c. 1997 Religion News Service
Baptist ethicists debate Disney boycott
(RNS) Two Baptist ethicists have taken opposing views about the Southern Baptist Convention’s recent boycott of the Walt Disney Co.
David Gushee of Union University in Jackson, Tenn., said the boycott reflects a notion that”American society ought to be Christian,”while C. Ben Mitchell of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., argues that”Christians have no choice but to speak out on moral issues.” Gushee, an associate professor of Christian studies, wrote an editorial that appeared in the Aug. 11 edition of Christianity Today magazine under the headline”The Speck in Mickey’s Eye.” Gushee said the resolution passed in June that officially began the Baptist boycott”raises serious questions concerning how evangelicals are to relate to popular culture.” In his article, Gushee criticizes evangelicals, who he said correctly stick with biblical convictions in their view of homosexual behavior but focus on homosexuality to the neglect of other issues.”We are fixated on the one moral issue most remote from the daily experience of our membership, while we ignore a wide range of offenses far closer to home _ divorce and materialism, to name two examples,”he wrote.
Mitchell, an assistant professor of Christian ethics, responded in a letter sent to the editor of Christianity Today, which has not yet appeared in print, but was furnished to Baptist Press, the official news agency of the Southern Baptist Convention.
In his response, Mitchell called homosexuality a”major flashpoint”in America’s culture war.”Ours is a sex-obsessed culture, and homosexuality is the abysmal perversion of choice among increasing numbers of Americans, including The Disney Company,”he wrote.”Those who agonized over and finally penned the resolution on moral stewardship were under no illusion that Christians are made by public policy.” Delegates to the annual meeting of Southern Baptists voted overwhelmingly to boycott Disney because of what they believe is its promotion of”immoral ideologies.”One example Southern Baptists have cited is the company’s offering of insurance benefits to partners of homosexual employees.
Other groups and individuals have also expressed concern about Disney.
Prison Fellowship founder Charles W. Colson announced during his Aug. 7 radio program he is taking part in the boycott. Delegates to the Church of the Nazarene’s general assembly in June voted to submit a letter to Disney urging the company to”return to the moral values on which the corporation first established its mission.”
Groups voice support, disappointment for dropping NIV translation
(RNS) Baptist Women in Ministry and the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference have recently taken opposing sides on the International Bible Society’s decision to drop plans for a gender-accurate translation of the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible.
Becca Gurney, president of Baptist Women in Ministry, wrote a letter to the Bible society expressing her group’s disappointment in the decision and urging translators to reconsider publishing a Bible that has more gender-inclusive language than the current NIV.”Language is not a static entity,”wrote Gurney, who is associate pastor of University Baptist Church in Austin, Texas.”Rather it is dynamic, changing and growing as we all participate in communicating with each other and with God.” Baptist Women in Ministry, organized in 1983, is comprised of about 350 members who are affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention _ whose conservative leaders have opposed women’s ordination _ as well as other Baptist organizations.
Meanwhile, delegates to the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference passed a resolution at their annual meeting in Greeley, Colo., commending the society’s stand.”We would also urge upon them to continue to use time-honored historic principles of biblical translation and to steadfastly resist the pressures of sinful human culture which would obscure, diminish or subvert any aspect of God’s inerrant truth,”the resolution said.
In addition, the delegates said they hope organizations involved in Bible translation will”continue to clearly and faithfully preserve the distinction between men and women which our wise and gracious God has established in creation and revealed in his word.” The Conservative Congregational Christian Conference, established in 1948, has about 230 member congregations. It represents the evangelical wing of congregationalism.
Under pressure from conservative Christians, the Bible society announced in May it had scrapped plans for the proposed rendering that would have substituted gender-neutral words, such as people, for gender-specific words, such as mankind.
Social activist elected moderator of United Church of Canada
(RNS) The Rev. Bill Phipps, called by some”a prophet in a baseball cap,”has been elected moderator of the United Church of Canada.
Phipps, 55, pastor of Scarboro United Church in Calgary, was elected on the first ballot Sunday (Aug. 17) during the denomination’s Aug. 15-21 General Council meeting in Camrose, Alberta.
A well-known and out-spoken social activist, especially in causes relating to Canada’s First Nations people (Indians), Phipps jokingly described himself after the election as”a pretty cautious, middle-of-the-road person.” Others call him a”prophet in a baseball cap”because of his love of the game and his ever-present, well-worn baseball cap. His fondness for baseball led him to begin in 1984 what has become known as the Moderator’s Cup baseball tournament among delegates to the General Council meeting as a means of breaking the tedium of the business meetings.”I think people are looking for leadership, whether it’s in the spiritual or political realm,”Phipps told reporters after his election.”Religious communities in this country have a great deal of wisdom and strength to bring to the community.” At the same time, Phipps, who is also trained as a lawyer, said the church must learn to be a prophetic minority in the larger society.”The church exists for the sake of the world,”he said.”The congregation exists for the sake of whatever part of the world it sees as its responsibility, whether its a neighborhood or a whole region or a specific part of the world like single parents or First Nations.”
Turkey passes law restricting religious education
(RNS) In an effort to curb the effects of radical Islam on its youths, Turkey’s parliament passed a measure Saturday (Aug. 16) that restricts the number of years children may attend religious schools.
Under the new law, schoolchildren must spend eight years instead of five in secular-oriented public and private schools before being eligible to enroll in religious academies, the Associated Press reported.
The measure, fiercely opposed by the Islamist Welfare Party, means that religious high schools, which had offered a six-year program, will now be limited to a three-year curriculum.
Mesut Yilmaz, Turkey’s new, secular prime minister who took office just seven weeks ago, and the nation’s powerful secular-oriented military both support the law. They believe radical religious schools are a breeding ground for activists seeking to establish an Islamic regime in officially secular Turkey, the AP reported.”I will not condone religious academies that train warriors for the Welfare Party,”said Yilmaz, according to The New York Times.”… In no way are we restricting freedom of religion. … We are simply opposing those who want to use religion for political purposes.” Necmettin Erbakan, Turkey’s former Islamic prime minister who was forced to resign because of his anti-secular views, called the law unconstitutional and vowed to fight it.”This bill prevents people from learning their religion despite constitutional guarantees,”Erbakan said.
About 3,000 Islamists marched Sunday (Aug. 17) in downtown Istanbul to protest the law.
Meanwhile, the 74-year-old Welfare Party, the largest in Turkey’s parliament, is fighting an attempt by the nation’s highest court to ban it because the government believes it poses a threat to the constitution.
Two”notations”removed from seminary’s accreditation
(RNS) The Association of Theological Schools has removed two critical”notations”from its accreditation of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Two other notations dealing with evaluation and financial planning procedures have been retained and the school is expected to submit a progress report by November 1998 about how seminary officials plan to improve them.
Seminary president Mark Coppenger, who was not in his office at the time the notations were received, called the visit earlier this year by ATS officials and their subsequent June report”most helpful and encouraging.”He also said,”The team recognized Midwestern’s strength and progress and made suggestions for fine-tuning the seminary.” The two notations that were removed dealt with problems between the administration and trustees, Baptist news services reported.
The notations, placed in 1994 by a team that visited the Kansas City, Mo., campus, said the school’s trustee board exercised”inappropriate control over the administration and faculty,”adding that the”general tone of the school impairs the capacity to provide significant theological education and ministerial training.” In 1993, trustees had denied tenure to a theology professor because he refused to say the Bible is”inerrant,”or without error. That action prompted scrutiny by ATS.
During a visit in February, another accrediting team found that relations among administration, faculty and trustees had improved greatly since Coppenger was elected in 1995.
Quote of the day: ELCA Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson
(RNS) The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the 5.2 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, proposed several new initiatives for the next century in his address to the denomination’s Churchwide Assembly, meeting in Philadelphia through Aug. 20. But, Anderson said, there are risks for the church:”The church need not be afraid of being pushed to the edge of society. That is where the church was born. It is genetically engineered to thrive in adversity and `tribulation.’ It’s in the church’s DNA. Or maybe we should call it DBA _ Don’t Be Afraid.”
MJP END RNS
