Texan Digital • Issue #29 • May 1, 2014

May 1, 2014 • ISSUE 29

Mayor’s proposed ordinance would add sexual orientation, gender identity and marital status to ‘protected characteristics’ and push the norms on transgender bathroom use.

+ERLC SUMMIT TACKLES SEX AND THE GOSPEL MESSAGE

+PATTERSON, WRIGHT URGE IMMIGRATION REFORM

+MINISTRY CONTINUES

POST-SHOOTING AT FORT HOOD

Jerry Pierce

Am I my brother’s keeper? Yes, so please vote

T

he head scratching you see over Houston Mayor Annise Parker’s proposed nondiscrimination ordinance (see the cover story) is but one more example of Christian negligence in civic duty.

What more could be deduced when only 13 percent of eligible voters turned out last November to re-elect, for a third term, the first openly lesbian mayor of a major American city, who was intent on liberalizing her city’s social policies? One could support, theoretically, a lesbian conservative who didn’t have an ax to grind, provided she was the best available choice. But this was different.

Houston’s Union Association has 500-plus churches, some of the largest of which have thousands of members living in Houston proper.

And I’m not including other theologically conservative congregations outside our fold.

Where’s the electoral beef?

In San Antonio, with 1.4 million people, only 29,454 votes were cast last May in an election that gave a third term to Mayor Julian Castro, who championed a LGBT-tilted nondiscrimination ordinance passed last summer despite the courageous efforts of a few Christian leaders.

Houston’s Parker, taking a cue from Castro, must have been emboldened. Rumors flew last fall that such an ordinance, which expands existing civil rights protections covering all Americans to include new categories of sexual orientation, gender identity and marital status, would be coming soon.

The Houston Area Pastor Council tried to get the word and the vote out, but to little success.

So untethered to political consequences in her third term, Parker quickly moved to issue a directive to the city’s human resources director a few weeks after the last election that “same-sex spouses of employees who have been legally married in another jurisdiction be afforded the same benefits as spouses of a heterosexual marriage”—a move that violates the Texas Constitution and is on hold pending a lawsuit.

All this while federal politicians try to deal with the gummy mess known as Obamacare that is now stuck to our proverbial shoe. That gummy mess—if left as is—will force Christian parachurch ministries to provide contraceptive coverage that includes abortion-causing drugs or at least subsidizes those plans, remember? Private businesses, which have less of a legal leg to stand on, might have a steeper hill to climb regarding the HHS mandate. Just ask the Green family, owners of the Hobby Lobby chain of more than 500 arts and crafts stores, if staying home on election day has deleterious consequences.

The turnout in the 2012 presidential election was figured at 58.2 percent of eligible voters, with 2008 around 62 percent. How many of the 40 or so percent of eligible voters who stayed home in those elections are in your church pews?

The meaningful abortion-restricting measure that pro-life legislators and Gov. Perry last summer pushed across the finish line was a poignant reminder that civic duty beckons and is worthwhile.

Across the board, Texas is still a mostly conservative state despite efforts to turn it blue. But righteous laws don’t just happen because good intentions outweigh bad ones in the hearts and minds of citizens. Couch potatoes lose; those who choose “The Voice” over just 10 minutes of daily news are amusing all of us to death.

Scripture puts it simply: “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan” (Proverbs 29:2).

It requires practicing our civic duty in this truly exceptional republican democracy. America is still the last best hope for man on earth as far as human devices go. Until Christ rules as king here, God has blessed us with an unusual ability to have a say in our society.

Romans 13, set in a less generous civic context than what we have, applies also in a government by the people and for the people. We are subjects to the governing laws and those who execute them, but the governing authorities are subject to us. What a blessed irony, if we only took the time to be informed and act accordingly.

One of the graces of America is radical religious liberty.

From here, we can speak freely, share our stories, our convictions, our hope in Jesus, and preach his Word unfettered by censors. We stand to win the lost if we choose to work in the harvest as Christ commanded.

Also from here, we can launch missionaries and missions enterprises the world over—all because we operate from a position of strength, to wit, our freedom and our prosperity.

But shame on us if we squander that freedom and prosperity.

Some local elections are scheduled for May 10, with primary runoff elections May 27. Get informed and vote.

Contents

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Pro-gay book cites Piper, Keller A new book attempts to make a biblical case for homosexual marriage, asserting that prominent Christian pastors John Piper and Tim Keller hold “core principles” that should make them reconsider their opposition to it.

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Texas evangelist yields pulpit for Ukraine’s acting president on Easter

Texas evangelist Michael Gott saw a providential moment and seized it when he yielded his preaching time on Easter morning to Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov.

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Pastors and other evangelical Christians should speak biblically and live purely to minister faithfully in a sex-saturated culture, speakers said at a Southern Baptist-sponsored summit on the Gospel and sexuality.

Patterson, Wright urge immigration reform Paige Patterson and Bryant Wright were among 250-plus leaders at an Evangelical Immigration Table gathering in Washington Tuesday (April 29) to urge Congress to act on immigration reform.

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ERLC summit tackles sex and the gospel

SBTC board adds ministry staff, grants funds for gospel work The SBTC board elected two new ministry staff associates and approved $650,000 in grants from reserve funds for gospel work in India and Montreal, and dorm expansion at Jacksonville College.

6 COVER STORY: In Houston, pastors’ group rallies against expanded nondiscrimination law that could threaten religious conscience The Houston City Council may vote May 7 on an ordinance that would add sexual orientation, marital status and gender identity to a list of racial and other protected categories.

TEXAN Digital is e-published twice monthly by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, 4500 State Highway 360, Grapevine, TX 76099-1988.

Jim Richards, Executive Director Gary Ledbetter, Editor Jerry Pierce, Managing Editor Sharayah Colter, Staff Writer Russell Lightner, Design & Layout Stephanie Barksdale, Subscriptions Contributing Writers Bonnie Pritchett, Paul F. South, Tom Strode, Michelle Tyer, Carolyn Curtis, David Roach To contact the TEXAN office, visit texanonline.net/contact or call toll free 877.953.7282 (SBTC)

Briefly //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// LUTER, IN NEW ENGLAND, RALLIES SUPPORT FOR COLLEGE Encouraging pastors in one of America’s most unreached areas and preaching at the region’s new Baptist college were on Fred Luter’s agenda when he visited Vermont this month.

Luter, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, spent two days at Northeastern Baptist College in Bennington and met with local Green Mountain Baptist Association pastors.

After touring the college’s main campus and library facilities, Luter gathered with the executive team and learned about NEBC’s vision for preparing students to evangelize the world, especially New England and the rest of the northeast U.S. NEBC President Mark Ballard said the school was “blessed beyond measure” by Luter’s visit.

“What a joy to have this wonderful man of God visit the college in our inaugural year of operation,” Ballard said.

NEBC opened last August and now has more than 40 students in its second semester of operation. The college represents the culmination of Ballard’s longtime vision of establishing a Southern Baptist-related college in a region of America that did not have one previously. NEBC’s statement of faith is the Baptist Faith & Message 2000.

Southern Baptist teams from at least nine states outside the Northeast helped prepare NEBC’s facilities for use. The college shares a former Ramada Inn and Conference Center building with an elementary and secondary Christian school.

NEBC uses the third and fourth floors of the building while

SBC President Fred Luter (center left) met with the leadership team of Northeastern Baptist College in Vermont: (from left to right) Dave King, vice president of administration; James Mancuso, vice president of library services; Mark Ballard, president; Brian Harmon, vice president/dean of academics; and Ed Wright, vice president of advancement. NEBC PHOTO

Grace Christian School is housed on the first two floors.

During his visit, Luter preached in NEBC chapel on “The Ultimate Battle” from John 10:9-11. Acknowledging life’s many battles, he said “the greatest battle is between good and evil, between the Lord and Lucifer, between the Savior and Satan, between the divine and the devil ... and the battle is for your soul.”

Following chapel, Luter attended a lunch with several pastors from the Green Mountain Baptist Association. Tim Groos, a student at NEBC, said, “I have never experienced preaching like that. I felt ... with each word he spoke like a child on Christmas morning waiting for the next present to open.”

Luter said his visit to the new college left him committed to place Ballard, the faculty and the students on his daily prayer list.

“In this area of New England, the Scripture comes true, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few,’” Luter said.

To learn more about NEBC, visits its website at nebcvt.org.

WALKER NAMED NEW DEAN OF STUDENTS AT SOUTHWESTERN Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has announced the creation of a new position within its student services division, naming Kyle Walker as dean of students. Walker, who has served as director of the school’s admissions office since 2010, will continue in his current role and add responsibilities in the area of student life.

“Kyle Walker has been a proven leader as director of admissions the last four years, overseeing the work during a strategic time in the life of the seminary,” said Vice President for Student Services and Communications Steven Smith.

“As dean of students, Kyle will continue to serve as the head of admissions as well as serve as the student life 2 TEXANONLINE.NET ARPIL 16, 2014

director. As such, he will be charged with assessing the student life needs of the campus and relating to the various offices on campus.

“The goal is to move student life from the backdrop to the front burner, creating a culture of brokenness for the lost and love for God and his word amid our already present culture of academic rigor. We believe Kyle can be used to do this, and we are thrilled about the future under his leadership.”

Walker plans to continue introducing prospective students to Southwestern and aiding them in the admissions process. Additionally, he wants to focus on the student body by “deepening the culture of student life and discipleship on campus.”

“I am excited and humbled to have the privilege of serving the Lord and Southwestern in this capacity,” Walker said. “I love Southwestern deeply, and the chance to serve its students further thrills me more than I can say.

“Overall, my goal as the Southwestern dean of students is to ensure that students successfully complete their academic training for ministry, and that most of all they grow ‘in the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’ (Eph. 4:13),” Walker said.

KAZAKH PASTOR, 31, SPENT EASTER IN JAIL

A 31-year-old Baptist pastor in Kazakhstan found himself celebrating Easter from a prison cell after refusing to pay a fine for worshiping without state registration.

The trouble began for Denis Yenenko, a Council of Churches Baptist pastor, after authorities raided a small worship gathering in the town of Sergeyevka, according to Norway-based religious freedom monitor Forum 18.

All religious activity in Kazakhstan is illegal unless approved by the state, but members of the Council of Churches Baptist refuse to register with the government as a matter of principle.

According to Forum 18, a police inspector received a report of an “illegal meeting” and found Yenenko and several others “singing psalms” without state registration. A judge fined Yenenko and fellow Baptist Sergei Lantsov one month’s average wages. Like other Council of Churches Baptist members, Yenenko and Lantsov refused to pay the fine, believing it to be unjust.

After Yenenko’s legal appeal failed and he still refused to pay the fine, Judge Abai Bulatov handed Yenenko a six-day prison sentence on April 17.

Yenenko’s family found out he had been imprisoned when police called them several hours after the court hearing, Forum 18 reported. Police told them to bring clothes and food for him.

“He is not being punished for his faith,” Judge Bulatov told Forum 18 on 22 April.

“He didn’t fulfill the court decision from last October—court decisions must be fulfilled.

He hasn’t paid one kopek [penny].”

When Forum 18 pointed out to Judge Bulatov that Yenenko was originally fined for practicing his faith, the judge dismissed the objection, responding: “We all pray to one God.” According to Forum 18, the first 10 weeks of 2014 alone saw 39 fines levied for exercising freedom of religion.

—Briefly section was compiled from Baptist Press reports

PRO-GAY BOOK CITES PIPER, KELLER A new book attempting to make a biblical case for homosexual marriage asserts that John Piper and Tim Keller hold “core principles” that “should cause them to reconsider” their opposition to same-sex marriage. But both Piper and Keller have argued in recent writings that homosexual acts and desires are sins.

Matthew Vines’ “God and the Gay Christian,” released April 22 by Convergent Books, also cites Augustine, John Chrysostom, John Calvin and C.S. Lewis in the course of arguing that Scripture allows monogamous same-sex marriage. Vines admits that Christians throughout history condemned homosexuality, but he writes that most did not understand the modern concept of homosexual “orientation” and that aspects of their thought lend support to the argument for gay marriage.

However, a survey of the authors cited by Vines suggests they were well acquainted with homosexuality as they opposed it.

Piper’s Desiring God ministry declined to offer a response to Vines when contacted by Baptist Press but emphasized Piper’s “clear stance on the issue,” pointing to an October 2013 podcast in which Piper answered the question, “If one of your family members invited you to their so-called same-sex marriage ceremony, would you attend it?”

Piper, former pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, said he would not attend such a marriage ceremony because “this union, if you can dare to call it that, is not being joined in heaven … And to give the impression that it is, is an offense to heaven.”

Vines cited Piper six times and argued that themes in his writings suggest the legitimacy of homosexual marriage. But in his podcast, Piper said that to endorse a homosexual marriage “would be hateful.”

“It would be hateful for me to do it, because it would be confirming a life and a lifestyle that will lead to hell,” Piper said. “The apostle Paul said: ‘Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral or idolaters or adulterers or men who practice homosexuality or thieves or greedy or drunkards or revilers or swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.’ They won’t. So to celebrate this lifestyle is to celebrate the destruction of human beings, and that is hateful.”

Keller, in his 2011 book “The Meaning of Marriage,” said marriage must be defined “as a lifelong, monogamous relationship between a man and a woman.”

Other Christians cited by Vines have voiced clear opposition to samesex relationships as well: 4Augustine wrote in his fourth-century book “Confessions” that homosexuality was a “perverted lust” even though it was widespread.

4John Chrysostom, a fourth-century preacher who Vines said did not understand homosexual orientation, addressed gay relationships in a sermon on Romans 1, saying that “Satanical” doctrine led to a “diabolical” life.

4John Calvin, who Vines cited at least four times, said homosexuality constituted “the dreadful crime of unnatural lust.” It is among the sins that are “common in all ages, and were at that time especially prevalent everywhere,” Calvin noted in commenting on Romans 1.

4C.S. Lewis, whose book “The Four Loves” Vines quotes, wrote in a personal letter that homosexuality was a “terrible problem.” Lewis added, “I take it for certain that the physical satisfaction of homosexual desires is sin.”

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PASTORS’ CONFERENCE TO ‘POUR INTO PASTORS’

Through hearing a diverse lineup of speakers by race and age, Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference President Bruce Frank hopes pastors will attain a clearer vision of God’s glory.

Hence the theme of this year’s gathering: “Show Us Your Glory!”

“You don’t want to miss any of it,” Frank, pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church in Asheville, N.C., said. “By going and getting coffee or skipping a speaker, you very well could miss exactly what God wants to say to you right then.”

The June 8-9 Pastors’ Conference will feature preaching, worship and prayer to undergird the ministry of pastors and their wives. The sessions at the Baltimore Convention Center will be held prior to the Southern Baptist Convention’s June 10-11 annual meeting there.

“What I did as I thought about the speakers and the theme was to have guys that have a heart to pour into pastors,” Frank said.

Speakers for Sunday evening (June 8) at the Pastors’ Conference will include Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga.; H.B. Charles, pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla.; and David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Ala. Monday morning (June 9) will feature messages from Ronnie Floyd, pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas; Clayton King, evangelist and founder of Crossroads Worldwide in Shelby, N.C.; and Eric Mason, pastor of Epiphany Fellowship in Philadelphia.

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Monday afternoon speakers will include J.D. Greear, pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, N.C.; and Tony Evans, pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas.

Monday evening speakers will include Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.; James MacDonald, pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows, Ill.; and Francis Chan, founder of Eternity Bible College in Simi Valley, Calif.

Worship will be led by Christian recording artist Matt Redman, Harvest Bible Chapel’s Vertical Church Band and Biltmore Baptist Church’s Biltmore Worship.

The Pastors’ Conference offering will go to Mission:Dignity, a program administered by GuideStone Financial Resources. In addition to an offering, attendees are asked to bring blankets to be donated to the homeless in Baltimore through a local ministry.

The Pastors’ Conference is free and requires no registration. To learn more about this year’s schedule, sponsors and theme, visit sbcpc.net.

For a schedule, click here.

Child care for children ages birth through 12 years will be offered during all Pastors’ Conference sessions.

Children ages 4-12 may register for a conference provided by Children’s Conferences International. Register at childrensconferences.com.

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief childcare volunteers will offer childcare for newborns through age 5 during the Pastors’ Conference.

‘HIGHS & LOWS’ TO BE PASTORS’ WIVES THEME Addressing “The Highs and Lows of Ministry,” the annual Pastors’ Wives Conference will feature Lois Evans of Dallas speaking on the seasons of a woman’s life, Kathy MacDonald of Chicago on how God answers prayer to work through family and church challenges and Christine Hoover of Charlottesville, Va., on conversations a wife should have with her husband.

The conference is scheduled from 9-11:45 a.m. Monday, June 9, in the Key Ballroom at the Hilton Baltimore adjacent to the Baltimore Convention Center. There is no cost for the event and registration is not required. Women who serve in any facet of local church leadership, missions and denominational work are invited to attend.

Evans is senior vice president of The Urban Alternative, founder of Pastors’ Wives Ministry and author of several books, including “Our Love Is Here to Stay.” Married to Tony Evans, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, they have four children and 10 grandchildren.

MacDonald’s husband James pastors Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago.

Natives of Ontario, Canada, the MacDonalds have three children and five grandsons.

Hoover authored “The Church Planter’s Wife,” having relocated from Texas with her husband Kyle who leads a church start in Charlottesville, Va. They have three sons.

Kathy Litton, wife of Ed Litton, pastor of First Baptist Church North Mobile in Saraland, Ala., will lead an interactive prayer time. She is the North American Mission Board’s director of ministry to pastors’ wives.

Kristin and Eric Yeldell of First Baptist Church in Naples, Fla., again will lead music for the session.

LifeWay Christian Resources and the North American Mission Board are assisting with funding for this year’s Pastors’ Wives Conference.

ERLC summit tackles sex and the gospel message

By Tom Strode NASHVILLE

PASTORS AND OTHER EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS should speak biblically and live purely to minister faithfully in a sex-saturated culture, speakers said at a Southern Baptist-sponsored summit on the Gospel and sexuality.

In addresses during the three-day conference, speakers challenged participants with messages designed to equip church leaders and other Christians to live with purity while aiding people inside and outside the church who are captive to a sexualized society. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission sponsored its inaugural ERLC Leadership Summit in sessions April 21-23 at the Southern Baptist Convention building in Nashville.

The summit, titled “The Gospel and Human Sexuality,” dealt with such issues as moral purity, marital sexuality, pastoral care for sexual immorality, pornography, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, sex trafficking, discussing sex with children and young people, and biblical manhood and womanhood.

J.D. Greear, pastor of The Summit Church in the Raleigh/Durham (N.C.) area, said presenting the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus is vital in dealing with sexuality and sexual sin.

“The problem is not that our desire for sex is so strong but that our love for God is so weak,” he said in a keynote speech on pastoral care for sexual sin. “[O]ur message cannot simply be, ‘Stop having sex.’

Our message has to be, ‘Behold your God,’” Greear told the audience, which consisted of 205 registrants.

“What you have to do is to be consumed with a God and his work so much that it breaks the craving” for illicit sex, he said.

Various speakers pointed to the need for pastors to preach systematically through the Bible, and some pointed to the damage that preaching to address felt needs has done among evangelicals in recent decades.

“The generational effect of felt-needs preaching, the generational effect of preaching what we think people want to hear and not exalting the unique person and unique work of Jesus Christ has caused irreparable harm in the church world,” said Kevin Smith, assistant professor of preaching at the Southern Baptist Theological

Florida pastor Jimmy Scroggins makes a comment during the panel discussion during the inaugural ERLC Leadership Summit April 21-23 at the Southern Baptist Convention building in Nashville. In the background are pastors Greg Belser (left) and J.D. Greear (center). PHOTO BY KENT HARVILLE

Seminary and teaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky. “It’s easy to scapegoat gay people,” he said. “It’s easy to scapegoat the culture war without proclaiming the Word of God from the pulpit to the people sitting in your congregation looking at your face.”

Evangelicals should make certain they are speaking biblically and factually while befriending gays and lesbians when addressing homosexuality and samesex marriage, speakers noted.

“The point is not homosexuality; the point is the Lordship of Jesus,” Greear said.

“God doesn’t send people to hell for homosexuality.

He sends people to hell for self-rule and self-righteousness,” he said.

Jimmy Scroggins, pastor of First Baptist church in West Palm Beach, Fla., said Christians should “reject redneck theology in all its forms,” including jokes about “Adam and Steve.”

The summit addressed the pervasiveness of pornography, especially among church leaders and other Christians.

Pornography “represents the greatest moral crisis in the history of the church,” said Heath Lambert, executive director of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors and assistant professor of biblical counseling at Southern Seminary.

While there are all sorts of moral problems, “porn is something evangelicals can do in a dark room behind a shut door after they have railed against homosexual marriage,” he said during his keynote speech.

“I think the greatest threat to the church today is the Christian pastor, the Christian school teacher, the Christian college and seminary student who exalts sound theology, who points to the Bible and then retreats to the basement computer” for an hour of pornography, Lambert told the audience.

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In Houston, pastors’ group rallies against nondiscrimination law that could threaten religious businesses owners.

By Bonnie Pritchett HOUSTON

ust months after a hotly contested nondiscrimination ordinance passed in San Antonio, Houston faces a similar proposal as Mayor Annise Parker, the first openly lesbian mayor of a major American city, prepares to present to the City Council on May 7 an ordinance that would add sexual orientation, marital status and gender identity to a list of racial and other protected categories.

The City of Houston has nondiscrimination codes that apply only to municipal entities. Parker’s proposal would extend those codes to the private sector, prohibiting discrimination in employment and in places of public accommodation such as restaurants, clubs, and other private venues.

Additionally, the proposed ordinance “may broaden 6 TEXANONLINE.NET ARPIL 16, 2014

the types of employment decisions that could constitute discrimination” under existing federal law, according to the law firm Vinson & Elkins, which issued a summary of the proposal.

The proposal also includes what was eventually dropped from the San Antonio law: Public accommodation of restrooms, shower rooms or similar facilities according to a person’s “expression of gender identity.”

Last fall, with rumors of a San Antonio-like ordinance swirling, the Houston Area Pastor Council (HAPC) urged like-minded residents to register and vote, hoping to deny Parker a third term and a shot at advancing her policies. Their efforts failed, with Parker winning an endorsement from President Obama and 57 percent of the vote in an election that drew a reported 13 percent of eligible voters.

Jared Woodfill, an attorney and the Harris County GOP chairman, reviewed the proposed ordinance for HAPC and called it an end-run by an agenda-driven mayor serving her final term and uninhibited by political ramifications. Houston now faces its own cultural battle, pitting those who hold a biblical sexual ethic against the mayor’s allies and those willing to acquiesce to it.

“The opposition is very loud and vocal on their issues,” said Woodfill, referring to the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender (LGBT) population advocating nationwide for inclusion in city ordinances.

Steve Branson, pastor of Village Parkway Baptist Church in San Antonio and an outspoken opponent of the San Antonio law that passed, 8-3, last September, said, “Houston is much more organized than we were. We fought here and lost.”

With no unifying group comparable to HAPC, Branson said San Antonio was caught flat-footed in their response to the ordinance championed by Mayor Julian Castro, considered a rising star among Democrats. The lack of unity left opponents vulnerable to media and public criticism, Branson said, noting he was labeled “the anti-gay pastor of San Antonio.”

Hyperbolic attacks and accusations of bigotry worked to stifle some opponents.

In a press release introducing the Houston ordinance, Parker stated, “We don’t care where you come from, the color of your skin, your age, gender, what physical limitations you may have or who you choose to love. It’s time the laws on our books reflect this.”

The ordinance includes, among other categories, sexual orientation and gender identity as protected characteristics against discrimination in contracting, housing, and public accommodations, and private employment at businesses with at least 50 employees. The city already has such guidelines regarding municipal employment.

Specifically, the ordinance would bar discrimination based on sex, race, color, ethnicity, national

origin, military status, religion, disability, genetic information, and pregnancy—characteristics covered by federal statutes—and also sexual orientation, gender identity, familial status and marital status.

“Religious organizations” are exempt from compliance “so long as those organizations meet the criteria set forth in the ordinance.”

But Woodfill said the burden of proof is on the religious organizations to prove their exempt status and the vagaries of the code would make identification difficult.

Individual business owners will not be exempt from compliance even on religious grounds.

Woodfill said the law would likely allow the city to provide benefits to the partners of same-sex couples and recognize their marriages from other states, in violation of city code and Texas law. In November, only two weeks after her re-election, Parker signed an executive order allowing the city to offer benefits to same-sex couples legally married in other states.

The executive order preceded the Jan. 16 marriage ceremony of Parker and longtime companion Kathy Hubbard in California, which legally recognizes such unions.

After Woodfill filed suit against the executive order, a state judge issued a temporary restraining order, halting its implementation.

The case is now before a Houston federal judge who will determine if it will be heard in a state or federal court.

“Marital status” is a term conspicuously missing from twoand-a-half pages of definitions in the 34-page document despite its designation as one of the ordinance’s protected characteristics.

Mayor Annise Parker Woodfill said he believes that is an intentional ploy to allow city attorneys to build policy based on the mayor’s executive order.

Despite an urgent push to include the new LGBT-related characteristics as a protected class, Woodfill said the City of Houston has presented little evidence of wide discrimination.

“There is no evidence of any discrimination that rises to the level of imposing the threat of fines and punishment on all citizens and most businesses in the city,” HAPC stated in a press release.

But Janice Evans, chief policy officer and director of communications in the mayor’s office, told the TEXAN by email, a city of Houston’s size and prominence should not leave its citizens without a means of redress on a local level.

“This is not about any one specific group. It is about protecting the rights of everyone, including young African Americans who are regularly turned away from clubs, elderly people who are denied jobs, returning vets who have been prohibited from bringing their service dogs with them to restaurants,” she said.

Woodfill said current federal laws protect public- and privateAPRIL 16, 2014 TEXANONLINE.NET 7

sector employees and citizens in private or public establishments. But the ordinance, if passed, would require municipal and private venues to make accommodations for customers and employees based on their sexual orientation and gender identity—including the access to bathrooms and showers.

The ordinance states, “It shall be unlawful for any place of public accommodation or any employee or agent thereof to deny any person entry to any restroom, shower room, or similar facility if that facility is consistent with and appropriate to that person’s expression of gender identity.”

The proposal appears to provide legal cover to a business acting in “good faith” in attempting to judge such gender questions, but only if the complainant “represented or expressed gender to others (e.g. behavior, clothing, hairstyles, activities, voice or mannerisms)” in a manner “not consistent with the gender designation of the facility the person attempted to access.”

Whatever happens in Houston, Woodfill said churches must engage the culture with the gospel and attempt to bring biblical wisdom to public policy. When churches make their voices heard, Woodfill said elected officials will take notice.

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Patterson, Wright urge immigration reform

By Michelle Tyer WASHINGTON

Paige Patterson and Bryant Wright were among 250-plus leaders at an Evangelical Immigration Table gathering in Washington Tuesday (April 29) to urge Congress to act on immigration reform.

Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas, and Wright, a former SBC president and pastor of the Atlanta-area Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, were among the event’s featured speakers.

Patterson, in a news conference, said he believes “we are at a point in this country where we are very much on the verge of acting unjustly.” It is “my desire to see the fear of God inform all of our actions,” he said.

The United States has always been known as a generous country that readily provides help and relief to other countries in need, Patterson said, calling for the U.S. to do likewise for those from other countries who come to America.

“I believe the fear of God informing our actions would cause us to reach out to many people in this country from many different origins who are not known lawbreakers, not workers of wickedness, but simply needing an opportunity,” Patterson said. “We cannot afford on the issue of immigration reform to be anything other than kind and generous.”

Patterson noted that although weather and distance prevented

Paige Patterson (at microphone) and Bryant Wright (left) were among 250-plus leaders at an Evangelical Immigration Table gathering in Washington April 29 to urge Congress to act on immigration reform.

Patterson is president of Southwestern Seminary in Texas; Wright is a former SBC president and pastor of the Atlanta-area Johnson Ferry Baptist Church.

PHOTO BY DOUG CARLSON/ERLC

others from coming to the Evangelical Immigration Table event, each person in attendance represented many others who support reform. For example, Patterson said, Southwestern Seminary has many international students on campus, most of whom support immigration reform, as do many Texas pastors and church members.

“They don’t want amnesty, and they do want to be sure the borders are carefully controlled,” Patterson noted. “Given those two things, they know that the compassion of Christ is to reach out to those who are among us. Therefore, they support—by the hundreds of thousands, enthusiastically—what we’re doing.”

Patterson answered one reporter’s question concerning the Republican

Party, saying part of the goal of the EIT gathering was to let the Republicans know of grass-roots support for immigration reform. He said he believes reform will receive support from most Republicans in Congress.

Wright, SBC president from 2010-12, described for reporters the resolution on immigration reform adopted by the convention’s messengers in 2011 in Phoenix.

Southern Baptist leaders saw the “need for us to have a resolution on calling for immigration reform that was based on biblical guidance and biblical standards,” Wright said. “We felt like too many of the conservative evangelical Christians were allowing their views on immigration to be shaped more by talk radio and other news outlets rather than by the Scriptures.”

The SBC’s resolution called for the advancement of the gospel of Jesus while pursuing justice and

compassion. The measure urged the government to make a priority of border security and holding businesses accountable in their hiring. It also asked public officials to establish after securing the borders “a just and compassionate path to legal status, with appropriate restitutionary measures, for those undocumented immigrants already living in our country.” It specified the resolution was not to be interpreted as supporting amnesty.

After approval of the 2011 resolution, Wright said he returned to his church and preached on the issue.

It was his first time to travel to Washington to call for immigration reform, Wright told the news conference. He said he did so recognizing the concern of Southern Baptists and the frustration “at the lack of progress.”

“There’s just a greater sense of urgency that the time is now for the

Congress to act,” Wright said.

The Senate approved a broad bill last year, but the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) has said it needs some repair. The House of Representatives, meanwhile, has taken a piecemeal approach, with two House committees—Judiciary and Homeland Security—approving a total of five bills. Those bills deal with strengthening border and national security, providing visas for guest workers, requiring employers to use the E-Verify system to check workers’ eligibility and setting levels for the number of immigrants.

The Evangelical Immigration Table—which the ERLC participates in—is a coalition of evangelical leaders promoting a solution to secure the borders, respect the law, guarantee fairness to taxpayers and authorize a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants.

NEW HUNGER CAMPAIGN LAUNCHING IN BALTIMORE

By Mark Kelly Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund national partners will launch a new initiative during the June 10-11 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting that will continue the SBC’s unique “dollar in, dollar out” approach in the battle against hunger across North America and overseas.

Global Hunger Relief will maintain continuity with the purposes and focus of the World Hunger Fund while presenting the cause of hunger relief to a new generation, according to a memorandum of understanding affirmed by executive leaders of the seven stakeholders

that promote and administer the World Hunger and approved by the SBC Executive Committee at its Feb. 17-18 meeting.

More than 1 billion people around the world are hungry more often than not, and about 24,000 people—over half of them young children—die every day from various conditions that could have been alleviated by basic nutrition.

Southern Baptist giving through the World Hunger Fund had been declining for more than a decade before rebounding a bit in 2011 and 2012.

Global Hunger Relief seeks to take the WHF’s unique “dollar in, dollar out” message to new and wider

audiences—and challenge a new generation of believers to personally take Jesus’ love to starving souls, in both word and deed.

Southern Baptists have a tremendously effective approach to loving their neighbors through hunger ministries. While some groups keep as much as 70 percent of their donations to cover overhead, donations through Global Hunger Relief go directly to the actual need.

Sending 100 percent of each donation to service projects is possible because Southern Baptists support their mission endeavors by giving through their Cooperative Program.

The website for the initiative is found at GlobalHungerRelief.com.

APRIL 16, 2014 TEXANONLINE.NET 9

Texas evangelist yields pulpit for Ukraine’s acting president to share faith on Easter

By Sharayah Colter TEXAS EVANGELIST MICHAEL GOTT saw a providential moment and seized it when he yielded his preaching time on Easter morning to Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov.

Ukrainians attending the service at a large and crowded Baptist church in Kiev were unaware that Turchynov, a fellow Baptist and an occasional lay preacher, would be there when they gathered to celebrate Christ’s resurrection, Gott said in a statement provided to the Southern Baptist TEXAN. Turchynov, elected as acting president following protests and bloodshed in the former Soviet republic, spoke to the crowd for more than 20 minutes about his faith in Jesus Christ, noting his deep appreciation for their prayers and referring to them several times as “dear brothers and sisters,” Gott said.

Gott, whose Keller-based Michael Gott International ministry has been in the Ukraine on an evangelistic tour with the Arkansas Baptist Master’Singers choir, said he urged the president to take the opportunity to encourage his fellow Ukrainians.

“Mr. President, I honor you for the courage you have to stand before this nation as a humble, born-again Christian,” Gott told Turchynov from his seat near the leader. “While the world is watching, let them hear you con10 TEXANONLINE.NET ARPIL 16, 2014

Keller-based evangelist Michael Gott (right) sits with acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov during an Easter service at a Baptist church in Kiev.

fess Jesus Christ as the risen Lord.”

Gott said Turchynov was “gracious in his words of encouragement.”

When it was announced Turchynov was in attendance, the Baptist church broke out in applause—unusual for a Ukrainian church, Gott noted.

Gott said Turchynov’s address to the church was “a historic moment. Never before has an acting Ukrainian president attended a Baptist worship service. Never. And I would remind all of us that this is the same Ukraine that once harshly persecuted Baptists and called them ‘a despised cult.’ But also this is the Ukraine in which Nikita Khrushchev once said, ‘Ukraine does not need Jesus Christ—they have me!’”

Gott said he even joked with Turchynov that he would make a good evangelist, drawing a “Thank you” and a smile from

the head of state.

Later in the day, Gott spoke to an estimated 20,000 people at Maidan, in the heart of Kiev, where he reminded the open-air crowd and a live national television audience that political leadership would not solve the unrest plaguing the nation.

“A new president is not the solution to Ukraine’s problems,” Gott said. “This nation needs a new birth— a spiritual awakening.”

Gott commended the nation for uniting to oust a corrupt leader, but said the lasting hope for Ukraine would be found in kneeling before the risen Lord.

The pro-Western government took over after Viktor Yanukovich, the Moscow-backed president, fled the capital amid civil unrest after his refusal, under Russian pressure, to strengthen ties with the European Union.

Moscow refuses to acknowledge the acting Kiev government and reportedly has troops positioned along its border with Ukraine. In March Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in what the United States condemned as an illegal “land grab.”

Ukrainians need Christians worldwide to join them in prayer, Gott said.

“The situation in Ukraine reminds all of us how we

need to become world Christians and to recognize that some of these major events taking place in the world directly affect our brothers and sisters in Christ, and so we all need a new sensitivity about the work of God going on in many places in the world.

“But for Ukraine in particular, we need to imagine the anguish and the struggle in the hearts of these people,” Gott said. “An invasion from Russia in Ukraine would be disastrous and it would almost force the world to go back to the Cold War mentality. Ukraine could not withstand a Russian military invasion. We need to pray for peace, and we need to ask for God to intervene, and we need to recognize that all of this indirectly affects the work of the Great Commission. Let us ask God to bless the people of Ukraine.”

During his time there, Gott also visited with the Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists president, Viacheslav Nesteruk, thanking him for his support and adding, “We have come to lift up Jesus Christ and to see people drawn to him.”

The choir tour covered seven cities in western Ukraine and was done with an official invitation from the Ukrainian minister of culture that gave them permission to hold events in public buildings, Gott said.

APRIL 16, 2014 TEXANONLINE.NET 11

SBTC board adds ministry staff, grants funds for gospel work in Texas and abroad

By Jerry Pierce ARLINGTON

The Executive Board of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention elected two new ministry staff associates and approved $650,000 in grants from reserve funds for gospel work in India and Montreal, and dorm expansion at Jacksonville College.

During the board’s spring meeting on April 29 in Arlington, they also approved affiliation requests for 55 churches while removing affiliation for 41 churches, 38 of which have disbanded. Three others disaffiliated.

Through the end of March, Cooperative Program receipts were $6,658,338—$41,044 below budget but comparable to last year through March, Joe Davis, chief financial officer, reported.

NEW MINISTRY STAFF The board elected Wes Hinote as minister-church relations (MCR) associate and Lance Beaumont to fill a vacancy as church ministries associate.

Hinote serves as pastor of First Baptist Church of Plum Grove and has served in student and music ministry in other Texas churches. A native of Orange, Hinote will help connect younger pastors with the convention’s work through the SBTC’s Forge ministry among other duties, MCR Director Heath Peloquin told the board.

Hinote holds a bachelor’s degree from Dallas Baptist University, a master of divinity from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and a master of arts in expository preaching from Louisiana College.

Hinote and his wife Rhonda have two daughters.

Beaumont will fill a vacancy left by Ken Lasater, now serving as music minister at First Baptist Bowie, and will facilitate the needs of churches in worship arts, music education and worship technology. He serves as associate professor of music and worship at Northwest Christian University in Eugene, Ore. Beaumont has served numerous Texas churches, most recently from 2007-2012 as associate worship leader at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church in Brownwood 12 TEXANONLINE.NET ARPIL 16, 2014

Lance Beaumont, newly elected church ministries associate shares his faith journey with the SBTC board as his wife Brandy stands beside him.

while serving as assistant professor of music at Howard Payne University. He holds a bachelor of music and a master of music in guitar performance from Texas Christian University and is completing a doctor of music education at Boston University.

Beaumont and his wife Brandy have three children.

MINISTRY GRANTS The ministry grants include $300,000 to help with construction of new dormitory space at Jacksonville College, an associate degree-granting institution affiliated with the SBTC. College President Mike Smith told the board the dorms will help accommodate student population growth at the East Texas school. Describing the college as a mission field, Smith told of seven students that made professions of faith during weekly chapel this year and students from all over the world who are hearing the gospel, some for the first time.

Smith said Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby purchased nine acres adjacent to the school in December with plans to sell it to the college after one year for $1. The family-owned arts and crafts chain gives

modate increased ministry in training and equipping pastors and church leaders. The society’s training center works in concert with International Mission Board missionaries.

FINANCIAL REPORT Davis told the board that January was strong but CP giving tapered off some since then. All told, CP giving is nearly on budget pace, however. With CP gifts, other income streams and under spending, the net operating income through March was $490,402.

CP receipts through the end of 2013 finished just $4,803 shy of the $25,919,116 budget, and were $708,956 ahead of 2012 receipts, Davis said.

Total net operating income for 2013 was $1,969,289.

Wes Hinote, newly elected minister-church relations associate, addresses the board prior to his election during the meeting on April 29. His wife Rhonda is pictured alongside him.

away millions of dollars annually, mostly to Christian causes.

The board also approved $250,000 to the Canadian National Baptist Convention for a church multiplication center in Montreal, Quebec, one of the North American Mission Board’s SEND focus cities where former SBTC missions associate Chad Vandiver serves as NAMB’s church planting coordinator.

Vandiver and his Montreal pastor, David Pothier, shared with the board how five new Montreal churches baptized 170 converts last year. Nine churches have been planted in the last two years including La Chappelle Church, where Vandiver is a member.

A year ago the church consisted of four people meeting in a living room. At Easter, more than 700 people worshiped together. The church baptized 100 people in the last year.

SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards told the board his trip to Montreal in December evidenced “a move of God that I haven’t seen since the Jesus movement of the ’70s,” with many young people coming to saving faith.

The goal is to plant, over five years, 50 healthy, reproducing churches throughout seven cities in Quebec, where only one-half of 1 percent is identifiably evangelical.

The mainly French-speaking province is home to nominally Catholic natives as well as immigrants from Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist countries.

A third grant of $100,000 was designated for the Indian Baptist Society of Bangalore, India, to accom-

EXECUTIVE REPORT Addressing the board, Richards reminded them that the convention staff serves “at the pleasure of the churches” and the convention is not merely a doctrinal entity but exists to further the Great Commission through the funding mechanism of the Cooperative Program. Through it, Baptist churches collaborate in a state, national and international strategy to reach the nations.

Richards said that while some churches have increased their CP giving, others are pulling back. He said he is “heartbroken” that there are Southern Baptists “standing in line to go overseas” but there is not enough money to send them.

According to the IMB’s latest count on April 7, there were 4,810 missionaries under support—a drop from the previous decade when the force exceeded 5,000.

OTHER BUSINESS The board amended a longstanding succession plan for the executive director to reflect the current staff structure. Among other things, when the old plan was approved, the board had allocated funds for an associate executive director—a position that was never filled. The funding was eventually reallocated but the succession plan was never updated to reflect current staff.

The amended plan also designates the group that would appoint an interim executive director, who would be elected on a majority vote of the Executive Board chairman, vice chairman, and convention president. An interim executive director would not be eligible for election as executive director.

APRIL 16, 2014 TEXANONLINE.NET 13

Ministry continues post-shooting at Fort Hood

By Carolyn Curtis FORT HOOD

The last few weeks since Fort Hood’s tragic shooting on April 2 have been difficult for Chaplain Maj. Jim Fisher. His duties included accompanying the family members of Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Ferguson, who died in the shooting.

But Fisher is not complaining; he sees it as an “honor” to serve. The night before the funeral, he reported to his command: “Tomorrow will be a day of great emotion—mourning, sadness and bitterness. Yet, amidst the emotional clouds, the sun will shine light upon that which is true, noble and irreplaceable—service to others, at any cost.”

He had prayed with Ferguson’s immediate and extended family in the waiting area of Tampa’s airport to prepare them for when the flag-draped casket was rolled from the plane, a moment he described as “breathtaking.”

“As we gathered around to share stories and thoughts, the jet engines continued to run, reminding us of the call to leave loved ones in service of our beloved nation,” he reported. “I was honored to witness this moment in history.”

He then placed his fellow chaplains and command at the scene of the funeral and burial by describing details: “Army [officers] stood proudly. The Freedom Riders took their post at the church and at the Florida National Cemetery. We were honored to see the casket placed in its final resting spot, after the Dallas Cowboys logo was affixed to the top.”

Fisher added: “It will take all the attendees time to process what we witnessed today. Yet, love for country and the military towered above all. Simply put—we are one family.”

That sense of family has been a central theme in discussions with the 18 chaplains endorsed by the Southern Baptist Convention and resourced by the North American Mission Board. They serve among some 100 chaplains at the sprawling post of Fort Hood.

Keith Travis, NAMB’s team leader for chaplaincy,

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called military chaplains “evangelists, teachers, preachers, counselors who share the love of Christ in peace and war.”

“Soldiers who serve as chaplains are trained in mass casualties,” Doug Carver, executive director of chaplaincy at NAMB and a retired two-star general who served at the Pentagon as U.S. Army Chief of Chaplains, said. “They are functioning at a high level of vigilance and response. They are trained in combat.

This is what they do, and they do it well.”

SBC chaplains encounter opportunities to interact with those from many other faiths. For example, Chaplain Lt. Col. Stanley Allen, who also served at Fort Hood during the 2009 massacre, is deputy installation chaplain for the post.

He coordinated efforts among the various faith groups during this month’s tragedy.

But it was Chaplain Maj. Fisher’s unit in which the April 2 shooting occurred.

Another unit also was Chaplain Maj. Jim Fisher involved. Of the four lives lost, three were in Fisher’s unit, including the shooter.

On that afternoon, Fisher was carrying out his normal duties in the brigade building when suddenly the voice volume increased. “I knew without a doubt something serious was happening,” Fisher recalled.

“I heard ‘active shooter’ and the orders to stay indoors.

I realized the shooting was happening in my unit.”

Fisher has spent 28 years in the military, including nine years as an Air Force reserve chaplain and a one-year deployment to Afghanistan. As soon as he learned the outcome of the rampage, he knew the weeks to follow would be intense.

“A chaplain is often thrust into situations—often, crises—devoid of relationships,” Fisher, who has been an active-duty chaplain for seven years, said. “[It] ... requires a unique skill set, the ability to walk through the open doors of hurt, pain and tragedy.”

Although he spent time comforting tearful family members, Fisher emphasized that “sitting with, not talking to, can be incredibly powerful.”

Fisher said his goal was to offer support and ensure that those affected “were now safe so that personal ministry could be engaged.”

‘Curious George,’ yes, but Bible, no?

Alleged removal of Bible during 7-year-old’s free time provides chance for school districts to brush up on the law, attorney says

By Paul F. South A PLANO-BASED RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ORGANIZATION applauded

the quick actions of a suburban Houston school district in the wake of allegations that a 7-year-old student’s constitutional rights were violated after she was prohibited from reading her Bible at school.

Liberty Institute contacted the school district after the second-grader’s parents raised the allegations. The student—whose identity was not disclosed—was allegedly told by school personnel she could not read the Bible during a free reading period at school and that she was not to bring the Bible to school.

In a letter to Liberty Institute provided to the TEXAN by the school district, the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District (Cy Fair ISD) said that while it has been unable to substantiate the student’s claims, the district is committed to protecting religious freedom in its schools, and that Bible reading is permitted in school when free time is allowed.

The letter, released last week, also said that the principal of Hamilton Elementary School would meet with faculty and staff to explain its policy governing the issue and address any questions or concerns.

“As a school district, our policies clearly support the First Amendment rights of all students. CFISD policy . . .states that ‘A student may express his or her beliefs about religion in homework, artwork and other oral assignments free from discrimination based on the religious content of the student’s submission,’” the district said in an email.

The district also said that homework and classroom work will be judged by “ordinary standards of substance and relevance . . . A student shall not be penalized or rewarded because of religious content.”

In closing, officials said that the district takes allegations

involving the violation of students’ civil liberties seriously, and will address concerns as they arise.

Cy Fair ISD spokesperson Nicole Ray said the district has not been able to confirm the incident occurred and that no further complaints have been submitted.

“We have met with the entire staff to review our policy and will continue to respond to any information brought forward,” Ray said.

Michael Berry, Liberty Institute senior counsel, said the matter is considered resolved.

“They did exactly what we asked them to do, which was to tell us and the people of Cy Fair ISD exactly what their policy is on whether or not a student can bring the Bible and to assure that this kind of thing doesn’t occur again,” Berry said. “They provided a very clear statement that as long as the Bible or any other religious material or text would satisfy their school district guidelines, it would be permissible for a student to read the Bible or any other religious text during self-time or independent reading, whatever the case may be.”

Liberty Institute was not advocating any kind of punishment related to the alleged incident, Berry said.

“It was probably more of an understanding of the law on the part of the teacher, so we wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that this was not APRIL 16, 2014 TEXANONLINE.NET 15

a second-grade teacher acting with malicious intent or anything like that,” Berry said. “We simply wanted the school district to clarify what their policy is and to give us assurances and the people inside the Cy Fair ISD assurances that this would not happen again.”

INCIDENTS UP IN SCHOOLS There is a greater frequency of these types of incidents, Berry said, because of greater activism by antireligious zealots.

“Organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom from Religion Foundation and organizations like that, they have been very successful in waging a campaign of misinformation. They engage in scare tactics and lead school districts to believe that any mention or any reference to religion in our public schools is somehow unconstitutional, which is just flat-out not true.”

School officials and administrators must do a better job of educating their employees on the law. Students are allowed to read the Bible and may engage in religious expression in school, with some restrictions, Berry said.

“The limitations are pretty commonsensical,” he added. “If you’re in the middle of chemistry class or algebra class, a student can’t be reading a Bible, because they’re supposed to be studying chemistry or algebra during that time.”

But the Bible is permitted reading during non-instructional time or independent reading time, Berry said.

“We certainly applaud Cy Fair ISD

for how they responded here. They certainly responded in a way we wish every school district would.

Unfortunately, it’s the exception rather than the rule.”

In 1993, a Republican Congress passed and a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, signed into law the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that sought, among other things, to clarify the rights and responsibilities of public school administrators, teachers and staff, as well as students and teachers as it relates to religious expression in schools.

“That’s why we assumed that [the Cy Fair case] was a misunderstanding, because Texas law is very clear on this,” Berry said. “Cy Fair ISD got it, and that’s why they responded the way they did. If you were to go to other states that don’t have their own version of RFRA or RIVA, then you might find a very different response.”

What can school districts, as well as students and their parents, do to head off challenges like the one alleged at Hamilton Elementary?

“First, I would tell them not to be so reactionary, not to react in fear of a lawsuit or anything like that,” Berry said. “Often these threatening letters they receive are just threats. They don’t need to respond in fear. We at Liberty Institute would be happy to guide a school district that was concerned about receiving one of these letters in how to respond appropriately and doing an audit of their procedures and policies to make sure they are in good standing with the federal, state and local law. That way, they can take a more proactive than a reactive approach.”

In Texas, understanding of federal and states laws is growing, Berry said, but it’s not where it needs to be.

“I do sense that they are more aware,” Berry said. “I’m certain that at Cy Fair ISD they’re going to be more aware now . . . But we still have a lot of work to do.”

To broaden understanding of students’ rights, Liberty Institute has a webpage dedicated to constitutional questions of religious expression in public schools.

“Organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom from Religion Foundation and organizations like that, they have been very successful in waging a campaign of misinformation.

They engage in scare tactics and lead school districts to believe that any mention or any reference to religion in our public schools is somehow unconstitutional, which is just flat-out not true.”

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However, the Supreme Court later ruled that Congress overreached and that RFRA had application only to federal cases. Public schools are under the supervision of the states, and subsequently several states, including Texas, passed their own versions of RFRA. Texas not only has a state version of RFRA on the books, but also the Religious Viewpoints Anti-Discrimination Act, or REVA, a law that applies directly to cases like the one at Hamilton Elementary, Berry said.

David Roach

Does church history add value?

W

ho was Athanasius? In what century did the Protestant Reformation occur? Why was Jonathan Edwards important?

What was the Second Great Awakening? In most churches, you would be hard pressed to find anyone who could answer these questions. Indeed, the study of church history has fallen on hard times. But here are 10 reasons why the average believer’s walk with Christ would be enriched by learning a bit of church history.

41. Church history confirms the promises of Scripture. For example, George Muller of England demonstrated time and again the truth of James 5:16 (“The urgent request of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect”) as God answered his prayers and provided miraculously for the needs of the 2,000 orphans in his care. And the church’s growth from a marginalized, persecuted Jewish sect in AD 40, to the Roman Empire’s official religion in AD 325, to the world’s largest religion in 2014 powerfully confirms the truth of Matthew 16:18— the gates of hell will not prevail against Christ’s church.

42. Church history comforts believers in their struggles. Jonathan Edwards was fired from his pastorate after many years of fruitful ministry.

Martin Luther was plagued by fear. Elisabeth Elliot endured the death of two husbands—one at the hands of violent natives on the mission field, the other by cancer. Yet none of their lives were ruined by these hardships. They all went on to fruitfulness in kingdom service. Knowing this encourages perseverance amid our own afflictions.

43. Church history broadens our choice of devotional literature. There’s nothing wrong with reading devotional guides by popular radio preachers. But knowing a bit of history helps believers realize that there are also enriching choices from ages past, including the early church fathers, the Puritans, Charles Spurgeon, F.B. Meyer, E.M. Bounds and C.S. Lewis.

44. Church history helps Christians

counter heresies and cults. Most theological errors are recapitulations from previous generations and have already been refuted by faithful Bible students. For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Muslims, who deny the deity of Christ, and the so-called “Jesus only” movement, which denies the coequality of the Godhead’s three persons, can all be answered with arguments from the Christological and Trinitarian controversies of the third and fourth centuries.

45. Church history helps believers interpret the Bible.

Knowing how Christians in ages past viewed various passages can shed tremendous light on Scripture. The commentaries of J.B. Lightfoot, John Eadie, John Calvin, Matthew Henry, Alvah Hovey, G. Campbell Morgan and others are all helpful resources in addition to today’s Bible aids.

46. Church history bolsters faith. Think about the vast number of people who have followed Christ over the ages and their staggering contributions to human flourishing.

Christians helped spawn hospitals, orphanages, democracy, human rights, art, widespread literacy, and much more.

Indeed, “we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us” (Hebrews 12:1).

47. Church history provides terms to use in describing difficult doctrines. The Trinity is “one essence and three persons.” Jesus has “two natures in one person.” The Bible is “inerrant and infallible.” Believers who don’t know a bit of church history probably won’t have these phrases in their theological tool belts.

48. Church history frees us from the illusion that modern, secular psychology is the only solution for emotional and behavioral problems. Though psychology brings helpful insights, Thomas à Kempis, Martin Luther, J. Wilbur Chapman and others developed keen pastoral insights long before anyone heard of Ritalin or behavioral therapy. The student of church history enjoys a wealth of counseling resources.

49. Church history contains cautionary tales to remind us that Christians can dishonor their Lord. The crusades, the Salem Witch Trials, the Inquisition and even some of the Reformers’ squelching of religious freedom all engender humility and caution for believers. Zeal is not enough to justify our words or deeds. We must take care that actions we label “Christian” truly reflect Jesus.

410. Church history provides believers with a spiritual genealogy. We know who our physical ancestors are. Why not learn about our spiritual forebears too?

So get to know church history. You will probably find it more edifying than you ever considered.

—David Roach is Baptist Press’ chief national correspondent. This column first appeared at the blog of BibleMesh, a website that teaches the Bible as a unified story pointing to Christ (online at biblemesh.com/blog).

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