Willimon, Buncombe St UMC and One Battle After Another

    The  last ten days or som I hve been engrosed by Bishop and Chaplain Will Willimom  of Duke, Wofford and North Alabama and his book of August The Church we Carry. The following blog is random but the substance of the matter is reviewed at the Advocate, a podcast Plainspoken interview with Willimon and a scorching look at Willimon by Talbot Davis at Baptist News Global. Davis is a an Asbury Seminary grad and pastor in Charlotte in the vein of Ben Milstead of the voice of Clemson athletics The Roar.

      I hope there is further exploration of the matter by secular media to explore just how sophisticated and savvy the rightwingers at Buncombe Street who drove the disaffiliation of the historic, wealthy and influential congreatation in fact are. Willimon who was raised in the church, says there was a lot of secrecy and misinformation among the driving forces of the malcontents.

   I wonder how they fare compared to the christian nationalionalists in the movie One Battle After Anoter. The Movie is recently reviewed in the NY Rev of Books. Would be interesting to see how the influencers at Buncombe Street line up, and even if these savvy professionals in the eyes of Talbot Daivs can disinguish between their ass and a Hole in the ground in the larger contxt. I imagine Talbot churh in Charlotte  is aware of the implications in the world of Trump and this movie.

    Even less aware is my judgment on the FUMC of Guntersville Alabama who voted to break ties with the Wofford and Duke Brand of  Methodism. There are pockets of grand people in both congregations, but Guntersville Trumpers have all the markings of lobbyist for the gun Lobby.

   Interesting to note that Katie Britt, the former SGA president of U bama and member in good standing of the FUMC Montgomery Alabama doesnt say much about her standing in that congregation who voted to stay with Willimon Methodism. At same time FUMC Auburn voted to bail out but recently udge said the property and the money in the church stays with Willimon and the 40 or so who voted remain mainstream

   The vote at Buncombe met the two thirds majority to disaffiate roughty 663 to 307

 Will Williman the former Bishop in Alabama for about seven years chap at Duke longtime trustee at Wofford friend of my friend Tommy Brittain, who was chair of the trustees at Wofford about 10 years ago he has a big law firm in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and his sister Was an influential pastor outside Davidson, North Carolina for some years in the best of the Methodist tradition of what I am about to report sounds like it had a lot of residence in the first United Methodist Church of Guntersville, Alabama likewise a fairly wealthy and influential congregation in North Alabama so there is a great interview Analysis of Willie‘s new book. The ch  The Church We Carry  at the advocate, which is a Methodist news reporting concern take a look at it. Also podcast interview with Willman at plain spoken. The last 30 minutes gets right down to the real nitty-gritty roughly Williman born in 1949 or maybe 46. I think he graduated from Wofford so between 65 and 69, which would make him six at least six years older than me so Willimon he was other things fascinated with the lynching of really Earl. He was one year old when that happened and he did a big conference at Wofford about six years ago on the lynching of Willie Earl a back in September there was an hour and a half discussion of his new book at Furman and then a few days later at Wofford

     and then this upcoming weekend at a large United Methodist Church in Columbia so Willimom  spent about a year after his church that shaped him BUNCOMBE Methodist Church in Greenville LA One of the wealthiest and most influential Methodist churches state of South Carolina according to Willimon , a group of right wing Methodist. I met secretly and spent a lot of of misinformation and it was brought to a vote and they voted to withdraw from the historic Methodist Church and go with there’s a name for the global Methodist Church or something they’re calling themselves so this was a punch in the gut for Willie, who was had his tractors, especially as his time in the bishop as a bishop in Alabama, but he did in 2010 so take a strong stand for immigration and compared the law that was a past in Alabama as comparable to the decisions on slavery during the civil war, specially I know I can’t think of it right now the decision it gave robbery among other people to cross into northern territory and Gather up escape slave so Wilman, for whatever you say about him is on the side of Harriet Tubman as disposed and Abraham Lincoln and judge Frank Johnson to the historic witness of George Wallace and Strom, Thurman and and Robert Lee, if you investigate the nuances, etc., etc. so of course this is comparable to some things that happened in Baptist churches did the nomination I think of all episode when Rocky Purvis, who became a trustee at Furman when they had the big vote for Furman to separate from South Carolina Baptist, when Jerry vines came to Southeastern seminary in 1987 Rocky was a student there after graduating from Furman and he had a secret meeting with jerry vines  and people of the peace committee it was vines. He became a pastor at Jacksonville, Florida thoroughly marinated in the fundamentalism and the takeover of the SBC and a mentor to Tim Tebow‘s mother who was the eagle forum woman of the year in 2018 so it appears that Williman was facing that mentality at this church in Greenville right off their famous Main Street and it was a similar mentality that he faced down that he was disturbed outraged about 30 years after the fun is taken over the southern Baptist convention. What are the thing about Rocky? He had a brother I think his name is Paul who is president the student government association at Furman in the early 1990s and they pause about as disgusting as Katie Britt the senator from Alabama who is complicit with Donald Trump and all his shenanigans she was the president of the student government association at University of Alabama so there’s a lot of ways to compare this mentality and finding another traditions and even in a secular politics and there’s a lot of overlay with the secular politics I haven’t read Willman‘s book yet I doubt he can connect these people to the Heritage foundation Which is a rabbit in certain pockets in upstate South Carolina, but it seems to have that same kind of mentality in there seeing in scripture I believe in a scripture bubbles up to these conversations about sexuality and which has a similar mindset to originalist interpretation of the constitution so I talk about that a little bit in my recent blog on authentic Baptist, so Williman‘s out there he’s 82 year old man now it was a punch in the gut and I’m gonna link this to the Facebook page of the Collinsville United Methodist Church Willimon spoke there about 2007 the Baptist pastors of John Morgan who died earlier this year his son Mark went to Duke and had some conversations with Williman. Mark now lives in Fort Payne, Alabama about 15 miles up the road from the red light at the Baptist Church in Collinsville, where my mother was baptizedso

Family history with heat on cold nights

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Tjis is a blog on the fly. Come back later if you cant take it cause it could be more presentable at maybe a tenth grade level as opposed to current application for ei  eighth graders.

   I have a kidney doctor friend in Arkansas who likes to wane nostalgic on these matters and maybe he will contribute. He is  currently engrossed with family letters from Plain dealing Louisiana 

at if you could do the honors in hit me up soon as possible another dictated instant dictate text for instant blog about heating systems with the cold last night down in the 20s. I was thinking about different heat over the years is turned out. I didn’t know my heater was on, but it’s 60. It knocked to chill off but When I got into bed last night, I thought I had a little hypothermia but my senior sister Marsha I think before I left Alabama to give me a heated quilt a small one and I got that from my toes and I know it with my down comforter and one of mom‘s quilt size double later almost sweating and sweating tonight, but I was very warm The thermometer for me as if my nose starts freezing, getting cold as it did several occasions in Alabama, January and February I had a I had a heated quilt dammit anyway and then a quilt but my nose stick my nose up had a toboggan on and almost freeze some nights in the teens in the 20s. I did have some Space heaters at that front room pretty much lockdown. You just need to run room warm if you have to think about it, my central heat got blown out by lightning strike in August 2000 I was in the library in Collinsville. I heard the strike and said that sure enough 3003 miles down the road and knocked out my heat in my Water my pump so about seven years after that I was living in third world as I did for the last 10 years in Collinsville. It reminded me my grandfather said there’s a big house in Walden Creek community outside pigeon Forge two-story thing I think he said 12 fireplaces in that house but it was at least six so I mean you weren’t getting cold air and then the Little small place for my grandmother helping and grew up with her sister and nine brothers and mom and dad they had a heater I made a fireplace that’s how they stayed warm you know they let it have nothing of a night and then I guess when I get up at 5 o’clock in the morning get that thing fired up so whatever they were, they were warm when we went over to see uncle Prentice couple years ago at October when his son Neil was down from Alaska Tim Wood my cousin me there he said he remembered these about 11 year old boy Maybe younger than that he was in the bed with Prentice and our oldest cousin Harold Simmons apprentice Wood was eight years older than Harold so I don’t know Harold would’ve been 10 so I guess Prentice would’ve been in room 1418 but Tim was in that bed at grandmother Helton. He didn’t say anything about the time of the year or a fireplace But yeah that was one of the lights to go to see my grandfather‘s sleeping out back in his small house on that rollaway bed where for the fireplace was I was just that’s good and Gaffney corset and they get cool in the evening and turn it down. We had those quilts Yeah uncle Bill uncle Bill had a good system across the road from Alabama. He had a he had a big heater in the front room that run on gas roll electricity so it’s electricity went out. You could just run it on gas and down stairs. He had a heater at a wood heater down there so can you get that thing up 90° is how many electricity went out and they got cold a big snowstorm of 93 I got over to his house and downstairs there yeah do you know it was there was he had it warm 90° that’s weird. They didn’t have a tub or shower up to 2000. That’s where he do his wash the buckets and hot water off that stove as it could be was Marsha’s big adventure with her cousins and clean up in tubs of hot water downstairs knuckle Bill‘s room. He got upset with them one time they got too much water on his concrete floor down there that was remarkable house I Yeah you gotta move on and go to other places so that’s my he and their stories for this morning and maybe by the time I revise my blog and Scoular I’m sure Kevin will on the way in on this. She’s been nostalgic here lately on Facebook. OK I’ll be looking for this when I get to a computer maybe later on in the day I made it through that it’s a 42 is always getting to 41 now I think it’s still in the 20s weather man saying here in upstate South Carolina but it’s gonna get up to 60 more so looks like in the survived this little episode.

National Fundamentalist inluencer and Furman grad does not think ML King was a Christian

 Allie Beth Stuckey a product of the Christian Nationalist Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas Texas and 2013 grad and commencement speaker at the alma Mater of Marshal Frady, Furman University, concludes ML King was not a Christian. A great friend of Charlie Kirk, she thinks King to be an impostor in a recent interview of a Black pastor who shares her view.

    Frady wrote a biography of King that to me reads like Scripture and came to a different conclusion.

     I know Furman is not in the business of denouncing graduates, but if they ever do she is a prime candidate. She certainly is no Tomiko Brown Nagin who is working on a new book about growing up in Greenwood SC and her extended Mixed race family. Tomiko is now Dean at Radcliffe.

     I hope Tomiko and Stuckey and Furman historian Ainsley Quiros with a Vandy PHD can talk about this within in the year.  Quiros PHD was about King and the Civil rights days in  Americus and Albany Georgia with an episode on Warren Fortson who Frady wrote about nationally in the sixties.

Family history

   About two weeks ago my first cousin on mommas's  side sent out a facebook notice with a letter his Dad my Uncle James sent from Germany during the Big war with some thoughts on fascism. He tried to suggest our grandfather, a Lincoln Republican born in 1881 woulda been antifa. I cant go that far but I get his point. Pat is the most radical of all of us, been a member of the sanctuary for thirty years now with several trips to central America from his station in New Mexiso. His sister's has a daughter who is ordained Baptist Preacher and my sister led a church group from Greenville SC to take the civil rights tour in Selma and Montgomery over last weekend. I crossed the Selma bridge with John Lewis and Ethel Kennedy in 2012 and went back to see Obama and Bush 43 in 2015. since Furman have been a fan of Will Campbell and Marshall Frady.

   Some classmates from Gaffney SC think I am a communist, but they didnt elect me most intellectual for nothing.

   Joke on me.

    That said some families are in earnest over the Holidays to share history. I may publish cousin Pat letter of his father soon.

   Fox side is interesting too, but they are not as thoughtfull in the aggregate as the Jordan sides Grandfather Jordan ran as Lincoln Republican 110 years in for school superintendent and was soundly defeated. His wife Aurrie Lula Vanzant three brothers were all medical doctors.

    My grandfather WD Shorty Fox had brother 20 year's younger than him who became a vice President of Reynolds aluminum. My oldest cousin Harold Brannon Simmons rose high with Sears and Roebuck and cousin Timm Wood married the niece of the long time treasurer of South Carolina Grady Patterson. His brother in law spoke at the funeral of the founder of Chic Fil A, Truett Cathy who I put in the bigger picture of the Baptist tradition in a recent blog.

   Roger Milliken Jr was great friend the summer of 1979 as was Brett Morgen January of 1992. He got a six minute standing ovation at Cannes Film festival three years ago for his documentary on David Bowie. 

   Late jan 1992 on back porch was Morgen and Karen Krattinger who became a tour manager fr the rollng stones, as Brett docked in 2012 with Crossfire Hurricane.

   Whcih brings me to bill Wyman in Muscle Shoals Alabama in the early seventies. As they were leaving the Holiday Inn this young woman custodian asked Wyman if his group was one of the rock groups that had been coming through a lot in those days . He siad Yes: Martha and the Vandellas

   Which brings me to one of Billy Graham's better anecdotes. This one about the mule who ran in the Kentucky derby. Mule and rider were askes why subject themselves to that kind of humiliation where they said they just wanted to be in good company.

   But not as good as Stewart Newman on Charles Stanley  the President of the Southern Baptist Convention in the eighties. Word got out that he went out to walk his Duck and got his head all cut up by an outboard motor

Collinsville Panthers owned the Dekalb county basketball tourney in the nineties

 A 1 A school halfway between Birmingham and Chattanooga was the best basketball team in North Alabama in the nineties. They won the county tourney four years in a row and were in the finall two more years. Starting in the fall of 93 with Billy Wayne Clanton they estableished some glory years as the Dutton brothers Mark and Chuckie then Solomon Stanton and Luke Griggs and Delvin George came along. Neal Thrash of Fyffe Alabama was their coach who sidelined in teaching Shakespeare.. 

    What follows was first dictated so it has some flaws but the substance is strong and will be revised and edited. The upshot of it all is the School should honor these players and teams thirty years out, and the county tourney should feature them mid January during the break of the semifinals which historically is a Friday night

      They won the tournament for those six years and they were the semifinals The last couple of years of that decade prominent during that era was Billy Wayne Clinton, Mark Dutton and his brother Chucky, Solomon Stanton and Luke Griggs other notables off the bench Mark Morgan, who went to Duke university academically,Of course Delvin Delvin George, who was a great player himself, but was tempted every time he crossed the half court strike to think he was Kobe Bryant, and would throw it throw it up in room them out more often than a pass,  He became a standout baseball player at Tuskegee where his sister before him was a Homecoming Queen.   Solomon Stanton had great COURT  presence probably the best player of that era and the glue that held evrything together. . He  was a beautiful player with the shot and drive toward the basket he would give the ball up. He was probably the best of all, though he and Dutton for sure could’ve probably played small college basketball and even football along with his brother Chucky two of the fastest white guys the brothers in the county at the time

   Mark Dutton was in telligience in the Iraq war and became fluent in Farsi.  

 Sadly, Luke Griggs became a traitor, and in his coaching days a decade later went to Plainview, where he coached the girls and he took his son with him who could’ve been a benefit the last few years for the Collinsville Panthers of Billy Wayne went to work with the Cherokee county electric company, where his family was prominent. He was a nephew of the former principal at Collinsville, high school Sammy Clanton, who was a basketball a stand out at sand rock high school in the 60s in the class of 67 . We’re in Collinsville was still significant in the finals off the bench with Russ Beeene,. In  circa 2004  he became a screenwriter did did  adaptation of the internationally known novelist, Ron rashes novel, One  foot in Eden who’s in the film adaptation at one point had Jeff Bridges himself attached and a few years earlier Alicia VIKANDER herself and Oscar winner, but The producers were working on a $40 million budget and can only erase 20. I talked to Russ almost every day, working on the first draft of that effort, other notables Brett Gifford, also in the tail end of that phenomenal set of teams silky, which is move to the basket And and also a pretty good baseball player so there were others.

   Stephen Justice was promising in 94 but got injured and gimped through the last of his senior year.  Those are the ones that come to mind at the moment the Dutton boys’s father I think won  state tournament in 74 and he was a big fan of Bill Russell. I thought one day he was gonna fight me in the parking lot of the piggly Wiggly because I dare to say that a healthy Bill Walton was a better all-around player than Bill Russell. He won’t buy it Michael Jordan or David Thompson anybody he was a Bill Russell guy hundred percent 

     There are  a couple of stories that Mark Dutton told me that I’ll try to work in to this blog on a revision, particularly, he said they beat halftime of a Plainview game who was a three a team in the late 90s the coach for Plainview kept his team on the court. Then at halftime and when Collinsville came back out, he told his boys look over there at your Daddy which I thought was a great story so Collins will beat the Plainview the bad ass Plainview true blue and then beat the favorite Sylvania in the finals so that was a great tournament story so it was just a great run and here’s to the hopes that Kyle has a good sense to celebrate this team. This coming winner of 20  26 have them all there and even better. I think they should be given a presentation during a halftime of a semi semifinal game of the DeKalb county Tournament which is often the third week of January one quick note about Coach trash who these boys love, Mark, who went to Duke and Mark got the one on one game with Shane Battier while he was there after the season and he didn’t score any points in a 15 one point Exercise but Marcus is senior year in Collinsville high school English teacher was out with a pregnancy and coach  Thrash in to teach Shakespeare and Mark says he was as good as teachers he ever had anywhere Collinsville or Duke so that says something for Coach THrash h even though I think Coach Willingham‘s ACT score might’ve been a little higher 27 which is phenomenal for a high school coach.  The wife of  Raymond  Weaver the football coach wife had perfect on math in 65 on ACT  so just a little side there to this up so here’s hoping there is a recognition of this great era and teams come back and get the recognition 30 years later that they deserve

              

Furman criminal trespass and the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church

  This will begin a series of blogs on my drama with Furman and its criminal trespass policy of which I am the latest victim. Until January of this year I was convinced Furman was a grand place even with the unfortunate decision on Baseball during covid. At Furman I was an Argonaut for two years, in the Band a year and the Furman singers for several months. The fall of 1973 with Dicky Wilson of New Jersey I was co emcee for the Furman Homecoming production the Furman Follies.  McAslister auditorium was packed out with Vince Perone present and Herman Lay of potato chips and Pepsi fame. We did a grand job.

    My friend Jim Pitts recently deceased longtime Chaplain at Furman ssaid I was worthy of Furman's e    uivalent of the order of the Palmetto for my piece in the Christian Century in the early nineties about Furman's dilemma with SC Baptists. Dr. Johns snet me a note of thanks. President David Shi for several years was a reader of this blog, teasuingly calling it "illustrious" at one point. With Shi and Sam Hodges FU 77 and Coug Cumming, son of Joe who hired Marshall Frady at Newswek in 75l we consider ourselves the Marshall Frady fan club of Furman

     But I sent to a gahtering of the Furman faculty in January in late January, the dean of students rudely and arrogantly called out behind me to get to the point reading a Lee Atwater, quoting an Atwater memo interrupted me. When the meting was over I approached Dr. Kolb of the Sociology department and he said you weren't supposed top be here. I replied I'm kinda glad I was , and he said I'm glad you were here too!!

   Five days later I was notifed by Furman security I was charged with criminal trespass and if back on campus wiothin the year could be charge with 200 dollar fine and possibility of jail. And If I made appeals to anybody at Furman could be charged with Harassment.

    I Think all of this is a fiasco, a ridiculous over reaction and friends and classmates will be appealing to the Furman Thrive Committee in hopes I will be allowed on campus for the three day 50 Homecoming celebration including Homecoming Saturday and the next day Basketball exhibition in Renovated Timmons against Alabama

       Again this begins a series of blogs the first now about Monday and the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church

        January 31, 2009. I was present at the 16th St., Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama.  on the October 6 of Monday  I went to the Berea Public Library but it was closed . Time to kill before Henry's BBQ i sucker punched myself and rode through the Furman campus. Never stopped but couple hundres yars outside the back fence near Dr. Huff's home I was pulled over by three Furman security including Lieutenant Johnson and Captian Smith   made it down to Henry’s on Wade Hampton for barbecue, but after that, I Visited the Judson bookstore on Main Street and read a few chapters of the new book by Butler Gallie 12 churches that have exemplified an era in Christian development since the time of Jesus. The 12th church is on the 11th church is the 16th St., Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama. I was there on January 31, 2009 and it was it was it was packed house I was standing under a window and when President Carter was speaking, he directed everybody’s attention to the window that I was standing beneath and he says look at that window. That’s the face of Christ that was blown out in the bombing of this church to kill the four little girls in 1963 To  my left two people down was Wayne Flynt, the Auburn professor the conscience of the state of Alabama and a few people down from him was the former governor Siegelman of Alabama 

   So  I was in good company that day Kate Campbell, the singer who open for Emmylou Harris in 2000 in Europe, sang some songs among us she is does a great cover of Kris Kristofferson‘s tribute to Martin Luther King and Gandhi my God they killed him and then later on the front steps, I talked to Marion right Edelman to great civil rights worker from Mississippi that was a great friend of Bobby Kennedy and set up a situation for her to come speak at limestone college in Gaffney, South Carolina my hometown a year later for the Martin Luther King weekend celebration.  She   spoke about a mile from my father‘s church when we were there in the in the 60s, so are the book doubles down on the murder of the girls it fails to mention the pastor there in the 30s whose son was at Union seminary with Dietrich Bon Hoffer. They were great friends in Bon Hoffer himself drove up old Highway 11 from New Orleans to upstate New York in 31 right in front of my mother’s home. She would’ve been seven years old eight years old at the time and and then later for 30 years, I live across the street from where I could see the highway that Bon Hoffer drove up so it’s a remarkable story 

   I didnt recognize anybody else from Furman in the audience that day but did have a great friend from Samfod, SGA Presidnet Todd Heifner who was acquainted then with Cherington Shucker now in development at Furman and member of the Thrive Committee

     More later so keep checking in the next three weeks as more unfolds

    

    

Authentic Baptists as identified by Randall Balmer and the threat of the legacy of Charlie Kirk

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 In 1959 and I was baptized at the Truett memorial Baptist Church in Hayesville, North Carolina the birthplace of George W Truett.  my father was the pastor there and it registered with me early the historical marker on Highway 64 on the sidewalk right in front of the Baptist Church.  This  historical markers said something to the effect-- and you can find it online --George W Truett, great Baptist who was 40 years to pastor the first Baptist Church Dallas, Texas was born 3 miles west of here.  There is a camp in Haysville still there in Truett‘s honor and in fact, oh one of my daddy‘s good scrabble playing friends Hershey Miller was in the 10th grade in high school in those days. His father was the association of missionary and he slept in the room in George W Truett‘s bedroom at his house there at the camp in 1960. The  great Baptist Stewart a Newman Came through Haysville with the president of Southeastern seminary, Sid Stealey  and another fella on the way to Nashville in the early days of the Elliott controversy, mom made a good meal for them and when it was over Newman, who really wasn’t enthusiastic about what he knew he would face in Nashville told Olin Binkley said you fellas just go ahead. I think I’ll stay here with Billy. Newman I was later to find out was a mentor to James Dunn DUNN himself.Newman  taught at Southeastern seminary was a teacher, not only for my dad, but his classmates Randall, lolley and Bill Self.  

   1960 would’ve been about four years after he followed WA Criswell  while at the pastors conference in South Carolina after Criswell  would’ve given a race speeding speech. Newman said W Criswell doesn't speak for me.   See Duke's Curtis Freeman Dead from the Neck up on That  telling piece of American history.   The late 30s it turns out from a oral tradition interview with Newman in archives at Baylor,  Newman was on a Train with George Truett  from Fort Worth to Memphis and they talked a good four hours on that trip and Newman said it wasn’t long before Truett was talking about his entanglement with Jay Frank Norris.   Norris did everything he could to be little Truett and to diminish his great legacy at first Baptist Dallas. In  bigger context in what is to follow the great historian Jill  LEPORE missions in her grand history of America These Truths;, she smart enough to see how Norris and his way of thinking was to poison America’s politics in the 20th centurycom that through the fundamentals take over the southern Baptist convention and it’s part with Bushes the guy he called the third and then perfected in what became the MAGA movement of fundamentalism is the key role plays the key part so much so that when Lepore gets to the 70s, she emphasizes the role of the eagle forum played in slowing down America’s Grudging advanced towards progressive thought in the presidency of Clinton and Obama

  

This coincides with her October cover story in the Atlantic on the Constitution. There is a parallel to the the inerantist mindset on Scripture to Originalist version of the Constitution. That came together in the great Baptist of Alabama in the mid 20th Twentieth Century Judge Frank HJonson. He saw the Constitution as a living breathing document and was certainl inerrantist. About him Bill Moyers said had Lincoln lived in Alabama in the mid 1960s he wouldve been Frank Johnson and had Johnson lived during the Civil War he woulda been Abraham Lincoln.

  

   Jill Lepore in her recent history of America These Truths put the Truett Newman Conversation on the train ride in larger perspective. She has the savvy to make note of the legacy of J Frank Norris and the political evolution of his fundamentalism in her segment on the Scopes Monkey trial. By the end of the 20th Century Karl Rove was perfecting the strategy of molesting religious convictions that have given us the MAGA Base. Lepore doubles down on the Eagle Forum, a sister the John Birch Society and umbrella groups Paul Pressler, Patterson and Jesse Helms were energetic about. It is of some note that Tim Tebow's Mother, a member of Jerry Vines FBC Jacksonville Florida, was the Eagle Forum woman of the year in 2018  

   Harold Bloom in the 93 American Religiion asserts the tragedy in the Southern Baptist Convention is the reslut of purely political machinations masquerading as religious conviction.

    

     Balmer does not mention of the 1500's Edict of Torda in the Catholic Lutheran Calvinist tensions of the Transylvanion region of Europe where relative peace and religious toleration was established two hundred years before the creation of the United States. I could not find if the founders were aware of Torda or not as they founded the Second Amendmant which Balmer calls America's greatest idea.

      Little disjointed segueway here but this blog has good chance of publication in the upcoming quarterly winter issue of Dhristian Ethics Today . Balmer has fourteen or so chapters in this book featuring aspects of the the Second Amendment and its interpretation and development of the last 200 years. Baptist Joint Committee's Holly Hollman says  this book is an "antidote to the persistent threat of christian nationalism". Balmer conver the Blaine's amendment, the case of the Mormons, Kennedy and School Prayer and LBJ as well as several insightful chapters on the origin of the second.  In his Chapter on Roy Moore and the Ten Commandments in Alabama twenty years ago he doulbed down on the great Baptist George W. Truett to make a distinction of just how far astray Roy had gone.

    Citing George Truett great speech on the separation of church and state May 16, 1920 Balmer,  an expert witness in the case,  concludes his chapter on Roy Moore thusly:  As for Roy Moore's Graven image, that was precisely Roger Williams point about protecting the faith from trivialization from too close an association from politics and the state. And Balmer suspects Williams would have something to say about parents screeching their piety at a school board meeting in Florida.

    Baptists have one consistent record theroughout their long and eventful history George W Truett declard from the Capitol Steps in 1920 "They have never been a party to the suppression of conscience"

     America needs more Baptists!

    End Balmer quote

      

       

    

 Thisd is the set up for review of Balmer new book on separation of church and state. Evey authentic Baptist church should have ten copies of this jewel of a reminder of just how significant Baptists are in a very distinctive part of the greatness of America now under threat of the legacy of Charlie Kirck and Christian nationalists forces.

    Balmer recently names Kirk and is compadre David Barton " charlatans" 

   

Charlie Kirk in perspective, Legacy, Stuckey and what not

 Check her next week for a review of Randall Balmer book on church state separation. On Tuesday Balmer one of the leading scholars on evangelical politics in America at Good Faith Media named Kirk a "Charlatan" . As it is also with Eric Metaxas and david Barton. Somebody please tell FBC Spartanburg and Trey Gowdy, his Mommo Ovalene and Nikkiei Haley on the Clemson Trustee board and her friend the Management Bien Milstead a wayward Wesleyan with the voice of Clemson athletics: The ROAR