EDITOR’S NOTE: A federal judge in Rhode Island on Oct. 31 ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make SNAP payments. The Trump Administration announced Nov. 3 it would use contingency funds to provide partial SNAP benefits that will cover about half of each eligible household’s benefits in November.

Community ministries and Texas Baptist churches with food pantries prepared for a sharp rise in needs after Nov. 1, when 3.5 million Texans—including 1.7 million children—expect to lose food assistance benefits due to the ongoing government shutdown.

Barring some stopgap measure by Congress, up to 42 million Americans will lose access to benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, previously known as food stamps.

“When those benefits disappear, families will face impossible choices—between food and rent, groceries and medicine,” said Jeremy Everett, executive director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty. “Small businesses, grocery stores and local food pantries will all feel the strain.

“If loving our neighbor is the standard by which we demonstrate our faith, then our response in moments like these reveals where our faith truly lies.”

In addition to the loss of SNAP benefits to low-income families, some government employees have been furloughed or temporarily are working without pay.

Churches seek to ‘reflect the kindness of Christ’

Churches in Midland are working cooperatively to “reflect the kindness of Christ and our calling to care for people,” said Pastor Darin Wood of First Baptist Church.

“With the government shutdown and the end of SNAP benefits looming, we—the pastors and shepherds of our city—want to say we’re in it for those who are affected,” Wood wrote in a social media post.

Beginning Nov. 1 and continuing “until the shutdown ends and benefits are restored,” churches are working together to meet as many needs as possible daily on a rotating basis, he wrote.

For its part, First Baptist Church will provide a free hot meal from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4. Fannin Terrace Baptist Church will provide a meal from 5 p.m to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 6.

Other churches involved in the Midland effort include Greater Ideal Church, Mount Moriah Disciples of Christ Church, Golf Course Road Church of Christ, First Presbyterian Church, First Methodist Church and First Christian Church, along with several local ministries.

“Here’s our plan. No ID required and no costs,” Wood announced on social media. “Just come eat and know that Jesus loves you and sent us to do the same.”

Texas Baptists offer grants

The Baptist General Convention of Texas wants to help churches meet the increased needs of their neighbors, Executive Director Julio Guarneri announced in an Oct. 30 email.

“We are thankful for churches that have food pantries and hunger ministries. Many of these, we know, are stretched as they seek to serve clients who have a greater need due to not receiving government pay or benefits,” Guarneri stated.

In response, the BGCT is allocating a $100,000 grant to be distributed by the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering office.

Grants range from $1,000 to $10,000, said Irene Gallegos, director of hunger care ministries with Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission.

Churches with food pantries and hunger ministries can inquire about a grant by clicking here, and they will be provided more information about how to apply.

About 20 churches and ministries responded within the first 12 hours after Guarneri sent his email, Gallegos noted.

How to help

To contribute to the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering, click here.

When giving—whether to a local ministry, a regional food bank or through another avenue—Everett suggested contributing what a family in Texas will lose in SNAP benefits: an average household benefit of $356 a month or $12 a day.

He also encouraged concerned Christians to volunteer.

“Local pantries and meal programs will be stretched thin in the weeks ahead as they consider how to meet an influx of community needs,” he stated.

“They cannot extend their hours, serve more neighbors or manage donations without help. Offer your time, your hands and your presence.”

A proper understanding of God’s Triune nature offers insights into the nature of humanity created in God’s image, theologian Rowan Williams told a gathering at First Baptist Church in Waco.

The ancient Nicaean Creed not only affirmed the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, but also influenced the Western understanding of politics and power in varying degrees over the next 1,700 years, the former head of the worldwide Anglican communion said.

Williams, who served as the archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012, delivered the Parchman Lectures, sponsored by Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary on Oct. 28-29 in Waco.

Truett Seminary moved the lectures from Powell Chapel on the Baylor campus to the sanctuary of nearby First Baptist Church to accommodate the exceptionally large crowd, Dean Todd Still said.

Williams’ lectures focused on “The Word Was with God: Trinitarian Reflections on the Anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.”

The Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. affirmed the Christian doctrines of belief in “one God, the Father Almighty;” in “one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,” who is “eternally begotten of the Father;” and in “the Holy Spirit … who proceeds from the Father and the Son.”

The council rejected the Arian heresy that Christ was a created being altogether distinct from God the Father, insisting instead that God the Son and God the Father are “of the same substance.”

‘Theological tension at work’

Williams acknowledged the “theological tension at work” in affirming one God in three Persons who is both giver and receiver—unchanging in some sense and yet fully identifying with suffering humanity in his incarnation.

In part, the unity of the Triune God is the unity of action, he suggested.

“We can’t talk about God without talking about creation and redemption” involving God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, he said.

Jesus is both the heavenly High Priest and the sacrifice itself offered on the heavenly altar, Williams said.

In describing the Trinity, Williams used the analogy of a musical chord in perfect harmony rather than an isolated note.

“The unity, the indivisibility, of God is an indivisible interaction—symphonic or harmonic, not a single line of music,” he said.

No ‘trickling down’ of divine power

The divine power exercised by the Triune God is inherent, not delegated or hierarchical, he said.

“There is no trickling down from the Father to the Son or from the Son to the Spirit,” he said.

Jesus declared himself to be one with God, while at the same time, he called upon God as “Father” and taught his disciples to do the same, emphasizing the relational aspect of the Trinity.

The unity of the Triune God is eternally familial, interactive and relational, Williams asserted.

“There is no way to speak about God without speaking of God’s relatedness,” he said.

While God the Father is the Creator of life and the Sustainer of life, the same can be said of God the Son and God the Spirit. Giving life is “the same family habit,” Williams said.

Image of God means giving and receiving life

So, as adopted children of God created in the image of God, redeemed humans live out their role as image-bearers most fully through giving life and giving of themselves within the body of Christ, he said.

“To be in the divine image is for us to be so constituted that the life given to us is a life we share with and receive from one another. The pattern of creation itself is a pattern of life giving,” Williams said. “In the new creation, the pattern of life giving is renewed and intensified.”

Humans are part of the larger web of creation, and they are not created to be alone or to live in opposition to the created order, he asserted.

“Violence against the world is a kind of violence against ourselves,” Williams said.

The “radical mutuality” evident in the Triune God should be reflected in humans who bear his image and in the church as the body of Christ, he said.

Politics and power

In what he described as “a slight digression,” Williams explored the political implications of how Western Christianity has understood the Trinity, particularly how power is understood.

He pointed to an early 20th century debate in Germany between Carl Schmitt and Erik Peterson over political theology—specifically the relationship between the doctrine of the Trinity and monarchical authority.

Schmitt emphasized the “sovereign will” of God. He believed the sovereignty of God meant God can do whatever God chooses, including intervening in the created world and suspending the laws of nature, Williams explained.

By the same principle, the earthly monarch—or other authoritarian ruler of a nation—had the right to suspend the rule of law in the event of an emergency, Schmitt asserted.

Furthermore, the sovereign ruler alone possessed the right to declare a state of emergency in Schmitt’s view. That belief provided theological justification for the National Socialist Party in Germany and Hitler’s rise to power.

‘Unity of agency’

Peterson, on the other hand, saw absolute divine monarchism as incompatible with a Nicaean view of the Trinity, Williams explained.

“Monarchy belongs to the entirety of the divine life. Monarchy belongs to the Trinity in its full relatedness,” he said.

Peterson saw the sovereign will of God exercised in the “unity of agency” by the Father, Son and Spirit working in concert. He rejected any view that considered the power of God the Son or God the Holy Spirit as delegated or subordinate to God the Father.

So, Peterson rejected any political theology that granted absolute sovereignty to any single earthly ruler—including the German Führer.

Drawing on lessons learned from that debate, Williams drew applications both for secular politics and the church.

“We need to know where sovereignty resides,” he said.

No single individual or political system can “embody the sovereignty of God,” but the church embodies it through kingdom actions, Williams suggested.

Politics effectively tells people “who the enemy is,” because “the other” is seen as “a threat to be contained,” Williams said. The Trinity, on the other hand, may offer a model in which difference does not mean enmity.

“What if, in the divine life, we have a vision of otherness which is wholly interdependent and in no sense a threat to be resolved?” he asked.

“This nail … takes me to Italy,” said Dallas Jenkins, creator of “The Chosen” hit TV series that follows the life of Christ.

Jenkins held the Roman-era crucifixion spike in his hand while being interviewed on stage during the Oct. 28 Veritas Lecture sponsored by the Institute for Global Engagement at Dallas Baptist University.

“We filmed the crucifixion sequence in Italy. It’s a place that multiple films have been filmed about the crucifixion because it’s one of the only places in the world that still has the first century backdrop.”

“Filming season six has been without a doubt the hardest thing I’ve ever done … in my career and for my family,” Jenkins said.

“It has been in many ways a test of what I believe God asks of all of us: Can you surrender? Can you be humbled before me? And can you have faith and trust even when you don’t necessarily understand or know the outcome?”

Jenkins admitted, while he was uncertain of the outcome of the series’ next season, he was encouraged by how God has kept him, his family and his production team.

The opportunity to film the death of Jesus in Italy was a chance for God to show Jenkins and his team both the beauty and pain that came with Christ’s sacrifice for humanity. It was a point during production Jenkins had to step away as he processed the moment and considered what the disciples might have felt.

“Everyone in this room faces moments where we don’t know the outcome,” Jenkins said.

Reliance on God and others

During season one, Jenkins was moved by a moment when God provided what was needed during a film shoot.

Five days before filming the miracle where Jesus told Simon to let his net down to catch fish, the crew was without a boat, a lake or fish.

 “The lake flooded. So, we didn’t have a shore. The boat we tried to build was taking too long. I do not have the tools I need. I was in that place where I couldn’t solve this. Five days later, the lake had gone down exactly to the part where we needed to get down,” Jenkins said.

 The boat was delivered the same day, and the fish were provided through the special visual effects team.

“When I’m directing a scene, I can see how it’s going, and I can control how it’s going. In this case, I couldn’t. It was out of my own control. I was relying so much on others,” Jenkins said.

While filming “The Chosen,” Jenkins learned to trust God, including with the crew and the provisions needed for telling stories of the Bible.

“I realized this is not my project. I am going to have to get used to this notion that other people in my life are going to, of course, be smarter, better than I am in some areas. I’m going to have to rely on that, too. And then we’re all going to rely on God to perceive these things,” Jenkins continued.

“And that was a really, really powerful and encouraging lesson, when you realize, ‘I’m not good enough to do this,’” Jenkins said.

What God thinks

During his time filming “The Chosen,” Jenkins has received an overwhelming amount of praise and criticism.

Jenkins said there are plenty of people struggling with God’s call on their lives.

“What is miraculous is who I was before ‘The Chosen,’” Jenkins said. “My drug of choice was affirmation, legitimacy. I cared deeply about what the movie industry thought of me. I wanted to be taken seriously. I wanted fans. I wanted my films to be top of the box office.”

Jenkins added it was through failure God told him he was ready to work on “The Chosen.”

“The reason our company is called ‘5&2 Studios’ is because in that moment of failure, in that moment of desperation, I was reminded by God that your job is not to feed the 5,000 but to provide the loaves and fish,” Jenkins said.

“Whatever gifts God has given you, you make them available to God to use them. He deems them worthy of acceptance. And that’s a hard pill to swallow for someone who cares about results and wants to get credit for the results,” Jenkins said.

It is equally important not to be moved by praise nor by criticism, but to care about what God thinks, Jenkins added.

A yearlong study of Waco’s Church Under the Bridge reveals lessons about how to create a welcoming community where people who never felt accepted in church can find a place where they belong.

When Melody Escobar arrived at Baylor University, she asked a colleague where individuals in Waco with mental, physical or developmental disabilities liked to worship.

Her co-worker pointed her to the congregation that has met regularly for three decades beneath the Interstate 35 overpass at South Fourth St.

After she attended the 2024 Palm Sunday service at Church Under the Bridge and became acquainted with Pastor Jimmy Dorrell, she realized “something really special was going on at the Church Under the Bridge” that deserved serious examination.

Escobar, associate research scientist at the Baylor Collaborative on Faith and Disability, and research assistant Caroline Reed conducted the “Belonging Under the Bridge” study, funded by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.

Worshipping community ‘united in diversity’

“For me, the key dimension that emerged in the study was how they are so united in diversity,” Escobar said.

Of the 33 individuals interviewed by researchers, more than 20 percent are unhoused. More than half—55 percent—reported a disability, and more than one-fourth reported a history of substance abuse disorders.

Many members live in extreme poverty and some previously have been incarcerated. However, Church Under the Bridge also counts among its members Baylor students, teachers, medical professionals, ministers and nonprofit workers.

“People spoke of discovering a sanctuary under the bridge—this place where diversity isn’t an obstacle but a driving force of the community,” Escobar said. “And so, there’s this palpable and powerful sense of belonging.”

Worshippers reported an “immediate felt sense that each person is indispensable to their life together,” she said.

“They described a powerful sense of belonging fostered by the embodied presence and celebration of diverse backgrounds, identities and spiritual gifts,” a summary report of the study states.

“United in diversity reflects the church’s theological commitment to honor each person’s inherent dignity and to actualize the compassionate discipleship Jesus prescribes in Matthew 25—frequently referenced by the senior pastor and members alike as a guiding ethos for ministry—encountering Christ in all people.”

Church Under the Bridge’s open-air setting—“worshipping without walls”—contributes to fostering an environment where everyone is welcome, and worshippers encounter God outside conventional spaces, she noted.

Engaged in using spiritual gifts

Dorrell’s approachable “relationship-first style of leadership” creates an atmosphere of genuine acceptance and a sense everyone is “seen and valued,” she said.

“I witnessed him every Sunday welcome people warmly, ask them their name and stop to hear their story,” Escobar said.

Individuals interviewed said they not only felt welcomed to worship, but also to serve and engage meaningfully in the life of the faith community, she reported.

“The spirit of welcome naturally flowed into the church’s commitment to the sense of ministry by all,” Escobar said.

“Everyone is seen as having a gift to contribute. They devote a lot of time to holding sessions on spiritual gifts, nurturing those gifts and getting people connected to meaningful roles.

“The conviction that every person is needed for this ministry is a conviction that shapes all aspects of their life together.”

The study revealed worshippers not only received acceptance and friendship at Church Under the Bridge, but found “family” there through small-group gatherings and shared meals, she said.

Found family, experienced transformation

Members told interviewers “they felt cared for,” were missed when they were absent, and discovered “a sense of stability that many had not experienced before,” Escobar said.

“Belonging reflects something biblical—an understanding of community and mutual care,” Escobar said. “Belonging is a desire placed in our heart by God. It’s a reflection of our need for relationship.

“When we turn away from that life together, we lose that sacred opportunity to be shaped by others, to know ourselves more fully, and to experience the transformation God intends for us in our communities.”

The yearlong study revealed participants not only reported spiritual transformation and holistic well-being, but also shifts in their worldview about people different from themselves.

The study concludes with recommendations for the wider church, based on suggestions by participants who were interviewed:

• Remove physical and social barriers to worship.

“Listening is a real gift,” Escobar said, encouraging church leaders to pay attention to the “lived experience” of people who have felt excluded.

In addition to making practical accommodations for individuals with disabilities, church leaders can remove barriers by raising awareness, educating members and “sharing stories that open people to different ways of thinking about community,” Escobar said.

• Embrace freedom and flexibility in worship.

Escobar emphasized the importance of “making room for every voice and people of all abilities to participate.”

• Prioritize authenticity.

“Belonging grows when communities prioritize that genuine connection … putting community over image or presentation so that you have spaces for people to show up as they are,” Escobar said.

“It’s found in simple things—learning names, valuing each person’s story.”

• Welcome and empower historically excluded people.

“Make every member feel invited and equipped to take part in the life of the church,” Escobar said.

“Church Under the Bridge does that really well—helping people to see that they are gifted and have something to contribute for the vitality of the congregation.

“When those who have been left out are invited into discipleship and given visible and meaningful roles, I think we truly see what it means to be the body of Christ where every person’s presence and contribution matters.”

IRVING, Texas (BP)—Matt Queen, the former interim Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary provost who pleaded guilty a year ago to making a false statement to federal investigators, has joined the staff of Plymouth Park Baptist Church in Irving as associate pastor.

Plymouth Park Church pointed to Queen’s “three decades of experience in a variety of roles and contexts as a leading voice in evangelism” and called him “a passionate evangelist and author” of several books.

Queen’s case came about through the Department of Justice’s investigation into allegations of mishandling claims of sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention. He ultimately received a judgment of time served with one year of supervised release and six months of home confinement, alongside paying a $2,000 fine and $100 special assessment.

Supervised release required Queen to participate in outpatient mental health treatment and continued usage of prescribed medications.

Queen’s plea centered around falsified notes investigators said he provided in the spring of 2023 following a report of sexual abuse by a student at Texas Baptist College, Southwestern’s undergraduate arm.

Plymouth Park Pastor Matt Henslee told The Roys Report news outlet that while he did recommend Queen, a longtime friend, for the position, he was not part of the hiring process.

The church’s trustees and legal counsel “perused every single page of those court documents,” Henslee told The Roys Report. Church leaders also interviewed Queen for two and a half hours.

Queen was the only individual publicly indicted in the Department of Justice investigation launched in August 2022 and concluded in March of this year. No sexual abuse-related charges were filed as a result of the investigation.

Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission is urging church leaders to sign a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi calling on the Department of Justice to prohibit foreign governments from using tracking technologies to send targeted messages to worshippers in U.S. churches without their consent.

On Sept. 27, Show Faith by Works—an organization acting as an agent of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs—filed disclosures with the Justice Department as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The disclosures revealed the organization’s intent to use geolocation and geofencing technology to send targeted messages to the mobile devices of individuals on the property of 465 churches—including more than 200 in Texas—without their knowledge and consent.

‘Crosses a line that should concern all Americans’

“We recognize the importance of diplomatic relations and the legitimate interests of allied nations. However, the surreptitious targeting of American worshipers on the grounds of their churches crosses a line that should concern all Americans who value religious freedom and privacy,” the letter to Bondi from Texas Baptists states.

John Litzler, CLC director of public policy and general counsel for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, noted most smartphone apps request user permission before accessing a user’s geographic location.

“Because of privacy rights, users typically have a choice whether to deny access to their location, always grant access to their location, or grant access to their location only while using the application. In these instances there is a knowing and voluntary decision by the user,” Litzler explained.

“If I allow a restaurant to know my location, for example, I may be able to place mobile orders and receive an occasional free chicken sandwich.

“In contrast, the targeting described in this filing would be done without the knowledge or consent of pastors and congregants.”

The letter to Bondi raises five key issues:

• Violations of religious liberty, freedom of association and free assembly.

Houses of worship historically have been “protected spaces where Americans gather freely to practice their faith without government surveillance or foreign interference,” the letter states.

“Allowing government-sanctioned foreign surveillance and influence operations within church sanctuaries fundamentally undermines this separation by entangling houses of worship with state-approved foreign political campaigns.”

Targeting individuals in places of worship also can have a “chilling effect” on the freedom to assemble and freely exercise faith, the letter notes.

“Allowing a foreign government access to geolocation data to every phone located on a church premises is akin to requiring the churches to turn over their membership lists,” the letter states.

• Violations of property and privacy.

Most of the places of worship listed in the filing are the private property of the faith communities that assemble there, the letter notes.

“Property rights are built on the principle that property owners should have the right to exclude others from their property,” the letter states.

“Geofencing, without the knowledge or consent of the property owner, circumvents these ownership rights by tracking individuals’ whereabouts everywhere on church property from the prayer room to the bathroom.”

• Lack of informed consent.

Individual worshippers “have no knowledge they are being targeted and are provided no ability to opt out,” the letter states.

• Violation of religious autonomy.

Houses of worship and their leaders “should have the right to determine what outside influences, particularly from foreign governments, are permitted to communicate with their congregations on church property,” the letter states.

• Sets a dangerous precedent.

“Allowing agents of foreign governments to use surveillance technology to target faith communities sets a troubling precedent that could be exploited by any foreign actor, whether allied or adversarial to the United States,” the letter states.

‘Potential for gross violations’ of civil rights

Two years ago, Calvary Chapel in San Jose, Calif., sued Santa Clara County for geofencing its premises to track congregants who attended worship services during a COVID-19 pandemic “shelter-in-place” order.

The claims in that lawsuit “demonstrate the potential for gross violations of Americans’ civil rights when foreign or domestic governments are allowed to use this technology to track church attendees,” Litzler said.

“If a local, state or federal government entity tried to compel churches to turn over their membership lists, Christians would rightly be concerned about infringement on our rights of religious freedom and freedom of association,” he said.

“By setting a geofence around a church and collecting information about who enters that area each Sunday, foreign actors will gain enough information about church attendees that it’s tantamount to turning over a membership list to them.”

The letter from Texas Baptists to Bondi asks the Department of Justice to:

• Prohibit agents of foreign governments from using geolocation, geofencing or similar tracking technologies “to target individuals at houses of worship in the United States without their consent.”
• Establish an opt-in requirement that would allow foreign governments and their agents to use tracking technologies only at places of worship that have “explicitly and voluntarily consented in writing.” It would require full disclosure of “the foreign entity involved and the nature of the messaging to be delivered.”

“Houses of worship should remain sanctuaries free from uninvited foreign government surveillance and influence,” the letter to Bondi states.

“We ask that you act swiftly to protect the integrity of our religious institutions and the rights of all Americans to worship freely according to their conscience.”

Church leaders can sign the letter by clicking here.

Religious nationalism “cheapens” religion and exchanges genuine love of country for a blank check that justifies any action a country takes, panelists said during the Global Religious Freedom Gathering at Dallas Baptist University.

Randel Everett, director of DBU’s Center for Global Religious Freedom, moderated a panel discussion Oct. 20 on “Religious Nationalism Globally and Its Effect on Minorities.”

Panelists were Jack Goodyear, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at DBU; Anna Lee Stangl, head of advocacy for Christian Solidarity Worldwide; and Katie Frugé, director of Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission.

Christian nationalism—which conflates Christianity and national identity—“compromises the faith, and it compromises the gospel,” Frugé said.

“This nationalistic merging with your faith cheapens the faith. It cheapens your experience with the Holy Spirit,” she said. “Really, at the end of the day, it becomes something that’s not even a true gospel. It’s a hindrance to your spiritual health.

“So, if our goal is human flourishing as a society, the best way for that to happen is to have faithful, real, authentic relationships with our Creator. And the best way toward that is not nationalism.”

Distinction between patriotism and nationalism

Goodyear drew a distinction between healthy patriotism—loving one’s country enough to hold it accountable when it fails to live up to its ideals—and unhealthy nationalism, particularly religious nationalism.

“Nationalism would tend to justify anything your country is doing, and anybody who opposes that are the ones who are [seen as] wrong,” he said. “Healthy patriotism allows you to love your country while still calling to account your country.”

Stangl agreed true patriotism means “speaking truth into what is happening” in a country and what it is doing abroad.

That becomes problematic when national identity and religious identity are combined, she observed.

Hindu nationalists in India, Buddhist nationalists in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, and Orthodox Christian nationalists in Russia offer contemporary international examples of how religious nationalism leads to “othering” and persecution of minorities, she said.

Furthermore, the parameters for acceptable religion continually shrink, she observed.

“When you raise up one group, that group will inevitably narrow,” Stangl said.

In Russia, for instance, the Orthodox Church is linked to Vladimir Putin, but dissident Orthodox groups are not, she said. So, only one dominant group within the Orthodox Church is recognized as legitimate.

Grants permission for ‘dehumanization’

Similarly, Frugé said, the rise of Christian nationalism in the United States begs the question, “Which version of Christianity?”

Eventually, the field narrows and one dominant group prevails at the expense of all others, she observed.

“It has the dynamic of ‘us versus them,’” Frugé said. “You have to have an ‘other’ who becomes the enemy, the target of the opposition. It creates a permission structure of dehumanization—to treat others as ‘less than.’”

That approach “chips away” at the fundamental Christian idea of each person bearing the image of God and possessing inherent worth, she asserted.

“It’s an unsustainable system,” she said.

Christian nationalism often “promotes fear” of those who are different, Stangl said.

Simply “being in proximity” to people of other faiths and recognizing they do not present any danger can help dispel those fears, she noted.

Same terminology, different meanings

Panelists acknowledged the challenge of confronting religious nationalism when it uses some of the same language and terminology of traditional religion while redefining terms and reshaping identity.

“For me, sometimes it begins with a gentle conversation of just establishing our terms and what we mean,” Frugé said.

For Baptists, it means “rooting the conversation in historicity” and making it clear an insistence on religious liberty for all is “who we’ve always been,” she added.

Goodyear emphasized the importance of telling stories about religious liberty that allow individuals to “see the human element and how it impacts people” instead of simply presenting hard facts.

Churches can help promote conversations that bring together people from diverse backgrounds to “mellow extremism” and help them see the viewpoints of others, he suggested.

Stangl offered an international example of churches teaching basic democratic principles to members.

She cited the example of a pastor in an authoritarian country who taught his people the importance of voting on simple decisions affecting the congregation and abiding by the will of the majority.

The pastor intentionally was preparing church members for the time when they might have the right to vote on national matters, she said.

Stangl also emphasized the value not only in telling stories from history, but also stories about what is going on around the world.

“It’s important to be talking about what’s happening in Burma and what’s happening in Russia and then tying it to here,” she said.

“I think a lot of Christians here who may be falling in love with the idea of Christian nationalism would immediately say, ‘It’s horrible what’s happening there.’”

DALLAS—The craft of writing and the ethics of writing, just as with spiritual growth and maturity, offer no shortcuts, author Karen Swallow Prior said during her Oct. 16 lecture sponsored by the Institute for Global Engagement at Dallas Baptist University.

Using AI never can replace the skills or purpose of writing and reading, and there are risks such as plagiarism and stolen sources, Prior said.

“You have to know enough of the craft to recognize whether or not a tool’s effects are correct or good,” said Prior, author of The Evangelical Imagination, On Reading Well and You Have a Calling.

The purpose of reading and writing

To refresh her mind, Prior said, she often goes for runs around her neighborhood, fulfilling her purpose to keep her mind and heart clear.

To Prior, to read and write are ways to connect spiritually with God and others and to fulfill the purpose God has given.

 “You don’t get writing assignments because your professor needs more work to do. It all goes back to purpose. And shortcuts to fulfilling our purpose only can defeat the purpose,” Prior said.

Both reading and writing are important, Prior said, because we are made in the image of God, and he spoke the sky, land, sea and all of creation into existence with words.

“We, too, are made to use language to steward, to create with our words, and not just poems and stories and songs and final papers. We were made to create with words to offer love to one another, to ourselves, to our neighbors … to bring light and clarity,” Prior said.

“AI is just stolen words jumbled together and spit back out by a machine,” she continued.

“[AI] may be artificial, but it is not intelligent,” Prior noted.

“People were right about the printing press, too. I am hoping that AI becomes something better. But it is not there yet,” she added.

During the Q&A following the lecture, Prior agreed reading multiple works of literature help build empathy toward others.

Soulless versus meaningful

Prior told a story about one of her students who turned in a paper written with the help of ChatGPT, a program she was unfamiliar with at the time.

Familiar with searching for plagiarism and citation errors, Prior searched throughout the perfectly written paper and was astonished by how accurate and perfect it was. But the paper lacked a soul, a point Prior made to the audience while comparing writing with and without AI.

“We are meaning-making creatures. This is what we are made to do, and this is what we do,” Prior said.

“We are constantly searching for and trying to make meaning. And that’s what reading is literally and metaphorically. It is the effort to make meaning, whether you’re a 5-year-old … or whether you’re reading dense works of philosophy or reading the Bible to interpret it or reading each other’s faces,” Prior continued.

“I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say,” Prior said, quoting author Flannery O’Connor.

Prior told the audience to practice reading a lot of different things, from children’s material to classic fiction to written works encouraging intellectual thought.

Reading and writing are part of the larger journey of our own story and purpose in life, Prior said, and over time, a person can learn to read and write better if one doesn’t use AI.

Christians are commanded, commissioned and called to combat all religious persecution, international human rights attorney Knox Thames told a gathering at Dallas Baptist University.

Two-thirds of the global population live in countries that restrict the free practice of faith, Thames informed the Global Religious Freedom Gathering, sponsored by Christians Against All Persecution and DBU’s Center for Global Religious Freedom.

Thames, author of Ending Persecution: Charting the Path to Global Religious Freedom, distinguished genuine persecution from the loss of privileged status enjoyed by a specific group.

“Persecution is violence or severe punishment on account of victims’ belief or non-beliefs or membership—real or perceived—in a religious community, combined with a lack of accountability,” he said.

Thames identified four forms of persecution:

• Authoritarian persecution occurs when the state exercises power against religious activity or religious groups, such as in China.
• Extremist persecution takes place when non-state actors and individuals are allowed to commit acts of violence against those who practice a particular religion or fail to adhere to the state-sanctioned religion, such as in Pakistan.
• Terrorist persecution occurs when extremist groups commit acts of extreme violence against particular religious groups, such as ISIS targeting Yazidis and Christians in Iraq.
• Democratic persecution happens when the dominant religious community uses majority rule to trample the rights of adherents of minority religions, such as in India.

The global “pandemic of persecution” does not affect followers of only one religion, said Thames, senior fellow at Pepperdine University.

Rather, it “goes after everyone” and endangers freedom of thought and practice of all wherever it occurs, he stressed.

‘Be light in the darkness’

Christians have the responsibility to pray for all persecuted people and advocate for the religious freedom of every person, Thames emphasized.

“Advocacy demonstrates God’s love in a tangible way,” he said.

Jesus commanded his followers to love their neighbors and commissioned them to make disciples of all people groups everywhere—not just those who are like them, Thames said.

Citing both the Hebrew prophets and the New Testament, he pointed to ways God calls his people to stand up for the rights of the oppressed and vulnerable.

“One small light can pierce the darkness,” Thames said. “We are called to be light in darkness.”

During the gathering at DBU, participants not only prayed for a Christian pastor from Turkey and a Nigerian pastor, but also a representative of Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya Muslim community and a Shia Muslim from the Hazara people of Afghanistan.

Lead with love, start with service

Non-Christians find the gospel more compelling when Christians lead with love and start with service, rather than seek power and exercise privilege, former Houston pastor Steve Bezner said.

Bezner, now associate professor at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary, spoke in the DBU chapel service during the Global Religious Freedom Gathering.

History, diplomacy and theology should lead Baptists in the United States to care about religious persecution and advocate for the religious freedom of all people, he said.

Baptists in colonial America learned early what it meant to be “on the receiving end of persecution,” said Bezner, citing pastors Roger Williams, Obadiah Holmes and Isaac Backus as examples.

On a practical level today, when Christians in the United States insist on religious freedom for all people domestically, appeals by U.S. diplomats for international human rights carry greater weight, he added.

Theologically, true faith demands the freedom to choose freely, not coerced conformity to mandated religion, said Bezner, author of Your Jesus is Too American: Calling the Church to Reclaim Kingdom Values Over the American Dream.

“Jesus wants all to freely come to him,” he said.

Establish relationships

Bezner recalled the backlash against Muslims when an Islamist extremist killed 49 people and wounded 58 others at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016—the deadliest mass shooting in American history up to that point.

At the time, Bezner had been pastor of Houston Northwest Church about three years. He felt God leading him to stop at a Houston mosque in the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting and seek to befriend the imam there.

A frank and honest exchange—in which the pastor and the imam each affirmed their distinctive beliefs—provided the foundation for mutual respect and resulted in Bezner receiving invitations to speak at three local mosques.

“The gospel runs on the rail of relationships,” he said.

He also described how members of Houston Northwest Church spent two months in “mud-out” work after Hurricane Harvey hit their city in August 2017.

Church volunteers worked in the flooded homes of their neighbors—many of them non-Christians—clearing out mud, discarding debris, removing damaged drywall and disinfecting surfaces to eliminate mold.

Christians make a lasting impact not by “taking over the White House” but by “going house to house” serving their neighbors, Bezner said.

Peacemaking group receives award

The Global Religious Freedom Gathering at DBU also featured panel discussions involving pastors, international students and advocates from human rights groups focused on religious freedom.

At a dinner held in conjunction with the gathering, the 21Wilberforce human rights organization presented its annual Frank Wolf International Freedom Award to Churches for Middle East Peace. Mae Elise Cannon, executive director of CMEP, accepted the award.

The coalition—representing more than 30 national communions and organizations—mobilizes Christians in the United States to advocate holistically for equality, human rights, security and justice for Israelis, Palestinians and all people of the Middle East.

Previous award recipients include Bob Roberts, co-founder of the Multi-Faith Neighbors Network; Bob Fu, founder of ChinaAid; Sam Brownback, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom; Archbishop Ben Kwashi and Gloria Kwashi of Nigeria; and the city of Midland.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The third paragraph from the end was edited after the article initially was published.

Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary announced Oct. 13 the formation of an Anglican Episcopal House of Studies.

In making its announcement, the seminary stated the graduate-level program “will cultivate theologically grounded, liturgically formed and missionally engaged clergy and lay leaders for service in Anglican and Episcopal contexts.”

“Since its inception, Baylor’s Truett Seminary has welcomed and trained ministers both within and beyond Baptist life. In recent years, especially through Truett’s Wesley House of Studies, our seminary has enjoyed an influx of students from other Christian denominations,” Dean Todd Still said.

“Indeed, there are currently no less than 26 different denominations represented in our school’s student body.”

Currently, 15 Truett Seminary students are enrolled from various dioceses within the Anglican Church in North America, The Episcopal Church and from other provinces internationally.

“The launching of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Truett is due primarily to our commitment and desire to equip more fully the Anglican and Episcopalian students who are already studying with us and have been entrusted to us,” Still said.

“Our present and future hope is that we would prepare them and other such seminarians well so that they might thoughtfully, faithfully and skillfully serve as ministers of the gospel across this vast and vibrant communion of believers around the world.”

Truett aims to strengthen support for current students while deepening relationships with the ecclesial bodies already represented at the seminary. The seminary also will seek to build new connections with other like-minded bishops, rectors and prospective students, the announcement stated.

On Oct. 28-29, Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012, will deliver the annual Parchman Lectures at Truett Seminary.

Once the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies is firmly in place at Truett Seminary’s Waco campus, the seminary will expand its course offerings to its Houston and San Antonio campuses.

Matthew Aughtry named acting director

Truett Seminary has appointed Matthew Aughtry as acting director of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies. A priest in the Anglican Church in North America and resident within the Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others, Aughtry’s time as an Anglican has primarily been defined by assisting various church plants in both Los Angeles and Waco.

He also serves Baylor University as an associate chaplain, working as the assistant director for chapel and ministry in the arts in Baylor Spiritual Life.

Aughtry, who grew up in a small-town Baptist church, was drawn to the Anglican tradition through the writings of C.S. Lewis.

He particularly cited Mere Christianity, “with vision of the Church as a mansion—its broad hallways full of lively conversation, yet its rooms alone reserved for offering food, fire and rest.”

“Seminary ushered me into the Anglican room of this great estate,” Aughtry said. “The Prayer Book’s sustaining patterns have become a safe harbor for me through years of church-planting and ministry in Baylor Chapel.

“I am honored by Dean Still’s invitation to join the launch of this initiative at Truett Seminary, a place I have experienced as akin to Mere Christianity’s magnificent mansion. It is my joy to serve this room, and I anticipate the ways doing so will further the mission of the entire home.”

Charles Ramsey, university chaplain and dean of Spiritual Life at Baylor, expressed “joy” at the launch of Truett Seminary’s Anglican Episcopal House of Studies.

“Faithful proclamation of the gospel in word and deed is at the heart of Baylor University and Truett Seminary. God has blessed this faithfulness and is drawing people from across denominational lines to become formed and equipped for kingdom service,” Ramsey said.

“It is a joy to celebrate the opening of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Truett Seminary and to welcome these brothers and sisters as we seek to glorify and serve God together in the church and the world.”

‘Serve the broader body of Christ’

The announcement from Baylor University quoted Stephen Stookey, director of theological education and institutional engagement with Texas Baptists, who voiced support for Truett Seminary’s decision to launch the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies.

“This initiative is a thoughtful and faithful effort to serve the broader body of Christ through ecumenical engagement and academic excellence, rooted in the historic Christian faith,” Stookey said.

“As a Baptist community, we value our distinctives while also embracing opportunities to collaborate with Christian sisters and brothers who seek to proclaim the gospel, foster spiritual formation, and equip leaders for Great Commandment/Great Commission ministry.”

By establishing the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies, Truett Seminary is demonstrating its “ongoing commitment to forming ministers from a variety of traditions within the one body of Christ,” Stookey said.

“I am confident that this new initiative will enrich the seminary community, broaden theological dialogue, and enhance the preparation of students called to serve in their respective ecclesial contexts,” he said.

“It is my prayer that this partnership will bear lasting fruit for the kingdom of God.”

‘A prophetic vision’

Chris Backert, senior director of Ascent Movement, an emerging mission network, praised Truett Seminary for its willingness to collaborate outside of Baptist circles.

“Truett Seminary has uplifted a prophetic vision to offer space for distinction in polity and Christian heritage within a broader commitment to a globally engaged, evangelically orthodox theological witness,” Backert said.

By launching the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies alongside its Wesley House of Studies, Truett Seminary is demonstrating “for theological education what the wider church must attend to in other arenas,” he said.

“If the broader, joyfully confessional evangelical community can find its way together to prepare future church leaders, then perhaps our congregations, denominational structures, mission agencies and the like will follow suit,” Backert said.

Elizabeth Newman, vice chair of the Baptist World Alliance Commission on Baptist Doctrine and Christian Unity, praised Truett Seminary for continuing to “expand its vision of theological education by establishing an Anglican Episcopal House of Studies.”

“This initiative opens up rich possibilities for ecumenical formation while also enhancing the mission of the church,” said Newman, adjunct professor of theology at Duke Divinity School.

“I am delighted to see this kind of seminary response to Jesus’ prayer that all may be one so that the world may know.”

A Truett Seminary spokesperson said the “next area of focus” will be the Baptist World Alliance program approved this summer. The seminary is now preparing to search for a candidate to fill the newly created Lampsato Endowed Chair of Baptist World Missional Engagement.

Frontier people groups—unreached people groups where Christians number less than 1 in 1,000—represent about 20 percent of the global population, Chris Clayman, CEO of the Joshua Project, told participants at a Waco missions conference.

Christians should prioritize outreach to frontier people groups, Clayman told the “Beyond Us … From Neighborhoods to Nations” missions conference at First Baptist Church in Waco. Waco-area churches sponsored the conference in collaboration with Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary and Baylor Spiritual Life.

Clayman presented 10 reasons why frontier people groups—whose numbers exceed 1.5 billion—deserve priority.

• “God is gathering worshippers from all peoples and commands us to join him.”

From the time of Abraham until Christ returns, God’s plan is to bless all nations and people groups, Clayman said.

• “There are seats missing at the wedding banquet.”

Luke 14 records Jesus’ parable of a wedding feast to which all are invited. Revelation 19 presents the vision of the marriage supper of the Lamb, where all the redeemed of the ages gather.

However, not everyone who should be at the table is there yet. “God’s heart is for the unreached,” Clayman said.

• “The primary propagation of the gospel happens through the church.”

Frontier people groups need “breakthrough churches” in their language and culture where they feel welcomed.

• “Many mission efforts work primarily with existing churches, diverting focus away from frontier peoples needing cross-cultural efforts.”

Frontier people groups who lack local, culturally relevant churches never will be reached if mission efforts are confined to working with churches on the mission field.

• “Most missionaries go where they are invited, not to frontier people groups.”

If there are no Christians within a people group to invite missionaries, those people never will receive a missionary if an invitation is required. Furthermore, missionary candidates tend to favor groups with whom they already have some cultural connection.

“A lot of frontier people groups live in cultures you’re not going to connect with, and you’re not going to like their food,” Clayman said.

• “Frontier people groups make up the largest group of unreached people groups.”

Clayman reported 72 percent of unreached people groups are frontier peoples, but they receive only a tiny fraction of the missionaries.

• “Paul set an example of not building on someone else’s foundation.”

In Romans 15:20-21, Paul expressed his desire to take the gospel to areas that had not heard the gospel rather than continue work where there already was a gospel witness.

“In many ways, it’s like gospel triage,” Clayman said—giving attention where the need is greatest.

• “We have clarity about where the greatest church planting need is in the world, and the populations there are growing rapidly.”

Four out of five unreached people groups are in the 10/40 window—the area of North Africa, the Middle East and Asia between 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north latitude. Furthermore, the birth rate is higher in unreached areas than in predominantly Christian countries.

• “There is great imbalance and injustice of opportunity for those born into frontier people groups.”

Individuals in frontier people groups are least likely to hear a clear presentation of the gospel or encounter a Christian witness.

“Christians are rightfully concerned about justice issues. … But I don’t really hear much about the injustice linked to frontier people groups not having the opportunity to hear about Jesus in their lifetime,” Clayman said.

• “Frontier people groups require highly intentional, difficult, cross-cultural mission efforts.”

Christians looking for an immediate return on investment are not attracted to frontier people groups, and working among those groups is challenging.

“It demands a lot of sacrifice,” Clayman said.

Frontier people group missions “requires our most careful attention, mobilization, training and prioritized deployment of resources,” Clayman asserted.

Dallas megachurch founder Tony Evans has lived a mostly private life for more than a year, after announcing an undisclosed “sin” caused him to step away from the prominent pulpit where he preached for almost five decades.

His church, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, announced Sunday, Oct. 5, that he completed a restoration process but is not returning to its leadership.

However, Evans, 76, is working on new public-facing projects, mostly through his ministry The Urban Alternative.

His latest book, Unleashed: Releasing God’s Glorious Kingdom in and Through You, is set to be released by Thomas Nelson Publishers on Oct. 28.

He’s also scheduling speaking engagements at churches and conferences after his first major address in more than a year at a conservative Christian summit in Des Moines, Iowa, in July.

The elder board of his predominantly Black nondenominational church also announced his son, Jonathan Evans, has been appointed an elder and is expected to be installed officially as lead pastor.

In an interview with Religion News Service days before his church’s “Restoration Sunday,” the elder Evans said he has faced challenges with people not accepting his marriage to his second wife, Carla Evans, after the death of Lois Evans, to whom he was married for 49 years.

He also said there have been other personal matters, which he chose not to discuss in the interview, that he has grappled with as his son is gaining more church responsibilities.

When he’s in town, Evans now sits at the front of the church with his family, and he said he’s supportive of Jonathan Evans’ leadership and impressed by his preaching.

In the interview, which has been edited for length and clarity, Evans talked about his new book, why he left his church’s leadership, the next phase of his life and his thoughts about eternity.

You have previously written books on your beliefs about what you call the “kingdom power” of God. How do you sum up those convictions, and how are you approaching that topic differently this time?

In the book Unleashed, I’m trying to focus on taking the concept of the kingdom and releasing it in and through your life.

Many Christians don’t have a kingdom worldview. They’ve accepted Christ. They’re on their way to heaven. But this rule of God on the way there for them on Earth is often missing. And so, we’re trying to go deeper in seeing it being practically activated in your life.

Your book discusses choices and standards you think Christians should embrace, and you seem to have made a choice for yourself about standards when you stepped down from pastoral leadership at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship last year.

Can you share what the undisclosed sin was that prompted that decision, and if your healing and restoration process is continuing?

There was a decision made as I moved into a new relationship. My wife passed away in 2019, and I remarried (four) years later, and there was such consternation around that, and people who were not as excited about it (laughs). And we were already in transition with my son (in leading the church).

So, we just said this would be the best time to go ahead and make that transition, so that all the consternation around it wouldn’t interfere with that process. There was some underlying things, but that was the decision that was made as we moved forward.

And who made that decision—you or the church?

A combination. It was a shared one.

You used the word “sin” in your statement, and now you’re using the word “consternation.” Can you explain what you mean?

There just was some personal matters that we’re not free to go into, but some personal matters that precipitated that decision.

Anything more you can say? That’s a little unclear.

I know, but because the church wanted to just keep it within the bounds of the church, that’s why we’re honoring that.

Your son is now preaching regularly at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. How has that transition gone? Are you solely a member there, or are you involved in the church in other ways now?

I am the founding pastor, and my goal is to support him in every way. It has freed me up to do some of the national events that we are doing.

We’re doing a new podcast that we’re taping now. We also (are producing) an “Unbound” documentary series showing how the Bible moved throughout history. So, it’s created a freedom that I’ve never had before (laughs).

How soon do you think you’ll be back in the pulpit preaching?

We have some meetings coming up to discuss the plan for that, because we are trying to not let his movement into this new arena be overshadowed by my 48 years. So, it’s a timing thing, and we haven’t gotten specific yet, but we’re working toward that.

In your son’s sermon on Sept. 28, he said he initially complained to God about this season that Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship began when you stepped away, but said he realized he should be grateful for your decades-long ministry and God’s faithfulness in it. What has it been like watching his sermons and seeing him lead?

He’s blowing my mind, actually. He’s got this—it’s an old term—but this “New Jack City” thing (laughs), the media thing and this new generation thing, but he is solidly expositional in the word. So, I am loving the exposition. I’m loving the relevancy.

This younger generation of preachers, they tend to be much more casual, much more relaxed. This is a new world that I don’t fully get, but I can appreciate the fact that we want to reach it in a relevant way.

When you say “media,” what do you mean?

I’m certainly meaning his use of social media, but media in the service—video clips and staging and props and all that.

You note in your book that when people have mountains, so to speak, or difficulties, they tend to talk to other people about their problems rather than talking to God about them—or to the mountain. What’s an example of when you spoke to a mountain, maybe especially in the last year or so?

During this year, we have had to address some major issues with regard to our projects, our funding. We’re having to raise $9 million to do all that we’re doing around the world. And so, we had to speak to God about being our source, but we also had to speak to the source. We had one donor who unexpectedly gave us a million dollars.

Did the difficulty of fundraising have anything to do with the fact that you stepped away?

No, it has had to do with the need of the moment. It’s a couple of projects. One is “Unbound,” where we’re tracing from the medieval age through the Renaissance to the Reformation to the Enlightenment to the modern times how God has moved his word along.

When we take these trips to the different countries with these events, “Unbound” is showing how God used the social, political, economic and personality dynamics to move his word along.

When you spoke in July to the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa, you told them, “You’re not first Democrat, you’re not first Republican. You are first of all, a representative of another king and another kingdom, and everything else is second to that.”

In a time when politics are often dividing the church, are you concerned that evangelical Christians are often described as following their party more than their faith?

That’s a major concern, because what we’ve done is turned politics into an idol, and anything idolatrous is going to be rejected by God.

God is involved in politics all through Scripture, but he’s involved as God. He’s not riding the backs of donkeys or elephants. Neither can Christians be riding the backs of donkeys or elephants.

So absolutely, Christians should be engaged in politics. We should bring God’s point of view to politics, but we should never believe we’re going to be delivered or saved by politics.

Was there something you learned about yourself or that you’re taking forward now that this restoration process has concluded?

Through this year, there have been a number of losses of people; some of our leaders who have passed away. And a dear part of our ministry, one of our board members who I was very close to, passed away from cancer.

I think I’ve gone deeper in thinking about eternity. Always thought about it, but deeper in that vein. So, whatever life I have left, I want to maximize at the highest possible level for God’s kingdom and for eternity.