September 29, 1999
Texas Baptist Forum
Wrong three times
___You are wrong on prayer at football games (Sept. 15).
___First, that stadium microphone is sponsored by the local government, and the Constitution forbids Congress from establishing a national religion. It's only in the last 40 years that the liberal courts have, in effect, rewritten the First Amendment. The foundingfathers intended for the states to govern themselves in such matters. The First Amendment was designed to limit the federal government. The founding fathers encouraged religion (Christian) and believed it to be a pillar of education.
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___Because of individuals such as you who advocate secularism, our religious freedoms are abridged. Furthermore, just because Jesus prayed privately and castigated the loud-praying, phony hypocrites doesn't mean we should never be publicly led in prayer.
___Second, Baptists enjoy a heritage of defending minorities. However, if the consciences of the few or the one are preserved at the expense of the majority's, isn't this a greater injury? Especially if the few or the one would lead us into the abyss of secularism or atheism?
___Third, true Baptists don't favor the incremental abridgment of religious freedoms this country has experienced over the last 40 years. Also, the students who offer prayers for their communities don't offer "namby-pamby" prayers. They offer prayers of sincerity. Shame on you for inferring otherwise.
___ Daryl G. Colyer
___ Lorena
Stroke of genius
___A few years back, in a town in Oklahoma, we had this problem of prayer at football games (Sept. 15). We overcame all with one man's stroke of genius.
___He owned a radio station. He also developed a small portable studio so he could go to the malls for public relations work. Well, he began to come to the games, and he had a number of folks bring their boom boxes. They would have a live, on-the-air prayer before the game, and those of us in the stands with the radios would all turn them up on cue. All loved it, and as long as we didn't get too loud, no laws were broken. We had prayer at every game.
___The ACLU even had to laugh.
___ Darrell Treat
___ Gentry, Mo.
Poor taste
___The "cartoon" about television evangelists going out to eat (Sept. 8) was in extremely poor taste. We can only pray that opinion is not representative of the majority of Baptist church members.
___God called some to be preachers, teachers, evangelists. The Bible says, "Do not touch my anointed" (Psalm 105:15), and you have taken it upon yourself to "touch" and "demean" evangelists.
___While you may not like them, the television evangelists will save more souls for Christ in one month than the Texas Baptist churches will save in a year or maybe 10 years.
___ Helen & Joe Rossiter
___ Tulsa, Okla.
Sunday eating
___I read with pleasure the "Sunday shopping" letter (Sept. 15). However, it did not mention attending church then rushing to the cafeteria, thereby preventing workers from attending worship services.
___My criticism would not be directed toward those who of necessity must work on Sunday, but toward those who prevent others from attending church by shopping or eating out on Sunday.
___ Ramsey Carrell
___ Mabank
Foggy glasses
___The International Mission Board's prayer guide for Jews calls upon us to "intercede with God on behalf of his chosen people" (Sept. 15).
___What? God's chosen people are those who accept Jesus.
___Have the people who put out the prayer guide read the New Testament? Perhaps their dispensational glasses fogged up when they read Romans 4:13, 9:8, 2:28 and Galatians 3:28.
___Who will be invited to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb (Luke 14:15-24)? Not the one who is a Jew outwardly, but those who are Jews inwardly-- the Israel of God (Galatians 3:15-29) who accept the invitation of God to be redeemed.
___There are now only two kinds of people--the believer and the unbeliever. After the last sacrifice was offered on the Cross, only believers are considered the "people of God."
___Politics might not get me mad at the Southern Baptist Convention, but dispensationalist heresy will.
___ Ben Macklin
___ Ranger
SBC black eye
___The Southern Baptist Convention has once again attempted to remove the speck from the Jews' eye while lodging a plank in their own. Why should Christians expect God to keep his covenant with us yet forsake his covenant with the Jews that predates ours. Wasn't the God of the Old Testament the same as the one in the New?
___I'm not a universalist, and I don't believe in the god(s) of Muslim, Mormon or Buddhist faiths. I believe in the one true God as described in the Bible. That same God who blessed Gentiles is the same one who blessed the Jews for centuries. In my view, practicing Jews are honoring their covenant and commitment to God. Even if I felt otherwise, it is blind-sighted and destructive to select their highest holy day to holler "sinner, repent" and expect meaningful dialogue or any hope of building a relationship with God's (original) chosen people.
___A simple question: If God broke his covenant with Jews and forsook them, what makes us think he will not do the same to Christians? Is our God the type to forsake those he has claimed?
___Once again, the SBC has given true Great Commission Christians a black eye, yet another example of how out of touch the SBC is with most Baptist Christians. My future tithe checks will go to real ministries like missions, food banks, small church starts, local churches or the BGCT. Call me "Southern" Baptist no more.
___ Mark W. Clark
___ Lewisville
Humble heroes
___Let me add a different word to the discussion of Texas' most influential Baptists of the 20th century. All those who were nominated are worthy servants, as are hundreds more who have come to readers' minds.
___But the really influential people in Texas Baptist life may not be those on a high-profile list. The ones who have genuinely influenced 100 years' worth of Baptists are the down-to-earth pastors who labored faithfully in modest neighborhood and rural churches. Often bivocational, they have kept on preaching the gospel and loving their congregations "in season and out." Their wives were frequently primary breadwinners before it was common for women to work outside the home. Their children were held to higher standards than any others in town.
___Through a century of war, depression and social change, the local pastor has called souls to the Lord, taught them the Bible, ministered when he himself was drained and inspired the next generation of preachers, missionaries, musicians and untold others to answer a deeper call--usually without any staff other than himself.
___Their contribution is beyond calculation. May their century of labor not be overlooked.
___ Bill Ehrke
___ Irving
Modern persecution
___I am disturbed after reading the article on the reasons for Larry Gene Ashbrook's murderous actions at Wedgwood Baptist Church (Sept. 22).
___What disturbs me is the quote from Robert Parham of the Baptist Center for Ethics. He uses this opportunity to express dislike for the Religious Right. It is statements like this from the Baptist Center for Ethics that make me even more appreciative of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
___To even suggest that Christians are not under persecution shows a lack of touch with the real world. Maybe in Parham's world Christians are those who just agree with whatever society, the media or the government tell them. But in the real world, Christians are persecuted when they believe and stand up for what the Bible says. Christians are dying for their faith.
___ Mark Gossett
___ Clarksville
Angels in place
___Hoorah, and it's about time someone like Brett Younger speaks up in his article, "Angels are nice, but God is the focus of worship" (Sept. 15).
___I have been shocked at a few friends giving credit to angels for everything from saving their house from burning to saving them in a car wreck. Thanking God would be my first thought in either case.
___I weary of folks stating when a loved one dies and it rains, "The angels are crying." Others feel children become angels when they die. Not per the Bible.
___I certainly believe in angels, but let's keep honest here.
___ E.B. Waters
___ Dallas
Tangled up in fringe
___The Standard seems to be giving undue reportage space to the fringe elements of Baptist life. First we hear of churches installing labyrinths (Aug. 18), next we're makingspiritual maps of Houston, admittedly, the logical follow-on to the national Southern Baptist fad of prayer walking (Sept. 22). We're even told of the important ground-breaking studies of how theology affects emotional robots (Sept. 22)!
___Few articles of rebuttal have been offered beyond letters to the editor. The more attention you give to this stuff, the more mainstream it seems to the undiscerning, and the faster it spreads. The result is more Baptists being blown about by every wind, doctrinal and otherwise.
___If I hadn't thrown away my Ouija board when Christ called me, I could be using it to find where God is at work.
___John Flenniken
___Weatherford
Don't move old landmarks
___Please, some theologian, answer my question. If it is not of enough interest to go in Texas Baptist Forum, please send to cgmatty@juno.com I am tired of worrying.
___I read that the Baptist Faith & Message statement is to be revised. If I find that the new
___I assume that you agree that a half-truth is worse than an outright lie? That to say that Paul says that a wife must submit to her husband without continuing, "husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for it." Any woman would delight in marriage to a man who loved her as Christ loved the church, and if the family relations article follows the Bible, I will favor it--though I do not know why we should rewrite the Bible.
___Please, why move the old landmarks? Are thieves and robbers trying to come over the wall?
___Craig G Matthews
___University Park
Anti-Semitic perceptions
___Within two decades of the death of Jesus his followers had begun to attack the Jewish beliefs of their mentor. For these 2,000 years, many Christians have come to regard the
___Repeated assaults on Jews are tied to a perception of them as an evil and vicious enemy, as a dogma of demons or as a religion that is fallacious. Jewish refusal to recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah has produced the ardent desire to negate and abolish Judaism.
___Christian ministers must, if preaching from an obviously anti-Semitic smear in the New Testament, must point out the slurs' baselessness. The idea that the Jew is somehow "lost" without belief in Jesus as messiah and as the "divine Son of G-d," must stop if anti-Semitism is to stop.
___Can individuals rid themselves of anti-Semitism? Yes, if Christian ministers and teachers are willing to point out the anti-Semitic nature of many passages of the New Testament. Then we can proceed to the building of a relationship of mutual respect, and the acknowledgment of all men and women as children of G-d.
___Thomas D. Roper
___Virginia Beach, Va.
Is God trying to tell us something?
___The week before See You at the Pole, I challenged the youth of our church to examine their level of commitment to God. I told them, "All over the world, people are persecuted
___One week later, I was horrified as I came home and turned on the TV to see the murder of the young people at Wedgwood Baptist Church. I've cried over the loss of these innocent lives and later rejoiced in their testimonies.
___I just wonder, are we as a church going to spend all of our time asking ourselves what kind of man would do such a thing or ask the really hard questions, like, "Is God trying to tell us something?"
___We fight to give our children the right to pray at football games, yet we fail to nurture them spiritually the other 355 days a year. May this tragedy be a wake-up call to everyone who can make a difference in the life of our youth.
___As John wrote, "Blessed are those who hear God's word and take it to heart because the time is near" (Revelation 1:3).
___Robert Sarles
___Colorado City
Wrong attitudes
___Comments such as those by Robert Parham and James Dunn (Sept. 22.) illustrate the hopelessness of bringing true peace to the Southern Baptist Convention or anywhere else
___Parham chose to inject political bickering and bitterness into the discussion of an extremely tragic event. Dunn's description of those who see school vouchers as being at least potentially helpful is unconscionable. I am disappointed that the Standard not only saw fit to print it but to highlight it. A Christian who would stoop to this level and who would pride himself on being a carrier of ulcers has missed portions of Scripture at least as meaningful as those on race, church-state or gambling.
___Dunn remains one of only two speakers who've ever motivated me to walk out before a message was finished. I did so not because I disagreed with him or was angry but because he was so mean-spirited. The other speaker was a fundamentalist speaking on counseling techniques at a large church in Fort Worth. To paraphrase a bumper sticker: "Mean people stink."
___Whether people wear the label of moderate/conservative or fundamental/conservative, true leaders will challenge wrong attitudes and actions among their followers. Alas, true leaders seem to be in short supply on either side.
___Bob Stith
___Southlake
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