Nov 7, Voting Day Update; Concerns with Both Barron and Stout
I am out of the region on this rainy vote day. Though I like Lowell Barron as a friend, have never met Stout, I could not vote for either man with any conviction.
Below you see some of my concerns long about Halloween with Barron. Today my worst suspicions about Stout are closer to confirmation.
It looks he has taken the worst of the legacy of FBC Ft. Payne, is captive to what remains of the muddled ministry of Dan Ireland there, the man who baptized Bobby Welch.
Welch's controversial friend www.nybooks.com/articles/19590 Jerry Boykin gets wide discussion in the Faith Based War section of GArry Wills reservations in this linked NY Rev. Books article.
It now appears Stout and his wife are in the thick of a cabal of moneyed Christians of influence in Ft. Payne who are captive to the religious right ideology, even foot soldiers for such bunk as http://jerusalemprayerteam.org
That's a shame for a church of such promise. You have to wonder what kind of witness they are to Regional GOP power couple Randy and Kelly Owen.
Tammany Hall or a Paige Patterson/Bobby Welch Theocracy; not much of a choice for the 2nd most powerful position in the state of Alabama.
Some of you may want to see how it plays in the wider Baptist world as I have the sentiment expressed at www.baptistlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3536
On the RAiny Day America votes in Dub's last midterm
October 31
I get a taped message from Lowell himself last night on my phone about 6:30 announcning his ralley today at Noon Bama Time in the Kmart Parking lot beside the Cracker Barrel denouncing the operatives from "South Alabama" who are trying to sabotage his relection campaing and Hank Sanders and Roger Bedford as well.
On another front Anniston Star and Bham News Sunday laid a lot of the problems with Alabama at Barron's feet, the News in its endorsement of Riley and Luther STrange saying:
"Folsom says he wants to heal rifts in the Senate. That won't happen as long as Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, is Senate pro tem. STrange hopes more Republicans are elected to the SEnate, which could shift the balance of power away from Barron. It can't happen soon enough."
So Says the Bham News, Sunday Oct 29
Anniston STar's Bob Davis had a strong oped piece sunday for Constitutional Reform, something Barron continues to pooh pooh. But what most excited me about Davis was his review of of Michelle Goldberg's Kingdom Coming I hope you will be able to google up. Some body needs to bring the instate review to the attention of the staff at the Alabama Baptist and www.alsbom.org, not to mention my new friends Martha Stout and Mary Anne Cole. Martha Barksdale may be a lost cause, but wouldn't hurt her and the Collinsville STudy Clubs to do a group read of it as well.
Meanwhile I had a letter published Friday in the Gads Times. If I can't cut and paste it here, look for it in the comment line. I am proud of it.
The STate would be better off if either Stout or Barron could implement the Fox/JimEVans/Alarise Plan or even had the good sense to know what it is.
The Editors
Gadsden Times
Letters for Publication
In his recent syndicated column in the Gadsden Times, Rich Lowry of the National Review accuses much of mainstream Christendom of being "emotional, self righteous, and close minded" for their concerns about a burgeoning cauldron of theocracy stewing in the religious right wing of the GOP.
He doesn't know what he is talking about. Among others who share the concerns he dismisses in his column are Tom Corts, the knight in shining armor called on by the Governor of Alabama to fix it's morass of a two year college system, and most of the better lights Baptists in Alabama have to offer. That would include Wayne Flynt at Auburn and his pastor Jim Evans.
These mainstream Baptists know how the courtship of fundamentalist takeover artists in the Southern Baptist Convention with theocrats in the Christian Reconstruction Movement have threatened the academic status and viability of institutions like Samford and sister institutions Baylor, Samford,Furman and Mercer over the last 15 years.
It has been highly documented and Bill Moyers, an ordained Baptist minister, has written and lectured extensively, about how theocrat tainted fundamentalists posing as Baptists have worked with others on the right to knock the pendulum off balance, to reconfigure the center in America.
So Lowry is wrong, in my experience and wide reading on this subject. He cavalierly dismisses Michelle Goldberg in his column. What he doesn't say is Goldberg's take has traction in the Baptist community who have observed and experienced the theocrat mindset the last 20 years in their denominational tradition.
Twice Dotson Nelson lecturer at Samford, and I am proud to call my friend, Randall Balmer, has titled his 2nd Chapter is his highly acclaimed recent Book Thy Kingdom Come; titled his second Chapter "Where Have All the Baptists Gone?"
Another sterling antidote to Lowry's bunk is Tom Edsall's Building Red America.
From Baptist Governor Riley on down to Baptist Layman Don Stout challenging Lowell Barron in my state Senate District, I commend these works in particular to all of you who are susceptible to the half cocked, foreign assessment of Lowry in this matter.
Stephen Fox
Afternoon Update. Mary Anne Cole, hope you and Ms. Stout's community get wind of this link
See my thread on Truett Cathy and Chic Fil A at www.baptistlife.com/forums
The upshot for Don Stout and the good folks at FBC Ft. Payne Alabama if they are earnest in seeking to do God's will on earth more wisely, to work for Justice, Not Charity, to employ Hugo Black's Grandson Stephen's phrase; if they are serious and just not trying to use religion as another way to stay on top, to keep the money flowing their way no matter what it takes; then I encourage them to educate themselves to and engage the wider discussion at www.redletterchristians.org
Take my word for it. Doctor John Morgan's son Matthew, the recent Yale Div Grad is hovering around this community, as it seems are his brother and new sister in law John III and Susan Weaver Morgan.
And for the deacons who jump when irritated women at Collinsville Baptist say jump; they are lost in ignorance and self deception if they think that kangaroo courting me out of the congregation where my Mother was baptized will stifle this movement.
Original post
I like Lowell. He has a good sense of humor and I had to laugh with him when Senator Shelby cracked us both up on a cold day in the Rainsville Town Hall Meeting back in January this year. I think it was in the 20's. Good lookin as Shelby's Staffer Shannon what's her face of Wake Forest is, it was still a cold room.
In response to a question Shelby said something to the effect if you can do it in Tennesee, you can do it anywhere. Cracked Barron up and I had to laugh too.
After the meeting adjourned, I got a chance to tell Barron and Ft. Payne Mayor Bill Jordan one of the best tales of Emil Acuff, Roy's first cousin who was a deacon at my Dad's church in Knoxville.
STill don't know who I'm gonna vote for between Barron and Stout. It is getting pretty ugly up here in the BAma 8th Senate District. Looks like the state GOP smells blood and they are hitting the mailouts pretty strong, thinking Barron is vulnerable on the pay day loan thing, and now some punk Republican operative is trying to sabotage this election with some technicality about the Democrat primary.
It is all a bunch of horse Shit.
Barron has the whole area suckin the hind tit pretty strong. Just look at the otherwise noble list of citizens who signed his mailout a few weeks ago.
My problem with Barron continues to be what I was trying to get at his Collinsville town hall meeting June 13. He continues to play the charm shit--and I give him credit, he has matered that aspect of politics--to the detriment of the major issue, constitutional reform.
The Big Mule he continues to hold up as a straw man--the history of Black Belt and their power--has now been turned over to Barron. He has mastered the game and come up on Top.
Now this former Auburn Trustee is the Big Mule himself, but plays the stepchild role in these town hall meetings.
I like Lowell. I appreciate him in a handshake with me and former Collinsville Mayor Willingham pledging 10,000 dollars of his own money to offset a lien on the building in the Collinsville Library project. Kinda laughing at the absurdity of it all, but would appreciate it if he could use some of his considerable power with Coach Bobo, Irma Coker and Red Etheredge and some others in my area of the county to get me back in the public library here, since the Kangaroo court of Jan 24 at my expense was as outrageous as a lot of things I read about happening in the state legislature. And my accidental role in the 10,000 pledge ought to amount to something, one would have to imagine.
I'm talking 3 of the four strikes removed, Senator Barron and Mayor Carter. Nobody ought to be thrown out of library in the state of Alabama for making a political analogy using a church cornerstone as an example; and doing my best to help Matthew Morgan get into Yale Divinity School. Especially when Raymond Weaver's daughter, Susan, there for the last strike, said Nothing Happenned.
But I digressed.
Senator Barron. It can be spun anyway you want too, and God knows you got enough hind tit suckers to keep winning elections till Jesus calls you home;
But Here: I can say it no better than the Bham News Did in the Lead Editorial of Oct 24
Click on This; and if Stout don't take you out (kinda rhymes, doesn' it?; did you see the letter in the www.postpaper.com MOnday where writer said Cherokee County probate Judge candidate Melvyn Salter, Baptist preacher and my Dad's friend, was infected with "selective outrage syndrome"?)
Please show some Leadership and do something about it when you get back to Montgomery. Start a Legacy with all this power you have accrued, something to show beside half the apartment buildings in Ft. Payne and Rainsville.
I know Jim Folsom the legend, the original said "Hell Yeah, we took some, but we left some too." Constitutional Reform could be the Left Some Too you leave with the 10,000 gift to the Collinsville Library project, which we continue to appreciate the Banned and the Unbanned
Click on this link and engage it between now and Nov 7; and after.
www.al.com/printer/printer.ssf?base/opinion/1161681620150440.xml
Senator Barron; Have you got www.nacc.edu to order Tom Edsall's Book yet. I talked to Tom Corts on Statewide TV Monday, asked him about something else; but will get this book order cleared. Don't think there will be any ethical problems with it all cause the Republicans need to read it too!!!
Below you see some of my concerns long about Halloween with Barron. Today my worst suspicions about Stout are closer to confirmation.
It looks he has taken the worst of the legacy of FBC Ft. Payne, is captive to what remains of the muddled ministry of Dan Ireland there, the man who baptized Bobby Welch.
Welch's controversial friend www.nybooks.com/articles/19590 Jerry Boykin gets wide discussion in the Faith Based War section of GArry Wills reservations in this linked NY Rev. Books article.
It now appears Stout and his wife are in the thick of a cabal of moneyed Christians of influence in Ft. Payne who are captive to the religious right ideology, even foot soldiers for such bunk as http://jerusalemprayerteam.org
That's a shame for a church of such promise. You have to wonder what kind of witness they are to Regional GOP power couple Randy and Kelly Owen.
Tammany Hall or a Paige Patterson/Bobby Welch Theocracy; not much of a choice for the 2nd most powerful position in the state of Alabama.
Some of you may want to see how it plays in the wider Baptist world as I have the sentiment expressed at www.baptistlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3536
On the RAiny Day America votes in Dub's last midterm
October 31
I get a taped message from Lowell himself last night on my phone about 6:30 announcning his ralley today at Noon Bama Time in the Kmart Parking lot beside the Cracker Barrel denouncing the operatives from "South Alabama" who are trying to sabotage his relection campaing and Hank Sanders and Roger Bedford as well.
On another front Anniston Star and Bham News Sunday laid a lot of the problems with Alabama at Barron's feet, the News in its endorsement of Riley and Luther STrange saying:
"Folsom says he wants to heal rifts in the Senate. That won't happen as long as Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, is Senate pro tem. STrange hopes more Republicans are elected to the SEnate, which could shift the balance of power away from Barron. It can't happen soon enough."
So Says the Bham News, Sunday Oct 29
Anniston STar's Bob Davis had a strong oped piece sunday for Constitutional Reform, something Barron continues to pooh pooh. But what most excited me about Davis was his review of of Michelle Goldberg's Kingdom Coming I hope you will be able to google up. Some body needs to bring the instate review to the attention of the staff at the Alabama Baptist and www.alsbom.org, not to mention my new friends Martha Stout and Mary Anne Cole. Martha Barksdale may be a lost cause, but wouldn't hurt her and the Collinsville STudy Clubs to do a group read of it as well.
Meanwhile I had a letter published Friday in the Gads Times. If I can't cut and paste it here, look for it in the comment line. I am proud of it.
The STate would be better off if either Stout or Barron could implement the Fox/JimEVans/Alarise Plan or even had the good sense to know what it is.
The Editors
Gadsden Times
Letters for Publication
In his recent syndicated column in the Gadsden Times, Rich Lowry of the National Review accuses much of mainstream Christendom of being "emotional, self righteous, and close minded" for their concerns about a burgeoning cauldron of theocracy stewing in the religious right wing of the GOP.
He doesn't know what he is talking about. Among others who share the concerns he dismisses in his column are Tom Corts, the knight in shining armor called on by the Governor of Alabama to fix it's morass of a two year college system, and most of the better lights Baptists in Alabama have to offer. That would include Wayne Flynt at Auburn and his pastor Jim Evans.
These mainstream Baptists know how the courtship of fundamentalist takeover artists in the Southern Baptist Convention with theocrats in the Christian Reconstruction Movement have threatened the academic status and viability of institutions like Samford and sister institutions Baylor, Samford,Furman and Mercer over the last 15 years.
It has been highly documented and Bill Moyers, an ordained Baptist minister, has written and lectured extensively, about how theocrat tainted fundamentalists posing as Baptists have worked with others on the right to knock the pendulum off balance, to reconfigure the center in America.
So Lowry is wrong, in my experience and wide reading on this subject. He cavalierly dismisses Michelle Goldberg in his column. What he doesn't say is Goldberg's take has traction in the Baptist community who have observed and experienced the theocrat mindset the last 20 years in their denominational tradition.
Twice Dotson Nelson lecturer at Samford, and I am proud to call my friend, Randall Balmer, has titled his 2nd Chapter is his highly acclaimed recent Book Thy Kingdom Come; titled his second Chapter "Where Have All the Baptists Gone?"
Another sterling antidote to Lowry's bunk is Tom Edsall's Building Red America.
From Baptist Governor Riley on down to Baptist Layman Don Stout challenging Lowell Barron in my state Senate District, I commend these works in particular to all of you who are susceptible to the half cocked, foreign assessment of Lowry in this matter.
Stephen Fox
Afternoon Update. Mary Anne Cole, hope you and Ms. Stout's community get wind of this link
See my thread on Truett Cathy and Chic Fil A at www.baptistlife.com/forums
The upshot for Don Stout and the good folks at FBC Ft. Payne Alabama if they are earnest in seeking to do God's will on earth more wisely, to work for Justice, Not Charity, to employ Hugo Black's Grandson Stephen's phrase; if they are serious and just not trying to use religion as another way to stay on top, to keep the money flowing their way no matter what it takes; then I encourage them to educate themselves to and engage the wider discussion at www.redletterchristians.org
Take my word for it. Doctor John Morgan's son Matthew, the recent Yale Div Grad is hovering around this community, as it seems are his brother and new sister in law John III and Susan Weaver Morgan.
And for the deacons who jump when irritated women at Collinsville Baptist say jump; they are lost in ignorance and self deception if they think that kangaroo courting me out of the congregation where my Mother was baptized will stifle this movement.
Original post
I like Lowell. He has a good sense of humor and I had to laugh with him when Senator Shelby cracked us both up on a cold day in the Rainsville Town Hall Meeting back in January this year. I think it was in the 20's. Good lookin as Shelby's Staffer Shannon what's her face of Wake Forest is, it was still a cold room.
In response to a question Shelby said something to the effect if you can do it in Tennesee, you can do it anywhere. Cracked Barron up and I had to laugh too.
After the meeting adjourned, I got a chance to tell Barron and Ft. Payne Mayor Bill Jordan one of the best tales of Emil Acuff, Roy's first cousin who was a deacon at my Dad's church in Knoxville.
STill don't know who I'm gonna vote for between Barron and Stout. It is getting pretty ugly up here in the BAma 8th Senate District. Looks like the state GOP smells blood and they are hitting the mailouts pretty strong, thinking Barron is vulnerable on the pay day loan thing, and now some punk Republican operative is trying to sabotage this election with some technicality about the Democrat primary.
It is all a bunch of horse Shit.
Barron has the whole area suckin the hind tit pretty strong. Just look at the otherwise noble list of citizens who signed his mailout a few weeks ago.
My problem with Barron continues to be what I was trying to get at his Collinsville town hall meeting June 13. He continues to play the charm shit--and I give him credit, he has matered that aspect of politics--to the detriment of the major issue, constitutional reform.
The Big Mule he continues to hold up as a straw man--the history of Black Belt and their power--has now been turned over to Barron. He has mastered the game and come up on Top.
Now this former Auburn Trustee is the Big Mule himself, but plays the stepchild role in these town hall meetings.
I like Lowell. I appreciate him in a handshake with me and former Collinsville Mayor Willingham pledging 10,000 dollars of his own money to offset a lien on the building in the Collinsville Library project. Kinda laughing at the absurdity of it all, but would appreciate it if he could use some of his considerable power with Coach Bobo, Irma Coker and Red Etheredge and some others in my area of the county to get me back in the public library here, since the Kangaroo court of Jan 24 at my expense was as outrageous as a lot of things I read about happening in the state legislature. And my accidental role in the 10,000 pledge ought to amount to something, one would have to imagine.
I'm talking 3 of the four strikes removed, Senator Barron and Mayor Carter. Nobody ought to be thrown out of library in the state of Alabama for making a political analogy using a church cornerstone as an example; and doing my best to help Matthew Morgan get into Yale Divinity School. Especially when Raymond Weaver's daughter, Susan, there for the last strike, said Nothing Happenned.
But I digressed.
Senator Barron. It can be spun anyway you want too, and God knows you got enough hind tit suckers to keep winning elections till Jesus calls you home;
But Here: I can say it no better than the Bham News Did in the Lead Editorial of Oct 24
Click on This; and if Stout don't take you out (kinda rhymes, doesn' it?; did you see the letter in the www.postpaper.com MOnday where writer said Cherokee County probate Judge candidate Melvyn Salter, Baptist preacher and my Dad's friend, was infected with "selective outrage syndrome"?)
Please show some Leadership and do something about it when you get back to Montgomery. Start a Legacy with all this power you have accrued, something to show beside half the apartment buildings in Ft. Payne and Rainsville.
I know Jim Folsom the legend, the original said "Hell Yeah, we took some, but we left some too." Constitutional Reform could be the Left Some Too you leave with the 10,000 gift to the Collinsville Library project, which we continue to appreciate the Banned and the Unbanned
Click on this link and engage it between now and Nov 7; and after.
www.al.com/printer/printer.ssf?base/opinion/1161681620150440.xml
Senator Barron; Have you got www.nacc.edu to order Tom Edsall's Book yet. I talked to Tom Corts on Statewide TV Monday, asked him about something else; but will get this book order cleared. Don't think there will be any ethical problems with it all cause the Republicans need to read it too!!!
posted by foxofbama | 8:13 AM
2 Comments:
Something that disturbs me about Luther Strange is his affinity for Ashcroft. They played Bball at the FBI headquarters in DC where STrange was a powerful lobbyist.
Strange has been a campaign manager for Jeff Sessions, which would put him at odds with President Bush and Bishop Willimon on Immigration Reform.
Strange is an affable character, comes from relatively humble beginnings, and was a fan of Pete Maravich when STrange was playing college ball at Tulane and Pete was NBA at New Orleans. Was it the Jazz, the name of the Team, I can't remember.
Pundits are saying Strange held his own with Jim Folsom last night, but Tyson took Troy King, the atty general who would in fact BFM 2000 and is no fan of the BWA.
I shooks hands with Barron last night at Cracker Barrel in Ft. Payne. He told a friend and me he needed our vote.
Had a good discussion about it all with a waitress.
I repeated me recommendation to Barron when he gets a chance to catch his breath win or lose, he make time to read Edsall's Building Red America.
If he or staff see this note, I think he and all of you should set your VCR's or other recording devices for 5AM EST Nov 5, Sunday for www.booktv.org 's repeat of Andrew Sullivan's eloquence on church state at the Cato Inst
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