Texas Baptist Forum

Posted: 9/29/06

Texas Baptist Forum

College football on Sunday

Regarding Bruce Parsons’ protest of the recent Sunday evening football contest between Baylor and TCU (Sept. 18): My alma mater, Baylor, and many other church-affiliated institutions nationwide have competed regularly on Sundays for decades in a variety of other intercollegiate sports, including baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, and tennis, among others.

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Letters are welcomed. Send them to marvknox@baptiststandard.com; 250 words maximum.

“I’m not the Christ. I’m just a donkey the Christ rides on.” T.D. Jakes Pastor of The Potter’s House in Dallas (Texas Monthly/RNS) “This idea that God wants everybody to be wealthy. There is a word for that—baloney. It’s creating a false idol. You don’t measure your self-worth by your net worth. I can show you millions of faithful followers of Christ who live in poverty. Why isn’t everyone in the church a millionaire?” Rick Warren Author and pastor of Saddleback Valley Church in California (Time magazine/RNS) “When we present Jesus as a pro-war, anti-poor, anti-homosexual, anti-environment, pro-nuclear weapons authority figure draped in an American flag, I think we are making a travesty of the portrait of Jesus we find in the gospels.” Brian McLaren Leader of the “emerging church” movement and pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Montgomery County, Md. (The Washington Post/RNS) “Amid a culture inundated with bigness and cellular technology, iPods and TiVo, the technologized megachurch is no longer impressive. In fact, many young Christians come to church to get asylum from this worldliness. Infinitely more than the megachurch’s ‘stuff,’ my generation wants religion. We want everything our parents didn’t, and that seems increasingly to be summed up in the word ‘meaning.’” Clint Rainey Student at the University of Texas at Austin “It is no use saying, ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.” Winston Churchill British orator, author and prime minister during World War II (Thinkexist.com)

The fact a football game on Sunday draws objection says, I think, more about the exalted position football enjoys in our state than it suggests a recent cultural abandonment of a religious tradition surrounding Sunday nights.

Moreover, Baylor football on Sunday is neither recent nor unprecedented. Baylor played Sunday football games seven times between 1900 and 1933, including two games won over our fellow Texas Baptists at Howard Payne University.

Bart McKay

Waco

Islamic fascism

An article declares “Islamic fascist” is an inaccurate label (August 22). But the last paragraph admits the goal of Islamic fundamentalists is establishment of a political system based on rigid Islamic law similar to the nationalistic system established by fascists in the 1930s.

Their goal is establishment “of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom.” This is exactly what the fascists did, only theirs was a government based on nationalism rather than religion.

The danger of such an article is it tends to look for the solution by changing who we are rather than appreciating the dangers of religious fanatics who have absolutely no moral equivalence to Christianity’s concept of an individual’s freedom to be responsible directly to God.

We need the awareness and understanding of all the aspects of Islam that the Baptist Standard provides in this issue, but we don’t need to couch our thinking in benign words.

R. Terry Campbell

Jasper, Ga.

Prayer language

First things first:  I have never experienced a Spirit-bestowed private prayer language, nor (to my knowledge) have any of my close Christian friends or associates.

Furthermore, this particular gift is not something that I actively seek to acquire or practice. That being said, I take seriously 1 Corinthians 14:39, which clearly and unequivocally states, “Do not forbid speaking in tongues.”

How ironic that the guardians of Baptist orthodoxy and champions of biblical inerrancy at the Southern Baptist International Mission Board and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary are openly disobeying the very Scriptures they claim to hold in such high esteem (Sept. 4).

Louis Johnson

Abilene

First Amendment

The First Amendment establishes that our government shall “make no law respecting the establishment of religion.” Thus, as with all religious rituals and sacraments, government should stay out of the holy matrimony business and leave its celebration to religious organizations. 

Further, government should enforce the constitutional provision that restricts state law from impairing obligations of contract that establish relationships between consenting adults. In ensuring this guarantee, government can establish laws of civil union that protect citizens’ rights to form such relationships.

If gays and lesbians, or others, desire to extend their civil union into sacramental marriage, they can find a body of faith that is willing to sanctify their contractual relationship. If they cannot locate one, their freedom of religion entitles them to start a denomination of their very own. 

Sam Osborne

West Branch, Iowa

Comair Flight 5191

I was disturbed by your editorial about Co-pilot James Polehinke and Comair Flight 5191 (Sept. 18).

How can you judge a man who has suffered various life-threatening injuries for asking: “Why did God do this to me?” You are writing a Christian editorial, and you are judging someone who is barely coherent. These type of actions and judgments are why people are staying away from churches. Instead of judging this man, you should be praying for his recovery.

I flew as a flight attendant at Comair Airlines for three years. Comair is a very respectable airline with the finest training department and pilots in the regional airline industry. The truth in this incident will come out. And, no, I don’t believe God caused the crash. Please cut Polehinke some slack as he recovers from such a horrid incident.

Summer Ratcliffe

Huntington, W.Va.

Lacks Christian charity

Joyce Slaydon’s letter (Aug. 21) forms a different kind of “noxious sewage” of which perhaps she herself is not aware. Her letter lacks Christian charity and humility of spirit, and instead trumpets empty and judgmental emotionalism at the expense of scriptural exegesis and interaction. In short, her disagreeable opinion can simply be dismissed without much concern.

I, for one, appreciate the perspectives offered by Marv Knox. Though I may not always agree, I rejoice to claim him as my brother in Christ.

Byron Smith

Tyler

A new low

The anger and concern the media displayed over a portrayal of Bill Clinton in an ABC docudrama pertaining to 9/11 amazed me.

The second half of the docudrama portrayed President Bush in the same unfavorable manner. Of course, negative portrayals of President Bush are not only acceptable but encouraged by the media in my view.

My absolute outrage is the media’s blind eye toward a movie to be shown in the United States depicting the assassination of a sitting United States president! I am disgusted, I am outraged by the silence regarding the fictional murder of President Bush. I am ashamed to be an American. I fear for what it suggests.

I am sure the terrorists love the movie and the silent approval from the American press. I should be used to this degradation, but this movie is a new low—a low I never believed I would see.

Roberta Larimore Colin

Athens

What do you think? The Baptist Standard values letters to the editor, for they reflect Baptists’ traditional affirmation of the priesthood of believers. Send letters to Editor Marv Knox by mail: P.O. Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267; or by e-mail: marvknox@baptiststandard.com. Letters are limited to 250 words. Only one letter per writer in a three-month period.