August 13, 2001

TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:
Sinister overkill
___Three full pages on a Texas trustee of the International Mission Board, Russell Kaemmerling, going to prison (Aug. 6) is too much. This kind of overkill is sinister at best.
___You have "thrown down the gauntlet." You're out to show the world what a bad bunch

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those Southern Baptist Convention people have become. It won't work. You won't get far with this approach.
___I am really unhappy with your paper.
___ Donald Rankin
___ Shreveport, La.

More mercy
___Russell Kaemmerling is my friend. I am grateful for Scripture when events are impossible to understand. I am grateful for the Proverbs, which declare, "By mercy and truth iniquity is purged."
___The older I get, the more I appreciate the tension between mercy and truth. Typically, young men love truth, while old men focus on mercy. When the woman was taken in adultery, it was the old men who went away first, for they were first aware of their disqualification for judging. Conservatives often major on truth and become legalists; liberals major on mercy and become, well, liberals. It is not either/or, it is both/and--mercy and truth--held in delicate balance and constant tension.
___Truth declares, "Blessed are the merciful." As I age, I find that "mercy" is far more attractive to me than it was when I was 20. It is my prayer that "truth" will never lose its beauty in my heart.
___As Russell, his family and his friends walk through their valley, it is incumbent upon everyone who names the name of Christ to pray for us. J.B. Phillips states 1 Corinthians 13:5-8 exactly right in his paraphrase, "The love of which I am speaking ... does not keep an account of evil, but it shares the joy of those who live by the truth. ... Love knows no end to its trust, no fading of its hope, love outlasts everything."
___ Larry Holly
___ Beaumont

Truth & freedom
___Thank you for printing the news item about Russell Kaemmerling. Baptist fundamentalists are ethically bankrupt. It is past time that Southern Baptists stop electing, supporting and following leaders of that kind.
___Keep writing the truth. One day the truth will set us free
___ Darrell Tapley
___ Valera

Lot's wife
___I must respond to Lou Anne Smoot's letter condemning those of us who believe homosexuality is wrong on the basis that Jesus never mentioned it (July 16).
___The Bible is clear about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The men of Sodom did not want anything to do with Lot's virgin daughters. They wanted the men, "that we may know them," they said. That term is used in the Bible to describe intimate sexual relationships between men and women.
___This says nothing of Romans 1:24, 26 and 28, where three times God "gave them up," because of homosexual activity.
___The Bible still condemns homosexuality as well as a lot of other sins, but this sin is the only one that caused God to destroy two cities and turned Lot's wife into a pillar of salt for looking back longingly.
___Which brings up another point. Did not Jesus say, "Remember Lot's wife"? And when I do, I remember her love or tolerance for the homosexual cities that did not have a real good end.
___ Ken Tierce
___ Abilene

Proud name
___There is no such thing as a "fundamentalist of the left" (July 23), as one of your articles asked.
___Those described in the article are really ultra-liberals who have their own beliefs, irrespective of Bible truth. They change Scriptures to agree with their beliefs.
___Fundamentalists are those who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible.
___This term to describe the SBC is a term of derision, just as the word "Christian" was in Antioch.
___The SBC is proud to bear this name.
___ Hollis Davis
___ Farmers Branch

Alternative name
___An interesting article, "Will the real fundamentalists please stand up?" (July 23), reminded me of a Baptist congregation in south Alabama. It called itself "The Perfect Alternative Baptist Church."
___So, to answer the question posed by the article: It does not matter. Just call yourself "The Perfect Alternative."
___ Dan Bates
___ Millican

Wake up
___Last year, I asked my youth minister to give me an idea of what the young men and women at our local seminary thought about the "split" between the two Baptist groups.
___Was there a certain side that claimed their loyalty? Do they prefer one doctrinal stand to the other?
___His response gave me a sobering realization that Texas Baptists better wake up.
___The students he had talked with were not choosing "either/or," but they were giving serious consideration to "neither/nor."
___The students felt they were outside the loop, and the fight was not theirs. They didn't understand the reason for the split or why the harsh words and mean-spiritedness.
___I have to agree with the person who wrote the "Seek reconciliation" letter (July 9).
___It appears the young ministers coming out of our seminaries and colleges will work for the kingdom, but not necessarily through the two conventions that are at odds with each other.
___As a personal note, it doesn't seem reasonable to waste time on the "we're right--they're wrong" attitude so prevalent in Texas. There are too many people who need to hear the gospel and too few who will step away from the fussing to take it.
___Let's just do the work and drop the words.
___Actions and attitudes will always speak louder than our words.
___ Guille Seigler
___ Fort Worth

Two influences
___Growing up in the 1950s and '60s, when we entered the sanctuary--defined as a consecrated place or a place of refuge--we always found a pew where we sat quietly in reverence.
___The time preceding the start of the services was spent in reflection and introspection--"Be still and know that I am God."
___When the song portion of the worship service started, it was not a pep rally of repetitive little verses but songs borne of the trials and tribulations of life's journey.
___ We sang songs like "Amazing Grace," "Just When I Need Him Most" and "It is Well With My Soul."
___The singing was the prelude of the main portion of the service, opening God's word, assimilating God's word and learning how to apply God's word as we went into the world.
___Times have changed. Too many congregations and their "spiritual" leaders have opted for entertainment. This doctrine of feelings has crossed denominational lines.
___The Bible says, "Come, let us reason together," not, "Let us come together emotionally." Emotions fluctuate.
___The church has failed in its charge to "teach all nations." The church has followed the world's influence instead of influencing the world.
___It's all foretold in God's word. "In the last days ... they will have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof" (2 Timothy 3:5).
___This question is for everyone who claims to be a Christian: Are you influencing the world, or is the world influencing you?
___ David Page
___ Sour Lake

Evil 'rock'
___I want to address "Graham mixes old-style preaching with Christian rock" (July 9).
___I have convictions as to what constitutes a Christian. I also have convictions concerning rock music. There is no such thing as "Christian rock."
___The first time I heard rock aired on radio, I thought they had learned how to put "illicit sex to music." My first impression hasn't changed much. Immediately I thought, "How long will it be before someone will add Christian lyrics to this sensual jungle beat?" I think it was about a year.
___In 1 John 4:1, we are instructed to try the spirits. There are the Holy Spirit, the spirit of man and the spirit of demons. Christians should try everything that is paraded before the assembly as "Christian." 1 Thessalonians 5:22 says to "abstain from every form of evil."
___ Robert Byrd
___ Muleshoe

Can't use Bible to oppose death penalty
___Thanks to Tom Harkins for his letter, "God & Death" (July 23).
___ Some have gone out of their way to show the Bible does not support capital punishment, and hence, it is assumed, it’s the Christian duty to oppose it.
___ Harkins touches key biblical texts, which make capital punishment the very cornerstone of biblical faith. Indeed, the faith of the Bible is built on the presumption that "the wages of sin is death (penalty) but the gift of God is eternal life" (redemption).
___ The New Testament’s central message is that the death penalty is absolutely necessary for redemption: Christ did not come to oppose or abolish it. On the contrary, he confirmed it by voluntarily taking the death penalty upon himself as the will of God. Isn’t this very act--Christ’s taking the wages of sin upon himself--at the very center of our evangelism and preaching?
___ And since God himself was unwilling to ban the death penalty in response to his Son’s plea in the garden, as Romans 8:32 puts it, "he did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all," it would be very hard to build a case to demonstrate that God is against the death penalty.
___ I am writing this comment not necessarily to endorse the practice of the death penalty but simply to state that those who use the Bible to oppose the death penalty should do so on other grounds.
___J.E. Torres
___Fort Worth



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