Wayland Baptist University named Donna Hedgepath, provost and vice president of academic affairs at Campbellsville University in Kentucky, as president-elect.

Hedgepath, who assumes her new post at Wayland July 1, is the first woman to serve as president of the 115-year-old Texas Baptist university. She will succeed Bobby Hall, who announced last year his plan to retire June 30.

Wayland’s board of trustees elected Hedgepath Jan. 25 to serve as the university’s 14th president upon the unanimous recommendation of the presidential search committee after a national search.

“I am deeply honored and humbled to accept the position of president of Wayland Baptist University, and I am filled with gratitude for the trust and confidence that the university’s trustees have placed in me,” Hedgepath said.

“It is indeed a tremendous privilege to be invited to lead this esteemed institution, and I am excited about the extraordinary opportunity to serve Wayland in this capacity.”

Hedgepath told students, faculty and staff she looks forward to “building upon the excellent foundation established here at Wayland,” particularly expressing appreciation to Hall for his years of service at Wayland.

“My commitment is to foster a culture of cooperation and exhortation, where we can collectively propel the university forward,” she said.

“By working together, we can ensure that Wayland remains a beacon of academic excellence in higher education.”

Hedgepath identified as her life verse Jeremiah 33:3: “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”

During a question-and-answer time with media, she said she hopes her election as the next president of Wayland Baptist University will give hope to young women that “women can lead, lead well and lead by God’s grace and guidance.”

Hailed as ‘forward-thinking’ leader

Mark Jones, chair of the board of trustees, said Hedgepath “embodies the essence of forward-thinking leadership that has defined Wayland throughout its rich 115-year history.”

“We are confident that Dr. Hedgepath has the intellectual vision, Christian faith and personal integrity to inspire our Wayland family to new levels of excellence,” Jones said. “We look forward to working alongside her to foster a climate of community, engagement and mutual respect.”

Jones noted her experience as a professor and administrator at Campbellsville University, which he described as “a large, multi-campus Baptist university.” In addition to its home campus in Plainview, Wayland operates Texas campuses in San Antonio, Lubbock, Amarillo and Wichita Falls, as well as in Phoenix and Sierra Vista, Ariz.; Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska; and Mililani, Hawaii.

“Her achievements include spearheading the development of dozens of degree programs, academic minors and trade certification programs at her current university, supervising external campus locations throughout the United States and Canada, and, notably, driving exponential increases in enrollment throughout her current university system,” Jones said.

During her time as provost at Campbellsville University, enrollment at the school’s multiple campuses grew from 4,000 to 12,000 students, he noted.

She also is “deeply engaged in her local community, including her church,” he added, where she is a Sunday school teacher and church pianist.

Hall said Hedgepath’s “distinguished career and remarkable contributions in Christian education make her an outstanding choice for this important role.”

“Dr. Hedgepath has demonstrated exemplary leadership during her tenure at Campbellsville University, and her passion for academic excellence aligns seamlessly with the values that define Wayland Baptist University,” Hall said.

“I am confident that her vision, dedication and wealth of experience will greatly benefit our institution as we continue our mission of providing a transformative education.”

Hedgepath earned both her bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from Campbellsville University and a Ph.D. in music education from the University of Kentucky.

She and her husband Pete have three sons.

Phillip Hamilton, communications manager at Wayland Baptist University, contributed to this report.

In a series of social media posts, the attorney who has represented the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee the past two years described Paul Pressler as “a monster” and a “dangerous predator who exploited boys.”

Pressler—a retired judge and one of the architects of the so-called “conservative resurgence” in the convention—has been accused of molesting young men for decades but repeatedly has denied any wrongdoing.

Posting on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Dallas attorney Gene Besen wrote of Pressler, “The man’s actions are of the devil.”

Besen wrote in response to a tweet by journalist Robert Downen that prompted a string of tweets by pastor Marshall Blalock, a leader of the SBC’s sexual abuse implementation task force.

When he worked for the Houston Chronicle, Downen was involved in the “Abuse of Faith” series of investigative articles that exposed widespread sexual abuse in the SBC and led to the creation of the convention’s initial sexual abuse task force.

Now a reporter for The Texas Tribune, Downen posted a portion of a letter from longtime SBC attorney Jim Guenther Jan. 19. In the letter, Guenther acknowledged “a reluctance on all the defendants’ part to engage in discovery because we believed it would have produced a lot of evidence of the truthfulness of the fundamental allegation by the plaintiff that Pressler had sexually abused him for many years.”

In late December, the SBC settled a lawsuit against Pressler. The suit, brought by Pressler’s former assistant Duane Rollins, accused SBC leaders of knowing about Pressler’s abuse and covering it up. Later, the legal team that represented Rollins said it had discovered “smoking gun documents” that would have proved their client’s case.

In response to Downen’s post of Guenther’s letter, Marshall Blalock, pastor of First Baptist Church of Charleston, S.C., tweeted: “This is the problem. SBC lawyers knew the abuse was happening, knew one of their ‘leaders’ was grossly corrupt, but chose to ignore truth and defend evil. Then they cravenly hid their complicity from the Task Force in spite of being clearly ordered to disclose everything.”

Blalock continued, “When an organization makes protecting monetary assets its supreme legal standard, the path toward corruption is certain and the momentum is difficult to reverse.”

Besen noted he had “never tweeted about SBC matters” previously, but he responded to Blalock’s tweet and the many comments it elicited—particularly suggestions the SBC withheld important evidence.

Nothing withheld, attorney insists

“Nothing was withheld from Guidepost,” the firm that conducted the internal investigation of the SBC Executive Committee’s handling of sexual abuse accusations, Besen stated.

He added Guidepost “looked extensively for evidence that the Executive Committee had prior knowledge of Pressler’s alleged abuse before Rollins’ lawsuit and the Houston Chronicle reporting. What they found is contained in their report. Nothing was withheld from Guidepost.”

Besen continued: “Everyone was publicly aware of allegations of abuse against Pressler after the Houston Chronicle began publishing stories about the Rollins lawsuit and its Abuse of Faith series. Accordingly, the Executive Committee’s lawyers crafting the Executive Committee’s legal defense with extensive public allegations in mind is not remarkable. Again, nothing was hidden.

“Indeed, Rollins testified in discovery that he never attended an SBC church, an SBC meeting, an EC meeting, or any other SBC function. That doesn’t change the fact that Pressler is a monster, but it does impact why and how the SBC might defend the litigation and craft a legal strategy.”

In what appeared to be a hastily typed tweet, Besen concluded: “If want you want to hear is that Pressler was is dangerous predator who exploited boys based on his power and his false piety — I whole heartedly agree. The man’s actions are of the devil. That is clear.”

Baptist Press reported Jan. 22 SBC attorney Scarlett Nokes said: “Guidepost had unfettered access to the Executive Committee’s servers during the investigation. Nothing on the servers, including the email at issue, was withheld.”

Blalock told Baptist Press he had learned that the email from Guenther was not “officially hidden” from investigators, though it was “buried in a voluminous cache of documents.”

“I would have preferred that the EC would have made us aware of the exchange because of its importance,” Blalock said.

“Now, though, I hope this will propel us to get this right moving forward. I would hate for this to hinder the important work of the ARITF. I am hopeful the recommendations they are working on will be a path forward that all of us can join as we help make our SBC churches the safest places on earth.”

Both registered and unregistered Baptists in Belarus voiced concern about a bill recently signed into law requiring all registered religious communities to reregister or face punishment for illegal religious activity.

On Dec. 30, President Aleksandr Lukashenko authorized a law that—among other things—requires registered religious groups in Belarus to register again between July 5, 2024, and July 5, 2025.

The law solidifies the government’s power to inspect and monitor religious communities. It also grants the state sweeping authority to shut down religious communities and arrest religious practitioners deemed guilty of “extremism” or who are critical of the regime in power.

Forum 18 news service quoted an individual associated with the Council of Churches Baptist—whose member congregations choose not to seek government permission to exercise freedom of religion—as saying compulsory registration “began in the Soviet Union, and nothing has changed.”

“As the Bible says, there’s nothing new under the sun,” he told Forum 18, a religious freedom-focused news service affiliated with the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. Council of Churches Baptist congregations “will stick to our firm position” not to seek state registration, he insisted.

Leonid Mikhovich, president of the Baptist Union in Belarus, welcomed some changes to the final text of the law as published Jan. 5, compared to an earlier draft. The final version removed a requirement for religious organizations to report to local executive committees about the religious education of children.

However, Mikhovich voiced concern about a requirement for a religious community to have a minimum of 20 adult founders.

“In some villages, we do not have the required number of people, while the law provides no other option other than to have 20 people to be allowed to hold regular worship meetings,” he told Forum 18.

Mikhovich also noted the law requires the founders of religious communities to provide the state with extensive personal information.

“It is still necessary during registration to submit information about their place of work,” he said.

The office of the president in Belarus reported 3,590 registered religious institutions as of Jan. 1 last year, representing 25 religious denominations and 173 religious organizations, such as monasteries, convents and religious educational institutions, and 3,417 religious communities.

Of those religious communities, 1,733 are part of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, and 500 are Roman Catholic. Evangelical Baptists have 281 registered communities.

In spite of a Christmas Eve massacre of about 200 Nigerians in predominantly Christian areas and evidence of India’s growing transnational repression of religious minorities, neither nation was designated as a Country of Particular Concern by the U.S. Department of State or placed on its Special Watch List.

In response to the omissions, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom called for a congressional hearing, noting the State Department’s own reported evidence of religious freedom violations in both countries.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Jan. 4 the State Department redesignated a dozen nations as Countries of Particular Concern—a category reserved for nations that engage in or tolerate “systemic, ongoing and egregious violations” of religious freedom.

The State Department-designated CPCs are Burma (also known as Myanmar), China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

“There is no justification as to why the State Department did not designate Nigeria or India as a Country of Particular Concern, despite its own reporting and statements. USCIRF calls on Congress to convene a public hearing on the failure of the State Department to follow our recommendations,” U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Chair Abraham Cooper and Vice Chair Frederick A. Davie said in a joint statement.

The USCIRF in its 2023 annual report recommended all 12 countries be redesignated as CPCs without any waivers on sanctions and also recommended the CPC designation for India, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Syria and Vietnam.

“We met with the State Department on many occasions to sound the alarm about these countries, but not all of our recommendations have been followed. We will not be deterred and will continue our role as a congressionally mandated watchdog to ensure the U.S. government prioritizes religious freedom as a key component of U.S. foreign policy.”.

Cooper and Davie pointed to the Christmas Eve attacks on Christians as “just the latest example of deadly violence against religious communities in Nigeria that even the State Department has condemned.”

In regard to India, they noted not only “egregious religious freedom violations” and religious violence internally, but also increased transnational repression targeting religious minorities.

Others echo concerns about omissions

21Wilberforce, a human rights organization focused on religious freedom, echoed the concerns raised by the bipartisan commission.

“21Wilberiforce joins the chorus of those in government and civil society who are very disappointed that Nigeria and India are missing from the State Department’s latest religious freedom violations country list. Both countries clearly meet the legal standards for designation as CPCs,” said Lou Ann Sabatier, spokesperson for 21Wilberforce.

“Violence and atrocities in Nigeria continue to rapidly increase with the most recent incident reported two weeks ago on Christmas Eve. And growing incitement of religious violence against religious minorities in India, whose government turns a blind eye, is deeply troubling.”

ADF International, the global arm of Alliance Defending Freedom, particularly condemned the Biden administration for failing to acknowledge “egregious violations of religious freedom” in Nigeria and urged congressional action.

“The United States should increase pressure on Nigeria for the blatant violations of religious freedom occurring in the country. More Christians are being killed in Nigeria for their faith than in all other countries combined,” said Sean Nelson, legal counsel on global religious freedom for ADF International.

“The U.S. government should do everything within its power to support ending the persecution and bringing about the peaceful coexistence of faith communities in Nigeria. Since it is clear that the State Department will not take significant action over the terrible religious freedom conditions in Nigeria, it is vital that Congress makes its voice heard.”

In addition to the CPC designations, the State Department placed Algeria, Azerbaijan, the Central African Republic, Comoros and Vietnam on its Special Watch List—a second-tier designation for countries where there is evidence of religious freedom violations.

Contrary to USCIRF recommendations, the State Department issued waivers on sanctions for Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikstan and Turkmenistan.

“USCIRF formally requests a detailed justification by the State Department as to why our policy recommendations were not fully implemented, including the waivers,” Cooper and Davie stated.

Blinken acknowledged “significant violations of religious freedom also occur in countries that are not designated,” but he did not cite specific nations.

“Governments must end abuses such as attacks on members of religious minority communities and their places of worship, communal violence and lengthy imprisonment for peaceful expression, transnational repression, and calls to violence against religious communities, among other violations that occur in too many places around the world,” Blinken said.

“The challenges to religious freedom across the globe are structural, systemic, and deeply entrenched. But with thoughtful, sustained commitment from those who are unwilling to accept hatred, intolerance and persecution as the status quo, we will one day see a world where all people live with dignity and equality.”

Blinken also announced the State Department named al-Shabab, Boko Haram, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis, ISIS-Sahel, ISIS-West Africa, al-Qa’ida affiliate Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin, and the Taliban as Entities of Particular Concern.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Cycle of impunity’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not the first attack during the Christmas season

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

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

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

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

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

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

Over the course of two weekends earlier this month, about 6,000 people attended outdoor live Nativity presentations in downtown Round Rock—including some who said they learned about the events surrounding Jesus’ birth for the first time.

“I’m always amazed when people say they had seen Nativity scenes all their lives, but they didn’t know the story behind it,” said Janis Reeder, who has coordinated Christmas on the Corner since First Baptist Church in Round Rock launched the program in 2017.

This year, those who received their initial introduction to the story of Jesus’ birth included a young man from Punjab, India, who had come to historic downtown Round Rock to see the Hometown Holiday Christmas light display, Pastor Dustin Slaton said.

The young Sikh was so intrigued by what he saw and heard at Christmas on the Corner, he brought his father with him the next night.

The 19-minute dramatic musical program—presented three times a night two weekends in early December—involves about 100 volunteers from First Baptist Church, said Slaton, who has served the congregation since January 2021.

“That includes the cast, the people involved in building sets and the ladies who made cookies,” he said.

This year, the church gave away 3,292 cookies to guests who attended Christmas on the Corner—not counting the ones eaten by the volunteers.

Called by God to ‘tell his story’

Reeder has been involved 18 years in leading drama for Christmas presentations at First Baptist Church. For more than a decade, the church presented traditional Christmas musical pageants in the church sanctuary.

When a sanctuary renovation in 2017 made the space unsuitable for the annual Christmas program, Reeder initially thought it meant the end of a beloved tradition.

Then, while waiting in the drive-through lane of Lone Star Bakery to buy Round Rock Donuts, she looked at the nearby church parking lot. She felt sure God was opening a door for the congregation to take the Christmas story outside the four walls of its building.

“When my creative juices get going, it’s kind of scary,” she said.

With the exception of a one-year interruption due to the COVID pandemic, the church has presented Christmas on the Corner every December since then, and the number of attendees has increased every season.

Volunteer builders in the church constructed a 40-foot-wide platform for the outdoor presentation.

“The first year, it was a pretty expensive proposition with no money in the budget, but I was astonished at how many people contributed,” Reeder said.

The drama uses prerecorded music and narration—using a script Reeder wrote—and incorporates live animals into the presentation.

“I’ve become quite a camel aficionado,” she said.

Each performance ends with a gospel presentation in both English and Spanish.

“We’ve had people tell us they’ve never heard the Christmas story before. And we’ve had people join our church as a result of it,” Slaton said. “They’ve said, ‘We want to be part of a church that does something like this.”

Reeder views Christmas on the Corner as an expression of God’s calling on her life “to tell his story,” and it’s become a passion project for her.

“I can’t not do it,” she said.

HEMPSTEAD—What began as a joke made in front of a rural Texas congregation ended with a gift of more than $26,000 contributed to enable Texas Baptist Men and their ministry partners to drill new water wells in Peru.

Tim Smith presents the weekly announcements during worship services at First Baptist Church in Hempstead, northwest of Houston.

One Sunday in October, he told the congregation Pastor John Brandt might shave off his beard if the church gave a certain amount of money for this year’s annual statewide Royal Ambassadors mission project—drilling water wells in Peru.

Good-hearted pressure began to build on the pastor to set an amount.

Brandt said he decided to play along by setting a price for the shaving of his beard—one he thought would be too high to reach. The price for his shave was $20,000.

The church had never known their pastor without a beard. Brandt started as worship pastor in 2015 and became pastor in 2017. His children had not seen him without a beard for nine years.

Smith said he checked with Brandt’s wife, Amanda, about the challenge, as well.

“She was good natured about it, too,” Smith said.

Children in the church started raising money for the mission project associated with the annual RA Campout and Missions Mania event, which was Nov. 10-12 this year.

All the church’s children participated

First Baptist in Hempstead has both an RA chapter and a Girls in Action group, so all children involved in missions programs at the church were involved in the fund-raising project, Brandt said.

The children began the fundraising effort by using empty water bottles to collect coins, Smith said. Then they brought bottles to the Wednesday night and Sunday morning services so adults could contribute.

The total slowly climbed in the hundreds.

“By the end, we had about 10 bottles sitting there, some completely full,” Smith said. “One couple came in with rolls of pennies.”

But still people gave, and Smith, the chair of deacons, and others kept the rising total under wraps.

As the RA boys were “getting in the van to go to Missions Mania,” a church member “pulled up and wanted to make sure his gift got in” on time, Smith said.

They did not announce the total of more than $26,000 until the Sunday after returning from Missions Mania.

“We came back and announced the total,” Smith said. “John had a surprised look on his face. … You never thought it was going to be as big as it was, but then it was.”

Brandt went to his barber Nov. 28 and said goodbye to all of his facial hair except a mustache.

“I noticed as soon as they finished shaving that my face was colder,” the pastor said. “Now I’m shocked every time I look in the mirror.”

Smith said the church “just thought this would be a fun thing to do. It became sort of a running joke for about a month. … We had a lot of great people step up.”

The beard cutting made the effort fun for the congregation, but the pastor said it really wasn’t about facial hair.

“Everybody in our church knows about water wells in Peru now,” Brandt said.

Stressing the importance of Christian mission

First Baptist in Hempstead emphasizes awareness about the importance of Christian mission, the pastor said. He used the singular “mission” to stress that all Christians are to be on mission.

“We’ve continued to press into RAs and GAs, to emphasize the importance of raising our children to be on mission. … We are constantly pushing mission with our kids.”

The congregation is now getting its first look at their pastor without a beard, but it’s not a new look for Brandt. Before arriving in Hempstead, he served 11 years in the U.S. Army Honor Guard.

“Every Monday we got a fresh haircut, … no mustaches.” He was “clean shaven all the time.”

But Brandt grew up in a house with a dad who had a beard. So, he grew his own beard after leaving the Army.

The beard-cutting promoted awareness about the needs in Peru and pointed toward a specific way to address it through TBM. The $26,000 will cover more than the cost of drilling two wells.

There is still some debate in the church as to whether the mustache was exempted from the shave. Smith laughed and said they are reviewing business meeting minutes to see if the pastor has fully complied.

There is already talk of an additional $5,000 bounty on the mustache, Smith said.

The pastor is not sure of the timing, but he said the beard will return.

As for the church, Brandt said, being on mission is still the key.

“Now we’re looking for what we’re going to do next,” he said. “Who knows?”

Texas was one of only five states that carried out executions this year and one of only seven that imposed new death sentences, the Death Penalty Information Center reported.

Florida, Alabama, Missouri and Oklahoma joined Texas as the only states conducting executions this year, the center reported. The eight executions carried out in Texas and the six in Florida accounted for more than half of the 24 conducted in the United States in 2023. Nine of the inmates executed this year were people of color, “The Death Penalty in 2023: Year End Report” revealed.

Arizona, California, Louisiana and North Carolina joined Texas, Florida and Alabama as the only states this year that sentenced convicted individuals to death.

Mentally ill inmates executed

The center reported 79 percent of the inmates executed in 2023 had serious mental illness, brain injury, developmental brain damage, intellectual disability or had experienced chronic serious childhood trauma, neglect or abuse.

Texas executed three inmates in 2023—Jedidiah Murphy, Arthur Brown and Gary Green—who presented evidence of mental illness or intellectual disability.

Another Texas inmate—Scott Panetti—was slated for execution in spite of a diagnosis of schizophrenia and history of mental illness. However, the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Texas ruled Sept. 28 the state could not execute him.

William Keith Speers, inmate coordinator of the faith-based program on Texas Death Row, was scheduled for execution Oct. 26, but the Texas Court of Appeals granted a last-minute stay of execution. In his application to the appeals court, Speers asserted his previous legal counsel failed to present to the jury evidence of his long history of trauma due to childhood abuse and neglect.

John Litzler, public policy director for Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission, said the execution of prisoners with mental illness or serious impairment conflicts with the CLC’s commitment to a “culture of life.”

“We are grieved by the statistics in the Death Penalty Information Center’s annual report and, in particular, the data about high rate of execution for individuals with an intellectual disability or suffering from mental illness,” he said.

“While we support victims of heinous crimes and their right to justice, those with certain intellectual disabilities and mental illnesses often lack the mental ability to understand the consequences or sometimes even the wrongness of their actions. In those instances, a true commitment to both justice and a culture of life dictates more appropriately measured consequences.

“During the legislative session the Christian Life Commission supported two separate bills aimed at prohibiting capital punishment for those with intellectual disability and those suffering from schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Each bill passed the House of Representatives, but failed to pass in the Senate. The annual report motivates the CLC to continue its efforts to promote a culture of life in the State of Texas.”

Lawmakers in Arizona and Arkansas also considered legislation to exempt inmates with severe mental illness from the death penalty, but the bills failed.

Texas has the third-largest Death Row population in the country with 192 inmates, behind California at 665 and Florida at 313, the center’s end-of-year report noted.

Texas an ‘outlier’ in terms of executions

Stephen Reeves, executive director of Fellowship Southwest, voiced strong concern about what the end-of-year report revealed.

“Texas continues to be a sad outlier in the business of killing prisoners. The latest report shows once again that we reserve capital punishment almost exclusively for the poor, the mentally ill, the abused and the unlucky,” Reeves said.

“It is well past time that Texans of good conscience, and especially Christians, demand an end to this unjust and barbaric practice.”

The Death Penalty Information Center’s year-end report supported Reeves’ characterization of Texas as an “outlier” in terms of capital punishment.

The report noted 2023 was the ninth consecutive year when fewer than 30 inmates in the United States were executed and fewer than 50 received a death sentence, as of Dec. 1. Nationally, the number of executions peaked in 1999 when 98 inmates were put to death.

This year marked the first time more Americans (50 percent) told Gallup pollsters they believe the death penalty is administered unfairly than say it is conducted fairly (47 percent).

Three new exonerations of Death Row inmates—John Huffington in Maryland, Jesse Johnson in Oregon and Glynn Simmons in Oklahoma—occurred in 2023. Together, the three men served more than 140 years in prison before their convictions were overturned.

Inmates executed in 2023 spent an average of 23 years in prison—the longest average time since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, the center reported. Their average age at the time of execution was 54.

“The data show that most Americans no longer believe the death penalty can be imposed fairly,” said Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

“That important change can also be seen in the unprecedented show of support for death-sentenced prisoners from conservative lawmakers and elected officials this year, some of whom now oppose use of the death penalty in their state.”

Twenty-nine states either have abolished the death penalty or have paused executions by executive action. Arizona and Pennsylvania both paused executions through executive actions in 2023.

A rocket hit Leora’s high-rise apartment building in Israel, but she found protection in her “safe room.”

Later, one of her three adult children came to her apartment in blood-drenched clothes before leaving again. He soon returned a second time in bloody clothes, needing to change again.

The Israeli woman shared her story with Doug Hall, who served on the second Texas Baptist Men volunteer team cooking meals in Israel since the war began.

“There’s an obvious weight of war that sits over the country all the time,” Hall said. “It affects everyone.”

Hall met Leora when he and other volunteers arrived at a hospital in Ashkelon, about 10 miles north of Gaza, to deliver food. Twenty-nine TBM volunteers in two teams worked in the first few weeks of fighting. A third TBM team arrived in Israel this week.

“We spent maybe 30 minutes talking” to Leora, Hall said.

On the first day of fighting, a rocket hit the lower part of her apartment building and “wiped out a market that she visited three or four times a day,” he added. After spending about 10 minutes in her safe room, the woman went downstairs to help the injured.

On the first or second day, her son arrived wearing the bloody clothes. Leora was “obviously emotional when she would speak about that because you’re seeing your son return, then he walks right back out the door and goes out to be involved in the fighting,” Hall said. “And then he comes back later and says, ‘I need some more clothes.’ And then disappears again.”

The son had been “helping wounded and dying people, dragging them out of harm’s way,” Hall said.

After the first days of conflict, the children of the woman at the hospital were all safe and none of her family members had been injured or killed.

“She had gone to several funerals of kids that were at the concert that you saw on the news,” Hall said. “Her children had friends that were at that concert, so she went to their funerals.”

‘Always felt safe but I never felt at ease’

TBM volunteers do not get involved in the issues behind the conflict. “We were there to provide help and hope to the folks there, whoever it was, whether it was Israeli, Palestinian, Arab; it didn’t matter,” Hall said.

Though in a safe location, the volunteers still caught glimpses of the war.

“We would hear the rockets,” Hall said. “We would hear the booms in the air.”

A team driving to Tel Aviv one evening “saw an interception of a rocket by Iron Dome,” which involves Israeli missiles intercepting rockets intended for populated areas.

Since returning to Texas, Hall often receives questions about whether he felt safe.

“I always felt safe,” he said. “But I never felt at ease, because there is a constant presence of the reality of war and the fact that for centuries war has raged over the land.”

The war is ever-present in the minds of the people who live in Israel and Gaza, while the volunteers work preparing up to 3,000 meals a day.

Hall told of the long days of work faced by TBM volunteers. They rose early, some by 4:30 a.m., with a devotional at 6 a.m. After prayer time together, the volunteers ate breakfast and then started cooking, which continued until early afternoon.

After a light lunch, Israeli and TBM teams delivered the sandwiches and meals “to wherever our Israeli partners said they needed them,” he said.

“Sometimes we wouldn’t get back from that until 5:30 or 6 p.m. or even later,” he said. When there were evening cooking opportunities, volunteers didn’t return until 8:30 or 9 p.m.

‘Thank you for coming’

As the Americans encountered people living in Israel, a pattern emerged in the response they received. Hall recalled being in a market one evening when a woman approached him along with her son and his wife and infant. The young man, about 18 or 19 years old and in the military, had his weapon with him.

The TBM volunteers tended to stand out when in public, especially when they were together as a group. The woman asked him “who I was and why I was there,” Hall said. “So, I told her we are with an organization called TBM, and she kind of looked at me then asked, ‘What does that stand for?’

Hall explained that TBM is a Christian volunteer organization that helps people whenever there’s a disaster or a problem.

“And that, you could see, registered, and she reached out and touched me and said, ‘Thank you for coming,’” Hall continued. “Every person that we encountered like her, the conversation would always end, ‘Well, thank you for coming.’”

TBM is “providing help, immediate help with food, and hope” to people in Israel, and it moves them to know “they have a partner, a Christian partner,” Hall said.

“We may not ever see the ultimate healing that we normally look for,” he continued. There are few opportunities in Israel right now to actually share the gospel with people, “but they do arise in intimate conversations with various people,” he said.

“Certainly, we provide the help that everybody is used to seeing TBM provide and then, from our conversations, I do know that they would see that as us walking alongside them and providing some hope as well, that they weren’t standing alone.”

Food insecurity increased significantly in the United States last year, and Texas has the second-highest rate of food insecurity in the nation, a recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture revealed.

Food insecurity refers to the inability of households to acquire adequate food, at times, for one or more household members. The prevalence of food insecurity in the state presents both challenges and opportunities for Texas Baptists as they seek to minister to human needs in Christ’s name.

“While the overall economic outlook in Texas may look strong, low-income residents have experienced a huge dose of hardship,” said Jeremy Everett, founding executive director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty.

The report revealed 15.5 percent of Texas households reported a lack of consistent access to affordable and healthy food between 2020 and 2022, making Texas second only to Arkansas in terms of food insecurity.

Along with Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina, Texas and Arkansas are the six states where the prevalence of food insecurity was higher than the national average.

Everett attributed the rising food insecurity in Texas primarily to two factors: a significant number of workers receiving no more than the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and a worker shortage in state agencies, creating delays in processing applications for SNAP—the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—in a timely manner.

At the same time, Texas has experienced rising costs of food and fuel along with the rest of the nation, he added.

“Low-income Americans spend a higher percentage of their income on the necessities—food, transportation and shelter. When rent is up, food prices are up and transportation costs are up, it has a huge impact,” Everett said.

Food insecurity higher in homes with children

The report from the USDA Economic Research Service showed 17 million U.S. households experienced food insecurity at some point during 2022, compared to 13.5 million households the previous year. Food insecurity affected 12.8 percent of households in the country last year.

The food insecurity rates last year were significantly higher for households with children (17.3 percent), households with children under age 6 (16.7 percent), and households with children headed by a single female (33.1 percent) or a single male (21.2 percent).

Children in 3.3 million homes—8.8 percent of U.S. households with children—were food insecure at some point in 2022.

“The 2022 Household Food Security in the United States report is a sobering reminder that, while the vast majority of Americans are able to affordably feed themselves and their families, too many of our neighbors struggle to put healthy food on the table,” Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said.

“These numbers are more than statistics. They paint a picture of just how many Americans faced the heartbreaking challenge last year of struggling to meet a basic need for themselves and their children. And the survey responses should be a wake-up call to those wanting to further roll back our anti-poverty and anti-hunger programs.”

Everett pointed out one factor affecting food insecurity in 2022 was the termination of several COVID-era relief programs from which low-income Americans particularly benefitted.

Lessons from the pandemic

“We learned a lot during the pandemic about ways to have an impact on hunger and poverty,” he said. “For instance, the child tax credit has a significant impact on reducing the child poverty rate.”

Another pandemic-related factor that affected food insecurity in Texas specifically was the inability of congregate summer feeding programs to continue, he noted. For several years prior to COVID, churches and other community service providers built a network that significantly increased the number of children who received meals during the summer.

“The pandemic blew that infrastructure up,” Everett said.

However, the Meals-to-You program—first piloted in 30 East Texas and West Texas counties through a partnership led by the Texas Hunger Initiative in 2019—became the national Emergency Meals-to-You program, delivering food boxes to households in rural areas.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 made noncongregate and summer meal delivery a permanent option for children, and it allowed for summer electronic benefit transfer options beginning next summer.

One of the most effective ways to fight food insecurity is to maximize SNAP benefits, Everett observed.

“We know SNAP is an economic driver for communities. It accounts for 1 out of 10 jobs in local grocery stores,” he said.

Everett noted every dollar in SNAP benefits helps generate $1.50 in economic activity. When Texas fails to access available SNAP dollars, it results in a loss for the state’s food and agricultural sector, he added.

Reducing food insecurity is a complex issue greater than the ability of any one entity to solve, Everett said, but coalitions of nonprofit organizations, social service agencies and businesses can help build hunger-free communities.

“We like to see churches at the epicenter of these coalitions,” Everett said. “It’s a way for us to carry out our biblical mandate to feed the hungry.”

Baylor University regents approved $6.3 million to fund a “Memorial to Enslaved Persons” as an addition to Founders Mall.

At a Nov. 10 meeting, the university’s board of regents authorized the expenditure for the memorial, designed to recognize enslaved people who were involved in building Baylor’s original campus at Independence.

The decision to allocate funding for the memorial grew out of an earlier report and recommendation from the Commission on Historic Campus Representation at Baylor.

Originally proposed as the “Monument to Unknown Enslaved,” the project was renamed after further historical research identified “a small number” of the enslaved individuals who helped construct the Baylor campus at Independence, Baylor President Linda Livingstone explained.

The memorial includes a water feature and a limestone wall representing the original Baylor campus in Independence. The project includes landscaping and grounds enhancements to tell the story of enslaved people in eastern Central Texas.

It also will feature the Resonance Garden, which will provides accessibility improvements and connections to the Draper Academic Building.

Groundbreaking for the project is scheduled during next February’s board of regents meeting as part of Black History Month. Construction is scheduled to begin soon afterward, and it is expected to be a year-long project.

The “Memorial to Enslaved Persons” is part of the “reconceptualizing” of Founders Mall, which prominently features a statue of Judge R.E.B. Baylor, for whom the university is named and who is known to have owned 33 slaves in 1860.

Apply as member partner of BWA

In other business, regents unanimously approved Baylor’s intention to apply as a member partner of the Baptist World Alliance.

Livingstone noted the enhanced relationship with BWA reflects the reality that Baylor not only is a Texas Baptist university affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, but also has grown in scope.

“It gives us—as an international and national university—a much, much broader reach into the international Baptist world,” she said.

The university is developing the application with its office of spiritual life and Baylor’s Truett Theological Seminary, which already is an associate member of BWA.

“We believe this relationship will provide new opportunities to connect, serve and improve the world around us with those of like faith,” said Bill Mearse, chair of the Baylor board of regents.

During the 2023 BWA General Council meeting in Stavanger, Norway, Howard Payne University and Dallas Baptist University became the first two higher education institutions accepted as member partners of BWA.

Livingstone reported Baylor’s Strategic Planning Group is in the process of evaluating what was learned from 93 listening sessions, about 300 completed feedback forms and more than 100 white papers presented as faculty proposals.

The board will consider a new strategic plan at its May 2024 meeting as the university nears the end of Illuminate, the plan that has guided Baylor since 2018.

Livingstone also noted the Give Light fund-raising campaign surpassed its $1.1 billion goal. Currently, the campaign total stands at $1.456 billion, and she predicted it will surpass $1.5 billion by the time it concludes in May 2024.

Regents approved four new graduate degrees: a Master of Science in Education—Learning and Organizational Change, a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Digital Media, a Ph.D. in Preschool-12 Educational Leadership and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering.

The board also allocated $24.25 million to construct a broadcast production center in McLane Stadium and upgrade its in-stadium video technology.

The Big 12 Conference’s media agreements now require member institutions to be able to broadcast two sporting events simultaneously, and the new broadcast production center will make that possible.

The first two teams of Texas Baptist Men volunteers in Israel are returning home after providing more than 30,000 meals since the Israel-Hamas war began.

However, it isn’t the war that dominates their conversation. They talk about the faith that motivated them and the people they encountered.

“Being a witness was the main focus for us going there,” said Genia Macon of First Baptist Church in Lewisville. “Christians coming from halfway around the world is a huge witness for Jesus Christ. … It’s not our words. It’s our actions. We feel like we’re the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.”

Suzanne Shumock, a TBM volunteer from Mississippi, said people in Israel were “encouraged because we were there … that we were willing to come and help.”

Twenty-nine TBM volunteers have worked in Israel thus far. Most are from Texas, plus two from Mississippi, two Church Forward volunteers from Missouri and one Baptists on Mission volunteer from North Carolina.

‘Flexibility is key’

The situation unfolded differently than expected, because the war did not progress as expected, said Gary Finley, who is TBM’s volunteer coordinator in Israel and spent much of October there.

Still, TBM has been feeding at least 2,000 people each day, topping 3,000 Thursday.

“We may not have gone over to do exactly what we planned to do. But … the mission of TBM is to share the love of Christ, and feeding is just an avenue for that,” Finley said.

A third TBM volunteer team will go to Israel, but first TBM’s in-country partner—Emergency Volunteers Project—will focus on capacity building and making it possible for a field kitchen to increase the number of meals provided each day, TBM Executive Director Mickey Lenamon noted.

“In disaster situations, TBM has learned flexibility is key in ministering well. It’s even more important when serving in the middle of a war,” Lenamon wrote in a Nov. 1 email to TBM disaster relief volunteers.

“With that in mind, we have decided to postpone what would be our third team in Israel for a short time. Local Israeli volunteers will continue to serve as they expand the capacity to deliver meals. It’s going to take a little time and investment before sending in the next Texas team.”

‘Showing the love of Christ through our actions’

In October, TBM volunteers generally prepared the meals, working with Israeli relief workers and volunteers, who delivered most of the food, Finley said.

“We’re building relationships … showing the love of Christ through our actions,” he said. “And they are receiving it very well … and inviting us into their homes.”

People in Israel do not have much contact with Christians, and “most Israelis don’t have the best opinion of Christians,” Finley said. The volunteers’ presence in Israel is “breaking through the stereotypes.”

TBM has trained more than 100 volunteers specifically for Israel, Finley said. “We are trying to get them there first” and then “fill gaps with some that have not been trained” in Israel, he explained.

The 29 volunteers who have served thus far were busy preparing food for the people in Israel. That’s the work, but the witness is the purpose.

‘We are here because Jesus Christ has sent us’

Jackie Grey, of 121 Church in Grapevine, said the Israel experience “made me realize that people from other cultures and religions don’t understand that Christians want to share Christ’s love by serving them.

“The people we served alongside and who dealt with us … could not comprehend that we were there to help without being Jewish or Israeli,” Grey said.

Macon found it interesting speaking with Israelis. She said someone told her: “I thought Christians were bad. You’re not bad. You’re here.”

“We want people to know we are Christians, and we are there because our Lord Jesus Christ has sent us,” Macon said.

Jodie Liford, of First Baptist Church in Forney, said, “All those little conversations we have with people, they matter.”

Andy Stern of First Methodist Church in Richardson said, “We were able to make a lot of food, and we know it got distributed to people in need.” But having the “chance to grow relationships with our Israel friends and volunteers” is what impacted Stern most.

Even as they began the journey home, Stern said, he had a “phenomenal discussion” with several Jordanians.

“It was a special experience of people getting to know each other,” he said. “We’re children of a God who loves us.”

‘God’s hand was over us’

Stern went to Israel “because God called me to go.” Proverbs 3:5-6 became important to him as he prepared and began the trip. The verses speak of trusting the Lord and leaning not on your own understanding.

The effects of war brought the TBM volunteers to Israel, but the volunteers saw little of it directly.

“One time we saw contrails of missiles,” Shumock said. “I was never afraid. … That goes back to that prayer thing. God’s hand was over us.”

Macon noted it was a “little scary” considering going to Israel. “I had to think about it and pray about going. … Once there, I felt safe and secure.”

Some TBM Israel training has been canceled, and other week-long offerings are now filling up, Finley said. Visit the Volunteer in Israel web page at tbmtx.org/israel to apply for training. There is a separate Israel Volunteer Sign Up web page at tbmtx.org/israel-volunteer-sign-up for those who are not yet trained in Israel but would like to serve if possible.