MOSCOW—Officials with Buckner Adoption and Maternity Services say they have not received any official notification about the suspension of adoptions from the Russian Ministry of Education, the arm of the government that oversees international adoptions.

According to Buckner’s Russia staff April 15, international adoptions are continuing without interruption. Andrei Pukhlov, director of the Buckner program, said there “has been no official announcement from the Ministry of Education regarding the suspension of adoptions.”

Numerous news stories announcing the suspension of adoptions quoted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, that agency of the Russian government does not oversee the adoption program and according to other sources, does not have the authority to suspend adoptions, Buckner officials stressed.

“While we have not received any official word, we are watching the situation closely and we will be in touch with our families waiting to adopt from Russia," said Felipe Garza, vice president at Buckner.

Buckner began adoptions from Russia in 1995. More than 250 Russian children have been placed with families through Buckner in the past 15 years.
Recent news events surrounding the status of Russian adoption to American families has centered on the case of a 7-year-old boy who was sent back to Moscow alone last week by his adoptive mother in Tennessee. The case of the boy, who was named Artyom in Russia before he was adopted last year, has caused widespread anger here, and Russian officials said new regulations had to be put in place before adoptions by Americans could proceed.

The U.S. State Department is sending a high-level delegation to Moscow to hold talks on reaching an agreement, and both countries have expressed hope that the matter can be resolved quickly.

Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said they had not received official notification of a suspension and were seeking more information from their Russian counterparts.

Russia was the third leading source of adoptive children in the United States in 2009, with 1,586, after China and Ethiopia, officials said. More than 50,000 Russian children have been adopted by United States citizens since 1991, according to the United States Embassy.

Artyom, who was named Justin by his adoptive American mother, arrived in Moscow last week after flying by himself from Washington. He presented the authorities with a note from his adoptive mother in which she said she could no longer handle him.

WACO—For 40 years, the Neighbors International ministry of Columbus Avenue Baptist Church in Waco has been introducing people around the world to one another, Texas culture and— most importantly—Jesus Christ.

Internationals worship at a service at Columbus Avenue Baptist Church in Waco.

As the ministry began to prepare to celebrate the four-decade milestone, Rocio Landoll began to contemplate what she might do to contribute.

“For me, it is difficult to say, ‘I bake’ or ‘I will make this.’ I imagine this sort of thing,” she said as she motioned to a large tapestry of the world she had created.

Landoll, an artist who enjoys working with textiles, dyed her own yarn, and her husband constructed the custom-made loom she used to make her tapestry.

Hanging from the elliptically shaped globe are 40 lanyards, one for each year the ministry has been in existence. Tied to the ropes are the names of every student and teacher who has been a part of the program during those four decades—2,040 students and more than 400 teachers.

Landoll wrote the names of the students in black ink, while another volunteer penned the names of the teachers in red. It took a week just to write the names on the linen strips, Landoll noted. She left additional room on the ropes so the names of future students and teachers can be added.

She also left a space—a window—in the map at the spot where Waco would fall.

“Most of the time, when I make my objects of art, I use symbols. In this case, I put the window because the … symbol is to go in and discover more things. … I made this for two reasons: For me, it is the opportunity to learn. For me, it was the opportunity to learn the language and learn more about people around the world,” said Landoll, who came to the United States nine years ago.

Rocio Landoll created an intricate tapestry telling the story of the Neighbors International ministry at Columbus Avenue Baptist Church in Waco.

She works primarily in Mexico as a costume designer for major motion pictures such as the Mask of Zorro, The Legend of Zorro and Nacho Libre.

Glenda Weldon, director of the Neighbors International program, said the program was designed from the beginning to meet the varied needs of international students. Ann Pitman, a missionary who had returned to the United States because of health concerns, first noticed the potential for the ministry.

“She had the vision that we needed to minister to people who were here in Waco that were here in a lot of cases because their spouses were in school. They didn’t know the English language, they didn’t know how to go to the grocery store and buy groceries, and in most cases, were in a little apartment all day long by themselves,” Weldon explained.

Pitman began to explore the possibilities and visited a similar program in Austin before starting the program at Columbus Avenue Baptist Church.

The program began with 17 internationals from nine countries that first year. People from 99 countries have participated in the program, Weldon said.

Even more important, hundreds have come to know Jesus Christ as Lord. “When we got to the point of having baptized more than 400, we began to not keep count of that record, but the Lord has blessed this ministry,” Weldon said.

It likewise has been profitable to the 50 people who volunteer to help with the ministry, she said.

“It has been a blessing to me. It is a blessing to all the volunteers who work here. We believe the Lord has planted a mission field here at our doorstep, and that we are the missionaries to serve the Lord here in ministry to these people,” Weldon said.

Volunteers perform clerical duties, provide transportation for students, serve refreshments, provide child care and fulfill a number of other duties. “We feel that if someone wants to volunteer, the Lord has a place where they can serve,” Weldon said.

The program has changed a bit over the years. Many of the participants no longer have a university connection. Many men also are now a part of the program that was once exclusively women.

Five levels of English as a Second Language are taught, in addition to an English program that uses the Bible as its primary textbook. Other classes include computer classes, computer keyboarding, preparation for the written portion of the Texas driver’s test, a citizenship class, along with sewing, fabric art, painting and piano.

“The emphasis of our program is that we don’t just teach ESL. We really minister to people who are born outside the U.S.,” Weldon said.

The program meets each Thursday from September through May. In the summer, there is a family picnic and a Vacation Bible School that meets at the same time as the church’s VBS.

“In listening to interviews from some of our internationals … we heard one young man say, ‘Until I came to Vacation Bible School, I had never heard of Jesus.’ That certainly reinforces our feeling that the Lord has a purpose for that and that it meets a special need for many of these people,” Weldon related.

A Sunday school class for internationals that has almost 50 people attend each week also has proven successful.

“It is an outreach because we have graduate students from Baylor who can’t come on Thursdays, but they will come on Sunday morning, come to Sunday school and have an opportunity to practice their English,” she said. “And many times, the Lord works in their lives and they become Christians, and we are seeing a number that are being baptized. The Lord has really blessed, and we are so grateful.”

ATLANTA (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has awarded a $50,000 grant to Mercer University to provide affordable prosthetics for Haiti, where thousands of people lost limbs in the January 2010 earthquake.

Rebecca Sandifer, a Mercer media designer, took this photo of one of the first patients being fitted with a prosthetic in Vietnam in 2009. (Mercer.edu)

The grant, one of several Haiti-relief projects announced by the Atlanta-based CBF April 14, will be used to replicate in Haiti a "Mercer on Mission" program launched last year to provide artificial limbs to landmine victims in Vietnam.

Estimates of Haitian amputees from crushing injuries and gangrenous infections range from a few thousand to tens of thousands. By conservative accounts, at least 75 people per day faced amputations in the aftermath of the Jan. 12 earthquake. Due to the country's abject poverty, few if any Haitians can afford to purchase artificial limbs that can cost thousands of dollars.

Ha Van Vo, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Mercer, developed a low-cost alternative for use in developing countries, home to 80 percent of the world's 18 million amputees, many who go without prosthetic limbs.

Unlike regular prosthetics, the Mercer Universal Socket Prosthetic can be fitted without full customization, making it much cheaper to produce and easier to fit. It is designed for adults and comes in three sizes — small, medium and large. Inside the socket are three silicone rings that reduce pressure at the stump and help prevent ulcers from forming.

Last summer 15 Mercer students traveled abroad with Vo and another professor to fit 35 Vietnamese amputees with prosthetic legs at no cost to them. They cast 27 other people for fitting this summer, along with 63 more amputees in Vietnam. In future years Ho hopes to expand the program to India and Thailand.

In May Craig McMahan, university minister and dean of the chaplain at Mercer traveled to Haiti with CBF officials to lay groundwork for an exploratory trip in May and follow-up visit this summer.

"This partnership with Mercer University represents the best sort of collaboration between the university and CBF," said Rob Nash, the Fellowship's coordinator for global missions. "We're delighted that the expertise of Mercer professors and students will make a difference among our brothers and sisters in Haiti and that we can help to fund such an initiative because of the gracious gifts provided by individuals and churches."

The program in Vietnam garnered worldwide attention, including praise from the Clinton Global Initiative. Decades after the end of the war in Vietnam, more than 2,000 Vietnamese are injured each year by unexploded bombs and landmines still dotting the landscape. An estimated 100,000 amputees live in Vietnam today.

"This is a big deal to me personally, because when I was president we normalized relations with Vietnam," former President Bill Clinton said in a February 2009 ceremony recognizing the prosthetic program. "We reconciled all the POW/MIA issues."

"We spent an enormous amount of time trying to help them with demining activities, and I have visited clinics where children who are losing their legs to 40-year-old unexploded ordinance are treated," Clinton said. "You cannot imagine the difference this makes in their lives.

"Vietnam is a great friend of the United States today. We are reconciled. We are going to build a common future, but we can't forget there are still kids there today paying for decisions their grandparents made 40 years ago. This is a very good thing that Mercer has done."

Currently Mercer engineers are working on a manufacturing system prototype that can be replicated in indigenous micro industries in multiple developing countries, allowing the limbs to be built and fitted locally.

Last summer's trip to Vietnam was one of nine teams of faculty and students sent out in "Mercer on Mission," a work-study program now in its fourth year that combines academic instruction, cultural immersion and ministry alongside in-country partners like distributing mosquito nets in Africa, teaching orphans in Guatemala and delivering medical care in Thailand.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

VENTURA, Calif. (ABP) — Nearly four of every 10 "unchurched" Americans avoid worship because of negative past experiences in churches or with church people, according to new research by The Barna Group.

The research firm that tracks the role of faith in America and provides ministry resources said that while many churches place high value on attracting people who do not participate in the life of a church, the unchurched may be different than they expect.

Rather than being "lost," or without faith, 61 percent of non-attending adults label themselves as "Christian." That's lower than the 83 percent of all Americans who self-identify as Christians, but it still outnumbers by a 3-2 margin the 39 percent of unchurched who do not embrace Christianity.

Instead of foreigners to church culture, a majority of the unchurched (53 percent) have distanced themselves from being Protestant or Catholic but at one time were associated with one of those groups. Thirty-seven percent said they stopped going because of painful experiences in a church setting.

Nearly one in five (18 percent) answered a standard set of questions used by Barna to categorize them as "born again."

Two thirds of the unchurched (68 percent) believe God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the universe and still rules that universe today. A third (35 percent) believe the Bible is totally accurate in all that it teaches.

One in five (22 percent) agree that the ultimate purpose of life is to love God with all their heart, mind, strength and soul, but just one in seven (15 percent) claim their religious faith is very important in their life.

Just 14 percent — about one in seven — claim to have a clear sense of the meaning and purpose of their life.

Barna's data indicates that 28 percent of adults have not attended any church services or activities within the last six month. That translates to nearly 65 million adults. Adding children under 18 who may be living with him, the number swells to 100 million. If the unchurched population of the United States were a nation of its own, it would be the 12th most-populous nation on the Earth.

Barna says the demographics of the group also defy common assumptions. There re more unchurched women than men. Boomers and their elders outnumber the young. Conservatives are more likely than liberals to be unchurched, and whites outnumber minorities nearly 3-1.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

VICTORIA—Each week, new faces graced the sanctuary at Northside Baptist Church in Victoria, each with a different look, background and curiosity level. But they had a common reason for being there. Each person was visiting a church that had canvassed its community, handing out evangelistic multimedia compact discs in an effort to share the gospel.

“We haven’t seen any decisions, but I’ve been telling people that’s not what this is about. This is a sowing ministry,” Pastor Tim Williams said.

Northside Baptist Church is one of six Victoria congregations that distributed 16,000 evangelistic CDs throughout the city as part of its involvement in Texas Hope 2010, a Texas Baptist initiative encouraging Christians to pray for others, care for people in need and share the gospel with every Texan by Easter Sunday, April 4.

The initiative has encouraged church members to reach out to others in their communities, Williams said. Because of Texas Hope 2010, Christians are sharing their faith with their friends and co-workers.

“It’s been a very easy and positive thing,” he said. “It’s been a good first touch for some of our folks to get out into the community or to neighbors to begin a relationship or deepen things. There’s a new family in my neighborhood when I did it. They were one of the ones who visited one Sunday.”

Through the Texas Hope 2010 effort, Texas Baptists distributed more than 862,000 evangelistic CDs and countless copies of Scripture. A man ministering in a South Texas detention center gave away more than 40 New Testaments a month.

Bosque Baptist Association committed to distributing 2,500 New Testaments. Broken Chains Freedom Church in Wichita Falls held several large events where they distributed New Testaments geared toward bikers.

In 2009, Texas Baptists gave more than $900,000 to the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger and are seeking to raise a total of $2 million for the offering in 2009 and 2010. Congregations are sharing the hope of Christ through starting or expanding food ministries that provide practical assistance to tens of thousands, particularly during the country’s recent economic crisis.

Countless numbers of Texas Baptists are praying with others, taking their cares and concerns to God and asking him to provide. Numerous Texas Baptists have shared stories of asking for God to help someone and seeing that help arrive shortly afterward.

Texas Baptists have shared the hope of Christ—through evangelistic events, CD distribution, feeding ministries, sports ministries and a host of other techniques—with throngs of people, and many of them have come to know Christ as Savior through those efforts, said Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Randel Everett.

“Now it is time to evaluate Texas Hope 2010 to learn what has happened over these past two years,” he said. 

Tina Valdez, missions coordinator for First Baptist Church in Castroville, said the CDs were tools God used to share the gospel. God orchestrated each church member’s visit in the community, selecting a Christian who could best minister to a particular person.

The congregation has offered an evangelistic CD to every home in Castroville and after Easter is looking to distribute CDs to the 900 homes that surround the city.

“It’s been tremendous,” Valdez said. “I can’t even describe how awesome it’s been. People have been so open. They need someone who will pray for them. They need someone who will be there for them. They need to know someone cares for them.”

In one case, a church member met a person who needed her car repaired. The church member prayed with the woman that God would send someone to fix the vehicle. As the church person left, the woman’s next-door neighbor walked over and asked if she needed help with her car.

Even people living in homes where church members have left the CD hanging in a bag on a door have later called the church to ask about when the church has worship services.

“It’s like God working in front of you,” Valdez said. “It’s like you had a front-row seat. It was just awesome.”

Although the Texas Hope 2010 campaign was slated to end on Easter, Texas Baptists continue sharing the hope of Christ with their communities.

Churches continue to look for ways to meet the needs of the hungry, are giving to the world hunger offering and are getting involved in the Texas Hunger Initiative, a Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission/Baylor University School of Social Work partnership that grew out of Texas Hope 2010 and seeks to end Texas food insecurity by 2015.

Churches are signing on to become summer feeding sites, a particularly strong need for the vast number of Texas children on free-lunch programs at school who do not have anything during the summers.

Some congregations plan on starting to distribute evangelistic CDs this spring. Amarillo Area Baptist Association churches are targeting early May as when they will blanket the region with Scripture.

“It’s an opportunity for churches to get outside themselves and be visible in their community. Obviously the one opportunity to share the gospel is the main reason to do it,” said Amarillo Area Baptist Association Director of Missions Bryan Houser.

Everett praised Texas Baptists for how they already have allowed God to use them and how they plan to allow God to work through their actions.

As long as there is a need, Texas Baptists will remain committed to sharing the hope of Christ with a world in need of hearing the gospel, he stressed.

“Texas Hope 2010 is a great start to an Acts 1:8 strategy,” he said. “We must maintain this commitment to sharing the gospel in every endeavor we undertake until everyone has the opportunity to respond to the hope of Christ.”

A growing number of American Christians—and even some secular groups—are beginning to believe John Wesley had the right idea: “Make all you can; save all you can; give all you can.”

Hard work, thrift and philanthropy seem counter-cultural in a time and place where debt is pervasive, with individuals, families, companies and even the government borrowing increasing amounts of money.

Churches can offer American culture the gift of stewardship, Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission Director Suzii Paynter said. Church leaders preach about wise stewardship of time, energy and resources. Through church-sponsored financial seminars, people learn how to get out of debt and stay that way. And some congregations take seriously the responsibility to model wise stewardship to the world.

A group of primarily African-American congregations in three Central Texas counties have formed Texas Congregations United for Empowerment, an effort that brings together 6,000 church members to create better access to financial services, including loans from banks, for lower-income individuals and families.

While many people struggle in their attempts to describe stewardship and thrift, churches have a long history of living and promoting it, Paynter said.

“Stewardship is in our DNA,” she said. “It’s in our culture. It’s in our language.”

Taking chances and borrowing money is as much part of American culture as the Protestant work ethic, said David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values.

For example, two of the more prominent historical figures in the country are Ben Franklin and Daniel Boone, he noted. Franklin encouraged people to build wealth slowly and steadily. Boone was a risk-taker who became known for his adventures, but he also fled creditors.

When Christians follow biblical teachings, it makes an impact on others.

This dichotomy still can be seen in figures such as Warren Buffett—known for value-based investments and a lifestyle of personal frugality and philanthropy—and Donald Trump—known for his lavish lifestyle and his willingness to incur massive debt, he added.

“I like Daniel Boone, and every once in awhile I have a wink and smile with Donald Trump, but I think we need to shift toward Ben Franklin and Warren Buffett,” Blankenhorn said during the recent Christian Life Commission Conference in McAllen.

The “spend and debt” culture even has affected the government, said Stephen Reeves, CLC legislative specialist. Many state governments are betting on gambling as the path to increased revenue, forgetting its detrimental impact on citizens.

“The government itself becomes an addict,” Reeves said. “It becomes addicted to that revenue.”

Comparing it to “grandma’s famous elixir,” Blankenhorn said only a societal ethic of thrift can turn the nation back to its saving ways. Churches are key to that effort because they are the “custodians of the stewardship ethic.”

While many people turn to credit cards and payday lending companies for money, they didn’t always have to, said Tim Morstad, director of advocacy for Texas AARP.

Savings and loan associations were a widespread movement that encouraged financial saving while investing in the lives of others. Credit unions have used a similar approach. In times of crises, many people turned to churches, which often found ways to help people.

“Before the last 20 years in Texas, people did have access to credit,” he said.

Blankenhorn encouraged churches to be leaders in pushing the culture back to those days. Savings and loan associations have declined greatly. Many people chose not to turn to churches for help.

“Middle class and working class people are no longer surrounded by such institutions.”

Ellis Orozco, pastor of First Baptist Church in Richardson, told participants at the CLC Conference the way Christians view their time and resources can set them apart practically from other people. People who use what God has given them wisely show others what life could be like if they followed biblical principles of living, he said. When Christians follow biblical teachings, it makes an impact on others.

“Everything belongs to God,” he said. “It is given to you, but will all return to him. It is given to you as a stewardship. To live as if it belongs to you is practical atheism.”

Payday loan outlets have grown like kudzu in recent years. Texas has more payday lender outlets—about 3,000—than it has McDonald’s and Whataburger restaurants combined.

And some churches and pastors are asking how they can equip people living in poverty—as well as members of their own congregations—to make decisions regarding payday lenders.

Teach biblical principles about money

Joseph Parker, pastor of David Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Austin and an attorney, insists the first step is to have an open conversation about personal financial practices—and realize the Bible speaks on money.

Haitian women have begun a micro-credit loan program to help them establish small businesses to lift them out of poverty. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Mission Waco)

“There are people who don’t know what the Bible says about money and financial principles,” Parker said. “So, we have to equip the people and tug at them through what the Bible says. It will help them filter daily decisions through the mandates of Scripture.”

Many Scriptures—particularly in the law and the prophets of the Old Testament—speak against practices similar to those used by payday lenders.

Payday loans are small-dollar loans with high service fees and interest rates that offer instant cash with no credit check. Since the borrower typically is required to pay off the loan in full at the end of two weeks, payday loans often can create a cycle of debt. In this cycle, fees and interest rates can reach the equivalent of up to 500 percent APR.

Many payday loan users already struggle to make ends meet. A recent survey conducted by Texas Appleseed, an advocacy group for low-income families, showed most payday loan borrowers earned $30,000 or less income and used the loan for recurring expenses of basic needs like rent, utilities and food.

In addition to Bible studies, churches can offer financial education programs such as Money Smart—sponsored by the FDIC—to explain how to budget income to become better stewards of money while avoiding the predatory practices of payday lenders. Education brings economic empowerment, Parker observed.

“Those living in poverty might think that high interest is just part of their lives unless they have a sense of empowerment,” he said. The message is more than dollars and cents.

“The church can embrace this idea about economic empowerment and teach people how they should manage their money and how they should be treated.”

Learn from global examples

But financial education is not the only answer. It is difficult to tell someone not to use a payday loan when it is the only option, Parker noted.

“The loan is born out of desperation,” he said. “Without having a reasonable answer, what do you do? It’s hard to tell people that are poor not to use payday loans without having some other alternative to meet their needs. Without filling the need, it becomes an intellectual conversation.”

Churches have supported organizations around the world that fill the need for credit through microlending. Microcredit organizations, like the Grameen Bank and the Institute for Integrated Rural Development, extend small loans to people living in poverty in countries outside the United States. These loans are used for self-employment projects that generate income, allowing people to care for themselves and their families.

For example in Bangladesh, IIRD gives small loans to women to buy silkworms for producing raw silk. After the silk is produced, women sell their product to other women who own looms, many of which were bought with microloans as well. Microloans are paid back with reasonable interest and include certain requirements that involve the borrower and lender sitting down and deciding what’s best for the borrower.

The Grameen Bank, for instance, requires lenders to make 16 decisions that will improve their own future as well as their family and community’s future. Among these 16 decisions are the statements: “We shall educate our children and ensure that they can earn to pay for their education,” and “We shall always be ready to help each other. If anyone is in difficulty, we shall all help him or her.”

Aaron Tyler, an ordained Baptist minister and chair of the Graduate International Relations Department at St. Mary’s University, explains that microlending helps to lift people out of poverty.

“Microlending and other sustainable development projects facilitate a person’s own creative approaches,” Tyler explained. “This participatory approach to development encourages proactive listening and a better understanding of the local community and culture.”

Some advocates for payday loans say they are the only option for struggling families in Texas and throughout the United States. Like microlending, payday lenders can help people during difficult financial times. Both provide small loans to people who need money quickly.

However, Tyler points out, payday loans and microlending are fundamentally different.

“A primary distinction is the motivation,” he said. “Microlending can encourage a mutual respect and accountability. Payday lending is not designed to eradicate poverty. Instead, it can exploit poverty.”

Consider the role of regulation

Some payday lenders exploit the poor by bypassing existing state regulations. The Texas Finance Code sets some restrictions on small-dollar loans to create a healthy market. However, most payday lenders operate as consumer service organizations, avoiding licensing and regulation by the office of consumer credit commissioner. In the most recent Texas legislative session, several bills were proposed to bring consumer service organizations under the regulation of the consumer credit commissioner’s office, but none was passed into law.

Opponents of tighter regulation claim restrictions on payday lenders are harmful to a free market. They say the market will set reasonable interest rates and consumers are best equipped to make decisions about credit for themselves. They insist the best way to protect consumers is to allow for a competitive and healthy short-term lending market.

Others maintain a healthy market includes moral restraint. In an online article posted on his website last summer, Dave Ramsey applauded legislation in Arkansas that shut down payday lending businesses. Ramsey, a financial adviser and author of Financial Peace, explained such legislation illustrated moral restraint. He used an illustration by Michael Novak, former U.S. ambassador and author of The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, to make his point.

“Michael Novak says our economy rests on a three-legged stool comprised of political freedom, economic freedom and moral restraint,” Ramsey explained. “Without any of these three ‘legs,’ the economy—as we know it—collapses. …

“In this instance, payday lenders had no moral restraint. They commonly took advantage of lower-class people by charging outrageous interest rates. So the government had to step in and pass laws to keep these predators from operating. Capitalism without moral restraint is anarchy.”

Some Texas cities have taken it upon themselves to exhibit moral restraint through tighter regulation. In December, Brownsville placed a six-month moratorium barring new payday lenders from opening any new stores in town. A recent article from Daily Finance quoted Mayor Pat Ahumada as saying, “Our most vulnerable citizens are easy prey for these legal loan sharks, and we want to protect our citizens by regulating them.”

Brownsville has joined a half-dozen other Texas communities—Irving, Mesquite, Sachse, Richardson, Garland and Little Elm—that also have sought restrictions for payday lenders—most having passed zoning laws preventing the payday-lending industry from expanding into new locations.

In the same Daily Finance article, Mesquite Mayor John Monaco said, “Any business that depends on people who are desperate and preys on them has no place in my community.”

Create constructive alternatives

Some organizations have created alternatives to payday loans. West End Neighborhood House in Delaware has produced Loans Plus to help those families who would normally use a payday loan. Loans Plus offers small-dollar loans that function similarly to payday loans in that borrowers use the same documentation to qualify and cash is received the same day. However, Loans Plus interest is only between 12 and 15 percent.

To receive a loan, customers fill out a spreadsheet with an adviser to establish a budget and determine how much money they should borrow—an exercise in financial education. Loans Plus offers no roll-over payment plans. Instead, payment plans of up to 3 months are offered.

Loans Plus has a 70 percent approval rate for loans. Customers who are not approved for loans are directed to crisis help. The Loans Plus product provides a way for people to get out of crisis rather than perpetuate a cycle of debt.

Several Texas nonprofit organizations, working in partnership with credit unions and banks, are in the early stages of developing similar alternatives to payday loans. While few are available yet, there is hope that small-dollar loan products for struggling families will be available in the next few months.

“Parishes and churches are beginning to ask themselves, ‘How do we proactively offer alternatives to payday loans?’” Tyler of St. Mary’s University noted. “This is an ideal place for churches to be involved. Christians and churches offer a humane way of contributing to the conversation.”

Amy Wiles is a member of First Baptist Church in Austin and a student at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary who plans to graduate with her Master of Divinity degree in May 2011. Before entering seminary, she taught music in public schools five years, after completing her undergraduate degree at Baylor University in Waco. She is serving a public policy research internship jointly sponsored by the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission and the Baptist Standard, made possible by a grant from the Christ is Our Salvation Foundation of Waco.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The number of churches that reported a drop in giving due to the sour economy rose nearly 10 percent last year, according to new survey.

In 2009, 38 percent of churches reported a decline in giving, versus 29 percent in 2008.

Megachurches—those with 2,000 members are more—were hit hardest, with 47 percent reporting a decrease in giving last year, up from 23 percent in 2008.

The second State of the Plate study, by Colorado Springs-based Maximum Generosity and Christianity Today International, was based on data from 1,017 churches. The study included small and large churches, as well as mainline, evangelical, Pentecostal, nondenominational, Catholic and Orthodox parishes.

“Multiple research projects last year documented the sharp decline in church giving,” said Brian Kluth, founder of Maximum Generosity. “Our research this year shows things have only gotten worse for a growing number of churches.”

West Coast states suffered most from the depressed economy: 55 percent reported decreased giving.

Mountain states were close behind with 48 percent reporting a drop in giving.

The study also found December contributions, usually high during the holiday season, fell short of expectations, leaving many churches in the hole as they started the new year.

Even so, 45 percent of churches increased their budget for 2010, and 24 percent kept their budget the same.

The report said the 34 percent of churches that scaled back made cuts in travel and conferences, ministry programs, and expansion or renovation projects.

The survey, sent via e-mail, was not a traditional random phone sample and does not have a statistical margin of error.

Status in society can influence how people read and interpret the Bible—and often how they will act on it, according to some Christian leaders.

Miguel de la Torre, associate professor of social ethics at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colo., said too many American Christians read the Bible through the eyes of a middle-class Caucasian United States citizen.

Speaking at a recent Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission Conference, De la Torre noted the original audiences of Jesus and his disciples were quite different, primarily consisting of poor people living more than 2,000 years ago. They lived drastically different lives than contemporary American Christians and viewed Christ’s teachings differently.

“My fear is when we write that kind of sermon, we are being influenced by how we’ve been taught to read the Bible,” De la Torre said, specifically speaking of sermons on the Sabbath. “That is, we read the Bible through the eyes of middle- and upper-class privilege.”

Caleb Oladipo, the Duke K. McCall professor of Christian mission and world Christianity at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, agrees the West has lost the original intent of Christ’s message. Western biblical view is shaped more by logic than understanding.

The habit of reading the Bible empirically “doesn’t mean it doesn’t get us closer to God. The more we realize what it means, the closer we can get to God. But the power of Scripture is sometimes lost,” said Oladipo, who is originally from Nigeria and taught previously at Baylor University.

De la Torre pointed to the Bible’s teaching about the Sabbath as an example of how people of different socioeconomic levels interpret Scripture differently. For people with some level of financial security, the focus is on the need to take time away from work to focus on God and family. De la Torre recently met a pastor of a church of migrant workers who saw the Bible’s teaching on the Sabbath as a command for people to work six days a week.

“The emphasis that those of us with economic privilege, the emphasis is on taking the day off,” he said. “The emphasis for those who do not have jobs is somewhere else.”

Chuck Arney, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Lee’s Summit, Mo., agrees economic status colors an individual’s view of Scripture—both for the poor and for middle- and upper-class Christians.

Arney, president of Coldwater, a not-for-profit ministry to the suburban poor in Lee’s Summit, points to the Lord’s Prayer request for “daily bread” as an example. “We (with economic stability) tend to spiritualize it,” Arney said. “Food is viewed differently. Ours is that food tastes good. Theirs is: ‘How can I feed my children tomorrow?’”

Christians with a middle-class context tend to view giving time or money as their only responsibility, Arney said.

“We are cultured in capitalism. We have received heavy doses of the concept of ‘this is mine,’ and we act with the view of ‘what I’ve earned,’” he said. “We may say, ‘The earth is the Lord’s,’ but we live by ‘I’ve got to pick myself up by my bootstraps.’”

If Christians understand contemporary impoverished people view the Bible similarly as Jesus’ original audience, De la Torre believes the scriptural command to serve the poor also becomes an important opportunity to learn about Scripture. Coming to see their vantage point enhances an individual’s understanding of the Bible’s teachings.

Milton Horne, executive director of the Center for Justice & Sustainability at William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo., sees education as a key to assist individuals out of poverty and to be a catalyst for getting more Christians involved in social justice issues, including economic injustice.

“Economic justice is a problem. People with capital continue to prosper. Those without cannot,” he said.

“Economics is a real factor in justice. The simple truth is poverty has played a role in how some people understand the Bible, but ultimately education determines how people interpret the Bible.”

Launched in 2009, the center hosted its first summit on sustainability issues this spring. The center also provides education and hands-on opportunities, including internships, for Jewell students. Through the center, the college partners with area organizations to meet community needs.

The center broke ground for a common garden at the end of February in a partnership with Second Baptist Church in Liberty.

John Bennett, board chair of Missouri IMPACT, an ecumenical and interfaith legislative social justice advocacy nonprofit in Jefferson City, Mo., believes the economically disadvantaged “tend to find comfort and challenge from the prophetic literature and from the liberating message of Jesus.”

Connecting with the impoverished broadens the thinking of many Christians who are economically more secure, De la Torre said. They begin to see the need to help people in need, no matter how dire the situation may be.

“I don’t do justice because I’m going to succeed,” he said. “I do justice because that’s what I’m called to do.”

Connecting is the most important aspect of justice, Arney believes. “What we (Coldwater ministry participants) tend to concentrate on around people struggling is that there’s hope—that ultimately God provides hope in Christ. If the world’s not fair, there’s still hope,” he said.

Oladipo believes hope is what draws the poor to God. “To the poor, the Bible becomes their ally. … The way they see themselves and the way they see each other is more from the point of view of hope. The Bible give them hope,” he said.

“In the affluent world, if you need a Coke, you go to the machine and pull one out. If you need to go from Richmond to California, you can get there by flying. But in situations of poverty, none of these things can happen. They know these are not available to them. That causes them to rely more on God.”

Arney also believes when Christians grasp their own indebtedness to the poor, they will recognize their calling to minister and will be more willing to do so.

In his ministry to the Gentiles recorded in Romans, the Apostle Paul “levels the spiritual playing field” by pointing out that all have sinned, Arney said.

Paul’s work also leveled the economic playing field, Arney argued, because Paul collected funds for the poor on his missionary journeys.

“In the Romans context, the poor were the Jerusalem Christians experiencing famine. Paul shows … (Gentiles) that they must give to the poor because the poor have given you the gospel. That principle ties over to today,” Arney said.

“The economically poor in a suburban context … are hungry for spirituality,” he added. “But what they’re looking for is not so much biblical truth, but finding friendship, connection and hope.”

–With additional reporting by John Hall and Robert Dilday.

RICHMOND, Va.—Christians in the developing nations read Scripture differently than their brothers and sister in the affluent West, according to missiologist Caleb Oladipo.

“The way we read the Scriptures in the western world particularly is through empirical knowledge—that is, through our five senses. It’s what we can affirm in a logical way. Africans and people in the nations of Latin America and Asia don’t read the Bible that way. They read the Bible from a devotional point of view. In particular, Africans don’t see the Bible as a book of reference but as a book of remembrance,” said Oladipo, the Duke K. McCall Professor of Christian mission and world Christianity at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. Previously, he taught at Baylor University and Truett Theological Seminary.

All cultures value and are influenced by some aspects of their pre-Christian heritage, and Africans are no exception, said Oladipo, who is originally from Nigeria. They bring those understandings with them when they are converted to Christianity.

“The Bible speaks to them from the wellsprings of their own spiritual life. And they read the Bible in that sense,” he said.

“Africans often say that the West has the Bible, but they have lost the Scriptures. Because we have all the logic, all the ways of reading the Bible, all the Greek and Hebrew, we (in the West) see the Bible as something we can dissect. It’s like looking at a car. You open the bonnet (hood), you see all the parts, and sometimes you see what’s wrong the car. They (Christians in the developing world) don’t see the Bible that way. They see the Bible as devotional. And it is not a weapon but a tool to see God. It’s a tool that opens the biography of God.”

For prosperous Western Christians to read the Bible through the eyes of the poor, they first must realize Christianity no longer is a Western religion, he noted. Christianity is growing and prospering in the developing world, and Christians in the West can learn from believers in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Western Christians also can learn about the powerful sense of community among Christians in developing nations, he added.

“That comes straight from their own understanding of their faith. In the West we are isolated and individualistic, and we think we should to it all alone. That is not helping us. We become so isolated that the sense of interdependence is not strong, and that is weakening our society,” he said.

“In Africa and Latin America and Asia, what is so powerful about Christian commitment is the sense of community, and that is what they can teach us. By looking at that, we can read the Bible differently.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—When President Obama was elected, some black pastors—fresh from a campaign that featured extensive outreach to their churches—expected meetings with the president, or at least to be enlisted as informal advisers.

For better or worse, those expectations have largely fallen flat.

“I think he doesn’t avail himself as fully as he could of the input of black religious thinkers, and this is not a judgment upon his regard for us,” said Obery Hendricks, a professor at New York Theological Seminary. “I’m not sure why that is.”

James Forbes, the former senior pastor of New York’s Riverside Church, said the White House is doing a delicate dance in the aftermath of Obama’s ties—and public breakup—with Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor, whose fiery sermons nearly derailed his campaign.

“It has to be a consideration: How does the first black president position himself in the public eye in regards to blacks?” said Forbes, who has neither been invited nor sought access to the Obama White House. “I think his handlers would assume that they want to make him as color-blind as he can possibly be.”

Black religious leaders say they’re not asking the president to help them; they want to help Obama. Some get calls and e-mails updating them on policy issues, including messages from Joshua DuBois, a black former Pentecostal pastor who directs the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Still, some want more.

“That’s not the president,” said Amos Brown of San Francisco’s Third Baptist Church, of DuBois, describing the phone calls as “for-your-information sessions.”

The White House declined to comment.

Hendricks noted “glimmers” of a change when the president unexpectedly “got on the line to thank us,” during a conference call with DuBois on March 21, after Obama’s health care reform package cleared the House.

Gerald Durley, senior pastor of Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, said he and other clergy would like to sit down with the president—not staffers like DuBois—to discuss topics like unemployment, foreclosures and green jobs.

“I just want to certainly have that opportunity to give the kind of input to him personally rather than the advisers,” said Durley, chair of the Regional Council of Churches in Atlanta.

Timothy McDonald, pastor of Atlanta’s First Iconium Baptist Church, attended a White House meeting with dozens of black clergy last September, but left disappointed that it was “more informational than interactive.” The real loser in all this, he said, is Obama.

“Why haven’t we been engaged to counter the activities of the Tea Party and the birthers? Why haven’t we been engaged even now to prepare for immigration reform legislation?” asked McDonald, founder of African American Ministers in Action, a subsidiary of People for the American Way.

“One thing that you cannot do is ignore the clergy, whether you’re the first black president or not.”

The complaints, however, may be rooted in unrealistic expectations, generational differences or levels of political maturity, observers say.

Some black clergy, including those who served on an advisory panel for DuBois’ faith-based office, say they’ve had no problem getting their voices heard at the White House.

Otis Moss Jr., who just ended his one-year term on the council, said he has talked to Obama directly, but also knows from experience in previous administrations that connections to senior staff can be just as, if not more, significant.

“It is at that level that you get things accomplished that you may not get accomplished in a 15-minute audience with the president because … he is dealing with national and global issues that impact all of us,” said Moss, a retired Cleveland pastor whose son now is pastor of Obama’s former Chicago church, Trinity United Church of Christ.

Vashti McKenzie, bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, who also just finished her term as an adviser, said the council was a “major step forward” for blacks being included in communication with the White House.

What’s more, she said, it’s simply not “humanly possible” for Obama to meet with everyone.

“Is the president apprised of our concerns? I believe so,” she said. “Is he moving decidedly on a course to respond to the issues that are near and dear to us? I believe he is. Is he ignoring us? No. Is he keeping us out of the loop? No.”

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (RNS)—When militia expert Jack Kay first ran across a MySpace page for the Michigan-based Hutaree militia six months ago, he thought it was just another group wrapping itself in God and country. But following raids on the Hutaree militia by federal authorities in three states, Kay said the group went beyond that initial assessment.

“Everything I’ve read about them and on their website establish, to me, that they are a cult,” said Kay, provost and executive vice president of academic affairs at Eastern Michigan University. “They are true believers. They feel they are on a divine mission. They are willing to be martyrs. It goes beyond patriotism and gets into groupthink.”

Even members of other militias describe Hutaree as a cult.

“You have an older religious leader with several young followers who obey his every command,” said Michael Lackomar, a spokesman for the Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia, which was not targeted in the raids. His unit has trained with Hutaree in the past.

Nine Hutaree members were charged with planning to kill a local law enforcement officer and to attack the resulting funeral procession, targeting law enforcement vehicles with improvised explosive devices.

“There are a lot of groups that use the rhetoric that this group uses,” Kay said. “Their plans, if what is in the indictment is true, go well beyond that. If what’s in the indictment is true, this would be among the most extreme groups out there.”

On its website, the group uses heavy doses of the Bible to justify its actions and claims members are getting ready to battle the Antichrist.

“Jesus wanted us to be ready to defend ourselves using the sword and stay alive using equipment,” the group’s website says. “The only thing on earth to save the testimony and those who follow it, are the members of the testimony, ’til the return of Christ in the clouds. We, the Hutaree, are prepared to defend all those who belong to Christ and save those who aren’t.”

Donna Stone said her ex-husband, David Stone, the accused leader of the group, pulled her son, David Jr., into the movement. Another son, Joshua Stone, also was charged.

“It started out as a Christian thing,” Donna Stone told the Associated Press. “You go to church. You pray. You take care of your family. I think David started to take it a little too far.”

The wife of one of the defendants described Hutaree as a small group of patriotic, Christian buddies who were just doing survival training.

“It consisted of a dad and two of his sons and I think just a couple other close friends of theirs,” said Kelly Sickles, who husband, Kristopher, was among those charged. “It was supposed to be a Christian group. Christ-like, right, so why would you think that’s something wrong with that, right?”