I am reminded of a story once told me by a friend about his neighbor who was a lifelong devoted Catholic. Someone told him that Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian. Appalled by this obvious lie he sought an answer from a Jesuit priest who, to his horror, confirmed the story. Keeping in mind that this was a man in his early middle age who had been going to mass regularly several times a week throughout his entire life, it may surprise you to know that he immediately dropped out of the church of Rome. And what he did after that is of further interest, because he went around to all the churches in his area to ask the ministers that same question. After several of them confirmed that Jesus was a Jew he at last encountered a Lutheran pastor who assured him that Christ was definitely NOT a Jew but a good solid Christian (and probably a Lutheran to boot) whereupon the man signed up with the Lutherans for the remainder of his ride through life.

So, I tell that story only as a parable (heh) of how difficult it may be to change the minds of people whose pathetic, superstitious ideas are firmly set in ferro-concrete. They don’t want their sacred ideas to be changed, no matter how bizarre or unlikely those ideas might be. It would rock their very places in the universe (such as they are), leaving them in question of their personal salvation and confused about their commitment to condemning everybody on the entire planet that believes differently.

So, you can probably continue to count on the SBC to serve as a contrary measure of sound vs. wrong ideas for some time to come. Perhaps right up until the Rapture, and we know where we’ll be going then! — David

It’s a shame to see yet another symbol of American stability and strength go by the wayside. Yes, one has to wonder what’s happening to our world when even the steadfast beacon of the Southern Baptist Convention seems to be wavering. I shudder to think about the surging sea of relativism upon which we all may soon be set adrift if it’s really true that people like James Merritt have lost their way.

This is a personal issue for me because for many years I have taken my stance on dozens of important issues based on what the Southern Baptist Convention did. If they were against something then I was for it, and if they didn’t believe it then I certainly did.

But this new “flexibility” on the part of these SBC honchos is most disconcerting to me. It means I’m no longer going to have the SBC litmus test ready to hand. Oh, no, now I’m going to do more research on my own on, and that’s a major pain.

Darn!

Val