That Baptist Ain't Right: Fundamentalist Designs in Washington, DC

That Baptist Ain't Right: Fundamentalist Designs in Washington, DC---The Talibangelicals leading the way towards greed, power and theocratic Calvinism since 1979---in this post That Baptist Ain't Right links to this article: 'Family': Fundamentalism, Friends In High Places. Here's an excerpt:

In the book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, author Jeff Sharlet examines the power wielded by a secretive Christian group known as the Family, or the Fellowship.

Founded in 1935 in opposition to FDR's New Deal, the evangelical group's views on religion and politics are so singular that some other Christian-right organizations consider them heretical

The group also has a connection to a house in Washington, D.C., known as C Street. Owned by a foundation affiliated with the Family, C Street is officially registered as a church; in practice, it serves as a meeting place and residence for politicians like South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Nevada Sen. John Ensign and Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn.

The Family, Sharlet writes, is responsible for founding the annual National Prayer Breakfast, a supposedly ecumenical — but implicitly Christian — event attended by the president, members of Congress and dignitaries from around the world. These foreign delegations are often led by top defense personnel, who use it as an opportunity to lobby the most influential people in Washington — and who repay the Family with access to their governments.

News And Views About Fundamentalists

First of note is a post from That Baptist Ain't Right: That Baptist Ain't Right: GA Baptists Applaud Indoctrination at Baptist College---here is an excerpt from that:

Shock. Absolute shock. A GA Baptist College is establishing a Creation Research Center at its campus.

That's right: science is no longer an academic subject at Truett McConnell College. Instead, a rigid, narrow theological view decides what is genuine science & what is not. According to the GA Baptist newspaper, The Christian Index, the college is establishing the creation research center with the view that the earth is only 6000 years old.

Good heavens. GA Baptist students will be cheated on an education & the school will be laughed at by all schools with any academics.

I knew this was coming. I even blogged about it last year when the editor of the Index bragged on the school's Biblical Worldview. Poppycock. Telling students to reject science & adopt a spiritual textbook as a scientific text is to shortchange our students. And when these bright young minds start examining the evidence --- overwhelming that the earth is not 6000 years old & there was not a spontaneous creation in 6 literal days --- these students will start to question the validity of all matters of faith.

The Godslingers have taken over the GA Baptist Convention & are now trying to indoctrinate our students to not only a certain, narrow theological slant, but also a political view & an anti-intellectualism.

Here's another link to That Baptist Ain't Right---That Baptist Ain't Right: Leaving Fundamentalism---in which you can catch up to Dr. Bruce Prescott's excellent post series about leaving Fundamentalism.

Finally, here is the latest post in Dr. Prescott's post series: Mainstream Baptist: Stepping Away From Fundamentalism, Step Seven and a good one at that---here is a snippet of that post:

Premillenial dispensationalism was the only kind of "end times" theology that I knew. Supposedly, only "liberals" believed anything else. I needed some help trying to make sense of eschatology, so I turned to my Southern Baptist pastor and future father-in-law, Dr. Doyle Winters, for assistance.

Dr. Winters was a conservative New Testament Greek scholar with a Th.D. from Southwestern Seminary. He advised me that he did not hold to the dispensational premillenial view of the end times. That theology was invented in the late nineteenth century and has been promulgated mostly through the Schofield Reference Bible, he said. It is not the way that eschatology has traditionally been understood throughout the history of the church. As he spoke, I finally realized why he was so unimpressed with the white leather Schofield Reference Bible that I gave his daughter years before on the first Christmas we were dating.

Dr. Winters' understanding of the end times was best summarized by Dr. Ray Summers, a Southern Baptist Greek scholar, who wrote a commentary on the book of Revelation entitled Worthy is the Lamb. He loaned me his copy. I read it and biblical eschatology finally began to make sense to me.

Forever Young: Icaria

That Baptist Ain't Right: The Island Where People Live Longer: Icaria:

MONDAY, JUNE 1, 2009
The Island Where People Live Longer: Icaria
The Island Where People Live Longer : NPR

A Greek island in the Aegean Sea. The island of Icaria. Modest. Not much to write home about. Except it is one of those rare places on earth where people just live longer than everyone everywhere else.

Why? Well, it seems they do things the European way in the extreme, the exact opposite of what most Americans do.

(Read More: Here).

Our Eroding Baptist Principles

That Baptist Ain't Right asks: That Baptist Ain't Right: Baptists No Longer for Separation of Church & State? How did we get here?

Here is some of that post with hyperlinks inserted by me:

THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2009
Baptists No Longer for Separation of Church & State? How did we get here?

Waaaaay back in 1612, Thomas Helwys, the first Baptist, wrote The Mystery of Iniquity that outlined the basic ideas of what it is Baptists believe. Primary in that work was the concept of the separation of church & state, the theological concept that only God can judge a soul & therefore government should compel anyone to follow or support any faith. Helwys went so far as to sign his name to a note he penned on the inside cover specifically for King James. For his efforts, Helwys was promptly arrested & died in prison in 1616.

Helwys wasn't alone. Roger Williams. Isaac Backus. John Leland. All of the early Baptist in the America supported the concept of the separation of church & state. In fact, until around 1980, the overwhelming majority of Baptists supported the separation of church & state.

So how did we move from overwhelming support for the separation of church & state, to the near unanimous approval of a Domionist ideology among Baptists in just 25 years?

I asked that question to Dr. Bruce Prescott back in November of 2007 & got an interesting answer. Paradoxically, the answer Dr. Prescott (the Baptist) gave is nearly identical to that a good friend of mine gave who happens to be Catholic. Odd.

After WW II, there was a surge in the effort of Catholic parochial schools to get gov't money. Obviously Protestants were opposed to their tax money being used to support Catholic schools. In 1947 the Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State was formed to oppose the funneling of tax money to Catholic schools. Religious & educational fought to make sure Catholics were given any preference & the Protestants were danged sure to not let Protestant tax money be used unwisely. And, thus, the religious leaders, particularly Baptist leaders, recited well the history of Baptist support for the separation of church & state.

But something happened. Baptists began to grow after WW II with lots & lots of babies. The suburbs grew. And racial tension came fast & furious.

The turning point, according to both Dr. Prescott & my friend who happens to be Catholic, was school integration.

I'd like to offer some additional insights to the problem. Another reason certain Baptists aren't standing up for the separation of church and state is because with the Fundamentalist Takeover of the SBC and the Religious Right's dominating influence on Southern Baptist life, eschatology began to shift toward a premillenial dispensationalist stripe. This coupled with the SBC's shift towards dogmatic theocratic Calvinism paved the way for the erosion of traditional Baptist principles. While it is true that premillenial dispensationalism in itself is anti-political, premillenial dispensationalists are ardent political Zionists. See also: "Left Behind" and the Corruption of Biblical Interpretation and Evangelicals and Israel: Theological Roots of a Political Alliance.

Also, Christian Reconstructionism's influence on the Religious Right plays a part in the problem. See also: Republican mastermind bemoans GOP+theocracy partnership. Anyways, because of these factors, we have Baptists as well as other fungelicals that mix theology and politics in a theocratic manner.

See also: TheoPoetic Musings: It's Time: Week 8---A Baptist Witness That Dissents On Manichaeistic Fundamentalism.

God Comes Through Small Things

Leonard Cohen once wrote:

I balance on a wishing well that all men call the world.
We are so small between the stars, so large against the sky,
and lost among the subway crowds I try to catch your eye.

The lines above are from the Leonard Cohen song Stories Of The Street:


You may be wondering what such a depressing song has to do with Christmas, but the most recent post at That Baptist Ain't Right reminded me of the bolded line. By the way thanks for stopping by the other day, That Baptist Ain't Right! Anyways, here are some highlights from the recent post from That Baptist Ain't Right Blogspot:

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2008
God of the Small Things
I think maybe our Gospel is too big. Yeah, that's right: too big.

I think God likes small. And I think he likes the inner, hidden things instead of the stuff everyone has to see.

Ever noticed the small things in the Bible? The mustard seed. The leaven. A small pearl, tucked away in a creature in the sea. A lost sheep or a lost coin. A worm to get the attention of a prodigal prophet. Children. The non-flashy, non-neon, non-anything that wouldn't seem to be "Biggie Things."

Instead, God uses the ordinary & the subtle. Of course, God can use the fire & lightening bolts & the earthquake. He certainly does at times, I think mainly to remind us of the small things.
.............

Other subtle things. The still, small voice. The deep stirring of the heart.

And God has a way of favoring the small beginnings. The socially unimportant for whom he seeks justice. The widow whose mite was worth more than all the exalted & announced giving of the Pharisees. Eleven disciples that turned the world upside down. An old, childless couple with nothing but a promise of a nation from a yet unseen kid. A manger with 2 young teenagers, & an insignificant town was blessed with the Invasion of God into human history.

In fact, I don't think God likes the Big & Showy. Every time there is Big & Showy, people get involved, show themselves off with the 2x4 in their eyes, & just get in the way of God. The Pharisee on the street corner announcing his prayers & his work for God --- he has his reward, says Jesus. And all those rules those Big & Showy Godslingers like to force on everyone to make sure the small, inner attitude is forgotten --- typical of man; unheard of with God. When Christ spent time with the Down-&-Out instead of the Up-&-In, the Godslingers cried foul. How can anything good come out of partying with those people? They are not believers; don't' wash their hands; don't keep the rules; don't attend church; don't do the right things; don't ... the list just keeps going.

But God looks not at the Big & Showy Rule Book. In fact, I don't think God likes rules. God said he doesn't want Rule Keepers but Heart Followers who love justice & mercy & actually help folks. It's too small a matter to keep rules; that is what Pharisees do --- make the rules so everyone knows what to do & that makes everyone think they are righteous. But that is not what Jesus said: Unless your righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees ... (MATT 5:20).

It is far too easy to keep rules than to live the attitude.

It is too easy to compel behavior than to change lives. Come to think of it, Christ never tried to do the Big Thing & make any laws; change gov't; become a policy advisor to a political leader. In fact, Jesus didn't get involved with the Big Thing of politics at all. None of the disciples did either. No, it was the small things that changed lives --- feeding the poor; helping the homeless; demanding justice for everyone regardless of status or affiliation; laying down his life because the Pharisees didn't like it when the Rule Book Theology was challenged.

When we try to make it too big, we mess it up.

Yeah. Small things. Big results. What a concept. What a God.

After all smallness is the biggest scandal of Christmas---that God was willing to incarnate God's Self into a small newborn infant for our sakes that played a larger role in the universe. That Baptist Ain't Right Blogspot and Leonard Cohen both remind us of that and the fact that God uses the small things.

Georgia Baptist Convention Says No To Female Pastors

Read more at That Baptist Ain't Right: That Baptist Ain't Right: Georgia Baptists Get Rid of Women Pastors.

Here is another Blog post on the decision:

Georgia Baptists target FBC Decatur
November 12, 2008 · No Comments

The Georgia Baptist Convention approved a policy restricting affiliation with churches who are led by women. At first glance this might appear to impact several congregations, but the reality is that FBC Decatur is the only one that falls into this category. Welcome to Georgia, Julie Pennington-Russell, from your Georgia Baptist brethren. This greeting really isn’t all that unexpected.

FBC Decatur has been part of the state convention for almost 150 years, so it is signficant that the state convention is severing ties. I’m sure that the church considered the possibility of this happening when they brought their new pastor to the state. There might be some sentimental reaction to this news, but I hope that the church will move forward with the Lord’s work through its partnership with the CBF. This is one of many congregations who have been faithful in building the SBC through its financial support and participation who are no longer welcome in the denomination.

One of the primary lessons taught through Baptist life is the autonomy of the local church, which means congregations can ordain whom they choose, carry out their mission and ministry without outside coercion, and call their own staff. Autonomy also relates to the concentric circles of Baptist involvement beyond the church, including the association, state convention, and ultimately the Southern Baptist Convention. So, it is not a violation of FBC’s autonomy for Georgia Baptists to say they don’t want this church in the fold any longer. FBC can still do what it wills, but it might sting emotionally that after all this time and years of support they are told their money is no good.