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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.

Monday, October 27, 2008

SBC, Land and Palin Deconstructed in NY Rev Books

Here is the link in a seminal article by Frances Fitzgerald in the current New York Review of Books.
When you go to this collection of essays you will want also to pay particular attention to the efforts of Joan Didion and Garry Wills, especially Wills Closing flourish.
But here is what's at stake, and where too many numb minded but otherwise good Southern Baptists continue to send their money.
Let's hope here in Alabama Gary Fenton and Bob Terry and Rick Lance will explain why they continue to fund the rascal Richard Land of the SBC ERLC, and maybe in Georgia Susan Shaw will send a letter to the Rome News Tribune, and Jonas Glenn and Tony Cartledge to the Fayetteville Observer.
What is Rob Riley thinking about all this, the Governor's son?

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22017#fitzgerald

Some excerpts:

Now, if McCain won, they could claim credit for bringing out the evangelical vote and demand the kind of power they had had in the Bush administration. As for Palin herself, she was almost too good to be true. Her positions on abortion, gay marriage, domestic partner benefits, stem-cell research, abstinence, and the teaching of creationism in the public schools were their own. She was for guns and low taxes, and, as she demonstrated at the Republican convention, she could reignite the politics of populist resentment. She was one of them in a sparkling new package. "Sarah Palin is God's answer," Dobson declared.[9]

The enthusiasm of religious right leaders for Palin had its incongruities. Eight years ago, the Southern Bap-tist Convention, under the leadership of Richard Land and other conservatives, had for the first time adopted the positions that women could not serve as pastors and that wives had to "submit" to their husbands. Then, too, many religious right leaders—James Dobson most prominently—had spent most of their careers insisting that working women, along with permissiveness toward children, had led to the decline of American civilization.
No matter. Palin was a walking advertisement for "pro-life" policies, and, for reasons somewhat mysterious to them, she thrilled the women in their churches. "They were absolutely giddy,"

Land said of the women in his office. "There's something going on in the conservative independent sisterhood that I can't tap into. I can't comprehend it, but it's there."[10] Like other women, many of these sisters were struggling to raise families and to make ends meet with low-paying jobs. Palin, the baby-juggling hockey mom, was both someone they could identify with and the fulfillment of fantasies: a beauty queen who took power by bucking a corrupt male establishment. Here was the new American Idol—and the solution to a problem religious right leaders did not know they had.

And this is pretty strong as well:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amb-richard-c-holbrooke/why-the-nation-and-the-wo_b_138299.html

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Baptist Women raised Right

Review by a woman in Acworth Georgia on Rome Georgia Susan Shaw's new book.



By
Elizabeth M. Ragusin (Acworth , GA) - See all my reviews This captivating book offers an insider's look at Southern Baptist women within southern culture. The theme of "soul competency" is thoughtfully explored through the eyes and experiences of many different women with a unifying result. "God Speaks to Us, Too" is both funny and provocative. The notion of being "raised right" is a humorous vein that runs throughout the book. From the "we speak in code" acronyms of WMU, RAs, GAs, BYPU, and others, to the carefully directed activities of coronation ceremonies and sword drills, this book is very funny indeed. And all is presented amidst the backdrop of the denomination's greatest crisis to date--the fundamentalist takeover of the convention in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This power struggle within the hierarchy, and the effect it had on the denomination and institutions of higher learning associated with it, directly influenced the lives of many different women. This is the continuing story of these women, their struggles, and their triumphs. This book will appeal to all women acquainted with the Southern Baptist tradition, and will enlighten those not familiar with this way of life. Well done, Susan Shaw!

End Quote

As this book goes to the heart of Historical Societies and Women's Study Clubs in small towns and larger burgs across the region, what is keeping the public and church libraries say in Dekalb county from dragging their feet in getting copies of this book; even more from having public discussions about it.
If you can crack the code of the WMU for instance, you may have a chance at Constitutional Reform in Alabama; even establish fairer and more just guidelines for church membership and resolution of church conflict as the Bible and Susan Shaw's book if they say anything, use a colloquialism of Sarah Palin, shout out against kangaroo courts.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Attn Annie Lucas Brown: Ron Rash on Obama

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/09/AR2008100903612.html

I was thinking just a couple days ago somebody ought to get Ron Rash's take on the vote in North Carolina.
Turns out as you see above I was about 7 days late. Kathleen Parker, the same who had a scathing piece on Sarah Palin is ahead of the curve on this one.
I have read Serena. I have Rash's autograph, have talked to him on the phone and read two others of his books. I paid him what I think is the highest compliment I can saying my grandmother Helton/Fox had she heard his stories would say that's just the way it happenned; Nanny born in Wears Valley Tennessee out from Pigeon Forge just across the mtn from Cades Cove. Her quarter Indian Mother took her out of school in the 2nd grade to help raise the 7 boys. Nanny woulda known what Susan Shaw is talking about in her book on Baptist women.
Serena is something. You can google up the first chapter online, a knife fight; and from there to to Chapter two where Serena tames an Eagle to swoop down on satin-back rattlers and clear Western North Carolina out for the timber bidniss of the 30's.
The film rights to Serena have sold for goodly sum.
Pat Conroy is a fan.
My acquaintance Annie Lucas Brown ought to join to join me and Mart Gray and my friend in the Gadsden Library--she read the galleys to One Foot in Eden in Denver before moving back this way-- and make sure every library has a copy of Serena in their stacks pronto; at a minimum all of em North of Birmingham.
Get a copy of this novel, Already #7 on Amazon's historical fiction list nationally, just two weeks out in print.
And help me get back in the Collinsville Public Library where I belong; so I can play more cards with JD Shellnutt like God put me on the earth to do (lol)!!!!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Collinsville Baptist Women and West Rome

Susan Shaw grew up just 45 minutes away from Collinsville at Former SBC president Jerry Vines West Rome Baptist Church.
Her pilgrimage in some ways mirrors that of folks raised in this region. I understand she is good friend of former SBC President, Jim Henry's daughter, Kate Campbell.
Kate has a new song out about Jesus and Elvis you may want to check at her site www.katecampbell.com
Susan Shaw went to Berry and then to SBTS. She now teaches at Oregon State. Her new book defies BFM 2000 and is sure to cause an uproar, possibly at this years Alabama Baptist Convention where Jimmy Jackson may be elected President after moving his association to vote First Baptist Huntsville out of the fellowship.

Here is what Shaw is thinking.

http://www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3566&Itemid=53

Friday, October 10, 2008

RickNBubba and Bama Bap Con Politics

I called the Rick N Bubba show this morning toll free at 866 We Be Big.
Sweet girl answered the phone and promised to pass on my note to Rick.
I congratulate him on being chosen to be a featured speaker at the Alabama Baptist Convention this November after the nation's Presidential election.
Rick has a strong testimony--I am proud of him for his pilgrimage thus far--but it's political outcroppings are a little shallow and one dimensional, like that of Rick Warren.
I am challenging Rick to take a close look at Tim Tyson's Blood Done Sign my Name, particularly the chapters, "The Other South" and "We All Have a Story To Tell."
Tyson comes from the same kind of folks as Rick, just a couple states away. Rick if he is going to take the stage he is now embracing, should have more dialogue with UMC Bishop Willimon for one, who knows Tyson and his work well.
And shared reading with my Friend Dr. Thurmond at Dexter Ave in Montgomery couldn't hurt Rick either.
A movie is in the works of Tyson's story. Tyson is highly regarded by North Carolina Baptist http://www.tonycartledge.com/ , who like Rick, lost a child tragically. And the book has a scalding abortion story that will resonate with the evangelical world of RickNBubba.
Still, there is much room for Rick and the http://www.alsbom.org/ world of Joe Godfrey and his predeessor to grow. Inching toward the ecumenicity of Anne Graham Lotz for one wouldn't hurt.
In the meantime, Rick, your secretary has the note. Get the book before you preach to the state baptists and by all means get Tyson on your show to talk about it and the movie.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Chicken N Dumplins and Politics

Had some great Dumplins today, up there with the best and that means Nanny Fox and Aunt Juanita.
Got em at the American Cafe in Collinsville, Alabama. They routinely come through on the meat and three; though I wish Muffins was still established in Centre, from which the current owners derived.

Saturday I went to Fall Fest in Centre, Alabama. I thought Josh Segall was gonna be there

http://www.segall2008.com/blog/?p=33

But he didn't make it.
Word was I just missed incumbent Mike Rogers in the parade. Was told he was to be at Jax St at 10 am on Tuesday. I thought about going down but didn't make it. Never figure out where to park there without hiking a mile when I go.
But did have an interesting conversation with JSU poli sci proff Lori Owens, chair of the Cherokee County GOP. I took her to be evasive on the integrity of abortion in the attack ad Rogers has weighed against SEgall. She volunteered she never had an abortion, but didn't much want to go there when propositioned the Bush Women and Cindy McCain were as pro abortion as Josh Segall if that is the point that is most grinding in the Bama 3rd.
Segall is down 8 points. I don't know if he can make it up against an incumbent. Even folks who are bent Rogers way concede he is obnoxious, and Segall has the support of former county activists for Rogers.
I have given some unsolicited advice to Segall as you see in the link above. The Powerful Joe Turnham is in Segall's corner. Would be great if Turnham and Segall could get President Bush's Dem Congressman from Texas, Chet Edwards; and the classmate of Bama Power CEO Anniston native Dudley Reynolds, Indy US blue dog congressman Baron Hill, to come tour the Bama 3rd with Segall over a weekend soon and do some hard politikin.
I don't speak for any of these people, just think it could make an interesting and timely sequence of events.
I think that would move Hardy Jackson, easily more of an Atticus Finch at Jax St than Lori Owens-- Hardy, a man who understands what is best and most virtuous for the hard working folks of Bama 3rd and can articulate it; a Chet Edwards/Hill tour, I think would impress Jackson to come around and make a strong case with Brandt Ayers in the Anniston Star.
That endorsement with some savvy attack ads may just pull it out for Segall.
Get the good ole boys and girls swayed by the provincial rascals in front of the 50's pickups asking themselves in the worst circumstances since the depression, could we do any worse than the 407 worst rated congressman in the Senate.
Hell, Josh has a pulse and some ideas; if nothin else folks could vote him out in a couple terms if say he don't break up into the low 390's ranks.
You know, appeal to their sense of pride; War Eagle and a Tomato sandwich for every bible study break and what not.
And I ain't makin fun of nobody. My Daddy was a Babdiss preacher and first cousin Max Helton was an original Chaplain to Nascar; friend to Bobby and Davey Allison and Little E.
I guess we will have to wait and see.
I have a hard time solving the riddle and Rick Lance and Bob Terry don't help much as they persist in suckin Cooperative Program dollars for the career of Richard Land.