BTJuly11NAT_060711.qxd 6/9/11 3:55 PM Page 1 content for learning. context for living Bringing Baptists together 34 JULY 2011 baptiststoday.org Petra High place of sacrifice demands a response 4 NEW! BIBLE STUDIES for adults and youth 17 AUGUST LESSONS INSIDE BTJuly11NAT_060711.qxd 6/9/11 3:55 PM Page 2 contents July 2011 Vol. 29, No. 7 baptiststoday.org STAFF John D. Pierce Executive Editor [email protected] MAJOR Julie Steele Chief Operations Officer [email protected] CONFLICT Jackie B. Riley 30 Managing Editor [email protected] PERSPECTIVES Tony W. Cartledge Contributing Editor In search and praise of imagination 7 [email protected] By John Pierce Bruce T. Gourley Communication the key to good transitions 9 Online Editor [email protected] By Chris Gambill with Natalie Aho David Cassady Stewardship looks better from Church Resources Editor the ‘balcony’ 33 [email protected] By John Hewett Steve DeVane Contributing Writer Cooperative missions changing, not dead 36 [email protected] By Steve Vernon Vickie Frayne Art Director Fellowship’s mission strategy not ‘radically Jannie Lister altered’ by UN goals 37 Office Assistant By Jack Glasgow [email protected] COMMON CUP Kimberly L. Hovis 38 Marketing Associate [email protected] IN THE NEWS BAPTISTS CONVERGE 15 Walker Knight, Publisher Emeritus ‘Sujay’ sworn in as religious freedom envoy 11 Jack U. Harwell, Editor Emeritus Two-thirds of Americans OK with Mormon candidate 11 BOARD OF DIRECTORS MLK’s daughter leaves Atlanta-area Gary F. Eubanks,Marietta,Ga. (chairman) megachurch 11 Kelly L. Belcher,Spartanburg,S.C.,(vice chair) Z. Allen Abbott,Peachtree City,Ga. Ayn Rand v. Jesus? 12 Jimmy R. Allen,Big Canoe,Ga. Nannette Avery,Signal Mountain,Tenn. Ga. church diverts funds from Thomas E. Boland,Alpharetta,Ga. Huey Bridgman,The Villages,Fla. “Calvinist” Mary Jane Cardwell,Waycross,Ga. SBC seminaries 13 Robert Cates,Rome,Ga. Jack Causey,Statesville,N.C. Anthony D. Clevenger,Pensacola,Fla. Brazilian Baptists motivated by Kenny Crump,Ruston,La. missions 31 Quotation Remarks 6 David Currie,San Angelo,Texas 12 James M. Dunn,Winston-Salem,N.C. New book says Gen. MacArthur Editorial 7 R. Kirby Godsey,Macon,Ga. Ben Gross,Chattanooga,Tenn. flooded Japan with post-war religion 42 Leslie D. Hill,Lexington,Ky. In the Know 14 Michael M. Massar,Sugar Land,Texas Gallup finds same-sex relations, marriage receive J. Thomas McAfee,Macon,Ga. record approval 42 Classifieds 14 Michael G. Queen,Wilmington,N.C. Lee Royal,Greensboro,N.C. Mary Etta Sanders,Dalton,Ga. Lighter Side 29 Charles Schaible,Macon,Ga. FEATURES Macon Sheppard,Folly Beach,S.C. Baptists and the Civil War 30 Walter B. Shurden,Macon,Ga. Keith Herron answers six questions about CBF 32 Charlotte Cook Smith,Winston-Salem,N.C. Reblog 40 David M. Smith,Houston,Texas Leo Thorne,Valley Forge,Pa. Bob Dylan’s music, religious mystique endure 43 Sarah Timmerman,Cairo,Ga. By Ron Csillag Media 41 David Turner,Richmond,Va. Clement H. White,St. Petersburg,Fla. Winnie V. Williams,Seneca,S.C. cover photo by Tony W. Cartledge An autonomous national Petra in Jordan calls for prayer and contemplation news journal since 1983 2| Information Story on page 4 BTJuly11NAT_060711.qxd 6/9/11 3:55 PM Page 3 READERS SERVICES Mission Statement Baptists Today serves churches by providing a reliable source of unrestricted news coverage,thoughtful analysis, helpful resources and inspiring features focusing on issues of importance to Baptist Christians. 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Box 6318,Macon,GA 31208-6318 • 478-301-5655 • 1-877-752-5658 • © 2011 Baptists Today • All rights reserved. Information | 3 BTJuly11NAT_060711.qxd 6/9/11 3:55 PM Page 4 STORY AND PHOTOS BY TONY W. CARTLEDGE, Contributing Editor Attention: God speaking Petra’s high place of sacrifice demands response When returning to Petra in Jordan recently — this time, bringing with me a group of students, friends and alumni from Campbell University Divinity School — I wanted most to visit the high place of sacrifice. t is not a popular destination in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, a sequence Petra: most visitors never see it, and in which all of the interior beyond the struc- there’s not even a sign at the foot of ture’s single large room is imaginary. the steep stairway, nearly hidden Turning right and walking behind a row of souvenir shops, that down the valley, one sees scores leads to it. of similar tombs, fashioned for IBut that’s where I wanted to go. royalty or wealthy city dwellers, on The Nabatean city of Petra has been every side. acclaimed as one of the seven wonders of the The beauty of the structures ancient world, and for good reason. The is that they all were carved directly Nabateans were primarily merchants who con- into the mountainsides — ancient trolled the trade routes between Saudi Arabia architects had to design what they and countries to the north. They flourished wanted, then chisel away the extra- especially during the last two centuries before neous stone until what remained Christ and the first century after, when they was an impressive façade. In most were finally conquered by the Romans. cases, the elaborate doors led to a Petra is located in the southern part of single room containing niches for what is now Jordan, in a narrow valley the dead. surrounded by precipitous mountains on every The remains of an impressive side, and accessible only through the mile-long city built in typical Roman style Bab al-Siq, a crack in the mountains resulting can be found at the valley bottom. from a major earthquake long ago. Adventurous souls can climb more The mountains are made of sandstone, in than 900 uneven rock-hewn steps colors ranging from yellow to orange to red to to the largest of the tombs, inap- brown, often in striated patterns. When one propriately called the “Monastery,” first emerges from the siq, he or she is greeted located on the backside of one of by the stunning façade of an ancient edifice the surrounding mountains. known popularly as the “Treasury,” though it Fewer people make the effort never served that purpose. to see the high place of sacrifice, Most people know the Treasury as the which requires a similar winding setting for the climactic scene in the movie climb through the Wadi al-Mahfur, 4| Feature BTJuly11NAT_060711.qxd 6/9/11 3:56 PM Page 5 There’s something about being in such an exposed place — surrounded by the majesty of an almost otherworldly creation — that demands a response. a tight cleft between two mountains where The Bedouin say that was used for wash- look down into the bare bones of the Wadi Nabatean engineers chiseled steps and occasional ing the sacrifice after it was skinned, and that it Musa on the one side, or into the carved “god-blocks” as protective images. After a 20-30 was burned or cooked on the other altar, with canyon walls of Petra on the other. minute climb and a final, steep ascent, one the basin-like depression. No one knows for There’s something about being in such an comes to a platform at the edge of a cliff, over- sure. exposed place — surrounded by the majesty of looking a dramatic 500-foot drop into the Wadi Facing the altars is a large rectangular tri- an almost otherworldly creation — that Musa and the rugged mountains beyond. clinium for worship participants, a three-sided demands a response. At the edge of the platform, two stone sitting area carefully cut into the rocky surface, My response on the high place was not one altars, shaped as blocks about five feet on each with a low table near the center. of blood sacrifice, but of prayer and contempla- side and about four feet tall, each with four Little is really known about Nabatean reli- tion in trying to imagine the grandeur of a god steps, have been fashioned by cutting away the gion.