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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.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

One Way Woodlawn, The Movie and the Propaganda

  This is a rough draft blog so come back soon to see revised edition.

   I just saw the Erwin Brothers movie Woodlawn after hearing their father live this morning on Andrea Linde3nberg's right wing so called Christian radio show. Hank is a nice fellow and is portrayed in the film as the Chaplain who attended Billy Graham and Campus Crusade's Explo 72 Dallas extravaganza. But the moive doesn't talk much about the Nixon's administrations designs or what Lee Atwater made of them. Cuttin to the chase it fails Bonhoeffer's "politics of stupidity" test.

    To be honest I liked the film a lot in certain areas. My Father chaired the Bill Glass Crusade for Christ in Gaffney SC in May of 75 so I am not immune to the meshing of football and Jesus. Wayne Whiteside said the Revival changed him a little.

     But what Rick and Bubba and Cliff Simms and Yellowhammer News don't follow up on is what fundamentalists in the Southern Baptist Convention did with this sophomoric mindset. They're demonizing of the Separation of Church and State in the movie could be a spin on what Adolph did in
Germany. But that calls for Rick and Bubba and Cliff to sit down with some people of goodwill who are wiser in these matters but they are too stubborn to do so cause they are absolutist.

    I liked the movie. It reminded me of some things that happened in Gaffney and some lifelong friends of people of color I made in those days of racial transition.

   I'm gonna recommend the flick to every HS kid I know cause it could be of some good for them. I just hope they don't stop there as Rick and Bubba have but go on to read Moses and Jesus and the Trickster, even the Charles Marsh bio of Bonhoeffer cause DBon rode near if not through Woodlawn in 31. ;long time before Tony Nathan, a true America hero--great scene in the movie where Natahan stands up to George Wallace and his handlers--Billy Graham and The Bear.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Woodlawn, the Freedom Caucus and the Politics of Stupidity

     This last week on Christian right media in Birmingham, Alabama has been an extravaganza promotional week for the Erwin Brothers movie Woodlawn. In the genre of Rudy and the Billy Graham simple salvation stories of the 60s Woodlawn has considerable merit and I intend to see it first chance I get. I hope Joe Scarborough unpacks the politics of it all.
   In Bham it has been trumpeted almost exclusively by Rick and Bubba good ole boy comedians who have direct ties to the flick including a son cast in the movie, and Crawford Broadcasting of a John Birch Society, Tea Party, Freedom Caucus stripe which entangles itself with the fundamentalist politics of the Southern Baptist Convention. Russ Moore of the SBC ERLC has been on the show and burgeoning media Mogul Cliff Simms of Yellowhammer enterprises who moonlights with Crawford has interviewed four of the GOP Presidential candidates and counting.
    As I have blogged previously they have a shadowy relationship with Church at Brook Hills whose recent pastor is now head of the SBC IMB; so this network in Paul Pressler's dream and not so innocent.
    Just ask Bill Moyers or Wayne Flynt.
     Freedom Caucus was great chat yesterday on NPR Fresh Air program.
    I have blogged at some lengthy about Wuthnow's Rough Country and the Lee Atwater memo in that book.
     Appears to be good movie, Woodlawn, another piece of the civil rights era and its aftermath in league with Duke's Tim Tyson Blood Done Sign my Name and the works of Charles Marsh about 60s in Mississippi.
    This who phenomena cuts many ways, but I am concerned about how Rick N Bubba and Yellowhammer have inveighled themselves into the religious political drinking water in Bama.
      As I've mentioned to some of them, Marilynne Robinson's recent interview with President Obama at nybooks.com is goon medicine for this fundy religious political diseases in Bama.
    I can't remedy it on my on; and the likes of Brandt Ayers and Flynt have written about it over the last 40 years and counting. But Like ISIS somebody has to engage if not confront these folks or we end up where Bonhoeffer on New Year's eve of 1944 with the politics of stupidity--his phrase--running amok.

Thursday, October 08, 2015

Freedom Caucus and SBC Takeover

   In the Freedom Caucus Paul Pressler;s for a Southern Baptist America is almost a done deal. Today on Yellowhammer News Mike Huckabee told Baptist preacher's son Cliff Sims Daniel Webster was his Florida chair for President in 08.   A call to Webster's DC office revealed Webster's ties to SBC President Jim Henry.
      Though not an FC member, FBC Sburg's Trey Gowdy has all the trimmings of FC loyalty and adoration from the Tea Party and what Pressler wrought in the SBC.
     Former UNC chancellor Bill Friday told Cecil Sherman in early 90s the most significant event in North Carolina in the 80s was the fundamentalist takeover of Southeastern Seminary, my Dad's alma mater. In that ACQUISTION, the politics of Pressler and Jesse Helms had a new foothold in the pulpits in suburbs and hamlets across the Southeast.
   For necessary background reading see Robert Wuthnow's Rough Country on the legacy of WA Criswell; and Lee Atwater's "nigger memo."
    For this cancer to be controlled Upstate SC must find a replacement for Trey Gowdy and little by little tea party districts come to their senses.
    The first 11 chapters of Genesis nor the Constitution of the United States was written so we could come to the point that a 17 week old fetus take the life of a 30 year old woman or elementary and juco children be at the mercy of somebody hitting an assault weapon armed mental patient hell bent on taking multiple lives cause Tea Party Christian America thinks it better to take him out with a baseball or a bull rush or a can of beans when thoughtful people can follow the lead of Australia with a concentrated conversation referenced in the Diane Rehm discussion of MOnday at drshow.org and a careful viewing of the Frontline Doc Series on PBS on the politics of the NRA.
    Also see Randall Balmer's Redeemer President on the Baptist fundy politics that displaced President Carter, and Charles Marsh bio of Bonhoeffer on the politics of stupidity.