Being mad makes me mad

I hate being mad, so it's a good thing that I don't have a short fuse and don't get my feelings hurt easily. In general, I'm more laid-back than high-strung, so while I'm in touch with angry feelings when they arise, I don't dwell on them -- usually.

Yesterday, however, two things really got into my craw.

The first was a credit card bill. We've been doing lots of home maintenance lately, and the cost added up to several thousand dollars. I could have taken money from savings to pay for it, but when a "0% interest" offer arrived from an Amazon.com credit card I never use, I decided to take advantage of it for six months of no interest payments.

I'm usually pretty savvy about such things and rarely get burned, though I know the credit card companies use such teaser rates because they know most people won't pay the balance before the typically exorbitant interest rate kicks in. I make notes and generally avoid that.

When my first bill arrived, however, I discovered that Chase Bank, which operates under the guise of Amazon.com and many other branded credit cards, had added a full $285 in "transaction fees" to my balance -- effectively charging a high rate of interest in advance and making the "0%" claim an absolute sham, nothing more than a big honking lie in bold print.

After scouring the original offer, I eventually found information about the transaction fee. As you might guess, it was printed in such a tiny font that it was barely readable.

That made me mad. I called, complained, and asked for the deceptive fees to be removed, but got no satisfaction, other than that letting the company know they would get no more business from me -- and knowing I could warn any readers to beware deceptive claims.

While I can afford to pay the ridiculous fee and clear the account before the six months is up, I know that is precisely how credit card companies entice many other people into taking out loans they cannot afford to pay, contributing to mountains of debt that can become overwhelming. That makes me mad.

The second thing that got my goat was not a financial issue, but a theological-social-cultural one: I learned that a professor from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, while preaching in a Texas church, said wife-abuse sometimes results from a woman's unwillingness to submit to her husband's "God-given authority" over her. You can read about it here in Bob Allen's report at EthicsDaily.com ... I won't go into the stomach-turning details.

The professor's pompous position is really nothing new, as it builds on the SBC's "Baptist Faith and Message" statement that was amended in 1998 to assert that wives should be submissive to their husbands, claiming divine sanction for such a practice.

Fundamentalists moan that Christians have fallen prey to cultural shifts that have promoted women's rights and allowed women to think they might be qualified to stand on an equal footing in their marriages, their workplace, or even the pulpit.

They do so, however, on the basis of biblical texts that are clearly products of their own culture. The same biblical texts that talk about submissive women also speak often of human slavery but offer no words of condemnation. For modern interpreters to claim that slavery was a cultural anomaly but male domination is an eternal principle is nothing more than bad hermeneutics fueled by men who like being in charge and fear losing their power.

The professor did not put all the blame on non-submissive women for abuse they might receive -- he admitted that men are sinners, too -- but promoting a theology that tells men they should expect their wives to be submissive is just priming the pump for domestic violence.

And that makes me mad.

I suspect I'm not the only one.

By their fruits

I'm a big fan of summer, mainly because it's the season of fresh fruit. In these days of truck farms, long-haul transport, and supermarkets, you can buy most any fruit year round, but there's something special about local fruits in their proper season.

Peaches, for instance. Our summer treks to visit family in Georgia inevitably take us through McBee, South Carolina, where we stop -- both going and coming -- at McLeod Farms, whose huge orchards are the source of "Mac's Pride" peaches. We discovered that if you bypass the high-priced fruit stand by the road and drive on back to the packing shed, you can buy fresh peaches by the half-bushel box at wholesale prices. I like to bring loads of them home and share them as well as eat them.

And berries: Samuel and I have picked buckets of blueberries and blackberries this summer. The blueberries came from a couple of bushes in my parents' back yard. The blackberries grow along the edge of a "sports field" (where no sports are played) that's a common area for our subdivision. Fortunately, either I'm the only one who realizes what they are, or the only one willing to pick up a few scratches and ticks in return for a bucket of finger-staining, lip-smacking berries.

Speaking of lip-smacking, one of the best things about fruit is that you can make cobblers and pies with it. Lately I've been experimenting with a relatively healthy version of blackberry cobbler (in my mind, at least), using whole wheat flour and Splenda in place of most of the sugar and white flour. It's a little chewier, but still good enough to put a grin on my face.

I'm anticipating other fruits: my fig tree looks really good this year, with a good crop of early figs that will ripen soon, and lots of smaller figs that will ripen in late summer. Few things are better than a fig straight from the tree -- you can ask Jesus about that: the gospels suggest he was often quite disappointed when he looked for fruit on a fig tree and found none.

Even my carefully tended tomatoes are technically fruits. And, unlike the hothouse variety you can buy year-round, they have both texture and flavor. Some of them are even shaping up to be one-slice sandwich sized. Just the anticipation makes me smile.

You don't have to look far in the Bible to find references to fruit: fruit is created in Genesis 1, and is featured both literally and metaphorically throughout. Psalm 1 reminds us that the wise will be like trees planted by water that produce their fruit in season. Jesus called for fruits of repentance (Mat. 3:8), and Paul memorably described the "fruits of the Spirit" as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23).

You can't make cobbler from those, but you can make a fine life.

Who's telling news from CBF

I confess to being disappointed about something during the the recent Cooperative Baptist Fellowship meeting in Memphis. During my almost nine years as editor of the Biblical Recorder, I enjoyed the camaraderie with other state paper editors, and looked forward to touching base with them at various meetings during the year.

Most of the editors attended the annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting, as one might expect. There was generally a smaller number at CBF's annual General Assembly, but I could usually count on visiting with three or four other editors who recognized that many of their readers supported CBF -- or at least wanted to be informed about it.

Times change.

At this year's meeting in Memphis, Baptists Today had four staff members on hand. Associated Baptist Press was well represented, as was Ethics Daily. Even the SBC's Baptist Press sent two reporters to uncover whatever angles could best be exploited to criticize the meeting.

All the state Baptist papers together, however, had a total representation of just two. The editor of the Baptist Standard of Texas was there, and the managing editor of Virginia's Religious Herald.

That's it, so far as I know.

Maybe others planned to attend, but were providentially hindered. Maybe others would personally have liked to attend, but were administratively hindered by directors who have decreed that there be no CBF coverage in their papers, or only the kind of critical articles they can get from Baptist Press. Maybe some stayed home because they have tight budgets and scarce travel funds this year.

Maybe next year's meeting in Houston will see more state paper editors than Baptist Press reporters.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

Times change.

Sights and sites from CBF Memphis

Here are a few images from the second day of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship meeting in Memphis, along with a couple of local points of interest.

In a business session Friday morning, participants unanimously approved a $16.5 million budget and new officers. An "offering" of surveys compiled during two periods of "prayer and discernment" were brought forward. During the evening service, an "offering of letters" encouraging the U.S. Congress to increase funding for global economic development efforts was also received.

During a missions-oriented worship time on Friday evening, a choir of Karen (ka-RIN) people, refugees from Burma, sang as representatives from Crescent Hill Baptist Church in Louisville spoke of how they had welcomed and come to love about 140 new Karen members.

Moderator Harriet Harrel of Fort Worth turned over the gavel to incoming moderator Jack Glasgow of Zebulon, N.C. (above). Hal Bass, a professor at Oachita Baptist University, was named moderator-elect.

CBF missions coordinator Rob Nash (left) acknowledged missions personnel as well as volunteers, and the service closed, as usual, with a service of communion.

The city of Memphis is a charming small city with nice parks along the Mississippi, a convenient trolley system, lots of restaurants, and the world's most overrated barbeque. Favorite sites include the ducks who hang out in the fountain of the Peabody Hotel, the Orpheum Theater, the Mud Island River Park, and any place where Elvis left a fingerprint.

Visitors should not miss spending a morning or afternoon (at least) in the National Civil Rights Museum, which is built around the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. The museum is very informative, almost to the point of being overwhelming. If you click on the picture at right to expand it, you can see a wreath outside room 306, where King was standing on the balcony when he was shot.

We found the people of Memphis -- with the notable exception of most trolley operators -- to be warm and courteous hosts, but once Elvis had left the building, it was time to go.

CBF attendees seek discernment (updated)

The number of registered participants is off from previous years, but the spirit was positive as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) members gathered in Memphis for the organization's General Assembly June 20-21.

Primary emphasis was given to a process of spiritual discernment as CBFers met twice in state or regional groups to pray and complete survey forms designed to provide input as leaders map out suggestions for CBF's future direction. Moderator Harriet Harral, a business consultant from Fort Worth, explained that the process is designed to help set priorities for the organization.

The discernment groups met both Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. CBF supporters who were not able to attend the General Assembly can also participate in the process by filling out the survey, which can be found at this link. The survey is supposed to be "live" from 10:00 a.m. June 21 until 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, June 24.

Moderator-elect Jack Glasgow (above left), of Zebulon, N.C., reported on ways CBF is cooperating with the United Nations and other bodies to achieve a series of "Millenium Development Goals." Glasgow said CBF has identified more than 100 ways in which the organization is already working toward the same goals, which are mainly designed to promote economic development and improved human rights.

Participants heard from coordinator Dan Vestal, who talked mainly about spiritual formation and the practice of discernment, and human rights proponent Lauran Bethell (right), who related case studies of women who have been rescued from human trafficking, and how churches can assist in reaching out to others. Chuck Poole, pastor of Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson, MS, led a series of theme interpretations on bridge building.

By Friday evening, 2,033 persons had registered for the event, down from the 2,498 who attended last year's meeting in Washington, D.C. Officials said they many CBF supporters had indicated that economic difficulties and the rising price of gas kept would limit their travel. The area also has a relatively small base of CBF supporters in easy driving distance, unlike cities like Atlanta and Charlotte, where CBF has posted record attendances. Some persons who usually attend the CBF annual meeting but have limited travel funds may have chosen to attend the New Baptist Covenant meeting in Atlanta Jan. 30-Feb. 1, which had a strong CBF representation.

Although the meeting was held in the far western reaches of Tennessee, near the borders of Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Missouri, the greatest number of registered participants came from North Carolina (261) and Texas (259). Tennessee had 229 representatives registered, followed by Georgia (217), Arkansas (148), Virginia (141), Missouri (117), and Kentucky (115). Alabama (83), Mississippi (86), and South Carolina (76) had similar numbers present. Florida registered 70 participants, and the Oklahoma/Kansas delegation counted 52. The West Region had 43 representatives, and Louisiana had 32. Thirty-two international representatives registered, along with 28 from the North Central region, 28 from the Mid Atlantic region, and 16 from the Northeast region.

Musical artists for the meeting included the African-flavored group Krystaal (above) and contemporary artist Bethany Dillon (left).

Participants approved a $16.5 million budget and a new slate of officers and committee members with no opposition or debate.

More news, observations, and pictures to come in a later post.

BWIM at 25

Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM) celebrated 25 years of fellowship and advocacy with a laid-back dinner meeting and concert June 19. An overflow crowd enjoyed down-home cooking and music by Kate Campbell at the eclectic Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis.

Leaders presented awards named for pioneer Addie Davis to two seminary students, and read biographical vignettes about early leaders in the movement, as well as present and (hopefully) future women who excel in the practice of ministry.

Historians Pam Durso and Eileen Campbell-Reed presented highlights of "A Twenty-Five-Year Retrospective of Baptist Women in Ministry," which they co-authored. Statistics from the report indicate that the number of Baptist women pastors or co-pastors has grown from 14 in the early 1980s to 113 in 2007 (75 solo pastors, 38 co-pastors). During the same period, the number of women ordained as ministers grew from 200 to 2,000.

To learn more, attend a workshop to be led by Durso and Campbell-Reed on Friday at 1:30 p.m., or download the report. A brief history of BWIM can also be found in the June issue of Baptists Today.

Memphis bites

Prior to this week, my experience in Memphis, Tenn. was limited to changing planes at the world's busiest cargo airport, which is home to FedEx as well as Northwest Airlines. But, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's annual General Assembly is meeting here June 20-21, providing the rich opportunity of visiting the city where the spirits of both Elvis and Martin Luther King remain strong, and the smell of barbeque sauce is around every corner.


The city helps visitors get around via a charming and efficient trolley system, but the drivers must be underpaid, because everyone we met was rude and short-tempered. Other hosts, thankfully, have been more helpful.

Beale Street, the Memphis version of New Orleans' French Quarter and Nashville's downtown honky tonk district, features blues, bars and barbeque joints with names like "Pig" and "Miss Polly's," where the motto is "Love, peace, and chicken grease." It's just a few blocks up from the Mississippi River, where bridges and barges share space with riverboats and city parks.

I've enjoyed the city so far. The trip won't be complete, however, until I've had a chance to do more than just smell the barbeque.

Fresh vegetables and renewed gratitude

We’re visiting with my parents for a few days while en route to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship meeting in Memphis June 18-20. That means, among other things, that we’re gorging ourselves on fresh vegetables from the garden – my father figures that being 80 years old is no excuse for avoiding hard work, especially if there is fresh corn at the end of it.

The corn hasn’t come in yet, especially since his first crop was mostly washed out and he had to replant, but it looks promising. The broccoli and cabbage have already come and gone. Yellow squash and zucchini are abundant, and the green beans are just starting to come in – we had some of those with newly dug red potatoes. The bell and banana peppers are flourishing; the okra and eggplant are on their way. The peas (our favorite) and butterbeans won’t produce for weeks yet, but with homegrown tomatoes getting ripe, I’ve hardly noticed.

The abundance of food we’re enjoying reminds me that others had a far less enjoyable Father’s Day meal. In the U.S. Midwest, thousands of people (and thousands of acres of cropland) are dealing with record flooding or brutal tornadoes. Mealtime doesn’t come automatically when the refrigerator is floating downstream or sitting out in the field.

That’s why relief units from various Baptist Men’s organizations have been following close behind the clouds, offering the straightforward love of Christ and a positive witness untainted by politics or power struggles.

Volunteer units from several states are mentioned in this article. I’m most familiar with the folks who from North Carolina, who have been feeding and caring for firefighters in eastern North Carolina for more than a week, and whose massive “Manna One” feeding unit was sent to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where volunteers can prepare and serve up to 40,000 meals per day.

Then, lest we forget, millions of people on the other side of the world still suffer in the aftermath of the earthquakes, typhoons, and tyranny. China appears to be offering or allowing adequate aid to its many earthquake victims, but officials in Burma/Myanmar remain very resistant to outside aid workers, and have been forcing refugees to return to their devastated villages without adequate food or shelter.

In Zimbabwe, illegitimate president Robert Mugabe’s thugs continue to exploit the famine for which he is personally responsible, manipulating foreign aid to curry favor with supporters, leaving thousands to starve, and continuing to arrest those likely to vote against him in an upcoming runoff election.

Squash and tomatoes that are freely harvested and peacefully eaten may seem simple fare, but they symbolize incredible blessings.

I’m pausing, during a few days of vacation with the home folks, to be thankful -- and to remember those who find themselves crying for relief.

Credit where credit isn't due?

It came as no great surprise that Georgia pastor Johnny Hunt was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention this week. Hunt had been favored as the anointed one two years ago, but declined to run, inadvertently opening the door for non-establishment candidate Frank Page to take the top spot.

Hunt, a successful evangelist, popular preacher, and senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., agreed to put his name in the pot this year, and brought the office home to the tightly knit party that led the conservative insurgence that captured leadership of the SBC more than two decades ago.

What many people don't know about Hunt -- who goes by "Dr." Johnny Hunt and is regularly introduced as such -- is that his two "doctorate degrees" both appear to be honorary tokens from diploma mills that are not accredited by any respected accrediting organization.

I first became aware of Hunt's tie to the sketchy schools and noted it in August 2006 when Steven Flockhart, a protege of Hunt's, was forced to resign his Florida church when it was discovered that he had fudged on his resume. While Flockhart claimed degrees from two rather legitimate schools, his "credentials" actually came from Covington Theological Seminary, which operates out of Ft. Oglethorpe, Ga. The school confirmed to the the Palm Beach Post that it awarded bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees to Flockhart in 2003, 2004, and 2005.

Do you know any legitimate school where you can earn degrees so quickly, including a "doctoral" program that apparently took just one year?

It turns out that the church had not done due diligence in researching "Dr." Flockhart's background (which included other skeletons that are beside the point at the moment). Apparently, the church had given undue consideration to the strong endorsement given to Flockhart by "Dr." Hunt himself, whose credentials include an honorary "Doctor of Divinity" from Immanuel Baptist Theological Seminary of Sharpsburg, Georgia, and also a "Doctor of Sacred Laws and Letters" from Covington Theological Seminary, Flockhart's online alma mater.

Do you think an honorary degree from a marginal school provides an adequate credential to call someone "Dr."? Do you think it is honest or ethical to accept the title when it carries so little academic weight? Do you think it is appropriate to thus give tacit credibility to unaccredited schools?

To his credit (I guess), on his personal website where he sells sermons and books, Hunt (a North Carolina native) lists only degrees from Gardner-Webb University and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (though he still posts a picture with pre-gray hair). His biographical sketch on sermonsearch.com, however, lists both of the "doctorates," and both regularly appear in the program bio attributed to him at frequent speaking engagements, as pointed out by Robert Parham at EthicsDaily.com. Whether Hunt is responsible for sending out biographical information that lists those degrees, he has apparently done nothing to discourage its use.

There is no question that Hunt is a gifted preacher, for those who like his style of preaching, and an effective evangelist. He has successfully grown First Baptist Church of Woodstock from medium to mega-sized. He has been a faithful soldier in the conservative movement. He has more than enough credentials to be a leader among today's Southern Baptists without claiming dubious doctorates.

As Southeastern Seminary president Danny Akin warned in a column for Baptist Press following the Flockhart fiasco, pastors who seek to be above reproach don't pad their resumes.

Integrity matters -- especially at the top.


[Disclaimer: in the interest of disclosure, the author spent more than five years earning his Ph.D. at Duke University (completed 1989), and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Campbell University in 2005. He may rightly be considered a bit of a purist on the subject, but still doesn't expect to be called "Dr."]

Baptist Men assist firefighters

A gargantuan wildfire that has gobbled 40,000 acres of eastern North Carolina's Pocosin Lakes Wildlife Refuge, threatening wildlife like these turtles and sending smoke as far west as Burlington, has also attracted hundreds of firefighters and other support personnel.

Firefighters have to eat, drink, shower, sleep, and wash their clothes. Given the extreme heat that North Carolina has experienced for the past week, they need all the help they can get.

Enter North Carolina Baptist Men volunteers, who have answered a call from N.C. Emergency Management by setting up three shower units, three sleeper units, a laundry unit, a command unit, three generator units, a water tanker unit, and a feeding team.

The feeding team has set up shop in the Mattamuskeet School kitchen, serving its first meals as early as this past Sunday, according to NCMB executive director Richard Brunson.

Brunson reports that, in addition to providing the equipment, a number of NCBM volunteers are assisting with the effort. In addition to kitchen volunteers, several persons are needed to maintain each unit, keep the shower units clean and stocked, wash and dry laundry, and so forth.

The fire, described as the largest current wildfire in the country, is reportedly about 40 percent contained. Because large parts of the area are covered with deep layers of decayed vegetation, officials say the fire could smolder for months.

(Photo taken March 2007 near Columbia, on the northern border of the refuge.)

SBC: back to basics

The Southern Baptist Convention is meeting in Indianapolis this week. Thus far, the convention has been marked by low attendance, an establishment victory for president, and a bushel basket of diverse motions from the floor.

I'm not attending the SBC meeting this year, and owe all of what I know to web-based news accounts, the most welcome of which is a running blog by Marv Knox, editor of the Texas Baptist Standard.

When six candidates announced that they would run for president this year, some wondered if the SBC might be becoming more diverse. Hardly ... few of the candidates were well-known, and had little chance. N.C. pastor Les Puryear received only 188 votes, and perennial gadfly Wiley Drake garnered just 45. Establishment favorite Johnny Hunt, a pastor from Woodstock, Ga., won on the first ballot, taking 53 percent of the vote.

Hunt's 3,100 votes came from a total of just 5,856 ballots cast for president. At the time of the election, according to Baptist Press, there were 7,196 registered messengers, a number than will rise a little, but not much.

Last year's meeting in San Antonio drew 8,618 messengers, and the last meeting in Indianapolis (2004) attracted 8,600. Meetings in 2005 (Nashville) and 2006 (Greensboro) saw about 11,600 messengers. All are a far cry from messenger totals of the past.

Motions presented from the floor are always interesting, though most are typically referred to a committee or ruled out of order. This year, motions to amend the constitution to disallow "churches which have female senior pastors" and to dis-fellowship Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth (which welcomes homosexuals) were referred to the Executive Committee.

Motions to disallow presidents of SBC agencies from serving as president of the SBC, to reconsider membership in the Baptist World Alliance also landed in the Executive Committee's lap. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Al Mohler had been a leading contender for president this year before pulling out of the race due to an illness. The SBC withdrew from the BWA in 2004, claiming the organization was too liberal.

Seminary and trustee accountability were also on the list. A motion to devise a standardized form for SBC seminaries to report enrollment data was referred to the Executive Committee, as was a recommendation that the rules be changed so that all prospective SBC trustees
“give evidence of having received Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior,” hold membership in a church that supports the SBC Cooperative Program unified budget, be in good standing with a local church, abstain from using alcoholic beverages and recreational drugs, and “support all the principles” in the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message (BF&M) doctrinal statement.

Another motion called for translations of the BF&M into the five most dominant languages in the Convention. That motion was referred to LifeWay Christian Resources, which publishes the document. LifeWay was also the target of a motion from an apparent fan of the King James Bible. Messenger Eric Williams of Belle Rive, Ill., moved that program personalities at SBC annual meetings be forbidden from reading from or citing LifeWay's Holman Christian Standard Bible “or any translation that questions the validity of any Scripture or verse” during any official convention meeting or in any SBC literature. The HCSB, like virtually all modern Bibles, includes a note indicating that Mark 16:9-20 is not included in many ancient manuscripts. The motion was ruled out of order on the grounds that messengers cannot tell Convention boards what to do.

And so it goes. To keep up with developments at today's session, check out "Marv's unnamed blog" for updates.

Shameless commerce

I enjoy listening to the "Car Talk" guys on public radio, even their occasional references to their online store of over-priced merchandise, which they call the "shameless commerce" division.

Today I offer my own poor attempt at shameless commerce to mention that my most recent book arrived at the publisher's warehouse a week or two ago. It's now available for sale, and not even over-priced.

The book is called Telling Stories: Tall Tales and Deep Truths. It's an eclectic collection of original short stories, mostly, that I've written through the years with a biblical text in mind. Each chapter begins with a (hopefully) engaging story that segues, one way or another, into a reflection on the text.

In a sense, it's my take on "narrative preaching," which can describe a variety of preaching styles, all of which involve storytelling. I can't say it's the best preaching I've ever done, but through the years, I've had more requests for copies of story-based homilies like these than for more traditional sermons.

The stories include various genres, from tales that could have happened to fantasy forays into the worlds of elves and dwarves and dragons. One takes the poetic shape of a Dr. Seuss book, and two offer scripts for really unusual Christmas plays. Other stories give voices to eagles, bunnies, and ordinarily inanimate objects -- like Peter's fishing boat or the water jar carried by the "woman at the well."

One of my favorite stories happens to be true -- an account of how my second cousin Rae came to acquire (and enjoy) a reputation as a country voodoo woman. Hers was a story begging to be told, and it finally gave me a workable way to develop a reflection on the so-called "witch of Endor," who reportedly brought up the ghost of Samuel for a beleaguered Saul.

Smyth & Helwys will have the book in Memphis during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship meeting, and they're always available online. If you buy the book but later decide it's a shameful waste of paper, just send your dog-eared copy to me and I'll be glad to personally refund your money.

Then I'll probably write a story about you, and relate it to the farmer who looks back from the plow.

It's about time -- to change

An organized group of Southern Baptists including a strong contingent from North Carolina is calling on the International Mission Board to reverse restrictive policies enacted more than two-and-a-half years ago.

The policies, which reject applicants who practice a "private prayer language" and who were not baptized in an acceptable Baptist church, caused considerable controversy at the time they were proposed.

The "prayer language" restriction would disqualify even IMB president Jerry Rankin. The Landmarkist Baptist requirement has eliminated dozens of potential missionaries from consideration.

At the time the restrictions were approved, Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson, then a trustee of the Board, spoke openly against the new policies. He was harshly reprimanded by fellow IMB trustees, and eventually resigned because he could not abide by additional restrictions and hush rules they placed on him. Few of those who are not challenging the IMB spoke up for Burleson at the time.

Now, however, they have created a website called "Time to Change," and posted a carefully reasoned argument that clearly and appropriately points out that the restrictions are extra-biblical and go well beyond the SBC's Baptist Faith and Message statement, which many would argue is already both extra-biblical and extra-Baptist.

Five of the first eight signatories are from North Carolina, including Allan Blume, president of the Baptist State Convention (BSC) Board of Directors, Pam Blume and Paul Brown, both former IMB trustees, pastor Michael Barrett of Pleasant Garden, and staff pastor Conley J. Bordeaux, Jr. of Fayetteville.

Initial signers also include former IMB trustee Steve Hardy of Winston-Salem, and pastors J. D. Greear and Chris Hilliard. The growing number of other Tar Heel Baptists who have signed the list since its June 2 posting include former BSC presidents Greg Mathis and David Horton, and former IMB trustees Gary Burden and Karen Gilbert, along with a a number of other pastors and lay members. The full list, which includes some present and former IMB missionaries, can be found here, where others are encouraged to sign on.

Those who have signed the list tend to be strong supporters of missions and of the IMB -- they just recognize that IMB trustees have gone way beyond the bounds of Baptistness in approving the restrictive policies.

I'm delighted that these folks have decided to speak out on the subject.

I wish more of them had spoken up when the policies were still a matter of debate, and when Wade Burleson was being hung out to dry for saying precisely the same things.

Spiritual energy low?

If your spiritual energy level is feeling low lately, the Mars Rover appropriately named "Spirit" could have a clue for you. It's also experiencing its lowest energy levels ever, and there's no question about why ... the rover's solar panels have become encrusted with layers of crud from Mars' frequent dust storms (see top photo).

As a result, only two-thirds of the sun's energy is blocked off from the cells, leaving the sturdy craft unable to generate enough power to send back all the data it's collecting and saving.

The rover, controllers say, is badly in need of a good burst of wind to clean the dust away so the solar cells can absorb the energy they need.

The application needs no elaboration: when worldly matters come between us and God's Spirit, a fresh gust of repentance and spiritual housekeeping is always in order.

[High resolution versions of the above images can be found on this page at the Mars Rover site.]

A BT Bonus

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 churches are counted as members of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSC). The level of commitment to the BSC varies among the churches and shifts with the changing currents of BSC life.

Though some move along on the shoulders of inertia and never pause to think about the relationship, others pay closer attention. And, as the BSC has taken an ever-sharper turn to the right, many churches have begun establishing denominational relations committees or assigning to their deacons the task of becoming more informed and helping church members to make decisions that appropriately reflect the relative positions of the church and the convention.

As a service to the churches, Baptists Today is making available a file that combines a series of three articles on "The Changing Face of the Baptist State Convention." The articles initially appeared in the March, April, and May 2008 issues. In their combined form, they may be freely downloaded, duplicated, and distributed to committee or church members who are interested.

The purpose of the articles is not to encourage churches to leave or to distance themselves from the Convention. As they learn more about where the BSC has come from and where it appears to be headed, some moderate Baptists will certainly feel less at home than before. On the other hand, more conservative churches, on reading the same information, may shout "Hallelujah!" and choose to raise their level of giving to the BSC.

Our job is to inform, and here are various ways to get the information:
1. Go to www.baptiststoday.org and click on "The Changing Face of the BSC" link, just above the box where the Baptists Today blog appears.
2. Click this link and go directly to the same download.
3. The articles are also posted on the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina website, and can be downloaded from this link.

The articles cover the period from 1980 through April 2008. Things continue to change rapidly, however, as one can see from a recent article in the Biblical Recorder, and this related blog. A more comprehensive column on developing changes will appear in the July issue of Baptists Today.

We believe that a more informed Baptist is a better Baptist, and remain committed to providing the kind of information that good Baptists need, not just in North Carolina, but across the Baptist world.