Baptists and Religious Liberty

I gave a speech at my University on Thursday entitled: Baptists, Religious Liberty and The Founding at our Constitution Day event. The gist (and when I polish the written text I'll post it here -- and there may be video!) was a brief point of Baptistic thought and how that translated into political action concerning religious liberty -- especially as Americans view it. I also highlighted three forces namely: Roger Williams (a Baptist for probably 6 months, but we'll claim him), Isaac Backus -- a Baptist preacher from Massachusetts active from after the great Awakening to serving in the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention in 1788 voting to ratify the U.S. Constitution until his death in 1806. Backus was unknown to me before doing my research... a great man of God and he faced down John and Sam Adams in his day. The final man was Elder John Leland -- also a Massachusetts Baptist who moved to Virginia in 1776 and later saved James Madison's political bacon. He was friends with both Madison and Thomas Jefferson, was an acquaintance of both George Washington and Patrick Henry.

In today's secular world people view Baptists as fundamentalists and think that we would take away liberty. The ignorance of history is breathtaking. Secularists would not have half the liberty they have without Baptists (others too, but Baptists were the first to advocate total church-state separation -- which is different than faith-politics separation and wholly dangerous. Baptists were also instrumental in the disestablishment of all Christian churches in the colonies and later the U.S.

Anyway... I hope to present it later at a Colloquium and then polish it into an article. Stay tuned.

Some Wise Words Re Tony Romo

Mickey Spagnola adds some much needed logic to Dallas Cowboy fan nonsense about this being "do or die" season for Tony Romo.

Kudos to Spagnola. Romo needs support not slings and arrows. The guy is the quintessential American story... small school boy makes good by moxie, hard work, and some good fortune.

Fathers and Sons

Here is a great blog post by John Piper about Robert Louis Stevenson and his father and CS Lewis and his. Stevenson abandoned his faith to his Father's lasting sorrow (at least until he entered the Father's presence). Lewis abandoned his father's faith to famously reclaim it later -- to his father's ultimate joy.

Amazingly, both Stevenson’s and Lewis’s fathers kept on sending stipends to their sons through the years of rejection. In spite of words like, “I am simply incapable of cohabiting any house with my father” (Stevenson); and, “I really can’t face him” (Lewis), the fathers kept supporting their sons.

Six years after his father’s death, Lewis wrote to a friend to catch him up on the last decade: “My father is dead.... I have deep regrets about all my relations with my father (but thank God they were best at the end). I am going bald. I am a Christian.”

Perhaps sending money through the broken years was the right thing to do. Perhaps not. What it shows is not approval, nor that the sorrow had disappeared. Rather, it reveals a kind of bond between fathers and sons that is the foundation of pain, not its removal.

I pray my sons Zachary and Joshua remain close to me (and I to them) and become close to the Lord. They have a child's interest in Him, but not yet the knowledge.... I need to redouble my efforts and my prayers.

Jimmuh Carter in Inverse

Interesting post by John FN Wayne at my other digs....

Why They Fight

The above is the grave marker of my great uncle Jack (not short for anything) Walker from the Rome-Sicily Cemetery. He made it through Anzio Beach to die a few days later in October 1943 killed by a mortar. Why did he give "his last full measure"? Why would an East Texas born West Texas dirt farmer farm boy go to Italy to die for his country? He joined before being drafted and was in a Texas Battalion. Did he fight for liberty, autonomy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Probably on some meta-level. Did he fight for his buddies on the front lines? Probably when push came to shove he fought harder for them than for anyone else.

I never knew Uncle Jack obviously. He died before my grandparents even met. He died before my grandfather had become a tailgunner in a B-17. My grandfather and his brothers idolized Jack. They always talked about him. If my grandfather -- one of my heroes -- idolized Jack then he must've been one helluva guy.

Why did he fight? Why is a little bit of West Texas buried in Italy? All of the above reasons I am certain. I also like to think he fought for this reason too:


Part of this Memorial Day will be telling about Uncle Jack and Papa and my Uncle L.E. who fought in Saipan and my Uncle Leslie flying bombers during the Berlin Airlift.... They fought for my little Sabrina (and Joshua and Zachary) -- and they didn't even know....

Unapologetically Apologetic

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We don't often see defenders of Christ from this quarter.

Jesus Wants the Rose

This is a great summation of the essence of the grace of Christ.