Texas Baptist Forum

Direct benefit

Please tell me I misread in “Ten traits to teach today’s ministers” (July 27 ) that “Texas Baptists benefit directly from three—Baptist University of the Americas, Logsdon Seminary at Hardin-Simmons University and Truett Seminary at Baylor University”—seminaries.

I have attended every state convention since becoming a Texas Baptist in 2001. I am involved in Texas Hope 2010. The church I pastor has supported the Baptist General Convention of Texas through its budget for 55 years. And I am a 2003 graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary-Houston.

I am sure I am not the only graduate from SWBTS who has chosen to pastor a BGCT-affiliated church. It seems to me Texas Baptists have benefited quite a bit, even recently, from SWBTS. When will SWBTS and its graduates stop being pushed aside and counted as insignificant by the Baptist Standard and other BGCT leadership.

I thought this would end with the departure of Charles Wade. I guess I was wrong.

Clay Bowers

Houston

 

Baylor and alumni

For 150 years, loyal alumni of Baylor University have given sacrificially to support the institution they loved.

To learn that the Alumni Association’s voluntary connections to the university—telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, website unity—have been severed due to university mandate is at best disappointing and at worst offensive. The Alumni Association initiated collection of alumni contact data years ago—long before the advent of e-mail addresses and cellular phone numbers and the university’s recognition of the value of such information. Baylor University has benefited well from the services performed by its Alumni Association, but that matters little to those now in power who have consumed the Alumni Association’s database and wish to control its independent voice.

When the university seeks to silence the association—historically Baylor’s loyal supporter from attacks without and Baylor’s loyal opposition from attacks within—concerned and engaged alumni and Baylorites everywhere should rise up and demand answers from those directing these decisions from their armchairs and comfortable corporate quarters.

Some suggest certain members of the board of regents are directly responsible for this decision. That, too, merits consideration—and action. As one who once pledged “Anything for Baylor” and who always expected his three sons would one day be students there, I confess I would never recommend they—nor anyone seeking my advice—attend that institution until the board of regents’ house has been cleaned. Nor would I send any money in that direction.

Fred Norton Jr.

Past president, Baylor Alumni Association

Texarkana

 

Unkind cut?

Americans are appalled by female circumcision elsewhere but less disturbed by male circumcision here.

Infant circumcision is not recommended by any national medical association.

Some Christians mistakenly think that because the Bible mentions circumcision, they should circumcise. The Council of Jerusalem determined Christians have no religious requirement for circumcision (Acts 15:1-10). The Apostle Paul repeatedly warned against circumcision.

Most U.S. circumcisions are done for cultural reasons or because of medical misinformation. The U.S. circumcision rate has declined to 56 percent but remains a painful reality for too many babies.

God designed the human body perfectly.

As Christians learn more about circumcision, they protect their sons from the sexual losses and harms resulting from it. See www.icgi.org/birth_care_providers.htm.

Petrina Fadel

Groton, N.Y.