Texas Baptist Forum

Posted: 11/10/06

Texas Baptist Forum

Not all brothers

Why do people assume Christians, Jews and Muslims are all heirs of Abraham?

Abraham was not Noah; certainly not Adam or God. He wasn’t in a vacuum, and humanity didn’t begin with him. There were plenty of people alive already when God told him (Genesis 12:1) to get away from them, including his kinfolks. And what about those living in the land God sent him to, not to mention enemies along the way? Who are their descendants today?

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

“Dear friends, until Moses comes down with two stone tablets from Brokeback Mountain saying we’ve changed the rules, let’s keep it like it is.” Mike Huckabee Arkansas governor and former Baptist pastor, speaking about same-sex marriage (RNS) “Those of us on the right have been losing ground since the 1970s and ’80s. Can we ultimately win? I think you would need a reconversion of the country to a traditionalist, Christian point of view—and I don’t see that coming.” Pat Buchanan Conservative author of the new book State of Emergency, discussing his belief that conservatives will lose the culture wars (Time magazine/RNS) “Abu Ghraib: I believe that really hurt us. It hurt us internationally. It kind of eased us off the moral high ground; we weren’t a country that was capable of, on the one hand, promoting democracy and then treating people decently.” President Bush Responding to a reporter’s question at a White House news conference about torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq (RNS)

I have to believe those who truly claim Abraham as their ancestral or spiritual patriarch cannot be enemies among themselves, and those of murderous intent surely descended from the “mixed multitudes” that were a threat then, as now. The fact is, none of us knows who we truly are genetically, only who we choose to be and how we choose to behave.

Just as some of the world’s pagan practices over time morphed into and compromised Christianity in some places, could not just-as-pagan practices have blended into and corrupted Islam, for some?

I’m tired of hearing, “We’re all brothers.” We’re not.

Harriet Kelley

Dallas

Move ahead for Christ

Like you, I grieve over the perpetrators and events that led to the misuse of church planting funds. With an organization the size of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, it is inevitable that people who oversee the whole organization cannot be aware of everything that happens in every level of every department. They can be expected to attempt to know everything, but in reality, the effective day-to-day oversight in such a huge organization requires vigilance and monitoring by those closest to the details in the field.

As you move ahead for Christ, and move ahead you must, I encourage you to learn from the past, improve the present and plan for the future. You have a bright future before you!

Do not allow finger-pointing or scapegoating to derail your work for Christ. If you do, the highjacking of the cause of Christ will be a bigger tragedy than the highjacking of those funds. Don’t generalize and thereby lump the innocent in with the guilty. Apparently, a few smooth operators did the cause of Christ great wrong. But, thank God, not all people are like that!

You have leaders of high-integrity in Charles Wade and Ron Gunter, as well as throughout your BGCT employees. Appreciate your leaders, affirm them and unite with them to deal with this issue. Then, move on together to the mission Christ has placed before you!

Ed Jordan

Pocatello, Idaho

Best we have

Charles Wade is not perfect; neither is the BGCT. However, they are the best we have. 

Let us be slow to criticize and quick to pray. May God bless him as he continues to lead Texas Baptists.

Marlin Felts

Estelline

What do you think? The Baptist Standard values letters to the editor, for they reflect Baptists’ 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.