PuttinTheSqueezeonWithBigDaddyWeave/ FASoLa,PresCarterandCollinsville/FamilyReunions

That's www.bigdaddyweave.blogspot.com of Baylor Unversity and Soperton Georgia. He siad his folks are members of Calvary Baptist in Waco where we may have some mutual revenant acquaintances. He has an interesting testimony up today at www.baptistlife.com/forums as well as on his blog as to how things played out in a small congregation in smalltown Georgia where the money left to start a CBF in name only Church. I think he and I share similar frustrations with folks from here on we will call the People in Question or TPIQ; roughly those folks some of whom we know mutually who claim allegiance to Molly Marshall or President Carter or Baylor or Habitat for Humanity, but cannot find themselves to witness to folks in their hometown whose congregations are up for grabs by folk church people who have no Baptist compunction and are quite complacent in their ignorance, assuming the Baptist bent on Christendom and church state relations somehow reproduces itself like magic. It just doesn't happen that way, and Big Daddy, like other 20/30something friends of mine who interned for James Dunn during The Fight In the 80's know what I am talking about.
Therefore hoping we will be crossblogging here and there to bring heat to local church pastors like the MOrgans in Collinsville, and the laypeople Weave knew in Soperton to bring this thing on down to the grassroots like I attempted to do in Collinsville Feb 24, 2002.
So yall stay tuned and keep checking in here, and on his blog and in the big dance at www.baptistlife.com/forums where If I am not mistaken Karen Smith posted as recently as ten days or so ago.


Original Post
Gonna be a gonzo catchall blog here for sure, as there were way too many things happening this weekend, and I tried to skirt them all.
I was hoping to be in East Tenn this weekend where my Dad once preacher to George McGovern--true story, 1983--but ended up takin in the happenings near at hand, which turned out to be glorious indeed, the annual two day FaSoLa Sacred Harp Singing just up the mtn. Good crowd. Made some new friends, including Dan Thoma, from Portland Oregon, the son of a UCC minister. www.fasola.org

His first time to a Southern SHSinging. He said it was great. I think we will see him next year at the July 4 weekend Singing at Henegar, home of the core group that made the Cold Mtn Soundtrack. Thoma says he relishes the experience cause you "leave the particulars of your religion at the door." It is quite a spiritual moment if you let yourself go in the decibel of the voices, and the avalanche of pretty good prose in the lyrics. Lot of Isaac Watts.
I felt compelled about the end of the 5th hour over four days of singing to make a short testimony. My friend Sam Hodges, former book page editor of the Charlotte Observer--fellow Furman grad, who with his first cousin JeffLowe, a Baptist minister's son editted the letters of their gggrandfather to gggrandmom, Letters to Amanda--in his book footnoted one of the songs, or as they say in the SH community #30 on the bottom--page 209 ft note 34 This verse forms the first of two lines of the fourth stanza of an I Watts hymn: "Jesus can make a dying bed, soft as downy pillars are."
A few minutes before his ancestor Marion Hill Fitzpatrick of near Crawford, Georgia died; Fitizpatrick sang those words, solo much like the 140 or so of us sang yesterday morning. It kind of bonded me to that community.
And now I understand another Furman person, Scott Walker of FBC Waco, is getting high praise for a UGA published book on his GGGrandfather's Confederate 57th Regiment in the Civil War. Dallas Morn News recently did a feature on Walker's fascinating book.
I go to SH singings about twice a year now; that was only my third singing. Great Lemonade and a spread for lunch that want stop. Got some distant relatives on my MOther's side in charge.
Among the out of towners were a post doc student at Dartmouth, who got her Doc at Princeton; two fascinating women from Minnesota; interesting mainstream republican from Michigan who is gonna send me some thoughts in German on Jesus as a soccer player; and a Duke PHD who teaches at Bham Southern.
Also fellow there hawking his documentary DVD he says has a good chance of going national with GA. Public Tv being the sponsor www.awakemysoul.com

Yesterday just wouldn't end, however. AFter the singing I was wiped out so I took about a 45 minute nap. Went to a friend's place, was on the way when I saw him and another friend on the way to supper. I had too big a lunch at the singing, but fellowship is good my Grandfather, WD Shorty Fox said, so I got the big burger at Applebee's. Saw Martha's new reported Guest house which has been moved across the street from where it once housed Timothy Smith family; Tim a key on camera interview in Brett Morgen's 1992, Blessings of Liberty.
Timothy is a force for the last five minutes of the film; Brett later was nominated for Oscar for his 99 on the Ropes and was co director of the highly Acclaimed 02 or so "Kid Stays in the Picture."
I was given a credit as a local consultant for BOL, but my name got two xx's when I am a one x Fox. Look for a major documentary release from C 7 Films in the near future.
Had a break from them and talked things over back in Collinsville with a Gideon who went to wrong church when he was at Auburn; but good guy anyway. Caught a litte US Open tennis preview(update Spanish kid took out Lubovich in a major upset in the first round), was calling it a night, when friend #2 shows up with Bo. Caught up with Bo,andthought that was it. Then #2 8:8 comes out midnight passed thirty in Ga for a counseling Session. I felt like saying Hell, Boy it's late and there is not a damn thing I can do. Paraphrase of something Will Campbell told me on the phone once, but the poor soul was fragile. I don't know what to do.
But he has a streak of kindness, was concerned I may become a martyr for my convictions in Collinsville.
That is where President Carter may be able to help. We have some mutual friends in Jack Harwell and Quattlebaum and VEstal, and some younger 30 something friends have been to his Sunday School class twice.
My point is if Carter is good for them then why not challenge their home church to have some friends from the cbf speaker's bureau come over for Sunday Morning pulpit supply. Bring Jon Appleton in. Don't let the mediocres take over a struggling congregation by default; or rather, if mediocres is not the right word, the folks who are obviously ignorant and confused about the better baptist legacy of the congregation who building they now house.
Stay tuned for more on that later.
Something else I was gonna throw in this hodgepodge. I'm thinkin the Panthers may play Geraldine an honest ball game this year in about three weeks, but it was something else.
Oh, hoping to bring mezzo soprano and 5th cousin Freida McNair to the area. I understand she is in the SW now, New Mexico. If the music department at Baylor had any imagination they would find a way to propjet her in twice a week for tutorials.
Feed the Bears. That's a Good place to stop for now.
Oh, anaside to pick up later. Wade Burleson was showing some signs of virtuous dialogue there for a while, but he refuses to engage the conversation stoked by Randall Balmer to the effect Richard Land is a counterfeit Baptist. No real Reform I can see in his version of Grace andTruth if Land is not in play.
In a couple weeks, we may dissect Page's FBC Taylors Congregation. Choir members there have children active in CBF. CanBurleson and Marty Duren allow that. What about Maranatha in Plains; Buddy Shurden, Bruce Gourley Collinsville Baptist, and their new friend Jennifer Wilkins and I imagine soon to be Bill Fortner, my assessor in the letters column Feb and March this year at www.postpaper.com/letters.htm ; his letter of Feb 27 in effect asking me to leave the church my family had been in for 150 odd years, and he and his group for about 6,himself active about three. Talk about hubris.

I think this may enervate the Accad link in the comments below. For all the world to know, it is not me deleting Jonathan's comments. There is a Jonathan who frequents www.baptistlife.com/forums I just assume this one is one and the same.
Accad, who I met in April this year in one of the better events Samford's then Tom Corts, and Bama Baptist's Bob Terry staged for the www.alsbom.org is a great Baptist Christian presence in the Mideast. I doubt he would sign the BFM 2000. Would love to see him in dialogue with Charles Kimball of the religiion dept of www.wfu.edu
www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=7823

And this one is interesting as well, as it gets close to home to the www.collinsvillebaptist.com community, with one member a Duke Grad as was Ms. Butler, divinity school, and another valent former member a huge fan of Julie Pennington Russell, though apparently it has registered little with her former faith community as their Coop Program dollars go to fund the counterfeit baptist, Richard Land. Who called him Counterfeit? Randall Balmer, friend of Sam R. Beene of the Gilbreath line.
And that essay would be www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=7824
The Al Was Right is the same Mohler who handed Dr. Morgan his doctorate. The Family saw Mohler's library, I understand, before they went to Israel for the first time.
Which wraps up this small world post with it would be interesting to compare Accad's mideast politics with Aunt Mary's and the Ga. Bap Convention President of Eastside Mayretta, 1988; Jim Deloach as well.
Hop scotchin here, but did read Peter STeinfels in the American Prospect last night. For that valence check on last week's chat at www.faithinpubliclife.org
Later
Sorry about the delete's Jonathan of Indianna. Again it ain't me. Somebody has spooked my wonderful blog and it has me concerned. May have to consult a Blog Doctor.

9/28: Bama Dan Ireland Bush, Cuba and Alliance of Baps

Update Sept 28, Bush visits Bham:
President Bush visited Bham today for a fundraiser for Gov. Bob Riley; if not a Baptist deacon, then at minimum a Sunday School teacher.
Sources tell me the fourth man the President shook hand after debarking AF One, after Gov Riley, and Mayor Kincaid and Patsy, was the man who baptized SBC President Bobby Welch in Ft. Payne, Alabama back in the 60's, Bama Baptist blue nose Dan Ireland head of AlCap.
In the past Ireland has reportedly been a distraction to noble progressive causes in the state like tax reform and constitutional reform. He is a perfect symbol for the mesh of Richard Land's values vote and symbolically Ireland is a fog when it comes to truthtelling about the kind of politics SBC Cooperative Program dollars now support through Land's ERLC.
Ireland is not a Reconstructionist, maybe not even a fan of the State's Christian Coalition. But he is a perfect skirt underwhich Land can continue to promote CP dollars while being the counterfeit baptist Randall Balmer has rightly named him.
The obvious question for the states secular and Baptist Press is, just what is the governor trying to convey here in this symbolic politics of personality of Dan Ireland.
And just what kind of Baptist is the governor? Is he a Tom Corts Baptist of progressivism, a conduit to justice and reform politics; or is he an Ireland/Bobby Welch schmoozing the Christian Coalition in a fog while backslapping Rove and Land in the politics of fog and disingenuity.
Is the Governor with Corts for the BWA and against BFM 2000; or is the Governor with his Attorney General agaisnt the BWA and for BFM 2000?
How can the folks in Collinsville, Alabama have a clue, for instance, if Bob Terry doesn't use his considerable communication skills to explore the obvious question posed by the symbolic politics of Bush visit today?????



Original Post:
The August 16, Weds issue of the Tuscaloosa Alabama News had a sterling oped piece on the mess with the Bushies and the Alliance of Baptists. It is worth the semi arduous search on site at www.tuscaloosanews.com for this oped Fining Baptists shows Failure of Bush Cuba Policy if the the link here does not take you there.
The Alliance owes me free membership for this taskdifficulty of throwing up this link. Hope it is up at their site www.allianceofbaptists.org soon
www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060816/NEWS/608160322&SearchID=73254456281547

Hope it works. Great oped from the hometown of Bear Bryant and Rick Lance. Hoping Rick Lance and Gov Riley's staff read this oped and have a conscience to speak out about it; even Pintlala's Gary Burton and his parishioner Ray Scott.
Bush and company is fining Miss America Deidre Downs here and it is shameless.


At the risk of getting my knuckles rapped by friends in BCOC and FBC Greenville, want to say a few things about those two churches just in case some of the media want to further frame this little spat between the Bush administration and some Baptist churches that don't line up with Karl Rove and Richard Land's view of the world.
And from frequent visits to two of the five in question in the August 15 story you can click on at www.baptiststoday.org, I can say these are two churches my friend Randall Balmer did not have in mind when he asked in Chapter Two of Thy Kingdom Come "Where HaVE All the Baptists Gone?" These folks are true Vine Truett, Marney Baptists. In fact Truett preached right around the corner from BCOC in 1941 and for all I know at FBC Greenville as well.
Balmer puts a lot of stock in Truett when he compares him to the Land "counterfeit". See my blog.
Here are some of the "communist" members of those two churches.
FBC Greenville, Baxter Wynn, brother of Barry Wynn, former Chair of the SC GOP
Mark and Kathy Stone, good friends of mine, Mark a roommate for a term at Furman, whose doubles partner on the tennis team there was Dudley Reynolds, now CEO of Alagasco in Bama.
If he hadn't married Kathy, maybe I woulda.
Dudley and Kathy shared roots in Anniston, though I am not sure they were acquainted before Furman.
James Pitts, former Furman Chaplain. His Dad Was Nixon's Barber. Ask him
Minor Mickel Shaw; Can't say we are on a first name basis, but her Uncle, Charles Daniel, hosted Nixon when he was Daniel's overnight guest in the mansion that became the President's Mansion for Furman, whose current president is a member at FBC Greenville, as is Neal Rabon.

AT BCOC: Deidre Downs, former Miss America. Deidre, like Dudley was a contender for RHodes SCholar.
Oteil Burbage (sp?). Bass guitarist for The Allman Brothers, as an American an institution as anyone I know
Rod Davis: Great friend and defender of Eric Motley, recently profiled on the front page of the Washington Post. Motley an mid 90's Samford grad is high ranking Bush official. Karl Rove loves him. He may become The Alliance of Baptists Saviour in this imbroglio. We shall see.
Todd Heifner: Tour manager and Booking agent for SBC President Jim Henry's daughter Kate Campbell of www.katecampbell.com Todd is fan of Roy Acuff, whose first cousin Emil played lot of Rook with me and my Dad and Uncle Fremont when he would visit the parsonage of Alice Bell Baptist in Knoxville.
DAvid Goodwin, Habitat Great Soul; loves baseball

DAn Vestal of the CBF stands with the Alliance on this matter. Dan Vestal was just down the street from George W at FBC Midland Texas, when Dub was gettin his alcohol Rehab in the Mid 80's with the Methodists. Early CBF treasurer and Oil Wildcatter whose name I forget but have written down at home--talked to him on the phone in my freelance days--was great friend of Dub, as is Ray Scott, whose Pintlala, Bama pastor GAry Burton will stand with BCOC on this matter.

FBC Savannah, Finlator has preached there if I am not mistaken and my friend at Shorter who was on to the Birchers when they were thick at Jerry Vines old church West Rome when my friend was at First Rome. His son has been District Atty for Floyd County and good friend of Debbie Medaris, at Miss Alabama Contestant herself in mid 70's. Her Talent was trampoline.

The Bush administration may want to reconsider on this one.

They are talking about me at the Old Home Place, BLDotCom

I just was just ambling around and checked over at the www.baptistlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3062

to see how the Homeboys were doing in my absence. Just as I suspected they miss me, some of them have something of a hurting heart.
But as you would imagine, it was a fundamentalist, just like women were first at the tomb, who was the first to acknowledge the loss. Speaking of loss, I miss those emoticons. Need em now to nuance my true feelings.
From a few loose ends of that discussion, I'm up William on Meacham. I referenced him and the June 30 www.pbs.org/newshour discussion in a letter I got published in the Gadsden Times about my March 22 encounter with Judge Roy Moore.
William, you should make the hour half drive up Thursday afternoon, no kiddin to hear David Jasper's final lecture at this year's Furman Pastor's school. I'll take you over to the Lyberry here and show you Marshall Frady's picture in the 63 annual. Show you mine and the thousand or so women I dated when I was a student here. Actually I think the number came to 11.
Jasper is worth the trip up. I think with all my connections (lol) I can get you in one session for 10 bucks, maybe even 7.50 ; I'll give you one of my CFA coupons and introduce you to Miller and Lemons and my incognito Bama CBF friend who read my stuff at bl.com but doesn't want his name up on the board. But we have pledged outreach to get Gary Burton here next year soon.
Good news Is my brother is buying my lunch tomorrow, and I think I got somebody set up for Thursday; another l0l. What a lunch Thursday, me here with the Furman swells and Flick out there in Enid with the great Tom Webb and the Man of the Hour, Wade Burleson.
Pearl Jam has a song by that title. Any of you heard it. What movie did it make famous?

Fox in Exile.
Oh I took one lyberry throwdown post down and replaced it with another for the strong one this weekend. I thank it may make statewide news.