by Dr. Bruce Prescott
To comment on a blog, visit the
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blog on
Blogspot.
November 2004
On
Fundamentalists Taking Over Moderate Churches
(11-23-04)
Kudos to Rick
Jordan for his column today on
Ethics Daily
that discusses "Moderate
Pulpits: The Next Target." He
writes,
Anecdotal stories
of “stealth fundamentalists” interviewing for known-moderate
churches are abundant. Sometimes these ministers will say whatever
it takes to convince a search committee that they are the one to
present to the church.
Jordan gives some
good advice on how to prevent Fundamentalists from taking over your
church. Jordan is right to contend that the key is an informed
laity.
Land Trying to
Shed Lapdog Image (11-22-04)
Today's New York
Times has an interesting article saying "G.O.P.
Constituencies Split on Tax Change." Richard Land and Grover
Norquist are said to be at odds about strategies for reforming the
American tax system. Norquist favors a "stealth tax overhaul"
that would gradually lead to a system that only taxes consumption.
Land says, "People are
not going to give the kind of support necessary for tax reform that
leaves the investor class untaxed."
Has Land suddenly
become a socialist and decided to challenge wealthy investors?
Or, is he merely trying to get some leverage on Norquist to effect the
legislative agenda where the President will spend the "capital" he
gained from the last election?
Who will win in the
battle to influence the President's agenda? Who got Bush
elected? Social conservatives or economic conservatives?
Who is setting the agenda? Economic conservatives or social
conservatives?
A Faustian
Bargain (11-22-04)
Thanks to
Carlos Stouffer at the
Jesus Politics blog for calling my
attention to yesterday's outstanding
essay by Charles Haynes
at the
First Amendment Center.
Haynes quotes from James Madison's
Memorial and Remonstrance
and writes,
Madison understood then what leaders of the religious right would
have Christians forget today: When
churches join forces with any political party, they are lured into a
Faustian bargain — trading the authentic power of faith for the
fleeting rewards of worldly influence.
Politics Trumps
Principle -- Even on Abortion
(11-19-04)
As loyal
Republican votaries, Richard Land and James Dobson are muting their
opposition to Sen. Arlen Specter's confirmation as chairman of the
Senate Judiciary Committee and meekly retreating to the sidelines.
Baptist Press
quotes Land as saying,
I'm disappointed that
Senator Specter is going to be chairman, . . .
But I'm not surprised given the ways in which the senators of
both parties tend to cherish, if not worship, seniority.
As I wrote on Nov. 4th, when
it comes to getting things done in congress, it is Grover
Norquist that crafts the message and sets the agenda for Republicans.
Norquist will see that the President's agenda stays focused on
economic issues and not social issues. Again, here's Norquist's agenda
as reported in the
Nov. 4th edition of the New York Times:
Social conservatives are a very
important part of the base, but they are not enough alone," said
Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform and a
conservative strategist close to the Bush administration, noting
that in Illinois, Alan Keyes had taken a drubbing in the race for
the Senate after running a vigorously conservative campaign on
social issues.
Mr. Norquist eagerly predicted the
accomplishment of a long agenda of government reduction: repealing
the estate tax, privatizing Social Security, restricting medical and
other liability lawsuits, closing military bases, opening more
government jobs to competitive bidding to lower costs and weaken
unions, imposing new disclosure requirements on organized labor, and
expanding health care and investment savings accounts.
Once again
evangelicals deliver the votes but can't effect the changes they say
they are after. When are evangelicals going to realize that
politicians will patronize them just long enough to get elected?
When are Baptists going to realize that abortion has never been the
real issue?
The real issue has
always been securing a place at the table of power for people like
Land and Dobson and Falwell. The problem of abortion could have
been solved decades ago if the religious right had been willing to
reach a compromise (See
my Oct. 1 blog). But if they had done that, how could they
keep motivating people to vote for "conservative" candidates?
On
Second Thought
(11-19-04)
The previous post was from my
charitable side. I do want to give everyone -- even
Fundamentalists -- the benefit of a doubt. Experience, however,
sometimes makes me cynical.
My cynical side tells me that BGCO's
calling their first ever female VP was a deft public relations move.
It is perfectly timed to help deflect the glare of publicity that is
coming as the story about Molly Marshall's treatment at Southern
Seminary is being remembered and her appointment as President of
Central Baptist Seminary is being announced. Molly is a native
of Oklahoma and a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University.
I will discover which side is right --
charitable or cynical -- when I see how long it takes for BGCO to
elect another woman to serve as Vice President. I suspect it
will take more than a hundred years before they elect a woman to serve
as President of BGCO and longer than that before a woman could be
called as President of Oklahoma Baptist University. You can be
sure that it will be a cold day in Hades before a woman ever serves as
President of a Southern Baptist Seminary.
A Pleasant Surprise
(11-19-04)
I was pleasantly surprised to
read that the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma has elected a
woman to serve as Vice President of the state convention. Here's a
quote from
Baptist Press:
Oklahoma Baptists made history
when messengers to the annual meeting of the Baptist General
Convention of Oklahoma elected a woman to one of its three top
offices.
Marty Odom, a member of Quail Springs Baptist Church in Oklahoma
City, was elected second vice president without opposition.
It is rare that I find much to
commend about the leadership of Oklahoma's Fundamentalist
dominated state convention, but this action is truly commendable.
It sets a precedent worthy of wide and frequent emulation.
Once Oklahoma Baptists discover that thunderbolts won't rain down
on them for placing a woman in a position of some authority over
the state's pastors, perhaps they'll learn that they have nothing
to fear when a Baptist church feels led to call a woman to serve
as pastor.
Tennessee Baptist
Colleges have opportunity to repudiate Bibliolatry
(11-19-04)
ABP reports
that Tennessee Baptists voted to investigate the biblical views of
three of their Baptist colleges. In an attempt to breathe life
into a state convention takeover attempt that has been failing in
Tennessee, Fundamentalists got the Tennessee Baptist Convention to
launch a heresy hunt at the Baptist colleges in Tennessee.
Tennessee
Baptist colleges are at a crossroads. Will they identify the
true heresy --
the bibliolatry of the 2000 BF&M
-- or will they try to pretend that there is no difference between the
2000 BF&M and what traditional Baptists believe and teach?
Here are a few more
links related to bibliolatry and the 2000 BF&M:
The Baptist Faith and Practice
On Bible Idolatry
The Chief Sin of Fundamentalism
Testing Inerrantist Truthfulness
SBC President Assigns Attributes of
Deity to the Bible
Mainstream Baptist Correspondence with
Paige Patterson, SBC President
OK Pastor Defends "Divinity of the
Scriptures"
On Clarifying Bible Beliefs
Making the Bible an Idol
Who Controls the Bible?
Holding Baptist
Republican's Feet to the Fire
(11-18-04)
Kudo's to Robert
Parham for setting a clear agenda for the
public witness of Ethics Daily. One of his objectives is to
begin expecting Baptist Republican's to work to exercise influence on
their party that accords with their Baptist Heritage. Here's
what Parman says:
A
sharper justice commitment means that we will challenge the religious
right’s anointment of the GOP, as God’s Only Party.
We will take on
the religious right’s definition of the nation’s moral agenda and
refuse to let those off the hook who enable the right’s distortions.
We will expose the religious right’s hypocrisy, point out its
idolatry of nationalism and critique its campaign promise to
strengthen families based on false fears and faulty analysis.
Equally important,
we will look for opportunities to highlight the leadership of
Democrats and Independents who are active Christians, as a way to
counteract the lie that the only Christians are Republicans. We will
encourage Baptist Republicans to remain true to their Baptist
heritage and faithful to the biblical witness.
I'll second what
Parman says with a hearty Amen! It's time for the Mainstream
Baptists who are Republicans to start exerting some influence within
their party to preserve separation of church and state.
The New Precedent
at Central Baptist Seminary
(11-16-04)
Kudos to the
Trustees at Central Seminary for
calling Dr. Molly Marshall to be President of the Seminary. She
is the first woman to serve in such a capacity at any ATS accredited
Baptist Seminary. As the school's press release said:
The Board of Directors of Central
Baptist Theological Seminary unanimously elected Dr. Molly T.
Marshall as the seminary’s 10th president.
. . . This is the first time a woman has held this position
at any Baptist-affiliated seminary accredited by the Association of
Theological Schools.
Al Mohler, Paige
Patterson and all the rest of the Fundamentalist leaders of the SBC
need to take a long look at this face:
The glory has
departed from your schools and the Holy Spirit is about to use the
brightest ember from an extinguished torch of learning to spark a
revival at Central.
The
Pride of Liberalism
(11-16-04)
Thanks to
Mercer's
Baptist Studies Bulletin for publishing Henlee Barnette's last
Op-Ed on "Why
I am Proud to be a Liberal." At
a time when most Baptists would rather be viewed as "conservative"
than be observed following Christ's teachings at the Sermon on the
Mount, Barnette's essay comes as a breath of fresh air.
Barnette's essay is also a healthy corrective to
the social darwinism that underlies
Amit Ghate's appeal
for liberals to join libertarians in making an individualistic
economic argument to defend separation of church and state.
Ghate and other libertarians would do well to reflect on these
words
from Barnette:
I am a liberal because I know what it
is like to work under a conservative and an oppressive economic
system. In the "good old days"
(1925-1935) I worked in a cotton mill ten hours per day, five and
one-half days per week. Beginning pay was eighteen cents per hour.
There was no medical care, no
retirement program, no minimum working hours, and no minimum wage.
A worker could be fired for no
reason at all. All members of the family had to work to survive.
This was so-called "free
enterprise." Progressive liberals
changed the system and we now have legislation that provides a
quality of life more in harmony with the principles of The
Constitution, the Declaration, and the Bible. Practice
of these principles saved us from revolution that plagues other
nations.
Neo-cons denounce economic and social
progress led by liberals: minimum wages and working hours, Medicare,
social security, and welfare for the poor. (Conservatives
oppose welfare for the poor, but not for the corporate welfare.)
Ironically, they gladly accept these government
services for their retired parents and grandparents and will for
themselves when they become older. Too,
they argue for less big government and fiscal responsibility.
But that is changing with the Bush
administration. Government control
of all areas of our lives is occurring and we have the largest US
debt in history.
The Theocratic
"Shadow" Campaign (11-15-04)
Kudos to Max Blumenthal for his
article "The
Christian Right's Humble Servant."
Blumenthal is one of the few
journalists who knows where to find the fingerprints of the right-wing
cabal that is methodically pushing our nation toward theocracy.
Here's an interesting paragraph:
When the official Bush/Cheney
re-election campaign kicked into high gear, the religious right's
shadow campaign had been underway for nearly a year. The Southern
Baptist Convention's Land had created a program to cultivate "values
voters" called IVoteValues, which included a Web site rating
candidates according to issues of concern to conservative Christians.
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and
Justice, a legal arm of the Christian Coalition, sent mailers to
45,000 conservative pastors explaining how to rally support for
Republican candidates without threatening their church's non-profit
status. The Presidential Prayer Team, a private evangelical group
bankrolled by Arizona Diamondbacks owner Jerry Colangelo ran ads
during the summer on 1,200 radio stations urging listeners to get on
their knees and pray for the president.
While Blumenthal gives a lot of
print to the issue of homosexuality, Brad Carson, a Baylor grad who
lost to theocrat Tom Coburn in the recent campaign for one of
Oklahoma's U.S. Senate seats, has recently written in
The New Republic about the role
that the issue of abortion played in his campaign. Here's
a quote from his article:
After the morning rituals, the
pastor called me to the stage, and we engaged in a lengthy discussion
about abortion, homosexuality, "liberal judges," and other
controversial matters. After leaving the stage, I rejoined the
congregation, and the pastor launched into an attack on the
"pro-choice terrorists," who were, to his mind, far more dangerous
than Al Qaeda. Yes, he acknowledged, thousands had died on September
11, but abortion was killing millions and millions. This was a
holocaust, he continued, and we must all vote righteously. Vote
righteously! In 13 months of campaigning across the vast state of
Oklahoma, I must have seen or heard this phrase a thousand times,
often on the marquees of churches, where, outside of election season,
one finds only clever and uplifting biblical bromides. But it was not
until that September Sunday in Sallisaw, one of the most Democratic
towns in Oklahoma, that I first understood that the seemingly
innocuous phrase "vote righteously" was the slogan not of a few
politicized churches, but the cri de coeur of millions--millions who
fervently believe that their most deeply held values are under assault
and who further see this assault as at least tolerated by the
Democratic Party, if not actually led by it.
One of the best responses I've
seen to the theocratic rights' fixation on sexual ethics is an
editorial in the last issue of the Texas Baptist Standard.
Marv
Knox writes:
But (high school boys'
imaginations to the contrary) there's more to this world than sex.
And every American, particularly every person of faith, who is
motivated by "moral values" should press our leaders to act on a
wider range of issues. They include, but aren't necessarily limited
to: (I'm just giving the headings without Knox's discussion)
Poverty . . . Healthcare . . .
Environment . . . Debt . . . Nationalism
SBC President
issues book for "Holy Warriors"
(11-12-04)
As
Baptist Press admits,
Bobby Welch and Broadman-Holman Press are trying to "capitalize" on
the war in Iraq and on the country's spiritual interest as they issue
the book
You, The Warrior Leader.
It is hard to
imagine an image more contradictory to the Spirit of Christ and more
incendiary to the Muslim world than
the cover of
Welch's book.
Having gained
positions at the top of the Baptist world, Welch and his publishers
may not be fearful of losing their souls. They do need to
consider that it would be better for millstones to be tied around
their necks and be cast into the sea, than for them to cause any
little one to sin by confusing human warfare with spiritual warfare.
(Luke 17:1-2)
Falwell driving
to be "boss man" for "values voters"
(11-11-04)
Fifteen years
ago, Jerry Falwell stepped down from spearheading the "Moral Majority"
saying that, under Fundamentalist rule, the SBC would be doing the
work of the organization. Yesterday, Americans United (AU)
issued
a news alert
and Associated Baptist Press (ABP) issued
a report that
show that Falwell is positioning himself to reassume control of a well
oiled political machine that Richard Land and the Fundamentalists
controlling the SBC have created for him. Both AU and ABP leave
the impression that Falwell is trying to "cash in" on the values vote.
I think they've misread Falwell. He's not after money, he wants
to be "boss." He's after power and control.
For the past fifteen
years many Baptists around the country have been sending a tithe of
their tithes to the SBC to support missionaries who have dedicated
their lives to sharing the gospel around the world. Throughout
that time the Fundamentalists have been methodically dismantling the
system supporting professional, career missionaries that made our work
effective. They've been micromanaging missionaries until they resign
in frustration, firing missionaries who could not conscientiously
support their bibliolatrous theology, and selling off/closing down the
system of schools and hospitals in foreign lands that we created to
earn a hearing for the gospel. In place of the former system,
the Fundamentalists have created a system designed for short-term
evangelistic work by a workforce with rapid turnover. In brief,
our mission boards have become a placement center where SBC seminary
graduates receive a brief internship before being dumped back into our
churches. SBC Seminaries and Mission Boards have become little
more than Ferris wheels that indoctrinate our churches in
Fundamentalist theology and political ideology.
Missions is the bait
that keeps money flowing to the SBC, but the money has been
systematically switched to efforts to oil a machine that can control
the secular political life of this country. To see this
happening, all you have to do is look at the size of the increases for
the past fifteen years in the budgets of the SBC's Executive Committee
and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Now that this
political "Hummer" is up and running, "Boss" Falwell is receiving the
keys and will soon be in the driver's seat.
All that remains to
be seen is how long it will be before "Boss" Falwell becomes President
of the SBC. Will it be 2006 or 2008?
SBC Hardwiring to
GOP Exposed (11-10-04)
Monday the Washington Post reported
that Richard Land, head of the SBC's political action committee, was a
frequent participant in weekly conference calls with Karl Rove and
other White House officials running the president's campaign for
re-election. The report said,
The White
House struggled to stay abreast of the Christian right and consulted
with the movement's leaders in weekly conference calls.
. . .
According to
religious leaders, the conference calls with White House officials
started early in the Bush administration and became a weekly ritual
as the campaign heated up. Usually the participants were (Karl) Rove
or Tim Goeglein, head of the White House Office of Public Liaison.
Later, Bush campaign chairman Ken Mehlman and Ralph Reed, former
executive director of the Christian Coalition and the campaign's
southeast regional coordinator, were often on the line.
The religious leaders varied, but frequent participants included the
Rev. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, psychologist
James C. Dobson or others from the Colorado-based Focus on the
Family, and (Charles) Colson.
Such a revelation is not entirely
unexpected. What is surprising is the overweening naivete that could
swallow the idea that this, "mobilization of evangelical Protestants
and conservative Roman Catholics . . . took
off under its own power."
These revelations make it clear that
the head of an SBC agency was coordinating political activity on a
weekly basis with leaders of a partisan political campaign.
There was a day when Baptist preachers and lay people would have been
alarmed by and indignant about this egregious violation of the Baptist
principle of separation of church and state. Today Southern Baptists
are so cowed by and subservient to their denominational overlords that
it will hardly raise an eyebrow.
Bush's New Agenda
(11-4-04)
The Religious Right
delivered the vote for Bush. Now they anticipate a "revolution"
and expect him to deliver on their social agenda. But, already
there are signs that the thrust of Bush's agenda will be more economic
than social. Below is a quote from Grover Norquist in
today's New York Times. When it comes to getting things done
in congress,
Norquist crafts the message and sets the agenda for Republicans.
Here's Norquist's agenda:
Social conservatives are a very
important part of the base, but they are not enough alone," said
Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform and a
conservative strategist close to the Bush administration, noting
that in Illinois, Alan Keyes had taken a drubbing in the race for
the Senate after running a vigorously conservative campaign on
social issues.
Mr. Norquist eagerly predicted the
accomplishment of a long agenda of government reduction: repealing
the estate tax, privatizing Social Security, restricting medical and
other liability lawsuits, closing military bases, opening more
government jobs to competitive bidding to lower costs and weaken
unions, imposing new disclosure requirements on organized labor, and
expanding health care and investment savings accounts.
The End is Near
(11-3-04)
The end is near for the First Amendment
of the Constitution. It had a good run -- 215 years -- and it
may coast along for a little bit longer. The 2004 elections, however,
make it clear that it’s days are surely numbered.
Death won’t come suddenly. It will be
a slow, convulsive and painful death as people of conscience gasp for
the last breaths of the air of freedom that made dialogue about
religion civil in this country.
Chief among those choking the life out
of religious liberty are Baptists. Seminal in conceiving liberty of
conscience and instrumental in giving it birth as a
civil right, Baptists are now eager to bury it alive and cover
it over with the dirt of civil religion.
Perhaps it will flower again in the
soil above the graves they are digging for those who are prepared to
take up a cross and follow Jesus. Some sort of crucifixion is
sure to befall all who stand against an imperial civil religion's
claim to divine blessing for a nation that willingly embarks on
crusades to exercise dominion over all the peoples of the earth.
Voting
Considerations (11-2-04)
Thanks to
Carson Snow for sending me the link to John Hay, Jr.'s blog on
“Seven
Considerations I Make When Voting.”
Here's a sample of what Hay has to say:
PARADOXES IN THE PLATFORMS.
Earnest Christians are faced with tough choices in the voting booth.
Whoever one casts a vote for, it may feel like something less than
making a clearly Christian choice. There are paradoxes in the
candidates and their platforms. I hope folks struggle hard and long
with how they will vote, and then second-guess themselves all the way
home from the polls.
This blog is so good that
it is hard to limit myself to quoting a single paragraph. I
encourage readers to
use this
link to read the entire essay. Kudo's to John Hay, Jr. for
succinctly expressing what weighs on the hearts of many moderate
evangelicals.
On Godless
Constitutions (11-1-04)
Last Friday
the heads of state in Europe signed the European Union's first
constitution. The Pope viewed it as
a setback.
Instead of explicitly recognizing Christianity, the European
Constitution separates church and state and upholds religious freedom.
Two hundred
and fifteen years ago the United States of America became the first
nation in history to separate church and state and grant religious
freedom to all its citizens. The most reputable religious
leaders of the day viewed it as a setback. They wanted a system
of government that united church and state like the ones in Europe.
They denounced the new constitution as being "a
godless constitution" and prophesied
doom and gloom for people of faith. Today, however, faith is
recognized as being more vibrant and extensive in America than it is
in Europe.
Ironically, at the
very moment when Europe is officially endorsing the principle of
voluntary religion that made America so attractive to people of
conviction searching for religious freedom, many Americans are being
mobilized to cast votes that will ensure legislation and adjudication
that will require every citizen to acknowledge a religious
"worldview," practice a form of "ceremonial deism," and live by the
moral codes of a subset of a single religion.
Should the theocrats
succeed, there is little doubt in my mind that, two hundred years from
now, faith will be more vibrant and extensive in Europe than it is in
America. Faiths resort to force when they are in decay.
Strong faiths grow by the persuasiveness of their convictions.
October 2004 Blogs