10 to approve HB 21, originally drafted by Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, chair of the House Public Education Committee, to simplify the system by which money is allocated to public schools. The original bill would have provided $1.6 billion in additional funds for public education.

However, Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, amended the bill to include educational savings accounts for parents who want to send their children with disabilities to private schools or to homeschool them.

“This bill opens doors to Texas students by providing more funding and empowering parents of the most vulnerable students with options,” said Stephanie Matthews, senior policy adviser with the Center for Education Freedom at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “With this bill, parents of special needs students will have the ability to determine the best educational environment for their child.”

Senate and House at odds

Gus Reyes, director of Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission, called the Senate’s action “highly disconcerting.”

“Instead of meaningful and much needed school finance reform, the proposed Senate changes to HB 21 would undermine both public education and religious liberty,” Reyes said. “We need to now hope, pray and communicate that the House will not allow this to happen.”

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has made educational savings accounts and similar voucher-like programs for private education a legislative priority.

In contrast, the House voted 103-44 in favor of a budget amendment that said taxpayer funds “may not be used to pay for or support a school voucher, education savings account, or tax credit scholarship program or a similar program through which a child may use state money for nonpublic education.” 

A majority of Texas Senators succumbed to “the legislative bullying of their leadership,” said Charles Foster Johnson, executive director of Pastors for Texas Children.

“It is abundantly clear that the leadership of the Texas State Senate does not believe in public education for all children,” Johnson asserted. “For them to persist in saying so is a deception that we take no pleasure in confronting. Such hypocrisy is morally unacceptable.”

‘Simply wrong to underwrite private education with public funds’

Even if vouchers are earmarked for children with special needs, it is “simply wrong to underwrite private education with public funds,” he said.

Ninety percent of Texas schoolchildren are educated through the public school system, which serves 5.3 million students, he noted.

“Private school vouchers provide for the few at the expense of the many,” Johnson said. “They are inherently unjust.”

Furthermore, school vouchers violate the separation of church and state, he asserted.

“When the voucher supports a religious school with public dollars, whether Baptist, Catholic, Muslim or Wiccan, it is a government establishment of a religious cause,” Johnson said. “In doing so, vouchers violate God’s principle of religious liberty for all people without interference from any government authority.”

To find your state representative or state senator, click here.

ATLANTA (RNS)—Brent Strawn was teaching at a Methodist church in Atlanta when he asked his class to identify the origin of Jesus’ well-known cry from the cross: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Silence.

The Emory University professor of the Old Testament was stunned.

How could it be that these mostly older adults, faithful lifelong churchgoers, didn’t know that Jesus was quoting directly from Psalm 22?

That’s when it dawned on him: The Old Testament is dying.

That realization, now a book by the same name, argues that many contemporary Christians have lost biblical fluency and no longer can speak the language of more than half their sacred Scripture.

A dying language?

It’s not unusual for scholars to talk about the Bible as a language, but Strawn may be the first to look at it as a dying language.

“If the Old Testament is (like) a language, then like any language, it can be learned and spoken, or conversely, can be forgotten and die,” he writes.

Brent StrawnStrawn explains how dying languages revert to a pidgin-like form, with limited vocabulary and an even more limited sentence structure. The New Atheists, such as Richard Dawkins, often speak this broken language, Strawn says, picking and choosing the most extreme passages to support their arguments that the Bible is immoral or contradictory without bothering to understand the whole.

Eventually, Strawn writes, a dying language may become a creole, an entirely new language formed from the contact between an older language and a new one.

For Strawn, purveyors of the prosperity gospel, such as Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar or Prayer of Jabez author Bruce Wilkinson, have repackaged Old Testament stories and themes to such a degree that the text is no longer recognizable; indeed, it’s an entirely new language.

Look at the lectionary

But is the Old Testament really dying, and is there more than anecdotal evidence to prove its demise?

Yes, says Strawn, whose book examines sermons, hymns and weekly lectionary readings in mainline Protestant as well as Catholic churches.

Strawn analyzed 879 sermons published in collections called “Best Sermons,” and found only 21 percent of those sermons were devoted to lessons from the Old Testament. As for lectionaries, heard in many churches each Sunday morning, the Revised Common Lectionary omits seven books of the Old Testament and severely underrepresents 13 others, Strawn writes. Contemporary worship songs fare no better at inculcating scriptural knowledge.

His conclusion? The patient is experiencing death throes, and he believes churches and church leaders are largely to blame.

Not so fast …

Other scholars say it’s important to point out exceptions. Some groups, such as African-Americans and Mormons, strongly identify with Old Testament stories. The liberation from Egypt in the Book of Exodus and the capture of the Promised Land in the Book of Joshua are foundational stories to each group, respectively.

And there’s some evidence that younger Catholics know more about the Old Testament today than their elders did growing up in the days prior to the Second Vatican Council when the Mass was celebrated in Latin and the Bible rarely studied among laypeople.

That said, it’s entirely possible the overall decline of religious adherence across the West has affected Bible knowledge. As more Christians and Jews abandon sanctuaries to join the swelling ranks of the unaffiliated—now about 23 percent of the U.S. population—Scripture fluency may be fading.

A popular 2010 quiz by the Pew Forum found Americans correctly answered 16 of 32 basic religious knowledge questions. Among the findings: Only a slim majority (55 percent) knew the Golden Rule is not one of the Ten Commandments.

Although general biblical literacy may be in decline, Old Testament fluency is a particular problem for Christians, the audience Strawn is addressing.

“The Old Testament has often had a more insecure place with the Christian tradition,” said Stephen Chapman, professor of Old Testament at Duke Divinity School. “Even when the Old Testament is known, what’s known is a simplified version.”

Many Christians know a lot about Jesus and can cite chapter and verse of the New Testament. But they view the New as having superseded the Old.

God of wrath versus God of love?

The notion that the Old Testament is about a God of wrath and the New Testament is about the God of love—a view first propounded by Marcion, a second-century Christian scholar later labeled a heretic—is commonplace among Christians.

Indeed, Marcion’s views are hard to shake even among seminary students today.

“There’s a flight response that the Old Testament elicits,” said William Brown, who teaches Old Testament to would-be pastors at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga. “That avoidance response has been with them throughout their years in church. Now they’re forced to look at it.”

Still, critics say Strawn’s analysis is limited in scope, and they point out no comprehensive survey compares Old Testament fluency today with that of past generations.

New media, new forms

“The Bible has always been dying,” said Timothy Beal, professor of religion at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. “It’s always reaching an end and being reinvented in a new form.”

Beal, whose 2016 book examined the Bible and the arts, said the Bible has undergone many iterations. It started out orally, then it was written on parchment, compiled in codex, printed as books. Now it’s ubiquitous in digital form.

Instead of asking whether the Bible is a dying language, Beal wondered if Strawn’s diagnosis might be better understood as a kind of requiem for the end of “printed book culture.”

Animated Bible stories such as “Veggie Tales” and biblical-themed movies with star-studded casts may be a new way to learn and interpret the Old Testament visually.

Jews, who prefer the term “Hebrew Bible” or the acronym “Tanakh” (since they do not recognize the New Testament), may also face similar fluency problems.

Greatly exaggerated

But Marc Brettler, professor in Judaic studies at Duke University agreed there’s simply not enough solid data to prove that Bible knowledge is dying. The speculative dimension, he said, reminds him of Mark Twain’s famous phrase: “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

“There seems to be some human pleasure in saying something is dying and depicting the current generation as particularly worse off than previous generations,” Brettler said.

Instead of asking if the Old Testament is dying, Brettler said it might be more interesting to ask which limbs of the body are still alive.

For Christians, that’s probably the prophets and the Psalms. For Jews, it’s more likely the Torah, or the first five books of the Bible.

But Brettler also suggested Strawn’s book may have a larger purpose:

“If the book increases biblical literacy, if it’s a good alarm bell that goes off, that’s great,” he said.

DAVIS, Calif. (RNS)—When Ian Johnson first went to China as a student three decades ago, he pronounced religion there “dead.”

But Johnson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist now based in Berlin and Beijing, has witnessed a transformation, one he documents in The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao. 

China is experiencing “one of the great religious revivals of our time,” Johnson writes. “Across China, hundreds of temples, mosques and churches open each year, attracting millions of new worshippers. … Faith and values are returning to the center of a national discussion over how to organize Chinese life. … This is not the China we used to know.”

Growth since the death of Mao Zedong

No, it is not. Once officially atheist, China has roared with growth since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. The upheaval of mass migrations from the countryside to the cities disrupted families and support systems. Many have grown distrustful of the government since the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square. Globalization has brought outside influences—despite tight governmental control—through the Internet and popular culture.

The result is a society adrift, confused and looking for mooring, Johnson said.

In the new China, “churches and religious societies provide a sense of community, a sense of belonging, a sense of being in a group of people who share your values,” Johnson said before talking to a group at the University of California, Davis.

Ian Johnson“Chinese people perceive society to be so corrupt and so chaotic, without any center of gravity or morality,” he said. “Religious associations are refuges from the radical secular society they find themselves in.”

As one person Johnson interviews in the book says: “We thought we were unhappy because we were poor. But now a lot of us aren’t poor anymore, and yet we’re still unhappy. We realize there’s something missing and that’s a spiritual life.”

That has not always been true. At the end of the 19th century, there were 1 million temples in China, and religion flavored every aspect of public and private life. Mao destroyed half of the country’s temples. Religion—what was left—went underground.

A 2015 WIN/Gallup poll found China the least religious country in the world, with atheists making up 61 percent of the population. Only 7 percent said they were religious.

But Western pollsters often botch their Chinese numbers, Johnson writes. Because religion is so highly politicized in China, most Chinese respond “no” when asked if they adhere to one. Instead, when questions focus on religious behaviors—Do you attend a church or believe in heaven?—the level of religiosity rises.

Survey reports 40 million Christians in China

A 2005 survey conducted by a Chinese university found 31 percent of the population—about 300 million people—are religious. Two-thirds of those are Buddhists, Daoists or members of other folk religions, while 40 million people said they are Christian.

In the book, Johnson experiences the ongoing revival firsthand. An Episcopalian, he attends church with Protestants in Chengdu, participates in Daoist ceremonies in Shanxi and travels with Beijing Buddhists to meditate in caves.

Critics have been generally rapturous, citing his reporter’s eye and writer’s patience in illustrating China’s journey from underground “house churches” to open religious revivals in the space of about 35 years.

“I think what Ian conveys is the diversity of religious beliefs that are being revived,” said Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a University of California, Irvine, professor of history who specializes in China and appeared with Johnson at the Davis talk.

“He does ethnographic work—getting to know people who practice these beliefs, where an academic would probably just specialize in one of the traditions.”

But the boom has its limits. The Chinese government recognizes only five faiths—Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism. And it still bans Falun Gong, the suppression of which Johnson reported on for The Wall Street Journal, coverage that earned him a Pulitzer.

There are state-run churches led by clergy in the government’s employ who give government-sanctioned sermons. Other houses of worship are monitored; one of the most chilling segments of Johnson’s book describes a Christmas Eve service with government agents watching from the back.

Still, the recovery from the time of Mao is significant. Johnson likens it to America’s own Great Awakening, the widespread 19th-century revival that led to many new religious movements, including evangelicalism and Mormonism.

Johnson thinks the religious boom in China will continue and predicts Christianity will see the most growth.

“When the Cultural Revolution—a 30-year period—ended, people wondered, ‘Are there any Christians left in China?’” he said. “But what is happening is Christianity, especially Protestantism, exploded underground during the Mao period. There were 1 million. Protestants in 1949, and there are 50 million today. That is huge.”

But Christianity—and any other religion—may blossom only so far. The state will not relinquish its role in controlling religion.

“Even though the government is officially atheist, they see themselves as wanting to have a hand in religion. They fear religion,” Johnson said.

“It is a force that is outside of political control. You can try to control it, but if you are religious, your allegiance is partly to this world, but the allegiance to God is higher and sometimes stronger.”

WACO—Soon after their final classes of the day end, a group of Waco middle-school students gather around the raised beds of their campus vegetable garden.

A World Hunger Relief intern teaches students at Carver Middle School in Waco how to plant vegetables. (Photos / Ken Camp)A few first-timers accompany veteran student gardeners. One girl expresses initial reluctance about getting her hands dirty.

Interns from the World Hunger Relief farm, just north of Waco, patiently work with her, and before long, she joins her friends in the elemental pleasure of digging in the soil and planting vegetables. 

For children who live in the city’s food deserts—places without access to healthy groceries—and who attend schools where nine out of 10 students qualify for free or reduced lunches, the gardens meet multiple needs.

Working in the garden provides students a wholesome outdoor after-school activity. Children and young teenagers learn about life science, nutrition and citizenship. The gardens provide a link to the surrounding neighborhoods, where World Hunger Relief seeks to foster community development. And young people who otherwise might snack on junk food eagerly wait their turn to sample vegetables.

Rebecca Mann, education director and interim executive director at World Hunger Farm Inc., talks with intern Natalie Derricks.
Growing and eating vegetables

“Kids who grow their own vegetables want to eat them,” said Rebecca Mann, education director and interim executive director at World Hunger Relief. Middle-schoolers accustomed to munching on chips and candy can’t wait to sample baby spinach leaves, tomatoes and lettuce when they planted, watered, weeded and harvested them.

World Hunger Relief launched the school garden initiative in 2008 at J.H. Hines Elementary School, working in cooperation with the NAACP. Since then, it has expanded to include gardens at Indian Springs and Carver middle schools. Anywhere from 15 to 50 students a week participate.

“The idea is to take under-performing kids and enrich them with fun activities that give them the chance to be outdoors and to learn healthy living,” Mann said. “We try to follow the kids’ interests, whether that’s learning about bugs or teaching them cooking skills.”

Students at Indian Springs Middle School in Waco sort seeds.At one school, a coach leads cooking demonstrations, showing students how to grill vegetables. World Hunger Relief wants to provide additional training to give teachers ideas about how to use the gardens to help students develop language arts, science and math skills.

Interns learn as they teach

World Hunger Relief interns who work with the students point to the after-school activity as a learning experience for them, as well.

Rachel Bailey, an intern from Albany, Ga., noted the experience has inspired her to continue her educational and vocational interest in maternal nutrition.

Working as an intern with World Hunger Relief has inspired Rachel Bailey to continue her education and given her a sense of vocation.“I want to train mothers, teaching them skills and knowledge they can pass down to their children,” she said.

Lauren DeSilva, an intern from South Africa, wants to enter the master of divinity/master of social work program jointly offered by Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary and its Diana R. Garland School of Social Work.

“I want to understand social justice, Christ’s vision for the world and how I can be part of making that vision a reality,” she said. “I hope to be able to serve people who are without a voice.”

Implementing global practices locally

For more than 40 years, World Hunger Relief has served as a training ground for agricultural missionaries and others involved in holistic ministries worldwide.

An Indian Springs Middle School student uses a sprayer to water plants in the school’s greenhouse. The school gardening initiative reflects the organization’s desire to put into practice locally some of the same sustainable community development principles it has honed working with global partners—Ricks Institute in Liberia and the Valle Nuevo farming community in El Salvador—as well as its own long-term ministry in Haiti.

Texas Baptists help support both the school gardening program and international development programs of World Hunger Relief through their gifts to the Texas Hunger Offering. 

The organization also has launched a pilot program with three Family Health Center locations in Waco. Doctors at the centers prescribe vegetables to patients who need to improve their diets. The World Hunger Relief farm has provided the centers about 1,000 boxes of vegetables—complete with suggested recipes—in three months.

A training ground to address global hunger

Bob and Jan Salley—gospel singers and real-estate developers—launched World Hunger Relief Inc. in 1976. Three years later, when Carl Ryther returned to Texas after serving as an agricultural missionary, the Salleys invited him to join them to develop a program to teach people how to address global hunger.

Groups from around the country have participated in the organization’s Living on the Other Side global poverty simulation. During their time at the farm, participants learn what it means to haul water, harvest vegetables, gather wood for a fire and even slaughter a chicken to prepare their own meal in primitive conditions.

Interns work 13 months on the 40-acre World Hunger Relief farm, where they learn sustainable agricultural techniques, problem-solving skills and a holistic approach to Christian missions. Many continue the learning experience with an optional three months in a developing nation.

After serving four years with Youth With A Mission, including two years in North Africa, Natalie Derricks, an intern from Wisconsin, arrived at the World Hunger Relief farm with a deep interest in nutrition and “no gardening experience,” she said.

“It has changed my perception of the world and how I view missions,” she said.

Meeting needs and sharing faith

Mann—whose grandparents on both sides of her family served as Baptist foreign missionaries—views the farm’s educational outreach programs as occasions to engage people in spiritually meaningful conversations, even if they are not overtly evangelistic.

As participants learn about poverty, hunger and inequity in food distribution, she or others raise the question, “What does God think about this?”

“It’s an opportunity to start the conversation,” she said.

Mann first learned about World Hunger Relief while she was pursuing a degree in international studies at Baylor University. After her “World Food Problems” class introduced her to the organization, she started volunteering at the farm.

She joined the staff in 2012 as an interim office manager and became the education and business director two years later. She and her husband, Chris, and their 3-year-old son, Bridge, attend Dayspring Baptist Church in Waco.

“We want more people to gain access to healthy food,” she said. “It’s not OK that kids are denied the opportunity for their bodies and brains to grow because they are not nourished.  We think this is what God wants us to do.”

Read more articles like this in CommonCall magazine. CommonCall explores issues important to Christians and features inspiring stories about disciples of Jesus living out their faith. An annual subscription is only $24 and comes with two complementary subscriptions to the Baptist Standard. To subscribe to CommonCall, click here.

Howard Payne University seniors Chad Anders and Kara Strange received Nat Tracy Student Leaders Awards.Howard Payne University recognized six students for acts of servant leadership on campus and in the community. Chad Anders, a senior from Midlothian, and Kara Strange, a senior from Fredericksburg, received the Nat Tracy Servant Leader Award, named in honor of a professor who served on the university’s Bible faculty from 1950 to 1975. HPU presented Servant Leadership Awards to four juniors—Trey Carpenter from Hamilton, ZE from Natalia, Kindell Hill from Jarrell and Cassia Rose from Winnsboro.

Houston’s City Council and Mayor Sylvester Turner proclaimed May 9 as “Buckner International Day.” The proclamation recognized Buckner for its contributions to the city, including programs such as Parkway Place, Buckner Hospice, Buckner Family Hope Center at Aldine, Buckner Family Pathways and Buckner Foster Care.

Dallas Baptist University President Adam Wright (left) confers an honorary doctorate on Pete Delkus.Dallas Baptist University awarded 584 degrees during its four spring commencement services May 11-12. The university conferred an honorary doctor of humanity degrees on Pete Delkus, chief meteorologist for WFAA-TV in Dallas and a member of the DBU board of trustees since 2010. He and his wife, Jacque, are members of Parkway Hills Baptist Church in Plano.

Baylor University received a $1 million-plus gift to its geosciences department that will increase opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to conduct research under the guidance of faculty mentors. Parents of a current Baylor student who wish to remain anonymous made the gift, which has three elements—an endowment for undergraduate studies in geology; an endowment for graduate research in geology; and the Hammer-Chisel Endowed Fund, with proceeds earmarked to purchase geological equipment.

Dallas Baptist University President Adam Wright (center) presents Good Samaritan Awards to Pastor Mike Simmons and Vivian Skinner.Dallas Baptist University named Mike Simmons, senior pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Cedar Hill, and Vivian Skinner, director of the Patty and Bo Pilgrim Chapel at DBU and founding director of Baby Moses Dallas, a nonprofit organization established to raise awareness of the Texas Safe Haven law, as the 2017 Good Samaritans Award recipients.

Alice Starr The 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative named Alice Starr of Waco to its board of directors. She is chief executive officer of Starr Strategies, a consulting firm that helps nonprofit organizations with public relations, marketing and fund-raising strategies. Her husband, Ken, is former president and chancellor of Baylor University.

Baylor University’s Public Deliberation Initiative will sponsor a Civic Life Summit June 1-2 to help churches, educational institutions and concerned citizens engage communities in conversations that build mutual respect across racial, religious and political barriers. Chet Edwards, former member of the U.S. Congress and the W.R. Poage Chair for Public Service at Baylor, will be the keynote speaker. The two-day summit will be held at the Mayborn Museum Complex. Registration cost is $95, which includes meals. For more information, click here.

Anniversary

James S. Shamburger, 30th, as senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Victoria, June 4.

Ordination

Suzii Paynter to the gospel ministry by Austin Heights Baptist Church in Nacogdoches. She is executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

CANTON—After working more than 4,000 volunteer hours, Texas Baptist Men completed immediate disaster relief ministry in tornado-stricken parts of East Texas and prepared to work alongside residents there in long-term recovery.

Meanwhile, in response to flooding in the Midwest, a TBM incident management team is on-site in Jefferson City, Mo., two flood-recovery teams are working in Neosho, Mo., and an additional flood-recovery crew and two assessor teams are on their way to Missouri.

In East Texas, TBM disaster relief volunteers distributed 3,843 boxes to help residents gather and store their storm-scattered possessions, and “blue-tarp” crews provided eight homes with temporary roof coverings.

Chainsaw crews completed 61 jobs, heavy-equipment operators logged 228 hours, and food-service volunteers prepared 469 meals. Chaplains recorded more than 250 contacts and distributed 33 Bibles. TBM volunteers provided access to 209 showers and washed 207 loads of laundry.

Long-term recovery process begins

Gerald Davis, TBM long-term recovery coordinator, attended the initial meeting of the Van Zandt County Long-term Recovery Group May 15. He reported the crisis cleanup database includes 396 homes in Van Zandt County that were damaged or destroyed, not counting affected homes in Rains or Henderson counties.

Of the 205 homes identified as destroyed, 55 percent belonged to homeowners without insurance, he noted.

TBM long-term recovery projects—such as ongoing ministries in Houston and Southeast Texas following floods in those areas—focus on uninsured, underinsured, disabled or elderly disaster survivors, Davis said. 

“Once we have the opportunity to assess needs, we will mobilize volunteers to build and repair homes,” he said. “Of course, it’s all contingent on fund-raising for the supplies. There’s a need for ongoing support.”

To date, the Van Zandt Long-term Recovery Account established locally at Ben Wheeler State Bank has received about $128,000, and additional fund-raising events are planned in the next two weeks.

Updated information is posted regularly on the Van Zandt County Tornado 2017 Facebook page here. 

To donate to TBM, send a check designated “disaster relief” or “long-term recovery” to Texas Baptist Men, 5351 Catron, Dallas 75227 or click here and select the appropriate fund from the pull-down menu. 

DALLAS—When students at Baylor University’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing learned senior design engineering students at Baylor developed a therapeutic swing for a child with special needs, they recognized young guests at the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas could benefit from a similar project.

Last year, engineering students at Baylor created a therapeutic swing for Camille Whitt, whose father, Jason Whitt, is associate director of Baylor’s Institute for Faith and Learning. Camille battles a genetic condition that limits her development and motor skills and makes her unable to use standard swings. However, the therapeutic swing’s gentle rhythm improves her brain equilibrium and helps her connect to her surroundings.

Young guests at the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas benefit from the therapeutic swing provided by Baylor University engineering and nursing students.The Baylor Student Nurses Association learned about the “Camille Big Girl Swing” project, and they thought about the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas, a home-away-from-home for families of seriously ill or injured children who have traveled to Dallas seeking medical treatment in area hospitals.

So, the association asked a group of engineering students in the May 2017 graduating class to design a similar swing as their senior capstone project. In January, the senior design team met with nursing school representatives at the Ronald McDonald House.

“We discussed design ideas and brainstormed functionalities that we though were important for the swing,” said Taylor McCants, a senior engineering student. “After that, the engineering group has worked hard to make this dream come true. There has been a nursing school representative at each of our presentations about the swing. They have shown their support and involvement through the process. It is nice to know that they are just as passionate about this swing as our engineering group.”

Members of the student nurses association set a $2,000 fund-raising goal for the Swing ’em Bears project and went to work. They conducted a bake sale at the nursing school, sold Swing ’em Bears long-sleeve T-shirts and sponsored a fund-raiser at a Dallas restaurant.

The new swing include aesthetic and functional improvements, such the ability to hold 100 pounds, to be adjusted easily and moved by two people, and an electric gear motor powered by a standard wall outlet.

The Baylor Student Nurses Association has a longstanding relationship with the Ronald McDonald House and its members “wanted to do something special for these children and their families,” said Kaitlyn Po, president of the association.

“We are honored to have been chosen by the Baylor Student Nurses Association and Baylor’s engineering team as a recipient of the Camille Big Girl Swing,” said Maggie Herell, marketing and communications manager at the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas. “We serve over 3,750 individuals each year, and all of them have different needs. Having this swing will allow us to serve children with a variety of special needs.”

Based on a report by marketing and communications at the Louise Herrington School of Nursing.

WACO—Baylor University’s board of regents announced the school has completed foundational implementation of the 105 recommendations made by the law firm that investigated its response to sexual assault reports.

But both Linda Livingstone, who assumes office as Baylor’s 15th president June 1, and Interim President David Garland emphasized many of the improvements involve ongoing processes—not a once-and-for-all checklist of accomplished tasks.

Ron Murff, who completed his time as chair of the Baylor University board of regents, responds to reporters’ questions after the regents’ spring meeting. (Photo / Robert Rogers / Baylor Marketing and Communication)The board made its announcement almost a year after regents removed Ken Starr from his role as president, fired head football coach Art Briles and sanctioned Athletic Director Ian McCaw. McCaw subsequently resigned as athletic director, and Starr also resigned—first as chancellor and later as a law school professor.

At their spring meeting, regents also recognized Garland for his service and created a scholarship fund in his honor, elected former Baylor Scott & White President and CEO Joel Allison as board chair and adopted a $621.7 million budget for the next school year.

David Garland has served as Baylor University’s interim president the past year. Baylor’s board of regents created a scholarship fund at Truett Theological Seminary in honor of his service. (Photo / Robert Rogers / Baylor Marketing and Communication)“My top priority during my interim presidency was to implement these expansive corrective actions that demonstrate Baylor’s firm institution-wide commitment to improving our processes, communication, training and response,” Garland said. “We want to re-ignite a culture of respect and character that reflect’s Baylor’s Christian mission.”

Regents announced the “structural completion” of all 105 recommendations made by attorneys at the Pepper Hamilton firm after an investigation into Baylor’s Title IX compliance and response to sexual assault allegations. While “the infrastructure and foundation are in place,” some aspects of implementation remain ongoing, according to a statement from the university.

Audit report to be released this summer

The investigating attorneys formerly with Pepper Hamilton—Gina Maisto Smith and Leslie M. Gomez, who are now with the Cozen O’Connor law firm—will conduct audits of the work completed by Baylor’s administration, faculty and regents, and the university expects to release a written report sometime this summer.

“It’s important to note that for some of the recommendations, there is no completion point, as they speak to an overall culture of compliance and commitment to ongoing initiatives, not necessarily a one-time ‘to-do’ list,” Garland said. “These recommendations will be ongoing as we continue to make them operational throughout campus.”

Linda Livingstone, who becomes president of Baylor University June 1, emphasized “building the culture” in keeping with the Pepper Hamilton recommendations will take time. (Photo / Robert Rogers / Baylor Marketing and Communication) Livingstone—who will become Baylor’s first female president in its 172-year history—made the same point, noting putting improved policies and procedures in place is, in some respects, “the easy part,” but “building the culture” of an institution takes time.

Baylor will continue to make improvements based on the recommendations not just for the sake of completing tasks, but because “it’s the right thing to do,” she said.

Regents establish Truett scholarship to honor Garland

Regents established a scholarship fund in honor of Garland, who has served as the university’s interim president the past year. He first served as interim president from August 2008 to May 2010, and he was interim provost from July 2014 to June 2015.

The $5 million fund will provide scholarships for students at Baylor’s Truett Theological Seminary. Garland served as the seminary’s dean from 2007 to 2015 and will return to teach there next spring.

Between now and the spring 2018 semester, the university granted Garland a research sabbatical. He is working on a commentary on the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans—an effort he called “the capstone” to his career as a New Testament scholar and a “spiritual lifeline” to him personally in recent months.

Other regents business

Joel Allison In addition to electing Allison as chair of the board to succeed Ron Murff of Dallas, the regents elected Daniel H. Chapman of Dallas, Jerry K. Clements of Austin and Mark Hurd of Redwood Shores, Calif., as vice chairs.

Drayton McLane Jr. of Temple will remain on the board as regent emeritus. He is a founding member of Bears for Leadership Reform, a group of alumni and donors who have criticized the board of regents for perceived lack of accountability and transparency.

The board welcomed Melissa Purdy Mines of Austin as an alumni-elected regent. She is a member of First Baptist Church in Austin and a vice president at Bulldog Success.

The board elected three new at-large regents—Jill Manning of Dallas and Alicia D.H. Monroe of Missouri City to three-year terms and Julie Hermansen Turner to a two-year term. Both Manning and Turner are members of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas. Monroe is a member of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston.

Faculty regents are Andrea Dixon with the Hankamer School of Business and Gaynor Yancey, director of the Center for Family and Community Ministries in the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work.

Student regents are Hannah Vecseri, a junior from Houston, and Will Cassara, a sophomore from Keller.

AUSTIN—The Texas House of Representatives approved a bill that faith-based foster care and adoption agencies praised as a safeguard for their religious liberty rights and opponents called state-sanctioned discrimination, particularly against same-sex couples.

The House voted 93-49 to approve HB 3859 by Rep. James Frank, R-Wichita Falls, which protects the right of religious child welfare agencies that serve as providers in the state’s child welfare system to exercise their “sincerely held religious beliefs.” 

Now the measure moves to the Senate, where Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, introduced similar legislation, SB 892, which remains in committee. 

‘Room for all of us to care for these children’

The bill “provides conscience protection for faith-based providers … who cannot abandon the tenets of our faith, which compels us to assist children in the Texas foster care system,” said Randy Daniels, vice president for program development with Buckner Children and Family Services. 

“We believe there is room for all of us to care for these children, and we believe this bill ensures the inclusion of everyone, while enabling us to adhere to our deeply held religious convictions.”

The Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission worked with Buckner and other agencies in support of the bill. 

“It provides healthy protection for faith-based entities while not impacting the many other placing agencies,” CLC Director Gus Reyes said, emphasizing faith-based agencies account for 25 percent of the child-placing capacity in Texas.

“This measure is designed to maintain their seat at the table, as the state seeks to solve its foster care crisis,” he continued. “Everyone has a role to play in addressing this crisis, as we believe kids who are wards of the state are our kids. We hope the Senate also passes this measure and that it is signed by the governor.”

‘Essential tool in reform’ or ‘license to discriminate’?

The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops also supported the bill, calling it “an essential tool in reform” of the state’s child welfare system.

“Conscience protections allow our faith-based providers to continue to be a safe and loving refuge for children in crisis and to accompany them on their journey to healing and wholeness, breaking the cycle of abuse and neglect one child at a time,” said Jennifer Allmon, executive director of the conference.

Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, asserted the bill “would allow extraordinary discrimination in the name of Texas and at taxpayer expense.”

“The bill’s clear intent is to authorize the misuse of religion as a license to discriminate against LGBT families and children in the state’s child welfare system,” she said.

Protect faith-based agencies from litigation

Under the bill, faith-based providers that contract with the state could not be compelled to make a foster or adoptive placement that violates their religious beliefs, such as placing a child in the home of a gay or lesbian couple.

The bill also protects their right to deny referrals for abortion-related birth-control drugs or devices, to place a child in a parochial school and to refuse to contract with organizations that violate their beliefs.

Faith-based agencies in Texas have a history of providing care for vulnerable children that predates Child Protective Services, said Frank, a deacon at First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls.

“Unfortunately, the ability of many of the faith-based institutions to continue offering services is threatened by the prospect of litigation for declining to provide certain services (such as abortion) because of sincerely held religious beliefs,” Frank said in a statement on his Facebook page. 

“At a time when we need all hands on deck, we face the real risk of seeing a large number of these providers leave the field, as they are forced to make the choice between devoting a substantial amount of resources in fighting litigation and other adverse action, or using those resources on other services to fulfill the tenets of their faith.”

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Congregational leaders from across the country are being urged to speak out to protect the law that keeps partisan politics out of the nation’s pulpits.

Leaders of churches, synagogues and other houses of worship—clergy and laity alike—can go online to sign a letter opposing efforts to repeal or weaken the so-called Johnson Amendment, which President Donald Trump has said he wants to “destroy.” The 1954 law prohibits congregations and other tax-exempt organizations from directly endorsing or opposing political candidates. But those organizations still can engage in political debate on any issue.

The president’s recent executive order, “Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty,” zeroed in on the Johnson Amendment, noted Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

Presidential fixation

“Although the executive order did not clearly change anything from a legal or practical standpoint, it did show President Trump is fixated on this issue,” said Tyler, a leader of a coalition created to preserve the Johnson Amendment and to protect pulpits from partisanship.

That group recruited 99 organizations—from Baptist, to Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh and other faith traditions—to send a letter to House and Senate leaders, insisting the current law safeguards “the integrity of our charitable sector and campaign finance system.”

A subset of that group has created a website, “Faith Voices,” which hosts a letter that can be signed by concerned congregational leaders. Like its predecessor, the new letter will be distributed to members of Congress, informing them of the broad-based support for the Johnson Amendment and church-state separation.

“Destroying the Johnson Amendment requires an act of Congress. But we have heard it has been targeted by people working on tax reform, and it might be attached to a spending bill,” Tyler said. “So, now is the time—when people are starting to focus on this issue and congressional action is likely—for people from faith communities to speak up and express their personal concerns.”

Sign and comment

The ecumenical coalition supporting the website and the new protest letter involves the Baptist Joint Committee and at least 10 other groups, including the multi-racial New Baptist Covenant. Visitors to the site can click a link to add their names to the letter. They also may add comments about “what a change in the law would mean to them,” she said.

“This site is for what we call ‘faith leaders,’” Tyler explained. “That’s not just clergy, but also people who consider themselves leaders in their faith community. … As Baptists, we believe in the priesthood of the believer, and so we have all kinds of church leaders. Their voices are important.”

The letter begins: “As a leader in my religious community, I am strongly opposed to any effort to repeal or weaken current law that protects houses of worship from becoming centers of partisan politics. Changing the law would threaten the integrity and independence of houses of worship. We must not allow our sacred spaces to be transformed into spaces used to endorse or oppose political candidates.”

Retain independent voices

The letter also discusses the necessity of retaining independent voices in order for faith communities to maintain their prophetic role in society. It mentions the divisive and detrimental effects that would ensue if congregations become politicized.

“I therefore urge you to oppose any repeal or weakening of the Johnson Amendment, thereby protecting the independence and integrity of houses of worship and other religious organizations in the charitable sector,” the letter concludes.

The option that allows letter signers to describe what a change in the law would mean for them is significant, Tyler said, adding, “Often, these individuals are much more articulate on this issue than their advocates in Washington are.”

National polls say repeal of the Johnson Amendment is unpopular. Repeal would affect not only the presidential and congressional elections, but also “every race on the ballot,” Tyler reported. “It is difficult to think of a congregation that would not be divided if the Johnson Amendment were destroyed.”

To learn more about the letter and to endorse it, click here.