| Editor: David E Marlett Th.D. | |
| March 3, 2001 | Vol II #17 |
Catch a great four-minute message from U.S. House Representative Dr. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) about the federal government's seizure of the Indianapolis Baptist Temple. Call toll-free: (888) 322-1414.
[ GOP N&V ]
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in a church-state dispute involving public school officials in Milford, N.Y., who refuse to let a religious club meet in a public school building after classes are dismissed for the day. The religious group, the Good News Club, claims its free-speech rights are being violated. The Rev. Stephen Fournier, who runs the club, said he's not asking the school to establish the Good News Club as its religion; nor is he asking for the school's support in any way. "I just want to use space that my tax dollars pay for," he said. But school officials say club meetings, which include prayers, singing, and Bible study, are like worship services, and therefore the meetings should not be allowed to take place in state-run schools. Fournier sued the Milford school system with the help of the Rutherford Institute, a conservative legal group. Both a federal judge and a federal appeals court have previously sided with the Milford school district, but other courts -- in other cases -- have upheld religious groups' rights to use public buildings for meetings.
[ CNS ]
Home schoolers in Maine are facing new government challenges to their freedoms.
As many as 800 Maine home schoolers recently packed several hearing rooms at the State Legislature. They were there to speak out against Bill 405, a proposal that would force home schoolers to take the Maine Educational Assessment, a standardized test designed to gauge the progress of public school students.
The home schoolers say the bill would override their right to pick their children's curriculum. That's because they would be forced to teach public school courses to ensure their kids pass the standardized test.
In the midst of the debate, the sponsor of the bill, Republican Senator Pete Mills, announced he was withdrawing support for his own legislation. However, he immediately proposed a legislative study on home schooling.
But according to Scott Woodruff, an attorney with the Home School Legal Defense Association, "Home schoolers have demonstrated academic achievement at the highest levels. There is nothing to be gained academically by requiring home school students to take the MEA."
In addition, Woodruff says Maine does not need another study on home schooling. And to back that claim, he says they provided the legislative committee with more than 150 citations of previous studies that have already covered the subject.
[ AgapePress ]
In a case testing the separation of church and state in schools, a state appeals court panel ruled yesterday that a Christian students' club was wrongfully excluded from a high school.
Justin Van Schoick, a former student and president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, sued the Saddleback Valley Unified School District after the group was denied recognition as an officially sanctioned club at Mission Viejo High School in 1996.
"Merely granting the FCA the same privileges enjoyed by all other campus clubs offends neither the United States Constitution nor that of this state," said the unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the Santa Ana-based 4th District Court of Appeal, reversing a lower court's decision.
The club, which was formed to bring "a Christian presence on campus," sought official club status so it could hold meetings at the school. It said all gatherings would be student initiated and voluntary, would take place after normal school hours and would not interfere with educational activities.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Dennis S. Choate had ruled that granting the club access to campus would "amount to impermissible state sponsorship of religion."
But Van Schoick's appeal argued that barring the group from the school violated the First Amendment and the Equal Access Act, which prohibits public schools from discriminating against religious clubs when other organizations already exist on campus.
The appeals court panel said it was "highly unlikely that FCA's on-campus meetings would convey a message of the state approval or endorsement of religion."
"This decision overturns three decades of laws which enabled the wholesale discrimination against Christian students," said lawyer John Mendoza, who works for the nonprofit Pacific Justice Institute and represented Van Schoick. "It is a monumental decision."
The American Civil Liberties Union says it supported the court's decision.
"If schools allow some clubs, they need to give equal access to other clubs, regardless of whether or not those clubs foster religion," said Elizabeth Schroeder, associate director of the ACLU of Southern California.
The school district's lawyer, J. Michael Declues, downplayed the decision.
"The previous judgment in our favor has been reversed," he said. "All that means is it's now sent back to the trial court."
[ AP ]
Abortion rights advocates asked a judge Thursday to recall a "Choose Life" license plate, arguing the state shouldn't issue a tag with a Biblical message that's inextricably linked with anti-abortion activists.
The optional, bright yellow tags went on sale in August and 13,000 are on cars -- making the plate the 22nd best-selling of the state's 51 specialty tags.
But the National Organization for Women, a Palm Beach County synagogue and three other plaintiffs asked Circuit Judge Nikki Ann Clark to ban the plate, saying that it violates constitutional provisions meant to keep government and religion separate. They asked her to recall those plates already on cars.
Clark didn't rule on the request or indicate when she might.
The group that pushed the Legislature to pass the plate in 1999 argued that "Choose Life" is a message meant to encourage adoption.
But the plaintiffs argue the phrase has its origins in a Biblical passage in Deuteronomy and that the state is putting its seal of approval on that message. A rabbi and a retired Presbyterian minister testified the phrase urges people to choose God's way in their life.
NOW also argues that the phrase is so closely related to the anti-abortion movement that people who see the plate could assume the state agrees with that movement, even though abortion is constitutionally protected in Florida.
Volunteers who escort patients in and out of abortion clinics testified that "Choose Life" is the most common phrase on the signs picketers carry when they protest clinics, and that the phrase is frequently on the same sign with "Abortion Kills."
NOW's lawyer, Barry Silver, said the license plate's creators went out of their way to choose a religious, anti-abortion message.
"They could have passed a license plate that said 'Adopt A Child' and we wouldn't be here," Silver said. "But they go and graft a phrase from Deuteronomy."
That, he argued, violates the Constitution, by entangling the state with religion.
But Jim Dean, the lawyer for the Department of Highway Safety, said the state wasn't promoting the idea espoused by the people who have the plate, noting other plates with ideas some people may not like, such as one urging protection of dolphins, which some fishermen may object to.
"The message is not the message of the state, it's the message of an individual motorist," Dean said. "No one is required to have 'Choose Life' on their car."
Silver also argued that the association of a phrase on a license plate with one side of a divisive argument intimidates those who don't agree with anti-abortion activists.
"The state of Florida's now being enlisted and co-opted by this movement ... they're joining in with this movement," Silver said.
Dean, who didn't call any witnesses, said the plaintiffs didn't prove their case and so there was no need to rebut their testimony.
Bob Sanchez, a spokesman for the Department of Highway Safety, which is arguing against the tag ban, said the agency doesn't take a position on its message.
"We carry out the statutes unless a job tells us otherwise," Sanchez said.
[ Orlando Sun-Sentinel ]
- The President of the American Family Association says it is tragic that Southern Methodist University has decided to offer medical benefits and reduced tuition to same-sex partners of its employees.
The Dallas-based school says it needs to remain competitive for top-teaching talent. That is why the Methodist-affiliated university says it will start offering same-sex benefits next year.
SMU is one of just a handful of religious-affiliated schools to make such an offer.
AFA President Dr. Don Wildmon is an ordained United Methodist minister. He says this is just another example of how the church is ignoring what the Bible says about homosexuality.
"It's tragic that Southern Methodist University would offer same-sex benefits to homosexual couples," Wildmon says. "This obviously goes against everything Scripture has to say about this immoral lifestyle. But I think it's a reflection also of a deterioration not only of our society, but really of a church structure that is unwilling to address the problem from a Biblical perspective."
Wildmon says he is not optimistic that the church's governing General Conference will do anything to sever ties or financial contributions to SMU or force it to reconsider its decision to offer same-sex benefits.
"I doubt very seriously the United Methodist Church will let this affect their relationship with Southern Methodist University, or will actually bring about any change of policies inside the United Methodist Church," he says.
Emory University in Atlanta, which is also affiliated with the United Methodist Church, has a similar policy.
Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which was founded by the Southern Baptist Convention but has loosened its ties with the denomination, also offers the benefits.
About 150 of 3,300 higher-education institutions nationwide have similar policies.
[ AgapePress ]
Editor's Note: GW Bush is a United Methodist from Texas.
Missouri's highest court will decide whether a man's confession to church elders may be used against him in a criminal case. Robert Eisenhouer is accused of sexually abusing two children, and his wife told prosecutors he confessed what he'd done to Jehovah's Witness church officials. Prosecutors subpoenaed those church elders, but a lower-court judge quashed the subpoenas, saying the state law prosecutors invoked violates the Constitution's freedom of religion protections. The state law says in cases of suspected child abuse, the only conversations that are legally off limits are those involving attorneys and their clients. In oral arguments Tuesday, an attorney for church officials said the state law forcing them to testify about Eisenhouer's alleged confession "directly attacks religion." Prosecutors argue the law is a "permissible infringement," because it is intended to protect children.
[ CNS ]
Many years ago, while I was in Bible College, our pastor read a parable about evangelism. At the time I believed that there was a ring of truth in the parable but I had no idea just how true it was. I've included the parable that I heard below and I hope that every Trumpet reader will give careful thought to the underlying truth.
Now it came to pass that a group existed who called themselves fishermen. And lo, there were many fish in the waters all around. In fact, the whole area was surrounded by streams and lakes filled with fish. And the fish were hungry. Week after week, month after month, and year after year, those who called themselves fishermen met in meetings and talked about their call to fish, the abundance of fish, and how they might "O about fishing. Year after year they carefully defined what fishing means, defined fishing as an occupation, and declared that fishing is always to be a primary task of fishermen.
These fishermen built large, beautiful buildings for the local fishing headquarters. The plea was that everyone should be a fisherman and every fisherman should fish. One thing they did not do, however; they did not fish. In addition to meeting regularly, they organized a board to send out fishermen to other places where there were many fish. The board was formed by those who had the great vision and courage to speak about fishing, to define fishing, to promote the idea of fishing in faraway streams and lakes where many other fish of different color lived. Also, the board hired staffs and appointed committees and held many meetings to define fishing, to defend fishing, to decide what new streams should be considered. But the staff members did not fish.
Large, elaborate, and expensive training centers were built whose original and primary purpose was to leach fishermen how to fish. Over the years, courses were offered on the needs of fish, the nature of fish, how to define fish, the psychological reactions of fish, and how to approach and feed fish. Those who taught had doctorates in "fishology." But the teachers did not fish. They only taught fishing.
Further, the fishermen built large printing houses to publish fishing guides. Presses were kept busy day and night to produce material solely devoted to fishing methods, equipment, and programs, to arrange and encourage meetings, to talk about fishing.
A speaker's bureau was also provided to schedule special speakers on the subject of fishing. After one stirring meeting on "The Necessity of Living," one young fellow left the meeting and went fishing. The next day he reported that he had caught two outstanding fish. He was honored for his excellent catch and scheduled to visit all the big meetings possible to tell how he did it. So, he quit his fishing in order to have time to tell about the experience let the other fishermen. He was also placed on the Fisherman's General Board as a person having considerable experience.
Now it is true that many of the fishermen sacrificed and put up with all kinds of difficulties. Some lived near the water and bore the smell of dead fish. They received the ridicule of some who made fun of their fishermen's clubs and the fact that they claimed to be fishermen yet never fished. They wondered about those who felt it was of little use to attend and talk about fishing. After all, were they not following the Master who said, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19). Imagine how hurt some were when one day a person suggested that those who do not fish were really not fishermen, no matter how much they claimed to be. Yet it did sound correct. Is a person a fisherman if year after year, he never catches a fish? Is one following if he is not fishing?
People who've studied the history of the Fundamental Baptist Churches in America know that they were built on Door to Door visitation! J. Frank Norris, Lee Roberson, and all the patriarchs of the Independent Baptist movement were aggressive soul winners! They built Sunday Schools, they knocked on every door in their town. They saturated their areas with the Gospel Story. Sadly though, we've left God's method of reaching our towns - and our churches are shriveling up and dying! Why? Because we don't visit! Some preachers have resorted to getting all their members saved three and four times because they are not reaching the unchurched - what a mess! We bring in worldly entertainers to fill our buildings because we have become too slothful and indolent to go out into the highways and hedges for more than an hour or so a week and compel the lost and unchurched to come in. If we don't repent and do the first works soon, we are doomed! We blame it on the times, we blame it on apostasy, but the truth is we've become lazy and lethargic and we are not willing to admit we have the problem! Imagine if we worked as hard at reaching the lost as we do at making excuses for why we don't. No doubt we would have won many by now!
Didn't the Lord say in Matthew 4:19, "Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men"? If that verse is true, and you'd better believe it is, then the reason we aren't fishers of men must be that we are not following HIM! Didn't the Lord say, in John 15:5, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit'? He was not talking about the fruit of the Spirit there! He was talking about winning souls to Christ! One pastor told his congregation that shepherds don't produce sheep, sheep do. How pathetic! I wonder how that line will hold up at the Judgement Seat of Christ!
One man I know belonged to a church with more than ten men besides the pastor who claimed to be called to preach. Yet he couldn't find a soul winning partner! When he asked one of these so-called preachers to go out visiting with him, the imposter told him, "pray for me, I don't feel convicted about soul winning yet". How touching! If someone told that guy that they wouldn't quit smoking because they were not convicted yet, he would have blown that their lame excuse right out of the water! God help us to get back to evangelism.
Steve Mays
Bible Baptist Trumpet Editor
Pastor of Faith Baptist Church, Laurens, SC
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