Baptists Today Blogs

CBF Houston in review

2009-07-05T22:20:00.003-04:00

My earlier posts from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's General Assembly in Houston were mostly news oriented. Here are a few personal reflections on the meeting ...

(1) Attendance was down, as expected, but not as bad as it could have been. I think it's unlikely that CBF planners will set another meeting for the July 4 weekend, and for good reason. Still, more than 1,600 persons participated, which was encouraging, given the circumstances. As the host state and a fairly strong CBF state, it would have been surprising if Texas had not had the most registrants. As usual, North Carolina had the next hightest number present. Look for double the number of participants when the General Assembly comes to Charlotte next June 24-25. North Carolina clearly has the strongest state CBF organization, and will be good hosts. The location will make it easy for CBFers from surrounding states to attend, as well.

(2) Financial support for CBF continues to be disappointing. The Southern Baptist Convention's income is down a few percent for the year, and the North Carolina Baptist State Convention was down more than 15 percent through May, but CBF national's income has been about 20 percent below the approved budget. Participants approved a $16.1 million budget that's $400,000 less than the previous year, but officials noted that they'll continue operating on 80 percent of approved expenditures unless income improves. For CBF supporters, that's depressing.

(3) On a related note, I continue to be troubled by the lack of support for missions through CBF. In the early years, folks really rallied behind the missions program, in part because they saw it as a preferred alternate to the SBC's International Mission Board, which had switched to a less holistic strategy that focused almost entirely on direct evangelism and church planting. In recent years, however, it's been all CBF could do to support missionaries already on the field: almost all new appointees are either self-supporting or raise their own support directly. That was true of all six personnel appointed this year. It would be a great joy to see mission support increase so that other folks who are waiting in the wings can be appointed and get to the work they feel called to do.

(4) Evidently, planners listened to feedback from previous years: worship services (except for the missionary commissioning service) were a more reasonable length than in some past meetings, generally lasting a bit more than an hour. I continue to wish meeting planners would re-incorporate the missionary appointment into the Thursday or Friday night service. Having the service on Wednesday night, often at an alternate location, adds trouble and decreases participation. The service this year was well done and I enjoyed visiting the beautiful sanctuary of South Main Baptist Church, but perhaps twice as many could have participated if the commissioning had been incorporated into the main meeting.

(5) Overall, the meeting was uplifting and the fellowship, as always, was a blessing. Let's hope next year's meeting will be even better, and that CBF churches will commit to a budget that allows the organization to flourish rather than just maintain.

Coming up: I'll be traveling in Israel with a group of students, alumni, and friends of Campbell University Divinity School for the next ten days. During that time I'll be blogging when I can (hopefully daily) from the Holy Land, posting photographs and highlights from our visit. I hope readers back home can vicariously enjoy the trip with us. Those who choose to follow me on Twitter or RSS can get a notice whenever new blogs are posted.

Hummus and falafel, here we come!

Bits and bytes from Houston (updated)...

2009-07-03T10:10:00.006-04:00

July 3 -- Moderator Jack Glasgow, pastor of Zebulon Baptist Church in Zebulon, North Carolina, presided over a smooth business meeting Friday morning. The budget report, nominating committee report, and strategic goals were all adopted with no discussion or visible opposition.

Hal Bass, a professor at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark. is moderator for 2010. Christy McMillin-Goodwin, associate minister for education and missions at Oakland Baptist in Rock Hill, SC was elected as moderator-elect, to serve in 2011.

Coordinator Daniel Vestal’s annual address focused on things that he believes hold CBF together. Vestal said Fellowship members share a common vision, common values, a love of freedom, congregational connections, participation in God’s mission to the world, and the providential grace of God.

CBF's budget for 2009-2010, presented in a morning business session July 2, calls for $16.1 million, $400,000 less than the previous year's budget. Due to a 20 percent shortfall in income during the first eight months of the fiscal year, CBF has been operating on a contingency plan of 80 percent of budgeted spending since March. Officials said spending would continue at 80 percent of the newly approved budget through fiscal 2010 unless income improves.

Registration for the 2009 meeting was at 1,637 persons as of Friday evening, compared to a total of 2,050 at last year’s meeting in Memphis. Holding the meeting on a holiday weekend, as predicted, had a negative impact on attendance. Registration should be considerably higher next year, as the meeting will be held in Charlotte, NC, on a more traditional date: June 24-25.

Host state Texas registered 780 participants. North Carolina had the second highest number at 194, and Georgia had 146 persons present (these numbers update and correct a couple of incorrect figures in an earlier post).

In a speech delivered at a dinner for Associated Baptist Press, Baptist historian Bill Leonard noted that the conservative reshaping of the Southern Baptist Convention began 30 years ago in the same city, when Adrian Rogers was elected president of the SBC at the 1979 Houston meeting. Leonard noted changes in Baptist life since that time, including the fragmentation of Baptists and numerical decline even among Southern Baptists, a decline that will become more precipitous in coming years.

As the number of Baptists decreases, and as younger Baptists feel less and less connection with denominational entities, the outlook for Baptists could diminish considerably by 2050. "If Baptist identity to be carried beyond mid-century," Leonard said, "it must be reformulated - immediately."

Baptists must decide if they want to continue the dissenting position of their ancestors, at the risk of being outsiders, or whether they want to be in the cultural mainstream, Leonard said. Baptist pioneers of the 17th century invented religious pluralism, he said, and current Baptists should understand and say what that means: it's not syncretism or tolerance, but a belief that everyone has a voice that grows from their own conscience.

Leonard discussed the challenges of postmodernism and the importance of building connectionalism through new technologies and media. In the end, however, he said Baptists in America are now compelled to learn what Baptists worldwide have known for four centuries – how to live into and out of a minority position, learning to rediscover a witness in society from the minority, even if it does not prevail.

Worship on Thursday evening featured lively music from the Missouri City Baptist Church Mass Choir and was led by younger speakers who offered theme interpretations in support of the annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Offering for Religious Liberty and Human Rights.

Newsblog: Missions entering a new age

2009-07-02T15:49:00.012-04:00

HOUSTON – Advocates of Christian missions must recognize that doing missions in the 21st century is a far different enterprise than it was even a few decades ago, Rob Nash told participants in a commissioning service for six new missionaries affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Speaking to a full house at Houston’s historic South Main Baptist Church for the July 1 service, Nash recalled what it was like getting off the boat in the Philippines as the son of a missionary couple in 1964. Once per year, he said, his parents traveled to a phone booth in Manila and placed a short long-distance call to family back home.

The isolated nature of mission work in those days had more in common with the 17th century than with now, said Nash, who is CBF’s global missions coordinator. Noting the multi-functionality of the globally capable cell phone he now uses, Nash said mission strategists need to do the same kind of thinking that brought technology from a rare operator-assisted long-distance call to the multiple capabilities of an Internet-enabled cell phone.

Missions advocates are faced with several realities, Nash said. While the world once had large areas that were completely unevangelized, Christian people can now be found almost everywhere. Mission strategists can no longer rely on old methods alone because Christians in the global church are also standing at the global missions table, he said, and “We need to listen to them.”

Finally, Nash said, the greatest missions resource is found in congregations who are also finding their place at the missions table, and “nothing could be more significant.”

Looking down the road, Nash said, mission strategy will be less centralized, and will involve more self-sustaining networks of passion-driven churches, individuals, and partners, networks that focus on particular areas or ministries and stand on their own. “We’re called to think outside the box,” Nash said. “How far out of the box are we willing to think?”

Four of the six missionaries commissioned during the service will serve in North Carolina.

All of the newly commissioned personnel will serve as “As You Go Affiliates” who either earn or raise their own financial support.

LaCount Anderson will work along with churches in Scotland Neck, NC, where he will develop and support ministries to homeless, near homeless, and other poor residents in northeastern NC.

Cecelia Beck, who previously served as a Global Service Corps missionary in Toronto, Canada, will work in Shelby, NC. In affiliation with “Northeast Shelby Weed and Seed,” she engages in social ministry designed to help communities collaborate to prevent and control crime and improve their overall quality of life.

John and Michele Norman live in Four Oaks, NC, where John is pastor of Four Oaks Baptist Church. The Normans, who have adopted two children from China, will work to develop a network of U.S. individuals and churches to pray for, financially support, and actively participate in the work of CBF in China.

The Sichuan China Ministry Network, which focuses on ministry in the Sichuan Province of China, was also featured during the service. The network of churches and individuals includes South Main Baptist in Houston; First Baptist Church in Jefferson City, TN; Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church in Atlanta; and CBF field personnel Bill and Michelle Cayard, who serve in the Sichuan Province.

Christy Craddock, who recently completed a two-year appointment as a Global Service Corps missionary, will continue to serve through “Touching Miami with Love,” a ministry center in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood, one of the poorest areas in Florida. Craddock said she felt led to continue with the ministry, which local supporters will help to finance.

Gabe Orea, a native of Mexico City, will work in partnership with registered churches in China, focusing on building relationships and ministry with the most neglected and least evangelized people in the city of Xiamen in the Fujian province.

Newsblog: Getting Engaged -- in Church

2009-07-02T10:38:00.002-04:00

HOUSTON – Church leaders don’t need to develop new ways of doing church, Albert Winseman told participants in a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-sponsored Leadership Institute July 1: their challenge is in learning how to be the church.

Winseman, who consults with faith-based organizations for the Gallup Organization and is the author of Growing an Engaged Church, said churches tend to use easily measured yardsticks like attendance, membership and giving as indicators of success. It’s more difficult, but more relevant, to measure specific outcomes of spiritual health, he said. Such outcomes include one’s life satisfaction, service to the community, interest in inviting others to church, and the percentage of income contributed.

Church leaders tend to focus on increasing spiritual commitment, Winseman said, following conventional wisdom that increased commitment will lead to increased engagement. Basing its judgment on responses to nine questions relative to spiritual behaviors and attitudes, Gallup found that just five percent of all Americans and 19 percent of church members are “fully spiritually committed.”

Instead of promoting spiritual commitment in hopes of increasing engagement, churches should focus on engagement first, he said. “If you work on increasing engagement, spiritual commitment follows: belonging leads to believing.”

Engagement is not the same thing as involvement, Winseman cautioned. Involvement measures what people do in their congregations, while engagement measures how they feel about it. Thus, it’s possible to be very involved without really being engaged, or emotionally committed, to the church. It’s also possible to highly engaged without being constantly involved.

Winseman described four measures of member engagement. “What do I get?” is not just a selfish question, he said, but a serious one. People have deep spiritual needs and look for a church where those needs are met. “What do I give?” includes more than financial contributions, Winseman said. It concerns whether church members are given regular opportunities to do what they do best, receive appropriate and timely recognition for their efforts, believe church leaders truly care about them, and receive encouragement to continue developing spiritually.

Church members also want a sense of belonging in church, Winseman said. They want to feel that they are part of a family, that their opinion counts, and that church members are mutually committed to each other’s spiritual growth. Having a “best friend” in church contributes to the sense of belonging, he said.

Engaged members want to grow, and engaging churches intentionally promote growth by talking about it, Winseman said. Engaged members believe they have opportunities to learn and grow within their congregation.

Winseman suggested three strategies by which churches can promote increased engagement: clarifying expectations, creating a culture of affirmation, and focusing on followers’ deepest spiritual needs.

People like knowing what is expected of them, Winseman said, but many churches are unfocused in that area. If only 34 percent of a church’s members say they know what’s expected of them, he said, their congregation would be in the top 25 percent.

Expectations should be simple, memorable, and specific, Winseman said, citing a church that promotes five expectations: “worship, grow, serve, give, connect.” The expectations, along with a clarifying sentence for each, are listed in the weekly bulletin.

The struggles that nominating committees have in filling slots is familiar, but Winseman cited another church that emphasized the importance of each position by listing “job postings” and encouraging members to “apply” for up to three positions. In response, the church had more applicants than positions.

A culture of affirmation involves more than just periodic recognition of individuals from the pulpit, Winseman said. Effective affirmation gives regular feedback to participants in a way that is meaningful to them, and that comes from all directions, not just top-down.

Over a three-year period, the Gallup Organization asked 10,000 people to name leaders who had influenced them, and to list three words that describe them. When the descriptive terms were compiled, the four words cited most often were trust, compassion, stability, and hope.

Those words hit at the essence of what church members need from their leaders, Winseman said. People are willing to follow leaders whom they believe to be honest, who care about them, who foster a sense of security, and who give them hope for a brighter future.

Thus, Winseman concluded, church leaders who challenge themselves to grow in those areas will more effective in building congregations of people who are not just involved, but engaged and on the road to deeper spiritual commitment.

Who's Who?

2009-07-01T04:00:00.001-04:00

Most people respond, I suspect, to ego strokes. With few exceptions, everybody wants to be somebody. We like the idea of being known and appreciated for our accomplishments in life.

Fear not, fame fans, opportunities await. Hang around the Internet long enough and you're likely to receive, as I occasionally do, salubrious congratulations for being a worthy nominee for listing in a genuine "Who's Who."

Three such invitations came in the past week. One was from "The Heritage Who's Who," which describes itself as a registry that includes biographies of "the world's most accomplished individuals," an honor "shared by thousands of executives and professionals throughout the world each year." The idea that "thousands of executives and professionals" receive the honor should be a tip-off that it's really no great honor at all, though the company claims "Inclusion is considered by many as the single highest mark of achievement."

If you're in the market for a high mark of achievement, you don't even need an invitation -- just go to the website where you'll be invited to register yourself. You'll also be invited -- and this is the catch, of course -- to purchase "an annual hard covered, gold leaf inscribed business to business biographical professional directory that distinguishes and honors individuals for their accomplishments in their field of endeavor." By forking over sufficient cash, the honoree can see his or her name in print, or for an additional fee, purchase a wall plaque declaring the honoree to be a distinguished member of "The Heritage Society of Who's Who." Official "memberships" and web listings are also available, no doubt in return for more moolah.

My email from the Continental Who's Who was more personal: executive director George Malone welcomed me to "our Inner Circle" and insisted "Inclusion in our prestigious organization is a career milestone only available to those who have demonstrated exceptional professional knowledge, expertise and client service - and I think you quintessentially meet those standards."

Do I think for one moment that Mr. Malone knows anything about me or whether I quintessentially meet the standards of such a high honor? Not for one moment -- nor does he know anything about the thousands of other "exceptional professionals" who no doubt received the same email.

In addition to books and a web registry that offers Inner Circle members "proprietary access to a wide network of professionals and executives," Continental Who's Who members can arrange 15 seconds of fame by having their face appear on the 23-story Reuters digital billboard in Times Square, along with thumbnails on a variety of websites.

Is any of this for free? Don't count on it.

I won't even bother to describe the "Presidential Who's Who" that promised to propel my career to "empyrian heights" through listing in its auspicious pages.

Are such recognitions really an honor? No, they come from businesses that would be honored to take your money.

Will a "Who's Who" listing by a commercial company really impress anyone? Only the most naive.

When I was considerably younger and more susceptible to ego-oil, back in the days when such invitations came in embossed envelopes, I purchased a copy of a "Marquis Who's Who" volume that included my vita. Later I declined to order copies of "Who's Who in Religion" and "Who's Who in the World," even though I was assured that I was already listed. For a brief period, however, I confess to putting the "accomplishments" on my resume.

In time, I learned that neither recognition nor respect can be purchased, and they certainly can't be bound in a book, no matter how handsome its gold leaf-embossed cover might be.

Who's who? You are. As my late friend Fred Rogers used to remind his viewers, "You are special just the way you are."

And being special doesn't cost you anything at all.

[Image from www.brentfordfc.co.uk/.../0,,10421,00.html]

Harvest and hope

2009-06-29T07:04:00.007-04:00

Something there is about the soil and some seeds and some water. Something that makes things spring from the ground and grow. Something that has its roots in divinity, far beyond my poor efforts to understand.

I think that's one of the reasons I find myself more interested in gardening as years go by -- aside from the nicety of having fresh vegetables to eat and the satisfaction of honest labor that contributes to their presence on the table, there's also a spiritual element to seeing things grow.

I'm no farmer: my "garden" could fit inside the average breakfast nook and includes only tomatoes in an old raised bed, squash in a new one I built this year, and peppers in what was a flower bed last summer. I planted half of an old sweet potato behind the tomatoes to see what would happen (it's growing), and I transplanted something that sprouted in my mulch pile, just to see what it turns out to be (don't know yet). I have an assortment of pots that contain late tomatoes from volunteer plants that spring up in strange places (I think birds have something to do with that), and a couple that I sprouted from suckers. I plan to have tomatoes right up until the first hard frost. My fig tree is behind the squash (it's loaded).

Despite the small size of my agricultural endeavors, I'm reminded daily of the crying need for water if the plants are to grow, and the constant threat of creeping things that can kill a squash plant as quickly as Jonah lost the shade from his qiqayon vine.

A handy garden hose allows me to provide my few plants with sufficient water even in drought, but it also leads me to think about so many people around the world whose livelihoods depend entirely on whether it rains or not.

It's no wonder that the ancient peoples around the world imagined weather gods like Marduk and Baal and Zeus; Indra and Illapa and Lono; Thor and Fryer and Gucumatz. From time beyond memory, prayers, sacrifices, and intricate fertility rites have been practiced to ensure the seasonal rains.

As long as I have a garden hose and a well, praying for rain is not an issue. If feeding my family depended entirely on timely rains, however, I suspect my knees would be getting as dirty as my hands.

The king is dead

2009-06-26T08:31:00.005-04:00

Superstar singer/dancer/celebrity Michael Jackson is dead of mysterious causes at age 50. Jackson billed himself as the “King of Pop.” He was also the King of Weird and the King of Excess: the more successful he became, the stranger he became. His multiple plastic surgeries and skin-bleaching efforts left him as a sad caricature, while the millions he spent on turning his “Neverland” property into a personal amusement park/circus/zoo that he somehow couldn’t pay for were just mind-boggling, and his alleged unhealthy fascination with young boys was deeply troubling.

I confess that I was never much of a Michael Jackson fan. I was a bit too old to fully appreciate the Jackson Five, though I enjoyed their music, and I was too straight-laced to “get” the fascination with Thriller and Bad. Mainly, however, I’ve always had a hard time admiring anyone who not only believes his own press but feeds it. Though his many makeovers left him looking more like a queen than a king, Jackson's self-ascription as “King of Pop” and his short-lived marriage to Lisa Marie Presley gave the impression he was trying to become bigger than Elvis Presley, traditionally known by fans as “the king.” In some circles, he will.

Jackson’s death is sad, certainly, but I also find it saddening to see how such a self-indulgent and self-destructive life can be so lionized by the media and idolized by millions of rabid fans.

The real heroes I know are living in obscurity while translating the Bible into obscure languages, or serving those who are impoverished, or just humbly seeking to live and love as Jesus did.

Even considering the lack of media in the first century, when I observe the massive outpourings of grief and slavish tributes to the “King of Pop” and compare them to the few stunned disciples who once mourned the King of Kings, it gives pause for serious contemplation about the human condition.

"Houston, we have a problem..."

2009-06-24T06:15:00.001-04:00

Jan and I were both working in the back yard Tuesday evening when our son Samuel burst from the back door and said "Houston, we have a problem." When asked to identify the problem, he said his friend had used the toilet and managed to stop it up. After multiple flushes, it was overflowing.

We hustled inside to find a waterfall cascading from the light fixture over our breakfast table, splashing over papers, books, other miscellaneous items -- and two laptop computers that were, fortunately, closed.

I ran upstairs to find half an inch of water on the floor of an upstairs bathroom with more gushing from the bowl of the toilet, which was running full steam ahead. I managed to slide through and turn off the water, then mopped up with towels and plunged the toilet while Jan sought to rescue our computers and clean up the mini-flood that had come through the ceiling.

For a while there, we were not happy campers. Eventually, however, we got everything under control. Amazingly, our laptops survived. There will probably be a stain on the ceiling, but no deeper damage.

Meanwhile, in Louisville, KY, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention voted out Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth for its perceived acceptance of homosexuals, and heard a raft of sermons insisting that brighter days are ahead for the beleaguered convention, if only it will be more committed to missions/the Bible/evangelism/the "Great Commission Resurgence" or whatever ax the particular speaker wanted to grind.

I'm missing that excitement this year, along with all the off-the-wall motions and resolutions common to such meetings. Come to think of it, dealing with a toilet fountain doesn't seem so bad after all.

[Cartoon image from ehow.com.]

If Apple was in charge ...

2009-06-22T07:03:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I braved the iPhone-crazy crowds in Raleigh's Apple Store to pick up my three-year-old MacBook, which I'd taken in for repairs less than a week before my "Apple Care" extended warranty ran out.

I'd made a "Time Machine" backup (a feature of the "Leopard" operating system) before taking it in because there were a few visible cracks in the white plastic bottom case, and the ethernet port, while rarely used, wasn't working.

What I got back was a nearly new computer. Technicians at the repair center replaced the bottom case (the plastic shell) and the top case (the part containing the keyboard). They also replaced the main logic board (a.k.a. "motherboard"), the Airport (wireless) card, the bezel (I'm not sure what that is), and some sort of connector. In addition, they found a bad sector in my old hard drive and popped in a new one -- with 20 gigabytes more storage space than before. The Apple folks then reinstalled a recent version of the operating system, so all I had to do was restore the data from my latest backup, run a few updates, and be back in business.

That's one case in which purchasing the extended warranty was well worth the price -- everything was covered.

My laptop's successful and practically painless makeover stands in contrast to the more difficult overhauls that face us. What will it take to get the nation's economic engines successfully up to speed, for example, and put people back to work? In North Carolina, the jobless rate is more than 11 percent, even lawyers are being laid off, and teaching fellows who received scholarship money for college in return for teaching in the state can't find positions. There's no extended warranty for that kind of problem.

In Louisville this week, Southern Baptists will looking at ways to reverse a clear decline in baptisms and membership. Some are putting their hopes in what they're calling a "Great Commission Resurgence," a multi-point plan that seeks to reinforce the Convention's fundamentalist direction while looking at ways to pare down its bureaucracy. While many SBC leaders including Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary president Danny Akin have indicated support, a power bloc led by Southwestern Seminary president Paige Patterson has pointedly refrained.

Aaron Weaver has aptly noted how this illustrates a growing rift between the old fundamentalists with their Landmarkist leanings, and younger fundamentalists who tend to be more Calvinist in theology and friendly to contemporary approaches to doing church. Those who drove the inerrancy bandwagon 30 years ago gave the impression that getting rid of "liberals" (anyone who doesn't ascribe to inerrancy) would be the ticket to a glorious future, but fractiousness persists within the Convention, and postmoderns simply aren't buying the closed system that they're selling.

I could go on about difficult makeovers, including intractable troubles in many congregations, and the efforts many of us are making to overhaul bad habits and improve our health. It would be nice, I suppose, if there was a great Apple Care Repair Center in the sky to which we could ship all our ungainly issues.

But, it doesn't work that way. Whether it's invigorating the economy, revitalizing a denomination, healing a congregation or revamping our eating habits, the solutions will have to come from within, and they'll take a lot of work.

They're also worth the effort. As my friend Johnny Brown often says, "Push on, push on!"

Baptists and children

2009-06-19T06:56:00.003-04:00

I've been stewing for the past week over the proposed idea that Baptists should combat falling baptism numbers, at least in part, by having more children. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Al Mohler has long blogged concerns about the trend toward fewer children (here's a recent sample, one of many related posts). Like the SBTS-oriented "Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood" and members of the "full quiver" movement, Mohler has advocated having larger families as a Christian duty and has even spoken of deliberate childlessness as moral rebellion against God.

Now Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary president Danny Akin, a former member of Mohler's faculty, has joined the effort to promote larger families among Baptists. In an April 16 chapel sermon, as reported by Associated Baptist Press, Akin said Mohler had shown him statistics comparing the decline in Baptist birthrates to the decline in baptisms, suggesting that one way for Baptists to battle falling baptisms is to have more children.

If there's a direct correlation between lower birthrates and fewer baptisms among Baptists, that would seem to suggest that our own children have been our main mission field all along. Akin suggested that the more children we have, the larger our "primary mission field."

I won't argue the logic of that -- if Baptists have more children, they'll almost certainly produce more Baptists. But that's not the primary reason we should have children, and I don't think either Akin or Mohler would argue for that.

What disturbed me most is that Akin went on to speak approvingly of comments made by Bertha Smith, in which she derided birth control as a sin and argued that Muslims will take over the world because they tend to have more children than Christians. Akin called her a "prophetess," and added: "You say, 'What are you saying?' I'm saying you need to have a bunch of kids." Having more children "has a missiological motivation," he said.

I've heard this argument before, in various settings -- since Muslim families tend to have lots of children, Christians should have more children in order to keep them from taking over.

There are many good reasons for having children. In my view, raising more kids in order to outnumber adherents to a competing religion is not one of them. That may have been good advice in the partriarchal age, when God predicted that Abraham's descendants would be as the sand of the sea, and it may have been important in more primitive periods when many children died and parents had no social security beyond their children, but we don't live in those worlds.

I have no argument with those who want to have large families, but reject the notion that Christians are obligated to produce as many children as possible.

There's no doubt that Christians have a missiological imperative to influence our world. Jesus clearly taught us to go and make disciples, teaching others his way. I can't recall a single instance, however, in which Jesus suggested that his followers should have large families as a strategic component of our mission.

If Christians truly impact the world, it will be through the lives we live and the compassion we show, not the number of children we produce.

Carpal diem

2009-06-17T06:45:00.007-04:00

About halfway through a very intense second week of work building an outdoor patio (see previous blog), both of my hands went nearly numb. I'd done a lot of shoveling, a lot of lifting, a lot of moving heavy objects. While laying the brick floor tiles, I spent a lot of time on my knees, leaning on one hand while working with the other.

Now, from forearms to fingertips, both hands feel as if they'd "gone to sleep" and are only about half awakened. They feel swollen, with tingling numbness and pain that's relatively constant and keeps me awake at night.

A web search of my symptoms matches up with those experienced by folks with carpal tunnel syndrome, a condition usually associated with chronic repetitive motion such as gutting chickens on an assembly line, or spending eight hours per day at a computer keyboard.

I don't do either of those, so I'm assuming for now that I just managed to overdo it, and there's probably some swelling that impinges on the carpal nerve, and with rest it'll go away. Since I'm currently on vacation, rest is high on the agenda.

For some reason, the experience of spending several days with sleepy hands brings to mind the danger of taking a similar approach to life, as many people seem to do. One of the catchiest tunes in the musical Wicked is called "Dancing Through Life." It's the philosophy of a young wastrel named Fiyero who parties from school to school with no goal beyond personal pleasure.

"Life is painless when you're brainless," Fiyero sings in one verse. Another contains these lines:

life is fraughtless when you're thoughtless
those who don't try never look foolish
dancing through life, mindless and careless
make sure you're where less trouble is rife,
woes are fleeting, blows are glancing,
when you're dancing through life...

In the musical, based on Gregory Macguire's imaginative backstory to L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Fiyero eventually learns to care about something other than himself. It makes his life more complicated, but also more fruitful.

I expect to have the feeling back in my hands within a few days. More importantly, I want to live each day with a full measure of feeling in my heart, mind, and soul. I may be losing my grip, but I still want to seize the day.

[Music and lyrics to Wicked by Stephen Schwartz]

On the level

2009-06-14T19:56:00.010-04:00

Here's a picture of our new patio. I invested most daylight hours for the past two weeks on it, hoping to complete it before Jan returned from a trip to London and Ireland, so I'm happy to see it done (though not as happy as I was on her safe return).

Not that it was easy. I had to begin by digging out a big truckload of dirt in order to get a level base in our sloping back yard -- a base that had to be at least three inches lower than the lowest part of the surrounding lawn, because I'd be adding at least an inch of leveling sand and a two-inch paver back to it.

I should have figured that monsoon season would arrive just as I finished digging. Samuel and I returned from a three-day visit with my parents to discover a three-inch pond in our backyard. I managed to get it drained by the time a big truck arrived with four pallets of blocks, pavers, sand, and assorted necessities. I managed to get the retaining wall built before the forecast called for more rain, so I covered it with an elaborate system of tarps and sandbags. The next morning, the tarps were still in place (one has been removed in the picture), and so was another three inches of water.

That slowed progress, but didn't stop it. It took several more days, but eventually I had everything in place and the surrounding yard (with its big pile of dirt) sorted out. It was back-breaking, hand-numbing work, and a good reminder of why I went to college -- something I will recall when I'm tempted to complain about having to wear a suit when on campus at Campbell.

I used many tools in the course of the work, but none more than my two-foot carpenter's level. Every block in the foundation needed to be level if the wall was to be square, and every paver needed to be level with the surrounding tiles (I built in a slight slope for drainage) so the surface would be flat. At least 2,000 times, I figure, I used the level to check my work.

It didn't turn out perfectly -- I'm just not that good a mason -- but it's a whole lot more true than it would have been if I had not relied on the constant guidance of my level.

During a break from work to deliver a baccalaureate sermon for the seniors of Holly Springs High School, I recalled that we need to rely on a good level for life, as well -- a guide that keeps us true. Micah 6:8 and Jesus' love commandments work for me, though others might prefer other scriptures or something else entirely.

Whatever guide we adopt, it's unlikely that any of us will follow it perfectly, but we'll certainly turn out a lot better than if we tried going through life completely freehand.

And that's what I learned from our patio.

The curse of cussing

2009-06-12T06:53:00.003-04:00

I woke up early this morning, as I often do, pondering what might be worthy of a blog, or at least halfway entertaining. I got up and scanned the newspaper for ideas, where I learned not only the real news, but also saw that Chastity Bono is becoming a man, Bill Clinton left his credit card at a Raleigh restaurant, and the "Cloud Appreciation Society" wants to name a type of cloud photographed in 2006 as "altocumulus undulatus asperatus." It certainly doesn't look like a bunny.

The first thing that clicked, however, came on the real funny pages, in the "Beetle Bailey" comic strip, which portrays army life in a mythical "Camp Swampy." In the first panel today's strip, the general's secretary, Miss Buxley, is emptying a trash can following a meeting of officers. She says "I hate cleaning up after one of their meetings."

In the next panel we see the contents spill out -- a collection of swirls, stars, exclamation marks and other zingbats typically used to indicate cuss words -- visual bleeps, if you will.

Miss Buxley then comments, "It's really disgusting."

It's amazing how many people seem to think cussing is cool -- even people who actually know real adjectives and are capable of using them. On this count, I remain as old-fashioned as Beetle Bailey's jeep. I'm with you, Miss Buxley.

The pointless use vulgar language for offense and effect is really disgusting, and that's all I @#%! have to say about that.

Why newspapers are essential

2009-06-10T07:32:00.004-04:00

The locus of big news in North Carolina over the past week or two has been North Carolina State University, where Chancellor James Oblinger and Provost Larry Nielsen have resigned after evidence uncovered by Raleigh's News & Observer made it clear that they were both involved in the invention of a cushy $170,000 job for Mary Easley, the governor's wife. Trustee chair D. McQueen Campbell III, a rich pal of the governor's who used to provide free flights and vacations, also resigned after his role in the matter was revealed. Oblinger insisted for weeks that he did not recall knowing anything about the hiring, but a series of e-mails came to light and blew that story, showing that Oblinger was either (a) lying or (b) too feeble-minded to be chancellor of a major university.

Mary Easley, the person at the heart of the hooplah, steadfastly refused to resign, remaining as unresponsive to the public as her husband was during his time as governor. After budget cuts led to the dissolution of the non-essential work she was doing anyway, she was fired. No word yet on how the swchool plans to manage the remaining four years of her contract, and what kind of payout she might get. (Update: NCSU recently announced that the school will offer Easley no additional compensation).

No doubt, the Easleys and many others are unhappy with the N&O's reporters, who kept asking questions and requesting documents until they uncovered the inside job on Easley's job. Then they asked more questions, and learned that Neilsen had cut a deal for about $300,000 in severance pay over three years before his salary dropped to his professor's salary of $154,000 -- considerably more than previously announced, and more than NCSU's policies allow.

(Sidetrack: I'd like to see the N&O do further study of the salaries paid in state universities: is $154,000 -- about three times the salary of most professors I know -- the norm, or an exception? Do a significant number of teachers in the state university system bring home six-figure salaries? Tax payers have a right to know such things.)

Back to the point -- the public wouldn't have known about any of these high-level shenanigans without the diligent reporting of a crack staff at the News & Observer. That's one of the reasons I'm happy to pay for my daily subscription and not just freeload from the online version.

Good newspapers may not be too big to fail, but they're too important to lose.

Letting go my Legos

2009-06-08T07:04:00.006-04:00

A new Lego store recently opened in Raleigh's Crabtree Valley Mall, and the manager reported that more than 18,000 customers visited the store during the week of its Grand Opening (Recession? What recession?)

Not too long ago, our son Samuel would have wanted to be first in line. After at least eight years as a certified Legomaniac, however, our 12-year-old has decided that he's no longer "into" Legos, and doesn't want them any more. For the longest time, when birthday and Christmas came around, he'd mark up a Lego catalog with the building kits he wanted most, it would get passed around to grandparents, godparents, and friends-who-love-him-like-parents, and then he'd rack up. At other times of the year, he'd save his allowance for more Legos. I've never tried to calculate the cost of all those building blocks, but it has to be in the thousands of dollars.

His collection of fireboats, coast guard boats, tug boats and other working boats used to fill our tub. Spaceships and other Star Wars vehicles fill his bookshelf. Police stations, fire stations, cars and trucks cover his dresser. Airplanes are scattered around. Several electric Lego train sets that once occupied an old ping-pong table in the garage (with planes hanging over on fishing line) are now stored in plastic bins, along with the detritus of countless other things that are now in pieces.

Here's the problem with Legos -- you spend all that money on them, the boy has a ball putting them together, and then if he plays with them, they come apart. When he loses interest, they take up loads of space and have very little value for resale. Can you imagine trying to pack up a huge Lego Y-wing fighter for shipping to an E-Bay buyer? I'm not sure it would be worth the trouble.

I'm not sure where this blog is going, except that it reminds me of how easy it is to become encumbered with material things that seem like "must-have" items at the time, but later just take up space when we outgrow them or lose interest.

The house cleaning we may need, it occurs to me, will require more than a yard sale.

Perspective

2009-06-05T07:17:00.004-04:00

I've recently been reminded of the importance of perspective. The issue -- by another name -- became a national discussion recently when a comment by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor came to light. In 2001, she reportedly suggested that there could be situations in which "a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life."

A big bunch of mainly white men who consider themselves to be wise immediately charged her with being "racist." There's no doubt in my mind that those same accusers believe that a wise white man with conservative convictions will reach a better decision than a Latina woman who doesn't follow Rush Limbaugh. The same folks criticizing Sotomayor happily led the bandwagon for justice Samuel Alito and chief justice John Roberts precisely because those men were believed to bring a particular perspective to the court.

I think that's what Sotomayor's comment were about: a simple acknowledgement that perspective can be important -- there are situations in which her background could bring added richness to the thorny issues of interpreting the law.

Let's face it -- cases that get to the Supreme Court are by nature hard to decide. If the laws of the nation and the words of the Constitution were completely cut and dried, most Supreme Court decisions would be 9-0, or we could just scrap the court and settle cases with a Supreme Computer.

Sotomayor, like every other justice on the court, will seek to understand and interpret the law to the best of her ability. Like every other justice, that ability will be informed by the perspective that comes from one's many life experiences. It's time to give the judge a break.

A second reminder about the power of perspective came in a recent exchang of emails with a long-time friend whom I have known since she was about six years old. She grew up to become a Methodist minister, leads her charge with wisdom and grace, and makes old friends like me extremely pleased to have been part of her life.

After six years as a licensed pastor, she's finally being ordained. Methodists (like other mainline denominations) have a much different perspective on ordination than most Baptists, who are so proud of budding preachers that they'll ordain most anyone who is (a) convincingly called and (b) male. There's danger in that: I was ordained when I'd just turned 21 and had no theological training, but thought I knew everything.

But back to my friend, who will finally be ordained as a Methodist elder: she has three charming daughters. The youngest of them is four, and has never known anyone but her mother as a pastor. Recently she asked: "Mommy, can men be preachers, too?"

Perspective is a powerful thing.

A short guide to happy anniversaries

2009-06-03T06:18:00.005-04:00

June is here, traditionally a popular month for weddings, though I suspect that goes back to the days when young folk were expected to marry shortly after high school or college, and weddings followed graduation.

If a lot of past weddings occurred in June, that means a bushel of anniversaries will happen this month. While rhapsodizing to friends about a 25th anniversary trip that Jan and I enjoyed over the Memorial Day weekend, I was reminded that many folks find anniversaries more frustrating than fun, often because the wife tends to remember the big date, but the husband forgets.

I'm not an advice columnist, but here are some suggestions for making anniversaries more memorable:

(1) Remember that it's mutual. Weddings, let's face it, are all about the bride. Anniversaries should be all about the marriage. Most men remember their weddings as high stress, intensely uncomfortable affairs in which they were required to wear formal clothes and speak in public with lots of people staring at them while still playing second fiddle: it's no wonder they suppress the memory. Perhaps more husbands would remember anniversaries if we reframed them, not as wedding anniversaries, but as marriage anniversaries, or even "honeymoon anniversaries." For both bride and groom, the honeymoon is a time to get away from the hoopla and focus on each other. That's the part you want to recapture when anniversary time rolls around, not the tight shoes or the embarrassing thing with the wedding cake.

(2) Talk about upcoming anniversaries in advance, and plan them together. Making it a test of love for hubby to remember to buy a card or make dinner reservations is setting the stage for failure and disappointment. It's much better to plan for success: instead of dropping hints here and there, talk openly about the upcoming day and brainstorm about what you'd like to do (it doesn't matter who brings it up). Sometimes, Jan and I will take turns: "I'll plan something this year, and you plan it next year." If there's a surprise, it should be in learning what your partner has planned -- not in seeing his blank stare of forgetfulness.

(3) Make it an event. Anniversaries are special, and they ought to be celebrated -- all of them. Some years, a picnic in a park or an economy restaurant may be all you can afford, while other years a Caribbean cruise may be in the cards. The most important thing is not a meal or a card, a trip or a gift, but taking the time to reflect on your relationship and cherish one another. When possible, get out of town without the kids, even if it's not on the exact date (anniversaries have a nasty habit of turning up on Tuesdays). When those memorable years divisible by five roll around, do something special, even if you have to save up for it. The more anniversaries you really enjoy, the more likely you are to remember and look forward to the next one.

Good anniversary planning won't rescue a miserable marriage, but the act of open and honest conversation can often turn misery into melody. Marriage is a daily gift, and celebration is in order.

[Image from ClipArtandCrafts.com]

Working Bible magic

2009-06-01T06:31:00.004-04:00

For divinity school students, pastors, and Sunday School teachers, some heavy Bible study comes with the job, but good tools for better study should appeal to anyy growing Christian. If you're looking for a resource that will take your Bible study to a deeper (and wider) level, take a look at this sneak preview of a review planned for an upcoming issue of Baptists Today:

Serious Bible study requires serious work: consulting multiple translations and essential reference tools can be time-consuming and downright tedious. The informed use of quality Bible software, however, can leave students gasping as if their keyboards had been granted magical powers.

Among the several powerful programs available, none are more impressive than Accordance Bible Software. Accordance was designed for Macintosh computers and the new Version 8 is completely native to the Mac’s OS X operating system, but PC users can also use it (minus a few bells and whistles) by installing a Mac emulator available at no cost.

What’s so special about Accordance? First of all, the program’s designers understand that for Bible students, everything should revolve around helping users to read, search, translate, and understand the Bible – preferably through an elegant and intuitive layout. Accordance rates an A on every count.

The program opens to a clean workspace in which the user can easily open parallel panes containing as many Bible translations as the screen can hold (either vertically or horizontally), and display study notes keyed to specific translations as well. A single search box atop the interface can be used to call up the entire Bible, find individual verses or portions of text, or to search for individual words (or combinations of words) in all available languages.

The magic starts when one floats the cursor over the text. Place it over any term in a Hebrew or Greek text and “Presto!” – an information box appears that displays the root, a transliteration, a complete parsing of the form used, and the most common translations. Instead of spending hours with a lexicon trying to puzzle out the inflected form of a weak or hollow verb, users can find it faster than Houdini could snap on his handcuffs.

Once the term is identified, a quick click on the appropriate icon of a handy resource palette can open any one of several lexicons or dictionaries – conveniently turned to the proper page. Other available resources include 2-D or 3-D maps (complete with full GPS information), a PhotoGuide that includes descriptions and photos of biblical sites, and a timeline that offers both “conservative” and “critical” chronologies.

Even students with no background in biblical languages can dig deeply. English texts such as the King James Version and the New American Standard 1995 edition are tagged with the familiar Strong’s numbering system. This allows the user to glide the cursor over any word, and the corresponding Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek term will appear in a box below. Triple clicking on the word will call up a concordance-type list of differing ways the word is translated.

Accordance’s complex but quick search functions have a short learning curve, and the capabilities far exceed the needs of all but the most demanding student. One can do a simple search for the word “forgive,” for example – but also find every verse in which “forgive” appears within five words of “sin.” One can search for a Greek or Hebrew root, but also for any inflected form, gender, or number of the root.

With its newest version, Accordance adds new functions that are as useful as they are impressive. A “fuzzy” command allows one to search for a phrase, even if it’s not exact. I may remember a phrase about the righteous being like tree planted near water, for example, but not recall the specific wording. I can type “trees planted by water” in the search window, add the “fuzzy” command to my search, and before I can lift my fingers, a window displays two texts that meet the criteria, with the words I searched for highlighted: Ps. 1:3 has “trees planted by streams of water,” while Jer. 17:8 speaks of “a tree planted by water” (NRSV).

That may lead me to wonder if there are other similarities between Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17. By composing a second search and using a new “infer” command, I can find other common phrases. A “search back” command then helps me to compare them.

For students or teachers preparing written documents, Accordance offers full copy and paste functions, including Unicode texts and the ability to render Hebrew and Greek characters, or to automatically transliterate them according to scholarly standards.

Among its many other features, the program also offers a tool that can be used to diagram sentences, and even a “speech” button that calls up an audio pronunciation of any word, or a reading of the text.

Accordance designers have sought to make the program as intuitive and user-friendly as possible, so most functions can be accessed in a variety of ways, from clicking on an icon in a resource palette or library, to using drop-down menus from the top, to right-clicking for a variety of options, to using hot-key combinations. Tutorials and video demos are available, but few are really needed.

Accordance is available in either a “Library” or “Scholars” collection, depending on whether one wants to include biblical languages. Each collection is offered in a variety of packages, with costs based on the number of resources. Basic packages begin at $99 and $149, with the “Premier” versions ranging upward to $299 and $349. Commentaries and other resources are available at additional cost.

With its nimble navigation functions, speedy search capabilities, and impressive collection of tightly integrated resources, Accordance is more than a Bible study resource – it’s like a genie on a hard drive, with no limit on wishes.

Normal is as normal does

2009-05-29T06:33:00.004-04:00

Do you ever congratulate yourself on being more normal than everyone else? It's easy to do. What's normal to us, we assume, is the real normal -- it's other people who are odd.

On a recent getaway, Jan and I were sitting on the beach, waiting for the sunset and watching people stroll by. We saw folks who were old and young, straight and gay, fit and flabby. Skin tones varied, and some were tattooed. We couldn't help but comment when a couple I nicknamed "Bridgette and Bubba" walked by. He slouched along in shorts, sandals, a ball cap and a tank top. She carried a pocketbook and wore a crisp white blouse, denim hot pants, and high heels. They stopped just in front of us and engaged in a big smooch.

A woman sitting nearby turned, with raised eyebrows, and said something to Jan about wearing high heels on the beach. This particular woman was barefooted -- but wearing a full-length dress that dragged in the sand. For the previous half hour, she had been sitting in the surf, dress and all.

We see things like that and wonder why other folks aren't normal like we are. They probably look at us and wonder how anyone can stand being so stodgy. Normal is as normal does.

I'm reminded that religion has many expressions that are "normal" to different people. For example, there's great excitement among the 21,000-strong Indian community in the Triangle this week, as a second Hindu temple is being consecrated by having nine stone gods installed in their niches and ceremonially "brought to life." The elaborate temple complex is devoted to Sri Venkateswara, a manifestation of Vishnu that is especially popular in South India.

While many Baptist and mainline churches struggle to meet budgets, Triangle Hindus are spending a million dollars just for the opening ceremonies of their new $3.5 million temple. Yesterday, a helicopter rained flowers and rose petals on and around the complex as thousands of Indians stood for hours, enjoying the rare dedication ceremony.

For those of us who grew up in the southern part of the U.S., rather than the southern part of India, the idea of carving statues, bathing them in holy water, dressing them in colorful garments, installing them in a niche, and thinking of them as alive does not fall within our concept of "normal."

People who are raised in a Hindu culture probably think the same thing about our churches that are filled with crosses and stained glass where we worship an invisible god.

As God looks upon the peoples of the earth as we might watch people walking by on the beach, I have to wonder what runs through the divine mind -- and whether "normal" is a category of concern.

[Credit Jan for the top photo. The bottom photo, of Moola Vigraha being prepared for installation, is from a participant's Picasa site.]

Priceless

2009-05-26T23:48:00.009-04:00

I mentioned in my last blog that Jan and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary with a short vacation getaway on Captiva Island, sans computers.

Some who know my proclivity for keeping Mr. Macbook at hand might wonder, "How did that work for you?"

It felt weird.

It felt good.

It also felt a bit like cheating, because we both had our Blackberries along, though we didn't check them often. Even so, there was very little e-mail for me to receive, given that there's sparse Campbell e-mail on the weekends, and the Baptists Today email host went down two days before we left -- and remained out of commission until today (Wednesday).

Any mail sent to that account between May 21 and 26 disappeared into the black hole of cyberspace, never to be seen unless those who sent them take note of their "undeliverable" response and try again.

During our joyful, memorable trip we hung out at the pool, looked for shells on the beach, and watched the sun set over the Gulf every night. We tooled around nature preserves in a rented HHR and admired wildlife ranging from manatees to ospreys. I read a fun novel (Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimon), waded through a backlog of magazines, and worked a bunch of Sudoku puzzles I'd been saving up. I gave little thought to email, or to blogging, or to writing anything more than my name at the bottom of a charge slip from of a restaurant or golf course.

Did I mention a golf course? The north end of the island has an impressive, immaculately groomed "Short Course" (all Par 3's but not necessarily short ones), with breathtaking views on every hole. By the time we rented clubs and paid the fee, it was far more than we normally pay to play, but I don't regret a nickel of it. Not only did I get to play golf with my wife in a paradise-like setting, but we had the course almost completely to ourselves. If we'd been featured on an American Express commercial, the announcer would have said "Priceless."

I don't know about the golf, but being married to Jan for 25 years goes beyond being priceless to me. I'll be 82 if we live long enough to celebrate 50 years, so it's unlikely we'll be playing golf -- but somehow I don't think it will matter.

[Photos by Jan, except the one in which she's driving the car.]

Anniversaries

2009-05-25T08:00:00.000-04:00

As I write these words, I'm anticipating a 25th wedding anniversary trip with my wife Jan. We'd originally planned to celebrate the big number with a trip to Mexico, but something called H1N1 put the quietus on that. So, we changed course and will be enjoying a few days on Captiva Island (right), off the Gulf Coast of Florida. It's one of those places we always wanted to go, and the time has come.

In true celebration of our anniversary, I'm leaving my laptop behind. It'll be the first time in many moons that I will have gone four days without having its keyboard nearby, ready for finger-dictation. Sorry, Mac, on this trip I'll be answering to a higher calling.

As I look forward to a few lovely days with Jan, free of child care, dog care and work, I'm also thinking back on a 20 year anniversary some close friends and I just celebrated. In 1989, a dozen or so preachers decided it would be a good idea to form a support group. It was not long after the movie "Dead Poets' Society" came out, and we quickly adopted the name "Dead Preachers' Society."

Despite the lack of originality, it was a most appropriate name. As we gathered for quarterly meetings and talk sessions, we consciously sought to make our group a safe place where we could shuck the "preacher persona" and relate honestly as real humans with hopes and hurts.

The group has been a life saver for many of us. Several have moved away or dropped out for other reasons, but we are left with seven members who share a special bond 20 years in the making.

For many reasons, I'm a blessed and happy man.

[In the lower photo, that's David Daly (national leader for FCA Baseball), Mark Hollar (pastor of Abbott's Creek Missionary Baptist Church), me (not really in pain), and Roger Nix (DOM for Raleigh Baptist Association). Steve Bolton, pastor of Oxford Baptist Church, was taking the picture. Two other members were unable to attend the anniversary gathering.]

White cars

2009-05-22T06:39:00.003-04:00

I just bought my fourth white car in a row. White can be boring, I know, but several studies I've read have shown white cars to be more visible than darker ones, and less likely to be involved in crashes.

Not that it can't happen: in 1974, while waiting to make a left turn in a white AMC Javelin, I was run over by a tractor-trailer truck that came barreling over the hill behind me and couldn't stop in time. In that case, color wouldn't have mattered.

Nor, I suspect, did it really matter that I was driving a burgundy-colored Oldsmobile on the day a drunken driver crossed the center line and crashed into us, killing my daughter and leaving me with lots of broken bones.

Still, I've never bought anything but white cars since then, or anything that didn't have as many air bags and safety features as I could afford. The first was a Dodge Intrepid with flashy sport wheels that came with what I thought was a safer suspension. The next was an Oldsmobile Intrigue that outlasted Oldsmobile. After that I bought a Chevy Malibu, and now the future of Chevrolet is as uncertain as the electronics in the car, which had become so unreliable after 117,000 miles that I no longer trusted it.

Looking for better mileage and a smaller carbon footprint, I traded it for a Toyota Prius: with the 2010 models coming out soon, 2009s were finally selling at a discount. Like the last three cars, it's as white as they make them: I want other drivers to see me coming. Here's hoping that, like the last three, it will remain undented.

Bible abuse

2009-05-19T21:55:00.005-04:00

It was happening more than six years ago, but that doesn't make it any less disturbing.

Newly declassified documents reveal that a series of top secret briefings prepared for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and other Pentagon officials featured photographs of military scenes overwritten with Bible verses. I don't know who gets credit for first outing the sadly misguided covers, which could have been featured on an annual Crusader Calendar, but you can see a slide show of sample sorriness at the GQ website. Robert Parham, over at EthicsDaily.com, has posted a critique that puts the covers in context.

St. Paul once advised believers to "put on the whole armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand" (Eph. 6:3, NIV). Can you imagine what the old apostle would say if he knew his words had been sloganized to highlight a fierce tank silhouetted by the sunrise?

The Book of Proverbs advises those who worship God to "Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed" (Prov. 16:3, NIV). Somebody at the Pentagon thought that verse perfectly illustrated a soldier with his machine gun.

1 Peter 2:15 declares "For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men." On April 3, 2003, that verse appeared over a cover picture of Saddam Hussein speaking into a microphone. The message is clear: "It is God's will for the U.S. to silence Saddam."

The dedicated men and women who risk their lives in service to their country should not be turned into Crusaders, and the Bible should not be sliced and diced in service to an ill-conceived war.

With America's defense officials turning Jesus into a jihadist, is it any wonder that fans of Islamist militancy have found our criticism to be hypocritical?

Help my unbelief

2009-05-18T08:10:00.003-04:00

If you're just not into church, what do you do on Sunday morning? Sleeping in is very popular, and so are early morning shopping trips. If you want to see a really big crowd at 11:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning, go to a Target or WalMart store.

A small but apparently growing number of folks are choosing a different option: they're gathering for mutual support with others of like non-faith. An intriguing article by Yonat Shimron documents one of the newest groups, which meets in North Carolina's Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) area. The group is called "Parenting Beyond Belief," a moniker based on a book of the same name, by Atlanta-based Dale MacGowan. MacGowan says he knows of at least 32 similar chapters around the nation.

The point of the gatherings, it appears, is to provide a forum for parents who are self-professed atheists, free-thinkers, humanists, or spiritual-but-not-religious folk. They share ideas about how to best answer their children's questions about God or other religious beliefs in a way that respects others beliefs without necessarily reinforcing them. They want the children to think for themselves.

The meetings go beyond batting around childhood questions, though. It's not easy being an atheist when you live in the Bible belt. Members (there were 71 on the e-mail list, at last count) like being part of a group where they feel accepted, where they can talk freely about what they do or don't believe, where religion is not a prerequisite for respect.

In reading the article, it seems evident that members of Parenting Beyond Belief gather for many of the very same reasons that bring other people to church: fellowship, friendship, and social acceptance are powerful motivators. For many regular church-goers, I'm convinced, the worship of God is really secondary to the social side of church life.

I can't help but recall the man who pleaded with Jesus "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24). I've often prayed the same prayer in confessing a desire for stronger belief.

This new Sunday-morning movement gives "Help my unbelief" a whole new meaning.

Southeastern tightens the screws

2009-05-15T07:52:00.004-04:00

A friend of mine who has previously served as a field supervisor for Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary students taking supervised ministry won't be doing so any longer.

In recent years, Southeastern has asked field supervisors to agree that their work with students would remain within the parameters of the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message Statement, though they were not required to affirm the statement for their own life and work.

That has changed.

At a recent orientation session, my friend was told that he not only had to agree to work within the guidelines of the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message statement, but he had to sign an affirmation that he supported it.

But that's not all. He would also have been required to sign a statement indicating his support for the Abstract of Principles, the Chicago Statement on Inerrancy, and the "Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood." Think that's narrow enough?

The Abstract of Principles has been around since 1859, when it was drawn up as a guide for faculty at the then-new Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The Baptist Faith and Message statement, first adopted in 1925 in an effort to placate J. Frank Norris and other fundamentalists during the fundamentalist-modernist controversy, was revised in 1963 and 2000. The latest version weakens traditional Baptist principles such as the priesthood of the believer, and specifies that only men can serve as pastors, among other things.

The Chicago Statement on Inerrancy grew from a conference of 200 conservative Christian leaders in 1978, who claimed a need to reaffirm biblical inerrancy in the face of perceived liberalism. Not coincidentally, this was the same period in which fundamentalist Baptist leaders were gearing up to take control of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The "Danvers Statement" was adopted in 1987 by the "Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood," which consists largely of people with close connections to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It attempts a response to the perceived danger of "feminist egalitarianism" by affirming a belief that husbands should be the final authority in their homes (albeit humbly), and that wives should submit to their husbands.

I don't suggest that the folks at Southeastern don't have the right to draw their lines of participation as narrowly and fearfully as they want to. In doing so, however, they exclude a number of capable, qualified, experienced ministers from the program, to the great detriment of their students.