July 2015 Issue Containing the August Bible Study Lessons

>> This is the July 2015 issue containing the August Bible Study Lessons

GLENN HINSON REMEMBERS THOMAS MERTON

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Lessons from ‘The Field’ BY J.V. MCKINNEY 14

A conversation with Bill Leonard about BIBLE STUDIES Protestant privilege, permanent transitions 36 17 FA TH™ PERSPECTIVES The continuing self-definition of John D. Pierce American evangelical Christianity 7 Executive Editor By John Pierce [email protected] Does your church know its ‘place’? Julie Steele 30 Chief Operations Officer By Stan Wilson [email protected] Jackie B. Riley Managing Editor IN THE NEWS [email protected] New Pew study reveals significant Tony W. Cartledge religious trends in U.S. 8 Contributing Editor 31 [email protected] Missions professor: Don’t equate Christianity Bruce T. Gourley with U.S. statistics 9 Online Editor/Contributing Writer Representing hope [email protected] Mercer dedicates Interfaith Prayer Garden David Cassady on Atlanta campus 10 Church Resources Editor - [email protected] Israeli soldier’s ham sandwich nearly lands him in military prison 10 Vickie Frayne Art Director John M. Templeton Jr. advanced Jannie Lister faith/science reconciliation 11 Customer Service Manager [email protected] Mormon-dominated Utah buys more candy Gifts to Baptists Today Kimberly L. Hovis than any other state 11 Marketing Associate Baptist baptism of a baby sets off debate 12 [email protected] IN HONOR OF India’s Christians concerned about Lex Horton BOB CATES Nurturing Faith Resources Manager growing attacks on religious minorities 13 [email protected] From Ernest and Mary Smith Congregation recognized by news journal Walker Knight, Publisher Emeritus for faithful support 35 JAMES AND MARILYN DUNN Jack U. Harwell, Editor Emeritus Nonreligious voters set sights on 2016 campaign 42 From Chip and Peggy Mims DIRECTORS EMERITI Vatican looks to reform its media operations 42 Thomas E. Boland JESSICA GRANT R. Kirby Godsey ‘Pro-choice’ label preferred by half of Americans 43 Mary Etta Sanders From J. Ray and Leigh Grant Mel Williams Winnie V. Williams DRAYTON AND MARY ETTA FEATURE BOARD OF DIRECTORS SANDERS Donald L. Brewer, Gainesville, Ga. (chairman) Media: At 90, Jimmy Carter reflects on ‘a full life’ Cathy Turner, Clemson, S.C. (vice chair) By John Pierce 15 From Sarah Ann Masters Edwin Boland, Johns Creek, Ga. Ronnie Brewer, Bristol, Va. Religion and the American Presidents: Janie Brown, Elon, N.C. John Adams (1797-1801) IN MEMORY OF Mary Jane Cardwell, Waycross, Ga. Bob Cates, Rome, Ga. By Bruce Gourley 32 Jack Causey, Statesville, N.C. HORACE A. HAMM Anthony D. Clevenger, Pensacola, Fla. From Eugenia S. Hamm Kenny Crump, Ruston, La. Doug Dortch, Birmingham, Ala. NURTURING FAITH James M. Dunn, Winston-Salem, N.C. BILL O’LEARY Jack Glasgow, Zebulon, N.C. EXPERIENCES: Frank Granger, Athens, Ga. From Ruth S. O’Leary Cynthia Holmes, St. Louis, Mo. ADVENTURE AND David Hull, Watkinsville, Ga. Becky Matheny, Athens, Ga. INSPIRATION Tommy McDearis, Blacksburg, Va. Andrew McGill, Chattanooga, Tenn. Cynthia Wise Mitchell, Birmingham, Ala. William T. Neal, Stone Mountain, Ga. Roger Paynter, Austin, Texas 34 Kathy B. Richardson, Rome, Ga. Charles Schaible, Macon, Ga. Charlotte Cook Smith, Winston-Salem, N.C. Sarah Timmerman, Cairo, Ga. COVER PHOTO by John Pierce. David Turner, Richmond, Va. Clem White, St. Petersburg, Fla. Vickie Willis, Murfreesboro, TN Page 14. Donna Wood, Macon, Ga. Top right cover: Trappist monk Thomas Merton. Photo CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIRS courtesy RNS and used with permission of the Merton Drayton and Mary Etta Sanders Legacy Trust and the Merton Center at Bellarmine University. READERS SERVICES

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Glenn! Hinsonoma recalls friendship" withMerto the inﬂuential contemplative#

TLANTA — “A precocious monk, with Protestant-fueled busyness. Catholic monastery ceased after that, he said. poet, prophet and thinker who etched “All the way back to the seminary that day Hinson’s friendship with “Tom” grew as A himself ineradicably on my life and his statement kept echoing down the corridors he took groups to the monastery each semes- thought” is how longtime Baptist professor of my mind alongside the Protestant rubric, ter — and Hinson was invited several times to Glenn Hinson described Thomas Merton to a ‘God has no hands but our hands, no feet but take part in seminars in Merton’s hermitage. May gathering at Emory University’s Candler our feet, no voice but our voice,’” said Hinson. School of Theology. “And I kept thinking, ‘If our axiom is right INFLUENCE Hinson said he is “among an increas- — that everything depends on us — then our Merton’s writings — for Hinson and others ingly small number of people still living, apart world is in a desperate condition.’” — were not well known until after his tragic from the monks at Gethesmani, who knew Hinson pondered and prayed over death at age 53 in December 1968. On a trip to [Merton] personally and attended klatches in Merton’s assumption “that the God of this vast Bangkok, Merton was accidentally electrocuted. his hermitage.” universe is doing something we can’t control “I must confess that I didn’t really get to That friendship, he said, was “one of my and thus need to pay attention to.” know his writing and thinking until after his happiest accidents.” A couple of weeks later Hinson received a death,” said Hinson. “… What prompted me note from Merton that he would be coming to to read Merton’s writings, all then in print, ‘OUR BONUS’ Louisville and would like to pay a visit. Hinson were invitations just after his death to speak asked Merton to speak to his class. about him.” In November 1960, Hinson took a group “I can’t speak to groups,” the monk wrote Best known is Merton’s 1948 auto- of church history students from Southern in response, “but if some of my friends happen biographical The Seven Storey Mountain. Baptist Theological Seminary to the Abbey to be around I can talk to them.” As Hinson read and spoke on Merton, of Gethsemani near Bardstown, Ky., for the So Hinson assembled the seminary faculty such as lectures at a Baptist college in Wales ﬁrst time. Sometimes that story has been for a two-hour conversation among “friends” in 1970, he began to incorporate some of misrepresented. with Thomas Merton. Criticism from some Merton’s thinking into his own. He was “No, I didn’t take them to meet Thomas colleagues about taking students to the attracted to Merton’s “progression from radical Merton, about whom I knew virtually nothing,” said Hinson. “I wanted to expose them to the Middle Ages; and they were, for Gethsemani was a very austere place in those days.” Encountering Merton, said Hinson, “was our bonus.” Merton shared insightfully with the students about life in the monastery. “His insight, humor and engaging manner disarmed us,” said Hinson. Hinson recalled an embarrassing question from one Baptist student, basically asking Merton why a bright person like him would throw his life away in such a place. Hinson expected the student to be devoured by the sharp-minded monk. Instead, Hinson recalled, Merton grinned and said, “I am here because I believe in prayer; that is my vocation.”

BEYOND BUSYNESS “I had never met anyone who believed in Baptist Spirituality: A Call for Renewed Attentiveness to God prayer enough to think of it as a vocation,” said Hinson. Merton’s response caused Hinson to wrestle with that idea and how it contrasted

4 world denial to critical world affirmation.” defects of my own that I had projected upon it.” And Hinson began to plug into the Merton’s new thinking, however sudden or contemplative tradition as being vital for all protracted, said Hinson, is why his influence has followers of Jesus. continued to expand since his death. While Merton’s writings have gained great “Were it not for this ‘second conversion,’” notoriety, Hinson warns that Merton “would said Hinson, “we would not have gathered never have thought he had spoken a final and here to commemorate Merton’s 100th birthday definitive word on any subject.” — thinking about how we might extend his Merton, he added, “continually fed earlier message to a wider circle of humankind.” thoughts through his fertile mind in an effort to come up with more mature perspectives.” GREAT GIFT Merton’s great gift to broader communities of PROGRESSION faith is obvious, said Hinson. The evolution of Merton’s thinking reveals It was “his determined effort to convince no attempt at creating something new, said people caught up in active pursuits that they - Hinson. Rather, Merton was simply plugging need contemplation, that contemplation could into the contemplative tradition that had do much to enrich their lives and indeed might rescued him. lead to transformation of the world.” world of action;” and by practicing the spiritual “In the worst of times he could cling to the Hinson quoted from Merton’s No Man Is disciplines that lead to “attentiveness to God.” contemplative tradition like a shipwrecked sailor an Island: “Action is charity looking outward to Doing so outside a monastic setting is would cling to whatever flotsam he could lay other men [and women], and contem- more difficult, Hinson confessed: “We live in a hold of,” said Hinson descriptively. plation is charity drawn inward to its busy and distracting culture filled with activity.” Merton was an “unconventional tradition- own divine source. Action is the “Indeed, as Merton observed, we get alist,” said Hinson. He entered the monastery stream, and contemplation is the caught up in activity for activity’s sake,” said in December 1941 as “a badly scarred youth … spring. … When action and Hinson. “That is why we need to draw another who wanted to clang the doors shut and never contemplation dwell together, insight from the monastic model — the go back into the ‘world’ that had inflicted so filling our whole life because retreat.” much hurt and seemed so hopeless.” we are moved in all things by While the monastery is a lifetime That perspective was radically changed the Spirit of God, then we retreat, those of us living active lives must in 1958, at the corner of 4th and Walnut in are spiritually mature.” seek and be satisfied with short-term Louisville — now marked by a plaque. Merton’s Merton’s ecumenical retreats, said Hinson. “epiphany” was an overwhelming realization and interfaith engagements “Solitude allows us to get away from that all those varied people moving about the were strengthened by his evolved the constant bombardment we experience city were connected and valued. understandings, said Hinson. So in our daily lives,” he said. “Silence “It was like waking from a dream of sep- were his perspectives on critical sensitizes and enables us to be better arateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special social issues, particularly racism, listeners, to be more attuned to others world, the world of renunciation and sup- violence and technology. and to God beyond in our midst.” posed holiness,” Hinson quoted from Merton’s While Merton called the nonviolent civil He urged daily (such as a walk) and weekly recollection. rights movement “one of the most positive and retreats as well as longer ones at least annually That revelation and fresh perspective successful expressions of Christian social action and then extended sabbaticals. brought relief and joy to the monk. that has been seen anywhere in the 20th century,” Finally, said Hinson, Merton offers a lesson “It is a glorious destiny to be a member of Hinson warned of being too eager to presume for our churches. the human race, though it is a race dedicated to Merton’s thinking on modern social issues. “I would propose that, despite their differ- many absurdities and one which makes many One helpful, “prophetic insight” Merton ences from monasteries, our churches should terrible mistakes: yet, with all that, God Himself brought to light, said Hinson, was his concern set as their goal to become ‘schools of love,’” gloried in becoming a member of the human over “autonomous technology.” Technology said Hinson, borrowing Bernard of Clairvaux’s race,” Merton wrote in Conjectures of a Guilty itself was not the problem, according to Merton, description of Cistercian monasteries. Bystander. “A member of the human race! To but unlimited possibilities that it offered for “I love God. Love carries me all around. I think that such a commonplace realization destructive as well as constructive purposes. don’t want to do anything but love…,” wrote should suddenly seem like news that one holds With foresight, he warned of human beings Merton in a 1948 journal entry. “Love is kick- the winning ticket in a cosmic sweepstake.” becoming slaves to the machines they designed ing me all around like a gong, I tell you; love is While that experience was dramatic, to serve them. the only thing that makes it possible for me to Hinson said it was not as sudden as many continue to tick.” assume. Merton’s writings showed a slower pro- LEGACY Noting the Apostle Paul’s call to the gression of thinking about the world he had left struggling church at Corinth, recorded in to its own. The legacy of Thomas Merton, said Hinson, 1 Corinthians 13, Hinson asked in conclusion: Hinson noted a journal entry in 1948 in is best honored by immersing ourselves “in the “Wouldn’t that be truer to the intention of Jesus which Merton wrote: “Perhaps the things I contemplative tradition that was Merton’s fallow- than that our churches be businesses marketing resented about the world when I left it were ing ground;” by “becoming contemplatives in a religion?” BT

5 quotation remarks —Tom Ehrich, in his ﬁnal column for Religion News Service —Guy Sayles, former pastor of First Baptist —Jim Somerville, pastor of First Baptist Church Church of Asheville, N.C., now a consultant of Richmond, Va. (EthicsDaily.com) with the Center for Healthy Churches (EthicsDaily.com)

—Robin Fretwell Wilson, professor of law at the University of Illinois (USA Today)

much —Fintan O’Toole, literary editor and columnist of —Real estate magnate and perennial presidential The Irish Times candidate Donald Trump in a Christian Broadcasting Network interview (Christianity Today) —ESPN senior writer Tim Keown “BUY A BUNDLE” BOOK SALE Pay just $35 and receive all these titles: A Capsule History of Baptist Principles —LifeWay Christian Resources President Thom S. A Capsule History of Baptists Rainer, noting that the most popular Sunday morning An Experiment in Christian worship times now start between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. —Scott Thumma, professor of sociology and religion Internationalism (Christian Post) at Hartford Institute for Religion Research (RNS) Baptist Heritage Library (any 14 booklets) Henry Clay Vedder No Longer Ignored On Mission with God Orders / Information: —General Counsel Holly Hollman of the Baptist Joint [email protected] Committee for Religious Liberty, praising a June 1 Supreme Court ruling that Abercrombie & Fitch (406) 600-7433 violated the civil rights of a Muslim woman not hired Baptist History and Heritage Society —Scott McConnell, vice president of because the hijab she wears violates the store’s 151 Broadleaf Dr. LifeWay Research (RNS) “look policy” (BJC) Macon, GA 31210

6 Editorial By John Pierce The continuing self-deﬁnition of American evangelical Christianity

merican Christianity suffers from an them tax, property and other rights that married Three: The Bible clearly supports my ongoing self-definition of discrimina- couples have long enjoyed? Really? position. (To hold any other position is a clear A tion fueled by alarmism. It is the result History can be our teacher — or should denial of biblical authority in favor of modern of every cultural shift related to human rights be — when facing social change that threatens culture.) being met with a common message, regardless one’s comfort and biblical conclusions. Four: If this happens, then our beloved of the particular issue. In the slavery debate, Albert Taylor society will be destroyed forever. (Again, fill in That message, in summary, is: “This is in Bledsoe, publisher of Southern Review, the blank.) opposition to God’s design and, if not stopped, denounced the abolitionists’ “willful and violent A recent quote by comedian Dan Mintz, will destroy America.” perversions of the sacred shared through social media, reveals both his It’s not enough for many high-profile evan- text” and their eagerness comedic talent and the tragic self-definition of gelical Christian leaders to express discomfort to “consider themselves American evangelicalism. with and opposition to social change. “Chicken above the scriptures.” “I’m not usually religious, but one time I Little” predictions are employed as well. He warned of the was on a plane that was going through some For example, granting legal rights to same- falling dominoes that really frightening and violent turbulence,” said sex couples, said one Christian author, “will would result from abolish- Mintz. “So, I immediately began taking rights serve as the death knell to the America we’ve ing slavery: It won’t stop away from gay people.” known and loved.” there! (Sound familiar?) Discrimination — fueled by alarmism A fear-mongering presidential candidate Those same — has defined a large portion of American warned, “We are now threatening the foun- abolitionists, Bledsoe claimed, would seek Christianity. It is a well-earned self-definition. dation of religious liberty by criminalizing emancipation for women “from subjection to In his May 28 editorial, anticipating the Christianity …” the law which God has imposed on them.” Supreme Court decision, Harris lamented Those are just two of several quotes offered “There is no deformity of human character that providing equal benefits to same-sex recently by Southern Baptist editor Gerald from which we turn with deeper loathing than couples “will silence the voice of the church in Harris, of The Christian Index, about the from a woman forgetful of her nature, and clam- America.” “fundamental harm” such equality would orous for the vocation and rights of men,” he Oh, that it would! At least those loud bring upon our nation. wrote. voices that continually ramp up unfounded fear. Evangelist Franklin Graham took to And Bledsoe warned of the “legitimate The voice of the church in America is Facebook to battle against same-sex marriage consequences” that would come from using (or not being silenced by any government action. that he described as “a wicked, wicked thing.” misusing, in his opinion) the Bible in support of It is simply a less relevant voice due to grow- Then came his doomsday warning that “as a such drastic social change. ing religious diversity and the self-definition society we cannot survive if we turn our back on Here’s that familiar pattern that continues of American Christians as intolerant, fearful, God’s standards and His definition of marriage.” to be played out today: alarmist and more concerned about their own While various opinions are expected and understandable, it should be easy to see both the One: I don’t like social change. (Fill in the rights than those of others. familiar pattern here and the disproportionate blank with the social issue at hand.) Hysteria and false claims of persecution angst. Two: God agrees with me. (So those who are not helpful in advancing the mission of the Gay and lesbian persons are a minority disagree with me are really in disagreement with church. Neither is consistently landing on the somewhere in the single-digit range. For gay God.) wrong side of justice for all. BT and lesbian couples, many already living in committed relationships, to have the same legal opportunities and protections as couples of opposite gender, whether one agrees in principle or not, is probably survivable. The exaggerated claims of destruction and persecution are amazingly irresponsible. MAKING A GIFT to support the ministry of Baptists Today is just Can we survive all the cultural changes one click away. Make a gift online at baptiststoday.org/donate. of the past but not a very small minority of Your generous giving is most helpful and deeply appreciated. American citizens having licenses that allow

7 !" #$%& '()*+) Shifting landscape New Pew study reveals signiﬁcant religious trends in U.S.

he Christian share of the U.S. population is declining, while the “T number of U.S. adults who do not identify with any organized religion is growing,” so reported the Pew Research Center in mid-May following an extensive new survey of 35,000 Americans. These changes, Pew reported, are taking place across the religious landscape, affect- ing all regions of the country and many demographic groups. And while the drop in Christian afﬁliation is more signiﬁcant among younger adults, it is occurring among Americans of all ages. This shifting is widespread. The same trends were found among whites, blacks and Latinos — and among college-educated adults as well as those who completed high school only. And, yes, among women — often the backbones of religious communities — as well as men.

CHRISTIAN MAJORITY While mainline Protestants and Catholics Non-Hispanic whites now account for The report noted, however, that the U.S. have each shrunk by approximately three smaller shares of evangelical Protestants, remains home to more Christians than any percentage points since 2007, evangelical mainline Protestants and Catholics than they other country. And a significant majority — Protestants declined as well, yet more slowly did seven years earlier, while Hispanics have about seven in 10 persons — continues to — falling about one percentage point. grown as a share of all three religious groups. identify with some branch of the Christian faith. Yet, the new survey found that the percent- OTHER FINDINGS age of those adults who describe themselves as Additional findings from this first reporting Christians has dropped by nearly eight percent- on the 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study Among Americans who have gotten age points in just seven years — from 78.4 included: married since 2010, nearly four-in-10 (39 percent in a similar extensive Pew Research sur- percent) report that they are in religiously vey in 2007 to 70.6 percent in 2014. mixed marriages, compared with 19 percent Meanwhile, over that time frame, the - among those who got married before 1960. percentage of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated jumped more than six points, from 16.1 Between 2007 and 2014, the overall size percent to 22.8 percent, the survey summary of the U.S. adult population grew by about stated. This category includes those who identi- 18 million people, to nearly 245 million. But fied themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in the share of adults who identify as Christians The median age of unaffiliated adults particular” — now often known as “nones.” fell from a little more than 78 percent to just (“nones”) has dropped to 36, down from 38 The share of Americans who identify with under 71 percent, or approximately 173 million in 2007 and far lower than the general (adult) non-Christian faiths rose by 1.2 percentage Americans, a net decline of about 5 million. population’s median age of 46. By contrast, points, the report said, from 4.7 percent in the median age of mainline Protestant adults 2007 to 5.9 percent in 2014. While starting in the new survey is 52 (up from 50 in 2007), from a low base, the greater percentage growth and the median age of Catholic adults is 49 was among Muslims and Hindus. (up from 45 seven years earlier).

8 If all Protestants were treated as a single Don’t equate Christianity with U.S. religious group, then fully 34 percent of American adults currently have a religious statistics, says missions professor identity different from the one in which they were raised. This is up six points since 2007, CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. — other parts of the world,” said Hernández. when 28 percent of adults identified with a Pointing to various reports that religion different from their childhood faith. “Christianity is dying.” To some, that show the growth of Christianity in Latin If switching among the three Protestant tradi- may be inferred by the results of the America, China, Africa, and even Muslim- tions (e.g., from mainline Protestantism to dominated countries, Hernández said U.S. evangelicalism, or from evangelicalism to a recent, comprehensive U.S. Religious Christians can benefit from a more-global historically black Protestant denomination) is Landscape Study by Pew Research. perspective. added to the total, then the share of Americans “We must acknowledge that we no who currently have a different religion than ut not so fast, said Twyla K. longer have a corner of the market of they did in childhood rises to 42 percent. Hernández, assistant professor of Christianity, not that we ever did,” she said. B Christian Missions in Campbellsville Hernández said “the typical Christian” University’s School of Theology. will continue to look different than what The drop by eight percentage points we have been used to seeing in many U.S. of the Christian population in the U.S. churches. More than 85 percent of American adults over the past seven years, she noted, has Globally, according to David were raised Christian, but nearly a quarter caused “many North Livermore’s 2013 book Serving with Eyes of them no longer identify with Christianity. American religious Wide Open, she noted, “The vast majority Former Christians represent 19.2 percent of gurus and pundits … of Christians are young, poor, theologically U.S. adults overall. Mainline and historically to lament, justify, and conservative, female and people of color.” black Protestant traditions have lost more wring their collective Global Christianity has some helpful members than they have gained through hands about the dis- lessons to teach Christians in the U.S. in a religious switching, but within Christianity turbing results.” time of change, said Hernández. the greatest net losses, by far, have been While this latest “As American Christians, we must also experienced by Catholics. Nearly one-third of research is an insight- awaken to the fact that we have much to American adults (31.7 percent) say they were ful and accurate learn from our brothers and sisters in other raised Catholic. Among that group, fully 41 depiction of what is parts of the world,” said Hernández. “In percent no longer identify with Catholicism. happening on the religious front in the their part of the globe, Christianity equals U.S. — and helpful information for church neither influence nor affluence.” leaders to consider — Hernández offers a Hernández also called for American reminder: Christians to confront their waning cultural “We must all remember that influence with compassion — and faithful- Christianity is a global religion and, since ness to the Christian mission. About 10 percent of U.S. adults now the first century, has never been limited to a “Jesus looked with compassion identify with evangelical Protestantism after single country.” on those who did not know him,” said having been raised in another tradition, She points to Philip Jenkins’ book, The Hernández. “He saved his theological which more than offsets the roughly 8 per- Next Christendom, to note that Christianity arguments for those who were ‘religious’ — cent who were raised as evangelicals but left is returning to its roots. and, at the same time, he prayed for more for another religious tradition or who no “While Christianity is on the decline workers to carry the Gospel to all who are longer identify with any organized faith. in the United States, it is flourishing in weary.” BT

(23 percent), evangelicals (22 percent) and TRACKING RELIGION - every other religious group. Religious identity or affiliation is not asked in Religious “nones” now constitute 19 the U.S. census, and self-reporting by religious percent of the adult population in the South organizations is often limited or even suspect. (up from 13 percent in 2007), 22 percent of The Religious Landscape Studies are more the population in the Midwest (up from 16 Among whites, 24 percent say they have no extensive and comprehensive than the many percent), 25 percent of the population in the religion, compared with 20 percent of Hispanics other surveys regarding religion in America. Northeast (up from 16 percent) and 28 per- and 18 percent of blacks. But the religiously It is conducted by Pew Research Center, cent of the population in the West (up from unaffiliated have grown (and Christians have a nonpartisan “fact tank” subsidiary of The 21 percent). In the West, the religiously unaf- declined) as a share of the population within all Pew Charitable Trusts. Lilly Endowment Inc. filiated are more numerous than Catholics three of these racial and ethnic groups. helped fund this major research. BT

9 Mercer dedicates Interfaith Prayer Garden on Atlanta campus

TLANTA — Mercer University, in “This campus is wondrously rich in diver- of his parents, Zehrakhanu and Allauddin partnership with the Cooperative sity, and this committee fully believes that Dhanani. A Baptist Fellowship of Georgia, dedi- our young people are our future’s best shot at “Aziz, you and fellow Muslims have cated a new interfaith prayer garden May 14 building a better world, one of bridges rather taken a big step by investing in this histori- on the Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional than walls, one of dialogue rather than reac- cally Baptist institution, and we hope you will Campus in Atlanta. tion, one of friendship and not division,” said ﬁnd this to be only the beginning of a rela- The site includes a labyrinth and outdoor Connah, who envisioned the garden, during tionship that will cross religious and cultural classroom and is intended to be “a garden, a the ceremony. boundaries and make all of us better and more spiritual oasis, a place where friendship that A fundraising campaign, initiated tolerant people,” said University President Bill crosses every ethnicity, culture and faith tra- through CBF/GA, received contributions from Underwood. dition could grow,” said Charlotte Connah, approximately 40 donors representing multiple Landscaper Andrew Powell designed and co-chair of the Baptist-Muslim Committee of religious faiths. The lead gift was made by Aziz planted the garden, with guidance from John the CBF/GA Interfaith Task Force. The task Dhanani, a Muslim community leader and Rhodes of the Labyrinth Society. Students, force is a partner organization of the univer- CEO of Premier Petroleum Inc. faculty, staff and others participated in the sity’s McAfee School of Theology. The garden was dedicated in memory placement of stones and slate chips. BT

Israeli soldier’s ham sandwich nearly lands him in military prison a soldier’s sandwich on the other. There are as well as shellﬁsh. They also require a strict Religion News Service tensions in Israeli society and there are dif- separation of meat and dairy products in ferent stances and opinions. There is room keeping with Jewish dietary laws. ERUSALEM — A U.S.-born Israeli for everyone in the IDF.” Pork products are available for sale in soldier who brought a ham sandwich In May, the soldier, an unnamed Israel, and many immigrants from the for- J to his army base was initially sen- new immigrant from Boston, reportedly mer Soviet Union buy them regularly. tenced to 11 days in a military prison before brought a ham sandwich prepared by his The brouhaha was the latest tug of war a media frenzy prompted the Israel Defense grandmother to his base. He was initially between very religious Jews in Israeli society, Forces to drop all disciplinary measures. sentenced to military prison, a sentence later who would like the public to adhere to a In a rare apology, IDF spokesman Brig. reduced to being conﬁned to his base, and much stricter standard of Jewish law, and Gen. Motti Almoz wrote on Facebook: “We ultimately to no punishment at all. secular and moderately religious Jews, who were wrong. The IDF will continue to keep Israel’s military bases are supposed to accuse the ultra-Orthodox Jewish leadership kosher on the one hand, but will not probe adhere to kosher dietary laws that ban pork and politicians of religious coercion. BT

10 Philanthropist John M. Templeton Jr., dies at 75

The 2015 prize was awarded to Jean It also publishes books, including two Religion News Service Vanier, the founder of L’Arche, serving people by Templeton (Thrift and Generosity: The with intellectual disabilities, at a ceremony in Joy of Giving and an autobiography, John ASHINGTON — John M. London held May 18. News of Templeton’s M. Templeton Jr.: Physician, Philanthropist, Templeton Jr., a pediatric surgeon May 16 death at his home in Bryn Mawr, Pa., Seeker), and an award-winning literary science W who left medicine to carry on his was delayed until after the ceremony. magazine, Nautilus. father’s passion for pursuing “new spiritual Templeton, an evan- According to the foundation, John Marks information” through the sciences as president gelical Christian, not Templeton Jr. was born on Feb. 19, 1940, in and chairman of the Templeton Foundation, only inherited his father’s New York City. He received a BA in history has died. He was 75. interest in revealing the from Yale University in 1962 and a medical Known as “Jack,” the younger Templeton truth of faith in a scien- degree from Harvard Medical School in 1968. retired as director of the trauma program at the tific world; he inherited He began his medical training in pedi- Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 1995 to the controversies that atric surgery at the Children’s Hospital of take the foundation reins and became chair- came with that goal. Philadelphia in 1973 and returned there in man after his father’s death in 2008. Critics alleged that 1977 after serving as a physician in the Navy Sir John Templeton Sr. created the the foundation’s funding for two years. Templeton Foundation in 1987 with the for- led grant-hungry scientists away from pure He and his wife, Josephine, a pediatric tune he built as the pioneering founder of the research to investigating the impact of spiritu- anesthesiologist, developed a specialty in deal- Templeton Fund investments in 1954. The ality and religion. Supporters, in turn, said the ing with conjoined twins. Templeton was foundation provides support for science and foundation did not steer their research or cook director of the trauma program and a pro- medical research and for related research on the the books on findings. fessor of pediatric surgery at the University “big questions” of human purpose. For example, the foundation publicly of Pennsylvania before leaving to join the His often-expressed goal was to “reconcile reported that a study it funded to investigate foundation. the worlds of science and religion.” the value of people praying for strangers’ He was a fellow of the American College The foundation is also known for award- health showed that such prayer failed to help of Surgeons, served as vice chairman of the ing the annual “Templeton Prize” — always patients and may even have had a bad effect on American Trauma Society and was a president calculated to be a higher monetary award than people who were aware of the prayers. of its Pennsylvania division. He served on the Nobel Prize — for “exceptional contribu- Along with grants in physics, cosmology, various boards, including the Becket Fund tions to affirming life’s spiritual dimension.” genetics and other pure sciences, the founda- for Religious Liberty, Foreign Policy Research It has gone to physicists, mathematicians, tion has backed studies and projects to foster Institute, American Trauma Society, National philosophers and religious leaders such as Billy character and virtue development, genius, Bible Association and Templeton Growth Graham and Mother Teresa. gratitude and religious liberty. Fund Ltd. BT

SWEET INDULGENCE: Utah buys more candy than any other state

industry, generating $17 billion to $18 bil- drives Utah’s candy sales. Salt Lake Tribune lion in sales each year, said Bob Goodpaster, More than 60 percent of Utahns are Hershey’s chief global knowledge ofﬁcer. Mormons, who typically abstain from alcohol, ALT LAKE CITY (RNS) — While Nationally, about $15,000 worth of candy coffee and tobacco. With those vices frowned many Utahns have the willpower to is sold for every $1 million of total grocery upon, candy is an acceptable treat, he said. S avoid alcohol, coffee and tobacco, they sales, he said. Sweets are ubiquitous at family gatherings and just can’t stay away from the candy. In Utah, however, $23,000 worth of LDS events. The state buys confections — candy, candy is sold for every $1 million in total “We don’t drink alcohol, we don’t smoke, mints and gum — at the highest rate in the grocery sales. That’s the country’s highest we avoid coffee — but we certainly do sugar,” nation, according to sales data from The percentage, basically making Utah the nation’s Christensen said. “It’s the only allowed Hershey Co. sweet-tooth capital. indulgence.” Residents of the Beehive State are espe- The Hershey Pennsylvania District Utah also has a large population of chil- cially fond of Hershey’s licorice Twizzlers, said — where the national candy company is head- dren — candy’s biggest fans. In 2013, 31 Lisha Bassett, sales manager for Hershey’s Salt quartered — runs neck and neck with Utah, percent of the state’s residents were under 18, Lake City District, which includes all of Utah but still takes second place, said Goodpaster. while the national average was 23 percent. and parts of Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming. The ﬁgures were calculated using 12-month Hershey has been taking a closer look at The red-colored variety is the favorite, she sales data from June 2013 to June 2014. its sales statistics and using them as a guide to said, but chocolate also is “incredibly popular Glenn Christensen, a marketing professor “help us determine what to put on the shelf in our market, which is unique.” at Brigham Young University’s Marriott School and what to promote” in various parts of the Confections are a multibillion-dollar U.S. of Management, has a theory about what country, Goodpaster said. BT

11 Religion News Service A disqualifying deed? Baptist baptism of baby sets oﬀ debate

The sprinkling-style baptism of a instinct,” he said. “It’s more of a precocious- of religion and the arts at Belmont University in ness instinct.” Nashville, said people’s beliefs have always been Dayton, Ohio, infant — a scene The meaning of infant baptism varies fluid, but that fact is getting more attention. heartwarming and commonplace for slightly among denominations that practice it. “I think that there is the growing belief In the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic that, even if we don’t share every approach Catholics and mainline Protestants Church encouraged infant baptism after to religion with people of other traditions or — is touching off accusations of doc- fears arose that babies not baptized might die faiths, everyone is in the same relationship with God the way that we’re in the same rela- trinal heresy in the evangelical world. without the chance of salvation. Today, the sacrament is still understood to wipe away tionship with oxygen,” he said. “Increasingly, n April, an influential American Baptist original sin inherited from Adam and Eve. we receive the wisdom whatever the source Churches USA pastor performed the rite, Baptists, on the other hand, believe the without policing the boundaries of traditions.” I which most Baptists believe is reserved for practice is rooted in Jesus’ own baptism story, But Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Christians who are able to make a mature con- said Yolanda Smith, a Yale Divinity School Baptist Theological Seminary, who wrote a fession of faith. research scholar who specializes in Baptist popular blog post on the subject, was adamant: Although there are dozens of Baptist theology and the black church. “Baptizing infants is not Baptist,” Allen said. denominations in the U.S., the news made In the biblical account, Jesus was baptized “It’s a disqualifier. instant waves among those who know and as an adult, and his immersion symbolizes “If you are baptizing someone, regard- understand Baptist teachings. dying to sin and being reborn — a foreshadow- less of age — 4 or 44 — and they don’t have a Before long, a Southern Baptist seminary ing of his death and resurrection, Smith said. sufficient understanding of the gospel, or they do understand and their heart has not been president compared the notion of Baptists bap- For Baptists, making that choice also symbol- pierced by it, it’s an injustice to that person. tizing infants to vegetarians eating steak. izes full integration into the church. They’ll be inclined to think they have a right But while denominations squabble about Pastor Rodney Kennedy of First Baptist standing before God.” doctrine, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Church of Dayton, who baptized the 7-month- A recent Southern Baptist Convention nation’s largest Protestant denomination, rou- old boy, said the fact that his church accepts task force found a two-decade decline in bap- tinely immerses children age 5 and younger. members who were baptized as infants without tism and issued a report last year encouraging A task force report based on 2012 figures immersing them as adults influenced his deci- parents and church leaders to “make the claims said that age group was the only one seeing sion. He said the backlash doesn’t surprise him. of Christ clear to the Next Generation.” growth in numbers of baptisms, although a top “The Christian community needs to Alvin Reid, evangelism professor at researcher in the denomination said that’s no have a conversation about baptism,” said Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in longer the case. Kennedy, a seminary professor who has served Wake Forest, N.C., who served on that task In light of new survey data showing terms as president of the Dayton Area Baptist force, said the idea was to focus on young a decline in the number of self-professing Association. “Our nation is becoming progres- people from middle school through college. Christians, some have wondered whether sively pagan, and we’re going to sit here and It’s troubling to hear about 3-year-olds denominational heads are urging younger bap- argue about when we need to baptize people? being baptized, Reid said, but he said he was tisms as a way to provide a membership boost. … I am no longer interested whether confes- not aware of any Southern Baptist church Others discounted that theory. sion of faith comes before or after baptism.” that receives people into membership who “There’s pressure to go downward in age He said he performed the baptism with have been baptized as infants. Most Southern because parents are kind of convinced that the support of his church’s executive council Baptist churches require a believer’s baptism. their kids are understanding it earlier, and it’s and faced no repercussions from his denomina- “We have to understand that people don’t easier to baptize kids,” said Ed Stetzer, execution and no loss of membership. come to church because we put out a sign and tive director of LifeWay Research. David Dark, author of The Sacredness of put on a pageant. We have to be missional and “I don’t think it is a preservationist Questioning Everything and assistant professor living the gospel.” BT

“I don’t think it is a preservationist instinct; it’s more of a precociousness instinct.” —ED STETZER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF LIFEWAY RESEARCH

12 Religion News Service India’s Christians concerned about growing attacks on religious minorities

EW DELHI — Each day, children on their way to Mount Carmel School pass N through gates under the watch of armed security guards, and now city police officers stop there on government orders after a nearby Catholic convent and school were broken into. Vandals stole money, tampered with security cameras and ransacked the principal’s office in February. The crime itself was relatively minor, but it rippled through other Christian schools. It was the sixth attack this year in an ongoing series targeting Christian communities and schools across India. It was also the turning point for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the growing safety concerns of India’s minority Christian community. Modi immediately asked the Delhi police commissioner to investigate the attacks, and he addressed a Christian community, saying, “Government will not allow any religious group, belonging to the majority or the minority, to incite hatred against others overtly or covertly. Mine will be a government that gives equal even back in the 19th century. take a Bible class,” he said. “God converts them respect to all religions.” “Literacy through a Christian lens meant — we don’t convert them.” But even after Modi’s address, the attacks reading and learning English through Milton Williams has reservations about Modi and continued. Recently, the annual report of the or other Christian scholars,” she said. “It was the current government despite its response to U.S. Commission on International Religious subliminal.” the break-in. He cited secularism, defined in Freedom cited an “increase of harassment and While the current Bharatiya Janata Party Articles 21 and 25 of the Indian Constitution, violence” among India’s Christian community. government voices strong support for minority as a basis for Modi’s condemnation of violence The attacks have come against a back- groups, it draws the line at conversion. Tarun against minorities. ground of fear, triggered by Hindus in Modi’s Vijay, an elected member of the upper house “It is not a question of you standing with party, that Christians are increasing their efforts of Parliament in India and a member of the us,” Williams said. “It is a question of you to proselytize — especially in schools. BJP, said he was one of the first to stand up for standing with the Constitution.” What is not widely understood outside of equal rights for Christians, citing Jesus as one of According to Columbia’s Viswanathan, India is that these Christian schools are largely the best examples of love. But proselytizing in waves of violence against Christians are not a Hindu. Of Mount Carmel’s 2,500 students, for Christian schools concerns Vijay. new phenomenon. example, 75 percent are Hindu, 17 percent are Conversion, he said, is a remnant of colonial “This is a deep-seated fear,” she said. “Even Christian and fewer than 2 percent are Muslim. rule. “We firmly believe that converting Hindus the East India Company would not allow mis- There are some Buddhist students as well. to Islam or Christianity is a political movement sionaries into India until 1813.” The emphasis at Mount Carmel is not on that started with the British,” Vijay said. Viswanathan understands the recent vio- religion since most of the students and teachers John Thatamanil, a theology and world lence as the religious right’s way of pushing its are not Christians. This is common practice in religions professor at Union Theological agenda forward. Social issues and attitudes are India, and Christian schools have been known Seminary in New York, said that post- changing in India, as is the desire for a return to for their emphasis on quality education since independence India has not had issues with traditional Indian ideals. the days of colonization. proselytizing in Christian schools. At just 2.3 to 2.5 percent of the Indian Gauri Viswanathan, a professor in the At Mount Carmel, Principal Vijay Williams population, Christians do not pose a threat to humanities at Columbia University, has studied does not hesitate to explain his personal affinity the large Hindu majority in the country, and the ongoing discourse on conversion in India to Christianity to visitors and students alike, Thatamanil would like to see it stay that way. for decades. She said proselytizing in Christian even if he does not encourage sermonizing. “I don’t want a future where Christians and schools was not as overt as perhaps imagined “Students are not forced to convert or even Hindus are pitted against each other,” he said. BT

13 Guest Commentary By J.V. McKinney Lessons from ‘The Field’

y brother Bub and I grew up in a small After school the next day, the pitcher’s The three of us talked, laughed and shared East Arkansas Delta town in the ’40s mound was undisturbed, and someone had stories about beautiful times together years M and ’50s. We lived in a modest rental chalked baselines from home to first and third. before. Eventually, the conversation turned house in the last block of South Division Street, Burlap bags filled with sawdust had replaced to the ugly things happening in the town we just before it passed under the railroad tracks our flimsy cardboard bases. The Field had loved. As our friend rose to leave, he quietly and entered the African-American community. become a very special place for some lucky kids said, “Don’t worry about your parents. They I was 11 in the spring of ’53, a time when from both sides of the tracks. will be safe.” kids could “just be” and parents did not micro- Four years later in Little Rock, grown-ups The Field has become one of the driving manage. Bub and I and three white friends politicked to fears, activated troops, closed narratives of my life. The small rental house is from that tiny block loved baseball, but had schools, embarrassed the state forever, and took gone, but The Field still exists, both literally in no place to play. Just beyond the tracks, across years to accomplish far less than a few kids did dirt and grass and powerfully in metaphor. Division, was a weed-covered field. My dad in little more than a week at The Field. I can still return to my hometown, walk asked the owners to mow it for us. On blazing hot summer days the whole to the center of The Field, and “just be.” After school, the five of us grabbed our crew would come to our house and play a I can remember the sweet smell of fresh- gloves, bats and a ball and headed down to the creative version of “small ball” in the shade of cut grass, the surprise of sawdust bags and field, pulling a red wagon filled with backyard the huge walnut tree in our backyard. Over a chalked baselines, the way black and white dirt for a pitcher’s mound. The freshly mown three-year period, we wore the grass down to hands looked together “climbing the bat” for grass smelled wonderful, and there was room bare dirt. The ball bounced true like on a gym first pick when choosing sides, and the rever- to run and throw and to hit as hard as we floor. Mom furnished Kool-Aid for everyone. ence our new friends displayed the first time could without breaking a window. It did not last forever. By junior high we they held a Jackie Robinson bat. It was pretty much heaven. had found other interests at different schools I will never forget the deep emotions Soon, some black kids about our age and drifted apart. The grass regrew in our stirred when our friend assured us of our drifted in and watched from the sidelines. backyard, and I played organized baseball parents’ safety. After a time, the oldest one came over and through four years of college and almost 20 My life has been filled with tremendous asked if they could join us. years of adult league softball. But I never again blessings. Without question, one was being “Of course not,” I said. “This is our field, played a single game with a black teammate part of a small group of kids, just being kids, and besides, you don’t have any gloves or bats.” — never. years ago in the East Arkansas Delta, playing Mainly, you just didn’t do things like that back In 1969, dangerous racial tensions were ball past sundown — on the same side then in the Delta. crackling in our small Delta town. Mom and of Division. When we returned the next afternoon, Dad still lived in the old house on Division, It was pretty much heaven. BT our pitcher’s mound had been kicked to and my brother and I, both married and living smithereens and the black kids were sitting in other cities, were very concerned for them. -—J.V. McKinney is retired from a quietly on the sideline. We immediately went Back home for a brief visit that summer, we 38-year career with YMCA and “loves to use home, refilled the wagon, returned, rebuilt the were sitting on the front porch when a huge the outstanding Nurturing Faith materials from mound, and played ball the rest of the day. African-American man approached us. Baptists Today to teach Sunday school at The next afternoon, our mound was He was one of our friends from The Field. Second Baptist, Little Rock.” flattened again. This destroy-and-rebuild malarkey went on for more than a week. But something just didn’t feel right. One afternoon I walked over to the kid who had asked about playing. I told him my name and he told me his. When I handed him my glove he smiled and said, “Thanks.” We shared equipment, and players doubled from five to ten. We could hit to all fields, instead of being out if we hit to right. Ten kids had a blast that afternoon until dark, and the phrase “our field” forever took on new meaning.

14 Media By John Pierce At 90, Jimmy Carter reﬂects on ‘a full life’

As an eighth-grade member of Future and put them in paper bags to be sold in Plains. submarine program, revealed the wide knowl- At a nickel a bag he could make a dollar edge Carter had obtained through reading and Farmers of America, Jimmy Carter a day, the same as a skilled farm laborer. Wise experience. He was asked about Shakespeare, honed his woodworking skills in the savings and investments led Carter to own Hemingway, Faulkner, classical music and more rental houses that he maintained himself — — all with which Carter was acquainted. school’s shop. For his final project that until leaving home at age 16. “Rickover leaned forward and asked, academic year, the youngster created a From his mother Lillian, however, he ‘What’s your favorite opera?’ I blurted out, learned different lessons: “Even when I was a ‘Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde,’ and he asked, scale model of a stately edifice hundreds child, my mother was known within our com- ‘Which movement do you prefer?’ Fortunately, of miles and a world away from rural munity for her refusal to accept any restraints I was able to name the ending, known as on her treatment of black citizens as equal.” ‘Liebestod,’ or ‘love death.’ I was thankful that Southwest Georgia: the White House. Except for one railroad worker, the Carters my roommate and I had known this music and here was an intimate and almost were the only white family in Archery, a rural played it often at Annapolis.” constant interrelationship between community of about 200. Rickover got Carter th what we were learning in school So Jimmy’s neighbors and to confess that even at 59 “T playmates were all African in a class of 820 at the and what we were doing on the farm,” writes Carter in A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety, to Americans. Naval Academy, he had not be released July 7 by Simon & Schuster. He had a particularly always done his very best. Self-sufficiency was the way of life in the close relationship with Answering that question farming community of Archery, near Plains, Rachel Clark, an African- honestly, Carter believes, Ga., where Carter’s father, Earl, was farmer, American woman with is what gained Rickover’s blacksmith, cobbler, forester, carpenter and whom he’d work the fields. approval. more. Likewise, young Jimmy dutifully learned He recalled the times “she Often Carter’s life is the varied ways of rural success. would take me fishing with told as simply a farmer who “I enjoyed a sense of accomplishment her in the nearby creeks, became president. But much and self-satisfaction, knowing that I had done and during those excur- happened between his early all that was humanly possible, even as a boy, sions she gave me gentle roots and the presidency. and had left behind me the visible proof of my lectures about wildlife and And much has happened work,” he wrote, adding: “The pleasure has my proper relationship since he and Rosalynn left not faded as the years have passed…” with God and with other the White House in defeat Carter recalled helping milk eight cows people.” in 1981. that produced dairy products for the family, with Carter reflects on his experiences related Still sharp of mind and wit, Carter reflects the excess milk, buttermilk, butter and cream to race — including “the unearned deference” on the many and varied experiences through- becoming sources of revenue. Milk, flavored with his black friends showed him as a 14-year- out his nine decades of earthly experience either chocolate or vanilla, would be poured into old. The profound impact of that experience — including the challenges he has addressed small bottles and sold in area stores as well. led Carter to pen “The Pasture Gate,” that is politically and privately to improve the quality A separator provided desirable pure cream, included among other poetry in the book. It of life for people around the globe. with the remaining milk — called “blue john” concluded, “A silent line was drawn between In what could be called a reflective biog- — given to the hogs. That “skim milk,” Carter friend and friend, race and race.” raphy, Carter’s Baptist-bred passion for justice, noted, is all that he and his wife Rosalynn drink With equal emotion and detail, Carter equality and peace seems stronger than ever. now. recalls his college years, his marriage to home- And, not surprising, he dedicates this latest in Of his father, he said: “Whenever possible town-girl Rosalynn Smith, and a Navy career a long string of books to his wife Rosalynn — I followed him around, and wanted to emulate that took him to battleships, submarines and “who has kept my life full of love.” everything he did.” near-death experiences. “The life we have now is the best of all,” Even as a 5-year-old, Carter was entrepre- “I realized how fragile was my existence, he concludes. “We have an expanding and har- neurial. He’d pull peanuts in the afternoon and and how fallible were even the most dedicated monious family, a rich life in our church and bring them home in his wagon. After washing and experienced seamen.” the Plains community, and a diversity of proj- them and soaking them in saltwater overnight, His two-hour interview with Captain ects at The Carter Center that is adventurous he’d boil them in a large pot the next morning Hyman Rickover, who oversaw a secret nuclear and exciting.” BT

15 Good reading from Faith BOOKS

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16 The Bible Lessons that anchor the Nurturing Faith Bible Studies are written by Tony Cartledge in a scholarly, yet applicable, style from the wide range of Christian scriptures. A graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div) and Duke University (Ph.D.), and with years of experience as a pastor, writer, ™ and professor at Campbell University, he provides deep insight for Christian living without “dumbing down” the BIBLE STUDIES richness of the biblical texts for honest learners.

Teaching resources at baptiststoday.org

August lessons in this issue HOW TO USE THESE BIBLE STUDIES The Trouble with Kings: They’re Human, Too 1. Order a copy of Baptists Today news journal for EACH MEMBER of the class. The Bible Aug. 2, 2015 Lessons are found only here. You’re the Man 2. Teachers can go to nurturingfaith.net to access all 2 Samuel 11:26-12:15a of the free resources needed for presentation. Simply click on “Adult” or “Youth.” Aug. 9, 2015 Paying the Price Teaching the Lessons 2 Samuel 18:1-33 After reading The Bible Lessons by Tony Cartledge starting on page 18, teachers can access Aug. 16, 2015 helpful teaching resources (at no charge) at Redeeming a Shaky Start baptiststoday.org These include: 1 Kings 2:1-12, 3:3-14 * Tony’s video overviews * Adult teaching plans by Rick Jordan Aug. 23, 2015 * Youth teaching plans by Jeremy Colliver Prayers for Now and Later * Tony’s “Digging Deeper” notes and 1 Kings 8:1-53 ”The Hardest Question” * Links to commentaries, multimedia Serious Church: resources and more Lessons from the Book of James How to Order Aug. 30, 2015 The Bible Lessons in Baptists Today are copyrighted Real Religion and not to be photocopied. James 1:17-27

* Orders may be placed at baptiststoday.org or Adult teaching plans by Rick Jordan of the 1-877-752-5658. Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina are available at nurturingfaith.net * The price is just $18 each for groups of 25 or more — for a full year — with no additional costs. Thanks, sponsors! * All online teaching resources are available at no These Bible studies for adults and youth are sponsored through generous charge and may be printed and used by teachers of gifts from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (Bo Prosser, Coordinator of the Nurturing Faith Bible Studies. Organizational Relationships) and from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation. Thank you!

with Tony W. Cartledge

Aug. 2, 2015 Uriah refused, however, on the grounds that he had taken the custom- You’re the Man ary vow to remain celibate while at war: With his fellow soldiers living in a war o you like surprises? Do you like camp, he asked, “Shall I then go to my stories? Most of us do: Humans house, to eat and to drink and to lie with D are hard-wired to appreciate a my wife?” Uriah swore that he would well-told tale that keeps us in suspense not do such a thing (11:8-11). and has a discernible resolution. The following day David succeeded The familiar text we ﬁ nd in in getting Uriah drunk, but still failed to 2 Samuel 12 contains both a story and persuade his loyal soldier to sleep with a surprise, but the intended recipient his wife. In a desperate bid to cover his didn’t like either one. You wouldn’t illicit transgression, David sent Uriah have, either. back to the front with sealed orders for Joab, his military chief, to engineer David’s deeds Uriah’s death in battle by having other (11:26-27) soldiers abandon him. 2 Samuel 12:13 – “David said to Na- For readers familiar with the life of Joab followed David’s orders, than, ‘I have sinned against the LORD.’ David, the sordid tale of his dalliance though in a less obvious way than David Nathan said to David, ‘Now the LORD has with Bathsheba is all too familiar. The had suggested, and it cost additional put away your sin; you shall not die.’”

story would be bad enough if it were Israelite lives. He sent an apologetic limited to adultery, but David went report to the king, but David counseled opening words of chapter 12: “... and beyond taking another man’s wife: To Joab not to worry: “Do not let this matter Yahweh sent Nathan to David.” cover his sin, he took the man’s life. trouble you, for the sword devours one This may lead us to believe that The man’s name was Uriah, who and now another …” (11:25). Nathan had quickly confronted David was apparently of Hittite ancestry, but Those words would come back to for his sin, but months had passed. had proven himself to be among the haunt the king. The NRSV’s “Do not let David had married Uriah’s widow and most valiant of David’s soldiers, and was this matter trouble you” translates the the child conceived of their extramarital on duty in Ammon. After learning that Hebrew idiom “Do not let this thing be union had been born – an apparently Bathsheba was pregnant, David recalled evil in your eyes.” Just two verses later, healthy baby boy. David may have Uriah from the battlefi eld on the pretense after recounting David’s marriage to thought his plan had worked and his sin of seeking news, hoping the faithful Uriah’s widow and the subsequent birth had gone unmarked. warrior would sleep with his wife and of their son, the narrator tells us “but Not so. become the presumed father of her child. the thing David had done displeased the The prophet Nathan had fi rst entered LORD” (11:27). The narrator has used the biblical story in 2 Samuel 7, where the same idiom: what David had done he had communicated God’s promise to The thirty – In 2 Samuel 23 we fi nd a “was evil in the eyes of Yahweh.” establish David’s house as a dynasty that list of David’s three most renowned soldiers Humans have an innate ability and some of their exploits, along with a would rule over Israel forever. We would to rationalize our actions and make further list of “the thirty” who had also presume that Nathan had been support- them seem right in our own eyes. The achieved acclaim. The last name on the list ive of David, and thus would have easy of “the thirty” – perhaps to emphasize his judgment that matters, however, is “in access to the king. God sent him back to presence and the betrayal that led to his the eyes of the LORD.” David with a story designed to puncture death – is Uriah the Hittite (2 Sam. 24:39). his illusions of invulnerability with a Nathan’s parable very sharp point. (12:1-6) The story contrasts two men. One is Additional background information The last phrase of 11:27 serves as an rich, powerful, and arrogant. The other is online where you see the “Digging artful transition to the next chapter, for poor, helpless, and humble. The rich man Deeper” icon it is grammatically connected to the has more livestock than he can count,

18 | © Nurturing Faith Bible Studies are copyrighted by Baptists Today. DO NOT PHOTOCOPY. Order at: baptiststoday.org Resources to teach adult and youth classes that “the sword shall never depart from Trial by story – Scholars describe are available at your house” (12:10) and that God “will the story Nathan told David as a “juridical baptiststoday.org raise up trouble against you from within parable.” Similar parables, told to convey a your own house” (v. 11a). Tragic and judgment, can be found in 2 Sam. 14:1-20 bitter events will unfold in ensuing (the wise woman of Tekoa), 1 Kgs. 20:39- 40 (a judgment on King Ahab), and Isa. the word of the Lord ... you have struck chapters, culminating in public humili- 5:1-7 (the song of the vineyard). down Uriah ... you have taken his wife ation for the king, the private rape of ... you have killed him ... (12:9). David’s daughter, the public abuse of his secondary wives, and the deaths of three while the poor man has just one ewe A third person verb marks the transi- sons. lamb, which he loves like a child. When tion from accusation to judgment: “the Nathan’s cutting words had their the wealthy man is obligated to entertain sword shall never depart from your intended effect, though David’s a passing traveler, he steals the poor house” (12:10), then the narrator shifts response is downplayed to keep the man’s only lamb, slaughters it, and feeds back to first person verbs to show it is spotlight on Nathan. Was David it to his guest (vv. 2-4). Yahweh who will wield the punishing downtrodden? Did he fall to his knees? The characters are so clearly blade: “I will raise up trouble ... I will take your wives ... and give them to Did he weep? We don’t know. The drawn and the rich man’s behavior so your neighbor” (12:11). David’s sin narrator tells us only that David said contemptible that David responded with was committed in secret, but his punish- “I have sinned against the Lord” (12:13a). great anger and an oath, declaring the ment would be a matter of public record Remarkably, although he had wealthy man to be worthy of punishment (12:12). predicted painful punishments to come, (v. 5). English translations attribute to The reference to David’s anoint- the prophet declared on Yahweh’s David the words “he deserves to die!” It ing as king probably points to Samuel’s behalf that “I have put away your sin; is possible, however, that the expression prophetic anointing in 1 Sam. 16:13 you shall not die” (12:13b). The law – literally, “he is a son of death” – may rather than the two official ceremonies prescribed capital punishment for both have been intended as a negative epithet, described in 2 Sam. 2:4 and 5:3. The adultery (Lev. 20:10, Deut. 22:22) and not unlike a popular English idiom point is that Yahweh, not just popular for murder (Lev. 24:17), but David beginning with “son of …” acclaim, was behind David’s rise to the would not die. Reading “son of death” as an invec- throne. David found grace, but it was not tive sidesteps the difficult problem of Nathan’s insistence that David cheap grace. He had “utterly scorned the David’s handing down two different had “despised the word of the Lord” LORD,” and his sin could not be easily sentences: one of death and the other a (12:9) probably refers to the law rather dismissed. Rather than falling upon financial penalty. While calling the rich than any direct instructions. David had David, however, the death penalty David man a “son of death,” David declares in violated the commandments against deserved was transferred to the innocent v. 6 that he must restore the stolen lamb coveting, adultery, theft, and murder. child of his adultery (12:14-15), who four times over. According to the law, Sufficient time had passed for the child would die in David’s behalf – a sad story the standard penalty for sheep stealing conceived in David’s sin to be born told in the remainder of the chapter. was fourfold restitution (Exod. 22:1). with no apparent trouble, but if David David’s actions in the Bathsheba- thought his crime would be forgotten, Uriah affair remind us of how one sin Nathan’s point he was mistaken. may often lead to greater sin and greater (12:7-15) God had not forgotten, and sorrow. David was neither the first nor Nathan responded to David’s heated Nathan’s fiery charges targeted David’s the last to have done something wrong, judgment with a presumably pointed evil in no uncertain terms as he twice and then compounded the problem finger and the words: “You are the accused David of murder: “you have while trying to cover up the error. man!” The story had been about David struck down Uriah the Hittite with the Sin, as Paul reminds us, ultimately all along, and the crestfallen king’s sword,” and “(you) have killed him with leads to death (Rom. 6:23). It may lead own words of judgment now rested the sword of the Ammonites” (12:9). to physical death, though not always the on his own head. Nathan’s accusation, “Sword” in this case is metaphori- death of the sinner. Sin may also bring pronounced as a message direct from cal, for Uriah was actually killed by the death of relationships, the death of God, uses a striking combination of Ammonite archers (11:24), but at good health, the death of a career, or the first person and second person verbs to David’s orders. death of hopes and dreams. remind David of the shocking nature of David had told Joab not to worry, Can you think of ways in which you his sin: “I anointed you ... I rescued you for “the sword devours now one and now or your loved ones have experienced ... I gave you ... I would have added as another” (11:25), but Nathan turns the some kind of death as a result of sin? much more” (12:7-8). But, you despised metaphor to David with a prediction Isn’t it better to foster life? BT

LESSON FOR AUGUST 2, 2015 | 19 2 Samuel 18:1-33

with Tony W. Cartledge

Aug. 9, 2015 2 Samuel 18:33b – Paying the Price “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! here was a day when my late Would I had died instead friend Johnny Brown persuaded of you, O Absalom, my T me to ride around the pasture on son, my son!” a mule of his, “to keep him from getting too wild.” I agreed before realizing that Johnny had no saddle or bridle. He picked up a piece of baling twine and twisted it through the mule’s mouth, then ran a length of the twine along each side of the mule’s head and said “Here you go!” And here I went – wherever the mule wanted to go. He paid no attention to the thin bridle, no matter how hard I pulled, and soon he had chewed through the twine, leaving me with nothing to do but hold onto his mane and try to David Mourning the Death of Absalom stay aboard. The confl ict between David and his paramount, but also the entire point The mule broke for the barn at a son had been a long time coming, and of the battle: If David died, the rebel- gallop, which wouldn’t have been so it culminated with a disaffected and lion would have succeeded (18:1-4). bad except for a steel cable across the power-hungry Absalom recruiting an Relegated to supporting his soldiers from top of the gate, draped with an insec- army of supporters in an effort to topple behind, David reviewed the troops as ticide-soaked rag designed to treat the his father from the throne. [For more, they left Mahanaim, loudly ordering his cows when they walked beneath it. The see “The Hardest Question” online.] commanders to “Deal gently for my sake cable caught me right in the chest as Absalom “stole the hearts of the with the young man Absalom” (18:5). the mule ran into the feedlot, and soon men of Israel,” the narrator claims, and The account of the actual combat I was fl at on my back, seeing shooting his rebellion garnered so much support is so abbreviated that it seems like stars in broad daylight. that when he advanced on Jerusalem, no battle at all. Absalom’s army of Agreeing to ride that mule was not David fl ed the city rather than subject it conscripts and recruits were numerous, one of my better decisions, but it was not to war. Accompanied by his most ardent but green. David’s forces were smaller as bad as Absalom’s choice to ride his supporters and loyal soldiers, David but composed of seasoned profession- royal mule into a most precarious place. traveled eastward, crossed the Jordan als who had fought many battles for David. The king’s veteran soldiers A one-sided war River, and set up camp in the city of fl anked Absalom’s army on three sides (vv. 1-8) Mahanaim, a day’s journey beyond. Unsatisfi ed with his occupation and forced them into the dense forests Our text recalls the sad story of how of Jerusalem, Absalom armed his new of Ephraim, where the exultant narra- David’s son Absalom orchestrated a recruits and went after David, hoping tor claims the forest “devoured” more coup against his father, proclaimed to remove his father from the political victims than the soldiers (18:6-8). himself king in Jerusalem, and died equation. As Absalom’s army advanced, while trying to eliminate the former David changed his course from retreat An ill-considered death regime. to attack, dividing his elite soldiers into (vv. 9-15) three groups led by veteran commanders. Absalom had made the poor decision to Additional background information David volunteered to lead the army, accompany his army into battle while online where you see the “Digging but his men insisted that he stay behind, riding on his mule, standard transporta- Deeper” icon since the king’s safety was not only tion for kings in those days. Perhaps

20 | © Nurturing Faith Bible Studies are copyrighted by Baptists Today. DO NOT PHOTOCOPY. Order at: baptiststoday.org Resources to teach adult and youth classes the mule became spooked: As it ran conflict. Unfortunately, that isn’t always beneath an oak tree, Absalom’s head are available at possible. When conflict is present, it got caught in the low-hanging branches baptiststoday.org needs to be dealt with openly before it while the mule kept running, leaving the reaches the boiling point. would-be king swaying between heaven Joab was a pragmatic man. He Joab ordered Ahimaaz to stand and earth (18:9). chose to do what he believed should aside, and chose instead to send an When one of David’s soldiers be done for the larger good, and to use unnamed Cushite with the message. The spotted Absalom’s helpless state, he whatever means were at his disposal to Cushite, probably a mercenary, was an reported it to his commander Joab, who accomplish his goals. It was not the first African man in a Hebrew world. Not was incensed that the man had kept time he had killed someone that David knowing the danger, perhaps, he ran to Absalom alive (18:10-13) and left him wanted alive, and it would not be the tell David the news. with a difficult decision. It would last. Joab’s violence overshadows all of Ahimaaz remained persistent, have been easy to capture the usurper his other choices. however, and Joab finally agreed to and bring him to David unharmed, but The unnamed warrior chose to stay let him go, believing the Cushite had Joab feared that if he did, David would out of trouble. When he saw a difficult such a head start that things would do nothing more than put him under situation in which he could not win, he have settled down by the time Ahimaaz house arrest and Absalom would be free chose to avoid it. That soldier’s ability got there. Ahimaaz took a short cut, to continue making trouble. to recognize trouble ahead of time and however, and managed to get there Joab was a man of action who was the wisdom he demonstrated in avoid- before the Cushite. He told David that guided by strategy rather than emotion. ing it is worth remembering. the victory had been won, but when He was not bound to the royal scion Ahimaaz wanted to be in the center he saw that David was concerned only by the same cords of love that clouded of things. He was filled with excitement with Absalom, he pretended that he David’s judgment, and so Joab found it and wanted to tell the good news, but didn’t know what happened and left it relatively easy to disobey his king for his fervor was greater than his courage, for the guileless Cushite to break the the sake of his country. He decided to and he told only part of the story. news that Absalom was dead. kill Absalom (18:14-15). One thing all these decisions have in David responded with the purest common is that God does not appear to example of abject mourning to be found A broken-hearted man be involved in any of them. In fact, God in scripture. Despite the victory won by (vv. 16-33) is wholly absent from this chapter except his brave soldiers against his rebellious After seeing to Absalom’s death, Joab for two references, when Ahimaaz and offspring, all David could do was to cry restrained the troops, ordering horns the Cushite used the standard formula out “O my son Absalom, my son, my to be sounded so that his men would of praising God for the good news when son Absalom! Would that I had died cease pursuing their fellow Israelites. they report it to the king. There is no instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my With Absalom dead, there was no need evidence that God was consulted in the son!” (18:33). to continue killing those who had been making of any of these decisions. There are many areas of life in caught up in his rebellion. Not-so-easy choices Joab likewise ordered his men which God expects us to use our own to bury Absalom in a great pit in the What are we to do with this difficult minds and make good decisions based forest so that David would not see what text? What can we learn from this on the information we have and the remained of his son. Strategically, he remarkable soap opera, from these love in our hearts, but always within the delayed the messengers who would “Days of Their Lives”? Perhaps we can context of Jesus’ teaching. When we deliver news of the victory, so that the gain something from examining the make our decisions without any refer- deed was done before David ever knew choices its characters made. ence to God’s will for our lives, we are (18:16-17). Absalom’s choices were consis- asking for trouble. As the reader wonders how David tently selfish and foolish. He had All of us face hard choices in life, will take the news, the narrator builds everything going for him. He was the and sometimes the lines between good suspense by spinning a tale of two best-looking man in the kingdom, and and evil, wisdom and folly, prudence messengers. Ahimaaz, a son of the high talented, too. But his head got too big and impudence are not at all clear. In priest Zadok, had been chosen by David for his shoulders. Absalom’s decision to those times, especially, talking things to carry secret messages before, and he rebel against his father’s kingdom led to out with God and seeking divine direc- wanted the job. Knowing how distraught his own early death. tion are essential. There’s no guarantee David would be, Joab would not allow David’s choices leading up to the we will always choose rightly, but a Ahimaaz to go, fearing that David might battle were made on the basis of what it prayerful approach certainly increases hurt him when he heard the news. takes to survive with the least possible our chances. BT

LESSON FOR AUGUST 9, 2015 | 21 1 Kings 2:1-12, 3:3-14

with Tony W. Cartledge

Aug. 16, 2015 1 Kings 3:9 – Redeeming a Shaky Start “Give your servant therefore an ld things pass away; new understanding things come. Times change. mind to govern All of us know this. No one O your people, able remains president or peon, king or to discern between commoner forever. We live, we die, and good and evil; for a new generation takes our place. who can govern We acknowledge change, and some this your great of us even embrace it, but that doesn’t people?” make it any easier. Even when we’re the ones who’ve been chanting “Out with the old and in with the new,” we know that change can be hard. Today’s text involves the fi rst peaceful transition of power in Israel’s new monarchy, but it was far less peaceful than one might expect. no less than four times in Joshua 1:6, 7, not, they bear a sharp contrast to the less 9, 18; and Joshua in turn promised the inspirational instructions that followed. A dying father’s advice? Israelites that they would win the land if (2:1-4) they were strong and courageous (Josh. An old king’s revenge The text begins with a dying David 1:25). (2:5-12) giving solemn advice and ignoble orders Success, according to the theology David’s further directives served to settle to his son Solomon, who had been named underlying the books of Joshua-2 Kings, some old accounts with people who had as his successor, though his older brother comes from obedience to God and offended or opposed him while also Adonijah had also sought the throne. keeping the statutes, commandments, removing them as threats to Solomon’s The reader imagines that David ordinances, and testimonies “as written rule. The fi rst target was David’s nephew sensed death’s call and summoned in the law of Moses” (2:3) – all typical Joab, who had long served as his military Solomon to impart fatherly advice Deuteronomistic terminology. The chief (2:5-6). Not only had David’s before shuffl ing off the scene. The fi rst advice is what one would expect from crusty commander supported Adonijah few sentences of this advice sound more a man who followed God closely and over Solomon, but during his earlier like the Deuteronomistic narrator than wanted his son to do the same. service to David he had twice murdered David, and should probably be seen as The promise of v. 4 refers back to persons whom David wanted to honor an editorial embellishment. 2 Samuel 7, where Yahweh had (Abner, 2 Samuel 2; and Amasa, David’s opening counsel that promised David that his descendants 2 Samuel 20). Solomon’s disposition of Solomon should “Be strong, be coura- would rule Israel in an unbroken dynas- Joab is recorded in 2:28-35: Even though geous, and keep the charge of the tic succession. The promise is more Joab fl ed to the supposed sanctuary of LORD your God, walking in his ways conditional here, however: Solomon’s the altar and pled for his life, Solomon …” (2:2-3) refl ects the theology that heirs would remain on the throne only ordered Benaiah to strike him down. pervades most of the Old Testament. so long as they “take heed to their way, David charged Solomon to honor After Moses’ death, God instructed to walk before me in faithfulness with persons who had aided David when he Joshua to “be strong and courageous” all their heart and with all their soul” fl ed Jerusalem during Absalom’s revolt (v. 4). This is yet another refl ection of (2:7, cf. 2 Sam 17:27-29; 19:31-40), Additional background information the beliefs (compare Deut. 6:1-6) that but to punish Shimei of Bahurim, who online where you see the “Digging guided the writing of Joshua-2 Kings. had cursed David on that same occasion Deeper” icon Whether David spoke these words or (2:8-9, cf. 2 Sam. 19:23). David had

22 | © Nurturing Faith Bible Studies are copyrighted by Baptists Today. DO NOT PHOTOCOPY. Order at: baptiststoday.org Resources to teach adult and youth classes promised that he would not harm the “no other king shall compare with you” vocal critic – but he charged Solomon are available at (3:10-13). to “not hold him guiltless” and “bring baptiststoday.org God also pledged to give Solomon his gray head down with blood to long life – but only “if you will walk in Sheol.” The account of Shimei’s demise burnt offerings on that altar” (3:4). my ways, keeping my statutes and my is found in 2:36-46. Such an effort would have been a commandments, as your father David David’s last words thus reflect the multi-day event, and Solomon would walked” (3:14). Readers both past and hard and bloody road he had traveled have slept on location. It was not present know that David did not always since his youth, when he had been unusual, in the ancient Near East, for walk in God’s ways, so we are not known as “a man after God’s own heart.” persons to seek a word from God by surprised that Solomon would later turn David’s death and burial are reported in sleeping in a sacred space and hoping from the path. For the present, however, 2:10-11, after which Solomon found a that God would speak in a dream. Old Solomon had redeemed the bloody way to rid himself of his rival brother, Testament characters such as Abraham, beginnings of his rule by seeking a Adonijah (2:13-25). [For more, see “The Jacob, Joseph, the Pharaoh, Samuel, better way, proving himself to be a wise Hardest Question” online.] Daniel, and others heard from God in and capable ruler. At the end of a pathway marked by dreams, though most did not actively What can we take from this multi- blood and tears, the narrator could say seek them. The text does not indicate layered story in which both David and “So the kingdom was established in the whether Solomon was seeking a Solomon appear as alternately upstand- hand of Solomon” (2:12, 46b). vision, but he got one anyway. While ing and lowdown? at Gibeon, God appeared to him and The narrator remembers David’s A new king’s wish offered to grant Solomon one wish: earlier love for Yahweh and puts into his (3:3-14) anything he asked (3:5). mouth a charge for Solomon to follow To cement his rule, Solomon entered Can you imagine such an offer? If the path of obedience to God – but also an alliance with Egypt by marrying the you could ask for just one thing, what to take vengeance on his enemies. Pharaoh’s daughter (3:1). The narrator would it be? Solomon does David’s dirty work adds that people “were sacrificing on Solomon’s response was a model and forcefully consolidates his rule, the high places” at that time, because of humility. He thanked God for having but he also leads the people in worship “no house had yet been built for the loved his father David and having through offering sacrifices, and prays name of the LORD” (3:2). made him king in David’s place. When humbly for the wisdom needed to rule These verses foreshadow it came to ruling such a great people, God’s people. Solomon’s positive contribution of though, Solomon professed to being The narrator doesn’t want us to miss overseeing construction of the temple, like a little child who didn’t know when the fact that Israel’s two greatest kings but also something for which the writer to go out or come in (3:6-8). Thus, he had potential for both good and bad. would later condemn him: He married prayed, “Give to your servant therefore Both did great things when they utilized many other foreign wives to seal politi- an understanding mind to govern your a listening heart – when they sought to cal alliances, but also built temples for people, able to discern between good follow God’s way and put the people’s their gods and reportedly worshiped and evil …” (3:9). interests above their own. Yet, they them himself (1 Kgs. 11:1-13). The expression translated as both were subject to human frailties: to When most of us think of Solomon, “understanding mind” (NRSV) or selfishness, to pettiness, to self-aggran- we probably call to mind his wealth “discerning mind” (NET) is literally dizement at the expense of other people. and his wisdom, both of which became “a listening heart.” Hebrew thought Isn’t this the way it is in our own legendary. How Solomon came to assigned mental faculties – especially lives? We all are capable of good or possess such wisdom is the subject of those related to decision-making – to evil, of humility or pride, of obedience 3:3-14, a charming story of innocent the heart. A “listening heart” is one that or rebellion. We all have the ability to piety that is a welcome change from the would be open to God’s guidance in love unselfishly or to turn our desires previous accounts of violent power. making wise decisions. inward. The story begins with the glowing God was pleased that Solomon Choices lie before us every day. remark that “Solomon loved the LORD, asked for wisdom rather than the Making good choices does not make walking in the statutes of his father expected request of long life, riches, us immune from mistakes; making bad David.” Before the temple was built, or victory over enemies. As a reward, choices does not take us hopelessly off we are told, Solomon offered sacrifices God promised to give Solomon riches the path. Life with God is an ongoing to God on the high places (3:3), includ- and honor in addition to the wisdom for affair in which faithfulness and failure ing a primary site at Gibeon where he which he asked. Victory over enemies are always before us. reportedly “used to offer a thousand was also implied in the promise that What guides your choices? BT

LESSON FOR AUGUST 16, 2015 | 23 1 Kings 8:1-53

with Tony W. Cartledge

Aug. 23, 2015 Prayers for Now and Later 1 Kings 8:27 – “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even ave you ever heard anyone use heaven and the highest a prayer as an opportunity to heaven cannot contain H preach? Sometimes it happens you, much less this house when someone who wanted to preach that I have built!” at a particular occasion is asked to pray instead, or when someone with a favorite agenda makes a point of bringing it up whenever the opportunity to pray arises. The shift often goes like this: “ … and Lord, may we always remember to do so and so,” or “may you bless us as we do such and such,” with “so and so” or “such and such” representing sins to avoid, behaviors to practice, or positions the pray-er hopes the congregation will support. We sometimes say that a preacher has stopped preaching and gone to at the back of the temple, the Holy of had indeed chosen to dwell in the meddling. This is a case when someone Holies. “house of the LORD” and imbue the stops praying and has gone to preaching. When David had fi rst brought the holy place with the divine presence, or Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 8 is a prime Ark into Jerusalem, he did so with glory. example of a sermonic supplication. great care, many sacrifi ces, and joyful Solomon himself pronounced an celebration (2 Sam. 6:12-19). Solomon invocation, one fraught with theological A celebration to remember followed suit, but with a grander sweep. overtones. Verses 12-13 are poetic in (vv. 1-11) As the priests and Levites brought the form, and some scholars consider them The text is centered around the dedica- Ark and other sacred items from the old to be an excerpt from a temple hymn. tion of the temple, the construction of tent to the new temple, “King Solomon The “thick darkness” in which God was which is detailed in chapters 5-7. After and all the congregation of Israel” said to dwell could refer to the heavy overseeing seven years of construction were “sacrifi cing so many sheep and cloud, or to the Holy of Holies, where involving more than 180,000 workers, oxen that they could not be counted or the Ark was closed off by a heavy it’s not surprising that Solomon would numbered” (v. 5). curtain and thus kept in darkness. host a huge service of dedication as the The priests carefully positioned The word translated as “dwell” in temple began operations. To empha- the Ark in the holy place, and as they v. 12 is shaken, which means “to size continuity with the past, leaders emerged, “a cloud fi lled the house of sojourn,” a word typically used to from every tribe and ancestral family the LORD, so that the priests could not describe God’s presence moving about were invited to join a triumphal entrance stand to minister because of the cloud; with the Israelites during their journey procession and witness the fi nal act that for the glory of the LORD fi lled the through the wilderness. But Solomon would establish the temple as the “house house of the LORD” (vv. 10-11). now claims to have brought an end to of the LORD” – the installation of the God’s wandering days. “I have built Ark of the Covenant in the sacred room A promise kept you an exalted house,” he said, “a place (vv. 12-21) for you to dwell in forever” (v. 13). Additional background information The appearance of the thick cloud The verb used here is yashav, which online where you see the “Digging was understood as a visible mark of suggests a more permanent dwelling: Deeper” icon heavenly acceptance: a sign that God Solomon intends the temple to be a

24 | © Nurturing Faith Bible Studies are copyrighted by Baptists Today. DO NOT PHOTOCOPY. Order at: baptiststoday.org Resources to teach adult and youth classes place for Yahweh “to dwell in forever.” to God, that forgiveness and restoration Following the invocation, Solomon are available at might come. turned to the people and reminded baptiststoday.org The prayer attributed to Solomon them of God’s dynastic promises to may have gone to preaching, but it is a David. Recounting the divine promise welcome message of hope. Even though in a fashion closer to Psalm 89 than times of famine, pestilence, or plague the temple had been destroyed in 587 2 Samuel 7, Solomon said God had (vv. 37-40). BCE, the people could still look toward praised David for wanting to build a Though Israel-centric, the prayer Jerusalem and pray for the day when temple, but that the job would go to asked further that God would hear the the temple would be rebuilt and God’s his son (vv. 15-19). Solomon then prayers of foreigners who come “from presence would once again bless the praised God for fulfilling the promise to a distant land because of your name” grateful Hebrews. David while congratulating himself for and respond to them in a way that all With the temple long destroyed having done his part: peoples would fear God and “know that – including its replacement – and “I have risen to the place of my your name has been invoked on this Christian people living under a new father David; I sit on the throne of Israel house that I have built” (vv. 41-43). covenant, what are we to make of this … I have built the house for name of But what of times when the account? The parts of the prayer that the LORD … I have provided a place distressed are far from the temple, such emphasize a connection between royal for the ark, in which is the covenant of as when soldiers are away at war? Even power and religious establishments the LORD that he made with our ances- then, Solomon insisted, the temple call to mind a temptation the church tors …” (vv. 20-21). remained important as a portal of prayer. has faced through the years, one in He asked that God would also hear and which kings and cathedrals are closely A prayer for the future respond to fighters on the battlefield who connected and access to God is guarded (vv. 22-61) faced Jerusalem and prayed in the direc- by church authorities. If we believe the With v. 22, Solomon adopted a posture tion of the temple (vv. 44-45). claims of Jesus, heeding God’s call and of prayer and praised God’s unmatched More pointedly, the prayer then following God’s way are far more about majesty and God’s reputation for turns to the possibility of exile. If the service to others than about exercising “keeping covenant and steadfast love for people should sin, Solomon prayed, so power over them. your servants who walk before you with that God allowed them to be defeated Many people still hold to the all their heart” (vv. 22-23). Returning to and carried into captivity … if the common belief that success or failure is a more self-focused concern, Solomon exiles should “come to their senses” a direct result of piety or perversion, but thanked God for having shown faithful- and “repent with all their heart and soul we know that the righteous often suffer ness to David, and prayed for God to in the land of their enemies,” praying while the wicked prosper. For followers confirm that promise by remaining true toward “the city that you have chosen, of Jesus the point of faith is not to be to David’s descendants who walked and your house that I built for your rewarded, but to be faithful – not to be faithfully before him (vv. 25-26). name,” God should hear their prayer blessed, but to be a blessing. Verses 27-30 backtrack a bit by and forgive (vv. 46-53). As king of the country and builder affirming that God’s presence cannot This is where the narrator most of the temple, Solomon had a vested be limited to the temple, indeed, even clearly leaves off praying and goes to interest in promoting the temple as to all heaven and earth. Still, the temple preaching. While the prayer purports the locus of Israelite religion and the serves as a portal of prayer through to reflect the words of Solomon at the gateway to God, but even his self- which people facing various trials could temple’s dedication, the words may serving prayer acknowledged that God come to God in search of solace (v. 30). well derive from the hand of a writer cannot be limited to a sacred box, a holy The prayer continues by naming during the exile itself, when the large place, or a designated city. Nor is God several categories of potential petitions unit from Joshua-2 Kings reached its limited to the church, neither the institu- the Israelites might bring, echoing the final form. tion nor any building associated with it. belief that troubles often result from sin The primary audience of 1 Kings 8 God is approachable from any place, at (Lev. 26:14-39, Deut. 28:15-68). The was not a free nation contemplating any time. temple would be an appropriate place captivity, but actual exiles who believed There is one area of the prayer that of prayer for those seeking justice (vv. that God had given them over to the continues to speak plainly: Humans are 31-32); for petitions seeking deliverance Babylonians because of the nation’s sinful, but God is merciful. It is not a from enemy oppression after national deep and persistent sin. They could draw turning toward Jerusalem that matters, sin (vv. 33-34); for those suffering from hope from Solomon’s prayer that if they but a turning toward God, who remains drought as divine punishment for sin turned their faces toward the temple in willing to hear and to forgive. (vv. 35-36); and for pleas for aid during Jerusalem, and turned their hearts back Hallelujah. BT

LESSON FOR AUGUST 23, 2015 | 25 James 1:17-27

with Tony W. Cartledge

Aug. 30, 2015 Real Religion

he book of James almost didn’t make it into the New Testa- T ment. It was one of the last to be regarded as canonical – so is it really worth studying? Martin Luther, famed pioneer of the Protestant Reformation, called it “a right strawy epistle,” largely because James emphasizes the importance of work so much that he seems to minimize the role of grace. Others might join Luther in wishing that James wasn’t in the Bible, but for less theological reasons. James pulls no punches, but tells us to take our faith James 1:22 – seriously and get to work. Many of us “But be doers of the would rather not hear that. word, and not merely The book of James bears a strong hearers who deceive similarity to the Old Testament wisdom themselves.” literature such as Proverbs: the author moves from topic to topic with no clear outline but with a few important Accepting God’s grace Here, he speaks of God’s desire to grant ideas that are expressed over and over (vv. 17-21) us birth to a new life in Christ. in different ways. For James, the most James is not unaware that works of James’ readers were fi rst-generation important idea is this: faith works. faith must still begin with grace. Our Christians. They were the “fi rst fruits” True faith is faith that works. Faith fi rst work, in a sense, is to accept God’s resulting from Christ’s work. Today, we that counts for something is faith that good gifts. “Every generous act of are the fruit, not only of Christ, but also works. An over-emphasis on some other giving, with every perfect gift, is from of what the church has done through the New Testament texts might lead one to above,” James says, “coming down years. When others believe after us, they think that faith is everything. James is from the Father of lights, with whom will be the fruit of our work, as well. here to remind us that our works count there is no variation or shadow due to That work begins with our accep- for something, too. change” (v. 17). tance of the good and gracious gifts that What is work worth? We often hear Here is something we can count come to us from God. But James insists of workers or their advocates who seek on: God is real, God is good, and God that there is work involved in fully higher pay or better benefi ts because bestows good gifts. Every act of gener- accepting God’s gifts: we have some their work is worth more than they are osity is a glimmer of God’s compassion. cleaning up to do. Other things that being compensated. James would Every good gift is a reminder of God’s come between God and us have to be have us to understand that the value of love. We can count on God’s goodness moved out of the way. work is not just found in the fi nancial and generosity and grace. What kind of things? Things like compensation it brings us. Some values It was by grace that God granted the attitude that we already know every- and benefi ts cannot be measured with us “birth by the word of truth” (v. 18) thing or should always get our way. It dollar signs, even in the millions. – that is, new birth through the life and is that attitude that leads us to speak love of Jesus Christ. Looking back to without listening and to be angry when Additional background information v. 15 is key to understanding this verse. others disagree with us. So, James tells online where you see the “Digging There James spoke of how one’s own us it is essential that we “be quick to Deeper” icon desire conceives and gives birth to sin. listen, slow to speak, slow to anger;

26 | © Nurturing Faith Bible Studies are copyrighted by Baptists Today. DO NOT PHOTOCOPY. Order at: baptiststoday.org Resources to teach adult and youth classes for your anger does not produce God’s like authentic Christians, because others righteousness” (vv. 19-20). are available at can see Christ at work in us. Graceful living cannot coexist with baptiststoday.org So, James went on to add, “those a selfish lifestyle any more than a tomato who look into the perfect law, the law of vine and poison ivy can occupy the same liberty, and persevere, being not hearers bit of soil. “Therefore rid yourselves who forget but doers who act – they will of all sordidness and rank growth of of the word, or commentators upon the be blessed in their doing” (v. 25). In wickedness, and welcome with meekness word. We are to be doers of the word. contrast, those who think they are being the implanted word that has the power to In this context, “word” refers to the religious but who live without restraint save your souls” (v. 21). content of Christ’s teaching, which calls have deceived themselves (v. 26). Those are strong and unpleas- us to love God with all our being and to It is not enough for us to come to ant words. None of us like to think of love others in the same unselfish way church like cars stopping periodically our lives as being sordid or rank – but that Jesus loves us. “To be doers of the at the gas pump, passively waiting to James considers anything that could word” is to be followers of the message get our tanks filled. We may catch a screen us from God’s presence to be that calls us to love. glimpse of God in the worship service, forms of wickedness. An old saying sadly observes: and it may uplift us for a while, but Some think of James’ language “When all is said and done, more is said if we do not put our faith to work day as reflecting the baptismal image of than done.” James knew it is not what in and day out, it soon becomes stripping off what is old and putting we say or claim to believe that demon- meaningless. on what is new, but it can also be read strates our faith, but what we do. Religion that matters is not just as a garden metaphor. We can’t plant The kind of learning that changes passive Sunday mornings of inspiration, the word of life in a spot that is already our lives comes only through practice: but a daily dedication to the teaching of choked with weeds and briars and we learn best by doing. James illus- Jesus. If you want to see real religion, brush. We have to clean out the wild trated the emptiness of some people’s James said – religion that is “pure growth to make room for new plantings. faith by saying they were like a person and undefiled” – it is this: “to care for It is only common sense to understand who looked intently into a mirror, and orphans and widows in their distress, that God will not fill our lives with then immediately forgot what he or she and to keep oneself unstained by the grace if our hearts are choked with self- was like (v. 24). world” (v. 27). interest. How are we to understand this? One In the ancient world there was no Only when we’ve cleaned the way is to recognize that the very act of life insurance, no welfare, no social weeds from our lives can we “welcome examining oneself in a mirror implies security beyond money saved and with meekness the implanted word that the intent to do something about what children raised. Widows were often left has the power to save your souls.” The one sees. But if a man sees a dirty face with no means of support and few legit- term logos in “the implanted word” that needs washing, then quickly forgets imate opportunities to make a living can carry a double sense here. John’s and does nothing about it, his face will wage. In desperation, orphaned children gospel speaks of Jesus as “the Word” of remain unwashed. were sometimes sold into indentured God. Those who experience the power A closer look at the Greek text service just to assure that they would of God’s salvation are those who open provides a different angle. James did have a place to stay and food to eat. their hearts to the Master Gardener, who not just speak of looking at one’s face, Of course, James never intended plants in their hearts the Word of life. but of one “who looks at the face of his to suggest that our concern should be But logos can also refer to a message, origin.” Looking in a mirror does not limited to literal widows and orphans, and that is its more common sense in only reveal the appearance of one’s face but all who are in need and subject this section. Those who receive Christ in the moment, but also reminds us of to exploitation. It’s possible to be the Word are also called to live out our origins, of our family – of who we “widowed” from jobs or means of Christ’s message. The day we become are by birth. When we forget who we support, or “orphaned” from sustain- Christians is our first day of work in the are, we are in trouble. ing relationships. Give some thought kingdom of God. Recall that James had just spoken to who might be the “widows and of believers having experienced a new orphans” who need our care. Doing God’s work birth in Christ. If we claim to believe James insists that real religion (vv. 22-27) but do not practice, we have forgotten involves both interpersonal charity and So, James says, “be doers of the word, who we are. In contrast, when we look personal purity. Would others consider and not merely hearers who deceive at ourselves as children born of God our religion to be genuine, or a formality? themselves” (v. 22). We are not to be and called to follow Jesus’ teaching, we James is not the only one who just hearers of the word, or watchers remember who we are and begin to look wants to know. BT

LESSON FOR AUGUST 30, 2015 | 27 Senior Pastor: In the Know Classiﬁeds will retire later this year from the pastorate of River Road Church, Baptist in Richmond, Va. He came to the church in 2004 after serving as editor of the Religious Herald. has joined the staff of OperationInAsMuch in Knoxville, Tenn. - He previously served as co-pastor of CityGate Ministries in Fort Myers, Fla. - died May 27 at age 74. He was pastor emeritus of Grace Baptist Church in Germantown, Penn., where he - served for 31 years. He served in many Minister of Children: - leadership roles with American Baptists. - died May 31 at age 69. He was pastor of Sugar Land Baptist Church (formerly Williams Trace Baptist Church) - near Houston. He served as president of Senior Pastor: the Baptist General Convention of Texas among other leadership roles in Baptist life. is pastor of Fernwood Baptist Church in Spartanburg, - S.C. She previously served Flat Rock Baptist Church in Mount Airy, N.C. Director of Music Ministries: is pastor of First Baptist Church of Huntersville, N.C., coming from Harrisonburg (Va.) Baptist Church. died May 21 in St. Petersburg, Fla., at age 84. He was active in the First Baptist Church there and in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. He is sur- vived by his wife of 61 years, Patricia. BT President/CEO: Student Minister: - - Beach Condominium - Minister of Children and Families: -

28 The Lighter Side By Brett Younger How not to preach a children’s sermon

he senior pastor believes Ethan is think- Children’s sermons would be better if ing, “It is so great to have our own ministers stopped using confusing props. T special time in worship with the pas- Object lessons are popular with those who tor. He knows how to talk to children. He never talk with children. Six-year-olds do not understands that 6-year-olds love metaphors. I make the intellectual leap from seeds in Dixie wonder what object he has today. Maybe we’ll cups to how the Kingdom grows. Children do get Skittles and learn how God helps us taste not think in object lesson logic. No children’s the rainbow. I can’t wait.” sermon should begin: Ethan is actually thinking, “I hate my “Here’s a bent spoon. Let’s imagine the shoes. Why can’t I wear flip flops like Aiden? woman with a crooked back.” Sophia’s mom brings Laffy Taffy. My mom “I brought two slices of bread, peanut brings raisins. How fair is that? I need a break butter and a knife, because today we’re talking from mom and it’s children’s time — our time about sanctification.” to shine. I hope Isabella says something that “Look at this picture of a zebra because makes everyone laughs. Why does the preacher our Bible lesson is about who goes to heaven.” always bring something? It never makes sense, “Here’s a walnut. Picture the Gospel in a but Starburst day was pretty good. Why doesn’t nutshell.” he tell a story? I like stories. If I scoot a little, I “I brought a T-shirt with the Nike logo. found in any concordance. If we continue the can touch that candle. Mom’s probably watch- Let’s just do it.” practice, we should do better. Consider the ing, but she can’t get me from there. I’m going “Here’s a cell phone that reminds us of following suggestions: to take off my shoes.” five things you need to know about prayer. Children’s sermons must be hard, because Text messages, for instance.” most of us have heard more bad ones than “I brought my favorite Transformer, good. Eager preachers hope the children will Devastator, because he reminds me of St. the children’s sermon. say funny things so the grownups will think Paul.” the preacher is clever. Desperate preachers “Here’s a key ring. It’s mine. Who has the God’s love. use party hats, horns, leis, popsicles and cats. key to your heart?” Preschool comedians see this as a chance to “I brought a bag of fortune cookies start their career. Church members secretly because we’re starting a sermon series on the developmentally inappropriate for concrete- hope some child decides to practice rolling. prophets.” thinking children. Have you ever heard, “The red on this “This is a camera. Let’s focus on candy cane is the blood Jesus shed,” and justification.” display. thought, “That should keep the children from “I brought a snake, but it’s a rubber snake, eating candy canes”? or is it?” to the children’s answers. Maybe you have heard, “This sucker Ministers should not use children as is sweet just like God is sweet to us,” and props. Children’s sermons are often filled thought “Not really.” with questions that are thinly veiled attempts Children deserve better than a dumbed-down, If the minister is holding a pair of scissors, to entertain the congregation. The preacher cutesy version of the morning message with an do you pray the subject is anything other than should not be going for laughs from the adults. attention-grabbing prop — though everyone circumcision? No one should ask these questions during the loves M&Ms. Have the children in your church been children’s time: Skeptical people might ask, “If the chil- told more about Calvinism than first graders “How is God like this rock?” dren’s sermon is for the children, then why need to know? “What does your Sunday school teacher doesn’t the preacher meet with the children Perhaps you have heard children’s sermons teach you?” when the adults aren’t around?” The skeptics on biblical texts that are not the best choices — “Who is the oldest person in the church?” might have a point. BT Song of Solomon, David and Bathsheba, almost “What’s the worst thing about church?” anything in Leviticus, the slaughter of the inno- “What does your mother call your father?” —Brett Younger is associate professor of cents, or Elisha calling on two bears to maul a “Could you say some funny things?” preaching at Mercer University’s group of children who called him “Baldy.” The phrase “children’s sermon” is not McAfee School of Theology.

29 Editor’s note: This article in the series “Transitions: Helping churches and church leaders in changing times” is provided in partnership with the Center for Healthy Churches (chchurches.org). Does your church know its ‘place’? By Stan Wilson

endell Berry, in How To Be a Poet, with ministry. Most of us were brought up on an It was placed into a neighborhood slated wrote: “There are no unsacred places; ethos of expansion and growth; we heard about to grow rapidly in the 1970s after a Civil Rights Wthere are only sacred places and des- “manifest destiny” in our youth, and something law in 1968 made housing discrimination ille- ecrated places.” deep within us has been restless to move on to gal. It turns out this place has a story, and every Our congregation was originally sent to a the next place ever since. place is more interesting when you pay attention particular place on the north side of Clinton, Theologically, many of us were taught a to the history of desire, fear, hope and aspiration Miss., in 1969, but over time that place became spiritualized gospel, with a thin version of indi- that shaped it. somewhat incidental to our identity. vidual salvation — in heaven, after death, out of Another way to begin seeing your place As many members moved out to larger body. We were not set up very well to imagine again is to map it. Ask the ancient biblical houses and then likeminded others started driv- the kingdom on earth, as neighbors welcoming question: Who is my neighbor? Then map the ing in, the place was quietly disregarded. If we strangers to their kitchens, neighborhood. had not built a sanctuary there, we easily could or as a people learning to Draw the places where people live, the sites have moved our meeting place somewhere else live humbly and wisely on where people work. Do not neglect to map in without losing any of the essential characteris- the land they were given. the creeks, woods and fields — because they tics of our church. Some in our congre- matter also. It’s good we built. gation began to realize our Look for the places where people gather Today we are “coming to our sense of estrangement from the informally. Chances are you will begin to notice place” like the prodigal son who realized how neighborhood when we things. much he had squandered by leaving home. We took a walk a few years ago One of our members noticed a road she are beginning to see our particular place on the to pass out invitations to had been passing for decades. She had almost map as part and parcel of our identity, but this Vacation Bible School. Mostly we just walked, forgotten it existed, but it was literally carved is very much a work in progress. looked around and noticed things. into her neighborhood development. Our story is not at all unusual. Most We met a kid sitting alone on the curb She decided to walk down it for the first churches were sent originally to particular while his mother was at work. On a sidewalk we time ever, and she met neighbors who invited places, and very many became, like us, “drive- met some friendly people we had never known her to sit on the porch and talk. The peaceable in” churches, who mainly use the places they who surprised us by not knowing our church reign of Christ was very near that hidden place. inhabit for gathering and leaving. even existed. One biblical cue for those who want to see It’s rare to find a church embedded in its We met one woman who was ill and lonely, the places they inhabit as the places where God neighborhood. It is time we learn to tell our in need of companionship. Two doors down is pleased to be revealed is the word abide. The stories of migration away from place as a confes- we met another woman who was retired and same word is also sometimes translated remain sion of disordered desire and tragic failure of looking for something meaningful to do. We or stay. imagination. introduced her to her neighbor. The word means not just to stay, but to stay Whenever we fail to see the place we One way to begin again to see the places and grow. It means to stick around long enough inhabit in its own unique capacity to reveal you inhabit as the places where God can be to recognize the beauty, the challenges and the God’s presence, we miss an opportunity to wit- revealed is to learn their stories. holiness intrinsic to the place you live, and then ness to the peaceable reign of Christ over all the Our congregation is located near an Indian to join with what God is doing in that place. BT earth. trading post on the old Natchez Trace. It is not To be fair, not much in our background pre- far from the site of a racial massacre at the end —Stan Wilson is pastor of Northside Baptist pared us to see place as inseparably intertwined of Reconstruction. Church in Clinton, Miss.

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30 Religion News Service Representing hope San Quentin chaplain reﬂects on Charles Manson, capital punishment and life on death row

When Earl Smith became chaplain of Q: Since humans are created in God’s image with inherent dignity, I don’t think California’s San Quentin State Prison humans should be able to legally execute in 1983, he was the youngest chaplain other humans like this. What do you think? ever hired by the state. While there, A: Sin is sin, and he that is without sin should be required to cast the first stone. If there is no he played chess with Charles Manson, one available, then perhaps we should come up with an alternative. negotiated truces between rival gangs God does not make mistakes, so the and witnessed a dozen executions. flaws witnessed in the process of the gruesome crimes which result in sentences of capital pun- n 2000, he was named National Correctional ishment are those of an infested society, not of Chaplain of the Year, and he now serves a God who pronounced all creation “good.” I as chaplain of the San Francisco 49ers and Charles wanted people to see him, hear his A reference point for support for capital Golden State Warriors. name and fear him. punishment is found in the mandate to sup- Smith recently talked about justice, The problem is that Charles is a little per- port the laws of the land. I believe there are America’s correctional system and his new book, son who sees his height in terms of emotional just and unjust laws. “Death Row Chaplain: Unbelievable True Stories and psychological dominance. Psychological Is capital punishment one such unjust From America’s Most Notorious Prison.” Some warfare was his means of survival. law? I truly do not know. answers have been edited for length and clarity. He once told me: “This is my world, and What I know is that the only deterrent is I decide when you do what you do. The trees, to the person executed. Murders still take place Q: Describe what day-to-day life is like for the stars, the grass, they all belong to me.” on the day of an execution, so clearly the focus death row inmates at San Quentin. Would Charles was interested in the manipula- (on death and deterrence) has not presented a you consider it humane? tion of people for the sole purpose of seeing if time of pause. A: Each day on death row is different, yet each he could manipulate them. day is the same. Your lunch is served with your Q: How have your experiences on death breakfast. Most days are spent watching televi- Q: You witnessed 12 executions. Describe row changed your thinking about the sion, sleeping or reading. Exercise is an option briefly what that feels like. death penalty, if at all? on certain days. A: To see a man strapped into a chair or on a A: As a chaplain, my job is to represent hope. In Religious services are offered once a week gurney is actually a small part of the execution the execution process, hope meets reality; you on a rotating basis. The only area that actually process. After the condemned man dies, the have to focus on the true hope of eternal life. has a chapel is East Block, which accommo- process of the execution lingers. The word “closure” doesn’t belong in the dates 24 inmates. Communication from cell to The staff that walks the inmate into the dialogue about capital punishment. Before I cell is done through yelling or an inmate mail chamber, the official witnesses, the victim’s arrived at San Quentin, I was not sure what I system called a “kite” on a “fish line.” family members and the inmate’s family mem- thought about the death penalty. San Quentin has three areas housing bers all are assembled in the same room. The I would listen to the play-by-play of an condemned inmates; in only one of them are administrative staff member assigned to the execution as a young boy. That experience inmates allowed some opportunities to mingle task of implementing the protocol has to disas- left me thinking that when you do enough during various parts of the day. sociate themselves from the notion of death. wrong, people will get tired of you and perhaps The focus is turned to a person who is execute you. Q: Tell us about your relationship with asked if he has any last words. After arriving at San Quentin and hav- Charles Manson. What was your assess- People have asked me if lethal injection is ing men on my death row caseload be released ment of his spiritual state? more humane. My answer is capital punishment into free society, my thought has never moved A: After each conversation I had with Charles via hanging, gas, firing squad, electrocution, beyond what if one of those guys had been Manson, I went away in awe of his ability to guillotine all get the same result: death. executed. The reality — that death is final and capture a moment and claim it as his. Charles Seeing an execution is seeing death. You the system can be flawed — is where I arrived Manson was exactly what he sought to be. can never forget what you see. as a result of working there. BT

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a series of articles by historian Bruce Gourley on the religious faith of U.S. presidents. Gourley is online editor and contributing writer for Baptists Today and executive director of the Baptist History & Heritage Society. His latest book, Baptists and the American Civil War: Crucible of Faith and Freedom, a compilation of articles from the recent series on Baptists and the American Civil War, is now available from Nurturing Faith.

Religion and the American Presidents John Adams (1797-1801)

ike his predecessor George Washington, appointment, alongside that of Thomas Massachusetts native John Adams (1735- Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, to pen the L 1826), was born during a period of Declaration of Independence. national religious revival known as the Great During the Revolutionary War years Awakening. Whereas Washington, a Virginian, Adams served as a representative of America to was baptized as an infant into the Anglican European nations, while afterward he became Church, the state church of the Southern America’s first ambassador to Britain, a post he colonies, Adams’ infant baptism was into mem- held from 1785 to 1788. Upon his return to bership of the Congregational Church, the state the states Adams was elected Washington’s vice church of many of the Northern colonies. president in 1789, then re-elected to the post Church membership was compulsory in in 1792. Massachusetts, mandated by colonial laws. The Following Washington’s resignation as Great Awakening, however, eroded the theo- president, the election of 1796 was the first cratic underpinnings of the colonial era in the to feature competing political parties. The decades after Adams’ birth, a major religious Federalists (committed to nationalistic policies) and political transition that impacted the reli- “liberty to think for myself without molesting selected Adams as their candidate, while the gious beliefs of the second president. others or being molested myself.” Republicans (suspicious of central authority Many smart and ambitious young men When his father apparently continued and advocates of individual and states rights) aspired to the establishment Christian ministry to prod him toward the ministry, Adams chose Thomas Jefferson. in the mid-18th century. Within the official state lamented to Cranch: “The frightful engines Religion played a role in the campaign church, congregational pulpits were favored of ecclesiastical councils, of diabolical malice, as the Federalists labeled Thomas Jefferson, with rewards monetary and civil. Adams’ father, and Calvinistical good-nature never failed to viewed by many as an atheist, as an enemy of a deacon, encouraged his son to pursue just such terrify me exceedingly whenever I thought of religion and morality. Whether or not such a career. Young Adams, however, opted for an preaching.” charges affected the outcome of the election, alternative career that he deemed to be a more Although recoiling from a religious career, Adams defeated Jefferson and assumed office in noble calling: the legal profession. Adams found enough latitude in Unitarianism early 1797. Adams’ doubts regarding the minis- to remain involved in church. Throughout his As a member of the Constitutional try stemmed from his studies of religion. life he retained religious sentiments in a broad, Convention and then as president, Adams Establishment religion’s historical opposition deistic sense, frequently attending church ser- followed Washington in politically signaling to freedom of conscience, expressed vividly vices, speaking often of morals and virtue, and an understanding of religion as foundational in the persecution of dissenters, horrified typically referring to the deity with impersonal to public morality. Both presidents occasion- the young man. His rejection of traditional descriptors such as “Providence” or “Being” or ally deployed the soothing power of inclusive religion grew even as his home church, the “Creator.” religious statements in the form of fast day First Parish Church of Quincy, transitioned Foremost a product of the Enlightenment, proclamations and prayers, such statements from Trinitarian Congregationalism to Anti- Adams placed reason and science above religion, likely penned by others. Trinitarian Unitarianism in the early 1750s. as did most of America’s founding fathers. Washington’s statements stood starkly Intense theological debates involving the min- Completing his law studies and pass- apart from his largely non-religious, or at ister and parishioners often took place in the ing the bar in 1758, by 1770 John Adams least religiously ambivalent, persona. But Adams’ home, contributing to his distaste of was one of Boston’s most successful lawyers when Adams in his inaugural address declared “dogmatism and bigotry.” as well as an emerging leader in the colonial “decent respect for Christianity among the In correspondence in 1756 with his protest against British taxation. A member of best recommendations for the public service,” brother-in-law Richard Cranch, Adams, then a the First Continental Congress in 1774 and he spoke as one long engaged in sectarian recent Harvard graduate, confessed his distaste the Second Congress in 1775, by 1776 he was religious practices. of the prospect of a ministerial career. Non- prominent in the movement for independence, On the other hand, while in government conformist in sentiment, Adams sought the his influence recognized in his congressional office Adams more often referenced religion

32 in non-public statements, either as a political Muslim nation of Tripoli stated. “The United imposed upon the public.” The following year actor or in an official capacity. Inevitably he States is not a Christian nation any more than he lamented that religious dogma refused to dismissed religion as a factor in the founding it is a Jewish or a Mohammedan nation.” tolerate “free inquiry.” and sustaining of the American nation. As president, Adams proved to be an He spoke harshly against the Protestant In anticipation of forming a national gov- independent and centrist thinker. Alarming the concept of salvation by faith, condemned the ernment, Adams, hearkening to his long-held far right wing of his own party, Adams chose Roman Catholic Church as a “monster,” yet also opposition to state churches, in 1785 declared to pursue peace with revolutionary-era France declared that a world without religion would be “We should begin by setting conscience free.” even as many Federalists demanded war. “Hell.” And in 1825, in one of his last letters to During the Constitutional Convention On the other hand, he was persuaded by Jefferson, Adams excoriated lingering theocratic years of 1787 and 1788, Adams wrote of the Federalists to pass the Alien and Sedition Acts, laws, including in Massachusetts, that mandated secular nature of the nation’s founding princi- the first allowing the government to expel any the punishment of individuals who spoke blas- ples, declaring that the new nation was the first foreign resident suspected of being a threat to phemy against the Bible. “example of governments erected on the simple national security, the second barring publication “The substance and essence of principles of nature.” of any material with the potential of inciting Christianity,” Adams concluded, “is eternal In the “formation” of the government, he public hostility against the federal government. and unchangeable, and will bear examination noted, “[I]t will never be pretended that any While he came to regret signing the acts, forever, but it has been mixed with extraneous persons employed in that service had inter- in the end Adams negotiated a controversial but ingredients, which I think will not bear exami- views with the gods, or were in any degree important peace treaty with France, the pinnacle nation, and they ought to be separated. Adieu.” under the influence of Heaven, more than of his presidency. The treaty in turn set the John Adams died in 1826 on July 4, those at work upon ships or houses, or labor- stage for the election of 1800, a bitterly con- the same day as Thomas Jefferson passed ing in merchandise or agriculture.” Rather, the tested election that he lost to Thomas Jefferson. away, and on the 50th anniversary of the government was contrived “merely by the use Returning to his home in Massachusetts, Declaration of Independence that both helped of reason and the senses.” Adams spent many years trying to rebuild his draft. Having rarely if ever penned the word During his presidential years Adams image in the public eye. From 1810 until his “Christ,” Adams’ religious faith by then was returned to the theme of America and reli- death, Adams frequently turned to the subject unrecognizable as Christianity. gion by putting his signature on the Treaty of religion in letters, including to Jefferson, The divinity of Jesus, the Trinity and the of Tripoli in 1797. “The government of the with whom he reconciled. truthfulness of the Bible had all been discarded. United States is not, in any sense, founded To Jefferson in 1813 he criticized “ancient Yet at his death, Adams remained the most reli- on the Christian religion,” the treaty with the Christianism” that had been “fraudulently gious president of the United States to date. BT A new release he 150th anniversary of the American Civil War provides a grand opportunity to consider precisely what Baptists — North and South T — were saying from their pulpits, in the press, and through official resolutions from that time. Bruce Gourley brings such perspectives to life by making good use of careful and significant research, creatively taking a chronological approach using primary sources. He highlights the role of various kinds of Baptists, for example: Robert Smalls, Thomas Hill Watts, Basil Manly Sr., Gov. Joseph Brown, Gov. Sam Houston, Isaac Taylor Tichenor, Crawford H. Toy, and Frank and Jesse James — most of whom went on to great prominence in politics, religion or education. Gourley’s firsthand accounts of how Baptists on both sides sought and claimed divine favor and righteousness provide lessons as plentiful as the statues and markers that dot the many battlefields where the devastation has given way to peaceful fields and quiet woodlands. nurturingfaith.net

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NURTURING FAITH EXPERIENCES 2015

he insists that theology belongs in the church. COASTAL GEORGIA “From my perspective the primary pur- SEPTEMBER 28-OCTOBER 2 pose of theology is to equip the church to live into their missional calling to be the people Emerging theologies that impact of God in the place where they live,” Franke congregational ministry told Baptists Today. “This is a complex task that requires careful thinking and reﬂective action.” REGISTRATION FEE of $950 includes housing on Jekyll Island, delicious meals and other wildlife gather. including local seafood, as well as all pro- his is a great opportunity to explore A ferry ride to Cumberland Island, where gramming and tours. To reserve space, please theological trends that impact congrega- horses run wild among sand dunes and historic send a deposit of $200/person to Baptists T tions, as well as enjoy the scenic beauty ruins, will be a uniquely enjoyable and refresh- Today, P.O. Box 6318, Macon, GA that many people don’t know exists along the ing experience. 31208-6318 or pay online at Georgia coastline. John R. Franke, author of Manifold nurturingfaith.net Deposit Award-winning photographer Bruce Witness: The Plurality of Truth, will lead practi- is non-refundable after Two great Gourley will provide photo tips as he leads the cal discussions, helpful to ministers and laity, August 1. Balance is due opportunities group on tours of tucked-away places where on emerging theologies. Known for his contri- August 15. Questions? driftwood rests on beaches and migrating birds butions to the Emerging Church movement, Call (478) 301-5655. available!

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22 REGISTRATION FEE of $45 First Baptist Church per person includes all program- 401 Gateway Ave. ming, dinner and tours. Register online at Chattanooga, Tenn. nurturingfaith.net or send a check payable to Baptists Today, P.O. Box 6318, Macon, GA 5:30 p.m. – Registration and Reception 31210. Deadline to register is Oct. 12. After 6:00 p.m. – Dinner / Presentations that date, call (478) 301-5655 to check on Panel Discussions availability. Questions? Call (478) 719-1033. “Who is on the Lord’s side? How Baptists HOUSING North and South, White and Black, Claimed Rooms at the discounted rate of $139 (plus tax Divine Favor” and parking) are available at the Courtyard by —Bruce T. Gourley, Ph.D., Executive Director, Marriott, 200 Chestnut St., near the beauti- THE AMERICAN Baptist History and Heritage Society CIVIL WAR @150 ful riverfront in downtown Chattanooga. To reserve a single king or double queen room at “Legacy and Loss: How the Civil War Still OCTOBER 22-23 this price, call (423) 755-0871 (ask for Baptists Impacts American Society” Chattanooga, Tenn. Today group) by Sept. 10. —Bobby Lovett, Ph.D., Retired Senior Professor, Tennessee State University Dialogue — Facilitated by John D. Pierce, Executive Editor of Baptists Today Sponsored by Baptists Today, Baptist History & Heritage Society, First Baptist Church of Fellowship/Book Signings Chattanooga, and Tennessee Cooperative Baptist Fellowship FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23 Tour of Civil War Sites his two-day experience offers a closer look at Baptist involvement in and reac- Chickamauga & Chattanooga National T tion to the Civil War — as well as how Military Park is the oldest and largest Civil the war’s legacy continues to impact American War park. Historians will share perspectives society a century and a half later. on the war during visits to Lookout Mountain The setting, rich in Civil War history, will (site of the “Battle Above the Clouds” and enhance the learning experience. Point Park) and the Chickamauga Battleﬁeld.

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OMMERCE, Ga. — Baptists Today St. Petersburg, Fla. Director David Hull presented a “Freedom is never C Freedom Bell to the First Baptist free,” Hull reminded Church of Commerce June 3. The Northeast the Commerce congre- Georgia congregation is a faithful supporter of gation. “Therefore, we the news journal’s expanding publishing ministry. are so grateful to people “Teamwork is needed for ministry,” said like you — churches Hull, noting that congregations and specialized and individuals — who ministries such as Baptists Today have differ- step up and support ent roles — in the same way players on sports Baptists Today so we teams ﬁll different positions. can carry out this important ministry.” Baptists Today “Because of the gifts from First Baptist, Hull is leading an effort to encourage 100 Commerce, you are a big part of this team- or more churches to include Baptists Today work,” he said appreciatively. in their missions support of at least $1,000 “We absolutely need Baptists Today to Hull, retired pastor of First Baptist annually. The Commerce congregation makes speak the truth and to help us know what is Church of Huntsville, Ala., teaches leader- generous monthly gifts to the autonomous going on that impacts our church,” he said. ship at Mercer University’s McAfee School of publishing ministry. To consider becoming a Freedom Church Theology and is a consultant with the Center Pastor Carlton Allen expressed apprecia- that shares in the unique mission of Baptists for Healthy Churches. Currently, he preaches tion for the news journal’s insights and helpful Today/Nurturing Faith, call (478) 301-5655 or in the interim at First Baptist Church of resources. email [email protected]. BT

INTRODUCING the Nurturing Faith Bible Studies Series

NEW RESOURCES FOR GROUPS SEEKING INSIGHTFUL, APPLICABLE BIBLE STUDIES These ﬁrst two volumes in the series are made possible through a generous gift from Bob and Pat Barker and the Bob Barker Company of Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina. Other volumes will be forthcoming. Bulk discounts available

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“We are living through the death of Protestant privilege in the South. And it’s the best thing that could happen to us.” Q&A with Bill Leonard A conversation about Protestant privilege and permanent transitions

INSTON-SALEM, N.C. — We were members of the First Baptist faith that nurtured me to Christianity. I am, in Baptists Today presented its annual Church of Decatur, Texas, and my mother was William James’ words, a once-born Christian W Judson-Rice Award to Bill Leonard the slowest get-ready-for-church-on-Sunday that got a twice-born experience. So I was one on April 24 during a dinner event at Wake human being in the whole county. I was so and two born, but the nurturing of the com- Forest University. He is the James and Marilyn gung ho about church that I would walk there. munities of faith was extremely important. Dunn Professor of Baptist Studies and profes- I’m in the fourth grade, and I would walk And I’ll tell you a quick story that illus- sor of church history at Wake Forest University from our house down on Hwy. 80 to the First trates that: My parents separated when I was Divinity School where he was founding dean. Baptist Church. No one would ever let their six — and then moved back together and we The following conversation is adapted kid do that anymore. moved to Ft. Worth when I was 10. The dea- from an interview conducted by Editor John So I would walk to Sunday school, and cons in the First Baptist Church of Decatur, Pierce at the award dinner. The full interview then my mother made it in time for church. So Texas, used to have these father-son breakfasts. can be viewed at baptiststoday.org that was the typical Sunday. And one of the deacons would call me up whenever they would have one and say, “We BT: Bill, will you describe a typical Sunday BT: When you harken back to your youth- know your daddy is not here but I’ll be our morning when you were 10 years old? ful days, what warms your heart and what daddy.” I’ve never forgotten that; that was a scares you about the Christian assump- BL: Oh Lord, that’s so long ago. We lived huge thing for me. tions at that time? in Decatur, Texas, the county seat of Wise The second thing is all of the African County. I was 10 years old and we were about BL: That’s a great question, and that’s a course, Americans in Decatur lived literally on the to move to Ft. Worth. not a question. I grew up in a community of other side of the tracks. And all of the facilities

36 — restrooms and drinking fountains and all go to court, and it was nasty. Writing about it BT: You have a really broad view of the of that — were marked with signs that said, gave me enough distance to endure it. world, especially for a Texan. “White” and “Colored,” and that was a hor- I will always be grateful that The BL: James Dunn had to leave so you can get by rible way to grow up, horrible. And the church Christian Century let me be their press repre- with saying that. did nothing about it, not my church. sentative to the Southern Baptist Convention Those are the two things: Churches are meetings. I would write articles that The BT: How much do our dialogue, politics still nurturing persons to faith and that’s won- Christian Century published. and faith-related behavior suffer from derful. But we just have to read the newspapers They did pastoral care with me. They isolation and narrow exposure to what is these days to know that the facilities aren’t Jim gave me an outlet for dealing with the strug- assumed to be the only sources of truth? Crow facilities, but the racism won’t go away. gles in a way that otherwise I wouldn’t have And we’ve got to deal with that together. had. The history gave me some distance. And BL: That’s another course. I think that the I would say also, in ways, my family gave me a changes in American culture these days ought BT: What does history teach us about historical opportunity. to be made to order for Baptists at their best change? I remember one particular [seminary] because we began as a believer’s church. trustee meeting when it was really bad and Persons had to own faith if they were BL: That nobody pays any attention. my wife, Candace, said, “If they’re going to do going to claim membership in Christ’s church. I can say it in a different way. I don’t think whatever they’re going to do, they’re going to That meant individuals had to choose to par- we recognize change until we have some his- have to see us as a family.” ticipate in Christian community; it’s a two-way tory to evaluate it. So she got Stephanie out of school and street. I’ll give you a classic example: The First we went down and sat on the front row at the I think the culture is compelling us to Baptist Church [of Winston-Salem] on Fifth public part of the trustee meeting. And I knew define ourselves and look at that. Because there Street here just called Emily Hull McGee, I could get through it then because we were are always people or institutions — church and a graduate of the Wake Forest University doing that as a family. That was a piece of his- state — trying to coerce faith, Baptists had to Divinity School, to be SENIOR pastor. tory that seems funny now, strange — but in be dissenters. She preached her [trial] sermon; she the heat of those moments it was a dramatic So believer’s church and uncoerced faith went back to Louisville where she’s on staff at and religious liberty and dissent are all bound Highland Baptist. They said goodbye to her family experience to go through. up — not in secular enlightenment ideas about on Sunday morning. Sunday evening her water “separation of church and state” — but they BT: Some good, even better things have broke and she gave birth to Annabelle. And grow out of faith commitments in a sense that emerged from Baptist losses that once she’s now pastor [of First Baptist], and she’s on faith is uncoerced. seemed only bad. Does there seem to be maternity leave. That’s happening to us, and we’re having some truth to that idea, which may have That’s history. And none of us in this to ask that again. And there are other Baptists some biblical backing as well? room, at least some of us at our age, would have who are offering alternative visions of what imagined we’d live to see it, would we? And the BL: I defer to the biblical specialists about church and state separation and religious lib- Apostle Paul would not know what to do with it. that, but I will say two things: erty mean, and that’s why we can’t keep silent. That’s history. And that’s where history One of the benefits of this — we say takes us even when we don’t know it’s doing it. this now looking back — is I think we’ve BT: Historians are not widely known to been forced to be Baptist. African-American be the life of the party. However, your BT: You have been both participant and Baptists, Latino/Latina Baptists, Asian insights are often bathed in humor. How is observer in the shifting of Baptist life Baptists, Anglos, we’ve been forced to look humor a helpful lens for seeing and inter- in America over the last 35 years or so. at what it means and decide if we can still be preting the world in which we live? What is it like to balance those two roles that. And not take other persons’ definitions as BL: Oh, it takes the edge off. I get by with a simultaneously? our own, but explore that. That’s been good. lot of stuff, and people who’ve been around BL: I never expected to write and study When I think about [Wake Forest divinity know that. much about the Baptists. I went to Boston students] and seminarians from other schools Frank Granger, Doug Dortch and Ronnie University, and then to the Baptist seminary in that have grown out of this movement, I think Brewer are three students here that I taught Louisville where I was charged with teaching the energy they bring to the church in general at Louisville shortly after the Magi came to American religion. and to Baptist churches in particular is worth Bethlehem. They know well that it was prickly Morgan Patterson and then Walter Shurden it all. there, and often in those classes — that were were my colleagues who did the Baptist part. The other thing happening is we are liv- so theologically divided — the only way was to Then the Baptists went dysfunctional on us. ing through the death of Protestant privilege in use humor to take the edge off. And for self-protection, and to figure out and to the South. And it’s the best thing that could People like James Dunn taught me to do offer alternative responses to what was increas- happen to us. that. Dunn was doing that before the Magi ingly becoming the Baptist norm in the South, I It’s painful, but losing that privilege of came. I could always see him do that with peo- had to start reading and writing about that. expecting the culture to undergird us when we ple, and it was so wonderfully disarming. I do Then we had to end up doing labor man- didn’t have to has been a huge crutch — and think— and my father was like this — there’s agement negotiations with the new crowd of it’s turning the gospel loose in ways we ought a facet of being from Texas that does that. I’ve trustees that came in. And so we threatened to to all celebrate. always said that Texans cuss funny.

37 “What’s worrisome is the churches that ignore the changes until it’s too late; it’s not too late for many congregations. But windows are closing…”

BT: A couple years ago I pulled my car off the BL: As a historian I think there’s a parallel — BT: In your long and deep study of Baptist road, grabbed my cell phone and called you and that is what was happening on the history, what have you discovered that because of a new sign that had been erected American frontier. The American frontier was you wish you hadn’t (or, really, wish it on Vineville Avenue. The Primitive Baptist a seedbed for the “Up East” churches to try hadn’t happened) — and what have you church in Macon, Ga., the heart of the Bible some new things because they saw that the cul- discovered that you are so glad you did? belt, had a new sign that read “The Islamic ture was full of what we call now the “nones.” Center of Macon.” Such change is not iso- BL: Well, I started down that road with you Protestantism still had a foot in the door. lated. What are the implications of that kind already. One of the most terrible things that But it was a brand new cultural situation. of change for Baptist congregations? many Protestants in general and Baptists in We’re there. We used to talk about trends particular did was they thought they could use BL: Well, it’s not just Baptists. Everybody in in American religious life. There aren’t any the Bible to support chattel slavery. this country, all the churches, religious institu- more trends; the trends have all become real- Even when the war was over, they had so tions are experiencing this. I call it a time of ity along these lines. And churches are finding permanent transitions. ways to thrive. staked their biblical interpretation, their bibli- It’s partly the result of pluralism; a lot the What’s worrisome is the churches that cal hermeneutic, on the biblical support of result of pluralism. But it’s also the result of ignore the changes until it’s too late; but it’s slavery that they had to reinvent that and say the changing nature of religious communities. not too late for many congregations. But things like, “Well it wasn’t that we were wrong We used to say, when I worked in the summer windows are closing — and I think it’s a good about slavery; it was that we didn’t treat slaves Appalachian Program in Berea, Ky., that there thing in that it often sobers up the congrega- as the way St. Paul told us to as Christians.” were Buddhists in Berea and if the Buddhists tions and they begin to decide how we’re going Because once that brick came out the whole had discovered Berea they were everywhere. to do this. thing could fall in. And that’s what’s happened. Religious plu- And people realize that just having a con- Then you move to Jim Crow. It is historic ralism has found its way — not just into the temporary worship service won’t do it. You got [for Mel Williams, director emeritus of Baptists big cities or up East, as they say, or out West to have a whole new theology for permanent Today] to have been in the chapel when Martin — but into every community. Inter-marriage transition. When that happens, we all — what- Luther King Jr. preached at Wake Forest. The — multi-ethnic, multi-religion — has found ever age and whatever generation — need to be only other Southern Baptist-related school its way into families in these communities. able to talk about that and try to facilitate it. was, the year before that, at Southern Baptist Old ways of being the church or tradi- Not in some nature of one size fits all, but in Theological Seminary in Louisville. Those are tional ways of being the church have always each intentional community of faith deciding the only two places where [King] had voice. been in flux. They are still, and that’s part of how to confront these changes. So that racial blindness continued from what I mean about losing cultural privilege. slavery through Jim Crow and the civil rights We are all thinking about this because it’s BT: What are today’s students teaching you? movement — almost always with biblical happening at every level. support. BL: Oh my, they’re wonderful; they really are. I used to talk about these things and the The Independent Baptists, by my calcula- African-American pastors would say, “That’s I have this two-semester church history class. tions — J. Frank Norris, John R. Rice and that happening in white churches, not with us.” They invigorate me and make me think of crowd — were holding on to segregation from Now African-American pastors finish my sen- things I haven’t thought of before even though a biblical perspective until the 1970s and ’80s, tences for me because their congregations are I’ve taught Intro to Church History for 40 primarily on biblical opposition to racial inter- edgy; they’re having difficulty with Sunday years. marriage as the last buttress of Jim Crow and school and the changing sociology. When we go through this material, they’re their last effort with holding onto the Bible to But then, when I see what some of our living through this. The kind of conversations promote their racism. younger pastors and staff folks and laity are we have make me think of things about this The best thing is, at their best and at their doing in engaging in these signature ministries material about everybody from St. Augustine most articulate, Baptists really did — it would of churches, I think the transition is happening to Thomas Merton. It’s truly wonderful to be too much to say invent — but opened the and we need to be aware of it and respond to it. have that happen. I’ve been doing a seminar on American door to religious pluralism on the basis of the BT: I often say that a congregation’s min- religious experience and I’m grading their term idea of a believer’s church. istry is greatly shaped by whether the papers now. These are absolutely some of the That may be the singular most important church sees this growing religious plural- most amazing papers across the spectrum of contribution historically, then and now, of ism as a threat or an opportunity. How theological investigation. They’ve taught me — Baptist identity around believer’s church, unco- much fear do you see within American erced faith, freedom of conscience and then Christianity today versus hopefulness, their research has taught me what I need to know necessity of dissent. BT and what might we do about it? about so many segments of religious experience.

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Selections from recent blogs at baptiststoday.org Personal problems

By John Pierce Had the train derailed between Raleigh mention a name, not a more-clearly stated and Charlotte or Memphis and New Orleans position than the one they held earlier. oliticians and news media were frenzied or Oklahoma City and Fort Worth, it would In the same way an earthquake in Nepal following a deadly passenger train wreck have been newsworthy but not as emotionally rattles us less than one in San Francisco, so a P in Philadelphia in mid-May. There were consuming for politicians and national media beloved grandchild, friend or church member’s passionate calls for cooperation, spending and who live at one end or the other of the desig- personal story reaches places within us that competency beyond the typical legislative pro- nated route. well-crafted arguments could not. cess or news reporting. This is an observation about human behav- Proximity matters. That which impacts Something needed to be done right now ior, not a judgment on those rightly shaken by us personally will get more of our atten- — we heard repeatedly and with great passion. this disaster. Proximity and personal experience tion and compassion. Such is expected and Why? impact our reactions — and our perspectives. understandable. Because we are all more consumed by Such is the case with social issues. Positions But what if we claim that everyone is cre- those issues that impact us personally. The rarely — if ever — change due to debate. ated in the image of God? Then the challenge is intensity was tied to the fact that the train was Ask anyone who has changed his or her to better grasp how those removed from us by traveling from the political hub of Washington mind about immigration, homosexuality distance and personal experience suffer as well to the media hub of New York. or any number of other issues and they will and deserve our attention and best care. BT

They just happen, and then happen to stick. case for my friends Scooter and Cooter. Nicknames Some nicknames are tied to attributes Through the years I’ve tagged my such as Smiley, Slim and Shorty. Others daughters with various nicknames — usu- By John Pierce come from mispronunciations — perhaps ally some take on their own names or just by a younger child trying to speak a sibling’s an expression of affection. And, for full dis- uring a camping trip when we were name. closure, some seminary buddies once called teens, my best friend Dale peeled a Nicknames are everywhere. me “Hollywood” because of the sunglasses I D bright orange, oval label from the At Atlanta’s Turner Field, my friend wore back then. package of meat we were about to grill and Norman is better known as “Chocolate Nicknames can be affirming or demean- pressed it to his forehead. It simply read, Papa” than his given name. And the guy ing. In most cases, however, they are neither “GROUND CHUCK.” in the right field stands, wearing a tacky — they just happen, and then happen to Not only did the label stick; so did feathered outfit, is Robby to a few but “The stick. a nickname. To our circle of friends, he Chief” to the masses. Some scholars suggest that “Christian” became forever “Chuck.” Baseball is was first used in a His West Point classmates, learning notorious for derogatory way. It was of his back-home nickname, referred to nicknames for play- a nickname meant to the albums he brought to the Academy as ers — from “Cool ridicule those who fool- “Chucky music.” Papa” to “Big Papi,” ishly staked their lives My good friend Marshall and several from “Catfish” on the Way of Christ. So other former campus ministry colleagues to “Mudcat,” they were derisively called shared a van ride from Georgia to Arkansas from “Preacher” to “Christians,” meaning, long ago. During the trip, one colleague acci- “Spaceman,” from “The “little christs.” dently called him “Herschel.” Big Unit” to “The Big Hurt,” from “Crime The Greek-rooted word “Christian” has It was 1981 and that colleague worked Dog” to “Kung Fu Panda,” from “Oil Can” gained pejorative meanings, for good and at the University of Georgia. So major to endless other slick names. bad, over time. Most often it means simply research is not needed to find the source of Some nicknames are given early in life “a follower of Christ.” that slip-up that turned into a nickname. and become the names by which these per- How well that nickname fits depends Nicknames are typically unintentional. sons are almost always called. Such is the on how well we follow. BT Some nicknames are given early in life and become the names by which these persons are almost always called.

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Nonreligious voters set sights on 2016 campaigns

few years ago, when atheist activ- “Jerry Falwell didn’t get along with Pentecostals, “Jerry Falwell didn’t get along with ists asked U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a but they were able to convince their people Pentecostals, but they were able to convince Louisiana Republican, to tone down a their people that for political purposes they A that for political purposes they could get along. Christian-oriented message to voters, they were could get along,” Green said. “I can see a I can see a very similar thing happening with told, “There aren’t any atheists in Louisiana.” very similar thing happening with the Secular But according to a new Pew Research the Secular Coalition and other organizations Coalition and other organizations that are try- Center survey, not only are there atheists in that are trying to get conversations going with ing to get conversations going with people not Louisiana, there are agnostics and “nones” — people not involved in organized religion.” involved in organized religion.” people who say they have no religious affiliation —POLITICAL SCIENTIST JOHN C. GREEN But there is another hurdle — polls con- — too. sistently show that Americans are least likely The survey found that 2 percent of carry them far if they use the data wisely. to vote for an atheist. David Gutterman, co- Louisianans are atheist, another 2 percent “It is going to translate into a lot of politi- author of the forthcoming Political Religion are agnostic, and 13 percent are unaffiliated cal clout and social acceptance if we manage and Religious Politics, said that only coalition- “nones.” Those numbers are amplified nation- this correctly,” said David Silverman, president building can combat that bias. ally, where the religiously unaffiliated have of American Atheists. “If you start with atheism as the place grown to about 22 percent, or 56 million Silverman, Damerow and other atheist to bring people to, I think that is the wrong Americans, up 19 million people from 2007. and humanist activists agree that the hurdles path,” he said. “It’s easy to ignore 2, 3 or 4 percent of are steep: Nonbelievers tend to be nonjoiners. Ryan Cragun is even less optimistic. A the population,” said Kelly Damerow, interim “We don’t say, ‘Hey everybody, if you want nonbeliever and sociologist of religion at the director of Secular Coalition for America, who to be an atheist you have to join American University of Tampa, he said that even though met with Vitter’s staff in April 2013. “But with Atheists,’” said Silverman, “because they are the religiously unaffiliated are now second only this state-by-state breakdown we can now go going to tell you what do with that suggestion.” to evangelicals in size, the membership rolls of into their offices and say, ‘Here’s your state.’ John C. Green, director of the Ray C. major atheist and humanist organizations only It’s hard to ignore almost 1 in 5 people.” Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, said that if total about 100,000. As the 2016 election approaches, atheist, atheists want a voting bloc, they should look to “Yes, maybe 23 percent of the population humanist and other freethinking activists say the evangelicals’ playbook. is nonreligious, but there is maybe 1 million their longtime goal of creating a cohesive and In the 1970s, evangelicals were as diverse as that you could reach through these groups,” he formidable secular voting bloc from the diverse the nonbelievers are now. Evangelicals disagreed said. “Until they can say 15 million Americans and scattered category of the nonreligious has on theology but found common ground in will vote against you or your party, no one is taken new life from the study — and could political issues such as abortion and marriage. going to take them seriously.” BT

The Vatican looks to reform its media operations

Vatican the sort of modern media operation Religion News Service that others — including existing national church organizations — take for granted,” he ATICAN CITY — The Vatican is said. dragging its media machine into the The Vatican spends almost 70 million V 21st century, promising to promote euros, or $76 million, each year on its media social media and streamline its fragmented services and employs 600 people. Despite services with the help of a former BBC being tasked with making budget cuts, executive. Patten said the committee had decided job Lord Christopher Patten, former chair- losses would “not be ethically appropriate.” man of the BBC Trust, outlined reform plans He instead foresaw the merging of the May 27, nearly a year after being appointed various communication tools, which include chief of the pope’s media committee. radio, television, a publishing house and Addressing journalists at St. Patrick’s underdeveloped online services. church in central London, Patten highlighted “What is needed now is more visual, “wasteful” duplications of media services multimedia content, especially if one wishes at the Vatican and said modernization was to reach younger people,” Patten said, imperative. explaining the Vatican’s need to take an inter- “It would be beyond bizarre to deny the active approach. BT

42 Religion News Service

‘Pro-choice’ label preferred by half of Americans

espite Americans’ shifting opinions she said. circumstances” (29 percent) or in “most on a range of moral and ethical issues, A Vox poll taken earlier this year also circumstances” (13 percent) while only 19 per- D abortion foes have been encouraged by found that more Americans identified as cent said that abortions should be illegal “in all numbers showing that opposition to abortion “pro-choice” (32 percent) rather than “pro-life” circumstances.” The poll showed 36 percent rights appeared to have resisted serious slip- (26 percent). said the procedure should be legal “in only a page, and was even gaining traction. But it also found that 39 percent — a few circumstances.” But a Gallup poll released May 29 shows plurality — reject the labels, with 21 percent The shift comes as states have increas- that may be changing: 50 percent of all identifying as neither and 18 percent identify- ingly been restricting access to abortion, with a Americans now identify as “pro-choice,” the ing as both. debate also growing over bills to ban any abor- first statistically significant lead over the “pro- Results from a May 26 Gallup survey on tion past the 20-week mark of a pregnancy. life” label, which came in at 44 percent, since Americans’ shifting attitudes on a range of Yet it’s not clear that the shift to a “pro- 2008. hot-button issues showed a uniformly leftward choice” preference will herald a truce in the The data suggest this could signal an end march since 2001, especially on gay and political battle over abortion that is sure to to the seesaw battle that has characterized lesbian acceptance. play a role in the 2016 presidential campaign: opinions on abortion over the past few years. But those who viewed abortion as “mor- Democrats are still most likely to identify as “The pro-choice view is not as prevalent ally acceptable” increased only 3 percent over “pro-choice” (68 percent) and Republicans as among Americans as it was in the mid-1990s, that period, to 45 percent. An equal number “pro-life” (31 percent). but the momentum for the pro-life position said it was morally wrong. Gallup noted in its analysis that it does that began when Barack Obama took office has The newly released data, however, sug- not define the “pro-choice” and “pro-life” yielded to a pro-choice rebound,” Gallup’s Lydia gest that if Americans continue to have moral terms for respondents, but says that “their Saad wrote in an analysis of the figures, which qualms about abortion they are increasingly answers to a separate question about the legal- are from a survey conducted in early May. inclined to want to protect the legal right to ity of abortion indicate that those favoring “That rebound has essentially restored abortion. the pro-choice label generally support broad views to where they were in 2008; today’s Some 42 percent of respondents abortion rights, while pro-life adherents mostly views are also similar to those found in 2001,” said abortions should be legal “under any favor limited or no abortion rights.” BT

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