Evangelical society president goes back to Roman Catholic Church

DALLAS (AP) - The head of the Evangelical Theological Society has returned to the Roman Catholic Church and, as a result, has stepped down from his post with the evangelical group.

Francis J. Beckwith, associate professor of church-state studies at Baylor University, said his resignation as president and as a member of the society was effective May 5.

The Evangelical Theological Society was formed in 1949 to promote conservative Bible scholarship and now has more than 4,000 members. ``The Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant,'' its doctrinal statement says.

In a statement Tuesday, the society's executive committee said Beckwith's decision to leave was the right one, in light of theological differences between evangelicals and Roman Catholics. The committee cited Catholic teaching about the infallibility of some pronouncements of a pope on church dogma and the Catholic inclusion of the Apocrypha in the church's Scriptures.

They also noted that evangelicals and Catholics have been working to forge closer ties and they will continue to participate in those efforts.

Beckwith was accepted back into the Catholic Church on April 29, at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Waco, Texas. He said he was persuaded to return to Catholicism after a friend suggested he read the Early Church Fathers and Catholic works on justification, about how sinners are transformed to a state of holiness.

A New York native who grew up in Nevada, Beckwith attended Catholic schools as a boy and earned his bachelor's degree from Fordham University, a Jesuit school. Baylor, a Baptist school, has many Catholic faculty members, and Beckwith says he expects no change in his status there.

Frank Lloyd Wright synagogue in Pa. named National Historic Landmark

ELKINS PARK, Pa. (AP) -The only synagogue ever designed by Frank Lloyd Wright has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

Beth Sholom, a soaring glass-and-concrete temple just outside Philadelphia, began welcoming worshippers nearly 50 years ago. Last Sunday, the National Park Service recognized it as one of the architect's greatest achievements.

``This is not just a historic site,'' said William Bolger, regional program manager for the park service, said of the building conceived as a modern Mount Sinai. ``It is a living monument to our nation's culture.''

The towering, flat-topped spire is constructed out of concrete, steel, aluminum and glass. It's the only synagogue Wright created during his 70-year, 1,000-project career. Wright died in 1959, six months before Beth Sholom was first used.

Beth Sholom is one of three Wright buildings recently given status as National Historic Landmarks. The others are the Hollyhock House in Los Angeles and the Price Tower in Bartlesville, Okla. They join other Wright buildings on the list, including his home in Oak Park, Ill., Fallingwater in western Pennsylvania and Taliesen West in Arizona.

The designation for the synagogue is part of the congregation's plan to make it a semipublic site, one whose costly upkeep can be supported in part by tours, government funding, philanthropy and a museum shop.

Beth Sholom is the fourth synagogue on the park service's list of about 2,500 national landmarks.

http://www.bethsholomcongregation.org/