
The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-04/07/2004

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.


--------------------------------------------------------------------

Homosexuals oppose same-sex 'marriage,' magazine poll suggests
by Michael Foust
Date: April 07, 2004 - Wednesday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The majority of homosexuals are opposed to same-sex “marriage” and a few want to see the institution of marriage abolished altogether, according to an online poll of a homosexual-themed Canadian magazine.

The results of the Fab Magazine poll, published April 7 in the Toronto-based Globe and Mail newspaper, found that only 36 percent of respondents believed homosexuals should “settle for marriage and nothing less.” A plurality, 47 percent, favored civil unions.

The poll, while not scientific, is significant because it took place in a country where three provinces have legalized same-sex “marriage.” 

Fab Magazine editor-in-chief Mitchel Raphael said the results may reflect a rejection of monogamous relationships by homosexuals.

“Fear exists in the gay community that marriage will be used as means to clean up its overt, institutionalized sex culture,” Raphael wrote in a Globe and Mail editorial. “There are practical reasons for gays to adopt a different and equal partnership model. It is not uncommon for gay men, for instance, to discuss whether a relationship should be monogamous.” 

The poll also found that 11 percent of respondents said homosexuals should refuse “to buy into the heterosexist, oppressive institution of marriage” and 7 percent said homosexuals should “help lead a movement to abolish the institution of marriage.”

“Even gay-sex radicals, proud to say they will never wed, have taken up the cause of gay marriage as a reaction to homophobic political/religious rhetoric,” Raphael wrote. “Ironically, if conservatives, including many Liberals, stopped fueling the fire, many flamers might be happy with a different-and-equal partnership arrangement.

“Choosing a new term for same-sex couples uniting means gays can create their own rules for partnership with all the rights of traditional marriage but without its baggage of eternal monogamy and 50 percent divorce rates.”

Raphael backs same-sex “marriage” for political reasons but sees nothing wrong with civil unions.

“I have no problem drinking from a different water fountain,” Raphael wrote, alluding to civil unions. “If straights want to guzzle from the traditional aluminum basin, I am more than happy to sip from a crystal waterspout.”

The poll and column seem to support anecdotal evidence in recent months showing that homosexual men are unlikely to seek marriage licenses. In San Francisco, 57 percent of the homosexual “marriages” that took place were by females, only 42 percent by males.

The New York Times last August reported that homosexuals in Canada are not rushing to tie the knot. The debate “pits those who celebrate a separate and flamboyant way of life as part of a counterculture against those who long for acceptance into the mainstream,” the story noted.

The story followed two men in their 40s, David Andrew and David Warren, who have lived together for seven years.

Although the men promise to protect one another, the story said “they stop short of monogamy, which is something Mr. Andrew also says he does not believe in.”
--30--
For more information about the debate over same-sex "marriage," visit
<a href="http://www.bpnews.net/samesexmarriage">http://www.bpnews.net/samesexmarriage</a>


--------------------------------------------------------------------

LIFE DIGEST: Dems’ losses linked to pro-choice position
by Staff
Date: April 07, 2004 - Wednesday

WASHINGTON (BP)--Two pro-life Democrats in the House of Representatives have met with Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe to demonstrate the party’s majority in Congress evaporated as it became more entrenched in the abortion-rights camp.

Reps. James Oberstar of Minnesota and Bart Stupak of Michigan provided the following statistics to McAuliffe in a March 4 meeting, syndicated columnist Nat Hentoff reported: In the 1977-78 Congress, Democrats possessed a majority of 292 seats, which included 125 pro-lifers. Now, Democrats hold only 204 of 435 seats, with only 28 pro-lifers.

Oberstar and Stupak told McAuliffe pro-life Democrats could win Republican-leaning races in some districts, Hentoff wrote in a column at LifeNews.com. The DNC chairman advised them to talk to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and the committee’s executive board, Hentoff reported.

The congressmen asked McAuliffe for a pro-life speaker at this year’s Democratic convention, as well as a link from the DNC website to the site of Democrats for Life of America, according to the report. The DNC has refused to provide a link so far. Oberstar and Stupak are members of the national advisory board for Democrats for Life.

CONVICTION UPHELD FOR MURDER OF UNBORN -- The California Supreme Court has ruled a killer may be convicted under the state’s fetal homicide law of two murders even if he is unaware a woman is pregnant.

The high court of the country’s most populous state ruled April 5 the 1970 law does not require that the killer “specifically know of the existence of each victim,” The Sacramento Bee reported. The justices issued their 6-1 ruling only four days after President Bush signed into law a federal measure recognizing an unborn child as a victim when he or she is harmed or killed in a crime against a pregnant woman.

The court delivered a noteworthy victory for such unborn victims laws. California is among 29 states with laws that recognize the illegal killing of an unborn child as murder in at least some cases.

The California court’s ruling reinstates two second-degree murder convictions against Harold Wayne Taylor, who was sentenced to 65 years to life in prison for shooting his former girlfriend, Patty Fansler, to death in 1999, according to The Bee. Fansler was three months pregnant with a son, whose existence was detected during an autopsy, the newspaper reported. A state appeals court had overturned Taylor’s conviction for killing the unborn child since he was unaware Fansler was pregnant.

“When a defendant commits an act, the natural consequences of which are dangerous to human life, with a conscious disregard for life in general, he acts with implied malice towards those he ends up killing,” Justice Janice Rogers Brown wrote for the court, according to The Bee.

“In battering and shooting Fansler, &#91;Taylor&#93; acted with knowledge of the danger to and conscious disregard for life in general,” she wrote. “That is all that is required for implied malice murder. He did not need to be specifically aware how many potential victims his conscious disregard for life endangered.”

The National Right to Life Committee commended the decision, according to the newspaper, calling it a clear indication that “under California law, as under the federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act, if criminal intent towards one victim is proved, a criminal will be held responsible for the harm he does to other victims as well, including unborn children.”

The California law, like the new federal measure, does not apply to abortion, but pro-life advocates have supported such legislation, while abortion-rights organizations have expressed opposition.

According to The Bee, two state supreme courts have diverged on the issue of a killer’s knowledge of pregnancy. The Minnesota high court ruled in a similar fashion to the California justices, but the Illinois Supreme Court did not.

Bush has nominated Brown to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, but Democrats have blocked a floor vote on her confirmation.

PARTIAL-BIRTH TRIALS -- Witnesses for the federal government have testified in a Lincoln, Neb., federal court there is no evidence partial-birth abortions are either safer or medically necessary for women, but 20-week-old unborn children feel “severe” pain during the procedure.

The Department of Justice began its defense April 5 of the Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act in Lincoln. It is one of three federal courts where abortion doctors and abortion-rights organizations are challenging the law, which prohibits an abortion method normally used in the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy. The other courts are in New York and San Francisco. All three trials began March 29.

Kanwaljeet Anand, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, testified April 6 a partial-birth abortion “would be extremely painful” for an unborn baby at 20 weeks gestation, the Omaha World-Herald reported.

Unborn children at 20 weeks have developed the sensory nerves, skin receptors and brain stem required to feel pain, he said, according to the newspaper. Studies have demonstrated unborn babies display pain physiologically, exhibiting an increased heart rate and the secretion of stress hormones, Anand testified, the newspaper reported.

Under cross-examination by a lawyer for the law’s foes, Anand acknowledged no study proves his belief and some of his medical colleagues disagree with him, according to the World-Herald. He also said the pain could be as great for an unborn child who is aborted by means of another procedure in which the baby is dismembered, the newspaper reported.

The day before, two doctors testified the contention a partial-birth abortion is safer than other methods is not based on any in-depth study. 

“We have intuition that a procedure may be safer ... but without comparative data, it is impossible to state that a procedure is better or safer,” said George Mazariegos, a liver transplant surgeon in Pittsburgh, Pa., the World-Herald reported.

Doctors who perform abortions had testified previously a partial-birth abortion is safer than a dismemberment abortion, according to the newspaper.

That belief is based on experience and intuition, said Watson Bowes, retired from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, according to the World-Herald. A comparative study “might be difficult, but it can be done,” Bowes testified.

Testimony in all three trials has been graphic and often gruesome. Abortion doctors have been asked to describe the partial-birth and other procedures they utilize. Judge Richard Casey in New York has frequently questioned opponents of the ban, asking them details about their methods and how they explain the procedures to the women on whom they perform abortions.

Lawyers for the Department of Justice are arguing in all three cases that the partial-birth procedure is unnecessary to protect women’s health and results in pain for the unborn child. Lawyers for abortion-rights advocates, meanwhile, are contending the ban is too broad and is unconstitutional because it has no health exception.

Bush signed the ban into law in November, but opponents quickly brought suit, resulting in temporary orders against its enforcement in the three federal courts.

The partial-birth procedure normally involves the delivery of an intact baby, feet first, until only the head is left in the birth canal. The doctor usually pierces the base of the infant’s skull with surgical scissors, then inserts a catheter into the opening and suctions out the brain. Some of the abortion doctors in the trials have testified they at times use forceps to crush the skull. The collapse of the skull provides for easier removal of the baby’s head.

In addition to doctors who perform abortions, the National Abortion Federation is challenging the law in the New York court, the Center for Reproductive Rights in Lincoln and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in San Francisco.

The trials are expected to last from two to four weeks.

Congress twice adopted a partial-birth abortion ban in the 1990s only to have President Clinton veto each one. In both 1996 and 1998, the House achieved the two-thirds majorities necessary to override vetoes, but the Senate fell short.

The Southern Baptist Convention approved resolutions condemning the procedure in both 1996 and 2002.

Unofficial transcripts of the testimony in all three trials is available at the website of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops (www.usccb.org). Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, is observing the New York trials and providing updates on its site (www.aclj.org).

KERRY AND HIS CHURCH -- Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic candidate for president, may risk being refused communion if he attends a Roman Catholic church service in his home archdiocese in Boston Easter Sunday.

Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley has said Catholic politicians who support abortion rights are in violation of church teachings and cannot receive communion properly, The Washington Times reported. According to the newspaper, O’Malley has not cited either of Massachusetts’ senators, Kerry and Edward Kennedy, though both oppose restrictions on abortion and favor destructive research on embryos.

Earlier this year, St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke warned Kerry not to “present himself for communion” at any church in the archdiocese, The Times reported. When Kerry was in St. Louis March 28, he did not attend a Catholic service but spoke at New Northside Missionary Baptist Church.

A team of Catholic bishops is pondering how to handle politicians who violate church teaching but has not issued a report, according to The Times.

Kerry defended himself when reporters asked him April 5 about criticisms from some conservatives for supporting abortion rights and homosexual civil unions.

“I’m not a church spokesman,” he said, according to The New York Times. “I’m a legislator running for president. My oath is to uphold the Constitution of the United States in my public life. My oath privately between me and God was defined in the Catholic church by Pius XXIII and Pope Paul VI in the Vatican II, which allows for freedom of conscience for Catholics with respect to these choices, and that is exactly where I am. And it is separate. Our Constitution separates church and state, and they should be reminded of that.”

The Times pointed out there has been no Pius XXIII. Kerry supposedly was referring to John XXIII, the newspaper said.

ABORTION-CANCER LINK –- A recent study published in a British medical journal contending there is no increased risk of breast cancer for women who have had abortions is “a horrible piece of work,” an expert on the subject has said.

Valerie Beral, a professor at Oxford, coauthored a report in the March 26 issue of the Lancet Journal suggesting there is no link between abortion and breast cancer, LifeSiteNews reported. Beral has concentrated on research seeking to refute such a link, according to LifeSite.

She supposedly examined 53 studies in 16 countries, but the study is “very badly done” and “very vulnerable,” Joel Brind told LifeSite.

Brind, a professor at Baruch College who is probably the foremost expert on the abortion/breast cancer link, said the researchers rejected studies that did not fit their agenda. This included 28 major studies that utilized post-abortion women’s self-reports and showed elevated risks for breast cancer in women who had abortions, LifeSite reported.

The researchers also excluded some studies that showed a link, because the original authors of the reports could not be located, Brind said.

Based on that reasoning, he said, “We ought to consider going back to assuming that the sun revolves around the earth since it sure looks like that to me, and we have looked all around the University of Krakow in Poland and we cannot locate Dr. Copernicus, so we should throw out his data.”

Baruch College is a senior college of The City University of New York.
--30--



--------------------------------------------------------------------

Mo. judge clarifies ruling against convention over entities
by Staff
Date: April 07, 2004 - Wednesday

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (BP)—A Missouri judge entered an order on April 7 refusing to reconsider his March 11 ruling against the Missouri Baptist Convention in its legal effort to return Missouri Baptist College to the convention along with four other breakaway entities.

Cole County Circuit Court Judge Tom Brown also denied the convention’s motion to amend its current petition seeking a declaratory judgment that the breakaway entities violated their charters when trustees voted to become self-perpetuating instead of elected by the convention.

Convention attorneys say the procedural issue of the MBC’s standing to bring suit will now go to the Missouri Court of Appeals in Kansas City, while a new petition naming individual MBC messengers as the plaintiffs will be filed to permit the case to pick up where it was before March 11.

“We respectfully disagree with the judge’s interpretation of our MBC constitution,” said Mike Whitehead, lead counsel for the convention. “Judge Brown was right a year ago when he allowed the churches and &#91;convention’s&#93; executive board to proceed as proper plaintiffs. We believe the Court of Appeals will uphold the original ruling, and will reverse this latest ruling. 

“This case is not about procedure, and standing, but about charter promises,” Whitehead noted. “In the Court of Appeals, or in the new petition, we will finally get to the issue that the defendants are trying so hard to avoid: Did the entity charters give their word that MBC would elect their trustees? Are those promises enforceable?”

Brown ruled on March 11 that neither churches nor the MBC executive board have standing to file suit against Missouri Baptist College regarding the charter changes. He referred to language in the college charter as being insufficient to give the executive board standing. Brown’s March 11 ruling did not expressly include the four other entities –- the Word & Way newsjournal, Missouri Baptist Foundation, The Baptist Home and Windermere Baptist Conference Center. In his April 7 order, however, Brown expressly stated that the petition by the churches and MBC executive board was dismissed as to all five institutions.

“It was important to have him say expressly what is the scope and basis for his ruling so it will be clear to the Court of Appeals,” Whitehead said. “We believe his March 11 order was not clear on its scope and basis, and his comments at the hearing on April 5 confirmed that. This case will continue in a higher court while the new petition is filed in the lower court.” 

Brown commented from the bench on April 5 that his March 11 order only applied to the college and not the other four entities. Defense attorneys told the judge they thought his order did apply to all defendants.

Charles Hatfield, a former assistant Attorney General for Missouri and now a member of the Stinson, Morrison & Hecker law firm, argued for the convention along with Whitehead. The Stinson firm (formerly Stinson, Mag & Fizzell) was one of three law firms which wrote preliminary opinion letters for the convention in 2002. All three firms independently concluded that the five entities violated their charters and broke Missouri corporate law. Hatfield, whose office is in Jefferson City, has provided local assistance to the Kansas City-based legal team for the past several months.

Hatfield reminded Brown about the 2003 case in his court, Asmus v. Capital Region Family Practice, in which the Western District Court of Appeals in Missouri ruled that Brown’s refusal to grant a motion to amend to substitute the proper party was an abuse of discretion and a reversible error.

Brown, after hearing Hatfield’s presentation of the Asmus argument, acknowledged that he remembered the case as one he had handled. He recalled that the Court of Appeals told him he had to allow the amendment so he allowed the amendment in order for the lawsuit to proceed with the proper plaintiff. 

Clyde Farris, the St. Louis attorney who represents Missouri Baptist College, told Brown that he should not allow his March 11 order to be revised and that he could not permit an amendment.

“They never had a right to bring this case,” Farris said. “Neither the churches nor the MBC executive board had standing to file the original lawsuit and they do not have standing to amend the petition.” Farris further argued that the judge had no jurisdiction to permit an amendment if there was no plaintiff before the court with standing. Brown’s April 7 order adopted Farris’ language and argument that the Asmus case did not require the judge to allow an amendment, if the judge provided a reason. In the April 7 order, Brown said the plaintiffs’ lacked a “beneficial interest” in the lawsuit.

Whitehead and Hatfield argued in written briefs that the court always has jurisdiction to rule on procedural matters, even when a court has ruled that the plaintiff lacks standing. An amendment may add a party which has standing and “cure the deficiency” of lack of standing, so the court has power to grant an amendment even when the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the merits of a case.

“We believe that an amended petition would have been more efficient and less expensive, but the defendants have persuaded this judge on this procedural point for today,” Whitehead said. “We have known from the beginning that, with a quarter of a billion dollars at issue, the entities would pay their army of lawyers many millions of dollars to try to avoid the heart of the case. But justice delayed will not be justice denied. We will be as persistent as the importunate widow in pleading with the judge until he gives us justice regarding the promises these entities made.”  
--30--



--------------------------------------------------------------------

Adventure recreation gearing up at conference centers
by Chris Turner
Date: April 07, 2004 - Wednesday

GLORIETA, N.M. (BP)--Jim Strickland slides the tip of his pen across the fuzzy black and white satellite photo of LifeWay Glorieta Conference Center and can see things his guest can’t.

“Right here is where the adventure course will be and back here will be three different paintball ranges,” he says. “Our shelter facilities with classrooms will go over here.”

Strickland, adventure recreation manager at Glorieta, talks as if he can actually see what is now only a dream. But it is a dream that is coming true. Beginning May 1, new adventure recreation opportunities will be launched at the New Mexico conference center owned by LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Phase I of the adventure course, also known as a ropes course, will consist of a tower and high and low elements. Phases II and III will add additional high elements, a zip line and multiple shelters for instruction. Phase I is nearly complete.

Three paintball ranges, a climbing wall and a nature trail also will complement an environmental education program Strickland will create. 

“Our purposes for developing adventure recreation are to increase recreational opportunities for our guests here at Glorieta and to attract groups that want to participate in these activities as part of team-building exercises,” said Strickland, who has an extensive background in teaching leadership through adventure recreation and has earned degrees in biology and outdoor education administration. He joined Glorieta’s staff in December to expand the conference center’s ministry opportunities. 

“We’ll have opportunities to help everyone from junior high through adults develop their leadership abilities and become more cohesive as a group,” Strickland said. “I’ve seen youth groups develop unity through working together on an adventure course. This is something that can be incorporated into our Centrifuge camps as well.”

A similar course at LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Center near Asheville, N.C., also will be completed by June 1.

Adding the adventure facilities enables the conference centers to offer specific programming. Hal Hill, national events planner for LifeWay, sees it as a significant opportunity for participants.

“By having the facilities and having an on-site expert, we can intentionally design a program exclusively for individuals or groups,” Hill said. “It is as simple as fielding a call from a group, finding out what its desired outcome is and developing a plan for getting the group’s members to realize their goals. The intent is to have a way to help people build relationships and teams in an environment that also helps them grow spiritually.”

Hill said organizations, departments within organizations, church staffs, youth ministries, men’s and women’s groups and a variety of other groups and organizations can be accommodated.

The environmental education program, still one to two years away from development, will satisfy school requirements for most students across the country, Strickland said. Most of the core elements of an environmental education program are similar among school systems, although they vary in their extensiveness. Strickland said the program at Glorieta will be flexible enough to adjust for individual needs.

“We’ll have a nature trail and lessons on subjects such as plant life and ecosystems,” Strickland said. “We’re looking at three- to five-day programs. This program will be a great help to home and private schools. Many public schools are looking outside of their systems to get this credit. This is a great opportunity for us to teach environmental education that is God-centered.”
--30--
For more information on either Glorieta or Ridgecrest conference centers, call 1-877-LifeWay or visit lifeway.com/conferencecenters. (BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: TOWER FOR TEAM-BUILDING.



--------------------------------------------------------------------

Miss. collegians, on spring break, help out at MBTS
by James Streicher
Date: April 07, 2004 - Wednesday

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)--Rolling up their sleeves and putting elbow grease into their brush strokes, 21 students from Itawamba Community College’s Baptist Student Union in Fulton, Miss., sacrificed their spring break to help touch up the facilities at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“It is a privilege to bring these students here during their spring break and help with some current projects on campus,” Itawamba BSU director Chris Burrows said. “Every year during spring break we take a mission trip to remember that mission work involves not only sharing the Gospel message but also getting our hands dirty in helping others.”

“The team’s work has helped us complete several special tasks,” said Jill Scruby, campus operations office manager and housing coordinator at the Kansas City, Mo., seminary. The team painted a faculty parking lot, for example, and several student housing units.

Freshman student Stefanie Yielding of Fulton, Miss., on her first mission trip with the BSU, recounted, “When I heard about the trip I felt it could be an interesting opportunity to meet some new folks.

“It was a great trip &#91;during&#93; which I learned a lot about myself, others on the team and got do a lot of painting that otherwise may not have been done,” Yielding said.

The Itawamba BSU group was the first of several teams scheduled this summer to help with various projects on the Midwestern Seminary campus. Over the past couple years, the Mississippi Baptist Convention has sent several volunteer teams to help with projects at Midwestern.

Burrows, of the Itawamba BSU, said a group of students spent last year’s spring break working on a project in Vermont that included shoveling snow off the roofs of houses.
--30--
(BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: BRUSHING UP.




--------------------------------------------------------------------

Karen Watson’s duffel bag a symbol of sacrifice, students told
by Katherine Albers
Date: April 07, 2004 - Wednesday

NEW ORLEANS (BP)--Everything she owned was in a duffel bag. When she felt God’s call to Iraq, Karen Watson resigned her job, sold her car, her house and other worldly possessions, packing what was left into a duffel bag.  

In March 2003, she went to Iraq to fulfill that call. One year later, that duffel bag is a reminder of the work she did in telling the lost in Iraq about Christ. She left a two-page letter with her pastor and gave instructions that it be opened only upon her death.

That letter was opened last month after she and three other Southern Baptist aid workers were killed in Iraq. In it, she made it clear that she had counted the cost of going. In handwritten capital letters she wrote, “THERE ARE NO REGRETS.”

Watson’s family shared her story with International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin at her funeral.

Rankin reiterated Watson’s sacrifice during Global Missions Week at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary as he encouraged students, faculty and staff to consider missions not out of obligation to fulfill the Great Commission, but because they are compelled by Christ’s love.

Philip Pinckard, associate professor of missions and director of the seminary’s Global Missions Center, voiced appreciation to the IMB for “an excellent group of missionaries during our Global Missions Week to serve as living testimonies of missions to the students of NOBTS.”

“The chapel times, displays, sharing in classes and conferences all provided opportunities to explore missionary service and involvement,” Pinckard said.

The main purpose of the March 29-April 2 missions emphasis is to educate the NOBTS community on what it means to be a missionary. The emphasis featured various missionaries who recounted what God is doing around the world.

Troy Bush, IMB strategy coordinator in Moscow, said Global Missions Week raises awareness of the diverse needs on the mission field and puts students in personal contact with key places of service.

“One of the opportunities we have by being at a conference ... is that we are able to introduce the ministry as well as dispel a lot of myths about life on the mission field,” Bush said, underscoring the great need for additional missionaries and church planters throughout the world.

Bush entered into a dialogue with NOBTS in the fall of 2001 about beginning a ministry partnership. The partnership now assists Bush in meeting the needs of people in Moscow, while helping the seminary provide real-world mission training for its students. In May 2005 NOBTS will offer a four-credit-hour mission course in which seminary students and faculty members will serve in Moscow.

“Our hope and our desire with that partnership is to be able to link both the &#91;seminary’s&#93; development of students with the needs we have on the field and actually put professors and students together in meeting those needs,” Bush said.

IMB representatives from Central and Eastern Europe, Southern, Eastern and West Africa, Eastern South America, South Asia, and Western Pacific conducted workshops on missions and evangelism during the week. They also met with students and faculty to discuss international mission opportunities.

“We hope that NOBTS students preparing for service in the local church realize that missions should be the heartbeat of the body of Christ,” Pinckard said. “As local churches catch a missions vision, more persons will serve in missions not only in their communities but around the world.”

Rankin, in his chapel address April 1, said the needs and evangelistic opportunities, particularly in the Muslim world, are presenting themselves in unprecedented numbers and in ways that no amount of strategizing has cause: God is moving in His power.

“As I was traveling the Middle East, there were posters for ‘The Passion’ all over.... This week it’s been sold out. One theater in Jordan said nobody wanted to see the other films. They closed out the other films, put The Passion on all screens in the cinemaplex,” Rankin said. “Pirated DVDs are being distributed in Baghdad and all across the Muslim world.... 

“Who’s going to respond and say, ‘I’ll go to answer the questions, to give a witness, to follow up with what Jesus is doing’?” Rankin asked.

Despite the obvious need for more missionaries, Rankin noted that a sense of duty to the Great Commission is not sufficient motivation for becoming a missionary.

“You don’t become a missionary simply because there’s a need in the lost world,” he said. “You don’t become obedient unto death in place&#91;s&#93; like Yemen and Iraq just simply because of a sense of obligation because Jesus told you to go. No, you are driven by a passion in your heart for a lost world.”

The call to give one’s life to reaching lost nations for Christ is not understood by secular culture, Rankin said, because secular culture cannot imagine being willing to die in passionate pursuit of that goal. 

“Media and culture, they just don’t get it. Why would anyone go to a place that their lives would be at risk?” Rankin said. “We have succumbed to a culture and a philosophy where it is all about us, it's all about our comfort, all about our security, all about our future in this life. They never come to understand that there is something worth giving your life to. There is a purpose that’s worth dying for. But the world doesn’t understand that. And I’m not sure we understand that that for which God called us is not just something to give our lives for and to live for, but it must be driven by a sense of purpose and passion.”

“Folks, it wasn’t just about you and me,” Rankin said. “It was about God’s plan of redemption for the nations and all the peoples of the world, to give us a message of hope for people who are in despair, a message of salvation for those in bondage to sin, to share the light with those who are in darkness -- that’s why Jesus paid that awful price for our sin.”
--30--
(BP) photos posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo titles: EXTENDING THE CALL and RELAYING THE NEED.



--------------------------------------------------------------------

Southwestern trustees elect 2 deans, approve M.Div., college
by Gregory Tomlin
Date: April 07, 2004 - Wednesday

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--Trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary elected two new deans during their semiannual meeting on the seminary’s Fort Worth, Texas, campus April 6.

Trustees approved a new Master of Divinity degree with optional concentrations to replace five previously offered Master of Divinity degree programs. The most notable difference between the new degree and previous M.Div. programs is that the study of biblical languages is required. Each student will be required to take four semesters of Greek and three semesters of Hebrew.

Trustees also approved in principle the establishment of Southwestern Baptist Theological College, an undergraduate institution located on the Fort Worth campus. Seminary President Paige Patterson said the undergraduate school will offer a Christ-centered, biblical education for those who later want to pursue vocational ministry and a master’s degree at the seminary.

Patterson established an undergraduate school at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., during his tenure there. When the college is formed at Southwestern, it will be the fifth such institution created by Southern Baptist seminaries.

Elected as deans were David Allen, 47, for the seminary’s theology school and Denny Autrey, 52, for the J. Dalton Havard School for Theological Studies in Houston, where he also will serve as professor of pastoral ministries. 

Allen will assume his duties in August and will oversee the development of the Southwestern Center for Expository Preaching, the formation of which trustees approved during their meeting.

Allen served as chairman of the seminary’s trustees from 2003-04. His term as a trustee expired this year. He currently serves as professor of expository preaching at the Criswell College in Dallas and is senior pastor of MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church in Irving.

A Georgia native, Allen earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Criswell College in 1978. He earned a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Seminary in 1981 and a Ph.D. in humanities at the University of Texas at Arlington in 1987.

Craig Blaising, Southwestern’s executive vice president and provost, said Allen’s election as dean signaled the right time to establish the Center for Expository Preaching.

“Dr. Allen, as the W.A. Criswell Professor of Expository Preaching, directed the Jerry Vines Institute for Biblical Preaching at Criswell College. His experience and skill will transfer to the directorship of this new center at Southwestern,” Blaising said.

Blaising said Southwestern is attracting attention with the addition of prominent preaching faculty, including Calvin Pearson and Stephen Smith, the son of former Southern Baptist Convention President Bailey Smith. He also said that a newly created master’s certificate in expository preaching, which can be earned as part of Southwestern’s new Master of Divinity degree, testifies to the seminary’s belief in the importance of preaching and the teaching of preaching on its campus.

“Dr. Allen ... is a biblical scholar, a theologian and an excellent practitioner of ministry, a model example in all the areas of training represented by the school,” Blaising said. “He has established himself with excellence in the expository preaching of God’s Word.”

Autrey, who will serve as a resident officer for Southwestern’s Havard School in Houston, graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration in 1976. He graduated from Southwestern with a Master of Divinity and with a biblical languages degree and Doctor of Ministry degree in 1984 and 1987, respectively.

Autrey is pastor of First Baptist Church of Lindale, Texas, but has served several educational institutions. He was adjunct professor of Old and New Testament survey at San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Texas, from 1982-84. He served as adjunct professor of New Testament survey at the Ministry Training Institute of Oklahoma Baptist University and was adjunct professor of biblical studies and leadership at Criswell College from 2000-04.

Blaising said Autrey “carries within him the zeal of B.H. Carroll and L.R. Scarborough and he will lead the school of Southwestern in Houston to be a lighthouse of ministry and training and instruction, faithful to the inerrant Word of God, for all of southeast Texas.”

Autrey also has served on Southwestern’s board of trustees. 

Trustees also approved the installation of Robert Welch as the dean of the educational ministries school. Welch, professor of administration, had been serving as the acting dean of the school since the resignation of its former dean last year.

Rudy Gonzalez, who has been serving under presidential appointment as vice president of student services since January 2004, was elected to his position and also to serve as professor of New Testament. 

The selection of new deans and seminary officers marks the beginning of seminary President Patterson’s shaping of his administration and the seminary. Patterson said he was pleased to find Allen and Autrey willing to undertake their respective tasks.

Patterson, voicing optimism about Southwestern’s future, cited in his report to trustees an increase in enrollment in the spring semester -- a “miracle that transpired” -- as evidence that the seminary is healthy and moving in the right direction.

“We were actually up a few students in the spring over the fall semester. This almost never happens,” Patterson said. He said he continues to meet with each prospective student, assuming his schedule allows it. Patterson encouraged pastors, satisfied alumni and the parents of students to trust Southwestern Seminary with those called to ministry.

The seminary, he said, will focus over the coming years to strengthen three areas: the church music school and the master of divinity and doctoral programs in the theology school.

“In the music school we have suffered a considerable attrition rate across the years. That has nothing to do with a failure here at Southwestern Seminary. The faculty is as technically proficient as ever. But as you know we are in the midst of a revolution in our churches,” Patterson said, noting that many music ministers are not seeking seminary training today.

Patterson also said that changes to the master of divinity curriculum and doctoral program will attract students and increase enrollment in those programs.

The new Southwestern master of divinity degree offers 18 hours of free electives that allow students to obtain a certificate of concentration in one of 18 areas.

In addition to the required four semesters of Greek and three semesters of Hebrew, other changes to the master of divinity program include the revision of Baptist history courses to include a greater emphasis on the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Program, and the introduction of a required spiritual formation course that will include chapel attendance and a weekly session. Trustees also approved the addition of a course on the Christian home to the philosophical and ethics studies requirement of the new master of divinity degree.

In other business, trustees:

-- voted to establish the David McDonnall Missionary Scholarship Fund. Patterson recommended the formation of the scholarship fund after he spoke with trustees about the dedication of Southwestern students David and Carrie McDonnall.

David McDonnall was killed in Iraq along with three other International Mission Board personnel March 15. Only his wife, Carrie, survived. “We have not heard from her mouth one time that she wished they hadn’t gone,” Patterson said. 

Patterson pledged the first $1,000 for the scholarship fund, and trustee Michael Dean (Texas), pastor to the McDonnalls at Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth, called on all members of the board to contribute. “An affirmative vote on the behalf of the trustees indicates their moral and financial support for the scholarship fund,” Dean said.

-- elected as chairman of the board David Galvan, pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista Nueva Vida in Garland, Texas, and the first Hispanic to assume the leadership of a board for a Southern Baptist entity. Galvan served as vice chairman during the past year and is a former second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He was described by trustee Philip Walker (Va.) as “respected across the state of Texas and beyond ... a man of integrity with a sweet, sweet spirit.”

-- elected as vice chairman T. Van McClain, associate professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Schenectady, N.Y. Trustee Dan Nelson (Calif.) said McClain has immense experience in academic administration and is “very versed in parliamentary procedure and Robert’s Rules of Order.”

-- re-elected as secretary Royal E. Smith, a retired psychologist from Southlake, Texas.

-- adopted a budget of $31.5 million, a 2.58 percent increase over the previous year’s budget.

-- approved the designation of the J. Dalton Havard Center for Theological Studies in Houston, Texas, as a school of Southwestern Seminary.

-- approved in principle the establishment of a School of Evangelism and Missions on the Fort Worth campus. Trustee Ted Stone of North Carolina said he is thankful that the evangelism school is becoming a reality. “I believe it will attract students from all over the globe,” Stone said. He said that he had pledged $1,000 for the foundation of the school.

-- elected eight faculty members to the theology and educational ministries schools.

-- approved the presidential appointment of two faculty members in the theology school.

-- promoted Benjamin Harlan, associate professor of church music, to professor of church music.
--30--
(BP) photos posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo titles: MOMENT TO REFLECT, NEW CHAIRMAN and PRESIDENT’S OPTIMISM.



--------------------------------------------------------------------

Seminary adds 10 faculty members, including 1st native of Mexico
by Brent Thompson
Date: April 07, 2004 - Wednesday

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--Trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary elected eight new faculty members, including the first-ever native of Mexico, during their April 6 meeting.

Six were elected to positions in the theology and educational ministries schools at the Fort Worth, Texas, campus and two were elected to Southwestern Seminary’s J. Dalton Havard School for Theological Studies in Houston.

President Paige Patterson also appointed two faculty members to the school of theology. 

Octavio Esqueda, a native of Mexico, was elected assistant professor of administration and foundations of education in the school of educational ministries. He holds a Ph.D. in higher education from the University of North Texas in Denton, a master’s degree from Dallas Theological Seminary, a licencitura in Spanish literature (Bachelor of Arts) and diploma in religion and society from the University of Guadalajara in Guadalajara, Mexico, and a diploma of journalism from the Public Department of Education in Guadalajara.

Esqueda has held teaching positions at the Howard Center for Christian Studies in Dallas and at the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO) in Guadalajara. He has preached and taught in a number of churches in Mexico, the United States and Cuba.

“Dr. Esqueda is an excellent young man,” said Robert Welch, the newly elected dean of the school of educational ministries. “He has been team-teaching this semester. The feedback from both the professors and students has been very good.”

Also elected to the faculty were:

-- Michael Wilson as associate professor of pastoral ministry in the school of theology. Wilson comes to Southwestern from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., where he was vice president for institutional advancement and professor of practical theology and leadership.

Wilson holds a Doctor of Education degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., a Master of Divinity from Southwestern and a Bachelor of Science degree from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. He has been director of evangelism for various state organizations and has served as a senior pastor, minister of evangelism, interim pastor and youth pastor during his career. Wilson has been serving under presidential appointment at Southwestern for the past year.

-- Paul Hoskins as assistant professor of New Testament in the school of theology. Hoskins received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Ill. He has two master’s degrees from Southern Seminary and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

Most recently Hoskins served as a professor of New Testament and instructor in Greek at Trinity. He has also been a teaching fellow and an English teacher for Russian pastors at Southern Seminary. He has been an occasional preacher for various churches both in the United States and Poland.

-- John Mark Yeats as assistant professor of church history in the school of theology. Yeats has taught at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee and adjunctively at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Ill. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in historical theology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Yeats has master’s degrees from Southern Seminary and the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. He has served on the staff of churches in Texas, Illinois and Indiana. Yeats is the coauthored of the “Church History Chart Book.”

-- Steven Smith as assistant professor of preaching in the school of theology. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., a Master of Divinity degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., and a Bachelor of Science degree from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. Prior to his election to the faculty at Southwestern, he had been senior pastor of Salem Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., for eight years.

-- John D. Laing as assistant professor of systematic theology and philosophy for the J. Dalton Havard School for Theological Studies in Houston. A native of Quebec, Canada, Laing holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Southern Seminary, a Master of Divinity with biblical languages degree from Southeastern Seminary and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Most recently, Laing served as an adjunct professor at Southern Seminary and Boyce College and Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky., and the Baptist College of Florida in Graceville. 

-- James M. Hamilton Jr. as assistant professor of biblical studies for the Havard School for Theological Studies. Hamilton holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Southern Seminary, a Master of Theology degree from Dallas Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark.

He was licensed to preach by First Baptist Church in Dallas in 2000 and has served in a number of youth ministry positions. Prior to his appointment to the faculty of the Havard School, Hamilton served as a teaching fellow at Southern Seminary.

He has published articles in a number of scholarly journals including Westminster Theological Journal and Trinity Journal. He has a book manuscript awaiting publication titled, “The Holy Spirit and Old Covenant Believers: Regeneration and Indwelling in Biblical Theology.”

Seminary President Paige Patterson appointed Richard T. Vann Jr. and Robert W. Caldwell III to the faculty of the theology school.

Vann, a former U.S. Army chaplain, was appointed associate professor of pastoral ministry. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in foundations of education from the University of South Carolina in Columbia. 

In addition to completing courses at the U.S. Army Chaplain Center and School in Fort Jackson, S.C., and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., Vann has three master’s degrees: a Master of Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., a Master of Education from Wayne State University in Detroit and a Master of Arts in New Testament from Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary in Colorado. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Mars Hill (N.C.) College.

Before his appointment to the faculty of Southwestern, Vann was a U.S. Army post chaplain, deputy command chaplain, a senior pastor, interim pastor, pulpit supply preacher, single adult minister and college instructor in Christian ethics.

Caldwell was appointed associate professor of church history. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in historical theology and two master’s degrees from Trinity and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Trinity awarded Caldwell the Merit Scholarship Award for Historical Theology for two consecutive years. His master’s thesis on Jonathan Edwards was given Trinity’s award for best thesis in history or Christian thought. Caldwell has taught at North Park University in Chicago and Barat College in Lake Forest, Ill., and served as a teaching assistant at Trinity. 
-—30—-



--------------------------------------------------------------------

Women’s institute sessions examine mentorship, leadership development
by David Roach
Date: April 07, 2004 - Wednesday

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--More than a dozen women learned how to implement biblically based women’s mentorship programs and studied leadership skill development during Women’s Ministry Institute sessions March 29-April 2 at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Garnetta Smith, women’s Bible study teacher at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, and Rose Booth, mentoring team leader at Ninth and O Baptist Church in Louisville, led the sessions dealing with women’s mentorship. Janice Seifrid, director of student life at Southern Seminary, and Heather King, director of women’s programs, led the sessions on leadership skill development.

Women’s Ministry Institute is designed to train laywomen to minister in the context of a local congregation. Upon the completion of eight WMI units of study, students receive a certificate of ministry studies from Boyce College, the seminary’s undergraduate division. 

“Women’s ministry leaders desire to be equipped and effective, as they are a vital part of God’s Kingdom,” King said. “However, the vast majority will not become fulltime seminary students. WMI is a way to link women’s ministry leaders providing an atmosphere of learning, networking and encouragement.”

Cindy Miller, a women’s ministry leader at Red House Baptist Church in Richmond, Ky., said the training she receives at WMI has translated into increased effectiveness in her ministry.

“The sound doctrine that has come from &#91;these sessions&#93; has really impressed me,” Miller said. “... I have tried to take this home and put it into effect, and everything that I have learned here has worked in women’s ministry in a local church.”

Bonnie Epperson, a women’s ministry leader at Valley View Baptist Church in Louisville, said the sessions on discipleship proved particularly helpful for her ministry.

The sessions encouraged me to “do more discipleship with ... women, not so much just building friendships but building them in their relationships with Christ,” she said. “... As leaders ... our intentional heart’s desire is to make disciples for Christ.”

In addition to gaining knowledge from lectures and readings, WMI students develop “genuine Christian sisterhood” with each other, King said.

“Not a part of the official curriculum is this amazing bond that surpasses mere friendship and enters the realm of Christian sisterhood,” she said. “They are interested in each other’s personal lives and ministries. It is not uncommon to see women huddled together during the breaks and meals praying for each other’s ministries and needs.”

The combination of classroom instruction and Christian fellowship helps students develop a holistic and balanced approach to women’s ministry, according to many participants.

“I came thinking that I was going to learn how to ... put a program together,” said Sandi McDowell, also from Red House Baptist Church in Richmond, Ky. “And what I really learned was that it’s not about the program. It’s about the spirit of the women and ... learning where our hearts need to be.

“... Women do not realize what a goldmine they have spiritually in the Women’s Ministry Institute.”

WMI will hold its next sessions Sept. 20-24 at the Louisville campus. The sessions will deal with the topic, “Taking Your Women’s Ministry to the Next Level.”
--30--
Additional information about WMI can be obtained by calling Southern Seminary’s admissions office at 1-800-626-5525. (BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: LEADER LESSONS.



--------------------------------------------------------------------

FIRST-PERSON: John Kerry & his Catholicism (part 2)
by R. Albert Mohler Jr.
Date: April 07, 2004 - Wednesday

<i>EDITORS’ NOTE: This is the second of two columns on the tensions between presidential candidate John Kerry and his Roman Catholic faith.</i>


LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--The 2004 presidential election campaign will pit two very different candidates against each other, representing not only two different political parties, but two divergent worldviews. On issues ranging from stem cell research and abortion to same-sex “marriage,” the candidates represent two different worlds of moral conviction. Interestingly, President George W. Bush, a Methodist, stands much closer to the Catholic Church's teaching on these issues than does Sen. John Kerry, who identifies as a practicing Roman Catholic. What is going on here?

As a senator and as a presidential candidate, John Kerry has consistently taken a pro-abortion and pro-homosexual line. For example, he made a rare return to the Senate chamber recently in order to cast a vote against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which passed nevertheless and was signed into law by the president. Kerry was one of only a handful of senators who voted against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. This has not escaped the notice of concerned Catholics and other conservative Christians.

Of course, John Kerry is not the first Roman Catholic politician to feel the heat on these issues. The Vatican went public with its frustration when former Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, running in 1984 as the Democratic candidate for vice president, claimed to be pro-life even as she supported a pro-abortion political platform and had a pro-abortion record in Congress.

Perhaps the most famous recent politician to engage in public conflict with the Vatican was former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo. Never one to run from a debate, Cuomo went to the University of Notre Dame in 1984 and delivered an address titled, "Religious Belief and Public Morality: A Catholic Governor's Perspective." Rather than deny a potential conflict of conscience as John F. Kennedy did in 1960, Cuomo seemed almost to revel in his conflict with the Vatican. "My church and my conscience require me to believe certain things about divorce, birth control and abortion," Cuomo acknowledged. "My church does not order me -- under pain of sin or expulsion -- to pursue my salvific mission according to a precisely defined political plan."

That second sentence is either dishonest or disingenuous. Catholic moral teaching does indeed call for specific support for pro-life legislation and cannot possibly be construed to allow a Catholic politician to grant political and legal support to abortion. In a brilliant retort, Robert P. George and William L. Saunders -- both Catholics -- took Cuomo to task. "Cuomo prides himself on being something of an intellectual, and there is no denying that he is a bright fellow. He must know then that, at its root, this is utter nonsense. He must be aware that the Church's teaching on abortion truly does 'translate' straightforwardly into a specific public policy -- the unborn, like the rest of us, are to be afforded equal protection under law; abortion is to be generally prohibited and never publicly promoted -- in a way that her teachings regarding care for the poor or the requirement of fairness and distributing tax liability, for example, simply do not." As they explained, "Cuomo's Notre Dame speech provided a virtual playbook for pro-abortion Catholic politicians who wished to claim their public support for 'the right to choose' abortion was not inconsistent with their personal moral opposition to deliberate feticide."

In recent years, the Vatican has explicitly condemned the practice of Catholic politicians violating Catholic moral teaching in public policy. In 2002, the Vatican released a "Doctrinal Note" instructing that Catholics may not live double lives. Catholic politicians must be "morally coherent," the document instructs. "There cannot be two parallel lives in their existence: on the one hand, the so-called 'spiritual life,' with its values and demands; and on the other, the so-called 'secular' life, that is, life in a family, at work, in social responsibilities, in the responsibilities of public life and in culture." 	In other words, a Catholic politician is obligated to support legislation that defends life, and must not support the culture of death.

Just last year, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released a statement titled, "Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons." This official Catholic mandate instructs "that all Catholics are obliged to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions." Furthermore, "Catholic politicians are obliged to do so in a particular way, in keeping with their responsibility as politicians. Faced with legislative proposals in favor of homosexual unions, Catholic politicians are to remain faithful to the teachings of the Church."

The presidential campaign will reveal how America's Roman Catholics will respond to John Kerry. In the meantime, the candidate faces some rather awkward challenges from within the hierarchy of his church. When Kerry campaigned recently in Missouri, St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke publicly warned him not to present himself for communion, citing Canon Law 915, which deals with "those who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin." Kerry was undeterred and told TIME magazine, "I certainly intend to take communion and continue to go to Mass as a Catholic."

Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley has given Kerry communion in the past but recently warned that Catholic politicians out of line with church teachings "shouldn't dare come to communion."

This is exactly what Robert P. George and William L. Saunders called for in their article criticizing Catholic political leadership. "The shunning of anti-life politicians would vividly remind ordinary lay Catholics of the seriousness of the Church's teachings regarding the sanctity of human life and would send the clear message that Catholics and other Christians who serve the 'Culture of Death' are tragically weakening their relationship with Christ and alienating themselves from the community of Christian faith."

This is not merely a "Catholic issue," of course, for evangelical Christians face the same dilemma in dealing with candidates who claim to be evangelical but support same-sex unions and abortion. Have we really reached the point when candidates must just "happen" to be evangelical Christians, Jews or Roman Catholics? This implies that faith is nothing more then a matter of ethnicity or privatized belief.

Political maturity -- and Christian conviction -- must require that we judge a candidate by consistency of character as well as by the eagerness of identification with one faith or another. We should look for integrity of heart and consistency in political judgment. In other words, we should hope for Catholic politicians who are genuinely Catholic and evangelicals who are authentically evangelical. This is especially true when dealing with issues of life and death, marriage and family, war and peace.

There is no getting around the reality that candidates who merely "happen" to be Christian and make no connection between their faith and public policy will produce a nation that "happens" to be fully secularized. That's just the way it is. Or, as John Kerry might prefer to put it, faith without works is dead.
--30--
R. Albert Mohler Jr. is president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Adapted from his weblog at www.crosswalk.com.



--------------------------------------------------------------------

FIRST-PERSON: Whosoever
by Micca Campbell
Date: April 07, 2004 - Wednesday

GOODLETTSVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--As a little girl, I remember gazing at a picture of the crucifixion that hung on the wall in my Sunday School class. Christ’s body was thin and hung limp to one side. His head was bowed low as blood trickled down His face from the crown of thorns He humbly wore. It appeared that the nails in His hands and feet were what fastened Him to the cross. Soon I would discover it was something much more than nails that held Him there. It was the love of a heavenly Father for a sinner such as I.

Years later, I was a young adult when I saw the true picture of the crucifixion in the Word of God. The Bible painted a different picture of Christ's death than the one I had known as a child. "Yet many shall be amazed when they see him -- yes, even far-off foreign nations and their kings; they shall stand dumbfounded, speechless in his presence. For they shall see and understand what they had not been told before. They shall see my Servant beaten and bloodied, so disfigured one would scarcely know it was a person standing there" (Isaiah 52:14-15, Living Bible). In that moment, I realized they had not simply nailed Christ to a cross, placed a crown of thorns upon His head, gashed His side with a spear, spit in His face, gave him vinegar to drink, gambled for His clothes, and beat Him with a whip, but they beat Him until He became unrecognizable flesh hanging on a cross.

My mind suddenly flashed back to the first time I walked into the hospital room after my husband had been burned in a house fire. Porter's skin was completely black, his head had swollen to twice its normal size and the skin on his arms was gone. He was unrecognizable.

If Porter had been told ahead of time that working in that house would result in being burned over 80 percent of his body, suffering for eight days, leaving his wife and child behind in death, I'm sure he would have chosen not to go in. Not knowing what was ahead of him, Porter didn't have that choice, but Christ did.

Christ knew the horror of what men and women would do to Him and yet He chose to suffer. He chose the cross. He chose to leave heaven and come to earth. Christ laid aside His royal crown and took off His righteous robe. He left His Holy Father and His heavenly home to come to the dark land of sin and corruption. The King of all kings considered Himself nothing, a pauper at best. Born to die. He willingly paid the price for our freedom.

And yet, He was innocent. Christ didn't deserve death. He had never sinned. Christ never lied. He never stole anything, never disobeyed His Father, never harbored hatred and bitterness toward others. He never gambled His money away or was a drunkard. He never spoke against His neighbor or yearned for His neighbor's wife. No, Jesus Christ didn't do any of this, but we did. 

Suddenly, I saw myself at the foot of the cross. In one hand I held a hammer and in the other a whip. I, too, had nailed Christ there. It was my sin. Yet Christ was willing to die for me in my place as payment for all my past, present and future sins. It wasn't man's will or nails of iron that held Jesus there. It was the obedience of a Son and the love of a Father that held Christ on that cross. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

My friend, Christ didn't die for me only, He died for "whosoever" -– and that includes you. More so, if you were the only one in the world, He still would have come for you alone! Whosoever you are, a parent, a teenager, a man, a woman, a grandparent or a child, Christ chooses you. Will you choose Him and His death on the cross as payment for your sins? Your life will never be the same. 
--30--
Used by permission of Micca Campbell, assistant director of Certified Speakers, a division of Proverbs 31 Ministries, and a member of Parkway Baptist Church in Goodlettsville, Tenn., near Nashville.


--------------------------------------------------------------------

SPORTS: Opening day diary
by Tim Ellsworth
Date: April 07, 2004 - Wednesday

MULKEYTOWN, Ill. (BP)--"Get your face out of the beer -- you're missing a ballgame."

That's what I wanted to say repeatedly during Monday's Opening Day game at Busch Stadium between the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers. 

Opening Day is always a lot of fun, especially in St. Louis. The fans are devoted and knowledgeable, and all of downtown St. Louis has a festive aura to it. 

But at this year's game, the booze was swirling much more than I ever remember it. What is it about baseball that attracts drunks? And why is it that people want to spend $30 or more for a ticket, buy beer at six bucks a pop and pay absolutely no attention to the game? What's the point? Can't you get drunk closer to home and at a much lower cost? You'd certainly annoy fewer people in the process.

Of course, it's these same people you overhear saying things like, "Why isn't Mark McGwire playing today?" and "This may be the Cubs' year." Obviously, they have no idea what they're talking about.

But regardless, Opening Day was memorable, especially since President George W. Bush was there to throw out the first pitch. That in itself made the trip worthwhile.

My friends Jeremy, Jeff and I made a day of it in St. Louis for baseball fans' biggest day of the year. Here's a brief timeline of what my Opening Day experience was like:

9:15 a.m.: Depart for St. Louis.

11 a.m. Arrive in St. Louis. Eat lunch at Mike Shannon's restaurant.

12:07 p.m. Arrive at stadium. Thankfully, no line. Go through metal detector and have camera bag searched. No problems, although my friend Jeremy gets his Swiss army knife confiscated. Oh, the horrors men have wrought with Swiss army knives. Actually, I'm glad they took security seriously. 

12:16 p.m. Watch the remainder of Cardinals batting practice from left field bleachers. No luck catching home run balls.

12:32 p.m. Brewers begin batting practice. Leave bleachers a few minutes later after deciding Milwaukee has nobody that can hit the ball that far.

12:49 p.m. Stake claim to "standing room only" section between home plate and third base. 

2:35 p.m. Look outside again to see the line of people stretching for what seems like 100 yards or more. Guess these people didn't believe the advice they heard to get to the ballpark early.

3:15 p.m. President George W. Bush throws out the first pitch -- a strike to St. Louis catcher Mike Matheny. The tradition goes back for decades, and I'm honored to be a part of it.

4:22 p.m. In the third inning, drunken fans two rows in front of us decide to blow off the game and head to the bars instead. We ask them for their ticket stubs so we can have some seats. They oblige. One of the plastered women invites us to come to the bar where she is a bartender. We politely decline.

4:31 p.m. Cardinals pitcher Matt Morris doubles in two runs to tie the game 4-4.

5:04 p.m. Scott Podsednik hits a three-run bomb giving the Brewers a 7-4 lead they would never relinquish.

5:32 p.m. Decide to move down to box seat section and stand there. Can't help but notice throngs of drunks milling around in the concourse paying no attention to the game. They're loud and obnoxious, to nobody's surprise. 

6:12 p.m. Game over. Milwaukee wins 8-6. Time to head home to see the NCAA championship game. Hope we don't get killed by drunk drivers en route. If the game was any indication, they were definitely out in force.
--30--
Tim Ellsworth is a regular columnist for BP Sports, online at www.bpsports.net.



