I have been a Southern Baptist pastor for fifty years. During that time I have had to struggle with the way the issues of race and gender were handled. Yet I sensed in many of our leaders an effort to right these wrongs. Then in 1982 our Southern Baptist Convention was hi-jacked by the fundamentalists led by Jerry Falwell. There was not only a move to the extreme right theologically but also politically. I witnessed our churches and pastors rewrite our own Baptist History. More and more we became churches of exclusion. The gains made in race relations and gender equality slid backward rather quickly. Once more the most segregated place on the planet was and is Sunday at a Southern Baptist Church. Although the Convention elected an African American as the President of the SBC the comments of local pastors is disquieting. Women in some counties are not allowed to speak from the pulpit, wear dress slacks or hold any position of authority. Foreign missionaries were expected to sign statements about women and ordination and the inerrant Scriptures. These are Old Testament Churches not New Testament followers of Christ. Some sought to purge our seminaries of "liberal" professors. The war was on with the "liberals", not just to win, but to destroy. More and more of our leaders were engaged in the politics of our nation wanting to insist our standard and Biblical morality become law of the land. The blatant lies concerning the President are outrageous. Any issue that could be, would be twisted and used for the convenience of conservative politicians. For instance, the lie that God has been removed from our public schools. This lie has raised the fundamentals a lot of money. The truth is that any student can pray almost anytime. Pray while walking to class. Pray before eating lunch. Pray while taking an exam. Although prayer without study may be problematic. What cannot be done is for a teacher or administrator lead in a required prayer. Students who are not christian are not to be made to listen to the prayer of a teacher or anyone else. I personally know teachers who quietly pray for students and their safety. Nothing wrong with that is there? People are not allowed in our schools to coerce students to receive any religious literature or listen to religious prayers or sermons, unless EVERY RELIGIOUS group is allowed the same right. If I hand out my material as a Baptist, the church of Satan has the right to hand out theirs. If parents want to have their children indoctrinated in a particular religion they should send their child(ren) to that kind of religious institution. You may consider praying with your children at home and teaching them your values. Public schools are to educate our children not to teach religion. That is the task of the parent and church of the parent's choice. This SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE was espoused by and fought for by Baptist with our founding fathers. Baptist, because of their persecution by the fundamentalists of pre-constitution America saw the great need for this high, and wide wall of separation of Church and State. Seeing the history of Church controlled states and the rivers of blood from the Inquisitions and persecutions, the founding fathers agreed. Separation of Church and State was a gift brought to our nation in the blood and persecution of early Baptist. (See Baptist History and Heritage website) We that were persecuted are now persecuting others that do not believe as we do. THIS COUNTRY WAS NOT FOUNDED ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. The Separatist that escaped the persecution of the Church of England came here and set up their own religious persecution. Baptist broke from them, (see life of Roger Williams) and were the ones to call for Religious liberty FOR ALL. Now we are betraying that heritage. The fundamentalists and vast majority of "conservative" churches in America are the apostate churches of this age. They are the Pharisees of this generation and white washed sepulchers. They have fallen from the gospel of grace and redemption and have joined unholy political alliances for power and money. They believe that they have the right to vote on others who were born in this United States under the same constitution as they are not entitled to the same rights and laws. These folks think they have the right to vote on matters of whom people marry or if some should not be allowed to vote. Can you imagine that a person living in this great, free country actually think they should vote on someone's idea of love and the pursuit of happiness? Now these moralist believe that they have a right to define pursuit of happiness. The god of these people is a fraud or He does not exist. He is made of their image. He has been formed from their hatred and prejudices, and self righteousness. As a poet wrote, "Don't worry about what they do on Sunday, they will be all right on Monday, Sunday is just a little game they love to play".
Now let me be clear. It is your right to be a bigoted, self righteous, homophobic, woman hater and a deacon or elder of that kind of church. Your church has the right to deny anyone the right of membership based on any criteria you wish to adopt. Like a pastor in my county said to a black couple who entered his church "Your kind have a church just a mile down the road, you need to go there, you are out of place here" But!! You do not have the right to demand that the public schools teach your bigotry and religion to my children or any other children who attend that school. You do not have the right to demand that I believe like you and pass laws that force me to live as you. Remember I am just offended by you as you are by me, so the constitution gave us both the freedom of speech and of religion. I know you think you are right. So does the witch doctors the members of the occult, the Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus. I have the right of free speech to testify of my belief. Everyone has the right to say no to me and to God, without consequences from me, you or the Government. They do not have the right to persecute you and your children and you do not have the right to persecute them or their children. I do not think I ask much of you. Just honor my rights as I honor yours and let us both live by the Constitution of the United States of America.
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