WASHINGTON (ABP) — Early on in his House tenure, someone lit a religious-liberty fire under Rep. Chet Edwards — and, despite Edwards’ position in the most Republican House district in the country to be represented by a Democrat, that fire never burned him.

Although the self-described “husband of a Baptist preacher’s daughter” has represented a very conservative and rural part of Central Texas for nearly 20 years while simultaneously and outspokenly advocating for strict church-state separation in Congress, he never suffered any significant political damage from his stances on religion. What finally did the 59-year-old in last month is the same anti-incumbent, anti-government wave that upended virtually all moderate and conservative Democrats representing “red” districts this year.

Outoing Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas) has earned a reputation as a staunch, if unlikely, defender of church-state separation in Congress. (Photo courtesy Edwards\' office)

“I never lost an election over this issue,” Edwards said in a Dec. 2 interview from his House Appropriations subcommittee office. “My defeat in 2010 was more about national politics and the nation’s unemployment rate than it was about church-state.”

But even if he had finally lost his seat (which he held onto even after Lone Star State Republicans re-drew district lines in 2005 specifically to oust him) over his defense of church-state separation, Edwards said, it would have been worth it.

“If you’re not willing to lose an election over important principles, then you don’t deserve to ever win an election,” he said. “And church-state separation has always been an issue that I was more than willing to lose over, because I know there are a lot of people throughout the world who have sacrificed more than elections in their defense of religious freedom.”

Inspired by Reynolds and Truett

Although Edwards still officially lists himself as a Methodist in congressional biographies, he has long attended Baptist churches — Calvary Baptist Church when he is at home in Waco, Texas; and McLean Baptist Church in Washington’s Northern Virginia suburbs. He credits a Baptist university president and a famous Baptist preacher’s sermon with inspiring in him a deep passion for religious liberty and church-state separation.

“About 15 years ago, Herb Reynolds and I were having lunch together … and we started talking about church-state issues and he sent me a copy of George Truett’s speech on the steps of the Capitol in 1920 on religious liberty,” he said. “And after I read that speech, I was hooked.”

At the time Reynolds, who died in 2007, was president of Baylor University. Truett, legendary pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas from 1897 to 1944, delivered his famous Capitol-steps speech to Southern Baptist Convention messengers, meeting in Washington in 1920, extolling religious liberty.

“That utterance of Jesus, ‘Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's,’ is one of the most revolutionary and history-making utterances that ever fell from those lips divine,” Truett said in one of the most-quoted portions of his speech. “That utterance, once for all, marked the divorcement of church and state. It marked a new era for the creeds and deeds of men. It was the sunrise gun of a new day, the echoes of which are to go on and on and on until in every land, whether great or small, the doctrine shall have absolute supremacy everywhere of a free church in a free state.”

Reynolds’ advice and Truett’s words helped convince Edwards of church-state separation’s paramount importance in safeguarding religious freedom.

“What was so clear to me in Truett’s speech was the idea that religious freedom was a divine gift, and it is sacrilegious to infringe … on that freedom,” he said.

But Edwards didn’t see many of his fellow moderate-to-conservative Democrats in Congress talking much about church-state issues.

“I started asking around in the House and found very few members who had focused on this issue. And I decided somebody has to speak up — and that we need voices that come not just from the ACLU and other liberal organizations,” he said. “We need moderate and conservative voices speaking out in defense of church-state separation — because, after all, it is a very conservative principle, the idea that religion should be put on a pedestal high enough to be beyond the reach of politicians or politics.”

Fight over school prayer

His first chance came quickly. In mid-1995, a House committee began having hearings on a proposed constitutional amendment, championed by then-Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.), to make room for “student-sponsored” prayer in public schools as well as “acknowledgements of the of the religious heritage, belief or traditions of the people.” Edwards became one of its most outspoken opponents, and it eventually the amendment was derailed.

For his role in stopping Istook's efforts, Edwards earned the scorn of the Christian Coalition. They distributed a brochure to voters in his district accusing the young congressman of being un-American — and, even worse, un-Texan — for his opposition to the amendment.

“And I thought how odd it is that I can be accused of being un-American because I was defending the Bill of Rights,” he said.

Edwards went on to weigh in repeatedly in favor of strict church-state separation in fights over things like public display of the Ten Commandments and government funding for religious charities.

He’s been given religious-liberty awards by several Baptist organizations, including the board of directors of Associated Baptist Press.

On social issues other than religious liberty, though, Edwards has often been criticized from the left. Gay-rights groups give him poor marks while the National Rifle Association rates him highly. He opposed the health-care-reform bill that President Obama signed earlier this year.

Islam and the future

In September, Edwards took some hits from friends in the religious-liberty community for issuing a statement opposing a controversial Islamic community center planned for a site a few blocks away from the former World Trade Center location in Lower Manhattan.

But Edwards said his opposition was a matter of prudence rather than the law.

“I tried to be very clear in my statement that I believe that Muslims have the right to build mosques or community centers where any other faith has the right to build such a house of worship or center,” he said. "I felt that, given some of the far-right talk-show discussions and the environment in the country, that this would actually push us backwards in terms of rights for Muslims,” he said.

Edwards believes the ongoing controversy over the site has proven his fears right. “That whole debate created a backlash against Muslims in this country and we need less of that, not more of that,” he said.

The rights of Muslims may be the next big test of religious liberty in the United States, he contended — and that fits in with a pattern in American history of threatening the rights of unpopular religious minorities.

“The pathway to losing religious liberty begins not by inhibiting the rights of the majority but the rights of the minority,” he said. “Once that foundation — that foundation of religious liberty for every citizen — is undermined, then the foundation upon which we all stand is put at risk.”

While polls show that fiscal rather than social issues were important to the voters who put Republicans in charge of the House this time around, Edwards believes the culture wars will inevitably return to the fore in the 112th Congress.

“My guess would be that, if not in 2011, in the 2012 election year there will be a rash of bills introduced to not just chip away but tear down the wall of separation between church and state,” he warned.

Baptist advocates for church-state separation who have worked with Edwards over the years are lamenting his impending departure from Congress.

“Chet has been a dedicated public servant and a great friend of religious liberty,” said Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. “His long-standing commitment to the principle of religious liberty and willingness to speak out on its behalf served as a witness to other members of Congress, who counted on his voice on the issue.”
 

Related ABP stories:

Hundreds gather in Waco to honor late Baylor president Reynolds (5/31/2007)

In reauthorizing Head Start, House rejects religious discrimination (5/4/2007)

The San Marcos Academy Bears football team traded in their traditional forest green and purple uniforms for pink jerseys during one game this season to heighten community awareness about breast cancer services and raise money for Central Texas Medical Center.

“We feel privileged for the opportunity to partner with our long-time friends and supporters at Central Texas Medical Center in this special fundraising effort for the local community,” Academy President John Garrison said.

The pink jerseys with green and purple trim featured the Central Texas Medical Center pattern printed on each shoulder and were sold to players and fans after the game. The $1,250 raised from the “pink out” jersey sales will benefit medical center’s breast cancer support services.

“On behalf of the CTMC Foundation and the hospital community, we would like

to extend our thanks to President Garrison and the San Marcos Academy family for their generous gift,” said Scott Yarbrough, president of the foundation board and member of the academy’s board of trustees.

“We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to the student athletes, coaches, trainers, managers and all students who worked so hard to make this event a tremendous success. We want to commend them for their efforts, but also for the creative way in which they have helped to raise awareness of these valuable services.”

Less than three weeks before North Korea shelled the South Korean YeonPyeong Island and tensions on the Korean Peninsula escalated, a Dallas-based Baptist missions worker delivered 60 tons of corn to North Koreans suffering from a longstanding food shortage in their country.

Yoo Jong Yoon, Korean mission field consultant with Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Missions, meets with the staff at the AeYukWon school for orphans. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Yoo Jong Yoon)

Yoo Jong Yoon, Korean mission field consultant for CBF Global Missions, delivered $21,000 worth of food provided by CBF, Texas Baptist Men, SungLim Korean Baptist Church and the Korean Community of Dallas.

He also visited orphans at two institutions in North Korea where he delivered supplies valued at $2,200 and spoke at a North Korean church.

“I purchased and delivered 800 socks for orphans 8 to 17 years old at MiRim Institute, where I was allowed to say words to the students at two different classes,” Yoon said.

He also bought and delivered jars for kimchi—a traditional meal of fermented cabbage and spices—as well as classroom television sets for the AeYukWon school for orphans ages 4 to 7.

Third-grade students stand at attention in a class at the MiRim Institute. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Yoo Jong Yoon)

“I said to the orphans, ‘We American Christians want to be your friends and mom and dad and sister and brother,’” he recalled.

CBF has contributed to numerous hunger-relief projects in North Korea, including purchasing dried food and providing supplies to enable the people there to build greenhouses to grow their own vegetables. TBM’s ongoing involvement in hunger relief, humanitarian aid and development projects in North Korea dates back to 1996.

In spite of an increasingly tense political and military situation on the Korean Peninsula, Christians have a continuing responsibility to meet needs in Christ’s name, Yoon stressed.

“Kings, lords and rulers change, but the mandate of our Lord’s compassion, feeding the hungry, does not change,” he said.

LUSAKA, Zambia (BP)—No one in the clinic’s waiting room is smiling—except Anna Banda. She chats happily with people at the Circle of Hope clinic on the outskirts of Lusaka, Zambia. There are few—if any—empty seats as they wait to be tested and treated for AIDS.

One mother leaves the clinic carrying bottles of medication in one hand and an infant in her other arm. A trash can overflows with empty medication boxes people have discarded before leaving the facility.

Banda knows all too well the pain these people feel.

Nearly six years ago, Banda was dying of AIDS. She shows a photograph of herself during her darkest days. In the picture she is not smiling. She sits on a bed with her shoulders slumped, staring blankly into the camera. She appears frail, sad and near death.

At that stage of the disease, many people die within days or months—maybe a year if they are fortunate. According to UNAIDS—the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS—statistics, AIDS claims nearly 4,000 lives in sub-Saharan Africa every day.

As Banda’s immune system began to shut down, she often felt weak, nauseated and unable to keep food down—on the edge of becoming another AIDS statistic.

Baptist missionary Troy Lewis prays for teenagers at a True Love Waits meeting in Lusaka, Zambia. The group provides a support system for students with a desire to live a life of sexual purity, integrity and one focused on a relationship with Jesus Christ. (IMB PHOTO)

Then she began to take life-saving medication—antiretroviral therapy—and found encouragement at Circle of Hope clinic. A doctor put her on a strict regimen of medication each morning and evening.

Today, she appears to be the picture of health. She now works at the clinic, is studying to be a receptionist and recently got married. The medication Banda continues to take is not a cure, but if taken regularly, it can get people back on their feet, and living and even enjoying life again.

“Some don’t believe it when I tell them I’m HIV-positive,” she said. “They say, ‘No, you’re just trying to make us feel better.’”

AIDS continues to kill and infect thousands every day, but Southern Baptist missionary Troy Lewis finally sees some progress. Lewis and his wife, Tracey, were appointed as missionaries in 2001. The couple from Dallas has two sons.

For the past decade, Lewis has led AIDS-related ministries in Zambia, joining forces with clinics like Circle of Hope. The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the Cooperative Program fund International Mission Board work overseas.

Troy Lewis, an missionary from Dallas sent out by Southern Baptists’ International Mission Board, teaches Christians near Lusaka, Zambia, how to help homebound people who are infected with AIDS. They learn how to offer suggestions on healthy living and share their Christian faith. (IMB PHOTO)

Having AIDS no longer is the automatic death sentence it once was, Lewis insists.

“We’ve seen people get up off their sick bed and walk,” he said. “The greater availability of antiretroviral therapy is saving lives.”

Lewis’ work has branched out not only to clinics, but also into working relationships with Baptist partners, local churches, ministries and other nongovernmental organizations to help get medication to people who need it. Clinics once limited to HIV testing are now distributing medication and a chance at a new life.

These partnerships have helped bolster AIDS education and training for those seeking new ways to help. Lewis also promotes ministries like True Love Waits, a program that teaches abstinence before marriage, along with biblical principles.

Many of the churches Lewis works with help support more than 30,000 orphans and vulnerable children in six of Zambia’s nine provinces. Lewis estimates they’ve also trained 1,700 caregivers to help those infected with AIDS.

Some provide home-based care for those who are unable to travel to see a doctor.

One morning, Lewis and a group of local Christian caregivers duck through the small opening of a dying man’s hut about an hour from the capital city.

Zambian Christians and Troy Lewis, a Southern Baptist missionary from Dallas, walk into a village to visit a man who has HIV. During the visit the man accepts Christ as his Savior. (IMB PHOTO)

They are checking on Solomon, making sure he’s taking his medication.

The man lies on a thin sheet on the floor of his hut. He used to be busy working in his fields. Today, he is inside, closed off from his community.

Solomon appears to be entering the last stages of AIDS. His clothes swallow his thin frame. Sitting up is a slow, difficult process. Although the outcome for Solomon looks grim, he recently began taking the ART medication to build up his immune system.

Although the number of deaths in sub-Saharan Africa has dropped slightly, people still are being infected and dying at a rapid rate and leaving behind thousands of orphaned children.

At times, keeping up with the latest AIDS statistics—for instance, which African country’s numbers are the worst—can be overwhelming, Lewis admits.

“I used to have all of those (statistics) right on my fingertips,” he says. “Then I stopped looking at it so much. It’s just bad.”

Some local Baptist churches have mobilized slowly during the past decade, but they are gaining traction, Lewis said. For some congregations, overcoming the negative image of AIDS still remains a challenge.

The church has not always been a safe place for people to reveal they have AIDS.

“Sometimes … they did not have a church to lean back on,” Lewis said. “There is a lot of stigma, a lot of discrimination.”

Fighting the pandemic, he contends, boils down to finding hurting people and ministering to their needs like Jesus did.

“Doing ministry that touches the soul” as Lewis puts it. “People were so open to Jesus’ message … it got into their DNA that way.”

Banda—with her smile and new life—prays that others will continue to find the happiness she has found. She also prays for a cure.

Banda remains confident in Christ’s power and love, adding, “My faith tells me that one day God is going to come through for those people who are providing the cure.”

CHICAGO (ABP) — Marriage isn't obsolete, but it is getting rarer, says an evangelical social scientist who sparked controversy a year ago with articles in major publications making a case for early marriage.

Mark Regnerus, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, says recent data on marriage by the Pew Research Center is discouraging but not surprising. The report, which showed that fewer Americans are choosing to marry and more are cohabitating, prompted a Nov. 18 Time cover story titled "Who Needs Marriage?"

According to the Pew study, nearly four in 10 Americans said they believe marriage is becoming obsolete. That's up from 28 percent who agreed when Time magazine posed the same question in 1978.

Mark Regnerus

Regnerus, author of Forbidden Fruit: Sex and Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers, said in a recent blog posting that marriage isn't obsolete, but it is broken and needs restoration.

Regnerus raised eyebrows with a Washington Post article April 26, 2009, arguing that parents send a mixed message by telling their children that marriage is good but not to repeat their generation's mistake of missing out on educational and career opportunities by marrying too young.

A Christianity Today article in July 2009, Regnerus told church leaders at a meeting this spring in a lecture just available online, was even less popular. In it he suggested that amid purity pledges and attempts to convince teenagers that chastity is cool, the church has forgotten to teach young Christians how to tie the knot.

"You're not going to hear this kind of stuff from the pulpit, in part because pastors tend to think of things that are affecting marriage and they think of sexual culture, culture change, culture, culture, culture," Regnerus said in a talk titled "Saving Marriage Before It Starts" at the Q Chicago gathering April 28-30.

Regnerus said evangelicals often view alternative family styles like unmarried couples living together as a sign of moral laxity. While choosing whether to have sex outside of marriage is a moral choice, Regenerus said there are social structures that shape how people relate to one another, and that those social structures have changed.

In his blog article Regnerus said it is important to recognize that there is both a "sex market" and a "marriage market" operating in society.

"Many young adults are content to remain in the sex market for years," he wrote. "For this group, marriage can wait. Now is the time for having a little fun. Indeed, to marry means giving up experiencing sex with other people, and settling on only one."

Others — especially but not exclusively Christians — are only in the marriage market. Since what they hope for — chastity in a spouse — is become increasingly rare, they are there for a longer time. With the difficulty of abstaining from sex during the most fertile and virile period of life, Regnerus contends that attitudes are beginning to change. "Many young adult Christians are making their peace with premarital sex," he wrote.

At the Q conference, Regnerus cited statistics showing that between 92 percent and 95 percent of Americans have had premarital sex. Christians are doing "a little bit better," he said, ranging from 80 percent to 85 percent.

For men, 35 percent of relationships become sexual within the first two weeks and 48 percent within a month. For church-going conservative Protestants, 28 percent of men's relationships turned sexual within two weeks and 41 percent within a month.

"We're a little bit better, but it's not like we live in an alternative universe," he said.

Regnerus said his intention is not to "wag my finger at evangelicals" but rather to point out that today's church is dealing with "some very old norms."

The trajectory within Scripture, he said, beginning with polygamy and harems in the Old Testament, moves toward an ideal of one man and one woman married for life. In the New Testament, Paul had to justify singleness in First Corinthians.

Today, in contrast, Regnerus said "we find ourselves winking about sex" while "having to justify getting married" to parents and peers.

"Lots of people think I'm pushing marriage because I'm trying to reduce sexual temptation," he said. "Honestly if it did that, that would be great. I am not pressing the matter for that reason. I am pressing the matter of marriage because our confidence in marriage seems to be dwindling."

"My purpose in writing the article in Christianity Today was simply to push back against the norm," he said. "Slow down, keep your options open, get your career in order, figure out who you are before considering marriage."

"It's a popular norm," Regnerus said, but, "It's a sexual disaster."

"I'm seeing it plenty in the church, and I think it sends a horrible message about the meaning of marriage," he concluded, "that it's what you do when the best years of your life are over."

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — The Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee will eliminate two vice presidents and merge its news and public-relations functions, Baptist Press reported Nov. 30.

Executive Committee President and CEO Frank Page announced consolidations and staff reductions in memos dated Nov. 17 and Nov. 29, the news service reported.

The restructuring streamlines the staff of the Executive Committee — an elected board charged with major duties like planning an annual meeting, proposing a budget, disbursing funds throughout the year and acting on behalf of the convention in decisions made between annual meetings — from five divisions to three.

It includes merging Baptist Press and the office of convention relations into a new office called the office of convention communications and relations. Roger (Sing) Oldham, current vice president of convention relations since 2007, assumes leadership of the office.

The Baptist Press release announcing the restructuring cited "unprecedented economic challenges" facing the Executive Committee. This year the Executive Committee is preparing an SBC operating budget $500,000 smaller than the current spending plan.

That is before the committee takes action to respond to a motion referred by this summer's convention proposing reduction of the committee's share of the Cooperative Program by 1 percent as way to get more dollars to international missions.

For many years the convention's communications and news functions were handled in a single office. Wilmer C. Fields served as vice president for public relations and director of Baptist Press from 1959 until his retirement in 1987. His successor, Al Shackleford, was fired in 1990, along with news director Dan Martin, over a clash with Executive Committee officers over story selection. That action prompted formation of Associated Baptist Press.

The Executive Committee then separated news and convention relations into two offices and in 1991 hired Herb Hollinger, a Baptist state newspaper editor from California, as director of Baptist Press. After Hollinger retired, Morris Chapman, executive committee president from 1992 until his retirement this year, tapped Will Hall, a military veteran with no previous professional journalism experience, to the VP post now being eliminated, in 2000. His last day on the job is Dec. 3.

Art Toalston, a veteran Baptist journalist who came to work for Hollinger at Baptist Press in 1992, will oversee daily production as editor of Baptist Press.

Bob Simpson, immediate past president of the Association of State Baptist papers, said Dec. 1 he understands the rationale expressed for the downsizing but that he was "shocked" to hear that Hall no longer fits into the Executive Committee's plans.

Simpson, editor of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware news journal Baptist Life, termed Hall "a man of integrity" and "a gifted leader who has done an excellent job for Southern Baptists during his tenure."

Simpson said Hall "has communicated fairly and skillfully to both Southern Baptists and non-Southern Baptists" and "will be sorely missed."

Hall's leadership became an issue for some Baptist state paper editors this year, when an editorial accused Baptist Press of biased coverage of a Great Commission Task Force that proposed a major reshuffling of the convention's priorities.

At this summer's SBC annual meeting, Marty King, editor of the Illinois Baptist, made a motion that Baptist Press be separated from the Executive Committee altogether and function as an SBC entity with trustees elected by the convention in order to increase both its editorial freedom and accountability to Southern Baptists.

Citing previous studies on similar proposals in years past, the Executive Committee voted in September to decline to recommend the change, expressing desire that Baptist Press "continue to operate as an integral part of the ministry assignment of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention rather than a separate entity."

The other Executive Committee position being eliminated is a vice president responsible for promoting the Cooperative Program, the convention's unified budget. Created in 1997, the position has been held since 2005 by Bob Rodgers, a layman. After Rodgers' last day Dec. 10, Page, who took over as head of the Executive Committee Oct. 1, will oversee that responsibility directly.

Page commended both Hall and Rogers for their service and said it is never easy to lay people off from their jobs. "This has been an agonizing set of decisions for me to make," he said in the release. He added the cuts "will not be the only ones we will need to make in the days ahead."

In addition to the restructuring, Page also announced hiring of Bill Townes as interim vice president of convention finance. Currently director of development at the North American Mission Board, Townes will be recommended for permanent election to the post when the Executive Committee meets in February.

The finance VP president position has been vacant since July 1, 2009, when Clark Logan was asked to resign after less than two years on the job for unspecified reasons.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

ROMA—Texas Baptists have sent more than four tons of aid to more than 400 people forced from their homes in the Mexico border city of Ciudad Mier.

They have been sheltered since early November in a Lion’s Club hall, city hall and plaza in Miguel Aleman, Tamulipas, across the Rio Grande from Roma.

Texas Baptist churches have delivered food, water, sleeping bags, tents and hygiene products for the Ciudad Mier refugees who fled their homes Nov. 5 just before two drug cartels began battling for control of the city.

Rio Grande Valley churches helping with the effort include Primera Iglesia Bautista in Roma, Primera Iglesia Bautista in Santa Maria, First Baptist Church in Harlingen, Iglesia Bautista Sublime Gracia in Progreso, Primera Iglesia Bautista in La Joya, First Baptist Church in Weslaco, Olmito Community Church in Olmito, as well as First Baptist Church in Bay City and First Baptist Church in Allen. 

Rio Grande Valley Baptist Association has received $1,000 in disaster response funds from the Baptist General Convention of Texas disaster response fund.

“We’re giving out everything people need as long as we have it,” said Tomas Cantú, pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista in Roma and point person for the response effort.

Some of the refugees are cooking meals for themselves and others in a former restaurant reopened for that purpose, Cantú said. Many are sleeping on concrete floors in the Lion’s Club or on dirt beneath the open sky.

Texas Baptists have responded to the crisis as they sense Christ calling them, said Robert Cepeda, a congregational strategist for Texas Baptists.

“As we’re ministering to these people, we’re ministering to the least of these,” he said. “They’re hungry. Many of them feel hopeless. I really feel this is the epitome of sharing the hope of Christ—feeding and clothing these people and communicating that there are people out there that care about them.”

Violence along the Mexican border has been ongoing as drug cartels fight each other for control. Mexican officials have announced 3,000 soldiers, naval forces and federal police officers were sent to the Ciudad Mier region, near Falcon Lake, but observers are unsure when the situation will be resolved.

“This is really a new day for disaster response in the sense that after a tornado or hurricane, there is an end in sight when folks can get back home and rebuild—look forward to a new life, a new beginning,” Cepeda said. “These folks, it’s open ended. They don’t even know if and when they’ll get to go back home.”

NEW YORK (RNS)—A United Nations committee has adopted a resolution combating the "vilification of religions," but religious freedom advocates who oppose the measure say support for it continues to diminish.

The resolution by Islamic countries is scheduled to be considered by the U.N. General Assembly in December.

The vote — 76 yes, 64 no, and 42 abstentions — received fewer affirmative votes than last year, said Freedom House, a human rights group that has worked against the resolution.

"We are disappointed that this pernicious resolution has passed yet again, despite strong evidence that legal measures to restrict speech are both ineffective and a direct violation of freedom of expression," said Paula Schriefer, director of advocacy at Freedom House.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent bipartisan panel, said the measure's diminished support shows some countries think the resolution can do more harm than good.

"Religious intolerance is best fought through efforts to encourage respect for every individual's human rights, not through national or international anti-blasphemy laws," said USCIRF Chair Leonard Leo.

Days before its passage, the Organization of the Islamic Conference relabeled the resolution as condemning "vilification of religions" instead of "defamation of religions," but U.S. officials and advocates continued to oppose it.

"We are disappointed to see that despite our efforts and discussions on this resolution, the text once again seems to take us farther apart, rather than helping to bridge the historical divides," said John F. Sammis, an official of the U.S. Mission to the U.N., told the committee considering the resolution. "Most importantly, the resolution still seeks to curtail and penalize speech."

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Even a financial decision as seemingly mundane as where to buy your morning coffee can have profound moral implications.

Does the company that produces or sells the coffee collude with corrupt government institutions to exploit the farmers who grow it? Does that company treat its own workers well, with health-care coverage? Do their executives donate to political causes you find morally acceptable? Do their stores undercut community-supporting local merchants, driving them out of business?

And, on a broader level: Is investing one’s retirement funds in the stock of such a company advisable?

Experts in ethics and economics say Christians need to examine their own consciences and views of what practices they believe comport with their understanding of faith to build an ethical framework to factor those values into their economic decisions.

And while the complexities of the global marketplace can make understanding the implications of individual economic decisions a daunting task, resources are available to Christians who want to understand their world better.

Ethical framework

Forming one’s ethical framework regarding financial decision-making is fairly simple, according to William Mounts, an economics professor at Mercer University’s Stetson School of Business in Macon, Ga.

“One: I don’t find anywhere in the Bible that it says you can’t try to make money,” he said. “No. 2, from my perspective, what I believe is I was created by God for God’s pleasure and that what I should do every day is to honor that. So, it seems to me that every question that comes across my desk, no matter what it is—investment questions, a personal-finance question—is that I would answer it so that my answer honors God.”

William Mounts, an economics professor at Mercer University

What does that mean in a concrete example? “Well, if I explore the stocks in my portfolio and I discover that a chemical company is testing on people in the Amazon jungle—well, I ask myself, ‘Does that honor God?’ And I’d say no, so I wouldn’t invest in that stock.”

Likewise, Mounts said, on the consumer level, a Christian who believes that alcohol consumption is wrong may decide not to eat at a restaurant that serves beer.

“We’ve certainly been consumers for longer than we’ve been investors, so I think it’s natural for people to think about the stuff they buy—and if they buy stuff that they believe isn’t consistent with their Christian views, they’ll stop buying it,” he said.

Baptist ethicist Glen Stassen, who teaches at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., would add additional factors—like environmentalism and social justice—into his moral calculus when it comes to financial decisions.

“Jesus confronted the Pharisees, Sadducees and wealthy 37 times in the gospels for injustice, so we should be looking for justice for workers and justice for future generations in terms of our consuming too much and destroying the planet,” he said.

Christians are called to live frugal lives and “not spend more on ourselves than we need to and give God thanks that we have some left over to give to important charities to meet people’s needs,” he added.

Moral investing

When it comes to investing money for retirement, Mounts noted the complexity of modern-day financial instruments—such as mutual funds, each of which places invested dollars in a broad and ever-changing array of stocks and other securities—can prove difficult for the would-be ethical investor to navigate. But resources are available to help steer investors onto the right course.

Jesus Choqueheranca de Quevero, a member of the CEPICAFE farmer co-op in Peru, works as a supplier of organic coffee to Equal Exchange, a Fair Trade worker co-op. (PHOTO/Equal Exchange)

The roots of socially responsible investing date back to at least the 18th century, when Quaker authorities in Philadelphia decided the slave trade was immoral and church members would be prohibited from participation in slave trafficking.

Fast forward to the late 20th century, when the Vietnam War, the Cold War nuclear-arms race and increasing awareness of the racist apartheid regime in South Africa led many individuals, groups and religious leaders to encourage divestment in certain companies.

Firms and mutual funds began to spring up that specialized in what it sometimes referred to as socially responsible, ethical or sustainable investing.

Today, according to the Social Investment Forum, such funds count for more than $3 trillion out of the $25 trillion tied up in the U.S. investment marketplace.

Such funds might include those designed to appeal to conservative Christians that avoid “sin stocks” like those of companies that produce alcohol, tobacco products or pornography. They also can range to investment in companies that care for their employees well, firms that are good environmental stewards and corporations that spend significant resources investing in underprivileged communities.

A directory of socially responsible financial services is available on the Social Investment Forum’s website at www.socialinvest.org.

Consumer decisions

On the everyday-financial-choices level, other resources are available to those who want to make an economic impact. Besides Mounts’ description of Christians’ simple choices not to patronize businesses they know to engage in activities they believe are immoral, a movement—dubbed “fair trade”—has sprung up in recent years to give consumers concerned with the moral implications of their purchase more tools to make good decisions.

Carmen Iezzi, executive director of the Washington-based Fair Trade Federation

“Fair trade is a trading partnership based on dialogue, transparency and respect that seeks great equality in the international trading system,” said Carmen Iezzi, executive director of the Washington-based Fair Trade Federation.

“What all that means is that our members are organizations that use trade as a tool for social justice—for helping people to help themselves to change their own lives, for respecting the environment and building capacity among the poorest of the poor.”

Iezzi’s association, which includes both for-profit companies and fair-trade advocacy groups, promotes companies selling goods that, from start to finish, are produced in ways that are maximally beneficial not only to the consumer of the end product and the bottom line of the company selling it, but also the originators of the product’s raw materials.

“It’s not about charity; it’s not about handouts,” Iezzi said. “It’s respecting the hard work that people do; it’s about paying fair wages, it’s about respecting the dignity of hard work.”

“It really is about trying to race to the top, to expect more of ourselves and to enable people to reap the benefits of the work that they’ve done. The labor behind a product that we enjoy is considerable—and there’s great honor in that, and I think that’s sometimes overlooked,” she said.

When it comes to the moral bottom line, Fuller Seminary’s Stassen said, financial decisions always come back to the same starting place: Do they line up with Christ’s example? And Jesus participated in a legal, religious and economic system.

“Jesus very much dealt with questions of growing violence, … and he was really concerned about the growing economic injustices,” Stassen said. “So, he criticized the farmer in Luke 12 for putting all his money into his own barns instead of people who have needs.

“I think one of the biggest powers we have in this society is what we do with our money, so let’s use the power we’ve got in ways that follow Jesus.”

TEMPLE—Eighty University of Mary Hardin-Baylor faculty and staff packaged 18,000 meals for hungry children in Haiti.

The UMHB personnel served in partnership with Kids Against Hunger, an organization that packages and delivers food to children around the world.

Deborah Jones, assistant professor of music, had worked with Kids Against Hunger in a church fellowship group and believed it would be of interest to UMHB faculty.

“Working with Kids Against Hunger was just such a tremendous experience,” she said. “Everyone who experienced it was so thrilled to be a part of this project.”

Jones chairs the Christian Planning Committee, part of the UMHB Faculty Assembly, and was looking for a way for faculty to volunteer as a group.

“We’re trying to focus more on service as a university. So, we thought the faculty needed to do a service project. We wanted to do something really big. So, I brought up the Kids Against Hunger organization, and the committee just loved it,” said Jones.

Brian Brabham (left), UMHB assistant professor in exercise science, works with Sandra Rodriguez (center), secretary in the UMHB English department, and Alex Graham, a student tennis player majoring in sport management to package meals for children in Haiti.

The committee presented the idea to the faculty at their first meeting this year, and the group overwhelmingly ap-proved the project.

Matt Lovett, assistant professor of exercise and sport science, also serves on the Christian Planning Committee. Lovett was in charge of gathering donations from faculty for the service project.

“Our faculty is segmented across campus. We all kind of stay in our own little world,” said Lovett. “It was good to meet people across campus, hang out and interact with them, especially for something that’s such a good cause.”

The faculty raised about $3,000 to purchase food they could package—enough for 18,000 meals for Haitian children.

Another committee member, Becky Bunn, assistant professor of nursing, scheduled faculty members for food-packaging shift work.

“We had two groups of 40 faculty members,” Bunn said. “My group was from 4 to 5:30 p.m., and the second group was from 5:30 to 7 p.m.”

The faculty raised about $3,000 to purchase food they could package—enough for 18,000 meals for Haitian children.

The volunteers—many of them accompanied by their children and grandchildren, as well as some students—formed an assembly line. Donning hairnets and aprons, they packaged meals containing 21 vitamins and minerals, soy, vegetables and rice. The food mainly was in powdered form, except for the rice, and when added to boiling water can be prepared in 20 minutes.

Bunn and her colleagues enjoyed working together for Kids Against Hunger and hope to continue the tradition the faculty has started.

“Some of us in the College of Nursing were saying we kind of hope that we make this a yearly project,” she said.

“It makes a difference not only for the children in Haiti, but in how we feel. We were doing something together as a faculty that was going to make a difference in other people’s lives.”

AUSTIN—Hunger in Texas has increased slightly, making the Lone Star State the second hungriest in the nation and underscoring the need for Texas Baptists to continue their commitment to live out Christ’s call to feed the hungry.

From 2007 to 2009, 17.4 percent of Texas households were at risk of hunger, an increase of 1.1 percent from the prior three-year period, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture report released Nov. 15.

The findings include data from 2009, the heart of the recent economic downturn. Hunger typically lags behind unemployment, so the need possibly is greater today, according to the USDA. Nationwide, 14.7 percent of households were deemed food insecure in 2009, roughly the same as 2008 and among the highest on record.

Suzii Paynter, director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Life Commission, said the figures stress the importance of Texas Baptists’ commitment to feed the hungry in the state.

“God continues calling Texas Baptists to minister to those who are hungry and hurting,” she said.

“In tough economic times, he asks us to be that much more generous with our time and our resources in order to care for those around us. When we obey that call, God uses us in mighty ways to share the hope of Christ.”

In recent years, Texas Baptists have stepped up efforts to help the hungry. In the past two years, they have given more than $1.8 million to the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger. Congregations also have started and expanded hunger ministries, including outreach programs that distribute food and those that serve hot meals.

Through the Texas Hunger Initiative—a CLC and Baylor University School of Social Work partnership that seeks to end Texas hunger by 2015—congregations mobilized last summer to provide meals for children who otherwise would go hungry. Due in part to their efforts, Texas served 2 million more meals for children last summer than the previous year.

The Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission is a convener of the Texas Food Policy Roudtable working to improve policies for access and effectiveness of feeding programs and healthy food in Texas. Regional groups of Christians have come together to create strategic approaches to end hunger.

DALLAS—Texas Baptists have the opportunity to change lives and—in the process—help shape the direction of a nation.

Texas Baptists have partnered with Siloe Baptist School in Grande-Guave, Haiti, spearheading an appeal for individuals and groups to send impoverished children to a Christian school for $15 a month. The funds pay for a student’s books, tuition, uniform, backpack and supplies.

As it does around the globe, education changes lives, said Bill Arnold, who leads Baptist General Convention of Texas disaster response efforts. Schooling opens numerous doors for people to pull themselves out of the poverty that dominates the nation. In essence, Texas Baptists have an opportunity to change Haiti’s future one student at a time, he said.

“God continues calling our attention to the people of Haiti,” Arnold said. “He calls us to reach out with compassion. This is an opportunity to do just that.”

Students at the Siloe Baptist School crave an education, Arnold said, and private schools like it are critical to educating young people. Private and church-run schools educate 90 percent of students. Christian schools in particular, like Siloe Baptist School, provide one of the few education opportunities for impoverished young people.

Siloe Baptist School is located in Grand-Guave, an area outside Port-Au-Prince where Texas Baptists have focused their disaster response efforts. The convention is seeking to carry out a multifaceted holistic ministry that addresses a variety of needs.

Disaster response funds will help pay for Haitians to dig two water wells, which should prove to be well-timed and critical to helping area residents, Arnold said. Recently, a cholera outbreak hit several regions of Haiti, killing roughly 450 people and hospitalizing another 7,000.

Hurricane Tomas hit the edges of the country Nov. 5, flooding some regions. The intense storm could foster a wet environment in which cholera thrives.

“Access to clean water is one of the basic needs for healthy living,” Arnold said. “In the midst of a cholera epidemic, access becomes even more critical. By helping supply the funds for these wells, Texas Baptists are helping prevent the spread of disease and sharing the hope of Christ in a fundamental way—meeting a physical need that will enable us to share the gospel as well.”

Texas Baptists continue facilitating mission trips for people who want to serve there. The convention has helped medical professionals, Texas Baptist Men volunteers and church teams minister in a variety of ways, including providing water filters.

For more information about Texas Baptist disaster response efforts, visit www.texasbaptists.org/disaster. For more information about sponsoring a Haitian student, visit www.texasbaptists.org/changealife. Information also can be attained by calling (888) 244-9400.