asfoxseesit

My Photo
Name:

Born May 18, 1953; got saved at Truett Memorial BC in Hayesville, NC 1959. On rigged ballot which I did not rig got Most Intellectual class of 71, Gaffney High School. Furman Grad, Sociology major but it was little tougher than Auburn football players had Had three dates with beautiful women the summer of 1978. Did not marry any of em. Never married anybody cause what was available was undesirable and what was desirable was unaffordable. Unlucky in love as they say and even still it is sometimes heartbreaking. Had a Pakistani Jr. Davis Cupper on the Ropes the summer of 84, City Courts, Rome Georgia I've a baby sitter, watched peoples homes while they were away on Vacation. Freelance writer, local consultant, screenwriter, and the best damn substitute teacher of Floyd County Georgia in mid 80's according to an anonymous kid passed me on main street a few years later when I went back to get a sandwich at Schroeders. Had some good moments in Collinsville as well. Ask Casey Mattox at www.clsnet.org if he will be honest about it. I try my best to make it to Bridges BBQ in Shelby NC at least four times a year.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Had one of the more exhilirating conversations

tonight than I have had in some time.

And then came across this link which again raises the question.

Do you want to be like me, or do you want to be me?
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iStgjEBF7TdTObtfcj4mk_5GUkXA

If you take the click, I totally agree with the final sentence; and my hope is that in four years you will see for yourself the Oconee County angle on the sentiment.

Also had the endless soup and salad at Olive Garden but I stopped on three bowls of soup, though I did get one extra bread stick for a total of four.

Tea at 2.25 was a little stiffly priced for my budget so I took the water, and drunk tea more reasonably about four hours later at chic Fil A.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The Sweet Promise of Atlanta Baptist Covenant

Here is a short note from long piece in the Raleigh News and Observer:

Among the North Carolinians who will take center stage at the celebration is the Rev. Ron Poythress, pastor of Triangle Baptist Church. Poythress, who is also a musician, composed a song for the event and was told recently he will be performing it just before Carter comes to the stage.
The song, called "Day of Jubilee," is a narrative retelling of Jesus' sermon to set the captive free and make the blind see. But it ends on the theme of coming together as "one family."
Poythress, who will strum the song on his acoustic guitar, said he has been waiting for this event for more than a year.
"It feels like this is not just a moment, but the beginning of a movement," he said. "We can do so much more together than by ourselves."

There are links and blogs daily at http://www.baptiststoday.org/

Here is hoping the news gets back to Bethany Baptist Church in Gaffney, South Carolina
Alice Bell in Knoxville, Tn
Providence in Centre
Bethel in Baltimore, Tn, just outside, Newport.
Dykes Creek in Floyd County Georgia
HWY 104 outside Molena
FBC Mauldin where I visited on several occasions.
Truett Memorial BC in Hayesville, North Carolina; once visited by Stewart Newman
A Church just inside the North Carolina line, on a major interstate, An Unspoken Request

Even to the hard hearted Hannahs of the Council of Shadows

Year of Jubilee.

I get the word the pastor of FBC Americus Georgia will be there.
I have to believe Matthew is looking on with Randall Balmer on the Great White Way.
Kate Campbell may be singing about Martin and John just a few days after her Daddy's church hosted Mike Huckabee in Orlando.

Steal Away to Jesus
We Ain't Got Long to Stay Here.

Background:
The New Baptist Covenant Required Reading Series by Aaron Weaver (January 28) Three articles that should be read before the Celebration begins!
And to that I would add:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/12/17/071217fa_fact_lizza

Monday, January 28, 2008

Sen Lindsey Graham at BapCov on "Challenges of Immigration"

Wow:

It just registered with me Challenges of Immigration will be Graham's topic for Friday Morning at the Atlanta Baptist Covenant day about 12 hours after John Grisham speaks on Diversity and 8 hours before Bill Clinton speaks on the SC Primary--insert smilie emoticon for Clinton's topic.

Here is hoping Graham comes to the occasion cognizant and ready to entertaing questions about Ryan Lizza's report in the November New Yorker on how Immigration politics is playing in his Senate Race in south Carolina.
Let us also hope Senator Graham is up on the several stories in NYtimes by Julie Preston as well as the roundtable on booktv.org couple weeks ago on the matter.

Here is a personal invitation to the pastor of the Collinsville Baptist Church, John Morgan, to bring some of his deacons to the Friday morning address by the Republican. Morgan camped out in Atlanta during the Olympics, and made reports to the Ft. Payne Times Journal.
Would be great to see him, as the 25 year pastor of the Baptist church of the most ethnically diverse town in the state, the subject of two statewide documentaries; would be prophetic indeed to have Morgan come back and hold a town hall meeting on the matter with his son Matthew of Yale Div; and Sean McKenzie of nearby Calhoun, Georgia who has held public correspondence with SBC's Richard Land of the ERLC on the matter.
Maybe Willimon could drive up for the conversation; nothing but a short trip from Bham if he could work it out in his schedule and wouldn't put him in bad light with Senator Sessions.
Are immigration politics as timely a matter as abortion politics in NE Alabama, and what does the preacher think, I guess is the question.

Conflating Jonathan and Ryan on EVE of Atlanta Covenant

If you look at what Jonathan is saying here
Click on his title for the whole starter there and once there follow the responses.

No. The proper allegory for C.R.
by Jonathan on Sun Jan 27, 2008 4:42 am
is Charlie Wilson's war.Read the book haven't finished the movie yet. But do you know that part toward the end where the CIA op is finally getting around to that parable of the Zen master, the little boy, and the horse? That's what is going on in my beloved SBC.We all have blind spots and love the idea of a final victory but that's just the flesh seducing us to sleep while the war marches on. So we were able to elect conservative SBC presidents from 1979 on. Now what? We were able elect conservative trustees to every agency. Now what? We were able to bring all agencies into a single owner agreement with the Executive Committee. Now what? .... No matter that their own theology (and the theology that they advocate) is within the bounds of the BFM2k.I still love my SBC and am grateful to those who work and sacrificed to rescue it from the direction it was heading in the 60s and 70s. But there are higher authorities than earthly heroes.

Sfox>
And you conflate it with what Memphis Declaration signer Ryan Hales is saying in his Jan 27 entry at his blog

www.thatbaptistaintright.blogspot.com

you have some interesting questions for Richard Land, Karl Rove and Al Mohler.

I have done what I can to stoke the conversation at John Killian's blog and the blog of Wade Burleson, even inviting Ben Cole to the conversation.

Will be a lot to talk about in the corridors of the SBC Covenant in Atlanta, even in addition to Bill Clinton's speech Friday Night.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

There Will Be Blood As Allegory of the SBC Takeover

Just click on the Blue and follow my Review and discuss here or there if you are registered there.
But I'm sure there will be discussion to follow in both places.


Is There Will BE Blood an Allegory for SBC Takeover
by Stephen Fox

on Sat Jan 26, 2008 3:08 pm
I saw the movie yesterday near where Keith E lives and Worships, not far from Mark in Huntsville.It is a very strong movie; I have never seen a story told more powerfully on film; maybe chinatown or Paris Trout or Ironweed, but this trumps them all.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Update 1-28/Jesus Christ visits Furman

Toni MOrrison on Barack Obama from the NY Times story on the Ted Kennedy endorsement:

''In addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates,'' Morrison wrote. ''That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it.


Original Blog:

Packs out the House

Creates a Big Buzz

On the very stage I emceed the Homecoming show of 73; but Jesus always gets more International Press.

Photo 31 in particular I found quite interesting

The 54 pix and once there you can see Hillary with a much smaller crowd at Great Venue just this mornin, Thursday

http://greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=BS&Date=20080122&Category=YOURUPSTATE05&ArtNo=801220803&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=1

The Lord, Not a Muslim, but a Christian as the Father of His Associate Pastor Otis Moss IIIrd of Morehouse, (and Yale Div, just like Matthew Morgan); Da Lawd will be at Bartow Arena Sunday Noon in Bham for Church.
Otis Moss IIIrd's Dad will preach at the New
Baptist Covenant next Thursday afternoon while SBC President Jim Henry's Daughter Kate Campbell sings.
Google up Otis at OBama's UCC church; not a Mosque but a Christian Church where the associate pastor went to same Divinity School as native Collinsville Baptist now Methodist Christian Matthew Morgan.
Ask Matthew if Obama is a Christian and if you can't get him on the phone then ask his Mother Gloria or his Brother Jojo or ask his brother Mark's Duke Chaplain Willimon.
They will tell you Barack Obama is Saved and Bound for Heaven.
You don't have to believe me cause I've been churched.
Ask Gloria; even ask Raymond Weaver's daughter Susan; just ask if you aren't sure.
Back in October Kate sang at Lebanon, Dekalb County Alabama's Field of Dreams just 7 miles North of Collinsville where she got some good caterin.

I plan to be there since I am not welcome in Collinsville, Alabama.

I want to tell all my Hispanic friends to have their families tell all their Extended Families in California and New York.

This is the Time for Transformative Change. Ask Miguel De La Torre and Daniel Carro and all Matthew's friends at Yale.

Get the Word out.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. said; echoed by Oscar Romero and Barbara Brown Taylor

Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters and Righteousness Like a Mighty Stream.

Now is the time for the Meek and the working Poor to Inherit the Earth; the Time for Justice in America just like it was at Furman in a packed House on Monday.

Amen and Amen

Jesus Christ visits Furman
by Stephen Fox on Thu Jan 24, 2008 9:17 pm
Rather Barack ObamaDo check photo 31 in particularI think it is

Click on the Post and then click on the Picture Links There.

Me and Obama's Preacher; How about you in Atlanta for Jesus

It seems to be Tailor made for those who are proud of their children and the examined religious beliefs that come from Baylor, UVA, Duke, Yale Div, Samford, even a few good courses at JSU, Bama, Samford and War Eagle.
It will test whether folks are sincere in the whole gospel and the nit and grit of immigration reform.
Will those who made it down to the Olympics or to see the Atlanta Braves have a conviction to see what is happening in the world of John Grisham, Lindsey Graham, Miguel De La Torre and Daniel Carro;
Or will they stay safe in Zion fearing what dogma voters can do to hurt them in their various congregations and political safety zones.
A Surprise to me talking to a woman yesterday, a good woman and I thought that before I learned of her political disposition; a woman member of a very active and conservative church in the region who declared her allegiance to vote for Hillary Clinton.
Which Proves I don't know everything.
The Testimony of Ryan Hale in the comment thread of the blog below, his Pilgrimage out of the dead end of Baptist fundamentalism is educational for others.

Here are great links embedded to the poweful preaching lineup; if you click at the right places you will find the OBama Connection.
Otis Moss Third has some strong credentials, including Jesus Christ in his Resume:


Re: Obama's Sermon At Ebenezer Baptist Church
by Big Daddy Weaver on Sun Jan 20, 2008 10:42 pm
If the video of the service is posted online - I'll provide the link.For all you who from time to time play Six Degrees of Separation, I discovered in my online research for the upcoming Celebration that I can connect Barack Obama to the New Baptist Covenant in Three Steps! Someone call Roger Moran!The "Pastor" (Jeremiah Wright is listed as Senior Pastor) of Trinity United Church of Christ where Obama is a member is the Rev. Otis Moss III.Obama's Pastor is the Son of the Rev. Otis Moss Jr.. The Rev. Otis Moss Jr. will be preaching at the New Baptist Covenant on Thursday during the 2-5pm slot. I blogged about Otis Moss Jr. here.
http://www.thebigdaddyweave.com "Patterson's minions are putting on their war paint, digging the trenches and preparing for guerilla warfare…. - ME in ABP

Mike Mitchell had an oped in recent Ft. Payne Times-journal.
What other lay people will accept his Invitation to Atlanta.
Feel free to come forward, identify yourself and post here if you join These Friends of Habitat for Humanity and Justice Work:
Status Quo, or On the Go; Make your choice

Mike Mitchell:

http://bteditor.blogspot.com/2008/01/blogging-at-celebration.html

Whhops; that is not a bad link either, but this may be a little better:

Mitchell from the AlabamaCBF online newsletter.

FORT PAYNE - Mike Mitchell, pastor of Gault Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Payne, took his enthusiasm for the New Baptist Covenant Celebration to a new level when he published an editorial in the local paper, the Fort Payne Times Journal. It’s all about unity, Mitchell says, and what we can accomplish together. In the editorial, Mike discusses Christian unity and the difficulty in achieving it. “Denominations are the result of our failure to follow Christ’s teachings on unity of spirit for the world’s sake,” stated Mitchell. “Instead we go our separate ways and achieve few of Jesus’ goals for the church.”Citing that there is also little agreement within denominations, he sets the tone for what the New Baptist Covenant hopes to attain in Baptist life, celebrating the common commitments to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Mitchell quotes David Goatley, executive secretary-treasurer of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention and president of the North American Baptist Fellowship, who said:“The New Baptist Covenant is a collaboration of Baptist communities to celebrate our common commitments to the gospel of Jesus Christ. One major impact will be that we seek to cooperate around ministries of compassion and capacity-building among the poor. We will share in worship. We will share in fellowship. We will share in networking to create information and communication opportunities to nurture new synergies among Baptists who are actively working to build a better world through the Christian witness.”

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Conflating Mohler's SBC with Tom Brokaw and the MemDec

I'm tryin to conflate something here for the sake of our country.

It may come to nothin but hope to bring it to attention of Evans who you will see linked in the various discussions; Jim Henry's daughter Kate Campbell; Adrian Roger's son and Harry Dent's daughter Ginny.
Ryan Hale, a signer of the MemDec (Memphis Declaration) already frequents this blog as well as a kidney doctor west of the Mississippi of influence.
Randall Balmer takes a look see ever so often; and Russ Beene.

Will see if it takes traction.
Roughly the question is which bodes most ill for our Nation's character; or which is the best indication of the soul of the country as it has been infected or Flected by the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC in the last 20 years?
Mohler's bid for SBC President; or Huckabee's bid for USA President.
And are Ben Cole and Ginny Brant evolving any framed by Garry Wills?

Just click on the blue titles.
If nothing else Evans link is very much worth your time if it is a first sighting for you.

Brokaw: SC Baps reject Mohler and Land's "Dogma"
by Stephen Fox on Tue Jan 22, 2008 11:33 am

Memphis Declaration and Evans On Mohler
by Stephen Fox on Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:51 pm

http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=9971


Evans is getting very close to framing the significance of the Huckabee campaign for the SBC. Will the secular press conflate Evan's frame with that of Wills in the Rove ERa of Head and Heart?

Banned from Church; I am not alone/Jesse James violent End.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120061470848399079-qR9UbyV4HvtwSujP_4sk5XmxzNg_20080217.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

The Wall Street Journal has taken up the cause.

In my semi documented case--the final chapter has yet to be written--bottom line for me is those who in the shadows brought petty charges against me 1) I left choir practice early 2) I sat in wrong block of church during Sunday night Bible Study 3) I responded in kind to anonymous cohorts of the Preacher's Duke son at Baptist Life.com; bottom line is the string pullers refused to meet with me to talk it out.
I made several mistakes and errors of strategy. There are some things I have apologized form and others I am willing to discuss;
But unlike one formal charger I never cussed anybody out to their face; twice for that matter.
But so it goes; a preacher has to make a living and it isn't always pretty. My Dad faced the same things on several occasions.
I regret the things that were my fault.
But in a contest between a man and a steer--in my case a revenant and the Council of Shadows--the outcome is not certain; to paraphrase Tom Ed Bell in No Country for Old Men.
Couple notes on the article: One of the finest, well two of the finest Christians I know in Dekalb County, Alabama, one raised near Statham, were regulars at Al Jackson's church as students at Auburn.
Noblit's wife is a former Miss Alabama contestant, and bro in law is the campus minister at UAB. I have had conversations with Miss A's Dad about churchins.
Noblit could use a strong dose of the last chapter of Garry Wills Head and Heart, the one on the Rove Era.

One other short item:
You want want to miss Steve Miller's review of There will Be Blood in that Post here at this blog
And: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is released on DVD Feb 5.
I learned it yesterday in Huntsville, Alabama, a bright sunny day.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

There Will Be Blood

The great movie opens in a theatre near you tomorrow or Soon. It is a must see for any of you who appreciate a good story; some critics even saying it ranks with the best films of the last 25 years.
Musings were talking to me this morning as I was listening to the final chorus of St. Matthew's Passion by Bach. It is "Oh Man, Bewail your Great Sin."
Good soundtrack to "Blood" including the classicist Arvo Part, a favorite of John Morgan the IIIrd and Michael Stipe; the latter of REM, the former maybe an REM Wannabee, but no diss on my charter member of the Collinsville Film Society.
I had an opportunity this morning to talk about Cormac McCarthy and the line from No Country for Old Men: "Even in a contest between a man and a steer, the OUtcome is not certain."
My audience got it.
Then I told them about Mose Freshour and my Dad in Newport Tn. I always understood Mose pulled a knife on my Daddy at one point, sometime after they had a full house Sunday School in the meeting place which was the only room in the church.
Daddy said: Mose, don't you think we could use a few Sunday School Rooms?
And Mose said: "Shit Preacher, everbody had a place to sit."

Babdiss deacons, sooner or later they'll pull a knife on you almost ever time.
ButI think Mose is in heaven now; honest.
Cormac McCarthy woulda understood the story, and Ron Rash too.

Had an interesting discussion about parable and story and if a story can be redemptive without being spiritual. My fellow revenant said no cause spirt invokes the supernatural.
I wanted to find liberty in the mystery of communication and gnosis, another person in this world. The other revenant was more articulate, made the stronger case, but I think I'm right; the words just haven't come to me in proper sequence yet.

Should I say something about Martin Luther King this weekend and the anonymous fellow on the March from Selma to Montgomery who told what coulda been Marshall Frady or David Halberstam when asked in a low moment if he thought there was anything to gain in all of it in Montgomery. Fellow said: "We Won when we started walking."

ARe you walkin, or are you status quo?

That's what I been thinkin about
What about you and do you have the courage to attach your name to your responses????

PS:
Hope I don't abort the virtue of my original post here and conflate too much but some of you may want to comment on this deal, this trailer
http://www.articlevithemovie.com
In my mind it raises Jesse James question to that Coward Robert Ford:
"Do you wantto bee like Mee; or do you wantto bee me?"

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Questioning OBama's Church's Character

This is not a pleasant business but a woman who passes for savvy in these matters in an influential church in North Carolina is trafficking in these matters.

I wonder if we can get some lucid and civil discussion on it.

From an item at Bl.com.

BREAKING NEWS ON OBAMA
by Prentice Fox on Wed Jan 16, 2008 9:49 am
NEW HAMPSHIRE IS BEHIND US NOW, AND SO IS MICHIGAN. In the MSNBC Dem Debate last night, everything was snug and Cozy with Barak, Hillary, and John. They teamed up for a two hour "Bush-bashing" session. South Carolina should be a good "game." I'm 'puttin' my money' on Obama and Huck. This editorial: http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticle ... 2746454291 intoduces some new questions about Obama's position that must be dealt with before the final tally bell is rung. Prentice.

and his followup:

Re: Obama and the IBD
by Prentice Fox on Wed Jan 16, 2008 11:32 am
ED, I DON'T KNOW ABYTHING ABOUT IBD (Investors Business Development.) That editorial was sent to me from a friend in my church, and she in quite knowedgeable about national events. It is, admittedly, an editorial, with editorial slant, and I guess their bias is Basic Conservative. BUT, the writer lists some very scary and damaging FACTS about OBAMA HERE; editorial or not. Prentice

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Obama's Christ Pamphlet; Marus's assignment

All I can give you today, my loyal blog audience and constituency are some links from elsewhere where I have spent my energies today.
For Obama you have to go to the Washington Post which will take you straight to the Home of Hall of Fame Nominee, Jim Rice.

And this should take you to Marus with a Berlinbleau link and comments embedded.
And Mrs. Westmoreland

------------------------------------------------

Edit postDelete postReport this postReply with quote And Mrs. Westmoreland
by Stephen Fox on Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:36 pm

on all this

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfa ... ments.html

Monday, January 14, 2008

FoxOBama Overwhelmed by This Political Moment

I'm not trying to be cute by a reference to a comment that invokes the F Word; it is just a part of one of the 250 odd comments On Moyer's Journal site from his interview with Shelby Steele on Obama Friday Night.

From Moyers Comments:
I have ancestry on five continents but my BA from UCLA and the fact that I can speak with King's English does not mean that I'm somehow putting on a "mask" over the real me when I speak Ebonics with my brother, Pidgin English with my dad, French with my uncle, or Spanish with my nephew.
If Obama wants to use his ability to operate from any number of cultural milieus to better relate to his audiences, then it is his prerogative as a politician, he'd be foolish if he didn't, and i think it's just plain inspiring. At the very least, he should be able to do so without being called some sort of tricky shapeshifter who has "given up his blackness" on Bill Moyers Jounal! I'm sorry but f*** that! This is just too backwards for anything less.

Back to Fox
And detractors of this blog, my apologies cause from hereon it is links; many of which are my thoughts at another venue so I may have some salvation in that.

Much as I hate to say it, today at least I give George Will the final word from a column Dec 30

So far, Obama is the Fred Astaire of politics -- graceful and elegant, with a surface so pleasing to the eye that it seems mistaken, even greedy, to demand depth. No one, however, would have given Astaire control of nuclear weapons, so attention must be paid to Obama's political as well as aesthetic qualities.
Steele notes that Obama "seems to have little talent for anger." But that is because Obama has opted out of the transaction Steele vigorously deplores. The political implications of this transcendence of confining categories are many, profound and encouraging.

But a lot has happenned since Dec 30 and that is taken up in the links below;
If you are at all fascinated by the esoterics of this political moment do click on the link to today's TNR analysis of Clinton and Obama, LBJ and King.
With this magic link you can not only read a hearty discussion from Bl.com but also link Hillary's chat with Tim Russert yesterday morning:

And the whole thing can be read at:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22634967/
Stephen Fox

Posts: 122
Joined: Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:29 pm
The Definitive Statement
by Stephen Fox on Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:37 pm
It is up at Today's http://www.tnr.com/ website:http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=a383df9e-9d33-4b57-b832-a75b7c4d0d0cWish I could think as well as I was thinking just a couple years ago and I would read Wilentz's book

And a final note to respond to Ryan Hale and a check to see if he read this post.
About your comment in my previous blog you over the last three years feel like giving into cynicism; at some point later we will take up H Brandt Ayers wisdom about the Alabama Legislature several years ago in the wake of Civil Rights; and hopefully can conflate that in some way with lessons learned from Ga.'s last attorney Gen's Race, political contest.

Friday, January 11, 2008

BerlinBleau and BL.com on SBC and Huckabee

Jacques Berlinbleau has a two part analysis of Huckabee and the SBC at the Newsweek Religion Blog. He and NWeek's Howard Fineman both miss the point a little and in so doing join some of the lesser discussions at Bl.com.
In meantime I am flailing away trying to frame it better; and so far it has been elusive.

Click on Even Jacques and you're in the thick of the discussion there.
Even Jacques
by Stephen Fox on Mon Jan 14, 2008 1:58 pm
Berlinbleau misses the point at the Newsweek Religion Blog today.See the 8th comment there, my effort to get this thing right.I can only do so much.Bruce Gourley, I need help here; or maybe I am already too far out to lunch, and we know that is not the case http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfa ... ephes.htmlMy comment there:Jacques:What you say is interesting but in someways, like Fineman in Newsweek this week on Huckabee, misses the larger point.I have been groping at my blog and the Baptist discussion board baptistlife.com--I encourage you to visit the Huckabee/Prescott post there--to make a more significant point.The crux of the HBee and SBC matter is somewhere in the shadows of Garry Wills Concluding chapters on the Rove Era in his Head and Heart. I think your colleague Randall Balmer would agree with me on this point, as he hints at it in Thy Kingdom Come.It is not so much about HBee and text of KJV as it is about Richard Land and Karl Rove's strategies vs the sophomoric ideals of HBee's populismIn the SBC Inerrancy of Scripture was just a tool, a convenient wedge issue for the larger designs of Exxon Oil and tax Breaks as implemented by Paul Pressler.Land courts Pressler and his strategy, at least winks at it; while Huckabee has contested it to some degree.Within the SBC there are the Memphis Declaration Reformers that include among others the Daughter of Nixon's Southern Strategist, Ginny Brant.Brant is Harry Dent's daughter.Exploring her thoughts vis a vis the assertions of Garry Wills should be the focus for you and Fineman.
Stephen Fox

Posts: 145
Joined: Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:29 pm

Earlier blog
Maybe Tnr.com will pick it up cause I think SBC Reform and the Legacy of Richard Land is a most worthy topic for the GOP Primary in South Carolina.
Chris Matthews is dancin around it; but he hasn't got a grip yet.
And don't forget, Richard Jackson was McCain's Wife's pastor at North Phoenix BC in Azona.
And we know how Richard Land politicked against Jackson.

Garry Wills is a must read, his Rove Era, for anybody who wants to be taken seriously engaging this seminal inflection
Click on Prentice and you can read what he said before this.
Prentice is a frequent poster at Bl.com and you can read this earlier discussion there.



Prentice misses the point
by Stephen Fox on Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:55 pm
The strength of the Green Quote does not emphasize values as much as it speaks to class resentments and mistreatment the so called "values voters" have been played by Land and Rove the last 8 years.Problem is Land and Rove have messed the semantics up for political advantage, taking their cue from a Lee Atwater memo as far back as 84.Values as politically applied by Rove and Land are in reality dogma; and Frank Page, decent a man as he otherwise most likely is; apparently has neither the time nor the impication to take a good look at Garry Wills to get the strength of this point.It is a significant point; one that David Gushee understands, and I have to believe Mark Olson and Daniel Carro of the Leland Center understand as well.Huckabee is to be given credit for at least recognizing the ballpark this game should be played in; class differentials within the GOP. And I agree with Mark Shields of the GOP NewsHour, Huck did a masterful job conflating the idea of change as it effects economic disparities in the New Hampshire Debate.Again, SC is a great place to talk about Land and Page and SBC and GOP when it comes to a virtuous discussion of class within the GOP and how Land has let the country club Republicans play SBC fundamentalists for fools the last 8 years to keep the tax breaks going toward the Upper Income.That is where this discussion should park; not on the misnomered "values" discussion as you have, Prentice.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Strongest case to date for Obama

From David Brooks December Column in NY Times:

The Clinton Obama Issue, Dec 18

If Clinton were running against Obama for Senate, it would be easy to choose between them. But they are running for president, and the presidency requires a different set of qualities. Presidents are buffeted by sycophancy, criticism and betrayal. They must improvise amid a thousand fluid crises. They’re isolated and also exposed, puffed up on the outside and hollowed out within. With the presidency, character and self-knowledge matter more than even experience. There are reasons to think that, among Democrats, Obama is better prepared for this madness.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/opinion/18brooks.html

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Baptist faultlines in the South Carolina Primary

Yesterday, New Hampshire Primary Day, Chris Matthews asked the question how will John McCain defeat Mike Huckabee's Southern Baptists in South Carolina.
I was already thinking about a version of the same question.

Here are some of the folks and some of the conundrums a good analysis of such a problem will have to resolve; or in McCain's case, conflate.
And in some way I hope to go to the character of Southern Baptists politically in this process.

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was in the John McCain camp in the Primary of 2000. Opposing McCain in 2000 were many of the same folks now in Huckabee's camp; namely former SC Governor Beasley who at one time was chair of the South Carolina SBC.
Huckabee also has the son of former Governor Carroll Campbell in his corner; Campbell a great friend of the Bush dynasty, at one time a strong possibility for HW 41's VP spot.
Graham is a native of Seneca, the adopted hometown of Harry Dent's daughter Ginny Brant.
Brant signed the Memphis Declaration, a group of reformers in the SBC that helped elect Frank Page president in the FAce of the Old Tex Regulars, John Birch society shaded SBC of Pressler, Patterson and Richard Land.
Also signing the Memphis Declaration was Ben Cole, the Baylor PHD student now at Wade Burleson's church in Enid OkLahoma.
Any nuancing of South Carolina, Huckabee and his implications for Reform as an economic populists, and some kind of reformer of Pressler's SBC should take into the conversation Harry Dent's Daughter Brant, and Ben Cole.
Also shading that conversation should be the wife of Bama Samford President, Jeanna Westmoreland, a Huckabee Education Commission appointee in Arkansas.
John McCain's wife Cindy, her former pastor Richard Jackson is the pastor Karl Rove operative Richard Land of the SBC's ERLC; Jackson was defeated by Land's SBC candidate Jerry Vines in 88 in San Antonio.
How Frank Page can make righteous sense of this denominational political geography, I don't know.

Making matters in SC even more interesting is how the FBC Greenville Republicans conflate all this as they line up with Huckabee or McCain. My sense is most of them will find a way to go the Lindsey Graham, McCain route.
STaffer at FBC Baxter Wynn was at one time a leading Republican in the state as his Brother was SC GOP state chair in the 80's.

When Lee Atwater came on the Daddy Bush team in 88 it was because he was told that campaign needed a nut cutter. And Barr said at the time, Yeah George we need one of them.

Question now being as Chris Matthews alluded: Who has Huckabee by the Nuts?
Randall Balmer in his Book Thy Kingdom Come named Rove's boy in the SBC, Richard Land a counterfeit Baptist.
So another question is what substance is there to David Brooks Two Earthquakes NY Times OpED piece last Friday that Huckabee as an economic populist can Reform the GOP; or in South Carolina will he be whittled down to another toy for Pressler's Exxon like Land deliverd the SBC for 43 in 00 and 04.

Just trying to frame the Southern Baptist Discussion here. Don't claim to have the answers, just groping toward the strongest questions and giving some names to consider in South Carolina before Oprah and Bill still the show.

And here is how it is playing today at the Newsweek Religion blog

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/georgetown/2008/01/south_carolina_aint_going_to_b/allcomments.html

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Tom Edsall On Hillary's Political Reality

In yesterday's

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/06/shaken-clinton-camp-prepa_n_80125.html
Strong and unflinching

Friday, January 04, 2008

Mita testifies

One of the Biggest Hits today at the NY Times is an Article "Two Buck Huck" about the classfare in the GOP the asendancy of Baptist Preacher Mike Huckabee is causing.
I don't know if HBee is Presidential Timber, but I'm enjoyin the stir.
I met Huckabee in Upstate South Carolina the Sunday after Thanksgiving and he's a Nice guy; affable and disarming. I liked what he said about the Dream Act at the time; even told him he ought to hook up with Randy Owen if we still viable when he got to Alabama.
The Gov said he's jammed once with Randy or Teddy. I think he said Randy. He kinda lit up at the politics of the Thought.

But this NY Times article has gotten 250 something comments in 24 hours.
I like What Mita had to say, never using summer as a verb.

So here is What Mita said in the NY Times. I copy and Post cause I am impressed with her spunk and I am delighted she is a fellow/sister citizen in this great Country of OUrs.

MITA:

215.
January 4th,200810:24 am
Mr. Egan,
I sincerely hope that all the high-falootin’ intellectuals such as yourself can take a moment to reflect on this for as long as you can stand the thick air down here in the lowlands…
One thing that makes this country great is that, as our Constitution so eloquently puts it, that all men are created equal… a concept rooted in republicanism, which stands as the basis for our system of government.
Apparently you don’t agree with that concept and seem to have an issue with certain classes of people. Maybe that is just my perception… but I am basing this assumption on your tone and seeming disdain for Huckabee…
Is there some sort of “class” litmus test for high office holders that I am unaware of? Some sort of manners class they should hold a certificate from? Perhaps all potential office holders should have to post a listing of their china patterns (in case there are any selections from the dreaded WalMart… which should apparently automatically disqualify said candidate from running.) Oh, I know… anyone who has eaten wild game not served at the local country club on a bed of wild rice (with a lovely demi-glace sauce) is not qualified to run for office!
For those of us “lower-income” types who are not concerned with keeping up with the Kennedys, I’ve never put much stock in the social position of any candidate, and indeed tend to be more suspicious of a moneyed (not merely rich, but loaded) candidate running for office. I would rather elect someone from a “low income” background who has common sense, and not someone from family who routinely hires commoners to do their manual labor. My family never used the word “summer” as a verb, either.
I take very much into consideration whether I think someone will be able to do a good job of governing based on their past performance and their character, regardless of their family or economic background or the color of their skin.
The only real concern that I would ever have over someone cooking a squirrel in a popcorn popper is that if they don’t seal the meat in a paper bag or foil pouch, it will have the tendency to get too dry. (Personally, I prefer wild rabbit or rattlesnake. Squirrel from areas with lots of evergreens tend to taste a bit like pine-sol). And now that I know that it CAN be done, I think I just may go out in my garage and dig out the popcorn popper I’d packed up and finally rid my attic of the pesky varmint that’s been living there.
— Posted by Mita

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Historic blog: The First of 2008

This is my first blog on 2008 on a very cold Day in Alabama.
I am concerned about my pipes, the waterflow but things were dripping this morning and I hope they drip for another 36 hours as it may get down to Ten Deegrees tonight.
The faucets are open and I have done all I can do; it is now in God's Hands.

Meanwhile my blog is on fire. As you see my last blog has six comments and still counting.

Here today I have come across a great Garry Wills piece in the New Yorker where he ends on this thought on the Difference between Romney and JFK:

Has Romney been able to "do a Kennedy," as his speech was billed in the press? Far from it. Kennedy was on the side of the future. He defied the Vatican's ban on American-style democracy, which was rescinded in the Second Vatican Council, convened after his election. Romney—looking to the past, and specifically to the current Bush administration's position—kowtowed to the religious right. Saying that he opposes religious tests, he passed that one.
—December 19, 2007

You can read his excellent mental exercise on a vein of true Baptist thought at www.nytimes.com

Pretty much at the same time Randall Balmer is coming out with a new book. Here he is in his own words:

October 3, 2007 2:44 PM
Ask What They Believe AND How They Would Apply It
I think it’s fair to inquire about a candidate’s faith, but we should pay careful attention to the answers.I just completed a new book entitled “God in the White House: A History: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush.” Essentially, what I tried to answer was how we got from Kennedy’s speech to the ministers in Houston on the eve of the 1960 presidential election, when he implored voters to set aside a candidate’s faith when they entered the voting booth, to George W. Bush’s declaration on the eve of the 2000 Iowa precinct caucuses that Jesus was his favorite philosopher.

From Balmer's entry at Newsweek religion blogsite

Balmer will be speaking early in 2008 at Furman University. Pray for insight and wisdom and for those that have an ear to hear; and a good turnout.