FORT HOOD?Army chaplains working on Fort Hood have been in near perpetual motion since Thursday’s deadly shootings, providing immediate support to the wounded at area hospitals and to first responders, to emergency medical teams, to victims’ families and to teams charged with notifying the families of the dead, Army Chaplain (Col.) Frank Jackson said.

“We support the notification officer and then support the families through pastoral care once the notification is made,” Jackson, a Southern Baptist-endorsed chaplain who as the garrison chaplain oversees all religious services and programs on the Army base, told the Southern Baptist TEXAN.

Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasanis the alleged gunmaninThursday’s killings,which claimed 14 lives, including the unborn baby of a pregnant soldier, and wounded 29 others.

Jackson said 55 chaplains, some from other bases, are on Fort Hood but are spread thin as families of victims arrive and as chaplains partner with behavioral health teams to help those who witnessed the tragedy in what Jackson termed “psychological first-aid meetings.”

“The chaplains are there to support those involved and to provide pastoral care as those persons require it,” Jackson explained. “We have great chaplains who have done an amazing amount of work in the last four days in making sure that families and soldiers and support personnel and those involved in the incident are treated with dignity and respect and encouraged and bring some healing and reconciliation. That’s what we do.”

The chaplains are also heavily involved in the planning of a base memorial service planned for 1 p.m. Tuesday, with reports that the president and first lady plan to attend.

Jackson said there was a mood of anticipation on the base Monday about Tuesday’s memorial service, which he said would hopefully “give those involved a point of reference to look back to as a transition time in the grieving process. It should be very, very powerful.

“And then, the people who have been the caregivers at this point have gotten a little tired. And so we’re trying to adjust schedules to make sure they are getting the rest cycle they need so that they can provide care when it needs to be provided later on down the road.”

Jackson said Southern Baptists can pray that God would grant the chaplains the grace to continue the mission long term, and to identify people who need encouragement or who didn’t process their grief adequately.

“This obviously has been a pretty traumatic experience,” Jackson said. “You don’t have this happen every day. The old adage is true that you don’t want to deal with feelings dead; deal with them alive.”

Jackson said the motto of his office is found in the Apostle Paul’s exhortations to “remain steadfast” and to “not grow weary on well doing.”

“We have to take care of one another so that we may take care of others,” he said.

FORT WORTH?Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary trustees broke ground on a new 3,500-seat chapel, added the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy and the Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood to the seminary’s policy manual, approved the appointment of a new dean of the College at Southwestern and renamed the school of educational ministries during their Oct. 21 fall meeting.

With 85 percent of the total cost of chapel construction pledged, the trustees unanimously authorized groundbreaking to begin, hosting leading contributors Harold and Dottie Riley of Houston at an afternoon ceremony. Harold Riley’s father, a Texas oil field foreman, studied at Southwestern after God called him into ministry.

“I’ve found that as we live our lives, they’re for other people,” Riley said. “… And that’s what all of this is about right here?leading other people to follow Christ. We wish all of you well in the development of this project, and we are pleased that we have the privilege of participating in this.”

The 106,000-square-foot facility will be constructed for $30.2 million and will provide significantly more space than the Truett Auditorium, which seats 1,000 people. Half of the cost will come from the Riley’s contribution and $3.7 million is drawn from an endowment for new construction that was begun in 1967. The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention contributed $300,000 toward the fund from surplus funds in earlier years.

Currently, the seminary is unable to seat all of its student body for a single chapel service or hold graduation on campus. The new chapel will be one of the largest indoor event facilities in Fort Worth, providing a premier auditorium to serve the campus family for its gatherings and celebrations as well as the city of Fort Worth and surrounding communities.

With steel and construction costs plummeting amid current economic times, local city projects have taken advantage of the opportunity to build for less. Southwestern anticipates a savings of at least $10 million.

CHICAGO & DANVERS STATEMENTS

In other actions, trustees approved the inclusion of the Chicago and Danvers statements to Southwestern’s policy manual.

“The statement of faith which everyone signs is, by definition, reasonably brief and doesn’t have a great deal of explanation,” Patterson said. “These two items continue to come up, with people asking what you mean by the Bible being literally true.”

“We do not require the signing of these two documents. They are merely there to give perspective,” Patterson said. “When we make contact initially with a potential faculty member, the first thing he does is pull up our website and [ask] who are these people, what am I going to have to adhere to, and what direction are they going? More than anything else it will establish the general posture of the school.”

Trustees passed a resolution supporting Patterson’s position with regard to the two statements, understanding them to be used as “a model with reference to biblical ecclesiology.” Recognizing that modern culture has migrated away from these ideals, they concluded that “the training of future churchmen and women is well served by including these statements in the development and implementation of processes that lead to this end.”

Of the 37 trustees present to vote, only one objected to the addition of the policies as guides in the hiring and evaluation processes at the seminary. “We’re bringing this as support of our president in the administration of Southwestern Seminary and not your individual churches,” noted Mike Boyd of Tennessee, in presenting the recommendation from the Executive Committee.

Patterson was involved in the formulation of both statements. In 1978, he served on the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, which was a collection of highly respected conservative theologians who formulated the Chicago Statement. The Chicago Statement was signed by nearly 300 noted evangelical scholars, including Southern Baptists such as Patterson, Carl F.H. Henry and Harold Lindsell, and other evangelicals such as James Montgomery Boice, Norman L. Geisler, John Gerstner, Kenneth Kantzer, John Warwick Montgomery, Roger Nicole, J. I. Packer, Robert Preus, Earl Radmacher, Francis Schaeffer, R.C. Sproul, and John Wenham.

The Chicago Statement

Thinking back on her life as a child in a Russian orphanage, Oksana Nelson has no point of reference for remembering when the missionaries came to visit. On more than one occasion they came to the orphanage, but the day in question–the bitterly cold day when she received her first gift–she can’t recall if it was before Christmas or after. There had never been a Christmas observance for the children and thus it wasn’t a time they marked each year.

That was more than 10 years ago and now 19-year-old Oksana is the oldest of four children adopted from Russia and Uzbekistan by parents David and Becky Nelson. The family lives in Weatherford where they are active members of Greenwood Baptist Church. It wasn’t long after the family moved from California to Texas three years ago that Oksana arrived at Greenwood to discover people packing Christmas gifts into shoeboxes.

She made the connection. That shoebox of gifts she received that cold winter day in Russia was from Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of North Carolina-based Samaritan’s Purse. The church was preparing shoebox gifts to be shipped to children around the world. Oksana’s mom encouraged her to tell their pastor, Brian Bond, about her experience. He, in turn, insisted she share her testimony with the rest of the congregation.

This is what she told her church family.

She was 7 years old when she was taken from her parents by local authorities on grounds of neglect. Oksana remembers having to fend for herself as a child, even searching the streets for food.

“The orphanage wasn’t the best place but it was better than before,” she said in a telephone interview with the TEXAN.

There were three “very strict” meals a day, mainly soup and bread. No meat. Candy was something only dreamed of. Such treats, she said, were for rich children. The orphans bathed once every two weeks and their standard issue clothes–which set them apart as outcasts at the local school–were washed once a week.

She shared a bedroom with three other girls and a bathroom with 19 other children. The 20 of them shared a single tube of toothpaste.

Winters were frigid in the community two hours north of Moscow. The bare-boned facility was hardly livable. The windows leaked and the radiators often gave up trying.

There were bright moments, though. Missionaries would visit the children, giving out much-needed hugs and individual attention. Vacation Bible School was presented and one time some of the children, including Oksana, were treated to a week-long camp during the summer.

But it was one visit in particular that had such a significant impact on her. One winter day the missionaries came to the orphanage bearing gifts–something she had never before received.

“I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it because it was my first gift,” Nelson recalled. She opened the package slowly. Everything inside the box belonged to her. That was a concept she could not quite comprehend.

“These were my very own items that no one else had.”

Her favorite gift was a tube of toothpaste. Also in the box were a much-appreciated pair of socks and a game of dominos that she looked forward to sharing with the other children.

And there was candy.

She said: “Out of all those items the two most important things were the pictures of the boy and girl who packed the box. I actually saw faces of people who cared. Some strangers decided to send this to me.”

That was a defining moment for the young girl. She knew someone outside her small world cared.

Following her testimony at Greenwood Baptist, “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house,” her pastor said.

Oksana’s story had given the members a glimpse of what God could do through their work with Operation Christmas child. For them and Oksana the ministry had come full circle.

Bond said Oksana’s testimony gave a very personal touch to the OCC ministry.

“We’re inundated with pictures but [Oksana] kind of changes the whole perspective. She puts a face on it. Before we knew it she was gone every Sunday speaking at other churches.”

For three years Oksana has been representing OCC in Texas, Louisiana, and across the nation. In November she will speak with OCC founder and Samaritan Purse President Franklin Graham at three national OCC distribution site press conferences.

“What she is a powerful communicator,” said Mark Cooper, OCC regional director for Texas and Louisiana. “She can communicate very well the impact that box had on her life. What it meant to her.”

And, Cooper added, “The other thing that is impressive is that she has no Russian accent.”

Oksana speaks with almost a southern drawl, a result, her mother said, of her daughter’s drive to excel. She picked up English quickly all the while maintaining her Russian. Language is one of her gifts, her mother said.

When Oksana isn’t participating in an OCC promotional event she works at a veterinary clinic and attends Tarleton State University, working toward a degree in agricultural economics.

Greenwood Baptist member Linda Tingle testified to Oksana’s hard work and gracious spirit. Tingle, the Nelson’s neighbor, took time to visit the family when she saw them moving in.

“That was truly, truly a God-send,” Nelson said. The Nelsons knew no one and had left their extended families and church family behind in California.

“The fact that she did that made all the difference in the world.”

The family, she said, was committed to visiting several area churches, not just the closest one, which happened to be Greenwood Baptist. But after following through on that commitment, Nelson said, “Everyone in my family asked, ‘Can we please go back to Greenwood?’”

Tingle said, “The whole family has been a blessing to the church and to me personally.”

And of Oksana specifically, Tingle added, “She is just an overachiever and it’s just so neat. She is just letting God lead her life.”

Even when she was in the orphanage, Oksana exhibited a maturity and faith beyond her years. Her life to that point could have bred in her a fundamental distrust of others and an attitude of self-preservation at any price.

Her mother explained: “Oksana made a conscience decision to make the most of what she has been given. She always had a mature understanding of Christ’s love for her. From the beginning she has understood that sacrifice.”

Oksana said the missionary visits to the orphanage included presentations of the gospel, but it wasn’t until her camp experience that “it really hit” her. While stringing beads that tell the gospel story by color representations, Oksana said she finally understood.

When Becky and David arrived at the Russian orphanage in May 2001, it was the first time they met Oksana. In their hearts, Becky said, the little girl had been their daughter for several months. But they were keenly aware that the 10-year-old would be understandably apprehensive about leaving all she knew and going to live with strangers.

But Becky Nelson said God had already been at work. When the couple was introduced to Oksana, Becky said, “She was just this pleasant, self-aware little girl who took her daddy’s hand.”

A few months later, settled into their California home, Oksana had learned enough English to have a heart-to-heart talk. Becky asked her daughter what had gone through her mind at the moment they met. Was she nervous? Scared?

Oksana said the missionaries told the orphaned children that God is might and taught them how to pray to him. Ever since that moment Oksana said she had been praying for a mom and dad. When they finally arrived at the orphanage, “Why,” she asked her mom, “would I be afraid. God sent you.”

FORT WORTH?Darwinian materialism has wreaked havoc on ethics, culture and the study of Scripture and theology, scholars said during an inaugural conference sponsored by the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, Oct. 23-24. The conference, titled “Science and Faith: Friends or Foes?” was held on the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

“Many people who have a Christian faith have a sense that something is amiss in our culture,” said philosopher and geophysicist Stephen C. Meyer, who is director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and author of the 2009 publication, “Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design.” Meyer made this comment on Oct. 22 during a chapel service at Southwestern Seminary prior to the conference.

“One of the things that I think makes people feel ill at ease about the culture is this pervasive and overweening devaluing of human life,” Meyer said. “There is a professor here at the University of Texas [who] is famous for suggesting at one point that 90 percent of the earth’s population should be eliminated, should be culled, in order to preserve the earth. He at one point suggested that the Ebola virus would be a perfectly legitimate means by which to accomplish this, although he later kind of backed off on that. But he has gone on to advocate that we ought to confiscate the wealth of all families with two or more children as a way, again, of saving the earth.”

According to Meyer, this and similar claims that are causing ill ease among Christians result from a worldview based on the same scientific materialism that has resulted in a modern trend of disbelief in God.

During the science and faith conference, political scientist John West elaborated upon the implications of scientific materialism and Darwin’s evolutionary theory for ethics and culture. West serves as the associate director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, and he has explored these issues in his books, “Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science” and “Darwin’s Conservatives: The Misguided Quest.”

“Materialism is the idea that all of reality, including human reason, human morality and even religion, can be ultimately explained as merely the products of mindless matter and motion, the result of blind chance and necessity,” West said.

Philosophical materialism has existed in some form or another since ancient times, but until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was a “fringe concept” and “nothing that most sensible people would accept.”

“Darwin’s theory was key in providing a mechanism that seemed to make materialism plausible, giving it a seemingly scientific justification,” West added. Devoted to finding a materialistic explanation for the world, Darwin made two major claims: First, he argued that all living beings descended from a common ancestor. Second, he argued that “all creatures were produced by a blind, impersonal material process of natural selection acting on random variations.”

West said this theory supposedly explained the appearance of design in the universe without reference to a designer, but rather to materialistic processes. The theory is supposed by its supporters to establish scientific materialism, in which “science substantiates philosophical materialism.”

“It is also important to recognize that people sometimes misunderstand Darwin himself and the implications he thought his views had for culture,” West said. According to some people, Darwin only concerned himself with plants and animals and did not consider the implications of his theory for human culture. According to West, however, Darwin discussed these issues in his book, “The Descent of Man,” and in his personal journals.

West argued that, even for Darwin, the theory of evolution had a host of negative implications for mankind and for society: First, Darwin denied any concept of free will. Second, while Darwin himself typified the moral character of a Victorian Englishman, he believed that morality was “ultimately determined by reproductive success” and that morality could thus change in any way that ensures survival. Third, Darwin understood that his theory degraded human dignity.

“A large part of the ‘Descent of Man’ was made to argue that humans are not unique nor special,” West said, quoting Darwin’s own claim that “there is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties.” Further, Darwin argued that his theory explained why men of different races showed a disparity in mental abilities. Also, even though Darwin was personally a sympathetic person, he wrote that human society was doing itself a disfavor by saving the weak members of society and letting them breed.

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