AUSTIN—In the wake of a significant budget deficit, Texas lawmakers are considering eliminating all professional prison chaplains, a move that could significantly affect the way volunteers from churches minister in that arena.

With Texas facing a $15 billion budget shortfall, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice faces $459 million in cuts. The proposed budget before the House eliminates all $4.6 million allocated for the state prison chaplaincy program.

If included in the final state budget, all professional prison chaplains would lose their jobs. Fifty-five of the 120 chaplains are endorsed by the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

In addition to their counseling duties, chaplains are charged with managing prison religious programs that serve as the gateway for volunteers to serve in prison ministries. Chaplaincy also ensures prisoners have the religious freedom guaranteed to them in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

“I think TDCJ has one of the hardest budget-cutting scenarios in the state,” said Suzii Paynter, director of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.

“There are a lot of things in TDCJ that can’t be cut. But I don’t see anything else in the TDCJ list of cuts that is protected by the First Amendment.

“Professional chaplaincy in the military and prisons is the way that protection is provided for constitutionally guaranteed religious liberty. 

“Professional chaplaincy is a priority; other things need to cut before we cut something that protects the right to worship and practice your faith while incarcerated.”

Research indicates professional chaplains lower recidivism rates by at least 50 percent, improve inmate behavior and serve as valuable resources to offenders and TDCJ staff members alike, said Emmett Solomon, president of Restorative Justice Ministries Network and former director of TDCJ chaplaincy.

Chaplains also serve as the gateway for more than 18,000 volunteers who minister in prisons each year, continually recruiting and training them to help change the lives of inmates, Solomon noted. About 400 new volunteers serve in prisons each month as a result of chaplains’ efforts.

When the prison chaplaincy program suffered cuts in 2003, the number of volun-teers significantly decreased, Solomon said. Eliminating prison chaplains entirely potentially could curtail the flow of volunteers that serve in prisons—the same volunteers proponents of the cut expect to handle chaplaincy services.

Paynter agreed, noting chaplains bring training, skills and experience that volunteers and other TDCJ staff members simply do not have.

“A volunteer can no more take the place of a professional when it comes to chaplaincy than a doctor, a lawyer or some other professional can be replaced by a volunteer,” she said.

“Without professional chaplains, there are no volun-teers.”

Beyond the fiscal incentives of the chaplaincy program, Michael Manness, chaplain at the Lewis Unit in Woodville, noted the benefit of having a trained counselor in prisons. They minister to crime victims, offenders and TDCJ staff members. They also are charged with delivering news to offenders about family deaths and illnesses.

“I have emptied a box of tissues every day for 18 years,” he said. “That is doubled on the other side of those walls” with family members.

For more information about how to engage legislators on this issue, call the Christian Life Commission at (512) 473-2288.

DALLAS (RNS)—Alix Jules is an atheist, but for years he felt uncomfortable at gatherings of nonbelievers. The reason: He’s black.

“I got really tired of going back and forth to free-thought events and being the only black person there,” said Jules, 36, who lives in Dallas. “It was not necessarily inviting. I just felt like an outcast. … No one was reaching out to me.”

African-Americans gather in Washington for the first African Americans for Humanism conference. The percentage of black atheists, agnostics and secularists nearly doubled, from 6 percent to 11 percent, between 1990 and 2008. But among nonbelievers within the United States, 72 percent are white, and 60 percent are men, according to the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey. (RNS FILE PHOTO/Chika Oduah)

Last year, Jules helped launch a local initiative to address what atheists regard as an international problem for their movement—a lack of racial and gender diversity.

From the smallest local meetings to the largest conferences, the vast majority of speakers and attendees are almost always white men. Leading figures of the atheist movement—Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett—all are white men.

Surveys suggest most atheists are white men. A recent survey of 4,000 members of the Freedom from Religion Foundation found 95 percent were white, and men comprised a majority.

Among U.S. nonbelievers, 72 percent are white, and 60 percent are men, according to the 2008 Amer-ican Religious Identification Survey. The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found Hispanics make up 11 percent, and African-Americans just 8 percent, of “unaffiliated” Americans.

“Anytime you go to an atheist meeting, it tends to be predominantly male and white. We know that,” said Blair Scott, national affiliate director for American Atheists, which has 131 affiliate groups. “We go out of our way to encourage participation by females and minorities. The problem is getting those people out (of the closet as atheists) in the first place.”

A new group, Black Atheists of America, drew only about two-dozen attendees at its first national meeting in October.

Also last year, the Institute for Humanist Studies was born in Washington, D.C. with a goal of helping atheism become more diverse.

But diversity remains elusive. As of late December, American Atheist magazine hadn’t been able to find enough black atheist writers to fill a special Black History Month edition for February.

In another telling sign, the Council for Secular Humanism tried in vain to present a diverse array of speakers at its four-day October conference in Los Angeles. Most of the 300 attendees were white men, as were 23 of the 26 speakers.

Some observers assert minorities tend to be more reluctant than whites to “come out of the closet” as nonbelievers because religion and culture tend to be deeply intertwined in minority communities, according to Anthony Pinn, a black humanist and professor of religious studies at Rice University.

“Within African-American communities, the question concerning black atheists is: Have they surrendered their allegiance to the principles and ideas that helped us survive?” Pinn said.

AUSTIN—Some Texas Baptists continued their legislative fight against what they call the “predatory” lending practices of payday and auto-title lenders, testifying before the state Senate Committee on Business and Commerce.

Texas Baptists testified how the practices of payday and auto-title lenders adversely are affecting their communities.

Texas payday lenders operate in a loophole in state legislation that enables them to charge interest as high as 500 percent on loans, said Suzii Paynter, director of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.

That creates a situation where people take out loans in desperation and never can repay them. If legislators would close the loophole, payday and auto-title lenders would be forced to operate under the same rules as all lenders in the state.

“Payday products have created a perpetual product,” Paynter testified before the Senate committee. “And I want to make a point about this. We’ve really focused on the need and how that first need is really important. The person gets the $200 or $500 that they need. It’s not that moment that’s the problem. It’s the problem the product creates—the perpetual pattern of debt. It’s just simple math. In these loans, you can take out a $4,000 car loan. You can pay $1,200 a month and never pay off the loan.”

When people and families are caught in the downward spiral of payday loans, they suffer, Paynter noted. When Texas families are hurt, Texas business also is hurt. Financially struggling families cannot support local businesses, stunting the economy.

“When a family is affected by this, it does affect the business of Texas,” she said.

Frederick Haynes III, senior pastor of Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas and representative of a four-church coalition against predatory lending, said in the past several years, about 20 payday lenders have cropped up within a five-mile area near the coalition churches.

A widowed grandmother in the area turned to one of the payday lenders for a $300 loan she used to purchase medicine. The total cost of repaying the loan was $700. A college student took out a $200 to $300 loan to buy textbooks. Total cost of repayment was $600.

“We have had complaints from members of our churches and members of our community.” Haynes said.

Chad Chaddick, pastor of Northeast Baptist Church in San Antonio, said a member of his church had a similar experience. A single income family supporting six children and an elderly mother-in-law was in danger of losing its home. When the family turned to the church for help the first time, the congregation provided financial assistance. The second time the church was asked for help, it began looking at the family’s financial situation.

The church discovered the family had taken out a $700 payday loan. The terms of the loan indicated the family was to pay $200 every two weeks, which was crippling the family financially. After nine payments, the family had not reduced the principle of the loan at all.

Northeast Baptist Church helped pull the family out of their predicament, and with education, they now are living within their means.

Several legislators, including Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, former House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, and Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, have filed bills that would close the loophole that allows payday lenders to charge higher interest than other loan entities.

For more information about this issue and how to inform legislators how payday lending affects Texas, call (512) 473-2288.

NICOSIA, Cyprus (ABP) – A satellite television network for and run by Christians in the Middle East said Feb. 24 that programming thought to have been blocked by Libya has been restored.

Officials at SAT-7, a network targeted to minority Christian communities in the Middle East and North Africa, said Feb. 23 they do not believe their programming was the target. Rather it is suspected the Libyan government wanted to scramble broadcasts from Al Jazeera, which shares a satellite with SAT-7, to block coverage of the country’s current political unrest.

The interference affected two SAT-7 packages — SAT-7 Arabic and SAT-7 kids, the newest of four SAT-7 network options started in 2007 as the first and only Arabic Christian channel exclusively for children.

About 300 million Arabic-speaking peoples live in the Middle East and North Africa, and about half have access to satellite TV. Though predominantly Muslim, many countries have indigenous Christian populations. Some have been around for centuries and trace their history to the time of Jesus’ apostles. Others are newer, the product of modern missionaries from the West.

Only a small number of Libyans are Christians, but there are many expatriate Christians, especially Coptic Christians from Egypt, still inside the country.

“SAT-7 is concerned that the ongoing signal jamming will deny its viewers, both young and old alike, access to a much needed source of encouragement and hope through these turbulent times,” officials said in a press release.

The press release asked international partners to “continue to pray during this time of distress and uncertainty for so many nations” and that SAT-7 would be able to continue “broadcasting messages of life, peace and hope … to millions of viewers during this critical time.“

Not all broadcasting frequencies used by SAT-7 were affected. Officials estimated that about 8 million viewers were denied access.

Launched in 1996 as the dream of a British Christian publisher named Terence Ascott, SAT-7 is governed by an international board of directors, the majority of whom must be local Christian leaders living in the Middle East or North Africa.

The network has about 140 Middle Eastern Christians working in ministry offices and studios in Cyprus, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt. The Lebanon office is next door to Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Beirut. Fund-raising offices are located in Europe, the UK, Canada and the United States . 

International SAT-7 partners include BMS World Mission in the UK and American Baptist Churches USA in North America.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press. 

NORMAN, Okla. (ABP) — As the Middle East writhes in birth pains to deliver something yet undefined, a scholar who specializes in faith and global politics says Christians in America can support the progress toward freedom by encouraging their own government to speak boldly on behalf of the values that Arab populations are risking their lives to obtain.

Charles Kimball, author of "When Relgion Becomes Evil," has long studied and written about the intersection of faith and politics.

Christians in America should push their representatives to advocate strongly for human rights and freedoms of conscience and expression, says Charles Kimball, who has counseled American presidents on Middle Eastern affairs since he negotiated with the Ayatollah Khomeini during the Iranian hostage crisis that started in November 1979. He said this is no time to support autocratic leaders whose continued reign might better serve America’s pragmatic interests.

Christians in America are part of the global Church, “connected to Christians everywhere,” said Kimball, presidential professor and director of religious studies at Oklahoma University. “We are part of the body of Christ that transcends national boundaries.”

As part of a global fellowship, he said Christians should seek to know and understand their brothers and sisters around the world,  including the 15-17 million Arabic speaking Christians who need advocates in their drive for universally recognized human rights.

The U.S. government has a lot of influence when it tells the Egyptian government “Don’t even think of turning guns on these people,” Kimball said in a phone interview Feb. 22 from his office. “We ought to be telling our government to stand up for human rights, to stand up for universally recognized freedoms.”

“The more the U.S. lines up our behavior with our rhetoric the more we’ll see people from all over the world rushing to our side,” said Kimball, a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and former professor at Wake Forest and Furman universities.

Kimball, whose book When Religion Becomes Evil explores five signs that religion is going bad, says no one knows what form emerging Arab governance will take. Initial results might not be the precise form Americans prefer, but no one made the U.S. “boss of the world,” he said.

Kimball compared the situation to current economics, saying the world economy is in a place it’s never been and historical trends are no indication of the future in a fast changing world.

Watching people of similar language and nationality but of different faiths link arms to protect each other during dramatically different prayers “ought to make us doubly sensitive to the way we protect the rights of Muslims in the U.S.,” said Kimball.

Kimball, who has studied impact at the collision of religion and politics all of his career, which includes seven years as director of the Middle East office at the National Council of Churches, said the demonstrations and peoples’ revolt are “for the most part, not anchored in religious theology.”

Instead, it is young people who long for freedom from human rights abuses that most people cherish in western nations.

Against fears that antagonistic Islamic governments will arise from the rubble of failed Arab dictatorships, the large majority of demonstrators “were not there longing for some kind of Islamic state,” they were simply seeking “a real say in a governing structure,” Kimball said.

Many variables will determine what that final governing structure will be, including religion, but also the military, economics and models such as U.S. style democracy if the U.S. advocates for it – and models it.

“I’m very confident that over time democracy and freedom work and we have to be on the side of democracy and freedom,” said Kimball, who lived in Egypt 1977-78. “As we see in our own country, democracy can be very messy at times.”

“A new form of tyranny is not going to be accepted,” he said. “That’s really the dramatic news that’s coming out of all this. I think the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is getting the memo.”

“The genie is out of the bottle” feeding the hunger for democracy, Kimball said. Even in “the phony presidential election process” in Iran in 2009 the massive outpouring of voters proved the innate hunger for self-determination.

“There is a lot more hope for democracy, even in Iran, than people in the West give credit,” he said. “This is not a bottle you can cap back up very easily. We may see some things we don’t like in the short term, and there is a lot of frustration toward the U.S. because our behavior hasn’t been supportive and we’ve been sometimes standing with the wrong people.”

An American advantage and potential contribution to the Middle East as nations there struggle to define “what next” is that America has 300 years of “working out how to live with diversity, pluralism and civility in a way most of the world hasn’t had to do but which is now having to do,” Kimball said.

• Larry Dodd to First Church in Nash as interim music minister.

• Mark Lambert to Circle J Cowboy Church in Texarkana as youth minister.

• Michael Ryer to First Church in Commerce as minister of education and music.

• Tommy Turner to First Church in Paris as pastor from Eagle Heights Church in Harrison, Ark.

No competition for donations. Houses of worship and other charities often aren’t in competition for dollars but instead tend to reap donations from similar donors, a new study shows. Slightly more than 50 percent of people who financially supported congregations also gave to at least one charitable organization in the last year, according to a study conducted by Phoenix-based Grey Matter Research Consulting. Researchers also found the more Americans give to a house of worship, the more they donate to other groups. The study, which was commissioned by the nonprofit fundraising firm Russ Reid Co. of Pasadena, Calif., was conducted last May by telephone and online among a nationally representative sample of 2,005 American adults. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

Crime up at U.S. churches. Each week brings an average of two arsons, seven thefts and 19 burglaries at churches in the United States, according to Christian Security Network’s second annual year-end report of church crimes. The report—based on news articles, police blogs and verified personal reports—showed a slight increase in most church crimes in 2010 from 2009, for a total of 1,783 incidents. That figure was up 546 from the year before and included 970 burglaries, 397 thefts, 102 arsons and 89 counts of vandalism, the report stated. The report only covered churches and not other houses of worship, such as mosques or synagogues.

Vatican zaps phone app. Just in case Catholics wonder whether a new iPhone app might be able to forgive their sins, the Vatican has issued a clarification: No. According to its U.S. producers, “Confession: A Roman Catholic App” is designed to help users prepare for confession through a “personalized examination of conscience for each user, password protected profiles, and a step-by-step guide to the sacrament.” The Indiana-based company, Little iApps, says its application is the first to receive an imprimatur, or official permission for publication, from a Catholic bishop—Kevin C. Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. But Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi insisted the sacrament requires “the relationship of personal dialogue between the penitent and the confessor and absolution by the confessor present,” and a smart phone app cannot substitute for that.

Shea receives lifetime Grammy. Gospel singer and longtime Billy Graham associate George Beverly Shea received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. At 102, Shea is one of the oldest living people to be honored by the Recording Academy. For more than 60 years, Shea was the signature soloist at Billy Graham crusades, and according to Guinness World Records, he has sung before more people than anyone else—an estimated combined live audience of 220 million people. During his 80-year career, Shea recorded more than 70 albums and wrote several popular worship songs. He was nominated 10 times for a Grammy and won in 1965.

• The 90th Annual Panhandle-Plains Pastors’ and Laymen’s Conference will be held at Wayland Baptist University Feb. 28-March 1. The theme is “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” Monday morning’s featured speakers include Micheal Summers, Claude Cone and Ken McClung. The afternoon session will feature Beverly Sutton Miller, Gene Hawkins, Howard Batson and Wayne Shuffield. The evening session will feature Rick Shaw, Joel Gregory, Melanie Vasquez and Paul Armes. The Hispanic conference that evening will hear Miguel Contreras, Carlos Hinojos and Ernesto Rodriquez. Tuesday morning’s featured speakers are Joel Gregory, Cherry Peach, Suzy Wall, David Garland and Bryan Houser. A golf fellowship that afternoon at the Plainview Country Club and a dinner that evening will conclude the activities. For more information, call (806) 291-1165.

• Howard Payne University’s fourth annual Currie-Strickland Distinguished Lectures in Christian Ethics will be held Tuesday, March 15, from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Featured speakers are Doug Ezell, George Mason and Ira Peak Jr. Ezell, retired minister and counselor from Iowa, La., will address “Five Ethical Themes in the New Testament.” Mason, senior pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, will speak on “Preaching on Ethics in the Local Church.” Peak, retired pastor and adjunct professor of religion and philosophy at the University of Indianapolis, will discuss “Five Ethical Themes in the Old Testament.” Admission is free, but reservations are required. For reservations, call (325) 649-8009.

• Dillon International will present a free adoption information meeting at 6 p.m. March 21 at the Buckner Children’s Home campus in Dallas. A representative will give an overview of adoption from China, Korea, Haiti, India, Japan and Hong Kong, plus new opportunities in 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 information or a reservation, call (214) 319-3426.

• Clayton Roberts, organist at Zion Lutheran Church in Houston, will be the featured organist at an April 1 organ recital at Houston Baptist University. The 30-minute recital will begin at noon.

• Charles and Mary Alice Wise of Gatesville were presented the Baylor University Founders Medallion during the annual Founders Day ceremony. They have established several endowed scholarships and also contributed toward the construction of the Mayborn Museum Complex, the McLane Student Life Center and George Truett Theological Seminary.

• Chris Holloway has been named Baptist Student Ministry director at Dallas Baptist University. A 2009 DBU graduate, he was a resident director for one of the school’s dorms.

• Hardin-Simmons University has named its outstanding young alumni for 2011. Terri Hendrix, an award-winning musician, recently released her 14th album. She was a cowriter on a Grammy-winning instrumental on the Dixie Chicks’ 2002 album, “Home.” Todd Gentzel, a 1995 graduate, is chief strategist a Yaffe Deutser, a Houston-based management consulting firm that specializes in the integration and alignment in strategy, culture and communication. Leighton Flowers, a 1997 graduate, is the youth evangelism director for the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Anniversaries

• James Cheatham, fifth, as pastor of Carmel Church in Lindale, Feb. 1.

• David Dykes, 20th, as pastor of Green Acres Church in Tyler, March 3.

• Ray Davis, fifth, as pastor of First Church in Whitehouse, March 5.

Deaths

School children visit “Canstruction Belton,” displayed at The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. Seven community teams created structures made entirely of canned goods. The event brought in 18,000 cans of food, and more than $10,000 was raised through a dinner, silent auction and public donations. The funds will benefit the local food pantry.

• Bobby Rine, 83, Jan. 16 in Lubbock. A graduate of Wayland Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, he was pastor of 23 Texas and New Mexico churches during his 63 years of ministry. He was a member of First Church in Idalou. He was preceded in death by his brother, Donnie. He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Wanda; son, David; daughters, Wana Hunt and Kathy Barton; brothers, Jackie and James; sister, Joyce Mitchell; 12 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

• Miguel Mojica Jr., 90, Feb. 6 in Dripping Springs. A graduate of Howard Payne University and Southwestern Seminary, he served in ministry 45 years. He was a pastor of several Texas churches, and he was widely known for his mission work among Anglos and Spanish-speaking people in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. He was director of missions for New Mexico. He later returned to Texas and helped start more than 100 churches along the Texas-Mexico border between Laredo and Brownsville. He retired in 2000, but he continued to lead mission and health trips to Central America and Mexico. After retiring to Dripping Springs, he was known as the “Bread Man,” driving his van to area ranches and homes to hand out bread and other food to people in need. He was preceded in death by his wife of 54 years, Betty. He is survived by his sons, Mike and Tommy; daughter, Becky Mojica; brothers, Joel and Homer; sisters, Carolyn Villarreal, Chene Hernandez, Martha Grijalva and Rachel Nino; seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Andy Pettitte, making his first appearance after retiring as a New York Yankees pitcher, reads from Scripture at the Heights Church in Richardson Feb. 6. In detailing his decision not to return this season, Pettitte quoted Jeremiah 29:11. “God has plans for our lives and it’s a good plan,” he said. “I know I have a purpose in my life, and that’s to serve God no matter what. But for the first time in a very long time, my purpose wasn’t to get ready for a baseball season.” During his 20-year Major League career, he accumulated 2,251 strikeouts, had 240 wins, earned five World Series rings and never had a losing season.

• John Herndon, 81, Feb. 8 in Houston. He and his wife, Roblyn, funded the Waco Hall auditorium organ at Baylor University. A physician, he was a member of Friends of Truett Seminary, Strecker Museum Friends and Strecker Museum Associates, he also served on Baylor’s development council from 1997 to 2004 and was involved with the Bear Foundation from 2003 to 2004. He is survived by his wife; daughter, Sally Lombardo; son, John III; sister, Katherine Westmoreland; and five grandchildren.

• John Petty, 42, Feb. 9 in Kerrville. A graduate of Baylor University, Southwestern Seminary and Truett Seminary, he was youth minister at First Church in White Settlement, and pastor at Baptist Temple Church in Uvalde and Trinity Church in Kerrville, where he served at the time of his death. He served as chairman of the Executive Board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and was active in the Emerging Leaders Network of the Baptist World Alliance. He was preceded in death by his father, Jerry, and brother, Alan. He is survived by his wife, Kelly; mother, Marcia; son, Davis; daughter, Mara; sisters, Rosemary Cunningham and Gay Rhoades.

• Russell Fudge, 100, Feb. 15 in Brownwood. He was the first director and creator of the academic curricula of the Douglas MacArthur Academy of Freedom at Howard Payne University. Fudge was a U.S. Army officer who retired as full colonel of infantry in 1962. During World War II, he saw action in the Pacific Theatre, eventually becoming chief of staff and military governor of the island of Anguar in the Palau Group. He was the senior army officer to negotiate the Japanese surrender of the Bonin Islands. He was a member of the first staff of the post-war secretary of defense and twice was assigned to the Army general staff in the Pentagon. At the age of 85, he retired for the second time as emeritus professor of political science from Howard Payne, where he held the Carr P. Collins Jr. chair of international politics. He received the Freedom Medal in 1965 from the Douglas MacArthur Academy of Freedom, and in 1986, he received Howard Payne’s Medal of Service. He was preceded in death by his daughters Wilma and Ruth and wife of 41 years, Betty. He is survived by a son, John; daughters Ann Fudge and Jane Masters; three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Event

• The women’s ministry of First Church in Center will hold its 15th annual Joy Seekers Conference March 25-26. Natalie Nichols will be the featured speaker. Musical guests will be Grateful Heart, Jessica Hopkins, Sherry Crawford, Joann Smith and the Border Sisters. Before March 15, the cost is $20. A light breakfast and lunch on Saturday are included. At the door, the price is $25. Registration begins at 6 p.m. Friday.

Ordained

• Jarryn Dickenson to the ministry at First Church in Crockett.

• Brady Sharp to the ministry at First Church in Wichita Falls.

Revival

• Calvary Church of Nogales Prairie, Apple Springs; March 13-19; evangelist, Nathan Davis; music, Nathan Alsbrooks; pastor, James Whittlesey.

DALLAS—Relationships to Baptist institutions—including one university that opened its governing board to include non-Baptists, another university that is increasing its capital debt by $40 million and a financially troubled health care system whose hospitals have entered a joint venture with a for-profit hospital—dominated discussion at the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board’s Feb. 21-22 meeting.

Responding to questions about Baylor University at the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board meeting are (left to right) Houston attorney Bob Fowler, representing the board’s Institutional Relations Committee; Dary Stone of Dallas, chair of the Baylor University board of regents; Debbie Ferrier of Houston, chair of the BGCT Executive Board; and Gary Elliston of Dallas, a BGCT-elected Baylor regent. (PHOTO/John Hall/BGCT)

Baylor University regents recently voted to amend the university’s bylaws, allowing non-Baptist Christians to comprise up to 25 percent of the school’s governing board.

In response, the BGCT Executive Board affirmed the Baptist state convention’s historic relationship with Baylor University and authorized the board’s chair to appoint a task force to meet with representatives of the university’s regents to discuss the future of that relationship.

“The goal for these discussions would be a better understanding of Baylor’s vision for the future and a harmonious relationship” between the university and the BGCT, the motion said. The task force will report back to the board at its May 23-24 meeting.

Baylor President Ken Starr and three regents—Chairman Dary Stone of Dallas, Gary Elliston of Dallas and Ramiro Peña of Waco—made a presentation and responded to questions from the Executive Board’s Institutional Relations Committee regarding the action. The three regents—along with Linda Brian of Amarillo, who is both a Baylor regent and a director of the BGCT Executive Board—also spoke to the full board.

The regents insisted they value Baylor’s close relationship to the BGCT.

“We are a Texas Baptist institution, we have been throughout our history, and we always will be so,” said Elliston, a BGCT-elected regent.

Regents chose to make available to non-Baptist Christians up to one-fourth of its board seats so alumni and other supporters of the school would not feel like “second-class citizens, but could aspire to involvement at the highest level of university governance,” Stone said.

“Only 31 percent of our freshman class claim the Baptist label,” he added, noting the percentage of Baptist students has been declining about 2 percent a year and likely will drop to 20 percent within this decade.

Jeff Johnson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Del Rio, raises questions about how effectively Baylor University regents communicated to Baptist General Convention of Texas leaders their intention to open some chairs on the board of regents to non-Baptist Christians. (PHOTO/John Hall/BGCT)

While the change allows non-Baptists a minority presence on the board, regents “built a firewall to ensure we always will be a Baptist institution going forward,” Stone said.

Any future change in the percentage of non-Baptists on the board will require the approval of 75 percent of the board’s Baptist regents; either the chair or vice chair of the board must be Baptist; a Baptist officer must preside over any vote related to a change in Baptist board representation; and only Baptists on the board will vote on matters concerning the university’s Truett Theological Seminary, the regents explained.

Jeff Johnson, an Executive Board director from Del Rio, expressed concern about a perceived “communication breakdown” between Baylor and BGCT leaders.

He and some others also questioned the timing of the regents’ action, particularly after messengers to the BGCT annual meeting in November soundly rejected a similar proposal—an Executive Board recommendation that Houston Baptist University be allowed to elect some non-Baptist trustees.

“It was a difficult situation,” Elliston acknowledged. “No one at Baylor meant any disrespect toward Texas Baptists, and it was not meant as a slight to this group (the Executive Board) in any way.”

Regents had spent at least four years discussing the possibility of opening board membership to some non-Baptists, he noted.

“According to our relationship agreement with the BGCT, the board of regents was within its legal rights to take the action we did, and we did so because of our fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interests of Baylor,” Elliston said.

Messenger action regarding Houston Baptist University at the 2010 annual meeting in McAllen complicated matters, he acknowledged.

If Baylor regents had asked the BGCT board to endorse its plan to open some seats to non-Baptists, “we would have put you squarely in the position of being asked to do what the convention said not to do,” he said. And if the board had rejected what a majority of regents believed was in the school’s best interests, Baylor’s regents would have been in a position of acting in open defiance of the Executive Board.

“If we offended you, we apologize. … From our perspective, if it was the right thing to do, it was the right thing to do now,” Elliston said.

Ed Jackson of Garland, originator of the motion the Executive Board approved, explained his rationale after the meeting. Allowing a task force to deal with the matter rather than taking immediate action in a board meeting “will let emotions subside so that we can deal with the substance of this discussion,” he said. At the same time, it leaves the door open for the board to act in May if it chooses to do so after the matter has been discussed thoroughly.

“This motion notifies Texas Baptists that we have not ignored the action of the Baylor board of regents. It affirms the past, yet it looks forward. It promotes communication and discussion between two autonomous organizations with the goal of harmony and understanding, giving us a hope of a better relationship,” he said.

After the board approved the motion regarding Baylor, Bruce Webb of The Woodlands introduced a resolution expressing appreciation to the Houston Baptist University trustees for the consideration they showed to the Executive Board. The resolution carried overwhelmingly.

In other action, the Executive Board approved a request from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor’s trustees to increase indebtedness beyond the prescribed limit of 20 percent of total audited net assets.

UMHB trustees approved a campus master plan that involves a $100 million building program over the next three to seven years. However, the trustees’ action was made contingent on Executive Board permission to increase its indebtedness up to 64 percent of net assets.

UMHB President Randy O’Rear explained to the Institutional Relations Committee the building program includes a $20 million building for the school’s College of Nursing and a $25 million student union building, as well as an on-campus football stadium, a performing arts building, a visual arts center, field house expansion and relocation of the physical plant operations building.

Bob Fowler of Houston, who served on the Executive Board’s debt-review task force and presided over the Institutional Relations Committee meeting, noted UMHB’s “history of responsible handling of its finances.” The task force and committee recommended UMHB be granted a waiver of the 20 percent ceiling on indebtedness but also issued a six-part recommendation the Executive Board endorsed:

• Preserve existing cash reserves to provide an ultimate source of repayment of a portion of the debt incurred.

• Secure a commitment of pledges to a major capital campaign in an appropriate and substantial amount before any portion of the new debt is used to fund capital projects.

• Keep in mind fulfillment of capital campaign pledges often negatively impacts general annual giving, and carefully monitor that impact.

• Make the stability and reasonable growth of the student population “a sharp and defined focus of administration effort … especially during the debt incurring and early servicing years.”

• Do not, under any circumstances, use any part of the authorized borrowed funds— directly or indirectly—for the university’s operating expenses, including debt service.

• Provide the boards’ Institutional Relations Committee annual reports on the financing and implementation of the campus master plan.

The Executive Board also heard a report regarding Valley Baptist Health System . James Eastham, president of the health system, told the Institutional Relations Committee the system’s hospital in Harlingen sustained significant damage and service interruption due to Hurricane Dolly in 2008.

Since the health system serves a rapidly growing but economically disadvantaged area where more than 41 percent of the population is uninsured, it could not maintain the cash balance its lenders require. Valley Baptist Health System owes about $190 million, mostly in tax-exempt bonds that could be called in 18 months, and its bank required the system to develop a recapitalization plan.

Consequently, representatives of Valley Baptist Health System signed a letter of intent for its operational units to enter into a joint venture with the for-profit Vanguard Health.

Since the BGCT relates to the health care system’s holding company, not its operating units, the matter did not affect BGCT-related governance and or require Executive Board action.

The Executive Board voted to extend its guarantee of a loan for Baptist University of the Americas. The BGCT previously had pledged investments as collateral for a $2.5 million bank loan to BUA. Since that original loan matured, the board voted to extend it to May 31. In the meantime, BUA will continue to negotiate the loan’s refinancing. Any further obligation by the BGCT after May 31 will have to be considered by the Executive Board.

In other business, the board voted to fill several vacancies created since the annual meeting: Ronny Marriott, pastor of First Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, to the Theological Education Council; Sally Eaves from First Baptist Church in Plainview to the Wayland Baptist University board of trustees; Don Ringler of Taylors Valley Baptist Church in Temple, to the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor board of trustees; Kathy Hillman from Columbus Avenue Baptist Church in Waco to the Committee on Nominations for Executive Board Directors; Jim Nelson from First Baptist Church in Austin to the Committee on Nominations for Boards of Affiliated Ministries; and Jeff Humphrey, minister of education at First Baptist Church in Allen, and Greg Wallace, pastor of Woodridge Baptist Church in Kingwood, to the Executive Board.

Editor's Note: As originally posted, two names were omitted in the last paragraph. The article has been corrected to provide full information. Also, the church affiliation of one individual in the last paragraph was corrected.

ABILENE—When an artifact from Hardin-Simmons University’s history showed up on the popular Internet selling site eBay, Abilene High School history teacher Jay Moore suspected there would be some keen interest in the rather quirky piece.

Alice Specht, dean of university libraries at Hardin-Simmons University, displays an artifact from the university’s history that Jay Moore, a history teacher at Abilene High School, discovered on eBay. (PHOTO/Hardin-Simmons University)

Moore, a local history buff and the creator of the DVD series History in Plain Sight, searches for Abilene memorabilia on the Internet routinely and usually finds only postcards of Abilene buildings, some of which no longer exist. But this time, he found a lasting testimonial to early 20th century college spirit and comradery.

Moore found for sale a bronze plaque commemorating something named the “Cowden Hall Yell.” Even though the plaque does not mention Hardin-Simmons by name, Moore knew Cowden Hall had been a dormitory on campus.

“When I saw that plaque, I knew Alice Specht was the person to alert,” Moore said. “I didn’t want to buy it myself, but I knew she would be interested.”

Moore’s hunch was right. Specht, dean of university libraries at Hardin-Simmons, logged onto eBay and tried to retrieve the historical piece for less than the asking price. “It was for sale for $250, so I typed in $50, which was rejected immediately by the system, ” she said.

Undaunted, Specht decided instead of bidding on the plaque to ask the owner if she could have it at no charge.

“I explained that it belonged to the university and was a piece of our history,” she said. “The seller agreed that it should go home to Abilene. So, he sent it back priority mail in exchange for only a letter thanking him for the donation.”

S.V. Kastell, Jr. of Hollywood, S.C., told Specht he found the plaque at an estate sale in South Carolina. The seller from whom he purchased it had found the plaque in Connecticut, also at an estate sale. How the plaque found its way to Connecticut remains an unsolved mystery.

According to the wording on the plaque, it honored the memory of a student who was a member of an unofficial school-spirit yelling quartet.

Cowden Hall was built in 1908 and burned in 1922. The sons of the late Billie Cowden gave $5,000 toward the building of the men's dorm.

An account of the Cowden Hall Yell, and other student escapades from the early years, is referenced in a book by Rupert Richardson, former HSU president and Texas historian. The quartet was made up of H.J. “Hoss” Blackwell, Ray C. “Gus” Billips, R.H. (Amos) Johnson and Morgan “Hans” Copeland, whom the plaque memorializes.

Investigation by the Hardin-Simmons registrar’s office revealed Copeland, who graduated from Lorraine High School, took classes at HSU from 1914 to 1919. He died on May 18, 1931, at age 33.

But campus history buffs wonder where the plaque originally was displayed on campus. Cowden Hall burned to the ground on May 14, 1922, and the bronze could not have been cast until after Copeland’s death in 1931. One theory suggests the plaque hung in Ferguson Hall, the structure closest to the location of Cowden.

Now that the plaque is back at Hardin-Simmons, Specht plans to display it in the Legacy Room, part of the Rupert Richardson Research Center for the Southwest, located on the second floor of the Richardson Library.

WHARTON—Handmade dolls provided a means for Baptist women in South Texas and incarcerated women in Central Texas to share the gospel and bring joy to children in Mexico and a low-income Hispanic neighborhood in West Dallas.

The project began when women at First Baptist Church in Wharton saw an article in Missions Mosaic, a Woman’s Missionary Union publication, about a church-based group that made witnessing dolls, Paulette Kirkpatrick from First Baptist explained.

Every doll wears a necklace with six colored beads, each representing a spiritual truth. A card printed in English and Spanish attached to every doll uses the colored beads to explain the Christian plan of salvation.

The dolls have two sides—each featuring a face representing a person’s spiritual condition. On one side, eyes are closed, symbolizing spiritual blindness. On the other, eyes are wide open—representative of spiritual insight.

Since Colorado Baptist Association supports home missionary Carole Ross and her Cross Prison Ministries, the women at First Baptist in Wharton saw an opportunity to link with female offenders to make the dolls.

More than two dozen women from First Baptist and College Heights Baptist churches in Wharton cut out fabric and assembled the dolls.

“Jerry Joines sewed most of the dolls—probably about 500 of the 600 we made,” Kirkpatrick noted.

Next, Cross Prison Ministries provided the incomplete dolls to offenders in the special projects section of the Mountain View Unit near Gatesville—a maximum-security facility for women— who stuffed them, attached hair to them and gave them unique facial expressions.

Joining in a time of dedication and celebration marking the completion of witnessing dolls that will be distributed to children in Mexico and a Hispanic neighborhood in Dallas are (left to right) Mack Mathis, pastor of First Baptist Church in Wharton; Jerry Joines, chief seamstress for the doll-making project; Carole Ross, founding president of Cross Prison Ministries; and Paulette Kirkpatrick, a volunteer missions coordinator from First Baptist in Wharton. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of A.C. Shelton)

“You could see the personality of the offenders in the faces of each of the dolls,” Ross said. “When you look at the freckles, the tears, the teeth, they are distinctive. The Lord’s hand was on them.”

First Baptist in Wharton will send many of the dolls—along with about 1,500 Christmas stockings stuffed with toys and a simple gospel presentation—to Edweina Peroni of Christ the King Baptist Church in Mission for distribution to children in Mexico.

The church presented the rest of the dolls to Christina McCracken, a Dallas attorney who volunteers with El Calvario Bautista in west Dallas. “We plan use them in Vacation Bible School this summer,” McCracken said.

During a presentation service at First Baptist Church in Wharton, the dolls lined the front of the sanctuary. Ross saw particular meaning as she looked at the dolls surrounding the Lord’s Supper table.

“We’re committed to healing the broken body of Christ—believers behind bars who are separated from believers in the free world,” she said. “Through these dolls, the church behind bars got to be part of missions, even though its members are incarcerated.”

John LaNoue began helping Texas Baptists meet human needs more than 40 year ago, and a list of firsts marks some of the highlights of his service.

John LaNoue recounts examples of the “activity of God” in Texas Baptist Men disaster relief ministries during the dedication of a new disaster relief complex at the TBM mission equipping center in east Dallas. (File Photos)

He was builder of the first mobile clinic along the Rio Grande. Designer of the first Baptist disaster relief mobile unit. Leader of one of the first American Christian teams to enter Iran since the Islamic Revolution. Member of one of the first groups from the United States in more than four decades to spend extended time in North Korea.

As far back as the late 1980s, friends told him he should write a book about his experiences. He retired from the Texas Baptist Men staff in 1999, fully intending to write. But he didn’t publish Walking with God in Broken Places until a few months ago.

“I hadn’t learned the lessons yet,” he said. “I could report on what happened and who did what. But God wouldn’t give me freedom to write it until I learned the lessons.”

Indeed, the book carries the subtitle, “…and lessons I’ve learned along the way.” In 535 pages, LaNoue explicitly cited more than 40 lessons he believes God taught him, and readers probably could draw an equal number of conclusions by reading between the lines.

John LaNoue built the first Baptist disaster relief mobile unit for Texas Baptists in 1972. Today, Texas Baptist Men operates a fleet of disaster response vehicles, and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief has grown to become the third-largest disaster response group in the United States.

“I tried to show how God uses ordinary people in extraordinary ways to accomplish the evidently impossible,” he said.

LaNoue grew up poor in Beaumont. His father was a hard-drinking boilermaker who left his family when his son was 4 years old. LaNoue’s life changed at age 16 when two laymen led him to faith in Christ.

Construction of the first mobile medical unit Texas Baptists used along the Rio Grande grew out of an insight LaNoue gained while preparing to teach a Bible class at Kilgore College, where he served as Baptist Student Union director. As he read John 14:12-15, he was struck by Jesus’ statement that his followers would continue the works he did and do even greater works.

As he began to consider what Jesus did in his ministry, he realized everything fit into two categories. “He met human need where he found it, and he introduced people to God,” LaNoue concluded.

With those two guideposts before him, he began planning for a student medical/dental mission trip to the Rio Grande. After visiting and praying with his personal physician, Kerfoot Walker of Tyler, LaNoue realized the most effective way to meet needs and share the gospel in multiple remote villages in a short time—bring an examining room on wheels to where the people lived.

John LaNoue spent three months in North Korea in 1997 as part of a small team of nongovernmental organization representatives who monitored the distribution of food provided by humanitarian organizations in the United States.

Early experiences working in an automotive repair shop, body shop, machine shops and a foundry served him well when he converted an old school bus into a mobile medical unit.

“God is definitely the great economist. He never wastes anything, not even youthful experiences,” LaNoue observed.

Those skills came in handy again just a few years later when he designed the first Baptist disaster relief mobile unit. Texas Baptists first became involved in disaster relief after Hurricane Beulah hit South Texas in 1967. Three years later, when Hurricane Celia struck, Texas Baptist Men took the lead in coordinating the disaster response, and on-the-job experience demonstrated the need for a mobile field kitchen.

Working around-the-clock 36 hours, LaNoue drew up the plans for a trailer that could house the field kitchen, a communications center, bunks for a crew and essential disaster response equipment.

With funds provided through the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions, LaNoue and a crew of volunteers built the disaster relief mobile unit in the rear driveway of his home in Mesquite.

LaNoue helps distribute food in North Korea in 1997.

Just as the unit neared completion, the Guadalupe River in South Central Texas flooded, causing more than $17 million in property damage and drowning 17 people. LaNoue drove the mobile unit to Seguin and set up disaster relief operations on the courthouse square where he, his 9-year-old son and a few other TBM workers field-tested the unit.

“Sometimes obedience to the Father makes you look a lot better than you really are,” he reflected.

In the years that followed, LaNoue traveled with the mobile disaster relief unit to missions in Honduras and Mexico, as well as throughout Texas and around the United States. And he led disaster relief teams to dangerous places where few Americans have been welcomed—particularly Iran and North Korea.

“In Iran, we were able to see the effectiveness of an unspoken witness given through love and generosity,” he said, recalling the close supervision the Baptist disaster relief crews received from Muslim officials as they served Kurdish refugees in the Dolanov Valley.

LaNoue remembered the report a military official gave to a Mullah: “These men are not like the Americans we have heard about. They do not drink or smoke. I have watched them for three weeks, and they have not bothered any of the women. They sing in the night, and they love each other.”

In response, the Mullah anointed LaNoue’s hands with rose oil and prayed for Allah to bless the Baptist workers.

In 1997, LaNoue spent three months in North Korea as part of a five-person team of nongovernmental organization representatives who monitored the distribution of food provided by humanitarian organizations in the United States.

“In the lonesome hours of the night, God was teaching me to find comfort and companionship with him,” he said.

Working in disaster relief across denominational lines and in various cultures taught LaNoue lessons he believes he might never have grasped if not forced out of his Baptist comfort zone.

“The notion that people have to do things my way, sound like me and look like me—the Lord blew that out the window,” he said. “I’ve learned never to look down on other people’s walk with God. I have to respect other people’s experience with God and trust it to be valid and authentic, even though it’s not like mine.

“God is at work everywhere. I’ve grown outside my Baptist experience.”

In his own walk with God through broken places populated by hurting people, LaNoue noted he has seen miracles he never would have encountered had he not been placed in positions where God was his only resource.

“I can only do what God enables me to do,” LaNoue said. “Probably the most important lesson I’ve learned is that God is absolutely God. He can do anything he want to do with people who are willing to join him in what he wants to do.”

Walking with God in Broken Places is available from Amazon.com. For a personalized autographed copy, send $20 plus $5 for shipping and handling to John LaNoue, P.O. Box 396, Frost, TX 76641.