c. 2006 Religion News Service
Southern Baptists Report Slightly More Members, Fewer Baptisms
(RNS) The Southern Baptist Convention saw a slight membership increase in 2005 but its churches are reporting a decline in baptisms at a time that officials have made baptisms and evangelism a denominational focus.
The latest statistics from the Annual Church Profile, released Tuesday (April 18) by the denomination’s LifeWay Christian Resources, show that membership in 2005 totaled 16,270,315, a .02 percent increase over the 2004 figure of 16,267,494.
Baptisms for 2005 totaled 371,850, a 4.15 percent decrease from 387,947 in 2004. That drop in baptisms _ which had increased in 2004 after a four-year decline _ prompted words of warning from a key denominational leader.
“Southern Baptists should view this report as a wake-up call,” said Thom S. Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, in a statement.
“Baptism is the outward act of obedience that pictures God’s work of redemption in a believer’s life,” he said, so the latest figures “indicate we are faltering in our efforts to reach a lost world.”
Rainer, who is based in Nashville, Tenn., previously served as a church growth expert at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. In that role, he produced a report last spring titled “A Resurgence Not Yet Realized: Evangelistic Effectiveness in the Southern Baptist Convention Since 1979.”
He reported that in 1950, Southern Baptist churches baptized 376,085 people.
“Simply stated, the Southern Baptist Convention is reaching no more people today than it did in 1950,” he said in that report.
Southern Baptist Convention President Bobby Welch has spearheaded an “`Everyone Can’ Kingdom Challenge” with the goal of 1 million baptisms between October 2005 and October 2006.
When the campaign recently reached its halfway point, Baptist officials said they would not have a final tally on its outcome until next year’s Annual Church Profile.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Rabbi Hertzberg Remembered as Small in Stature, Large in Influence
(RNS) Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, who died Monday at age 84, is being remembered as a leading scholar, activist and author whose strong convictions informed and improved Jewish life.
“He was a distinguished rabbi and a very significant scholar,” said Jonathan Sarna, Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University. “He was also a Jewish leader and public intellectual. He wrote controversial pieces on almost all the important issues in Jewish life (including) assimilation and anti-Semitism. In the last decades of his life he wrote a great deal about Israel.”
Hertzberg, who was Bronfman Visiting Professor of the Humanities at New York University, served as president of the American Jewish Congress from 1972 to 1978. He was also vice president of the World Jewish Congress from 1975 to 1991. A civil rights advocate, he participated in the 1963 march on Washington with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He also pressed the Catholic Church to acknowledge its silence during the Holocaust and chaired the first international Jewish delegation to meet with Vatican representatives on the issue.
“He had very strong opinions and he would say them with deep passion and great force,” said Rabbi Geoffrey Haber, of Temple Emanu-El, now in Closter, N.J., where Hertzberg served as rabbi from 1956 to 1985.
“He was small in stature but his reputation was towering,” Haber said. “His activism reflected the idea of putting the teachings of Torah into practice.”
Hertzberg was born in Poland and came to the U.S. when he was 5. He received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University. He taught at several universities including Columbia, Dartmouth and Princeton.
He wrote numerous books including, “The French Enlightenment and the Jews: The Origins of Modern Anti-Semitism,” and “The Jews in America.” He edited “The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader.”
“He didn’t run according to the usual mold of separating whether he was going to be a pulpit rabbi or a Jewish activist or scholar,” said Professor Lawrence Schiffman, chair of the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU. “He combined all three in a way that’s very rare today.”
Hertzberg is survived by his wife, two daughters, two brothers and a sister.
_ Ansley Roan
Progress Made in Giving More Access to Nazi Records of Holocaust
WASHINGTON (RNS) A German archive with detailed Nazi records of the Holocaust could soon be opened to historians after decades of being off limits.
German Justice Minister Briggite Zypries made the announcement Tuesday (April 18) at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Although Germany’s decision opens the way for the archival information to be opened for research, a group of 11 nations that oversees the data must still sign off on the German plan.
Zypries cautioned that the process is still under way.
“Just convincing Germany to agree was a major step,” she said.
According to the German newspaper “Die Welt,” the Italian government has some objections to the plan because of privacy concerns.
But the United States and Israel have lobbied heavily for access to the data. Zypries said she expects the problems to be ironed out swiftly and that researchers should have access to the data within six months. Access to the documents will be coordinated between the archive of the Red Cross International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen and the Smithsonian.
Since the end of World War II, the files have only been available to people with direct ties to Holocaust victims. The German government argued that making the information more widely available would violate the privacy of the Holocaust victims, since the files contained information about criminal records, religious affiliation, sexual orientation and medical history.
The 30 million documents, which contain information on 17 million Jewish Holocaust survivors and forced laborers under the Nazi regime was gathered by the International Red Cross after the war. It was an effort to try to reunite families split apart by the Nazi regime or at least provide survivors with clues about the fate of their relatives.
Some of the information is based on the original files compiled by Nazi workers. Since 1996, researchers have had access to files that were not directly associated with an individual.
_ Niels Sorrells
Bush Administration Official to Lead Council for Christian Colleges
(RNS) A Bush administration official and former college president has been named the new president of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities.
Paul R. Corts, an assistant attorney general for administration in the U.S. Department of Justice, will succeed Bob Andringa as the leader of the Washington-based umbrella organization in June.
Before arriving at the Justice Department in 2002, Corts was the president of Palm Beach Atlantic University, a member institution of the 30-year-old council. He led the school in West Palm Beach, Fla., for almost 12 years.
“He is a man of much wisdom and godly character, a devoted churchman and a brilliant leader,” said David S. Dockery, chair of the council’s board of directors and president of Union University in Jackson, Tenn.
Corts, 62, previously served as president of Wingate University in Wingate, N.C., and Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Ky. He has served as president of the American Association of Presidents of Independent Colleges and Universities.
“I have known Dr. Corts for several years and am excited to pass the baton of CCCU leadership to such a highly qualified leader,” said Andringa, who announced his retirement plans in April 2005.
“He will help us move Christian higher education to the next level.”
The higher education association includes more than 170 institution members, including 105 in North America.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: Carlo Angelo Sanzio, Frequent Mass Attendee at the Vatican
(RNS) “I loved John Paul and I love Benedict, but the personality of each man appeals to different sides of the faithful. … My friends say you would come to experience John Paul, and you come to listen to and learn from Benedict.”
_ Carlo Angelo Sanzio, a 43-year-old worker at a Rome coffee bar who says he has attended most of the Sunday Masses at the Vatican during the last decade. Wednesday (April 19) was the one-year anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s election to succeed John Paul II. Sanzio was quoted by USA Today.
MO/JL END RNS
