
The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-04/12/2004

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Southern Baptist Convention statistics for 2003 show growth in membership, churches
by Polly House
Date: April 12, 2004 - Monday

REVISED Jan. 9, 2006 to correct error in reported membership.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The Southern Baptist Convention reported a record membership of 16,205,050, with 67,314 additional members, a .42 percent increase over 2002, and grew to 43,024 churches, an increase of 249 new congregations, according to statistics released in the 2003 SBC Statistical Summary.

The statistics for 2003 were complied from data submitted by churches on the Annual Church Profile (ACP). LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention compiles the ACP from reports routed through local Baptist associations and state conventions.

The number of new churches represented a .58 percent growth. Membership figures reflected a .41 percent growth. These figures are down from the 2002 growth percentages of 1.04 and 1.21, respectively. Although there was growth overall, LifeWay President Jimmy Draper said the statistics were cause for concern.

“The incremental growth to me reflects a denomination that’s lost its focus,” he said. “The Great Commission commands us to go into all the world and make disciples. Although we’ve seen tremendous strides in overseas baptisms, we are not keeping up with the population growth around the world nor in America.”

While membership grew, the number of baptisms decreased for the fourth consecutive year. The 2003 total was 377,357, reflecting a 4.44 percent decrease from the 2002 totals. This indicated a baptism ratio of 1 to 43, meaning that statistically it took 43 existing church members to bring in one new member.

“There are two trends reflected in the declining baptisms,” Draper said. “The first is a lack of urgency in our churches to baptize. I’ve heard from a number of people across our denomination who are saying professions of faith are good enough, and they are not teaching one of our two main ordinances of publicly identifying with Jesus through baptism. They’ve de-emphasized it. It is hard for someone to argue to the contrary when more than 10,000 Southern Baptist churches didn’t baptize a single person last year.

“The second trend I see is that we as a denomination have lost a sense of urgency in reaching people for Christ. You can’t baptize those who have not been led to the Lord. We face some tremendous challenges from an increasingly secularized society and we’ve got to lead people to a saving faith in Christ if we are going to have a positive influence in our culture.”

Draper added: “I see us making that effort through the Empowering Kingdom Growth movement. This isn't a program to sustain incremental growth. It is truly an effort to lead churches to recapture the passion of being a part God's plan for growing His Kingdom in His way."

Other statistics reported are:

Additions by means other than baptisms totaled 422,350, down 2.24 percent. 

The number of church-type missions declined from 5,439 to 5,114, a 5.98 percent decrease.

Primary worship attendance in SBC churches was 5,873,880, a growth of .58 percent. 

Overall giving grew by about 5 percent. Total tithes, offerings and special gifts totaled $9,105,505,497, up 4.88 percent. This figure included $7,170,236,005 in undesignated receipts. When all other sources of income were added in, the total receipts reported by churches were $9,648,530,640, up by 1.98 percent.

Music ministry enrollment/participation grew by 2.63 percent, with a total of 1,701,848.

Sunday school enrollment grew by .24 percent, with a total of 8,193,886.

Discipleship training enrollment was 2,001,560, a decrease of 4.72 percent.

Missions participation also showed a decrease: WMU enrollment fell by 11.52 percent to 852,205; men/boys missions education enrollment fell by 3.91 percent to 418,606. 

Generosity had an upswing in 2003. Churches’ total missions expenditures were $1,102,363,842,* up 7.17 percent over last year.

Also reported on the 2003 ACP was the value of congregational property. This totaled $35,941,549,606.**

The number of state conventions increased by one, for a total of 40. Associations declined by .33 percent, totaling 1,194.
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Chart accompanies this article.
* South Carolina did not report this item in 2002.
** Kentucky did not report this data.
(BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: SBC STATS 2003.




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American hostage Thomas Hamill attends SBC church
by Staff
Date: April 12, 2004 - Monday

MACON, Miss. (BP)--The one known American hostage in Iraq attends a Southern Baptist congregation in a small Mississippi town where hundreds are holding vigils and praying for his safety.

Thomas Hamill, 43, of Macon, Miss., was captured April 9 when Iraqi militants ambushed the fuel convoy he was guarding. 

Hamill appeared on a video broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation late last week. On the tape, militants threatened to treat Hamill worse than the four Americans whose bodies were mutilated and hung from a bridge in Fallujah earlier this month if U.S. forces did not withdraw from the embattled city within 12 hours, according to The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss. That deadline passed at 10 p.m. Saturday with no word on Hamill.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. general in Iraq, said April 12 that in addition to Hamill, seven employees from the same private company, Kellogg, Brown & Root, are missing. The employees, along with two missing American soldiers, were part of the ambushed convoy.

Hamill had been working in Iraq since October, according to The Clarion-Ledger, as a truck driver for KBR, a division of Halliburton. He had previously been employed as a truck driver in the United States and owned a dairy farm. When financial problems led Hamill to sell the farm, he took the job in Iraq in order to support his family, according to The Clarion-Ledger.

Hamill, who attends Calvary Baptist Church in Macon, has a wife, Kellie, and two children, ages 12 and 14, his grandmother told The Clarion-Ledger. Vera Hamill had seen the footage of her grandson on television and was hoping for the best.

"It's so hard to watch that," she told The Clarion-Ledger. "I just hope and pray that God will let it work out."

Attempts by Baptist Press to reach Hamill's pastor, Greg Duncan, were unsuccessful at press time.

Duncan told The Clarion-Ledger he spent time with Hamill's family April 10, and they need prayers. Friends and relatives stopped by the Hamill home on Sunday to offer support while police kept the media at bay, according to CNN.com.

"We're all just praying for him," Macon Mayor Dorothy Baker Hines told CNN. "That's about all we can do right now. We're going to show him our support. We're going to have flags up -- yellow ribbons, a prayer vigil, and we'll continue to keep" praying.

During the past week, at least 30 civilians from 11 countries have been kidnapped in Iraq.
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Frist signs on as co-sponsor of Federal Marriage Amendment
by Staff
Date: April 12, 2004 - Monday

WASHINGTON (BP)--Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has signed on as a co-sponsor of the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, adding momentum to those hoping for a vote on the amendment this year.

Meanwhile, Mississippi legislators have passed a constitutional marriage amendment, meaning that voters in that state will decide the issue this fall.

Frist, R.-Tenn., signed on as a co-sponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment April 8 -- the same day two other Republicans, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Jim Talent of Missouri, added their names to the amendment. Including Orrin Hatch of Utah, who signed on as a co-sponsor April 7, there are now 14 supporters for the amendment in the Senate. Only one of those, Zell Miller of Georgia, is a Democrat.

Nevertheless, getting Frist officially on board was an important step forward for those who support the traditional definition of marriage and want to see the Constitution amended to ban same-sex “marriage,”

“In joining the other bipartisan cosponsors of our Marriage Amendment in the Senate ... Senator Frist acted in accordance with the views of the vast majority of Americans who do not want to see our marriage laws struck down in court,” Matt Daniels, president of the Alliance for Marriage, said in a statement.

Most polls show that around 60 percent of the public opposes the legalization of same-sex “marriage.” A March CBS News/New York Times poll showed that 59 percent supported a marriage amendment.

In Mississippi, state senators passed the marriage amendment April 7 by a vote of 51-0, one month after it passed the state House 97-17. Mississippi is the third state to send a marriage amendment to voters; Georgia and Utah are the other two. All three states have laws banning same-sex “marriage,” although none of them address the issue in their respective constitutions.

A constitutional amendment in Massachusetts would have prevented that state’s high court from issuing its controversial ruling for same-sex “marriage.” Massachusetts had no law against same-sex “marriage.
--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>


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Poll: Most Americans say homosexuality is 'against God's will'
by Michael Foust
Date: April 12, 2004 - Monday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Most Americans believe that homosexuality is “against God’s will” and that same-sex “marriage” will degrade the institution of marriage, according to a new Los Angeles Times poll.

The poll of 1,616 adults, conducted March 27-30 and released April 10, showed that Americans hold seemingly contradictory views on some same-sex issues. For instance, a majority of Americans favor civil rights laws for homosexuals but oppose allowing same-sex couples to adopt. In addition, they see nothing wrong with having homosexuals teach their children, but they would be upset if their own child said he or she is a homosexual.

But on religious matters, Americans tilt toward traditional beliefs.

By a margin of 57-33 percent Americans say same-sex relationships are “against God’s will.” In addition, by a 55-41 percent margin, Americans say same-sex “marriage” would “degrade” the institution of marriage.

A plurality of Americans, 48 percent, say same-sex relationships between consenting adults are “morally wrong.” Forty-six percent disagreed with the statement.

Americans apparently see a relationship between marriage and procreation -- 48 percent agree that homosexuality “is wrong because people were put on this earth to reproduce.” Forty-seven percent disagreed. Additionally, only 25 percent agree with the statement that same-sex “marriage” is “a good thing for society because it strengthens family units.” Sixty-seven percent disagreed, with 52 percent strongly disagreeing.

By a 52-40 percent margin, Americans also oppose allowing same-sex couples to adopt. Sixty percent say they would be upset if their child said he or she is a homosexual.

Unlike recent polls that have showed strong opposition to same-sex “marriage,” the L.A. Times poll did not ask a “yes or no” question on same-sex “marriage” but gave respondents a series of options. Twenty-four percent say they favor same-sex “marriage” legalization, 38 percent civil unions and 34 percent neither.

By a margin of 51-42 percent Americans say they support a constitutional amendment protecting the traditional definition of marriage. Polls have varied on this question, with some polls showing support for an amendment as high as 59 percent.

But regardless of their answer on same-sex “marriage,” 59 percent say its legalization is inevitable.

Regarding what causes homosexuality, Americans are split -- 32 percent say people are born that way, 14 percent say it is tied to their upbringing and 35 percent say it is something they choose to be. 

A combined 61 percent of Americans believe homosexuals can change, at least in a few cases. Specifically, 12 percent say homosexuals can change in “most” cases, 25 percent say they can change in “some” cases and 24 percent say they can change in “a few cases.” Twenty-eight percent say that homosexuals never can change.

While the poll had some good news for social conservatives, it also had plenty of bad news.

Fifty-four percent of adults ages 18-29 approve of homosexual rights, as do a plurality (45 percent) of those ages 30-44. Overall, Americans are split 42-42 percent as to whether they approve of homosexual rights.

An overwhelming majority of Americans, 70 percent, say that the military should not be able to discharge soldiers because of their homosexuality. And 62 percent say that homosexuals should be given civil rights protections identical to what racial minorities and women have.

Among the poll’s other findings:

-- By a 58-31 percent margin, Americans say it is possible for same-sex couples to be in love with one another the same way that men and women fall in love.

-- Seventy-two percent favor laws protecting homosexuals against job discrimination and 74 percent favor laws protecting against housing discrimination.

-- Sixty-eight percent say it wouldn’t bother them if their elementary school child had a teacher who is homosexual. Forty-five percent say they would allow their child to read a book that contained a story about a same-sex couple; 44 percent say they wouldn’t.

-- Fifty-five percent say issues pertaining to the “gay community” have been getting too much coverage in the media.

-- Thirty-six percent say President Bush would do a better job of handling the issue of same-sex “marriage,” 35 percent say Sen. John Kerry would. Bush supports a constitutional marriage amendment. Kerry opposes it.
--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>




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Golden Gate celebrates 60 years of preparing ministers
by John C. Eagan
Date: April 12, 2004 - Monday

MILL VALLEY, Calif. (BP)--With a grateful look to the past and optimism for the future, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary has marked 60 years of preparing ministers for churches in the West.

Chancellor William O. Crews said the seminary “exists and thrives today because of a compelling dream, articulated by visionary leaders and pursued by literally hundreds of men and women who have given their lives to the pursuit of that dream, a dream that came true.”

Crews, in a special Founder’s Day Chapel, recounted founding President Isam Hodges’ vision in 1944 for a seminary in the West that became a reality first in Oakland and later in Berkeley, Mill Valley and throughout the western United States. 

“When we see what God has done with this vision in the past 60 years, who knows what He will do in the next 60 years,” Crews commented.

Special guests included two of Hodges’ children, Harlan Hodges and Bea Hodges Hill; grandson Brad Hodges; and Tammie Hill, wife of grandson Joe Hill. Other special guests included Frieda Graves, widow of former President Harold K. Graves, and their daughter, Nancy McLaughlin.

“It is because there are men and women who did something significant for God, who placed that dream in their heart, that is why we are here today,” Crews said.

In addition to the special chapel service March 31, a celebration banquet was held April 2 in honor of current and past faculty and staff.

Former President Frank Pollard, who gave the banquet benediction, said his 1983-86 tenure at Golden Gate was “the most rewarding time of my life.” Pollard currently is a visiting professor at Baylor University.

The chapel and banquet featured highlights of the early years in Oakland and Berkeley during the 1940s and ’50s, the move across San Francisco Bay to Mill Valley in 1959 and the expansion in the West including opening additional campuses in Southern California (1973), the Pacific Northwest (1980), Arizona (1995) and Colorado (1996).

Crews also noted that the seminary has established ethnic leadership centers serving more than 600 students in California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Arkansas.

Included were video excerpts from a 1992 interview by Graves, who was president from 1952-77 and spearheaded the move to Mill Valley and construction of the facility on a scenic hill overlooking San Francisco. Graves recalled that the seminary paid $400,000 for the 129-acre site, which was once considered a potential location for the United Nations headquarters.

The evening’s celebration was made possible by a generous gift from Bill Avery of Fresno, Calif.

Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary is a Cooperative Program Ministry of the Southern Baptist Convention and operates five campuses: Northern California, Southern California, Pacific Northwest, Arizona and Colorado.
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Patterson calls for evangelism school, undergrad college
by Gregory Tomlin
Date: April 12, 2004 - Monday

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--Citing a strong commitment to preaching the Gospel in North America and abroad, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson called for the establishment of a school of evangelism and missions and an undergraduate college during the April 6 trustee meeting at the Fort Worth, Texas, seminary.

Patterson also asked trustees to approve the formation of the Southwestern Center for Expository Preaching, which will be overseen by David Allen, newly elected dean of the theology school.

Trustees approved the formation of the preaching center, while approving in principle the formation the evangelism and missions school and college.

The approval of the evangelism and missions school and college in principle allows seminary personnel to begin raising the funds necessary for both programs. Patterson estimated that the evangelism and missions school alone could cost as much as $10 million.

“We have had tremendous trustee, faculty and donor interest in this school. All of this confirms that the time is right to make this move,” Patterson said.

Patterson said he would like to nominate a dean for the evangelism and missions school in the fall, though “he would be a king without a country.” He said his goal is to house the school in a 3,000-seat chapel building that is, as of yet, not built. Patterson said it could take up to two years to fund the chapel building and evangelism and missions school.

He hopes to begin the undergraduate college on at the Fort Worth campus by January 2005. The college will change the look and feel of the campus, he said, noting, “The average age of students around this campus is about to drop significantly. You’ll see 17- or 18-year-olds traversing these halls.”

The college, which has not yet been named, will offer a Bachelor of Arts in biblical studies and possibly a track in the history of Western ideas. Patterson said he envisions the undergraduate college as a place where Southwestern “will meet the unique needs of those who are preparing for the ministry.” In that respect, he said, the seminary would continue to abide by its “convention assignment.”

Southwestern’s undergraduate college will be the fifth such institution established by a Southern Baptist seminary. New Orleans, Southeastern and Southern seminaries have offered undergraduate degrees for some time. Trustees of Midwestern Seminary voted March 15 to establish a college of ministry.

Patterson said the college would not be in competition with other Baptist-related schools in Texas, such as Dallas Baptist University and Criswell College.

“I do not envision this as competition with Dallas Baptist University or Criswell College. DBU has a massive program, multiple majors with the intention of preparing people for all walks of life. As for Criswell, I desire for them to succeed marvelously. With 6.5 billion people on the face of the earth, there is plenty of work to do in missions in pastoral ministry,” Patterson said. “We are going to focus on preparation for vocational ministry at Southwestern.”

Craig Blaising, executive vice president and provost at Southwestern, said the preaching center approved by trustees will emphasize the importance of expository preaching as a component of seminary education. The center also will provide training to those currently in ministry through conferences and seminars.

The goal of the preaching center, Patterson said, will be to continue promoting the use of exposition as that method of preaching that “must recognize the sufficiency of Scripture and to teach people how to do profound exposition.” Patterson said he is excited to have an excellent preaching faculty at the seminary in Allen; Steven Smith, the son of former Southern Baptist Convention President Bailey Smith; Calvin Pearson and Al Fasol.
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FIRST-PERSON: Jimmy Carter & 'freestyle evangelicals’
by R. Albert Mohler Jr.
Date: April 12, 2004 - Monday

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Will America's evangelicals turn left in the coming presidential election? That's the fervent hope of the liberal press; The American Prospect, for one, is counting on "freestyle evangelicals" to swing conservative Christians toward the Democratic Party and its agenda. But don't hold your breath on this one. The magazine's analysis turns out to be full of holes and wishful thinking.

The American Prospect bills itself as "an authoritative magazine of liberal ideas." According to its website, the Prospect "strives to beat back the right wing and to build a majority of true patriots who understand what really makes America great."

In "Reaching to the Choir," Prospect writer Ayelish McGarvey argues that progressive evangelicals -- here called "freestyle evangelicals" -- will reshape the political picture in this year's election, turning conservative Christians away from "the conservative morality issues of abortion and gay marriage to progressive matters of social justice, America's role in the world, and care for the environment." In making this claim, she pointed to several figures calling for such a turn, including Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo and former President Jimmy Carter.

Let me ask this as nicely as I can: Does The American Prospect really think these three men -- all far to the left of most evangelicals -- are in a position to predict the future of conservative Christianity in America?

Jim Wallis is editor of Sojourners magazine, founded in 1971 as the voice of liberal evangelicals on issues of social justice. Its current mission statement calls for "nurturing community by bringing together people from various traditions and streams in the church." Those streams all flow to the left; the magazine doesn't even come close to representing the convictions of most evangelicals.

In an op-ed column in The New York Times last December, Wallis called for Democrats to take up their agenda as a religious cause. "True faith results in a compassionate concern for those on the margins.... Allowing the right to decide what is a religious issue would be both a moral and political tragedy," he argued.

Tony Campolo, a well-known and controversial figure in evangelical circles for several decades, is held up by the Prospect’s McGarvey as a sign that evangelical resistance to homosexuality may not be as invincible as first appears. "Many freestyle evangelicals privately disapprove of homosexuality," she explains, "but they wince at the shrill, anti-gay posturing of the hard right." Campolo, whose wife is a prominent proponent of gay rights and same-sex “marriage,” argues that the Bible clearly identifies homosexuality as sin. Yet, homosexuality "was not on Jesus' top 10 list of sins," he explains. "What was No. 1 on the list? Religious people who go around creating hardships for everybody &#91;with&#93; their legalism."

In an attempt to personalize her story, McGarvey introduced Jonathan Eastvold, a 26-year-old graduate of Wheaton College. Eastvold voted for George W. Bush in the 2000 election but plans to vote for the Democratic candidate this year. Eastvold supported retired Gen. Wesley Clark in the early primaries, even writing for the website, "Christians for Clark." When the Clark campaign collapsed, Eastvold turned to the campaign of Sen. John Kerry and offered to set up a "Christians for Kerry" forum on Kerry's website. The Kerry campaign told Eastvold he could set up a forum on Yahoo.com, but they did not want a "Christians for Kerry" forum on their official website.

Jeffrey Johnson, a 28-year-old graduate student at Princeton University, is another of McGarvey's examples of left-leaning evangelicals. A graduate of Baylor University, Johnson also voted for Bush in 2000, but now faults the president for his tax cuts and for failing to support the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

Do Eastvold and Johnson represent a trend? McGarvey offers no persuasive argument that they do. Evangelicals may differ with each other on issues of economic theory and tax policy, but most evangelicals remain stalwartly pro-life and opposed to the normalization of homosexuality -- including the legalization of same-sex “marriage.”

No one should know this better than former President Jimmy Carter. Carter was denied a second term in office, at least in part because of the defection of American evangelicals to the candidacy of Ronald Reagan. Key issues in the 1980 race included abortion and "family values" -- a network of concerns that defined evangelical interest long before any serious proposal for homosexual “marriage” had emerged.

Nevertheless, Carter figures prominently in McGarvey's analysis, slamming the Republican Party, President Bush and the evangelicals who support them. "Christ was committed to compassion for the most destitute, poor, needy, and forgotten people in our society," Carter told McGarvey. "Today, most of the people strongly committed to the Republican philosophy have adopted the proposition that help for the rich is the best way to help even poor people by letting some of the financial benefits drip down to those most deeply in need." Characterizing conservatives as the "ultra right wing," Carter accused conservatives of abandoning "that principle of Jesus Christ's ministry."

Few can top Carter in terms of judgmental language. He faults conservative evangelicals for supporting Israel and military action. "Those are the two principal things in the practical sense that starkly separate the ultra-right Christian community from the rest of the Christian world," he offered. "Do we endorse and support peace, and support the alleviation of suffering among the poor and the outcast?"

The Prospect's website also features an extended version of McGarvey's interview with Carter in which the former president accuses "fundamentalists" of developing a sense of superiority that flows from their conviction that they have a "proper" knowledge of God. Standing on this "proper" knowledge of God, conservatives then judge others. Carter seems to miss the essential question raised by this argument. On what basis does he judge conservatives? Evangelicals are wrong for judging homosexuals, but Carter shows no hesitation in judging evangelicals in terms of both character and conviction.

This is the Great Liberal Double Standard at work. Conservatives are called judgmental for insisting that abortion and homosexuality are moral issues settled by Scripture. Meanwhile, liberals are free to make whatever judgments they want, all the while calling those who oppose them judgmental.

Carter says he is against same-sex “marriage,” but favors civil unions that grant homosexual couples the same rights as married persons. On this issue, the former president reveals the same pattern of fuzzy thinking he has long shown on the abortion question. "I personally, in my Sunday School lessons, don't favor the endorsement of gay marriage," he explains. "But I do favor equal treatment under the law for people who differ from me in sexual orientation."

This language says much and says little at the same time. Mr. Carter seems to think that the pressing issue is the legal standing of those with a sexual orientation "different" from his own. That is not of material interest at all. The real question is the public policy this nation should assume with respect to those who demand that homosexuality be normalized and same-sex “marriage” legalized. In claiming to oppose same-sex “marriage” while endorsing civil unions, he wants to have it both ways at once.

On abortion, the former president went back to his position in the 1976 campaign. "I have always been against abortion," he said. "It's not possible in my own concept of Christ to believe that Jesus would favor abortion. But at the same time, I have supported the Supreme Court ruling of our country as the law of the land. And the present arrangement, whereby a woman is authorized to have an abortion in the first trimester of the pregnancy, or when the pregnancy is caused by rape or incest -- these are things that moderates who have beliefs like mine can accept as the present circumstances in our country. The liberality of abortion is anointed by the laws of our country, including the ultimate ruling of the Supreme Court."

That statement is both inaccurate and inconsistent. In the first place, the "present arrangement" on abortion does not limit a woman's right to abortion to the first trimester, or to cases of rape or incest. As a former chief executive of the nation, Mr. Carter must surely know that. Beyond all this, what sense can we make of a former president who claims to oppose abortion, but acts as if the "ultimate ruling" of the Supreme Court is an eternal and infallible authority? If other presidents had followed that logic, slavery would still be legal and racial desegregation would never have happened.

In reality, Wallis, Campolo and Carter are all far to the left of the majority of American evangelicals. The issue of abortion will not just go away, and the issue of same-sex “marriage” is likely to determine evangelical voting patterns far more than tax cuts and fiscal policy. The "freestyle evangelicals" may look promising to The American Prospect, but they are far more freestyle than evangelical.
--30--
R. Albert Mohler Jr. is president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. This article was adapted from his weblog at www.crosswalk.com. For more articles and resources and for information on “The Albert Mohler Program,” a daily national radio program broadcast on the Salem Radio Network, go to www.albertmohler.com. For other commentaries by Mohler dealing with former president Jimmy Carter, go to "Jimmy We Hardly Knew Ye" and "Carter's Rift with SBC Not New".




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FIRST-PERSON: ‘The Passion’ for your family
by Claude Thomas
Date: April 12, 2004 - Monday

EULESS, Texas (BP)-—Beyond its $350 million-plus in box office receipts, “The Passion of The Christ” has influenced our culture. But I want to ask a question that hasn’t been raised: “How does The Passion impact our families?”

Think about it. You’ve read the critiques, you’ve heard the nay-sayers and the unabashed praise. But what does the furor of The Passion have to do with our families?

Now is the time to talk about this. We need either to stop the damage this movie has created or encourage others to watch it.

Why is this movie important for our families? Let’s tackle this question from two perspectives:

1. What does the movie itself claim? 

2. How should we view the movie from a Christian perspective?

Let’s tackle the first question. Mel Gibson’s movie essentially takes the Gospel message of the Scriptures and condenses it to the last few hours of Jesus’ life.

Gibson uses Old Testament imagery (Jesus crushing the snake’s head with his heel, c.f. Genesis 3:15), Old Testament allusions (c.f. Isaiah 53:5) and New Testament sources (the Gospels) to tell the story of Jesus’ last hours.

These hours, as we know, were violent and bloody. Gibson makes it a point to embrace the violence of the cross and the beating and scourging leading up to the cross.

The effects of this realistic portrayal leave us horrified and repulsed, brokenhearted and moved. How can people be so terrible to an innocent man?

Gibson tells us that only “by His stripes, we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). This is why Jesus’ death was violent and bloody: That’s what it took to heal mankind through the death of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.

And Gibson’s mission is for viewers to understand this message: Jesus died to heal the sins of the world. Does Gibson accomplish his mission? Well, I think so, but critics will always disagree on this. 

So, the movie claims that Jesus heals the sins of the world through the suffering, pain and death of the cross. 

Now to the second question: “How should we view this movie from a Christian perspective?” 

And more pointedly, “From this Christian perspective, how should we introduce our families to Gibson’s The Passion?”

I think that from a Christian perspective, we must embrace the vision of the cross that Gibson has portrayed, but we must emphasize the resurrection as well.

Without the resurrection, which Gibson does acknowledge, our faith in the Jesus of the cross remains impotent. The cross without the empty tomb is an empty symbol.

What does Paul say in 1 Corinthians 15? He clearly states, “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty” (1 Corinthians 15:13-14).

The resurrection of Jesus secures that His words about the Kingdom of God, salvation from sins, forgiveness, hope and abundant life are indeed true. 

Without the resurrection, we have no life. This is how we should view The Passion from a Christian perspective: Embrace the cross; rejoice in the empty tomb.

I am immediately reminded of the words of Deuteronomy 6 when I think about how our families should respond to Gibson’s powerful and insightful movie.

Moses tells all of Israel how to worship God: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7).

God taught Israel to live the truth of God and model it to their children every day in every way. The same is true for parents today.

The Passion of The Christ remains a powerful teaching tool for our families, but it can never replace the parents’ role in teaching and modeling the death and resurrection of Jesus to our children.

My challenge for parents everywhere is this: Teach the cross and the empty tomb “diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” 
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Claude Thomas is pastor of First Baptist Church in Euless, Texas. For more resources, visit www.LifePoints.org.



