c. 2007 Religion News Service

State Baptist conventions urge prevention of child abuse

(RNS) Following action taken on the national level this summer, several Southern Baptist state conventions took steps this fall to urge that children be protected from abuse.

Baptist groups in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana and Ohio passed resolutions. Most encouraged churches to perform background checks on volunteers and staffers who work with children, reported Baptist Press, the news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.

They also recommended use of abuse prevention materials from the denomination’s LifeWay Christian Resources. But, like the decentralized national Southern Baptist Convention, the state bodies have no power to impose policies on autonomous member churches.

In June, Southern Baptists attending their national convention in San Antonio passed a resolution expressing their “moral outrage” about child sexual abuse and urging churches to take preventative steps.

“We renounce individuals, churches or other religious bodies that cover up, ignore, or otherwise contribute to or condone the abuse of children,” reads the non-binding resolution that passed June 13.

Other topics of concern in several states included hate crimes legislation and alcohol.

Baptists in Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana and Oklahoma opposed any legislation that expands hate crimes laws to include sexual orientation. Conservative religious groups have expressed concern that adding sexual orientation could threaten First Amendment rights by muzzling pastors who preach against homosexuality.

Five state conventions _ the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, Florida, Missouri, Alabama and Oklahoma _ addressed use of alcohol, with some changing bylaws to clarify that trustees should not drink alcoholic beverages.

_ Adelle M. Banks

N.J. church makes good on $1 million pledge to Gulf Coast

SUMMIT, N.J. (RNS) The origins of Fountain Baptist Church here could hardly be more humble. In 1897, a small group of African-Americans, most of them gardeners or domestic workers, began praying together in a rented room.

The church now has the distinction of being one of the few nationwide ever to raise $1 million for a specific charitable cause.

Members of the congregation have been donating money for the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort since May 2006, when Fountain Baptist announced its $1 million pledge. The members met the pledge three weeks ago and celebrated the achievement Sunday (Nov. 25) at the church’s annual Thanksgiving services.

The Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University, which monitors big donations from American nonprofit organizations, said it knows of only one instance in which a single church has made a larger charitable gift: Oriental Mission Church in Los Angeles gave $3 million to help El Salvador earthquake victims in 2001.

Michael Williams, a trustee of 1,900-member Fountain Baptist Church, said: “Anytime you help someone and know they’re going to be blessed by your effort, there’s no better feeling. For us to make sacrifices _ because that’s what it was for many of us _ to do something for people who basically have nothing _ while we’ve been blessed with, from their perspective, everything _ it feels great.”

The church beat its own two-year pledge timetable by six months. Many members know people from Louisiana or Mississippi who suffered in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Williams cited the biblical story of Job as part of the inspiration for his church’s generosity. Job was a righteous, prosperous man suddenly shattered by misfortune through no fault of his own.

“They know that, in fact, this could happen to them at any moment,” Williams said of his fellow Fountain Baptist members. “When you look at what happened to the people in New Orleans, one day things were pleasant and sunny and all was well, and in one week’s time you go from having all that you had, to life being turned completely upside down.”

According to the Rev. J. Michael Sanders, the pastor of Fountain Baptist, about $400,000 has paid for job and life-skills training for 200 families in Louisiana and Mississippi; $300,000 has helped 30 pastors whose churches were devastated by the storm, either physically or through member relocations; $200,000 has paid for housing and community-building projects; and $100,000 has gone toward general and administrative costs.

The Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention, an African-American Baptist organization based in Washington, D.C., has administered the donation.

Patrice Edwards, a Fountain Baptist member for 17 years, said she expects the congregation’s giving to continue.

“There’s still a lot of work that has to be done in that area. It’s not like we met a goal and that’s it,” she said. “There’s still a lot of work to do in New Orleans.”

_ Jeff Diamant

Quote of the Day: Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams

(RNS) “We have only one global hegemonic power at the moment. It is not accumulating territory, it is trying to accumulate influence and control. That’s not working.”

_ Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, speaking to the British Muslim magazine Emel. The interview was published Nov. 25.

KRE/RB END RNS