May 21, 2001
TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:
Four-way test
___Now hear this, Baptist leaders and laymen! Hear the message of Rotary International's Four-Way Test: "Of the things we think, say or do, ask: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Is it beneficial to all concerned? And will it build goodwill and better friendships?"
___Apply the test to caustic verbal outpourings against brothers! Apply the test to journalistic reporting, letters to the editor and editorial commentary! Apply the test!
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com
___Considering the conflict among Texas Baptists, is it any wonder the world scoffs at our message of God's redeeming love and grace? Can "godly" men spew bitterness against brothers? Can you imagine the disastrous effects that would have been wrought if either Paul or Barnabas had acted, reacted and responded like we do?
___While Texas Baptists continue to disagree and pursue different directions, it is absolutely past-due time for reconciliation through repentance and giving and receiving forgiveness.
___Disagreement demands only that we disagree. God demands that we be "kind, tender-hearted and forgiving one another, just as God, in Christ, has forgiven us."
___ James D. Beaver
___ Irving
Class of one
___Thank you for the Cynthia Clawson interview (May 7). She is great.
___In 1973, she sang "It is Well with My Soul" at one of the sessions of the Southern Baptist Convention in Portland. I have never heard a singer so move our convention.
___Just before she began singing, I walked to the back of the convention hall to check the balance of the sound. Before she finished, I do not believe there was a dry eye in the house. Handkerchiefs were everywhere, even mine.
___She is in a class by herself.
___ Bill Reynolds
___ Fort Worth
Behave in church
___I am one of those people who sits in the pews and inwardly bemoans the loss of reverence and creeping influence of showbiz in modern worship. I thought I'd seen it all until our church had a multiple baptism at which many of the congregation applauded each dunk and bubble. The applause had that typical church applause pattern--one or two people with a clap or two here that increased as others hurtled themselves off the precipice like so many lemmings. Why do we do these things?
___Baptism is symbolic of our burial and resurrection with Christ. It represents the forgiveness of sin. These are not human acts but occur because of God's grace and our acceptance of it. No human agency made this possible. To applaud baptism as though it is a human achievement simply is not appropriate. The response should be reflection and awe. None of us has done anything to deserve the gift of grace.
___A "stick-in-the-mud," "behind-the-times," a "fuddy-duddy" I can hear some say as they read. No, I am just 35 going on 70, and my parents taught me how to behave in church.
___ Name withheld
May it be
___I read "Read census numbers, see future" (May 7). I want to thank you and congratulate you on an outstanding editorial and your ability to see the future. I commend you for speaking with a prophetic voice to Texas Baptists concerning the future. I could not agree with you more strongly regarding your perspective of the challenges we face as Texas Baptists in the next 20 years.
___In particular, I was deeply moved by what you wrote concerning Hispanic Baptist Theological School. You said, "This is the most pivotal endeavor the BGCT is undertaking at the outset of this century, for it will determine how successfully the convention ministers in Texas throughout the century."
___A stronger HBTS will produce strategic ministry leadership for the future. Since much of what we attempt hinges on leadership, I believe that you could not have stated your assessment more accurately concerning the pivotal nature of our efforts to become the first Bible college in Texas Baptist history.
___Increasing Hispanic participation in BGCT life and leadership, escalating church planting efforts, providing additional resources for HBTS, strengthening River Ministry, and empowering emerging Hispanic leadership with contextual resources including scholarships and grants summarizes an intentional and proactive stance to changing the trajectory of our future in this new millennium.
___May it be so!
___ Albert Reyes, President
___ Hispanic Baptist
___ Theological School
___ San Antonio
Much to agree
___With regard to the letter from Joseph Underwood (May 7), I appreciate both the writer's interest and his concern for the approach that we took in Baylor's Center for Christian Ethics symposium on Christianity and Toleration.
___He might be reassured to know the symposium was hardly an effort to "create an admirable image of toleration." In fact, his reference to the critique of toleration by J.M. Dawson would lead me to believe he might have found much to agree with among the speakers.
___The symposium was a response to my recent monograph, "The Long Truce: How Toleration Made the World Safe for Power and Profit." My findings in that book are quite in agreement, I think, with Underwood's concern about the misuse of toleration.
___While toleration is a term with great currency today, the tendency has been to use it as a means of suppressing dialogue on faith and moral order rather than creating an open atmosphere for the exchange of ideas. What I would add is that Christianity does have an intellectual tradition that we could, in current terms, call toleration and which might more properly be thought of as religious liberty.
___The book is really the story of how those changes in views came about and how it is that this latter-day toleration deserved the censure of the distinguished Baptist leader J.M. Dawson, in whose church Truett Seminary has resided in its fledgling years.
___ A.J. Conyers
___ Waco
Saving murderers
___Romans 1:16 tells us that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. What an amazing statement! Certainly the gospel --the power of God--can transform anyone. Without hesitation we proclaim that the gospel--the power of God--can make the foulest clean, praise the Lord!
___But the gospel cannot save someone after we administer a lethal injection.
___We can put the Timothy McVeighs of the world in prisons where they no longer present a serious threat to society. With the likes of him behind bars, our streets are safer, and the power of God has a chance to change him before it is too late.
___Is the sanctity of Timothy McVeigh's life worth preserving so that the gospel might have an opportunity to change him? Does God want to save Timothy McVeigh and other hardened criminals?
___Scripture regulated slavery, and the principles of the New Testament ended slavery in this country. The Old Testament regulated divorce, and Jesus said that those regulations were an accommodation for hardened hearts (Matthew 19:7-9). The Old Testament commanded that adulterers be put to death, and Jesus stopped the execution of a woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11). It is time that the principles of the New Testament end the death penalty in this country.
___The gospel--the power of God--can transform even mass murderers, but not if we kill them first.
___ Dave Stratton
___ Supply, N.C.
God speaks
___A recent news article reported that scientists "have presented the most precise measurements to date of the infant universe as it existed approximately 14 billion years ago, exposing tell-tale reverberations they called 'the music of creation.'"
___Several millennia ago, the Lord asked Job, "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation ... while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?"
___No matter what semantics we use in arguing about the Bible, God speaks through his word.
___ S.M. Inman
___ Houston
Correction
___The 10th paragraph of the May 14 letter from Paul Powell should have read:
___"He (Jesus) came not just to proclaim a message but rather that we might have a message to proclaim. He himself is the message. Without him, there would be no forgiveness of sin, no deliverance from sin, no victory over sin. Without him, there would be no gospel."
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