Evangelicals

Pentecostals

Charismatics

1. Social movement, not just a belief system

2. Profound critique of modern society, which is thought to undermine the sacred canopy, provided by a revered tradition, and to create social organization

3. Threat is institutional differentiation, compartmentalization, cultural pluralism

4. Response to threat is to revitalize true faith and to de-differentiate -- to make all institutions operate on sound value principle, implement the sacred worldview across the board and de-privatize religion. Church-state dualism is rejected. An organic link between religious and political authority is asserted. Religion is de-privatized.

Restorative Churches have the highest level of religious resources and the lowest level of
secular resources

Restorative Churches include the conservative wings of
          Southern Baptists
          Holiness churches
          Nazarenes
          Jehovah’s Witnesses

Myth

Reject contractually compatible narratives of science and therapy (evolutionism, personality as the core of the individual)

Interpret the Christian myth so as to destabilize the present, accentuate discontinuity between the transcendent realm and everyday realm (redefine sin as behavior), de-emphasize individual autonomy and empowerment

Accentuate the discontinuity between the transcendent and everyday realms (sin as an inherent quality, corruption of the secular world)

Sacralize major relationships and social processes

Marriage
Birth and death
Child socialization
 

Embed individuals within covenantal networks

Maintain distance from institutions and relationships (work, economic success, mainline churches, property)

Create extensive spiritual agency and transpersonal connectedness

Reactions to the Expansion of Contractualism

Liberalized divorce laws (Covenant marriages)

Liberalized abortion laws

Secularization of education (Prayer in schools, Creationism, discipline/corporal punishment)

Southern Baptist Convention (15,700,000 members, 41,000 local congregations)

1925 Southern Baptist Faith Statement written (Baptist Faith and Message). Revised in 1963, 1998, and 2000. Statement is not binding on local congregations

1980s Major conflict between the liberal and conservative wings of the SBC, with conservatives winning control of the organization in 1979. Emphasized biblical literalism and shifted seminaries, missionary boards and other agencies in a more conservative direction.

1997 SBC delegates voted to boycott Walt Disney Co. over creating “Gay and Lesbian Days” at its theme parks and offering medical benefits to gay and lesbian employees

1998 Faith Statement revised by delegates at SBC Convention

The revised statement calls on husbands to “provide for, to protect and to lead the family” and for wives to “submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband, even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.”

1999 SBC delegates voted to rebuke President Clinton for proclaiming June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month

2000 Faith Statement revised by delegates at SBC Convention

The revised statement reads: “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by scripture” (Does not preclude ordination of women)

The revised statement dropped language that Christian truth must be “continually interpreted and related to the needs of each generation”

2001 SBC delegates vote to urge pastors to resist quick divorce and to promote “covenant marriages” in which couples agree to intensive counseling before separating

1991 Formation of the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (over 1,800 congregations, chapters in 14 states)

2000 Formation of moderate Mainstream Baptist Network (chapters in 12 states)

2000 Former President Jimmy Carter severed personal ties to the SBC (but would remain a member of his local congregation) because SBC had become increasingly “theologically rigid”

2001 In the wake of the September 11 attack, SBC reaffirmed a longstanding policy of not praying with other churches it does not consider legitimate (Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Roman Catholics, Mormons, Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses) by refusing to participate in interfaith services

Voted to reject the 1963 amendment to the faith statement

Voted to allow churches outside the state to become partners with it

November, 1999 the conservative First Baptist Church of Dallas voted to loosen ties with Baptist Convention of Texas and align itself with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, a conservative group that formed in 1997 with over 400 local congregations by 2000

October, 2000 the Texas BGC cut off $4,000,000 to SBC seminaries and $1,000,000 to denomination headquarters

RECENT CONTROVERSIES

TEACHING THE BIBLE

There is growing interest in teaching about the Bible. There is great controversy over whether teaching about the Bible will inevitably become teaching from the Bible.

There are currently few courses on the Bible. The number is increasing, particularly in southeastern states. A North Carolina-based group, the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, reports elective Bible classes are offered in 116 school districts in 29 states, including Maryland and Virginia.

THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister and educator. There was no reference to religion in the original version: "I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." The pledge was rapidly adopted by public schools across the country.

In 1954, the Knights of Columbus led a lobbying effort to convince Congress to add the words "under God." The words "my flag" were changed to "the flag of the United States of America."

The current legal controversy began when Michael Newdow, an atheist, sued the Elk Grove Unified School District in Sacramento County, California. He claimed that public recitation by students violated his daughter’s religious liberty by appearing to endorse religion. Although legal precedent makes reciting the pledge voluntary, Newdow argued that it is unconstitutional to force students to hear it as teacher-led recitations carry the stamp of government approval.

In June 2002, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals banned the teacher-led pledge for the nearly 10 million schoolchildren in the nine Western states under its jurisdiction. The judges ruled that "the coercive effect of the policy here is particularly pronounced in the school setting given the age and impressionability of schoolchildren."

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who said the Justice Department would "spare no effort" to defend the Pledge.

President George Bush called the decision "ridiculous."

The U.S. Senate voted 99-0 for a resolution expressing support for the Pledge.

In 2004, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Newdow did not have standing to challenge the Pledge of Allegiance in an 8-0 decision, reversing the lower court decision. The Supreme Court decision avoided the broader question of the separation of church and state.

IN GOD WE TRUST

The motto “In God We Trust” was placed on coins in 1864. The motto was placed on the two-cent piece in 1864 in response to a letter to the treasury secretary, Salmon P. Chase, from a Pennsylvania clergyman asking that "the Almighty God" be recognized in some way on United States coins. Chase took the request to Congress, which passed legislation that was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.

In 1955, Congress passed a bill to have the motto placed on paper currency and it first appeared on bills two years later.

In 1956, another law was passed and signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower confirming "In God we trust" as "the national motto." Congress also has recognized the Latin phrase "E pluribus unum" (out of many, one), which also appears on United States currency, as a national motto.

The motto has since withstood at least three federal court challenges, including a 1996 ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. The decision was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the court did not hear the case.

The most recent motto movement began with a petition by push the American Family Association, a fundamentalist Christian group in Tupelo, MS. to the Mississippi legislature that the motto to be placed in every classroom. Gov. Ronnie Musgrove signed a law mandating that all public schools display “In God We Trust”' in classrooms, cafeterias and auditoriums.

The organization has since asked its 200,000 members from all 50 states to contact lawmakers and push for similar laws.

PRAYER IN SCHOOL

In 1961, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that official school prayers represent a state-sanctioned religion and hence violate the constitutional separation of church and state.

In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that faculty-organized, clergy-led prayer at graduation ceremonies was unconstitutional.

The 6-to-3 majority opinion by Justice John Paul Stevens said that even when attendance was voluntary and when the decision to pray was made by students, "the delivery of a pregame prayer has the improper effect of coercing those present to participate in an act of religious worship."

In 2000, in a 6-3 decision the Supreme Court expanded its prohibition against religious activity in the public schools by ruling against a Santa Fe, Texas school district policy allowing an elected student representative to deliver a public invocation before home high school football games. The court stated that the election of a student did not alter the fact that the school district was actually sponsoring pre-game prayers. Justice Paul Stevens wrote: "The religious liberty protected by the Constitution is abridged when the state affirmatively sponsors the particular religious practice of prayer,"

The ruling does not affect the freedom of students to pray on their own in school, before a meal and at other times. Groups of students also can meet for worship on school grounds, as long as other student clubs are treated similarly.

The Bush administration through the Department of Education has taken a more affirmative stance toward prayer. The department has ruled that

Schools must allow students and teachers to pray outside the classroom, school officials cannot pray with students or try to promote or discourage a particular religious view.

Schools must show that no school policy prevents constitutionally protected prayer.

Teachers may meet with each other for "prayer or Bible study" before school or after lunch so long as they make clear they are not acting in their "official capacities."

Students taking part in assemblies may not be restricted in expressing religious ideas as long as they were chosen as speakers through "neutral, evenhanded criteria." Schools may issue disclaimers clarifying that such speech does not represent the institution.
Required periods of silence have passed constitutional muster as long as students are not forced or encouraged to pray.

A Georgia law requiring that students should begin the school day with 60 seconds of “silent reflection on the anticipated activities of the day” passed review by a federal appeals court in 1997. By contrast laws in North Dakota and New Jersey were struck down because they were seen as encouraging students to pray.

TEN COMMANDMENT DISPLAYS

In the 1940s, a juvenile delinquent appeared in court in St. Cloud, MN and asserted that he had no knowledge of the Ten Commandments were. The presiding judge, a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, began a campaign to put copies of the Ten Commandments in schools, churches and courthouses.

In 1956, film producer/director Cecil B. DeMille joined the Eagles' campaign and helped fund the monuments to promote "The Ten Commandments." The Eagles placed about 200 stone monuments throughout the country.

KENTUCKY

A monument that is more than six feet tall and almost four feet wide containing the ten commandments was given to the state in 1971 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles group. At the top of the monument are the words, "I AM the LORD thy God" followed by the commandments, a sacred and religious text for Jews and Christians. At the bottom are two small Stars of David and a symbol representing Christ. It was displayed until 1980, when it was removed to make room for construction. It has remained in storage since then.

In 2000, the governor signed a law that required placement of the monument outside of the state Capitol.

In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-3 decision rejected an appeal by Kentucky of a ruling that barred the monument from state Capitol grounds in Frankfort on the grounds that the exhibit appears to have been erected with a religious purpose and therefore violates the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.
Alabama, Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Utah supported Kentucky's appeal.

In 2005, in another Kentucky case the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision ruled against two counties that had posted large copies of the Ten Commandments in their courthouses. The counties modified the exhibits several times to make them appear more historic and less religious. The court described these efforts as transparent litigation tactics that did not reflect the actual, original purpose of the displays.

Similar disputes are under way in Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin.

ALABAMA

As a circuit court judge in the 1990s Roy Moore became known as the "Ten Commandments Judge" for opening court sessions with prayer and for displaying a hand carved Ten Commandments display behind his bench.

Moore was subsequently elected Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court.

In 2001 Moore had a 5,200-pound granite monument to the Ten Commandments installed in the rotunda of the state judicial building in Montgomery. For months, Moore defied a federal court order to remove the monument, which detractors dubbed "Roy's Rock."

Alabama's eight associate justices ordered the monument removed in compliance with a ruling from the U.S. District Court in Montgomery. That ruling was affirmed by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Moore’s appeal. The monument eventually was rolled to a storage room.

In 2003 Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was ousted Thursday by a judicial ethics panel for defying the federal judge's order to remove the monument.

In September, 2003 Gov. Bob Riley opened an exhibit at the Capitol on Tuesday that included a small plaque of the Ten Commandments, keeping a promise to supporters of a massive granite monument removed by court order from the state judicial building. The plaque was given to Riley by supporters of the 2 1/2-ton Ten Commandments monument. Riley and Alabama's attorney general included other historical documents, including the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights, in the display to make it more legally defensible than the 5,300-pound monument.

Moore, who was suspended for refusing to comply with a federal court order to remove his commandments monument from the Supreme Court building, said a display like Riley's is unacceptable. "To put things around the Ten Commandments and secularize it is to deny the greatness of God," he told a crowd of about 1,500 people Monday at a fund-raising dinner for his legal defense.

In 1999-2000 In the past year, three states —Indiana, Kentucky and South Dakota —
have approved bills letting schools post the Ten Commandments.

Chicago public school officials are giving their blessing to religious groups that are distributing Ten Commandment book covers to students -- as long as the groups stay off school property and give the material only to children who want it. The covers have the Ten Commandments -- from ``Only worship the one true God'' to ``Do not murder'' -- on one side and inspirational quotes from such figures as Oprah Winfrey, Mark Twain and Michael Jordan on the other.

OTHER CASES

Although judges have tended to rule against Ten Commandments displays, this is not always the case. A federal appeals court in Philadelphia upheld a Ten Commandments display on a 1920 bronze plaque at the Chester County Courthouse in Pennsylvania. "The age and history of the plaque provide a context which changes the effect of an otherwise religious plaque," the panel ruled.

A federal judge in Pittsburgh adopted the same reasoning, ruling that a Ten Commandments plaque - installed in 1918 - could remain on display at the Allegheny County Courthouse.

The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision allowed a display in Texas, saying that a religious display that is also "historical" in its impact is permissible, whatever the "purpose" of those who erected it. Among 21 historical markers and 17 monuments surrounding the capitol is a 6-foot high monolith inscribed with the Ten Commandments. The state accepted the monument from the Fraternal Order of Eagles and defended it as a tribute to the Eagles rather than as an endorsement of religion. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said the Texas display was part of an "unbroken history of official acknowledgments by all three branches of government of religion's role in American life." He also stated that "the Ten Commandments are religious--they were so viewed at their inception and so remain. . . . But Moses was a lawgiver as well as a religious leader. And

In contrast, a federal judge in La Crosse, WI, ordered the city to remove a Ten Commandments monument from a city park because, she said, it made some community members "feel they were not welcome, that they did not belong in La Crosse unless they followed Judeo-Christian traditions." The monument had been in place since 1965. The judge stated that “The First Amendment guarantees persons of all faiths that the government will treat them with equal concern and respect."

Many of the battles over the Ten Commandments never make it to court as communities remove monuments rather than face litigation. For example, local officials voted 8 to 0 to remove a Ten Commandments monument from outside the Wyandotte County Courthouse in Kansas. It is slated to move across the street to the grounds of a church.

LICENSE PLATES

In 2009 a federal judge ruled that South Carolina can't issue license plates showing the image of a cross in front of a stained-glass window along with the phrase "I Believe."
Private groups are allowed to design their own license plates in South Carolina. One has registered the group name "I Believe" with the intent of creating a plate with that name.