Who is responsible for tackling poverty? A phone survey of 1,002 adults revealed 66 percent of Americans believe the United States has an obligation to assist poverty-stricken children around the world. The survey asked respondents whose responsibility it is to provide aid to children in developing nations. Almost three in 10 (29 percent) said international nonprofit organizations should offer relief, followed by the governments where the children live (25 percent) and developed nations such as the United States (19 percent). Faith-based organizations came in last, with only 16 percent of Americans holding them responsible for tackling childhood poverty. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Religious freedom violations reported. The State Department has issued its annual human rights report on 194 countries, calling 2009 “a year in which ethnic, racial and religious tensions led to violent conflicts and serious human rights violations.” The State Department said “no genuine freedom of religion” exists in North Korea, and Cuban law permits punishment of any unauthorized assembly of more than three people—including religious services in private homes. In Iraq, despite the government’s public calls for tolerance, attacks on places of worship by extremist and insurgent groups limited their ability to practice their faith. In China, repression of Tibetan Buddhists and Muslim Uighurs increased, the report said. Non-Muslims are prohibited from expressing their religion publicly in Saudi Arabia.

Conservative activist resigns. Donald Wildmon, founder and chairman of the Mississippi-based American Family Association, has resigned after months of failing health. “A bite from a mosquito carrying the St. Louis encephalitis virus caused Wildmon’s illness,” the ministry said. “From August to November of last year, Wildmon spent 121 days in the hospital and rehab.” Wildmon, 72, also was treated for cancer on his left eye. The retired United Methodist minister started the ministry in 1977. It operates 180 radio stations and a monthly magazine, and now employs 175 people with a $20 million budget. The AFA said Wildmon’s son, Tim, 47, is expected to lead the ministry. AFA has been active in boycotting organizations and companies that embrace policies counter to its conservative Christian views.

Grads take dim view of commandments. College graduates are more likely to consider the Ten Commandments irrelevant and reject the Bible as the word of God than people with no college degree, according to a recent study. A distinct shift occurs after college regarding beliefs and opinion, said Richard Brake, director of university studies at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. The ISI surveyed 2,508 Americans on questions intended to measure the impact of a college degree on people’s beliefs. The study also found that people with college degrees were more likely to support same-sex marriage, as well as abortion available at any stage of pregnancy and for any reason. The study has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—While most Americans describe Easter as a religious holiday, fewer than half of the adults surveyed link it specifically to the Resurrection of Jesus, a Barna Group study shows.

Seven in 10 respondents mentioned religion or spirituality in their response to an open-ended question about how they describe what Easter means to them personally. But just 42 percent tied Easter to the Resurrection.

At 73 percent, baby boomers—ages 45 to 63—were the most likely to describe Easter as a religious holiday, compared to two-thirds of those ages 26 to 44 and Americans 64 and older.

The youngest group of adults—ages 18 to 25—were least likely, at 58 percent, to use that kind of description.

Other than the day Christians believe Jesus rose from the dead, respondents described Easter as “a Christian holiday, a celebration of God or Jesus, a celebration of Passover, a holy day” or a special day to go to church, Barna researchers said.

“The Easter holiday in particular still has a distinctly religious connection for people, but … the specifics of it are really fading in a lot of people’s minds,” said David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, based in Ventura, Calif.

The findings are from phone interviews of a random sample of 1,005 U.S. adults conducted Feb. 7-10 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—The Dove Awards may be the biggest night of the year for the Gospel Music Association, but through testimonies and songs of praise, the spotlight remains shining brightly on Christ.

Musicians and recording industry representatives who gathered for a press conference—and a time of prayer and devotion—before the nominees were announced for the 41st Annual Gospel Music Association’s Dove Awards included (left to right) Ed Leonard, chairman of the board of the Gospel Music Association and president of Daywind Music Group; Wes Bulla, dean of the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business at Belmont University; Ben Tankard, gospel/jazz artist and multiple Dove Award nominee; Francesca Battistelli, Dove Award nominee; Michael W. Smith, 44-time Dove Award winner; Brandon Heath, 2009 Dove Award-winning male vocalist of the year; Kari Jobe, Dove Award nominee; Jeremy Camp, two-time male vocalist of the year; Lisa Kimmey-Winans, member of the group Out of Eden and Gospel Music Channel host; and Jason Crabb, 10-time Dove Award winner.

Before the nominations were announced for the 41st annual Dove Awards, many Christian musicians and industry leaders gathered together for a time of prayer and devotion led by Pete Wilson, senior pastor of Cross Point Church in Nashville and author of Plan B—What Do You Do When God Doesn’t Show Up The Way You Thought He Would?

“The more God expands your ministry and influence, the more you have to give up control and completely surrender to him,” Wilson said.

“Your primary responsibility in life is to be living for his glory. It may seem like the tasks will always require more than you have to offer, but remember, what Christ begins in you, he will complete. As you’re writing these songs of hope and sharing messages of grace and redemption, you’re being used as a vessel for Christ to accomplish incredible things for his glory.”

Multiple Dove Award winner Michael W. Smith agreed.

“It’s wonderful to hear great songs, but when people’s hearts are really in the right place and focusing on Christ, that’s what will change the world,” he said. “When an artist takes the focus off of himself and shines the spotlight on Christ, that’s what makes me proud to be a part of this industry.

“We’re here to celebrate music and to celebrate Jesus, the one who really is the famous one. It’s not about us. As we recognize these artists who have made a significant impact, it’s really recognizing a heart that loves Jesus and is focused on leading people to him.”

Natalie Grant

Bart Millard

In addition to Smith, other recording artists including Brandon Heath, Kari Jobe, Francesca Battistelli, Jason Crabb and Jeremy Camp attended the devotional time and press conference at Belmont University’s Curb Café in Nashville, Tenn., where this year’s Dove Award nominees were announced.

Jaci Velasquez made a special appearance to assist Camp in announcing the nominees for the Spanish language album of the year.

“I’m always honored and so excited to be a part of anything that the Gospel Music Association does,” Velasquez said. 

“It’s an incredible industry. We get to be a part of music that changes people’s lives. For me, watching all the artists is such a great experience and my hat goes off to each and every one of them. They’re all doing amazing things and creating music that is intended to lead people to a deeper love for God and promoting the kingdom.”

Camp agreed.

“It’s such a joy to be here with all my peers—amazing musicians who love Jesus,” he said. “And that’s the whole purpose why we’re here—to get the gospel out. To be nominated is such an honor, but above all, just to see everyone joined together and saying, ‘I just want to be here to glorify God,’ that’s what brings me the most joy.”

The Dove Awards will be held April 21 at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and aired on the Gospel Music Channel. The evening will feature artists from every style of gospel/Christian music coming together for a night of music and celebration.

For a complete list of nominees, visit www.gos-pelmusic.org. 

Natalie Grant, four-time Dove Award winning female vocalist of the year, and Bart Millard, lead singer of the Texas-based band MercyMe, will serve as hosts for the awards show.

DALLAS—A photograph may be a frozen moment in time, but it also can have far-reaching—possibly eternal—consequences.

Austin Mann, a photographer and member of the Village Church in Flower Mound, enjoys using his photography skills to help various ministries. He had traveled with Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas to Guatemala, where he used his camera to chronicle the church’s ministry there.

When a fellow photographer told Mann he had taken pictures of underprivileged people for the Salvation Army and described what a fulfilling experience it had been, Mann asked staff at Park Cities if they could use his skills in a similar fashion.

Park Cities has a history of almost 30 years of ministry cooperation with Cornerstone Baptist Church in inner-city Dallas. Volunteers from Park Cities have assisted Cornerstone in its ministry to the homeless and holiday feeding ministries, and the churches also join together for a school mentoring program and a clothing ministry.

About $70,000 each year in the Park Cities budget, as well as about $30,000 in designated gifts, is directed to Cornerstone.

Naturally, when Mann asked for a place to use his skills, Cornerstone came to mind.

"For many, it was the first time they ever had a photo of their child that was maybe 3 or 4 years old,” said photographer Austin Mann.

On a Friday evening, Mann and a group of photographers he assembled for the project set up eight portrait studios at Cornerstone and the next day took pictures of about 300 families.

“It was a neat way to bring families together,” Mann said. “We found that there were a number of families who hadn’t been in the same room together for many years. It turned into a lot of mini family reunions. There were mothers there with sons they had not seen in years.”

Mann also felt blessed to take photos of some families with young children.

“For many, it was the first time they ever had a photo of their child that was maybe 3 or 4 years old,” he said. “For a lot of us, we take hundreds of photos before the baby even leaves the hospital, but for these families, this was their first picture ever.”

He particularly remembered a mother who had a picture of her 20-year-old son when he was 2 years old, but there had not been a photo taken during those intervening 18 years.

Thirteen of the families who had their photographs taken joined the church the next Sunday.

“It was kind of mind-blowing and neat for all the photographers involved. It was a cool way for the photographers to use the talents and equipment God had given them to give back a little bit,” Mann said of the six-hour photo shoot.

While it represented a nice gift from Cornerstone to its community, Pastor Chris Simmons said the church also was on the receiving end. Thirteen of the families who had their photographs taken joined the church the next Sunday.

“It removed a barrier to some who thought lightning would strike if they ever entered a church,” Simmons said. About half of the families who had their pictures taken had no affiliation with the church, he noted.

“It was a very successful outreach,” he said. “And since we captured their contact information, names and addresses, when they had their pictures taken, we are still following up on some of them. And we still have people visiting and joining. I see it having a very long-term impact on our church and community.”

DIDCOT, England (ABP)—Churches, by and large, still haven’t entered the digital age when it comes to evangelism. But those who have are reaping huge rewards, according to a new survey.

A poll conducted by Christian technology company Endis, which provides the ChurchInsight church web platform and has offices in the United States and the United Kingdom, indicates that when churches deliberately focus their websites on attracting outsiders, they see a corresponding rise in the number of non-Christian visitors.

But many focus on the internal life of the church, and their effectiveness is reduced.

Endis polled 1,600 churches for its DigiMission project, asking questions about church size, the website’s target readership, the number of Christians and non-Christians coming to events, and the influence of the website on their decision to attend.

The 120 churches that responded reported more than 1,300 non-Christian visitors in the last 12 months to church events, services and discipleship courses through the Internet—an average of 11 non-Christian visitors per church. For Christian visitors, the figure is 1,600, an average of 14.

Among the survey’s key findings were that most churches’ websites were not created with the unchurched in mind. Only half offer an outline of the gospel, and only a quarter provide testimonies of people who have come to faith in Christ.

Endis spokesman Geoff Knott said there were clear differences in the effectiveness of different websites.

“When we looked at the successful sites, we found that they had the gospel on their site, and that people were able to book into events,” he said.

“Interactivity is important, but we didn’t find that blogs or forums did much. The other thing that was very successful was stories.”

It was also noticeable that larger churches were less effective than smaller ones at attracting unchurched people.

“Smaller churches of between 100 and 150 are very good at getting guests in. I think they push harder, using Google Adwords for instance. They’re trying to grow. Are we losing our mission edge as we grow bigger?”

He stressed that good content and ease of use were far more important than a sophisticated image or a multiplicity of functions.

Tips for church websites from DigiMission:

• Identify your audience. Most church websites are designed for the reached, not the unreached.

• Try to be more interactive. Letting visitors sign up for events gives them an immediate opportunity to get engaged with you.

• The Internet is just part of your mission effort. Multiple contacts, by different means, increase chances of success. There’s no substitute for personal contact.

• Be serious about the Internet. It’s the new printing press, and hundreds of millions of people use it every day.

• Think about what image you’re communicating. What does your site say about your church?

• Put the gospel on your website. How would you explain the gospel simply to someone who never heard it before?

Mark Woods is editor of The Baptist Times, the weekly newspaper of the Baptist Union of Great Britain.

• Clayton Chisum to First Church in Andrews as associate pastor/youth minister from Field Street Church in Cleburne, where he was minister to students.

• Dave Douglas to Oplin Church in Clyde as interim pastor.

• Joe Hodges to First Church in Eden as pastor from Tennyson Church in Tennyson.

• Hutch Hudson to First Church in Bayside as pastor.

• Garry Jordan to First Church in Joshua as pastor.

• Michael Lehnhardt to Chambers Creek Church in Grandview as pastor.

• Bill Magee to First Church in Normangee as interim pastor.

• Gus Martinez has resigned as pastor at Iglesia La Hermosa in Skidmore.

• Brian McClure to Friendship Church in Cleburne as pastor.

• Jerry Reed to Sand Flat Church in Cleburne as pastor, where he had been interim.

• Bill Roe to First Church in Rio Vista as interim pastor.

• Keith Rosenbaum to Keene Church in Keene as interim pastor.

• Randy Roy to College View Church in Abilene as pastor.

• The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor will present its 71st annual Easter pageant March 31 at 12:30 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., all outdoors in front of the Luther Memorial arches. The reproduction of Passion Week is free and open to the public. Almost 200 UMHB students, as well as many children from the community, participate in the production.

• Contemporary Christian artist Jimmy Needham is the headline attraction for the 15th annual HPU Fest at Howard Payne University April 10. Additional performers include Ben Rector, Justin Cofield Band, Miranda Dodson and HPU student performers Katie Curry, One Less Stone, Vinyl Club, Chronic Frailty and Rise to the Challenge. The free concert begins at 3 p.m. and will be held in Old Main Park. HPU Fest also will feature a chili cookoff, refreshments and vendor booths.

• The annual ministers’ wives’ retreat will be held April 15-17 at Riverbend Retreat Center in Glen Rose. Rhonda Rae is the keynote speaker, and Vonda Dyer will lead worship. The registration deadline is April 1. For more information or to register, go to www.texasbaptists.org/ministerswives.

• Howard Payne University will hold Celebration Week April 12-16 featuring the inauguration of Bill Ellis as the university’s 19th president. The weeklong slate of events will highlight HPU’s history and mission through the theme “Heritage, Purpose, Unity.” Additional events include the dedication of the newly renovated Mims Auditorium and the Paul and Jane Meyer Faith and Life Leadership Center. For more information, call (325) 649-8409.

• San Marcos Baptist Academy will hold an open house for prospective students and their families April 18 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Call (512) 753-8000 for more information.

• Steve Wyrick, professor of Old Testament, Hebrew and archaeology, will speak on “The Current State of Archaelogy in the Holy Land” at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor’s College of Humanities’ spring lecture series April 19 at 11 a.m. in Brindley Auditorium of the York Science Center.

• A building dedication service for the Texas Baptist Historical Museum in Indepen-dence will be held April 27 at 1 p.m. The dedication will be followed by a reception and hosted tours of Windmill Hill and Old Baylor Park, original locations of Baylor University and the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. The event is free, but a reservation at (214) 828-5342 is necessary for preparations.

• A leadership training seminar led by the National Center for Church Architecture will be held at Dallas Baptist University May 1 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The topic will be “Effective Leadership for Church Relocation.” The seminar will provide guidelines for determining the benefits and drawbacks of relocations. Participants also will receive information on working with architects, engineers, builders and municipalities, as well as organizing a master building plan for a new church campus. The seminar is designed for all levels of church leadership, including pastors, associate ministers and lay leaders. For more information, see www.tncca.net.

• John Lee Hancock, writer and director of the Academy Award-nominated film The Blind Side and a Baylor Law alumnus, will be the keynote speaker at the law school’s commencement exercises May 1 at 10 a.m.

• Wayland Baptist University is planning a June 9-23 trip to Ecuador. Students will work for a week in the rain forest and in an orphanage teaching English. Students also will participate in whitewater rafting, mountain biking, rappeling down a waterfall, horseback riding and other activities. Alumni are invited to participate, but the $900 deposit is due. For more information, call (806) 291-1045.

• A pew from Carey Baptist Church in Moulton, England, has been given to the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute by Bob and Gloria Jaynes, members of South Main Church in Pasadena. The pew was contemporary with the church’s famed pastor William Carey.

• Charles Chaput, archbishop of Denver, delivered a lectured titled “The Vocation of Christians in American Public Life” March 1 at Houston Baptist University. Chaput, a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, was ordained a priest in 1970.

• David Marks has been appointed chief medical officer by Baptist Child & Family Services.

Anniversaries

• Miles Miears, 10th, as pastor of Jonesboro Church in Jonesboro, Feb. 21.

• Ed Seay, 20th, as pastor of First Church in Magnolia, March 21.

• Mike Flanagan, fifth, as pastor of First Church in Whitesboro, April 10.

• Crutchfield Heights Church in Sherman, 50th, April 18. Mike Moody is pastor.

• Wedgwood Church, Fort Worth, 50th, May 1-2. The church will be open Saturday from 10 am. to 6 p.m. for tours, scrapbook viewing and some scheduled reunions. On Sunday, continental breakfast will be served from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Photographs and other memorabilia will be displayed. Following the morning service, a catered barbecue lunch will be served at the Will Rogers Center. Cost is $10 for people ages 6 and older and $5 for children who are younger. Reservations for the lunch can be made at www.wedgwoodbc.org and are requested by April 16. Al Meredith is pastor.

• Jerry Wilson, 60th in ministry, May 2. The day also marks his 10th anniversary as pastor of Southcrest Church in Lubbock. A reception in honor of Wilson and his wife, Nadell, will be held at the church from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Deaths

• James Nelson, 81, March 10 in Greenville. He served more than 60 years in the music ministry of First Church in Wolfe City. He began as music director at age 19, and in 1978, became the church organist. He was preceded in death by his sister, Erin Stanley; and brother, Charles. He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Peggie; daughters, Vanessa Cherry and Jamie Thomas; sister, Ethlyn Dozier; and five grandchildren.

• Preston Taylor, 83, March 11 in San Antonio. He had been pastor of churches in Zapata, Mirando City, Sanderson, Hondo, Brackettville, Dilley, Carrizo Springs, Beaumont, Fairfield and Bosqueville. He was pastor of First Church in Zapata at the time of his death. He also served as a missionary in Argentina and wrote more than two dozen books. He was preceded in death by his wife, Dovie in 1997. He is survived by his son, Preston Jr.; daughter, Marsha Martin; sister, Mabel Titsworth; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

• Orel Speed, 80, March 15 in Beaumont. He was ordained in 1948 at First Church in Galena Park. He was pastor at churches in New Diana, Kirbyville, Kountze, Borger, Poteet, Silsbee, Vidor, Houston, Rye and Logansport, La. He is survived by his wife, Winona; son, Tracy; daughter, Kasandra Sherrod; sister, Ruth Hunt; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

• Loeen Bushman, 78, March 15 in Weatherford. During her days as a student at Baylor University, she was the accompanist for the Baylor Religious Hour Choir under the direction of Dick Baker. She went on to serve as organist for several churches including Travis Avenue Church in Fort Worth, Rosen Heights Church in Fort Worth, and First Church in Midland, where she also served as youth director. She also served on the staff of the Baptist Radio and Television Commission and was organist for the Baptist Hour radio broadcast for many years. While there, she produced albums for various artists on the Christian Home music label. She also served as accompanist for the Singing Men of Texas and the Southern Baptist Centurymen. She traveled extensively for the International Mission Board, including three years in South Korea at the Baptist seminary in Taejon and one year at the Baptist seminary in Hong Kong teaching organ and piano. She is survived by her twin sister, Lois Kelly.

Event

• The women’s ministry of First Church in Irving will host “So Long Security,” a live simulcast event of speaker and author Beth Moore April 24 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Advance tickets can be purchased for $25 at www.firstirvingfamily.org/simulcast .html. A discounted rate of $10 is available for college students and adults 65 years or older. Lunch in included. At the door, tickets are $35. For more information, call (972) 253-1171.

Revivals

• East Sherman Church, Sherman; March 28-31; evangelist, Lash Banks; music, David Garrett; pastor, Roland Ouellett.

• Crutchfield Heights Church, Sherman; April 4-7; evangelist, David Crain; pastor, Mike Moody.

WASHINGTON (ABP) — A new survey finds broad support across party lines and religious groups for comprehensive immigration reform that reflects the rule of law and respects the dignity and wholeness of immigrants and families.

The study, released March 23 by the Public Religion Research Institute, comes as Congress gears up to debate immigration reform. It found little difference between religious leaders and the average congregation member about what values ought to guide America's immigration policy or whether religious leaders should speak out about immigration issues.

“By a two-to-one margin, American voters strongly support a comprehensive approach to immigration reform, and they want a solution that reflects strongly held values,” said Robert Jones, the institute’s CEO and co-founder. “More than eight in 10 Americans — including overwhelming majorities of white mainline Protestants, Catholics and white evangelicals — believe strongly that immigration reform should be guided by the values of protecting the dignity of every person and keeping families together as well as by such values as promoting national security and ensuring fairness to taxpayers.”

In the poll — conducted in early March with 1,402 registered voters nationwide plus additional samplings of 402 registered voters each in Arkansas and Ohio — more than 80 percent of voters rated each of four values as “extremely important” or “very important” guidelines for immigration reform:

1. Enforcing the rule of law and promoting national security (88 percent)
2. Ensuring fairness to taxpayers (84 percent)
3. Protecting the dignity of every person (82 percent)
4. Keeping families together (80 percent)

There were few significant differences between major religious groups. For example, white evangelical voters were as likely as white mainline, Catholic and unaffilated voters say protecting the personal dignity is a very or extremely important in immigration reform.

A strong majority (71 percent) also said “providing immigrants the same opportunity that I would want if my family were immigrating to the U.S.” — what the study’s sponsors called the “Golden Rule” question — as a very or extremely important value in immigration reform.

“One of the things I discovered in this poll is that there really is broad agreement across denominational lines, and that is very encouraging. And it is very rare in this partisan environment that we have that sort of agreement,” said Rich Nathan, pastor of the 10,000-member Vineyard Church of Columbus in Westerville, Ohio, in a press conference associated with the poll’s release.

Nathan, whose congregation includes members who hail from 75 different countries, said he had personally experienced how broken our nation’s immigration system is — including families of church members separated from their loved ones by deportation or inability to visit sick or dying relatives.

“For us evangelicals, the immigration is a family issue,” he said. “And we’re watching families broken up in our own congregation.”

–Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.

PLAINVIEW—Christian universities that maintain a strong faith commitment—while also holding to high academic standards—are swimming against the tide of secularism and performing a public service, ethicist David Gushee told a group at Wayland Baptist University.

“Schools attempting to retain a Christian identity are making a great contribution to the church and to society,” he said.

Gushee, distinguished university professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University, served as the speaker in Wayland’s Willson Lecture Series.

David Gushee, professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University, speaks about the role of Christian universities. Gushee was the speaker in the Willson Lectures Series at Wayland Baptist University. (WAYLAND PHOTO)

The “fading Christian soul of the university” began long ago major universities like Harvard and Yale started shedding the Christian heritage of their founding, Gushee said.

“Sometimes it seems as though the tide of secularization is almost unbearable,” he said. “Often, it seems the university is reflecting the community, but if the community becomes more secular, the university ends up going that way as well.”

Many universities nationwide that originally were Christian have become increasingly secular—either cutting ties completely with their denominational heritage or maintaining only a nominal formal relationship, he noted.

But Gushee finds hope in what he called a “resistent community” of schools that remain ardent about balancing their faith heritage and mission with the academic rigors required of the university.

Gushee borrows from author Robert Benne in breaking colleges into four categories with regard to faith. The “accidentally pluralist” schools are primarily secular but with the presence of a few Christian faculty or leaders who bring some aspect of faith into the campus. Others are “intentionally pluralist”—not as thoroughly secular and ensuring that there is some Christian presence on the campus.

Most ardently Christian schools fall is into the categories of either “critical mass” or “orthodox,” Gushee asserted. In both categories, he said, “faith is the explicit, organizing center of the campus” and the schools recruit their faculty and staff from various Christian faiths. In addition, there are Christian courses required of every student.

Where orthodox schools vary is that every course is designed to integrate the Christian thought, student life is monitored heavily for moral consideration, the chapel program is robust and the school remains tightly rooted to its sponsoring denomination.

Historically Southern Baptist schools have a unique story, shaped in large part by the decades of controversy within the national convention, Gushee said. Fear of secularization has led to fundamentalism in some instances; in others, feature of fundamentalism has led to secularization.

“Our very fears have done great damage to our universities,” he said.

But the future is not without hope, he insisted, as long as universities embrace their Christian identity and seek to nurture students that, “love God with all their heart, care about the kingdom, love people and care about justice in an unjust world.” These students, he said, “experience and exude the fruit of the Holy Spirit.”

Christian universities can be outposts of the mission of the church, where faith is not just theological doctrine, but also includes service and great love to people, he said.

“To be truly Christian and truly Baptist, our colleges need direct attention to the spiritual and moral side of faith, to its living heartbeat, to the praxis of discipleship, to the integration of spiritual passion, Christian love and biblical ethics into every area of life,” he said. “Students need models and mentors who demonstrate the viability of the Christian life and pass it on to the next generation.”

WASHINGTON (ABP) — After a year of work by President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, the panel has made its recommendations. According to experts in religious liberty, some of them represent long-sought victories for supporters of strong church-state separation.

Nonetheless, neither the report’s recommendations nor the White House actions on the subject have gone far enough to please many who were critical of previous administrations’ efforts to loosen government rules on funding social services through churches and other religious organizations.

The report, released earlier this month, makes recommendations in several areas the council was tasked with reviewing. A set of the council’s recommendations about reform of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and its related programs in federal agencies dealt with many of the most controversial church-state issues surrounding the faith-based effort.

On two issues in particular — strengthening the guidance that religious groups receiving government funding receive to ensure that they do not violate the First Amendment’s ban on government promotion of religion and houses of worship forming separately incorporated charities through which to carry out government-funded programs — the council’s recommendations heartened church-state separationists.

But the panel was not charged with bringing a recommendation on what may be the most controversial issue surrounding the faith-based effort — the hiring rights of religous organizations that use federal funds to deliver social services.

Recommendations go 'a long way' to rectifying church-state problems

The recommendations go “a long way in righting the church-state problems that have plagued the faith-based initiative over the past decade,” said Brent Walker of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, who served on a sub-panel of the council that helped craft the recommendations.

Brent Walker

“We made major strides in seeking to honor constitutional principles while ensuring the autonomy of religious organizations, including churches. The requirement of a separate corporation to receive the money and perform the services is crucial to achieving this goal.”

That recommendation was one for which groups critical of President George W. Bush’s efforts to expand faith-based partnerships had long contended. The BJC and other church-state separationist groups have argued it is the best way to ensure that government money intended for secular social services isn’t diverted to worship, devotional or other religious activities.

But it was the one recommendation over which the council’s members had the most sharply differing views.

“Council members are almost evenly divided over the issue of whether the government should also require houses of worship that would receive direct federal social-service funds to form separate corporations to receive those funds,” the report said. “A narrow majority of the council (13 members) believe the federal government should take such a step as a necessary means for achieving church-state separation and protecting religious autonomy, while also urging states to reduce any unnecessary administrative costs and burdens associated with attaining this status. A minority of the council (12 members) believe separate incorporation is sometimes, but not always, the best means to achieve these goals and should not be required because it may be prohibitively costly and would disrupt or deter other successful and constitutionally permissible relationships.”

Melissa Rogers

Melissa Rogers, a former BJC general counsel and currently a professor at Wake Forest Divinity School, chaired the council. She said that even the disagreement over the separate-incorporation requirement, while closely dividing the council, nonetheless revealed some common ground on the issue.

“I certainly believe that — for the good of both church and state — the government should take this step. So I was pleased to see the proposal draw support from a large and diverse group of council members,” Rogers said. “If you read the arguments back and forth in the report, you see that even those on the other side of this question believe separate incorporation for houses of worship is advisable in many cases, so that’s also worth noting.

Charles Haynes of the Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center said separate incorporation is a best practice. “Religious charities would be wise to form separate 501(c)(3) organizations because that would both help ensure that tax money is not used for religious purposes and protect the autonomy of faith communities,” he said. “For those who believe that separation of church and state is good for religion, this would be a victory for the principle of separation.”

Clearer church-state guidance to grantees

The council also recommended that granting agencies provide much clearer guidance to charities receiving government funding on how to avoid spending government dollars on activities that violate the First Amendment’s prohibition on government-endorsed religion. Those recommendations drew broad support from the panel, which included Rogers and Walker as well as former Southern Baptist Convention president Frank Page and prominent African-American Baptist leaders Otis Moss, Jr., and William Shaw.

“We are at a new stage when some who supported charitable choice [the Clinton-era forerunner of the Bush faith-based effort] as well as some who opposed it can agree on a list of common-ground standards that should control many issues in this area,” Rogers said. "These aren’t personal victories. Instead, they are a demonstration of the merit of the ideas and a testament to the group’s dogged commitment to listen to one another and work together despite our differences on some important issues.”

The clearer guidance, in particular, was a valuable step for avoiding lawsuits and constitutional violations, said one legal scholar who’s been tracking the faith-based effort since its beginning.

“The general thrust is that the clarity is of the sort that will help,” said George Washington University Law School professor Chip Lupu, who along with colleague Bob Tuttle has been monitoring the legal issues surrounding government funding of religious charities for the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. “Bob and I hopped for years on this Bush-era regulation about ‘inherently religious activities’ [being non-fundable with government dollars] and how ambiguous that was. And the task force here clarified that.”

To be resolved: Hiring-discrimination questions

What remains unclear is the other big controversy surrounding the faith-based initiative: Whether religious charities receiving government funding to carry out ostensibly secular social services can, nonetheless, discriminate on the basis of religion in hiring for positions dealing with those charities. Opponents of Bush’s effort — including most strong church-state separationists — believe they can’t. Bush and his supporters contended that not allowing religious charities to take faith into account when hiring would force them to change their fundamental nature in order to receive government funds.

Obama promised, during a 2008 campaign speech, to reverse a Bush policy that had allowed religious charities receiving government funds to take faith into account when hiring. But, since taking office, White House officials have taken a more cautious approach to the question. While church-state separationists have pressed Obama  to overturn the policy in one fell swoop, administration officials have instead said federal agencies would address concerns over discrimination in hiring on a case-by-case basis.

That leaves Rogers, Walker and other church-state separationists hoping for more.

“I trust the administration will implement all of our recommendations, and in the next year fulfill President Obama's campaign promise to eliminate religious discrimination in employment for governmentally funded programs,” Walker said.

–Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.

Previous ABP stories:

Faith-based panel narrowly recommends separate 501(c)(3) entities for churches (2/11/2010)

Church-state groups press Holder to withdraw Bush-era hiring memo (9/18/2009)

On church-state issues, Obama brings new perspective, slow policy change (7/8/2009)

On Bush’s faith-based programs, Obama says save best, ditch rest (7/6/2008)

WASHINGTON (ABP) — A Baptist preacher who leads a national interfaith organization has written leading publishers around the country to urge them to reject changes made to standards for teaching about social studies, history and economics in Texas.

Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, said March 22 that recent amendments adopted by the Texas state board of education emphasizing Christianity's influence on the founders and downplaying political reasons for the separation of church and state will give students a picture that is "historically inaccurate."

Gaddy, who also serves as pastor for preaching and worship at Northminster (Baptist) Church in Monroe, La., said through amendments to the teaching standards, a conservative voting bloc on the Texas board "proposes to teach our children not that we are a pluralistic democracy, founded as a safe haven for minorities and the freedom of religion, but instead the fallacious notion that we are a 'Christian nation,' founded upon and governed by Christian beliefs."

"I know that the state of Texas is a major consumer of your textbooks, but I call upon you to reject these erroneous, ill-advised changes and maintain your commitment to an accurate education of superior quality for our nation's children," Gaddy wrote. "I urge you to ensure that they receive a better education, one that is not shaped by narrow-minded opinions that are being passed off as fact."

Texas and California are the two largest purchasers of textbooks nationwide. As such, their teaching standards historically have influenced what is taught in other states, as publishers sought to gear books toward the largest markets.

Some observers say that in today's publishing world, changes adopted in Texas may not have as much effect on the rest of the country as some critics fear.

Jay Diskey, executive director of the school division for the Association of American Publishers, told E-School News, a website that covers technology for educators, the notion that Texas curriculum automatically hops state borders is "a bit of an urban myth" and that nearly all states require or expect publishers to align to their own standards.

Patte Barth, director of the Center for Public Education at the National School Boards Association, said that while there is still a large demand for traditional textbooks, there has been a movement to put more textbook type material on-line, where it is cheaper and easier to adapt to state and local standards.

Despite that, Gaddy said the Interfaith Alliance, which represents 75 faith traditions as well as Americans who have no faith tradition, isn't taking the matter lightly.

"At this point we are working to ensure that other children across the country are not taught an inaccurate history of our country," Gaddy said. "We understand that textbooks will not be uniform, but it simply is incorrect to state we are a Christian nation founded upon and governed by Christian beliefs. Unfortunately, this is just one of multiple inaccuracies that will now be included in Texas textbooks."

Gaddy said changes include removing Thomas Jefferson from curriculum that covers the Enlightenment period and rejecting language articulating that the Founding Fathers protected religious freedom by barring the government from favoring or disfavoring any one religion over another.

"The Texas SBOE members certainly are entitled to believe whatever they want about our country and its history," Gaddy said. "The problem arises when their religious beliefs begin to essentially rewrite history for our children."

"Separation of church and state was a core tenet of our nation's founding," he said. "Whether you like him or not, Thomas Jefferson was a leading thinker during the Enlightenment. It's almost unfathomable to think that Texas schoolchildren won't learn these basic facts now. We urge the publishers to ensure that other children still will."

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

Previous stories:

Baptists decry Texas board’s votes on textbook standards

Social-studies-curriculum debate in Texas has national implications

ROCKETT—Members of 14 churches in Ellis Baptist Association called about 10,000 people to discover needs and offer hope.

Callers asked each person if he or she is connected to a congregation, took prayer requests and invited every individual to attend a special worship service and lunch at a church close to home.

“All the research says if you invite someone they will come,” said Ellis Baptist Association Director of Missions Larry Johnson. “So, we’ve been out inviting people to church.”

The congregations partnered with Harvest Unlimited ministry to connect with 4,168 unchurched families, roughly 42 percent of the people to whom church members spoke.

Ten percent of those families indicated they would come to a special March 7 service and meal at church. More than 1,000 families indicated they are interested in visiting a church in the future.

The outreach is part of Ellis Hope 2010, the association’s participation in Texas Hope 2010, a Texas Baptist initiative to share the gospel with every Texan by Easter 2010.

The outreach was part of Ellis Hope 2010, the association’s participation in Texas Hope 2010.

Area church leaders see Ellis Hope 2010 as an opportunity to work together in an effort to expand God’s kingdom, Johnson said.

“This is something we need to do,” Johnson said. “It would be good to pull our churches together. It would be good to pull our churches together for an evangelistic effort.”

Although the churches didn’t expect all the families who indicated they would attend the service actually to do it, visitors did make their way to area congregations March 7. Rockett Baptist Church, which typically has about 80 in its Sunday worship service, had at least 16 visitors, many of whom stayed after the service for lunch and fellowship.

Rockett Baptist Church members made sure to greet each of the visitors and attempt to make them feel as welcome as possible. Following the service, each visitor was given a mug, candy and some information about the church’s ministries. During the catered lunch after the service, church members enjoyed fellowship with visitors, and the guests were eligible for gift cards, with winners selected from a drawing.

“I’m certainly trying to just get to meet people who are unchurched in our close proximity,” Pastor Cory Mullins said. “Just being how people are today—being closed off and more reliant on social networking sites … it’s kind of harder to meet people and get to know them.”

During the catered lunch at Rocket Baptist Church, members enjoyed fellowship with visitors, and the guests were eligible for gift cards, with winners selected from a drawing.

Church members not only will follow up with the people who visited March 7, but also will visit with the other families who expressed interest in the church on the phone but did not attend, Mullins said. The congregation has their contact information and knows a bit about them.

Even if people do not come to an Ellis Baptist Association church, Johnson believes church members have performed a valuable ministry. More than one-third of the people who spoke with the Baptists on the phone shared some sort of prayer request. The churches have prayed for those requests and continue to do so.

Near the end of the calling, Johnson pointed to the efforts of Fourth Ward Baptist Church in Ennis, which saw 79 percent of the people they spoke with share at least one prayer request.

“Prayer requests have been absolutely out of sight for them,” Johnson said.

For more information about Ellis Hope 2010, visit www.ellisbaptist.org. For more information about Texas Hope 2010, visit www.texashope2010.com.