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Issue 039 <previous< Issue
040 Volume 8 No 3 June 2002 >next> |
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Baptist Ministers and Taxes—W.W.J.D.?
A Baptist minister is making news. At issue is the “parsonage allowance” for clergy, which is sheltered from federal income tax. Pastor Rick Warren of the 18,000 member Saddleback Community Church in California is depicted as a hero by most religious newspapers for “fighting for an important constitutional principle that keeps the state from harassing churches” (Christianity Today, May 21, 2002, 37). In no way do I diminish the importance of the housing allowance for ministers and the larger constitutional question of whether this involves Congress in “an establishment of religion.” J. Brent Walker of the Baptist Joint Committee adequately explores this issue (Report from the Capitol, April 17, 2002, 3). Totally
overlooked by every article I have read is an equally important question—what
this case may say about the lifestyle of ministers. Carter -
America’s Best Former President Former President Jimmy Carter threw himself a little media party recently in Atlanta to mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Carter Center there. Created to provide a discreet bolt hole where edgy disputants could work out their conflicts, a la Carter’s famous success with Israel and Egypt at Camp David, the center instead has sprawled into a multi-tasking good-deeds machine. Its health component is on the verge of eliminating the cruelly debilitating Guinea worm and river blindness diseases that are banes of many poor countries. Carter teams are the gold standard for certifying elections in iffy circumstances as honest and fair—or for blowing the whistle when some nation tried to pull a fast one. The center
also sustains the human rights and human development themes of the Carter
presidency. And pursues the mental health concerns Rosalynn Carter brought to
the White House. An Analysis
of The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 POSITIVE FACTORS IN THE 2000 REVISION
TROUBLING FACTORS IN BFM 2000
The Time
Harvey Leach Got Sick Loraine, Texas is a small (pop. 700) farming community in West Texas. It was small fifty years ago when Harvey Leach got sick. I don’t know what he had. What illness, that is. That’s not what impressed me. It was the action of the people of Loraine that made an indelible impression on this ten-year-old boy. Poppa took
me with him and we rode our Ford tractor twelve miles to get to Mr. Leach’s
farm. We lived eight and a-half miles north of town and he lived four miles
south. A Matter of Life and Death: The Biotech Revolution
The Stem
Cell Research and Cloning Controversy The present controversy over stem cell research and cloning has occurred because Pope John Paul II has decreed that human life begins at conception instead of the biblical view that human life begins at birth. This is the basis for opposition to various forms of contraceptives, to abortion, and to stem cell research. However, the Vatican does not object to stem cells derived from miscarried embryos or from umbilical cords. It also does not object to skin stem cells derived from the foreskins after circumcision.
In order to understand stem cells we must note the following
Updated Saturday, June 08, 2002 |
Conception Is Not Cloning: But That Doesn’t Necessarily
Make It Right It is hard to pick up a newspaper without reading some new development in cloning. Although many articles contain considerable “spin” and “hype,” there is no question that scientific progress is being made every day. This causes great concern among evangelical Christians who, very rightly, oppose human cloning. Although nearly all scientists are interested in producing stem cells (therapeutic cloning) as opposed to persons (reproductive cloning) there are enough publicity seekers who think they will win a Nobel Prize for being first, that worry is an appropriate response. The evangelical response to cloning has been to chant, “Cloning is wrong because life begins at conception.” The two statements may be true, but linking them as cause and effect is a political as well as a biological mistake. To continue to use this as the sole reason for opposing cloning is to guarantee that the objectors will be isolated and marginalized by much of thinking society. Cloning
and conception are two very different biological processes and should not be
confused. To understand the difference between conception and cloning it is
necessary to attempt a brief review of basic biology. After recognizing the
distinction, we can consider the significance of each. Space
Available College dorm rooms often have assorted placards and signs, a mixture of the serious and frivolous. A suite I shared at Hardin-Simmons University long ago with two other freshmen had a religious message next to a sign, which had been filched from a parking lot. A fellow student came to our room, looked around, and read the two signs aloud as if there were one: “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last. Park here.” Similar
incongruities sprouted on billboards and marquees after September 11th. Is Homophobia The Same As Racism/Sexism? If there is only one thing that you remember from this morning’s talk it is this: it is a mistake to see the varieties of discrimination in our society, whether it is sexism, racism, class distinctions, or homophobia, as identical. By seeing them as identical we create problems. In the world of academia there is a big push to see all discrimination problems as exactly the same. Intellectually that does not make sense. For
example, at the University of Texas at Austin, I had a roommate who took a race
relations class. He was white. For some reason the professor brought in a young
gay male who stated that he knew what it was like to be black because he was
homosexual. I assume that he would probably argue that he knows what it is like
to be a woman as well. That is problematic for me because I do not think he
knows what it is like to be an African-American or a woman. Likewise, I do not
know what it is like to be gay. It is easy to think that racism is just like
sexism, homophobia, and classism. That is an easy way to think about the
problems of discrimination. Then we do not have to think about the distinctions
in those persons due to whatever unique characteristics he/she possesses. In
academia people are taking the easy way out. What is easy politically can be
intellectually dishonest. Book
Review The War Against America’s Public Schools: Privatizing Schools, Commercializing Education
There’s nothing polite about Gerald Bracey’s detailed description of the impact of vouchers, charters, and the profit-making education industry on K-12 public schools. The Stanford-educated research psychologist’s book offers an eye-opening account of the motives, the money, and the questionable legal and ethical maneuverings behind the push to privatize and commercialize public education. From the outset, Bracey admits public schools need reform. “Too many
schools still bore too many kinds,” he says. But, he adds, “the real agenda of
many enemies of public schools” is to dismantle, not reform the current system. The Time
Harvey Leach Got Sick Loraine, Texas is a small (pop. 700) farming community in West Texas. It was small fifty years ago when Harvey Leach got sick. I don’t know what he had. What illness, that is. That’s not what impressed me. It was the action of the people of Loraine that made an indelible impression on this ten-year-old boy. Poppa took
me with him and we rode our Ford tractor twelve miles to get to Mr. Leach’s
farm. We lived eight and a-half miles north of town and he lived four miles
south. Book
Review By Jack Glasgow, Pastor Confronting the Controversies: A Christian Looks at the Tough Issues
Open conversation on the crucial ethical issues of our day is infrequent. There is certainly no shortage of highly charged rhetoric of opinion. But, a willingness to look at both sides of complex issues that are the lightning rods of our religious, political and social debate is rare. Adam Hamilton’s work, Confronting the Controversies: A Christian Looks at the Tough Issues, is that rare attempt to address serious ethical issues in open fashion. The book is based on sermons Hamilton preached as pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. In the past
decade he has led the church in a period of phenomenal growth from mission
status to a weekly attendance of more than 6,000. One might argue that a
successful tenure of some length provides a stable platform for a pastor to
preach on such controversial issues. Ich
Glaube än Gott When Adolph
Hitler’s Nazi juggernaut was at the point of overrunning Bonn, Karl Barth made
a big decision. Rather than bow the knee to the Nazi evil, Karl Barth chose to
flee. Leaving his prestigious teaching post at the world-class University of
Bonn, he made his way across the southern border of Germany to his native
Switzerland where he enlisted as a private in the Swiss army and served until
the war was finally over. Then he returned to his teaching post at the
University of Bonn. The University buildings together with the quintessentially
civilized city of Bonn had been bombed into smithereens by the conquering
Allied Forces. Classes began in the rubble amidst the dust and noise, the
hammering and screeching of heavy machinery, and all the commotion of massive
reconstruction. Barth’s first words to his first class in his first lecture on
theology were, “Ich Glaube än Gott”—I believe in God.
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