WASHINGTON
AIDS Czar Ignores Abstinence
Conservative pro-family groups are livid over an October 20 speech by AIDS czar Kristine Gebbie, a Clinton appointee, in which she called America a “repressed Victorian society” and recommended the populace—including teens—seek pleasure in sex.
Gebbie, a lesbian, accused pro-family groups of being puritanical and misrepresenting information about sex. She said Americans “deny sexuality early, and deny homosexual sexuality, particularly in teens.”
After Gebbie’s speech at a teenage pregnancy conference, which contained no references to abstinence, White House officials quickly issued a statement putting abstinence at the top of the list of measures to prevent AIDS.
“We feel that Kristine Gebbie will usher us into a new dangerous era of sexual promiscuity, resulting in damaged lives for American teenagers,” said Concerned Women for America president Beverly LaHaye. Family Research Council president Gary Bauer said, “It seems as though she’s trying to destroy the family from the inside out.”
By Perucci Ferraiuolo.
CONFERENCE
Black Church’s Needs Stressed
More than 1,600 people attended the twenty-ninth annual National Christian Education Conference sponsored by Urban Outreach in late October. “The number-one institution that has failed America is the church,” said Michael Pfleger of Chicago’s Saint Sabina Catholic Church. “It is our job to make the difference in our society.”
Jawanza Kunjufu, president of the Chicago-based ministry Afro-American Images, received repeated applause as he spoke of the need for more intentional economic development among Blacks: “We have 75,000 Black churches, of which 90 percent put money into White banks. Why aren’t we putting our money back into our own communities?”
Urban Outreach founder Melvin Banks said the conference should not be considered a black separatist function. “The bottom line is Jesus and his supremacy.”
CHRISTIAN MUSIC
Attorney Guilty of Bank Fraud
Samuel Chappell, former attorney for Sandi Patti and Carmen, was sentenced in October to 25 months in prison for bank fraud in connection with mismanaging funds belonging to the singers.
Chappell pleaded guilty to two counts of bank fraud, according to the Nashville office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The first count involved Chappell’s establishing a $200,000 line of credit with a bank in Patti’s name and withdrawing $100,000 for his own use. The second count involved forgery of singer Carmen Licciardello’s signature on a $100,000 check and using the money for himself.
He was ordered to pay back more than $400,000 that prosecutors say he diverted from his clients. He was indicted in June by a federal grand jury on five counts of bank fraud. He subsequently voluntarily surrendered his law license.
FULLER SEMINARY
Students Protest Mouw Installation
Forty students wearing black armbands walked out during the November 8 installation of Fuller Theological Seminary President Richard J. Mouw in Pasadena, California.
The protest was coordinated by Chinese seminarians at Fuller upset by the invitation to Bishop K. H. Ting, president of China’s Nanjing Theological Seminary and an official of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the only church sanctioned by the Communist authorities in Beijing. Mouw, 53, said Ting was the highest-ranking international cleric to accept an invitation. “The act of inviting someone is not an endorsement.”
Mouw said Chinese alumni and students should have been consulted before the invitation went out, but he nonetheless defended the decision as appropriate.
“The invitation and standing of Bishop Ting in the platform would be considered an endorsement of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement Church [by Fuller],” said one of the Chinese students. The student leader said the protest “made the administration … understand the complexity of the situation there.”
Part of that complexity stems from how Christians in China live and operate under the current system. Opposing the Three-Self Patriotic Movement can be considered an “anti-revolutionary act” under Chinese law, the Fuller student leader said. Opposition comes from the house-church movement.
“The school originally thought this was a theological disagreement between two denominations,” the student leader explained. “We tried to make them understand that one side of the dispute may carry a gun.”
SOUTHERN BAPTISTS
CBF Leader Is No Missionary
Typically, spouses of Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) missionaries are appointed as missionaries themselves by the SBC Home Mission Board (HMB). But David Waugh is not a typical Southern Baptist.
Waugh is a member of the national coordinating council of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF), a moderate branch that has distanced itself from the SBC (CT, Oct. 25, 1993, p. 85). The HMB recently approved Waugh’s wife, Rebecca, as a New York City ministries director but ruled Waugh ineligible because of his CBF leadership role.
CBF moderator Hardy Clemons says the “decidedly discriminatory” action is an “awfully inconsistent attitude” for Baptists. Meanwhile, the CBF has—for the first time—commissioned six non-Southern Baptist missionaries.
LEE COLLEGE
Blaze Destroys Men’s Dormitory
An early morning fire that destroyed a men’s dormitory at Lee College in Cleveland, Tennessee, left three students in critical condition from smoke inhalation and burns. A total of 18 students were hospitalized by the November 11 fire at the Church of God (Cleveland) school. The mostly wooden building housed 76 students. “It burned to the ground,” says Cameron Fisher, spokesman for Lee College. He praised the outpouring of help from the community. “Within 24 hours, the relief effort has been overwhelming. We’ve had all kinds of stuff come in, more than enough to accommodate these boys.”
Students are staying temporarily in a hotel until school officials find housing for the remainder of the semester. The possibility of arson is being investigated, says president Paul Conn.
DENOMINATIONS
Don’t Call These Women Brethren
Twenty-five women from the Church of the Brethren announced at an ecumenical conference last month that they will no longer use the denomination’s name because it is sexist. Instead, the women are using the name “Church of Reconciliation.”
“Some of us can no longer say the word [Brethren],” said Harrisonburg, Virginia, pastor Mary Cline Detrick. “The name is embarrassing. We chose Reconciliation because that’s what needs to happen in our church for change to occur.” The announcement came at the “Re-imaging: Churches in Solidarity with Women” conference, which featured presentations on feminist theologies and worship emphasizing female imagery for God. Some 2,200 participants, including 80 men, erupted in applause and stood in solidarity with the Brethren women.
Church of the Brethren moderator Earl K. Ziegler said the women “are not representative of the denomination in any official capacity.” Spokesman Eric Bishop said that recently “a committee was appointed to study whether a committee should be appointed to study” a change in the denomination’s name.
By Susan Hogan/Albach in Minneapolis.
PEOPLE AND EVENTS
In Brief
Due to protests from Christians around the country, the San Francisco Police Department has urged the district attorney’s office to file criminal charges against organizers of a September protest at Hamilton Square Baptist Church (CT, Nov. 8, 1993, p. 57). Pastor David Innes sent letters to churches around the country describing how between 75 and 100 homosexuals threw debris at churchgoers, raised a homosexual flag on the church flagpole, and banged on the church door while Lou Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition, spoke at a service.
• Also in San Francisco, Eugene Lumpkin, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, has filed suit against Mayor Frank Jordan, seeking reinstatement to the city’s Human Rights Commission. Jordan fired Lumpkin in August after the pastor defended stoning as a biblical means of executing men who have sexual relations with other men (CT, Oct. 4, 1993, p. 47). Lumpkin maintains Jordan fired him solely because he expressed his religious beliefs.
• Wesley K. Stafford is the new president of Compassion International in Colorado Springs. Stafford grew up in the Ivory Coast, the son of missionary parents. He has been with Compassion for 16 years.
• Southern Baptist Home Mission Board president Larry Lewis received the requested resignation of interfaith witness department assistant director Gary Leazer for “gross insubordination” for a speech he gave to a group of Freemasons. Leazer had been removed as director of the department after he allowed Masons to review the contents of a denominational study on Freemasonry before it was published (CT, May 17, 1993, p. 81). Lewis said, “Leazer was directed to refrain from any and all involvement in the Freemasonry issue” last March.
• The Maryknoll School of Theology in New York will close because it “does not have adequate human, financial, or physical resources to guarantee the level of support the school needs to continue its mission.” The 80-year-old Roman Catholic school has an enrollment of 150.
• Bob Larson, the Denver-based host of the controversial “Talk Back Live” radio program, has taken another step away from the religious media mainstream. He has withdrawn not only from the National Religious Broadcasters, but also from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). Larson Ministries has declined to comment on its withdrawals. ECFA president Clarence Reimer reportedly said Larson was unwilling to comply with certain ECFA requirements.
• W. Warren Filkin, 86, died November 3 in Wheaton, Illinois. A former associate pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, Filkin had also taught at Moody Bible Institute, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He was widely known as a Christian magician.
• Evangelicals for Social Action unveiled a new magazine, Prism, last month to replace the ESA Advocate newsletter. The new national periodical “calls Christians to live out the gospel in contemporary society.”
