For the week of January 24, 2002
Briefs
Criswell tribute
An Internet tribute honoring the life and ministry of W.A.
Criswell has been created by the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
The tribute features quotes from prominent Southern Baptists, news articles,
audio recordings of Criswells 1975 address to the Southern Baptist Pastors
Conference and links to other Web sites. The site also includes a presentation
of Criswells life through photos and music. Criswell died recently after
a lifetime of ministry at First Baptist Church of Dallas. The Criswell tribute
site is located at www.sbc.net/criswell.
Evolution decision
The U.S Supreme Court recently declined to hear a case that
could have decided if public school teachers have a First Amendment right to
contradict school policy on the teaching of evolution. The court declined to
review a Minnesota court decision that dismissed a lawsuit by a high school
science teacher. Rodney LeVake was removed as a 10th-grade biology teacher after
he confided to a peer that he could not teach evolution in good conscience.
LeVake was reassigned to a lower-level class that did not involve the teaching
of evolution. He subsequently sued the school district for discrimination, but
the case was dismissed by the courts.
Homosexual cases
A pair of recent court actions gave homosexual activists victories. In Vermont,
the state Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the civil unions law that grants
homosexual couples many of the same rights and benefits of marriage. The Vermont
law was passed in 2000 and is the most liberal law in the nation on the issue.
Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court recently ruled that parental
rights can grow out of homosexual relationships, setting a precedent for non-biological
parents seeking custody rights of children they helped raise. In a 5-2 decision,
justices ruled that a Pennsylvania woman had the right to seek shared custody
of and visitation rights with a child born to her former lesbian partner through
artificial insemination. The ruling gives homosexual couples the same right
as hetro-sexual couples to seek child custody and visitation after a relationship
breaks apart. Family values leaders decried the decision as “disappointing”
and “devastating.”
Missouri concession
Moderate/conservatives have ended
efforts to reclaim control of the Missouri Baptist Convention, disbanding an
or-ganization that unsuccessfully attempted to counter recent gains by fundamental/conservatives.
Mainstream Missouri Baptists closed its offices Dec. 31. A spokesperson said
the group is disbanding to make room for something more permanent to happen.
A number of observers are predicting moderate/conservatives in the state will
form their own convention. With fundamental/conservatives firmly in control
in Missouri, five denominational agencies already have changed charters to remove
themselves from state convention control. Moderate/conservatives also have established
alternative giving plans in the state. Missouri Baptist leaders have responded
by withholding $2.1 million in convention funds from agencies that changed their
charters and by launching studies for how to deal with the developments.
Georgia action
Georgia Baptist Convention leaders have announced they are withholding $9.6
million earmarked for Shorter College after the school acted to distance itself
from the denomination. College leaders recently announced a move to shift assets
and decision-making responsibility to the Shorter College Foundation rather
than keeping them in control of convention-elected trustees. Those elected trustees
will serve as part of the foundation board, but convention leaders said the
action changes them from a governing body to a mere landlord of the 128-year-old
liberal arts college. School leaders said that the action was not political
and that they hope to forge a new relationship with the state convention that
allows for more self-regulation. The Georgia Baptist Convention provides $1.3
million a year to the school, about 5 percent of the colleges budget.
The $9.6 million being withheld includes capital improvement and endowment funds.