
The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-11/09/2005

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Texas becomes 19th state with marriage amend.; parental notification loses in Calif.
by Michael Foust
Date: November 09, 2005 - Wednesday

AUSTIN, Texas (BP)--Texas voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional marriage amendment Nov. 8, but Maine citizens voted to keep a new "gay rights" law and Californians rejected a proposal requiring teens to notify a parent before getting an abortion.

The vote in Texas made it the 19th state to adopt a constitutional marriage amendment, and it passed with ease, winning by a margin of 76-24 percent. Homosexual activists had poured their resources into the state, hoping to pull a stunning upset in a very conservative area of the country. The amendment protects the natural definition of marriage, banning both "gay marriage" and Vermont-style civil unions. A marriage amendment has never lost at the ballot.

But homosexual activists won in Maine, defeating a proposal that would have overturned a "sexual orientation" law passed by the legislature and signed by the governor. With 87 percent of the vote counted, the "people's veto" was losing by a margin of 55-45 percent. The new law gives homosexuality civil rights status by placing "sexual orientation" alongside age, religion, race and other classes in state law, preventing discrimination in employment, housing, education and public accommodations.

Pro-lifers lost in California, where a parental notification proposal was defeated by a 53-47 percent margin. Known as Proposition 73, it would have amended the state constitution to require teenage girls to notify at least one parent before getting an abortion. If the parent did not consent, the girl would have had to wait 48 hours. More than 30 states have similar laws.

The Texas marriage amendment, known as Proposition 2, passed despite fierce opposition by liberal groups. One anti-amendment group, Save Texas Marriage, claimed that the amendment would invalidate all marriages in the state -- a claim that the state attorney general called "wholly without merit." The group reportedly made 2 million automated phone calls, urging a no vote. Another anti-amendment group, No Nonsense in November, used the slogan "Families Matter" while encouraging a no vote. Some conservative voters said the slogan was misleading.

The mayor of Austin, Texas, along with 21 other elected leaders, held a news conference in mid-October opposing the amendment. In addition, the editorial boards of nearly every major newspaper came out against Proposition 2.

Yet Michael Lewis, pastor of Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, called the approval of Proposition 2 a "great victory."

"It just shows the grassroots voice that is still embracing moral values and traditional families," he told Baptist Press.

An outspoken supporter of the amendment, Lewis said his e-mail was full of hate mail the morning after the election.

Although Texas already had a law banning "gay marriage," the amendment prevents state courts from overturning the law -- something that has happened in other states such as Massachusetts. That state did not have a marriage amendment and saw its highest court strike down state law and legalize "gay marriage."

Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for the conservative Free Market Foundation, said the margin of victory was particularly significant in light of the opposition faced.

"You had media stories out there that were basically carrying the water for people that were lying about the effects of Proposition 2," he said. "… You had all these editorials that were relying upon misinformation."

Homosexual activists refused, Sasser said, to debate whether "gay marriage" should be legalized. 

"Instead, they tried to trick people and deceive people with misinformation in order to try and get them to vote a different way," he said, adding that the Free Market Foundation "received an enormous amount of phone calls" from people who said they voted against Proposition 2, thinking that a no vote was a vote against "gay marriage."

Of the 19 states that have adopted marriage amendments, 12 have done so by at least 70 percent of the vote. Only two -- Michigan with 59 percent and Oregon with 57 percent -- have been approved with less than 60 percent of the vote.

Maine voters had rejected similar "sexual orientation" laws twice before -- in 1998 and 2000. But since that most recent vote, several of its neighbors had begun granting marriage benefits to homosexuals. Canada and Massachusetts legalized "gay marriage," while Connecticut legalized same-sex civil unions. The mood in Maine apparently has changed.

"Homosexual activists poured in resources from out of state, engaged in smear tactics and were aided by a media that routinely engaged in character assassination," Robert Knight director of Concerned Women for America's Culture & Family Institute, said in a statement. "The pro-family people were outspent by more than 10 to 1, saw hundreds of yard signs ripped up, and generally were under siege. But having fought the good fight and done all they could, they can hold their heads high.

"This setback means that Mainers must gird themselves for the next assault, which will be on marriage. Homosexual activists hope to force the Pine Tree State to issue counterfeit marriage licenses like Massachusetts is already doing."

The vote in California on parental notification was expected to be close, and it was. Although Proposition 73 led in early results, by the end of the night it was losing. The vote reflected an urban-rural split, with most of the cities along the coast opposing it, and most of the counties in the middle and eastern part of the state supporting it.

Ron Prentice, director of the conservative California Family Council, said opponents succeeded in making voters focus less on parents' rights and more on instances when a teenage girl may come from an abusive home and fear telling her parents she's pregnant. Proposition 73 had a judicial bypass for such instances. He also said conservatives did not go to the polls in the same numbers that liberals did. Proposition 73 was on the ballot alongside several proposals backed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that had energized Democrats. All of the proposals lost.

"In hindsight, knowing that the governor was outspent by more than 3-to-1, we recognize that the conservative voter was not as present as we would have hoped," said Prentice, who said the proposal would have had a better chance of passing during a general election alongside statewide races.

Prentice added he believes conservatives will try again to pass parental notification. It was placed on the ballot through the petition process.

In other election news:

-- In Dover, Pa., voters ousted eight Republican school board members who had supported introducing high school students to Intelligent Design, according to the Associated Press. Democrats who opposed the teaching of Intelligent Design won all eight seats. The school district is in the midst of a federal court battle over the teaching of Intelligent Design.

-- Voters in two Arkansas cities approved gambling expansion at racetracks, according to a report in the Memphis Commercial Appeal. In West Memphis, 64 percent of the vote favored a referendum to add electronic “games of skill” at Southland Greyhound Park. Voters in Hot Springs passed the same measure by less than 100 votes, 4,745-4,656, for Oaklawn Park, a thoroughbred track.

The West Memphis track hopes to use the new gambling machines to cut some of the huge losses in revenue it has seen since casinos were established in nearby Tunica, Miss., about 15 years ago.

“Games of skill” include a form of video poker, electronic checkers and “re-spin” slot machines, the Commercial Appeal reported.

The Arkansas legislature earlier this year passed a bill permitting the tracks to add such games if voters in the two cities also approved it.
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Kan. board votes to inform students of evolution controversy
by Staff
Date: November 09, 2005 - Wednesday

TOPEKA, Kan. (BP)--The Kansas State Board of Education voted 6-4 Nov. 8 to alter the science standards in public schools in favor of Intelligent Design, further igniting a nationwide battle over how much students are taught about the controversy surrounding the theory of evolution.

Science standards, required by Kansas law to be updated regularly, are used to develop student achievement tests for measuring how well schools are performing in that subject area. Local school boards and administrators determine the curriculum at their schools, but by deciding what students are expected to know for state assessment tests, the state standards will most likely affect what students are taught.

“These are absolutely great science standards. I have no doubt about it, positively no doubt whatsoever,” board chairman Steve Abrams of Arkansas City said, according to The Wichita Eagle newspaper.

Conservative board members sought to give students a balanced view of evolution, but critics said they were only promoting a “repackaged form of creationism” in alluding to Intelligent Design.

The latest move is part of a years-long struggle in Kansas, which began in 1999 when the Kansas school board voted 6-4 to adopt science standards in which most references to evolution were eliminated. But in the next elections, voters ousted those board members who favored the measure and in 2001, a more moderate board voted 7-3 for new science rules restoring evolution’s previous place in the standards.

Subsequent elections allowed conservatives to regain the majority on the board, and the new leaders have now voted to change the standards once again, this time opening the way for ideas such as intelligent design and creationism.

Evolution supporters from all over the country protested the board’s move long before it happened, saying Intelligent Design cannot be evaluated by science and should have no part in a science education.

Less than two weeks before the vote, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association announced that they would not grant Kansas permission to use their science curriculum if the proposed draft of the new standards was not altered. The two key groups said the board had overemphasized uncertainties about evolution and failed to make clear that supernatural phenomena have no place in science, according to a report in The Washington Post Oct. 28.

The draft “inappropriately singles out evolution as a controversial theory despite the strength of the scientific evidence supporting evolution as an explanation for the diversity of life on Earth and its acceptance by an overwhelming majority of scientists,” the groups said in a joint statement.

When the same issue arose in 1999, the groups also withheld copyright permission for the science materials Kansas sought to use that year. This time, board members approved the standards with a caveat directing a copyright lawyer to remove direct references to the groups’ materials. The caveat was necessary because the names appear on nearly every page of the 100-page document and could not be removed in time for the scheduled vote.

Officials with the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association said the new standards “will put the students of Kansas at a competitive disadvantage as they take their place in the world.” Other critics of the standards said there is no significant controversy over evolution and evidence ranging from the fields of paleontology to molecular biology shows all life on Earth originated from a single simple life-form, The Post noted.

But the board, except for two Republicans and two Democrats who objected to the standards, said high school students should be told that aspects of the widely accepted evolutionary theory are controversial and there is a “lack of adequate natural explanations for the genetic code.”

Observers say the Kansas board of education drama is bound to continue as four of the six board members who voted yes will face re-election next year and so far three of them will run against an opposing candidate.

“If this issue can be resolved by voting these people out in the next elections, the standards will never get in place enough to make a court case worthwhile. They’ll be lame ducks,” Jack Krebs, vice president of Kansas Citizens for Science, told The Post.

Even so, the latest vote puts Kansas at the forefront of a contentious nationwide debate. Authorities in Pennsylvania and Georgia are arguing similar evolution-related cases, and in August President Bush said he believes students ought to be taught “both sides” of the argument in public schools.
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CULTURE DIGEST: Jeb Bush urges kids to read ‘Narnia’; Denver vote to legalize marijuana possession has roadblock
by Erin Curry
Date: November 09, 2005 - Wednesday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--It seems Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is a C.S. Lewis fan. Just as the film version of Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is set for release in theaters, Bush is urging school children to read the book as part of his “Just Read, Florida!” initiative.

Bush launched the statewide reading program in 2001 with the goal of every child reading at or above grade level by the year 2012, and a Lewis quote was even chosen as the motto: “We read to know we are not alone.”

“The opportunity to inspire the love of reading in a child is a great honor and an extraordinary responsibility,” Bush said.

According to the Just Read, Florida! website, “The book, ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ by C.S. Lewis was first published over fifty years ago. The story introduces readers to four English schoolchildren who find their way through the back of a wardrobe into the magic land of Narnia. They assist Aslan, the golden lion, to triumph over the White Witch, who has cursed the land with eternal winter.”

This year, Florida’s department of education is sponsoring age-appropriate contests for public school students based on the book with categories that include acting out scenes from the story or choosing which character one would like to be and telling why.

But not everyone is pleased with the plan. Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent a letter to Bush asking that he add an alternative, nonreligious book to the contest and that future contest feature only nonreligious books.

Barry Lynn, president of Americans United, said the state's sponsorship of the contest “creates the appearance of a governmental endorsement of the book's religious message, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

In his letter to Bush, Lynn cited Lewis, who said that he hoped his “Chronicles of Narnia” books, of which the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the first written, would “make it easier for children to accept Christianity when they met it later in life.”

Responding to Lynn’s objection, attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund are offering free legal representation to any Florida schools threatened with lawsuits for participating in the governor’s reading contest.

“The governor’s campaign is clearly designed to promote reading in conjunction with a much-anticipated film; it is not designed to promote religion,” ADF senior counsel Gary McCaleb said in a release Nov. 7. “ADF will defend any school district in the nation that gets sued by AUSCS, the ACLU or any other group for having students read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, as long as the school allows students to opt out of reading it if they or their parents don’t want to.”

The film opens in theaters nationwide Dec. 9, and Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando has announced the simultaneous opening of a new attraction called “Journey into Narnia: Creating The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” The 15-minute walk-through attraction begins with visitors stepping into a giant wardrobe for a behind-the-scenes look at the movie, according to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper.

CHINA DIVORCE RATE SKYROCKETS -- Western influences have made their way into the culture of some of China’s most prosperous provinces, and divorce is among the most popular new practices there, according to a report in The New York Times last month.

While divorce was once synonymous with guilt and shame in China, The Times said many younger urban women are now counting it as a civil right -- a way to get back at their adulterous husbands. One government study found that women had initiated 70 percent of divorce applications in Guangdong Province, where the number of divorces increased by 52 percent last year, The Times reported.

As good jobs enable more Chinese women to be independent, they are no longer remaining in marriages where wealthy businessmen husbands keep their lovers in “concubine villages.” Infidelity has long been tolerated in China, but changing social values have brought new views on divorce there.

“Several of my friends have gotten divorced,” Cai Shaohong, 29, herself a divorcee, told The Times. “My friends think divorce is normal, not an unthinkable thing.”

Mirroring the United States and other Western nations, China now has divorce lawyers, divorce counselors, prenuptial agreements and private detective agencies that photograph cheating spouses in the act, The Times said.

A survey in Guangdong found that work pressure contributed to 60 percent of divorces while adultery accounted for 30 percent, The Times noted. A psychotherapist there told The Times 80 percent of people who come to him for marital counseling complain of adultery.

“There are more choices now in sex,” he said. “The change in traditional family values has led to more affairs.”

And the process of getting a divorce in China has changed from a long and tenuous task to one that can take as little as 10 minutes.

China’s divorce rate is about 19 percent, nearly five times what it was in 1979. While that is dramatically less than the U.S. divorce rate commonly pegged at 50 percent, observers say China is fast moving toward a similar rate.

DENVER VOTES TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA -- Even though Denver voters have approved an initiative that will make it legal for anyone 21 or older to possess 1 ounce or less of marijuana, local police say the ballot initiative is trumped by a state law banning the possession of marijuana, and they’ll continue to enforce the higher statute.

Although the Nov. 1 made Denver the first U.S. city to legalize adult marijuana possession, nearly all drug prosecutions in Denver are already brought under state law, officials said, so police will continue to make arrests as usual.

The Denver measure did not address the still-illegal act of smoking marijuana in public.

Mason Tvert, a 23-year-old Phoenix native and recent graduate of the University of Richmond in Virginia, led the effort to pass the initiative, calling the drug the “safer alternative” and complaining that alcohol is responsible for more deadly violence, car wrecks and abuse, according to the Rocky Mountain News.

“This is something that is going to spread across the country because people are starting to open their eyes to look beyond 70 years of marijuana prohibition propaganda,” he said.

However, Barrett Duke, vice president for public policy with the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told Baptist Press in previous discussions about marijuana that it is a gateway drug likely to lead to more harmful substance abuse. "&#91;A&#93;s any former or current drug user knows, marijuana is only the starting point," he said. "It is the gateway that has led to the destruction of the lives and futures of millions of people who moved on to other drugs in search of greater highs."

In 2003, voters in Seattle asked police to make possession of small amounts of marijuana the lowest priority, the Mountain News said, and the number of people prosecuted for possession there has decreased dramatically. And last year in Oakland, Calif., voters there also asked that marijuana be a low priority for police arrests. But police continue to make arrests because state law demands it.

UMC BISHOPS: ‘HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT A BARRIER’ -- Homosexuality is not an obstacle to membership in the United Methodist Church, the denomination’s leaders declared Nov. 2 in response to a Judicial Council ruling that a local pastor could decide to deny membership based on sexual practice.

“While pastors have the responsibility to discern readiness for membership, homosexuality is not a barrier,” the bishops said in a pastoral letter to the people of the United Methodist Church, according to the United Methodist News Service.

The Judicial Council ruled in late October that pastors in the denomination do have the power to decide who becomes a member of a local church after a Virginia pastor was placed on involuntary leave of absence for refusing to allow an unrepentant homosexual man to move his membership to the church.

“We implore families and churches not to reject or condemn lesbian and gay members and friends,” the bishops said in their letter, which was unanimously adopted in closed session. “We commit ourselves to be in ministry for and with all persons.”

One bishop made clear the denomination’s thoughts on homosexual members.

“I don’t think it’s going too far to say the council is of one mind that gay and lesbian people can be members of the United Methodist Church,” Bishop Janice Riggle Huie of Texas told the news service.
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Homosexual group at Mercer concerns Ga. Baptists
by Gerald Harris
Date: November 09, 2005 - Wednesday

ATLANTA (BP)--An organization to promote the gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender (GLBT) agenda at Mercer University is raising eyebrows among Georgia Baptists who have begun questioning the integrity of the historically Baptist university.

The Mercer Triangle Symposium, billing itself as the university’s “GLBT Rights Student Organization,” sponsored a National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11 and publicized the event in The Cluster, the campus newspaper. In addition, it published the names of 29 faculty and staff who supported the organization and its goals.

Among those showing their support were professor of Christianity Margaret Dee Bratcher and assistant professor of Christianity Janell Johnson.

According to the group’s website, the campus’ Gay-Straight Alliance meets at 10 a.m. on the second and fourth Mondays of each month in Willingham 203. The meetings occur in the building which houses the former campus chapel.

While the Triangle website was never part of Mercer’s homepage, it did link to the university’s department of women’s and gender studies and to Project Equality, identified as the “Mercer Law School GLBT Rights Organization,” as two of its three “associated organizations.” The other group identified with Triangle was the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, but there was no Internet link.

It was at the women’s and gender studies site where Bratcher, one of the 29 faculty and staff who supported the organization in the Cluster ad, was listed as “Professor of Christianity/Dean of University Commons.”

Forty-eight hours after a meeting involving Mercer President Kirby Godsey and several other administrators at the convention’s Christian Index newsjournal, the university notified the paper that the Triangle Symposium voted on Nov. 3 to close its website. One of the photos from its “National Coming Out Day” webpage stated that the organization was founded on Oct. 7, 2002.

The advertisement in the campus newspaper stated: “Walt Whitman (American poet), Virginia Woolf (British novelist and essayist), Barney Frank (House of Representatives, Mass.), Alan Turing (mathematician and pioneering computer scientist), Rudolf Nureyev (Russian dancer), and Martina Navratilova (tennis champion). These are just a few of the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgendered (GLBT) individuals who have contributed to the arts, sciences, politics, and sports throughout history. We, the undersigned, value equally the GLBT students, faculty, and staff members at Mercer who bring their gifts to our campus and add to the richness and diversity of our intellectual community.”

National Coming Out Day (NCOD) was born out of a 1987 March on Washington when half a million people converged on the nation’s capitol to advocate homosexual activism. The Mercer Triangle Symposium website proclaimed that NCOD is designed “to raise the consciousness that GLBT people are everywhere and to remove the stigma that keeps people in the closet. Its purpose is to help GLBT’s be honest about their sexual orientation with family, friends and coworkers.”

When Mercer’s public relations department was contacted about the organization’s “Coming Out Day” on the Macon campus, there was an immediate response that resulted in Godsey, Executive Vice President Horace Fleming, Senior Vice President for University Advancement Emily Myers and senior assistant to the president Jim Bruner coming to the office of The Christian Index to discuss the situation.

Godsey explained that he regretted that the Mercer Triangle Symposium had used the term “Coming Out Day” and that an effort had been made to discourage its use. He said he understood the meeting was to encourage open dialogue about homosexuality rather than offer a venue for declaring one’s sexual preference. 

The Mercer president said there probably were homosexual students at the university, but the percentage was likely no greater than that of the general population.

Godsey and his administrative staff also said they had not seen the Triangle website. He indicated that the administration purposely separates itself from Student Government Association clubs, organizations and symposiums for fear that a suppression of free expression would result in repercussions that would jeopardize the academic integrity of the Christian university.

Godsey noted that the university’s website presented an accurate portrait of the school and stated that the Mercer mission statement is the guiding principle for the institution. In a statement released to The Christian Index, he further explained, “As a Baptist institution, Mercer is guided by its mission to educate students within a climate of belief that arises from the Judeo-Christian understanding of the world. The University values the unique character of each individual and promotes a community of mutual respect. It also encourages open discussions on topics and concerns as part of the educational process.

“The Mercer Triangle Symposium is an organization recognized by the Student Government Association, and though the University does not sponsor this organization, we do respect the right of students to assemble and discuss wide-ranging social and religious issues,” Godsey wrote.

“As president of the University, I am very much aware of the views and deeply-held feelings of all of our Baptist allies, and we have sought to balance a genuine sensitivity to the viewpoints of the many Baptists who support the University while preserving a community of respect for all students and faculty.”

In his closing statement, Godsey asserted, “Holding steadfastly to the rich and noble heritage of our Baptist forbearers and the Christian values that have shaped and sustained Mercer for generations, we affirm our historic values, while including within them an unwavering devotion to the open search for truth, to religious and intellectual freedom, and to respect for the diversity of beliefs among the members of the University community.”

Godsey also mentioned that Georgia Equality, the state’s largest and most influential homosexual activist organization, planned an Oct. 20 meeting at Mercer. He canceled the event because the group was an outside organization that did not meet the criterion for having a meeting on the Mercer Campus.

When contacted about the Mercer Triangle Symposium meeting, GBC Executive Director J. Robert White said he was “deeply concerned to learn of the homosexual coming out day held at Mercer.”

“This kind of event is diametrically opposed to who we are as a convention. This creates a conflict for Georgia Baptists who send their students to Mercer as a Georgia Baptist university believing that they will be nurtured in a Christian environment, then learn that their students are invited to attend meetings of this nature on campus.

“At the very least,” White said, “on-campus meetings give the impression of approval by the administration.

White said he had received numerous e-mails and telephone calls about the event from concerned Georgia Baptists across the state.

“The thing that concerns me most deeply is the disregard for the physical, mental and emotional well-being of the students by those who promoted this event and other similar activities that apparently take place with regularity on the campus,” White said. “If there was no spiritual reason whatsoever to discourage homosexuality, certainly the blight of AIDS should be adequate to surmise, ‘This is not a good thing to promote at our university.’

“Add to the physical concerns, the emotional crisis this creates for our families, to say nothing of the spiritual result of choosing to live a life of unrepentant sin, and the results can be devastating.”

White further stated, “If Mercer says, ‘There’s nothing we can do about this kind of event taking place at the university,’ or ‘Students must be free to express themselves without interference from the university,’ we still have a serious compatibility problem.”

White concluded, “I understand that a part of the university experience, whether Baptist or otherwise, is being exposed to a broad variety of thought. At the same time, I believe that Georgia Baptist parents should be able to have the confidence that their young people who attend a Georgia Baptist institution will not receive errant signals but will be taught that learning to live a life that is like Christ –- full of integrity, character and truth -– is the supreme result of higher Christian education.”
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Gerald Harris is editor of The Christian Index, newsjournal of the Georgia Baptist Convention, on the Web at www.christianindex.org.


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Iowa Baptists celebrate 10 years as a convention
by Richard Nations
Date: November 09, 2005 - Wednesday

WINTERSET, Iowa (BP)--The 10th annual meeting of the Baptist Convention of Iowa returned to the church where the convention was founded in 1995, First Baptist in Winterset. In addition to the 10th anniversary, messengers also celebrated 50 years of Southern Baptist work in the state.

The Nov. 4-5 meeting was attended by 127 messengers and 38 guests from 47 churches.

BCI President Dan Doolin said the convention owes a great debt to the early Baptist pioneers who founded the first Iowa Southern Baptist church in 1954 -- Fairview Baptist in Anamosa -– and the first Iowa association in 1965. In 1972, the Iowa Southern Baptist Fellowship was organized, serving as Iowa Baptists’ statewide body until the convention was established in 1995.

Doolin recognized messengers who contributed to the convention by having them stand in conjunction with the decade they joined Iowa Baptist work.

David Brown and Joe Needham gave a history presentation during the Friday night session, highlighting early pioneers and churches, complete with a slide show of the progression of Iowa churches through the decades. Brown is a retired minister who currently serves as interim pastor of University Baptist Church in Ames. Needham is pastor of Living Hope Baptist Church in Ossian and a history professor at Luther College in Decorah. He also has led the BCI history committee to reorganize the historical archives of the convention.

Several Baptist pioneers spoke of their early involvement in Iowa Baptist work, including Jean Hulsey, former Woman’s Missionary Union director and wife of the late Lonney Hulsey, who served churches in Davenport, Albia and Glenwod. Jean Hulsey now lives in Lebanon, Mo.

Convention business actions included:

-- approval of the 2006-2010 BCI Strategy Plan “Empowering Kingdom Growth.” The plan calls for strategic objectives to “hold to one another, abide in Christ and reach out to others” based on scriptural mandates from Galatians 6:1-10, John 15:4 and Acts 1:8. The convention promises to help churches to: make and mature disciples, stay healthy, start new churches and strengthen associations. These priorities will be implemented through: servant leaders, information and training and strategic resources. BCI Executive Director Jimmy Barrentine gave a summary of the three scriptural mandates in his annual report. A more detailed explanation of the new strategy plan may be found on the executive team tab of the convention’s website at www.bcisbc.com.

-- the BCI budget, which anticipates 2006 income and disbursements of $1,822,276, a .22 percent increase over the previous year. As in previous years, 20 percent of Cooperative Program gifts from Iowa churches will be sent to the Southern Baptist missions causes and 80 percent will be used for Iowa missions and ministries.

The resolutions committee acted on three submitted resolutions. Two were recommended for approval:

-- a resolution calling for the establishment in each church of a prayer coordinator whose ministry will be to use e-mail and other means to share daily, brief prayer and praise reminders with the congregation. It is hoped that such a ministry will strengthen the prayer life of individuals and churches.

-- appreciation to First Baptist Church of Winterset for hosting both the 1995 meeting when the Baptist Convention of Iowa was founded and the 2005 meeting celebrating the 10th anniversary.

The committee declined to recommend a resolution calling for a designation of a convention volunteer missions coordinator. It was explained that staff and volunteers currently in place are doing this ministry.

The credentials committee recommended the seating of messengers from six new congregations that have requested affiliation with the convention, including First Grace Baptist Church, Sheffield; Friends Baptist Church, Waterloo; Heartland Community Baptist Church, Sioux City and Hope Baptist Church of Laurens. Provisional affiliation was granted for Our Church in Wayland and New Birth Baptist Church in Ames. 

Convention officers were re-elected to their positions: president, Dan Doolin, pastor of Solid Rock Baptist Church in Wapello; first vice president, Larry Carter, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Clinton; second vice president, Bob Stout, pastor of Quimby (Iowa) Baptist Church; and recording secretary Terry Wilkinson, co-pastor of CrossPointe Church in West Des Moines.

Doolin based his presidential address on Phillipians 1:6: “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (NIV).

“What God has begun in the convention will become complete, because what He begins, He completes,” Doolin told messengers.

Mike Carlson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Winterset, delivered the convention sermon, titled “The Glory of God” on the prayer of Jesus recorded in John 17.

Preaching a verse-by-verse exposition of the chapter, Carlson said, “We need to celebrate all God has done in the past 10 years -- but God is not done! Don’t leave Iowa or this earth until you have completed all God wants you to do. We are all busy, with a big agenda, but it is not what we have on our agenda that counts; it is what the Father has for us that matters most.”
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Richard Nations is publications editor for the Baptist Convention of Iowa.


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Miss. Baptists hear pastors tell of Hurricane Katrina’s impact
by Staff
Date: November 09, 2005 - Wednesday

JACKSON, Miss. (BP)--Special times of testimony were provided for pastors of churches devastated by Hurricane Katrina in late August during the Mississippi Baptist Convention’s Nov. 1-2 annual meeting at First Baptist Church in Jackson.

Among those who spoke during the “Surviving the Storms” segments were:

-- Chuck Register of First Baptist Church in Gulfport.

-- Rex Yancey of First Baptist Church in Pascagoula.

-- Al Green Jr. of First Baptist Church in Bay St. Louis.

-- LaRue Stephens of First Baptist Church in Long Beach.

Jim Futral, executive director-treasurer of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board, presented a tribute to the tens of thousands of volunteers who have worked on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Katrina.

New officers were elected by acclamation.

The new president, Clarence Cooper, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Grenada, was nominated by Matt Buckles, pastor of First Baptist Church in Vicksburg. Cooper is a well-known figure in Mississippi Baptist and Southern Baptist circles. He is immediate past president of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board and a member of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee. He also has served on a number of Mississippi Baptist and Southern Baptist committees. Cooper succeeds Gene Henderson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Brandon, who is completing his second term as president and is not eligible for re-election.

Joel Medina, pastor of Iglesia Internacional Los Americas in Carthage, made Mississippi Baptist history twice during the annual meeting when, as first vice president, he became the first Hispanic to preside over a convention session on Nov. 1 and then was elected by acclamation to his first full term in the post.

Medina, who also pastors a number of Hispanic church plants in central Mississippi, became the convention's first-ever Hispanic officer when he was elected second vice president in 2004. He moved up to first vice president later in the year when Thad Moore resigned his pastorate in Meridian to pastor a church in Arkansas.

Gayle Alexander, pastor of First Baptist Church in Baldwyn, is the convention’s new second vice president, while recording secretary Gus Merritt, retired pastor of Clarke Venable Baptist Church in Decatur, was re-elected by acclamation.

International Mission Board worker Carrie McDonnall, who addressed the convention the evening of Nov. 1, recounted being ambushed by insurgents near Mosul, Iraq, while she, her husband, and three IMB coworkers were searching for locations for water wells. Her husband and co-workers were killed, and McDonnall suffered severe and lasting wounds that have required many surgeries. No one has ever been charged in the murders and assault.

McDonnall expressed surprise that some people seem not to understand that she would readily return to the work that nearly took her life, because of all the lost souls in Iraq still in need of the Gospel. "We must run into the darkness as Christ ran to us &#91;when we were in darkness&#93;. May our churches rise up and run into the darkness," she said.

Tommy Hamill, a member of Calvary Baptist Church in Macon, recounted his capture by Iraqi insurgents during the Iraq War after a running gun battle involving his fuel convoy. As time dragged on during his captivity, he said he always felt the hand of the Lord on him and was sure of his safe return to his wife and family.

Ross Holleyman, a member of Trinity Baptist Church in Carthage, also gave a testimony describing how he has coped spiritually with the loss of his son, a member of the U.S. Special Forces, during combat in Iraq.

The convention sermon was preached by Mickey Dalrymple, pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Columbus. Other keynote speakers included Jim Henry, pastor of First Baptist Church in Orlando, Fla., and former two-term president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Thom Rainer, president-elect of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The 1,110 messengers to the 2005 MBC annual meeting adopted a 2006 Cooperative Program budget of $31,314,491, the same as the current year.

Next year’s annual meeting will be Oct. 31–Nov. 1 at First Baptist Church in Jackson. Chuck Register will deliver the convention sermon.
--30—-
Adapted from reporting by William H. Perkins Jr., editor of The Baptist Record, newsjournal of the Mississippi Baptist Convention.



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FIRST-PERSON: Reflections from a younger leader
by Ed Stetzer
Date: November 09, 2005 - Wednesday

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--Lots of people have been thinking, speaking and blogging about the whole “young leader thing.” I’ve done my fair share -- although speaking for young leaders is probably not a wise long-term strategy for a guy just 10 months away from turning 40. 

Some have advocated convention change in how we affirm diverse and biblically sound strategies and how we do missional ministry together. Many have rightfully said that it is time for Southern Baptists to accept the fact that many of our best and brightest don’t wear suits, don’t use a hymnal, and have different methodologies than most of our existing churches. But the Lord also has spoken to my heart about how I, as a contemporary church pastor, need to change and learn as well.

In the foreword to my recent book ("Perimeters of Light: Biblical Boundaries for the Emerging Church" with Elmer Towns), Paige Patterson calls me a “son of the contemporary church.” He’s right. I’ve never planted or served as pastor of a church that was not contemporary, and God continues to place me in settings where that is our chosen ministry approach.

But, in all this talk about change, it is important to have some discernment as many young (and not so young) SBC leaders plant or transition to contemporary models. I am not talking about preaching against innovation or “smarmy” comments about worship bands. That is hurting our convention and squelching the conversation. But, I have learned along the way that:

-- Theology matters and can’t be assumed.

Unlike most SBC pastors, I wasn’t raised or redeemed in a Baptist church. I was raised nominally Catholic and came to Christ in a denomination that drifted away from the Gospel. All this talk about “broadening the tent” does not appeal to me. Been there, done that, seen the compromise that follows. If young leaders are not serious about theology, preaching and cooperation, then this denomination is not the place for them. As I wrote in SBC Life (Feb. 2003), doctrine matters to missions -- and it matters when we seek to be “missional” as well. I’ve learned that we need to constantly talk, think and learn better theology.

-- Preaching is more than retelling biblical principles.

I’ve preached a lot of sermons that were more about my opinions than God’s Word. Sure, they were based on biblical principles (“love your wife,” “don’t worry,” “work hard”) but not grounded in the biblical story of redemption. Then, Donna (my wife) told me, that after all our years together, she felt that she did not know the Bible well. As her pastor, I had taught her how to be a godly person, but not how to understand our God revealed in the Bible.

The need for biblical preaching has never been more urgent. Biblical preaching is more than common sense truth with biblical proofs taken out of context. Instead, it is letting the agenda and shape of Scripture determine the agenda and shape of the message. I’ve learned that I have not taken it seriously enough -- and I think I am not alone.

-- Making your church relevant does not mean making it easy.

No question -- most of our churches need to be more relevant to their communities and their cultures. According to a recent Leavell Center/New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary study, 89 percent of our churches are not experiencing healthy evangelistic growth. Part of the reason is that they have become marginalized from their communities. 

Yet, in a noble desire to reach more people, too many innovative leaders (like me) tried too hard to make things relevant. We tried too hard to give them what they wanted. Missiologist/urban pastor Tim Keller rightly cautions, "Contexualization is not 'giving people what they want' but rather it is giving God's answers (which people may not want!) to questions they are asking and in forms that they can comprehend.” I’ve learned that I need to remember that relevance only matters if it reveals the one true Christ and His Gospel.

-- Most of us are too thin-skinned for real discussion.

I can’t say I have really mastered this one, but a robust theological discussion takes a thick skin. Denominations that care about doctrine must also care about practice. Theology determines methodology and if we want to change practice, it is important to have a theological basis to do so. That requires being willing to critique yourself honestly and to listen to others and their critiques. I’ve learned that sometimes I confused healthy theological correction with arguments over preferences ... and took the concerns more personally than I should. I think a lot of disconnected SBC young leaders might have done the same.

The denomination where I came to faith doesn’t worry about practice, but they don’t worry much about theology or morals anymore, either. I’m glad these things matter -- and I am glad we are having the conversation. I’ll take the Southern Baptist Convention any day -- and work through the conversation with more traditional leaders to figure out what a biblically faithful church looks like in emerging culture.
--30--
Ed Stetzer serves as director of research at the North American Mission Board. A missiologist, he is the author of several articles and books on missional ministry. 


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FIRST-PERSON: Prop. 2 passed -- now what?
by Trey Graham
Date: November 09, 2005 - Wednesday

MELISSA, Texas. (BP)--By going to the voting booth, the citizens of Texas have spoken. On Nov. 8, Proposition 2 passed by a margin of more than 3-to-1, adding an amendment to the Texas Constitution that explicitly defines marriage in our state as only between one man and one woman.

I and other Christian leaders encouraged people of faith to vote in support of Proposition 2 because we believed that this amendment took a stand for God’s design for marriage as described in the Bible. I voiced my support for Prop. 2 in several newspapers and in radio interviews, because I was convinced it represented not only the biblical view of marriage but also the opinion of the majority of Texans. 

The opponents to this proposition voiced their disapproval of Prop. 2 by arguing that it would do nothing to fix problems facing marriage, such as high divorce rates, adultery and child abuse. These liberal groups stated that if the “religious right” wanted to protect marriage, steps would be taken to eliminate these evils and the “civil rights” of homosexuals would be left alone.

While I disagree with the underlying worldview of those who would seek to redefine marriage as between members of the same sex, I agree that the homosexual agenda does not constitute the only cause for the failure of traditional marriage. As people of faith, we would do well to avoid boasting about the results of an election and instead we should focus on our own actions. In the words of Jesus, we should forget about the speck in our brother’s eye while worrying about the logs in our own eyes.

Now that the people have spoken and told our legislators that the majority of Texans believe in the traditional, conservative view of marriage, we must ask, “Now what?” Should we who voted for traditional marriage stop now and simply gloat as we wait for the next controversial item on the ballot?

The answer is obviously “no.” To protect marriage, we must stop arguing with our political opponents and begin asking the hard questions. We should strive to conform our own marriages to God’s biblical standards, even while societal forces work to devalue our morals and redefine wrong as right.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we must begin asking questions like these:

-- What are we going to do to strengthen marriage? 

-- How are we going to live out God’s design for our marriages? 

-- When will we begin living up to the standards we preach?

-- What must happen now to continue improving our society and making marriages and families the bedrocks of our society?

-- What should we be teaching in our schools about love and marriage and how can we, as people of faith, be involved in making those decisions?

I know that those of us who profess faith in Jesus Christ can be better parents and better role models. I know that our churches can do a better job of preparing and assisting parents who struggle. I know that dads can spend more quality time raising children who love God and love God’s people. I know that moms could prioritize their responsibilities to prepare the next generation of Texas leaders over other, more selfish, endeavors.

I am asking you to improve our society by improving your marriage. I am asking you to be a better parent or grandparent because the values we vote are the values you teach the children in your life.
--30--
Trey Graham, a writer, speaker and senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Melissa, Texas, is the author of "Lessons for the Journey" (America House, 2001) and "Light for the Journey" (PublishAmerica, 2004). He can be reached at pastor@fbcmelissa.org.



