More than 50 years ago Richard Weaver wrote the book “Ideas Have Consequences,” with a famous first line: “This is another book about the dissolution of the West.” The rest of the book was a chronicle of the inevitable consequences of bad ideas.

In many ways, 2006 was a year of consequences—both good and bad. Recent years have had a single news story that was clearly the “story of the year:” A Katrina, a tsunami, a 9/11.

In 2006 you might say that the event to watch was the process itself—as we lived with the consequences of these events and many more—and we see how ideas and events have consequences that cause a ripple, even today.


The year begins
In the first week of the year, the American Bar Association gave a unanimous rating of “well-qualified” to Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. Alito was ultimately confirmed to the high court, making him the second Bush nominee to be elevated—and causing many conservatives to believe that “Dubya” was fulfilling the promises he made to his Christian base when he was campaigning.

It was one of the few bright spots of the year for Bush, who saw his approval ratings drop to levels not seen since the Carter Administration. By year-end he had seen his party lose control of both houses of Congress, and his Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had been forced to resign over the handling of the Iraq War.

Two other milestones were passed in Iraq in 2006. The war has now lasted longer than the American involvement in World War II, and the 2000th American came home in a body bag.

But the consequences of the president’s actions were months away. A story that captured the attention of the religious community in the first months of 2006 was that of church arsons. Three college students were arrested for the burning of nine rural churches in Alabama. Two of the suspects were identified as students at Birmingham-Southern College.

Dr. David Pollick, president of Birmingham-Southern College, said, “The entire community of Birmingham-Southern College—students, faculty and staff—pledges to aid in the rebuilding of these lost churches through our resources and our labor.” He was as good as his word, and the school ultimately gave more than $368,000 to the rebuilding efforts.

Rebuilding was also the plan for Iraq, but—as architects sometimes say—in order to build big you first have to dig a deep hole. It was unclear to many whether 2006 was a year in which we were digging or building in Iraq.

The war neither began nor ended in 2006, but its bloody consequences played out “in theatre” and in the fall elections—and on virtually every other day of the year. If the mid-term election was a referendum on the war, it’s clear that Americans are not happy with President Bush’s leadership of it.

The problem, though, is that it is not at all clear that the war was the central issue. It’s true that Democrats swept control of both houses of Congress, and many state houses. However, many of the winners were so-called “blue dog Democrats,” pro-life “moderates” whose views are a lot closer to those of President Bush than to Nancy Pelosi, the new Speaker of the House.

By year-end, Rumsfeld had become a political casualty, and the president had pulled together a team made up of many of his father’s old advisors, led by James Baker, to revisit U.S. strategy in Iraq. “The Iraq Study Report,” issued in December, was the consequence of their ideas and promises to produce consequences of its own in the year ahead.


Faith-Based Initiatives stall
President Bush saw his Faith-Based Initiatives program stall in 2006. On March 9 the White House released new research that showed more than $2.1 billion in federal money was received by faith-based organizations, but a close analysis showed that very little of that was “new money.” Most of it was money that was already being given to faith-based organizations but was not being accounted for in the faith-based office.

And as federal spending continued to grow at rates not seen since Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” days, even some who were sympathetic with Bush’s faith agenda started to wonder if the right answer was to spend more on federal programs, no matter how well-intentioned. Richard Viguerie’s book “Conservatives Betrayed” made that case, and the issue was hotly debated in the run-up to the election.

That debate may have been a contributing factor in the departure of the Bush administration’s point person on the program. Jim Towey left in April, and he was replaced by Jay Hein, who previously led the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research. Hein worked with former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson and former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats—both of whom led welfare reform efforts in the 1990s.

“Welfare reform was a government-centered question,” Hein said. “I believe the faith-based initiative is a natural extension from that work. The question is: How does society at large more effectively do those things, relieving human suffering and equipping the poor to achieve greater self-sufficiency?”


The movies go to God
The question of whether and how faith can and should energize and inform society has always been an important one for Christians, and a recurring laboratory of ideas for answering this question has been the movie theatre.

This year saw an uptick in movies with explicitly Christian themes, largely as a consequence of the success of “The Passion of the Christ” and the first installment of “The Chronicles of Narnia.”

“The End Of The Spear” retold the story of the martyrdom of Nate Saint, Jim Elliott and three other missionaries killed in 1956 by Ecuadorian tribesmen.

The $35-million production got decent reviews, but Christians failed to rally around the movie—in part because the movie wasn’t as explicit about the faith of the missionaries as many Christians had hoped, and in part because the film’s star, Chad Allen, is openly gay and an outspoken homosexual activist.

But there can be little doubt that the “big” movie of the year was “The Da Vinci Code.” Not only did it do more than $400 million worldwide at the box-office (despite tepid reviews), it also energized the Christian community and spawned a publishing industry almost single-handedly.

“The Da Vinci Dialogue” is a Web site and related teaching materials organized by Grace Hill Media to help Christians refute the false claims of the movie. Focus on the Family also had a Web site and related books and teaching material.

If the “The Da Vinci Code” was a cultural phenomenon, “Facing the Giants” was a movie that became a phenomenon of a different kind. Made by a Baptist church in Georgia, the movie received awful reviews from the critics and by Hollywood standards, did poorly at the box office. But when a movie costs only $100,000 to make, it doesn’t take much to be a financial success.

And the movie got an ideological boost when the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) gave it a PG rating. The producers of the movie claimed they didn’t get a G rating because of their Christian message. Christian pundits jumped on the bandwagon and said the rating amounted to an attempt to censor the Christian message. Though the movie’s treatment of fertility and other adult matters clearly earned it a PG rating, the image of the movie’s producers as people who were facing their own giants caused many to overlook the overall poor quality of production.

“One Night With The King” and “The Nativity Story” were two more big-budget productions that were met with mediocre reviews and disappointing box-office results.

Despite the artistic and financial failures in Christian movie making in 2006, it’s likely that Hollywood won’t be losing its religion just yet. Also in 2006, “The Chronicles of Narnia” hit the DVD market and reminded everyone how lucrative the religious market can be—if it’s done right.

In the United States alone, “Narnia” earned $290.8 million, making it one of the 25 top-grossing movies of all time. Worldwide, “Narnia” has so far raked in $744 million. A second Narnia film, “Prince Caspian,” is currently in the works. And Fox Films Entertainment announced plans to produce family-friendly movies under a new division called FoxFaith. Simon Swart, general manager of the Fox U.S. home entertainment unit, said the target audience of the new venture is the evangelical Christian who rejects the offensive content currently available on television and the big screen.


The Church remembers Katrina victims
Another 2005 story that saw an important new chapter written in 2006 was the ongoing effort of faith-based organizations to help along the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

For example, rather than using their Spring Break to relax and party, thousands of students helped clean out flooded homes in the disaster zone. At least 6,200 college students from around the country were sent through March by Campus Crusade for Christ alone.

The Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board has sent more than 1,500 students. United Methodist churches have sent more than 1,000 students to sites in the New Orleans area. More than 2,400 people from Samaritan’s Purse have helped in Biloxi since last September.

President Bush said that these kinds of “people-to-people” efforts by faith organizations may have made more of a difference than the government’s own relief efforts.


The culture wars
Activists on both the Left and the Right continued their culture skirmishes, though in the shadow of Iraq, AIDS and Katrina, even some who consider themselves “fellow warriors” began to wonder if the energies were misplaced.

Mikey Weinstein, a graduate of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, continued his fight to have evangelical Christians muzzled at his alma mater. Focus on the Family and the Alliance Defense Fund joined the fight on the other side.

The Rev. Ted Haggard, who at that time was still president of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor of a church in Colorado Springs not far from the Air Force Academy, called it a watershed case. But by year-end, some wondered if Haggard should have been paying more attention to his own spiritual health.

In South Dakota, the legislature passed a law that virtually banned abortion in the state, though by year-end that law had been overturned. Louisiana also took steps to ban abortion.

All in all, it appeared that pro-life activism was having an impact, as the number of abortions in the country continued to decline, and more and more Americans considered themselves “pro-life.” A survey published by Zogby International found the majority of Americans believe abortion ends a human life. The poll said 59 percent of Americans believe abortion ends a life and 50 percent said life begins at conception. Only 19 percent believe life begins at the moment of birth. When asked about pending pro-life legislation, Americans said they are in favor of more restrictions on abortion.

Science might solve one of the most heated culture war issues—stem-cell research—before politics can reach a solution. Doctors at Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston succeeded in using a patient’s own tissue to grow a fully-functioning bladder. The “neo-bladders” were grown after a postage-stamp sized group of cells was removed from the patient, grown for two months and then surgically transferred back to the patient.

The breakthrough took some of the wind out of the embryonic stem cell debate. Adult stem-cell research, which Christians and medical ethicists find acceptable, has been responsible for more than a dozen medical breakthroughs including cures for sickle-cell anemia, leukemia and heart disease.

And, of course, no review of the year would be complete without mentioning that the skirmishes over gay marriage, gay adoption and other elements of the so-called “gay agenda” continue.

A federal district judge May 19 struck down Oklahoma’s law that prohibits adoption by two people of the same sex. In a 31-page decision, U.S. District Judge Robin Cauthron held that Oklahoma’s law violated due process and equal-protection rights established by the U.S. Constitution.

Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said the decision could eventually have dire consequences for traditional marriage because the judge also cited a doctrine called the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The Oklahoma case was one of dozens taking place in the courts, cases that ultimately led conservative members of the U.S. Congress to put a Marriage Protection Amendment before its colleagues. In separate votes, the amendment failed in both houses.

In the meantime, the inability to resolve this issue once and for all has cost a good organization its life. Catholic Charities of Boston shut its doors June 30 rather than be forced by the state to serve homosexual couples seeking to adopt.

Each year, between 30 and 40 children are successfully placed in adoptive homes by the group—more than any other agency in Massachusetts. But state law requires adoption agencies to place children with same-sex couples.

Father J. Bryan Hehir, president of the organization, and Jeffrey Kaneb, the group’s chairman, in a joint statement said rather than comply with a law they couldn’t agree with, the group would shut down. “We have encountered a dilemma we cannot resolve,” they said. “(We cannot) reconcile the teaching of the Church which guides our work and the statutes and regulations of the Commonwealth.”

But there were other culture war successes: Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act.

The gambling bill cut off credit-card payments to illegal Internet-gambling sites—most of which are offshore—and gave the Justice Department increased ability to prosecute illegal wagering. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council called the bill’s passage “an important victory for families.” And by year-end several “sting” operations put teeth in the law, causing what both sides said was a sharp reduction in Internet gambling.

The Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act increased fines for violations of federal broadcast-indecency standards tenfold—raising the maximum penalty to $325,000 per violation—prompting some “blue comics” to take out “smut insurance.”


Immigration reform makes run for the border
Immigration reform was yet another problem whose consequences everyone on both sides of the political spectrum could see needed attention. It was also a problem that nonetheless couldn’t seem to get solved.

President Bush addressed the nation May 15 to talk about his plan for deploying more than 5,000 National Guard troops along the Mexican border in an attempt to stem the flow of illegal immigrants to the country. He also said America needed a guest worker program that would put some illegal aliens on a path to citizenship. For a few days after the speech, there was talk of a bi-partisan reform plan getting passed by Memorial Day.

On May 25, a bill passed the Senate but it was roundly criticized by conservatives and it ultimately died. So Memorial Day came and went, and so did Independence Day, and Labor Day—and finally Election Day. Ironically, with many Democrats closer to the president on immigration reform than many members of his own party, the change in control of the Congress might actually result in something resembling progress.

Though, again, it will likely be that 2006 will not be the year that it happened, but could end up being the year that we figured out which ideas failed. And, ironically, we may end up looking back and discovering that it was the hard line of conservatives such as Tom Tancredo that kept the immigrants pouring across the border, because while they continued to hold out for a “pure” solution to the problem, an “impure” but improved situation couldn’t be implemented.

By year-end, Christian activists such as Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council had broken ranks with Tom Tancredo and were aligning themselves with the president’s call for a guest worker program.


Sudan surfaces
On Sept. 11, 2001, political activist Gary Bauer was on his way to the U.S. Capitol for a press conference, stuck in traffic near the Pentagon, when his car was literally shaken by an explosion. It was a jetliner crashing into the Pentagon as part of the 9/11 attacks. Needless to say, the press conference designed to focus the attention of the nation on the plight of Christians in Sudan was cancelled.

Who knows what might be different today if that press conference had been allowed to continue. What happened instead is that we have seen 5 years of suffering there that is only now beginning to penetrate the American consciousness and foreign policy.

The catalyst may have been an event that didn’t even happen in Sudan. In an extraordinary incident on Dec. 30, 2005, thousands of Egyptian security police assaulted some 2,500 Sudanese men, women and children who were camped across from the offices of U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). Sources, including the Cairo representative of the Government of Southern Sudan and respected Sudan expert Professor Eric Reeves, now indicate that as many as 265 people died in the attack and a New York Times story depicts the plight of hundreds of others whose fate is unknown.

When the story finally broke in early January, it began a year of concentrated attention on the nation of Sudan, where an estimated 800,000 people have died in religious and ethnic violence—at least 300,000 in the last 3 years alone.

A petition to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and a letter to the U.S. Congress, signed by thousands of Sudanese around the world, detailed the conditions that prompted Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers to camp outside the U.N. office in Cairo.

“Without your immediate intervention, Sudanese refugees and asylum-seekers will continue to languish in the den of murderous brutality in Egypt and end up like the Tutsis in Rwanda and Bosnians in Serbia,” the petition urged Annan.

Unfortunately, Annan and the U.N. were able to accomplish little in Sudan. They even cut back their food aid efforts because the situation there is so treacherous and continues to deteriorate. It is estimated that at least 3 million people have been dislocated.

Christian groups have been increasingly active, helping to raise awareness with a “Save Darfur” rally in Washington. But neither side in the conflict is willing to sign a peace accord. Annan, who resigned from his position as Secretary General this year, in part because of his inability to affect change in Sudan, acknowledged that not only would violence continue to be a killer in Sudan, but that many hundreds of thousands of people would die from starvation if the situation is not solved quickly.


Politics as unusual
By any measure, one of the big stories of the year was the change in control of both houses of Congress. Those on both sides acknowledge that it meant something, but they can’t agree on what that something is.

Conservatives say Republicans lost because they weren’t conservative enough. They say that the only Republican newcomer to win a seat in Congress, Minnesota’s Michele Bachmann, won because of her conservatism. Pro-life Democrats say they have “cracked the code” by making it OK for Christians who consider abortion to be the defining issue to “cross-over,” thus breaking the stranglehold Republicans have on the evangelical vote. They point to Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey and North Carolina’s Heath Shuler, both Democratic pro-life winners in 2006.

Both sides say that corruption scandals—especially the Mark Foley scandal—hurt Republicans, who claim the moral high road. The Georgia chapter of the Christian Coalition said it plans to change its name and split from the national group, making it the fourth state chapter to leave the organization this year.

And some say the leadership of the so-called “religious right” is in need of a reality check. Just a month before the election, the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins predicted that Republicans would actually pick up a seat in Congress—a statement that indicated he was more in touch with the “inside the beltway” spin machine than with Christians doing the actual voting.

Former Texas Congressman Dick Armey, once a stalwart ally in the culture wars, appears to be turning his back on Christian conservatives and their leaders. The former majority leader of the House of Representatives said values voters and their leaders—especially Focus on the Family Action Chairman Dr. James Dobson—are “nasty bullies.”

Armey said, “To a large extent, because Dobson and his gang of thugs are real nasty bullies. There’s a high demagoguery coefficient to issues like prayer in schools. Demagoguery doesn’t work unless it’s dumb. These issues are easy for the intellectually lazy and can appeal to a large demographic.”

David Kuo, who wrote a book highly critical of President Bush, saying he “uses” the religious right without truly delivering on a pro-life, pro-family agenda, said that conservative Christian leaders have been “prostituting” themselves in order to gain political access and fund-raising capabilities. He said it is easier for an organization to claim they’re having an impact if they can say they meet regularly with the president.

Insiders say the comments from Armey, Kuo and others stung Dobson deeply, and that the year ahead would bring more of a focus on the family ministry of his organization, and less on politics.

For all that, however, Paul Weyrich, chairman of Free Congress and one of the conservative movement’s key players, said evangelicals who may be disheartened need only look at the astonishing success of the state efforts to constitutionally define marriage. On average, those states have passed the amendment by 71 percent.

“You are having an impact,” he said. “You are having an excellent impact.”


Supersize me
The “religious right” is not the only aspect of American life that has “gone corporate.” The worship experience for an increasing number of Americans has super-sized. The number of megachurches, defined as having a weekly attendance of at least 2,000, has doubled in 5 years to 1,210. These megachurches have an estimated combined income of $7.2 billion and draw nearly 4.4 million people to weekly services, according to a study on megachurches released in February.

Scott Thumma, the lead researcher for the study and sociology professor at Hartford Seminary, said the study debunks several myths about megachurches.

“Megachurches are racially diverse, and committed to small-group study and spiritual depth,” Thumma said.

But he admitted that the size of the churches nonetheless made it “easy to hide.” A megachurch with scores or even hundreds of small groups still might engage only a fraction of its members and regular attendees. The average yearly income of megachurches is $6 million.

And there seems to be some indication that a megachurch backlash is also underway. At least a half-dozen books critical of “corporate Christianity” were published in 2005. Some of them—such as “Kingdom Coming” by Salon’s Michele Goldberg—were from self-described liberals and secularists whose criticism of evangelicalism is not surprising. However, Randall Balmer’s “Thy Kingdom Come” represented a turning away from evangelicalism from someone who had previously been sympathetic.

The disillusionment of many was increased when Ted Haggard, the pastor of one of America’s best known megachurches, and the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, abruptly resigned from both organizations in early November. Haggard was brought down by a sex and drug scandal.


The ultimate consequence
These trends make it interesting to note that the largest growing religious group over the past half-century has been one that is at the opposite end of the spectrum from the megachurch.

The Old Order Mennonites, also known as “horse-and-buggy” or “Wenger” Mennonites after former Bishop Joseph Wenger, had only 200 families when the group split from other Mennonites who wanted to allow the use of automobiles. That was in 1927. But according to sociology professors Donald Kraybill and James Hurd, there are now 18,000 Wenger Mennonites in nine states, with most living in rural areas such as the Finger Lakes region of New York and parts of Lancaster County, Pa.

And thanks to high fertility rates (more than eight children per family) and intensive discipleship of children, the group is doubling in size every 18 years—a growth rate no other religious group in America can match.

Kraybill was also in the news later in the year, when he was the “go-to” guy for those wanting to understand the Amish following the Oct. 2 shooting of 10 young girls before the shooter, Charles Carl Roberts, killed himself.

The shootings have focused the attention of the world on a close-knit Amish community that neither seeks nor enjoys the media attention. But the Amish presented a picture of dignity, grace and forgiveness for all the world to see.

In fact, the family of two of the victims—sisters who were both killed by Roberts—reached out to Roberts’ family, even inviting them to the funeral.

The heightened emotions of the moment, and the extraordinary kindness and forgiveness of the Amish families affected, have had an impact on even cynical reporters who have “seen it all.”

ABC’s “Nightline” correspondent John Donvan, while attempting a live report on this remarkable act of forgiveness, broke down on the air and could not continue. Anchor Terry Moran took over the report and quickly went to a commercial break so both he and Donvan could recover their composure.

Kraybill, a professor at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, and an expert on the Amish and Mennonite cultures, said that one of the ironies of the situation is that while violence and crime are extremely rare in Amish communities, “They are actually better prepared than most to deal with this type of situation. Their faith teaches them that this is a fallen world, and that when they die they go to a better place. It also teaches that things have a higher purpose. They accept the troubles of life with a spirit of humility.”

“Said plainly,” Kraybill concluded, “they take the teachings of Jesus seriously.” Now that’s an idea of some consequence, indeed.


Religion 2006: By the numbers
The following facts and factoids give a mixed picture of the spiritual and cultural health of America in 2006.

We believe God created us
A 2006 Gallup Poll found that eight out of 10 Americans believe God guided creation in some capacity. About 46 percent think God created man in his present form sometime in the past 10,000 years, while 36 percent say man developed over millions of years from lesser life forms with God guiding the process. Only 13 percent of Americans think humans evolved with no divine intervention.


But we don’t believe in gambling
Americans don’t love gambling like they used to. About 70 percent of Americans say that legalized gambling encourages people to gamble more than they can afford, according to a 2006 Pew Research Center survey. This is up from only 62 percent saying the same thing in 1989 when the same question was posed in a Gallup survey.


Our teens are getting the message about sex
High school students in the U.S. are less likely to engage in sexual activity than they were a decade ago, according to an August study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 47 percent of students reported they had experienced sexual intercourse. That’s down from the 54.1 percent who reported the same in 1991.

And the consequences of this message show—or, rather, don’t show. Less teen sex should mean less teen pregnancy—and it does. Teen pregnancies dropped 36 percent from 1990 to 2002, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute. 


But grown-ups may not be getting it
A New York Times analysis of new U.S. Census Bureau data shows the number of households with married couples has dipped below the 50 percent mark. The American Community Survey found that 49.7 percent of U.S. households in 2005 were made up of married couples—down from 52 percent in 2000. About 5 percent of households consisted of unmarried opposite-sex couples and another 5 percent identified themselves as same-sex partners.


Corporations lead the way down
Interestingly, it may be our major corporations who are leading the social engineering. A report released Sept. 19 by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a homosexual-activist group, gave 138 publicly traded U.S. corporations a 100 percent gay-friendly rating. Only 101 companies got the top rating in 2005.


Marriage extends our lives
But, as the saying goes, you can have your own opinion, but you can’t have your own facts. And the fact is that marriage is good for us. Researchers from two California universities found that being married can significantly extend a person’s lifespan. The researchers determined that those who had been widowed were 40 percent more likely to die than married people living with their spouses. Divorce and separation increased the likelihood of death by 27 percent. People who had never been married were 58 percent more likely to die.


We’re increasingly pro-life
A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center finds that a majority of Americans want more restrictions on abortions and almost half say it should be illegal in all or most circumstances. The July 6-19 poll surveyed 2,003 American adults and found that 46 percent of Americans want abortion to be banned altogether (11 percent) or legal only in a few rare instances (35 percent). Along with those, another 20 percent said abortion should be allowed but want more restrictions on it—making a total of 64 percent of Americans who want abortions banned or restricted. Just 31 percent of the public wants abortion to be generally available and not have more restrictions in place.


And we don’t trust what the media tell us
A new Pew Research Center study found that Americans continue to lose trust in television news reports, Broadcasting and Cable reported. According to the study, 57 percent of those surveyed regularly watch TV news, while 40 percent read a newspaper, 36 percent hear news on the radio and 23 percent look for the information on the Internet. Though TV is still the most-used source, it is also the least trusted. Though CNN may tout itself as “The most trusted name in news,” only 32 percent of those surveyed said they believe “all or most” of what they hear on CNN. For comparison, only 25 percent said they believe Fox News. Just 23 percent trust local TV news.


Man knows not his time
More than 200,000 people die every day—each one precious to God. Here are a few whose passing we noted in 2006.

Ken Anderson, the first fulltime editor of Youth For Christ’s magazine and a prolific writer and filmmaker, died in March. He was 88. Through YFC, he met Bob Pierce. Pierce and Anderson traveled to China in 1948. A short documentary film was produced on the trip, as well as Anderson’s book “This Way to the Harvest.” This trip inspired Bob Pierce to found World Vision. Anderson became connected to Baptista Films, a pioneer in the field of Christian film production, where he wrote and directed his first dramatic films. Anderson’s writing career spanned seven decades, publishing 77 books, including “Where to Find it in the Bible,” published in 1996 by Thomas Nelson. Over four million copies are in print.

Dr. Ted W. Engstrom, the former president of World Vision International who served on Focus on the Family’s board of directors for more than a quarter-century, died July 14 at the age of 90.  Focus on the Family Chairman James C. Dobson, Ph.D., called Engstrom more than a personal friend and confidant. “He became a mentor and a father figure to me after the death of my dad,” Dobson said. “Dr. Engstrom was a great man who touched millions of lives around the world. His passion was to feed and clothe needy children and to introduce them to Jesus Christ. No one did that job better. Dr. Ted leaves behind a marvelous legacy of service to humankind.” Engstrom was known for his management abilities. He helped turn a small publishing house, Zondervan, into one of the largest Christian publishers in the world. Engstrom also served as the head of Youth for Christ and was vice president of World Vision for 19 years, and president for two, retiring in 1987.

Coretta Scott King, who worked to keep her husband Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of nonviolence alive, died Jan. 31. She was 78. The “first lady of the civil rights movement” died in her sleep during the night at an alternative medicine clinic in Mexico, her family said. President Bush opened his 2006 State of the Union address on the evening of her death with a tribute to Mrs. King, calling her a “great and courageous person.” The remarks received a standing ovation from those in the House chamber.

Robert “Bob” Neff, who served with the Moody Broadcasting Network for 40 years, the last 31 of those as head of the network after he became Moody Bible Institute’s vice president of broadcasting in 1974, died April 21 in Chicago after a battle with ALS (also called Lou Gehrig’s disease). In 2005 Neff received the National Religious Broadcasters’ William Ward Ayer Distinguished Service Award for “outstanding and significant contributions to the field of Christian communications.”

Evangelist Ted Stone died July 16 at the end of the fourth week of his fourth “Walk across America” to spread awareness of the hope that substance abusers can find in Christ. He was 72. Stone spent 29 years as an evangelist after serving four years in prison in the 1970s as the result of drug addictions. Stone’s previous three walks across America included a 3,650-mile trek in 1996 from the Capitol steps in Washington southward to Jacksonville, Fla., and westward to Los Angeles; a 3,550-mile trek in 1998 from the mayor’s office in San Francisco eastward to Virginia Beach, Va.; and a 1,700-mile, south to north trek in 2000 that began in Nueva Laredo, Mexico, and ended in Detroit at the Ambassador Bridge leading into Canada.

Foy Valentine, former executive director of the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission (CLC) died Jan. 7 of a heart attack. He was 82 years old. Valentine served the Southern Baptist Convention for 27 years as head of the CLC—now the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). Richard Land, the president of the ERLC, said Valentine was an “eloquent witness to the biblical truth that racism is a sinful rebellion against the biblical teaching of equality of all men before the cross. All Southern Baptists will be forever in his debt for his courageous and prophetic stance on racial reconciliation and racial equality.”

The Rev. Melvin H. Watson, who helped train Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders, died at 98. Watson, who lived in Atlanta, died June 26. He exerted a quiet influence for more than half a century as senior pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in Atlanta and as a religion professor at Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Religion and the Interdenominational Theological Center. Many of his students became civil rights leaders. King turned to Watson for advice when he was studying at Boston University and serving as pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala. In a series of letters, Watson critiqued King’s views of socialism and philosophy and recommended books to read.


Deaths of two world leaders brought a close to 2006
Finally, the deaths of two world leaders brought a close to 2006 but in entirely different fashions.
The execution by hanging of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was a stark contrast to the passing on at the age of 93 by President Gerald Ford. Yet both men proved an eternal truth to ring in the New Year: Whether scorned as a brutal killer or hailed as a statesman representing America’s best, “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.”