c. 2004 Religion News Service
Southern Baptist Leader Adrian Rogers to Leave Church Post
(RNS) Adrian Rogers, a prominent Southern Baptist leader and longtime local pastor, has announced plans to retire from his position at a church in the Memphis, Tenn., area.
Rogers, 73, was president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1979, the year the denomination began its concerted turn in a conservative direction. He announced Sunday (Sept. 12) that he would no longer be pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn., next spring.
“Now comes a time that we all knew would come when I should announce my retirement as pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church,” Rogers said in a letter to his congregation that was posted on the church’s Web site.
“Nevertheless, I will not retire from the ministry until I draw my last breath.”
Rogers, who underwent heart surgery in March, said “health is not a factor” in his decision to retire.
“I thank God for my recovery and growing vitality and hope for many good years ahead,” he stated.
When Rogers was elected in 1979 as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the denomination began to elect conservative leadership to its various trustee boards. In 2000, he chaired a study committee that wrote revisions to the “Baptist Faith and Message,” a statement of faith that now declares the denomination’s opposition to abortion and homosexuality and belief that women should not serve as pastors.
Rogers, founder of the “Love Worth Finding” broadcast ministry, was inducted into the hall of fame of the National Religious Broadcasters association in 2003. He plans to continue his radio and television ministry, his church said.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Survey Finds Many Working When They Become Homeless
(RNS) A survey of homeless people has found that 40 percent said they were working in a full-time or regularly scheduled part-time job when they lost their homes.
“In today’s economy, just having a job doesn’t keep you from being homeless,” said the Rev. Steve Burger, executive director of the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, in a statement.
“It should be the goal of service providers and employers to upgrade workers beyond minimum wage positions for the good of everyone.”
The association, based in North Kansas City, Mo., released the results of its survey on Labor Day (Sept. 6).
More than half of those surveyed said that losing a job directly affected their becoming homeless. Fifty-three percent said that was the case.
The survey also found that the majority of those wishing to rejoin the labor force have achieved at least the equivalent of a high school education.
The association reported that 20 percent of those surveyed had not graduated from high school. But 28 percent were high school graduates; 15 percent had earned a GED; 8 percent had achieved a vocational certificate; 20 percent had attended some college; 7 percent were college graduates; and 2 percent had done post-graduate work or received a post-graduate degree.
The survey, completed in August, involved almost 2,500 individuals at 60 rescue mission rehabilitation programs across North America.
Information suitable for a graphic below:
Questions Asked of Homeless by Rescue Missions
Working in full-time or regularly scheduled part-time job when you became homeless?
Yes: 40 percent
No: 60 percent
Did the loss of work directly impact on you becoming homeless?
Yes: 53 percent
No: 47 percent
Source: Association of Gospel Rescue Missions
_ Adelle M. Banks
Ecumenical Officials Send Joint Letter of Support to U.N. Leader
(RNS) Leaders of ecumenical associations from across the globe have written to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to reaffirm their commitment to the international body.
“We believe that the U.N. remains the indispensable instrument of the nations of the world if they are to remove the scourge of war from the earth and to establish the conditions for peace, notably: observance of human rights, a just sharing of the earth’s resources, eliminating poverty and all forms of discrimination,” the leaders wrote in a Sept. 4 letter, released during their meeting in Nairobi, Kenya.
The leaders added a personal note of concern for Annan as he grapples with world crises.
“It is difficult for us to conceive the pressure you must experience day by day, but we hope that on your part you can imagine the spiritual support with which you are surrounded,” they wrote.
“Be assured that every discouraging sign you encounter, whether of indifference to or hostility towards the U.N. and your work, is being countered by the hopes and prayers of countless people of faith and goodwill around the world.”
The letter was signed by leaders of the All Africa Conference of Churches, Christian Conference of Asia, Caribbean Conference of Churches, Conference of European Churches, Latin American Council of Churches, Middle East Council of Churches, Canadian Council of Churches, National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Louisiana Catholic Bishops Urge State Ban on Same-Sex Marriage
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Louisiana’s Catholic bishops are urging the state’s 1.5 million Catholics to vote for a measure on the ballot Saturday (Sept. 18) that would add a ban on same-sex marriage to the state Constitution.
The amendment has picked up strong support from evangelical leaders around the state, cutting across racial lines to unite white and black faith communities in support of traditional marriage.
A similar dynamic is occurring nationally, according to polling data released this month.
Seventy-five percent of evangelicals and 72 percent of black Protestants favor traditional marriage and oppose either same-sex marriage or legalized civil unions, according to a survey of the religious views of 4,000 people conducted during the spring by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The margin of error for the survey is 2 percent.
The Pew Forum survey showed that support for gay marriage or civil unions is stronger among mainline Protestants such as Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Methodists. About 53 percent of those believers said they supported gay marriage or civil unions.
Catholic bishops frequently issue public statements on political matters with a moral dimension. But given that people can reasonably disagree which policy or candidate best upholds an agreed-upon moral ideal, bishops usually try to underscore the ideal, leaving it to voters to judge how best to reach it, said the Rev. William Maestri, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
However, the bishops believe that the moral analysis of the marriage amendment is so clear-cut that they took the relatively rare step of explicitly urging Catholic voters to support it.
Louisiana’s Catholic bishops went to similar lengths in 1996, when they urged voters to reject commercial gambling in parish-by-parish local-option elections. Voters elected to keep all the state’s major casinos, but they evicted video poker in about half the state’s parishes.
_ Bruce Nolan
British Bell Master Refuses to Bring Ring to Modern Church Service
LONDON (RNS) When tradition clashed with the modern at an 11th century Anglican church in England, it wasn’t so much a matter of for whom the bells tolled, but whether they tolled at all.
First, six bell-ringers at St. Nicholas Church in Leeds, Kent, were fired. Then, to make sure they got the message, the Rev. Robin Gill, the vicar, barred access to their ropes by changing the locks to the church tower.
The traditionalist-minded bell-ringers’ sin? Their refusal to ring during modern family services that the vicar had ordained.
“Modernization goes hand in hand with removing pews, not being silent before services and the introduction of these silly worship songs,” griped ousted bell master Chris Cooper, who suffered the added indignity of finding his prized peal board dumped on his doorstep.
Gill insisted it wasn’t so much that the bell master and his colleagues had been fired but that “we wanted a new leader because he is not prepared to ring the bells for the family services.”
Cooper sees something more sinister at play.
“It’s like living in Soviet Russia,” he said. “All of this was done behind our backs.”
_ Al Webb
Quote of the Day: Desiree Walker of Washington
(RNS) “Resurrection! He’s just like Jesus, and he’s back, and now it’s time for Ward 8 to be resurrected.”
Desiree Walker of Washington, celebrating the election of former District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry to the D.C. Council as a representative of Ward 8. She was quoted by The Washington Post.
MO/PH END RNS
