A few weeks ago, our Bible study class wrapped up a survey of the Apostle Paul’s letters to his protégé Timothy. Although the epistles present advice to the young pastor in Ephesus, our class members are closer to the age Paul attained by the time he wrote them. It seemed we filtered our reading through the lenses of life experience. None of us has been beaten, run out of town or imprisoned for our faith. And I don’t think anyone has been shipwrecked or bitten by a snake. But you don’t reach our age without enduring heartaches, disappointments and grief.

Editor Marv KnoxSo, we resonated with Paul’s concluding declaration of hope: “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom; to him be the glory forever and ever. Amen” (2 Timothy 4:17-18).

Bold words from a saint near the end of a hard life. Paul suffered mightily for the gospel. He lived a nomadic existence, subject to the perils of first-century travel. He felt the full weight of the Jewish religious hierarchy and the Roman government. Worse, he endured malicious disrespect from competitors within the church. By the time he penned these words, he was queued up in the Roman judicial system, heading for what he certainly knew would be martyrdom.

Yet all Paul saw was God’s rescue and provision. He recalled not persecution and rejection, but gospel advance. Based on other passages, we know Paul expected to die soon. Still, he believed God would rescue him from “every evil deed” and deliver him to God’s “heavenly kingdom.”

God is present

Paul reminds us reality extends beyond what we see, past the tangible people, places, situations and events in our lives. God is present. Even amidst pain and disappointment. Even when we cannot see.

Hope puts its full weight down on God. It’s not wishing for desired outcomes. Hope is trusting God in all outcomes.

Not coincidentally, our class finished studying the Timothy letters on the second Sunday of Advent and immediately turned our attention to Christmas, when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Hope of the World.

Christmas delivers hope, but not because of the baby in the manger. Christmas delivers hope because God took on flesh and descended to Earth, incarnating—embodying—God’s presence among us. Jesus came to express God’s everlasting love to humanity. He came to provide an eternal bridge to that love by saving us from our sins and restoring our loving relationship with God.

The hope of Christmas is not the manger, but the cross.

And even though that hope is eternal, it’s also present. It’s not just the sweet bye-and-bye, but also the here-and-now. That’s good news as we enter a new year.

At least four times in the Gospels, Jesus declares: “The kingdom of God (or heaven) is at hand” (Matthew 3:2, 4:17, 10:7; Mark 1:15). To be sure, Jesus talked about eternity. But he insisted eternity already is present. Relationship with God is here. Now. Life change is available this moment. To demonstrate, he repeatedly healed the sick, fed the hungry and comforted the afflicted. He didn’t promise them a reward in another life; he relieved their suffering immediately. He delivered hope.

We will be judged by how we deliver hope

In one of his final teachings, Jesus said his followers will be judged by how well they bring kingdom reality to the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the prisoners (Matthew 25:31-46). We will be judged by how we deliver hope.

And that’s a strong admonition for Christians on the precipice of a new year. To be faithful to the Hope of the World, we must deliver hope to the world. Tangible hope. Spiritual hope.

The two are bound together. Tangible, physical hope is vital. And it also lends credence to spiritual hope.

Surveys of American adults consistently show most people think they’ll go to heaven, and few believe in hell. No wonder argumentative evangelism rarely produces new Christians. Most unbelievers see truth as relative; they’ll let you keep yours, but leave theirs alone. And you can’t scare hell out of them, because they think they’re heaven-bound.

So, we’ve got to show them exactly how the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus explained: “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give” (Matthew 10:7-8).

Throughout 2015, may we perpetually demonstrate the “at-handedness” of the kingdom of heaven. Present and the eternal hope hang in the balance.

Compare the week from Christmas to New Year’s Day to a lookout point on a scenic highway. It’s a great place to stop, stretch and survey the scenery. If you pay attention, you can scrutinize significant markers on the road just traveled and scan the horizon for adventures ahead.

Each of us will remember personal events from the past year. I’m fairly certain I’ll recall 2014 for a child who arrived, a woman who departed, something that didn’t happen and a big decision.

Editor Marv Knox• Eleanor, our second grandchild, arrived Dec. 4. She’s the first baby born to our younger daughter, Molly, and her husband, David. She’s swaddled sweetness. And Joanna and I can hardly wait to spend the coming years getting to know her.

• Helena Loewen Moore, my grandmother, left for heaven this fall. Grammar was 103 years, six months and 21 days old when she died. I mostly remember her as the vigorous woman who took me for long walks and warbled hymns. If Eleanor lives to be as old as her great, great grandmother, their lives will span 207 years.

• For the first time in four years, neither of my parents spent even a single day in intensive care. Praise be to God.

• Late this summer, after years of hard work, fervent prayers and bountiful tears, Baptist Standard Publishing decided to close FaithVillage, our resources website/social network. Perhaps FaithVillage arrived ahead of its time. I hope one day to turn on my computer and visit a site very much like it, touching millions of Christians around the globe.

You can pause to contemplate 2014 developments imbedded in your memory. Every year writes stories on the pages of each life.

The year past

The year just ended also coded monumental stories on the transcript of history. We’re bound to remember 2014 for:

• The Ebola crisis, which ravaged West Africa, jumped the Atlantic and demonstrated the vulnerability of a small planet populated by highly mobile people.

• The rise of extreme militant Islam—known as the Islamic State, or ISIS or ISIL—in Iraq and Syria. Also, systematic beheadings staged as ISIS fund-raisers/intimidation snuff films/recruitment videos

• Other violent terrorist groups, such as Boko Haram in Nigeria, al-Shabaab in Sudan and the Taliban in, among other nations, Pakistan, where they slaughtered schoolchildren in mid-December.

• Deaths of a black teenager, a black man and a black child. We may not recall the names of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Brown, but we won’t be able to forget their deaths disproved America is a post-racial society.

• Revelations of U.S.-sanctioned torture, inflicted since 2001 by the CIA.

• U.S. political division, clearly represented by results of the mid-term elections, which set up a titanic battle between the Democratic White House and the Republican-controlled Congress.

• An airplane that veered off course, never to be found, but presumably resting on the bottom of the Indian Ocean.

• An airplane shot down over Ukraine, civil war in that Eastern European nation and the specter of Russian empire-building.

• Thousands of Latin American children and teenagers who teemed across the United States’ southern border.

• The military tar-babies of the late 20th/early 21st centuries, otherwise known as Iraq and Afghanistan.

• The political battle over immigration reform, stalled again.

• An improving economy that lowered unemployment but still left a widening gap between the rich and poor.

• The tragic suicide of one comic genius, Robin Williams, and the public shaming of another, Bill Cosby.

The year ahead

A litany of letdowns from 2014 is enough to divert wind from the sails of the most diehard optimist. Even more dispiriting is the apprehension we’ll be reviewing a similar list for 2015 a year from now.

Still, as you consider the mishaps, catastrophes and atrocities of the past year, ponder words from one of Texas Baptists’ great gifts to the church (and world), gospel artist Cynthia Clawson.

Near the end of a Christmas concert, she observed: “As people of faith, we don’t expect much anymore.”

She’s correct, you know. Life’s destruction and disappointment beat us down. We review the malignant machinations of a year like 2014, and our God shrinks. We consider the obstacles, challenges and outright evil looming in 2015, and our hope shrivels.

“As people of faith, we don’t expect much anymore.”

What if we decide that won’t be true in the coming year? What if we expect more of God, ourselves and others?

Human nature being what it is, and the world broken as it is, 2015 probably will produce as much carnage as its elder brother, 2014. But what if we refuse to let that define us? What if we reject the ensmallment of God? What if we decline to allow circumstances to handcuff our spirits?

We may not heal all the world’s ills. We won’t even get close enough to inoculate for many of them. But living out of vibrant, expectant faith, we can make a difference in our homes, offices, schools, churches, communities—even our state and nation and selected corners of this big old world.

With God all things are possible

Once upon a time, Jesus encountered a young man who expected too little of himself, much less of God. Jesus told his followers an eternal truth about salvation, which also applies to divine expectation, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

The Apostle Paul likewise possessed expectant faith. He promised the early church—and us, “I can do all things through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).

Missionary pioneer William Carey lived a large faith. He is known for launching the Baptist missions movement. He admonished: “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.”

As 2014 draws to a close, let’s expect more of ourselves and of God in 2015.

The headline gets right to the point: “Thieves taking the Christ out of Christmas. Literally.” But the story isn’t another installment in the long saga of the so-called “Christmas wars” (which, by the way, conservatives apparently are winning.) 

Turns out, America is experiencing a rash of burglaries from nativity scenes, according to the news website Religion Dispatches. 

Editor Marv KnoxThieves steel their nerves on the periphery of parks, churchyards, manicured lawns and other public places where the Holy Family resides. And then, sometime between dark and dawn, they rush in and steal the Baby Jesus.

But that’s not all. Some Christological kleptomaniacs even burgle the Babe from store shelves. For example, shoppers who want to buy a manger at Scheels Home & Hardware in Fargo, N.D., will discover a sign that tells them: “Please ask for Baby Jesus.”

Nativity nabbers have struck from California to Minnesota to New Jersey and New York, as well as up to Boston, where one crèche has been robbed three times, Religion Dispatches reports.

Redeemer robbers didn’t start heisting the Holy One this Christmas season. Awhile back, I reported on the BrickHouse security firm, which created the “Saving Jesus” program. BrickHouse will provide crèche owners a free GPS device they can hide on or imbed in the Jesus figure. An owner of a stolen Savior receives a text or an email, reporting the nativity nabbing. Then the system enables the owner or police to track the robbers and retrieve the Christ Child.

All this information about literally “taking the Christ out of Christmas” poses a question: How do we allow others—other people, circumstances, activities—and, worse yet, ourselves to steal the Christ from us at Christmas?

You don’t need to look far to find Christians for whom Christmas is anything but a joyous season. In fact, for many folks, it’s the most painful time of the year.

Some sources of sorrow steer straight at our hearts. We remember absence. We think of family and friends who have died, as well as divorce, strained and estranged relationships, war and other calls of duty, illness and distance. Naturally, we experience sadness in this season, when the intensity of all emotions is heightened and when loss or absence of loved ones feels all the more acute.

Similar feelings trail behind disparate experiences of loss—jobs, security and health come readily to mind. You can think of others. They may not have anything to do with Christmas, and we may feel them every other day. But when they contrast with apparent—real or otherwise—happiness all around, their pangs stab sharply.

So, sadness at Christmas sometimes is unavoidable and completely understandable. Like other seasons of life, the goal simply may be to survive, to hope for happier seasons to follow.

But for many of us, the failure to experience joyful Christmas is self-inflicted. We do this to ourselves. We crowd out glad tidings with bad vibrations, which resonate from dissonant chords of our own composition. Culprits include:

• Pressure of perfection. Sometimes, we emphasize the wrong things about Christmas. We idealize it to be “just so.” We want everything to be perfect. Perfect decorations. Perfect gifts. Perfect cards. Perfect parties and meals. Even perfect spiritual events, such as cantatas and Christmas Eve services.

Of course, nothing is perfect. When the reality of our accomplishments fails to match the romanticism of our aspirations, we wind up disappointed. And even when the trappings of Christmas are “practically perfect in every way,” we realize perfect isn’t good enough.

We need to relax. What if we all aspire to a “good-enough” Christmas? Maybe we’ll find more energy for joy, love and gladness.

• Forced frivolity. Feigning happiness because it’s expected is exhausting. Of course, Christmas points us to the source of deepest joy. But joy never denies sorrow, hurt and sadness. Christians can be joyful about Christmas without all the external trappings of happiness.

When we attempt to project only happiness because we believe only happiness will do, we strain credulity. And even if we fool everyone else, we don’t fool ourselves. Bearing untruth is a heavy spiritual burden.

So, let us take joy in remembering the birth of our Savior. But let us not pretend that birth papers over all our present realities.

• Too much of a good thing. Sometimes, we overdo Christmas, don’t we? Do you remember children who experienced the worst moments of the year on Christmas afternoon or evening? Too many gifts, too much celebration, too many sweets, too much attention. The little body—not to mention the little spirit—simply couldn’t sustain the excitement. And it all came crashing down.

Of course, preschoolers aren’t the only ones who suffer from too much of a good thing. Adults likewise go overboard. And usually, the more we whip up Christmas excitement, the more we feel we’re missing something. This, of course, leads to the final Christmas-stealing culprit …

• Too little of the best thing. Between shopping and wrapping, parades and parties, festivals and cantatas, mailing cards and decorating the yard and a million other details, we can lose track of reality. We declare, “Jesus is the reason for the season,” but even well-meaning Christians can get so busy and/or distracted we miss Jesus in all the hubbub.

A handful of days stand between us and Christmas. Can we set aside time each day to reflect on the depth and breadth of God’s love expressed when our Creator took on human flesh and ultimate sacrifice? If we celebrate faithfully, then no matter what happens to the baby in our front-yard manger, nobody will be able to steal the Christ from our Christmas.

Without a doubt, one of the questions most often echoed from generation to generation reverberates in the back seats of millions of cars and minivans: “Are we there yet?”

Decades ago, I inflicted that age-old inquiry on my parents. For most summer vacations, we drove from our home in the Texas Panhandle to Colorado or New Mexico. Unfortunately for my mother and dad, the mountains loomed ahead of my sister, brother and me for what seemed like light years. The further to ask—or maybe plead: “Are we there yet?”

Editor Marv KnoxOf course, turn-about is fair play. So, when my daughters were young, and their mama and I drove first from Tennessee and then from Kentucky to visit family in Texas and Oklahoma, those little girls couldn’t comprehend time or distance. Long before the hills stopped rolling and the woods disappeared, we heard persistent voices calling from behind us: “Are we there yet?”

Now, we’re about halfway through Advent 2014, halfway to Christmas. In some ways, it feels like we’re all in the back seat of God’s family vehicle, taking a journey that feels like forrr-evvv-errr. Don’t you want to call out, “Are we there yet?”

Depending on when you read this, we’re about to celebrate or just finished celebrating the third Sunday of Advent. We’ve passed Hope and Peace, and we’re rounding Joy, heading for Love.

Christmas has been a long time coming this year. For sure, it falls exactly 365 days after last Christmas, per usual. But in many ways, the time and emotional distance have felt further.

Racial tensions

This year, racial tension has stirred our nation—perhaps more deeply than at any time since 1968. For all our suppositions and/or desires, everyone from the Civil Rightsiest to the Jim Crowiest among us has had to acknowledge we don’t live in a “post-racial” America. Somehow, some way, our society must change.

Resurgent terror on faraway lands has reminded us anger—spawned by ethnicity, religion, politics and economics—could boil over anywhere, any time. A year ago, who among us had heard about anything called the Islamic State, or ISIS, or ISIL? Who considered beheadings would become a regular topic on the evening news or fodder for the Internet?

We realized we live on a small and fragile planet when Ebola leaped from West Africa, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and landed in North Texas. Anyone who took either continental isolation or healthcare for granted had to reconsider.

Election year

We also endured the biennial slugfest known as an election year. Whether America is divided politically may be debated, but our governance system has produced divided politicians. We’re likely to pay the price at state and national levels.

This year—at least as much, maybe more, than most years—we’re ready to turn our hearts toward Bethlehem. Every time we flip on the TV news, pick up a newspaper or click on a news website, we remember how much his world needs to be redeemed. When we feel the weight of it all in the center of our chests, we know we—all of us collectively, but also individually—need a Savior.

With the ancients, we look ahead with longing. Through the eyes of faith, we claim hope that transcends time:

Truly my soul finds rest in God;

my salvation comes from him.

Truly he is my rock and my salvation;

he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. …

Yes, my soul, find rest in God;

my hope comes from him.

Truly he is my rock and my salvation;

he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

My salvation and my honor depend on God;

he is my mighty rock, my refuge.

Trust in him at all times, you people;

pour out your hearts to him,

for God is our refuge. …

One thing God has spoken,

two things I have heard:

“Power belongs to you, God,

and with you, Lord, is unfailing love”;

and, “You reward everyone

according to what they have done.”

(Psalm 62: 1-2, 5-8, 11-12)

So now, we are halfway through Advent 2014. We are waiting. Waiting for Christmas and candlelights and carols and family and feasts. But that’s the least of it. We are waiting for hope. Waiting to be reacquainted with the Prince of Peace. Remembering his birth reminds us we were re-born in him. Recalling his coming causes us to latch onto the promise he will redeem heaven and earth.

Lord, have mercy. Bless us as we wait. Impatiently, as a 3-year-old on Christmas Eve. Expectantly, as a 9-year-old on Christmas Morning.

Three Texas pastors stand on the leading edge of a major cultural shift. And the movement could enable both conservative and liberal churches to emphasize the vitality and importance of marriage.

As the Baptist Standard previously reported, pastors Brent Gentzel of Kaufman, Kyle Henderson of Athens and Kris Segrest of Wylie are urging ministers to stop signing marriage licenses. The practice—which makes the minister a de facto government official—creates an unhealthy marriage between church and state, they contend.

Editor Marv KnoxAccording to the pastors’ concept, a couple could join themselves in holy matrimony through a covenant marriage ceremony at church and go to the courthouse to make their union official in the eyes of the state.

Turns out, their view has gained traction among Americans at-large. A new LifeWay Research poll reports almost 60 percent of Americans believe government should not define or regulate marriage. And 36 percent of Americans believe “clergy should no longer be involved in the state’s licensing of marriage.”

Pastors aren’t so keen on the idea. Only 24 percent agree clergy should divorce themselves from signing marriage licenses. But the three-quarters of pastors who disagree should reconsider.

Why change?

Four reasons stand out …

First, if pastors narrow their congregations’ focus to blessing religious covenant marriages and refuse to sign marriage licenses, they will restore Baptists’ historic emphasis on the separation of church and state.

Second, this notion is more than a historic footnote. The principle ideally creates “a hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world,” insisted Roger Williams, founder of the first Baptist church in America. Williams’ ideal—later echoed by Thomas Jefferson—should appeal across the political spectrum. For conservatives, it protects the church from government intrusion. For liberals, it protects government and society in general from sectarian religious zealotry.

Looking to the future, the third reason builds upon the second. Even though the First Amendment protects the free exercise of religion, some Americans—including many conservatives—worry the broadening legality of gay marriage could mean ministers would be forced to marry homosexual couples. But if a church does not provide traditional marriage services, including validating a marriage license, and only offers a specifically religious covenant marriage ceremony, then the minister would be exempt from compulsory state service—signing a marriage license.

Focus on the faith aspect of marriage

And finally, the practice would help churches—whomever they choose to marry or not to marry—focus on the divine notion of marriage. It would enable them to deepen their emphasis on the faith aspect of marriage, to help couples both confront and embrace the spiritual dimension of their marriage as a lifelong commitment that involves not only them, but also God as the center of their home.

Of course, implementing covenant marriage will require ministers and congregations to change longstanding policy and practice. It also will require couples to participate in a two-step commitment process—and some will choose to bypass the church ceremony altogether, since they will be married legally after their trip to the courthouse.

But this idea offers a win-win-win-win scenario: Affirm historic church-state separation. Protect the church and state from each other. Guard clergy and churches from political/regulatory intrusion. And heighten the spiritual emphasis on marriage as divine covenant.

Churches and pastors should talk about this long and hard in the coming new year.

No matter what we think about a grand jury’s decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, can we acknowledge attitudes about race divide our nation?

The grand jury’s Wilson/Brown decision sparked protests in 170 cities across the nation. Despite looting in Ferguson, the vast majority of those protests remained peaceful, although deeply passionate.

Editor Marv KnoxTo be sure, the death of one black teenager at the hands of one white policeman did not send tens of thousands of protestors into the streets. Likewise, the decision of one mixed-race grand jury not to indict one officer did not cause hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans who resonate with those protestors to shake their heads in disbelief.

No, reaction to the grand jury’s decision transcended what happened both in the middle of a suburban street last summer and a decision reached in a county courthouse just before Thanksgiving.

For millions of Americans, the grand jury’s decision represents American racial injustice. The point is not Michael Brown and Darren Wilson. The point is every person of color confronting white authority in our society.

You definitely recognize this if you are a parent of nonwhite teenagers—particularly sons, especially black sons. You probably recognize this if you are the friend of one or more of those parents and you have had honest conversations about raising their children in America today. You recognize fear. You recognize utter powerlessness to ensure the safety of young people you love more than life itself.

The gunshots reverberate

Do not be distracted by the specifics of Michael Brown’s case. By nearly all accounts, both Brown and Wilson were at fault that hot summer day. All other facts aside, a black teenager died in the street, and a white police officer pulled the trigger. The echoes of those gunshots reverberate still.

They reverberate in the hearts of parents of color, who fear dangers almost invisible, if not incomprehensible, to white parents. Fear that a child, particularly a son, will be assumed guilty if anything—and sometimes before anything—goes wrong. Fear of wrong time/wrong place/wrong color scenarios ending in tragedy and injustice. Fear of a future filled with mountain-high obstacles composed completely of melanin.

They reverberate in the hearts of white people, too, who cannot comprehend racial rage a half century after voting rights and civil rights acts supposedly changed the nation. Who cannot explain, much less tolerate, what seems to be simple lawlessness. Who, though they rarely think it and cannot express it, fear a future in which that rage embodies full expression.

This is why we’re all so fidgety about Ferguson. Together, Wilson and Brown pulled a scab off a wound white people thought—maybe “hoped” is a better word—healed over. But it’s a wound everyone else knows still oozes, far from healed.

So, how does it ever heal? Can we, as a nation, ever actually achieve “post-racial” peace? And if it is attainable, how do we reach it?

Responsibility of the church

This is a challenge where the church—full of conservatives and liberals alike—should wave off government and proclaim clearly and forcefully, “We’ve got this.”

Baptists are best equipped to lead in charting racial progress and, ultimately, peace. Of all voluntarily associated groups in America, none is as racially mixed—though not fully integrated—as are Baptists. The Baptist banner flies over African-American, Anglo, Asian-American, Hispanic, multi-ethnic and myriad other congregations. We don’t come together all that often on Sunday morning, but we come together. In Texas, we know each other moderately well, because we come together in associational and state meetings and sit across from each other at virtually all institutional board meetings.

Yet beyond platitudes of resolutions and other broad public statements, we rarely address race.

Sisters and brothers, we’re past due for heartfelt, honest and fearless conversations. We need to talk about race. And we need the unvarnished truth.

We need to hear from one another. But for starters, Anglos need to keep quiet and listen. Whites must plead for blacks, Hispanics and others to talk candidly about what life is like for them. About raising children. About jobs and education and opportunity. About healthcare and housing. About traveling anywhere and everywhere. About drugs and prison. About our denomination, too.

And then Anglos should respond. Not with defensiveness or explanation. But with similar honesty. About what frightens them. About what frustrates them. About how they see change.

The bosom of the church may be the only safe place for such conversations.

But until we talk, honestly talk, we cannot hope to heal.

What a splendidly spirited, delightfully divine calendar collusion: This year, the Lord’s Day following Thanksgiving is a fifth Sunday and also the beginning of Advent.

So, on Sunday, Nov. 30, as our hearts bask in the afterglow of counting our blessings during Thanksgiving and begin to beat a little faster in anticipation of Christmas, they can open up to the needs of people Jesus called “the least.”

Editor Marv KnoxOn fifth Sundays—the dates when calendars contain a fifth Sunday in a given month—churches across the state collect funds for the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering. And in 2014, the fifth Sunday of November happens to be the Sunday after Thanksgiving and the first Sunday of Advent.

This time of year, we pause to consider our blessings and thank God for divine bounty infused into our lives. The most tangible, gracious and effective way to express our thanks is by sharing our blessings with others.

That’s really the Jesus way, isn’t it? In his first sermon, Jesus told the folks from his hometown the Spirit of the Lord had anointed him to proclaim good news to the poor (Luke 4:18). And what better way to make good news feel real to poor people than by bringing lunch? At least twice, when Jesus spent a long day healing multitudes of people, the Scriptures say he felt compassion for the crowds and fed them (Matthew 15:29-39; John 14:13-21).

Jesus also taught that when we see the hungry and feed them and see the thirsty and give them something to drink, we’re actually feeding and providing water to him (Matthew 25:31-46).

The plight of the hungry

Jesus clearly took seriously the plight of the hungry. If we dare to take his name and call ourselves Christians—literally, “little Christs”—then we’re bound to follow his example. Feeding the hungry is part of what being a Christian means.

The Texas Baptist Hunger Offering provides all of us with a straightforward opportunity to do just that. Through the Baptist General Convention of Texas and its myriad partners, the offering supports 66 hunger-related ministries throughout Texas, seven across the United States and 70 around the world. That means you can improve the lives of the poor, neglected and hurting through a total of 143 projects encircling the planet.

Help plant community gardens in Texas. Provide chickens for orphans in Congo. Improve soil fertility in Indonesia. Supply seeds and farm tools in Peru. Help poor people start family-supporting businesses in Morocco, India, Sri Lanka and Uganda. Distribute food in at least 46 Texas communities, pockets of poverty across the nation and in Bangladesh, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa. Underwrite poverty-busting training in 10 Texas cities, as well as the Dominican Republic, Jerusalem, Puerto Rico and Sierra Leone.

Can you express your gratitude?

And those are just some of the opportunities. We’re facing a world of hurt. How bountiful is your gratitude for God’s goodness? How can you express it?

After you count your blessings, be sure to contribute to the hunger offering at church next Sunday. Even if your congregation doesn’t take up the offering, you can go online and contribute by clicking here. And if you don’t want to donate online, you can either write a check payable to your church and designated for Texas Baptist Hunger Offering or mail a check payable to Texas Baptist Hunger Offering to BGCT Christian Life Commission, 333 North Washington, Dallas 75246.

A bunch of out-of-staters are trying to tell Texas what to do.

We should listen to them.

The situation involves the upcoming execution of Scott Panetti, a 56-year-old mentally ill man convicted of murdering the parents of his second wife in 1992.

Editor Marv KnoxA broad range of Christian leaders appealed on Panetti’s behalf to Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole. In a Nov. 12 letter, they expressed “grave concern” about the execution, to be conducted by lethal injection Dec. 3.

“The gospel message compels us to speak for those without a voice and to care for the most vulnerable,” their letter says, according to a report by Baptist News Global. “For this reason, it is imperative that we treat those with mental illness in a fair and humane manner.”

The letter claims Panetti’s execution “would be a cruel injustice that would serve no constructive purpose whatsoever.”

Panetti’s history of mental illness stretches across three decades. At his trial, he dressed in a cowboy suit and represented himself. He tried to subpoena Jesus, the pope and John F. Kennedy.

Overturned once

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned his death sentence because justices believed he did not understand why he was to be executed, the BNG report noted. He claimed he was being executed for preaching to other death-row inmates.

A lower court agreed with prosecutors, who said Panetti exaggerated his mental illness, and handed down another death sentence. Appeals ensued, and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case again.

Out-of-state leaders who have asked the governor and the pardon board to intervene include Sam Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference in Sacramento, Calif.; Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the conservative American Center for Law and Justice in Washington; Shane Claiborne, a founder of the progressive The Simple Way in Philadelphia; Lynn Hybels of Willow Creek Church in the Chicago area; David Gushee, an ethicist at Mercer University in Atlanta and Macon, Ga.; and Fisher Humphreys, a retired professor at Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Ala.

Texas signers include Charlie Johnson, executive director of Pastors for Texas Children in Fort Worth; Alan Bean, head of Friends of Justice in Arlington; Heather Mustain, associate pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas; and Stephanie True, associate pastor of University Baptist Church in Austin.

Decency demands it

Gov. Perry and the pardon board should heed the ministers’ counsel—whether it comes from outside or inside the state.

Decency demands it.

The execution of a mentally ill person—who otherwise would serve a life sentence in prison—does not protect society. It does not even provide reasonable punishment, because the condemned person does not understand the reason for his execution.

The faith leaders provided a clear case for commuting Panetti’s sentence: “When we inflict the harshest punishment on the severely mentally ill, whose culpability is greatly diminished by their debilitating conditions, we fail to respect their innate dignity as human beings. We therefore respectfully encourage you to consider granting Scott Panetti’s clemency petition and commuting his death sentence to life in prison.”

We have been discussing capital punishment for years. Texas is known around the world for its seeming bloodlust for lawbreakers. We lead the nation in executions. And if we put a mentally ill inmate to death, we further damage our tarnished reputation.

Texas, the state that takes pride in its churches and its piety, can do better than this.

Even outsiders are telling us so.

We should listen to them.

To read the Baptist News Global report on this case, click here. 

American culture has turned upside down. What an ironically invigorating development.

Validation of cultural upside-downness arrived from unexpected quarters—the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s recent conference on homosexuality and the future of marriage. (Read about it here, here and here.) 

Editor Marv KnoxAnd a grizzled culture warrior delivered the message.

For more than two decades, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler has railed against societal shift. He’s criticized liberal Christians, humanists, atheists and mostly Democratic politicians—all of whom, he believes, have tugged the nation to the left.

But at the SBC’s homosexuality/marriage conference, Mohler took a counter-intuitive turn. He castigated heterosexuals, not gays and lesbians, for the current crisis revolving around the definition of marriage.

Rampant divorce “has done far more harm to marriage than same-sex marriage will ever do,” he said. Heterosexuals demonstrated “how to destroy marriage by making it a tentative, hypothetical union for so long as it may last.”

Moral minority

And with traditional values under revision and the “moral revolution” over, the church now is “a moral minority” in the nation, Mohler conceded.

“We are accustomed to ministry from the top side in the culture, not from the under side,” he announced. “We are accustomed to speaking from a position of strength and respect and credibility. And now we are going to be facing the reality that we are already, in much of America, speaking from a position of loss of credibility.”

Now, maybe we can make a difference.

For generations, conservative Christians enjoyed cultural dominance, particularly in the South and the Southwest. If the churches opposed, it didn’t happen; and if the churches wanted it, it got done. Then, with the rise of the Religious Right in the 1980s, Southern Christians turned to political means to extend their authority across the nation. Their leaders got their pictures on the covers of newsmagazines and demanded audiences with elite politicians.

Hypocrisy led to loss of influence

However, as Mohler intimated, hypocrisy began to erode all that power. For example, with evangelicals divorcing at the same rate as everybody else, they lost authority to address the declining reverence for marriage.

Of course, they didn’t notice the change shifting under their pulpits. When their favored politicians held office, they got invited to important meetings at statehouses and the White House. And when their adversaries held sway, they got invited to go on TV and pontificate on the perils of oppositional politics.

Problem is, others noticed. In many parts of the country, all kinds of people—churched and unchurched alike—identified denominational labels with political parties. People sensed if their political and/or social perspectives did not align with the local religious establishment’s, their worship would not be welcomed.

One of the most poignant aspects of editing the Baptist Standard the past few years has been receiving emails and phone calls from nonconformists who felt cast out of their congregations. Some are homosexuals; others are straight people who made mistakes. Some simply voted the “wrong” way and mentioned it at church. Some felt judged because they expressed sympathy for people who apparently do not deserve sympathy.

Reclaiming the hurting

The harsh treatment these people received at the hands of Bible-toting, Scripture-quoting Christians hardened their hearts. Some are softening, seeking a way back. Many, if not most, protect their broken selves and resolve not to be harmed again.

Jesus did not hurt these people. Christians did. But it’s hard for them to recognize the difference. And when I read and hear their stories, it’s hard to blame them.

So, ministering to our nation from “the under side” of culture may be just what God wants and the church needs. As a cultural force, triumphalistic Christians failed to recognize their power and often abused their privilege. Majoritarian Christians hurt people, undermined their own credibility and damaged Jesus’ reputation.

It’s time for our society to see humble Christianity. Coercion and condemnation failed. Gentleness and love must prevail.

If my people…

Christians often quote 2 Chronicles 7:14 with a condemning spirit: “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” We say it expecting the rest of society to repent.

But God promised forgiveness and healing “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves ….” God requires our humility, prayer and seeking, not the world’s.

We live on the “under side” of culture. Good. Let America witness the winsome, transforming power of humility, love, respect and kindness.

This editorial, ironically, is a week late.

That’s because it’s partly about Ben Bradlee, the greatest newspaper editor of the 20th century. He would’ve thrown a reporter through a Washington Post office window for missing a deadline by a week.

Editor Marv KnoxBradlee died Oct. 21 at age 93. To be fair, of all the coverage about Bradlee and his life and death, the piece that prompted this editorial–written by his famous protégés Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein—ran on the Post’s website Oct. 28, the day before his funeral.

Bradlee took the helm of the mediocre Post in 1965 and served as executive editor until 1991, long after it became known as one of the most respected and influential newspapers in the world. If you recognize his name, it’s probably because he fought colossal battles and resisted indescribable pressure so Woodward and Bernstein could cover the Watergate scandal, which led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

Bradlee’s, Woodward’s and Bernstein’s courage and passion for truth changed U.S. history and altered American journalism. Nixon resigned for covering up Watergate. Inspired by Bradlee’s Post, countless editors and reporters strengthened their resolve to report news boldly, thoroughly and fairly.

The Watergate effect

Thanks to the Post, Watergate and the movie All the President’s Men, journalism became an attractive career for idealistic young Americans in the mid- to late 1970s. Back then, the number of journalism students on U.S. campuses reportedly outnumbered the workforce of all the nation’s newspapers.

You can count me among them. Although most have gone on to other careers, I’ve been blessed to earn a living by writing and editing stories 39 years.

It happened because I resonated with Bradlee’s belief in the importance of reporting news freely, without fear or favor. Of course, I’m no Ben Bradlee, but I’ve covered religion news on a smaller, but no less important, scale. The principles that apply to a democracy like the United States or a community like Washington apply to a voluntary group of Christian believers, like the Baptist denomination.

For Baptists, those principles apply not only politically, but also spiritually. We practice pure democracy—every member gets a vote in church decisions; messengers from churches vote on denominational decisions—because of two core doctrines. The priesthood of all believers and the autonomy of the local church lead us to honor each others’ consciences by giving all of us a say in our decisions. Consequently, a free flow of information is vital to Baptists. We can’t come together and make wise decisions unless we have the facts and accurate context.

Since Bradlee’s heyday, newspapers everywhere—from the Post to the Standard—have faced an onslaught of challenges. Technology presents traditional newspaper readers with myriad news options. Newspapers have been political whipping boys for at least two generations. Young adults, raised on multimedia, rarely sit still long enough to read news stories. And every economic downturn knocks props out from the expensive process of newsgathering.

A few years ago, Bradlee reminisced with Woodward and Bernstein. He lamented the “hand-wringing that newspapers would disappear.”

A world without newspapers

“I am really appalled about that,” he said. “I cannot envision a world without newspapers. I cannot envision it. I can envision a world with fewer newspapers. I can envision a world where newspapers are printed differently, distributed differently, but there is going to be a profession of journalism, and their job is going to be to report what they believe the truth to be. And that won’t change.”

So, why am I telling you this?

First, because Bradlee is an American hero, and his passage merits note.

But also because all of us should reflect deeply on the last part of Bradlee’s quote: “… there is going to be a profession of journalism, and their job is going to be to report what they believe the truth to be. And that won’t change.”

Less than a week before Bradlee died, we posted an article announcing the boards of Baptist News Global (formerly ABPnews/Herald) and the Baptist Standard have approved a process for considering whether the two organizations should merge their operations.

Although the outcome is not predetermined, the goal of those discussions is “to secure a free press and robust news coverage for Baptists regionally, nationally and globally.”

Every person affiliated with the Standard—14 board members and seven staff—take seriously the newspaper’s 126-year legacy mandate to provide a free flow of news about and for Texas Baptists. The intent of the talks is not deciding to merge or not merge with our longtime partners at Baptist News Global. The intent is to determine the best way to secure that legacy mandate for generations to come.

Baptists and a free press

We believe Texas Baptists’ best chance for future strength is to ensure their access to news about their common life together. Changes within the denomination and the communications industry led us to consider accomplishing that goal through a possible merger. Changes in technology make that consideration possible.

But an unchanging principle—free Baptists’ dependence upon free-flowing news—is our guiding star, whatever our specific operational model.

To paraphrase Bradlee: “We cannot envision a world without newspapers. … And there is going to be a profession of Baptist journalism, and their job is going to be to report what they believe the truth to be. And that won’t change.”

They won’t show up in the Centers for Disease Control statistics, but a unique group of Texans may be affected by our state’s Ebola crisis. They’re the political candidates trying to unseat incumbents.

“The dominance of the news cycles by the ever-changing updates on the Ebola crisis” have knocked a huge chunk out of the political coverage we normally see during the fall of an election year, the Texas Tribune reported.  

Editor Marv KnoxAnd despite what you might think, the ills of the virus are not distributed evenly. “The wall-to-wall coverage of Ebola hurts challengers more than incumbents, who do not need to rely on the media to get their message out,” Wade Emmert, chairman of the Dallas County Republican Party, explained to the Houston Chronicle in a report picked up by the Tribune.

Distractions and news cycles aside, Texas Baptists have a civic duty to educate themselves about the candidates and issues. And then vote.

When asked about paying taxes, Jesus said, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” (Mark 12:17). By “Caesar,” of course, Jesus meant government. One of the requirements of responsible citizenship is voting. As whole, complete, unified people, our spiritual duty requires us to be solid citizens. So, voting is not only a civic activity, but also a faithful spiritual enterprise.

This is true even when your vote cancels the ballot cast by the church member who sits down the pew from you Sunday after Sunday. Or even the person who sits across the dinner table from you night after night.

No monolithic Christian vote

People who meet Texans—particularly evangelical Christian Texans—might be surprised to learn we sometimes cancel each others’ votes. The way the media plays it, we’re one big, monolithic, lockstep-walking bloc.

This is not true, of course. A “Christian vote” is the phantom of some pundit’s imagination. We don’t always talk like it, but in our hearts, we know Jesus is neither a Republican nor a Democrat.

Some Christians vote one way because of the impulse of their faith, the way they read the Bible and the dictates of their consciences. And some Christians vote the other way because of the impulse of their faith, the way they read the Bible and the dictates of their consciences. We should respect them both, and they should respect each other. (The less-respectable path is taken, sadly, by Christians whose faith does not shape their vote.)

Turn out to cast your ballot

By its very nature, politics creates winners and losers. We’ll know it all on Election Night. Still, however the votes turn out, our state and nation will be stronger if Christians and other people of faith humbly recognize millions of voters are rejoicing or lamenting precisely because they voted the way they believe God wanted them to.

Early voting began in Texas Oct. 20 and will continue through Election Day, Nov. 4. If you need to know the who, what, when, where, why and how of voting, click here.

Through the balance of the campaign and after the election, we can strengthen our communities, state and nation by demonstrating how to disagree agreeably. Contention and partisanship are ripping the fabric of our society. We can stitch it back together by speaking civilly, responding kindly and acting graciously to our fellow citizens. Especially the fellow Christians who cancel our votes.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker might be in the running for the next Nobel Peace Prize for accomplishing the seemingly impossible. Her honor’s administration inadvertently gathered fundamentalist and liberal Christians, Muslims and Jews, and even Baha’is and Baptists in one accord. They’re together. Solid. United.

Of course, Parker’s prize would go down in history as the “ignoble Nobel.”

Editor Marv KnoxHer administration subpoenaed five pastors who opposed the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance—HERO—which adds sexual orientation and “gender identity” to protections guaranteed in the city’s laws.

Most controversially, the new ordinance originally proposed: “It shall be unlawful for any place of public accommodation or any employee or agent thereof to intentionally deny any person entry to any restroom, shower room, or similar facility that is consistent with and appropriate to that person’s expression of gender identity.” In other words, it would allow people to select restrooms based upon their “gender identity,” not original anatomy. That section was stricken from the final law.

Opponents petitioned the city for a voter referendum on the new anti-discrimination protections. The city rejected their endeavor. Then some opponents sued, claiming the city wrongfully quashed the referendum.

Five pastors subpoenaed

Along the way, the city subpoenaed the five pastors—none of whom are litigants in the suit—demanding they turn over “all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to HERO, the petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your possession.”

Pastors, rabbis, imams and people of many faiths howled. As well they should.

Opponents ranged from the left—author Rachel Held Evans and Interfaith Alliance President Welton Gaddy, both supporters of homosexual rights—to the right—Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission head Russell Moore and Alliance Defending Freedom leader Greg Scott. Of course, politicians raised Cain.

Despite the outcry, enforcement of the Houston subpoenas does not seem likely.

To begin with, the mayor and the city attorney backpedaled when the subpoenas stirred up a storm.

A spokesperson for the mayor’s office told the Wall Street Journal: “Mayor Parker agrees with those who are concerned about the city legal department’s subpoenas for pastors’ sermons. The subpoenas were issued by pro bono attorneys helping the city prepare for the trial regarding the petition to repeal the new Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) in January. Neither the mayor nor City Attorney David Feldman were aware the subpoenas had been issued until yesterday,” Oct. 14.

Confict with constitutional precedent

On top of that, the subpoenas conflict with 213 years of established constitutional precedent. They clearly violate the First Amendment’s guarantees of both religious liberty and free speech.

Even the Internal Revenue Service—the government agency that most often weighs in on the nature of political speech among religious groups and nonprofits—follows policies that favor the pastors. While the IRS may revoke tax-exemption if a pastor endorses specific political candidates from the pulpit, it specifically affirms a religious leader’s right to speak to public issues.

So, if the pastors preached on homosexuality or the ordinance, they were well within their rights. (The mayor may not know this, however. Religion Dispatches reported Parker tweeted to the contrary around midnight Oct. 15: “If the 5 pastors used pulpits for politics, their sermons are fair game. Were instructions given on filling out anti-HERO petition?-A.”)

Even if Houston’s city leaders drop the subpoenas, this episode is disturbing for at least two reasons.

First, and foremost, it is an egregious attempt to usurp religious liberty.

If the subpoenaed pastors received a dollar for every time the phrase “government overreach” has been spoken or written regarding this case, they could pay all their legal bills. From the extreme left, right and every point in-between, Americans agree the Houston mayor’s office tried to punish preachers for political views based upon sincerely held religious beliefs.

We instinctively, historically and constitutionally know that’s plain wrong.

Second, and even more grievously, the subpoenas fed the fears of conspiracy theorists and fanned the flames of our ongoing culture wars.

Encourages paranoia

This is the kind of action that convinces conservative U.S. Christians they are persecuted. You can be assured this story will go viral and make the rounds of emails—updated to appear current—for years and years. It will be the new “Madalyn Murray O’Hair is trying to remove religion from the airwaves” rumor for coming decades. Those subpoenas are worth millions of dollars to anti-government activists and political strategists who grow rich and powerful by scaring naïve, well-meaning and otherwise gullible citizens into supporting their divisive causes.

So, for the moment, Americans across the political and theological spectrum are drawn together in agreement the Houston subpoenas are wrong. But in the long run, the fear they spread will push us apart.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The fourth paragraph was revised Oct. 17 to reflect that one controversial section of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance was stricken from the final law).