c. 1996 Religion News Service
Clinton names his favorite preachers
(RNS)-President Bill Clinton has named a half-dozen pastors, including his Southern Baptist minister in Little Rock, Ark., and the Methodist cleric he hears most frequently in Washington, D.C., as his favorite preachers.
Clinton provided his list to Newsweek magazine for an article on Baylor University’s list of the 12″most effective”preachers in the English-speaking world.
Those on Clinton’s list are the Rev. Rex Horn, senior pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, the president’s home church; the Rev. Gardner C. Taylor, pastor emeritus of the Concord Baptist Church of Christ, Brooklyn, N.Y.; Bill Hybels, pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, a megachurch in South Berrington, Ill.; the Rev. J. Philip Wogaman, pastor of Foundry Methodist Church in Washington, D.C, where Clinton frequently attends when he is in the capital; evangelist Billy Graham; and Tony Campolo, evangelist and sociology professor at Eastern College, St. David’s Pa.
Two of those on Clinton’s list-Graham and Taylor, considered the”granddaddy of current African-American preachers,”according to Newsweek-were also among Baylor’s 12 most effective.
Baylor, a Southern Baptist-affiliated school in Waco, Texas, based its list on a survey of 341 seminary professors and editors of religious publications. They were asked to name their candidates for”most effective”preachers.”Like all lists, Baylor’s round apostolic 12 reflects those who did the choosing,”Newsweek said.”Most of the chosen are also academics themselves and their reputations are based as much on what they have published about homiletics-the study of preaching-as on the evidence of their oral performances.” Baylor’s list included one woman, Barbara Brown Taylor, rector of Grace-Calvary Episcopal Church in Clarksville, Ga., and one Roman Catholic, the Rev. Walter J. Burghardt, a senior fellow at the Jesuit Woodstock Theological Center in Washington, D.C.
In addition to Gardner Taylor, one other African-American preacher made Baylor’s list-James Forbes, senior minister at the non-denominational Riverside Church in New York City. John R.W. Stott, rector emeritus of All Souls Church in London, England, was the only non-American to make the list.
Rounding out the Baylor list are Fred Craddock, professor emeritus, Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga.; Thomas Long, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, N.J.; U.S. Senate chaplain Lloyd Ogilvie; Haddon Robinson, a professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass.; Charles Swindoll, president of Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas; and William Willimon, dean of the chapel at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
Eight Coptic Christians slain in Egypt
(RNS)-Eight Coptic Christians were killed in an ambush in southern Egypt on Saturday in an attack Egyptian authorities blamed on militant Muslims, the New York Times reported Monday.
Coptic Christians make up about 7 percent of Egypt’s 60 million people. The Coptic Church broke with other Christians in the 5th century and formed an independent church.
The Times said the attack on the Christians followed a series of other attacks over the past two weeks on Christians and on government soldiers.
Egyptian authorities blamed the attacks on followers of the Islamic Group, the nation’s most powerful militant organization. It has vowed to use violence in its campaign to make Egypt a strict Islamic state.
Australian politician doesn’t want pope’s name used in election campaign
(RNS)-Opposition leader John Howard, in a tight election campaign to be Australia’s next prime minister, has called for the name of Pope John Paul II to be kept out of Australian politics.
Howard’s call came after a group of 100 Protestant and Roman Catholic clergy released a statement quoting the pope on workers’ rights and labor-management relations. The quotes implicitly criticized positions Howard, a conservative, has taken in the election campaign.
Reuters reported Monday that Howard’s Liberal-National Party holds a slight lead over the Labor Party, led by Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating. The election is set for March 2.
The religious leaders’ statement, released last week, quoted papal praise for Australia’s long tradition of settling industrial disputes through conciliation and arbitration, according to Ecumenical News International, the news agency based at the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland.”We fear that the reforms proposed by the Opposition, which are designed to encourage both secret and individual employment contracts, and (which) limit the role of trade unions, may lead to a take-it-or-leave-it situation for workers,”the statement said.
Howard, however, said he does not believe Catholics or non-Catholics”want His Holiness involved. I would be very happy to argue the Christian credentials of anything I put forward in this election campaign.”
Charles Kelley Jr. elected to head New Orleans Baptist Seminary
(RNS)-An evangelism professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary has been elected unanimously as the Southern Baptist seminary’s eighth president.
Charles S.”Chuck”Kelley Jr. was elected Feb. 23, reported Baptist Press, the news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. He succeeds Landrum P. Leavell II, who served as president from 1975 to 1995.
Kelley, 43, has been a professor of evangelism at the school in New Orleans, La., since 1983. He has chaired the seminary’s pastoral ministries division since 1993.
Established in 1917, New Orleans Seminary is the third largest seminary in the United States.
Quote of the Day: Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan
(RNS)-Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan delivered a speech Sunday to followers after he returned from a controversial 18-nation tour of Africa and the Middle East. During the trip, Farrakhan visited some nations, including Iran, Iraq and Libya, that the United States government considers sponsors of international terrorism. Farrakhan’s trip, including reports that he will accept a cash donation from Libya, prompted U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., to call for congressional hearings and to demand that Farrakhan register as a foreign agent. On Sunday, Farrakhan said he was ready for”a showdown”with Congress and responded to the criticism:”You follow your conscience, I’ll follow mine. I respect the American flag, I would never burn the American flag … but I can’t pledge allegiance to it. We don’t give allegiance to nothing or no one but God. … I’m not an enemy of America. I never said America would be destroyed at the hands of Muslims. America is a preserved area. God has allowed every superpower to be set down by America. And he left America for himself. … I want you to bring me before Congress and ask me to register as a foreign agent. And I’m going to call the roll of how many senators are honorary members of the Israeli Knesset. … (Libyan leader Moammar) Gadhafi is a revolutionary. He’s my friend. He’s my brother.”
LJB END RNS
