The BM grunts out steaming pile of journalism

Sally Kern drafts a proclamation which looks official, uses the tone and style of official legislative resolutions, and then hostesses a massive public ceremony in the heart of the legislative building, at which she invited fellow lawmakers to sign on to her theocratic agenda. Sally did everything possible to create the impression of official imprimatur, without actually going through the process to sponsor an official resolution, as she very well could have done.

Leave it to the Baptist Messenger to top Kern's (relatively subtle) attempts at melding church and state via public relations sleight-of-hand, by photoshopping official state seals and signatures onto the bottom of the document. One wonders whether the phrase "bearing false witness" ought to have any bearing on the journalistic ethics of a denominational organ.

Ah, well. I ought to have known not to expect better from the theocratic camp which inspired such efforts as Liars for Jesus, a book which I heartily recommend.

Shocking Doctrine from "Mainstream" Baptists

My friend Bruce Prescott is a comrade-in-arms for whom I've great respect and from whom I've learned much over the years. I enjoy his blog and usually tune in to his radio show. However, a recent post entitled Shock Doctrine and the SBC has a few points with which I beg to differ. I’m not going to comment on Naomi Klein's book (seeing as Tyler Cowen has already published the definitive takedown) but rather on Bruce’s post itself.

First off, if you want to dress down the neo-liberal free-marketeers, Chile is not your best bet. From Wikipedia’s list of countries by GDP per capita :

Note that the only other bright-green spot on the entire continent is actually a region of France (Guyane) and thus heavily subsidized by the EU. Evidently, Chicago school thinking has not exactly chilled Chile’s economic growth and prosperity, which would explain why other South American countries are queuing up for a taste of free markets and the good life.

Secondly, this comment is too much of a gem not to lampoon:

Fundamentalism has been as disastrous to Baptist life as Friedman's economics has been to capitalism.

Replace "disastrous" with "essential" and I would heartily agree. Friedman's economics are essentially capitalism, just as Baptist life has now become fundamentalism in both theory and practice. As much as I would like Bruce's approach to theology and ethics to be mainstream among Baptists, this ceased to be the case well before Naomi Klein graduated secondary school.

Missionary Baptists

Usually we get evangelists from culturally marginal religious movements at our door - Baha'i, Mormons, JW's etc. but today we got Baptists. No kidding, an entire family of remarkably outgoing door-to-door Baptists, right here in Edmond, spreading a gospel message that most everyone around here has heard many times over by the time they've reached the "age of accountability" - whatever that might be.

Naturally, I invited them in for a cool drink and a few hours of theological talk and debate. Turns out they are a fair bit more hardcore (at least dogmatically) than any Baptists I've met in real life. I've heard much online from the KJV-only folks but I certainly never expected them to alight upon my doorstep, kids in tow.

While no one managed to win anyone over (of course) I tip my hat to those who take their spiritual beliefs seriously enough put them into action by sallying forth and engaging total strangers in difficult questions of faith. Certainly this is not something that we agnostics and freethinkers are likely to attempt, except perhaps as a spoof.

They really seem like nice folks, though. I'd bet they would make decent unbelievers. We really should invite them out for pizza and blasphemy sometime.


Photo credit:
Thomas Hawk