The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-03/01/1999 DISCLAIMER: Baptist Press should be credited for any reprinted stories that originate with BP. Suggested credit line: Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. Please note that Baptist Press periodically carries stories from other sources by permission. Individuals interested in reprinting non-BP stories should contact the entity where the story originated to seek reprint permission. -------------------------------------------------------------------- America’s will to battle drug abuse debated after DEA head’s pe by Don Hinkle Date: March 01, 1999 - Monday NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Americans have the will to win the war against illegal drugs despite a contrary opinion expressed by one of the government’s top drug enforcement officials, say evangelical leaders focusing on the problem.
“Americans have the will, but they need someone to inspire them to take action,” said Ted Stone, a Southern Baptist minister who has drawn attention to the nation’s drug problem by twice walking coast to coast -- more than 3,500 miles each time, spreading the gospel and encouraging communities to intensify their efforts in the fight against drug abuse.
Stone’s comments came in response to remarks by Thomas Constantine, head of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), who said that the nation neither has the will nor the resources to win the drug war. Constantine said in a front-page story in USA Today Feb. 19 that curbing drug use is not a high enough priority with the American people.
“The use of drugs is really a prevention issue, and the long-term solution for this nation is when our own citizens, families, teachers and employers take this as seriously as they do the Y2K [Year 2000 computer] problem,” Constantine was quoted as saying.
“The solutions cannot be found solely in the expenditures of our federal government,” Stone said in a telephone interview from Morehead, N.C., where he is writing a book on his coast-to-coast walks. “It will take local involvement.
“I appreciate what drug interdiction officials and law enforcement agencies are doing,” Stone said, but he noted “there is a huge demand for drugs in our nation and we must do something about the demand.”
“Most Americans, I believe, will stand together to achieve victory in this war if they understand the serious nature of the problem and discover viable solutions.”
The church must assume a leadership role in this cause, Stone said. It was Stone who introduced a recommendation -- that was approved by the SBC at its annual meeting last year in Salt Lake City -- calling for the nation’s largest Protestant denomination to establish a drug task force composed of leaders from all SBC agencies. The task force, charged with articulating how the SBC can become more involved in addressing the nation’s drug woes, is expected to make its first report at the Atlanta convention in June. Bob Maginnis, senior director for national security and foreign affairs issues for the Family Research Council, said Americans have the will to win the war, but are bereft of leadership.
“The American people need a leader and it has to be the president, not the head of the DEA,” Maginnis said. “There is a lack of commitment because there is a lack of leadership at the top.”
Maginnis said the United Nations has done a good job of stemming production of cocaine and heroin in countries like Peru, Colombia, Afghanistan and Burma, but the United States has not done enough to help those countries grow alternative crops. Thus, Maginnis said, the president should decertify the United States’ trade relationship with those countries and others like Mexico when the annual review of trade certification begins in March.
“Clinton will not decertify Mexico because it is our second-leading trade partner behind Japan,” Maginnis said. “Trade with Mexico has gone from $42 million in 1993 to $174 million in 1998.”
More than 250 million vehicles cross the U.S. border with Mexico annually and only 5 percent are searched for illegal drugs, Maginnis said.
“The major drug cartels are along the border,” he said. “Last year 300 tons of cocaine, 80 percent of all marijuana, and half of the heroin came across our border from Mexico.”
Unlike the “Just Say No” campaign of the Reagan presidency, President Clinton failed to aggressively address illegal drugs in his first term “because of his own admitted drug use and the use of drugs by his brother,” Maginnis said, noting the president did not get tough on illegal drugs until his hand was forced when it became a campaign issue in his 1996 re-election bid.
Clinton found himself in more drug-related hot water just in February when it was reported that beer -- containing hemp -- was served on Air Force One during the President’s trip home from Mexico. The Air Force responded to inquiries by saying White House officials are responsible for determining what is served on Air Force One, but the White House blamed the Air Force and then declared such beverages off-limits from hence forth on Air Force One.
When Reagan took office there were 25.4 million Americans using drugs, while today the number stands at about half that number, but there are troubling signs, Maginnis said.
DEA arrests and seizures of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana, for example, set records in 1998 for the 25-year-old agency. The DEA arrested 36,835 people last year, compared to 33,160 arrests made in 1997. According to statistics noted by the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the use of illegal drugs has increased 7 percent increase -- to 14 million people -- since 1997. About 1.2 million people overall were arrested on drug charges in 1997, a 73 percent increase over the number arrested in 1992.
A study released last May by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), estimated the economic cost of alcohol and drug abuse to be $246 billion in 1992, the most recent year for which sufficient data were available. Approximately $98 billion was associated with treatment for the use of illegal drugs. Prior to this study, the most comprehensive estimates of such costs were based on data for 1985. The new estimates are 50 percent higher than the earlier study.
Estimates of the costs of drug abuse have shown a steady and strong pattern of increase since 1977. The NIDA study states that rising drug abuse costs can be traced to the cocaine and HIV epidemics, an eightfold increase in state and federal incarcerations for drug offenses and about a threefold increase in crimes attributed to drugs.
A survey of 50,000 students around the country last year by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan revealed that 49 percent of high school seniors and 22 percent of eighth-graders said they had tried marijuana. Time magazine reported in December 1996 that 68 percent of teens can buy marijuana any day, 62 percent have friends who use marijuana and 58 percent have been solicited to buy marijuana by the time they reach age 17.
“This is clearly a moral issue,” Maginnis said, noting how studies have consistently shown that children who smoke marijuana are more likely to skip school, assault someone and have premarital sex.
Nearly 2 million Americans use cocaine, according to NIDA. The estimated number of new heroin users increased from 68,000 in 1992 to 216,000 in 1996. A large portion of heroin users, identified in the NIDA study, was under the age of 26. According to 1996 statistics cited by the ERLC, the use of LSD and other hallucinogens had risen among teenagers since 1988 from 4.4 percent to 7.7 percent, a 75 percent increase.
“I do not agree that the American people lack the will to fight the war on drugs,” said Barrett Duke, an ERLC spokesman on substance abuse. “Unfortunately, too many of our country’s leaders do. We do recognize the fact that apparently a significant percentage of the American people are confused about the dangers of drug abuse, but we do not believe it means they lack the will to fight drug abuse. It means that those who should have been educating the American public have failed to do so adequately.”
Maginnis said some Americans are confused by the conflicting messages that marijuana is useful for medicinal purposes while free needles for heroin addicts could curb the spread of HIV.
“Marijuana for medicinal purposes is a red herring for people who want to legalize it,” Maginnis said. “Heroin addicts are far more likely to die from an overdose than they are from AIDS. We need to get them treatment.”
Stone, Maginnis and Duke praised White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey and Congress for spending more energy and money on drug education and prevention programs while continuing aggressive drug interdiction efforts. Congress appropriated a whopping $3 billion last year for drug interdiction in Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia. But all three men called on churches and families to get more involved and cited research to support their call.
For example, younger brothers and sisters who regularly spend time with their older siblings for at least a year are 46 percent less likely to start using illegal drugs, according to a 1998 survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Health of Human Services’ Center For Substance Abuse Prevention.
“Imagine what would happen if parents got involved,” Duke said. “This indicates how the involvement of adults is a critical component in the fight against drugs.”
The impact churches can have on the drug problem is evident, Stone said. Only 13 percent of teens who attend religious services four times a month or more have smoked marijuana, compared to 39 percent who attend less than once a month, according to a 1998 study by the National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.
Secular drug treatment agencies were recording success rates in the single digits in 1996, while Christian groups and churches recorded a much higher rate, the ERLC noted. The Christian ministry, Teen Challenge, for example, records a 70-86 percent success rate in getting addicts off drugs. The New England Journal of Medicine reported in 1995 that adolescents who are most likely never to use illegal drugs are those who are active in religion, perform well academically, have hope for the future and view marijuana as dangerous.
“There is a great deal of hurt across America and even in the pews of our churches,” Stone said. “We need to get people to want a better lifestyle. America’s young people need a new set of heroes. There is no better hero than the ones they see everyday, like a parent or friend who embrace sobriety.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Vietnam vet goes from ‘tunnel rat’ to ‘point man’ by Dave Parker Date: March 01, 1999 - Monday ENID, Okla. (BP)--Soldiers came upon the tunnel while looking for Viet Cong soldiers. It was one of many crisscrossing the Vietnamese countryside.
During the 16 years the United States was involved in the Vietnam War, American soldiers noticed that Viet Cong soldiers would attack them and then seemingly disappear in the jungles. Soon, they discovered an intricate tunnel system.
The tunnels were used for supplying food and weapons to, and as an escape route for, Viet Cong soldiers. There were often two or three different levels.
When a unit came upon one of these tunnels, the American soldiers were unsure whether Viet Cong soldiers were hiding in it, or if it was simply an abandoned route; so the unit needed someone to check it out.
Enter the “tunnel rat.” Only 19 years old, John Daily’s small stature and weight of 120 pounds made him an ideal “tunnel rat.” Armed only with a .45-caliber pistol, a flashlight and a rope, Daily dropped into the tunnel, never knowing what to expect. He might come face-to-face with an enemy soldier, or he might find that the tunnel was booby-trapped.
One day, Daily recalled dropping down into a tunnel. As his flashlight lit up his surroundings, he saw a Viet Cong man with a hammer, hitting the fuse of an artillery projectile to make it go off. Daily shot the man in self-defense.
As if the fear of dropping into enemy tunnels were not enough, Daily also faced the everyday dangers all soldiers had to endure: enemy soldiers firing out of the jungle and “punji pits.”
Punji pits were holes dug in the jungle floor. The bottom of the hole was lined with sharpened bamboo poles that would impale anyone unlucky enough to fall on them.
Punji poles were also fastened to a six-foot-square platform that was attached to saplings. The saplings were fastened to a trip wire; anyone setting the trip wire would be hit with what the soldiers called a “fly swatter.”
Each unit had a “point man” who led the way, watching for enemy soldiers, booby traps and tunnels. Those following the point man entrusted their lives to him.
For two years, Daily served his country in this fashion, always on the alert, ready to kill or be killed at any moment. Then, he went home and was expected to go back into the mainstream of society.
“When we got back, we went about our daily routines like nothing ever happened,” Daily said. “I was messed up, but didn’t know it.”
Daily stayed in the Army for 20 years, retiring in 1990. The routine of the Army helped him cope better, but he said many young men went directly from the jungles of Vietnam to Main Street, U.S.A., with no time to readjust.
Haunted by the demons of Vietnam, many committed suicide. Of the 8.5 million who served in the armed forces during the war, 700,000 faced direct combat. Of those, 58,000 American men and women were killed; since the war ended, though, an estimated 200,000 have committed suicide, Daily said.
The suicide rate among Vietnam vets is 33 percent higher than the general population and 86 percent higher than their peer group. A fourth of them earn less than $7,000 per year and homelessness is rampant, with an estimated 110,000 Vietnam vets homeless, 46,000 in Florida alone.
A study of one city’s homeless population showed that 87 percent of all runaways and homeless children were children of Vietnam vets.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, affects many Vietnam vets. It is similar to the “shellshock” suffered by soldiers in earlier wars. Some of the symptoms of PTSD include anxiety, survivor’s guilt, hyper-alertness, suicidal feelings, cynicism, alienation, negative self image and denial.
Daily said he coped by drinking and smoking a lot. After he retired, he didn’t have anything to do, so he began looking for another job. He wanted to be a police officer, but was too old, so he became a truck driver for a company in Tulsa. He enjoyed that job, but after two and a half years he met a woman in Oklahoma City.
She was transferred to Enid, Okla., so Daily applied at Vance Air Force Base, where he now works as a senior aircraft mechanic.
Even though things were looking up for him, Daily rejected God.
“While in the military, I didn’t want anything to do with church,” he said. “I asked, ‘When I was there in the jungle, where was he?’“
The PTSD was also eating at his soul, he said.
“I could sleep three to four hours a night, then be up,” he said. “I was always alert, looking point all the time. I had problems during certain times of the year because of things that happened over there and things that happened at home.
“They told me I had PTSD when I was in the service, but I never went to any of their meetings,” he said. “The doctors would try to get you to talk about it, but they couldn’t relate because they hadn’t been there. I figured I had dealt with it.”
A co-worker, Mike Pittman, saw through the bravado and tried to talk with Daily about it. At first, Daily couldn’t even talk about it, but he did write everything down on a piece of paper.
Pittman introduced Daily to Wade Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid. He said Burleson seemed to understand him, even though Burleson had never been to Vietnam.
Daily always wore a “Vietnam Vet and Proud of It” hat and prisoner of war bracelet. He said Burleson asked him what he would be if they took away his uniform and rank.
“I said, ‘Probably nothing,’“ Daily recalled. “He said, ‘You’re right.’“
Pittman invited Daily to church, and he accepted. Burleson was doing a series on “What happiness is.” Daily said he learned that true happiness was surrendering to God.
“[God] did not care where I had been, what I had done or what I was going through, but he would take me and make me a new person,” Daily recounted. “I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I was tired of drinking, smoking and running around.”
A month after he started attending, Daily became a Christian in August 1997. He was baptized in October.
After becoming a Christian, Daily became involved with Point Man Ministries, a ministry devoted to helping veterans with counseling and ministry.
Point Man has chapters in 41 states and six countries, with a national hotline at 1-800-877-VETS. Many times, Point Man workers help veterans by simply being there to listen to their stories. Daily has become Point Man’s state coordinator and, in Enid, the “Outpost” leader. As an Outpost leader for Point Man, he provides hospital visitation, literature, counseling and referrals. He also coordinates Bible studies and speaks to any organization requesting him.
“A lot of veterans who have PTSD don’t believe in God,” Daily said. “If they do believe in him, they wonder when he is going to work on them.
“We work with veterans and their families to make them better. … I like working with people who are in trouble,” he said, noting he affiliated with Point Man “because I knew that this is the best thing for me to do, since I know veterans and the military. This is a way to pay them back.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Teens join hands to declare their True Love Waits pledge by Judy Woodward Bates Date: March 01, 1999 - Monday FLORENCE, Ala. (BP)--Despite bitter cold temperatures and an icy wind, hundreds of young people formed a human chain across O’Neal Bridge in Florence, Ala., Feb. 13 to signify their shared commitments to sexual purity.
“You know,” said Florence Police Chief Rick Singleton, “as a police officer, I usually run into young people when they’re on the wrong side (of the law),” he told the crowd of youth from Colbert and Lauderdale counties. “Life is a series of choices ... and you have to take responsibility for those choices. It’s an honor to be with you as you make this commitment.”
The rally was one of countless events across the nation in mid-February kicking off this year’s True Love Waits emphasis.
Kevin Johnson, minister to students at First Baptist Church, Florence, helped pave the way for the local effort. But Johnson spreads the credit around. “WFIX Christian radio, area churches, schools, parents and young people, along with our police department, have all worked to make this day a reality,” Johnson said. “Most of all, a lot of prayer has gone into this,” he said.
“Whenever any of these students cross that bridge,” Johnson continued, pointing to O’Neal Bridge, “it will be a reminder to their commitment. And that commitment itself is a rite of passage, a real crossing.”
True Love Waits began as a Baptist movement to encourage teenagers and college students to maintain sexual purity. This program, now in its sixth year, has grown to span more than 80 denominations, Christian student organizations and even health-care organizations around the world.
Amanda Johnson, an 11th-grader at Shoals Christian School, said, “I’m here because I believe in what True Love Waits stands for, and I think it’s awesome that we can come here and show the world the kind of commitment we’ve made to keep ourselves pure until marriage.”
For 17-year-old Brett Trapp, “It’s a time when I as a teenager can stand up and show that because I’m a Christian, I choose to be different.”
The group had first gathered near the bridge at McFarland Park to listen to testimonies and join two local ministers as they led the group in praise and worship choruses.
Lauderdale County Junior Miss Molly McKenzie, a member of First Baptist Church of Florence and a 17-year-old senior at Bradshaw High School, also participated in the event.
“I want to take a stand with the rest of these Christian youth -- a public stand for sexual purity before God,” McKenzie said.
When asked about those students who had already become sexually active, Trapp was quick with a response. “I’m sure some of us here today are in that situation. But True Love Waits teaches that, too,” he said. “They can start over and begin a life of purity. God always offers a second chance.”
A time of sharing and fellowship at Florence’s Fairview Baptist Church Feb. 14 concluded the True Love Waits kickoff.
At that event Miss University of North Alabama Kimberly Williams, whose platform is sexual abstinence, urged young people to remain true to God and to themselves.
“I have seen a lot of my lifelong friends make the decision to be sexually active, and I have seen their unfortunate consequences,” she said in an interview. “I think it’s important to teach young people what they are getting into before they actually get into it.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Seminary’s ‘Valley of Decision’ known for marriage propos by Bryan Cribb Date: March 01, 1999 - Monday LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--The couple strolled down the hill. Noticeably silent, Rob Plummer held a Bible in one hand and Chandi Millet’s hand in the other. Unbeknownst to her, he carried a small box as well.
Plummer and Millet knew the path. They had walked that way before -- between the Boyce Centennial Library and the Carver Building at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. The serene valley allowed quiet talks and peaceful walks. Yet, that night a hint of tension touched the tranquility.
As they sat on a bench near a stone bridge in the bottom of the valley, the conversation grew serious. “I knew he was up to something,” said Millet, a master of arts student from Chattanooga, Tenn.
Plummer, a Ph.D. student from Brentwood, Tenn., took out his Bible and asked her to read Genesis 24 where Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for his son Isaac. The Lord led the servant to the correct woman after he prayed for guidance. And, he gave her jewelry as a pledge of that marriage.
Millet knew what was coming. “He turned to me and said, ‘I spoke to your father today,’” she recalled.
“I explained to Chandi how I felt that God had led me to her and shown that she was to be my wife,” said Plummer.
Plummer knelt on one knee, revealed the box and gave the gift to seal their engagement.
“I was crying so hard I couldn’t see the ring,” said Millet.
The diamond held special significance for Plummer: “What makes the diamond valuable is its cut, and how it reflects the light that shines into it. I was looking for a wife who would radiate and reflect back the light of God. And that is what I found in Chandi.”
Plummer and Millet, who will marry June 5, added two more names to the lore of the valley -- a place known in Southern Seminary tradition as the “Valley of Decision.”
Legend says this mid-point between the Carver Building -- which once housed the Woman’s Missionary Union Training School and now the houses James P. Boyce College of the Bible -- and the men’s seminary campus was the location for many marriage proposals.
Henlee Barnette, a retired Southern Seminary professor, described the tradition: “Boys over at the seminary would go over to the WMU to date these girls. And right at the bottom of the valley was a marker that read, ‘We are laborers together with God.’ Allegedly, that is where a lot of ‘decisions’ were made.”
According to Barnette, many couples took this quotation to heart: “They had similar vocational callings -- why not team up?”
Plummer and Millet are already teamed up as they serve in a youth ministry of a Chinese church that meets in the basement of Louisville’s Third Avenue Baptist Church. Since both have already worked in overseas mission efforts, they are strongly considering international missions work after they graduate from Southern Seminary.
Although the frequency of “decisions” in this hollow has diminished in recent years, every so often another couple will add to the tradition. Randy and Alice Hartley are an example.
The Hartleys’ “Valley” experience was 14 years ago -- April 16, 1985. “I had taken Alice there before and had told her the story surrounding the ‘Valley of Decision.’ And upon initially hearing the story, she had pushed me to the other side of the bridge,” said Randy, a master of divinity student from Montgomery, Ala.
This time though, after walking to the bridge and helping Alice sit on the edge, there was no nudging -- only kneeling. Randy dropped to one knee.
“She was silent,” said Randy of Alice, who could not believe her ears. “Once she realized I wasn’t kidding, she immediately said, ‘Yes!’” The Hartleys will celebrate their 13th anniversary June 7.
Randy would agree with Plummer’s assessment of the evening. “I’m a traditionalist. That’s why I wanted to get engaged in the Valley of Decision,” said Plummer. “There was no airplane towing a sign that asked, ‘Will you marry me?’ No half-time announcement at the Super Bowl. It was just a very nice, prayerful, thoughtful evening.”
An evening -- a decision -- that changed their lives.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Volunteer says Kenyans’ new faith overshadows auto accident travails by Connie Davis Date: March 01, 1999 - Monday WHITE HOUSE, Tenn. (BP)--It was the last day of a 12-day missions trip to Kenya, Africa. Three members of the Bruce family -- Leslie Bruce, pastor of First Baptist Church, White House, Tenn.; his wife, Phyllis; and their daughter, Lee Anne Bruce, a member of Forest Hills Baptist Church in Nashville -- were riding in a van when it was struck from behind and collided with a truck.
Phyllis and Lee Anne Bruce, who were sitting in the front seat, sustained injuries. It took an hour to extract Phyllis, who was the most seriously hurt. Then they traveled nine hours to a hospital in Nairobi, where they learned Phyllis’ ankle and knee were crushed.
Six months later, sitting in their home in Tennessee, Leslie and Phyllis admit they’ve been reminded bad things happen to Christians, even Christians doing good things. But that fact doesn’t discourage the couple. They intend to return to Kenya.
And Phyllis, who is still recovering from six weeks of hospitalization and several surgeries, said if she had known what would happen to her in Kenya, she still would have gone because of the miracles she has witnessed and the spiritual insights she has gained following the accident there.
Phyllis Bruce, an employee of LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, became involved in the Kenyan outreach through LifeWay, which coordinated the trip through the International Mission Board. Bruce led her husband and daughter to join a total of 29 employees or family members of employees in the effort.
It was the first foreign missions experience for the Bruces. Leslie and Phyllis said they experienced the greatest joy of their lives as they walked down little paths from hut to hut witnessing to people. As a result, most became Christians -- about a hundred people each day, the Bruces reported. The team led about 6,000 people to God and started 27 congregations.
One reason she was supposed to go to Kenya was Ben, recounted Phyllis Bruce.
Ben was a driver for the tour company which transported the team members. A few days after her arrival, Bruce led him to commit his life to God. Then she spent much of her free time discipling Ben in his new faith. Thankfully, he wasn’t hurt in the accident.
“How can you say what a leg is worth compared to a person’s eternal destiny?” she asked.
The Bruces cite other miracles which have strengthened their faith and that of others.
An angel helped those trying to extract Bruce and her daughter from the van. The angel, said Leslie Bruce, was in the form of an African girl who provided a huge crowbar. The crowbar allowed the workers to pry open a van door and remove the two women. When the workers tried to find the girl to thank her, she had disappeared.
Another miracle was that missionary Connie Burton had returned to Nairobi the day of the accident. Burton is an area health-care coordinator for the IMB.
God provided good health-care workers, the Bruces reported. And the local missionaries helped them. For instance, the missionaries probably depleted their supply of red jello because it was the only thing Phyllis found appetizing for a time. The insurance of LifeWay and the International Mission Board has covered all of their expenses, including the journey home by jet.
And Phyllis always will remember experiencing a spiritual epiphany. During the accident she thought Lee Anne was dead. Later she realized her feeling must have been the same as God’s when he gave his Son. She’ll never forget that depth of despair, she said, and its assurance of God’s love.