Criswell hires Jerry Johnson from Southern Seminary
DALLAS — Jerry Johnson, 39, was elected president of Criswell Center for Biblical Studies Dec. 5. He currently is dean of the Boyce College, the undergraduate college of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Johnson succeeds Richard Wells, who resigned in May to become pastor of a church in Rapid City, S.D.
Criswell Center for Biblical Studies – which includes Criswell College and several radio stations – was founded in 1971 by First Baptist Church of Dallas and named for legendary pastor W. A. Criswell. Criswell College, which is affiliated with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, has more than 400 students and 17 full-time faculty members. Former presidents include Paige Patterson, now president of nearby Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Johnson, a native of Malakoff, Texas, served nine years as a trustee of Southern Seminary, two as chairman, and was an outspoken critic of the former moderate administration. He is a graduate of Criswell College (1986) and Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary (1998) and earned a doctor of philosophy degree from Southern Seminary. He has been a pastor of churches in Texas and Colorado. (ABP)
Baptist pioneer Charles Ashcraft dies at 86
EL PASO, Texas — Charles H. Ashcraft, 86, who served as executive director of two Baptist state conventions and oversaw the birth of the New Mexico Baptist Foundation, died Dec. 2 in El Paso, Texas. He led the Arkansas Baptist State Convention from 1969 until his retirement in 1980.
He was the first executive director of the Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Convention (1965-69) and started the first Baptist church in Las Vegas, Nev. He also was a pastor in New Mexico and was founding president of the New Mexico Baptist Foundation (1947-51). “Charles Ashcraft took a fledgling foundation and gave it credibility, strong leadership and defined its purpose in those first days,” current president Lee Black said.
An Arkansas native, Ashcraft was a graduate of Ouachita Baptist College and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. After retirement, he worked with the International Baptist Bible Institute in El Paso for two years. Survivors include his wife of 68 years, Sarah Ashcraft of El Paso, three sons, three brothers, two sisters and four grandchildren. (ABP)
Samford library gets 1,000 missionary biographies
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Samford University's library boasts a new collection of 1,000 biographies of Christian missionaries. Included are biographies of Christian missionaries Lottie Moon, Albert Schweitzer and others both familiar and less well known. The collection, presented Dec. 2, is a gift from Samford President Thomas Corts in honor of his wife, Marla Haas Corts.
The Cortses first assembled the collection in 1999 with a nucleus of volumes from their international travels. Other books have been added since. “As long as their stories are preserved, they will serve as measuring points for our own journey, and models as we strive to follow Christ's example,” said Marla Corts, who traces her interest in missions to her conversion as a junior in high school.
The biographies, she noted, teach that “our faith is worth living and dying for, that countless thousands have labored sacrificially with no name recognition or earthly promise of reward, that one effectively declares the gospel in many ways, not only with words, [and] that God honors the work of those committed to carrying the good news.” (ABP)
Group objects to 'faith-based' prison plan
WASHINGTON — A church-state watchdog group is objecting to a plan by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) to create a “faith-based” prison. Americans United for Separation of Church and State issued a press release objecting to Bush's Dec. 5 announcement that he would create an 800-man medium-security prison at Lawtey Correctional Institution in Bradford County.
According to the Palm Beach Post, inmates at the facility would “receive religion-based classes in everything from parenting to character building to job training.” Bush announced the plan at a White House conference in Tampa promoting President George W. Bush's “faith-based initiative” to expand the government's ability to fund social services through religious institutions.
Americans United's director said the plan was “a clearly unconstitutional scheme.” According to the press release, Barry Lynn added: “A state can no more create a faith-based prison than it could set up faith-based public schools or faith-based police departments.” (ABP)
French panel recommends ban on religious symbols
WASHINGTON — Among the most controversial recommendations of a new French government report is a law banning Muslim head scarves and other prominent symbols of individual religious expression in public schools.
The report, which was presented to French President Jacques Chirac Dec. 11, also recommends that schools make some concessions to the religious practice of students, such as providing special meals to observant Jewish and Muslim students and adding Jewish and Muslim holy days to the state calendar.
But few issues in French society in recent years have been more controversial than the hijab, or the head scarf that many Muslim women believe their religion requires them to wear in public. France has a large Muslim and Arab population.
Although historically an officially Catholic country, France has an anti-public-religion tradition dating to the days of the French Revolution. The government is officially secular, and many French view the head scarf as symptomatic of larger desires of Muslim groups to force their religious laws on the public.
However, Islamic groups as well as the nation's organization for Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Christian clergy oppose the ban, calling it an infringement of religious freedom. (ABP)
Federal panel's China trip again postponed
WASHINGTON — For the second time, a federal panel charged with monitoring religious freedom conditions around the world has been forced to postpone a trip to China.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom announced Dec. 8 that it is postponing the same trip it had already postponed in July. Both times, the panel blamed the postponement on the Chinese government's refusal to let the commissioners meet with residents of Hong Kong to study conditions of religious freedom there.
“Although we are encouraged by the demonstrated willingness of the Chinese side to schedule meetings for the commissioners with relevant leaders on the [Chinese] mainland, we are disappointed that the Hong Kong issue has again become a hindrance between our two countries, standing in the way of a productive interaction on religious freedom,” said commission chairman Michael Young in a statement. (ABP)
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