Haggard's former church invites Southlake pastor for tryout
08:41 AM CDT on Thursday, August 2, 2007
Associated Press
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A pastor from a suburban Dallas megachurch will try out for the senior pastor post at New Life Church, which has seen its attendance drop by 25 percent after the firing of disgraced church founder Ted Haggard.
Brady Boyd, 40, an associate senior pastor at Gateway Church in Southlake, will preach at the Colorado Springs church on Aug. 12, 19, and 26. Two-thirds of the congregation must approve his appointment when it votes Aug. 27.
"Brady is a man of strongest character and reputation," New Life spokesman Rob Brendle told The Gazette of Colorado Springs Tuesday.
Brendle said Boyd was chosen over internal candidates not only because he is a "vibrant communicator," but because he has the managerial skills to be CEO of New Life, which has about 10,000 members -- down from 14,000 -- a $12 million budget and a staff of 150.
Besides a drop in its attendance, New Life has seen its revenues drop by 10 percent since Haggard left.
Haggard, 50, also resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals last year, after a former male prostitute alleged a three-year cash-for-sex relationship. The man also said he saw Haggard use methamphetamine. Haggard confessed to undisclosed "sexual immorality" and said he bought meth but never used it.
As part of his severance package from New Life Church, which Haggard started in his basement, Haggard agreed to leave Colorado Springs and has since moved to Phoenix.
Gateway Church began in the home of one of the pastors in 2000 and has thousands of members, according to its Web site.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress, attacked for planning to use the Koran at his swearing-in instead of a Bible, will use a copy of the Muslim holy book once owned by Thomas Jefferson, an official said on Wednesday.
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Representative-elect Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, requested the 18th century copy of the Koran for the unofficial part of his swearing in on Thursday, according to Mark Dimunation, chief of rare books and special collections at the Library of Congress in Washington.
Ellison, a Muslim convert who traces his U.S. ancestry to 1741, wanted a special copy of the book to use, Dimunation said, and approached the library for one.
The third U.S. president, serving from 1801 to 1809, Jefferson was a collector with wide-ranging interests. His 6,000-volume library, the largest in North America at the time, became the basis for the Library of Congress.
Ellison, elected in November, initially came under attack in the blogosphere and by at least one conservative radio commentator after he said he would use the Koran in his unofficial ceremony.
Members are sworn in to the U.S. House of Representatives as a group with no Bibles or other books involved; but in a country where three out of every four people consider themselves Christians, the Bible has traditionally been used in ensuing unofficial ceremonies.
These unofficial events among other things provide each member with a photo opportunity for themselves and their constituents.
Rep. Virgil Goode (news, bio, voting record), a Virginia Republican who represents the area where Jefferson lived, was one of those who criticized Ellison for wanting to use the Koran, calling for strict immigration policies specially crafted to keep Muslims out of the United States.
The English translation of the Koran from Jefferson's collection dates to the 1750s. Jefferson sold his collection to the U.S. Congress after its library was lost when the British burned the Capitol during the War of 1812. Much of his collection was destroyed in an ensuing fire in 1851 but the Koran that Ellison will use survived, Dimunation said.
Ellison, a native of Detroit, will be one of 42 blacks in the House next term. There will be one black U.S. senator.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress, attacked for planning to use the Koran at his swearing-in instead of a Bible, will use a copy of the Muslim holy book once owned by Thomas Jefferson, an official said on Wednesday.
Representative-elect Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, requested the 18th century copy of the Koran for the unofficial part of his swearing in on Thursday, according to Mark Dimunation, chief of rare books and special collections at the
Ellison, a Muslim convert who traces his U.S. ancestry to 1741, wanted a special copy of the book to use, Dimunation said, and approached the library for one.
The third U.S. president, serving from 1801 to 1809, Jefferson was a collector with wide-ranging interests. His 6,000-volume library, the largest in North America at the time, became the basis for the Library of Congress.
Ellison, elected in November, initially came under attack in the blogosphere and by at least one conservative radio commentator after he said he would use the Koran in his unofficial ceremony.
Members are sworn in to the U.S. House of Representatives as a group with no Bibles or other books involved; but in a country where three out of every four people consider themselves Christians, the Bible has traditionally been used in ensuing unofficial ceremonies.
These unofficial events among other things provide each member with a photo opportunity for themselves and their constituents.
Rep. Virgil Goode (news, bio, voting record), a Virginia Republican who represents the area where Jefferson lived, was one of those who criticized Ellison for wanting to use the Koran, calling for strict immigration policies specially crafted to keep Muslims out of the United States.
The English translation of the Koran from Jefferson's collection dates to the 1750s. Jefferson sold his collection to the U.S. Congress after its library was lost when the British burned the Capitol during the War of 1812. Much of his collection was destroyed in an ensuing fire in 1851 but the Koran that Ellison will use survived, Dimunation said.
Ellison, a native of Detroit, will be one of 42 blacks in the House next term. There will be one black U.S. senator.
ATLANTA - The Georgia Baptist Convention has formally ended its 170-year relationship with Mercer University, a relationship that had grown increasingly troubled over the convention's concerns that Mercer is more liberal than its Southern Baptist roots.
Convention members had voted last year to sever ties with the Macon, Ga., institution. A second vote Tuesday finalized the split, which means Mercer must seek Baptist funding from individual churches rather than the convention.
Mercer also has control now over choosing its trustees.
Mercer had prepared for the funding loss by cutting $8.5 million from its more than $171.5 million dollar budget this year.
The convention funded $3.5 million in scholarships and another $2 million for the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing on Mercer's Atlanta campus. The convention already has transferred $25.5 million in endowment and trusts to Mercer.
Convention members were disturbed last year by a National Coming Out Day program on campus called the Mercer Triangle Symposium sponsored by a gay student group and supported by faculty and staff.
"The waters had been troubled for some time over a number of issues, but that seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back," said Wayne Robertson, chairman of the convention's administration committee and pastor at Morningside Baptist Church in Valdosta, Ga.
Mercer President William D. Underwood said the college will continue a relationship with its founding denomination.
"Mercer remains committed to its historic Baptist roots and continues to have close ties with Baptists and Baptist churches throughout Georgia, the nation and the world," he said in a news release.
The convention still has ties to three Georgia colleges: Shorter College in Rome, Brewton-Parker College in Mount Vernon and Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland
ATHENS, Greece - A trip to Syria that U.S. megachurch pastor Rick Warren says was inspired by a backyard chat with a Muslim neighbor has triggered criticism and questions that highlight the potential risks when preaching meets international politics.
But Warren's visit which included a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad also reinforced his credentials as a rising force in a new generation of globe-trotting evangelists following famous predecessors including the Rev. Billy Graham.
Warren, who shot to superstardom with his blockbuster book "The Purpose Driven Life," said he was not attempting to dabble in the hypersensitive world of Middle Eastern politics in the visit that ended last Sunday. Warren said he went to Syria as part of a three-nation trip of pastoral outreach and humanitarian efforts that began in Germany and wraps up in Rwanda on Saturday.
His statement, however, came too late to curb disapproval of his trip as word of it spread via the Internet.
Warren has been criticized by some evangelicals for holding talks with a nation long accused of abetting terrorism that is also one of Israel's fiercest foes.
Conservative Christians have been among the toughest advocates in the United States for a hard-line against Islamic extremism. And Israel is strongly supported by a vast evangelical network, including some American churches that believe biblical prophecy calls for Jewish sovereignty over the entire Holy Land.
The Crosstalk Radio Talk Show, part of a Christian radio network, called Warren a "mindless shill" for Syria and said he "owes an apology to Israel, to the American people and to the victims of Syrian-sponsored terror."
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported that Warren's delegation supported Syria's role as regional leader and expressed concern about U.S. policies, including the war in Iraq.
"The trip seemed like a message that you cannot ignore Syria's role in the region," said Imad Fawzi Shueibi, a Damascus-based political analyst.
Warren could not be reached in Rwanda for direct comment.
But a statement issued for Warren, who founded Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., described the Nov. 10-12 visit to Syria as "neither official nor political" and said he expressed "support for President Bush, our troops in Iraq and the war on terror."
Warren, however, consulted with "Syrian experts" in the U.S. government before the trip, said his U.S.-based spokesman, Larry Ross. No other details of the discussions were available. Warren's visit comes at a time when the Bush administration is under pressure to reach out to Syria and Iran to create greater stability in the Mideast, particularly Iraq.
Warren said in the statement that the trip was initiated after his Syrian-born neighbor urged him to visit his homeland during a discussion "over their backyard fence."
Warren's meetings in Syria included representatives from Syria's Christian minority, professors and the nation's grand mufti, Ahmad Bader Hassoun.
"I believe it is a mistake to not talk to nations considered hostile isolation and silence has never solved conflict anywhere, whether between spouses or between nations," Warren said in the statement Ross released Thursday.
In July, Warren postponed a planned visit to North Korea, which is under huge international pressures to suspend its nuclear weapons program. But he is still invited to preach in March at the first outdoor Christian event in North Korea since 1945, Ross said.
Straddling the worlds of faith and diplomacy is nothing new for religious leaders. In 1977, Graham preached in communist Hungary, the first of his pioneering forays in the Soviet bloc. Pope John Paul II, the globe-trotting pontiff who experienced totalitarianism firsthand in his native Poland, is credited with helping bring about the end of communism with his travels abroad.
Warren cited Graham and John Paul as models in an interview about his planned trip to North Korea with the PBS show "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly" earlier this year.
"People say, `Well, you're being a pawn. You're being used,' and things like that. The truth is I want to get the Good News out," Warren said. "My reasoning is: why not? There are people in North Korea that have not heard for 60 years there is a God."
Mark Noll, an expert in American evangelical trends at the University of Notre Dame, said Warren may be reaching a crossroads.
His ministry and writings have only faint political undertones. But he may be drawn into a political arena by the weight of his own celebrity.
"There's a trend that religious figures once they get a certain level of visibility and fame seem to get pulled into politics," said Noll. "Warren is at this stage. The question is whether he is looking for new worlds to conquer."
September 26, 2006
AUSTIN -- In a case that could have First Amendment implications, the Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday waded into a battle involving a Fort Worth pastor's decision to tell his church about a relationship a member had outside of her dissolving marriage.
Lawyers for the pastor say he acted within church doctrine and the court should not get involved. The woman says she considered the pastor a secular counselor and sued for negligence.
Theologians are watching to see if a ruling could make it easier for church members to sue a pastor with a professional counseling license who talked to them as a religious leader.
"This is the true-blue church-state separation issue," said Kelly Shackelford, attorney for the Rev. C.L. "Buddy" Westbrook, pastor of CrossLand Community Bible Church.
Shackelford is also chief legal counsel for the Plano-based Liberty Legal Institute, a nonprofit organization that defends religious freedoms and First Amendment rights.
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, the Dallas Theological Seminary and the National Association of Evangelicals all filed court briefs to support the pastor.
Peggy Penley and her husband went to Westbrook for counseling, and he involved them in group sessions with other church members. In 2000, she told Westbrook that she was divorcing her husband, and Westbrook recommended an attorney.
She also resigned her church membership _ she was a co-founder of the church _ because its bylaws set forth procedures allowing the congregation to discipline her and others for inappropriate behavior.
However, Westbrook met with church elders and later distributed a letter about Penley's decision to get a divorce. The letter said she was involved with another man, although it didn't specify the nature of their relationship.
The letter urged church members to shun Penley as part of a "tough love" approach for her to see her errors.
Penley and her husband divorced in 2001, and she married the other man. She then sued, challenging Westbrook's actions as a counselor under the Texas Licensed Professional Counselor Act.
A trial judge tossed out Penley's case after the pastor's attorneys argued she was disciplined within church rules. An appeals court disagreed and said Penley had a right to sue. That decision was appealed to the state Supreme Court, which must decide whether Penley's case should proceed.
The justices raised several questions in Tuesday's oral arguments that suggested they were struggling to decide if the case would drag them into church doctrine.
"We're dancing on the head of a pin," trying to separate the issues, said Justice Harriet O'Neill.
Courts have taken on other legal issues that impact church doctrine, notably in cases involving medical treatment or commercial fraud.
Shackelford said long-standing legal precedent allows court jurisdiction only in limited circumstances, such as cases of physical or sexual harm or fraud.
"Who decides church discipline? Judges or churches?" Shackelford said. "To allow (the lawsuit) to go forward is to allow the jury to punish the church for its doctrine."
Penley's attorney, Darrell Keith, said the case was not about church doctrine but Westbrook's professional responsibility as a licensed counselor.
He said Penley had already established a secular counseling relationship with Westbrook and she considered all her meetings with him to be based on that relationship, not a religious one.
As Penley's professional counselor, Westbrook pressured her to divulge information he would use against her as a religious figure, Keith said.
"This is not a case that is an affront or abridgment of religious liberties," Keith said.
Penley testified before a lower court that she was "stunned" and "heartbroken" by the letter's release. She no longer lives in Texas, Keith said.
WASHINGTON The Bush administration's faith-based initiative is reaching only a tiny percentage of the nation's black churches, most of which have limited capacity to run social programs, hampering the initiative's promise of empowering those congregations to help the needy, according to a study released this week.
The national survey of 750 black churches by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies found that less than 3 percent are participating in the program, which funnels at least $2 billion a year in federal social services spending to religious organizations.
Black churches in the Northeast and those with self-identified progressive congregations and liberal theologies were most likely to be taking part in the program, a finding that surprised the researchers, who concluded that the White House has not used the program as a political tool as some critics have suspected.
"Those people who were most worried can exhale," said Robert M. Franklin, a professor of social ethics at Emory University who worked as a consultant on the survey. "Churches have not been manipulated by Karl Rove. They have not sold out."
Despite instances of grants going to political and ideological supporters of President Bush, the survey found that, overall, liberal-leaning churches were more likely to apply for and receive the grants, even though they tend to view the program more skeptically than their conservative counterparts do.
"The thing is that the churches that are most likely to actually do social outreach or social ministry are liberal churches, they are not conservative churches," said David A. Bositis, a senior research associate at the center who conducted the study. "Those churches may have significant reservations about the program. But if the money is there, they are going to take it. They are the ones who have the capacity and the infrastructure to get grants and administer them."
While many of the churches surveyed had an interest in assisting those in need and frequently offered small-scale programs such as food pantries or used-clothing giveaways, most had neither the money nor the expertise to do more or even to seek more resources.
Most of the nation's estimated 50,000 black churches are led by pastors who work other jobs full time and have little more than administrative help in running their churches. The survey found that more than one in four black churches had annual revenue of less than $100,000 and half had revenue of less than $250,000. Only 12 percent reported taking in more than $1 million a year.
"The survey reveals for us the breadth of churches in the African-American community, and it shows how churches that already have capacity have a leg up on churches that may do some good things" but are not in a position to do them on a larger scale, said Harold Dean Trulear, a professor of religion at Howard University
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With his pin-stripe suit and media-ready manner, the Rev. Richard Cizik looks like a typical Washington lobbyist, but his is a mission with a difference: persuading evangelical Christians to care about global warming.
NEW YORK - The government has rejected a prominent Muslim scholar's application to enter the country, contending that he gave support to a terrorist group, but his attorneys allege the U.S. is using charitable donations he made as a pretext for stifling his views.
RICHMOND, Va. - The Rev. Jerry Falwell acknowledged on Sunday that he said if Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton were the Democrats' presidential nominee in 2008, it would motivate conservative evangelical Christians to oppose her more than if the devil himself were running.
MINNEAPOLIS - When Keith Ellison arrives at the Karmel Square, one of Minneapolis's Somali malls, a rock star might as well be walking by the bustling stalls of bright fabrics, jewelry, phone cards, and videos.
UMAN, Ukraine (AFP) - Thousands of Hasidic Jews from around the world are gathering in the Ukrainian city of Uman for a yearly pilgrimage marked by singing, dancing and prayer.
CINCINNATI (Reuters) - A car commercial proclaiming a jihad on the U.S. auto market and offering "Fatwa Fridays" with free swords for the kids is offensive and should not be aired, Muslim leaders said on Sunday.
JAKARTA (AFP) - Asian Muslims began observing the holy month of Ramadan at the weekend with many still incensed about the pope's comments linking Islam with violence and those in conflict areas wishing for peace.
DEARBORN, United States (AFP) - During what should be a joyous time of fellowship, worship and reflection, many Muslims streamed into the Islamic Center of America on the first night of Ramadan with heavy hearts.
NEWARK, N.J. - Avoiding further controversy in the worldwide Anglican family, the Episcopal Diocese of Newark on Saturday chose a Massachusetts priest as their new bishop, rather than an openly gay candidate on the ballot.
CAMERON, La. - A year after Hurricane Rita, the grave at Ebenezer Baptist Cemetery sits empty, half-filled with stagnant water, its vault and casket yanked out of the ground and carried north by churning floodwater from the Gulf of Mexico.
NEWARK, N.J., Sept 23 (Reuters Life!) - The Episcopal Diocese of Newark elected a Massachusetts cleric as its next bishop on Saturday, passing over a gay priest whose selection would have touched off more turmoil in the worldwide Anglican church.
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Muslims in Malaysia on Saturday began preparations for Ramadan with crowded food markets after religious officials confirmed the fasting month would start over the weekend.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, 73, has suffered new health problems relating to earlier diagnosed prostate cancer and has canceled all engagements, he said in a letter published on the Web site of his church.
When Muslims begin the holy month of Ramadan this weekend, Christians worldwide will be praying along with them. But Muslims may not welcome the support. In a campaign called the "30 Days Muslim Prayer Focus," Christians will be asking God to help Muslims accept Jesus.
WASHINGTON - When Mohamed Ghabour heard that a Muslim candidate, Keith Ellison, was running for Congress in Minneapolis, Ghabour turned to a sister-in-law who lives in Minnesota for a scouting report. "She said he's a good man," recalled Ghabour, a Muslim pediatrician from the Tampa, Fla., area. "That's all I needed to hear."
PASADENA, Calif. - A liberal church that has been threatened with the loss of its tax-exempt status over an anti-war sermon delivered just days before the 2004 presidential election said Thursday it will fight an IRS order to turn over documents on the matter.
JERUSALEM (AFP) - This Jewish New Year, Israelis are looking back grimly on the passing year and, with the Lebanon war still fresh in their minds, see little hope that the coming one will bode any better.
BEIRUT (AFP) - The Christians of Lebanon, divided and marginalized, are struggling to build up a new political force which can defend their interests in the face of the growing influence of the Shiite group Hezbollah after its war with Israel.
KIGALI (Reuters) - Conservative American Anglicans opposed to the ordination of gay clergy must break away from their liberal colleagues in order to be recognized by traditionalists in the developing world, a bishops group said.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Christian conservatives, traditionally a reliable Republican constituency, aren't necessarily a GOP gimme this time around. There is an undercurrent of concern that some evangelicals, unhappy that the GOP-led Congress and President Bush haven't paid more attention to gay marriage and other "values" issues, may stay home on Election Day or even vote Democratic.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Senator George Allen, a potential Republican presidential candidate, defended his decision to hide his Jewish roots, saying his mother had urged him to keep his family history a secret.
RICHMOND, Va. - Sen. George Allen's mother hid her Jewish upbringing from her children until late last month to spare them the fear suffered by her father, who was imprisoned by the Nazis, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
BOSTON (Reuters) - Looking to marry the Roman Catholic Church's 2,000-year-history with the modern world's technological bent, Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley on Thursday became the first U.S. cardinal to launch a blog.
FLORISSANT, Mo. - Archaeologists have uncovered coins, dishes, bullets, Indian jewelry and other artifacts from the remains of an 18th-century Catholic church rectory in suburban St. Louis that is said to be one of the oldest in the Midwest.
WASHINGTON - A Vatican-ordered review of Roman Catholic seminaries in the United States has been completed and the results sent to Rome, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says.
NEW YORK - Christine Benvenuto embodies a Jewish ideal. Her kitchen is kosher, she attends synagogue and has read rabbinic writings and Torah. But for many American Jewish leaders, she has an even more compelling quality. The mother of three, whose husband was born Jewish, is a convert.
WARSAW (AFP) - Poles were urged to donate memorabilia showing how Poland's once-thriving Jewish community used to live, to be displayed in a new museum commemorating 800 years of Polish Jewry.
GRANTHAM, Pa. - Democrat Bob Casey highlights his religious work while Republican Sen. Rick Santorum seeks out evangelical Christians, a reflection of the fierce fight for voters of faith.
