More on Cal Thomas

Check out the Big Daddy Weave's blog about the Cal Thomas editorial at:
http://www.thebigdaddyweave.com/. It seems that brother Thomas has a consistency problem. He has criticized Barack Obama and even made a judgment on the legitimacy of his salvation based on comments he said about other religions as well as some other theological ideas he espouses. The point of Thomas' editorial is that since Obama doesn't believe "the right things" he isn't a true Christian.

The Big Daddy Weave has pointed out however, that while Thomas has doomed Obama to the pits of hell for his theology, he has nevertheless in the past praised President Bush for his Christian commitment even though President Bush has said some of the exact same things. In other words, President Bush is a real Christian and Barack Obama is a counterfeit Christian even though they have both been quoted as saying essentially the same thing. Wonder what the difference is then. Could it be that Bush is Republican and Obama is Democratic? And could it be that Thomas still has that lame notion that God is only identified with one political party, namely the Republicans? Or could it be something more cynical than that? Might Thomas' real purpose with the editorial be to try and manipulate Evangelical Christians once again into thinking that the Democratic candidate is not really Christian and therefore true Christians should only vote Republican? It has worked in the past 30 or so years. It remains to be seen if it will work this year.

Cal Thomas, You Aren't God!

In an editorial today on Baptistpress.org, Cal Thomas suggests that despite his confession of faith, Barack Obama is not a "real" Christian because he doesn't have the right theological beliefs. He concludes the story by saying:

"Obama can call himself anything he likes, but there is a clear requirement for one to qualify as a Christian and Obama doesn't meet that requirement. One cannot deny central tenets of the Christian faith, including the deity and uniqueness of Christ as the sole mediator between God and Man and be a Christian. Such people do have a label applied to them in Scripture. They are called "false prophets."

Cal, I have always believed that it is impossible to know the heart of another person. I don't even know if you are a Christian! I can only trust what you say. Only God knows the heart and whether it is committed to Jesus.

I can say this though. Being a genuine Christian is first about being committed to follow Jesus and his way. Doctrine is not the primary factor. I first decided to follow Jesus with my life. My doctrine developed later and is still in process. In fact, I think my doctrinal ideas will continue to evolve until I die. One becomes a Christian when one decides to follow Jesus and try to live a life like he lived. What I believe about Jesus comes as a secondary factor.

Cal, you ain't God! You can't possibly know Obama's heart. So, stop being so judgmental.

Here's the entire editorial:

http://baptistpress.org/BPFirstPerson.asp?ID=28392

WASHINGTON (BP)--Barack Obama's presidential campaign plans to strike at the heart of the Republican base by attempting to woo Evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics to his side.

The Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody first broke the story on his blog "The Brody File." Obama's campaign for the conservative Christian vote, which has largely gone to the Republican presidential candidate in recent elections, has been dubbed the "Joshua Generation Project." Joshua, Moses' successor, led the Israelites into the Promised Land. It wasn't the group that fled Egypt in the Exodus, though. They died in the wilderness, lacking faith in God's promise. It was the next generation that Joshua led into Canaan. Apparently, if we have enough faith in Obama, he will lead us all into a new America, but if we vote for John McCain, we will demonstrate a lack of faith (in Obama) and die in the political badlands.

Obama is better at biblical language and imagery than any Democrat in modern times. He certainly beats Howard Dean, now the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who once offered Job as his favorite New Testament book. This is cynical manipulation of the devout and it is no better when Democrats do it than when Republicans use religious language for partisan advantage.

Obama has declared himself a committed Christian. He can call himself anything he likes, but there are certain markers among the evangelicals he is courting that one must meet in order to qualify for that label.

Some insight into Obama's "Christianity" comes from an interview he gave in 2004 to Chicago Sun-Times religion editor Cathleen Falsani for her book, "The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People."

"I'm rooted in the Christian tradition," said Obama. He then adds something most Christians will see as universalism: "I believe there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people."

Falsani correctly brings up John 14:6 (and how many journalists would know such a verse, much less ask a question based on it?) in which Jesus says of Himself, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." That sounds exclusive, but Obama says it depends on how this verse is heard. According to Falsani, Obama thinks that "all people of faith -- Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, everyone -- know the same God." (Her words.)

Evangelicals and serious Catholics might ask if this is so, why did Jesus waste His time coming to Earth, suffering pain, rejection and crucifixion? If there are many ways to God, He might have sent down a spiritual version of table manners and avoided the rest.

Here's Obama telling Falsani, "The difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and proselytize. There's the belief, certainly in some quarters, that if people haven't embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior, they're going to hell." Falsani adds, "Obama doesn't believe he, or anyone else, will go to hell. But he's not sure he'll be going to heaven, either." Again, that is contrary to what Evangelicals and most Catholics believe.

Here's Obama again: "I don't presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die. When I tuck in my daughters at night and I feel like I've been a good father to them, and I see that I am transferring values that I got from my mother and that they're kind people and that they're honest people, and they're curious people, that's a little piece of heaven."

Any first-year seminary student could deconstruct such "works salvation" and wishful thinking. Obama either hasn't read the Bible, or if he has, doesn't believe it if he embraces such thin theological wisps.

Obama can call himself anything he likes, but there is a clear requirement for one to qualify as a Christian and Obama doesn't meet that requirement. One cannot deny central tenets of the Christian faith, including the deity and uniqueness of Christ as the sole mediator between God and Man and be a Christian. Such people do have a label applied to them in Scripture. They are called "false prophets."

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth at CBF

In my opinion one of the most important happenings at the meeting of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship occurred Thursday morning. It has not received very much fanfare though. Each year the W.H. Whitsitt Heritage Society gives a "Courage Award" to someone within the Baptist family that has with his/her life been a model of Baptist courage.

This year the award went to Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. If you don't know that name, I could put my professor hat on and tell you to "go look him up." However, I will provide a brief description.

Rev. Shuttlesworth was the most important leader/agitator for Civil Rights in the city of Birmingham (nicknamed "Bombingham" during that era because of all the Klan bombings that happened). He served as the pastor of the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1953 and although a member of the NAACP, he organized the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights in 1956, specifically for the purpose of pushing civil rights for African-Americans in Birmingham.

Shuttlesworth was a firey preacher and a force to be reckoned with. His house was bombed on Christmas Day in 1956. The dynamite was placed under his bedroom window. He came out of the ruins unhurt. In 1957, Shuttlesworth was almost beaten to death by a gang of white ruffians the day he tried to enroll his children in a white school. That same crowd stabbed his wife in the buttocks. She quipped afterwards to the press that she lamented the fact that decency wouldn't allow her to show everyone the scar!

Andrew Manis wrote the definitive biography of Shuttlesworth called A Fire You Can't Put Out: The Civil Rights Life of Birmingham's Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. It is well worth the read.

Bruce Prescott on his blog http://mainstreambaptist.blogspot.com/, has included a video clip of the presentation to Shuttlesworth. It was particularly and appropriate award giving that Dr. King was assassinated just a few blocks down the road from where this award was presented.

Johnny Hunt's Growing Number of Doctorates

There have been a number of moderate Baptist bloggers who have giving attention to Johnny Hunt, newly elected president of the SBC. It seems, as you can see from my earlier post, that he is called "Dr." by admirers and is even introduced that way. However, he does not have an earned doctorate. His bio on his website only lists two honorary doctorates from diploma mills in Georgia.

But there is a new development this morning. It seems that during the night, his webmaster changed his bio on his website: http://www.itsanewdayonline.com/abouthunt/index.cfm

Now, he has three honorary doctorates. That's right! Overnight he gained a doctoral degree! Wow! That must be a record!

His bio now says that he now has honorary doctoral degrees not only from Covington Theological Seminary and Immanuel Theological Seminary (previously listed), but he has gained one from Tennessee Temple University in Chattanooga.

The question yet to be answered is when did he receive the Tennessee Temple degree? Robert Parham of the Baptist Center for Ethics has written a new editorial about this issue. http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=10623 He is following the issue closely and has called Tennessee Temple to find out when they awarded the degree. No answer yet.

Tennessee Temple University is a school that originally was founded in the tradition of Bob Jones University. But, in recent years they have been trying to gain legitimacy and to a great extent have done so. Rumor is that they are trying to become a Tennessee Baptist Convention institution which would replace Belmont University which just recently left the TBC.

Pseudo-Doctorates and the New SBC President

The moderate Baptist blogosphere is sounding off over the last 24 hours about the new president of the SBC, Johnny Hunt, pastor of the FBC Woodstock, Georgia. It appears that Hunt is regularly introduced as "Dr." Hunt although his only credentials for such are 2 honorary doctorates at "diploma mill" type schools. One is an honorary "Doctor of Divinity" from Immanuel Baptist Theological in Sharpsburg, Georgia and the other is an honorary "Doctor of Sacred Laws and Letters" from the shady Covington Theological Seminary in Georgia.

Examples of two blogs have gone into some more detail about this:

http://www.tonycartledge.com/

http://www.thebigdaddyweave.com/

The most complete discussion of it is by Robert Parham on Ethicsdaily.com. Here's the link:

http://ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=10605

I won't repeat what they have said. However, I will say this. I have always had a little bit of uneasiness about honorary doctorates. Of course, they are meant to be just that, "honorary." They do serve as a way for a university or college to award a donor or someone who has been supportive of that university.

However, shouldn't the title "Dr." should only be used to introduce someone if that person has earned the degree from a reputable, accredited research institution of higher learning. My Ph.D. from Baylor University took me 5 years to complete. I had to do three years of seminar work, pass a language exam, take 5 comprehensive exams over the field of religion in a two-week period of time, research and produce a prospectus for the dissertation and then work for approximately a year and a half on my dissertation. Following all that, I had a 2 hour oral defense of my dissertation before a select number of faculty members at Baylor University.

There is something inherently dishonest or at least unethical when a person allows the title "Dr." to be placed in front of their name if they haven't earned the degree through the doing the hard work. And, especially this is the case if the degree is an "honorary" degree from a diploma mill!

The Most Serious Non-Action at This Year's SBC Meeting

Of the bizzare things that happened at this year's SBC, which just concluded today, the most serious thing was actually its failure to act on something important. The convention refused a motion to create a national database of sex offenders who had been related in some way to SBC churches. The convention cited, among other things, the autonomy of the local church as a reason to reject this proposal.

Amazing! Many in the Convention want to identify churches which have gay members or churches that have women pastors. But they don't want to keep track of sexual predators. What this means is that a pastor could sexually harrass a church member or staff minister at a Southern Baptist church in say, Oklahoma. That pastor could be fired from the church in Oklahoma, move to another state such as Georgia and send a resume to another church perhaps not even mentioning the previous episode in Oklahoma. The Georgia church would then be hiring a pastor with a past history as a sexual predator but they would have no way of knowing.

You can also imagine how this database would be helpful to churches to prevent pedaphiles from being involved with children.

Great move SBC! Here's the story from ABPnews.com

http://www.abpnews.com/3221.article

All the More Reason to Throw the Rascals Out!

This story speaks for itself. While the average American out there is struggling with these rising gas prices, the Republican Party shows its true colors. I have long contended that the basic philosophy of the Republican Party is all about corporate interests and not the average person. This makes that clear.

This is even more evidence that a change needs to happen this fall. Vote Democratic!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/10/republicans-block-extra-t_n_106282.html


WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans blocked a proposal Tuesday to tax the windfall profits of the largest oil companies, despite pleas by Democratic leaders to use the measure to address America's anger over $4 a gallon gasoline.
The Democratic energy package would have imposed a tax on any "unreasonable" profits of the five largest U.S. oil companies and given the federal government more power to address oil market speculation that the bill's supporters argue has added to the crude oil price surge.
"Americans are furious about what's going on," declared Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and want Congress to do something about oil company profits and "an orgy of speculation" on oil markets.
But Republicans argued the Democratic proposal focusing on new oil industry taxes is not the answer to the country's energy problems.
"The American people are clamoring for relief at the pump," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., but if taxes are increased on the oil companies "they will get exactly what they don't want. The bill will raise taxes, increase imports."
The Democrats failed, 51-43, to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster and bring the energy package up for consideration

Hillary, You Lost. It's Time to Move On!

You lost Hillary. You lost fair and square, unless you listen to Lanny Davis, Terry McAuliffe, Harold Ickes or the minions who have been creatively spinning your campaign. The rest of the leadership of the Democratic Party believes that the primary process all the way through the rules committee meeting Saturday was fair. You lost. It is time to face the music. You are not going to be president. Even if you were able to pull off some type of hijacking of delegates there is still no way you will be elected president this year. You may think that the nomination was stolen from you. You are free to think that. But, it was not and you would be delusional to think so. However, if you do try some ploy to steal it from Obama, who won it fairly, there will be such a backlash against you in the Democratic Party that your political career will be effectively over.

You lost Hillary. It is time to move on. You will, no doubt, find excuses. You will never admit that you got out-campaigned by a smarter Obama campaign. After all, you are a Clinton. The best in the political business. But, you made serious mistakes in your campaign. Here's my list of what went wrong for whatever it is worth.

It started with the inevitability attitude. You began the campaign last year with a strategy that you were someone "owed" the nomination. Admittedly, most Democrats believed that Bill's impeachment was unjust. But, that does not make you the inevitable candidate.

Your campaign did not spend money wisely. Thousands of dollars for do-nuts? Come on! Plus, you relied on big donors whereas Obama built an army of millions of small donors which will serve him well in the fall.

You never took the caucuses seriously while Obama did. You thought that you could cruise to the nomination by Super Tuesday. But, almost in the blink of an eye you went from inevitable candidate to a candidate who's campaign was in trouble. Then, with 11 straight losses after Super Tuesday, it became mathematically impossible for you to win.

You and your husband said a number of reprehensible things. Bill's race baiting (I was shocked that the "first black president" would make such racially charged statements). Your stupid story about the cork-screw landing in Bosnia. Did you actually think we were stupid enough to believe that the military would let the first lady and her entourage land in a hot lz where bullets were whizzing by? Give me a break! Your comments about the assassination of Bobby Kennedy? Shameless. So, you blew it in a variety of ways with verbal gaffes.

Finally, you failed to calculate how much the electorate wants change. The world is different since you and Bill captured our admiration 16 years ago. It is a younger electorate. They want to turn the page. You thought the electorate wanted "experience." (By the way, exactly what credentials do you have anyway? First lady for 8 years? Come on. Being around the president doesn't qualify anyone to be president). But, Obama realized the key word is "change." And so "change" trumped "experience." Your strategy was flawed from the beginning.

Nevertheless, you make excuses. Here's a list of excuses you have given so far.

(1) You accused your rivals of "piling on" because you were the front-runner.

(2) You said last month sexist attacks on you have been "deeply offensive to millions of women."

(3) The media was unfair to you - and too easy on Obama. Just Monday, Bill Clinton denounced an unflattering story on him as part of "the national media's attempt to nail Hillary" and railed, "This has been the most rigged coverage in modern history."

(4) Debate moderators were unfair to you. "Can I just point out that in the last several debates, I seem to get the first question all the time?" you griped in February.

(5) Caucus-state rules were undemocratic and favored Obama's activist supporters.

(6) Obama outspent you.

(7) The Clintons were unfairly accused of playing the race card.

(8) Old pals like Ted Kennedy and Bill Richardson stabbed you in the back by endorsing Obama.

(9) If only Democrats had winner-take-all rules in states like the GOP does, you'd be the nominee.

(10) Last Saturday's party ruling on the Florida-Michigan mess cheated you.

(Taken from: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/06/04/2008-06-04_hillary_clintons_got_no_shortage_of_excu.html)

So, go ahead and continue to make your excuses. But the fact of the matter is, you lost. You lost fair and square. You got beaten by a better candidate (at least in this election). It is time to move on and the unity of the party depends on you and what you do over the next 24-48 hours.

An Adopted Child's Nightmare

Lynn Paddock is a name that might be familiar to those of us who live in the Raleigh, NC area. She is an adoptive mother who lived in Johnston County and is on trial for first-degree murder in the death of her four-year old adoptive son, Sean. Her trial is ongoing right now in Smithfield, NC and each of her surviving adoptive children have been called to testify against her. They have now all been placed in other foster care by social services.

From the accounts given in the testimony, Lynn Paddock is a monster. There are stories told by the children of extremely harsh punishments such as beatings with a plastic pipe or hose, being forced to eat their own feces for soiling their clothes, being forced to miss numerous meals for minor infractions at the table, and many other extreme measures. Read the testimony yesterday from some of the children in this Raleigh News and Observer article: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/paddock/story/1088734.html.

Her little boy Sean was found dead by EMS responders. It was determined that he suffocated after being so tightly wrapped in a blanket that he was unable to breathe. According to the charges, this tight wrapping in a blanket was another disciplinary method used by Lynn Paddock to keep the little boy from waking up in the night and roaming around the house. Essentially, it was a restraint. The autopsy revealed a host of bruises and other former wounds to his little body. When the other children were examined they were also determined to have other previous wounds.

The entire episode is much to long for me to recount here. It has played out for several months in the Raleigh newspaper. But, it has all been very troubling to me. First, one of the most troubling aspects of this case is that Lynn Paddock seems to be a follower of Rev. Michael Pearl, a Tennessee pastor who has written books and conducted seminars advocating such extreme disciplinary methods. Just do a Google search for his name and you can find out all you need to know about him. Paddock is not the first of his disciples to face the justice system.

A second thing that bothers me about the Lynn Paddock case is that she is an adoptive parent and so are my wife and I. It troubles me that a child (children in her case) who was in a really bad situation with his birth parents, was placed in a worse situation that ultimately led to his death. What a tragic, tragic story.

Someone dropped the ball in the adoption/social services involvement here. The Children's Home Society of North Carolina (which actually helped us with a part of our international adoption) was responsible for Sean's placement. This is a fine organization that has done really good work for decades in North Carolina on behalf of children. I don't think the entire organization should be blamed, although there is a lawsuit in the works against them. But, someone clearly dropped the ball in this case and subsequently created a nightmare for these children that ultimately ended up with in Lynn Paddock's chamber of horrors.

Honoring the Vets

William Tanner, the president of the old Home Mission Board of the SBC (1977-86) once told a story from his childhood growing up in a small town in Texas. It was during World War II and in his town there was an insurance agent who had four sons who were in the military fighting the war. This particular insurance agent had a display supporting the war effort in his storefront window that he changed regularly. Tanner said that he liked going by the store regularly and gazing at the different displays.

One day, as he rounded the corner to look in the window, the poster that he saw caught his attention. It was a picture blown up to about 3 feet by 3 feet of a soldier lying face down in the dirt. His helmet had been blown off his head. His outstretched hand seemed to be reaching for the weapon that was just out of his grasp. But the thing that caught Tanner the most was the caption that went with the picture: "What have you done for your country today that a soldier should die for you tomorrow?"

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. Many Americans simply think of this holiday as another day off from work, a three-day weekend that traditionally marks the beginning of the summer vacation season. I enjoy Memorial Day for the same reasons. However, sometimes I think it does us good to pause and reflect about the meaning of this day. It honors the veterans who have served in the military certainly. But, more importantly, it memorializes those who have been killed in the service of our country.

If you read all my blogs you can probably tell that I am opposed to this war in Iraq. It was truly the "wrong war, fought in the wrong place, at the wrong time." One of the reasons that I am supporting Barack Obama is because he opposed the war from the beginning and is pledging to end it as soon as possible after he takes office. It may go down as the biggest foreign policy blunder in American history. I could not be any more opposed to the war in Iraq.

However, I am not opposed to the soldiers who are fighting it. They are us. Kids, moms and dads, sisters and brothers. They chose to answer their country's call and serve in the military. I believe that supporting them for me is working to bring them home soon. That's why I oppose the war.

My generation made the mistake of opposing a war and the soldiers who fought it. That scenario was a big mistake. In fact, a large part of the Vietnam Veterans were drafted; they had no choice. Nevertheless, this time we can support the soldier but oppose the war.

So, tomorrow I am going to think about and be thankful for our veterans, especially those from the American Revolution to the present who gave their lives in service to their country's call. And, I am going to continue to work to bring an end to the war in Iraq. And, I am going to re-commit myself to serving my country in every way I can.

Remember Captain Miller's words to Private Ryan on the bridge in the movie Saving Private Ryan: "Earn this!"

"What have you done today that a soldier should die for you tomorrow?"

Best Wishes Big Daddy Weave!

The son of my friend Doug Weaver, who has a blog called "The Big Daddy Weave," (http://www.thebigdaddyweave.com/) was in an automobile accident Thursday evening. Things could have been worse. He came out of it, however, with a broken wrist, a strained back, a concussion, and a totaled vehicle.

I enjoy the Big Daddy Weave's blog. It is one of the best blogs out there for news among Baptists. So, here's to Aaron's speedy recovery! Hope you get well and return to blogging soon!

Check out his blog if you haven't seen it.

Obama's Not Ashamed of His Christian Faith

If you haven't seen this story you ought to take a minute to scan through it. Barack Obama seems to be the first Democrat in a long time to be able to talk comfortably about his Christian faith and articulate how his faith impacts his politics. This will be good for him as he turns toward the general election in the fall. I think he is better at this than John McCain and the openness about his faith may help him win over some of the blue collar voters that he needs.

http://www.kentucky.com/779/story/404785.html

UPDATED Obama launches ads touting Christian beliefs
By Ryan Alessiralessi@herald-leader.com
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign has ramped up its efforts to emphasize his Christian faith in a series of new radio and television ads, as well as in a flier that volunteers have distributed.
Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo, who endorsed Obama on Sunday, narrated a new radio spot for Obama that highlights the Illinois Senator’s upbringing and values, including how Obama is “a strong Christian.”
Mongiardo said he felt compelled to make the ad after constituents contacted his office with what he called “misconceptions” about Obama.
“The negative calls have been talking about either the color of his skin or claims that he’s not a Christian,” Mongiardo said. “As I’ve listened to news casts of primaries across the country, it struck me that there is a segment of people who are not voting for Hillary Clinton but are voting against Barack Obama because of issues that don’t pertain to substance.”
U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler of Versailles recorded a similar radio ad for Obama.
Obama’s race, religious background and patriotism have become controversial subplots during the drawn-out primary season. E-mail chains circulated earlier this year questioning whether Obama was a Muslim, while talk radio shows seized on why he doesn’t always wear a flag pin on his lapel.
Obama, during his speech in Louisville Monday, dismissed such arguments as static designed to divert attention from important issues.
Campaign spokesman Clark Stevens, however, said the ads and flier weren’t “in response to any issue.” “The focus is really to let voters know what issues are important to Sen. Obama,” he said. “Part of our effort is to reach out to people of all faiths and to communicate common values.”
The flier links Obama more overtly to church than the radio spots and television commercials, which focus on Obama’s life. The pamphlet shows him speaking from a pulpit with a cross and pipe organ behind him.
“My faith teachers me that I can sit in church and pray all I want, but I won’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I go out and do the Lord’s work,” says the quote attributed to Obama on the front of the piece.
The campaign distributed similarly-designed fliers in other states, including South Carolina, where Democrats voted Jan. 26.
“There was at least one not-too veiled reference to his faith aimed at dispelling the notion that the name Obama is Muslim,” said Todd Shaw, assistant professor of political science at the University of South Carolina. “To this day you probably have some contingent in the voting public who may not be aware of his religious convictions.”
Obama attended Catholic and public schools in Indonesia, a Muslim nation, for four-and-a-half years during his childhood. He said in a speech last month in Pennsylvania that he was baptized at age 26 at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago — a church that attracted him with its social outreach and ministries for HIV/AIDS. Obama’s radio ads and flier highlight that work.
“A Christian, Barack’s first job was with churches helping communities left behind when local plants closed,” Chandler says in his commercial — a reference to his community organizing in Chicago’s South Side where several steel mills shut down.
It was Trinity’s now-retired pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., who created one of the biggest stirs of the Democratic primary when inflammatory snippets of some of his old sermons surfaced.
Last month, Obama denounced Wright after his former pastor made more public comments, such as claims that the U.S. government played a role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the spread of HIV/AIDS.
The flare-up didn’t help Obama in Kentucky.
A Herald-Leader/WKYT Kentucky Poll conducted last week showed that 43 percent of the 500 likely Kentucky Democratic voters surveyed said Wright’s comments were important factors in how they will vote on Tuesday.
“He stayed in his church that proclaimed hate and biases against white people. He stayed in it for 20 years to advance his own political gain,” said Miriam Picconi of Lexington in an interview last week.
Shaw, of the University of South Carolina, said the fliers and ads are ways to clarify both his faith and how church fits into who he is.
“In the aftermath of the Jeremiah Wright situation, I think he’s trying to give some context to what that means in his life — why he would stay in that church for 20 years,” Shaw said.
But too much of a concentration on religion could have a downside, Shaw warned.
“There is some risk of the problem of pandering,” he said. “If you make too strong of a pitch, are you in fact tweaking your image to fit what people want to hear?”
In Oregon, which shares its Election Day with Kentucky, Obama hasn’t highlighted his religion in ads and literature, said Robert Sahr, associate professor of political science at Oregon State University.
Oregon, Sahr said, “is among the least religious states in the country,” so such ads wouldn’t have the same effect there as they might in Kentucky or West Virginia.
All this comes on the heals of one of Obama’s most lopsided losses, which occurred in West Virginia Tuesday . Clinton defeated him by 41 points.
But Clinton aides said the campaign hasn’t tried to key in on any stereotypes or take advantage of misperceptions.
“We believe the criteria all voters should use is who is the best candidate,” said Howard Wolfson, Clinton’s communications director on a conference call with reporters Wednesday.
In addition to prominently mentioning Obama’s faith, the new TV and radio ads describe the candidate’s upbringing by a single mother and grandparents, who were from Kansas. They also detail his plan to provide tax breaks to the middle class.
Herald-Leader reporter Jim Niemi contributed to this report.

What Causes This Kind of Twisted Thinking?

When I was in school (elementary, junior high, senior high, college, graduate school), never once did I ever worry for a second that a classmate might come to class one day with a bomb or with a gun and the intention to harm other students. We had bullies. They they were usually more talk than action.

Read this story below from CNN about Ryan Schallenberger and tell me what happens to a kid to make him this twisted. And, why have things changed so remarkably in the last several decades since I was a student?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/29/teen.charged.ap/index.html

FLORENCE, South Carolina (AP) -- A teen accused of plotting to blow up his high school told police that he wanted to die, go to heaven and kill Jesus, federal authorities said Tuesday.
Prosecutors argued in a federal courtroom that the statements are an indication that 18-year-old Ryan Schallenberger needs a psychological evaluation.
The straight-A Chesterfield High School senior was arrested April 19 and faces several state and federal charges, including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. That charge carries a possible life sentence if he is convicted.
"His conduct is bizarre," prosecutor Buddy Bethea told Judge Thomas Rogers III, who did not immediately issue a ruling. "I think it screams out in his conduct that he be evaluated."
Defense attorney Bill Nettles said the request was premature, and that Schallenberger was competent to help in his defense.
Prosecutors want Schallenberger, currently at Chesterfield County jail, moved to a federal facility because they think he may try to commit suicide. His journal writings have become increasingly violent over the past year, prosecutor Rose Mary Parham said.
An agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives testified that the teen told a sheriff he wanted to die after his arrest.
"He said death was better than life," Craig Townsend said. "He told the sheriff he wanted to die and go to heaven and once he got there, he wanted to kill Jesus."
Prosecutors also played a 911 tape of the teen's mother calling police after he smashed his head into a wall two days before his arrest. On the tape, she says her son threatened to shoot police if they came.
"He's not going to do it," Laurie Sittler told the operator. "He's just got a bad temper."
The teen left but his mother was scared he would return, she said in the call. "He's planning to go to college and everything, but I don't know what to do," she said.
Schallenberger was arrested after his parents picked up at the post office a package addressed to the teen containing 20 pounds of ammonium nitrate. They got nervous and looked through his room where they found a cassette tape he wanted played after he died, which they took to the sheriff's office, the agent testified. Authorities found his journal, which lauded the Columbine killers, after searching his room.
The 50-page journal contained notes on more than 10 types of explosives that Schallenberger experimented with and evaluated a year ago, the agent testified. It had a black cover and "Pisces" written on the front, and authorities have said it contained detailed plans to bomb Chesterfield High School.
Schallenberger's parents were at the hearing but would not comment.
Townsend also testified Schallenberger's mother called police to the home in April last year, when the teen was arrested for breach of peace. He said the teen became enraged and knocked over furniture after his mother asked him to walk with his sister to a grandparent's home.
Authorities also seized a computer that shows he searched Web sites for making bombs, a shotgun, carbon dioxide canisters, "hundreds and hundreds" of matchsticks, and more cassette tapes that they have not yet heard, Townsend said.

Hoping for an Elitist

The following letter to the editor appeared in the Raleigh News and Observer several days ago. It is written by Rich Weems of Cary. I think he's on to something.

"I don't know whether Barack Obama is an elitist, but I hope so.

I'm tired of having some dumb cowboy mussing up the White House carpet with his dirty boots and ridiculous policies. I want someone who's smart and knows what he's doing in the White House.

I want the guy who's leading the strongest nation on earth to be better than the average guy. I don't care whether he bowls, but I want the next president to know the difference between Sunni and Shia; to understand the economy, and not just leave it to the "budget guy;" to speak in complete sentences with proper grammar and to be concerned about the here and now as opposed to waiting for history to judge him.

So, yeah, I want an "elitist" to be in the White House 'cause I already know what having a nonelitist in there has done for us."

Well said Rich!

It Takes a Springsteen Fan to Understand

If you are around me much, especially if you are a student in my classes, you know that I am a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. I love his music. I draw a lot of strength from his lyrics which I find in many respects to be deeply theological in some places. He is currently touring to promote his new album "Magic."

I and my oldest daughter Hannah are making the trek Friday to Atlanta to see Bruce at Phillips Arena. I suppose that I am just about as excited to be taking her to her first Springsteen show as I am attending the show myself. My wife and I will then be seeing him in Greensboro on Monday evening. I hope to see him at least once more over the summer or next fall. Friday night will be my 9th concert with Bruce over the last 20 years, not nearly as much as other die-hard fans who boast of hundreds of shows, but nevertheless a good number. I am at least not a "newbie" to his music and shows and with only a few exceptions, can sing the lyrics to most of the songs that I will hear. So, it portends to be a fun weekend.

I found this article today which really caught my attention. It shows the extent that a "true fan" will go to to spread the message of the quality of Bruce's music and concerts. Enjoy!

http://www.hickoryrecord.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=HDR/MGArticle/HDR_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173355345273

Style, simile and ... Springsteen?
Teacher ties in academics, fun with middle school trip to concert
By Ragan Robinson
Contact me
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Computer teacher Mike Telesca (center) bought 35 tickets (and had 15 donated) for students to see Bruce Springsteen in concert in Greensboro. To tie it in with academics, they're having three seminars to talk about language arts and Springsteen songs. ROBERT C. REED (RECORD PHOTOGRAPHER)

GRANITE FALLS - Mike Telesca might be the computer teacher at Granite Falls Middle School, but in his classroom, Bruce Springsteen is still The Boss.
Telesca plays Springsteen for background music in class. Sometimes he sings along in a gravelly Connecticut accent that’s close enough to a New Jersey brogue, at least in Caldwell County, to make his principal introduce him as a native of Springsteen’s home state.
Once, when he was at Catawba Valley High School, he taught an entire thematic unit on his favorite musician, using the songs for language arts, calculating stage square footage and area for math, figuring out the cardiovascular benefits of running around as much as Springsteen does in concert.
Telesca, who will tell you he’s going to fib about his age before he fibs about it, has seen hundreds of Bruce’s shows. His book of ticket stubs is a good 5 inches thick. He will be in Atlanta for a concert Friday, Charlotte on Sunday and Virginia on Wednesday. He would’ve gone to two shows in Florida if the death of longtime E Street Band member Danny Federici hadn’t postponed them.
To put it plainly - something his rock idol never does - Telesca loves The Boss.
He loves him so much that this year, he decided his kids needed to see a show. And they needed to see one so much that Telesca shelled out about $3,000 to buy 35 tickets before Springsteen’s management company kicked in 15 or so more. Add Greensboro to that concert list.
Mr. T, to use the student vernacular, doesn’t want to talk about the money. He all but jumps out of his chair talking about the experience his students will get.
“People ask, “How can you justify it?’” he says. “Well, the goal of art is to make you think. There is no artist of our generation who makes you think and examine your beliefs more than Springsteen.”
Then there’s the fact that a lot of his kids never get out of Caldwell County, Telesca says. He wants to show them something new, something bigger than Granite Falls.
He’s not so blinded by Springsteen’s light he can’t see that reasoning might not fly. To supplement, he and English teacher Kim “he’d better play Thunder Road” Story are holding after-school and Saturday “Socratic discussions” on the man and his music this week. They’ll talk about Springsteen’s cultural significance and use his songs for lessons on expressive language.
By the time the show starts Monday night, they’ll have a few Springsteen-themed homework assignments under their belts. They went home Tuesday looking for personification, metaphor and simile in the lyrics.
Students had to do some extra work for the privilege of going on the world’s coolest field trip. Telesca had them write letters explaining why they are deserving.
Their answers are classic middle-school genius.
“Kids once in our life need to have fun,” wrote seventh-grader Erica Haas. “We cannot be treated like animals all the time.”
From eighth-grader Jarret Walker: “I share the same love that you share, the love of rock.”
Eighth-grader Austin Sigler’s mom is a fan and the show is on her birthday. He figures his getting to go would be a great present for her.
And sixth-grader Eric Smith put a needle in his forever young teacher’s side with this one: “My nana is one of his fans and she never got to go to one of his concerts.”

Missouri Baptist Editor and the Confederate Flag

This is so outrageous that I'm just going to copy the article from Ethicsdaily.com. You read it for yourself. I am amazed and outraged that in 2008 there are still racist idiots like this who have prominent positions in Baptist life in the South. The article is by Brian Kaylor.

The link is: http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=10301

Missouri Baptist Editor Supports Confederate FlagBrian Kaylor04-03-08

The editor of the Missouri Baptist Convention's in-house publication, "The Pathway," has strongly defended the controversial Confederate battle flag and aggressively attacked those who challenge it.
In his book Embattled Banner: A Reasonable Defense of the Confederate Battle Flag, Don Hinkle called himself "an unReconstructed Confederate" and dismissed critics of the flag as "a small group of malcontents and bigots."

MBC interim Executive Director David Tolliver, recently condemned the flag in a column in The Pathway because it "represents hate" and "depicts deep-rooted racial bigotry and hatred." As a result, Tolliver argued that Christians should not fly the flag. Meanwhile, a Web site run by his organization is promoting Hinkle's decade-old book defending that very symbol.

Hinkle argued in his book that the flag is actually a Christian symbol because it features St. Andrew's Cross and because the Confederate Constitution acknowledged God while the U.S. Constitution does not. His book even included a photo of the flag flying next to the Christian flag.

In his book, the Confederate's fight becomes a religious mission, and this fight is not yet over. He even argued that those attacking the flag should remember that Southerners "will 'draw their sabers' in a second if they feel their honor has been questioned" and pointed to Union cemeteries as proof.

After asking if the flag is a "racist relic," Hinkle declared, "Absolutely not!" He added that "the battle flag was not--nor will ever be--symbolic of slavery or racism."

Rather than seeing the Confederate battle flag as a symbol of hate, Hinkle asserted that it is the "anti-flag minority" who are trying to "bully" the South through "character assassination." He also accused critics of using "petty politics based on distortion and bigotry."

He declared the attacks to be "cultural genocide" and even argued that Missouri was among the states hurt by the attacks on the flag. Among his examples of "attacks being launched against Southern culture" is criticism of William Jewell College, which at the time was affiliated with the MBC, for not allowing the flag flown during a ceremony in the school's chapel.

Hinkle claimed that many of critics of the Confederate flag are actually also opposed to the American flag. He suggested that this movement would result in "feeding the Constitution to a shredder" and remove American historical artifacts "like what the Communists did to rewrite Russian history after the fall of the Czar."

Hinkle even compared the NAACP to the KKK and asserted that it was "closer to becoming just another hate group." He claimed the NAACP's opposition to the Confederate flag was an attempt to "whip blacks into an emotional tizzy."

African-Americans peacefully requesting a Confederate flag be taken down are called "[r]adical blacks" and a "mob" by Hinkle.

He argued that since many African-Americans fought for the Confederacy, "there is no reason why blacks shouldn't view the Confederate battle flag with as much pride as anyone if they so choose." He claimed that the slaves who fought for the Confederacy did so because most slave owners "took good care of them." He insisted that critics of slavery "wrongfully apply today's moral to a world that was vastly different."

"Many white Southerners were trying to figure out a way to end the 'peculiar institution' when the intolerant abolitionists went nuts over the issue," Hinkle wrote.

Hinkle also described slavery as "the misfortunate of blacks" and claimed that Reconstruction actually produced greater injustices than slavery or Jim Crow laws.

"The only connection I can see between Jim Crow and the war, much less the flag, is that it may have been the white Southerners' way of retaliating against some blacks who took advantage of them during the most corrupt and disgraceful period in our nation's history, Reconstruction," Hinkle asserted. "Such wrongful retaliation occurs whenever the majority regains control after the minority has abused the majority."

Dr. W. Scott Poole, assistant professor of history at the College of Charleston, offered a devastating critique of Hinkle's book. Writing a chapter in the book National Symbols, Fractured Identities, Poole argued that Hinkle's book "represents a bizarre outcropping of the 'neo-Confederate' movement."

"Hinkle's diatribe makes frequent use of class language, often couched in the vocabulary of Confederate nationalism," Poole wrote. "The tract resists easy analysis. Poorly written and edited, it is a farrago of ahistorical meandering, tendentious claims, and a disturbing number of unctuous threats. The author employs a rhetorical strategy of verbal violence against the elites who are allegedly marginalizing white southerners."

Poole also noted that that "Hinkle insists on condemning Lincoln to hellfire." Hinkle gleefully suggested that Lincoln is in Hell, which he sees as justified punishment for a man that waged war against the South.

Since working for The Pathway, Hinkle has briefly praised Confederate General Robert E. Lee. He also launched an attack on the Baptist World Alliance that included criticism of former Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a black religious leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end apartheid in South Africa and bring racial reconciliation to the nation.

Obama is Looking More Presidential

I am now in the Obama camp. I have given up on my hopes that somehow Al Gore might find a way to come into the presidential race. I do like what I'm hearing from Barak Obama. My wife likes Hillary Clinton. We have both said to each other, however, that whichever one gets the Democratic nomination, we will vote for the Democrat. That's a given.

No way do we want a continuation of the devastating Republican policies in our nation. So many things need changing. But, Tony Cartledge in his blog today (http://www.tonycartledge.com/), hits the proverbial nail on the head with the real issue in this race. It is America's place in the world that is more important than anything else. Read Tony's blog. I agree with him.

Remember after 9/11 how the entire world grieved with America as we mourned the loss of more than 3000 of our citizens. The world would have been solidly behind us in our efforts to destory Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. We would have found global support in the intelligence area. We had the world on our side.

But, President Bush, along with his Neocon advisors chose a devastating path of invading Iraq, a nation that was of no threat to us at all. For the first time in American history, we invaded a nation that was not a threat to us. Furthermore, we have destroyed our moral integrity in the world by torturing prisoners and a host of other things. In short, the world hates America now.

That's why we need a president like Barak Obama. He thinks globally. His father was African. He lived a part of his childhood overseas. He knows the world community. Say what you will about his lack of experience. Those qualifications alone put him head and shoulders above either Senators Clinton or McCain for the world situation America faces now.

The New Baptist Covenant

It has taken me about a week, but I have put together my thoughts and feelings about the New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta below. I serve as interim pastor at a church in eastern North Carolina and I incorporated my thoughts into my sermon this morning. Admittedly, I am not a journalist. So, if you want the actual events of the meeting, go to some of the other Baptist blogs such as John Pierce, Tony Cartledge, or the Big Daddy Weave. These are just my own thoughts.

From Despair to Hope
Ezra 3: 10-13

One of the most remarkable worship sites that I have ever visited was Coventry Cathedral in England. I visited this cathedral on a Sunday morning in 2006. On the night of November 14, 1940 the German Luftwaffe completely destroyed the city of Coventry with a ferocious bombing campaign that included a number of incendiary bombs. The old cathedral, which had stood for almost a millennium was completely and utterly destroyed. The very next day the people of Coventry vowed to rebuild their cathedral. However, they determined that the rebuilding would not be an act of anger or defiance. They would rebuild in the spirit of reconciliation and peace as a sign of their faith, hope, and trust in the future.

Shortly after the destruction, the cathedral’s stone mason discovered two burned out medieval timbers from the roof of the old cathedral which had fallen to the floor in the shape of a cross. He set them up on a make-shift altar in the ruins and later the words “Father Forgive” were inscribed behind the altar in the sanctuary wall. Also, three nails were found in the rubble and were fused together to form a “cross of nails” which has become the symbol of the cathedral’s Ministry of Peace and Reconciliation to the world.

The new cathedral was started in 1956 and completed six years later. Today it stands as a beautiful testimony that in the midst of despair can come hope. From the ashes of the old Coventry Cathedral has arisen the new Coventry Cathedral with an international ministry promoting peace and reconciliation.

You have heard me mention before about how devastating the 6th century B.C. was for the Jewish people. Indeed, it is impossible to understand ancient Israel without being aware of this monumental event in their history. In 587 B.C. the Babylonians completely destroyed Jerusalem and more importantly, their temple. For 400 years it had stood as the heart of their worship community. It was dreamed of by David, dedicated by Solomon, drawn attention to by Jeremiah, dedicated again by Josiah, and destroyed by the Babylonians. Now it was gone.

But it got worse. The people themselves were taken into captivity into Babylon. Talk about despair! They lost their land. They lost their temple. They lost their way of life. And they lost their faith. They were devastated!

But a wonderful thing happened about 50 years later. In 538 B.C. the Babylonians were defeated by the Persians and the Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem. Ezra led one of these waves of returning Jews. But when they arrived back home things had changed drastically over the last half-century. The city of Jerusalem lay in ruins. The walls were destroyed. The temple itself was destroyed. All the important objects of the temple were gone. Everything of value had been looted. The Ark of the Covenant was gone. The temple lay in ruins, a picture of utter devastation.

Led by Ezra, the Jews began the slow task of rebuilding their temple. First they rebuilt the altar (vss. 1-6). Then they laid the foundation for the temple (vss. 7-9). Finally, we come to our text for the day. After the foundation was completed, the people began to celebrate. It was something of a pause, a respite. They celebrated the fact that they were beginning to move from despair to hope. It was dawning on them that their exile was coming to an end.

As most of you know last week I attended the meeting of the New Baptist Covenant in Atlanta. A number of you have asked me my impression about the meeting. I have promised that I would share my thoughts with you. But first, I need to give you some information about my own pilgrimage in the Baptist world.

Unlike many of you, I did not grow up Baptist. I grew up in the Methodist tradition. While many of you were going to Training Union on Sunday evenings, I was going to MYF. Most of you grew up hearing about Ridgecrest. For me it was Lake Junaluska. I am not Baptist by birth. I am Baptist by conviction. I was introduced to the Baptist tradition by two people, my best friend in high school and my girlfriend (whose father was a Baptist preacher). I was 18 years old when I was baptized in October, 1977 by Dr. Billy Cline at Merrimon Ave. Baptist Church.

By the time I was baptized I had decided that I was going to prepare for ministry in the Baptist tradition. I was a freshman at Mars Hill College where I completed my Religion degree then continued on at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary where I completed my Master of Divinity degree.

But, in the midst of my preparation for ministry I became acutely aware of “the Controversy” when it broke out in 1979. Some of you were at one of the six SBC seminaries during this time. The Controversy for many of us became sort of like a sport. Conventions came and went and we attended if we could and pulled for “our side.” I went to seminary with no idea what a Fundamentalist was but graduated knowing exactly what a Fundamentalist was. I knew that Fundamentalism was not the lens through which I viewed the Christian life.

And so I eventually became a pastor in Texas and did what many others like me did. I began to devote time to organizing and working for the Moderate network in Texas Baptist life. If I wasn’t directly involved in vote counting or trying to woo an “uncommitted” pastor to our side, I was talking about “the Controversy” with friends over lunch and speculating about what might happen at the next convention meeting.

All of this was a very poisonous environment. Looking back on it, it was almost addictive. Gossip about various leaders would spread like wildfire. Conventions were like football games. We cheered and booed, jeered and wooed. I had become addicted to the Controversy.

The year 1990 marked a turning point. That was the year that most Moderates realized that the SBC was gone and would never again be the same. But still the fight continued in state conventions and associations. I continued to discuss and debate. Now, after 20 years of participating in the Baptist Battle, I am weary. Many of my generation of ministers and theological professors are tired of the Controversy. I don’t disparage the Conservatives in Baptist life. I just want to do the ministry and work that God has called me to do and not be hindered by that mindset.

But although I don’t go to SBC meetings anymore and I am completely affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the “Controversy” has still remained with me. The outcome of 30 years of in-fighting between Baptists in the South has been the demise of the Baptist name. Now, the name “Baptist” is a caricature. So many times I introduce myself as “Baptist” but have to qualify it and say, “But I’m a good kind of Baptist.” Or, “I’m not that kind of Baptist.”

The Baptist name has lost much of its luster and no longer holds a positive witness in many places today. In the early 21st century, to the non-Baptist world that doesn’t understand the different kinds of Baptists, our name is associated with things such as total identification with the extreme right wing of one political party, boycotting Disneyworld, telling women they need to “graciously submit” to their husbands, telling women that God will allow the church to baptize you but not allow the church to ordain you, or telling certain people that they are not welcomed in our churches because of a specific sin or lifestyle they may lead.

Another sobering fact is that the generation behind me is less interested in denominational affiliation with the Baptists than previous generations. That is going to have a tremendous impact on the well-being of Baptist churches in the future. It is also going to have an impact on the ability of Baptist churches in the future to attract ministers. The generation behind mine simply is not as interested in our denomination as their parents and grandparents. At Campbell, the class that I teach that always has the smallest enrollment is my Baptist History class. But, I get a good number of students who sign up for my Religion in America, Early Christianity, or Reformation classes.

Because the Baptist name has suffered greatly in the last 30 years, there is a sense in which I and many like me have felt like we were in exile in Babylon. I have felt feelings of despair. I have been sorrowful that the good things that Baptists have historically championed such as devotion to freedom of conscience, religious freedom, freedom of the local church, freedom to read and interpret scripture for ourselves, all good aspects of the Baptist tradition, have been overshadowed by our fighting, hypocrisy, and pharisaic spirit. God forgive us!

That is why I was very excited about the New Baptist Covenant and why I returned home last Saturday from Atlanta with a hope that I have not had for the Baptist witness in the world in a long time. In the short time I have, let me try and describe to you what this meeting was about and why I am so excited.

I. First, let me tell you what the meeting was not.

A. This Meeting Was Not a Political Rally Designed to Support the Democratic Party in this Election Year.

It is true that the meeting was organized by former President Jimmy Carter and was supported by former President Bill Clinton. But in the plenary sessions there were no campaign speeches. In fact, the only person who mentioned a candidate for president was Bill Clinton who, in his speech, spoke of his admiration and friendship with Governor Mike Huckabee, a fellow Baptist. Admittedly, former Presidents Carter and Clinton and former Vice-President Al Gore are Democrats. However, Senators Charles Grassley and Lindsey Graham, both Republicans, were on the program (although Senator Graham had to cancel). And, Governor Mike Huckabee was originally scheduled to be on the program but withdrew because he is a presidential candidate. This was not a political rally. I think if it had become that, many of us (perhaps thousands) would have left early.

I saw a letter to the editor in the Raleigh News and Observer yesterday that was criticizing the meeting as being political. The writer said:

It is most unusual that liberal and moderate Baptists would join with former U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore to discuss issues of national interest. Although the leaders of the group claimed that they had no political agenda, the themes of the meeting—“poverty, diversity, peace, immigration and prisoners”—are the same prominent topics used by all the high profile candidates in today’s national political arena.[1]

To this I would simply respond by saying (1) There were plenty of Baptists at this meeting who would not necessarily fall into the category of “moderate and liberal Baptists,” and (2) I think Jesus spoke a lot about “poverty, diversity, peace, immigration, and prisoners” long before any political candidates for president talked about them. I wondered if the writer had ever read Matthew 25?

B. This Meeting Was Not Designed to Include Only Moderate and Liberal Baptists.

On the contrary, Baptists from all over North America were invited to participate in this meeting. A total of 30 different Baptists groups responded. One of the major Baptist groups in North America, indeed the largest, refused to participate. And representatives from that group as well as their publicity arm have been most critical of the New Baptist Convenant. But, their exclusion was not the doing of the organizers of the New Baptist Covenant. They were invited and asked to be involved. They chose instead to stay away.

To bring us back to the text in Ezra this morning, you recall that when the Jews, led by Ezra, laid the foundation of the temple, they celebrated. They rejoiced. They worshipped and praised God. And, yet, if you read further in the chapter, you will discover that a group eventually began to work against the rebuilding of the temple. Those that speak negatively about the New Baptist Covenant, whatever it was and whatever it will be, remind me of the naysayers in Ezra 3:12.

C. The New Baptist Covenant Was Not the Beginning of a New
Denomination.

Again, some have claimed that organizing a new Baptist denomination is the real motive behind the organizers. I heard nothing about this at all. In fact, there were questions from the podium and in the hallways about where does this movement go from here. No one, and I mean no one has any desire to create a new denomination. This meeting represented no attempt to build a new Baptist body. Buddy Shurden said it this way, “The New Baptist Covenant is not an effort to form something together, it is an effort to say something together about what we ought to be doing together.”[2]

II. Finally, I Will Tell You What I Believe this Meeting Accomplished.

A. This Was, Perhaps the Most Diverse Gathering of Such a Large Number of Baptists, in the Four Centuries of Our History

I can’t stress too much how diverse this gathering was. There was theological diversity. They was racial diversity. There was cultural diversity. There were close to 20,000 people registered for this meeting from 30 racially, geographically and theologically diverse Baptist groups in North America. These 30 Baptist denominations (Southern Baptists, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Baptists, American Baptists, National Baptists, Progressive National Baptists, Canadian Baptists, Hispanic Baptists, Seventh-Day Baptists, Japanese Baptists, Laotian Baptists, just to name a few) represented 20 million Baptists in North America.

Forty-Five years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Monument and declared in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, that “one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.” There is no doubt in my mind that on the red hills of Georgia from January 30-Feburary 1, 2008, King’s dream came to fruition. It was truly one of the most exciting meetings I have ever been to because of the incredible diversity.

B. This Was a Meeting that Called Baptists Back to Our Task of Missions.

For too long, we have gone to Baptist meetings and politicked. This meeting was about being like Jesus in the world. We heard a lot about Luke 4. In that chapter, Jesus declared to his hometown folks in Nazareth what he believed to be his mission:

The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Baptists are a people who believe that we should be like Jesus in the world. I wish I had time to recount for you all the speakers we heard from: Marian Wright Edelman who opened our hearts to the plight of poor children here in our own nation. Naw Blooming Night Zan, a registered nurse and Baptist missionary in Burma who works with the Karen people in refugee camps on the Thai border. Tony Campolo, the closest thing America has to an Old Testament prophet, who challenged our hearts about the need for social justice in our nation and world just to name a few.

All of the speakers spoke to us and encouraged us to have a prophetic Baptist witness to the world to call for promoting peace with justice, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, welcoming the strangers, promoting religious liberty, and respecting diversity. Buddy Shurden said it this way: “the purpose of the New Baptist Covenant is to hand out towels to every Baptist in North America and ask them to become a servant to the least and the last and the lost.”[3]

In conclusion, I’ll just say that I left Atlanta excited about the future for Baptists in the 21st century. Our tradition as Baptists is 400 years old next year. Baptists are perhaps the most diverse denominational group there is. But, I left Atlanta convinced that God has much in store for Baptists during this next century. There is an old Baptist hymn that I thought of this week in relation to the New Baptist Covenant. It goes like this:

We’ve a story to tell to the nations,That shall turn their hearts to the right,A story of truth and mercy,A story of peace and light,A story of peace and light.
For the darkness shall turn to dawning
And the dawning to noonday bright
And Christ’s great kingdom shall come on earth
The Kingdom of love and light.

[1] Raleigh News and Observer, 9 February 2008, p. 20a. Letter by Henry Morgan.
[2] http://www.baptiststandard.com/postnuke/index.php?module=htmlpages&func=display&pid=7387.
[3] http://baptiststoday.org/. Blog by Tony Cartledge.

My Daughter's Writing Skills

I am very proud of my two daughters, Hannah (age 11) and Gracie (age 6). Hannah has a voracious appetite for reading. She read the entire Harry Potter series, thousands of pages, in only about 5 months. She will read 100 or so pages before she goes to sleep. That devotion to reading bodes well for her as she continues to develop.

Hannah also likes to write. She has always done well with stories she writes for school assignments. But, every now and then, she likes to write a story on her own. Below, with her permission, I have included her most recent story.

Paint the Sunset

There was once a time long ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth and the Indian tribes traveled with the wind. There was a small ten year old girl with long beautiful hair that shone in the darkest times. Her tiny black beetle eyes were blind and her muteness separated her from all the other girls in the tribe. Her name was Surya.

Surya spoke in a way like no other, Surya danced. She was an orphan with no parents or friends.
Every evening Surya climbed up the mountain and watched the birds paint the sunset over the blue misty ocean as she felt the wind push against her and the mist splash her beautiful face. During that time the other Indian girls braided their hair. One girl asked Surya why she wasted her time trying to find the sunset when she couldn’t even see it. Surya replied “Yes, I do not see it, but I can feel it rush in my veins and I can feel the birds rushing towards the sun. The girl laughed and didn’t know that some day she would regret that she laughed.

As Surya grew older she learned many great things from the sunset. She learned how to communicate with the animals. She learned how to whisper to the trees. And she learned how to dance with the rivers. But she didn’t know that on her sixteenth birthday something extraordinary would happen to her and the girl named Hema who always made fun of her.

On a cold and dreary day Surya woke up to the sound of song birds and robins. It was her sixteenth birthday. Hema jumped into Surya’s teepee and sang “Ha Ha it’s your birthday, too bad nobody cares!” And then she was gone with the wind. Surya groaned. The very last thing she needed was Hema to tease her. Suddenly she thought of something to look forward to today. She would be able to go and watch the sunset and have him teach her another thing about nature. Finally when it was time to go and climb the mountain something caught her eye. It was a dead mockingbird! The mockingbird was one of the fifty sunset painters. On the oak tree beside the motionless bird a note written in blood said “Surya beware at 12:00 midnight on your birthday you will have to make a choice between the life of your friend Sunset or the life of your self.” Surya panicked. Sunset was her only friend. He taught her everything she needed to know about life. She looked up into the bright sun. Sunset was coming for the last time in history.

Sunset came that evening and Surya told him about the message on the oak tree and Sunset was very worried. He told Surya to listen to the sound of her heart to make the right choice. At twelve a clock on Surya’s birthday Sunrise came into her teepee and she said “I was the one who killed the mockingbird and it was I who wrote the fretting message on the oak. Now it’s your turn to chose between yourself or Sunset.” That moment Hema came into Surya’s teepee. Sunrise said “Matter of fact I can kill your other little friend instead of you.” Hema said “Surya go ahead and let her kill me I deserve it I have been so mean.” Surya said “Ok kill me” The next moment Sunrise shot a blinding red light out of her finger tips. Surya silently fell into a deep rest. Sunrise laughed in a cold icy tone and disappeared.

So when you look at Sunrise you see her red light shining to remind us of her beauty, but now you know she was jealous enough to kill Surya. Now when the Sunset comes early every autumn he is looking for Sarya and every night when it rains at night you know he is crying because he can not find Sarya. So remember to paint your sunset the colors of your heart.

By: Hannah Jonas

The Election

People who know me well know that I enjoy politics. I like to read op/ed. columns. I like to watch the discussions on shows like Hardball, Meet the Press, etc. I am a politics junkie.

I am also proud to be a Democrat. Yes, there are real Christians in the Democratic party. In fact, all during the 1980s when it seemed like every Christian in America had become a part of the Republican Party and joined the Reagan "revolution," I held out and refused to participate. I always believed that the Republican Party leadership manipulated millions of good Christian people into voting for them and played on the basic ignorance of many people in America about how our nation was founded, what the founders were really like, and how our nation works today. I also think they played on the race issue to pull many southern Democrats into the Republican Party, the so-called "southern strategy first used by Nixon. But, that is another blog!

I am following the election of 2008 very closely. I believe that for the good of the nation the Democrats need to win this election. I have been supporting John Edwards to get the nomination. I still believe he is the "real deal," and as a Christian I am very interested in his populist message and his desire to elevate the working poor in our nation to give them opportunity. That is the American dream. That is also Jesus-like. I like John Edwards.

I also like Barak Obama a lot. I think he is inspiring. I think he has a great message of change, a desire to move the country beyond the cut-throat politics of the last 30 years into a new era. He is the closest thing to Bobby Kennedy (who was shot in 68 when I was only 9) that has come along in my lifetime. He gives speeches that give me goose bumps and inspires me to see America for the good that it can be.

Hillary Clinton is also a good candidate. She is tough, perhaps tougher than her husband Bill. He has taken the best of the right-wing warriors and absorbed it all to emerge stronger. If she is the nominee she will be a force to reckon with and if the Republicans think she is an easy mark for them to defeat, they'd better re-evaluate things.

My real hope for the Democratic Party though is for none of these three to get the nomination. I would like to see a vigorous debate through the primary season with no one getting the clear majority of delegates which would lead to a brokered convention. Then, I would like to see Al Gore come into the picture, unify the party and get the nomination. He may be the only person who can unify the party right now because just about every Democrat I hang around with has a basic suspicion that Al Gore really won the 2000 presidential election. I think he would be a formidible candidate.

Who knows what will happen. It is fun to watch. It is also good to see that even many Evangelical Christians are starting to move beyond their basic social concerns relating to abortion and gay marriage to some social issues that they can join hands with more progressive Christians on such as the environment and global warming, poverty, peace, death penalty, and a host of other things.

It is truly an interesting time in the life of our nation!