
The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-04/15/2002

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3 Christian groups urge Bush to let Israel defeat terror
by Art Toalston
Date: April 15, 2002 - Monday

JERUSALEM (BP)--Three Christian groups friendly to Israel joined in an open letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell upon his arrival in Israel urging that the United States exert "clear moral leadership" by supporting Israel's military thrust against Palestinian suicide bombers.

A call for new Palestinian leadership to replace Yasser Arafat also was voiced in the letter by the Jerusalem-based International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, Bridges For Peace and Christian Friends of Israel, which was published in The Jerusalem Post April 12.

"Defend Israel's right and duty to combat and crush terrorism -- to not only save the lives of its own citizens, but also as part of a broader effort to deliver the Palestinian people from the clutches of an irredeemable ruler," the open letter stated in an appeal to the Bush administration. "The Arabs will benefit, America will benefit, the whole world will benefit."

Powell's peace mission continued into the week of April 15 with a trip to Lebanon and Syria after meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other Israeli leaders April 12 and with Arafat and his aides April 14.

On April 11, Jerry Falwell and five other pro-Israeli evangelicals also issued an open letter urging President Bush "to end the pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon so that he has the time necessary to complete the mission he has undertaken -- the elimination of &#91;Palestinian&#93; terrorist cells and infrastructure from the West Bank territories."

At Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity April 14, a third Palestinian was killed in the Manger Square standoff between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops. The Israeli military said the Palestinian was shot as he was about to open fire from a Franciscan hostel that is part of the ancient church complex, the Associated Press reported.

The Bethlehem crisis began April 3 when an estimated 250 Palestinian gunmen took cover in the Church of the Nativity as Israeli troops and tanks entered Bethlehem in their region-wide sweep against Palestinian suicide bombers. In addition to the gunmen, an estimated 40 or more clerics remain inside the church and are regarded at least by the Israelis as hostages. The church site is regarded as the birthplace of Christ in various Christian traditions.

A large loudspeaker on a crane playing screeching noises at high volume was added to the Israeli strategy outside the church April 14, the AP reported.

The Palestinians in the church rejected an Israeli offer April 14 to resolve the situation by leaving the country or being tried in Israel for terrorism.

The open letter by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, Bridges For Peace and Christian Friends of Israel commended "the manner in which America has opened up its storehouse of goodness and military might to help the world stand against the menace of global terrorism. President Bush has done well in making this battle the number one priority of his Administration and in declaring, 'either you are with us or you are against us.'"

The three organizations lamented, however, that "in a land battered by this very same scourge of terror" the United States has "ordered the closest of allies, Israel, to stand down and retreat from the battle."

"The tentacles of Palestinian terrorism run from Teheran &#91;in Iran&#93; to Ramallah &#91;where Arafat's headquarters are located&#93; to Islamic charities on American soil," the open letter continued. "Its depravity knows no bounds, invading the sanctity of Christian and Jewish holy places and observances, and demanding even the sacrifice of innocent children.

"And as has been exposed for all to see, it thrives under the rule of PLO leader Yasser Arafat -- the dean of all international terrorists." The open letter appeared the same day as news stories in the international press reported on documents seized by Israeli troops from Arafat's beleaguered headquarters allegedly giving evidence of personal and financial links between the 72-year-old Palestinian leader and the wave of suicide bombers across Israel.

The three organizations' open letter noted, "Many leaders in Europe and elsewhere sadly appear to have lost their way, unable to discern the true evil nature of Palestinian terrorism and to respond appropriately.

"The Arab world is too blinded by hatred to concede that Arafat is the one responsible for deliberately enflaming the region and bringing it to the precipice of disaster.

"Ordinary Palestinians have never been offered a real chance to rid themselves of the greatest source of their suffering -- Arafat's corrupt and callous regime.

"And Israelis have been unjustly forced to show restraint in the face of a brutal terror campaign and to act according to a standard required of no other nation on earth."

The letter appealed to the Bush administration "to provide the moral leadership which is so badly needed in this world today, lest the march of suicide bombers spread outward and the anti-Semitic rage now loosed in streets far and wide sweep us toward another tragedy for the Jewish people."

Falwell, former presidential candidate Gary Bauer and four other pro-Israel evangelicals, in their open letter to Bush, voiced support for "the Bush Doctrine -- your moral conviction that terrorism can never be justified no matter the cause or grievance. As you have repeatedly made clear, those who intentionally slaughter non-combatants for political purposes are at war with the United States and with the entire civilized world."

The group lamented, however, that they have "heavy hearts," fearing that "the Bush Doctrine is in great jeopardy and the war on terrorism with it. We believe it is imperative for the United States to stand with our friend and ally Israel as they attempt to defeat the same forces of terrorism that we have been battling since Sept. 11, 2001. ... 

"Prime Minister Sharon has made clear that he intends to keep troops in the West Bank no longer than absolutely necessary," the group noted. "But, as he has also made clear, to leave armed and dangerous terrorists at large among the general Palestinian population would not facilitate the cause of peace. Indeed, such terrorists pose an unacceptable threat not only to innocent Israeli civilians, but also to those Palestinians who sincerely seek a way out of the current conflict.

"If suicide bombings prevail in the Middle East, surely America will see such attacks on our own families and communities," the group wrote.

"No one knows what tomorrow will bring in the Middle East, but we can determine what Israel's brief offensive has accomplished so far: Five bomb-making facilities have been discovered and destroyed, including 17 bombs that were ready to be used. In addition, documentary evidence was discovered in the offices of Yassir Arafat, evidence showing that he personally approves and finances bombings and other terrorist activities."

The group warned that Powell's trip to Israel "is sending a dangerous message. The focus of the trip appears to be more pressure on Israel to withdraw without any commitment by Arab nations to control the terrorists dedicated to Israel's destruction. And we are pressuring Israel to negotiate with Arafat in spite of his complicity in promoting terror."

Such stances, the group contended to Bush, "violate your well-articulated anti-terror doctrine" at a time when "under your leadership the civilized world is making great progress in the global war against terrorism."

Joining Falwell and Bauer in the letter were John Hagee, a TV preacher and pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas; Dallas-based radio talk show host Marlin Maddoux; Ed McAteer, president of the National Religious Round Table; and Tim Timmons of Frontlines Network of America. Falwell signed the letter as chancellor of Liberty University, while Bauer signed as chairman of the Campaign for Working Families.

Arab support for Arafat, meanwhile, remains at high levels. The Associated Press, for example, reported that a poem by Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Britain, Ghazi Algosaibi, a renowned poet, voiced praise for Palestinian suicide bombers on the front page of an Arab daily newspaper in London April 13.

"May God be the witness that you are martyrs ... You died to honor God's word. &#91;You&#93; committed suicide? We committed suicide by living like the dead," Algosaibi wrote in the short poem, "The Martyrs," the AP reported.

Algosaibi's poem also made reference to an 18-year-old female, Ayat Akhras, who killed two Israelis and wounded 25 when she detonated herself at a Jerusalem supermarket March 29. "Tell Ayat, the bride of loftiness ... She embraced death with a smile while the leaders are running away from death. Doors of heaven are opened for her," wrote Algosaibi, who has been Saudi Arabia's ambassador to England for more than a decade.

The AP also reported that a telethon in Saudi Arabia for Palestinians "victimized by Israeli terror and violence," as described by the Saudi embassy in Washington, had raised $92 million April 12 and was to continue April 13. The telethon was initiated by King Fahd, the AP reported. Its purpose, as described by the AP: "to help channel Saudi public anger against Israel away from street protests and toward practical means to help the Palestinians."

CNSNews.com reported April 15 that Arafat's wife, Suha, said in an April 12 interview that if she had a son she would want him to be a suicide bomber. She made the comment one day before Arafat himself denounced attacks against Israeli and Palestinian civilians. According to a New York Times report, Suha endorsed suicide attacks as legitimate resistance against what the Palestinians consider to be Israeli occupation.

Suha said in an interview in London's Arabic-language Al Majalla there would be "no greater honor" than to sacrifice a son for the cause of the Palestinians. "Would you expect me and my children to be less patriotic and more eager to live than my countrymen and their father and leader who is seeking martyrdom?" she was quoted as saying. Suha, who has a daughter and not a son, has been living in Paris for some time, Israeli and Palestinian officials have said.

More than 1,270 Palestinians and 450 Israelis have been killed since a Palestinian revolt began in September 2000 after peace talks stalled.
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Steve Green: Lessons from a musician turned caregiver
by Todd Starnes
Date: April 15, 2002 - Monday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--For more than 17 years Steve Green has been recording music that has catapulted him to six Dove Awards, four Grammy nominations and 18 No. 1 hit songs. Through the years, Green has balanced ministry with his 23-year union to his wife Mary Jean and their two children, Summer, 20, and Josiah, 16.

These days, though, another responsibility has been added to Green's life, one that he cherishes -- as one of his father's caregivers.

It's been 12 years since Green learned that his father, Charles, had Parkinson's disease. At the time, Charles, now 71, and his wife Jo, 74, were living in Phoenix.

"As the disease progressed, they needed help and we wanted them to come and live with us," Green told Baptist Press. Green and his brother have land holdings in Franklin, Tenn., a southern suburb of Nashville.

"It seemed pretty reasonable to us that they would finish out their last days with us," he said. "So we prayed and told our parents that we wanted to help."

Green's father, however, wasn't so set on moving. A lifelong missionary in South America, Charles only retired when the disease was first diagnosed.

With his father still resisting the idea, Green and his brother pooled resources and decided to build their parents a home on a parcel of land that was situated between their Franklin homes.

"We told them that the house would be here when they wanted it," Green said.

Over time, Charles came to terms with the move and gladly accepted his sons' offer. "He told me that he felt stuck and now we were able to unstick him," Green said. "They never saw the house until they moved in. It was a small cottage built with love and the best view around."

During construction, the Green family wrote Bible verses on the studs -- verses remembering God's provisions, his love, his patience and rest.

"When they got to the house we made them cover their eyes," he said. "We led them inside and they just cried."

It's been six years since that day and Charles' condition is worsening. The disease has taken its toll on the former missionary. He is completely bed-ridden. A sitter maintains watch during the daytime, while Green and his wife put him to bed in the evening.

Green's mother has had her share of health battles, too. After cancer surgery, she had both knees replaced. Still, Green said, she is a "radiant beam of sunshine."

For Green, these have been long years, watching his father die.

"It was difficult watching him," he said. "I was raised on the mission field. When I was 8, I left home for missionary boarding school. I was never around my dad that much. I missed doing a lot of stuff with my dad.

"For a kid," he said, "a dad is important."

At 45, Green said when he saw his father in their new house, "he wasn't the same dad that I had known growing up."

"One day I was mowing the yard and I started to cry," he said. "When I saw my dad sitting there in his rocker, I told God that I wanted my dad back."

Despite the hardship, Green said it is a "tremendous blessing to help with his father's care."

"There is a tremendous outpouring of affection for him from our family," he said.

Along with his brother, David, Green's children also help care for Charles.

"I hope they are picking up some lessons from this," he said. "That's what family is about," he said. "You celebrate the high points and quietly go through the difficult times.

"Dad's dream was to die and be buried in South America, but God's dream was to let him be an example of how a Christian dies slowly," Green said.
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(BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: STEVE GREEN.


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Focus on Family publishes guide to caring for aging loved ones
by Staff
Date: April 15, 2002 - Monday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--An exhaustive, 551-page guide to caring for aging loved ones is being published by Focus on the Family.

"The Complete Guide to Caring for Aging Loved Ones" will deal with the aspects of successful aging from the viewpoint of the whole person -- physical, mental, emotional, relational and spiritual.

At the end of the 20th century, doctors began to formally study the effects of religion and spirituality on successful health and aging, notes Walter L. Larimore, a medical doctor from Colorado Springs, Colo., and author of the book's forward.

"Now, after publication of more than 1,200 medical studies on the subject, it is generally recognized that religious beliefs and practices are associated with a wide variety of healthy outcomes," Larimore writes.

The book covers issues including family dynamics in caregiving; helping your elder cope; finding health, medical and social services; protecting aging loved ones from elder abuse; and facing your loved one's death.

The guide took three years to produce and was written by a team of writers and physicians.
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May 19 day of prayer slated for Vacation Bible Schools
by Polly House
Date: April 15, 2002 - Monday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The Day of Prayer for 2002 Vacation Bible School is set for Sunday, May 19.

On that day, pastors are encouraged to remind their congregations of the important part Vacation Bible School can play in their lives of their churches.

"We encourage pastors to use this day as a time to commission VBS workers," said Becky Martin, VBS ministry specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. She added that other promotional ideas are available in the 2002 VBS Director's Planning Guide.

"It is urgent for pastors to see the value of VBS and hold up its potential to reach a lost world," Martin said. "The number of decisions to accept Christ made during VBS each year usually equal about 25 percent of the baptisms reported each year on the Annual Church Profile."

She added, "I dare say that since Sept. 11 there are more people who have heard about Allah than about the one true God. While the theme, 'Amazon Outfitters,' is fun, I think the rest of the theme, 'On Adventure with the One True God,' is the important part. I believe that God chose this theme long before we thought of it, knowing how important it is now that people have an opportunity to hear about him."

Churches can go to the 2002 VBS website prayer calendar at <a href="http://www.lifeway.com/yourvbs/calendar.asp">http://www.lifeway.com/yourvbs/calendar.asp</a> to add their churches to the VBS prayer list. Churches can also use this list to pray for other churches that are having VBS.

"We want churches to know that we here at LifeWay are praying for them," Martin said. "VBS is about much more than ordering the materials. It's about people coming to know Christ."
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(BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: VBS LOGO.



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'Miss Willie' even carried lumber for the new building
by Susan Chaffin Goggins
Date: April 15, 2002 - Monday

ROEBUCK PLAZA, Ala. (BP)--The next time you're tempted to turn off the alarm clock and stay in bed on Sunday morning, think about "Miss Willie."

Willie Spencer, 95, is a lifelong member of First Baptist Church, Roebuck Plaza, Ala., who refuses to allow inclement weather to keep her at home. Technically, she's been an official member of the church about 80 years. In those days, one had to be about 15 or 16 before being considered for church membership. Her parents were charter members of the church, which was founded in the 1890s.

Miss Willie has done many things at Roebuck Plaza, including providing fresh flowers for the sanctuary, singing in the choir, teaching Sunday School and playing the piano. During one of the Birmingham-area church's early building programs, Miss Willie even helped carry lumber to the site.

Pastor Jim Auchmuty calls her "the matriarch of the church," explaining, "She is here every Sunday, Wednesday and for any special events. She cares about every aspect of our church -- even the finances. On a recent cold Sunday morning, her usual ride was unable to attend. Miss Willie phoned other members until she found a ride to church. She's that faithful."

Longtime acquaintance Benny Smith said Miss Willie has served the church faithfully from his earliest memories. He remembers being a member of Miss Willie's Beginners Sunday School department. She was his children's Sunday School teacher. She continued to teach more than 60 years. "Miss Willie has been there as a fine, Christian woman all of my life. She's been like another mother to me," said Smith, now 71.

Wynell Parson, who leads the Sunshine Fellowship monthly seniors meeting at the church, said, "Miss Willie is always there and is an inspiration to all of us."

She plays the piano for the meetings and for the Sunshine Band, members of the fellowship who play and sing for area nursing homes. Several years ago when the group had a Christmas program scheduled, Miss Willie fell and broke her hip. Not wanting to disappoint the nursing home residents, she had her therapist rig for her a special belt so she could play the piano in an upright position. 

When the church recognized her 95th birthday in January, Auchmuty recounted that she was "so self-effacing, she insisted that we recognize all the other birthdays as well. She doesn't want any special recognition for the things she does."
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Susan Chaffin Goggins is a correspondent for The Alabama Baptist newsjournal.


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Teens' potential for revival noted at Southwestern's Youth Ministry Lab
by Tony Imms
Date: April 15, 2002 - Monday

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--God may use today's youth to bring revival to the nation and the world, speakers at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's 34th annual Youth Ministry Lab said.

"I really believe that you as leaders are catalysts for revival," featured speaker JR Vassar said in the opening session of the April 5-6 conference. He encouraged youth ministers and leaders to realize that God's movement will not always be what they might expect.

"It's not always sensational, but it is significant," Vassar said. "Don't overlook the significant because you're just looking for the sensational." Every individual is important, he said, and ministers should not overlook that.

Vassar stressed the importance of being in relationship with God and leading youth to strive for that as well. Every message should come from God, he said. "Don't speak for him until you've heard from him," he said.

This year's theme, "FireFall," was based on Isaiah 64:1: "Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!"

Charlie Hall, best known for leading worship at national events such as Passion and OneDay, established the theme through the music at the conference. He also appeared in a special concert following the conference.

Richard Ross, professor of youth/student ministry at Southwestern, told youth that throughout history God has started major revivals through teenagers. Theirs could be the next generation used in such a way, he said.

Ross challenged the youth to raise their spiritual sails by keeping a daily appointment with God and memorizing Scripture. One must be in an intimate relationship with God in order to hear and follow his call, he said.

Ross also encouraged youth to pray together and separately for revival to come through their generation. God answers prayer, he said. "We can't make the winds of revival blow but we can raise our sails."

He also stressed the importance of accountability, telling youth to deal with secret sins. Christians must be pure before God, worshiping him intimately and completely for revival to come, he said.

Revival requires that God's people obey him instantly and completely, Ross continued, encouraging youth to follow God even outside their comfort zone. Intimate worship is part of revival, and that means an actual personal encounter with God, he said.

"We believe that God is up to something huge with you," Ross told the youth, "and we want you to catch what God intends to do through you."

Although Ross and fellow Southwestern youth ministry professor Wes Black served as advisers for the conference, Youth Lab is entirely student-born and student-led. Sessions covered a wide range of topics such as evangelism, discipleship and purity.

Individual sessions were led by youth ministers, counselors, professors and representatives of such organizations as the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board and Student Discipleship Ministries.

The conference included tracks for four different groups: experienced youth ministers, volunteer leaders, spouses of youth ministers and youth. It is the only conference of its kind that accommodates all of those groups, said youth track chairman Shane Saunders, a Master of Arts student in Christian education at Southwestern.

This year's Youth Lab also offered four specialized, simultaneous conferences for those planning to be involved with World Changers or international mission trips, coaching campus Christian clubs and youth who are contemplating a call to ministry.

Youth Lab 2002 had 630 participants. One hundred sixty participants were youth.
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(BP) photos posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo titles: REACHING HISPANIC YOUTH, VENDERS' OFFERINGS, INTERCEDING, HALL'S HERE, and G'S BETTER THAN X.



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FIRST-PERSON: Forget church growth, aim for church health
by Rick Warren
Date: April 15, 2002 - Monday

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (BP)--A decade ago, when I wrote "The Purpose Driven Church," I predicted church health, not church growth, would be the primary concern of the 21st-century church. I believe that prediction is proving itself true.

The New Testament says a lot about the health of the church. Consider just a few verses:

"As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing...." Ephesians 4:16b (NLT).

"The focus of my letter wasn't on punishing the offender but on getting you to take responsibility for the health of the church." 2 Corinthians 2:9 (Message).

"You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other..." James 3:18 (Message).

Church health is the key to church growth. All living things grow if they're healthy. You don't have to make them grow -- it's just natural for living organisms. As a parent, I didn't have to force my three children to grow. They naturally grew up. As long as I removed the hindrances, such as poor nutrition or an unsafe environment, their growth was automatic.

If my children had not grown up, something would have been terribly wrong. I would have done whatever it took to discover the disease and correct it. I wouldn't have remained passive, spouting cliches about faithfulness, or wanting "quality not quantity" in my children.

The same principle is true for the church. Since the church is a living organism, it's natural for it to grow if it's healthy. The church is a body, not a business -- an organism, not an organization. It's alive. If a church is not growing, it is dying.

What, then, is the secret of church health?

In a word, it's balance!

Your body has nine different systems (circulatory, respiratory, digestive, skeletal, etc.). When these systems are all in balance, it produces health. But when your body gets out of balance, we call that "disease."

Likewise when the body of Christ becomes unbalanced, disease occurs. Health and growth can only occur when everything is brought into balance.

Our entire world is based on this principle of balance. Our planet was perfectly balanced by God, at just the right angle on its axis to support life. It rotates at a speed that minimizes vibration. If this planet were just a little closer to the sun, we'd burn up and, if it were just a few miles farther from the sun, we'd freeze to death.

Nature is a collection of ecosystems that live in balance with each other. We now know that even the tiniest variation in the ecosystem creates a chain reaction. God has set up a food chain with plants and animals in balance.

In architecture, structures must be balanced. If the stress isn't balanced, a building will collapse or a bridge will fall through. There must be equilibrium. If your life is not balanced, you might collapse, and if your congregation is not balanced, it might collapse. As pastors and counselors, we must realize that healing is the recovery of balance to the body, soul and congregation.

Healthy, lasting church growth is multidimensional. I've written extensively on the fact that church health has five facets: every church needs to grow warmer through fellowship, deeper through discipleship, stronger through worship, broader through ministry and larger through evangelism.

These five purposes of the church are commanded by Jesus in the Great Commandment and Great Commission, explained by Paul in Ephesians 4, described in Jesus' prayer for the church in John 17, and modeled by the first church in Jerusalem.

In Acts 2:42-47 these five facets of health are mentioned: They fellowshipped, edified each other, worshiped, ministered and evangelized. As a result, verse 47 says, "And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." 

Church growth is the natural result of church health. But church health can only occur when our message is biblical and our mission is balanced. Each of the five New Testament purposes of the church must be in equilibrium with the others for health to occur.

Now this is important: Because we are imperfect beings, balance in a church does not occur naturally. In fact, we must continually correct imbalance! It's human nature to overemphasize the aspect or purpose of the church we feel most passionate about.

Most evangelical churches already do the five purposes of the church -- sort of.

But they don't do them all equally well. One church may be strong in fellowship, yet weak in evangelism. Another may be strong in worship, yet weak in discipleship. Still another may be strong in evangelism, yet weak in ministry.

Why is this? It's the natural tendency of leaders to emphasize what they feel strongly about and neglect whatever they feel less passionate about. Around the world you can find churches that have become the extension of their pastor's giftedness. They focus only on what he cares about most.

Unless you set up a system and structure to intentionally balance the five purposes, your church will tend to overemphasize the purpose that best expresses the gifts and passion of its pastor.

Healthy churches are built on purpose! By focusing equally on all five of the New Testament purposes of the church, your church will develop the healthy balance that makes lasting growth possible.
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FIRST-PERSON: When children are sacrificed
by David P. Gushee
Date: April 15, 2002 - Monday

JACKSON, Tenn. (BP)--When scholars write the history of the late 20th century western world, the major story may well be our systematic and unjust sacrificing of the needs, interests and rights of children on the altar of the needs, interests and (supposedly more important) rights of adults.

Although recent headlines about child pornography make certain aspects of this argument obvious, the general claim may strike some readers as implausible. After all, our society still cares quite a bit about children. We offer numerous programs for children. We remain sentimental about children. But my claim is that, when push comes to shove -- when the interests and demands of adults clash with those of children -- with alarming frequency we choose the interests of adults.

Abortion on demand, as established by the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision and similar cases throughout the western world, established the priority of adult interests over a child's very survival in a most obvious and horrifying manner.

When read closely, Roe v. Wade actually attempts to place a calculated value on a developing unborn child both in its rhetoric and through its "trimester" scheme. But even the trimester concession doesn't protect unborn children. The broadly defined "emotional health" of a mother can legally override the interests of a "fetus," leading to the horror of late-term and "live-birth" abortions.

In this fashion, our society communicates in the most fundamental way imaginable that the interests of children must always give way to the interests of adults, even to the point of death. Is it implausible, then, to conclude that our general behavior toward children may be less idealistic than what we tend to believe, and that it may even add to the phenomenon of violent and sexual assaults on children?

The quest for adult romantic happiness is another altar upon which today's children are sacrificed. The mass practice of divorce, out-of-wedlock birth and cohabitation have all shattered our understood ways of best caring for and raising children. Adults pursuing their own romantic and sexual needs often selfishly subordinate the interests of the various children they produce along the way. Perhaps most insidiously, many tell themselves the socially promoted lie that their children's happiness can best be guaranteed through the pursuit of their own adult happiness.

Childhood, in most western nations, is an increasingly bizarre experience of multiple and often overlapping families and households. A current student of mine has experienced six families in his 18 pre-college years: three on his mother's side and three on his father's side. I fear this is no longer an atypical childhood.

In such families, at any given moment, some strange adult, perhaps toting some set of strange children from a previous relationship, is moving into an impressionable child's life while another adult, perhaps a loving parent, is moving out. Life within these emotionally chaotic households clearly lacks the security and stability for which children have a proven need.

Then we have the "boyfriend problem," in which divorced adults introduce unrelated men and women into their own homes as cohabitating lovers. Living in proximity with children they do not love but sometimes come to desire sexually, these live-in strangers (primarily but not exclusively men) are responsible for a vastly disproportionate share of child physical and sexual abuse.

Much may be said about beauty pageants for toddlers, especially those that emphasize the sexuality of preadolescent children. Do they establish a life of healthy competition leading to rewards for well-balanced young women, or are they a subtle form of "acting-out" for underachieving parents, perhaps even a form of sexual abuse? Who is there to protect a 2- or 3-year-old girl who couldn't possibly know the difference?

The Bible demands that the powerful stand up for the powerless, that those who have a voice speak up for those who do not. Children have less power than women, less than men, less than anyone. Adults used to sacrifice for children. Now, often, children are sacrificed for adults. Considered in its many forms, not all listed here, this child sacrifice is the gravest moral outrage of our time.
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Gushee is the Graves Associate Professor of Moral Philosophy and senior fellow with the Carl F.H. Henry Center for Christian Leadership at Union University, Jackson, Tenn.


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REVIEW: Rebecca St. James' new album needs more Rebecca St. James
by Staff
Date: April 15, 2002 - Monday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Over the last five years or so, there has been a tremendous outburst in modern worship music. This was fueled by bands such as Sonicflood and Delirious, who have created strong worship projects.

Recently, however, there have been overwhelming amounts of these worship projects that try to imitate the style those early bands created. As a result, there has been an overflow of pop/rock worship albums featuring basically the same songs and very similar styles.

It almost seems as if every artist wants to get their version of "Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble" or "God of Wonders" onto the Christian music market. Although I absolutely love the songs, exactly how many versions of them do we truly need?

With that said, there are still a few artists who have the ability to create these projects with a varied style that can capture you as if you heard the song for the very first time.

Rebecca St. James is one of those artists who decided to face this challenge with her new album Worship God. In some cases, she defeats it, but in others, she falls short.

The collection of songs features seven of Rebecca's favorite worship choruses along with four of her own.

If you are familiar with most of her work, I'm sure you can imagine what this album sounds like: filled with plenty of programmed effects, edgy guitars, drum loops and, of course, Rebecca's bold and passionate voice.

One of the songs that works for her include the album opener, Matt Redman's "Let My Words Be Few." She adds enough elements to give it an edgy, rock feel that truly displays Rebecca's best work. 

Likewise, "More Than the Watchmen," written by Jeremy Casella, is a great tune based on Psalm 130:6, which proclaims, "My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning."

All of her original work, including the ironically loud "Quiet You with my Love," "You," "Song of Love" and my personal favorite, "Lamb of God," are very enthusiastic and fervent. These tracks can be easily considered the highlights of the project.

However, some of her songs, such as the single "Breathe," "God of Wonders," and "Above All," just fail to portray any significant changes to the way they were originally recorded.

It makes me wonder why she didn't just replace these songs with more of her own worship melodies. In fact, most of her past hits can be considered inspirational or worship songs.

There is no doubt that she can compose great pieces of work, and I would much rather hear those than another rendition of "Above All" that clearly does not fit in.

Overall, the album has its plusses and minuses. Although great at times, the lack of creativity on just a few songs prevents it from fully reaching its potential. For that reason, I think true fans will embrace Worship God, but others will pass it by.
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