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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, June 15, 2017

Southern Baptists Phoenix Alt Right Resolution and How it Plays in Bama

      A Catholic friend from South Florida texted yesterday to say the Baptists were in a frenzy in Arizona over an alt right resolution. Rick Burgess talked about it a little this morning on his syndicated four hour radio program so I changed my online routine for the week and caught up on this Thursday cause these types of things have been of interest to me since 1988 when I got on a microphone in San Antonio in 1988 and Judge Pressler himself and Jesse Helms operative Barry McCarty took note.

   Then in March of 1993 there was the discussion outside FBC Bham with Steve Gaines right after the snowstorm that year. about a thousand Baptist preachers and laymen were in town for an Inquisition of then Samford President Tom Corts.

    Steve Gaines is now President of the SBC leaving Gardendale Bama to go to the Belleview Baptist Church where fundamentalist guru Adrian Rogers once hailed sway for his version of Jesus Christ and Ronald Reagan.

   Here is a pic of Gaines and his aging Homecoming beauty of a wife in earnest prayer yesterday in Phoenix

     https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-southern-baptist-convention-alt-right-white-supremacy/530244/?utm_source=fbb

   Think Progress, Baptist Global News, Christian Century and Christianity Today and many others have impassioned stories about this frenetic event the last couple days in AZ.

      Four weeks ago some of this was prophesied in a good piece easily googled at Forbes for Pastors and Republicans. Goes back to Criswell in 56 and Lee Atwater's infamous "nigger memo".

    And some truth and reconciliation is in order for Saint Russ Moore. He would not have this platform for beatification with Rev McKissic if it weren't for the racist, Texas Regulars, left White Citizens council members and Birchers that led the takeover of the SBC in the 80s, folks like Paul Pressler, Jesse Helms, Bircher Albert Lee Smith of Bham whose wido is tight with immigration lawyer Kris Kobach, and Ed Mcateer of Adrian Rogers now Gaines Memphis church.

   Check those dudes out and have Moore explain that history.


     But listening to the alt right Baptist outlet in Bama today, Cliff Simms Yellowhammer News midday day two hours on Crawford Broadcasting with Andrea Tice you wouldn't know anything about it.

   I don't know if Gardendale's Scott Beason said anything before them. Rick Burgess did cover it in passing on his four hours of early morning live call in syndication this morn.

    Jennifer Rash of the Alabama Baptist is gonna have her hands full between now and the Baptist State convention in November.

    Baptist preacher's son Cliff Simms is now in the steve Bannon alt Right White House with Jeff Sessions, Steve Miller and Donald Trump. Simms is an Auburn Grad. An Oxford American or New Yorker profile on Simms and his media empire he took leave of absence from for Trump White House is in the offing one would hope.

   A Greenville SC native has taken Simms place while he is away. And Tony Beam of North Greenville has Simms back for Trey Gowdy in the Upstate for all I can tell.

     And it will be interesting to see how Eric Metaxas, the Trump apologist and Bonhoeffer scholar navigates all this. Metaxas is a darling of Billy Graham and Trey Gowdy's FBC Spartanburg SC Truth for a New Generation Conferences.

   Pulitzer's Marilynne Robinson essay Value spotlighting Bonhoeffer in the Age of Trump is a challenge for Metaxas to say the least. And on June 15 two Duke scholars have a little something for the world of Metaxas and Trey Gowdy as well.
https://baptistnews.com/article/violence-atonement-racism/#.WURYSnkQWM9


  Also late Friday, Yellowhammer News says this blog may be part of the conversation for a US Senate Primary debate in Oxford Alabama on Tuesday, or some reference to the Alt Right Resolution in Phoenix. Hopefully I have given YHammer and Cliff Simms in the White House something to think about

     

     Follow the evolving conversation in the SBC Forum of Baptistlife.com cause it looks like the cat has jumped out of the bag this time and may not be going back in of its own volition.

   Bible says we have all sinned and have things to confess. In some ways proud of these lagging fundamentalist brothers for a step in the right direction even if their brothers of color in the room had em by the balls and their hearts had to follow.

   Like Donna Gaines, we all need to be much in prayer.

2 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Thanks for keeping us apprised, Stephen. Surely the long shadow of racism, America's original sin," endures.

8:13 AM  
Blogger Eric Kuykendall said...

Fox - as we discussed, please call the church after hours. Your caustic style of speech is entertaining for me but difficult for our precious church secretaries who are as sweet as honeysuckle. But please continue your voicemails. I listen to them all and gain from your insight.

Also, I think you continue to reach when you connect Metaxas --> Truth for a New Gen --> FBC Spartanburg --> Gowdy --> Billy Graham. FBC Spartanburg simply hosted the TNG conference in 2014. It also hosts other community events due to the seating capacity. Hosting should not be assumed as endorsement. FBC does not endorse everything Mataxas puts out there, and by proxy Gowdy & Graham. He is certainly not the "darling" of FBC and should not be characterized that way.

Grace and Peace

8:57 AM  

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