I had brief sightings and chats with President Carter over the years, the most recent in his Sunday school class about seven years ago. I asked him about Judge Frank Johnson, the great Lincoln Republican of Alabama. I like to think my Grandfather Jordan born in 1881 had things in common with Frank Johnson. Carter said Johnson was the greatest American of his life time 

    Carter was a great American. Even Marshall Frady came around to saying as much after taking his measure in the seventies in Life magazine.

     I first saw Carter in 74 at Furman. Earlier he had lunch with Furman Chaplain Jim Pitts and Furman legend  Martin England, a friend of Martln Luther King. That was on the occasion of SC SBC presenting their Civic leader of the year award to him. Just the three of them in Charleston SC before Carter announced for President.

   My friend at Dartmouth Randall Balmer wrote the political history of Carter and was present June 2 2017 when researching the book. Adrian Rogers, Jesse Helms and Paul Pressler are the bad boys in that story.

      I talked to Carter in Americus 2012 or so during a convocation there. Told him about Baxter Wynn as nephew of Lester Maddox. He may have already known.

   Remarkable life and remarkable man kind of Baptist of my Dad's generation chocked full of integrity and moving forward for the times.

2024 in Review

     This past year was pretty much like 2023. I think my Bama neighbor Carl hood died and the Myers boys the year before. I read some books ending in a flurry with Night Flyer about Hillary Clinto heroine Harriet Tubman.  The Review in the New Yorker was grand. Off the Rim by Fred Hobson about early sixties NC Basketball, Curtis Freeman Pilgrim Journey on the essence of the Christian Faith, and the Barn about Emmett Till

     You could almost imagine Collinsville's The Shed in the Tribe Motif developed in the Barn. Carl was pretty much a charter member. His cows got out in some tense negotiations with the sale of Uncle Bill's 120 acres. He even refused to open a certified letter my sister sent him as she and my cousin Anne were the negotiators on the sale. I told the story to Mike MackPheerson and Jeff Graves. Mack Pheerson was almost cramping beating his steering wheel and crying at the hysteria of my predicament.

     He and my neighbor Dillard Wilson a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge had an incident about fifteen years ago but we all lived likely to die of natural causes, them gone and my exit possible within seven years.

     Maybe more later but good teaser for now. Three of his cows were electrocuted when a bolt bit  a big oak tree in the pasture in his back yard. Got a lot of views on social media

     The Myers boys were key leaders in Collinsville Baptist Church and education. Jackie an elementary school principal and Donnie a consummate Rook player a former assistant to the Supe of Dekalb Schools. His daughter brother in law in Superintended for Public schools of the state of Alabama.

     Other things happened I will report soon include the rise of Calvinism in the church my Mother was baptized, and the reelection of the Mother Fudd Rucking SOB Donald Trump. See Baptist News Global weekly on what a disaster he is including the scorching report up today about Nikki Haley's Turning Point USA Ralley in Phoenix two days ago. I made a post at Furman University Facebook about it

Marney's Myers Park fires Pastor Boswell for preaching prophetically about Trump

 

   Reports deacon chair Marcy McClanahan is key in this disappointing story of one of the most Clear Headed Churches in the Baptist Tradition where Marney was great in the sixties, Myers Park in Charlotte letting their pastor go in short notice after a beautiful sermon a few weeks ago on how to do church in these Days of the Bastard Donald Trump.

     Baptist News global has a story up and their have been reports in the Charlotte Observer. The MPark facebook page is on fire.

     Coincidentally when I saw the news Friday I had just been rereading the John Carey book on Marney from 1980 with the Introduction by Samuel Hill. Marney was a boundary person one of a handful of that era that included the world of Will Campbell and several people from Furman. Two of those LD Johnson and Theron Price had been classmates of Marney at Southern Seminary.

     More later as lot of drama and opinions to come in short order.