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Issue 043 <previous<
Issue 044 Volume 9 No 2 April 2003
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Table of Contents - April 2003
How Baptists [1] Got
Into This Debate Over Women The summer of 2000 was a crucial turning point for both of us. After fifteen years of teaching Christian ethics and working with students at a Baptist seminary, we returned to Texas to begin a new phase of our lives, one we had not anticipated (more about that later). The Takeover of the SBC For the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., the summer of 2000 marked the culmination of twenty years of religious warfare between two groups. In the late 1970s a well-organized and well-financed cadre of ultra-conservatives launched a plan to gain control of the SBC. Moderate Baptists at first were reluctant to engage in this battle that resembled secular politics more than religion. When they did organize opposition, it was too late... The Struggle for Female Equality This battle over female equality did not begin with Baptists or even with Gloria Steinem. From the earliest chapters of Genesis, the devaluation of females has been a constant story in human history. Patriarchy, male domination, discrimination, and sexism have characterized almost every civilization... The Response of Churches to Christian Feminist Movements As we enter the third millenium, few topics have generated more heated discussion among both Protestants and Roman Catholics than gender roles and relationships. Feminist studies are common in theological schools, with no shortage of books and articles for the bibliography. Feminist theology is the topic of conferences, as well as a major “bone of contention” in many denominations... The Baptist Debate Over Female Equality How does this brief overview of
the struggle for female equality during the last century, and particularly its
impact on American religious life, relate to the present Baptist controversy?
As we have noted, the powers-that-be who control today’s SBC have consolidated
their dominance, using the 1998 Family Amendment and the 2000 BF&M
statement and its pronouncements on women as a line of demarcation for
passing the muster of “doctrinal accountability."[14]
In a word, if you don’t put women in their assigned place (so say SBC leaders),
we will put you in your place—outside the boundaries of orthodoxy and
partnership... BF&M 2000–The SBC Totem
Pole? It
appeared to be quite a celebration. All the newly installed professors in one
of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) seminaries, wearing their academic
robes, were each signing the Baptist Faith & Message (BF&M) 2000 in a
well publicized ceremony. It appeared to be akin to a genuine worship
experience. I imagine that such a ceremony has been duplicated in many SBC
institutions. Henlee Barnette: Giant in the Land
Into his tenth decade now, Baptist ethicist, author, and preacher Henlee Barnette continues his unflinching call to Christian integrity in thought and action. His career spans seven decades of Baptist history in the South. From the time of his conversion as a teenager from the cotton mills of Kannapolis, North Carolina, Barnette has brought to the task of ethics both his strong biblical faith and his willingness to examine honestly any issue. His
career as an activist began with a seminary chapel at Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary in Louisville, and a call by the Baptist prophet Clarence Jordan
to minister to Louisville's Haymarket district of flophouses, tenements and
bordellos. With Walter Rauschenbusch's social gospel as a guiding light, Barnette
spent years as pastor and friend to that blighted neighborhood, earning the
nickname "Bishop of the Haymarket." We Support Troops—Until They Get Home And Need Our Help
Forget “light at the end of the tunnel.” Forget “war to end all wars.” Bullets are flying. People are dying. And House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has uttered words to enshrine among battle cries divorced from reality: “Nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes.” Really. The sad thing is that, in so
many words, he was speaking for the president. What Constitutes Christian Citizenship in Wartime?
Before rallying around the flag chokes off critical thinking, let’s review what constitutes authentic Christian citizenship, according to the teachings of Jesus.1. Practice discernment.
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United We Stand—In Irony UNITED WE STAND But I live in a gated community with private security guards to protect me from my fellow Americans. But I send my children to a private school with nice classmates and I want to drain money from the public schools to provide vouchers that will subsidize my kids' tuition. But where I worship we think that other religions are misguided if not damned to Hell and I think any religion that preaches pacifism during wartime ought to be outlawed. But my fraternity/sorority doesn't
accept the wrong kinds of people and my country club requires new members to be
sponsored by old members and approved by the membership committee. A TRILOGY ON CHURCH AND CULTURE One Nation Under God
There are two narratives about the founding of our nation. Which one most resonates with your mind and soul may well determine how you respond to the recent court decision about the pledge of allegiance. Narrative number one goes
something like this: Long ago, Europe and England were places inhospitable to religious freedom. Wars
of religion had racked the continent and things were not much better on the
English isle. Evangelism and the Middle East War The American intervention in the Middle East will become a significant factor in the Christian witness here and around the world. Congregations and denominations that seek to attract people to Christian life and faith will reap the harvest, at once blessed and bitter, of the seeds that are being sown in the cities and deserts of Mesopotamia. In
the first place, and perhaps in the short run, American people are attracted to
churches that support the war. Should Clergy Continue
Their Control of Education? Ministers have played a major role in founding institutions of higher education. There are literally thousands of such cases: including universities like Harvard, Chicago, St. Louis and Southern California as well as Liberty, Baylor, and Notre Dame. The
same can be said of many Jewish and Muslim institutions, in America and
around the world. And Justice for All: The Price of Freedom and Security
Justice, freedom and security all exist within a context. The context in which we now live was shaped by events seventeen months ago when a small group of men boarded airplanes determined to hijack them and fly them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the White House. They sacrificed the lives of thousands of innocent victims in order to signal their dissatisfaction with the way the world is ordered. Dissatisfaction
with the way the world is ordered is nothing new. No one is completely
satisfied with the way the world is ordered. We are all looking for justice. The
French philosopher Paul Ricoeur says the telos or goal of every human
life is “aiming at the ‘good life’ with and for others, in just
institutions.” [1]
People divide over the meaning of “the good life,” we differ about the size of
the circle of “others” with whom and for whom we wish to share “the good life,”
and we disagree, sometimes violently, about how “institutions” lay claim to
being “just,” but in one way or another we are all looking for justice. The
problem is that we all have a tendency to believe that justice serves our own
personal purposes and some strive to enlist the power of the state to further
their own private interests. These tendencies have roots deeper than all the
historical conflicts between competing nations and clashing civilizations. It’s
a story as old as Cain and Abel. A Place for You
The 400-acre farm at Loraine, Texas (8 miles north of the town of 700 people) was my home for 18 years. My brother, Dale (18 months younger) and I share many adventures on these rocky slopes. I outran packs of Indians, leaping from rock to rock and crowned myself “the fastest boy in Mitchell County.” About 200 yards behind the barn was “holy ground.” The ground was dry and flat. “Caliche” was the name of the material spread on the county roads in West Texas. This holy ground was caliche. I was twelve and Dale was
ten. After getting home from school (a two-hour bus ride) we did our chores.
Then we worked on our cave. Book Reviews
The Letter Giveth Life
The world has Brother Paul
to thank for the valuable saying that “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth
life” (2 Cor. 3:6). How very true. The wisdom of the saying is crystal clear.
We are not to get so bogged down in dotting the “I”s and crossing the “T”s that
we lose the sense of what is intended. Especially in good old freedom-loving
America we are inclined to such a rejection of rules and standards, to such a
bias against instructions and guides, and to such negativism about directions
and “How To” counsels, however, that we are now edging perilously near to a
general lawlessness that is closer to anarchy than it is to civilization. An Evolving Faith:
Does the President Believe He Has a Divine Mandate? In the spring of 1999, as George W. Bush was about to announce his run for President, he agreed to be interviewed about his religious faith—grudgingly. “I want people to judge me on my deeds, not how I try to define myself as a religious person of words.” It's hard to believe that's the same George W. Bush.
Since taking office—and especially in the last couple weeks—Bush's personal
faith has turned highly public, arguably more so than any modern President.
What's important is not that Bush is talking about God more, but that he's
talking about him differently. We are witnessing a shift in Bush's theology—from
talking mostly about a Wesleyan theology of “personal transformation” to
describing a Calvinist “divine plan” laid out by a sovereign God for the country
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