TEXAN Digital | May 22, 2013

May 22, 2013 • ISSUE 10

As Moore, Okla., digs out from underneath one of the most destructive tornadoes ever, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers are preparing to dig in with love and helping hands.

Another Gosnell?

Houston abortionist under scrutiny Florist, told she must do gay wedding, sues

Gary Ledbetter

Gosnell case about abortion, not ‘crime’

T

o suggest as some have that the Gosnell verdict is only a local case about a man who broke the law rather than a judgment of the morality of abortion is a bit like suggesting Nazi death camps existed apart from Nazi views on racial “purity.” The dirty truth is that people with pro-life views are more offended by Gosnell’s crimes than are people with pro-abortion views. They would have to be.

It was not pro-lifers that appropriated fetus (Latin for “offspring”) to avoid using the word “baby.” Fifty years ago, describing a developing infant as mere “tissue” would have been not offensive but just odd. How long ago would an organization that facilitated sexual acting-out and even medical abortions for 15-year-olds have been considered outlaw, the enemy of my community? Terms have changed to dehumanize victims, science has been misused to disparage traditional sensibilities, and the helpless have been made victims even while we speak of their rights. It is Newspeak used in a cause no less horrible than that of the Nazis.

One poll has noted that 25 percent of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in all circumstances. I think we can put many political and media leaders in that 25 percent; those against a ban on partial-birth abortion or protection of infants born alive come to mind. Pro-life people have nearly as hard a time processing the actions of these leftist politicians as they do understanding Gosnell’s monstrous behavior.

Pro-abortion Americans, including elected leaders, crossed the Gosnell line long ago. On one side of that line, protecting life is the default position. The less helpless person defers when possible to the needs of the more helpless person, maybe in a similar way to laws requiring those operating a car to yield to pedestrians. On this side we start children’s homes, services for unwed mothers, and respond to the hungry, homeless and persecuted. Liberals also

feed the hungry and may even help unwed mothers carry their babies to life, but they must do so for sentimental reasons. Their convictions are not adequate to support pro-life work of any sort in the long run.

Those who cross the Gosnell line consider the preferences, the “rights,” of those of birthing age to be primary because that’s where all their friends dwell. Children are often an inconvenient byproduct of sexual license, a solvable problem if you act within nine months. The license must be defended at any cost. Yes, I’m spinning this in the worst direction but you can’t say that it doesn’t fairly describe the public policy and even the industry spawned by the pro-choice movement.

Many people on both sides of the line want children but the Gosnell people only want certain children, at certain times, in limited quantities.

Media outlets that will relentlessly cover a kidnapping in the Caribbean, a rape in Ohio and an athlete’s involvement with dog fighting ignored this legal case for weeks. By the admission of some reporters it was because they feared it might undermine abortion rights. Even after the verdict, one reporter insisted that this was still “just a local crime.”

“Crime” is a legal term, one divorced from any objective moral content. Nearly all of us would consider one lawful thing or another immoral. If Kermit Gosnell is guilty of nothing patently immoral, other than breaking the law, why not call him a martyr or even a scapegoat?

Although he is a greedy monster, Kermit Gosnell must be a little perplexed to find that the culture that taught him to devalue babies one minute before birth will convict him of murdering babies one minute after birth. I think he has been abandoned by the culture that created him. Perhaps prochoice America thinks it can sacrifice an abortionist it created and draw attention from the horror show that continues.

I’ve studied both sides of the abortion debate for 30 years.

In this case I think I have some points in common with those on the other side. We’re both horrified but for different reasons. I’m horrified by this as when I read of any torture and cold-blooded murder, especially of the helpless. Those on the other side may be repulsed by the gory details but also deeply troubled that an abortionist is on trial for very nearly the same thing they’ve fought to keep legal. We would also have to agree that we are not surprised that Kermit Gosnell exists.

If we’ve paid attention, we’ve heard tales of babies born alive, denied care and set aside to die. No one was prosecuted in those cases. To one of us it is monstrous and to the other it’s an unfortunate cost of some people’s rights.

And 30 years ago I heard Francis Schaeffer suggest that Roe v.

Wade would create men like Gosnell. I seem to remember politicians, judges and activists saying that the notion was absurd.

It wasn’t absurd. Now, 40 years and 50 million legal abortions later, we’re pretty used to what we all once considered evil.

Contents 3

Disabled mother gives birth after being threatened by state A mentally disabled Nevada woman who faced a possible court-forced abortion last year has given birth to a girl.

5 Southern Baptists

responding to

Oklahoma

3 8

Groups: Block FCC from winking at indecency Leaders of 80 state and national groups concerned with morality have endorsed a letter asking Congress to block the Federal Communications Commission from weakening the enforcement of the broadcast decency law.

Cleburne storm relief continues Efforts to clean up the damage caused by the EF-3 and EF-4 tornadoes that ripped through the towns of Granbury, Cleburne and Ennis on May 15 were continuing this week.

destruction After dozens were killed as a historic tornado moved through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, Okla., on Monday (May 20), the North American Mission Board directed all its incoming disaster relief funds to the area and Oklahoma Baptist DR volunteers mobilized for service.

10 12

COVER PHOTO A man consoles his wife in the parking lot of a medical clinic in Moore, Okla., following May 20’s deadly EF-5 tornado. photo by Kyle Phillips/The Norman Transcript

Dozens respond to spontaneous call for baptism at Spring Baptist Nearly 80 people were baptized in one day at Spring Baptist Church in suburban Houston when Pastor Mark Estep called for worship attendees to follow Christ in baptism on the spot.

Another Gosnell?

Houston abortionist under scrutiny Evidence provided by former workers at a Houston abortion clinic may support what pro-life advocates have been asserting—Kermit Gosnell is not alone.

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Briefly Not Mom or Dad, but ‘Parent 1’ and ‘Parent 2’ The U.S. Department of Education has announced that student financial aid forms will begin using the terms “Parent 1” and “Parent 2” rather than the gender-specific terms “mother” and “father.”

The 2014-15 federal student aid forms will for the first time collect income and other information from a dependent student’s legal parents regardless of the parents’ marital status or gender, if those parents live together, according to a recent press release from the department.

In addition to removing “mother” and “father,” the new forms will provide an option for applicants to describe their parents’ marital status as “unmarried and both parents living together.”

“All students should be able to apply for federal student aid within a system that incorporates their unique family dynamics,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said.

The secretary added that the changes would allow for more precise calculations of aid eligibility based on what a student’s whole family is able to contribute “as well as provide an inclusive form that reflects the diversity of American families.”

Traditionally, the federal aid forms have been written to collect information about a student’s parents only if the parents are married, thus excluding income and other information from one of the student’s legal parents when the parents are unmarried, even if those parents are living together, the department said.

2 TEXANONLINE.NET MAY 22, 2013

NORTH AMERICA

Florist, told she must do gay wedding, sues A florist who was told by the state of Washington she must provide her services for a gay wedding is countersuing the state, saying she has served gay customers her entire career and is concerned the state’s position on gay weddings will harm religious freedom.

The countersuit by Arlene’s Flowers came weeks after Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued the florist when its owner, Barronelle Stutzman, declined to design a wedding floral arrangement for a longtime customer who is gay. Washington legalized gay marriage last year.

The countersuit, filed by the group Alliance Defending Freedom, says Stutzman has employed gay people and happily served gay customers, including the gay man, Robert Ingersoll, who wanted the floral arrangement. But her Christian faith precludes her from providing her services to a gay wedding, the countersuit says.

“Arlene’s Flowers has never refused to sell flowers to someone simply because of sexual orientation,” the countersuit says. “But because of Barronelle Stutzman’s Christian faith, she cannot as a matter of conscience participate in or facilitate a same-sex wedding by using her creative skills to personally craft floral arrangements to decorate the wedding. The Attorney General’s attempt to use state law to compel her and Arlene’s Flowers to do so violates the state and federal constitutions.”

Stutsman has created floral arrangements for Ingersoll for

nearly nine years and has enjoyed a “warm and cordial relationship” with him, the countersuit says. She has created floral arrangements for him for birthdays, anniversaries, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day and private parties. “[Stutsman] has known that Robert Ingersoll identifies himself as gay throughout most of their nine-year relationship,” the countersuit says. “That fact never made any difference in the way Mr. Ingersoll was treated as a customer. Arlene’s Flowers routinely designs floral arrangements for other gay and lesbian clientele.”

In his suit, Ferguson said that under “the Consumer Protection Act”—a state law—”it is unlawful to discriminate against customers based on sexual orientation.”

“If a business provides a product or service to opposite-sex couples for their weddings, then it must provide same sex couples the same product or service,” Ferguson said.

The ADF countersuit says forcing Stutsman to service a gay wedding violates her rights under Washington’s constitution, which ADF says “has broader protections for conscience and religious freedom” than does the U.S. Constitution.

“The Washington State Constitution, in Article 1, Section 11, absolutely protects ‘freedom of conscience in all matters of religious sentiment, belief, and worship’ and guarantees that ‘no one shall be molested or disturbed in person or property on account of religion,’” the countersuit says.

Upon complaint, graduation moved to church Parents will hold their sixth-graders’ graduation at a church since the students’ school canceled the ceremony after a complaint about prayer.

Riverside School District in Lake City, Ark., canceled the ceremonies for East and West Elementary schools after the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a complaint on behalf of a parent whose name was not disclosed.

Other parents have announced they would hold the graduation May 23 at an area church not yet specified, according to ABC affiliate KAIT in Lake City. Kelly Adams, parent of a sixth-grader scheduled to graduate, expressed disappointment with the school’s decision.

“As Christians and a mainly Christian town ... there were a lot of people hurt that our rights were taken away,” Adams told KAIT. “My daughter graduated last year from sixth grade and my son is graduating this year from sixth grade, and we had a pastor open our ceremony and my daughter actually closed the ceremony in prayer.”

Disabled mother gives birth after being threatened by state A mentally disabled Nevada woman who faced a possible court-forced abortion last year has given birth to a girl.

Elisa Bauer, 32, gave birth May 2 to Cierra Marie, who weighed 5 pounds, 7 ounces and was 17 inches long, according to LifeSite News.

Judge Egan Walker appeared prepared in early November to order an abortion and sterilization for Bauer, who also has epilepsy, after it was learned she was pregnant under unknown circumstances.

A doctor called by Walker recommended an abortion because of Bauer’s medication to prevent epileptic seizures, her health condition and her risky behavior that apparently led to her pregnancy, LifeSite reported.

A doctor representing Bauer’s adoptive parents said it

would be safe for her to continue the pregnancy.

The parents, William and Amy Bauer, and their daughter are Roman Catholics and opposed an abortion. The Bauers, who adopted Elisa and her five siblings from Costa Rica, contended their daughter wanted to give birth and make an adoption plan for her child. Elisa had been living at a group home for the disabled when she became pregnant.

In mid-November, Walker decided against requiring an abortion.

Cierra “is sweet and good natured. By all measures, she is perfectly healthy and sublimely beautiful,” Bauer family lawyer Jason Guinasso told LifeSite.

Adoptive parents have been chosen for her, Guinasso said.

Groups: Block FCC from winking at indecency Leaders of 80 state and national groups concerned with morality have endorsed a letter asking Congress to block the Federal Communications Commission from weakening the enforcement of the broadcast decency law.

The Parents Television Council and Morality in Media drafted the letter asking key Congressional committees to oppose the FCC’s effort to allow television and radio stations to broadcast before 10 p.m. Eastern the type of nudity and/or expletives normally reserved for cable TV, according to Dan Isett, PTC director of public policy. Among the signers is Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

The FCC is considering permitting “isolated expletives” and isolated “non-sexual nudity” on broadcast TV, something that currently could draw a fine.

“This is one of those issues that brings people together from across the aisle and all the way across the aisle,” Isett told Baptist Press. “I think that there’s an awful lot of people concerned about what’s happened at the FCC both in terms of the simple process of it and the change of policy that seems to have been implemented.”

The FCC has opened the issue for public comment, as required by law, and has extended until June 19 the comment period originally set to expire May 20.

Isett encourages concerned citizens to comment.

“If the American people think that standards of decency mean something, that it’s important to protect children at certain times of day on the airwaves that we own, then they must file a public comment, and it’s really easy to do so on the FCC website,” Isett said.

While the FCC is seeking permission to change its standards in judging what is allowable for broadcast during hours targeting child viewership, Isett said the FCC has already invoked a new standard in dismissing about a million backlogged cases between September 2012 and April.

The FCC dismissed the cases because, according to Isett, it followed the direction of outgoing chairman Julius Genachowski and deemed the cases not “egregious” enough to pursue.

To comment, log onto the FCC’s electronic comment filing system website here, click on “submit a filing,” and type proceeding number 13-86 where prompted.

MAY 22, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 3

Latest ‘40 Days Campaign’ saves 800 babies Nearly 800 unborn children were spared from abortion during the latest 40 Days for Life campaign, according to reports to the pro-life organization.

Leaders of 40 Days said 787 babies reportedly were rescued during the latest semiannual campaign, which ended March 24. Two days after the campaign closed, 40 Days staff reported 601 children were spared.

The semi-annual outreaches—which focus on peaceful, pro-life prayer vigils outside abortion clinics—have resulted in reports of more than 7,500 unborn babies spared since they began as a nationwide effort in 2007.

Reports from the latest campaign also showed seven abortion centers closed and seven clinic workers quit. Since its 2007 beginning, 40 Days has reported 33 centers have closed and 83 employees have quit.

The next 40 Days campaign will be Sept. 25 to Nov. 3.

Late-term abortion ban proposed nationwide Congress’ latest response to the grisly Kermit Gosnell case is a proposed nationwide ban on late-term procedures like the ones the convicted Philadelphia abortion doctor performed regularly.

Rep. Trent Franks, R.-Ariz., announced May 17 he would expand his bill to prohibit abortions on babies 20 weeks or more after fertilization from the District of Columbia to the entire country. Franks’ legislation, the Pain-capable Unborn Child Protection Act, would ban abortions at that developmental stage based on evidence a child in the womb experiences pain by that point.

Franks’ announcement came four days after a Philadelphia jury convicted Gosnell of the first-degree murder of three born-alive babies as well as 21 counts of violating a state ban on abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy. Gosnell, 72, received three consecutive life sentences without parole for the murder convictions.

In addition, the congressman announced his amendment only three days after pro-life organizations began releasing reports on a gruesome late-term abortion practice by a Houston doctor, Douglas Karpen. The eyewit-

ness testimony provided by former Karpen employees bolstered assertions by pro-lifers that Gosnell is only one of an unknown number of doctors in the United States who are performing illegal, late-term abortions and/ or either killing born-alive infants or allowing them to die without medical care.

The Gosnell case, Franks said, “shocked the sensibilities of millions of Americans. However, the crushing fact is that abortions on babies just like the ones killed by Kermit Gosnell have been happening hundreds of times per day, every single day, for the past 40 years.”

Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land commended Franks for giving attention “to the humanity of unborn children. There is extremely convincing evidence scientifically that unborn babies feel pain when they are burned alive in saline solution abortions and when they are torn asunder in other methods of abortion.”

A hearing was scheduled for May 23 before the House Constitution and Civil Justice Subcommittee, which Franks chairs.

Nine states have enacted bans similar to Franks’ proposal, according to the National Right to Life Committee.

Midwestern expands academic offerings Expanded academic offerings at both the college and seminary levels at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary was announced during the April 29 trustee meeting at the Kansas City, Mo., campus.

Midwestern will offer four new dual-major programs for undergraduates, three new master of divinity concentrations and a professional doctoral degree in counseling.

MBTS President Jason Allen said months of research, coordination and planning have been invested in the academic expansion and attaining approval from the seminary’s accrediting agencies.

For Midwestern Baptist College, the dualmajor concept combines three components: general education courses, a biblical studies or Christian ministry major focus, and a professional training emphasis. The latter includes such areas as business, psychology, music and the humanities, with other degree areas to be added as the program progresses.

Students also can major in both ministryrelated degrees to earn a diploma.

4 TEXANONLINE.NET MAY 22, 2013

In conceptualizing the dual-major program, seminary leaders discussed: “What’s the most effective way of equipping Midwestern’s Godcalled men and women to become ministers who can take the gospel to what is called a ‘pioneer area?’” and “What is the most effective way to prepare a church planter?”

According to seminary leaders, the reality of planting churches in “Pioneer Areas” most likely will entail bivocational ministry. But if students receive an undergraduate degree in religious studies and a master’s degree in a similar field, they likely would not possess the skills necessary for the professional side of their bivocational work. By providing dual majors, Midwestern will help bridge that gap.

Jerry Sutton, Midwestern’s academic dean, said the dual-major concept “will provide our students a curriculum to supplement the ministry training we’re already giving them with professional skills they’ll need to work bivocationally until the ministry really takes off.”

Allen said the dual-major program would launch in the fall 2013 semester.

—Compiled from Baptist Press

Southern Baptists

responding to

Oklahoma

destruction

By Erin Roach MOORE, OKLA.

(BP) After dozens were killed as a historic tornado moved through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, Okla., on Monday (May 20), the North American Mission Board directed all its incoming disaster relief funds to the area and Oklahoma Baptist DR volunteers mobilized for service.

Also, Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Disaster Relief volunteers were asked to be ready. “On Wednesday, SBTC DR volunteers in chaplaincy, cleanup and recovery, and operations were put on standby while

assessment teams determined the needs.

The expectation is that SBTC personnel could be deployed within the week,” said SBTC DR Director Jim Richardson.

Many of the victims were children, after the tornado severely damaged two elementary schools. The search for survivors continued Tuesday, and it was unclear how many could still be trapped in rubble, dead or alive.

Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter expressed concern for the tragedy in the nation’s heartland.

“On behalf of the Southern Baptist Convention, our prayers and thoughts are

MAY 22, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 5

A homeowner sits amid the rubble where his house stood on the west side of Moore, Okla., following one of the fiercest tornadoes on record.

Photo by Kyle Phillips/The Norman Transcript

with the families and victims of the tragic tornado in Moore, Okla.,” Luter said in a statement May 21.

“Not only our prayers but disaster relief teams from across the SBC are there to assist in any way possible.

May God give the citizens of Moore, Okla., comfort, strength and hope during this trying time.”

More than 230 people were injured as the two-mile wide tornado stayed on the ground for 40 minutes, cutting a 17-mile path in a heavily populated area.

An early estimate rated the tornado as an EF4, CNN said.

The North American Mission Board, in charge of the national Southern Baptist Disaster Relief operation, used Twitter Monday night to signal an exclusive allotment of funds.

“We are currently directing all donations

A man looks around the parking lot of the Moore Medical Center after he was pulled out of a collapsed building after a tornado hit Moore Monday afternoon. photo by Kyle Phillips/The Norman Transcript

6 TEXANONLINE.NET MAY 22, 2013

to our disaster fund to Oklahoma City relief. #prayforoklahoma,” NAMB tweeted with a link to a donation form.

Frank Page, president of the SBC’s Executive Committee, told Baptist Press May 21 his prayers “go out to the dear people of Oklahoma during this tragic time.”

Page spoke with Anthony Jordan, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, and “assured him that Southern Baptists will stand by them.”

“Even when media focus moves to another story, we will not forget. Individual Southern Baptists as well as our many disaster relief teams will continue to minister for as long as it takes,” Page said.

Jordan circulated a letter Monday night saying he was “deeply devastated by the destruction and loss of life” caused by the Moore tornado as well as those that struck Sunday in nearby areas.

“I pray God gives us the strength to pull together, as His people, to turn this tragedy into a moment that gives Him glory,” Jordan wrote. “Our disaster relief teams are on the scene of every area affected in Oklahoma, and we will not leave the scenes until every family is served.”

Jordan asked Southern Baptists to pray for everyone affected by the disaster and to consider making a contribution to the Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief efforts.

“May we be the hands and feet of Christ during these crucial days,” Jordan said.

Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief teams already were responding to severe weather from Sunday in Shawnee, Edmond and Little Axe when the Moore tornado hit Monday afternoon.

“Within moments of hearing of the destruction in Moore, we put together a rapid response volunteer team to help with the cleanup and recovery efforts,” Sam Porter, the BGCO’s disaster relief director, said Monday night. “Our teams are one the ground now surveying the area and helping where we can be of most assistance.”

At least 80 volunteers from Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief had been deployed since Sunday, including a mobile command center, a mobile kitchen and feeding units, chainsaw teams and about 10 chaplains.

Monday’s storm traveled part of the same path of destruction as a tornado that hit Moore on May 3, 1999. That EF5 storm, with winds in excess of 300 miles per hour, was the first disaster response coordinated by Porter.

Disaster relief officials from the North American Mission Board were en route to Oklahoma from Georgia Tuesday to help coordinate the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief response.

“Prayer is the biggest thing people can do now,” Fritz Wilson, NAMB’s executive director of disaster relief, said. “The total loss, the loss of a child or other family member, is one of the hardest things the survivors will have to deal with. The emotional toll is devastating.”

In support of Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma volunteers, NAMB dispatched a semi-truck with bottled water and rolls of roofing tarp from its headquarters Tuesday morning. A mobile command center was being prepped for departure Wednesday.

Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee was opening its residence center for those who have lost or sustained damage to their homes. Up to 350 beds are available through May 29 when rooms will be needed for previously scheduled summer camps, the university said. Food there is being provided by Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief.

President Obama addressed the nation Tuesday morning regarding the Oklahoma disaster. “Our gratitude is with the teachers who gave their all to shield their children; with the neighbors, first responders and emergency personnel who raced to help as soon as the tornado passed; and with all of those who, as darkness fell, searched for survivors through the night,” the president said, adding that “our prayers are with the people of Oklahoma today.”

Flags at the U.S. Capitol were lowered to half-staff Tuesday in honor of the victims in Oklahoma.

Rep. James Lankford, R.-Okla., a Southern Baptist, mentioned First Baptist Church in Moore on MSNBC

Disaster relief volunteers set up a mobile kitchen at First Baptist Church in Moore, Okla., preparing to serve a shattered community.

Photo by Bob Nigh/Baptist Messenger

Tuesday morning as a relief center. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R.-Okla., tweeted that Southern Baptist relief efforts were operating out of First Baptist Church in Carney, Okla., and Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin retweeted a message from the BGCO regarding how to donate to the convention’s disaster relief fund.

In Missouri, the campus of Hannibal-LaGrange University suffered extensive tree and water damage from storms on Monday evening. Many of the trees that lined the main entrance were damaged or uprooted, the school, which is affiliated with the Missouri Baptist Convention, reported.

Several buildings sustained damage, and Missouri Baptist disaster relief chainsaw teams had arrived. They were using the campus as a command station for a relief effort in the local community, the university said.

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was speaking on NPR Tuesday on the topic of God, evil and suffering, and he tweeted that it was “very moving” to realize the conversation was scheduled weeks ago.

In a blog post, Mohler helped Christians think through how to respond to tragedy such as the Moore tornado.

“We weep with those who weep, and we reach out with acts of care and compassion. We pray for those who are grieving and have experienced such loss. We cry for the children lost in this storm, even as we are so thankful for brave people who did their best to save lives as the winds raged. And, we pray: Even so, Lord come quickly,” Mohler wrote at albertmohler.com.

To support Southern Baptist Disaster Relief in Oklahoma, visit here.

To volunteer for disaster relief training, visit here.

MAY 22, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 7

Cleburne storm relief ongoing

By Jane Rodgers CLEBURNE

Even as a massive tornado ravaged Moore, Okla., on May 20, efforts to clean up the damage caused by the EF-3 and EF-4 tornadoes that ripped through the towns of Granbury, Cleburne and Ennis on May 15 were continuing this week.

The SBTC has focused relief efforts in Cleburne, about 30 miles southwest of Fort Worth.

Headquartered in Stonelake Baptist Church in Cleburne, SBTC work has been coordinated with the city of Cleburne, which set up its command center at a local elementary school.

While Cleburne suffered no fatalities, at least 600 homes were damaged or destroyed by the storm, Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain said in a May 16 news conference.

One of the homes damaged belonged to Brian McClure, pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Cleburne, where SBTC DR workers were being housed.

McClure, his wife Carleigh, and their five children, ages 7 months to 9 years, were home during the storm.

McClure recalled hearing tornado sirens going off twice.

“We gathered into the interior closet and stayed there,” McClure said. “You could hear the hail and the debris: shingles, wood particles. There was a whole lot of noise.”

The McClures live in a neighborhood in the southwestern part of Cleburne, the area hardest hit by the tornadoes.

One of the homes severely damaged belonged to Friendship Baptist Church member Inez Kerby, who was out of town at the time of the storm. SBTC workers cleared debris from Kerby’s yard and porch; chainsaw teams cut up and removed a tree that had fallen between Kerby’s home and that of a neighbor.

Kerby’s neighbor was thankful for the assistance, said McClure, who added, “We had a chance to pray with her and minister to her.” The neighbor’s home had lost its roof. “You could look up through the ceiling into the sky, were it not for the blue tarp that covered everything.”

SBTC Disaster Relief deployed more than 20 trained volunteers, including shower unit operators, operations assessment teams, roofing teams, chainsaw teams and chaplains to the Cleburne area, said Jim Richardson, SBTC DR director. The chaplains 8 TEXANONLINE.NET MAY 22, 2013

Photo by Erik Ogren/BGEA

and chainsaw teams had seen the most action.

SBTC DR chaplain Leo Furrh of Denison was among the first to arrive in Cleburne.

“We are missionaries like any others,” said Furrh of the SBTC DR chaplains and volunteers. “Some residents have been brought to the Lord; others have been encouraged in the Lord. This experience has strengthened their faith,” Furrh said.

“Most contacts have been made in the neighborhoods,” Furrh added. “We pray with people and do whatever we can to assist them.”

Sometimes encounters yield unexpected opportunities.

Furrh recalled one such offer of assistance to a woman whose home had been damaged. “She started filling out our forms [SBTC DR work orders] and then stopped. She said, ‘Wait a minute. Y’all might not want to do this for me.’”

“Why not?” asked Furrh.

“I’m not a Baptist,” the woman replied.

“That doesn’t make any difference,” Furrh said.

“I’m a Jehovah’s Witness,” said the woman.

“OK, you talk, I’ll talk,” Furrh replied. “We will put the tarp on your roof and get the broken limbs out of your trees. We will take them out to the curb. Then we can sit down, and for every minute you get to talk, I get to talk. We did just that,” said Furrh, who noted that he is retired and that his “full time occupation is SBTC Disaster Relief.”

SBTC DR workers were expected to remain in the Cleburne area through May 23.

Information on donations or disaster relief training can be found here.

Controversial CSCOPE curriculum nixed AUSTIN

Senate Education Chairman Dan Patrick, RHouston, announced on May 20 that CSCOPE, the controversial curriculum supplement used heavily by rural school districts in Texas, will be scuttled, effective Aug. 31.

The CSCOPE debate blew up late last year out of perceived anti-American propaganda in its optional lesson plans and alleged lack of transparency, the Texas Tribune reported.

The Tribune also said some teachers objected to the prescriptive way districts implemented the system.

“I hope our superintendents and school boards have learned that as we move into an era of new technology where online learning [is going to play a greater part], we have to monitor what’s being taught in our classrooms before the fact very closely with the same scrutiny that we did our textbooks in the past,” Patrick said at a news conference.

Thomas Ratliff, vice chairman of the State Board of Education and largely viewed as a moderate Republican, charged Patrick with playing politics, noting that no schools in Patrick’s district depend upon CSCOPE for curriculum development.

“With the elimination of CSCOPE, the amount of resources and human capital required to develop curriculum for those 875 districts [that use CSCOPE] just multiplied because they are all on their own again. This is the very duplication of effort and waste of taxpayer dollars that CSCOPE had solved, at least before today,” Ratliff said in the news release.

The left-wing Texas Freedom Network also criticized Patrick’s announcement.

But according to KLTV in Tyler, some teachers there were happy to see CSCOPE go, even though a representative of a teacher’s union said it would create more work for educators.

“It’s kind of a one-size-fits-all curriculum, and we preach about ‘it’s not one-size fits all,’ ...we’ve got to meet the individual children’s

needs so they can be successful and this curriculum just has not allowed that,” Jamie Womack, organizer of the Texas American Federation of Teachers in East Texas, told the TV station.

“The curriculum directors are actually going to have to sit down and make out the curriculum instead of just copying what the state says,” said Bill Martin of the Tyler Sylvan Learning Center. But Martin told KLTV that he believes higher test scores would result.

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Utah-Idaho State Convention ~ Evangelism, church planting, leadership training, and other. Contact Terry Coy at tcoy@sbtexas.com or 817.552.2500 for vision trip dates and local contact information.

4 International

India ~ Evangelism, church planting, and pastor training. Ongoing vision trips. Contact Barry Calhoun at bcalhoun@sbtexas.com or 817.552.2500 for dates and connection information.

Turkey ~ Prayerwalking, relational evangelism, long-term church planting. Contact Terry Coy at tcoy@sbtexas.com or 817.552.2500.

Heart of Darkness, Mexico ~ Evangelism, discipleship, leadership training, and church planting (most projects are for Spanish speakers).

Ongoing vision trips, Contact Juan Munoz at pastorjmunoz@yahoo. com or 817.966.1173.

If you are interested in a partnership listed above or one that is not listed, please contact Barry Calhoun at bcalhoun@sbtexas.com.

MAY 22, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 9

Dozens respond to spontaneous call for baptism at Spring Baptist

N

By David Roach

SPRING

early 80 people were baptized in one day at Spring Baptist Church in suburban Houston when Pastor Mark Estep called for worship attendees to follow Christ in baptism on the spot.

Members of the Houston-area congregation thought it was another normal Sunday when they arrived April 14. But they didn’t know that Estep and his staff had prepared clothing, hair brushes, towels and everything else needed to baptize a large number of people—including T-shirts that read, “I am not ashamed.” During his sermon Estep explained the Bible’s demand of believer’s baptism by immersion, noting that infant baptism and being baptized by sprinkling or pouring as an adult do not meet God’s requirement.

“So it’s not necessary for salvation, but brothers

10 TEXANONLINE.NET MAY 22, 2013

3Spring Baptist Church Pastor Mark Estep preached about the significance of believer’s baptism by immersion on April 14 and followed it with a call for baptism. Seventy-eight people followed in baptism that day, and 100 people in the month of April.

6Steve Shaw comes up after being plunged beneath the baptismal waters at Spring Baptist Church near Houston on April 14. Shaw was one of 78 people baptized that day during four services at four campuses.

and sisters, baptism is necessary for obedience,” Estep told the congregation.

Then he challenged people to obey God through baptism then and there.

In four services on two campuses, 78 were baptized with more following suit over the next three weeks. The “I am not ashamed” T-shirts didn’t even last through the second service, and the church had to buy more T-shirts at Wal-Mart between services. In all, Spring baptized 100 people in April.

“It was one of the most exciting, spiritually fulfilling services that I’ve ever personally been a part of,” Estep told the TEXAN. “I can’t tell you how many of our laypeople said it was their favorite service they’ve ever been to—just to see God move.”

For some it was a day of setting their baptisms in order after years of following Jesus. Others professed faith in Christ for the first time. Most of those baptized were regular attendees, including some choir members, and all but two who were baptized joined the church.

The majority of those baptized were adults, including Anglos, Hispanics and African Americans.

“I really had a burden on my heart that I shared with the staff that I really felt like the Lord wanted us to do this,” Estep said. “We actually had a few people lined up to be baptized on that day. And I said, ‘I’ll just preach a

real simple sermon on baptism. I don’t know if anybody will come or some will come or whatever. I want to prepare for it. But the Lord’s going to bless it.’”

Though counselors were in place to speak with everyone who responded to Estep’s invitation, one boy at the church’s Klein campus made it to the baptismal waters without trusting Christ for salvation. When the campus pastor asked prior to baptism whether he had trusted Christ as Savior, the boy said no. Surprised, the pastor led him to Jesus in the water, asked permission from his parents then performed the baptism.

No child was baptized without the church’s getting permission from his parents, Estep said.

Another person saved that day was a 69-year-old woman who came for baptism and realized she had never surrendered her life to Jesus. A teenage girl who was scheduled for baptism brought two friends to watch, but they were both saved and followed their friend into the baptismal waters.

Roger Yancey, executive director of the Tryon Evergreen Baptist Association of which Spring is a member, said the congregation has “cultivated a climate of expectancy” and is committed to seeing lives transformed.

“I think this baptism service is a good example of what happens when you’re clear about the gospel, clear about the call of Christ and give people a ready opportunity to act,” Yancey told the TEXAN. Estep, who got the idea for a spontaneous mass baptism from a pastor

friend, said churches need more teaching on baptism because many members and regular attendees of SBC congregations don’t understand basic Baptist doctrine. He noted that some people come to Spring from nondenominational churches that believe the Bible but shy away from teaching difficult doctrines. As a result they have never considered what the Lord requires of them regarding baptism.

“The days of assuming people know Baptist doctrine are long past,” Estep said.

Other pastors who feel led to call for spontaneous mass baptisms should not shy away from the idea, according to Estep. They might miss a blessing if they do, he said.

“I was just praying one day, praying about the sermon. And it was just like God laid on my heart, ‘You need to invite people to follow me in baptism,’” Estep said.

Yancey rejoices at how God worked through Estep’s invitation, but he isn’t surprised. Leaders in the association have come to expect mighty works of God at Spring, he said.

The believers at Spring “have a heart for whatever it takes to see people come to Christ,” Yancey said. “I’ve been in this church a number of times, and they have consistently made appeals that people solidify their relationships with Christ, that they have a relationship that is built upon a genuine, firsthand experience and not in any way possibly confused with something that just happened in the past or with their family.”

MAY 22, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 11

Another Gosnell?

Houston abortionist under scrutiny

By Tom Strode HOUSTON

(BP) Evidence provided by former workers at a Houston abortion clinic may support what pro-life advocates have been asserting—Kermit Gosnell is not alone.

Abortion doctor Douglas Karpen has regularly killed babies after their late-term deliveries at his clinic, according to eyewitness testimony from three of his former employees. Their descriptions on video of some of those killings outside the womb are at least as gruesome as those of the slayings by Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortion doctor who was convicted May 13 of first-degree murder in the post-delivery deaths of three infants.

In the video released May 14, the former workers describe deaths of born-alive babies that involved the doctor twisting babies’ heads off their necks, stabbing instruments into their stomachs or the soft spots of their heads, inserting his finger through babies’ throats and severing their spinal cords.

Gosnell, who has been sentenced to three life sentences without parole, killed hundreds of children at least six

Houston abortion doctor Douglas Karpen has regularly killed babies after their late-term deliveries at his clinic, according to eyewitness testimony from three of his former employees.

12 TEXANONLINE.NET MAY 22, 2013

“This is not anything new to us. It might be new to the American people, but it’s not a surprise at all to us.”

—pro-life blogger Jill Stanek

months into gestation after induced delivery by a technique he called “snipping,” according to a grand jury report. “Snipping” involved jabbing scissors into the back of a living baby’s neck and cutting the spinal cord.

The new report on Karpen helps buttress the contention by pro-lifers that Gosnell is not an aberration. While abortion-rights advocates have asserted Gosnell is an anomaly, pro-life leaders have said he is among an uncertain number of abortion doctors in the United States who are killing born-alive infants or allowing them to die without medical care.

In addition, they also have asserted Gosnell is one of an unknown number of doctors who are performing illegal, late-term abortions of healthy, unborn babies for healthy mothers, sometimes under unsanitary, unsafe conditions for the women.

“It’s just corroboration of what pro-lifers, activists in particular, have always maintained; we’ve known,” popular pro-life blogger Jill Stanek told Baptist Press May 17. “This is not anything new to us. It might be new to the American people, but it’s not a surprise at all to us.”

The late-term method—known sometimes as live-birth or induced-labor abortion—used by Karpen and Gosnell is the same Stanek observed at a suburban Chicago hospital where she was a nurse, she said. The goal of the procedure at Christ Hospital was to cause a woman’s cervix to expel a premature baby who would die in the process or shortly after departure from the womb. When babies survived the procedure, they were left to die.

Stanek blew the whistle on the practice, and her testimony to Congress helped bring about enactment of the Born Alive Infants Protection Act in 2002 to protect children who survive abortion.

“In that case, from what I observed at my hospital, about 25 percent of the babies lived,” she told BP. “So I’ve been saying for a long time that I

“I thought, well, it’s an abortion, you know, that’s what he does, but I wasn’t aware that it was illegal.”

—former karpen employee deborah edge

think this is going on everywhere, that when you’re involved in late-term abortions [in which] you use the induced-labor abortion technique ... that this has to be common.”

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, said Gosnell’s deplorable practice and clinic “woke up many Americans to the inhumanity of the late-term abortion industry. Here is, arguably, more disturbing evidence.”

“Congress must take immediate action to address the brutality and lawlessness of the late-term abortion industry and protect women and babies suffering across the country,” she said in a written statement.

Life Dynamics, a pro-life organization in Denton, released the video of the former Karpen employees— Deborah Edge, Gigi Aguilar and Krystal Rodriguez— without naming the doctor or the state in which he practiced. Operation Rescue, which is based in Wichita, Kan., identified Karpen May 15, the day after the video’s release. The three ex-employees acted as whistleblowers beginning in 2011 with Operation Rescue.

On the video, Edge says the delivery of live babies was not uncommon at the Aaron Women’s Clinic in Houston.

“I think every morning I saw several, on several occasions,” she says. “If we had 20-something patients, of course, maybe 10 or 12 or 15 patients would be large procedures, and out of those large procedures, I’m pretty sure I was seeing at least three or four fetuses that were completely delivered in some way or another.”

With Aguilar and Rodriguez on either side during the interview, Edge says, “When he did an abortion, especially an over-20-week abortion, most of the time the fetus would come completely out before he either cut the spinal cord or he introduced one of the instruments into the soft spot of the fetus in order to kill the fetus.

“I thought, well, it’s an abortion, you know, that’s what he does, but I wasn’t aware that it was illegal.”

When Karpen wasn’t stabbing a baby to kill him, he sometimes was “actually twisting the head off the neck kind of with his own bare hands,” she says.

Edge says Karpen would do abortions “way over 24 weeks,” the legal limit in Texas. “[H]e does a lot of huge abortions. A lot of the times we would bring the big fetus that [was] over-age and we would reopen the bag and just look at it and be like, ‘Oh my ... it’s so big.’ You know, we would be amazed how big it was,” she says.

The informants provided cell phone photos of the bodies of two large babies, at least one whose neck appears to be slit, and videos from inside Karpen’s clinic. The photos are on Operation Rescue’s website, while the nearly 14-minute video interview is on Life Dynamics’ site.

Edge cited the following among other abuses she witnessed, according to Operation Rescue: Falsifying ultrasound results; using unqualified workers to administer drugs; employing nurses through a temp agency when inspections were scheduled; practicing fraudulent billing; and reusing disposable instruments.

Operation Rescue filed a complaint against Karpen with the Texas Medical Board and amended it later, but the board dismissed its investigation in February, the pro-life organization reported.

The Texas Department of State Health Services and the Harris County district attorney’s office are investigating the allegations, the Houston Chronicle reported May 15.

In light of testimony in the Gosnell trial and other reports, Republicans in Congress are calling for investigations of abortion clinics and cooperation from states to prevent the kind of murderous and horrific practices described by former Gosnell employees and other witnesses.

GOP members of both the Senate and House of Representatives have called for Congress to investigate and remedy “abusive, unsanitary, and illegal abortion practices.” Leaders of two House committees, meanwhile, have written attorneys general and health department officials seeking information on the regulation of abortion clinics in all 50 states.

The pro-life organization Live Action, which has become famous in recent years for its undercover investigations of Planned Parenthood and other abortion centers, has released since April 28 four hidden-camera videos that show clinic personnel providing guidance on late-term abortions. Some of the videos show doctors confirming they will not provide life-saving care for children who survive an abortion. One video shows a clinic staffer explaining how to dispose of a baby born alive.

MAY 22, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 13

Sheepdog Seminar aims to protect the flock

By Michelle Tyer FORT WORTH

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, retired Army officer, director of Sheepdog Seminars Group International and an authority on human aggression and mass violence, said an enemy of churches as well as schools when it comes to violence is not a physical enemy but a mental one—denial that such violence could ever happen.

That was his message to church leaders and law enforcement gathered at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth May 6-7 for one of Grossman’s “Sheepdog Seminars” that aim at preventing such attacks or reducing the mayhem when they occur.

Churches have long sought to be a safe place for believers to gather for encouragement and spiritual training, but since 1999, 431 people have been killed in churches or on religious organization’s grounds—more than have been killed on school campuses in that same time.

Wedgwood Baptist knows firsthand what such church violence looks like. In 1999, a shooter entered their youth service and killed seven while wounding seven others.

Leaders of the seminar referred to their audience as the sheepdogs of the churches they represented, protecting their congregational “flock.”

Seminar attenders heard from family members of children and teens killed in church shootings around the country. They also watched film, “Faith Under Fire,” based on a shooting at First Baptist Church in 14 TEXANONLINE.NET MAY 22, 2013

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman addresses church leaders and law enforcement officers concerning church and school violence and how to prevent it.

Photo by Michelle Tyer | TEXAN DIGITAL

“They’re going to seek victims that can’t fight back in places that guns aren’t allowed.”

Daingerfield in 1980.

Grossman, whose book “On Killing” was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, said violence in schools by children has increased in recent decades because, among other factors, children are playing violent video games or watching violent television shows and movies.

“The church has sat and done nothing while our kids are desensitized,” Grossman said.

Grossman said these children then enter high school, college and finally the work force as potential threats to others.

If these adults become violent, they tend to seek weak victims.

“They’re going to seek victims that can’t fight back in places that guns aren’t allowed,” Grossman said.

Those places are often schools or church campuses.

Jimmy Meeks, one of the seminar speakers and a police veteran of more than 30 years, encouraged churches to form safety teams made up of church members who will keep an eye on strangers and anyone behaving oddly.

If members of these teams plan to carry their own weapons, they must be properly licensed and respect laws and the church’s policy on weapons.

Meeks warned that no members should be eager to hurt “bad guys.”

“It’s not about how to hurt the shooter but to protect the sheep,” Meeks said.

But the Sheepdog Seminar speakers pointed out that attacks come in other forms as well.

Attorney Greg Love of MinistrySafe said churches must guard against sexual predators. And again, one of the first defenses is to remove any sense of denial.

It starts with understanding that it’s even possible,” Love said, referring to abuse from outside the church, inside its doors or even among the children or teens.

Love said educating church leaders and members is as important as thorough background checks and screening procedures.

If there is a problem, Love said adults must recognize it and then be willing to report it, even if reputations are at stake.

“We expect and desire that kids be safer at our program than any other,” Love said of the church.

But even with all the training, planning or safety teams—armed or not—churches cannot fight alone against violence.

“It will take more than a good man with a gun to stop a bad man with a gun,” Meeks said. “We need more than guns; we’re going to need the power of God.” Meeks said prayer and fasting are necessary as churches defend themselves against violence with love as well as wisdom and courage.

Meeks also emphasized that churches should not turn their focus only to security but should keep disciple-making as the main goal during the hard times it faces.

“I don’t know if it’s the best of times or the worst of times,” Wedgwood Pastor Al Meredith said. “But it’s the only times we’ve got.”

For updates on this week’s vote visit texanonline.net or follow at #sbtexan

Supporters of ‘morally straight’ Scouts make last-minute appeals

By Bonnie Pritchett GRAPEVINE

Coordinators of 11th-hour rallies supporting the Boy Scouts of America’s existing membership standard hoped their public demonstrations would influence those casting ballots this week on whether or not to allow openly homosexual youth into Boy Scout ranks. In the last month BSA councils from across the nation have weighed the issue on the local level and were to cast their vote on the resolution on Thursday during the annual National Council in Grapevine.

Supporters of the traditional standard planned to greet the 1,400 delegates with a “friendly, courteous, and kind” demonstration as they arrived May 22 at the Gaylord Texan Resort. Texas Values, a conservative, non-profit organization affiliated with the Plano-based Liberty Institute, organized the event. Days earlier the founder of OnMyHonor.net, John Stemberger, asked local BSA councils across the nation to host “Rally for Scouting” events May 17 demonstrating their opposition to the proposed resolution. Forty councils participated in the rallies, according to the website.

Critics of the proposed change warned the poorly worded resolution would invite lawsuits and inevitably force the BSA to drop its ban on membership of adult homosexuals and alter the culture of an organization that for 103 years has exemplified for many what it means to be a “morally straight” young man.

Since it was introduced on April 18, legal and moral arguments against the resolution have focused on the problematic bifurcation of the measure. The new policy, if approved, would allow openly homosexual youth but not homosexual adults.

That is a lawsuit magnet, Stemberger, a Florida attorney and Eagle Scout, argued. According to the proposed policy, a Scout who is one day shy of 18 and an avowed homosexual can be a member in good standing but not the following day when he turns 18.

MAY 22, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 15

Simon Goncharenko

On gay issue, teach our children well

A

n “accidental” conversation about homosexuality with a 15-year-old nephew made me realize that as Christian churches of the 21st century, not only are we engaged in a ferocious battle for the minds of the young generation, our numbness to it has caused us to give up much ground. All is not lost, but we must act quickly.

While homosexuality has been present for millennia, any serious Bible student can see clearly that God views it as a sinful behavior, a choice to act in a way that is abnormal and divergent from his created order. The Bible further discusses sex with one’s own gender as an abomination, a sin that is at the bottom of the depravity scale, a transgression that contributed to total annihilation of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Yet today’s vocal pro-homosexual minority, assisted by the media and the sympathetic leanings of straight liberals, has spared no resources in the effort to “normalize” such behavior via public school indoctrination and outlaw any opposition to it, via hate speech legislation.

The results? I don’t have to go far to find them. Just take two of my nephews. One, a 15-year-old raised in a Christian home and plugged into a vibrant youth ministry, doesn’t see any problems with homosexual behavior and does not believe that Christians ought to “judge” those who pursue such a lifestyle.

After all, God will judge all things in the end, they say.

Another, a recent high school graduate, believes that as Christians we need to love homosexuals more and “judge” them less.

Sobering, isn’t it? Perhaps my nephews, along with the rest of their peers, do not understand the meaning of Christian love. To love someone biblically, as Paul so eloquently expresses in 1 Corinthians 13, is to want what is best for him, and what can be better than God’s best? Who can know what’s best for us better than the one who designed us? If God tells us, therefore, in his Word that homosexuality is a deviation from his created order, it is because in his fatherly love he is trying to protect us from the painful consequences of such perversion.

Likewise, as his servants, we express our love for those engaged in homosexuality not by being approvingly silent but by speaking God’s truth empowered by God’s love. After all, when a small child runs into the middle of a busy intersection to retrieve a ball, letting him do so at the cost of his life is cruelty, not love.

As I reflected further on my conversation, I realized that as churches we must wake up and engage immediately on at least two fronts. First, we must teach our youth God’s truth on the matter. Truth is intentionally imparted. Second, we must equip our parents to handle this issue in a biblically literate manner.

Growing up in the former USSR, I was exposed to the atheistic propaganda in school on an almost daily basis. But due to the godly influence of my parents at home, my church and youth leaders, my faith in God did not diminish in a godless environment.

As we engage, perhaps it’s time our churches consider taking a more active role in the education of our young people, be it through Christian schools, educational co-ops or other approaches. Whatever we do, let’s do something. Inaction is not an option.

—Simon V. Goncharenko is founding pastor of 21 Fellowship in Midway, an SBTC church plant, and an adjunct professor at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary.

16 TEXANONLINE.NET MAY 22, 2013