Black pastor defends Herman Cain, JoePa, Green Baptists & Much More

Check out this week's Top 10 in Baptist life.

1. Prominent Black Southern Baptist pastor Dwight McKissic penned a defense of Herman Cain this week over at the popular blog SBCVoices.com.  McKissic writes, "The liberal media, conservative Republicans who support rival candidates and African-American civil rights leaders who strongly support the Democratic Party and liberal causes, have unwittingly formed an unholy trinity to defeat and destroy the presidential aspiration of Herman Cain."

McKissic explains that Herman Cain "could be the second coming of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ronald Wilson Reagan all wrapped into one. The Texas pastor concludes, "LEAVE HERMAN CAIN ALONE! STOP THE MADNESS!." Later in the comment thread, McKissic warns that "If no evidence comes forth that points toward Cain's guilt, he will become the 21st century Emitt Till, if he loses."

WOW.

2. Several Southern Baptist leaders from Lifeway's Thom Rainer to Southern Seminary's Albert Mohler have weighed in on the Penn State scandal involving beloved coach Joe Paterno.  Rainer and Mohler both called on ministers to not follow the example of JoePa and instead report all allegations to the police.  

Most notably, Rainer, Mohler and other Southern Baptist leaders have stayed silent on a similar controversy involving Southern Baptist megachurch pastor Jack Graham and Prestonwood Baptist Church.  As this ABP article notes, Graham and Prestonwood fired a minister in 1989 accused of sexual abuse but - like JoePa - failed to call the police.

3. North Carolina Baptist adopted a resolution this week endorsing an amendment to the state's constitution that would ban same-sex marriage.  Surprise Surprise.

4. Former Baptist Press reporter turned Fox News personality launched this week "Fox News and Commentary with Todd Starnes."  Starnes' three-times-daily one-minute segments air Monday through Friday on Fox News Radio.  If good ole-fashioned fair & balanced journalism Fox-style is your thing, check out Todd.

5. Baptist Women in Ministry is back in Kentucky.  The state group has been resurrected after ten years thanks to a group of women led by Becky Caswell-Speight of Louisville's Broadway Baptist Church.

6. Religion reporter Bob Smietana recently profiled the Baptist Center for Ethics' new immigration documentary Gospel without Borders. The article reveals that the film has received a positive reaction so far and has been sent out from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to every diocese in the United States.

7. The SBC's chief ethicist Richard Land has come to the defense of Texas Governor Rick Perry who has been attacked by his GOP opponents for allowing undocumented Texas high school students to pay the in-state tuition rate at Texas public colleges and universities.  Land said he thinks this arrangement is correct.  Now, if Land could only help Perry remember his lines at the next GOP debate...

8. Myers Park Baptist Church has gone solar.  The progressive Baptist congregation in Charlotte, North Carolina has installed 20 solar panels on its roof.  The cost for the church?  Nothing.

9. The search committee which will decide who will succeed Daniel Vestal as Coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has been named.  The committee appears quite diverse and is being chaired by George Mason, pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas.

10. A team representing the Baptist World Alliance just concluded exploratory talks with the Orthodox Church about the possibility of a formal international dialogue.  According to the report, participants left the talks "with the understanding that the Ecumenical Patriarch would examine the proposal developed...and determine whether to remit it to the Orthodox Churches with a view to securing their participation in the proposed Baptist/Orthodox international dialogue."

Mercer & Shorter, Mississippi Baptists & Personhood and Celebrating the Reformation

Here's my annotated Top 10 list for this week in Baptist life.  Check 'em out.

1. Mercer University has adopted a domestic partner benefit policy that will provide access to health care and other benefits to employees and their partners regardless of sexual orientation.  News of Mercer's policy comes just days after Georgia Baptist-affiliated Shorter University adopted a policy requiring all employees to sign a "personal lifestyle statement" that forbids homosexual relationships (termination is a possibility for those employees who break the pledge according to Shorter's president).

2. With regard to Shorter University's new policy, John Pierce here at Baptists Today writes, "no one should act surprised when Fundamentalists act like Fundamentalists.  So true.  Read the rest right now.

3. Truett-McConnell College - another Georgia Baptist school - made history this week as each faculty member signed the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention's "confession," during a public ceremony.  Inerrant Algebra? Plenary Verbal Music anyone?  Head to Cleveland, Georgia.  

4. As popular Protestant historian-theologian Diana Butler Bass called on evangelicals and mainliners to put the "protest" back in Protestant in the lead up to Reformation Sunday, Neville Callam, the General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, questioned whether Baptists should reconsider celebrating the Reformation!  Callam seems to suggest that Protestant observance of Reformation Sunday hinders ecumenical efforts and dialogue.  

5. Baptist theologian Steve Harmon called on Baptists to "[remember] the Reformation rightly" and "eschew ecclesiastical triumphalism and false stereotypes of Catholic doctrine."  Most notably, Harmon's call to remember the Reformation rightly lacked any mention of the positives of the Reformation.

6. Meanwhile, Baptist historian Nathan Finn remembered the Reformation by offering his thanks "for the Protestant heritage we Baptists enjoy."  Finn continued, "We stand with Luther and Calvin on justification by grace alone through faith alone. We stand with the Anabaptists on a believer's church committed to radical discipleship and confessor's baptism."  

7. A lawsuit filed by First Baptist Church, Mission, Kansas and St. Pius X Catholic Church against the City of Mission, Kansas was settled this week.  The Catholic and Baptist churches filed suit last December to challenge the city's transportation utility fee.  The churches contended that the fee was a tax and thus the churches were owed an exemption.  As part of the settlement, the city of Mission voted to exempt from its "driveway tax" churches and other organizations who are exempt from property taxes under Kansas law.

8. An op-ed published on the Associated Baptist Press website and penned by Wake Forest University divinity student Zac Bailes stirred up a little online ruckus.  Bailes' op-ed concerned the Mississippi Baptist Convention's  (MBC) support of the controversial Personhood Amendment.  This amendment, according to a law professor at (ironically) MBC-supported Mississippi College, would likely outlaw not only abortion but also any form of birth control that has efficacy after fertilization occurs such as IUDs, the morning after pill and other popular forms of birth control (pill, patch, shot) as well as various types of fertility treatments.

William Perkins, the editor The Baptist Record, the official news journal of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, responded to Bailes' op-ed with an odd, long reply against Associated Baptist Press [note: Perkins has contributed an article to ABP in the past].  Perkins, who described himself as "[knowing] a little bit about Christian journalism," accused ABP of having "no professional integrity."  Interestingly, in addition to reporting on the Mississippi Baptist Convention for a living, Perkins is regularly quoted on various pro-life news websites as the "spokesman" for the Mississippi Baptist Convention.  

9.  For more on the controversial Personhood Amendment and and the aforementioned Mississippi College law professor who opposes the amendment, check out this blog post titled "The Beauty of the Personhood Amendment" by Southern Baptist (TX) pastor Dr. Bart Barber.  My lengthy thoughts about the amendment are included in the comment section.

10. Ircel Harrison has an interesting post over at EthicsDaily.com titled "Five Strategies to Give CBF a Solid Future." While I don't always agree with Harrison's take, I commend him for publicly discussing the CBF's future.  He's about the only person who is doing so on a regular basis.  As I pointed out in last week's post titled "Of Baptists and Budgets: The Financial Woes of Texas Baptists and Cooperative Baptists," since the 2006-2007 fiscal year, CBF has been forced to cut its budget by nearly 28% and laid off 25% of its staff.  Those numbers alone are reason enough for more folks to join Harrison in this much needed public discussion about the finances and future of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship!

Of Baptists and Budgets: The Financial Woes of Texas Baptists & Cooperative Baptists

In recent weeks, two important Baptist groups in moderate Baptist life met to discuss and conduct business.  Last week, the Coordinating Council of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship met at First Baptist Church, Tucker, Georgia.  This week, the Baptist General Convention of Texas held its annual meeting in Amarillo.  Both groups were once again confronted with declining financial receipts.

Baptist General Convention of Texas

Texas Baptists in Amarillo approved a flat budget for the upcoming 2012 fiscal year of 33.85 million.

Just four years ago, Texas Baptists adopted a 50.1 million budget for the 2008 fiscal year.  However, after a rough first quarter marked by a a significant budget shortfall, the BGCT was forced to implement cutbacks and lower its budget to approximately 46.82 million.  The following November 2008, messengers made more cuts and approved a 45.76 million budget, down 8 percent from the previous year.

From May 2008 - September 2009, the BGCT budget was reduced 20 percent according to treasurer Jill Larsen.  Many personnel were also cut between 2006 and 2009.  According to Larsen, the BGCT counted 406 employees in 2006.  That number was down to 272 in 2009.  More staff cuts were made in 2010.

The 33.85 million budget adopted this week for the upcoming 2012 fiscal year was 32% less than the 2008 budget.

Watching parts of the Texas Baptist meeting via an online live stream, I heard treasurer Jill Larsen explain to the crowd of messengers that the budget woes were due to the poor economy.  Larsen had offered a similar explanation in previous years, citing the struggling economy and high unemployment.

The lagging economy is of course an easy explanation.  Although, I'm not sure our nation's economic problems fully explains why Texas Baptists continue to face serious money troubles.

My observation is certainly not unique.  In a June 2010 editorial, Marv Knox of Texas' The Baptist Standard blamed the BGCT's declining support on "corroding confidence" in the convention and "recoil from our real and perceived irrelevance."  Obviously factors other than the economy have much to do with the financial situation that Texas Baptists have found themselves in for some time now.

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has faced many similar woes in recent years as well.  

The CBF increased its budget slightly to just over 17 million for the 2006-2007 fiscal year.  The following year saw the budgetreduced to 16.48 million for 2007-2008 and a 16.5 million budget in 2008-2009.  A 16.1 million budget was adopted for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.  Yethe CBF chose to start the year spending at 80 percent of projected income due to an anticipated decline in giving.  For 2010-2011, CBF adopted a budget of 14.5 million.  

Last week, controller Larry Hurst reported to the CBF's Coordinating Council that the CBF had ended the 2010-2011 fiscal year 2.1 million short of the 14.5 million budget.  Hurst noted that the offering for global missions took in 4.6 million, well short of the 5.5 million target despite a "Keeping the Promises" campaign to meet the goal.

The CBF's 2011-2012 budget is 12.3 million.  This represents a nearly 28 percent decline from the 17 million budget of 2006-2007. Also like the BGCT, financial circumstances in recent years have forced the CBF to make deep personnel cuts.  In early 2011, the CBF laid off 25 percent of its staff.

Conclusion

What to make of the fact that a decline in giving has forced the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship to chop their budgets by 32 percent and 28 percent respectively over the course of the last handful of years?

Well, this decline is obviously not just due to the economy.

Europe may eventually turn things around.  The Dow Jones might even crack 14,000 again.  Unemployment could drop to 7.something percent one day.  But it is unlikely that the BGCT and CBF will see a return to 2006 giving levels at any point in the foreseeable future.

While the CBF and BGCT both have a different set of issues and challenges to deal with, both groups are faced with a changing religious landscape that places less value on institutions/denominations.  Hopeful rhetoric and feel-good meetings serve a purpose but cannot alone stop the downward spiral.

A new, bold vision for the future rooted in a distinctly Baptist identity is needed.  This need for a vision comes at a critical period of transition for these groups as both the BGCT and CBF search for a new Executive-Director.

To confront the challenges, Texas Baptists and Cooperative Baptists should revisit what it means to be Baptist in the 21st century.  Revisiting and recommitting to an uncoerced faith marked by a free conscience, religious liberty and radical gospel egalitarianism certainly won't hinder the quest for a new vision!

Paying Churches to Consider Woman As Pastor? CBF-Missouri in the News

Last week, Associated Baptist Press reported that the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Missouri announced that it was offering cash to churches searching for a pastor that are willing to consider (?) a female candidate.

CBF-Missouri is promising to pay the travel expenses incurred by search committees willing to "include a woman candidate in the process...treating her as a top candidate even if she isn't actually one of the top candidates."

Jeff Langford, Associate Coordinator of CBF-MO, added: "If nothing else, this program would give women pastor candidates some valuable interview experiences."

However, Kathy Pickett - the moderator-elect of CBF-MO - objected to the initiative.  According to ABP, Pickett "voiced concern that female candidates - particularly young women - 'are not hurt and damaged' in the process."  Pickett worried that the female candidates would be used as a "guinea pig."

After reading this article in ABP, I posted the following on Twitter (9/28):

Several CBF ministers have raised similar questions on Twitter.  One pastor (@thedaveone) tweeted, "I have a problem with encouraging churches to include women in top tier of candidates even if the woman is not one of the top choices."   

Jennifer Harris Dault, a student at CBF-affiliated Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kansas who resides in St. Louis, Missouri, added: "I'm glad CBFMO is doing SOMETHING, just not sure this is the most productive."

Over on Facebook, I posted a link to the ABP article and pointed out that this initiative of CBF-MO raises ethical red flags.  Two young pastors - male and female - responded calling the initiative "patronizing" and "ridiculously offensive."  

A top elected officer of the national Cooperative Baptist Fellowship commented: "I agree - it's condescending and I would hope churches are not told to do this on the basis that it's dishonest and demeaning."

Today, Albert Mohler - president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, weighed in with a blog post titled "Will the CBF really pay churches to consider a woman as pastor?"

I actually thought Mohler was quite nice to CBF-Missouri.  He did not question the sincerity of CBF's support for women-in-ministry.  Mohler stated that the policy "does seem clumsy, at best."  He continued:

Paying search committees to consider women as top candidates? That is awkward enough. But, paying them to treat a woman “as a top candidate even if she isn’t actually one of the top candidates”? That seems absolutely desperate, and one can only wonder if women seeking pastorates would consider this a step forward.

I'm sure CBFers will be tempted to attack the messenger in this instance.  Mohler certainly has no love for anything to do with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.  But the messenger here has a couple of good points.  To describe this initiative of CBF-Missouri as "clumsy" is indeed charitable.  

This is a bad policy for so many reasons.  The policy is already beginning to receive nation attention and has been mentioned on Twitter by USA Today.

CBF leaders need to speak to this initiative - especially those leaders in Missouri.  This policy is in desperate need of tweaking.  Paying a church to treat a woman in search of a pastorate as a "top candidate even if she isn't actually one of the top candidates" is just wrong.  No way to spin that.

Southern Baptist Convention To Get New Name???

SBC Considers New Name

This week, SBC President Bryant Wright announced to the convention's Executive Committee that he had appointed a task force to consider the possibility of giving the nation's largest Protestant denomination a new name.

Wright's announcement was met with both applause (mostly on Twitter) and outrage.  Some were bothered that Wright formed the task force without first obtaining the approval of the convention.  As the president of the SBC lacks the executive authority to do so, Wright explained that the task force was simply an unofficial advisory body - not an official SBC committee.  However, the task force is clearly viewed as something much more than a toothless unofficial body.

Others such as pastor Bart Barber, a trustee at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, expressed frustration with Wright for forcing this name-change discussion considering the SBC's long history of repeatedly refusing even to STUDY the possibility of a new name.

Many Southern Baptists on Twitter - especially younger Southern Baptists - decried the "Southern" part of the SBC's name as too regional and thus a hindrance to evangelism and missions.  Yet, as has been demonstrated using ARDA data, the SBC is still overwhelmingly a regional denomination.

Just a decade ago, 89% of Southern Baptists resided in the South.  Additionally, only 17% of congregations affiliated with the SBC were located outside of the South.  It is doubtful that the SBC has achieved much regional diversity in the last decade in light of its ongoing 20-year statistical decline.

Some Southern Baptists have speculated that perhaps the real agenda here is not to simply remove "Southern" from Southern Baptist Convention.  These pastors are concerned that a movement is afoot - led by members of the denomination's elite (notably the SBC's rising generation of Posner-esque "Cooler Than Me" megachurch pastors & wannabees) - to remove "Baptist" from Southern Baptist Convention as well.

Are they Paranoid?  Hardly.

After all, dropping "Baptist" from a church's name is indeed trendy these days.  It's hip, bra.  More than a few prominent Southern Baptist leaders - young and old - pastor churches that have chosen to drop "Baptist" for something more cool like "Cross Church" or "The Summit Church."

Ed Stetzer, a Southern Baptist leader and head of Lifeway Research, noted on his blog that Southern Baptist church planters outside of the South take issue not only with "Southern" but with "Southern Baptist."  Stetzer says these planters claim "Southern Baptist" to be a barrier to their work.

Stay tuned. This is just the latest Southern Baptist controversy and its sure not to go away any time soon.

Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal

The repeal of the United States military's policy banning gays and lesbians from serving openly went into effect this week.  In response, Richard Land, the SBC's chief ethicist and lobbyist, had this to say:

It's a sad day for our men and women in the armed services and for the country.  This policy, unless it is reversed, will cause significant numbers of our dedicated men and women to leave the service, particularly at the critically important non-commissioned officer level. This action will seriously degrade unit morale and will lead to a myriad of problems. Our armed forces are not the place for social experimentation. They exist to fight and win wars and defend our freedom. Their ability to perform those functions will be lessened by this policy.

Land declared that the DADT repeal will "destroy unit cohesion."  In an interview with Christianity Today, Land continued:

[Chaplains are ]fearful that there will be interference to preach what they believe to be the truth of the Scripture.  Will they be forced to perform homosexual commitment ceremonies or homosexual marriages? I predict you'll see a significant number of resignations in the near future.  They're very concerned and pessimistic. We shouldn't do social experiments with the military as a laboratory.

Richard Land knows good and well that no chaplain would ever be forced to perform any marriage or commitment ceremony.  And it is also worth pointing out that - as many historians have noted - conservatives back in the 1940s referred to racial integration of the military as an unnecessary "social experiment."  Might be time to come up with a different argument, Richard...

Check out a few Baptist news items of note:

• The Christian Post profiled a North Carolina Baptist pastor who is an outspoken supporter of amending the state's constitution to ban same-sex marriages.  Meanwhile, the Winston-Salem Journal quoted a Baptist pastor opposed to amending her state's constitution.  Rev. Dr. Angela Yarber explains, "We don't think it is government's job to discriminate against any group of people."
• The Southern Baptist Convention's chief executive Frank Page announced the formation of a Hispanic Advisory Council.  The council has the goal of "more fully integrating Hispanic Baptist churches into the total fabric of Southern Baptist life and ministry."  According to Baptist Press, Hispanic leaders had requested such a council and additional ethnic advisory groups may be named later.
• Rob Boston of Americans United has detailed a church-state controversy in Tennessee.  Bellevue Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist megachurch, has been accused of violating its tax-exempt status by engaging in partisan politicking in local city council races.