RE: Baptist pastors and leaders join clemency plea for Melissa Lucio

As a Christian and Texan, I am extremely disturbed that Texas intends to take the life of an innocent person. The case of Melissa Lucio, who is scheduled for execution on April 27, 2022, is heartbreaking in many ways.

Melissa has been sitting on death row for 14 years after being wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for the accidental death of her daughter, Mariah. Information that could have been beneficial to the jury was never adequately presented, such as Mariah’s extensive medical history or how Melissa was a victim of sexual and domestic abuse starting when she was just 6 years old.

How can anyone look at the facts of this case and not be plagued with doubt? My faith teaches only God can end a life. I urge Gov. Greg Abbott and the Board of Pardons and Paroles to review Melissa’s Lucio case and consider granting her clemency.

Christopher Qualls
Waco, Texas

RE: Editorial: Redressing sexual abuse must be thorough

“Stains” is a pretty good word, and the very soul—image of God in us—is stained. It is a “blood of Christ” stain that needs cleansing by him and his people.

The victim has to be ready to heal, and talking about what happened in an accepting environment is the beginning. Yet, this is very embarrassing and hits at the heart identity of the victim. When one is really young, recovery may feel impossible.

People who come out the other side of trauma are never the same. I think that is why we are seeing so many women with a united voice in the #MeToo movement.

Considering the depth of this sin, this breach of trust and betrayal, the church cannot pat a person on the head and then “move on.” Money will not heal this either, though it will pay a counselor or help someone move to a new place.

Survivors and counselors need to make a plan for healing and what will be needed.

Ruth Cook
Carrollton

RE: Pastors say they want racial diversity but see limited progress

Sure wish I could have been part of the study on racial diversity in churches recently featured in the Baptist Standard, both because of the racial diversity at First Baptist Church in Pecos and because of our great concern about the divisive use of critical race theory in our current society.

We reflect the ethnic make-up of our region with a greatly increasing number of Hispanics in our congregation and its leadership. Additionally, we are reaching out and discipling people of other ethnic backgrounds, including Filipino families and even a very active family from India.

The key is not preaching sermons focused entirely on racial reconciliation through topical sermons, but naturally incorporating the message of cross-cultural evangelism and discipleship as a key element in biblical missionary expansion in every local church that wants to follow Jesus, and sharing the genuine gospel, not just to “all nations” out there, but to “all ethnicities” right here.

Kevin Mitchell, pastor
First Baptist Church, Pecos

RE: Voices: Does the Bible teach universalism, that everyone will be saved?

Joshua Sharp’s attempt to dismantle universal reconciliation notes Philippians 2:10 and 1 Corinthians 15. These passages clearly show all (Greek: pan) come into submission to Christ. He submits all to the Father, and God becomes all in all. None are excluded. Colossians 1:19 confirms that fullness.

In Romans 11:32 and 1 Corinthians 15:22, we encounter a contrast between two universal statements in which the first “all” determines the scope of the second.

If you read the words of the early Greek church fathers who lived closest to the time of Christ and who understood the ancient Greek, you will find they interpreted these Scriptures to mean the salvation of everyone.

Even some who reject the idea of universal reconciliation have conceded, as Neal Punt does, that “Romans 5:18 and its immediate context place no limitation on the universal scope of the second ‘all’ men.” Or as Larry Lacy said, “The most reasonable interpretation of Romans 5:18 would be that Paul was therein teaching universal salvation.”

Eternal conscious torment throws mud on God’s face and makes him out to be a cosmic torturer.

The same God who commanded us to love our enemies, “who wills that all men be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” and “when lifted up, will draw (“drag” in the Greek) all men to himself,” will salt “everyone” with the fire of his purifying love.

Who are we like when we love our enemies? We are like our Father in heaven.

Brady S. Mayo
Houston

RE: Texas abortion ban remains in effect for now

How can you call an abortion limit—the Heartbeat law—a ban? You sound just like the godless, liberal, secular media!

We—God’s elect—need to use truth, not demagoguery as the measure of our reporting.

I guess if you feel abortion is good and want to stir up contention by calling a limit a ban, that’s your First Amendment right, but why should I listen to you supposedly presenting information in accordance with a biblical worldview, if you’re going to take the same approach as secular news outlets?

I started monitoring the Baptist Standard and report observations to my senior men’s Sunday school class. Maybe I just need to read CNN instead!

May God inspire and enlighten you!

Jay Nesbitt
Marshall, Texas

RE: Editorial: Even Bob Dylan knows you can’t serve two masters

Against

I will not beat around the bush. I am way too old for that anymore. I also don’t believe in trying to sweeten a conversation!

Therefore, I disagree with your article on Trump’s visit to First Baptist Church in Dallas. But I agree we cannot serve two masters. Only God is my master, as well as I am sure he is yours.

But as a Christian sister to you, I see Jeffress having Trump as a guest as a way to try and save our country! The country was founded on religious beliefs. Our love for our Master and Savior is also love for our country! How could it not be?

Yes, this is not our final destination, but it is where we live until the day Jesus comes back. Until that day, do you think we are supposed to just lay down and let the satans of the country run and rule our lives? Absolutely not!

There is nothing wrong with having Trump as a guest in that church, nor for him to speak. As a believer, you don’t know how much this could bring President Trump closer to the Lord!

Jeffress, also (Charles) Stanley and (David) Jeremiah, even discuss the condition of this country. In all my life, I never thought I would hear the country’s top pastors speak about politics from the pulpit! But here we are, going to hell in a hand basket, and we have to have an article criticizing a pastor and the church congregation for inviting a former president to their church!

I do (not) know nor do I care whether you dislike Trump and/or Jeffress or maybe both, and you are entitled to your opinion, but I believe the readers would have profited more from a more uplifting, godly article!

Mrs. Johnnie L. Pitts
Burton, Texas

For

Religious people began to vote their faith silently, becoming the Silent Majority during Nixon’s presidency.

Billy Graham was the pastor to presidents and probably voted his faith also. This ended with Watergate. He realized he should not promote one candidate over the other, so he could continue being the pastor to presidents. His son has not followed his tutelage.

George H.W. Bush, in losing an election in Texas to Lloyd Bentsen, realized he had to court the churched voters. Jerry Falwell established and the Moral Majority, campaigning for prayer in schools and no abortion. Trump supporters emerged from the roots of the Moral Majority.

Why do we Christians focus on political action rather than spiritual transformation?

In Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis describes the Christian who has substituted a cause for his faith, with pacifism and patriotism as examples. For the 21st-century evangelical, pro-life also might be considered a cause.

In Medical Ethics, John Frame describes when an obstetrician must lie to be ethical. His biblical justifications are the midwives in Egypt, Samuel going to anoint David while Saul is still king, and Elisha opening the eyes of the servant to see the host of defenders against the Amalekites.

This loss of truth applies to much of the pro-life political movement.

How can we as evangelicals who have nurtured the pro-life milieu of deceit as truth now change direction and revere truth? Can we even recognize it anymore?

Indeed, your article shows we applaud the man more than our Christ. The political evangelical only espouses what supports his cause, whether that support is truthful or not. And so, we have lost the truth, not in serving two masters, but rather by substituting a wonderful cause for our faith.

We have lost the truth, our way, and have no life.

Peter Norton
Abilene, Texas

The passage of Screwtape Letters Norton cites reads, in part: “All extremes [such as ‘extreme patriot’ or ‘extreme pacifist’] except extreme devotion to the Enemy [by which the elder demon means God], are to be encouraged. Not always, of course, but at this period. Some ages are lukewarm and complacent, and then it is our business to soothe them yet faster asleep. Other ages, of which the present is one, are unbalanced and prone to faction, and it is our business to inflame them” (Screwtape Letters, p. 40 of the 1945 reprint).

Norton’s example is apropos of today. We are given to extremes, none of which seem to be the correct one.

Against

Your dislike for President Trump was so clear from the start that none of the biased content that followed was a surprise.

Since you note your shock at the welcoming treatment given to President Trump at the service, here’s a little newsflash: When presidents or former presidents visit a church or other organization, they’re treated a little differently than common folks.

And when a president has done more for the Christian faith and for Israel than any U.S. president in 100 years, special treatment is warranted, regardless of past sins. And that includes made-up sins like referring to himself as “the Chosen One,” which we both know was done in jest.

And most of all, giving a former president the appropriate welcome and treatment in no way indicates the host church is worshipping him or putting him on a pedestal with Jesus. But then again, you and I both know you know that, but that was the theme for your “piece” (double meaning on last word).

I’ve read many articles in your publication, as I grew up Baptist with a minister of music father and organist mother, and have been a member and choir member at a prominent Dallas church the last 30 years, and I can assure you, I’ve not read a bigger piece of garbage in yours or any other publication in a long time.

It makes me wonder how often you jumped on Obama or the other Democratic candidates who visited churches and were welcomed with open arms. I’m guessing never.

I’m guessing you will have a bright future at The New York Times or Washington Post or CNN. So, good luck on the Left.

Bruce Davidson
Carrollton, Texas

RE: Review: The Spiritual Danger of Donald Trump

I just recently read your review of the book The Spiritual Danger of Donald Trump, now two years old. What troubles me is your failure to send up red flags as it relates to Donald Trump and the “Trump evangelicals.”

I was reared in an evangelical home and brought up in a Bible-believing church. My thoughts on the evils of Donald Trump come from:

1. Sunday school teachers who taught me to “hate what God hates and love what God loves.” I don’t have to tell you that Donald Trump, if anything, is a liar.

2. In Sunday school and from the pulpit, I was taught “situational ethics” are not Jesus ethics. No matter how many conservative judges, or how protective of religious “rights,” or appointing anti-abortion judges will not justify the support, defense or voting for someone such as Donald Trump by any Jesus person.

Furthermore, one of the wisest men of all time once warned the reader it is an “abomination” in God’s eyes to call that which is evil, “good”.

In more than 10,000 years of human behavior, entire civilizations and the nation of Israel were destroyed many times over because of the failure of truth-telling men to stop sending up red flags to the people.

Whether from the pulpit or the Christian media, American evangelicals are heading down a dangerous road. The Spiritual Danger of Donald Trump should be read and evaluated, but more importantly, the pulpit and God’s people should be reading their Bible! When God’s people do that, they will find no path forward to support Donald Trump.

J. Bowens
Kensington, Ohio

RE: Three more kidnapped mission workers in Haiti released

Thanks for sharing that, after requests for fasting and praying, mission workers have been released from captivity.

In keeping with Jesus’ guidance in Mark 9:29, to overcome evil, both fasting and praying are required.

There is so much evil in our world today. There are more than 100 references to fasting in the Bible. I believe we need to join first century Christians’ practice of fasting on bread and water on Wednesdays (the day of Jesus’ betrayal) and Fridays (the day of Jesus’ crucifixion).

In Leviticus 26:8, we are told 100 of us can turn 10,000. If we keep and live God’s teachings, he promises us no enemies will be in our land and peace will abide. When we focus in purpose, prayer and fasting, then God will restore peace to our land. The United States will again be a bright, shining light to the world.

Please help us more responsibly focus and pick up our own crosses and follow Jesus’ reply to the disciples: “When evil is present, fasting and praying are required.” If we had the tiniest clues of the abundances of blessings God is ready to flood upon us, would we ever stop praying without ceasing?

Thanks be to God for blessing us all, in Jesus’ holy name. Thanks, again, for sharing good news from Haiti.

Larry K. Tippens
Hillsborough, N.C.

RE: Voices: Profits and perils of postmodern biblical interpretation

Postmodernism rejects absolute truth. Everything is subjective. Everyone has the right to live in their own reality. The ties that bound us together as a society are being severed. Every man is becoming an island in a sea of diverse realities. Meet chaos.

God didn’t create chaos. He created order. The universe (Latin—“unus:” one; “versus:” turning) is his. What God created turns as one. Creation revolves around the Creator. God didn’t create a multiverse with multiple realities. Meet absolute truth.

Postmodernist thinking fuels the societal decay all around us—the shooting, burning, looting, perversion and utter weirdness. We must reject postmodernism and return to Jesus, the tree of life. He is the only way and has revealed himself through the Bible.

For us to understand the Bible, someone must first interpret it into the languages we use today. Then, as we read it, the Holy Spirit opens our hearts and minds to understand it. An understanding of the historical and cultural contexts and the languages in which the different books of the Bible were written is helpful. And a general understanding of the whole Bible is needed to understand its parts. From cover to cover, it consistently tells God’s story of sin, rebellion, judgment and redemption.

Human culture has been degenerating progressively, devolving from the noble to the base. That is the message of Daniel’s image with its upper parts of gold and silver and its lower parts of iron and clay—the clay of post-modernism.

Michael Leamons
Hico, Texas

RE: Commentary: Messengers are leading the SBC forward

Amen! I think the big-time pastors in the megachurches need to recognize who the majority of the delegates are. We are in the trenches doing the work when they are bragging on how much they are the leaders. If the flock doesn’t follow, can we call them leaders?

Robert Rosier
Danbury, Texas

RE: Mike Stone files lawsuit against Russell Moore

When I read the article on Mike Stone’s lawsuit against Russell Moore, I said to myself, “This is wrong.”

Mr. Stone is acting beyond acceptable Christian behavior. The ideals he preaches Sunday after Sunday are not peripheral to the standard Christian mandates, but are central to the gospel of Jesus Christ—turn the other cheek, love your enemy, forgive the offender 70 times seven.

Mr. Moore, too, injured the body of Christ. While Southern Baptists appear to be in a slug fest, he is enjoying his new position with Christianity Today, bloviating on his personal virtue and pontificating about how deplorable most Southern Baptists are. It irritates me to no end when a person bites the hand that has fed him. Ingratitude is as bad or worse than suing a fellow Baptist in my Baptistic world.

This war between Stone and Moore is not religious but personal, and the casualties are not merely the two combatants but the whole body of Christ. Often, religious people muddy the issues by spiritualizing the conflict when the predicate is much more primal and carnal than idealistic and spiritual.

Personal matters are addressed better the “pagan,” secular way and not the Baptist way. Let them fight it out until there’s one man left standing.

Mr. Stone, however, risks the danger of becoming like a marriage counselor divorced several times yet advising couples to remain married because it’s God’s plan.

Danilo Reyes
California City, Calif.

RE: Jan Daehnert: ‘A networker and encourager’

I met Dr. Daehnert—more affectionately known on campus as “Dr. D”—in my first semester as a student at Dallas Baptist University. Coming to campus as a freshman in the middle of a pandemic, I needed an encourager and a friend. Dr. D was just that.

Dr. D is an equipper. As a student in his “Intro to Christian Ministry” class, I was privileged to have the opportunity to learn from the joys and pains of his own ministry experience. More than that, I was struck by his desire to know each student personally. He didn’t want just to equip us collectively, he wanted to invest in us individually. Dr. D loves the Lord, loves his church, loves his people and trains up young people to do the same.

Dr. D certainly is a networker and encourager, but those who spend any amount of time with him know he is profoundly humble. His humility is what makes him such an effective servant leader. Most importantly, his humility makes much of Jesus.

I am grateful to know Dr. Daehnert, and I am grateful for how the Lord is using him in the lives of students like me here at Dallas Baptist University.

Jayce Leeper
Dallas, Texas

RE: Jan Daehnert: ‘A networker and encourager’

I had the opportunity many years ago to be the church liaison for the intentional interim ministry begun in the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Highland Baptist Church in Dallas was the pilot church, and Jan Daehnert was the interim.

Also involved were Dick Maples; Charles Lee Williamson; Aubrey Patterson, missions director of the Dallas Baptist Association; and Gary Hearon, former executive director of the Dallas Baptist Association.

I was asked one year to speak at the BGCT annual meeting regarding the process of the intentional interim ministry in the local church. These men were the foundation in leading many churches to adopt this format of interim pastors.

Jan, being the interim at Highland, guided us in seeking who we were as a church and discovering areas that needed to be addressed before forming a pastor search committee. I will always be thankful for his leadership and encouragement during those months as we sought the leading of the Holy Spirit in receiving his shepherd to lead us in reaching people for Christ. Dallas Baptist University indeed is blessed in having Jan on their staff to give spiritual guidance and encouragement.

David Hull
Queen Creek, Ariz.