October 27, 1999

Texas Baptist Forum
Christian necessity
___Is Sunday School very important? It was established over a century ago, when life was far different than it is today. So, many are wondering whether it should be revived or buried.
___It is the most important aspect of our church. It is the foundation for discipleship, fellowship, evangelism, ministry and worship--the five necessary ingredients of any church.

E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

___As I think back on the influence Sunday School has had in my life, I am grateful for what I have experienced. I remember riding down the church hallway in a chariot my Sunday School teacher's husband made for our class. I recall hearing Bible stories while sitting on the stairs of the baptistry as our class of young boys met in a makeshift classroom. In seminary, I valued a non-seminary-trained school teacher who kept us lofty-thinking seminarians from getting off on theological tangents.
___Sunday School brings many good memories. Significantly, I do not have over 1,500 distinct memories of Sunday School. There were plenty of Sundays when it seemed like nothing big happened. But something significant was occurring even when it didn't feel special.
___I was learning about the Lord, his word and how to behave as a Christian.
___It's kind of like meals. Not all of them are memorable, but they are necessary. Sunday School is a necessity for Christian growth and maturity.
___ Raymond McHenry
___ Beaumont

God & Ventura
___My heart goes out to Jesse Ventura, because Satan has so easily manipulated him to denigrate God's kingdom (Oct. 13).
___This same God has said, "The fool has said in his heart there is no God." Possibly God has given up the governor to a "reprobate mind."
___That the governor walks on this earth proves the love and mercy of the God whose precepts he has tossed to the wind.
___ Ford Falkner
___ Belton

Kosovo ministry
___I have closely followed your articles on the Kosovo people. The article requesting Baptists to respond to the need for refuge sponsorship touched my heart. I presented this need to our church, Inglewood Baptist in Grand Prairie, and they responded.
___We recently welcomed a family of eight refugees from Kosovo. Just as Baptists are ministering in Kosovo, churches can minister to Kosovars still coming to America in the hope of a new life--perhaps a new life in Christ.
___Please continue keeping us informed. It makes a difference.
___ Shari Whitehead
___ Grand Prairie

Desperate needs
___Because of the sanctions imposed on Serbia, very little news gets out. The situation is desperate.
___Serbia is crowded with refugees from Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. Babies die from infections antibiotics could cure. Diabetics die for lack of insulin. Bodies are exhumed to harvest their pacemakers. Cancer patients take their own lives for lack of pain medicines.
___Because Serbian products cannot be exported, the infrastructure is in ruins; businesses and factories are closed. Thousands of people will die in the approaching mountain winter.
___These people are innocent. Slobodan Milosovic recruited his "special police" from prisons, not the general populace. Serbian protesters are caught between their desperation and Milosovic's thugs. The horror in Serbia will continue until the people of the world show compassion.
___Until we can go help, will Baptists pray and write their congressmen about sanctions?
___ Bianca Hoffman
___ Cross Plains

Diminishing name
___I am concerned about the diminishing name of Jesus.
___I am 73 years old and have attended church since I was 6. The music that was sung in our churches when I was saved was all strongly Christ-centered and led to the worship and praise of Jesus. The words told us why (our sin, his love) Jesus left the splendors of heaven, that life was hopeless without his atonement for our sins and through that atoning death and his resurrection, when we accept him by faith, we have eternal life with him. This is the message in song that I and all my peers heard in worship. Only rarely do I hear it these days.
___We worshipped and praised God with "Holy, Holy, Holy," "Praise Him," "The Old Rugged Cross" and "Blessed Assurance." Later, we sang "Why do I Sing About Jesus?" and other Christ-centered hymns. They are full of God's word. The souls and hearts of we seniors still are moved by the Holy Spirit to praise and worship when we hear those powerful musical testimonies to our loving Father and his Son.
___I am not asking to do away with the praise and worship choruses. I just long to hear those old songs that tell us about Jesus, along with the choruses. Older folks have needs too.
___ Bob Bryan
___ Waxahachie

Inclusive language
___Many thoughts came to mind as I read "Baptist Faith & Message focus may be on Scripture" (Oct. 13)--from wondering why the Southern Baptist Convention would choose a committee that represented a minority of Baptist theological beliefs to investigate and most likely re-interpret the BF&M, to thinking this resembles a creed in the making.
___Knowing the futility in fighting current SBC decisions, however, I decided to inquire about an issue that may receive open-minded consideration.
___Society continues to become more sensitive to the need for inclusive language. That is, replacing the archaic and insensitive "man" for "humanity" or "humankind."
___With the rise of feminist and liberation voices resisting male domestic and institutional abuse of women, many women and informed men resent the traditional use of "man" for both male and female. An evangelistic, educated denomination like the Southern Baptists should recognize language excluding half the human race may offend those who would otherwise be converted to Christianity. God revealed God's word to humanity, not just to men. Jesus Christ died and rose again for all humanity, not just for men.
___Maybe if Southern Baptists updated their language to include women as well as men, they would become more open-minded about including the other gender made in God's image in other areas as well. (Or is that what they are afraid of?)
___ Sharon Baker
___ Lewisville

Make a difference
___I find it refreshing to read in the Baptist Standard more and more articles about what Texas Baptist Christians are doing as volunteers around the world.
___Since retiring from the pastorate eight years ago, my wife and I have been serving with the Texas Baptist Men Camp Builders doing construction projects in our 30 Texas Baptist encampments. Our lives have been enriched and blessed tremendously as we have worked alongside hundreds of other retirees who have decided they would rather wear out than rust out.
___We read about many other groups of those who are volunteering in many other places, doing what they can to share the gospel and make a difference in this old world. May their numbers increase!
___ Glen C. Smith
___ Sundown

Church killer
___I recently took a group of people to Llanelli, Wales, to help remodel Bethania Baptist Church, which was organized in 1865 as a result of the Welch Revivals. The church grew rapidly and averaged an attendance of near 500 every week until a few years ago, when there came a strong Calvinistic teaching. Now they struggle to reach 75.
___The young pastor told me he wished that Southern Baptists would visit the churches in Wales, and they will find the best way to kill a church is to start preaching Calvinism. He is a graduate of the Baptist seminary in Cardiff that has 16 students this fall. The North Wales seminary has three students this fall.
___Pastor Thomas told me he has faith in the words of Jesus, who said, "Whosoever will may come." Most of the pastors in the area who have adopted the Calvinistic teaching have quit evangelistic preaching because they feel God will select his own and that man is hopeless and helpless to do anything about his condition.
___If we follow this teaching, then we can write "Ichabod" to Baptists in America.
___ Taylor Pendley
___ Mesquite

Pure motives
___Wonderful, wonderful coverage of True Love Waits (Oct. 13). Support for True Love Waits in the Baptist Standard has been a major factor in the growth of the purity movement.
___ Richard Ross
___ LifeWay Christian Resources
___ Nashville, Tenn.


Shroud not authentic
___I am astonished that the issue of the Shroud of Turin is even being talked about by Christians as being the burial cloth of Christ (Oct. 20). All it takes is a little Bible research to see there is no way that could be the burial cloth of Christ.
___John 20:6-7 tells us when Peter entered the tomb of Christ, there were two cloths. One linen wrapping was for the body, and a separate cloth covered his head. The Shroud of Turin is one cloth.
___Isaiah 52:14 , in describing the Suffering Servant, tells us our Lord's appearance was so marred that he could scarcely be recognized as a human. Whoever was buried in the Shroud of Turin was very recognizable as a human.
___ Please, as Bible-reading Christians, let's put this issue where it belongs. It is nothing more than wishful thinking on someone's part. But the burial cloth of Christ--no way!
___ Don Casper
___ Schwab City


'Watchdogs' peddle paranoia
___ Because the Baptist Standard claims to represent Christians, your publication should have exposed, not praised, Morris Dees and his Southern Poverty Law Center (Oct. 20), which has raised millions of dollars in donations by "selling causes"--in their case, hard-core leftism.
___ Far from being a "Bubba" in his younger days, attorney Dees was a devoted segregationist, accepting fees at one point from a White Citizens' Council to provide legal defense for a Klansman who had participated in mob violence. By the late 1970s, however, Dees found it much more profitable to peddle paranoia about "right-wing extremism."
___ Laird Wilcox, a veteran observer of political extremist groups, and no advocate of the right-wing (having been a longtime member of the ACLU and veteran of the 1960s Civil Rights movement), is nonetheless a strong critic of professional anti-right watchdog groups like the SPLC. In his study, "The Watchdogs," Wilcox points out that "the watchdogs engage in 'political profiling' … hold(ing) law enforcement conferences, seminars and training sessions on this 'profiling' behavior against their enemies and critics." For the most part, the "watchdogs" have "roots in the extreme Marxist left of the American political spectrum," observes Wilcox.
___ With law enforcement depending upon committed leftists for intelligence, the possibility exists that all one needs to do these days to qualify as a potential "hate criminal" is to profess a love for our Constitution or ultimately an undying devotion to the King of Kings!
___ Carol Fort
___Palestine

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