July 15, 2015 • TEXAN Magazine • Issue #51

July 15, 2015 • ISSUE 51

Gary Ledbetter

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Not victims at all

cross town, the annual Gay Pride parade was setting attendance records.

The usual assortment of flamboyant costumes swirled around revelers celebrating the previous day’s victory over an ancient institution they’d found confining. One straight couple said they brought their toddlers, Fox and Bear (no kidding), so they could understand both freedom and homosexuality. It occurred to me that this family may have not been to town since the Occupy protests a couple of years back.

About five miles down the road, in the little church my mother attends, Clan Ledbetter was gathered with other great houses to wed two of our children—a man and a woman.

The preacher was a family friend, and he reminded us all of God’s first institution, the temporal picture of the timeless relationship between Christ and his church. He preached the gospel to the marrying couple and to the witnesses. “God hears our commitments,” he told us, and he takes them seriously. We nodded in solemn joy at the occasion and the familiar words. The short ceremony proceeded in the pattern familiar to us all, and we smiled as the exuberant newlyweds promenaded down the church aisle.

After greeting them in the foyer, we walked into a small fellowship hall for cake, mixed nuts, chalky white wedding mints and punch made from ginger ale and lime sherbet—staples of Baptist weddings for a generation. But the food wasn’t the point as we gathered in rounds of 10 by family groups to catch up

and tease and grin indulgently as a new generation strutted and crowed.

We saw the newlyweds off with a barrage of bubbles and spent a half hour preparing the fellowship hall for the next day’s church activities.

Later that day, my side of the family convened at Mom and Dad’s for an annual cookout. The cool evening and blessed lack of mosquitos led us to linger until dark as we talked about our own marriages, 61 years old, 39 years old, 30 years old, two years old and 10 months old. The youngsters can’t imagine my parents’ marriage of over six decades or even mine of nearly four. But they also can’t imagine Dad without Mom or Pop without Granny. Our laughter and wild exaggerated stories taught the newer couples, and the single kids, something as timeless as the lessons Ledbetters and Shults and Reeds and Tunes taught their kids a century back—one man, one woman for life; same as it ever was.

No one mentioned that day the ruling by Justice Kennedy’s court the day before. Maybe I was the only one thinking of it in the background of more important things we said and heard and did that day. But my heart was full for those hours of comfort and peace; in stark contrast of the previous day’s flurry of reading legal opinions; poring over Twitter for comments, bluster and trash talk; and strategery. I was stirred up Friday, as were many of you, and my mind seethed with strong emotions in response to cultural madness, a lot of questions not answerable by the wisdom of this age. But I spent the next morning fishing, that afternoon with family in the broadest sense

and that evening with those I’ve known since birth, theirs or mine.

I got my answer. There is no ultimate joy or satisfaction in man’s rebellion against God or his institutions—my rebellion or others’. But there is power in young people hearing the counsel and the testimonies of those who’ve gone before. There is significance in wrinkled and scarred relationships that say convincingly that love and commitment outlast the new-car smell of honeymoons and shower gifts. They may not believe that it “gets better,” to borrow a phrase from the other team, but they have seen that doing the right things, generally, produces something worth passing along to kids they will add to the circle a July or two down the road.

As citizens we will stay engaged as long as we have rights to do so. As citizens we can facilitate the rescue of some victims of our libertine society. As churches, we boldly teach the whole counsel of God to our neighbors, who will often hate to hear it. As children of God— fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters—we will teach our kin what’s right and what is worthy. There are things to mourn in the rebellion of nations against God’s clear revelation of himself. But we mourn for the lost and confused—the worshippers of creation rather than the Creator.

We are not victims of wayward American law. The serenity of that Christian wedding service, and of that summer family gathering, is an answer from the unchanging and unshakable God. His children are not victims at all.

CONTENTS

In the span of a week, three court rulings challenged the conservative religious convictions of millions of Americans. All three of these decisions—and the many more to come— symbolize a shift in the culture and the power of the courts that jeopardize religious liberty.

ISSUE

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BAR RY CR EA M E R, C RIS WE LL C O LLE GE P RE S I D E N T

“The idea that marriage is stronger now than in the previous century or centuries can only make sense to someone with a worldview so skewed by individualism against social and community obligation that marriage itself has changed in meaning to him.”

JULY 15, 2015

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CLOSURE OF TEXAS ABORTION CLINICS HALTED

BY SUPREME COURT

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BAPTIST COLLEGES MUST PROVIDE INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR CONTRACEPTION, ABORTIFACIENTS

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C O L U M N : Your children

& same-sex marriage

Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty President Russell Moore provides encouragement and advice to parents for talking to their children about the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage. “When your children ask about the Supreme Court,” Moore says, “be loving, winsome, honest, convictional and kind.”

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Persecution turns Pakistani Christian into international church planter

Kidnapped at gunpoint and kept in a dark room in an abandoned farmhouse, Ranil Sylvester was told, “We know that you earn good money and have a good job and family. All we want is to convert you to Islam. If you will not convert, we will kill you.”

TEXAN Magazine is e-published twice monthly by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, 4500 State Highway 360, Grapevine, TX 76099-1988.

Jim Richards, Executive Director Gary Ledbetter, Editor Keith Collier, Managing Editor Sharayah Colter, Staff Writer Russell Lightner, Design & Layout Gayla Sullivan, Subscriptions

Contributing Writers Michael Foust, Russell Moore, Bonnie Pritchett, Alex Sibley

To contact the TEXAN, visit texanonline.net/contact or call toll free 877.953.7282 (SBTC).

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06

Michael Foust explains the convoluted time-travel storyline of Terminator Genisys. He also provides briefs on Disney Pixar’s Inside Out, the military canine film Max, and the raunchy stuffed animal sequel Ted 2.

Each brief includes post-movie discussion topics to help parents capitalize on teachable moments.

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PASTOR’S PLAN TO RAISE THE CHRISTIAN FLAG North Carolina pastor Rit Varriale wants to see churches fly the Christian flag above the American flag as a biblical statement, reversing flag etiquette that calls for the American flag to be flown in the prominent position.

Varriale, pastor of Elizabeth Baptist Church in Shelby, N.C., said the church installed its first-ever flagpole in order to raise the two flags in a special ceremony after morning worship on July 5 in which the Christian flag was raised in the higher position—which prompted interviews by Charlotte-area NBC, CBS and Fox affiliates.

“If you stop and think about it, [flag etiquette] is inconsistent with what the Bible teaches us,” Varriale said. “We are first and foremost Christians who are called to serve the living God.”

MAJORITY OF AMERICANS SAY U.S. SPECIAL TO GOD

Read the story here.

In a nation founded on religious liberty, most Americans believe God has a special relationship with the United States, and they’re optimistic the best is yet to come.

Despite headlines lamenting the global decline of the United States since the Cold War, 54 percent of Americans believe the nation is on the upswing, according to a survey by LifeWay Research released July 1.

BLACK CHURCH FIRES STOKE WIDESPREAD CONDEMNATION OF RACIALLY-MOTIVATED CRIMES In the wake of a string of black church fires, investigators have found two cases of arson and at least one case of a lighteningrelated fire. As investigations continue into the fires that followed news of a deadly shooting at a Charleston, S.C., church, Americans of varied ethnicities are expressing their disapproval of and anger concerning racially motivated crimes.

Read the story here.

Read the story here.

OKLAHOMA TEN COMMANDMENTS RULING MAY THREATEN OTHER STATES’ MONUMENTS

PRO-LIFE REGULATIONS STYMIED BY COURTS IN 4 STATES

If allowed to stand, an Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling banning a privately-funded Ten Commandments display on the state capitol grounds could lead to the removal of similar displays across America, a free speech advocacy group has argued. Despite the Oklahoma high court’s ruling, Gov. Mary Fallin said a six-foot, granite Ten Commandments monument will remain at the capitol while Attorney General Scott Pruitt files an appeal and state legislators consider a measure to let Oklahoma residents vote on striking an amendment from the state constitution cited by justices as rationale for ordering the commandments removed. At least 36 other states have adopted similar constitutional amendments and could be liable to lawsuits challenging their Ten Commandments’ displays.

Pro-life regulations in Texas, North Carolina, Kansas and Iowa have been stymied in court challenges.

Affected are a Texas law requiring abortion clinics to qualify as ambulatory surgical centers and for abortion doctors to have hospital admitting privileges; a North Carolina law requiring doctors to show pregnant women ultrasound images before performing an abortion; a Kansas law banning dismemberment abortions; and an Iowa Board of Medicine ban on “webcam” abortions.

Read the story here.

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Read the story here.

—Briefly section compiled from Baptist Press, other news sources and staff reports

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M A R R I A G E

PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS REACT TO GAY MARRIAGE RULING

Reaction among 2016 presidential candidates to the Supreme Court’s nationwide legalization of gay marriage is divided largely along party lines, with all five Democrats in the race lauding the decision and at least 13 of 14 Republicans opposing it.

Regarding gay marriage, Republican presidential candidates differ in the degree to which they say they would oppose the Supreme Court’s June 26 ruling.

For example, Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee have spoken of resisting the decision while Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham have advocated abiding by it while fighting to protect the religious liberty of individuals who refuse to acknowledge or participate in same-sex marriages based on their religious convictions.

One Republican candidate, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, has proposed amending the U.S. Constitution to let states continue to ban same-sex marriage.

Read the story here.

AFTER GAY MARRIAGE: NEXT STEPS FOR LGBT ACTIVISTS With same-sex marriage now legal in all 50 states, pro-gay activists are shifting their focus to issues like alleged workplace, housing and public accommodations discrimination. Some have even proposed stripping churches of their tax-exempt status and legalizing polygamous marriage.

Pro-LGBT activists view the Supreme Court’s legalization of gay marriage “as a means to a greater end,” said Jon Akin, pastor of Fairview Church in Lebanon, Tenn.—”a huge means, but I certainly don’t think it’s the end. I think many will not be happy” if the advance of gay rights “doesn’t go further.”

Akin, a member of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s leadership council, has helped equip Fairview’s members to share Christ with the homosexual community and respond to pro-gay activists. He told Baptist Press that in his experience, the push for expanded LGBT rights typically “doesn’t come from animus of any kind. It stems from wanting cultural affirmation, seeing any form of discrimination as inequality.”

Read the story here.

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POPE APOLOGIZES FOR CENTURIES-OLD PERSECUTION Pope Francis issued an apology on behalf of Catholics to “the oldest evangelical church,” in late June, for years of massacre, rape and pillaging of the Waldensian church during the Middle Ages. During one of the more famous massacres, 1,700 Waldensians were killed during Easter week of 1655. The persecution at the hands of the Catholic Church was part of an attempt to eradicate the church founded by Peter Waldo in the 12th century.

Read the story here.

ISLAMIC THREAT, RELIGIOUS LIBERTY STUDIED Americans view Islam as a threat to their own nation’s religious liberty almost as strongly as they consider it a danger to religious freedom internationally, a new study shows.

Although most persecution occurs overseas, 39 percent of American adults say Islam threatens religious freedom in the U.S.—almost as many as the 40 percent who see Islam as a global threat, a survey by Nashville-based LifeWay Research finds.

“Most recent headlines regarding Islam don’t paint a picture of religious freedom—so we should not be surprised by the strong minority that consider Islam a threat to religious freedom,” Ed Stetzer, executive director of LifeWay Research, said.

“However, it is worth noting less Americans see Islam as a threat to religious freedom than do not. What’s of particular interest to me is not people’s concern about international religious liberty— which I would expect—but that 40 percent of Americans see Islam as a threat to religious liberty in the United States.”

A slim majority, 52 percent, believes U.S. religious liberties are not at risk because of Islam.

Religious liberty has been widely discussed recently, but social policy, not Islam, has been the focus of recent religious freedom disputes in the United States. Courts have weighed religious freedom arguments in deciding whether to permit same-sex marriage, allow businesses to turn away gay customers, and require employers to pay for birth control.

Read the story here.

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B A P T I S T

NAMB FUND TO ASSIST BURNED BLACK CHURCHES The North American Mission Board has established a fund to help African-American churches that have been damaged or destroyed by fire in the past month.

Fires at seven black churches have fueled discussions of racial hatred, as the first occurred within a week of the June 17 massacre of nine black Christians by a 21-year-old white supremacist at a Charleston, S.C., church.

“Southern Baptists should be the first to condemn acts of hatred toward African-Americans,” NAMB President Kevin Ezell said. “Regardless of the causes of these fires, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to come alongside and offer whatever assistance we can.”

NAMB started the fund with $50,000 to be immediately available to the churches in need of assistance.

Read the story here.

STEVEN HARRIS JOINS ERLC AS ADVOCACY DIRECTOR

BAYLOR: HOMOSEXUALITY NO LONGER IN CONDUCT POLICY

The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission has named Steven Harris as the director of advocacy in its Washington, D.C., office.

Harris, 29, who served during the last year as a ministry fellow for the Christian Union at Yale University, will advocate for the ERLC’s policy positions with Congress as well as the White House and the remainder of the executive branch. He also will provide analysis of legislative proposals and content for the ERLC’s website and its other media outlets.

Harris becomes the second African-American to join the ERLC staff since Russell Moore became president in June 2013.

Baylor University has deleted an affirmation of heterosexual marriage from its policy on sexual conduct as well as a specific prohibition of “homosexual acts.”

A university spokeswoman told Baptist Press the revised policy will be interpreted in a manner consistent with the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message, including the 1998 amendment defining marriage as “the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime.”

Read the story here.

CP 1.45% ABOVE PROJECTION AT FY THREEQUARTER MARK Year-to-date contributions to Southern Baptist national and international missions and ministries received by the SBC Executive Committee are 1.45 percent above the year-to-date SBC Cooperative Program Allocation Budget projection, and 1.24 percent above contributions received during the same time frame last year, according to a news release from SBC Executive Committee President Frank S. Page.

The year-to-date total represents money received by the Executive Committee by the close of the last business day of June and includes receipts from state conventions, churches and individuals for distribution according to the 2014-15 SBC Cooperative Program Allocation Budget.

Read the story here.

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Read the story here.

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M U S I C

HOW LECRAE’S ‘CHURCH CLOTHES’ CAUGHT HIPHOP’S EAR “I’m what happens when Outkast meets the writings of Moses.” This line, penned by Lecrae in his single “Cosign,” reflects the redemptive collision between hip-hop culture and Christianity.

From the early days of Kool Herc to the celebrated days of N.W.A and the Wu Tang Clan to more recent stars such as Outkast and Kanye West, hip-hop culture has developed a reputation for being uncut and authentic. With sex, drugs and violence dominating the lyrics of these artists, God was an afterthought at best. Yet, just when hip-hop was at its darkest, something changed.

Read the story here.

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KEYNOTE: ALLAN TAYLOR

Allan is Minister of Education at First Baptist Church Woodstock, Georgia. Allan is the founder of Ember to Blaze Ministries and writes Sunday School Leadership and training material. He has authored three books: “Sunday School in HD”, “The Six Core Values of Sunday School” and “Disciplining and Restoring the Fallen” as well as a DVD series, Sunday School Done Right and his new series, Forward from Here!

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JULY 15, 2015 TEXANONLINE.NET 5

By Michael Foust

‘TERMINATOR GENISYS’: A MESSED-UP PLOT AND WORLDVIEW ENTERTAINMENT RATING:

O

ne of the greatest storylines from the 1985 hit Back to the Future involved Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) traveling to 1955 and meeting his high-schoolaged mother, who subsequently develops a crush on him.

She, of course, is clueless that she is talking to her son. McFly is horrified that his mom (his mom!) wants to go out with him, but he has a far more significant concern.

You see, if his mom doesn’t fall in love with his dad at the upcoming high school dance—as originally happened—then McFly will cease to exist, simply because he never would have been conceived and born.

If only they made time travel movies like they used to—that is, simple and easy to follow.

The latest installment in the Terminator film series is out in theaters, complete with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “I’ll be back” character and plenty of robot-versushuman war action.

Terminator Genisys begins promisingly enough, as we learn that a computer program known as Skynet developed self-awareness and took over the world in 1997, resulting in 3 billion people dying from nuclear blasts. It appears that Skynet robots forever will rule the planet until one man—John Connor—leads an army of humans against Skynet in a D-Day type of assault in 2029 … and wins. Well, 6 TEXANONLINE.NET JULY 15, 2015

FAMILY FRIENDLY RATING:

sort of. Seconds before Skynet was defeated, it successfully used its new time travel machine to send one of its robots (a Terminator) back to 1984 to kill Connor’s mom before she gives birth to Connor. The 2029 version of Connor sends a friend, Kyle Reese, to 1984 to stop the Terminator.

And that’s where the movie falls apart, some 20 minutes into it.

Reese lands in 1984 but discovers there are competing timelines—he died in one timeline but is alive in another. It gets so crazy that Connor becomes a bad guy (he was “affected” by a Terminator) and ends up traveling through time and trying to kill his mother.

Good grief. Sure, the plot is a mess, but so is the worldview—and so are the worldviews of many time travel movies, despite their entertaining nature.

For example, if you could go back and change anything in your life, what would it be? My list is quite long, and if you ever do get your hands on Marty McFly’s DeLorean, I’ll need it for a few weeks. But where is God in that equation?

Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” In other words, God has a plan for every aspect of our lives, from the mundane to the tragic to the marvelous. They’re all woven together in a tapestry that will be revealed at the end of our lives. And time travel? It puts man at the wheel.

Obviously, time travel doesn’t exist, but daydreaming does. We may have a series of “what if” questions about our lives—“what if that hadn’t happened” or “what if I had done this instead” —failing to see God’s Romans 8:28 imprint on each day.

Sure, these movies are fiction, but they have a lesson for each of us … if we just dig.

Terminator Genisys is rated PG-13 for violence, partial nudity and language. There are about 25 curse words, including God’s name abused around five times. The partial nudity takes place because, in this film, time travel takes place in the nude. The film does a pretty good job of obscuring what needs to be covered.

AT THE

By Michael Foust

MAX (PG) Max gives us a look into the mostly unknown world of military precision-trained dogs—canines who perform vital duties on the battlefield, such as finding bombs. But in this movie, Max’s handler—Kyle Wincott—dies as the two are on mission in

TED 2 (R) What do you get when you combine an immature 30-something man, a hedonistic teddy bear, and a Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) movie script? You get the Ted film series, two raunchy films that, sadly, have been hits at the box office and are reflections of a growing epidemic

INSIDE OUT (PG) The same studio (Pixar) behind the Toy Story franchise, Cars, Wall.E and UP brings us Inside Out, which spotlights an 11-yearold girl named Riley and her battle with her emotions. But in Inside Out, we see the emotions battling for superiority in her brain. There’s Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE

July 3-5

Source: BoxOfficeMojo.com

Afghanistan, and the Belgian Malinois breed dog is so distraught that no one else can handle him. Max is sent back to the states to the Wincott family, where he is cared for by Kyle’s brother, Justin, who has his own issues, including a troubled relationship with his father. Can Max and Justin help one another?

Max contains no sexuality and only one curse word. It has enough violence that I’d keep young kids away, but for older kids and teens, this is a good one. Post-movie discussion topics: war; loyalty; dealing with the death of a loved one.

in our culture: young men who refuse to grow up and settle down. But I digress. Ted 2 features about 200 curse words, including 100 f-words, and although it doesn’t contain any nudity, it has enough sex jokes that we might as well coin a term: comic porn.

In the middle of it all, there is a slightly interesting plot: Ted, the talking stuffed bear, and his new

(human) wife, decide to adopt.

That leads the government to learn he isn’t really human, which leads to the government annulling his marriage. So he takes Uncle Sam to court. Interesting, yes, but no plot is worth walking through a field of manure. Post-movie discussion topics: society’s infatuation with sexual humor.

all live in HQ (Headquarters) in her head. When her family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco, something strange happens: Joy and Sadness get sucked out of HQ, and they have to work hard to get back in.

It’s a hilarious film whose core message has split film reviewers who are Christian. Plugged In’s Paul Asay applauded it for showing the need for sadness,

while Boyce College’s Dan DeWitt questioned the movie’s

message that we are mere biological beings. Post-movie discussion topics: our battle with our emotions and how the Holy Spirit can help us control them. *With information from Common Sense Media

Movie

Weekend Gross

Weeks in Theater

1. Jurassic World (PG-13)

$30,900,000

4

2. Inside Out (PG)

$30,105,000

3

3. Terminator: Genisys (PG-13)

$27,700,000

1

4. Magic Mike XXL (R)

$11,600,000

1

5. Ted 2 (R)

$11,000,000

2

6. Max (PG)

$6,610,000

2

7. Spy (R)

$5,500,000

5

8. San Andreas (PG-13)

$3,030,000

6

9. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (PG-13)

$1,320,000

4

10. Dope (R)

$1,098,000

3

JULY 15, 2015 TEXANONLINE.NET 7

In the span of a week, three court rulings challenged the conservative religious convictions of millions of Americans.

8 TEXANONLINE.NET JULY 15, 2015

The Supreme Court decision legalizing samesex marriage nationwide—by far the most prominent of the three rulings—started a ball rolling against religious liberty that has many concerned about future ramificaitons.

The court followed that with less-recognized ruling, halting the enforcement of a Texas law requiring abortion clinics to meet ambulatory regulations until justices determine whether or not to hear the appeal. And, finally, two Texas Baptist universities and other faithbased institutions lost their appeal against the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) mandates regarding birth control and abortifacients. All three of these rulings—and the many more to come—symbolize a shift in the culture and the power of the courts that jeopardize religious liberty.

TEXAS SOUTHERN BAPTIST LEADERS RESPOND TO SUPREME COURT DECISION ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

By Bonnie Pritchett The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 June 26 that states cannot ban same-sex marriage and must recognize such marriages licensed in other states. As Southern Baptist pastors and ministry leaders across Texas and the nation processed the ruling’s implications, they reaffirmed the role of the church in America that is increasingly antagonistic to biblical Christianity.

Calling the decision disheartening but unsurprising, Southern Baptist leaders said the ruling could bring to the fore additional attempts to redefine marriage, legal challenges to churches and religious ministries that do not comply with the new standard, and opportunities for the church to be a witness in the face of opposition. Jimmy Pritchard, pastor of FBC Forney and SBTC president, said the decision magnifies the need for a “fresh movement of God’s Spirit” to address the challenges ahead.

Criswell College President Barry Creamer told the TEXAN,

“Because we have understood sexuality and marriage as personal fulfillment rather than a social identity and responsibility, these decisions (along with myriad others, including no-fault divorce) were practically inevitable.”

Evan Lenow, assistant professor of ethics at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, agreed.

In responding to the Supreme Court ruling, he said, “The logic

of the decision grounds the definition and significance of marriage in the preferences of the individuals who want to enter into marriage. Although the decision acknowledges the longstanding history of marriage as a union of a man and a woman, the majority brushed aside that history in favor of the social whims of individuals.”

In a first-person piece titled “Chutzpah and the Supreme

JULY 15, 2015 TEXANONLINE.NET 9

JOHN ROBERTS

Court,” Southwestern Seminary President Paige Patterson was more succinct.

“Today’s anticipated decision is a decision of five people in a country of millions to call something right that God has already called wrong,” Patterson said.

Opposition to the ruling also came from the Texas capital.

Moments after the ruling was announced, Gov. Greg Abbott Tweeted a statement, “Marriage was defined by God. No man can redefine it. We will defend our religious liberties.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked county clerks Thursday to hold off issuing marriage licenses to samesex couples. Uncertainty over whether the ruling immediately impacts all states or just those involved in the lawsuit prompted the statement.

In a press release issued the day before the ruling, Paxton said, “But whatever the ruling, I would recommend that all County Clerks and Justices of the Peace wait for direction and clarity from this office about the meaning of the Court's opinion and the rights of Texans under the law.

But despite the call for caution, clerks in some Texas counties began issuing same-sex marriage licenses immediately.

Social media exploded as soon as the ruling was read by Justice Kennedy. Cries of victory from homosexuals and LGBT advocates were matched by calls for prayer and faith in God’s sovereignty by those opposed to the ruling.

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Albert Mohler, president of Southern Seminary, Tweeted, “Marriage remains what God designed as his gift to humanity, the union of a man and a woman. Our society will now call something else marriage.”

Also on Twitter, author Eric Metaxas asked the slipperyslope question, “I also want to know precisely how the SCOTUS can define marriage as between 2 people? Does that arbitrary number come from the Constitution?”

In his dissent of the ruling Roberts wrote, “The majority’s decision is an act of will, not legal judgment. The right it announces has no basis in the Constitution or this Court’s precedent.”

He said those who gained a desired status by the courts ruling should celebrate that fact but “do not celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it.”

In his majority opinion, Kennedy wrote of the evolving nature of marriage, such as women no longer given in arranged marriages or receiving social status only after marrying, and that “these new insights have strengthened, not weakened, the institution.”

Creamer begged to differ.

“The idea that marriage is stronger now than in the previous century or centuries can only make sense to someone with a worldview so skewed by individualism against social and community obligation that marriage itself has changed in meaning to him,” Creamer said.

CHIEF JUSTICE

“It is one thing for the majority to conclude that the Constitution protects a right to same-sex marriage; it is something else to portray everyone who does not share the majority’s ‘better informed understanding’ as bigoted.”

E R I C M E TA X A S AUTHOR

“I also want to know precisely how the SCOTUS can define marriage as between 2 people?

Does that arbitrary number come from the Constitution?”

AL MOHLER SOUTHERN SEMINARY PRESIDENT

“Marriage remains what God designed as his gift to humanity, the union of a man and a woman.

Our society will now call something else marriage.”

BARRY CREAMER CRISWELL COLLEGE PRESIDENT

“The idea that marriage is stronger now than in the previous century or centuries can only make sense to someone with a worldview so skewed by individualism against social and community obligation that marriage itself has changed in meaning to him.”

But as the culture luxuriates in the new paradigm, Creamer said faithful Christians will only become more identifiable as social outliers making “moral education in biblical ministry environments both more challenging and more significant.”

As fidelity to biblical sexuality and marriage will make Christians more recognizable in the community and thereby open opportunities for sharing the gospel, it can also make them targets for social ridicule or legal action.

In his dissent, Roberts stated, “It is one thing for the majority to conclude that the Constitution protects a right to same-sex marriage; it is something else to portray everyone who does not share the majority’s ‘better informed understanding’ as bigoted.”

“[Roberts] warns that future conflicts regarding the free exercise of religion will arise,” Lenow said. “This is echoed in a recent opinion piece in the Washington Post in which the ACLU declares that it can no longer support the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” Arguing that the 1993 federal RFRA was intended to assist religious expression that “does no harm to anyone else,” Louise Melling, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, in a twisted view of religious liberty, wrote, “It’s time for Congress to amend the RFRA so that it cannot be used as a defense for discrimination.

Religious freedom will be undermined only if we continue to tolerate and enable abuses in its name.”

Melling said RFRA has been used as “a sword to discriminate against women, gay and transgender people and others.”

Paxton said it is the advocates for marriage equality who have sought to discriminate against those who hold to the traditional view of marriage.

“This ruling will likely only embolden those who seek to punish people who take personal, moral stands based upon their conscience and the teachings of their religion,” Paxton said in a press release following the ruling.

For Patterson, religious liberty could be the next domino to fall.

“The critical issue that many recognize is the future of religious liberty,” Patterson said. “In fact, without religious liberty, people are not really free at all.”

JULY 15, 2015 TEXANONLINE.NET 11

PA I G E PAT T E R S O N

Although he painted a similarly bleak picture of cultural repercussions stemming from the ruling, Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, wrote now is not the time for Christians to panic or express outrage.

“Despite this ruling, the church of Jesus Christ will stand fast,” Moore said in a statement released by the ERLC. “We will not capitulate on this issue because we cannot. To minimize or ignore a Christian sexual ethic is to abandon the message Jesus handed down to us, and we have no authority to do this.”

The commission issued an Evangelical Declaration of Marriage signed by mor than 100 evangelical leaders. It is an en masse dissention of the Supreme Court ruling and reiterates the biblical doctrine of marriage and human sexuality. Others are invited to sign it at erlc.com.

Although Southern Baptist leaders admit the SCOTUS decision has disconcerting implications for the church and individual Christians they said “good riddance” to a cultural Christianity that brought people into the church and in line with a Judeo-Christian ethic but not into the kingdom of Christ.

Many have emphasized the fact that the church has often flourished when it is in opposition to the culture.

“I see this as an opportunity for the church to be a city set on a hill,” Lenow said.

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“Therefore, the church will have to stand with conviction on the truth of God’s Word against the changing tide of culture. No longer will people want to identify with our churches for social reasons— they will join us because of what we believe.”

Creamer said, “Churches must begin to demonstrate extraordinary religion, one out of step with the broader culture, both in the level of kindness and grace with which every person is received and served by the community of the gospel, and in the conviction and purity with which the actual members of the body of Christ are identified.”

Pritchard said the most important thing Christians can do now is pray.

“It is time to extend the gospel to all. It is time to stand on Truth,” Pritchard said. “This can be our opportunity to let our light shine brightly into the deepening darkness.”

Voting for the plaintiffs in Obergefell v. Hodges were Supreme Court Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen G. Breyer, and Elena Kagan. Dissenting were Justices Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, and Chief Justice John G. Roberts.

Read the majority opinion and dissenting arguments here.

SOUTHWESTERN SEMINARY PRESIDENT

“The critical issue that many recognize is the future of religious liberty.

In fact, without religious liberty, people are not really free at all.”

RUSSELL MOORE PRESIDENT, ERLC

“Despite this ruling, the church of Jesus Christ will stand fast. We will not capitulate on this issue because we cannot.

To minimize or ignore a Christian sexual ethic is to abandon the message Jesus handed down to us, and we have no authority to do this.”

GREG ABBOTT TEXAS GOVERNOR

“Marriage was defined by God. No man can redefine it. We will defend our religious liberties.”

EVAN LENOW ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ETHICS, SWBTS

“I see this as an opportunity for the church to be a city set on a hill.Therefore, the church will have to stand with conviction on the truth of God’s Word against the changing tide of culture. No longer will people want to identify with our churches for social reasons— they will join us because of what we believe.”

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CLOSURE OF TEXAS ABORTION CLINICS HALTED

BY SUPREME COURT

By Bonnie Pritchett WASHINGTON, D.C.

Texas abortion clinics due to close July 1 for failing to comply with regulations established in 2013 received a reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court, which voted 5-4 June 29 to halt full implementation of the twicecontested House Bill 2 (HB 2) that established a sweeping overhaul of the abortion industry in the state.

Though disappointed, Texans for Life President Kyleen Wright said the ruling is an indication the high court will take up the case in the fall when it begins a new session.

Implementation of the measures requiring abortion clinics to meet ambulatory surgical center standards and their doctors to receive admitting privileges at a nearby hospital were stayed pending an appeal before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. An application to the Supreme Court for a continued stay was granted and will remain in force until the high court decides to take up the case of Whole Women’s Health v. Lakey.

If the court hears the case, the

An application to the Supreme Court for a continued stay was granted and will remain in force until the high court decides whether to hear the case.

stay will stay in effect until a decision is rendered.

Pro-choice advocates cheered the order. Since the enactment of HB 2 during the 2013 legislative session, the number of abortion clinics has dwindled from about 41 to 16. A fully implemented law would have dropped the number to eight or nine.

On June 9, the Fifth Circuit Court overturned a lower court’s ruling that declared the provisions pose an “undue burden” for Texas women seeking an abortion. The appellate court ruled the law could be fully implemented beginning July 1.

Laws similar to the provisions of HB 2 have been passed and challenged in other states, but pro-life advocates believe it will be HB 2 that will be presented to the Supreme Court.

And although some pro-life advocates believe Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has “grown more pro-life” during his tenure on the bench, Wright

is not confident in the court’s ability to judge the case on the merits of the law instead of emotion and public opinion.

Media reports and publicity from pro-choice activists misrepresented the June 9 ruling.

And despite evidence to the contrary, Wright said, “There has been a large and loud campaign that all clinics will be closed.”

If the Supreme Court takes up HB 2, it will have to define a term it created yet left up to interpretation by lower courts—“undue burden.” The subjective term has been the critical point upon which other abortion regulating laws have been challenged.

Voting for the stay were Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Stephen G. Breyer, and Justice Elena Kagan. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Justice Antonin Scalia, Justice Clarence Thomas, and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. would deny the application.

JULY 15, 2015 TEXANONLINE.NET 13

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BAPTIST UNIVERSITIES APPEAL TO SUPREME COURT OVER OBAMACARE MANDATE

By Art Toalston & Bonnie Pritchett WASHINGTON

Houston Baptist University and East Texas Baptist University are appealing to the Supreme Court in challenging the Obamacare mandate to provide insurance coverage encompassing abortion-inducing drugs.

HBU and ETBU in conjunction with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty along with Westminster Theological Seminary filed a petition July 8 with the high court in response to a June 22 ruling by a threejudge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that the mandate did not and, likely, would not “substantially burden their religious exercise.”

In all, 56 cases involving 140 nonprofit plaintiffs have been filed against the mandate, according to the Becket Fund.

Among various cases in the news is a last-minute temporary injunction granted to Little Sisters of the Poor from facing

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enforcement of the mandate in January 2014.

Two other Baptist entities— GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention and Truett-McConnell College in Georgia—are involved in a separate challenge (GuideStone v. Sebelius), joined by Reaching Souls International, an Oklahomabased missions organization. A federal district judge’s injunction blocking enforcement of the mandate against the three plaintiffs is in force.

HBU, ETBU, Westminster and four other plaintiffs contended in an October 2012 lawsuit against the mandate (also called the HHS mandate and Affordable Care Act mandate) that they should receive the same consideration as churches under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the federal Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (RFRA).

A federal district judge ruled in the seven plaintiffs’ favor in December 2013. The threejudge appeals panel of the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans,

ETBU ET AL VS. BURWELL Claiming they should receive the same consideration as churches under the ACA and the federal Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (RFRA), HOUSTON BAPTIST UNIVERSITY, EAST TEXAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY, WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS, CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF BEAUMONT, AND CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF SOUTHEAST TEXAS AND FORT WORTH

filed a lawsuit (ETBU et al vs.

Burwell) demanding an exemption from the contraceptive mandate and the policies requiring they defer insurance coverage to a third party.

ROBERT SLOAN HBU PRESIDENT

“The government has many other ways to achieve its goals without involving us. It ought to pick one of those and let us go back to educating our students.”

however, referenced challenges to the mandate in federal district courts and acknowledged that the lower courts had cited RFRA in ruling against abortifacient coverage mandated for faithbased institutions. But the panel disagreed, writing, “Because the plaintiffs have not shown and are not likely to show that the requirement substantially burdens their religious exercise under established law, we reverse.”

Robert Sloan, HBU president, said in a Becket Fund news release July 8, “We didn’t go looking for this fight. But here we stand and can do no other. We cannot help the government or anyone else provide potentially lifethreatening drugs and devices.

The government has many other ways to achieve its goals without involving us. It ought to pick one of those and let us go back to educating our students.”

Diana Verm, legal counsel with the Becket Fund, also said July 8, “The Supreme Court should step in and tell the federal government that separation of church and state is a twoway street. The state should not be able to take over parts of the church—including these

religious ministries—just so it has an easier way of distributing life-terminating drugs.”

Sloan has noted that faithbased schools and organizations have been recognized by the government historically as parachurch institutions and afforded the same consideration as churches in matters of conscience and law.

But only houses of worship can opt out of compliance with the ACA mandate requiring all employer insurance policies provide contraceptive and abortifacient coverage—an untenable proposition, the plaintiffs argued.

The plaintiffs are arguing that though their institutions serve a different purpose than churches, their underlying convictions and subordination to scriptural authority—as is often declared in their governing documents— is no less binding on how they conduct business. Therefore, the government’s distinction between entities, they argued, is arbitrary and an affront to people of conscience.

One hopeful development in the challenges to the mandate, Sloan has said, is the Hobby Lobby case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the family-owned arts and craft retail chain could opt out of the contraceptive mandate because of the owners’ religiously held convictions. At the same time, however, Sloan has acknowledged that precedent is not in favor of the HBU, ETBU, Westminster appeal as the Fifth Circuit decision concurs with rulings in similar cases from appellate courts across the nation.

The Supreme Court is likely to consider all of the petitions in late September or early October, the Becket Fund said in its July 8 release. If any of the petitions are granted, the case would be argued and decided before the end of the court’s term in June 2016.

For HBU, ETBU and the other religious institutions, failure to win their cases would force them to violate their conscience and provide the offending coverage; defy the mandate and pay “onerous” penalties; or partner with a third party insurance provider to offer the contraceptive coverage.

All three, Sloan has said, are unacceptable. Disregarding their Christian convictions is not an option.

Paying the fine also is out of the question as the non-compliance penalty of $100 per employee per day would total $12 million and $8 million a year, respectively, for HBU and ETBU. “If we exercise our religious freedom, the penalties could put us out of business,” Sloan said.

And asking a third party to provide the coverage still makes the school culpable for the objectionable coverage, Sloan said, noting that the university’s insurance provider is Guidestone Financial Resources, the Southern Baptist insurance provider also fighting the legal battle with the Obama administration over the mandate.

Currently, as in other cases, a temporary injunction is shielding HBU, EBTU and the other five plaintiffs from enforcement of the mandate.

JULY 15, 2015 TEXANONLINE.NET 15

Persecution turns moderate Christian into international church planter

By Alex Sibley

Kidnapped at gunpoint and kept in a dark room in an abandoned farmhouse, Ranil Sylvester was told, “We know that you earn good money and have a good job and family.

All we want is to convert you to Islam. If you will not convert, we will kill you.”

Raised in Pakistan in a nominal Christian home, Sylvester was not a regular church attender and had not yet become a Christian.

“My legs started trembling with fear,” Sylvester recalls. “I didn’t know what to do.”

His kidnappers abused him—kicking him, slapping him, incessantly asking for his decision about embracing Islam. When they finally left

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him alone, Sylvester was barely conscious.

After a few hours, Sylvester recomposed himself. He began to think about the fact that he was alone when he was kidnapped. His family was not aware of what happened to him. “Who is going to act on my behalf?” he thought to himself. “No police, no family, nobody.”

Suddenly, a name came to mind: Jesus.

There in the abandoned farmhouse, he said, “Jesus, I trust you, and only you can save me.”

“Suddenly, I felt a strong presence in the room, as if I was not alone, but somebody was with me,” Sylvester recalls.

Right at that moment, the lights in the room went off. Two of Sylvester’s kidnappers rushed inside.

They turned on the headlights of

their car so they could see. The first man asked Sylvester what he had decided. He responded that he had met Jesus.

“What rubbish are you talking about?” the man replied. “Who is he? There is no one in the room.”

The second man said, “Why are you wasting time? Just kill him.”

The first man aimed his gun at Sylvester’s head. As Sylvester recalls, everything seemed to slow down. He saw a bright light in front of him. He felt completely at peace.

“Suddenly, I heard a sound click,” Sylvester says. “He pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. The second man asked him what happened, and he replied that the gun had jammed.”

Frustrated, his captors decided to let him go and dropped him off in

the wilderness. Sylvester walked a while before receiving a ride home from a sympathetic driver.

“When I got home, my life was completely changed,” Sylvester says. “I felt so relaxed within, as if nothing had happened.”

Feeling the urge to read Scripture, Sylvester obtained a Bible from a local church the next day and began to read it.

“God showed me the vision to reach lost people,” he says. “I saw in a dream people falling down in sin. Jesus gave His life to save these people.”

In response, Sylvester, along with his wife, Marub, started evangelizing to Muslims. Following their baptism, the couple became church planters, ultimately establishing 35 churches in Pakistan.

Unfortunately, Pakistan’s blasphemy law prohibits blasphemy of any religion (particularly Islam). Hundreds of Christians have been persecuted, tortured and killed under this law. Eventu-

ally, the Sylvesters fell victim to this persecution, as well.

One night, Sylvester and his wife narrowly escaped an attack by extremists for sharing the gospel with Muslims. Realizing that they had to leave the country, they came to the United States, seeking asylum.

The asylum officer asked Sylvester, “What will you do if we don’t grant you the asylum and you have to go back to your country?”

He replied, “What can I do except share the good news of Jesus Christ? I will share the love of Jesus when I go back till I die.”

The Sylvesters were granted asylum, and they have now continued their ministry as church planters here in the United States. As Sylvester states, life is completely different in the United States, not only culturally but spiritually.

“To my surprise, I saw that people are not interested in going to church,” he says. “We

in the United States take liberty for granted. In the United States, most people give their time to find all the riches of life, and in countries like Pakistan, believers give their lives to find Jesus Christ.”

Shortly after arriving, God has answered their prayers and opened doors for them to minister to Pakistani people who migrate from the Middle East.

Among other things, the Sylvesters have started the first Urduspeaking Pakistani church in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Although persecution drove him out of his country, Sylvester remains enthusiastic about serving the God who saved him in the midst of a kidnapping.

“No matter what language we speak, we are one in Jesus Christ,” Sylvester says. “Our Lord Jesus can break the mountains, turn fear into courage and sorrow into joy, and assure eternal life. All we need to find is the purpose of God in our lives.”

JULY 15, 2015 TEXANONLINE.NET 17

Russell Moore

Your Children & Same-sex Marriage

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ome Christian parents wonder how to explain to their small children the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. How does one teach about the law and the controversy without exposing one’s children to more than they can handle?

First of all, make no mistake: You should talk to your children about this. No matter how you shelter your family, keeping your children from knowing about the Supreme Court’s redefinition of marriage would take a level of choreography of their lives that isn’t realistic, nor is it particularly Christian.

The Bible isn’t nearly as antiseptic as Christians sometimes pretend it to be, and it certainly doesn’t shirk back from addressing all the complexities of human life. If we are discipling our children, let’s apply the Scriptures to all of life. If we refuse to talk to our children about the reality of the world they live in, our children will assume we are unequipped to speak to it, and they’ll eventually search out a worldview that will.

This doesn’t mean that we rattle our children with information they aren’t developmentally ready to process. But we know how to navigate that already: We talk, for instance, about marriage itself and we give age-appropriate answers to the “Where do babies come from?” query. The same is true here.

There is no need to inform small children about all the sexual possibilities in graphic detail in order to say that Jesus calls us to live as husbands and wives with fidelity and permanence and complementarity.

Some parents believe that teaching their children the controversies about same-sex marriage will promote homosexuality. But the exact opposite is true. If you don’t teach your children about a Christian way of viewing the challenges to a Christian sexual ethic, the ambient culture—which is now codified in our legal system—will fill in your silence with answers of its own.

You can explain to your children what the Bible teaches, from Genesis to Jesus to the apostles, about

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a man and a woman becoming one flesh. You can explain that as Christians we believe this marital relationship is different than other relationships.

You can then tell them that some people have relationships they want to be seen as marriages, and that the Supreme Court agreed with them, but that we as Christians cannot.

You can explain that you love your neighbors who disagree with you on this. You agree that they ought to be free from mistreatment or harassment. But the church believes government can’t actually define or redefine marriage but can only recognize what God created and placed in creation. Explain why you think mothers and fathers are different, and why those differences are good. Find examples in your own family of how those differences work together for the common good of the household, and point to examples in Scripture of the same.

Don’t ridicule or express hostility toward those who disagree. Don’t give into panic or rage about the country. You might have gay or lesbian family members; be sure to express your love for them to your children, even as you say that you and they disagree about God’s design for marriage.

You probably already have had to do that with family members or friends who are divorced or cohabiting or in some other situation that falls short of a Christian sexual ethic. If your children see outrage in you, rather than a measured and Christ-like biblical conviction, they eventually will classify your convictions in the same category as your clueless opinions about “kids these days and their loud music.” The issues at stake are more important than that.

Marriage isn’t ultimately about living arrangements or political structures, but about the gospel. When your children ask about the Supreme Court, be loving, winsome, honest, convictional and kind.

—Russell Moore is president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.