Letters: Preserve the CLC

Go To Topics: CLC, Women, Rescuers, Marfa, Wisdom, Gambling, Atonement 

Preserve the Christian Life Commission

I would like to affirm your editorial, which calls to our attention the vital function of the Christian Life Commission.

I wholeheartedly believe the commission’s place is in the bylaws of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, or a statement that clarifies its purpose and function should be reincluded in the constitution of the convention, so that the CLC may continue to function at the pleasure of the entire convention.

Julian C. Bridges

Abilene

Francis & pastors miss the gospel

Pope Francis missed the point of the gospel. It is not to live simply and to reach out to the physical outcasts. Jesus reached out to all, some of whom were outcasts. Pope Francis disenfranchised women when he said that because Jesus didn’t choose women to be disciples, they could never be priests.

Baptist pastors are disenfranchising women today. I know from Internet sermons these pastors have become mean-spirited in their preaching against women. With loud declarations, they preach that women are to be submissive to all males, both in the home and in the church. Jesus never indicated by word or deed any such theology. 

Recently I heard the pastor of a large Baptist church compare women to the Holy Spirit, telling women they are exalted. That pastor denigrated the Holy Spirit by that comparison to women, because women in his church are denied full service to the Lord. 

Another pastor of a Baptist church nearby told women they are equal, but have different functions. That, too, is nowhere to be found in the words or deeds of Jesus.

To be radical, or to simply be Christian, pastors and the pope would have to allow the Spirit to blow where it will and take their feet off the neck of women.

Shirley Taylor

Willis

Life-savers are wonderful people

Richard and Rebecca Strange are wonderful people. They are an example to so many in our congregation, Cowboy Church of Tarrant County. Our singles admire their love and devotion to each other.

Richard is a new lay pastor for us. He and Rebecca love the Lord, love each other and their family, and love their church. I’m so blessed to be their pastor and friend. 

Bobby Rice

Keller

Help Marfa battle smut

The small West Texas town of Marfa is in a battle with an adult magazine over the use of Marfa to market their smut and sexism. The marketing vehicle is a large outdoor sign of the trademark logo for the adult magazine. It is claimed that the sign is “art.”

The Texas Department of Transportation is in the process of deciding whether the sign is legal given the general ban of outdoor advertising along the highways in the open spaces of Texas. This ban is one of the grand legacies of Lady Bird Johnson.

The good citizens of Marfa need the help of those Texans who honor the legacy of Mrs. Johnson. If the purveyors of smut and sexism can vitiate this legacy in a small West Texas town, what will become of the beautiful open roads of Texas that the work of Mrs. Johnson bequeathed to all Texans?

Please contact your state representative, state senator and the Texas Department of Transportation and demand that this sign be taken down. Please act to preserve Mrs. Johnson’s legacy against its attack by the purveyors of smut and sexism under the guise of art.

Lineaus Hooper Lorette

Marfa

Realizing Christianity’s potential

We live in a world that is both oozing with potential but yet neck-deep in error, confusion, sheer and abject stupidity, war, hatred, disease, ignorance, etc. ad nauseum.

A whole lot of necessary answers will occur if and when pastors begin teaching their congregations—and most especially, the youth: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom, get understanding” (Proverbs 4:5) and “All the paths of wisdom are peace” (Proverbs 3:17b).

Then, and only then, will true Christianity realize its potential.

John Narez

St. Louis, Mo.

Predatory gambling can be beat

Law enforcement officials have shut down a huge illegal gambling operation in Plano. The sports betting operation allegedly was a $1 billion business.

Officers seized about $10 million in a sting. Half will go to Plano police. Undercover officers placed some 300 bets, documenting the illegal activity. The investigation began with a tip from a citizen.

While Stop Predatory Gambling played no known role in shutting down this particular operation, lessons can be learned.

First, citizen tips to law enforcement can be effective. If you are aware of illegal gambling, report it to police vice officers. If you want to be remain anonymous, contact Stop Predatory Gambling, and we will report it for you to the North Texas Gambling Task Force, a coalition of law-enforcement agencies. The task force works throughout the state.

Second, although not every raid on an illegal gambling operation is well-publicized, law enforcement shuts down illegal gambling operations regularly. One Texas county has run out of room to store all the illegal slot machines it has seized while waiting for them to be used as evidence at trial. Law enforcement does not count illegal gambling a “victimless crime” to be ignored. 

It’s tempting to throw up our hands and believe nothing can be done about the blight of predatory gambling. But the City of Plano has five million reasons to disagree. The fight against predatory gambling is not only a noble fight but also one which can be won.

Rodger Weems

Arlington

Atonement debate

Mr. Mohler appears to believe that God requires one to pass a doctrinal advancement test to qualify for salvation. I would have thought that believing Jesus knew what he was talking about when he taught that man’s chief duty was to love God and other humans–an ancient rubric of multitudes who had never come to accept Jesus as other than as an imperfect man, by the way–is sufficient for “salvation.” Sufficient, that is, if put into action and not given mere lip service. (But, what does anyone really know?)

Ernest L. O’Bannon

New Orleans, La.