Baptist Church Research Articles

Civil Rights, Minority Mental Health Discussed on Tragic Anniversary

Civil Rights, Minority Mental Health Discussed on Tragic Anniversary

Snyder v. Phelps : The U.S. Supreme Court’s Spectacular Erasure of the Tragic Spectacle

On March 2, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court determined in Snyder v. Phelps that protests by members of Westboro Baptist Church, a small group of religious fundamentalists committed to communicating their beliefs publicly in spectacular fashion, were protected under the First Amendment based on a dual standard of “public concern”; that is, their speech dealt with sociopolitical issues and their speech attracted media attention. This rhetorical conflation of sociopolitical issues with subjects of media interest provides legal encouragement for the creation of media spectacles on the part of hate groups and other ideologues and discourages the development of the very public reason taken for granted by the Court. To defend this claim, we first provide a brief history of the Westboro Baptist Church and its strategic manipulation of the mass media and free speech law, situated within competing traditions of public sphere theory. After next providing a history of the judicial evolution of Snyder v. Phelps , we engage in a close reading of the majority and dissenting Supreme Court opinions to reveal the rhetorical conflation of “public issues” and “public concern,” and we conclude with reflections on the relationships among that conflation, the role of different forms of spectacle in advanced capitalist societies, and the possibilities for more informed democratic citizenship.

Tennessee sharecropper and: Honey Eater

Tennessee sharecropper and: Honey Eater Gregory Powell (bio) tennessee sharecropper for clara williams she measures wealth not in silver dollarsanchoring her black patent-leather purse& her family in a sharecropper’s house.She’d handed out more than she’d received. her mule’s shoe, walked as thinas her thumbnail, was no reason to faint.besides, her mother had never taught her to faintbut raised her on the bread of Hope instead. therefore, she never taught her daughtersto faint, even if hard work & broken promisesrode their shoulders into the concrete dirt.hard times & twisted tongues could bend one’s back into an eternal horseshoe,framing an otherwise empty sky. Honey Eater for June Williams Had grandfather swallowed a cherry pit? As it had been rumored & relayed as reliable factBy cherry gazers who’d stood next to him. His skin, a month later (to the very minute Of his pit swallowing), had deepened red. Ruddy. As if he’d stripped to skin & washedIn sun; until he’d stood, sun stroked & bronzed before his wife. Asked her for a butter biscuit. She’d always given him her last. Am I heir (not to rumor/not to excess) but tohis swallowings: pit or gristle? Rind & fat? Fin or scale? To become what we eat; gobbling a green Persimmon would not only lock my jaws butWould sharpen my objective eye; to find value & truth in my dipstick ethic. What if I swallow Regret— the whole of it? not just the gristle; not just the pit;not just the bone; all six (6) leaden letters; spoonful of honey to sweeten the swallowing. [End Page 755] Gregory Powell Gregory Powell earned an MFA in poetry from the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa, an M.Div. from Regent School of Divinity; and a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He works as a labor and employment law attorney and is an associate pastor of education at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Copyright © 2014 Gregory Powell

Snyder v. Phelps: The U.S. Supreme Court's Spectacular Erasure of the Tragic Spectacle

Abstract On March 2, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court determined in Snyder v. Phelps that protests by members of Westboro Baptist Church, a small group of religious fundamentalists committed to communicating their beliefs publicly in spectacular fashion, were protected under the First Amendment based on a dual standard of “public concern”; that is, their speech dealt with sociopolitical issues and their speech attracted media attention. This rhetorical conflation of sociopolitical issues with subjects of media interest provides legal encouragement for the creation of media spectacles on the part of hate groups and other ideologues and discourages the development of the very public reason taken for granted by the Court. To defend this claim, we first provide a brief history of the Westboro Baptist Church and its strategic manipulation of the mass media and free speech law, situated within competing traditions of public sphere theory. After next providing a history of the judicial evolution of Snyder v. Phelps, we engage in a close reading of the majority and dissenting Supreme Court opinions to reveal the rhetorical conflation of “public issues” and “public concern,” and we conclude with reflections on the relationships among that conflation, the role of different forms of spectacle in advanced capitalist societies, and the possibilities for more informed democratic citizenship.

Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey. The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America.

This review begins its work in the echo of a bombing whose reverberation is tangled with the bombing that anchors the writing of Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey. Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963, experienced the white supremacist response to Martin Luther King Jr.'s trumpeting of his “dream,” three weeks earlier, on a day of race-neutral solidarity in the nation's capital. And as Blum and Harvey note, the explosion obliterated the white face of the stained-glass Jesus (previously bathing the church's sanctuary in familiar “comfort”) as well as the brown-skinned bodies of four young black innocents. The recent debacle in Copley Square, Boston, which shattered that city's 116th marathon, has served as equally troubling notice that religiously fueled wrath over racially coded politics remains volatile and deadly. On how we “read” such depends much of consequence. The Color of Christ stands as a pop culture tour de force, ferreting out the New World career of an Old World savior as his body and meaning “explode” into prolixities of claims and shards of significance too combustible to track entirely. The authors' focal concern is Jesus's relationship with an elusive and recombinant whiteness, ranging from the supremacist genocides of early colonial days to our current kaleidoscope of digitized buffoonery. From the blank hole left atop the white body of the Jesus of Birmingham emerges a cacophony of voices, testifying to messianisms abhorrent and creative, recalcitrant and progressive, one more time reifying white power inside the sanctuary or bombastically breaking the thrall of light-coded control in celebration of an insurgent coming of color. In Detroit, for instance, the battle became briefly epic in a westside neighborhood, after the 1967 rebellion. Blacks painted the statue of Jesus in the inner city churchyard of Sacred Heart Parish black and brown overnight, only to find they had to renew their efforts a few days later when the statue was repainted white by other neighborhood residents. Here was the battle over sacred emblems signifying a war of political interests, long shaping a city and a nation!

"Disordered" Democracies: Gender Conflict and New York Baptist Women, 1791-1830

In spite of numerous excellent monographs written in recent years, the status of women in early national Baptist churches in the United States remains a subject of dispute. While some historians paint a gloomy picture of female marginalization, others contend that women had a surprising amount of influence over congregational matters. Taken at face value, current research suggests that early national Baptist women may have been the most oppressed in New England, had the most power in Georgia, and held varying degrees of influence in between. Such a conclusion is counter-intuitive and suggests the need for improved methodology. This article proposes a more rigorous methodology that will help researchers investigate local conditions more precisely and also make it possible to draw comparisons among Baptist congregations over time and from region to region. The essay then implements the proposed methodology in its examination of the records of twenty-six frontier New York congregations. It argues that Baptist women in western New York played important roles in many local congregations between 1791 and 1822, only to have their contributions diminished between 1823 and 1830. This shift in the Baptist approach to female congregational participation was prompted by cultural change, by socioeconomic development, and, in large part, by male fears of ecclesiastical disorder. The article concludes with a discussion of how the proposed methodology could advance future research regarding female Baptist agency in the antebellum period.

Such as These: Exploring Conversations with Southern Baptist Children about Conversion and Baptism

The history of Baptists describes their changing views of conversion and baptism of children. This qualitative research was designed to explore how 22 children, their parents/guardians, pastors, and other leaders from 14 Southern Baptist churches describe the phenomenon of conversion and baptism in the lives of the boys and girls. The research revealed that leaders in the faith community play a significant role in conversion, language of the faith can assist and distract from understanding, and children are influenced by the need to be included or by concern related to exclusion.

In the Smaller Scope of Conscience: The Native American Graves Protection & Repatriation Act Twelve Years After

I. THE TRUE COMPROMISE Standing before the United States Senate on October 26, 1990, Senator John McCain asked the approval of his colleagues to consider H.R. 5237, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1) (NAGPRA). passage of legislation marks the end of a long process for many Indian tribes and museums. The subject of repatriation, stressed McCain, is charged with high emotions in both the Native American community and the museum community. I believe this bill represents a true (2) H.R. 5237 had originally been introduced by McCain's fellow Arizonan, Representative Morris Udall. With McCain's urging, the Senate passed the bill by a voice vote. The House of Representatives passed the amended version by unanimous consent the next day. Congress was not acting unilaterally in supporting NAGPRA. A May 11, 1990 letter to House and Senate members urging passage of repatriation legislation was signed by representatives of the American Baptist Churches, American Ethical Union, Church of the Bretheren, Church Women United, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Episcopal Church, Jesuit Social Ministries, Mennonite Central Committee, Presbyterian Church, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church. (3) An October 12, 1990 letter from the American Association of Museums also indicated its support of H.R. 5237. (4) An October 17, 1990 letter to members of Congress further broadened support for H.R. 5237 to include representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union, American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, Central Conference of American Rabbis, National Council of Jewish Women, and Union of American Hebrew Congregations. (5) A November 2, 1990 letter urging President George Bush to sign the bill into law further added and diversified parties to this compromise. (6) The letter was signed by the heads of the Society for American Archaeology, American Anthropological Association, American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Archaeological Institute of America, Association on American Indian Affairs, Native American Rights Fund, National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers, National Congress of American Indians, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Preservation Action, Society for Historical Archaeology, and Society of Professional Archaeologists. The long process of which McCain spoke began in 1986, as Congress sought to reconcile four major areas of federal law. As civil rights legislation, Congress wished to acknowledge that throughout U.S. history, Native American human remains and funerary objects suffered from disparate treatment as compared with the human remains and funerary objects of other groups. (7) Congress also wanted to recognize that the loss of sacred objects by Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations to unscrupulous collectors negatively impacted Native American religious practices. (8) In making this Indian law, Congress founded its efforts on an explicit Constitutional recognition of tribal sovereignty and the government-to-government relationship between the United States and Indian tribes. (9) Regarding property law, Congress wanted to clarify the unique status of the dead as well as highlight the failure of American law to adequately recognize traditional concepts of communal property in use by some Indian tribes. (10) Lastly, in trams of administrative law, Congress would direct the Department of the Interior to implement Congress' mandate, including the promulgation of regulations to ensure due process, awarding of grants, and assessment of civil penalties. (11) In all, 26 separate bills were proposed or introduced, and two public laws were enacted over a four-year period as a compromise on these multiple issues was negotiated. (12) NAGPRA reconciled these various concerns by establishing three sets of provisions. …

A pilot test of a church-based intervention to promote multiple cancer-screening behaviors among Latinas.

We assessed the feasibility, acceptability, and initial impact of a church-based educational program to promote breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening among Latinas ages 18 years and over. We used a one-group pre-/post-evaluation within a low-income, Latino Baptist church in Boston, MA. Participants completed interviewer-administered assessments at baseline and at the end of the 6-month intervention. Under the guidance of a patient navigator (PN), women from the church (peer health advisors, or PHAs) were trained to deliver evidence-based screening interventions, including one-to-one outreach, small group education, client reminders, and reduction of structural barriers to screening. The PN and PHAs also implemented a health fair, and the pastor integrated health information into regular sermons. At pre-intervention, nearly half of the sample did not meet screening guidelines. The majority (97%, n = 35) of those who completed the post-intervention assessment participated in intervention activities. Two thirds (67%) reported talking with the PN or PHAs about health issues. Participation in small group education sessions was highest (72%), with health fairs (61%) and goal setting (50%) also being popular activities. Fourteen percent also reported receiving help from the PN in finding a primary care provider. This study supports the feasibility and acceptability of churches as a setting to promote cancer screening among Latinas.

Traditional Russian(speaking Baptist Worship in Orthodox Context

The article raises the question of the importance of orthodoxy context in formation of traditional service in Baptist churches in Belarus. Noting, that the service is a result of difficult historical processes, interaction of traditions and cultures, geographical relations, the author pays a special attention to the local religious surroundings, where the evangelical movement started and developed. As a background there is given a short estimate of spiritual situation in Belarus (The Russian Empire) in the end of 19th – beginning of 20th cent. and the role of orthodox liturgy in life of believers. On the concrete examples there are considered the questions of collaboration and rupture of evangelical believers with orthodoxy. The second part shows how the reaction to the orthodoxy could contribute to the cardinal simplifying of the evangelical service’s rites (in an attempt to overcome the rupture between service and ethics).The author pays a special attention to the radical difference of the service space. The third part gives the examples, which witness about the influence of orthodox context on the form and content of Baptist service and penetration of orthodox motives into the ECB meetings.

Let Us Now Praise Workers’ Shoes

Let Us Now Praise Workers’ Shoes Charles A. Swanson (bio) Blessed is he who considers the poor! —Psalm 41:1, RSV Where have they been unlaced, scuffed off,put today? Back porch, pantry, the bottomof half-dark basement stairs? Sometimes Daddysets them to trip us all, socks on top, right smack-dab where everybody walks.They’re so poorly, all caved in, tongue hanginglike some old dog’s that’s trailed all night. Bunionmarks worn into the leather. Chalky dust to whir up into your noseif you stir them. But he’s going out to farm,in mud that sucks off shoes, in ankle-deepbarn-yard muck, out long dusty rows! He makes his own perfume. Sharp smellscome from inside and out these all-day homes,smells that testify. But grandpa’s brogans,just as broken in, set aside, they tell of feet that fill a corner bed,out of everybody’s way. We’ll feed him soupwhen we get a minute’s breath, and think of shoesthat walked long miles to keep us fed. [End Page 40] Charles A. Swanson Charles A. Swanson lives in the Callands Community, near Turkeycock Mountain, in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, where he was born. He has farmed throughout his life at times with his grandparents, his parents, his wife, and his children. Retired from teaching English at Gretna High School, he now teaches at Danville Community College part time and also pastors the Melville Avenue Baptist Church in Danville, Virginia. He has published two poetry books. Copyright © 2013 Berea College

The Teaching of Church Law: An Ecumenical Exploration Worldwide

Religion law – the law of the state on religion – has been taught for generations in the law schools of continental Europe, though its introduction in those of the United Kingdom is relatively recent. By way of contrast, within the Anglican Communion there is very little teaching about Anglican canon law. The Church of England does not itself formally train clergy or legal officers in the canon and ecclesiastical laws that they administer. There is no requirement that these be studied for clerical formation in theological colleges or in continuing ministerial education. The same applies to Anglicanism globally – though there are some notable exceptions in a small number of provinces. This is in stark contrast to other ecclesiastical traditions: the Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed, Presbyterian, Baptist and United churches all provide training for ministry candidates in their own systems of church law, polity or order. However, no study to date has compared the approaches of these traditions to the teaching of church law today. This article seeks to stimulate an ecumenical debate as to the provision, purposes, practices and principles of the teaching of church law across the ecclesiastical traditions of global Christianity. It does so by presenting examples of courses offered (institutions, purposes, subjects, methods and levels), the educative role of church law itself, requirements under church law for church officers to study the subject, and parallels from the secular world in terms of debate in the academy and practice on the nature of legal education, particularly the role played in it by the Critical Legal Studies movement.1

A dialogue between the Orthodox Church of Georgia and the ‘Evangelical Christians-Baptists’ of Georgia (1979–1980) with its wider Baptist context

In 1979–80 conversations were held between representatives of the Orthodox Church of Georgia and the ‘Evangelical Christians-Baptists’ of Georgia in a situation of oppression by the Communist state. The agreed document that emerged from this dialogue is printed here, and is preceded by an article which expounds it from a Baptist perspective, sets it in the wider context of Baptist theological and ecumenical theology, and relates it to the practices of the present-day Baptist Church of Georgia. The stated purpose of the dialogue was to achieve reconciliation and unity between Orthodox and Baptist Christians in Georgia, first by agreeing substantial matters of doctrine and then by adopting a common liturgy and common sacramental life. Among the range of subjects reviewed, including the Blessed Virgin Mary, the saints, nationalism, confession and icons, the discussion on baptism is perhaps the most adventurous, and remains promising though flawed. The document does not represent the views of the present-day Orthodox Church of Georgia, and its contents clearly reflect the political pressures under which it was composed. However, it is of historical interest, and some will see it as a sign of hope for co-operation in the mission of God.

Glenn Burleigh, Let God Arise: Opus 35, Cantata for Eastertime. The Ambassador's Concert Choir; Graceway Baptist Church Adult Choir; Glenn Burleigh, conductor. Burleigh Music Inspirations, 1997, 2 CDs.

Glenn Burleigh, Let God Arise: Opus 35, Cantata for Eastertime. The Ambassador's Concert Choir; Graceway Baptist Church Adult Choir; Glenn Burleigh, conductor. Burleigh Music Inspirations, 1997, 2 CDs. - Volume 7 Issue 3

JOHN McKAEG

The sad story of a flawed evangelical and of dissension in a Baptist church

‘Fighting Baptists’: The Responses of Baptist Churches to the Great War

Dr Matthews’ article about the impact of the First World War on Welsh Baptists challenges us to see what can be found in our churches’ records. Lists of names on war memorials (1914-18 and 1939-45) brought together in one place would help family historians, but what else is there? We would welcome further contributions: what can you find?

A STONE THROWN IN THE WATER

The paper discusses conversations in 2004-6 between representatives in Scotland of Baptist churches and some evangelical churches with roots in the Open Brethren. The context is presented first through an analysis of the contemporary state of Baptists and the Open Brethren in Scotland. The initiation of the conversations is then described and the process devised for them and its progress. Reasons for their failure are finally examined, and what light these shed on the conversation partners.

Mojo workin': the old African American Hoodoo system

Katrina Hazzard-Donald explores Americans' experience and practice of the herbal, healing folk belief tradition known as Hoodoo. She examines culture and history by tracing its emergence from traditions to religious practices in the Americas. Working against conventional scholarship, Hazzard-Donald argues that emerged first in three distinct regions she calls clusters and that after the turn of the nineteenth century, took on a national rather than regional profile. The spread came about through the mechanism of the African Religion Complex, eight distinct cultural characteristics familiar to all the ethnic groups in the United States. The first interdisciplinary examination to incorporate a full glossary of culture, Mojo Workin': The American System lays out the movement of against a series of watershed changes in the American cultural landscape. Hazzard-Donald examines material culture, particularly the High John the Conquer root, which practitioners employ for a variety of spiritual uses. She also examines other facets of Hoodoo, including rituals of divination such as the walking boy and the Ring Shout, a sacred dance of tradition that bears its corollaries today in the American Baptist churches. Throughout, Hazzard-Donald distinguishes between Old tradition Black Belt Hoodoo and commercially marketed forms that have been controlled, modified, and often fabricated by outsiders; this study focuses on the hidden system operating almost exclusively among Americans in the Black spiritual underground.

A 'TIDCK DESCRIPTION' OF TWO BIBLE STUDIES BY THE LANGA BAPTIST GROUP

Profile of the group This Bible study group was formed in the 1980's, with various leaders coming and going. It is associated to the local Baptist Church in Langa, Cape Town. It consists of a relatively . large number (30 or more) of young people who are roughly between the age of 15 and 35. The group is led by the local pastor's son, who has received theological training at the Baptist Theological College. The language of communication in the group is predominantly Xhosa, with several inputs also in English. As a result of the size of the group and the venue (the local church), the members of the groups sit in rows of chairs facing the leader. Although the seating arrangement puts the leader in a somewhat dominant position, the participation by the group members is quite lively. The socio-economic profile of the group is important. Many of the members are university or technicon students or people who have entered a first job following secondary or tertiary education. Although many of the members come from poor households (as reflected in the larger township of Langa), an "upward social mobility" can clearly be identified in the group. Some of the group members may still experience themselves as poor but there is for many in the group a realistic expectation of becoming more affluent.

Death of the New Hope Baptist Church

Death of the New Hope Baptist Church