Moore, hypocrisy and spiritual ‘baggage’

Moore ‘devoted disciple of Jesus Christ’

Recently many Southern Baptists have been strongly criticizing Dr. Russell Moore, director of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Russell was one of my master of divinity students at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary two decades ago, in my Christian ethics classes.

I soon discovered him not only to be bright and intelligent, but more importantly, he was a devoted disciple of Jesus Christ. He did not agree with everything I taught then, and I do not agree with all he proposes now. But isn’t that true of almost every one of us? What I did find then was a young man totally dedicated to the gospel, very devout, and a sincere Christian.

I urge Southern Baptists to remember: Few of us believe alike on all issues, especially ethical ones. But the key is our submission to the Lordship of Christ and our commitment to follow the will of God as best we understand it. There is no doubt in my mind that Russell Moore does that. You probably will not agree with him on every issue, but I guarantee you he will be pointing you in the right direction most of the time.

In my estimation, he is the best ethical voice the SBC has had in many years.

Joe E. Trull

Denton

 

Moore ‘not in line’

In response to a Russell Moore controversy, Jake Raabe states, “I’ve written before about the history of our denomination, which started as a persecuted group of dissenters from the Church of England.”

Some of us do not hold we are a Protestant denomination, but one that began with Jesus Christ and his disciples.

This separates us further from Moore, who is violently mainstream siding with the world on many points. Call the man what he is—not main stream—not in line with most who support our causes!

Joel Blaylock

Allen

 

‘The courage to speak out’

Your reprinted editorial “The ‘downward death spiral’ of hypocrisy” is timely and prophetic. It is rather amazing that the people who loudly claim to believe every word of the Bible is true, “even to the ‘genuine leather’ on the cover,” engage in such hypocrisy and disrespect for the truth.

When Jesus walked the earth more than 2,000 years ago, he was able to reach the “sinners” of the day, but the right-wing religious people rebelled against his message and finally orchestrated his crucifixion.

Your editorial mentioned Robert Jeffress, but there were several prominent right-wing figures who endorsed Trump but tried to deny it. What do they expect to gain from a Trump presidency? I think they visualize taking their filthy lucre to the bank by wheelbarrow loads when the Republicans destroy the First Amendment’s provision for separation of church and state and allow them to divert tax dollars to religious schools.

Their followers were likely impressed with the “pro-life” argument. If so, they were tricked big time. Millions of Americans will die prematurely when Trump and his supporters wreck regulations about safety, health and the environment and toady to the merchants of death in the gun lobby.

What about “overturning abortion”? To paraphrase one of the silly sayings of the NRA, “When abortions are outlawed, only outlaws will perform abortions.” Poor women will be driven to back-alley butchers, while rich women and victims of billionaire sexual predators will travel to countries where abortion is legal.

Thank God for people such as Marv Knox and Russell Moore who have the courage to speak out.

Carl Hess

Ozark, Ala.

 

Get rid of ‘baggage’

Good for the Baptist General Convention of Texas regarding Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas and First Baptist Church in Austin. 

I have just about worn this “rebuttal” out, but I always ask: “What was the first thing Legion did after his encounter with Jesus and was saved? He went home got cleaned up and dressed.” 

We all come to Christ with “baggage,” but God expects us to get rid of it.

F.A. Taylor

Kempner