Knowlton chosen to head Baptist Health Foundation. The Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio board elected Cody Knowlton as its new president and CEO, effective Jan. 1. He succeeds Frank Elston, who retired Dec. 31. Knowlton, a native of San Antonio, has worked in development at Baylor University in Waco since 1993, serving as senior executive director of development since 2006. Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio was created from the 2003 sale proceeds of the five San Antonio Baptist Hospitals to Vanguard Health Systems of Nashville, Tenn.

HBU acquires wellness center. Houston Baptist University has purchased the Memorial Hermann Wellness Center, adjacent to the school campus on property that fronts Southwest Freeway. The facility, to be known as the Bradshaw Fitness Center, not only will help the university advance its goals of enriching student life and building a residential learning community, but also will serve as a training facility for HBU's NCAA Division I athletic programs.

• Sean Baily has resigned as pastor of Malta Church in DeKalb.

• Chip Davidson to Oaklawn Church in Texarkana as interim pastor.

• Gregorio Gomez to Primera Iglesia in Mathis as interim pastor.

• Evan Henson to Western Heights Church in Waco as youth minister.

• Michael King has resigned as pastor of Everett Church in Hooks.

• Jim Kirby to Center Grove Church in Saltillo as pastor.

• Ben Klar to First Church in Gunter as youth minister.

• Blake Pitchford to First Church in Bells as youth minister.

• Kyle Ray to Journey Church in Sulphur Springs as pastor.

• Steve Shipley has resigned as pastor of Oaklawn Church in Texarkana.

• Stephen Strealy to First Church in Portland as youth minister.

• David Watterson has resigned as young adult minister at First Church in Amarillo.

• Delmar White to Grapeland Church in Grapeland as pastor from Mapes Church in Vanderhoof, British Columbia.

• Justin White to Georgetown Church in Pottsboro as youth minister.

• Jordan Zera to First Church in Mathis as youth minister.

Religious freedom panel gets reprieve. With a last-minute vote, Congress saved an independent religious freedom watchdog commission that was about to shut down. The bill reauthorizing the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom for three years was held up in the Senate almost three months before passing with an amendment that will limit the appointment of commissioners to a maximum of two, two-year terms. The House approved it Dec. 16, the same day the commission was set to close. USCIRF is a bipartisan commission that issues an annual report of "countries of particular concern" on religious rights abuses and provides foreign policy recommendations to the president, Congress and the State Department. It has nine commissioners, a staff of 17 and a $4 million annual budget.

U.S. tops charity index. Are Americans the most generous people in the world? Yes, according to a new study of global giving to charity. The "World Giving Index," based on 150,000 interviews with citizens of 153 nations, ranks the U.S. highest on a scale that weighed monetary donations, volunteer work and willingness to help a stranger. The survey's authors noted charitable behavior is not correlated with wealth. Of the 20 countries the World Bank ranks richest by gross domestic product, only five made it into the top 20 of the index.

Atheists distrusted by society. A new study finds atheists among society's most distrusted group. Psychologists at the University of British Columbia and the University of Oregon say their study, published in the current issue of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, demonstrates anti-atheist sentiment stems from moral distrust, not dislike, of nonbelievers. The study, conducted among 350 American adults and 420 Canadian college students, asked participants to decide if a fictional driver damaged a parked car and left the scene, then found a wallet and took the money, was the driver more likely to be a teacher, an atheist teacher or a rapist teacher? The participants, who were from religious and nonreligious backgrounds, most often chose the atheist teacher.

Believers can be swayed on nukes, environment. Most Americans believers do not see preventing climate change or the spread of nuclear weapons as "spiritual obligations," according to a new poll. The University of Maryland's Center for International and Security Studies conducted the poll to examine how individuals think their faith intersects with global policy challenges. Just 39 percent of all believers, and 31 percent of evangelicals, agreed most scientists think the problem of climate change is urgent and enough is known to take action. Only 15 percent of all believers initially agreed it is a spiritual obligation to prevent climate change. But after being presented with pro and con statements about a spiritual obligation to be good stewards of the environment, 76 percent embraced this notion. Similarly, after being presented with pro and con arguments for eliminating all nuclear weapons in the world, 69 percent favored this goal, up from an initial 55 percent.

• Dillon International will hold a free adoption information meeting at 6 p.m. Jan 30 at the Buckner Children's Home campus in Dallas. A Dillon represent-ative will give an overview of adoption from China, Korea, Haiti, India, Hong Kong and Ghana. A domestic adoption program for Texas families and adoption programs in Russia, Ethiopia and Honduras, available through an affiliation with Buckner, also will be discussed. For more information or a reservation to attend the meeting, call (214) 319-3426.

• "Looking Back, Looking Forward" is the theme as Mission Waco celebrates its 20th anniversary with a banquet at 6 p.m. Feb. 7 at the Waco Convention Center. Scott Todd, senior ministry adviser for Compassion International, will be the featured speaker. Jimmy Dorrell, co-founder of Mission Waco, also will present highlights of two decades of Mission Waco's ministry among the poor and marginalized. Individual tickets for the banquet are $40, and table sponsorships are available. For more information, call (254) 753-4900.

• Hardin-Simmons University presented degrees to 248 December graduates, including 147 bachelor's degrees, 64 master's degrees and 37 doctorates in physical therapy.

• University of Mary Hardin-Baylor winter commencement ceremonies featured 204 students receiving degrees—169 bachelor's degrees, and 35 master's degrees.

• Dallas Baptist University conferred degrees on 461 students, including 239 bachelor's degrees, 217 master's degrees and five doctorates. Daniel Park, pastor of New Song Church in Carrollton, received an honorary doctor of divinity degree.

• Steve Capehart, professor and chair of the department of mathematics at East Texas Baptist University, retired at the end of the fall semester after 16 years teaching at the school.

• The Howard Payne University model United Nations team participated in an international conference held at the University of Nottingham in Great Britain. Students from Howard Payne represented Gabon, Italy and Rwanda, and in prepartion, spent months learning about the needs of those countries.

• Tim Lancaster, president and chief executive officer of Hendrick Health Systems in Abilene, has been named chairman of the Texas Hospital Association's board of trustees.

East Texas Baptist University President Dub Oliver poses with President Emeritus Bob Riley and his wife, Gayle, after the dedication of the Divine Servant sculpture by artist Max Greiner. The sculpture, donated by the Rileys, depicts Jesus washing Peter's feet. It is located at the north entrance of the Ornelas Spiritual Life Center.

• Manny Vela has been named president and chief executive officer of Valley Baptist Health System. He has served the health system the past eight years and transitions from his previous role as senior vice president and chief legal officer.

• The women's auxiliary of Baptist Children & Family Services provided Christmas presents for 38 children in BCFS' Family Ties program, which aims to reduce the risk of child abuse by teaching parenting skills and improving economic situations for families.

Anniversaries

• Antioch Church in Bells, 150th, Nov. 11-12. Kenneth VanHorn is pastor.

• Dan Cummins, fifth, as pastor of Bridlewood Fellowship in Bullard, Jan. 7.

Deaths

• Dwight Baker, 91, Nov. 28 in Dallas. A graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Theological Seminary, he was married while serving in Germany during World War II. He had become engaged prior to his leaving for Germany to serve as a chaplain, but the military would not let his fiance, Emma, travel there unless they were married. To remedy the situtaion, his minister father performed the ceremony via transatlantic cable. After serving as pastor in Miami, Texas, in 1950, they were appointed missionaries by the Foreign Mission Board to Israel. While in Israel, he was pastor of the Baptist church in Nazareth, as well as the headmaster of the Baptist high school. In 1964, he became director of the Christian Service Training Center in Haifa and editor of the Arabic-language Baptist newspaper. The Bakers later served in India and Iran. After 36 years of mission service, he retired and taught Old Testament, Arabic and Middle Eastern studies at Baylor University, establishing the Middle Eastern studies program there. After retiring from Baylor, they moved to Duncanville and attended Cliff Temple Church in Dallas. With declining health, they moved to a retirement facility in Dallas, where he continued to teach Sunday school and lead Bible studies. He was preceded in death by his wife and son, Bron. He is survived by his sons, Bill and Steve; daughter, Carol Staton; brothers, Bill and Truett; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

• Mary Jim Currie, 94, Dec. 20 in Ballinger. A graduate of Hardin-Simmons College, she spent nearly all her life in Paint Rock. She lived there until she was 91, when she moved to the Baptist retirement home in San Angelo. She spent the last few months in her daughter's home in Ballinger. She taught Sunday school more than 60 years at First Church in Paint Rock, where she also played the piano until she was 90. She was preceded in death by her husband of 53 years, Roy, and her sister, Jewette McLaughlin. She is survived by her daughter, Carolyn Slaughter; son, David Currie; four grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; three step-grandchildren; and seven step-great-grandchildren.

• Charles Maciel, 86, Jan. 2 in Abilene. He retired last October as pastor of Iglesia Ambler in Abilene, where he served 27 years. He was honored as Abilene Association pastor of the year in 2011. He was a member of the board of regents at Baylor University from 1990 to 1999, a trustee at Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene from 2001 to 2010 and a past moderator of the Abilene Association. Before moving to Abilene in 1984, he was pastor of churches in Corpus Christi and Tucumcari, N.M. A World War II veteran and Baylor University graduate, he is survived by his wife, Elva; daughters, Annette Sadler and Toni Jo Adams; sons, Charlie and René; brother, David; sisters, Belen Garza and Eleanor Garcia; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

• John Hyde, 69, Jan. 2 in Midland. He was a member of Hardin-Simmons University's board of trustees from 2003 to 2011. An HSU graduate, he previously had served on the university's board of development for five years and was a lifetime member of the President's Club. He was district judge of the 238th District Court 22 years. In 2003, he and his wife established the Richard Kim Endowed Scholarship at HSU. He taught Sunday school for many years at First Church in Midland. He is survived by his wife, Sharon; daughters, Hillary Lovell and Whitney Hyde; stepmother, Marie; brother, Billy Mack; sister, Darla Martin; and two grandchildren.

Ordained

• Tim Berg, James Gregory, Jason Hurley, Mark Jackson, Dan Nieuwenhuis and Bobby Taylor as deacons at First Church in Meridian.

WASHINGTON (ABP) – California pastor Wiley Drake’s three-year legal battle challenging President Obama’s eligibility received a setback Dec. 22, when the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said he and other plaintiffs lacked legal standing to file their complaint.

A three-judge panel of the federal court based in Washington upheld a central California district court’s October 2009 dismissal of the lawsuit filed Jan. 20, 2009, the day Barack Obama was sworn in as president, but for slightly different reasons.

U.S. District Judge David Carter had said the plaintiffs lacked standing because Congress – not federal courts – has authority to remove a sitting president. The appellate court didn’t dispute the “redressability” issue cited by the lower court but added that in order to have standing the plaintiffs should have filed the lawsuit prior to the November 2008 election.

Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., ran as Alan Keyes' running mate on the American Independent Party's ticket in 2008. Along with party officials, they argued in the complaint that the race wasn’t fair because the winning candidate shouldn’t have been allowed to run. Claiming Obama does not meet the constitutional requirement that the president must be a “natural born citizen,” Drake and Keyes claimed an interest in having a fair competition for the positions they sought to obtain.

The appellate court said that once the 2008 general election was over, Drake and Keyes were no longer “candidates” who could claim they would be injured by the “potential loss of an election.”

“The political candidates failed to establish redressability sufficient to establish standing,” the judges ruled. “They cannot claim competitive standing because they were no longer candidates when they filed their complaint.”

Orly Taitz, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, told reporters outside the courthouse she would ask the appeals court to convene a full 11-judge panel to review the case and if denied she would appeal to the Supreme Court. 

The lawsuit is one of a number of so-called "birther" lawsuits against Obama's election filed by individuals or groups who disbelieve the president's claim that he was born in Hawaii to an American mother, thus establishing his citizenship. So far none has succeeded.

Drake, 69, who served as second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2007-2008, has been a fixture at floor microphones during business sessions at the SBC annual meeting since the 1990s. He was a driving force behind the convention’s 1997 boycott of the Disney Company because of its gay-friendly corporate policies. In 2005 the convention called off the boycott, declaring it a success.

Once celebrated as a symbol of the small-church pastor who sacrificed to travel to SBC annual meetings to cast ballots for conservative candidates during a leadership change known to the winners as the “conservative resurgence” and to the losers as a “fundamentalist takeover, Drake’s reputation became tarnished after he said on the Alan Colmes Show on June 2, 2009, that he was praying for President Obama to die.

SBC leaders distanced themselves from the comment, describing Drake’s views as outside the mainstream. At the 2011 SBC annual meeting in Phoenix, the convention passed a resolution on “civil discourse” that denounced unspecified groups and individuals who have gained publicity by tactics including “calling for prayers for the deaths of public officials.” 

On Jan. 3 Drake sent out an e-mail announcing he is the official presidential candidate of the American Independent Party, a conservative alternative to the Republican Party established in 1967 by former San Diego Republican William Shearer.

—Bob Allen is managing editor of Associated Baptist Press.

Previous stories:

Court accepts Wiley Drake's 'birther' appeal

Court rejects 'birther' challenge by former SBC officer

Court rejects 'birther' challenge by former SBC officer

California appeals court strikes down Wiley Drake's 'birther' case

Drake's lawyer claims legal precedent for courts to remove a head of state

Judge delays ruling on dismissal of Wiley Drake's 'birther' case

Judge sets court date in 'birther' case filed by Wiley Drake

Wiley Drake wins round in legal battle challenging Obama's presidency

WASHINGTON (RNS)—It was supposed to be the year the world ended. Twice.

But after evangelist Harold Camping's predictions about a 2011 doomsday failed to materialize, all eyes now are on 2012 when, according to an ancient Mayan calendar, we need to once again prepare for the end of the world as we know it.

Bob James of Morristown, N.J., organized a grass roots campaign to fund billboards in his area warning about a pending judgment day on May 21. (RNS PHOTO/Noah K. Murray/The Star Ledger)

Jesus was pretty clear—wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes and uprisings, are just the beginning of the end. Indeed, 2011 had enough tumult, anxiety and unrest to make people think maybe the end is nigh after all.

For the Arab world, the Arab Spring upended longstanding regimes in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia and could do the same in Syria and Yemen. A magnitude 9.0 earthquake left more than 21,000 dead or injured in Japan and literally tipped the earth off its axis, while a smaller Aug. 23 quake along the East Coast sent finials and angels tumbling from atop Washington National Cathedral.

Frustrated demonstrators occupied Wall Street, and a sexual abuse scandal ricocheted through the Roman Catholic Church and Penn State's football program. To top it all off, the Crystal Cathedral went belly-up.

And that's not even counting the 2012 presidential campaign.

Here's a quick tour through the topsy-turvy world of religion in 2011:

• Taking it to the streets

From Tahrir Square to the Wisconsin Statehouse to Zuccotti Park, 2011 was the year of taking it to the streets as popular anger—against despots, union-busting politicians and Wall Street tycoons—coalesced into (mostly) peaceful protests. Religious leaders voiced concern for religious minorities swept up in the turbulence of the Middle East, as well as support for the Occupiers' goals of fairness and equity in the global financial system.

Ray Maldonado of Paterson, N.J., marks the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden at Ground Zero in New York. (RNS PHOTO/John Munson/The Star-Ledger)

• 'Do not rejoice when your enemies fall…'

The street celebrations that followed the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, meanwhile, left a bad taste in the mouth of many Americans. "In obedience to Scripture, there can be no rejoicing when our enemies fall," said David Gushee, a Christian ethicist at Mercer University. Americans, however, had fewer qualms about bin Laden's eternal fate: a poll after bin Laden's death found that two-thirds of Americans think he's paying for his sins in hell.

• Cults and personality

With the GOP campaign in full swing, crucial blocs of evangelicals fell in and out of love with Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain, but never really fell for Mitt Romney. One poll found 53 percent of evangelicals don't think Mormons are Christians; Dallas pastor (and Perry supporter) Robert Jeffress called Mormonism a "cult." By year's end, evangelicals were swooning for Newt Gingrich, a thrice-married Roman Catholic convert who carries some heavy ethical baggage. Said Ron Godwin, the provost of Jerry Falwell's Liberty University: "My conclusion is the devil I know is preferable to the one I don't really know." But in a sign that Mormons have arrived, The Book of Mormon, a heartfelt (if obscene) ode to Mormon piety from the creators of South Park, swept the Tony awards, including Best Musical.

• Ghosts of scandals past

Nearly 10 years after the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal erupted in Boston, the bishop of Kansas City, Mo., was indicted for failing to report a priest suspected of possessing child pornography to police, and a grand jury slammed the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for allowing 37 known abusers to remain in ministry. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' report on the "causes and contexts" of the scandal faulted—among other factors—the turbulent culture of the 1960s, and victims launched a long-shot bid to make Pope Benedict XVI face charges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. U.S. bishops offered to share what they've learned with Penn State, where an eerily similar abuse cover-up led to the sacking of coaching legend Joe Paterno.

Rob Bell

• Who's in hell? Who knows?

Michigan megachurch pastor Rob Bell can't say for sure whether bin Laden—or anyone else—is in hell, at least not in the way Christians have traditionally thought of it. Bell's book, Love Wins, rocketed to the top of The New York Times best-seller list by questioning traditional beliefs on hell and sparked a heated public discussion of hell and damnation. Southern Baptists were quick to disagree, passing a resolution affirming the reality of hell as "eternal, conscious punishment" for those who do not accept Jesus Christ.

• Do Ask, Do Tell

After 18 years as one of the touchiest issues in the culture wars, Congress retired the Don't Ask/Don't Tell policy that barred gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. For the first time, a majority of Americans (53 percent) voiced support for legalizing same-sex marriage, and the Presbyterian Church (USA) officially welcomed non-celibate gay clergy. New York became the sixth state to allow gay marriage, and Catholics in Illinois pulled out of state contracts for adoption and foster care rather than comply with the state's new civil unions law.

• Church & State

In a widely expected but little-loved ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kansas pastor Fred Phelps' right to hold "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" protests outside military funerals. The justices also denied a challenge to an Arizona program that gives tax credits for donations to private school scholarship programs, and will rule next year on tough state immigration laws that have angered religious groups. In Oregon, jurors convicted two sets of parents from a faith-healing church of criminal neglect after one child died and one was nearly blinded from lack of medical care.

• A matter of conscience

The nation's Catholic bishops, concerned about growing threats to "religious freedom" emanating from the White House, launched a policy offensive over gay marriage and mandated insurance coverage for birth control. At the same time, the bishops said sharply that they, not doctors or administrators, have the final say over what constitutes ethically problematic procedures in Catholic hospitals.

• Enemies, foreign and domestic

After last year's heated battles over Muslims' rights to build an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero, the spotlight shifted to Capitol Hill, where House Republicans convened hearings on the "extent of radicalization in the American Muslim Community." Barely two weeks later, Florida provocateur Pastor Terry Jones presided over a mock trial of the Quran, sentencing the Muslim holy book to death by fire; subsequent riots swept Afghanistan. By year's end, major companies pulled sponsorship of a new TLC reality series, All-American Muslim, after conservative activists complained of creeping acceptance of Islam.

• End of an Era

The Crystal Cathedral, the iconic embodiment of suburban Protestant positivity, was sold for $57.5 million to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County — a sample shift within the American religious landscape, as aging mainline Protestants are literally lose ground to growing numbers of Hispanic Catholics.

• Do-it-yourself faith

Pay, pray and obey? Not so much. A June survey by the Public Religion Research Institute found that more than two-thirds of Americans say they can make up their own minds on abortion or homosexuality and still be faithful members of their churches. Meanwhile, 60 percent of Catholics say you can be a good Catholic without aiding the poor, and three in four said the same about not giving money or time to the church, according to a survey conducted by researchers for the National Catholic Reporter.

• Passages

Pioneering Jewish folksinger Debbie Friedman died at age 59; Harvard theologian Peter Gomes died at 68; evangelical gang activist David Wilkerson died at 79 and the "evangelical pope" John Stott died at 90; National Catholic Reporter publisher Joe Feuerherd died at 48; Episcopal liberal lion Bishop Walter Righter died at 87 and fiery civil rights icon Fred Shuttlesworth died at 89.

PLAINVIEW—Religion students at Wayland Baptist University are putting their education to the test—and not just in final exams.

Students in Clinton Lowin's "Introduction to Baptist Ministry" class were challenged to look at Wayland as their church and conduct a needs assessment to determine what new ministry opportunities might be available.

Clinton Lowin

Little did he know the idea would take on a life of its own. Students not only discovered a need on campus and in the community, but also developed a ministry plan they could undertake in response.

Lowin explained part of his educational strategy is to give students practical experience to coincide with theory and knowledge.

"Learning doesn't happen in a vacuum," he said. "If we are talking about kingdom objectives and functioning in the world, it doesn't have to stop in the classroom."

So, Lowin challenged his class to perform an environmental survey to determine what type of ministry might be needed on the Wayland campus and in the surrounding community.

Students focused on the homeless and hungry and quickly determined that a large percentage of the Plainview population fits the criteria. They also discovered Wayland students who can't afford meals once their meal tickets run out or are not accepted due to a lack of funds.

The group began to formulate a plan for meeting these needs, under Lowin's supervision. He quickly pointed out to the students the project would not earn them a grade or be used for course credit. This didn't dissuade the students. In fact, Lowin thinks it increased their motivation.

"Just doing these things doesn't shut if off at the end of the semester," Lowin said. "This surpasses a grade. This is about the kingdom. Once they got that, it was amazing. It just took off."

As the semester came to an end, the group still was in high gear. Having formed a guiding coalition and discovered community member who shares their concern for meeting the needs of students, the group hopes to hold another planning meeting at the beginning of the spring semester.

From there, they will invite the campus community to determine the amount of interest in their ministry proposal. The group will continue to gather resources and determine the best avenue to feed hungry people—in the community and on campus.

"They are making things happen," Lowin said. "It is for me to just get out of the way and allow them to do the things they love to do and want to do, which is to change the world."

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The death of Osama bin Laden and the reactions it produced among people of faith was rated the No. 1 religion news story of 2011 by the nation's leading religion journalists.

Osama bin Laden

The Religion Newswriters Association polls its members annually to compile a list of the top 10 religion stories of the year. About 90 religion beat specialists took the poll this year.

The al-Qaeda leader's death topped the ranks because of the national discussion it sparked among people of faith on issues of forgiveness, peace, justice and retribution.

The No. 2 story was a series of controversial congressional hearings focused on American Muslims. Hearings were held in the House on the alleged radicalization of U.S. Muslims, and in the Senate on hate crimes reported against U.S. Muslims.

RNA also usually names a Religion Newsmaker of the Year, but did not do so this year because of a virtual three-way tie between failed doomsday evangelist Harold Camping, Pope Benedict XVI and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Rounding out the 10 religion news stories in 2011 were as follows:

3. Catholic Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Mo., is charged with failure to report the suspected abuse of a child, becoming the first active bishop in the country to face criminal prosecution in such a case.

4. The Catholic Church introduces a new translation of the Roman Missal throughout the English-speaking world, making the first significant change to a liturgy since 1973.

5. The Presbyterian Church (USA) allows local option on ordination of partnered gay people.

6. Pope John Paul II is beatified in May.

7. California evangelist Harold Camping attracts attention with his predictions that the world would end in May and again in October.

8. A book by Michigan megachurch pastor Rob Bell, Love Wins, presenting a much less harsh picture of hell the traditional view, stirs discussion in evangelical circles.

9. The Personhood Initiative, designed to outlaw abortion by declaring a fetus a person, fails on Election Day in Mississippi, but advocates plan to try in other states.

10. Bible translations make news, with celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the King James Version; criticism about gender usage in the newest New International Version; and completion of the Common English Bible.

BROWNWOOD—A pair of Howard Payne University students who lead a mentoring program for girls at a juvenile correctional facility insist its worth their time investment to let the young women know Christians care about them.

Howard Payne University students Monique Ching (left) and Ciera Culpepper discuss their ministry team at the school's Baptist Student Ministry center. The students lead a mentoring program for girls at a juvenile correctional facility. (PHOTO/Coby Kestner/HPU)

Monique Ching and Ciera Culpepper head the Baptist Student Ministry's mentoring program through the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, working with girls at the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex in Brownwood.

The program pairs Howard Payne students with girls at the state school. Each mentor and juvenile offender meet at least one hour a week.

The Texas Juvenile Justice Department offers an option for faith-based mentoring, in which a mentor can bring a Bible and discuss matters in a spiritual context.

"The goal is to share Christ with the TJJD students and really love on them in a way they probably have never experienced—with the love of Christ," said Culpepper, a family studies major from Zephyr. 

In addition to serious discussions about the Bible, mentors also play games and just visit with the juvenile offenders.

"This is one of the most rewarding ministries ever," said Ching, a communication major from Hong Kong. "Just being able to hear the girls' stories and be there for them through this time of their life is amazing." 

Many of the students at the state school come from troubled or unstable backgrounds, Culpepper added.

"I think the impact of the program is to provide the TJJD students with safe and healthy relationships," she said. "One of my goals is to get every girl at the state school matched with an HPU mentor."

Keith Platte, BSM director at Howard Payne, has a goal of his own to help HPU students at connect with the girls at the correctional facility through the chapel services they can attend.

"I would love to see Howard Payne students taking part in leading some of these chapel services for girls who don't always get to hear the gospel presented from people close to their own ages," he said.

Allison Voss, chaplain at the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex, values the commitment made by the Howard Payne mentors.

"The time and effort spent by mentors at our facility is invaluable," Voss said. "Our students look forward to seeing their mentors each week and develop a strong bond with them. Having a volunteer come and listen and support them makes our students feel valued and loved in a way that many have never experienced before. Howard Payne students are especially an encouragement to our students as they bring with them a sense of youthfulness, energy and diversity."

Although it is a rewarding ministry, the mentoring program demands commitment, participants note. But Culpepper and Ching insist it is worth it.

"At the very least, it is showing these girls that someone cares for them," Ching said.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Charitable giving is trickling back up as the economy heals, but it could take years to return to pre-recession levels, nonprofit leaders say.

Giving totaled $291 billion in 2010, according to the 2011 annual report by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. That's up 3.8 percent from 2009 and follows two consecutive years of declines.

This year shows little change. Charity Navigator, a Glen Rock, N.J., organization that evaluates nonprofits, anticipates donations will be flat during the holiday season.

About 35 percent of nonprofit contributions come from state, federal and local government grants and contracts, and those gifts are declining, CEO Ken Berger said. Only 15 percent is from individuals.

"Staying the same is generally not a great place to be when you've got increases in demand and operational costs because of inflation and so on," said Patrick Rooney, executive director of the Center on Philanthropy.

If the recuperation continues at its current rate, it will take U.S. charities six years to return to where they were financially in 2007, Rooney warns. "We are not out of the recession, and we are not recovered from the recession," he said.

Some leaders in the nonprofit world see the glass as half-full. An American Red Cross survey of 1,020 adults this fall found that although 80 percent of respondents said their finances were the same or worse than the same time last year, 57 percent plan to give to a charity during the holidays. Almost seven in 10 say that because of the economy, it is important to give to charity.

"Despite the difficult economy, Americans want to give to help others in need," said Gail McGovern, Red Cross president and CEO.

The Center on Philanthropy report said Americans contribute 2 percent of their disposable income, a figure that has remained constant for decades.

Nonprofit leaders agree charitable organizations must think innovatively to keep the cash coming in.

Berger of Charity Navigator said organizations should avoid duplicating services. Nonprofits should adjust to meeting the public's need for openness about finances and organization, he said.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP) – Here is a list of notable deaths in 2011 that were reported by Associated Baptist Press.

— Morris Ashcraft, 88, who taught at three Southern Baptist Convention seminaries before serving as acting president at the launch of Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond in 1991, died Jan. 29 after a long illness.

— Richard "Dick" Brogan, 73, a white Baptist who spent a career as a teacher and missionary to African-American Baptists in the Deep South, died of a heart attack April 25 at Baptist Hospital in Jackson, Miss.

— Ardelle Clemons, 93, a founding board member of Associated Baptist Press, died Nov. 26 after a long illness. She joined the first ABP board in 1990 and was the longest-serving board member when she rotated off in 2004.

— Ross Coggins, 83, author of the missionary hymn “Send Me, O Lord, Send Me,” died Aug. 1 at his home in Annapolis, Md., after an illness.

— Alan Day, 62, pastor of First Baptist Church in Edmond, Okla., for more than 25 years, died Feb. 16 from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident.

— Benjamin Easler, 6, was killed March 19 when a miniature train at Cleveland Park in Spartanburg, S.C., left the track and tipped over while carrying 15 children and adults from Corinth Baptist Church in Gaffney, S.C. His father, Dwight Easler, is the church’s pastor.

— Edwin Gaustad, 87, died March 25, in Santa Fe, N.M. A Baptist historian, he was one of America's leading experts on America's colonial period, particularly in areas of religious liberty, pluralism and dissent.

— Former Sen. Mark Hatfield, 89, an Oregon Republican whose Baptist faith helped shape his political views during nearly half a century in public office, died Aug. 7 after several years of declining health. The five-term senator and former Oregon governor was a long-time supporter of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

— John Jonsson, 86, an emeritus professor of religion and former director of the African Studies program at Baylor University, died May 26 at his home in South Africa after an extended illness. A native South African, Baptist pastor and scholar, Jonsson openly protested the South African system of apartheid from the pulpit, the classroom and in other public forums, including a run as an anti-apartheid candidate for the South African parliament.

— Bill Junker, 83, longtime Baptist journalist who worked at the Southern Baptist Convention Home Mission Board until he retired in 1992, died June 8 after a long illness.

— Jack McEwen, 84, pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church of Chattanooga, Tenn.,  and academic dean at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Ky., from 1980 until 1983, died Dec. 5.

— Eugene Nida, 96, a Bible translator who pioneered a groundbreaking approach that led to most Bible translations in the 20th century, died Aug. 25 in a Brussels hospital. Rather than translating Hebrew and Greek biblical languages literally word for word, Nida’s “dynamic equivalence” or “functional equivalence” method seeks to convey the thoughts the biblical writers intended to convey.

— Gustavo Parajón, a medical doctor and pastor who was a leading voice for peace and justice ministry in Nicaragua for more than 40 years, died unexpectedly at his home March 13. He was an active supporter and participant in the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America and a former American Baptist missionary.

— James Pleitz, 82, pastor of prominent churches including Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas and First Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla., and active in denominational leadership, died May 15 after an illness.

— Cecil Ray, 88, a long-time denominational worker who directed Planned Growth in Giving, a 15-year challenge for Southern Baptists to dramatically increase their financial support for world missions, died Aug. 23.

— Fred Shuttlesworth, 89, the last of the "Big Three" of the civil rights movement with Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King, died Oct. 5.

— Evelyn Stagg, 96, a trailblazer for Southern Baptist Women in Ministry, died Feb. 28. She co-authored the book Woman in the World of Jesus with her husband, longtime Southern Seminary professor Frank Stagg, and in 1983 was one of 33 women to help found what is today known as Baptist Women in Ministry.

— Oeita Theunissen, 87, known professionally and in church leadership as Oeita Bottorff, died Feb. 25 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was a key organizer of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2011.

— Ed Vick, 76, a prominent Baptist layman and supporter of moderate causes including Associated Baptist Press, died May 13, seven weeks after being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. He served as a director of ABP from 1994 until he resigned May 3 due to his illness, and was a former board chair.

—Bob Allen is managing editor of Associated Baptist Press.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP) – Between headlines of “Church backing pastor jailed on molestation charges” on Jan. 3 and “Scholar says Christmas as celebration of domesticity a modern invention” on Dec. 22, Associated Baptist Press published 586 news and feature stories in 2011. Some were more memorable than others. Here is our review of some of the year’s top newsmakers.

Rob Bell

—Rob Bell: The Michigan mega-church pastor’s book Love Wins sparked new debate about what the Bible really has to say about hell. Bell caught heck from fellow evangelicals including Southern Seminary President Albert Mohler, who convened a panel March 17 to warn students about the book’s “not just getting a doctrine wrong, but the loss of the gospel.” In June the Southern Baptist Convention responded with a resolution affirming “belief in the biblical teaching on eternal, conscious punishment of the unregenerate in Hell.”

— God (as in “acts of”): If 2010 is remembered as the year of the earthquake in Haiti, 2011 brought a whole smorgasbord of natural disasters.

John LaNoue (2nd from right) and Gary Smith (right) of Texas Baptist Men pray with rescue workers in Japan.

A March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan prompted one Baptist leader there to predict the country will remember 3/11 the same way Americans do 9/11. Baptists and others were also called upon to respond to suffering caused by spring tornadoes in the East, South and Joplin, Mo.; summer floods along the Mississippi River; wildfires in Texas; Hurricane Irene in August, drought in East Africa and even a rare east-coast earthquake that damaged buildings including two Baptist churches near the epicenter in Virginia.

— The Bible: 2011 marked the 400th anniversary of the King James Version, commonly known as the “book that changed the world,” but it also included introduction of some newer translations.

400th anniversary of the King James Bible.

The Southern Baptist Convention panned the latest New International Version in a rare resolution that came not from a committee but a messenger at a microphone on the floor. About the same time, five mainline denominations unveiled a new Common English Bible, a common-ground translation intended as a “denomination neutral” Bible for the 21st century.

— Trouble in Mayberry: Mount Airy, N.C., the place that inspired the fictional small town of Mayberry in the long-running “Andy Griffith Show,” made news July 26 when Surry Baptist Association voted to expel Flat Rock Baptist Church for calling a woman to be its pastor. Two other churches resigned their membership in protest. The pastor of First Baptist Church of Mt. Airy, a former association moderator, lamented that controversies that used to divide the Southern Baptist Convention were trickling down to local associations.

Not to be outdone, Daviess-McLean Baptist Association in Owensboro, Ky., kicked out two churches – one for allowing a gay-parent support group to use its building and another for being too Calvinistic, a doctrine admittedly “not heresy” but nonetheless “vastly different” from what a majority of the association’s churches believe.

Bryant Wright, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, center front, meets with members of a coalition of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups including GetEQUAL and Truth Wins Out, who hand delivered a petition to Wright asking the Southern Baptist Convention for an apology for its beliefs regarding the lifestyle of LGBT people. (BP PHOTO/Kent Harville.)

—Sex and the Southern Baptist: Six gay-rights groups traveled to Phoenix in June to hand deliver a petition calling for the Southern Baptist Convention to apologize for its treatment of gays. That didn’t happen, but SBC President Bryant Wright agreed to meet with representatives in a conversation that was open to members of the press. They didn’t agree on much, but in past years, Soulforce protesters were arrested for trespassing if they set foot on grounds of a convention center where Southern Baptists were meeting.

Meanwhile, over at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, leaders began planning a [Baptist] Conversation on Sexuality and Covenant next April to clear the air about different ways that churches respond to challenges like gay marriage and heterosexual couples who live together but do not marry.

In North Carolina, Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh voted Nov. 20 to cease performing civil marriage ceremonies until gay marriages in the state are legal.

Finally, a couple of prominent Southern Baptist congregations got mixed up in scandals involving sexual abuse by clergy.

After the arrest of a former minister of music in Mississippi Sept. 7 for sex charges involving young boys from incidents alleged to have occurred in the early 1980s, it became known that similar accusations had been made against the minister, John Langworthy, in 1989 while he was on staff of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas. Church leaders, including future SBC President Jack Graham, fired Langworthy but did not notify the police.

Then after the Dec. 14 arrest of former youth minister Chad Foster, authorities wanted to interview seven girls Foster might have abused at Second Baptist Church in Houston, where he worked before moving to another church. That church’s pastor, Ed Young, is also a former SBC president.

SBC leaders Al Mohler and Richard Land both admonished Southern Baptists about their legal and moral obligation to report suspected child abuse in wake of the Penn State sex abuse scandal.

A member of Mohler’s board of trustees, meanwhile, faced questions about his handling of an internal investigation of allegations against Langworthy at Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton, Miss., which elders refused to discuss with police citing clergy-penitent privilege.

—The end of the world as we know it: Radio Bible teacher Harold Camping’s doomsday prediction of May 21 did not materialize. Neither did a revised Rapture forecast of Oct. 21. ABP didn’t carry a story about the 2011 breakup of REM, known for the 1987 hit “It’s the End of the World as We Know It.” But we were there in June when the Southern Baptist Convention, usually known for values closer to the Tea Party than the Democratic Party, passed a resolution calling for “a just and compassionate path to legal status” for undocumented immigrants. Critics of the statement called it “Southern Baptist amnesty.”

–Bob Allen is managing editor of Associated Baptist Press.