The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-03/05/1999 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------- ERLC to drop annual conference & seek better way to address issues by Dwayne Hastings Date: March 05, 1999 - Friday AUSTIN, Texas (BP)--Only hours after the conclusion of the agency's annual conference, trustees of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission decided March 4 to make this year's conference the last such event for the ERLC.
During their semiannual meeting in Austin, Texas, trustees voted to discontinue the traditional practice of holding the seminar that for 33 years attracted well-known speakers in the area of ethics, morality and public policy, focusing on some aspect of applied Christianity.
Citing a desire to be good stewards of Southern Baptists' Cooperative Program funds, trustees agreed with ERLC staff members that after such a long and valuable run the conference design needed to be seriously revamped.
The annual conference, which was held in various cities across the United States during its history, was successful in its night sessions but failed to draw strong crowds during its daytime sessions, Barrett Duke, director of conferences for the ERLC, said during a meeting of the trustees’ program committee. He noted the current conference schedule made it difficult for people to attend daytime meetings.
The conferences ran two and a half days, opening on Monday afternoons and closing Wednesdays at noon. Duke said the 1999 meeting at Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, Texas, attracted more than 800 people during its evening sessions but saw lighter crowds during its daytime meetings.
"We came to a decision that this type of education process was no longer the most effective way to present the kind of issues we were trying to address," Duke said. The decision to cancel the conference was not reached overnight, he continued, noting the ERLC was committed to seeking alternative means to equip and encourage Southern Baptists to be "salt and light in their community."
Trustees indicated an interest in a new venue to allow ERLC staff members to reach a greater number of individuals with information similar to that which had been disseminated during the annual conferences, perhaps at the Baptist conference centers at Glorieta, N.M., or Ridgecrest, N.C.
Trustees also moved to cancel their semiannual meeting structure, dropping the meeting normally held each spring. Again the trustees cited the need to save money, noting the meeting was held each year immediately after the annual conference. ERLC President Richard Land assured trustees that prior to his arrival the board had been meeting only annually.
In his remarks to the trustees, Land said the ERLC was "in the midst of our best year since I have been here." He was installed as executive director of the commission in 1988.
Land said he is encouraged about what the future holds for both the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and the Southern Baptist Convention. "I believe that we are the eve of the greatest decade in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention for the cause of the kingdom of Christ," he said.
"The country is going to be looking for the kind of moral leadership Southern Baptists can provide in the providence of God," Land said, predicting the scriptural message of hope and renewal being offered by the Southern Baptist ethics agency will take even deeper root in the new millennium. "I believe the cultural and social tide is running in our direction. I've seen one culture shift in my lifetime; I believe our nation is on the verge of another."
In other business, trustees:
-- announced Land would receive the commission's ERLC Religious Liberty Award, saying "his life reflects a struggle to maintain religious liberty for all people of faith."
-- added Memorial Day and New Years' Eve Day to the list of paid holidays for ERLC staff, noting the decision puts the commission "in line with sister Southern Baptist organizations."
-- called for the appointment of an ad hoc committee to consider the reorganization of the board of trustees' committee structure to ensure that it fits in the current operating form of the ERLC, expressing a desire "to explore ways trustees can be more helpful to the staff."
-- heard that the SBC's North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board had agreed to renew funding on the ERLC's director of hunger concerns position. The staff position is jointly funded by the three agencies.
The ERLC board of trustees will meet for their annual meeting Sept. 13-15 in Nashville, Tenn.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- British official cites prayers, dignity characteristic of persecuted blvrs by Tom Strode Date: March 05, 1999 - Friday AUSTIN, Texas (BP)--The primary request of Christians who are suffering and dying for their faith in various parts of the world is that the church remember them in prayer, a well-known advocate for persecuted believers said at the annual conference of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
Baroness Caroline Cox, deputy speaker of the British House of Lords, told of the evidence of atrocities committed against Christians she has observed in trips to the Sudan, Burma and Nagorno Karabakh. She cited 1 Corinthians 12:26, which says "whether one member [of the body] suffer, all the members suffer with it."
"How much do we in the West suffer with our persecuted brothers and sisters?" she asked. "How often do we even think of them?
"I can't speak for certain about the United States, but I know when I'm back in Britain I very rarely hear our churches pray for the persecuted church,” said Cox, who also is president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide. CSW works on behalf of persecuted Christians and others who are repressed, as well as needy children and disaster victims.
"And many of our persecuted brothers and sisters are cut off from everybody else,” Cox said. They are suffering and dying unknown, and their stories are untold."
Persecuted Christians are suffering "with dignity," she said. "They are asking for your prayers."
Cox used slides of photos taken on her trips to the three countries to demonstrate the repression. Of a photo of a plane on a landing strip in the Sudan, she recalled the response of the persecuted: "As we land on our little airstrip, the local people come running up to us with tears in their eyes, saying, 'Thank God you've come. We thought the world had forgotten us.’"
Sudan "must rank as one of the greatest tragedies in the world today," Cox noted. The Islamic regime in the capital of Khartoum has been conducting a holy war against all who oppose it since 1989, Cox said. Its troops carry out raids normally against Christian villages, but also some Muslim and animist ones, in the southern part of the country. The soldiers frequently kill men and kidnap women and children to take them back as slaves to the northern Sudan or another country. Their new owners often beat and seek to force their captives to convert to Islam. The troops also practice a "scorched-earth policy," burning crops and slaughtering livestock along with civilians, she said.
"Tens of thousands of African women and children are enslaved" today, Cox said. Several thousand have been bought out of slavery, many using contributions from the West, but she also "would like to see a protest movement developing similar to the protest movement against apartheid [in South Africa]," Cox said. "Slavery is at least as evil as apartheid."
She told about her conversation with a boy who had been a slave for three years before being redeemed. He was beaten by his master but continued to resist the attempted conversion to Islam.
Cox also showed the photo of a small boy suffering from malnutrition with not much longer to live. "Think of being a parent and making the sacrifice of your children because you won't give up your faith," she said. "It's one thing to die yourself. It's another to allow your [own] family to pay the price."
In Burma, the government regime conducts military offensives against the Karen and other ethnic minorities. Many of the oppressed are Christians, while others are Buddhists and animists.
She and her team found a small Baptist church in eastern Burma where a bombshell was being used as a church bell, Cox said. Instead of "swords into plowshares, … you have bombs into bells," she said.
In Nagorno Karabakh, which is near Iran, Azerbaijan is practicing ethnic cleansing against about 150,000 Armenians with a Christian heritage. Among the atrocities in what Cox described as "hell on earth" were sawing people's heads off and the burning of others alive.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Men, boys, America at stake in battle against pornography, mother of 4 says by Dwayne Hastings Date: March 05, 1999 - Friday AUSTIN, Texas (BP)--Carolyn McKenzie was a surgical intensive care nurse in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Yet her exposure to the trauma of combat barely prepared the Memphis resident for her ministry to those trapped in the sex industry in the west Tennessee city.
Sexually oriented businesses that dot the landscape of most communities are the visible manifestation of America's fascination with pornography, McKenzie, founder and executive director of Citizens for Community Values, told attendees at the 33rd annual conference of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
Prompted by a radio ad seeking dancers for a local strip club, McKenzie reacted by organizing a ministry that both seeks to shut down sexually oriented businesses and rescue young women trapped in the industry.
While sounding optimistic about the future battles over the nation's accessibility to pornography -- she is behind a court fight to clean up Memphis -- McKenzie painted a bleak picture of a nation consumed with an obsession with portrayals of sexual perversion and deviancy. This scourge of pornography threatens the very future of America and demands a response from the nation's churches, she said.
It is hard to fathom what is out there for men and boys to feed on, McKenzie lamented, saying the materials in these businesses are "beyond comprehension." Less than 5 percent of pornography depicts one man and one woman in a heterosexual sex act, she said. And it is an $8 to $13 billion-a-year industry.
"We need to expose this evil, to become aware of what is going on behind the doors of these businesses," McKenzie said March 3 on the final day of the ERLC conference at Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, Texas. "History shamefully records what happens when the church fails to expose evil," she added, citing the historical example of Nazi Germany.
"The cost of becoming involved in the battle of pornography is very great; the cost of not being involved is much greater," interjected Julia, who was involved in the sex industry for five years until being rescued by McKenzie and who accompanied her to the ERLC conference.
"It is imperative for pastors not to just speak out but to commit to fight against these issues which negatively impact our families," McKenzie said. "We have to approach these business owners not thumping our Bible saying, ‘You are going to hell in a hand basket,’ or using coercion, but instead to utilize persuasive arguments that all can understand."
McKenzie, mother of four boys, began her anti-pornography crusade six years ago after learning about the prostitution, drug use and destroyed lived associated with such businesses. She discovered the victims of pornography were not only the users but workers within the sex industry -- "from rich girls to runaways, aged 14 to 40."
And McKenzie doesn't refer to these businesses as gentlemen's or adult clubs. "There is nothing gentlemanly or adult going on in there."
She reported her ministry has aided 42 young ladies in their escape from Memphis-area strip clubs and massage parlors. "We need to be the conduit to lead them to Christ," she said. "God can heal even the worst of the worst."
A drop in crime rate of 46 percent in Times Square followed New York City's decision to boot the sex industry out of the heart of Manhattan, McKenzie reported. She said she is prepared to go to the U.S. Supreme Court with the Memphis ordinance banning sex establishments in that city.
Pornography leads to sex addiction, child abuse, increased crime and decreased property values in communities across the country, she said. Pornography is more addictive than crack cocaine, McKenzie explained, noting the viewing of pornography triggers a release of certain chemicals bringing physical pleasure. She said soft pornography is a doorway to more deviant and dangerous material.
"While not every man who looks at a Playboy is going to become a Ted Bundy," she said 12- to 17-year-old males are the largest consumers of pornography. She noted with chagrin, "Our daughters are dating these same boys.
"This is a struggle for men everywhere," she said, citing statistics that indicate clergy are not immune from this unholy attraction. McKenzie has seen three men from her own church in the handful of visits she has made to sexually oriented businesses with local law enforcement officers. She also said several of the young ladies rescued from the businesses recognized men in McKenzie's church as former customers.
"This is not just a problem for the unsaved in your community," she said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Corporate prayer needed to reach nation’s inner cities, Galvan says by King Sanders Date: March 05, 1999 - Friday AUSTIN, Texas (BP)--Corporate prayer is one of the most important keys to reaching the inner city for Christ, said David Galvan at the annual conference of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
"We have not seen America's cities experience a mighty sovereign-led move of God because prayer has not been a priority," Galvan said March 3 at Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, Texas. Galvan, second vice president of the SBC from 1997-98, has been the pastor of an inner-city church, Primera Iglesia Bautista Nueva Vida in Garland, Texas, since 1981.
Galvan challenged conferees to follow the example of the Apostle Paul's ministry in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-20) as a model for capturing the nation's urban populations for Christ in the next millennium. Paul's three-pronged strategy, Galvan explained, focused on seeking out people with whom to share the gospel, utilizing the gifts and talents God provided to minister to people's needs, and depending upon the power of corporate prayer.
"Effectiveness in outreach, especially in the inner cities, demands an approach that chooses to go where the people are," Galvan said. To say, "We will minister here, but will live over there," is an ineffective approach to ministry, he added.
Ministering where the people are builds understanding, fortifies relationships, communicates love and concern, counters superiority and establishes identification, Galvan said. "It communicates the idea that you are available." He said seeking out believers requires surveys and canvassing neighborhoods, and it is confrontational and apologetic in approach.
As cities wrestle with ways of keeping downtown areas alive, inner-city ministries face a new challenge of reaching the yuppies, intellectuals, and professionals attracted to the revitalized shopping areas and neighborhoods, Galvan added. These are "the kind that are not looking for a handout, but might in fact be looking for a write-off." They want to know if God can do anything for them, Galvan said. Ministries which touch these individuals will take place in symposiums, university halls and auditoriums, rather than stereotypical venues for inner-city ministry, he said.
Effective outreach will also follow Paul's pattern of utilizing even "handkerchiefs and aprons" -- elements of his secular work attire -- to reach people for Christ, Galvan said. "Talents, skills, experience, equipment ... some we were born with, some we were trained in ... yet they can be used as we surrender them to God that the city might be reached for Christ," he said.
The rescue mission, the soup kitchen, the clothes closet are still necessary for inner-city outreach, "however, these are not the only 'aprons and handkerchiefs' available. God has given the people of God many resources that can be used to minister," Galvan said. Mechanics, computer analysts, lawyers, doctors, psychologists, literacy experts, musicians and more can be utilized by God, if only available, he said.
"Can God utilize what you use in your livelihood to share with others in the power of the Holy Spirit?" Galvan asked.
Challenging Christians to pray for the cities, Galvan reminded those attending the conference that the mission-sending New Testament church at Antioch was a praying church. "What happened in Ephesus was the direct result of a sovereign God honoring the prayer of Paul and his church," he said.
In his own church, "We began to pray every day [at] 6 a.m. four years ago, Feb. 8," he said. "Ministry has never been the same.
"What does this have to do with reaching the inner city for Christ?" Galvan asked. To overcome the dark and powerful spiritual forces at work in the inner city requires God's intervention, he said. "The spiritual walls that must come down, can come down only by the power of God."
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Hemphill: Sanctity of life extends from conception to evangelism by King Sanders Date: March 05, 1999 - Friday AUSTIN, Texas (BP)--Christians have an ethical mandate from Scripture to move beyond simply the "right to truth" to a more comprehensive issue of "right to life," the president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary said March 2 at the annual conference of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
"We must provide the radical community relationships that provide refuge for the disenfranchised," said Ken Hemphill of the Fort Worth, Texas, seminary, "We must respond to the issues surrounding abortion with more than rhetoric." The Christian community "must embrace, love and provide resources for all those mothers who choose life. We have not finished the task if we think it is right to be born and then forgotten," he said.
All human life is sacred, yet "nowhere is our national schizophrenia more visible than in our treatment of life in the mother's womb," he said. The facts substantiate this claim. Since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, there have been more than 40 million deaths due to abortion in America. This translates into about 1.5 million abortions per year or 4,000 a day.
"Abortion is the most common surgical procedure in the U.S. I believe it is a national emergency; it is a crisis," Hemphill said.
Christians can become discouraged in the face of this moral crisis, especially when no one seems to be listening, he said. "But we evangelical Christians have a distinct advantage. In a postmodern world of ambiguities and relativism, where national leaders can wrangle over the meaning of ‘is,’ we believe that there is a revealed and knowable truth -- the perfect Word of God," Hemphill said.
Hemphill said the sanctity of human life is grounded in Scripture and is introduced in the very first chapter of the Bible (Genesis 1:27): "And God created man in his own image." The concept is expanded in Psalm 139, he said, where man is described as "fearfully and wonderfully made." The psalmist affirms God's handiwork when he declares, "Thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst weave me in my mother's womb" (v. 13).
"This single passage calls into question any who would attempt to use Scripture to argue that God somehow cares less for the small person being formed in the womb than those already alive. He knows our unformed substance and cares for us from embryo to the grave, and he makes no distinction," Hemphill said.
Citing the Creator's pre-natal commissioning of both Isaiah and Jeremiah (Isaiah 49:1, Jeremiah 1:4-5), Hemphill said, "We cannot pretend to know what is his purpose for the life he has placed in them (the womb)."
Interestingly, enrollments at Southwestern Seminary and in seminaries all across America took a dip in the mid-1990's, Hemphill noted. Why? "One reason is that we aborted a great number of the men and women commissioned by God" for full-time vocational ministry, he said.
Euphemisms and compassionate-sounding slogans often lull Americans into acceptance of abortion, Hemphill said. "After all, every child deserves to be wanted." We quote that and point to an abusive home and suggest that abortion may be a caring alternative. "The point is every child is wanted ... by the approximately 1 million hopeful parents who are wanting to adopt," he said.
"If we are truly concerned about the sanctity of human life,” Hemphill added, “we cannot ignore the critical issue where people will spend eternity. We must be positively involved in the ministry of evangelism."
What can Christians do on a broader scale in this fight for life? Hemphill listed these suggestions:
-- Pray.
-- Write elected officials and cast an informed vote. "Christians need to follow normal convictions and not party-line politics."
-- Stand against sin, but stand with the sinner. In this, Jesus is the model.
-- Be prepared to help mothers who want to give birth but have no financial resources or support.
-- Teach children about the holiness of sexual relationships.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Power of Christ prevails in battle against voodoo by Barbara Singerman Date: March 05, 1999 - Friday AKPOME, Benin (BP)--A man in khaki shorts leads the safari as it slowly winds through steamy, overgrown jungle paths. The porters, carrying heavy equipment on their heads, sludge through the muck and twisted vines.
This scene from old Tarzan movies recently came to life for missionary Jeff Singerman while traveling to a remote village in Benin, West Africa. Singerman, from Dayton, Ohio, trudged along narrow, heavily wooded paths while a team of Christian African men followed him, carrying on their heads a generator, projector and film equipment.
After nearly an hour's trek, villagers ferried them across a swollen river in dugout canoes. Singerman, a missionary with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, and his companions were headed to the village of Akpome to share the gospel and visit a Christian named Paul.
In 1997 Benin's government had sent Paul, a young man from the city of Cotonou, to teach in Akpome. Right after he arrived, members of the area's voodoo groups -- called "Zangbetos" and "Oros" -- confronted Paul and demanded he join them in their satanic rituals. Paul courageously refused and boldly proclaimed his faith in Jesus Christ.
"Every teacher who comes here either joins us or flees the village in terror," they threatened.
"I will not join you," Paul repeated emphatically.
That night as darkness enveloped the village, Paul lay down to sleep. Suddenly he was startled awake by the menacing, whirling noise of the Oros, who had surrounded his thatch house.
Falling to his knees, Paul sought comfort from the Lord. While a spiritual battle raged outside his door, peace flooded his heart. Although besieged by messengers of evil, he crawled back into bed and fell soundly asleep.
Early the next morning, men from the voodoo groups urgently confronted Paul. "What power do you have?" they demanded.
"I have no power but Jesus," he answered.
"No. What power do you have?" they asked again. "Last night when we came to curse you, not one of us could remember your name to pronounce a curse against you."
"I have no power but Jesus Christ," Paul repeated.
Three days later the men approached Paul again, fearfully pressing the same question. "What power do you have? Last night the chief priest of the Oros died. You must have some power."
"Jesus Christ is my only source of power," Paul said again.
"We need to know more about this Jesus," the men told him.
They called a meeting among the village elders, who decided to give Paul land to build a church in Akpome. Later two other villages invited him to share the life-changing message of Jesus Christ with them. Because of Paul's faithfulness, two more churches were started in those villages.
During Singerman's recent visit to the area, he stayed with Paul for several days, encouraging him, leading Bible studies and showing evangelistic films in the villages. These isolated people had never seen a film before.
Their bamboo houses rest on tall stilts to avoid the river's yearly flooding. They bathe, wash clothes and drink from that single water source. Food is scarce. But instead of returning to the city during a much-needed break from school, Paul decided to stay in the area -- despite the harsh conditions -- so he could train the new Christians.
Meanwhile, the three churches in the region continue to grow, despite some opposition from voodoo followers.
Christians in Akpome discovered that village leaders apparently had an ulterior motive when they gave them the land for a church. The believers found that fierce voodoo idols dotted the property, intended to scare away anyone trying to build there. In fact, other people had tried earlier to build on the land, but each attempt strangely ended in disaster.
But this time around, things turned out differently. Taking courage in the power of Christ, the believers in Akpome broke down the idols. They cleared the land and began construction. Today -- as evidence of Christ's power -- they worship together in a thatch-roofed, dirt-floored church building on that land.
The voodoo worshipers are "in awe," Singerman reported.

Barbara Singerman, from Port Huron, Mich., and her husband, Jeff, are Southern Baptist International Mission Board missionaries in Benin.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- SBC photographer Jim Veneman to join Union Univ. staff June 1 by Date: March 05, 1999 - Friday JACKSON, Tenn. (BP)--Jim Veneman, photo editor at Lifeway Christian Resources (formerly the Baptist Sunday School Board) since 1986, will become director of visual communications at Union University, Jackson, Tenn., effective June 1.
In his new role at Union, Veneman will coordinate photography and graphic design activities at the 2,500-student university as part of the university relations team. He will also teach photography and photojournalism courses.
Veneman is well known among Southern Baptist communications professionals. He has served as photo director of the annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting each year since 1986, as well as managing photography operations for the Baptist World Congress in Seoul, Korea in 1990 and Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1995.
Since 1993 he has directed an annual photojournalism conference at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He has been a presenter at numerous photography workshops and was a faculty member in communications at Ouachita Baptist University from 1985-86.
Veneman was president of the Baptist Communicators Association in 1997-98. He is also a member of the National Press Photographers Association and the Religious Public Relations Council.
"We are delighted to add a seasoned communications professional of Jim Veneman's stature and experience to Union's university relations team," said Michael Duduit, executive vice president at Union. "He not only brings with him a tremendous combination of skills and experience, but also a love of Southern Baptists and a commitment to serve Christ and his kingdom."
Veneman and his wife, Carol, have three children. They are members of First Baptist Church, Donelson, Tenn. Jim and Carol are both graduates of Ouachita Baptist University, and he also holds a master’s degree in communications from Southwestern Seminary.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Shoppers' romance blooms at the Baptist Book Store by Sharon Harper Date: March 05, 1999 - Friday CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (BP)--Lamar Overby didn't fall in love at Baptist Book Store in Chattanooga, Tenn., but his devotion to his bride-to-be certainly blossomed there.
Citing frequent enjoyable visits to the store, Overby, 28, chose Baptist Book Store as the memorable location for his recent proposal to an astonished Heather Ely, 25.
Manager Tim Burton said the store was packed on Saturday, Jan. 23, when Overby and Ely walked in.
"We were afraid we were going to give the surprise away because we were grinning and watching them while they shopped."
Overby had asked permission earlier in the week to propose at the store, so the entire staff knew about the event.
"I thought it was a prank call at first," Burton said with a laugh. "Apparently Heather was in the same area because he was whispering when he phoned." Behind the sales counter, Overby's mother placed a white T-shirt airbrushed with a special message: "Heather, will you marry me?"
His intended was in the dark until she stepped up to the register and her boyfriend asked if the shirt "was in." Onlookers said when Overby unfolded the shirt and showed her, the woman spun around with a look of surprise, but was affirming in her answer when he dropped down to one knee and proposed.
"It was the furthest thing from my mind," Ely admitted. "We'd talked about it, but I had no idea. We were looking at gifts, and now I understand why he wasn't paying much attention." The couple met last May at Temple Baptist Church in Chattanooga and will marry there April 17.
Burton said the couple enjoyed spending time at the store.
"It's one of their favorite places. Lamar told one of our staffers that on the day he would propose, he would do it in front of God and everybody."
The Chattanooga Baptist Book Store is part of the 81-store LifeWay Christian Stores, owned and operated by LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. The store will begin using the name LifeWay Christian Store in May.

Harper is communications coordinator for LifeWay Christian Stores.