A Baptist pastor and his wife were among nearly 200 Nigerians killed in a series of coordinated attacks that began Christmas Eve.

Militant Fulani militia targeted more than two dozen predominantly Christian communities in Central Nigeria’s Plateau State, starting at about 10 pm. on Christmas Eve and continuing into the early hours of Christmas morning.

Nine members of the Nasara Baptist Church—including Pastor Solomon Gushe and his wife—were killed in the assault on Dares in the Bokkos local government area. Convention leaders cancelled a planned Dec. 27 Christmas celebration in response to the attacks.

“In Nigeria, the bells of Christmas turned into wails of mourning as Baptists and Christians faced the reality of attack and persecution,” said Elijah Brown, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance.

“We mourn with these faithful families. We join with the Nigerian Baptist Convention in calling upon the Nigerian government to launch an immediate and thorough investigation that holds those responsible to judicial accountability.”

The Nigerian Baptist Convention issued a public statement condemning “the wanton killings of Christians and the destruction of churches by the Fulani militia.”

Israel Adelani Akanji, president of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, called on security agencies to bring the perpetrators of violence to justice, and he urged President Bola Tinubu to “provide necessary security to all Nigerians.”

The statement from the convention noted Akanji believed the Fulani militia “decided to strike during the Christmas celebration when people are in the mood of giving thanks to God for the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Musa Ashoms, commissioner of information and communication for Plateau State, reported 195 deaths due to the attacks. Amnesty International Nigeria reported more than 190 killed, while the Nigerian Red Cross confirmed 161 deaths and more than 32,000 people affected. At least 300 people were injured.

Caleb Mutfwang, governor of Plateau State declared a week of mourning from Jan. 1 to Jan. 8, encouraging “all citizens to use these days for intense prayers to seek the intervention of the Almighty God in defending our territories against wicked men that have risen against us.”

While some groups have dismissed the violence in Nigeria as a “herder-farmer clash,” the governors of the nation’s north central states disputed that characterization, said Dawari George, director of the 21Wilberforce Global Freedom Network Africa, who is based in Rivers State, Nigeria.

George joined in calling for a thorough investigation into the attacks and for the Nigerian government to take firm and decisive action.

“This is one attack too many. It is an attempt to stifle a people’s means of livelihood, wipe out a people, their history, religion and identity,” George said.

“The attack was premeditated, with intelligence on the imminent attack known to authorities, and with no action taken until the attack occurred. This requires an investigation by unbiased international organizations and the Nigerian government.

“The impunity of the perpetrators and the kid-gloves response of the government sets the stage for future occurrences if left unchecked.”

‘Cycle of impunity’

Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a statement Dec. 28 urging government officials in Nigeria to stop the “devastating violence” in its central region and hold perpetrators accountable.

“I call on the Nigerian authorities to investigate this incident promptly, thoroughly and independently, consistent with international human rights law, and to hold those responsible to account in fair trials,” Türk said.

“The cycle of impunity fueling recurrent violence must be urgently broken. The government should also take meaningful steps to address the underlying root causes and to ensure nonrecurrence of this devastating violence.”

Mervyn Thomas, founding president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, likewise deplored the “appalling violence” and urged Nigerian authorities to ensure “the security and welfare” of their nation’s citizens.

“We extend our deepest condolences to those bereaved in this appalling violence, which was timed to disrupt the festive season in predominantly Christian areas,” Thomas said.

“The fact that such enormous loss of lives and property occurred before security forces responded in sufficient numbers is indicative of the lamentable ongoing failure of successive federal and state authorities to uphold the Nigerian Constitution by ensuring the security and welfare of citizens as their primary purpose.

“CSW concurs with High Commissioner Türk’s call for the cycle of impunity to be broken and urges the Nigerian authorities, once again, to prioritize the pursuit, arrest and prosecution of these terrorists, seeking international assistance when needed. It is also vital that members of the international community significantly increase their efforts to assist Nigeria in this endeavor, and to hold the authorities accountable for any failure to protect its citizens.”

Not the first attack during the Christmas season

Last month, more than two dozen faith leaders and human rights advocates sent a letter to Congress encouraging U.S. lawmakers to take action regarding religious persecution in Nigeria.

They noted 5,000 Christians in Nigeria had been killed for their faith in 2022, and about 17,000 churches had been burned or attacked since 2009.

The faith leaders joined the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in calling for the State Department to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern and to appoint a special envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region. The CPC designation is reserved for nations that engage in or tolerate “systemic, ongoing and egregious violations” of religious freedom.

Frederick A. Davie, vice chair of the commission, expressed concern in mid-December about the frequency of violence in Nigeria and the potential for escalation around Christmas.

“This momentum is not stopping, and we cannot stand by and watch more Nigerians being targeted on the basis of their faith, especially as we near the holiday season, where we have seen this escalation in the past,” Davie said.

In 2020, at least a dozen Christians were killed and several churches burned on Christmas Eve. The previous year, terrorists released a video of 11 hostages being executed on Christmas Day.

About 30 Texas Baptist Men volunteers brought gifts and helping hands to the lower Rio Grande Valley for Christmas.

The gifts and resources came from countless TBM supporters who gave toward the second annual Christmas in the Rio Grande Valley Mission Trip. And TBM Rebuild volunteers worked on a community center for Iglesia Bautista Horeb in Brownsville.

Volunteers from the Longhorn Baptist Student Ministry from the University of Texas in Austin provided much of the labor for the building project. It marked the second year a Longhorn BSM group worked with TBM Rebuild.

TBM collected and distributed gifts for children and adults—toys, blankets and food—living in colonias, unincorporated communities of about 100 families living in extreme poverty, said Jorge Zapata, founder of Hearts4Kids, TBM’s partner in the effort.

The mission trip volunteers included five student missionaries with Texas Baptists’ Go Now Missions program.

 “What we’re doing here with Texas Baptist Men, we’re meeting people’s needs, especially with the children,” Zapata said. “So, all of these toys are going to be a blessing.”

Easing the burden for families

The volunteers went to colonias near Donna. The toys naturally thrilled the children, but they gave the parents joy, too.

“A lot of these parents have four or five children in a home. So, they can’t afford to buy toys for each child. So, this will bless mom and dad,” Zapata said.

Sabrina Pinales, TBM director of missions and discipleship, coordinated the statewide collection. In addition to the toys, volunteers distributed blankets for the coming winter months and hygiene kits, Pinales said.

“This is a fun time to ease the burden for the families that maybe can’t provide the gifts they would like to for their families,” she said.

The volunteers also delivered and set up 15 twin beds in colonia homes.

“We have hundreds of children sleeping on the floor, because they don’t have a bed,” Zapata said.

Meeting needs, building relationships

At Iglesia Bautista Horeb, Pastor Olber Roblero addressed the volunteers.

“I didn’t expect to have all of these amazing people,” he said, noting “all this effort, leaving their families and to be here. … I’m grateful.”

Roblero has been pastor of the church three years, and the congregation established relationships by meeting needs, especially of the children who attend a nearby school.

“There’s about 2,500 kids around this area,” Roblero said, so the church began providing backpacks, shoes and clothing for those in need.

The goal of the community center at Iglesia Horeb is to aid that ministry to children and their families, as well as providing space for English as a Second Language and GED classes.

“This is a blessing for us,” Roblero said. “So, what I see is amazing. We couldn’t do this by ourselves, and I offer this building to the glory of God.”

Rafael Muñoz, TBM Rebuild coordinator, organized the volunteers at Iglesia Horeb.

“When we were looking at how we could come out and support [Roblero’s] ministry, we realized that he was already on the go. He was doing a lot,” Muñoz said. “He’s doing work in the community to reach the four schools that are surrounding this facility. So, there’s a big vision.”

Addressing spiritual and physical needs

Both TBM efforts in the Valley centered on local ministries—Iglesia Horeb and Hearts4Kids—that are committed to long-term efforts to address spiritual and physical needs.

Hearts4Kids is working with churches in the colonias and starting new Bible study and house church groups where there are no existing churches.

Before distributing toys, the volunteers set up tables on a cul-de-sac without houses. They organized the toys by age and gender groups. They grilled hot dogs for the community. They parked a pickup truck filled with blankets just past the food tables.

Zapata instructed the volunteers to “be friendly, have big smiles and a lot of love” as they distributed the gifts.

Then he prayed: “Father, we ask you to take every gift, put your hand on each gift. … We ask that your Holy Spirit start moving right now in this area, in every home, that when people arrive they will feel your presence, the power and the love and the joy. … Bless this place. … This is your house… Let your presence be felt right now.”

Joy reigned as the kids and their parents steadily worked their way along the tables, selecting appropriate gifts.

And the volunteers did as Zapata instructed—being friendly, smiling and loving, all toward the hope that Christ would be honored in the community.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The Southern Baptist Convention has settled a sexual abuse lawsuit against one of its prominent leaders who had been accused of allegedly molesting young men for decades.

Retired Texas Judge Paul Pressler was one of the architects of the so-called conservative resurgence that took control of the SBC in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2017, Pressler’s former assistant, Gareld Duane Rollins Jr., sued the lay leader and conservative activist along with the SBC and several of its entities, alleging Pressler had begun abusing him while he was a teenager in a Bible study at a Houston church.

The suit accused SBC leaders of knowing about Pressler’s alleged abuse and covering it up. Pressler and SBC leaders long have denied any wrongdoing.

Earlier in 2023, former SBC leader Paige Patterson, a close ally of Pressler, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where Patterson was president until he was fired by the school’s board of trustees, settled with Rollins.

Confidential settlement agreement reached

On Dec. 29, a special counsel to the SBC and its Nashville-based Executive Committee announced the Pressler suit had been settled.

“The Southern Baptist Convention and the SBC Executive Committee, Defendants in Rollins v Pressler, entered into a confidential settlement agreement with the Plaintiff. The Southern Baptist Convention and its Executive Committee were each fully prepared to proceed to trial,” the special counsel said in its statement.

“However, several factors ultimately made settlement the more prudent choice. Chief among those factors was the horrendous nature of the abuse allegations, the likelihood that counsel for the SBC and Executive Committee would have to confront and cross-examine abuse survivors, the Executive Committee’s current financial condition, and the willingness of multiple insurance carriers to contribute to the terms of the settlement.”

No details of the settlement, first reported by the Texas Tribune, were made public.

The lawsuit against Pressler initially was dismissed due to the statute of limitations, but an appeals court allowed the suit to go forward after Rollins’ attorneys successfully argued trauma from the alleged abuse had led to the delay in reporting the alleged abuse.

Multiple allegations against Pressler

During the legal battle over the lawsuit, a number of men also went public with allegations that they, too, had been abused by Pressler. One of the allegations was made by a former member of a youth group at a church in Houston in the 1970s, where Pressler had been a youth minister. Pressler lost that job after an incident involving a member of the youth group he led.

In 2004, leaders at Houston’s First Baptist Church in Houston learned of allegations against Pressler and sent him a letter warning him that getting naked with a young man was morally inappropriate and asked him to stop any further such behavior. That letter became public as part of the lawsuit.

Along with his religious activism, Pressler was an influential member of the religious right through his involvement with the Council for National Policy. In 2012, Pressler hosted a meeting of conservative Christian leaders at his ranch, aimed at finding an alternative candidate to Mitt Romney for president.

The lawsuit against Pressler inspired a major investigation into abuse in the SBC by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News, according to the Texas Tribune. That “Abuse of Faith” report led the SBC to hold a litany of lament for abuse in 2019 and eventually to authorize a third-party investigation by Guidepost Solutions into how SBC leaders dealt with abuse.

A Guidepost report published in 2022 found SBC leaders had downplayed the scope of abuse in the denomination for years, mistreated abuse survivors and sought to deny any liability at all costs.

That same year, the SBC at its annual meeting passed a series of reforms meant to address abuse, including setting up a database of abusers and creating resources to help churches do a better job in preventing abuse and caring for survivors of abuse.

However, the SBC put a volunteer committee in charge of implementing those reforms. The denomination has no long-term plans to fund the reforms or to make them stick.

A year and a half after announcing the “Ministry Check” website to track abusers, no names of abusers have been added to the public database.

The SBC also faces a great deal of uncertainty about how to move forward. The SBC Executive Committee lost its permanent leader as a result of the Guidepost investigation, which went forward despite opposition from prominent leaders.

The Executive Committee, which oversees the denomination’s business between its annual meetings, also has rapidly spent down its reserves due to legal costs from the abuse crisis.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Storeé Denson settled onto the organ bench at Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, a historic Black church a few miles from the White House, placing his hands on the electronic instrument’s manuals, his feet on its pedals, ears attuned to the choir he accompanies on Sunday mornings.

Like any other organist, Denson has been playing and preparing for numerous services in the weeks before Christmas. He warmed up for the season in November when he got the chance to play the august instrument at the Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis, Md., at a “Pedals, Pipes and Pizza” event sponsored by the local chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

“I always wanted to play it,” he said of the organ in the monumental chapel at the academy. “That was one on my checklist.”

As he’s done with many other of his accomplishments at the keyboard, Denson, age 14, checked off that item early. He is one of a small corps of young musicians who took to the organ at a young age, providing promise at a time when the number of instruments and the professionals who play them are in decline. They’ve become modern-day evangelists for the instrument that is more than 2,000 years old.

“I believe if more people start to realize that the organ can be used in contemporary worship, I think we will have an increase of organists,” said Denson, a ninth grader who also sings tenor in the chamber choir and plays piano in the jazz band at his Catholic high school across the Maryland state line.

On the second Sunday in Advent, he accompanied the Nineteenth Street choir as it sang Richard Smallwood’s setting of “Psalm 8” (“Oh, Lord, how excellent is thy name”), as well as “Jesus, the Light of the World.”

Denson, whose parents are both ministers, has been studying organ since he was 9 and credits organists at various Baptist churches for introducing him to the instrument and teaching him to play.

Some organists who start at an early age are veterans of the American Guild of Organists’ “Pipe Organ Encounters” programs, which bring young people to hear and play organs at nearby houses of worship and universities over the course of a few days to learn about the instrument. The program includes their first year of membership in the organists’ guild.

Overall decline in organ use

Scott Thumma, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, said data from the Faith Communities Today studies shows a decline in organ use, with fewer respondent congregations reporting that their organ is played “often and always” and more saying “never” over time.

The American Guild of Organists’ current total membership is 11,516, including professional organists, people who play the instrument as an avocation and those who just like the organ. A decade ago, there were about 17,000 members, and the group reached its apex of about 20,000 in the 1990s.

Eric Birk, the AGO’s staff liaison to the Pipe Organ Encounters program, said the AGO attributes the drop to the deaths of organists who were baby boomers or members of older generations and to the downward demographic shifts in worship attendance.

Nevertheless, Emily Amos, who runs the AGO’s committee for young organists, said she thinks organs are bound to interest some young people.

“I mean, it’s loud, it’s massive, it’s got cool gadgets,” said Amos, 21, who is pursuing a master’s degree in organ performance at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. “It’s got everything that you would want to try out.”

Inspire by example

Potential organists may not always find their way to the instrument via churches, said Amos, who has played the famous Wanamaker organ at Macy’s Philadelphia.

“If young people aren’t as interested in going to church or fewer young people are going to church, we need to think, where are they going and how can we get the organ to them there?” said Amos, who is also an organ scholar, or apprentice organist, at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Houston. “Because even if, say, they find the organ somewhere else, they may end up in a church.”

Amos, who favors Duruflé’s “Prelude and Fugue on the Name Alain,” hosts a holiday party via Zoom for organists under 30, where they play games, build camaraderie and share “horror stories” from the Christmas season—Advent wreaths catching fire during a service and ciphers (stuck pipes that sound at unwanted times)—and commiserate about the grueling seasonal schedules.

“There was one Christmas Eve where I played three different services at two different churches. So, I had to race from one to the other, then go eat, take a nap and then come back for the midnight,” said Amos, a Roman Catholic who plans to play at St. Paul at some of this year’s five services and sing in the choir at the others.

Birk said the number of young organist members—defined as younger than 30—in the AGO totaled 863 in November.

Beyond the organist guild’s efforts, others are hoping to inspire young artists by example. The Diapason magazine, dedicated to church music, has a biennial “20 under 30” list of young people known for performing on the organ and harpsichord or building the instruments.

Build-your-own miniature pipe organ kits

Peter Scheessele, a 10th grader in Corvallis, Ore., helps his mother, Erin, run Orgelkids USA, a nonprofit that seeks to literally build interest in the instrument by distributing miniature pipe organ kits that allow children and adults to build and then play their own organs.

Designed by a Dutch company, the U.S. kits are created by craftspeople in Oregon. More than two dozen organizations, mostly churches and AGO chapters, have commissioned them at $7,000 apiece.

“I like to show them how the whole thing goes together,” Peter Scheessele said of the children and teens who attend Orgelkids demonstrations at churches and conventions. The kits contain 133 interlocking wood pieces that fit together without glue or screws. “And then they love the moment when it starts to play and they’re able to play it.”

Jim Roman, the organist and artist-in-residence at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Houston, says his church has the sole Orgelkids kit in Texas. He builds it with the church’s day school students at least once a year and holds camplike sessions with older children in the summer.

“Organists today need to be proactive about getting the instrument in front of people, especially since fewer people attend church now and get exposed to it as a result,” he said in an email.

“We can’t just hope that people will pay attention on Sunday mornings or randomly decide to show up to a concert and suddenly develop an interest,” said Roman, 32.

Scheessele, 15, plays a full-size organ at his own congregation, First Congregational United Church of Christ in Corvallis. He also recently performed a prelude and fugue by Vincent Lübeck at a local Presbyterian church whose organ has often sat silent.

On Christmas Eve, Scheessele hoped to play variations on a German Christmas carol about Joseph and Mary, part of a grander range of organ music he and other young organists say they prefer to play.

“I think the organ is a very interesting instrument—very complex—and I feel like it’s not represented as well as it should be in society,” he said. “Often, the only time you would hear it in a movie would be dark, foreboding music when that’s not all that the organ can provide,” he said.

“There’s a huge range of repertoire across the country that’s written for organ,” he added. “And I do like to play it all.”

Two months after Hurricane Otis slammed the area surrounding Acapulco, Baptists in Mexico—with help from Texas Baptists—continue to rebuild damaged church buildings, provide financial support for pastors and supply food to families in need.

Hurricane Otis made landfall at 1:25 a.m. on Oct. 25 near Acapulco as a Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 165 mph. It claimed at least 50 lives and caused more than $10 billion in property damage—including significant damage to churches in the state of Guerrero.

Baptists in areas of Mexico unaffected by the hurricane responded quickly to meet needs in hard-hit communities.

Regional Baptist conventions—the equivalent of associations of churches in the United States—worked with the National Baptist Convention of Mexico to mobilize volunteers and provide aid.

Baptists throughout Mexico supplied food for people in need and began helping churches rebuild damaged facilities. The Baptist General Convention of Texas provided financial assistance.

David Hernandez Nuño, legal counsel for the National Baptist Convention of Mexico, wrote a Dec. 20 letter to Josué Valerio, director of Texas Baptists’ Center for Missional Engagement, expressing appreciation and reporting plans for the immediate future.

“The offering you have sent has been invaluable in the supply of provisions like a community feeding center, materials and tools needed to rebuild church buildings, and financial aid for pastors whose income has been greatly impacted by the natural disaster. Your offerings have been a blessing for our brothers and sisters in Guerrero,” he wrote.

Baptists in Mexico viewed the gifts from Texas Baptists as coming “from the goodness of God’s hand,” he continued.

“Your generosity is a living testimony of love and the solidarity that characterizes our communities of faith, and it is an encouragement to us to continue collaborating, so that in every difficult circumstance God’s love is manifested,” he wrote.

Over the next three months, the National Baptist Convention of Mexico will provide financial aid to 19 pastors in communities affected by Hurricane Otis, he reported. The Mexican Baptist convention also will supply food for community feeding centers.

“Baptist regional conventions in Mexico are helping in this effort of provision and rebuilding,” he wrote.

“On behalf of all the members of the National Baptist Convention of Mexico, we express our sincere gratitude to Texas Baptists for your generosity and love. May God’s grace guide your efforts and that we’ll continue to collaborate in the work that has been entrusted to us.”

KYIV, Ukraine (BP)—Christians in the United States should consider the spiritual dimensions of Russia’s war on Ukraine, especially as military aid to Ukraine grows uncertain, a Ukrainian Baptist Union leader said.

“You should remember the spiritual dimensions of this war, especially the attempt of the evil one to use Russia to destroy Ukraine as a goalpost for Christianity in Eastern Europe,” said Igor Bandura, vice president of the All-Ukrainian Union of Associations of Evangelical Christian-Baptists, shortly after a December trip to the United States.

“This is not only a war of Russia against Ukraine. This is a war for Christian values, for the possibility to spread the gospel in freedom, and to fulfill the Great Commission of the Lord Jesus.”

Bandura describes Ukraine as “the home of evangelism and missions in eastern countries,” pushing back against a post-Christian climate.

The spiritual dimensions of the war are notable, Bandura said, as the United States considers continued military aid to Ukraine, and as Hungary blocked a $50 billion aid package to Ukraine from the European Union.

The Baptist Union has lost 300 churches in Russian occupied territories including Crimea, he said, which Russia has occupied since 2014.

Entire congregations fled for safety in the wake of the February 2022 invasion. Displaced pastors have planted about 100 churches in the European Union to serve Ukrainian refugees, he said, and additional displaced pastors are leading churches that were already established abroad.

Training pastors to plant churches

As congregations persevere, Southern Baptist missionary Michael Domke, based in Hungary, works with Ukrainian pastors Rustam and Anatoly to train men who hope to plant churches, teaching methodology through Generation Ministry.

Pastors spanning the entire country enrolled in the program. They are planting churches in areas where they live, overcoming infrastructure damages of war.

“Ukrainians are very resilient, and the condition of a building is not something that stops them from doing church work,” Domke said. “I’ve been in churches in wintertime with no heat, and it’s been full of people. That doesn’t stop them.”

Before the war, Generation Ministry typically trained five or seven church planting teams a year, but today it is conducting three schools simultaneously, hoping to train 24 church planting teams through September 2024, Domke said.

Those enrolled complete about seven two-day, three-night sessions spread over a year. Most will plant churches with no compensation.

“One of the major motivations,” Rustam said, “they feel the calling and the duty that they’re supposed to do that for the nation of Ukraine in these hard times.”

Church planters secure meeting spaces by applying for government facilities at no cost or repairing older church facilities.

At least one pastor currently enrolled in Generation Ministry hopes to plant a church in Bucha, the scene of mass civilian carnage when Russia occupied the city for a month in February and March. Rustam attends Bethany Baptist Church in Bucha, which is recovering after 80 percent of its members fled during Russia’s occupation.

Bandura pastors Bible Church in Irpin, one of the first areas Russia captured and Ukraine has since recovered. All of Bible Church’s members evacuated during Russia’s attack, Bandura said, but about 70 percent have returned. Bible Church actively serves surrounding communities through six volunteer centers the church established. In cities surrounding Irpin, Bandura counts three new churches plants.

As the war endures, churches are challenged to remain hopeful.

“The last few months were very difficult for us emotionally and spiritually, because our expectation that the war would … end was not fulfilled. The war is still here,” Bandura said. “And there is no understanding when it will be finished.

“We all started to realize that the war would be going on at least the next year, unless God will work a miracle.”

Congress failed to pass a December aid package that would have included $61.4 billion for Ukraine. Instead, President Biden pledged $200 million in available drawdown funds for weapons, artillery and ammunition, urging Congress to do more.

Bandura expressed strong gratitude for the love, commitment and support of Baptists in the United States, and he appreciates continued prayers until God provides a solution to the war.

“If Ukraine (does) not survive in this war … what we are sure is that there would not be room for Baptist churches,” Bandura said. “Baptists like me and other Baptists would either run away from the country, or we would be arrested and killed.”

He encouraged Baptists to advocate for Congress to find a way to continue aid to Ukraine, terming such aid a matter of life or death.

“This is what we are praying for, and we are hoping for help from the United States, because it’s very difficult to live under threat and discouragement a long time.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—When leaders of Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., learned in 2016 a former church staff member had been accused of sexually abusing a child, they called the police and reported the information immediately.

Then, they went silent for seven years.

An assistant director of children’s ministry, Patrick Stephen Miller was arrested, charged with second-degree sexual assault and later convicted of a lesser offense. Immanuel Baptist Pastor Steven Smith and other leaders never informed the congregation.

In early December, Smith finally explained the episode to Immanuel Baptist’s members, but only after the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported on Miller’s attempts to have his court records sealed. Smith apologized for withholding information about the abuse and Miller’s conviction.

“I wish we had told you about these crimes sooner,” Smith, the son of former Southern Baptist Convention President Bailey Smith, said at a church service on Dec. 10, according to a recording posted online by the Democrat-Gazette.

Earlier this year, Smith informed the congregation of another incident, in which a former volunteer had been allowed to remain in ministry after sexting with a teen at the church, according to the Democrat-Gazette. In that case, church officials reportedly did not inform law enforcement for years.

The delay in telling the congregation at Immanuel Baptist echoes a similar case in northern Illinois, where Bishop Stewart Ruch of the Upper Midwest Diocese of the Anglican Church in North America delayed for nearly two years telling members of his diocese a volunteer at a church in the diocese had been arrested on sexual abuse charges.

That volunteer, former lay pastor Mark Rivera, was sentenced to 15 years in prison this past March after being convicted of felony child sexual abuse and assault. He later was given six additional years.

Ruch told members of the diocese church leaders were waiting for the legal process to be completed, and that caused the delay. Ruch eventually took a leave of absence and now is facing a church trial on allegations of mishandling cases of abuse.

Fear prompts silence

While churches have made progress in recent years toward addressing abuse, including contacting law enforcement when learning about allegations of sexual abuse, they still can be reluctant to inform people in the pews about abuse that may have happened in their midst, said Jimmy Hinton, a longtime advocate for survivors of abuse.

Church leaders often fear creating a scandal or accusing someone who may be innocent, said Hinton, who frequently advises churches on how to respond to abuse. Leaders often feel they have done the right thing by reporting to police, but he said their work is not complete at that point.

Hinton said his counsel to church leaders is straightforward: If they know about allegations of abuse, they need to tell the congregation. He said that if a congregation is not told, it will lead people to assume the worst.

“They will wonder, what else are you covering up,” he said.

Frank Sommerville, a Texas attorney who specializes in church and nonprofit law, said churches do need to take care when communicating about allegations of abuse to the congregation.

Sommerville said churches can expect a delay between reporting allegations to police and any action, such as filing of charges or making an arrest. They can use that delay to tell church leaders, such as board members or deacons, about what may be coming.

The person accused of abuse should be removed from ministry while the investigation proceeds. Then, when the congregation is informed, after an initial report is made, it should be during a confidential, members-only meeting, he said.

That’s in part to allow law enforcement to do its work, Sommerville said. If charges are filed or an arrest has been made, the congregation should be informed immediately.

“Once an arrest has been made, you need to have a congregational meeting, and tell everyone what you know and what actions you have taken.”

Lou Ann Sabatier, a longtime communications professional and principal of Sabatier Consulting in Falls Church, Va., said church leaders also need to be thoughtful and intentional about how they tell the congregation about a crisis such as allegations of abuse.

That includes being clear about the presumption of innocence even as they send a message that the church takes allegations of abuse seriously, she said.

When a congregation is told about allegations, Sabatier added, it should happen in a controlled setting where people have time and space to respond and ask questions.

“This isn’t something that you would bring up at the end of announcements during the sermon,” she said.

Church leaders have a moral imperative to tell the truth to their congregations, Sabatier said, even when the news is difficult.

“If you are not telling them, you are not being truthful,” she said.

Men of Nehemiah, a nonprofit organization working to rebuild the lives of men who have struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, presented a Christmas concert at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas. The Christmas program featured a 50-member choir comprised of men currently in recovery. Men of Nehemiah, founded by Lou Harrell Jr., uses an approach based on biblical discipleship, clinical counseling and military-style discipline.

Howard Payne University celebrated the start of the Christmas season with Christmas on the Plaza, the annual lighting of Old Main Park. The event began with the Heritage Chapel Band singing Christmas carols while students, faculty, staff and friends decorated Christmas ornaments, made s’mores and sipped hot chocolate. HPU President Cory Hinesread the story of Jesus’ birth from the Gospel of Luke. Kailee Torgerson, director of student leadership and engagement, planned the event.

Baptist Student Ministry students at Houston Christian University took time out during finals week to serve refugees. Working in partnership with Houston Welcomes Refugees, the students spent their lunch hour unpacking cooking utensils, towels and groceries at an apartment where a refugee family would move in later that evening. The students also prayed over the apartment, its new residents and the Houston Welcomes Refugees volunteers who will walk alongside the family as they begin to transition to their new life in Texas. “The hope is that the love of Jesus will be communicated first in deeds of service and that through being served, the new family will come to know of the love of Jesus in a very tangible way,” said Nathan Mahand, BSM director at HCU.

The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor named Craig Hammonds as dean of its College of Education, effective Jan. 2. Hammonds has been a member of the UMHB faculty nearly 13 years and has been associate dean since 2018. He holds a master’s degree from City University of Seattle and a Doctorate in Education from UMHB. He also has a post-graduate principal certificate from Tarleton State University. Hammonds has served as a representative on the Ethics Commission for the City of Belton, a Family Advisory Council member for the McLane Children’s Scott & White Hospital, a member of the UMHB alumni board, a board member of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation—Central Texas Chapter and as a volunteer for the Hope for the Hungry organization. He is a deacon at First Baptist Church in Belton. He and his wife Megan have two daughters, Mylie and Chloe.

Baylor University announced Jason Diffenderfer, vice president for university advancement at the University at Buffalo, will join Baylor as vice president for university advancement, effective March 1, 2024. At the University at Buffalo, he has shepherded the university in surpassing its $1 billion Boldly Buffalo campaign goal, while also setting a fiscal year fundraising record with more than $123 million in commitments. “In higher education, Christian universities play an unparalleled role in impacting our world, and philanthropy is an essential partner in advancing the charge,” Diffenderfer said. “With its breadth of academic programs and research, Baylor University is well-positioned for philanthropic investments that will have an eternal impact beyond the borders of the university.” Diffenderfer holds a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from Gardner-Webb University, a Baptist school in North Carolina. He and his wife Karrie have three daughters—Katie, Abby and Emmy.

East Texas Baptist University has renamed the largest student residence hall on campus in honor of Steve and Penny Carlile of Marshall. Originally dubbed Centennial Hall to mark the institution’s 100-year anniversary in 2012, the modern student residential facility will now be called Steve and Penny Carlile Hall in recognition of the Carliles’ Christian servant leadership and recent major gift to the university, which supported building enhancements, lighting improvements, interior renovations and landscaping additions throughout and around the 125,000-square-foot freshman student residence hall. “Steve and Penny Carlile Hall will reflect the Christian commitment, community leadership, and kingdom legacy of the Carlile family,” ETBU President Dr. J. Blair Blackburn said. “We are grateful for the Carliles’ Christian faith, business history success, family relationships, and service in the community along with their generosity to ETBU.”

Wayland Baptist University received approval of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to offer a Doctor of Strategic Leadership degree beginning Aug. 1, 2024. The 54-hour professional degree program will be delivered fully online, with an optional in-person summer residency at the Plainview campus. The program will offer concentrations in humanities and culture, Christian ministry, education and nursing organizational leadership. Admission to the doctoral program requires completion of a master’s degree with a graduate GPA of 3.4 or higher. Successful completion of the Doctor of Strategic Leadership degree program will include preparation, defense and publication of the student’s dissertation. Wayland will accept up to 15 students in 2024, with an anticipated increase to 20 students beginning in 2025.

Howard Payne University hosted alumni and friends at the Legacy Luncheon, an event honoring university supporters who have endowed scholarships, have been named to the Robnett Legacy Society because of their participation in planned giving, or have become a part of the 1889 Society by giving $1,889 or more within the 2022-23 fiscal year. HPU President Cory Hines moderated two panel discussions as part of the program. The first panel featured two alumni couples who have endowed scholarships—Scott and Kriste Davis, and Steve and Sophia Faulkner—who shared HPU memories and explained why they gave to support student scholarships at the university. The second panel featured current students who are scholarship recipients—Payton Chumbley, a sophomore from Cleburne majoring in criminal justice; Mariah Garcia, a junior from Aubrey triple-majoring in chemistry, criminal justice and the Guy D. Newman Honors Academy; and Patricia Garibay Bartolo, a junior from Nolanville double-majoring in allied health sciences and the Guy D. Newman Honors Academy. They expressed gratitude for HPU and the scholarships that have helped make their college experience possible.

Houston Christian University marked the graduation of 313 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students in two commencement ceremonies Dec. 16. The conferral of these degrees brings the total to 25,961 diplomas awarded by HCU since its first commencement in 1967. HCU President Robert Sloan brought an exhortation from Isaiah 40 and Luke 2 as the commencement address, encouraging the graduates to celebrate the great joy of their graduation in light of the greater joy and restoration that has broken into the world because of the coming of Jesus Christ: “I challenge you to take advantage of all that you have learned not only in terms of your professional competencies, but take advantage of all that you have learned in terms of the presence of God in the person of Jesus Christ,” Sloan said. “I challenge you to be salt and light in the world. I challenge you to be a people who bear the name of Christ, to be a people who do the work of God in the world.”

Richard Taylor to Corpus Christi Baptist Association from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, where he was church health and leadership associate. Taylor is believed to be the first African American to serve as director of missions for a predominantly Anglo association in Texas Baptist history.

Representatives from multiple human rights and religious liberty organizations joined the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in urging Congress to take action regarding ongoing persecution in Nigeria.

Randel Everett, founding president of 21Wilberforce and a former executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, were among more than two dozen faith leaders, human rights advocates and former U.S. lawmakers who signed a letter to Congress regarding religious persecution in Nigeria.

The letter—entered into the Congressional Record on Dec. 12—calls for Nigeria to be designated a Country of Particular Concern by the U.S. Department of State and for the appointment of a special envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region.

Under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, the CPC designation is reserved for nations that engage in or tolerate “systemic, ongoing and egregious violations” of religious freedom.

The State Department failed to include Nigeria in its annual CPC list in 2021 and 2022 after including it in the 2020 list. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom repeatedly has recommended CPC status for Nigeria since 2009.

‘Slaughter’ of Christians in Nigeria

The letter specifically urges members of Congress to support HR 82—introduced by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas—that calls on the State Department to designate Nigeria as a CPC and to appoint the special envoy.

“A staggering 90 percent of all the Christians killed for their faith worldwide last year were killed in Nigeria, according to Open Doors, an increase from the 80 percent it reported in 2021,” the letter to Congress stated.

It pointed out 5,000 Christians were reported to have been killed for their faith in 2022.

“Most of this slaughter is now carried out by militants within the Fulani Muslim herder population, who have been allowed to act largely with impunity,” the letter stated, adding terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa also have attacked and killed “thousands.”

Since 2009, about 17,000 churches have been burned and attacked, the letter noted.

“As Africa’s most populous country and its largest economy, Nigeria wields significant influence in sub-Saharan Africa. By allowing religious persecution to proliferate within its borders, Nigeria is compounding already heightened regional insecurity,” the letter concluded. “Both American interests and the International Religious Freedom Act require a response.”

Frank Wolf, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives who now serves on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, signed the letter to lawmakers.

“The United States must hold the Nigerian government accountable for failing to protect the religious communities within Nigeria,” Wolf said.

In addition to designating Nigeria as a CPC and appointing a special envoy, Wolf urged Congress to ask the Government Accountability Office to “investigate the effectiveness of U.S. assistance to Nigeria in achieving religious freedom objectives in the country.” The United States gave Nigeria more than $1 billion in foreign aid last year.

Two days after the letter was presented to Congress, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a statement condemning “the recent uptick of Islamist insurgent attacks across Nigeria targeting communities based on religion.” The statement reiterated the commission’s call for the State Department to designate Nigeria as a CPC.

“In the past month, Islamic insurgent-directed Fulani gangs killed at least 10 Christians in Taraba State, while a dozen similar gunmen kidnapped over 150 people in Zamfara State, and Boko Haram killed 15 rice farmers in Borno State. These incidents serve to further escalate tensions in a country where violence divides and erodes trust, threatening Nigerians’ freedom of religion or belief,” the commission stated.

Frederick A. Davie, vice chair of the commission, expressed alarm about the frequency of violence in Nigeria in recent months.

“This momentum is not stopping, and we cannot stand by and watch more Nigerians being targeted on the basis of their faith, especially as we near the holiday season, where we have seen this escalation in the past,” he said.

GEORGETOWN—Christmas is the gift-giving season, and some gifts have a rich story behind them. Such is the case with a gift given by a Georgetown man for Texas Baptist Men’s Christmas mission effort.

Don Denton and others at Crestview Baptist Church in Georgetown learned people in the Rio Grande Valley needed blankets to help them keep warm this winter. Denton had extras, so he gave four to the TBM project.

Jim Kneale, a TBM disaster relief chaplain, said Denton asked if crocheted blankets were acceptable. Kneale responded that such a gift would be great and much appreciated.

Kneale did not know at the time, but Denton’s wife had died two years earlier. Denton, 91, still has some of the blankets made by his wife Doris, who died two days before her 82nd birthday.

“My wife passed away a couple of years ago, and she did all kinds of crocheting,” Denton said. “I got to looking around the house, and there were several of those blankets.”

Denton said he could think of “no better use” for the treasured handcrafted blanket than to “keep people warm.”

Kneale marveled at Denton’s unselfishness.

“Here is a man who recently lost his wife and is willing to donate blankets she hand-crocheted to keep others warm,” he said. “In my family, those types of items usually are handed down from generation to generation—you know, kept in the family.”

‘Example of Christ’s love in action’

Kim Rose, the Dentons’ daughter, said the act of generosity was characteristic of her parents.

“Dad is a wonderful and generous man, both with his time and energy. Mom would have been thrilled to know ‘those old blankets’ would be of use to someone. She was always making things to give to others. They are a beautiful example of Christ’s love in action,” she said.

The largest blanket would fit a queen size bed, and the others varied in size down to one about 5 by 3 feet, Denton said.

Crocheting was something his wife did “all her life,” he said. “She usually kept a bag of yarn by her chair” to crochet whenever she had an opportunity.

“She would give them to whoever wanted them,” he recalled.

Denton simply continued the giving pattern by giving four more away for people in the Rio Grande Valley.

“I still have some blankets left,” he said. “They’re just part of the household around here.”

Denton said his wife loved the Lord. She also was a former schoolteacher, teaching high school “just off the edge of the Apache nation reservation” in Arizona. About 85 percent of her students lived on the reservation.

Now, the work of her hands will provide warmth for some residents in the Valley.

‘They said to get up and do things’

Denton became a TBM disaster relief volunteer after his wife died.

“When she passed away, I really had a hard time and went to a GriefShare program,” Denton said. “They said to get up and do things.”

Crestview “has a lot of options of things to do,” he added, noting he has worked in both rebuild and box unit TBM disaster relief teams.

He learned about the Valley needs in his Sunday school class. Charles Baker, who coordinates Crestview’s TBM involvement, also is in the class taught by Marty Krueger and said the group gave about 20 blankets for the Christmas project.

Baker described the 91-year-old Denton as the “Energizer bunny for some of our projects.”

Baker tells others in their 70s or 60s, “If Don can do this, you can do this.”

When Baker conveys a need to the church’s TBM volunteers, it’s usually only a matter of seconds before Denton responds.

“Don can work us under the table,” Baker said.

Denton simply said, “My age is a big laughing point.”

Still, after all these years, he works, and he gives.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—A new study estimates about 30 percent of Americans are open to the ideas associated with Christian nationalism. However, the study’s authors say those who adhere to or sympathize with the ideology are a more complex group than media portrayals and even other studies have found.

“Christian Nationalism: A New Approach” is the work of Neighborly Faith, an organization founded to help evangelical Christians build stronger relationships with people from other religious groups.

In a Dec. 18 webinar, Neighborly Faith researchers said they took a more detailed look at Christian nationalism than previous efforts, beginning with the criterion typically used to identify Christian nationalist leanings. Where most surveys ask six questions, the Neighborly Faith survey asked 14.

The six-question rubric, Neighborly Faith Director Chris Stackaruk said, makes it “very difficult to differentiate what is Christian nationalism versus what is socially or theologically conservative Christianity.”

In addition to the original six questions, Neighborly Faith asked respondents whether they believed America has a “special God-ordained purpose,” whether U.S. culture is “fundamentally Christian” and whether “Christian values” should be “solely and explicitly endorsed by the government.”

Neighborly Faith split respondents into six categories: Christian nationalist “Adherents” (11 percent) and “Sympathizers” (19 percent); Christian “Spectators” (18 percent) who sympathize with “traditional Christian views” but are less likely to engage politically; “Pluralistic Believers” (19 percent) who are more religious than the average American but oppose government endorsement of Christianity; “Zealous Separationists” (17 percent) who “strongly oppose” commingling of church and state; and “Undecideds” (16 percent).

‘A more nuanced look’

The researchers acknowledged some of their data closely matches a 2023 PRRI/Brookings survey that estimated 10 percent of Americans are Christian nationalist adherents and 19 percent are sympathizers.

But Neighborly Faith’s methodology, its researchers said, allowed for a more nuanced look at Christian nationalism using a definition calling it “a movement advancing a vision of America’s past, present, and future that excludes people of non-Christian religions and non-Western cultures.”

Kevin Singer, Neighborly Faith’s president, said its study showed Christian nationalists often “romanticize Christianity’s influence on America’s development” and believe the U.S. benefits from “God’s special favor.”

Other definitions of Christian nationalism take a harder line. Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead, authors of Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, defines Christian nationalism as “a cultural framework that blurs distinctions between Christian identity and American identity, viewing the two as closely related and seeking to enhance and preserve their union.”

Amanda Tyler, of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, has charged that it “carries with it assumptions about nativism, white supremacy, authoritarianism, patriarchy and militarism.”

But Singer noted the Neighborly Faith study revealed adherents of Christian nationalism show surprising levels of support for some pluralistic ideals. While adherents were less likely overall to support the idea that the United States should take in refugees “even if I do not share the same beliefs as them,” for instance, more than half (51 percent) nonetheless supported welcoming refugees at some level.

What’s more, Christian nationalist adherents and sympathizers were roughly as likely as any other group (around 50 percent to 55 percent) to say they are moderately or very likely to participate in or attend events encouraging interfaith dialogue or understanding.

In a virtual panel discussion about the study, Kaitlyn Schiess, author of the forthcoming book The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here, framed those findings as a hopeful sign for critics of Christian nationalism.

They point to “real inroads,” she said, for pastors and others concerned about the ideology to tap into a shared “desire to work across lines of religious belief for the common good.”

Troubling trends among Christian nationalists

Even so, Singer was quick to note troubling trends disproportionately are present among Christian nationalist sentiments and adherents.

“Our study is, by no means, saying that Christian nationalism is a preferable worldview to have or to endorse,” said Singer.

Christian nationalist adherents, researchers found, were the most likely to express the highest preference for a “strong leader who does not have to deal with Congress and elections” (37 percent), and more than half said the opposing party “lack(s) the traits to be considered fully human—they behave like animals.”

According to the study, adherents and sympathizers also “exhibit a tendency to dislike many outgroups, and prefer their government to favor Christianity over other faiths.”

Adherents in particular favor the idea of having Christian clergy review and advise on laws (59 percent) and having “America’s Judeo-Christian founding explicitly established in the Constitution” (49 percent).

The study also offers an unusually detailed profile of Christian nationalists. Adherents are 70 percent non-Hispanic white, for instance, and have the largest concentration of evangelical Christians (71 percent).

Among those who sympathize with Christian nationalist ideas, 60 percent say they are evangelicals, and adherents were also more likely to be married than others in the survey, by 62 percent to 49 percent.

Nonreligious individuals—those who said they were atheists, agnostics, nothing in particular, spiritual but not religious or “something else”—were the best represented among the Zealous Separationists—those who oppose fusions of church and state—comprising 65 percent of that group. Separationists also exhibited comparatively high levels of political participation, whether in protests or voter registration drives.

Political participation and voting patterns

Christian nationalist adherents and sympathizers, however, were only a few points behind separationists in political participation and collectively outnumber them. Adherents and sympathizers collectively represent 30 percent of the population nationally, whereas separationists represent 17 percent.

Roughly half of adherents also reported having shifted their buying habits due to a social or political issue, the highest of any group.

Christian nationalist adherents and sympathizers were also the most likely to say they voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020 and also more likely to have voted at all (67 percent and 68 percent, respectively) compared to other groups.

Separationists voted at 64 percent, however, and showed the highest support for any specific candidate (61 percent said they voted for President Joe Biden).

As for party affiliation, around 17 percent of the Republicans or those who lean Republican were classified as Christian nationalist adherents, with an additional 30 percent marked as sympathizers and 21 percent Christian Spectators.

On the Democratic side, 30 percent were Zealous Separationists, 25 percent Pluralistic Believers and 15 percent were Christian Spectators.

Neighborly Faith partnered with Technites for the survey, which was conducted between June 16 and June 21. It polled 2,006 U.S. adults and an oversample of 303 evangelical youth ages 18 to 25 for a total of 2,309 respondents.