c. 2000 Religion News Service
Adventists Elect World, North American Leaders
(RNS) Delegates to the Seventh-day Adventist World Session have re-elected Jan Paulsen as their world president and elected Michigan Pastor Don C. Schneider as their North American president.
Paulsen, 65, was first elected in March 1999, replacing Robert S. Folkenberg, who resigned amid allegations he was involved in fradulent business dealings.
Paulsen, a native of Norway, now will serve in the presidential post for a full five-year term.
Schneider, 57, of Berrien Springs, Mich., served as president of the church’s Lake Union Conference, which includes 480 churches and 70,000 members in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin.
He also begins a five-year term, replacing Alfred C. McClure, who has retired after 10 years as the church’s North American president.
About 2,000 delegates representing Adventists in 205 countries are voting at the World Session, meeting June 29-July 8 in Toronto, but as many as 55,000 attended a worship service during the session, said Bettina Krause, media relations coordinator.
Official statements on proselytism and children’s rights that were passed by a committee of the denomination’s General Conference in recent months were released during the Toronto gathering.
“Seventh-day Adventists believe that freedom of religion is a basic human right,” the “Statement on Religious Liberty, Evangelism and Proselytism” reads.
“As Christians, they are persuaded that the dissemination of religion is not only a right, but a joyful responsibility based on a divine mandate to witness.”
But the statement says Seventh-day Adventists “unequivocally condemn” any proselytism that involves unethical persuasion, including force.
The statement urges the respect of all persons during evangelistic activities.
“Terminology should be used which avoids offending other religious communities,” the statement reads. “Statements which are false or ridicule other religions should not be made.”
The statement also says that conversion should never be linked with material rewards.
“While the right to engage in humanitarian activities must be fully recognized, such action must never be linked to evangelism in a way that exploits vulnerable people by offering financial and material incentives to entice them to change religion,” the statement reads.
The “Statement on Well-being and Value of Children” outlines various destructive factors in children’s lives, including poverty, poor health care, violence, exploitation and illiteracy. It says Seventh-day Adventists affirm the rights of children to be free from abuse and to have adequate food and clothing, proper health care and a good education.
“Seventh-day Adventists affirm the right of every child to a happy and stable home environment, and the freedom and support to grow up to be the person God intended,” the statement reads.
Moderate Baptist Predicts Gain of 5,000 Southern Baptist Churches
(RNS) The coordinator of the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has predicted that changes in the Southern Baptist Convention’s statement of faith will prompt as many as 5,000 churches to leave the denomination and join the fellowship.
“I am convinced there are thousands of Baptists that believe in our core values and share our vision and want to become part of CBF,” said Dan Vestal, coordinator of the fellowship, at its General Assembly, held June 29-July 1 in Orlando, Fla. “They would find CBF and CBF networks a denomination-like home in a post-denominational world.”
Vestal said changes made in June by delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention in its “Baptist Faith and Message” contrast with the stands of the fellowship, reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent news service.
For example, new revisions in the statement say the Bible teaches that only men should be pastors. Vestal said it is possible to interpret the Bible that way, but “that’s not the only way to interpret Scripture.”
Vestal also commented on the removal of the phrase from the faith statement that names Christ as the criterion for interpreting the Bible.
“We love and cherish the Bible as Holy Scripture,” he said, “but we do not place Scripture over Jesus.”
Vestal said the fellowship believes “everyone is a priest” and affirms “servant leadership instead of authoritarian leadership in the church.”
“I believe that surely there are at least 5,000 Baptist churches that share in this convictional identity and should be involved in this fellowship,” he said.
About 1,800 churches are currently affiliated with the fellowship, which formed in 1991 when moderates found they no longer controlled the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Former Southern Baptist Convention President Paige Patterson has estimated in the past that between 600 and 3,500 of the denomination’s 40,000 churches might eventually leave the nation’s largest Protestant group.
In other business at the fellowship meeting, participants in the annual gathering voted to seek membership in the Baptist World Alliance, a worldwide organization that includes the Southern Baptist Convention among its members.
Interim General Secretary Appointed for American Baptists
(RNS) The Rev. Robert H. Roberts, a longtime leader in the American Baptist Churches USA, has been named interim general secretary of the 1.5 million-member denomination.
Roberts, 66, will succeed the Rev. Daniel E. Weiss, who is retiring as the denomination’s general secretary.
Roberts retired in January after serving for 10 years as associate general secretary for the denomination’s world mission support efforts. He was responsible for raising about $40 million annually for American Baptist missions.
A native of western Canada, he previously served as executive minister of the American Baptist Churches of Connecticut and as pastor of churches in New Jersey and Canada.
Weiss, 62, who was honored during the denomination’s General Board meeting in late June, has served as general secretary since 1988 and will complete his third four-year term in August.
Christian-Muslim Violence Claims Four More Lives in Indonesia
(RNS) The latest flare-up of Christian-Muslim violence in eastern Indonesia has claimed four lives and destroyed the largest university in the troubled Maluku islands, a Christian attorney reported Wednesday (July 5).
The attacks on Pattimura University and several Christian homes in the outlying areas of Ambon, the capital of the Maluku provinces, occurred late Tuesday (July 4), Semmy Weileruny, an attorney for the province’s communion of churches, told Reuters news agency. Witnesses said the violence began Monday (July 3).
“We see this as the military’s failure to protect Christians,” said Weileruny. “We want all of the soldiers to be pulled out. … They are useless.”
But the Indonesian military’s efforts to end religious fighting in the provinces are hampered by a U.S. embargo that limits the government’s access to military equipment, Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono told the Washington Post. The embargo was imposed last year in the wake of reports of human rights abuses in the nation.
Those who died Tuesday (July 4) were among an estimated 3,000 Christians and Muslims killed in 18 months of sectarian violence in the Maluku provinces, once known as the Spice Islands. Last month the government of Indonesia declared a state of civil emergency in the region.
The recurring violence prompted the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to send a letter Wednesday (July 5) to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright urging the Clinton administration to make “a more energetic response” to the crisis in Indonesia.
“The commission is particularly concerned because there is evidence to suggest that the Indonesian government is tolerating systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom such as murder, forced mass resettlement and torture,” the commission’s letter read. “There appears to be little question but that the targets and victims of such violence are selected on the basis of their religion.”
The U.S. government should “use all diplomatic means at its disposal” to encourage Indonesia’s government to end fighting in the provinces and hold those responsible accountable, the commission’s letter said, urging the United States to also monitor the implementation of civil emergency in the provinces. The independent commission, whose members are appointed by the White House and Congress, also appealed to the U.S. government to “press for the deployment of an international peacekeeping force” if Indonesia is unsuccessful in stopping the religious fighting.
Quote of the Day: AME Bishop Vinton R. Anderson
(RNS) “Make no mistake about it. We are here today to be of service. It is up to each of us to ensure no brother or sister is left behind.”
_ African Methodist Episcopal Church Bishop Vinton R. Anderson, speaking about his church’s Christian Men’s Freedom Forum, held Tuesday (July 4) in Cincinnati to encourage African-American men to be more active in their families, churches and communities.
DEA END RNS
