Chelsea, BWA, Ground Zero mosque and other Friday random plods

The Baptist World Alliance just met in Hawaii. Many in the SBC would love to rejoin the BWA for no other reason than they meet in neat places. We are a convention of conventioneers if nothing else.

Tokyo’s oldest citizen was thought to be an 111 year old man. When someone went to interview him, they couldn't get a syllable out of him. He was dead in his home and had been so for at least thirty years! “Who is thy neighbor?” Jesus asked.

My dear alma mater, The University of Georgia, has been voted the nation’s top party school. Perhaps that ranking had something to do with the fact that downtown Athens, which adjoins the main campus, has dozens and dozens of bars. In somewhat of a reversal of roles, my son has told me, “Daddy, you don’t want to go downtown at night.” The UGA mascot is a bulldog that is usually named ‘Uga.’ I hear they are changing it from ‘Uga’ to ‘Chugga.’

Quotes on the Ground Zero mosque: Newt Gingrich says, There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. Richard Land says, …I strongly support religious communities' right to have places of worship within reasonable distance of where they live…However, no religious community has an absolute right to have a place of worship wherever they choose, regardless of the community's objections. Melissa Rogers, Wake Forest Divinity School professor, says that it would be counterproductive to deny such a symbolic project which she calls a high-profile efforts by Muslims who condemn terrorism to reclaim their faith… Gingrich is the only one in this trio who doesn’t have a good point. We don’t condition religious freedom in America on such in Saudi Arabia.

Samurai says heavy layoffs are in store for the formerly venerable Baptist General Convention of Texas, the outfit that, according to some, spends about 3/4ths of its revenue on itself and is in budgetary freefall. He asks a very good question: “Will they require the folks who are about to be canned to sign a “non-disclosure” document?”


Chelsea Clinton, now wed to a Jewish gentleman, was exhibited as the most prominent case of interfaith (“mixed” to many SBCers) marriage. I confess to sharing marriage duties with Methodists and other mainline protestants (many times), with fellow Baptists (many times), and even with a Roman Catholic Padre (once), but never with a rabbi. It would be a delicate matter, but I’d have to decline that one.

Baptist World Alliance, Bobby Welch Alliance, both, neither...or what?

I get this occasional eruption where I feel that the SBC made a mistake in exiting the Baptist World Alliance some years ago. I get to thinking that maybe we ought to be a part of that global Baptist outfit and just swallow hard every now and then.

Then I read about their meetings, like the splendid one just completed in Honolulu.

Can’t quite put my finger on it but an assortment of speakers on liberation theology of some sort, women’s issues, ethnocentrism, etc, although the session on the ethics of tourism was appropriate, if they could keep attendees in the classroom and off Waikiki Beach.

Associated Baptist Press (where SBCers go to get Baptist news that BP will not print) has a series of stories on the meeting.

The SBC’s Executive Committee, as a substitute for membership in BWA, hired Bobby Welch to be our Global Ambassador. Welch is our peripatetic preacher whose planetary travels has surely put him in the stratosphere with frequent flyer miles. Welch flys, meets, creates partnerships, returns, talks about it, etc. etc.

The guy is a stick of dynamite for Jesus but I just don’t catch the concept here.

So…if the BWA is not something we really want to rejoin and the Executive Committee has missed the mark with their Global whatever office, what should we do?

Maybe trust the International Mission Board with such work?

Have a nominal involvement with BWA?

Continue to have an impressive sounding name for our own in-house global Baptist thing?

Some Baptist at a higher pay level should enlighten us here.

Tattoos, BWA, BGCT, BP

Friday random plods:

My hero for the week: Savannah, GA police Chief Willie Lovett who said, “This isn’t an art gallery, it’s a police department,” referring to his tattooed officers. He ordered them to hide their colorful self-mutilations under clothing, bandages or makeup. Hooray for him. What municipality wants its police force to look like the thuggish NBA?

David Montoya continues his lonely populist crusade against bureaucracy in the Baptist General Convention of Texas. His Texas colleague Rick Davis comments that the BGCT keeps 77% of contributions ‘in house.’ Another commenter is finally getting around to asking if his church might make better use of what they are now sending to the BGCT. I’m guessing that all the state conventions are dealing with churches being more attentive to what happens when they mail the checks.

Relative irrelevancy of the year (so far): Baptist Press’ stream of stories from the World Cup in South Africa. Why?

At the Baptist World Alliance meeting in Amsterdam one speaker said, "I would go so far to say that they [the SBC] probably need us even more than we need them…" I don’t know about that, although it seems as if the SBC is going to jettison Bobby Welch’s Global whatever.

Christa Brown of Stop Baptist Predators speculates that the research that shows that clergy sexual misconduct three times as frequent in black churches as in white is due to Baptist autonomy. I speculate "not so." Perhaps the researchers will offer a breakdown of their stuff. It should be a simple matter to compare black and white Baptist churches.

I never thought I would preside over the funerals of both of my parents but have now done so. It was an honor and a privilege. After attending a funeral of a relative, my mother would usually comment, “That was too long” and “I’m not sure I recognize the person the preacher was talking about.” I think she would have been pleased with hers on both counts