
The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-11/24/2009

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3rd MVP lifts Pujols to Musial's level
by Allen Palmeri
Date: November 24, 2009 - Tuesday

ST. LOUIS (BP)--The narratives of Albert "El Hombre" Pujols and Stan "The Man" Musial continue to be woven together in St. Louis Cardinals history with the Nov. 24 announcement that Pujols had matched Musial with his third National League Most Valuable Player award.

Pujols, this year’s unanimous selection, now has won in 2005, 2008 and 2009; Musial won in 1943, 1946 and 1948.

Cardinal fans view both men as gentlemen and legends. Musial has a statue at Busch Stadium. Pujols is working on one.

Pujols, 29, is one of America's more prominent Christian athletes. He and his wife Deidre run the Pujols Family Foundation, which seeks to honor God by strengthening families. The couple and their three children live in Wildwood, a St. Louis suburb that prides itself on its educational excellence, character and natural beauty and where they attend West County Community Church, a Missouri Baptist Convention-affiliated congregation that runs about 400-600 people in Sunday worship.

West County Community Church's pastor of 16 years, Phil Hunter, has connected with Pujols for many years. With Hunter's name recognition as a former MBC state evangelism director, it is safe to say that many Missouri Baptists this decade have prayed for Pujols to be well-mentored.

Four years ago, when he won his first MVP award, then-MBC President Ralph Sawyer commented to The Pathway, the MBC's newsjournal, that he liked how the glory all was going to God.

"He always puts God first, family second and his vocation follows that," said Sawyer, pastor of First Baptist Church in Wentzville. "We can learn from that. That is a great testimony."

Hunter said pretty much the same thing in mid-November about the prospect of Pujols winning his third MVP.

"The thing I appreciate about Albert and Deidre is their tenderheartedness toward the Lord," Hunter said. "Albert and Deidre are growing in the grace and knowledge of what it means that Christ is the Lord of their lives. I count it a privilege of God's grace in my life and His providence that I have a friendship and a love, as well as my family, with the Pujolses."

Pujols, during a Nov. 11 appearance at a non-denominational church in Chesterfield, pointed to Hunter on the front row and identified him to an audience of 300 as his pastor. Hunter said he took it to mean that he was being singled out like any other friend might have been in that situation.

Pujols is the only player in major league history to bat .300, hit 30 home runs and drive in 100 runs in each of his first nine seasons. For eight of those years he also scored at least 100 runs, falling just short in 2007 with 99. In honor of that prodigious production, his ESPN nickname is "The Machine."

Musial and Pujols are two of only four players in history to have a career batting average above .330 and less than 500 strikeouts at the time of their 300th home runs. The others are Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio.

Pujols is the subject of a forthcoming biography by two Southern Baptists, Tim Ellsworth, editor of Baptist Press Sports and director of news and media relations at Union University, and Scott Lamb, director of research for Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. Published by Thomas Nelson, it is scheduled for release in early spring 2011.

"It's awesome to have 45,000 people to play in front of, 45,000 people every day," Pujols said. "And it's awesome to be, like everybody says, one of the best players out there. But it's awesome to have a good relationship with Jesus Christ, and knowing that it's about Him."
--30--
Allen Palmeri is associate editor of The Pathway, the newsjournal of the Missouri Baptist Convention.

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U.S. lobbyist for Sudan nixed
by Cindy Ortiz
Date: November 24, 2009 - Tuesday

WASHINGTON (BP)--Efforts by the Sudanese government to hire a U.S. lobbyist have been stopped, according to The Washington Post. 

An application seeking approval of a lobbying contract was submitted to the Treasury Department but rejected by Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, the special U.S. envoy to Sudan. 

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, a law firm in Atlanta, wanted permission for a lobbyist on behalf of the Sudanese government, which is based in the city of Khartoum. The firm dropped the effort in October after its application was denied. 

Sudan's militant Islamic regime has backed genocidal campaigns against both Christians and moderate Muslims over the last 25 years.

During the last six years in the country's western region of Darfur, Khartoum military forces and Arab militias supported by the government have instituted ethnic cleansing against African Muslims, resulting in the killing of about 400,000 people, as well as rampant torture, rape and kidnapping, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has reported. About two million Sudanese are homeless in Darfur and another 250,000 are in refugee camps in Chad and the Central African Republic, according to USCIRF.

While Darfur's crisis involves conflict between Arab Muslims and African Muslims, a civil war of more than 20 years that ended in 2005 involved a campaign by the Khartoum regime against Christians and animists in southern Sudan, as well as moderate, African Muslims. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement that closed that war has yet to be fully implemented.

In a letter to President Obama before the application was denied, Rep. Frank Wolf, R.-Va., urged Obama to block the hiring of a lobbyist to represent Sudan. 

"This would be a disgrace and must not be permitted to take place under any circumstances," said Wolf, co-chair of the Congressional Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. "Too often lobbyists are viewed as granting access ... the only thing they lack is the political will to bring about a lasting peace in Sudan. And no lobbyist can manufacture that."

Having a U.S. lobbyist for the Sudanese government would not have been a first.

Robert Cabelly, former State Department official, had a contract with Sudan as a U.S. lobbyist from 2005 to 2006. He recently was indicted on several charges -- including violating sanctions and money laundering -- from his involvement with Sudan, according to The Post. 

A revised administration strategy on Sudan that refocuses attention on fully implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement will help the east African country recover from its current conditions, officials said. 

"The strategy uses all elements of our nation's influence -- diplomacy, defense, development -- to bring about a stability, a security, human rights, opportunities for a better future in Sudan. Our strategy aims to give the people of Sudan a country that is governed responsibly, justly and democratically, a country that's at peace with itself and with its neighbors," said Gration, the special U.S. envoy to Sudan, at an Oct. 19 meeting with other officials discussing the strategy in Sudan, according to the State Department website. 

On the day the strategy was announced, the administration released a statement from President Obama on Sudan. He expressed how serious the urgency is for Sudan to receive U.S. and international help. 

"The genocide in Darfur has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and left millions more displaced ... Sudan is now poised to fall further into chaos if swift action is not taken," said Obama in his Oct. 19 statement on the State Department website.

Sudan is one of eight regimes designated by the State Department as "countries of particular concern," a label reserved for the world's worst violators of religious liberty.

At the conclusion of Wolf's letter to Obama, he briefly cited a true story of a Sudanese woman who was raped. Walking with a group of 20 other women to collect firewood, she was raped by a gang and stabbed in the leg in May, according to a recent U.N. report on Sudan. The same woman was raped and shot in 2003.
--30--
Cindy Ortiz, a junior at Biola University in La Mirada, Calif., is attending the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities' Washington Journalism Center this semester and serving as an intern with Baptist Press.

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Research among pastors sheds light on Manhattan Declaration
by Rob Phillips
Date: November 24, 2009 - Tuesday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--With the Nov. 20 release of the Manhattan Declaration -- a 4,700-word statement declaring the commitment of 148 Christian signatories to the sanctity of human life, biblical marriage and religious liberty -- newly released data from LifeWay Research provides some hard numbers to compare the beliefs of Protestant pastors on these issues -- and how often they discuss them in church.

In a telephone survey of 1,002 senior church leaders conducted in October 2008, Protestant pastors who identified themselves as politically conservative or very conservative are far more likely to speak to their churches on homosexuality and the unborn than their liberal counterparts, according to Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research.

Among very conservative Protestant pastors, 89 percent speak to their churches at least once a year on the unborn, and 79 percent address the topic of homosexuality about once a year or more often. This compares with 25 percent of liberal or very liberal pastors who address the issue of the unborn at least annually, and 53 percent who speak on the topic of homosexuality.

"When you use the language 'the unborn' in your question, it impacts your answer," Stetzer said. "Sixty-five percent of all Protestant pastors, regardless of political ideology, talk about the unborn at least once a year. When you filter out the number who would be pro-choice and perhaps would not use that language, 80 percent are speaking on it at least once a year."

Most Protestant pastors whose political ideology is conservative do not believe "gay marriage" should be legal, but almost half of liberal pastors do. Ninety-nine percent of very conservative pastors surveyed strongly disagree with the statement, "I believe gay marriage should be legal," compared with 16 percent of pastors who are liberal or very liberal.

"It appears that Protestant pastors are much more vocal about the unborn than about the issue of homosexuality," Stetzer said. "It is interesting to note that in many cases their fervency of belief does not line up with their frequency of comments. For example, 42 percent of all Protestant pastors rarely or never speak on the subject."

On the issue of the unborn, 98 percent of very conservative pastors describe themselves as pro-life, compared with 14 percent of pastors who are liberal or very liberal.

When forced to choose, three-fourths of all Protestant pastors surveyed said they are pro-life, and 13 percent said they are pro-choice.

Stetzer noted, "Although the self-identified liberal clergy indicate different views, the vast majority of Protestant pastors consider themselves pro-life."

MORE THAN POLITICS

Among pastors who speak to their congregations on homosexuality several times a year or more, 84 percent also speak on poverty that often. Statistically, this is significantly higher than among pastors who rarely or never speak on homosexuality, of whom 78 percent speak on poverty several times a year or more.

Likewise, among pastors who speak to their church on the unborn several times a year or more, 85 percent also speak on poverty that often.

"Many will debate which is the driving force: the political beliefs or religious beliefs of these pastors," Stetzer said. "The fact is that most pastors who speak up on the unborn and homosexuality also speak up on poverty and consider Scripture their authority."

Among pastors who strongly disagree that "gay marriage" should be legal, 98 percent strongly agree with the statement "Our church considers Scripture to be the authority for our church and our lives." In contrast, among pastors who do not strongly disagree that gay marriage should be legal, 71 percent strongly agree that Scripture is their authority.

Similar differences occur between pro-life and pro-choice pastors. Ninety-seven percent of pro-life pastors, compared to 65 percent of pro-choice pastors, strongly agree with the above statement regarding Scriptural authority. Also, 97 percent of pastors who speak to their church on the unborn several times a year or more strongly agree Scripture is their authority.

Full survey results are available at LifeWayResearch.com. The calling list for the survey was randomly drawn from a list of all Protestant churches. Each interview was conducted with the senior pastor, minister or priest of the church called. Responses were weighed to reflect the geographic distribution of Protestant churches. The sample provides 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed ±3.1 percent.
--30--
Rob Phillips is director of communications for LifeWay Christian Resources (lifeway.com).

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Wyo. Baptists affirm sanctity of life
by Staff
Date: November 24, 2009 - Tuesday

CASPER, Wyo. (BP)--Messengers to the 26th annual meeting of the Wyoming Southern Baptist Convention went on the record against "national wanton disregard for innocent and defenseless human life" that they see evident in proposed health care legislation.

The 101 messengers passed a resolution concerning "legalized, tax-supported abortion" in which they said Southern Baptists have a long history of supporting the sanctity of human life and that the health care reform bill being considered by the Senate "includes using tax revenues to promote and fund abortions."

Wyoming Baptists, in their resolution, encouraged other believers to "seriously consider the terrible impact" that government-funded abortion would have on the nation and resolved to "prayerfully prepare to actively respond, as God would desire and lead, to this national wanton disregard for innocent and defenseless human life."

Another resolution supported "A-Cross Wyoming," an evangelism campaign with a goal of reaching every home in the state with the Gospel message next spring and inviting people to attend Easter services.

The theme of the Nov. 12-13 meeting at College Heights Baptist Church in Casper was "Come and See," based on Psalm 66:5, 16.

Buddy Hanson, pastor of Mountain View Baptist Church in Mills, was elected president by acclamation, as were Max Janzen, pastor of Sunnyside Baptist Church in Cheyenne, as first vice president and Mike Cooper, pastor of College Heights Baptist Church in Casper, as elected second vice president.

Messengers approved an overall budget of $1,532,955 for 2010, a 1 percent decrease from the current year. The budget includes $584,068 in anticipated Cooperative Program giving from Wyoming churches, down from $607,024 in 2009. The convention will continue to forward 32.5 percent of CP receipts to national and international missions and ministries.

Next year's annual meeting will be Nov. 11-12 at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Rock Springs.
--30--
Based on reporting by the Wyoming Southern Baptist Convention staff.

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Dakota Baptists celebrate 25th year
by Karen L. Willoughby
Date: November 24, 2009 - Tuesday

RAPID CITY, S.D. (BP)--Dakota Baptists celebrated their 25th year as a convention during their Nov. 11-12 annual meeting at Calvary Baptist Church in Rapid City.

"We celebrate the past, but we don't worship it," said Garvon Golden, DBC Sharing Christ team leader and associate executive director, in one of the convention's theme interpretations. "Baptist work in the Dakotas was born out of a passion of oil field workers to drill for oil and to share their faith. It also was born out of the passion of airmen to protect the nation and to share their faith.

"These mid-century pioneers were willing to listen to God's voice. They were missionaries too," Golden continued, touching on the theme, "Living Like a Missionary – Conforming to Christ's Image."

"Like these who have left their legacy among us, let's be Jesus where He puts us," Golden said.

The 55 registered messengers elected officers all by acclamation: president, Steve Ford, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Vermillion, S.D.; vice president, Tim Thompson, pastor of Cornerstone Community Church in Mobridge, S.D.; and Kathy Osborne, a member at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Grand Forks, N.D., re-elected for the sixth term as recording secretary.

Messengers approved a 2010 budget of $1,321,284, a $3,000 increase from the 2009 budget. Of $265,000 anticipated in Cooperative Program giving from churches in the Dakotas, $41,075 -– or 15.5 percent, a half-percent increase over 2009 -- will be forwarded to SBC national and international missions and ministries, continuing the state convention's plan to increase Cooperative Program giving by one-half percent each year.

"The Cooperative Program gives each of our churches the opportunity to be involved in missions throughout the world," said DBC Executive Director Jim Hamilton. "It draws us closer together in our shared purpose with all Southern Baptists -- to fulfill the Great Commission of reaching, teaching and discipling all the peoples of the world."

The budget includes an anticipated $936,984 from the North American Mission Board and $60,000 in salary assistance from LifeWay Christian Resources.

The top 10 churches in Cooperative Program giving and top 10 in per capita CP giving were honored at the annual meeting, with the top three in each category receiving a wooden plaque: First Williston, N.D., gave $31,692.89; Cross Pointe Sioux Falls, S.D., $24,237.52; and Cross Roads Minot, N.D., $19,344.20. In per-capita giving, Cross Roads Minot, N.D., gave $298 per person; First Williston N.D., $246; and Capitol Heights Bismarck, N.D., $228.

The biggest change to come out of this year's DBC annual meeting was made by the program committee and approved without discussion by a show of ballots: The committee recommended abbreviating the 2010 annual meeting and holding it earlier in the year.

"The committee believes this format will encourage more participation since both church members and bivocational pastors would not have to take as much time off work," according to the program committee's written report. "The committee recommends that the 2010 Meeting be a one-day event held in Fargo, N.D., the evening of Sept. 30 and ¾ of the day on Oct. 1. The suggested meeting format would include one keynote speaker, message from the executive director, and a message from the DBC president."

Messengers discussed a motion to open membership on DBC boards to non-Southern Baptists. Those favoring the motion said such a move would encourage other likeminded Christians to get involved with and support what Southern Baptists are doing. Those against it pointed to state conventions that had lost entities after non-Southern Baptists were added to their boards. After a time-out for mutual encouragement and prayer, the measure failed.

In the first of four resolutions, messengers pledged to support God's Plan for Sharing, the new SBC-wide evangelism initiative, "and will encourage and challenge every Dakota Baptist church to seek ways and develop strategies and approaches to share the gospel with every person in the Dakotas and beyond by 2020."

In the second resolution, messengers expressed appreciation for and affirmed the value of the North American Mission Board for its 25-year partnership with the Dakotas and pledged their "continual partnership and support."

Messengers in their third resolution expressed their appreciation for and gratitude to present and former military men and women in the United States, and pledged to pray for "our military personnel across the world, as well as their families."

The fourth resolution expressed appreciation and gratitude to Calvary Baptist Rapid City for being gracious hosts during the 2009 DBC annual meeting.

Worship was led by Keith and Joanne Longo of First Southern Baptist in Colorado Springs, Colo. Guest speakers included Tom Eliff, a former vice president of the International Mission Board and former SBC president; Jeff Ginn, executive director of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia; Gerald Harris, editor of The Christian Index, newsjournal of the Georgia Baptist Convention.

Ginn preached from Mark 2:1-12 during the Wednesday evening session, about friends helping friends. He preached about cooperative, committed, creative and confident friends.

"To go forward there has to be some equity of weight, and for us as Southern Baptists, that's proportional sacrifice," Ginn said. "Each contributes his portion. ... It's a joy for us to be in cooperation with you in the Dakotas."

Harris spoke of the need for and historical benefit of prayer.

"Things have been this bad before," Harris preached. "God is so powerful He can even resurrect a dead church. ...

"We're trying to manufacture results like baptism without prayer," Harris continued.

The final session of the DBC's annual meeting closed with an altar call that led many to kneel before the Lord. The few remaining in their seats sat with heads bowed in prayer.
--30--
Karen L. Willoughby is managing editor of the Dakota Baptist and Louisiana Baptist Message, official newsjournals for those state conventions.

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BGAV sets budget for 'God-sized job'
by Robert Dilday
Date: November 24, 2009 - Tuesday

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (BP)--Despite a shaky economy, messengers to the annual meeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia acknowledged their "God-sized" mission task Nov. 18 and adopted a 2010 budget of $14 million, about 1.4 percent larger than 2009's budget, which is expected to see a shortfall.

Next year's budget, approved by messengers during the BGAV's Nov. 17-18 annual meeting, is $200,000 more than the current $13.8 million allocated for state, national and international ministries.

Though allocations for most line items in the 2010 budget are similar to this year's, a significant change eliminates a popular supplement for ministers' and church staff retirement, which in 2010 would have totaled about $250,000. Left intact was a supplement for ministers' and church staff life and disability insurance.

A messenger's attempt to restore the retirement supplement and cut the insurance supplement failed by a large margin.

The budget action was taken during a meeting low in attendance but high in enthusiasm for BGAV mission and ministries. The 984 registered messengers -- the second smallest at an annual meeting since 1975 -- welcomed representatives of national and international mission partner organizations, who shared the stage with BGAV leaders during a multimedia celebration of their common task.

Messengers also elected officers for 2010 and heard three ministers interpret the meeting's theme -- "A Time for Extravagance."

The theme accurately reflected the budget committee's call to meet the challenge of funding ministry in a recession-wracked economy. BGAV treasurer Eddie Stratton has reported that the current $13.8 million budget will see a shortfall, perhaps by more than $800,000.

"Either we could do what we did last year and make the budget meet our projected income, and our budget this year would be substantially lower," said budget committee member Billy Burford, who presented the proposal on behalf of committee chair Tom McCann. "Or we could meet the challenge. And that's what we did."

"Kingdom Advance &#91;BGAV's mission strategy&#93; is a challenge and it takes money to do it," added Burford, administrator at First Baptist Church in Richmond. "So the budget before you represents what the budget committee believes is necessary to carry out the goals and aspirations of Kingdom Advance and to meet the needs of our &#91;ministry&#93; partners."

McCann, who was unable to attend this year's meeting, told the Virginia Baptist Mission Board in October that the proposed 2010 budget would be larger than this year's.

"Costs increase. We can't get around that," McCann said then. "We can decide to go out of business and sell everything. Or we can understand we have a God-sized job to do and do it as free and faithful Baptists in Virginia."

"This budget takes us back to the budget of two or three years ago," he said. "But we need to do that. Unless we want to go backwards we've got to move forward, and in order to do that we need to encourage our folks to step up to the demands of reality. If we're going to do Kingdom Advance we need the funds to do it."

The retirement supplement cut was the focus of wide-ranging discussion in a budget breakout session during the annual meeting and sparked an amendment during floor debate.

Since the 1970s, the BGAV -- like most Baptist state conventions -- has provided life and disability insurance supplements on behalf of eligible ministers and church staff through GuideStone Financial Services, the Southern Baptist Convention's pension fund manager. In the 1990s, the VBMB begin matching retirement contributions, assisted in part by a surplus of funds from investment returns on the BGAV's payment of life and disability insurance premiums.

By 2002 those surplus funds were depleted, and in 2007 GuideStone asked state conventions to assume half of those costs, phasing them in over a five-year period. That cost for both the retirement and insurance supplements was expected to have grown to about $500,000 by 2010 to cover the more than 1,500 eligible participants.

In examining next year's expenditures, the budget committee said the retirement supplement portion of those contributions -- which are only $210 per participant annually but which will total almost $250,000 in 2009 -- was carefully scrutinized.

"In our examination we discovered we are not being good stewards of the dollars being asked for in this line item," Burford said. "Many employees of Virginia Baptist churches were not even aware that the supplements were being paid. Some small churches were being asked to supplement the ministry staff of large churches."

"This is not only important for the 2010 budget but for cooperative missions budgets for years to come," he added. "The budget committee believes it makes good stewardship sense to remove the $230,000 in this line item."

Burford acknowledged concerns that the cut will create hardships for some ministers and church staff attempting to take on the additional $210 a year.

"In a letter distributed to all churches and published in the Religious Herald, &#91;BGAV Executive Director&#93; John Upton said there have been funds set aside to help," said Burford, who encouraged ministers to contact the VBMB if serious help is needed.

During discussion of the budget, Joseph Giles Jr., pastor of James Square Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, said he "understands the need to cut the budget," but moved to amend the proposal to restore the retirement supplements and instead cut the life and disability insurance supplements.

But the amendment drew protests from Jeff Cranford, financial support planning specialist for the VBMB.

"The value of the survival and disability benefits has an immediate impact, whereas the retirement addition will make a difference over the course of many years," Cranford said. "I've seen many cases in which getting the $500 a month disability really made a difference in trying to cope with disability. I think that is the most urgent. I'm not saying the other isn't important. I'm just saying the other is long term."

Traci Powers, co-pastor of Westhaven Baptist Church in Portsmouth, agreed that -- forced to choose – the retirement supplements should be cut before life and disability insurance.

"All of us in this room understand that things have to be cut," said Powers, a member of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board. "If we have to cut a benefit, I would strongly urge that it be the retirement supplement rather than the disability. It's very critical that if there is an unexpected disability that a minister has some protection."

The amendment lost on a hand vote by a wide margin.

The 2010 budget continues to offer BGAV churches three pre-set giving tracks and a fourth customized option that divide funds between Virginia ministries and national and international causes:

-- The World Missions 1 track retains 66 percent for Virginia ministries and sends 34 percent to Southern Baptist Convention ministries.

-- World Missions 2 supports Virginia ministries at 72 percent, while 28 percent funds a combination of Virginia, SBC and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship ministries.

-- World Missions 3 funds Virginia ministries at 72 percent and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship at 28 percent.

While the overall amount funding national and international causes will be less in 2009, the allocations in each of the pre-set tracks remain unchanged. BGAV churches also may adopt a customized plan that allows them to select or delete any item in WM 1, 2 or 3, and adjust percentages to reflect their own priorities.

Messengers elected Tim Madison, pastor of Mechanicsville Baptist Church in Mechanicsville, as president. Madison, who was unopposed for the office, was endorsed by Virginia Baptists Committed, a moderate advocacy group that has successfully nominated BGAV candidates for nearly 25 years.

Madison had been serving as first vice president and his election follows a recent practice of electing first vice presidents to the presidency, which is constitutionally restricted to one, non-repeating term. His election also conforms to a much longer tradition of alternating the presidency between ministers and laypersons each year.

Bob Bass, a Richmond layman, was elected first president, also without opposition. In an unusual move, Bass was nominated outside the channel of Virginia Baptists Committed. Travis Collins, pastor of Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond, which Bass attends, said last month he was nominating his church member because he is "uniquely poised to lead us now."

"I'm grateful for those who annually nominated the candidates," said Collins, referring to VBC, "but I believe Bob is the right one for the job. So it seemed right, being a Baptist, to offer someone for nomination who is outside the pipeline that has developed."

VBC later endorsed Bass's election, saying the group "saw no need to field a different candidate for first vice president."

"Though his nomination will not come through the candidate nomination process of Virginia Baptists Committed, we have had him on our short list of potential candidates and encourage his election ...," said Richmond pastor Mike Clingenpeel, VBC co-chair.

VBC's endorsed candidate for second vice president, David Plott, director of missions for two associations in southwest Virginia, lost in a contest with Kevin James, pastor of Salem Baptist Church in Sparta, not far from this year's meeting site in Fredericksburg. James, nominated by Dee Whitten, pastor of Fairview at River Club, a Baptist congregation in Fredericksburg, won 52-48 percent.

Elected to a 29th term as clerk was Fred Anderson, executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society.

In other action, at the annual meeting:

-- Messengers heard theme interpretations from three ministers – Alistair Brown, president of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary near Chicago; Jim Somerville, pastor of First Baptist Church in Richmond; and Steve Chang, pastor of Light Global Mission Church in Fairfax.

-- Received a report from a committee exploring the possibility of holding BGAV annual meetings in churches rather than convention centers. After a year's study, the committee said only one BGAV church is large enough to accommodate the 1,000 to 1,200 messengers and visitors who typically attend a meeting, and that that church has little space for exhibitions. The committee recommended that the meeting continue to be held at convention centers, but encouraged the Virginia Baptist Mission Board to explore ways to reduce costs.

-- Adopted resolutions affirming John Upton's anticipated election as president of the Baptist World Alliance next summer; commending BGAV churches for continuing financial support in troubled economic times; and expressing appreciation for retiring campus minister Rob Sandford, who has served longer than any other Baptist campus minister in the South.
--30--
Robert Dilday is managing editor of the Religious Herald, newsjournal of the Baptist General Association of Virginia.

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FIRST-PERSON: Getting over our love for Darwin
by William A. Dembski
Date: November 24, 2009 - Tuesday

<i>Editor's note: Today, Nov. 24, is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species."</i> 

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)--Charles Darwin published his "Origin of Species" in 1859. There he presented the classic formulation of his theory of evolution. Lady Ashley, reacting to the theory at the time, remarked, "Let's hope that it's not true; but if it is true, let's hope that it doesn't become widely known." Lady Ashley's second hope has failed: Darwin's theory is everywhere and has now become textbook orthodoxy. This year, universities around the globe are celebrating the 150th anniversary of Darwin's Origin of Species as well as the 200th anniversary of his birth. 

But what about Lady Ashley's hope that Darwin's theory is false? Darwin presented a bleak picture of ourselves: We are mere modified apes; we are the "winners" in a brutal competitive evolutionary process, most of whose players are "losers," wiped off the evolutionary scene before they could leave a legacy; the traditional Christian view that we are made in God's image is simply a story we tell to convince ourselves that we're special. 

Intelligent Design supporters like me view Darwin's theory as untrue and even as laughable: The theory purports to give a materialistic account of life's development once life is already here, but it has a gaping hole at the start since matter gives no evidence of being able to organize itself from non-life into life. The fossil record, especially the sudden emergence of most animal body plans in the Cambrian explosion, sharply violates Darwinian expectations about the historical pattern of evolutionary change. The nano-engineering found in the DNA, RNA, and proteins of the cell far exceeds human engineering and remains completely unexplained in Darwinian terms.

Darwin lovers are quick to reject such complaints. After all, as novelist Barbara Kingsolver declares, Darwin's idea of natural selection is "the greatest, simplest, most elegant logical construct ever to dawn across our curiosity about the workings of natural life. It is inarguable, and it explains everything." Kingsolver is no fan of Christianity. Yet many Darwin lovers are Christian. Francis Collins, who directs the National Institutes of Health, is a Christian Darwinist. Leaving aside a healthy skepticism that regards every scientific theory as refutable in light of new evidence, Collins exempts Darwinian evolution from such skepticism: "evolution, as a mechanism, can be and must be true." 

Any theory that explains everything and that can and must be true is either the greatest thing since sliced bread or the greatest swindle ever foisted on gullible intellectuals. The Intelligent Design community takes the latter view, siding here with Malcolm Muggeridge, who wrote: "I myself am convinced that the theory of evolution, especially the extent to which it's been applied, will be one of the great jokes in the history books in the future. Posterity will marvel that so very flimsy and dubious an hypothesis could be accepted with the incredible credulity that it has."

Still, it's easy to understand why so flimsily a supported theory garners such vast support. It provides the creation story for an atheistic worldview. If atheism is true, then something like Darwinian evolution must follow. Hence, any attack on Darwin becomes an attack on the atheistic secularism that pervades our culture. Nonetheless, even though atheism implies Darwinism, the reverse is not true: Darwinism does not imply atheism. Indeed, Christian theists who embrace Darwin abound. 

The wedding between Darwinism and Christianity, however, is an uneasy one. To be sure, plenty of marriages are uneasy, and uneasy marriages are often endured because divorce can entail more difficulties than endurance. Thus, when I got involved with the evolution controversy 20 years ago, I naively thought that any Christian, given sufficient evidence against Darwinism, would immediately jump ship. Darwinian evolution, according to Cornell historian of biology Will Provine, is "the greatest engine of atheism ever invented." Why should Christians stick with such an engine when it's no longer needed?

Little did I realize how infatuated many Christians are with Darwin. Having convinced themselves that design is an outdated religious dogma, they embraced Darwinism as a form of enlightenment. And having accommodated their faith to Darwin, they became loath to reexamine whether Darwinism is true at all. Unlike Lady Ashley, Christian Darwinists hope that Darwinism is true. But is it really? In this year of Darwinian bacchanalias, let us soberly reassess whether Darwin's theory is indeed true. And if the evidence goes against it, as the Intelligent Design community is successfully demonstrating, then let's be done with it. In that case, reconciling Christianity with Darwinism becomes a vain exercise, solving a problem that no longer exists. 
--30--
William Dembski is research professor in philosophy and director of the Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and author or coauthor of several books, including "The Design of Life: Discovering Signs of Intelligence in Biological Systems" and "The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions about Intelligent Design."


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FIRST-PERSON: Darwin's sad legacy
by Ken Ham
Date: November 24, 2009 - Tuesday

<i>Editor's note: Today, Nov. 24, is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species."</i> 

PETERSBURG, Ky. (BP)--Most people, when asked what they consider to be Charles Darwin's legacy, would quickly say "evolution." Indeed, evolution and Darwin are virtually synonymous, especially this year, as evolutionists worldwide have been celebrating his 200th birthday, plus the 150th anniversary this month of the publication of his book "On the Origin of Species."

But what is not so commonly known is that there have been adverse parts of Darwin's legacy that many of his followers have either denied or kept from public knowledge.

Ideas, it is said, have consequences. What people believe about their origins and the purpose and meaning of life affects their entire worldview. It molds how they view themselves ... and others.

Darwin's ideas concerning "molecules-to-man" evolution have left a significant negative legacy on society. For many secularists, his ideas were ammunition to eliminate any consideration of the supernatural. For example, in Darwin's house (now a museum) in England, which I have visited, there is an exhibit which comments on our Creator:

"&#91;E&#93;very living creature looked the way it did because God had designed it that way. Darwin's theory made nonsense of all of this."

The exhibit declares there is no God connected to why and how life exists. This idea dominates America's science classrooms. God has been outlawed there. "Science" is now defined as "naturalism" (really atheism) -- it's the only explanation for the origin of life currently allowed. Any hint of the supernatural is not permitted. 

The situation in public schools has only gotten worse in recent decades. If we continue to have generations of students going through a public education system that largely teaches them they are just animals and the result of natural processes (e.g., a Scientific American article stated, "we are all animals, descendants of a vast lineage of replicators sprung from primordial pond scum"), we will continue to see a growing moral collapse in society.

The horrible school shooting in Finland in 2007 is a prime example. The killer stated: "I am prepared to fight and die for my cause, ... I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection. ... I am just an animal, a human, an individual, a dissident. ... It's time to put natural selection & survival of the fittest back on tracks!"

This student was only carrying out in practice what he had been taught concerning origins, as well as the lack of purpose and meaning he found in life. 

We should not be shocked when we see students only becoming more consistent in carrying out evolutionary beliefs. After all, they are acting out what they have been taught they are -- animals.

Indeed, in almost all public schools today, children are being told that fallible humans are the authority, not God. As a result, even Christian children in this system can graduate and come out thinking like humanists -- and when they get into positions of authority, they won't make decisions based on God's Word, the Bible.

Herein lies the terrible legacy of Darwin and his "Origin of Species" book, which has affected all modern cultures.  

Consider the continuing problem of racism. Darwin wrote that within the human kind, some people groups were closer to their supposed ape-like ancestors than others. No wonder the late evolutionist Stephen J. Gould stated: "Biological arguments for racism may have been common before 1850, but they increased by orders of magnitude following the acceptance of evolutionary theory." We have an entire exhibit in our Creation Museum on the connection between evolution and racism. (Though we don't state that evolution causes racism; evolution can fuel racist ideas, however.)

An increase in abortion has gone hand in hand with the growing acceptance of evolution. Over the years, some women have told us that people at abortion clinics told them that when they get rid of their "unwanted" baby, it's OK because it's just an animal. Some have been told that the baby as it develops in the womb retraces its evolutionary ancestry (e.g., saying that at a certain stage, they would just be getting rid of a "fetus" in its "reptile" stage).

Also, as Genesis is attacked by evolutionists, marriage -- instituted by God in Genesis -- is redefined in society. "Gay marriage" -- not one man for one woman as ordained by God -- is now more acceptable as Genesis and the Judeo-Christian ethic are removed in society.

In addition, this humanistic teaching has helped lead to a mass exodus of young people from our churches. Research conducted by America's Research Group, headed by the highly respected market researcher Britt Beamer, which we put into our new book "Already Gone," showed that, contrary to what most of us may have believed, we are actually losing them by the end of middle school or high school. Over 80 percent were "already gone" from the church in their hearts and minds before they even started college.

The "big picture" reason for their departure was their beliefs concerning Scripture. These young adults were not taught the Bible as a true book of history, nor were they taught how to defend the Scriptures against the faith-shattering attacks of this age (e.g., Darwinian evolution/millions of years, etc.).

What an awesome and serious responsibility God requires of us as parents (and church leaders) to train our children. The family is the educational unit that God created to transmit the knowledge of godly, biblical teachings to the next generation. I trust each one of us might be able to say of our children as the Apostle Paul did of Timothy: "And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15). 
--30--
Ken Ham is President of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum, online at www.answersingenesis.org and www.creationmuseum.org

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FIRST-PERSON: Remembering Washington's Thanksgiving proclamation
by Keith Manuel
Date: November 24, 2009 - Tuesday

ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP)--George Washington understood the need for our fledgling country to set aside a day to give thanks to Almighty God for His providence in creating and protecting this great nation. On Oct. 3, 1789, during a trip to New York City, Washington, at the request of both houses of Congress, signed a proclamation calling the nation to observe a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.

Imagine the uproar such a proclamation would stir today, especially when the decree called upon the people to offer prayers and supplication "to the Great Lord and Ruler of Nations?" 

Washington did not call upon a pluralistic, syncretistic God of all faiths. He did not walk down the politically correct, Athenian road calling on Agnosto Theo, the Unknown God. Instead, he called the people of this nation to be devoted "to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be." 

In fact, one could say Washington designed the document with an evangelistic flair. He saw the need for our nation "to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue" to all the nations of the world.

This is not to say Washington wanted all people to worship this one God through one church. However, he does call on all people to thank this one God for His "favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war" and "for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed."

The truth is our Founding Fathers wanted our country to lead the nations even when we were not yet a world power. We had leaders who fearlessly called us to shape the world in all areas. Separation of church and state was not a removal of the church from influencing the state. It was a restriction on the state from influencing the church.

Washington's declaration specifically acknowledged God's hand in creating this country. He called on the American people to express with grateful hearts the many favors of God "especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

The amazing aspect of this declaration was not just the call for an attitude of thanks but also the desire for Americans to live a life of dedication to Almighty God. Washington implored citizens to live obediently to the will of God and to be devoted to serving Him.

One of our greatest national problems is the attitude that we created this land of plenty on our own. However, it is not too late for the people of this nation to return to the Lord. We should do as our first president asked and acknowledge the Lord "for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty" He grants our land.

Washington even expressed the biblical way for our nation to return to the Lord. He asked the American people to "beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions."

This Thanksgiving, heed the Old Testament admonition that expresses Washington's proclamation with greater clarity and force. "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14).
--30--
Keith Manuel is an evangelism associate on the Louisiana Baptist Convention's evangelism & church growth team.


