c. 1998 Religion News Service
The Bible, in comic strip form, debuts in Great Britain
(RNS) The Bible, which has been published in a host of various versions and forms, is getting yet another makeover in Great Britain _ as a comic strip.
The Lion Graphic Bible, a 256-page volume, debuted this month (October) to positive reviews from church officials and publishers.
Pete Ward, the youth ministry adviser for the Archbishop of Canterbury, said he views the comic-strip Bible as a way to get Holy Writ into the hands of youngsters, reported Ecumenical News Service, the Geneva-based religious news agency.”The Bible crammed into speech bubbles?”Ward said.”It’s a crazy idea and it really works. This is a quality job. Kids who might never read a book are going to enjoy it and get lots out of it.” Lion, the publisher, expects the graphic Bible will be read by children as young as 10 years old as well as readers in their teens and 20s.
Scriptwriter Mike Maddox, who has been employed by New York-based DC Comics, said he examined”pretty well every version”of the Bible in English before preparing the comic-book text.”It’s a big responsibility,”he said.”You can give the wrong message about God if you leave out something!” Phil Henderson, Lion’s marketing manager, calls the Bible version”full-blooded,”but acknowledges the volume”could have lingered more”on sex and violence.
This version depicts the Israelites’ slaughter of the Canaanites”with no entrails”and leaves out the tale of Sodom and Gomorrah. But the Crucifixion is included.
Other English-speaking countries are likely to see editions of the Bible on bookshelves before year’s end and the Nashville, Tenn.-based Broadman & Holman Publishers is scheduled to publish it in early 1999.
Southern Baptists of Texas to become official group
(RNS) The Southern Baptists of Texas, a group supporting the”conservative resurgence”of the Southern Baptist Convention, will hold its constitutional convention Nov. 10, marking its official split from the Baptist General Convention of Texas.”We are not starting this thing in anger,”said Miles Seaborn, president of Southern Baptists of Texas.”We haven’t committed ourselves out of bitterness, but out of the conviction that we have to be true to God about our hearts, our money and our energy.” The group’s gathering in Houston will be held during the second day of the annual meeting of the BGCT, which will convene across town, reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent news service.
Members of the conservative group accuse the BGCT of moving away from the Southern Baptist Convention by redefining its unified budget plan to include Baptist causes outside the traditional allocations for state Baptist conventions and Southern Baptist agencies.
It also objected to the BGCT’s approval last year of an Effectiveness/Efficiency Committee report that expanded ministry efforts to include areas traditionally reserved for the denomination, including church literature, theological education and missions work.
The move toward a separate Texas convention was further crystallized when representatives of BGCT and Southern Baptists of Texas held a meeting in January.”It became obvious they were going one way and we ought to go another,”said Seaborn, retired pastor of Birchman Baptist Church in Fort Worth.”They said they would not change their actions, and we said we would not change our convictions.”
Ad hoc group of black ministers to lead pro-Clinton rally
(RNS) An ad hoc group led by African-American ministers plans to lead a rally in Washington, D.C. Saturday (Oct. 31) that will protest what it considers to be unfair treatment of President Clinton by special prosecutor Ken Starr and members of Congress.
The National Coalition of Concerned Clergy, along with another ad hoc group called the Committee for the People’s Choice, is co-sponsoring the events, which will include a worship service, a march and a rally at the Ellipse, the stretch of lawn near the White House.”We think that the investigation of the president has reached the point … that it violates morality and ethical and fair application of the law,”said the Rev. Haywood Robinson, a spokesman for the loose-knit coalition.
He said some ministers who planned to attend the Saturday events held prayer services on Wednesday as a prelude.
Robinson, pastor of Diamond Hill Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., could not give an estimate of the number of people expected, but said buses have been chartered in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and Newark.
The Rev. Melvin G. Brown, pastor of Greater New Hope Baptist Church in downtown Washington, will host the Saturday worship service.”I believe in the cause,”he said.”This whole thing has been unnecessary and undue overkill.” While Robinson thinks the events’ focus is more spiritual than political, Brown said it was appropriate to hold the rally just days before an election. He pointed to the”low-down”efforts by House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other Republicans to air pre-election ads reminding voters of Clinton’s inappropriate relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.”I think prayerful support for the president just before the Tuesday election is more so in order,”Brown said.”Prayer is always in order, righteous prayer, prayer not to see someone fall but to see somebody restored.”
Deploring moral decline, South African leaders sign code of conduct
(RNS) South African religious and political leaders gathered Oct. 22 in an attempt to fight the corruption and moral decline that has permeated and paralyzed South Africa’s society.
President Nelson Mandela was among the leading religious and political leaders at a”Moral Summit,”in Johannesburg committing themselves to a code of conduct emphasizing integrity and justice.
The summit grew out of a meeting last year between Mandela and religious leaders in which the president called upon the religious community to lend its influence toward reconstructing the nation.
Mandela said he did not know what the result would be, adding,”We only knew that the social transformation of our country could not be separated from its spiritual transformation.” The necessity of such a move is apparent to many South Africans who suffer under widespread crime and corruption. According to a recent survey, South Africa’s violent crimes are five times higher than the international crime rate index’s.
Rape and corruption rates are among the country’s most disturbing _ yet prevalent _ crimes. In South Africa, a rape occurs every 25 seconds, more than three times the U.S rate, according to a South African non-governmental Organizations Coalition spokesperson. And a report released yesterday by reetired Archbishop Desmond Tutu implicated the Christian churches in widespread corruption.
Mandela acknowledged that, saying there were many in the religious community engaged in crime or the abuse of women and children. He called it a measure”of how far this rot has spread.” But the president expressed optimism at the summit, calling it”a great achievement.””It gives us much encouragement for the future. It brings together the two spheres of life most intimately and essentially involved in the generation, sustenance and observance of the values by which we relate to one another,”said Mandela.
Religious leaders also issued a national call for everyone in a position of authority to sign the code of conduct which pledges integrity, incorruptibility, good faith, impartiality, openness, accountability, justice, respect, generosity and leadership.
Quote of the day: The Rev. Vsevolod Chaplin of the Russian Orthodox Church
(RNS)”We have to look this situation in the face. Why have the last 50 years in the history of Christianity, which coincided with the 50 years of the ecumenical movement, failed to become a period of growing unity and have become instead a time of greater divisions between the families of the Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant and the free churches?” _ The Rev. Vsevolod Chaplin of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church on tensions between the Orthodox Church and the World Council of Churches.
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