Where are the "Real" Baptists?

. . . every true Baptist understands that any attempt to “baptize” the faith with the imprimatur of the state – whether it’s the Ten Commandments or faith-based initiatives or public prayer in public schools – ultimately diminishes the integrity of the faith. Roger Williams warned us about that nearly four centuries ago. Those warnings were prescient then.

Today, they’re urgent.

That comment in a speech last week By Randall Balmer at The Religious Liberty Council Luncheon in Washington, D.C., addresses the same problem I have been trying to raise at every venue that I have access to. The so-called baptists who are leading the SBC today have not concept of what it has meant historically to be baptist. Their hunger for power and caused them to throw away the one thing that really made baptists distinctive, their absolute commitment to a "Free church in a Free state." I urge you to read the entire address at "In Search of America's Baptists"

George Bush Hates America

I heard on the radio this morning that a critic referred to George Bush as "brain-dead" in response to the Scooter Libby fiasco. Some of those on the panel thought this kind of language was a little too extreme to use for a sitting president. Well, I've gone way past that. I fully believe that George Bush hates the America that most of us love. You don't have to agree with me, but you do have to seriously consider the things he has done to try to undermine the whole system of government. All you really have to consider are his supreme court nominees. Specifically, if he cared about the way the court is supposed to operate why would he have ever considered nominating Harriet Myers. At least in that case there was enough public outcry to make him withdraw the nomination. His nominations for attorney general were, are, and will be a total disgrace. Ashcroft was an absolute failure, but at least he seemed to honest and knew that the wiretaps were illegal. Gonzales is not only a failure, but a liar. How sad it is when the man who is supposed to lead the "Justice" department has no concept of what justice means. His nominee to the UN was designed to undermine the US presence there. The few people of quality that he allowed into his cabinet have resigned in disgust. General after general has resigned from the military so they can openly comment on the fiasco in the defense department. Who can forget, "way to go, Brownie." I could go on but it's too depressing. I hope the country can survive another year and a half in the hands of a man who hates what it stands for.

"Sad But True" or "True but Sad"

The Illegal Alien Is My Neighbor!

The biblical illiteracy of many who claim the Bible as their inerrant, infallible guide is often astonding. Nowhere is this more true than in the issue of Christian response to immigration reform. There are very few issues in the Bible where God's expectations are more clearly spelled out for us. I encourage you to read the article by David Gushee, on Christians and Immigration Reform.

I have extracted some of the key statements:

"As American Christians, are we more Christian or more American? I think that we should be Christians first."

"Biblically, the five most relevant moral principles on this issue are love, justice, hospitality, family and humility."

"Every person is my neighbor, whom I am called to love. The “undocumented worker” or “illegal alien” is my neighbor."

Jeremiah 22: “Do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed violence in this place.”

"Matthew 25, the king says, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” Illegal immigrants are strangers."

"As Christians, we cannot rest comfortably with raids that leave children in schools and daycare while their parents are deported."

". . . our true “citizenship” is in the church, and we are there as “resident aliens” hospitably welcomed by our gracious God. In this sense, we too are aliens, immigrants and strangers, and we should identify compassionately with this world’s versions of the same."

Referring specifically to the immigration reform bill, "This is hardly the kingdom of God in action. But it is far better than any alternative, and Christians should support it."

Paige has done it again!

I don't know how I missed this because I try to keep up with the really stupid things Paige Patterson says and does. I guess I was distracted by the end of school activities. According to PP educated women are a serious threat to the family, the country and the world.

At the fourth World Congress of Families in Warsaw, he said, "families need to be concerned that in America, 60% of college students are female." He predicts that in a few years, men will be increasingly underrepresented among "the intelligentsia" and will gradually cede leadership in many areas to women."

As a result women will increasingly forsake their God-ordained place of being barefoot and pregnant, and usurp the authority that God gave to men. (Not his words but definitely his thoughts.)

(What can I say? I know she's not barefoot, but it is Natalie Portman)


I am grateful that after reading the story on a "Christian" news source, several Southern Baptist women responded showing just how myopic this view of the place of women in society is. I have quoted one of the best of the responses.

As a life-long Southern Baptist who is also a single mother and an attorney who has to work in order to support myself and my young daughter, I wish the Southern Baptist Convention would find alternative ways to convey the need to strengthen the family unit without denigrating women who work outside the home or dare to educate themselves. The fact that 60% of college enrollees are women is not a tragedy. Why not focus on the failings of men as the primary cause of the disintegration of the family instead of villifying women (the old Adam and Eve story, with a modern twist). As a Christian and, specifically a Southern Baptist, I often combat negative stereotypes about my religious affiliation. The Southern Baptists lose credibility when they staunchly oppose abortion (as do I) but then saddle single mothers who bravely raise their children alone with guilt because they have to work. If we want to stem the tide of broken families, the Southern Baptists would do well to employ methods other than decrying the education of women and resorting to 1950s imagery about "mom and apple pie."

The Pseudo-Justice Department

The disgrace of the so-called Justice Department just gets worse and worse everytime someone who worked there in the past few years opens his/her mouth. The outright lies that have been revealed in testimony before congress should be stirring the American people to run them out of town on a rail or tar and feather them or some other appropriate actions. But the shrub just keeps saying, they are doing a find job, just like brownie did in NO. The best commentary I have seen on this mess came from none other than John Stewart on The Daily Show last week. When, after showing a series of clips of the AG, AG contradicting himself over and over again, Stewart grabs his head and cries, "They're shitting in my head!"

He nailed it.

Help Stop Censorship at CBS

From the Moveon.org folks,

Remember when shock-jock Don Imus used racist and misogynistic terms to refer to a women's college basketball team? Well, it took CBS two weeks to fire him for that but it only took them TWO DAYS to fire a respected General from Iraq for speaking out against the president on the war.

CBS shouldn't be censoring or firing people for speaking their mind. I signed a petition urging CBS to re-hire General Batiste -- can you join me at the link below?

http://pol.moveon.org/batiste/?r_by=-8292763-amvLeI&rc=paste
There's more information on the firing on that page, too.

Thanks!

She Lifts Her Lamp

She Lifts Her Lamp
by Maurice R. Franks

They took the lamp from out the torch
About the time they slammed the door,
And placed instead a lump of brass -
Fool's gold where flames had shone before.

Refurbished thus, this gift from France
With superficial gleam doth lure
A world naïve, nay, entranced
By ideals once so fresh and pure.

Shine that lamp on those in prison,
On ghetto children in despair.
Show the world our rapes and killings,
How racist thinking took us there.

A culture lost, its values gone,
Used needles shine from sea to sea.
Democracy shall ne'er last long
Too dumb to ask, "Why must this be?"

Truths now lost, truths now languish,
Truths for which our fathers died.
She holds her lamp aloft with anguish.
It's hollow, gnawing from inside.

Copyright © 1998, Maurice R. Franks

The Ongoing Iraq Intel Fraud

After my rant on the lies of George Bush I was directed to this article which lays out the facts of the lies about the Iraq war much more thorougly than I was capable of. If anyone you know still gives the president the benefit of any kind of doubt, refer them to this article.

The Ongoing Iraq Intel Fraud

Why no one in congress is seriously addressing this issue I don't know. The leadership seems to be content to study the issues to death. But as I heard a man say in a different context recently, "When you study something to death, death is not your goal." Unfortunatley while they are studying people keep dying. I don't care what it takes, GET THE TROOPS OUT, BRING THEM HOME.

DUBYA sings U2