Baptist Press Stories for Jul. 13 2001 --------------------------------------- Disaster Relief units from seven states respond to West Virginia floods http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11315 Ky. Baptists provide meals, water, after devastating West Va. floods http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11316 Proposed Constitutional amendment seeks to define traditional marriage http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11317 Changes in faith-based legislation 'absolutely essential,' Land says http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11318 Outrageous headlines from the Netherlands reveal need for 'Tsilent Tsunami' of prayer http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11319 Mohler host of new radio show 'Truth on the Line' http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11320 FIRST-PERSON: Ruling links fatherhood to fiscal responsibility http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11321 FIRST-PERSON: Good news and bad news about creating embryos for research http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11322 Hardin-Simmons football picked to win it all http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11323 Editors' note http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11324 CentriKid and Centrifuge photos http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11326 --------------------------------------- Disaster Relief units from seven states respond to West Virginia floods By James Dotson Jul. 13 2001 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11315 ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--Deadly flash floods that swept through much of southern West Virginia July 8 have prompted activation of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers from six states - including three feeding units, clean-up units from five states and two communication units. Damage from the floods that ravaged mountain hollows and killed at least three people have been estimated at more than $20 million. About 1,000 homes were destroyed, and another 2,000 were badly damaged, according to Leon White, Disaster Relief director for the West Virginia Baptist Convention. White said the floods came after seven inches of rain fell in three hours the morning of July 8. "Some of the towns are just completely wiped out," said White. "It just came through the center of town. In Mullens, every business in town was destroyed." Several Southern Baptist churches and many homes of church members were also among those left homeless due to the storms. Pineville Baptist Church in Pineville, W.Va., for instance, suffered heavy damage to its education building, fellowship hall, and a storage garage. White said the area impacted is former coal-minding country where most of the homes and businesses are located in river valleys -- largely because that is the only property flat enough to build on. Consequently, most of the property was in a flood zone and was not covered by insurance, including the Pineville Church. White anticipates Southern Baptist Disaster Relief crews will be providing both short-term cleanup and long-term rebuilding services in the affected area. Disaster Relief volunteers first responded on Tuesday, when feeding units from Kentucky and Ohio were sent to New Hope Baptist Church in Mullins and Harbor Light Baptist Church in Oceana, respectively. A third feeding unit, from North Carolina, was activated and sent to the region the next day. Southern Baptist feeding units work directly with the American Red Cross, preparing meals for delivery by the Red Cross to flood victims and relief workers both in affected neighborhoods and at shelters. Additionally, "mud-out" units specially trained in cleaning out flood-damaged homes were activated from North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky. They will be working primarily out of the towns of Pageton, Pineville, Oceana, Paytona and Brenton. Communications units from Georgia and South Carolina have been activated to assist with the response. Contributions designated to assist with the West Virginia Southern Baptist Disaster Relief effort may be sent to either the North American Mission Board, 4200 North Point Parkway, Alpharetta, Ga., or to the West Virginia Baptist Convention, Number One Mission Way, Scott Depot, WV 25560. --30-- -- End of story -- Ky. Baptists provide meals, water, after devastating West Va. floods By Debbie Moore Jul. 13 2001 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11316 CHARLESTON, W.Va. (BP)--Southern Baptist disaster relief teams from Kentucky arrived in southern West Virginia July 12 to help victims of floodwaters that crashed through eight counties July 8, and wiped out two towns. Gov. Bob Wise announced July 10 that President George W. Bush had declared eight West Virginia counties -- Boone, Doddridge, Fayette, McDowell, Mercer, Raleigh, Summers and Wyoming -- as federal disaster areas. Once calm, barely four-inch-deep streams that flowed through people's property transformed into explosive ten-foot walls of water that devastated everything in the path. Several of the same towns were struggling to recover from serious flooding that hit southern West Virginia hard twice in the past two months. Witnessing so much devastation in such a relatively short period of time has been an emotional beating to many residents. "I have never seen the look on people's faces like I have seen in this [flood] -- the stress, the anguish, the disbelief," Wise said. Kentucky Baptists, working with the American Red Cross, helped put smiles back on some of those faces as they prepared hot meals and grabbed shovels and brooms for the massive clean-up efforts. Describing their ministry, Larry Koch of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, simply said, "Paul said in Galatians, 'Bear ye one another's burdens.' So that's what we're here to try to do. Jesus said, 'Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you.' That's what we're here doing. If we were in this situation, we would want people to help us." Disaster relief teams from the Florida Baptist Convention are due to arrive July 16. Hundreds of families are reported to have escaped from their homes in the nick of time before raging water reportedly 10-feet high and hundreds of feet wide gushed down the hillsides toward them, prying loose boulders the size of pick-up trucks. A few people captured the horrific events on video cameras. While an estimated 2,500 homes received moderate to severe damage, at least 1,000 homes were completed destroyed. "(The water) came up so fast, I didn't have time to save anything," said Doris Manning, 78, of Glen Fork, Wyoming County. Such distressed statements of shock have filled newspapers, local TV news broadcasts and radio news-talk programs all week. One thousand National Guard troops have been activated throughout West Virginia to assist with clean up and prevent looting. Engineering troops brought in front-loaders, bulldozers and dump trucks to clear what used to be homes and businesses off of what used to be roads and highways. More than 40 roads are closed and bridges are out all over the area. Cars, vans and even mobile homes -- tossed around in Sunday's flood as if they were toys -- came to rest in demolished conditions along now calm creek beds. The town of Mullens is so devastated that some of its 2,000 residents are wondering if it's even possible to rebuild. Out of 36 businesses in the small coalfield town, almost every one of them was demolished as fierce, muddy water -- 12-feet deep in some places -- ransacked property and landscape along the Appalachian mountain area. Likewise, "Every business in Kimball was destroyed," according to Lt. Col. Ed Kornish, National Guard liaison officer. In Wyoming County, an estimated 75 percent of the businesses suffered damage. Remarkably, only a few deaths have been reported, mainly because the flooding occurred during daylight hours. When the same area was ravaged by floods in 1975 in the middle of the night, more than 50 people were killed. Many areas of southern West Virginia, also known as Appalachia, are notoriously poor, if not poverty-stricken, especially since the demise of the coal industry. Most residents and business owners, who on a normal day are struggling to meet financial obligations, have no flood insurance due to its cost. Residents in at least one town, Oceana, do not qualify for Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) financial assistance since in 1983 city officials decided not to participate in the National Flood Insurance Program. "The people here need help," State Farm Insurance Agent Butch McNeely said, commenting on the magnitude of the devastation. "You couldn't have had a bomb go off and do more than what's happened here," he said. The threat of tetanus and typhoid is another concern as at least tetanus serum is in short supply and many places where the shots normally would be available in rural areas -- doctors' offices and other medical facilities -- were wiped out or damaged along with the homes. --30-- -- End of story -- Proposed Constitutional amendment seeks to define traditional marriage By Seth Lewis Jul. 13 2001 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11317 WASHINGTON (BP)--Determined to block the courts from legalizing homosexual marriage, a coalition of minority and religious leaders unveiled plans Thursday to wed traditional marriage with the U.S. Constitution. The Alliance for Marriage is proposing the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would define matrimony as a union between one man and one woman as a once-and-for-all standard that supporters hope will keep activist judges from giving homosexual partners full marital status, according to a report in CNSNews.com. "Let the homosexual community play by the same rules and go through the democratic process," said Matt Daniels, executive director of Alliance for Marriage. The amendment, which would require the approval of both houses of Congress and the legislatures of 38 states for ratification, would add constitutional validity to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), as well as traditional-marriage laws on the books of 34 states, CNSNews.com reported. The measure, dubbed a "nuclear bomb" by one critic, has enraged homosexual activists, who see the proposal as a mean-spirited attack on Vermont's civil-unions law. "This organization is intending to, in our view, write out gay and lesbians from the constitution," said David Smith, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign. The Alliance for Marriage insists, however, that under the new law voters and state legislatures, not the courts, could authorize civil unions. Whether homosexual couples could receive full marriage benefits is a "gray area," Daniels said. "Gays and lesbians have a right to live as they choose," Daniels said. "They don't have a right to redefine marriage in the courts. There's nothing hateful about that." While the Alliance for Marriage wouldn't reveal the names of its congressional advocates, supporters are optimistic about the amendment's broad appeal. "We have people on both sides of the aisle that are supporters," Daniels said. The amendment, co-authored by professors Mary Ann Glendon, of Harvard Law School, and Robert George, of Princeton University, reads: "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this constitution or the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups." For Daniels, promoting marriage is a personal matter. He was raised by a single mother in New York's Spanish Harlem. Now he has courted the support of a diverse group of ethnic and religious leaders, including such civil rights luminaries as Rev. Walter Fauntroy, who organized Martin Luther King Jr.'s famed march on Washington. Among others, the alliance's board includes representatives from the Chinese Community Church of Washington, the Alianza Misterial Evangelica Nacional, the Korean Central Presbyterian Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The most prominent bloc of supporters are black clergy, some of whom, like Fauntroy, blame the social ills in inner-city black communities on escalating numbers of fatherless families. As many as 80 percent of African-American children are born out of wedlock, Fauntroy said. "If we don't do something about this pandemic, we will soon be back to the slavery era when 100 percent of our children were born into a system that was based upon the destruction of the nuclear family," Fauntroy added. While supporters tried to downplay the amendment's impact on homosexuals, a wide range of critics, from the American Civil Liberties Union to the National Organization for Women, condemned it as extreme bigotry. "This amendment is the legal equivalent of a nuclear bomb," said Christopher Anders, an ACLU legislative lawyer. "It will wipe out every single law protecting gay and lesbian families and other unmarried couples." Anders said the Federal Marriage Amendment would contradict a stance Vice President Dick Cheney took during the 2000 campaign. At a debate with Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman, Cheney responded to a question about same-sex marriage: "I think different states are likely to come to different conclusions, and that's appropriate. I don't think there should necessarily be federal policy in this area." White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Wednesday he hasn't discussed the proposed amendment with President George W. Bush. --30-- Lewis is a correspondent with CNSNews.com. Used by permission. -- End of story -- Changes in faith-based legislation 'absolutely essential,' Land says By Tom Strode Jul. 13 2001 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11318 WASHINGTON (BP)--A legislative version of President Bush's faith-based initiative has cleared two congressional committees, and the head of the Southern Baptist Convention's public-policy agency welcomed changes related to religious liberty made in the measure. The House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee approved the Community Solutions Act, H.R. 7, in a 23-16 vote July 11. Earlier, the House Judiciary Committee marked up the bill with a 20-5 vote. Both votes were along party lines, with Republicans in the majority. The bill is based on a proposal by Bush to increase private giving to charities and to increase government support of religious efforts to provide social services. He established a White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, as well as centers in five federal departments, to remove barriers to religious and other organizations working with government to help the needy. The version approved by the Judiciary Committee included the following among its amendments: -- No funds provided by the government may be used for religious "instruction, worship or proselytization." -- Recipients of aid from government-funded organizations cannot be required to participate in religious activities. -- A religious organization providing services should segregate direct government grants it has received from other contributions. Richard Land, president of the SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, called the revisions "absolutely essential changes." "I'm pleased that the Judiciary Committee has seen fit to make alterations which put more stringent constitutional safeguards in place to make certain that in any grant program there is separate record keeping and accountability and that no one can be either forced to participate in a religious activity to receive a service or be refused service for faith reasons," Land said. In another controversial portion of the legislation, tax-exempt organizations maintained the freedom to consider religion in hiring. Some supporters of the initial concept of funding faith-based organizations criticized the compromise agreed to by the White House and approved by the Judiciary Committee. The new version penalizes groups, such as Teen Challenge, that incorporate biblical instruction in all of their activities, its supporters-turned-critics say. The measure approved by the Ways and Means Committee dealt with the giving-incentive portion of H.R. 7. Included was a provision enabling taxpayers who do not itemize on their forms to deduct for charitable contributions. The committee-approved version was scaled back dramatically. Bush's proposal on nonitemizers' deductions would have cost about $84 billion during a 10-year span, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated, according to Associated Press. The committee's version would total only $6.4 billion over the same time frame. Counting other aspects of the bill, including incentives for more giving by corporations, the total cost of the Ways and Means package is $13.3 billion over 10 years. The versions approved by the two committees will have to be reconciled before going to the House floor for a vote. Bush's initiative has been plagued by controversy since it was unveiled early this year. The turmoil continued in recent days as news of an arrangement between the White House and the Salvation Army was reported. According to The Washington Post, the White House had committed to issue a rule protecting government-funded religious organizations from state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination, including on the basis of "sexual orientation," which includes homosexuality. The Salvation Army, in turn, was to spend between $88,000 and $110,000 a month to lobby on behalf of the legislation, The Post reported. After a day of criticism July 10, especially from Democrats in Congress, the White House issued a statement saying it would not pursue the regulation sought by the Salvation Army. In its statement, the White House said the House legislation provides protections ensuring "religious organizations have the right to hire individuals who share their religious faith. They also ensure that such organizations comply with civil rights laws." Among opponents of the initiative that have church-state concerns are the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, The Interfaith Alliance and People for the American Way. Some conservative Christians, including the ERLC's Land, also have expressed reservations about aspects of the faith-based plan. Land has called for the program to be "voucherized" as much as possible, thereby alleviating concerns about government interference with faith-based groups if it directly funds them. In a voucher plan, the grant would go to a beneficiary who would choose the social-service agency, religious or secular, in which it would be used. Other safeguards the plan must have in order to be constitutional and successful, Land has said, include: -- There must always be a viable secular alternative. -- No religious group should be restricted or discriminated against in the distribution of funds. The use of government funds by religious organizations was approved by Congress in its welfare reform measure of 1996, and the concept was expanded last year to allow drug addicts to use vouchers at faith-based treatment centers. --30-- -- End of story -- Outrageous headlines from the Netherlands reveal need for 'Tsilent Tsunami' of prayer By Brittany Jarvis Jul. 13 2001 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11319 AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands (BP)--People used to think of the Netherlands as a quaint place associated with windmills and wooden shoes. Today, shocking new laws that promote same-sex marriage, euthanasia, legalized prostitution and open distribution of marijuana and hashish offer a glimpse into a country locked in spiritual darkness, said a Christian worker in the Netherlands. "I would like to say to praying people that it is worse than it would appear," said Robert Beckman. "The issues, as addressed by the legislatures, do tell some of the story of what goes on in the minds and hearts of a nation." And the Dutch embrace their role as front-runners for Europe. "As goes Amsterdam, so goes Europe and the world," he said. But rather than condemning the Dutch for their actions, Beckman asks Christians to pray for them and reach out in love. "As a whole, the average person in the Netherlands would be surprised to hear that God is redeeming and is interested in loving them personally," he said. "It is a complete surprise to them that He loves them more than they could ever love themselves." The Dutch are a practical people, Beckman added. They search for useful solutions to everyday dilemmas. Unfortunately, the Dutch think Christian faith is anything but practical. "The attitude toward Christianity would be that it has shown itself to be irrelevant for everyday life," Beckman said. "But don't blame the person who has noticed this. Blame the 'believer' who represents a lack of love. "The church, as the people have seen it, does not know how to redeem the workplace, or the streets, or the living rooms and kitchens." A new outreach by International Mission Board workers in Western Europe focuses on flooding European cities like Amsterdam with prayer. "Tsilent Tsunami" plans to recruit 1 million volunteers to spread the gospel in seven major cities of Europe. In turn, Christians anticipate Europe will be revolutionized as the people experience salvation and find hope through Jesus Christ. "After 1,700 years of telling people to go to church ... we have inadvertently asked that God's power be left in a little box, away from the people who need Him, who are poor in spirit and desire to worship the most," Beckman said. "Now we will take the church to the people. They don't need to come to our building, we will bring His Spirit wherever two or more gather in His name." --30-- To "ride the wave" of Tsilent Tsunami and help reach Europe's strategic gateway cities for Christ, e-mail info@silenttsunami.com or call toll-free 888-836-5464. For more information, visit the web site at www.tsilenttsunami.com. -- Search for prayer requests from the Netherlands: http://www.imb.org/CompassionNet/countries.asp -- Tsilent Tsunami photos: http://www.imb.org/Media/PhotoDownloads/tsunami.htm -- Find out how you can join God on mission: http://www.imb.org/you/default.htm -- End of story -- Mohler host of new radio show 'Truth on the Line' By Michael Foust Jul. 13 2001 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11320 LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--A new radio show in Louisville, Ky., features a timeless message. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, recently began hosting "Truth on the Line," a weekly 30-minute show devoted to the contemporary culture and its interaction with the gospel message. The show can be heard Wednesdays at 10 a.m. (EST) on Louisville's WLSY-AM (94.7), as well as throughout the week on the station's website. Each Wednesday, Mohler comments on current events and conducts interviews with various guests. Guests during the show's first month included Southern Baptist Convention President James Merritt and University of California-Berkeley professor Phillip E. Johnson. One of the show's goals, Mohler said, is to equip Christians with the tools needed to defend their faith. "We want to help Christians to think like Christians, and we want to help arm this generation of Christians to be able to think in ways that are distinctively Christian," he said during the inaugural show June 6. "... We will look at how the gospel intersects with contemporary culture. These days Christians must be quick-witted and careful thinkers. Otherwise, we're going to be out-thought by the world. That is one of the real dangers - that Christians will simply be intellectually lame while the world is intellectually strong." The basis for such a show, Mohler said, is found in the New Testament. "Peter wrote to the church in the first century, and he told them that they must prepare their minds for action," he said. "That's what we really need to do. Too many Christians are simply intellectually asleep at the wheel and unable to come up with a good argument when truth is on the line. We want to help arm the church. Hopefully this will be something that Christians will really grow to enjoy." Mohler pointed out that everyone takes a stand for something, whether that be a sports team, a political issue or a side in a family argument. "The question is what kind of stand are you going to take, and are you going to take a stand in the right place, at the right time for the right reasons?" he asked. "The Bible says that we are to be always ready to give an answer for the hope that is in us. That is the Christian's responsibility - to be always ready with an answer." As the culture has declined, Mohler said, the need for courageous Christians has risen. "In our generation, we are called to address issues that the founders of the SBC could not have imagined," he said. "The SBC takes a position on homosexuality. That's a fairly new thing, because in 1845, no denomination in America had a position on homosexuality. ... It would have been considered absolutely unnecessary. But that is one of the frontline issues in America in the 21st century, and a denomination that does not speak clearly and biblically on that issue is simply absent without leave." Mohler said that the basis for answers is the Word of God. "The Bible is going to be the touchtone of everything we will see," he said. "It will be the authority under which we will try to come to terms with these issues -- ancient and contemporary." --30-- (BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo title: TRUTH ON THE LINE. -- End of story -- FIRST-PERSON: Ruling links fatherhood to fiscal responsibility By Kelly Boggs Jul. 13 2001 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11321 McMINNVILLE, Ore. (BP)--The Wisconsin Supreme court opened Pandora's Box with a 4-3 decision upholding a county judge's ruling that a "deadbeat dad" could be ordered not to father anymore children as a condition of probation. If the man, who has had nine children by four women, fails to abide by the condition, he will face 8 years in prison. I am of the conviction that adults, especially parents who neglect and abuse their children, should be punished severely. The deadbeat dad, as well as his willing partners are extremely irresponsible and must be held accountable. However, the Wisconsin high court's action seems to miss the mark. It is simply a bizarre ruling that sends a variety of messages, and none of them are positive. The ruling links fatherhood, and ultimately parenting, to fiscal ability. The three dissenting judges -- all female -- agreed the court was limiting "someone's right to procreate based on the ability to pay child support." The Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed the message many in society already accept -- "If you don't think you can pay for a child, don't have it." How can anyone calculate whether or not they can afford a child? I came across a recent estimate that indicated rearing a child to college age would cost in excess of $200,000. Having four children of my own, I almost hyperventilated. How will I possibly find the funds to provide all they will need in the years to come? I really don't know. Some how, some way, we will make it because my wife and I believe the Biblical statement "Children are a gift from the Lord". Many do not hold the same view of children that I do. The Alan Guttmacher Institute published a study in 1989 that revealed 66 percent of abortions performed in America are done so because the respondents said they "could not afford a child /additional child". The Wisconsin Supreme Court's recent decision said to these people, "You did the right thing in killing your unborn child." If economics is to be the major factor in deterring a "fit" parent, how much money is enough and who decides? In Oregon, a "program" will soon go into effect that will have a state worker " visiting" every expectant woman/couple in the state. One of the purposes of these "visits" is to assess whether or not a home constitutes an "at risk" environment. During a debate concerning what was known as Senate Bill 965, an assertion was made that 60 percent of potential Oregon parents were in some way deficient to properly raise children. As the program begins, the majority of prospective parents in the Beaver State are already suspect. In light of the ruling of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, what if an Oregon state worker deems a child could be at risk because a family is economically deficient? Will the state step in and remove the child? Irresponsible fathers, and mothers, like the Wisconsin "deadbeat" dad do exist. However, they are the exception and not the rule. In upholding procreation as a condition of probation, the Wisconsin high court has tiptoed out on slippery slope. I don't know where it will lead, but I don't think it will be a fun ride. --30-- Boggs is pastor of Valley Baptist Church, McMinnville, Ore. His column appears each Friday in Baptist Press. -- End of story -- FIRST-PERSON: Good news and bad news about creating embryos for research By C. Ben Mitchell Jul. 13 2001 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11322 WASHINGTON (BP)--There is good news and there is bad news. First, the bad news. Confirming what we knew all along, scientists at the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in Virginia, do not think it is sufficient to do research on human embryos that are "going to die anyway," to follow the popular mantra. They announced 11 July 2001 that they intentionally created human embryos from donor eggs and sperm with the sole purpose of conducting destructive research on those nascent humans. Previously, researchers had only done experiments using so-called "spare embryos" left over from in vitro fertilization procedures or from embryos harvested through abortions. In the Virginia experiment, the researchers solicited egg and sperm donors, performed IVF to produce the embryos, and then, wantonly destroyed the embryos to harvest their stem cells. It is a bit like grave robbing, only the person being robbed of his or her organs is not dead yet. According to the journal Fertility and Sterility, the ethics committee hired by the Institute for Reproductive Medicine opined that "the creation of embryos for research purposes was justifiable and that it was our duty to provide humankind with the best understanding of early human development." Under an older and nobler science, researchers studied human development by studying developing humans. Under this new protocol, understanding human development requires the destruction of the developing human. You tell me which method makes more sense. Moreover, just what ethical theory permits the destruction of one smaller group of human beings for the benefit of a larger, more powerful group of human beings? Utilitarianism. According to the logic of utilitarianism -- the greatest good for the greatest number of people -- the lives of a minority may be sacrificed for the benefits of the majority. In this case, it is difficult to imagine a more vulnerable minority than human embryos. They are the tiniest members of the human community and they deserve at least a right not to be unnecessarily harmed. They are genetically unique individuals of the species Homo sapiens, just like you and just like me. They do not look like you and I do today, but they look just like you and I did when we were their age. The notion that someone would bring those embryos into the world for the purposes of research is bone chilling. It gets worse, I am afraid. The twelve egg donors were paid $1500 to $2000 each, about what the average egg donor gets. The sperm donors were paid about $50 each. So, that means that the destruction of human offspring can pay a month's house mortgage for a woman and dinner for two for a man. How convenient! Let the bartering begin. Human embryos may soon be bought and sold on the market, just as their parts are sold to scientific laboratories all over the world. Is there any good news? Barely. The good news is this: those who are paying attention will understand that what we have all been saying about the camel's nose being under the tent is, in fact, true. When we opened the moral floodgate to permit human embryonic stem cell experimentation, we let in a host of moral evils. Now, embryos are being created for the purposes of research. Next, we will be told that "quality control" demands that we clone those embryos to ensure that they are all identical. Then, we will be informed that, in order to learn more about human development, of course, we need to bring a human clone to term. Once the utilitarian calculus is operative, there is no turning back. You would have thought we had learned that a half-century ago when a very intelligent, highly technological culture destroyed well over 6 million members of the minority community for the sake of the majority. Their argument was identical to that of the ethics committee in Virginia: "it is our duty to provide the greatest benefits for humankind," only the German doctors had a very narrow definition of humankind. The similarities are simply remarkable. Wisconsin professor of law, Alta Charo, suggests that "if one focuses on the adults' interests, rather than on the moral status of the embryo, then making embryos solely for research is not as odd as it may sound." That sounds a lot like: "if one focuses on the states' interests, rather than on the moral status of the Jews, gypsies, and homosexuals, then using them for destructive research is not as odd as it may sound." The good news is that some people are "getting it." And not the usual suspects. This report will awaken even the most news-hardened to the horrific logic of scientific utilitarianism. Odd coalitions are building between traditional enemies in the culture wars, including pro-lifers and environmentalists, civil libertarians and social liberals. Even Robert Lanza, head of Advanced Cell Technologies, a biotech firm that has pioneered similar research, understands the implications of this announcement. "This is not good timing," he said. "They are throwing gasoline on the fire." Indeed! It is time for Americans to get over their infatuation with the fads of scientific research, their scientific illiteracy, and their utilitarian pragmatism. We need to step back, take a deep breath, and have a lengthy discussion about what it means to be human, who counts in the moral equation, and where we are going to let science take us. Make no mistake about it, we are not unwilling pawns in some kind of grand social experiment. We make choices about what we fund, about whose research gets our approval, and about what we will and will not countenance as a society. The best news in all this may be that the 21st century -- the biotech century -- will force us to take a long look at who we are, who we want to be, and what we want our children's children to say about us when we are all gone. Surely we want our legacy to be different than that of our German cousins of the 1930s and 1940s. --30-- Mitchell is a senior fellow of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity and associate professor of bioethics and contemporary culture at Trinity International University, Deerfield, Ill. He also serves as consultant on bioethics for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. -- End of story -- Hardin-Simmons football picked to win it all By Staff Jul. 13 2001 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11323 ABILENE, Texas (BP)--Could this be the year of the Cowboy? One national publication thinks so. Street and Smith has ranked Hardin-Simmons No. 1 in NCAA Division III in its preseason football magazine. It makes two national publications that have picked the Cowboys in the top 3 to begin the season. Read more about Cowboy football at BP Sports, www.bpsports.net. --30-- -- End of story -- Editors' note By Staff Jul. 13 2001 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11324 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--In the BP story titled, "BGCT imposes funding cap on SBC seminaries," dated 7/3/01, please replace the lead paragraph with this one: Texas Baptist churches who give money through the Baptist General Convention of Texas' 2001 Adopted Budget will no longer be able to forward money through this option to Southern Baptist seminaries now that a BGCT-initiated funding cap has been imposed, according to Jack R. Wilkerson, vice president for business and finance of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee. --30-- -- End of story -- CentriKid and Centrifuge photos By Jim Veneman Jul. 13 2001 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=11326 These stand-alone photos were taken during CentriKid and CentriFuge camps in Greenlake, Wisc., June 25-29, 2001. -- End of story -- Copyright (c) 2013 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press 901 Commerce Street Nashville, TN 37203 Tel: 615.244.2355 Fax: 615.782.8736 email: bpress@sbc.net