Why Isn't This Economic News Part of the Daily News Cycle?

It's the economy, stupid.  

The economy was a big part of politics during all of the time I was growing up.  I can remember in most of the social studies classes I had in high school and college, discussions about deficit spending, the national debt, unemployment, the value of the dollar, inflation, and all of those things and the almost immediate effect economic news had on polling data for political candidates.  Inflation was the problem that brought the Carter administration to a close, and unemployment and a recession brought the George H.W. Bush administration to an end.  

But, toward the end of the 1990's, a social agenda focused on using politics for culture wars instead of for what government under our constitution is supposed to do, has replaced the economy. I'm not surprised, since all of the measurements that conservatives once considered marks of success, including reducing the deficit, lowering taxes, using interest rates to regulate economic trends, and creating jobs in the private sector, are all Democratic Presidential achievements.  Among their own, not so much.  

The Most Economically Beneficial Presidency in Five Decades

I found this editorial by Edwin Eisendrath on the website of WCPT radio in Chicago, and I guess the media doesn't pay much attention to this stuff any more, either that, or their audience isn't interested.  The Biden Administration has been hugely successful from an economic perspective, as much or more than any prior administration in five decades or more.  About six paragraphs down is this list of economic achievements under Joe Biden's Presidency.  It's quite a contrast to the two prior Republican Presidents whose laissez-faire approach to the economy produced recessions, unemployment and soaring debt.  

Here's the list: 

• GDP growth at 5.7% in 2021 is the best since 1984.  (And this explains, in part, the inflation we are experiencing.) 
• Unemployment fell to its lowest level in 50 years. 
• 13 million private sector jobs have been created since 2020. 
• Average hourly earnings have increased 5.2% through May of this year.  
• The American rescue plan was incredibly successful in getting the US out of the pandemic and in jump-starting the economy.  This is what government is supposed to do.  
• The Infrastructure and Jobs act has created the biggest boost in building trades in decades, and will make tech infrastructure what it should be in the wealthiest country on earth. 
• The Inflation Reduction Act and Chips and Science Act resulted in massive investments in green technology and created thousands of jobs in high tech manufacturing.
• The deficit is coming down because of economic growth!  

And Republicans don't want you to know that Biden's record on border enforcement is twice as good as Trump's, or Dubya's, both of whom let more illegals into the United States during their terms, by far, than Clinton, Obama or Biden.  And after all those promises to coal miners in 2016, under Trump, coal production dropped 27% and the number of coal-related jobs dropped a whopping 17%, the biggest decline since the depression.  That sector of the energy economy isn't coming back, but the Biden administration has put resources into helping those employed in that industry find other jobs with livable wages.

Economically, all we got from Trump was nothing as far as I'm concerned.  The wealthiest of us got tax cuts to shield them from the effects of the pandemic and insulate them from any economic difficulties.  The average American wage earner's taxes went up under Trump, just enough to cut into any benefit their wages might have provided against inflation that was only moderated by the effects of the COVID pandemic on business.

So if I'm a conservative Republican, claiming that the economy is the most pressing issue on my ballot, and I looked at this list, it would be a straight arrow to the ballot box to re-elect the politician whose administration led Congress to pass the legislation that brought all of this about.  There is not anything here that, if I were of that perspective, I could not support.  Letting control issues centered on controlling personal morality and limiting individual freedom should be the last thing I'd want to do.  

Is that too simplified?  Because that's really the bottom line here.  We have, in the Presidency, an experienced politician who has gathered together the best of the best when it comes to advisors, having had a front seat in the previous Democratic President's administration to see the talent, intelligence and experience he could have in his own.  No wonder Republicans make no sense and offer nothing of substance to the American people.  They aren't thinking straight.  They've done exactly what George Washington warned us not to do, in letting their political bias over-ride common sense and their own principles.  They're all about the power, and not about the people and that's why they must be given the kind of political beating that will knock them back into their senses. 

Gifts From the Last Three Republican Presidents 

A little online searching brought me to the results of the economic policies of the last three Republican Presidents: 

• Between the three of them, they are responsible for 80% of the tax increases levied since 1988. 
• They are responsible for more than 90% of the increase in the national debt.  The most recent Republican President, Trump, can account for more than three fourths of that.  If you count all of the money spend on the Afghanistan war, even through the Obama administration, that percentage goes up by 5% more.  
• All of them were in office when unemployment soared, with two of the three seeing levels exceed 10%.  All of them experienced a net loss of private sector jobs during their administration, the largest drop being under Dubya, with Trump in second place.  
• Collectively, their economic growth is in negative numbers, Dubya's at -6% being the worst but Trump at -3.7%.  
• Of course, with those dismal figures, inflation should be under control, right?  But some segments of the economy, including prices for things like utilities and home prices soared under Trump.                                                                            

 I'm putting this out there because we need to see more of this now.  It will get some comments, of course, and I can't wait to see reactions on social media.  If it really is about the economy, then Republicans are big losers.  That's why their narrative has shifted to controlling other people's lives.  They are better suited for that, anyway.   

No Dilemma for Christians who Support President Joe Biden

David Gushee: Protecting Democracy from its Christian Enemies

A comment from "anonymous" on August 29, on a post entitled There's an Exodus From Evangelical Churches Because of Donald Trump's Politics, said, "Your statement, 'Nothing Biden has said or done would be contrary to someone's Christian convictions...' says everything I need to know about your qualifications to judge and or evaluate Christians and Christianity.  in that you are totally unqualified and don't have a clue of what Christ represents.  Have you every [sic] read any of the new covenant [sic]?  Just askin' and this is not a rhetorical question."  

Normally, I would not respond to an anonymous comment like that.  The fact that it was left anonymously speaks for itself, and nullifies  

First of all, yes, I have read the "New Covenant."  I was raised in an Evangelical church, became a Christian through a conversion experience defined in conservative, Evangelical terms, earned a minor in Biblical studies in college and have about 30 hours of Biblical studies, including languages and theology, in graduate school.  I understand exactly what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is, and it is on that basis that I will reiterate the statement I made, that there is nothing President Biden has said or done that would be contrary to someone's Christian convictions."  Since the commenter determined to make a personal criticism without providing one single statement to contradict what I said, and back it up with evidence, I'll take that as an admission that my statement is correct.  

Let's Cut to the Chase

Most white, Evangelical Christians vote Republican because the Republican party has discerned, in their fundamentalist approach to Christian faith, a strong, single-mindedness when it comes to political issues.  They've blindly elevated opposition to abortion rights as the single most important political issue with which they are concerned.  That, and the extension of the constitutionally guaranteed rights to all people, whether they are Christian and Caucasian or not, seem to be the biggest problems.  

Of course, the President has not made his support for the pro-choice position a secret.  But I tend to look at it this way.  If politicians and legislators who favor a pro-choice position are labelled as "baby killers" and are directly responsible for all abortions, then politicians and legislators who favor unlimited gun ownership are child-killers and murderers, directly responsible for all shootings.  

In a democratic republic, where the constitution guarantees individual rights to all citizens, Evangelical Christians are free to practice their faith unhindered.  They're free because everyone else is, too.  Be happy with that.  

Why This Christian Supports Joe Biden

I said it before, and I will say it again.  There's nothing Biden has said or done as President of the United States that is contrary to Christian convictions.  Not one thing has resulted from the multiple legislative achievements of the Biden Administration that is contrary to any Christian principle or value.  From his management of the COVID pandemic recovery, which was an achievement that will go down in history as one of the most effective government health initiatives in history, to his economic policy that has benefitted all segments of the economy, the Biden Administration has earned the title of one of the single most effective Presidencies of the Post-War era.  

Inflation is a problem, one that his administration noted would follow the COVID period, as jobs came back and the economy flourished.  They took all of the steps that government can take in attempting to avoid a recession and help drop the inflation percentage, and it's working, slowly, as they said it would. 

My Christian faith incorporates the gospel value of peacemaking, and of peace, as an identifying characteristic of Christianity and of Christians.  It's an essential, core teaching of the gospel.  Quoting Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, the gospel writer and apostle Matthew says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."  Joe Biden is a peacemaker, in the most powerful political position in the world.  His decision to end the war in Afghanistan, an incredibly wasteful operation that became increasingly pointless after Osama Bin Laden was captured, in neighboring Pakistan, was a good one, and while his political opponents tried to make the point that the withdrawal, which succeeded in getting more than 100,000 people out, including all Americans that followed instructions and didn't delay, was a failure, the facts do not support that contention.  

Ukraine is a different matter.  It's a sovereign country, a fledgling democracy whose people are modeling their government after ours, who have been under the oppression of imperialism for a good part of their modern history.  The President understands America's moral obligation to support democracy, especially one as critically located and important to our own democracy now, at a time when our own values need to be strengthened and renewed as a result of the challenge to them from within.  

It is, in fact, Joe Biden's stance for American democracy that is the main reason I voted for him in 2020, and will vote for him again in 2024.  Christians who have more than just a cultural, surface understanding of their faith, and Americans who understand their constitution, its guarantees of individual freedom, and are true patriots loyal to country, not political candidates, will also see the need to support President Biden.  

There is also the question of character, moral values and the compatibility of political candidates to the Christian gospel.  The common excuse of politically motivated Evangelicals is to say, "We're not voting for a pastor in chief..."  That's a cop out.  When the Bible was written, the common people had no voice in their government, nor choice of who their leaders were.  In the United States, we do.  And even though our constitution guarantees complete separation of church and state, has no religious requirement for being elected to office and does not favor one religion over another, it says something about what people value when they vote.  

The contrast between a womanizing, narcissistic, misogynistic, adulterous, pathologically lying, con artist, fraudster who labels himself as worldly and deliberately denies the need for religion at all,  and Joe Biden, a man who isn't perfect, but who is humble, not demanding personal worship of himself, a devout Catholic who lives according to his values, is obvious.  It is not possible, from my perspective, for a convert to Christianity to cast a ballot for the former candidate's worldliness and keep a clear conscience or a good testimony.  

And that's not a personal judgment, it is a Biblically supported conviction. See Ephesians 5:3-14, in any English translation.  

Awareness is Happening

It's becoming clear that there are consequences for the departure from Biblical, orthodox Christianity that is occurring among the extremist political right of Evangelicalism.  People are leaving churches that are substituting the preaching of the Christian gospel with the counterfeit "Maga" gospel.  Criticism from far right wingers aimed at labelling the very core teachings of Jesus as "liberal talking points" are being documented, along with deliberate attempts to change the interpretation of such things as "turning the other cheek," something Donald Trump, Jr. has emphasized through the "Turning Point" rallies operated by their campaign.  

I will also note here that the impression is being left that most Christians generally vote Republican.  That's not true.  Most white, Evangelical Christians vote Republican.  Most African American and Latino Christians vote Democratic.  Mainline Christians tend to vote more Democratic, and Catholics appear to be fairly evenly split.  The Evangelicals make a lot of noise, and tend to get a lot of attention, and a cocky, arrogant doctrinal and theological posture, in which they put themselves above others, seems to interest the media.  They are a segment of the church almost completely dependent on their pastors and church leadership to interpret and understand what they think they believe, which makes them susceptible to being invaded by political cults that their leaders have been lured into accepting by flattery.  Or money.  

So ultimately, we are free to vote our political conscience.  From my perspective, voting for Joe Biden again will be the best choice, if my conscience is tempered by my Christian faith.  I could not, in good conscience, vote Republican, favoring draconian politics and government aimed at disenfranchisement, injustice and endorsement of cruelty, regardless of who is their Presidential nominee.  

Aligning with Cruelty, and "Worldliness" is a Hazard for Christianity in America

 Kris Aaron, Baptist News Global: There's Just No Excuse

"When love isn't what guides us, when our primary values are indifference, or fear, or having to support a political candidate or toe a party line no matter what the cost, well then we're doing more than putting our faith at crisis.  We're doing more than risking harm to our Christian witness and to the witness of others.  Instead, we're actively engaging in idolatry, and we're running the risk of being an asshole.  Idolatry is sinful, no matter what we try to replace God with.  Kris Aaron, Pastor, First Baptist Church of Bristol, Virginia

It's encouraging to see a Baptist pastor recognize that American Christianity, including his own denominational tradition, is in a crisis because of the influence of right wing politics.  I'm sick, and I mean physically and literally sick, of hearing people who label themselves as good, "conservative," Christians display an ignorance of what they claim to be essential theology and doctrine by setting aside their convictions when they cast their ballot. 

I'm sick of hearing and seeing people who claim to be "conservative, Bible-believing" Christians, two catch words which mean they think their faith is superior to those they disagree with whom they label "liberal," and "who don't believe the Bible," say that they're not voting for a pastor-in-chief, they are voting for a commander-in-chief.  I'd like to know where their inerrant, infallible Bible says that it is OK to choose political leaders whose lifestyle is deliberately sinful and worldly and who deny the basic soteriological doctrine of the Christian gospel.  The Christians who lived in the days when the New Testament was being written could not imagine a civil government in which they got to have a say in who became head of state.  Those who now push Christian nationalism and the idea that America's founders intended to start a "Christian nation" completely deny everything they say about it, along with the scripture, when they make that claim.  

If the founders intended for the United States to be a "Christian nation," then why would electing a womanizing, adulterous, lying, cheating, narcissistic, vulgar, crooked, arrogant, Christ-denying, draft dodger as President be acceptable?  

Idolatry

Last winter, Donald Trump Jr. told an Evangelical audience that they've spent half a century "turning the other cheek," and it hasn't worked out for them.  At a Turning Point rally in Phoenix, Junior said, "We've turned the other cheek, and I understand, sort of, the Biblical reference--I understand the mentality--but it's gotten us nothing.  OK?  It's gotten us nothing while we've ceded ground in every major institution in our country."  Emphasis mine.  

Following the Christian gospel has gotten us nothing?  Really?  

So what's the solution?  Abandon the Christian gospel, from which this particular point is a core teaching of Jesus?  

And let's get back on the ground of solid, Biblical theology and doctrine, which is something Don Jr. and his father know nothing about.  What is the "nothing" that turning the other cheek has produced?  Worldly political power?  When has that ever been the goal of the Christian gospel?  If Christianity, American Evangelical Christianity in particular, has "ceded ground," it's because it has become disconnected from the things that keep it connected to God.  And that's exactly what Mr. Trump Junior is offering to those Christians who would follow Trump's political ambition, which is built on his worldly image and rests on his worldliness for which he denies needing forgiveness. 

Aaron points to a recent example of idolatry intruding into the church on the coat-tails of right wing politics related by Russell Moore, current editor of Christianity Today.  Moore concurs with Aaron's assessment of American Evangelical Christianity being in crisis by relating examples in which a church member comes up to a particular pastor after a sermon that was based on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, and asks him, "Where did you get those liberal talking points?"  

Moore expresses alarm when the church member's response to the pastor's answer, "I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ," is not "I'm sorry," but "Yes, but that doesn't work anymore.  That's weak."  

"And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus are seen as subversive to us," says Moore, "Then we're in a crisis." 

"For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ."  Jude, v. 4

These words from Jude are not a specific prophecy, but they are prophetic in the manner in which they address what far right Trumpian politics is doing to the church.  Denying having done anything requiring God's forgiveness, claiming that the core principles of Jesus' gospel "aren't getting us anywhere in this world," and calling the gospel "liberal talking points" is a sign of how much ignorance there is in the church about its theology and doctrine by its members, and how much ungodly, perverted licentiousness has already intruded into it.  

Ownership of the Philosophy and Practice of Politics

Calling Jesus' Sermon on the Mount "liberal talking points" and claiming that turning the other cheek is getting nowhere in the world both constitute what Jude calls "denying or only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ."  So is anyone making the claim that they have not done anything requiring God's forgiveness.  There it is, right in plain sight.  Christians who know the theology and doctrine of their faith should be able to see this without being prompted.  The fact that they can't, or won't, says a lot about who they are and what they really believe. 

Aligning with secular politicians was never the intention of Jesus.  He established his church based on a demonstration of faith as a spiritual kingdom, something he and the apostles all made very clear.  It was to conduct itself with respect toward the civil government, righteous obedience to civil law, as a testimony of its faith in Christ, but it was not to adopt its politics as doctrine, nor align itself with political power to achieve its mission and purpose.  

Had the church in Jesus' and Jude's day aligned itself with the civil government, it would have corrupted itself with the brutality and murder that were used to keep people in line and make them submissive.  It would have accepted idolatry and denied not only the principles of the gospel, but the characteristics it produces in those who live by it.  Things like being humble, poor in spirit, and peacemakers, were not valued by the civil government of the time.  And it is clear, from the words of those who promote right wing politics in our culture, that turning the other cheek and loving your neighbor, which are core practices expected of Christians, are not valued at all.  

So accepting those who are leaders of that political philosophy mean owning the worldliness that comes with it, and that turns a Christian testimony on its ear, causing its death.  It has opened the door to all kinds of scandal and evil that is becoming identified with Evangelical Christianity, including clergy sexual abuse scandals, financial corruption and subversion of the true gospel message of Jesus in favor of the warmed over worldliness they have placed at the center of their philosophy.  Leaders who live as if they are above the law are not a rarity among Evangelicals.  Their ownership of corruption from politics is behind all of that. 

Would Jesus do This? 

The governor of Texas has ordered spherical orange objects with sharp metal spikes placed in the Rio Grande River, where people sometimes cross from Mexico into the United States.  Is this issue so bad that such cruelty and inhumane treatment of those desperate to get out of their circumstances and have a chance in the US is justified, even if Christian support for those politicians wasn't an issue?  What does that say about the sincerity of anyone's Christian faith, if they can be aware of that happening and not be moved by the cruelty of it?  

For that matter, those who follow trails through the Arizona desert, removing the water containers placed there by people concerned about those who have been taken there by the "Coyotes" who guide them into the United States are also just as cruel.  There is no circumstance in which a Christian is permitted to be cruel or inhumane to a fellow human being, no matter what they have done.  

If the church in the United States is ever going to see the revival that it claims it is crying out to God to see, it has to repent from the evil into which it has fallen, as a result of its association with far right wing politics.  Those who have immersed themselves in right wing politics have pulled the plug on their own spirituality and that's why membership and attendance is tanking, churches are empty and getting emptier, and people are turning elsewhere for answers because the church no longer provides them.  

"For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward."  Mark 9:41, NRSV 

If a revival is the desire, then the politics of worldliness and cruelty must be set aside.  

Why Critical Race Theory Enrages Conservative Evangelical Christians

Secret Recordings, Leaked Letters: Explosive Secrets Rocking the Southern Baptist Convention,

Baptist News Global: Could you win a Quiz Show by Defining Critical Race Theory?

The Southern Baptist Convention met in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2012, following the devastation the city experienced from Hurricane Katrina.  For the first time in the denomination's history, it elected a black man, Fred Luter, as its president.  Luter is a native of New Orleans, born and raised in the city, and is the pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, an inner city church that has grown into the largest Southern Baptist church in the state of Louisiana under his leadership.

Franklin Avenue had been a white, Southern Baptist church from its founding in the 1940's, but the neighborhood around the church shifted and eventually, the white congregation that was left after a long decline, turned the buildings over to the New Orleans Baptist Association which planted an African American church there with the same name, and continued its affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention.  Times had changed, and the SBC had actually begun welcoming black church members and predominantly black churches into affiliation by the 80's.  Luter became pastor in 1986, when it was still a mission congregation supported by another church, and under his leadership, it grew from about 60 in attendance each week to over 6,000.    

Churches with predominantly African American membership were not always welcome in the Southern Baptist Convention, which did not repudiate its segregationist and slavery-endorsing past until a resolution was finally passed in 1995.  But it takes more than a resolution to change attitudes and actions.  The denomination did have some visionary individuals, mostly at the local church level, who saw that segregated churches preaching and teaching the Christian gospel was inconsistent with the principles of that gospel, taught by Jesus and the Apostles and recorded in the New Testament.  By the time Luter became pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist, there were several hundred predominantly African American churches that were affiliated with the SBC, though most of them kept their ties to the historically African American Baptist denomination to which they also belonged. 

There are still very few churches in the SBC that are diverse or integrated. The denomination's statistical analysis says that there are over a million church members who are African American, out of 13 million total.  But that membership is nowhere near the point where they are proportionately represented on the trustee boards and committees of the denomination's entities.  The SBC's inner core of leaders is still an insider group of older, white men who profess loyalty to the doctrine and theology introduced by the "Conservative Resurgence," a takeover group of fundamentalists within the denomination who have tight control over all of the positions holding power.  

During Luter's presidency, which was supported by messengers at the convention over some objections from a few of the inner circle oligarchs, the door was opened to a much wider spectrum of members, including several African Americans and Latinos, who together represent the only demographic segment of the denomination showing any growth in membership at all.  Most of those who were appointed by Luter have either been term-limited out, or, terminated on pretext of theological error.

Opposition to Critical Race Theory has Extremist Right Wing Political Roots 

Take a look at the piece I referenced above from the Bowling Green Daily News in 2021.  An African American employee at the North American Mission Board, who was also a pastor, was fired for disagreeing with a position taken by Georgia pastor Mike Stone, who was, at the time, a candidate for SBC president.  The disagreement wasn't disrespectful, and it wasn't a violation of any NAMB policy or doctrinal position.  Though the denomination passed a resolution on CRT at its Birmingham convention meeting in 2018, resolutions are not binding on churches or on SBC entities, and are a reflection of the thoughts and convictions only from that specific gathering.  To enforce resolutions, trustee boards would have to transform them into policy. 

It was, in fact, the presence of several African American pastors on the resolutions committee in 2019 that prevented the convention from completely embarrassing itself over a resolution that was initially introduced to the committee which was full of misinformation and incorrect assumptions and interpretations of CRT.  Other than inflammatory rhetoric and labelling CRT as "Marxist" which is the new conservative catch-word to sling at anything conservatives don't understand and don't like, no one has yet pointed out, theologically and biblically, exactly how Critical Race Theory contradicts scripture apart from the right wing extremist labels, which are inaccurate characterizations of the theory.  

Since then, the African Americans who served on the resolutions committee, including the Chairman, Curtis Woods, pastor of Severns Valley Baptist Church in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and Walter Strickland, a professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, have taken a beating in social media, endured caustic criticism that is neither consistent with a biblical, Christian manner in which to deal with disagreements like this, nor are the things being said about them truthful.  Woods has since resigned his pastorate, citing "clinical depression" as the reason for his inability to continue, and Strickland has been the target of all kinds of attacks.  Both of these men are solidly conservative, Evangelical Bible scholars, and they are intellectually and spiritually capable of discerning and interpreting the role of Critical Race Theory in the African American church, with scriptural truth.  

Far right wing politics attacks what it finds disagreeable, not with facts or truth, or with a solid, discerning, evaluation of whatever it is that it is confronting, but with talking points that are invented to support their position without having to engage in discussion or dialogue.  The resolution that was originally going to be presented to the Southern Baptist Convention was, itself, a complete distortion, full of dishonest conclusions about CRT, including misquotes and revisions of what those who've written about CRT have said.  It was completely political, and not something a Christian denomination, especially one as large and visible as the SBC, had any business promoting.  

I think there has been an expectation among the old guard bureaucracy in the Southern Baptist Convention, that African Americans who joined the convention would also join the Republican party.  To be honest, the reaction to all of this is evidence which supports my contention that this is the case.  Though they've tried, African Americans have never been brought into true leadership in the SBC.  Many of those who came in under Fred Luter's leadership, and through his committee appointments, have been pushed out the same way Tez Andrews was dismissed.  So far, Walter Strickland has stayed with his position at SETBC, and continues to be an advocate for racial reconciliation in the SBC, but I'm sure that's not an easy job.  

Still No Biblical Explanation Making Resolution 9 Inaccurate

Other than using the buzzwords and catch phrases, and attempting to equate Critical Race Theory with Maxist ideology, which is a false comparison, I have not seen anyone really come up with anything that proves Resolution 9 to be wrong.  Those who want to restore and bring back the original resolution seem to be oblivious to its incorrect assertions and false narrative regarding Critical Race Theory.  But perhaps the biggest failure of those who continue to press the false narrative is a failure to look to the black church leadership within the SBC for guidance and perspective.  White pastors and church members, especially those who still exhibit a touch of racist white supremacy in their worldview, connected to their cultural background, do not have the experience that African Americans have with the bigotry of white supremacy.  

Critical Race Theory is just exactly what its title suggests that it is, a theory.  The African American leadership in the SBC, in bringing forth resolution 9, clearly acknowledged that scripture is the determining authority in all matters of Christian faith practice.  What enrages conservatives isn't that it has Marxist origins, which it clearly doesn't, or that it denies the authority of the Bible as scripture, which it also clearly does not do.  They are enraged because it argues for racial equality and that's not something they are willing to concede, at least, not those who keep insisting that the convention in 2019 didn't know what it was doing, was duped by the committee, and needs to rescind the resolution.  There are those in the SBC, to its credit, who are sincere Christians, understand that the denomination needs to stop talking a good talk about race and put up or shut up when it comes to sharing the leadership with people of other races who are equally capable, and just as spiritual.  

The African Americans who have been close enough to leadership in the SBC to be recognized as solidly Biblical in their perspective have not placed Critical Race Theory above the Bible.  The language used in SBC Resolution 9 is much more accurate than the anti-CRT, highly political rhetoric that was initially presented, and was something about which the SBC had no business making a statement anyway.  But there's a real lack of spiritual maturity and either a lack of understanding of the kind of equality that the Christian gospel teaches, or deliberately ignoring it, when it comes to listening to, and submitting to the leadership of, African American Baptists who have become part of the SBC. 

It's tough for a denomination to admit, when they claim to believe in the inerrancy and infallibility of scripture, and consider themselves conservatives who are right there next to Jesus on the right hand of God, that the whole premise on which their denomination was founded was racist, sinful and wrong.  And that enrages them.  

There are clearly elements in the Southern Baptist Convention who are unwilling to come to a resolution that is different than the one to which they are stubbornly holding, and which may be culturally comfortable for them, and for their churches.  Those attitudes undermine the very gospel that they claim to follow and which they have determined in their own doctrine and theology to be "God breathed, truth without any mixture of error."  Believing that is more than signing on to a statement of faith.  It is putting it into practice.  The African Americans within their denomination are equals, and deserve to be treated as such, including consideration given to their perspective on an issue where their experience runs much deeper than those of their white brethren.  

It is my personal opinion, having been raised in a Southern Baptist church and educated, at least in part, in two of its affiliated institutions of higher education, that the denomination has undermined its own ability to preach and teach the truth by flying way too close to the far right political flame.  They've allowed the intrusion of a political philosophy that glorifies sin and worldliness in the person of its candidates, and which is now trying to change the very message of Jesus himself with some members claiming that his teaching on loving your neighbor, turning the other cheek and going the extra mile are "liberal talking points."  

There are real Christians within the Southern Baptist Convention who understand the Christian gospel and whose intentions are to open the doors of ministry cooperation within their churches and institutions as wide as they can go in faithfulness to Christ and the gospel.  They've had their moments of success, though the membership numbers are indicating that a large segment of church members are giving up and going elsewhere.  And many of those are African Americans who represent one of the few constituencies in the denomination that is still growing.  Politics is ripping this evangelical denomination apart.  Can it ever be put back together?

  

Desantis is a Loser, and Biden is a Winner and That's What we saw in Florida Yesterday

 Joe Biden is President of the United States, and as part of his official duties, he visited the hurricane ravaged areas of Florida, a state that gets an awful lot of federal help, not just putting it back together after the flat sand bar that it is gets devastated by hurricanes, but also to help prop up its public welfare expenses.  At a time when partisan bickering and hatred should get laid aside in favor of helping people who were affected regardless of their political affiliation, Florida's governor chose to play politics instead of doing something to benefit the people he governs.  The kind of attitude he exhibited by shunning an appearance in a declared disaster area when the President is visiting is exactly why this loser is getting no traction in his campaign for President and why, in fact, he is losing to someone in his own party who is a bigger con artist and jackass than he is. 

Actually, in the con artist and jackass department, between Desantis and Trump, I have to say it's a draw. 

I know voters in Florida recently seem to have lost their minds, voting against themselves and their interests in the last two Presidential elections, and the last two midterms, when it comes to their state legislature and governor.  In a state where there are so many people past 65 years of age, living near the coast in trailers, and who came from that large island 90 miles south, to escape oppression, the rest of the country is confused by your lack of discernment, and your tendency to elect politicians who could care less about your economic status, or your personal freedom.  But this week, your governor sent a clear message that he no longer cares about you.  He's more interested in his campaign to get elected President of the United States and this is just one of many things he's done to tell you, Floridians, that he is only interested in using you to help him.  

And that's going to cost you.  It has, in fact, already cost you plenty.  

President Biden waited only as along as he had to, until the arrangements necessary for his visit wouldn't interfere with recovery efforts, to come, see for himself, and become your number one advocate for getting every federal government resource you're paid for through your taxes over the years.  That's why we're taxed, you know.  It's not some government plot to separate the rich from what they think are their entitlements.  Our constitutional democracy is a government for the people, and protecting them is a priority, at least, it has been for Presidents and members of Congress who are Democrats.  For Republicans, it's more about keeping their wealtly contributors, and their wealthy selves, from having to participate in the greater good with their cash flow.  

It didn't matter to the President that the counties most ravaged by this particular hurricane have voted majority Republican in recent elections [except Leon, where Tallahassee is located].  The high winds, storm surge, heavy rain, flooding and wind damage didn't distinguish between Republicans or Democrats, Christians or Muslims or Buddhists or Nones.  Nether does President Joe Biden.  And that's one of the real differences between him and his Republican opponents and detractors.  He sees you as Americans who need a hand.  They see you as means to an end. 

Argue with me all you want to about this, the fact of the matter is that the governor deliberately chose not to show up when the President did.  Senator Scott did.  I don't like him, and I don't agree with hardly any of his politics, but give the guy credit, he was mature enough, and he cared enough about his constituents to show up, stand beside the President and also advocate for the people who need the government's help.  It could be that he may also decide he wants to run for President but he's not going to throw Floridians under the bus to do so, or at least, when it comes to things like this, he demonstrated some maturity and avoided the kind of political poison and hatred that much of his party has adopted as their platform.  At least he did so on that one day.  

Even during the press conferences and news coverage of the hurricane preparations, and what was going on as it approached, and then when it devastated the coast, every time Desantis appeared on camera it was like he was watching himself in the mirror to see how he was coming off, and whether he could use the news clips in campaign ads, that is, if his dwindling contributions will allow him to afford to run them.  His body language, tone of voice, which I think sounds a little bit prissy and arrogant, and whole appearance was like he was on stage in a performance.  

Oh, by the way, that FEMA money and assistance you are getting isn't for the purpose of buying your vote.  We've had situations in the past where some politicians, ahem, ahem, have demanded that their signature appear on the treasury department's relief check to make it look like it was their doing that you got the help for which your tax dollars had already provided.  You won't see or hear anything like that from this President, because he is genuinely humble and that's clearly not how he operates.  He's had to make a couple of trips like this recently, and you could see the grief in his demeanor, and hear it in his voice, standing in burned out Lahaina, Hawaii and now, in the Florida Big Bend.  Americans suffered and their President came to stand with them.  

In Florida, your governor, who doesn't do anything that isn't for his own political benefit, was a no show.  

Plaque Honoring Contributions of Slaves Placed in Campus Building Named After a Slave-owning Founder at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

 When is a Prominent Memorial not as Major as Advertised?

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is considered the "flagship" seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination.  Located in the Crescent Hill district of Louisville, Kentucky, its southern colonial style architecture fits in well with the wooded campus and surrounding neighborhood.  Buildings on the campus are named for the school's founders, as well as other prominent Baptist leaders of the same era, most of whom believed in slavery, including the belief in white supremacy and the inferiority of black people, and who also owned slaves themselves.  Some of those slaves were used in building and developing the campus and its upkeep.  

That's not a surprising part of the denomination's history.  It was founded when the Triennial Baptist Convention in Philadelphia declared that slave owners could not be sent as missionaries, a statement which underlined the abolitionist attitudes of Baptists in the northern states and made the political and theological statement that slavery was wrong and sinful.  Baptist churches in the south sent delegates to a meeting in Augusta, Georgia in 1845 and separated from the Triennial Convention, setting up their own denominational structure which became known as the Southern Baptist Convention.  

The denomination has affiliated churches in all 50 states, and because of its mission enterprise, all around the world.  But the largest groups of affiliated churches are found in the 11 states of the old Confederacy, along with Kentucky, Missouri and Oklahoma.  And the Southern Baptist convention, as a denomination, is very much a leftover institution from the days of the Confederacy, a cultural institution which is the place where much of the antebellum southern culture still survives, and thrives.  

Calls to Rename Campus Buildings Which Were Named After Slaveowners

Dr. Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, who is a recognized leader among African Americans affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, and who has served as a member of the board of trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, has been one of the most active voices calling for the Louisville school to rename the campus buildings currently named after slaveowners.  I don't mean to sound condescending, or patronizing, but come on, this is the 21st century and Southern Baptists, while taking their very sweet time doing so, have finally repented of their anti-Christian, anti-Biblical beliefs in the inferiority of African-Americans and their very sinful treatment of them as slaves.  The fact that the men who founded the seminary held these beliefs disqualifies them from having the honor of buildings named after them, because it was not honorable what they did and what they believed.  

On a recent trip to Louisville, Dr McKissic was invited by seminary president Dr. Al Mohler to visit the campus and see a plaque which had been, according to Mohler, "prominently displayed" on campus, memorializing the work of the slaves, nameless, who had worked to help build and take care of the seminary grounds.  The plaque is placed in the Broaddus Chapel, used for weddings and for preaching classes, and named after one of the slave-owning founders of the seminary, John A. Broaddus. 

That's a little more than ironic, to me.  There's a deliberate message in placing a commemorative plaque honoring African American slaves and their contributions to building the seminary in a building named after one of the men who owned some of those slaves.  Dr. McKissic was very gracious in his comments, though he was unable to come to the campus and see the commemorative plaque.  

"To focus on whether it is a major marker, or in a prominent location, misses the larger point.  The fact that slaves are officially acknowledged as making a significant contribution is, to me, far more important than the fact that the plaque is located in a building named after a slave owner," he said.  

"It definitely does not accomplish that goal [of removing the names of the slaveowners from the buildings entirely] but it does acknowledge that African Americans played a significant financial and functional role in the development of the initial buildings of in the original Southern Seminary Louisville location," he added. 

Those comments are a tribute to the kind of spirit that Dr. McKissic has brought to the Southern Baptist Convention, and to his willingness to be engaged in helping the denomination build relationships that include fellow Christians who happen to be African American in leadership and as full partners in the mission and ministry of the denomination.  It's a pity that the rest of the denomination fails to respond to that kind of willingness to do what it takes to make it work. 

When asked why he thought the seminary's leaders have not removed the names of the original founders who were slave owners, he said "I understand that the descendants of the slave masters do not have that inner drive to act in the ultimate realm of spirituality by removing the names of slave masters from the building.  I recognize they just can't do it.  It requires a level of spiritual maturity and social reckoning to do so."  

"If the founders were abortion advocates," he said, "they would have no hesitancy in removing their names.  Most Southern Baptists do not equate the evil of slavery with the evil of abortion.  But they are wrong," he ended.  

Seminary Leadership is Tone Deaf

The plaque, which is nothing more than a token acknowledgement of the contribution made to the seminary by African American slaves, and along with it, acknowledgement of its past history with the sin of slavery, is not prominently displayed, nor was its placement acknowledged in such a way as to create awareness of its location and existence.  From all appearances, this looks like an afterthought, some kind of propaganda piece that will silence the critics and let the fact that the seminary continues to do nothing about the names of its buildings get swept under the rug.

Dr. McKissic, and other African Americans in the Southern Baptist Convention, including students who attend Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, are correct to evaluate the school administration's lack of action as a lack of spiritual maturity and social reckoning.  But then, how does a theological seminary, teaching the Christian gospel to prospective ministers and missionaries, still have credibility without spiritual maturity?  

Denominational leadership, at least openly on the surface, has given itself pats on the back for the progress it has made in welcoming African Americans into the full fellowship.  It has made progress, including the selection of African Americans to serve on committees and boards, as Dr. McKissic did at Southwestern, though not as comfortably and amicably as the seminary administration made it sound.  The convention messengers twice elected an African American as President, Dr. Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans.  

It would be very easy to make the change, pass a resolution, rededicate the buildings in a campus chapel service with all students present and Dr. McKissic as guest speaker, and be done with it.  That would only improve the image of both the seminary and the denomination and it's action which speaks louder than words.  But the approach they've taken opens up legitimate questions about the sincerity of their faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ and whose ideology it is that they really follow and respect.

Influenced by the Far Republican Right, a Christian Denomination Sharpens its Skills in Oligarchy and Deception

Southern Baptist Convention Conducting Internal Investigation into Willie McLaurin's Educational Background 

Here we go again.  

The Southern Baptist Convention, which is the nation's largest Protestant denomination, and the largest conservative Evangelical denomination, is making the news yet again, and not in a good way.  The most recent interim President of the Southern Baptist Convention executive committee, who is essentially the CEO of the denomination, suddenly resigned after it was discovered that his resume falsely represented his educational background.  A search committee, interviewing Willie McLaurin for consideration as the permanent President of the Executive Committee, discovered this in checking with the colleges and universities he listed as having attended and from which he received several degrees, including a doctorate from one of them.  

McLaurin is the fourth individual since 2010 who has either resigned from the executive board presidency because of a moral or ethical failing, or who has failed to meet the expectations required by the nation's largest Protestant denomination of it's CEO. Southern Baptists appear to have adopted the lack of transparency, dishonesty, nepotism, favor-granting, misuse of power and misappropriation of funds that characterize the far political right of the GOP which many of them have allowed to infiltrate their churches.  Birds of a feather, and all that.  It's subjective to argue that Southern Baptist denominational politics resembles the corruption of the Republican party, but here's more evidence, on top of a nasty sexual abuse scandal by clergy and church leaders.  It's my conclusion that there's a connection, because it sure looks like it.

The question at this point is how someone, who was previously employed by the Tennessee Baptist Convention in its executive administration, and subsequently at the SBC's executive committee as Vice-President for Great Commission Initiatives, a high dollar, high power executive office, got that far without having his educational background vetted. It would be unusual for someone at that level of executive leadership either in a Baptist state convention office, or at the Southern Baptist headquarters, to not have at least a master's degree, preferably from one of the six seminaries operated by the denomination.  Someone didn't do their job, and in the very backward manner in which Southern Baptists often operate, it was because someone higher up,, and with influence, was doing McLaurin a favor in exchange for some benefit or favor from McLaurin later on.  

A Troubled Office 

The President of the Executive Committee, while not actually the "head" of the denomination, is the CEO of its business operation.  The committee carries out the work of administering the unified budget plan, distributing funds to six seminaries, two mission boards, the largest Christian publishing house in the world, and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and follows the directives and recommendations of the messengers at the annual, two-day convention where business is conducted and voted on by messengers from the churches.  So this office is the most visible face of Southern Baptists to the world.  It hasn't been a very good representation since 2018.  

The person who holds this office is chosen by a search committee.  No one gets any paid position in the Southern Baptist denomination without bowing at the feet of a small group of far right conservatives who plotted a takeover of the trustee boards and committees that control the business operations and carried it out by the end of the 1980's.  So the last four occupants of this most visible, and powerful, of Southern Baptist denominational offices, who have not been very consistent with their Christian testimony, have held the position because of the conservative faction's use of their own influence and power.  

Yes, I'll repeat that.  Conservatives control who gets the jobs in the SBC, and are responsible for the last four failures.  

McLaurin is one of two of the past four presidents who served in an interim capacity, but sources inside the committee say he was about to be made the permanent president, becoming the first black executive to lead anywhere in the denomination.  His predecessor, Ronnie Floyd, resigned when the convention itself overwhelmingly passed directives over his strenuous objection, mainly related to waiver of privilege so that investigators could get to the bottom of the clergy sex abuse scandal.  Prior to Floyd, another interim, August Boto, was stonewalling convention messengers' desires to "do something" about the sexual abuse scandal.  He refused, citing legal liabilities and fear of lawsuits.  And Boto became interim when Frank Page resigned, citing an "improper relationship" as his reason for stepping down.  

That's quite a record for a conservative, fundamentalist, Bible-thumping, majority Republican, Christian denomination.  It appears that marital infidelity, silence and lack of transparency, resistance to the will of the people and lying have become the values which characterize leadership in the SBC.  This didn't happen in a vacuum.  McLaurin held two paid executive positions, one in the Tennessee Baptist Convention, the other at the SBC executive committee, prior to becoming interim.  So how is it that no one bothered to check his resume the first two times he was hired?

Yes, Right Wing Politics is at the Bottom of the SBC's Problems

There are those within the Southern Baptist Convention who claim that the lack of transparency has always been a problem, that a small oligarchy of prominent, mostly larger-church pastors and a handful of wealthy church members, have always called the shots and bent the rules to their favor, to avoid controversies and questions from the messengers who attend the annual meeting, and where accountability for convention business rests.  That's an accurate statement.  But until recently, the denominational politics was largely internal, mostly doctrinal and theological fights between fundamentalists, conservatives and moderates.  It's only been since the 1990's that secular, Republican politics intruded into the debate, and only since Trump that it has had the kind of corrosive, corrupting effect that is clearly visible now.  

The tight, self-appointed leadership oligarchy has done this to themselves.  One of the two men who is labelled as an "architect of the conservative resurgence," Paul Pressler, an influential Texas Republican and a state appeals court judge, was interested in commandeering the influence of the denomination on the side of Republican politics, turning it into a political action committee. Pressler manipulated, or more accurately, bullied the trustees of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the denomination to make Richard Land its executive director, to facilitate the marriage with the GOP.  Land infamously authored the letter from the Christian right to Dubya, explaining how blowing the smithereens out of Iraq would be a "just war" from a Christian perspective.  This willingness to distort and use the Christian gospel for something it did not, in any way, shape or form, justify, is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the corruption of the Southern Baptist Convention by its leadership. 

That's one of the reasons why Trump's immorality, fraud, lies, deception, and promotion of worldliness like prostitution and gambling interests didn't draw criticism from Southern Baptist leadership when he ran for President, but, in fact, actually got support from some prominent leaders including Land, Pressler and Robert Jeffress, the pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, whom Trump calls "one of my favorite Evangelicals."  They rejected two of their own members, Ted Cruz and Lindsay Graham--not stellar, outstanding examples of ethics or morality themselves, but at least, they belong to and attend Southern Baptist churches-- in order to support the evil, antichristian demagogue, not only during his run for the Presidency, but also through the GOP nomination process. 

So the crocodile tears and caterwauling over Willie McLaurin's phony resume credentials is subterfuge covering up a much bigger internal problem, including rank deception and dishonesty, also known as lying, which, apparently worked right up to this point.  Willie McLaurin is black.  If he were white, I seriously doubt that the person, or persons, on the search committee who found this deception would have bothered to check.  This was his second try at the executive position, after a first choice by the search committee was voted down because, well, because he had been the chair of the search committee.  Many of those on the Executive Committee had resigned themselves to the reluctant conclusion that McLaurin might be the first African American to hold any executive leadership position in the Southern Baptist Convention, anywhere.  Now, they are absolved of that dilemna.  

The bigger problem for this denomination is a severe and spectacular decline in its membership and attendance, way beyond the dent put in attendance by COVID.  In just the past decade, membership has declined by 3.2 million, with more than 400,000 leaving in each of the last three years.  Expectations are that 2024 will bring at least a drop of 500,000.  They lost 100,000 members in the weeks after the convention annual meeting in June, when they voted to kick out churches who had women on staff designated as "pastors."  One church they booted, the largest in the denomination, had over 40,000 members, and another large, prominent church, which left rather than remaining in to be booted later, over 30,000.  Reports are that about 30 other churches have since severed their ties.  

It's pretty clear, from the evidence, and in spite of efforts on behalf of SBC leaders to blame their tanking membership on everything but what's causing it, that being good at deception, lacking transparency and being run by a small group of self-appointed leaders who admire political leaders that bear no characteristics of, or resemblance to anything "Christian" is a problem.  

You can't make this stuff up.