c. 1998 Religion News Service
Baptist group: Outsiders have no say in Clinton church discipline
(RNS) A Baptist association in Little Rock, Ark., has declared that outsiders do not have a right to call on President Clinton’s church to discipline him.”In response to the calls of Southern Baptists upon Immanuel Baptist Church of Little Rock to `discipline’ one of her own, we support our sister congregation and her pastor, Dr. Rex Horne, in allowing them to conduct their ministry as they see fit under the direction of God’s Holy Spirit,”the resolution reads.
The statement, issued Sept. 15, followed a call by R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., for Clinton’s longtime home church to hold him accountable for his recent admission of an inappropriate relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
The resolution was passed unanimously by the Little Rock association’s executive board.”We further affirm that no one outside that congregation has the right, nor the privilege, of trying to coerce Immanuel Baptist to do otherwise,”it concluded.
Mohler’s comments were first published Aug. 24 by Religion News Service, and later supported by other Baptist leaders.”How can President Clinton claim to be a Southern Baptist and persist in this public display of serial sin?”he asked.”Only because the congregation which holds his membership has failed to exercise any semblance of church discipline. Southern Baptists will be watching the Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock to see if it musters the courage to make clear its own convictions.” The association’s resolution put the board”on record as standing in firm support of our cherished doctrine of the autonomy of the local church.”The resolution did not specifically mention President Clinton’s name nor did it address the board’s view of church discipline.
In a related matter, the Hillcrest Ministers Association of Little Rock issued”A Call for Healing”on Thursday (Sept. 17).”We deplore the personal behavior of President Clinton,”the statement reads.”However, we express our gratitude that President Clinton has confessed his sin.” The declaration condemned”political partisanship which seeks destruction rather than justice”and encouraged the president and Congress to”seek truth and justice”in upcoming deliberations.”Let us all deal redemptively with one another … out of compassion rather than anger, a desire to do good rather than evil, to promote healing rather than continue to wound; so that when history looks back at this moment in time, may it be said that we all did what which is good in the eyes of our God and Creator.” The call was signed by five ministers of the Catholic and Protestant faiths.
Carter calls for probe of Sudan missile attack
(RNS) Former President Jimmy Carter has called for an investigation into whether the Sudanese factory destroyed by U.S. missiles last month actually manufactured possible chemical weapons material.
Carter’s call follows that of a group of Baptist ethicists who made a similar plea earlier this month.
The Sudanese factory, a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility, was destroyed by a U.S. missile attack as part of the Aug. 20 strikes in Sudan and Afghanistan in retaliation for the terrorist bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
At the time, the United States said the Sudanese factory was making a”precursor”for the deadly VX nerve gas. Sudan insisted the plant was manufacturing medicines.
Carter, speaking in Atlanta Thursday (Sept. 17), said an international technical team should visit Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, to inspect the plant and take soil samples to determine whether the U.S. allegations were true, the Associated Press said.”If the evidence shows that the Sudanese are guilty, they should be condemned for lying and for contributing to terrorist activities,”Carter said.”Otherwise, we should admit our error and make amends to those who have suffered loss or injury.
Carter, noting officials in both Germany and Britain have questioned the U.S. account, said the credibility of the nation in the international community”is being adversely affected by these doubts.” On Friday, however, the Clinton administration dismissed the Carter concerns.”We had overwhelming grounds to strike these facilities,”said Samuel R. Berger, Clinton’s national security adviser.
Churches in Indonesia experiencing `epidemic’ of violent attacks
(RNS) Christian churches in Indonesia are facing an escalating”epidemic”of violent attacks, the human rights organization Freedom House has reported.
According to the Washington office of the organization, newly compiled evidence shows that between 1995 and 1997, 131 Christian churches were burned to the ground, destroyed by riots or closed by government authorities.
But in the first seven months of 1998, 83 churches and schools were attacked.
Freedom House said the violence against the churches appears to be distinct from the well-publicized attacks against ethnic Chinese in Indonesia because the majority of churches targeted were not those of predominantly ethnic Chinese congregations.
The rights group, which lobbies on behalf of persecuted Christians abroad, said most of the violence in the predominantly Muslim nation was the result of rioting mobs.”Political observers are missing this story,”said Paul Marshall, a senior fellow at Freedom House.”They are noting only economically motivated anti-Chinese violence. This certainly exists also, but attacks on churches started escalating in 1995, two years before Indonesia’s economic collapse.”Most of the attacks are on non-Chinese and mixed-ethnic congregations,”he said.”For example, the churches burned by mobs in Central and West Java on July 27 and July 31 were Javanese and Batak, not Chinese.”
Firings of Southern Baptists drops significantly
(RNS) The number of firings of Southern Baptist pastors dropped significantly in 1997 from the previous year, but the same issues are leading to involuntary termination.
A total of 892 pastors were fired during the 1997 calendar year, compared to 1,259 in the previous year, said Norris Smith, a consultant for LeaderCare, a ministry of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Results of the survey sponsored by church-minister relations directors of Southern Baptist state conventions were reported by Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The survey defined forced termination as”the severance of a formal relationship between a church and pastor either by coercion or vote.” The 892 pastors who were fired in 1997 included 607 full-time clergy and 285 bivocational pastors. In 1996, there were 818 full-time pastors who were fired and 441 bivocational ones.”The top reason for firing pastors is still one of control _ who is going to run the church,”said Smith.”Following that, in order of frequency, are poor people skills on the part of the pastors, the church’s resistance to change, a pastoral leadership style that is too strong and a church already in conflict when the pastor arrived.” LeaderCare, the ministry for which Smith is a consultant, provides personal development assistance for pastors, including at times of crisis.
Smith said there is no dominant reason for the decline in terminations, but experts in the field say some contributing factors include improved training of church pastor search committees, use of interim pastors in congregations in conflict, church use of mediators and training in conflict management.
Quote of the Day: Southern Baptist Convention President Paige Patterson (RNS)”If you have weak little anemic ballads that don’t tell anything about the word and the ways of God, how do you expect your young people to grow up strong in the Lord?” Southern Baptist Convention President Paige Patterson, speaking at a Sept. 15 youth ministry conference at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. His remarks challenging youth ministers to use music to teach biblical doctrine were reported by Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
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