HOUSTON—Gov. Rick Perry announced last month that he would support a bill in the upcoming legislative session banning abortions in Texas beginning in the 20th week of pregnancy—the point at which many scientists believe a baby can feel pain.

The bill, known as the Texas Pre-Born Pain Act, was proposed by Texas Right to Life and is being drafted by state attorneys at the request of legislators. It was initially expected to be filed before Christmas, but that was delayed as legislative sponsors and attorneys worked out details.

Ten other states have already recognized the need to protect unborn children who can feel pain, a press release from the governor’s office said.

“This session, I’m calling on the legislature to strengthen our ban on the procedure [abortion], prohibiting abortion at the point a baby can feel the pain of being killed,” Perry said at a pro-life event in Houston. “We have an obligation to end that kind of cruelty.”

According to Texas Right to Life, the Texas Pre-Born Pain Act would “establish a state interest in pre-born life that can feel pain” and “apply that state interest by prohibiting all abortions on pre-born children who feel pain.”

Elizabeth Graham, director of Texas Right to Life, told the TEXAN in an interview that most scientists agree increasingly that infants can feel pain by the 20th week of pregnancy.

“The consensus is that when surgery is done on a pre-born child in utero … anesthesia is given to babies at 20 weeks,” she said. “Neonatologists and neonatology surgeons are anesthetizing children then to save their lives because they can feel pain. And so we would say that they can also feel pain if they are undergoing excruciating dismemberment.”

Texas Right to Life cites the opinions of numerous scientists and doctors to support its position.

For example, Jean Wright, a Savannah, Ga., anesthesiologist specializing in pediatric critical care medicine, told the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution in 2005 that by 20 weeks after fertilization, all the physical structures necessary to experience pain have developed. And according to Richard Schmidt, past president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, “It can be clearly demonstrated that fetuses seek to evade certain stimuli in a manner which in an infant or an adult would be interpreted as a reaction to pain.”

Supporters of the Pre-Born Pain Act say that this and other medical data will give credibility to the legislation.

Perry said his ultimate goal is “to make abortion, at any stage, a thing of the past,” though Roe v. Wade “prevents us from taking that step.” But he said the Supreme Court allows states to restrict the procedure if they can show a “compelling state interest” to do so.

“I don’t think there is any issue that better fits the definition of ‘compelling state interest’ than preventing the suffering of our state’s unborn,” Perry said. “We cannot, and we will not, stand idly by while the unborn are going through the agony of having their lives ended.”

Texas already has numerous restrictions on abortion, including a ban in the third trimester except in rare cases when the mother’s life or health is threatened. Yet if passed, the Pre-Born Pain Act would save approximately 1,000 additional lives each year—the number of abortions estimated to take place in the state annually after the 20th week of pregnancy.

Graham said she hopes the bill will encourage other states to follow suit.

“Establishing a state interest in protecting lives could inspire other states to look at where their state interest could fall in protecting lives,” she said.

Legislative sponsors for the bill will be determined after final drafting is complete, Graham said. At press time, legislative council was revising the bill.

“We’re looking at a big pro-life majority in the House and in the Senate, so we ought to expect some big pro-life accomplishments,” state Rep. Bryan Hughes, a leading abortion opponent in the legislature who is campaigning to be leader of the House, told the Austin American-Statesman. “I think the people back home are sending a message by continuing to send strong pro-life majorities to the legislature, and that’s what emboldens us.”

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NASHVILLE—Year-to-date contributions to Southern Baptist national and international missions and ministries received by the SBC Executive Committee are 1.70 percent above the same period last year, according to a news release from SBC Executive Committee President Frank Page. The total includes receipts from state conventions and fellowships, churches and individuals for distribution according to the 2012-13 SBC Cooperative Program Allocation Budget.

As of Dec. 31, gifts received by the Executive Committee for distribution through the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget totaled $45,019,758.93, or $750,555.16 above the $44,269,203.77 received through December 2011.

“We are so grateful for the faithful contributions of God’s people to support the convention’s missions and ministry enterprises, especially given the economic hardships so many continue to face,” Page said. “After several years of serious financial difficulties, I am guardedly optimistic that the economic prospects of our people have begun to stabilize.”

For the month, a total of $14,433,737.25 was received for distribution through the Cooperative Program Allocation Budget.

Meanwhile, year-to-date designated giving of $11,193,104.15 is 4.34 percent, or $507,238.92, below gifts of $11,700,343.07 received at this point last year. This total includes only those gifts received and distributed by the Executive Committee and does not reflect designated gifts contributed directly to SBC entities.

The CP and designated giving totals represent money received by the Executive Committee by the close of the last business day of each month. Month-to-month swings reflect a number of factors, including the number of Sundays in a given month, the day of the month churches forward their CP contributions to their state conventions and the timing of when state conventions forward the national portion of their CP contributions to the Executive Committee.

For the SBC Cooperative Program Allocation Budget, the year-to-date total of $45,019,758.93 is 95.79 percent of the $47,000,000 budgeted to support Southern Baptist ministries globally and across North America.

The Cooperative Program is Southern Baptists’ method of supporting missions and ministry efforts of state and regional conventions and the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Cooperative Program total includes receipts from individuals, churches, state conventions and fellowships for distribution according to the 2012-13 SBC Cooperative Program Allocation Budget.

Designated contributions include the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions, Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund and other special gifts.

State and regional conventions retain a portion of church contributions to the Southern Baptist Convention Cooperative Program to support work in their respective areas and forward a percentage to Southern Baptist national and international causes. The percentage of distribution is at the discretion of each state or regional convention. The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention leads the state conventions in percentage passed on to SBC ministries, at 55 percent of undesignated receipts.

I am always surprised but shouldn’t be by the relative ignorance of the populace and particularly of younger people (Jay Leno, anyone?) as it relates to their own culture’s history. Example: A Pew Research poll showing that 44 percent of Millennials (roughly those under age 30) didn’t know the 1973 Roe v. Wade case dealt with abortion. (On that topic, please read our TEXAN Digital issue on how the SBC has transformed since Roe was handed down 40 years ago next week.)

It bears repeating that we cannot learn from history if we don’t know our history. Indeed we are prone to repeat the mistakes of the past or to inflate our sense of cultural accomplishments or wisdom by thinking our contemporary way of thinking is new and novel. As Solomon stated, there’s nothing new under the sun, all is vain striving save for fearing God and keeping his commandments.

So if I didn’t know better I’d think there is a devilish conspiracy to keep the masses in one of two camps: as ignorant and dull of mind as possible, or as falsely educated by worldly wisdom as possible in order to foster arrogance and self-sufficiency. So we find ourselves led by the so-called “chattering classes” of elites in Washington, on Wall Street, in ivory towers, and in the boardrooms of Hollywood, arrogant beyond belief with true contempt for the great masses, who are happy to get their day’s wages (be they handouts or paychecks) along with their daily doses of amusement, intoxicating substances, and porn and fast food. Don’t empower these folks, control them, the thinking goes. I guess evolution hasn’t gone well lately. Must be a down cycle. This may be a reduction, but I’m not far off.

Between these two extremes are the traditionalists, those strange folks who actually marry, have children in that marriage, and tend to cling to their religion, and perhaps, even their guns. Some of these people read, and with some discernment. Strange indeed, these people who seem able to critically think and process information, and who are not so easily led. A good many of them worship the God of Scripture. But are there enough of them to make a difference by raising children who are aimed at turning the world upside down for Christ?

It pays to know where we came from in order to navigate forward. I can think of no better Book for both of those pursuits than God’s revelation to man. A little knowledge of Western Civ or American history wouldn’t hurt either. Get wisdom—God’s and man’s—and pass it on.

CORPUS CHRISTI—Ronaldo Morales had a vision of winning his old neighborhood to Jesus Christ and spiritually revitalizing the inner city of Corpus Christi. Bill Simmons, Morales’ mentor and pastor of River Hills Baptist Church of Robstown, shared that dream. River Hills at Oak Park, which held its first service 15 months ago, is the result.

“The area we are reaching has the highest crime rate in Corpus Christi,” Morales said in describing the location and challenge facing the church he now pastors. “There are a lot of single moms, drugs, prostitution. You can see the ladies walking up and down [nearby] Leopard Street. Some have started coming closer to our church. We have led a few to Christ already. The need is great.”

Ronnie Morales should know. He grew up in the barrio in Corpus Christi. Drugs and alcohol were commonplace. “Alcohol killed both my father and grandfather,” Morales said. “I got into drugs at a very young age. By 16, I was a full-fledged drug addict and alcoholic.” Morales’ mother, forced to work long hours to make ends meet, could not provide the structure and discipline Morales and his siblings required.

Things got so bad that Morales’ mother had him admitted to a psychiatric ward at the age of 24. “I was suicidal, an addict, an alcoholic,” Morales said. “I was lost.”

Today, his mother sits on the front pew at River Hills at Oak Park. “I am now her pastor,” said Morales, living testimony of a life radically changed by Jesus Christ.

He had spent six years in Alcoholics Anonymous when Chuck Brush found Morales on the corner of Josephine and Nueces streets and placed a gospel tract in his hands. A few weeks later while reading Scripture, Morales realized God was telling him he was “lost.” He knelt by his bed and prayed: “Jesus, if you don’t save me, I’m not going to make it.”

“Right there I got born again into God’s family,” Morales said. “October 12, 1991, in my bedroom, I was born again and have never been the same. I stuffed gospel tracts in my pocket and went out to win the world.”

Morales served in two different churches before starting the new work that would become River Hills at Oak Park. “We started a Bible study in a house with 12 or 13 people,” Morales recalled. Corpus Christi Baptist Association Executive Director Anson Nash provided office space for the church.

“We were winning people to Christ and people were coming to the church,” Morales remembered. “Before we knew it, we were about 40.” The group conducted baptisms at River Hills Baptist Church of Robstown where Morales was ordained.

The Robstown pastor wanted to help Morales find a permanent location for the growing church. Simmons had long been concerned about the inner city of Corpus Christi and the decline in the evangelical church there. Many churches in the inner city were “dying or dead,” Simmons said. “I believe that instead of losing everything that a lot of people had sacrificed to build, we need to do what we can to put life into some of those churches,” he added.

West Heights Baptist Church was such a church in decline. The aging congregation numbered around a dozen when interim pastor Ron Watson told Simmons of the church’s circumstances. Simmons and Watson started meeting with West Heights members to discuss their options.

Harvey Kneisel was brought in to help. The former missions pastor of First Baptist Houston and author of “New Life for Declining Churches,” Kneisel had extensive experience assisting in the revitalization of inner city churches in Houston and elsewhere.

“Harvey had been a pastor in Corpus, and he had been our director of missions [at River Hills], so the people at West Heights trusted him, too,” Simmons said.

As Kneisel guided the transition, West Heights deeded its property to River Hills of Robstown. A governance committee with representatives from West Heights, River Hills Robstown, and Morales’ group was formed, overseen by a chairman from River Hills Robstown. The governance committee makes major decisions relevant to River Hills at Oak Park and will continue to do so for the immediate future.

“It has worked really well,” Simmons said. The goal is to eventually transition River Hills at Oak Park into an autonomous church.

In the early days of negotiations with West Heights, Simmons thought of Morales as the ideal candidate to revitalize the inner city church. “He is the perfect guy for this,” Simmons declared. “We put him in as the pastor of River Hills at Oak Park. He won the hearts of those older Anglo people already there. They love him. Ronnie is a real soul winner.”

Indeed, many former West Heights members have remained at the new congregation, including a 99-year-old woman.

“Brother Bill called and told me there was a church about to shut its doors, and we want to get the building for you guys,” Morales recalled. The property includes a well maintained fellowship hall, sanctuary seating 240, education building and parsonage where Morales and his wife Minnie live.

Morales is bi-vocational. He hopes to retire from his job in robotics at the Corpus Christi Army Depot in seven years and devote himself full-time to the work at River Hills at Oak Park. He receives a gas allowance and lives in the parsonage. He gets off work at 2:30 each afternoon, affording him time to prepare messages, counsel folks, visit, and otherwise fulfill pastoral responsibilities.

River Hills at Oak Park (RHOP) was a busy place even before the initial service was held on Oct. 23, 2011. When the facilities were first acquired, Morales led groups of members on weekly prayer walks, pausing at each corner of each building, eventually praying at street corners of the neighborhood. “Then we started saturating the place with the gospel. People would come out and sit on their porches and wait for us,” Morales said. Some would ask for prayer.

“We have to gain their trust,” he added. “We try to befriend the people.” This may mean mowing yards or bringing gifts to church visitors. Insecurity is an issue for newcomers to church, Morales noted. “We do whatever we can to help these people feel loved.”

Morales said discipleship is critical. New believers must be grounded, taught the “ABCs of Christianity.” RHOP sends members into homes to teach the book of John to neighborhood folks who are interested but hesitant to attend church.

“We do this every opportunity we get,” said Morales, who noted that at least six people discipled in the neighborhood have followed the Lord in believer’s baptism and become part of the church.

Indeed, since River Hills at Oak Park opened its doors, he has baptized more than 25 new believers. Their numbers are increasing weekly.

A family atmosphere pervades the church. Special activities for seniors are scheduled regularly. Monthly family nights in the fellowship hall attract crowds of 60 or more for games and fellowship. “There is a spirit of unity within the people. I let them know that if we continue to love each other, we are going to be a threat here in the community in regards to winning the community for the cause of Christ. There is something about the concept of loving each other,” Morales stated.

The church prays regularly together, including intercession for other area pastors and churches. Morales also meets regularly and works closely with the half dozen or so other pastors with churches in the inner city.

Mike Molina works with the RHOP youth. He was able to take 26 kids from River Hills and other inner city churches to a youth camp last summer where the group saw seven professions of faith. River Hills Robstown provided vans for transportation and contributed $4,500 to the camp outreach effort.

Morales praises the continued assistance offered by Simmons and River Hills Robstown. The parent church prints RHOP’s bulletins and otherwise provides invaluable help. River Hills Robstown members are also engaged in the community, mentoring students in inner city elementary and middle schools, with the blessing of the Corpus Christi ISD.

Through his ongoing friendships with SBTC pastors like Simmons, Mike Lujan, Roland DeLeon and others, Morales gains advice and counsel.

The Corpus Christi Baptist Association also provides many resources including printing materials for the “Blessed Bags,” which the church hopes to deliver to people in hospital waiting rooms and at bus stops. The “Blessed Bags” contain small bottled waters, packaged snacks, gospel tracts and faith
outlines.

“Right now, I am only thinking six months ahead,” quipped Morales when asked about the church’s future plans. A couples’ Sunday School class is in the offing. The recently started children’s church runs around 20 kids. Each week, 90 or more attend services. Baptisms abound.

There is even a vibrant women’s ministry known as Women Seeking God led by Minnie Morales with the assistance of Minga Valadez. “I don’t know where I’d be without that lady. She is a blessing,” Morales said of his wife.

God is changing lives in inner city Corpus Christi. One example: Noami, whose husband died tragically and her son was in prison.

Morales knocked on Noami’s door in an area trailer park, accompanied by another believer. “God had cultivated her heart like you wouldn’t believe,” Morales said. She trusted Christ and was baptized. At a recent women’s meeting, Noami even helped Minnie put on the skit.

“There is a lot of hurt and pain in the area where we are at. God has placed us there and that is where we are going to stay and we are going to reach that community,” Morales emphasized.

Simmons added, “I believe that churches need to make an impact on the community in such a way that people not only know they are there, but they would notice if they weren’t there. Ronnie is making that kind of immediate impact.”

“If Jesus changes people, Jesus ought to change that neighborhood. I believe he can,” Simmons said.
Ronnie and Minnie Morales and the congregation of River Hills at Oak Park said they believe he will.