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SBC sets May 5 deadline on faith statement holdouts
The Southern Baptist Convention has set a May 5 deadline for overseas missionaries to sign the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message. In letters to 31 missionaries, Southern Baptist International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin said the statement must be affirmed by that date or "I will be recommending that the board take action to terminate your service in their May meeting."

The Associated Baptist Press reports this is the first time that IMB has threatened termination in connection with not signing the faith statement. Since Rankin asked for the statement to be affirmed more than a year ago, over 99 percent of SBC missionaries have done so. Only 73 out of 5,500 overseas workers have not. Forty-two have either resigned or are expected to by August. Rankin sent the recent letter as a final appeal to the remaining 31 who haven't signed.

Twenty-five of Rankin's April 11 letters ask for missionaries to either sign the statement or resign instead of facing termination. Six letters, however, give only the option to resign or be fired. According to Rankin, the six "have clearly and publicly stated positions contrary to the [faith statement] that are beyond acceptable parameters."

Some missionaries who have not signed the faith statement cite disagreement with its calls for male-only ordination and for wives to submit to their husbands.

Religious questions play major role in discussions to rebuild Iraq
As U.S. leaders say the major combat phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom has concluded, efforts to rebuild the country began this week. In a Tuesday meeting, ethnic and religious leaders debated Iraq's future. The group meeting in the ancient city of Ur agreed on basic principles of a democratic government and planned to meet again in two weeks.

The New York Times reports that a critical underlying thread to the talks was the role of religion in state and society. More than 80 delegates of rival exile groups, including Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish leaders, attended the gathering. Thus far, there has been a great deal of support for democracy but little agreement on issues of religious tolerance and religion's role in the new democracy.

The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq boycotted the meeting because of the U.S.'s involvement. Other religious groups said they were not invited. Shiite Muslim cleric Mohammed Bakr Al-Nasri, a prominent leader of the Al Dawa Party, has recently returned to Iraq after 24 years of exhile and held his own meeting to rally support for Al Dawa's belief in a fundamentalist Islamic state.

At the Ur meeting, representatives had varying views on the involvement of Islam and religious leaders in the new government. Sheikh Ayad Jamal Al-Din, a Shiite cleric from Nasiriyah, called for Iraq to build a secular government with a clear separation of church and state. "We reject the concept of a confessional democracy," he said. "Dictators may not speak in the name of religion." He demanded "a system of government that separates belief from politics."

Others argued that such a goal is unthinkable in Iraq. Said an Iraqi teacher at the meeting: "Those who would like to separate religion from the state are simply dreaming."

SARS:

• Torontonians get new SARS alert | Residents told to stay home at any symptom of the disease; Catholics change Easter communion procedures (CanWest News Service)
  
  
• Virus devastates 'soulful' group | 'They are very concerned': All 500 members of Toronto branch forced into isolation (National Post)
  
  

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April (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47