By BJC Executive Director J. Brent Walker
The end of the year is often a stressful and chaotic time. There are holiday meals to be cooked, Christmas presents to be purchased, trips to be planned and more.
At the Baptist Joint Committee, the year’s end marks the end of our fiscal year. Projects need to be finished and year-end gifts secured. The desire to finish the year strong can make us a little anxious.
In Richard J. Foster’s devotional book A Year With God: Living Out the Spiritual Disciplines, the readings for the final days of the year are focused on the spiritual discipline of celebration.
It’s something that we often overlook. Celebration doesn’t fit our image of what a spiritual discipline should be. Dallas Willard writes that celebration is “the completion of worship, for it dwells on the greatness of God as shown in his goodness to us.”
God has blessed the BJC abundantly this year. Let’s celebrate our accomplishments and thank those who have helped make them possible.
• In October, we celebrated the first anniversary of the Center for Religious Liberty. In 2013, we have welcomed more than 200 people into the Center to learn more about religious liberty and the BJC’s work. Groups included students from the University of Illinois, Andover-Newton Theological Seminary, The College of William & Mary, Samford University and more. In addition, we’ve hosted Passport staffers, members of Trinity Baptist Church in Seneca, S.C., and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Advocacy in Action participants.
• This fall, our legal team filed an amicus (friend-of-the-court) brief in a legislative prayer case, Town of Greece v. Galloway, that recently was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. Since 1947, the BJC has filed more than 80 amicus briefs with the High Court.
• In July, we added our first new full-time staff position in six years: Charles Watson Jr. became our education and outreach specialist. Charles has hit the ground running to build a sustainable and ever-increasing core of supporters who can inform themselves and others about religious liberty.
• The 21st annual Religious Liberty Council Luncheon at the CBF General Assembly sold out in advance for the first time. In June, more than 560 BJC supporters gathered in Greensboro, N.C., to hear CBF’s new executive coordinator, Suzii Paynter, speak.
• The 8th annual Religious Liberty Essay Scholarship Contest netted 435 entries from 46 states, China and Sweden. High school juniors and seniors were asked to examine religious diversity in America and evaluate the claim that the United States was founded as a “Christian nation.”
• I always welcome the opportunity to speak in churches and to other groups. This year, I preached at 10 churches including the First Baptist Church in America, which was founded in Rhode Island by Roger Williams in 1638. Additionally, I had the chance to deliver the commencement address at the John Leland Center for Theological Studies, speak to students at Eastern University and the McAfee School of Theology, and deliver the Shurden Lectures at my law school alma mater, Stetson University.
• General Counsel Holly Hollman has also kept busy this year. In February, she served as a judge for the George Washington University School of Law Religious Freedom Moot Court competition, in which law students presented arguments for and against the contraceptive mandate as applied to religiously affiliated employers. Holly was also invited to speak on a panel addressing religion in the public schools at the American Bar Association’s mid-year meeting in Dallas, Texas. In April, she participated in a symposium sponsored by the Rutgers School of Law Journal of Law and Religion and published a journal article, titled “Religious Liberty Advocacy: The Essential Role of Religious Organizations in the Courts,” in conjunction with that event.
I could go on and on, but the point is that none of this would be possible without the financial support of individuals, churches, foundations and denominational partners.
To those who have already made a gift in 2013, thank you. Your ongoing, annual financial support makes all of this possible.
Many of you rely on the BJC to:
• serve your interests when a religious liberty case comes before the U.S. Supreme Court
• educate young people about the importance of religious liberty
• keep you up-to-date on what’s happening in the world of religious liberty through Report from the Capital, our emails and blog
…but, you’ve never made a gift to support the BJC’s work.
Enclosed in the November/December magazine is a contribution envelope. Make a gift to the BJC, join us in celebrating what we’ve accomplished this year, and support us as we look ahead to the challenges and threats to religious liberty and the separation of church and state we will face in the future.
Please make a gift today.
From the November/December 2013 Report from the Capital. Click here for the next article.
