Small Souls...

I am an American Baptist (ABC-USA). I pastor an American Indian American Baptist church. I haven't always been an ABC pastor. Once upon a time (for 35 years) I pastored Southern Baptist churches. Fundamentalism came along and ruined the denomination I loved. I resisted fundamentalism among Southern Baptists and spoke vocally against it. The results of my vocal dissent led the fundamentalists to exclude me. I was pushed out of my job as Director of Missions of the Grady Baptist Association in Oklahoma.

After a year of being out of active ministry, I became the pastor of a small ABC church in Watonga, Oklahoma. I am blessed to serve this church and have grown to dearly love the people I serve. God has richly blessed me and the church. This past June, I had occasion to attend my first national ABC convention, which is held biennially (the ABC-USA Biennial). I am at home among American Baptists churches because they are, as I am, moderate Baptists. The happiest years of my ministry have been the last two and a half.

I went to Denver in June knowing there was a movement that would attempt to change the denomination. I half expected to see a floor fight wherein the fundamentalists would raise a nasty fuss. That did not happen. There was some hall-talk that the fundamentalists might attempt to impose their views on the denomination. Been there and done that on far too many occasions.

For me the highlight of the biennial was the message given by the Dr. Roy Medley, General Secretary of the ABC-USA. His message was powerful and prophetic. He warned the denomination to resist the temptation to fracture and separate. The moderates wanted all ABC churches to continue to work together despite their differences. The fundamentalists did not feel they could work cooperatively with those who did not excommunicate churches that were welcoming and affirming. Homosexuality was the hot button issue.

In his plea to the denomination Dr. Medley said...

"We stand at a crossroads... In our world, the path of radical discipleship -- the path of radical love -- is the road less taken. We dare not choose another. We dare not choose the wrong road ... The road that leads to separation. That choice will certainly unite you with like-minded people but will give you small souls and make you comfortable Christians."

Small souls? Small souls! Today I learned that there is an entire region that is preparing to split from the denomination. They're doing this all because they could get their selfish ways at the Biennial. The region (ABCPSW - American Baptist Churches of the Pacific Southwest) is going to leave the denomination. Evidently, fundamentalism's powerful influence caused their souls to become so small that they cannot work with those who do not agree with or conform to their views.

My soul is sad to see these small souls leave the denomination. But fundamentalism does that to folks. I can't understand it. I can't understand how people can bow to the influences of fundamentalism. In my mind, fundamentalism is pure evil. Radical fundamentalism in anything fosters evil. Radical fundamentalism in religion always ends with legalists attempting to superimpose their wills upon others. Fundamentalism seeks to control. This is true in politics. It's true anywhere.

Small souls... A small number of small souls among Southern Baptists took over and ruined the entire denomination. The Southern Baptists of today are but a shell of their former self. They have isolated themselves from the rest of the world of Baptists. They are arrogant in their small souls. Now a small number of small souls in the ABC are leaving the denomination. That's sad. Perhaps it's better that they leave than transform the entire denomination into small souls as did the Southern Baptists...

9/11 Come 9/12...

When I woke up yesterday morning, it was 9/11. I read the newspaper. I went to my preaching point and delivered a soul-stirring sermon to 12 people. I gave the invitation and nobody responded (publicly anyway). I went home, logged on to the internet, and read several discussion forum messages. Then I switched to reading bloggers. All the while I was mindful that yesterday was the fourth anniversary of 9/11, and the first time this anniversary has occurred on a Sunday.

I thought about writing a blog about 9/11 but couldn’t think of anything original or intelligent to write. After reading the paper, listening to the news on TV & radio, and reading 41 Baptist bloggers, I didn’t find a thing new or enlightening that had been written or said about 9/11. It’s 9/12 and I still don’t have anything original or intelligent to write in memory of 9/11. I doubt that I’m capable of writing anything like that, but a few dumb thoughts do come to mind.

I am not encouraged by propensity of many to blame President Bush for the screw-ups in the aftermath of 9/11. Lo these four years and a day after the fact, many people are coming up with wild conspiracy theories about what happened on 9/11. I have friends who espouse conspiracy theories about 9/11. They are convinced that the President knew about 9/11 before it happened. They are convinced that the President and high officials in the White House are complicit in a cover-up operation about 9/11.

The problem I have with the conspiracy theories is that those pushing them are confusing propaganda with facts. I'm not convinced that propaganda and fact are synonymous. Allow me to offer a couple of examples of what I mean.

1) In the 40's, 50's & '60's there were legions of people who believed that flying saucers were real. Many of these same people gave so-called first-hand accounts about being abducted by space-aliens in these flying saucers. They wrote gobs of books declaring all of this stuff to be "fact." It was simply propaganda because people wanted to believe that flying saucers were fact. To my knowledge none of the flying saucer stuff has ever been proven to be fact.

2) In the 60's, 70's, & 80's, fundamentalists like W. A. Criswell, Paul Pressler, Paige Patterson, William Powell, and many others were spreading propaganda about the SBC seminaries being over-run with liberal professors. They also spread propaganda about the denomination drifting radically toward liberalism, calling it fact. We know now (as many of us knew back then) that this nonsense was only so much propaganda. There was no fact to the propaganda that the seminaries were riddled with liberalism, or that the denomination was drifting radically to the left.

In my honest opinion, the propaganda of the 9/11 conspiracy theorists bears striking resemblance to the two examples given above. If these conspiracy theories turn out to be true, I'll grovel and repent in sackcloth and ashes. Meanwhile, I'm considering them to be mere propaganda.

I want to ask my friends what they are going to do if the conspiracy theories turn out to be false? Or what if they never prove the propaganda to be fact? Also, what would they do if they turn out to be true? Nothing is going to change. Those who perishd on 9/11/01 will never be brought back to life. Those people are history. Furthermore, there's nothing they can do to Bush and his administration. He'll serve out his term and will fade into history just like all the other presidents of the past. Seems to me that the 9/11 conspiracy theorists are wasting time and energy on something that gains nothing for them.

The conspiracy theorists will go down in history just like the flying saucer believers. They will eventually be relegated to the fringe in history. In the end, they will be a flash-in-the-pan element in society just like the flying saucer people. That's my own personal opinion...

Pets or People???

I am hearing that thousands of people are refusing to leave New Orleans because they refuse to leave their pets behind. I'm also hearing that animal rescue people are tagging along behind people-rescuers with the intent of rescuing pets. I performed a Google search on pets rescue in the aftermath of Katrina. Lo & behold, I found a specialty company that is willing to contribute a whopping 20% of their earnings on rhinestone pet collars toward rescuing pets. Sure did... Here's the ad: (I'm not about to post the link because I think it's beyond ridiculous.)

Help Katrina Pets Purchase Rhinestone Collars 20%
We create custom crystal (australian crystals) dog collars for your pets. We will donate 20% of all sales this week to Katrina pets that were abandoned/lost/found/injured. Email for more information!

I'm a pet lover. There are three cats that live in our house, two of which are more than 10 years old. My daughter raises and shows high-dollar Australian Shepherds. There are probably few people who love pets more than I do. But one thing I know, pets are not in any way, shape, or form, members of the family. Not my family any way. They are pets, not human beings.

Which brings me to the point. Somewhere along the way, there are a lot of people who have some seriously misplaced priorities. The people who are willing to die for their pets aren't thinking straight. People who tag along behind people-rescuers just to save dying peoples' pets are seriously misguided. And people who take advantage of major catastrophes (like Hurricane Katrina) to sell rhinestone pet collars but are willing to give only 20% of the earnings to rescue animals are, in my opinion, idiots. In the scheme of things, when it comes to saving life, do pets qualify as being important as human beings? Is pet life equal to human life? These people who are so dedicated to saving pets ought to give their energies to save people, not pets. They ought to use their resources for saving human live, rather than pet life.

Call me hard-hearted, but I don't know of a single pet that ever lived that has a soul. None of the cats (Bennie, Kiki, & Girlfriend) that live in my house have souls. Not one of the fine dogs in my daughter's kennel has a soul. If I were caught in a catastrophe like Katrina, I would hope like crazy that people would rescue me first. When it comes to giving energy to save life, I want all that energy directed toward saving human life. Forget the pets. Concentrate on saving the people. When the people are all saved, then and only then, spend energy to save the pets.

Nazarene Baptist Church in Love County

In Love County, Oklahoma, there is a church that possesses the name of two denominations. The rural church is located on state highway 32, between Marietta and Ryan. How the church came to have such a name is beyond me. I've never seen a church sign with two denominations in the name. Since it's in Love County, perhaps a Baptist congregation and a Nazarene congregation loved one another enough to form one unified church... That's probably not the story, but I'd sure in heaven's name like to know the story...

Check out the photos by clicking here...

Big Hillbilly Nuts...

Believe it or not, Oklahoma lays claim to some of the world's largest items. Oklahoma claims to have the world's highest hill and the world's largest peanut.

The world's highest hill, (elevation 1,999 ft above sea level) is located just west of Poteau in LeFlore County. The world's largest peanut is located in Durant, one block east of the Bryan County Courthouse. No wonder outsiders call Oklahomans a bunch of hillbilly nuts...

For a view of these odd "biggest" items, click here...

Oklahoma County Courthouse Project...

One of my passions is Oklahoma history and geography. I have created a webpage that deals with various scenes from Oklahoma. I post thereunto photographs of Oklahoma county courthouses, Oklahoma town & city signs, town murals, and water towers. I know it's a crazy thing to do, but it occupies my time and I get to fulfill my passion.

I am most proud of my collection of Oklahoma county courthouse photographs. I have traveled slightly over 3,000 miles of Oklahoma roads & highways to collect these photographs of myself in front of 71 of the 77 Oklahoma county courthouses. I have them listed in two formats. One is an alphabetical list format. The other is a "click-on-the-county" format.

I offer a disclaimer that some of the photographs are less than desirable. I struggled with lighting and/or obstacles. Some of the courthouses are behind trees that prevented my capturing a decent photograph. Others were surrounded by buildings or were too close to other buildings, making it difficult to get a full frontal view of the courthouse. Some of the photographs were taken early in the morning or late in the evening, and I was forced to take photographs facing the sun. I'm not a professional photographer, thus these are by no means professional.

Beneath each photograph, I have included a thumbnail sketch of the location and history of the county. I copied information directly from George H. Shirk's handy little book, Oklahoma Name Places. Below are links that will take readers to my collection of county courthouse photos.

For those of you who might be interested in trivial stuff related to Oklahoma, I say enjoy. This is an ongoing project because I will continue to add information to my page...

Click-on-the-County View of Oklahoma County Courthouses

Alphabetical view of Oklahoma County Courthouses

In the Scheme of Things...

In the scheme of things, I'm a nobody. Yet I grieve as much as anybody who watches news about the greatest natural disaster to befall our country. I have watched enough of this tragedy on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox news to last three lifetimes. I have reached the saturation point of watching the tragedy unfold in living death colors. I have gotten to the point that I don't watch much of it any more. Call it a defense mechanism if you will, but I'm sick and tired of seeing the same scenes over and over and over and over again. I'm sick and tired of watching reporters try to figure out ways to put new twists on the same old samo...

In the scheme of things, I'm sick and tired of the bickering and blame game stuff. Everybody seems to be blaming the President for not taking charge. If they're not blaming the President, they're blaming the Mayor of New Orleans, the Governor of Louisana, FEMA, the National Guard, as well as various and sundry other political officials. The Liberal politicians are blaming the Conservatives. The Conservative politicians are blaming the Liberals. Everyone seems to be blaming someone else for being inept with his or her responses to the disaster...

In the scheme of things, if everyone would stop the childish blame game stuff and concentrate on working together to get through this disaster, we would all be a whole lot better off. I have no answer for the misbehavior of the looting mobs that roam the streets of New Orleans. I don't know what can be done about those evil people. But I do know that there has been far too much political blaming and the country is going to ultimately suffer for it...

In the scheme of things, I can't contribute much to alleviate all the pain and suffering. Yes I can pray for the well being of those who are suffering. I do that with a broken heart. I can pray for strength on the part of those who are helping. I do that with all my heart. I can pray for wisdom on the part of those who are leading. I do that with all my heart. I can generously contribute a measure of my small retirement resources toward helping the needy. And I do that with a glad heart...

In the scheme of things, my little church can't do much to help the suffering. We are a small struggling Native American church out in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma. But we're doing what we can. On the seventh day after Katrina hit New Orleans, I stood and preached to a congregation of ten people. I preached from the account where the small lad gave Jesus the five loaves and two fish (John 6:1-13). From that small contribution from an insignificant little boy, Jesus fed the 5,000 that were gathered there on the hillside. Believing that Jesus uses the small to make great, I asked the congregation to contribute something to help the suffering in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. I committed a week's salary from my church earnings. I challenged my people to contribute what they could. From the eleven people present in our sanctuary Sunday morning, Watonga Indian Baptist Church raised $175.00. We are going to send our contribution to the ABC-USA's One Great Hour of Sharing. In the scheme of things that's probably not even a nanosecond of a millisecond of the hour...

In the scheme of things, $175.00 isn't very much. It doesn't even represent a grain of sand on the vast seashore of all the money that has been/will be raised for this disaster. But for us (WIBC) that's a pretty significant offering, considering that we are basically poor people in the scheme of things. Our offering will never be noticed in the long run. But we have done something. And we did it from our hearts in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ..