
The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-11/10/2005

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Senate subcommittee rekindles Marriage Protection Amendment, process continues
by Staff
Date: November 10, 2005 - Thursday

WASHINGTON (BP)--A Senate subcommittee approved a constitutional amendment to protect marriage Nov. 9 in Congress’ first action on the measure this year.

The Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights Subcommittee forwarded the Marriage Protection Amendment to the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 5-4 vote. The vote by the nine-member panel was along party lines, with Republicans in the majority.

Supporters of the legislation hope it will be acted upon by the Judiciary Committee Nov. 17, but it is uncertain if the panel will vote on it on that date, a congressional spokesman said.

Sen. Sam Brownback, R.-Kan., subcommittee chairman, called the vote “an important step in the fight to protect traditional marriage. We should act as soon as possible to protect traditional marriage.”

The amendment, S.J. Res. 1, simply reads: “Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any state, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.”

Last year, the Senate failed even to give an up-or-down vote to a similar amendment. Supporters gained only 48 of the 60 votes needed to halt debate and allow a vote -- a procedure called invoking cloture. Fifty senators voted against cloture, thereby blocking a vote.

The House of Representatives achieved a majority on the Marriage Protection Amendment in 2004 with a 227-186 vote, but it fell far short of the required two-thirds, or 290 votes, needed for passage.

Ratification of an amendment to the Constitution requires passage by two-thirds of both houses of Congress and approval by three-fourths of the states.

The subcommittee action came a day after voters in Texas approved an amendment to the state constitution to protect marriage by 76-24 percent. Texas became the 19th state to adopt a marriage amendment. A state marriage amendment has yet to lose on a ballot, and 12 of the states to approve such a measure have done so with at least 70 percent of the vote.

Massachusetts began recognizing “homosexual marriage” last year, and other states may follow in the near future. Supporters of “homosexual marriage” would like to take their case to the U.S. Supreme Court and have it legalized nationwide, but they hope to win a few more lawsuits on the state level before seeking federal affirmation.
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Intelligent Design supporters lose in Pa. school board election
by James Patterson
Date: November 10, 2005 - Thursday

HARRISBURG, Pa. (BP)--Supporters of a Pennsylvania school district’s policy to make high school science students aware of Intelligent Design say they will not be dissuaded by a school board election that swept candidates into office who ran on a platform opposed to the policy.

All eight seats on the nine-member Dover Area School Board that were up for election Nov. 8 were narrowly won by candidates affiliated with the Citizens Actively Reviewing Educational Strategies (CARES). The organization’s platform calls for removing Intelligent Design from the district’s science curriculum.

The school district is a defendant in a federal trial over its policy to inform ninth-grade science students about the existence of Intelligent Design. Testimony in the case ended in early November. U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III is expected to issue a ruling by early January.

One of the winners in the board election, Bryan Rehm, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the school district. Last year he and 10 other parents, facilitated by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, sued the district. The plaintiffs alleged that exposing the students to Intelligent Design was putting religion in the classroom.

Intelligent Design holds that living organisms are so complex they had to have been constructed by a higher, intelligent designer. The designer is not identified. Lawyers and scientific witnesses for the district argued throughout the six-week trial that there is irrefutable, empirical evidence of Intelligent Design.

Unofficial election results showed that just 288 votes separated the first- and last-place finishers among all 16 candidates, with the top eight vote-getters garnering seats on the board. One of the eight incumbents unseated, David Napieskie, for example, was ousted by just 26 votes.

The issue has divided the small community of Dover, located just outside York. Supporters of the district’s Intelligent Design policy say CARES teamed up with the teachers union, ACLU and other opponents of the policy in an intense campaign to defeat the incumbent board candidates. The ousted board members met informally on Wednesday night to discuss how to proceed after the election, but declined to reveal what was discussed in the meeting.

“When the other side had the backing of the ACLU and the teachers union,” a difficult battle was at hand, said Martha Cashman, whose husband James lost his board seat by just a few votes. “They promised to give the teachers raises. We really needed more community support. You needed a lot more grassroots action in order for us to stop them.”

Four of the seats won were for four-year terms. The other four seats were for two years. A celebration for the winners was held at the home of victorious CARES candidate Phil Herman, who edged out Napierskie to complete former board member Bill Buckingham’s two-year term. Buckingham was one of the primary catalysts of the Intelligent Design policy and a central figure in the trial. Jubilant CARES members wearing red and white T-shirts, cheered, shed tears, prayed and hugged each other, according to the York Dispatch.

“That’s what they did,” Cashman said. “They got the grassroots and they were knocking on doors every day and pulling off rallies and everything. It was a tough election.” Because of a problem with balloting in one precinct, which could impact the outcome of James Cashman’s candidacy, election officials were discussing whether to review parts of the voting.

Officials were puzzled by the results of a voting machine at Friendship Community Church, which recorded the vote for Cashman at 001. Cashman told the York Dispatch that other incumbents who supported the school district’s Intelligent Design policy received about 100 votes each. In the battle for the four-year seats, Cashman lost to fourth-place finisher Rehm by 99 votes. The malfunction could deny Intelligent Design proponents a minority voice on the board.

Opponents of the Intelligent Design policy say the election is a repudiation of the district’s policy. They contend that, if anywhere, the concept should be taught only in non-mandatory or religion courses, where students would have the option of whether to study it.

“My kids believe in God. I believe in God,” Jill Reiter, whose two children attend Dover High School, told the AP. “But I don’t think it belongs in the science curriculum the way the school district is pressing it. Put it in an elective class where those students who want to learn about it or get deeper involved can choose to take that class.”

That suggestion would not sit well with one Dover resident, who does not understand what all the fuss is about.

“This policy is so mild in the way it’s written that it seems hardly worth commenting on,” said Merrill A. Cohen, a local physician. “The hysteria and the controversy that this policy has generated are totally out of proportion to what it deserves. In reality, the policy says almost nothing. Evolution will still be taught and religion is explicitly not to be introduced. Intelligent Design is not going to be taught, it is merely to be made available as an option.

“A book will be available but only as a resource if a student wishes to look at it,” Cohen noted. “This book is not required reading. Are we suddenly practicing the censorship of books? If there is anything that might be a point of contention, it is that the policy calls for the problems associated with a controversial scientific theory to be discussed in class. Isn’t that what we do in the Western world with all of our ideas? What are their pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses? We should want to teach our students to be able to evaluate ideas, especially in science class.

“To refuse to allow the problems associated with an idea or a theory to be mentioned is essentially to present that theory as dogma,” Cohen said. “Why would we want to do that? Evolution is controversial in America. The No Child Left Behind Act of Congress advises that our public schools teach the controversy. I see our current Dover school board as being up to date in its educational requirements.”

Martha Cashman said proponents of Intelligent Design would wait for Judge Jones’ ruling before deciding their next move. The school district was represented at the trial by the Thomas More Center, which had promised to appeal if a ruling goes against the district. But with a new school board that opposes the current policy taking over in January, it’s unclear whether an appeal by the district would be undertaken.
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Revival must come first to the pulpit, Gaines says
by Kyle Smith
Date: November 10, 2005 - Thursday

WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)--In the midst of a culture of churches plagued by unbiblical proclamation and immature congregants and devoid of the glory of God, revival must begin in the pulpit, pastor Steve Gaines said at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary’s annual Sandy Creek Revival Week.

Gaines, the new pastor of the Memphis-area Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn., preached a series of messages to bring spiritual refreshment to the next generation of Christians intent on returning biblical proclamation to the nation’s pulpits.

“The week is about renewal for you,” Gaines told students at Southeastern’s Wake Forest, N.C., campus. “Ask God to bring the glory back into your life because if you leave this seminary and all you have is a full head with an empty heart, you will fail. Get the full head, but also get the full heart.”

Gaines said revival is important, even on a seminary campus, because every believer needs strengthening from the Lord.

“I believe all of us need spiritual times of refreshment,” Gaines said. “We need mountaintops, fresh fillings and fresh cleansings. Yesterday’s touch from God won’t do. We need to constantly walk with God. Just like a bath or shower doesn’t last, we have to be repeatedly filled with the Holy Spirit and receive fresh touches from God.”

The seminary’s yearly Sandy Creek Week commemorates one of the greatest revival movements in history. That 18th-century revival began at nearby Sandy Creek Baptist Church, where the passion and vision of a pastor named Shubal Stearns sparked a movement of God that touched much of the southeastern United States and birthed many of the Southern Baptist churches in the region today.

Similarly, the nation finds itself in need of revival today, Gaines said in his Oct. 25-26 messages. Its problems include preachers who do not preach God’s Word and churches in which the Word of God has ceased to function as an authority.

“The No. 1 sign of a church that’s in trouble is perverted proclamation,” Gaines said. “If there is no Word from God in the pulpit, there will be no anointing from God.

“I’m concerned with the spiritual climate I see in our churches. I wonder if God has said, ‘You guys keep meeting. I’m out of here.’ I don’t want to be a member of a church God doesn’t attend. It doesn’t matter how many people come to your church if God’s not there.”

Members of a church often are no better than the men who fill its pulpits, Gaines added.

“Go to any Baptist church you want to, and you can find people who profess to be Christians but have little of the glory of God in their lives,” he said. “They complain if the service runs five minutes past noon. What makes you think you’re going to like heaven if you can’t handle more than an hour of church? What makes you think you’re going to heaven?”

Sadly, even in the church, one can find people who are hardhearted and mean-spirited. The remedy for this condition, Gaines said, is love of the 1 Corinthians 13 variety.

“If you want to see what revival is, it’s living out 1 Corinthians 13,” he said. “It’s living a life of love.... It won’t do you any good to have all of this theology systematized in your mind but be mean-spirited.

“If I’m mean, cantankerous and always looking for a fight, even theologically, in God’s eyes even if I give my life to be burned, it doesn’t mean anything to Him.”

The mark of being filled with the Holy Spirit, Gaines said, preaching from 1 Corinthians, is not the appearance of some spiritual gift. The mark of the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit that begins with love.

“You tell me you’re mature, and you’re not a loving person?” Gaines said. “I tell you that you’re not mature. You’re only as mature as your love level.”

Gaines also preached in a special evening service for local youth. Using Philippians 2:5-11 as his text, Gaines underscored the lordship of Jesus Christ, calling for a response to His lordship.

“Jesus was Lord before He ever came to this earth,” Gaines said. “While He was on this earth, Jesus was Lord, and Jesus Christ will be Lord when He comes back again. The problem is if you wait until then, you won’t go to heaven.

“You can’t have Him as Savior now and Lord later. I believe people need to surrender their hearts, or they’re not really saved. I believe if there is no repentance, there is no regeneration, and if there is no surrender, there is no salvation.”

Gaines challenged the youth to respond to Jesus’ lordship in a variety of ways -– whether by receiving Him for salvation, modeling His humility or trusting Him in the midst of their struggles.
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Cash’s daughter says new film fails to paint accurate picture
by Staff
Date: November 10, 2005 - Thursday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Kathy Cash, the second daughter of music legend Johnny Cash, says the upcoming film biography of her father, "Walk the Line,” portrays her family -- particularly her mother, Johnny’s first wife -- unfairly in an effort to further glamorize the love story between Johnny and June Carter Cash.

“I was very upset,” she told The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville. “I walked out on that film five times.”

While she admires the acting performances of the two main stars -- Joaquin Phoenix as her father and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash -- Kathy Cash said the movie makes her mother, Vivian Liberto Distin, look like a shrew, The Tennessean reported Nov. 10.

Walk the Line also does not show the pain she and her three sisters faced during their father’s struggle with drug addiction and their parents’ divorce, she said.

“Anyone who wants a good sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll movie is gonna love it,” Kathy Cash told The Tennessean. “I’m anticipating dyed-in-the-wool fans objecting to a lot of stuff.”

What really troubled her was how none of the happy times her mother and father shared were mentioned in the film, including the happy 13-year marriage they had before he started abusing pills. And as she noted, in the song “I Walk the Line” Johnny Cash was actually pledging to be faithful to his first wife.

“My mom was basically a nonentity in the entire film except for the mad little psycho who hated his career,” she said. “That’s not true. She loved his career and was proud of him until he started taking drugs and stopped coming home.”

Vivian Liberto Distin died of complications from lung cancer earlier this year.

But the only child Johnny and June Carter Cash had together, the now 35-year-old John Carter Cash, was an executive producer for the film and said he tried to best tell of the passionate love that consumed his parents, though he acknowledged Kathy Cash’s complaints were not unfounded.

“Kathy grew up in a household I was never in,” he told The Tennessean. “I’m compassionately understanding. The point of the film is my parents’ love affair. That’s the lasting light that lived through their lives. The most important thing for my parents on this earth was their love for each other.”

“Walk the Line,” which is rated PG-13, is set to open in theaters nationwide Nov. 18.
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FIRST-PERSON: ‘Walk the Line’ nudges toward faith
by Phil Boatwright
Date: November 10, 2005 - Thursday

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (BP)--The new film about the late Johnny and June Carter Cash ends just before the season in their lives when they became publicly vocal about their faith and how that faith helped Cash in his battle with drugs.

Nevertheless, “Walk the Line,” which opens in theaters Nov. 18, adeptly delves into the themes of man’s struggles with fame, guilt and self-doubt, providing a frank, enlightening look at the country music legends’ lives.

While their religious convictions are only hinted at, the subtle reflection of faith may cause viewers to examine the need for a spiritual cornerstone in their own battles against destructive forces.

Johnny Cash, married with children when he began performing with June Carter, the younger member of the famous Carter family, found her to be a kindred spirit, perhaps even a lighthouse. She, on the other hand, had avoided his yearnings because he was married. The film never clearly states whether their relationship became a physical one before his divorce; therefore we’re never sure if this union was built on adultery. This possibility surprised me as Johnny and June were blessed with popularity and riches and were successful in their efforts to present Christ to hundreds of thousands through their music and public appearances. Would God bless such a union if it had been formed in sin? Their relationship raises questions, and the portrayal makes it evident that these are faulty people, not virtuous saints.

Yet, it’s for that very reason the film is profound. It spoke to me of everyman’s struggle with sin and weakness while attempting to develop a relationship with the Creator.

The film’s themes –- man’s struggle with temptation and self-esteem, alongside the strength of love -- reminded me that all people, famous and not so, are just that -– people who need to depend on God’s grace and Christ’s sacrifice.

Some moviegoers will enjoy the musical performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, while those who appreciate the power of Cash and Carter’s vocal distinctions may wish the producers had dubbed in original recordings. Vocal abilities aside, I think most will be impressed with the sincerity of the actors’ approach to the music and to these two icons of the country music world. Well-directed, with a crackerjack supporting performance by Waylon Malloy Payne as Jerry Lee Lewis, the film entertains and fascinates.

Walk the Line is rated PG-13 for its thematic material, such as the subjects of adultery and drug dependency. While there are several obscenities (expressions that are objectionable or repugnant to acceptable standards of decency or morality) and several expletives, I caught only one misuse of Jesus’ name and that came from a drug dealer as the Carter family forces him off their property at gunpoint -– one of the best scenes in the film in their tough love for Cash as he battled his demons.

Another standout moment: Mr. Cash is arranging to do a performance for the inmates at Folsom Prison, when he is told, “Christians aren’t going to like you singing to a bunch of murderers and rapists.” Mr. Phoenix as Mr. Cash responds, “Then they’re not really Christians.” That moment reminded me that I am to care for, and reach out to, all sinners, that God is willing and able to forgive all sins, not just mine.
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Phil Boatwright reviews films from a Christian perspective. For further information, go to his website at www.moviereporter.com.


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Baptist association responds to Tenn. school shooting
by Staff
Date: November 10, 2005 - Thursday

JACKSBORO, Tenn. (BP)--In the wake of a Tennessee school shooting that left an assistant high school principal dead, Campbell County Baptist Association and its churches are responding with crisis intervention debriefing and prayer sessions for the community.

A lone student was arrested for the Nov. 8 melee that also left the school’s principal and another assistant principal seriously wounded.

The surviving assistant principal, Jimmy Pierce, 56, a member of First Baptist Church in LaFollette, was wounded in the chest and was listed in critical condition at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.

The principal, Gary Seale, a member of LaFollette Church of God, was shot in the abdomen and was listed in serious but stable condition at the Knoxville hospital.

The assistant principal who died at a LaFollette hospital, Ken Bruce, was a member of a local Catholic church.

Campbell County Baptist Association’s director of missions, Glen Petree, said Pierce is a good friend with whom he attended school in the community. Piece serves as a greeter and offering bearer at First Baptist, LaFollette. His wife Elda Kate also is active in the church. The couple has one daughter, Holly, a student at the University of Tennessee.

Petree is prepared to assist emergency first responders to the shooting at Campbell County Comprehensive High School in Jacksboro with crisis intervention through the CISM (Critical Incident Stress Management) program. Petree is a trained crisis interventionist and also the chaplain for local EMTs.

Petree has met with associational pastors and youth ministers to schedule a joint community prayer and encouragement service for Sunday night, Nov. 13, at the LaFollette Church of God.

Petree reported at least three Baptist churches in the area that have opened their doors to the community to help people recover from the tragedy.

"Hillcrest Baptist Church, LaFollette, which actually overlooks the high school, has opened its doors to the community. Hillcrest Church pastor Chris Thomas opened the church for counseling, people who want to talk, and for prayer,” Petree said. “Other churches in the area, New Horizon Baptist Church and Indiana Avenue Baptist Church, both in LaFollette, have also opened their doors for prayer and discussions. Two churches held candlelight services and prayer vigils Nov. 8."

Petree noted that state mental health counselors were available Nov. 9 at LaFollette Middle School and Jacksboro Middle School for anyone who wanted to talk. "The State CISM team, which I work with in the area, has offered to do a debriefing for the high school students and teachers and the Campbell County School System central office.

"We have six trained leaders in school crisis counseling on the local CISM team. We are also available to all first responders which includes the EMTs and other emergency personnel." Petree already has had one referral from the local office of emergency management.

The Baptist leader is asking for prayers for the victims and the community.
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Adapted from reporting by Marcia Knox, special features assistant with the Baptist & Reflector, newsjournal of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, on the Web at www.tnbaptist.org/BRNews.asp.


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Ark. Baptists to create nonprofit campground agency
by Charlie Warren
Date: November 10, 2005 - Thursday

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (BP)--The first step in granting agency status to the Baptist Assembly at Siloam Springs was approved during the Arkansas Baptist State Convention’s Nov. 8-9 annual meeting.

Messengers also permitted a special ministry task force an additional year to complete a comprehensive study of Baptist life and bring recommendations to the 2006 annual meeting.

The convention’s 152nd session, attended by 939 messengers at Geyer Springs First Baptist Church of Little Rock, focused on the theme, “Fanning the Fires of Revival,” particularly emphasizing the convention’s plans for “Your Life Matters....” simultaneous revivals in 2006.

Messengers elected Harry Black, associational missionary for the Washington-Madison Baptist Association, as convention president in a ballot with one other nominee, Chuck McAlister, pastor of The Church at Crossgate Center of Hot Springs. McAlister then was elected as first vice president as the sole nominee as was Danny Johnson, associational missionary of the Pulaski Baptist Association, for second vice president.

The Baptist Assembly recommendation came from a study committee, chaired by Tommy Miller, pastor of Union Valley Baptist Church of Beebe, Ark. As a separate agency, the Arkansas Baptist Assembly would incorporate as a 501(c)(3) corporation, freeing assembly staff and trustees to raise additional funding from individual donors and from private and public foundation grants. The agency would be governed by its own board of trustees, elected by the convention.

The encampment is in need of repairs and renovations beyond what the ABSC budget can provide.

The recommendation was presented as an amendment to the ABSC Articles of Incorporation, which requires a two-thirds vote by messengers at two successive annual meetings. The vote was unanimous, and the second vote will occur at the 2006 annual meeting, Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 2006, at Immanuel Baptist Church of Little Rock.

In the peaceful, non-controversial meeting, only one motion was presented that did not come from a convention committee. Erby Burgess, pastor and messenger from Park Hill Baptist Church of Arkadelphia, Ark., made a motion to dedicate the 2006 ABSC Book of Reports to Roy Buckalew, longtime speech professor at Ouachita Baptist University, who died Aug. 18.

The $19,762,210 ABSC budget approved by messengers includes $11,507,535 (58.23 percent) for missions and ministries within Arkansas and $8,254,675 (41.77 percent) designated for Southern Baptist Convention causes. The 2006 budget represents no increase over the 2005 budget and retains the same CP allocations.

Arkansas Baptist messengers passed seven resolutions including ones commending disaster relief volunteers, opposing casino and lottery gambling, countering homosexual activism, opposing the sale of beer on college campuses, and supporting the Cooperative Program and the 2006 simultaneous revivals.

The resolution affirming the Cooperative Program praised the report of the SBC’s Task Force on Cooperation and noted that Arkansas Baptists are “equally determined to make the greatest impact possible through the Cooperative Program as evidenced by the fact that the Arkansas Baptist State Convention sends approximately 42 percent of its Cooperative Program receipts on to national and international missions causes.”

The resolution proposes that every Southern Baptist and Arkansas Baptist elected leader and official should promote the Cooperative Program “with vigor and intentionality on a consistent basis” and calls on Arkansas Baptist churches to educate their members to the Kingdom benefits of the Cooperative Program.
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Charlie Warren is editor of the Arkansas Baptist News, newsjournal of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, on the Web at www.arkansasbaptist.org.


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Seminary’s Roman Catholicism workshop draws participants from 5 states
by Cory Miller
Date: November 10, 2005 - Thursday

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)--A two-day interfaith evangelism workshop on Roman Catholicism drew more than 85 participants from five states to Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Kansas City, Mo., campus.

An array of presentations -- from the origin of the Roman Catholic Church to the veneration of Mary -– sought to equip participants for witness and ministry to the largest denomination in America, which has an estimated 74 million members on the continent.

Midwestern President R. Philip Roberts, who served as interfaith evangelism director at the North American Mission Board from 1994-99, presented a session titled, “Nashville and Rome: Are We on the Same Path?” to address ecumenical pressures to unite with Roman Catholics.

“While Baptists and traditional Catholics share in common an orthodox view of God and Christ, there are clear differences which divide us,” Roberts said. “The most obvious one is a different view on salvation.”

Midwestern theology professor Mark DeVine emceed the Oct. 21-22 conference and spoke on the differences between Protestants and Catholics, including the question of authority between Scripture or tradition -– and its impact on salvation.

Compared to the doctrine of tradition as ultimate authority in Roman Catholicism, historic Christianity has found its authority solely in the Bible, DeVine said, citing reformer Martin Luther as an example.

“Luther treasured tradition insofar as it coincided with the teaching of Scripture,” DeVine said. “Thus he took great pleasure in quoting St. Augustine against the theology of the late medieval papacy. Yet Luther acknowledged only one source of divine revelation –- Scripture alone, or sola scriptura.”

Only where Scripture stands as judge of all human thought, DeVine said, can idolatry be avoided and confidence in divine truth flourish.

Michael McMullen, MBTS church history professor, gave a detailed examination of the progression of Roman Catholicism from the disciples believing in the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ to the development of Catholic doctrine such as the veneration of Mary and salvation by sacraments.

“Emperor Constantine has always borne much of the blame, and probably rightly, for the church becoming much more superficial in its beliefs and practices,” McMullen said. “But believers, too, also share in that blame, for whenever the people of God allow themselves to drift from Scripture’s clear teachings then we are deliberately thereby placing ourselves in great danger.”

Roman Catholicism is an example of “just what can happen when the doctrines of men become as or more important than the words of Scripture,” McMullen said.

Bill Gordon, apologetics evangelism associate with the North American Mission Board, noted that many of the customs of the Catholic Church changed as a result of Vatican II, but the council did not modify any of Catholicism’s major doctrines.

“The meaning and significance of the seven sacraments remained unaltered,” said Gordon, a specialist in Roman Catholicism. “Likewise, Vatican II did not alter the practice of offering prayers to Mary and the saints.”

The Catholicism workshop was “one of the largest attended we’ve had so far,” Roberts said, referring to previous workshops held on Islam, Mormonism and the New Age.

“We offered this seminar to equip and assist the evangelical church, and particularly Southern Baptists, with the necessary knowledge and differences of Roman Catholicism so they can effectively minister to their friends, neighbors and co-workers,” Roberts said.
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Three audio sessions of the MBTS Roman Catholic Workshop are available for download at: www.mbts.edu/Resources. Audio CD recordings of the workshop also are available for $4 each plus $1.50 shipping and handling by contacting the MBTS library at 1-800-944-6287.


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WORLDVIEW: After Hariri assassination, Lebanese still seek ‘The Truth’
by Erich Bridges
Date: November 10, 2005 - Thursday

BEIRUT, Lebanon (BP)--Bold black banners dominate the walls of many buildings in Beirut these days. Emblazoned in stark white on each banner are two words: “The Truth.”

The truth -- that’s what the Lebanese people want to know about the Feb. 14 car bombing that killed their popular former prime minister, Rafik Hariri. And with an aggressive United Nations investigation now reaching into high levels of the Lebanese and Syrian governments, they just might get it.

Hariri, a billionaire businessman and veteran politician, won the admiration of many Lebanese by investing his wealth to rebuild Beirut and unite the nation after Lebanon’s 1975-91 civil war. But his challenge to neighboring Syria’s long control of Lebanese politics may have sealed his fate.

His portrait still adorns countless shop windows. A large digital counter in the middle of town ticks off the days since his death. More than a million Lebanese from across the ethnic and religious spectrum -– Sunni Muslims, Druze (an Islamic sect), Maronite Christians, Catholics and Orthodox –- jammed together into Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square a month after Hariri’s assassination to call for change. Syria’s military subsequently withdrew from Lebanon. Now the Syrian regime itself faces mounting international pressure as a result of the U.N. investigation.

“The day of the demonstration, I was studying at a coffee shop,” a Christian worker who lives in Beirut recalls. “I stopped and went out to watch these vans loaded with 30 people hanging out the windows, people holding Lebanese flags, grandmothers, children, entire families coming from the villages. Within 30 minutes I must have seen 10,000 people go by. You had a sense that this is different; something is happening here. It was incredible.”

Enthusiasm has waned somewhat in the months since, the worker admits. Many older Lebanese who experienced the sectarian violence and hatred of the civil war years doubt that any real change will ever come, he reports. But like many Arab countries, Lebanon is young; about 70 percent of the nation’s 3.8 million people are under age 35. Some 75,000 university students live in Beirut alone. Too young for cynicism, they expect -– demand -- a brighter future.

“They want to put hope into something,” the worker says. “They want peace and freedom. They wouldn’t have come out so strongly in support of Hariri if they didn’t want something different.”

Would political freedom be enough, however? What about material prosperity and the “good life” they see many Europeans just across the Mediterranean enjoying?

Young couples and families stroll nightly through gleaming streets filled with restaurants, cafes, shops and boutiques built over the bombed-out ruins of war-era Beirut. More than a decade beyond a civil war between ethnic Muslim and Christian militias that killed 150,000 people, Lebanon’s capital has regained its old reputation as the “Paris of the Middle East.” It radiates youth, energy, excitement.

But there’s a void behind the countless construction projects and the music blaring out of Beirut’s nightclubs –- a void that only God can fill. Sixty percent of Beirut’s 1.5 million people are from Muslim backgrounds; 32 percent belong to various traditional Christian groups. Fewer than 1 percent are evangelical followers of Christ. Most Lebanese have never heard a clear presentation of the Gospel. And a new “religion” -– secularism -- has taken hold.

“The biggest obstacle to the Gospel in Lebanon is not necessarily Islam but secularism,” the Christian worker explains. “Young people of the next generation are the ones who are more open, but they’ve replaced religious belief with the pursuit of things. Their parents grew up during the war and didn’t have anything, so it’s like they’re making up for lost time. Maybe it’s expensive clothes, power, partying, whatever.”

But Lebanon is the only Arab nation with real religious freedom. And Lebanese who learn about the love of Jesus Christ are responding to Him:

-- Mala, a young Muslim, was discontented with her faith and cried out to God, begging to know who He really is. She went to a bookstore and saw a shelf of religious books. Desperately, she grabbed one and opened it. It was a Bible. Mala gave her life to Christ and has grown in faith for several years, though her family forbids her from meeting with other believers.

-- An entire Druze family became followers of Christ, despite persecution from a close family member who is a Druze religious leader.

-- Another Muslim family in Beirut that embraced Christ as Lord has a Bible study meeting in their home and has helped start another study for spiritual seekers.

“God is doing something,” the worker says. “For some reason, there’s a window open in Lebanon that is allowing the Gospel to come into this country.”

He and other believers often pray for the modern fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy about Lebanon: “In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field and the fertile field seem like a forest? In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of the gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One.... ” (Isaiah 29:17-19, NIV). 

“Lebanon is going to be used as fertile ground,” the worker says. “Right now it’s still a wilderness -- a lot of weeds, a lot of rocky places. That’s why we’re asking people to come alongside and pray for the soil, that there will be a harvest when Lebanese catch the hope of Jesus.”
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For more information, visit www.beirutandbeyond.com.



