Like father, like son?

Weekend mornings call for the slow and sometimes intermittent multi-tasking of razor and remote control. The shaving is slower and often later than on weekday mornings.
So is my channel surfing, which usually lands on news and home improvement shows.
Since confession is good for the soul, however, let me admit to some brief pauses to watch televangelists.
Lately, I have noticed that the torch of prominent, pioneer television preachers is being passed to the next generation — namely, their sons.
In general, a preacher's kid (or P.K.) can react to that unusual upbringing in a variety of ways ranging from strong church rebellion to following the ministry path of a parent. I guess the same is true of the better known TV pulpiteers of the recent past.
But there seems to be an strong emergence now of second-generation preachers who are sons of those who preach or have preached on the airwaves.
Some of it has to do simply with the passing of time. When Jerry Falwell died earlier this year, his son Jonathan took the reigns of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., as well as the responsibility for keeping Liberty University on the right doctrinal path.
His father's insurance policy that paid off the church and school's debt was thoughtful. A law school grad, Jonathan has a preaching style that is his own.
That's not the case with Robert A. Schuller, son of Robert H. Schuller who gained fame with "The Hour of Power" television service from the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif.
The younger Schuller's dark hair and younger face are the only differences it seems — as he d-r-a-w-s o-u-t his words in dad-like emphasis.
San Antonio fireball preacher John Hagee is giving some airtime to his son-associate Matthew. The stocky, strong-voiced young man resembles his father a great deal.
Donnie Swaggart shows some of the same Pentecostal fervor of his dad, Jimmy. However, he seems to leave the tear-stained piano work to his father who got some of the same gifts as cousins Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley.
Of course, the aging Oral Roberts passed his evangelical empire over to son, Richard. Things have not gone well with that arrangement lately.
Some other current TV preachers out pace their dads in televised exposure. Joel Osteen (overwhelmingly) and the younger Ed Young are examples.
What does all of this mean? I don't know. Just found the observation interesting.
Now back to the news or HGTV. I might need to know how to replace my gutters someday.

Lessons from loss

Yesterday, the day after Christmas, our 9-year-old daughter was overheard repeatedly saying her Nikon Coolpix camera was her favorite new gift.
Unlike in the costly days of film and development, she was free to shoot at will — and did. She even enjoyed the video option to capture her cats at play.
The camera was in her coat pocket when the two of us ran an errand and got a little lunch. When she closed the car door to head home, I heard a crushing sound and feared she was hurt.
Fortunately, she was not. But the camera in her coat pocket had been damaged beyond repair — after less than two days of enjoyment.
The cracked screen no longer allowed for the photographic images she had enjoyed preserving. It was frozen and useless.
Her sad, damp eyes nearly brought me to tears. The simple little accident had rendered the new camera useless.
My strong urge to "fix it" was hard to control. But there are lessons to be learned from losses.
We talked about sadness, the sense of unfairness she felt and the impossibility of going back in time and changing the outcome.
"Life is the art of drawing without an eraser," I read somewhere once.
I resisted rushing to the nearest store, elbowing my way past gift returners, finding a replacement camera and further abusing my well-used VISA card.
Back home, after extensive conversations about life, losses and lessons, I looked for a hopeful response. My daughter and I agreed that we'd each save our money until we could put enough together to buy a new camera.
It may take a little while. But I'm fully convinced the new camera will be appreciated and cared for even more than the first.
And the lessons on losses will last longer than any gift found under a Christmas tree.

Welcoming the Christ Child

Today marks the culmination of a dozen shopping sprees, a hundred hand-addressed greeting cards, a thousand hors d’oeuvres and sugar cookies, a million twinkling lights and our best efforts to prepare for the coming of the Christ Child.
Now we have made it. Let us receive him warmly. Let us worship Christ the Newborn King.

'Portion control'

The invasion of the in-laws will peak around noon today at our house, when about 15 of us will encounter enough food for two bowl-bound football teams. The ham, turkey, dressing, greens, ambrosia, sweet potato casserole, etc. will be abundant.
In addition, the Long Family of Southwest Georgia has a tradition of dedicating some large, flat surface as the "goody table."
It will provide between-meal offerings of roasted pecans (that "PEE-cans" in South Ga., and "pa-kahns" for North Georgians like me), chocolate-covered peanuts (pronounced the same statewide), butterscotch fudge, Chex mix (my mother's recipe which she called "nuts and bolts"), dipped pretzels, a Chocolate layer cake courtesy of the Halls and much, much more.
(An actual photo would have been posted but I couldn't get my brother-in-law, Scott, away from the peanut brittle long enough for a clear snapshot.)
Throughout the day, as we gather around the dinner table and each time I pass the goody table, my hope is the words of a restaurant manager I worked for in high school will ring through my head: "Portion control! Portion control!"
Regardless of my willpower, it will be good to be with those who have become my family — through marriage and offspring — over the past quarter century.
I'll also remember with appreciation my family of origin, especially my father who on this date 80 years ago was born in a simple farm house near Rock Spring, Ga. He will mark this milestone in the presence of the One our celebrations of the season are really all about.

Huckabee and the Baptist Celebration

A friend and Baptist leader from Arkansas called yesterday. Our conversation rested mostly on two topics: former Arkansas governor and rising presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee, and the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant set for late January.
The two intersect at the point in which Huckabee accepted and then rejected, last spring, an offer to speak at the pan-Baptist gathering.
It was widely perceived that Huckabee, then trying to jump-start his campaign, didn't want to offend the fundamentalist leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention who are not participating in the event.
Huckabee even used some of their familiar criticism that the Celebration was a liberal disguise to promote Democratic politics. The irony, of course, is that the Republican Huckabee is the only presidential candidate in either party to be invited to address the group.
Recently, Robert Parham of the Baptist Center for Ethics called on organizers to re-invite Huckabee.
Yet I have never heard that his invitation was rescinded. The ball seems to be in Baptist preacher/governor's court.
At this point, everything has to do with political perception. Presidential candidates and campaigns are always calculating the next move.
One has to wonder whether Huckabee and his campaign — after a recent surge to the topside of the polls — feel dissing a large gathering of ethnically and theologically diverse Baptists was a wise move.
One sure bet is there are a slew of presidential candidates on both sides that would go out of their way to have that opportunity.
The danger for Huckabee, as a fellow Baptist and now viable candidate, is that his message sounds to some of us like he wants to be president of all Americans — except perhaps some Baptists.
We've experienced enough of that kind of rejection from fellow Baptists over the past two decades, thank you.

ingorance and insensitivities

Chuckles and bewilderment, not outrage, seemed to be the primary and appropriate responses to someone at a New York City grocery store labeling the ham as "Delicious for Chanukah (Hannaukkah)" recently.
Apparently, it was not an intentional offense. An apology was quickly offered and the sign removed.
It had more to do with ignorance than raw insensitivity. It appears one can be without the basic knowledge that pork is not kosher for observant Jews.
The incident reminded me of an experience from my years in campus ministry. The student newspaper came out each Friday at one of the state university campuses where I served.
Picking up the latest issue once on the Friday before Easter, I was stunned. Across the right-hand corner, above the banner, was a crudely drawn cartoon of the Easter Bunny with the warm greeting: "Happy Good Friday!"
Perhaps the young editor was thrown off by the term "Good." Maybe "Holy Friday," as some call it, is a better designation.
It was hard to imagine, however, that no one on the staff of a college newspaper in the Bible Belt was aware that this particular day is set aside to commemorate the Crucifixion of Jesus — a somber day.
All of us in the publishing field know the embarrassment of typos and other mistakes in print. But "Happy Good Friday" revealed more ignorance than carelessness.
I tore off the front cover and still have it tucked away in a file somewhere.
While it is unreasonable to expect everyone to be fully knowledgeable of all religious traditions, some basic understandings and sensitivities will go a long way toward living peacefully and well in our growing religious pluralism.

Shurden feted at Mercer

Walter "Buddy" Shurden was honored with a retirement dinner at Mercer University last night where he has spent nearly 25 years as a Christianity professor and department chair, as well as founding director of Mercer's Center for Baptist Studies.
He was lauded by colleagues and former students for his contributions to the university and the larger Baptist movement. President Bill Underwood also announced an endowed scholarship in Shurden's name for future Christianity majors.
Former Mercer president Kirby Godsey, provost Horace Fleming, theology dean Alan Culpepper and former students Gary Furr and Julie Long paid tributes.
Julie is a Mercer grad and minister of children and families at Macon's First Baptist Church where Buddy and his wife, Kay, are active members. She poked fun at her former prof and current parishioner.
Playing off the title of Shurden's popular 1993 book, The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms, Julie proposed "The Shurden Identity: Four Faulty Flaws."
She charged Buddy with "excessive writing, reckless fighting, suspect teaching and intrusive preaching."
She joked about her former professor increasing book sales by assigning several of his 15 books for one church history class. She said the only required book that did not have Shurden's name on the spine was H. Leon McBeth's The Baptist Heritage.
"We couldn't figure out why he had assigned that one," Julie said, "until we got to the part that read: 'According to keen Baptist historian Walter Shurden...'"
Julie also emphasized Buddy's "reckless fighting" for historic Baptist freedoms which others also addressed.
Kirby Godsey, who brought Buddy to Mercer, said: "There is no ugly like Baptist ugly, but Buddy managed to face down Baptist ugly toe to toe."
He also said history will likely record Shurden as one of the defining figures in the historic Baptist university.
"Life would be a little easier for Buddy if he'd let a little ignorance go by," Godsey added.

Blame it on the media

On the heels of the tragic shooting of young mission trainees and churchgoers in Colorado last Sunday,Family Research Council president Tony Perkins (in photo) blamed some in the secular press for creating such hostility toward Christians.
His inappropriate (and wrong) comments were enough for MSNBC's Keith Olbermann to name Perkins the "worst person of the day" on Monday.
The comments from Perkins that drew such well-deserved recognition were:
"It is not hard to draw a line between the hostility that is being fomented in our culture from some in the secular media toward Christians and evangelicals in particular and the acts of violence that took place in Colorado."
Once again, the blame goes to the evil secular media. It is a tiresome deflection.
Perkins' comments were inappropriate in that he quickly used a horrific tragedy to gain political points with his constituency. The comments were wrong in that the troubled young man who brought about the carnage was raised in a devoutly religious home and had attended the mission training center where he first carried out his unspeakable crimes as detailed in a news story from The Denver Post.
Perkins is carrying on the kind of self-martyrdom that does not help the public image of American Christianity.
The perception of evangelical Christians as arrogant, hypocritical and judgmental is fostered primarily by arrogant, hypocritical and judgmental evangelical leaders who seem to find the spotlight more often than humbler servants.
Whatever happened to Christians being known by love? Is self-examination out of style?
We modern disciples of Jesus seem to have forgotten the question raised by one of his original followers: "Is it I?"
Such tragedies as occurred in Colorado last Sunday might be explained in various ways (mental illness, sin, etc.), but for God's sake and ours, don't blame the media.

The Golden Compass and the Good Book

Fantasy is not my favorite genre in books and movies. So I have little interest in the ongoing discussion about whether to avoid or enjoy the recently released movie, "The Golden Compass."
Some suggest watching the movie will lead to reading the trilogy by Philip Pullman, and eventually lead young minds toward atheism. Some find it too critical of Christianity, and Roman Catholicism in particular.
Of course, a little critical analysis is often good for the church.
I recently heard witty Dennis Miller, a Catholic at least in upbringing, say when he enters a confessional booth now, he begins with: "You first."
When any aspect of the church fails, as the church often does, there are consequences in the loss of authority to speak to moral issues.
For those interested in the movie/book discussion, however, I recommend a commentary by Jeannie Babb Taylor (in photo) who writes a weekly column for my hometown newspaper, The Catoosa County (Ga.) News, and blogs at on the other hand.
It is her take on the Bible, more so than the movie or books, that I find particularly insightful. She is one of those loyally-critical, second-level thinkers much needed in the church today where so many seem to embrace the first easy thought to come their way.
Humbly, I might add, she is also proof of what great minds come out of Ringgold High School in the lovely northwest corner of Georgia.

Grassley probe draws mix responses

According to an Associated Press story, only two of the six big-time ministries met the Thursday deadline for turning over requested financial records to a U.S. Senate panel headed by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa (in photo).
Grassley said he received packets of information from the ministries of Joyce Meyer as well as Kenneth and Gloria Copeland. Faith healer Benny Hinn asked for more time. And attorneys for the recently split couple, Paula and Randy White, made initial contact with Grassley's office but had not followed up by the deadline.
The two leaders of Atlanta mega-churches, Creflo Dollar and Eddie Long, have refused to cooperate thus far.
According to the AP report, Sen. Grassley sent pointed questions about a month ago to these ministries asking about salaries and perks such as private jets in an effort to determine whether rules governing tax-exempt groups had been broken.
Grassley promises to be patient but persistent in getting the information needed to determine if these ministries are following proper guidelines for tax-exempt organizations.
The tragedy is that such efforts at financial reporting and reform must come from the government rather than within the church, said J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine and an old Berry College buddy of mine.
"What is unfortunate about this investigation is that it had to be initiated by someone in the federal government," said Grady, in a Nov. 9 column. "The Christian public should have demanded a higher level of accountability a long time ago."
In a recent interview with the senator, Grady said Grassley urges ministries to affiliate with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability that confirms the use of normal and verified accounting procedures.
Grassley also told Atlanta television anchor Monica Pearson that his own pastor smilingly reminded the senator on a recent Sunday that the Baptist church in Iowa where he is a longtime member has open books.
Secrecy over financial records for churches and other nonprofit groups make no ethical or legal sense. Even our minor-league operation (in terms of dollar amounts compared to multi-million-dollar "ministries") at Baptists Today uses great caution to assure our donors that their gifts are properly used — through in-house procedures, monthly financial reports from a CPA, reviews by a budget subcommittee and the larger board of directors, and an annual independent audit.
It is simply a matter of stewardship and honesty that is consistent with biblical faith.
Apparently, not everyone sees it that way. A statement to Grassley from representatives for Bishop Eddie Long, the high-living pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., said the senator's probe "clearly disregards the privacy protections of the Church under law and appears to cross the line of Constitutional guarantees for churches."
Unlike secular not-for-profit groups, the IRS does not require churches to publicly release their financial records. That creates the potential for non-compliance with IRS laws to be hidden more easily. But it does make it right.
Grassley insists he is not meddling in anyone's doctrine but making sure that organizations enjoying the benefits of tax-exempt status go by the related rules.
To Long's attempt at misusing greatly valued constitutional guarantees of religious liberty to justify noncompliance with Grassley's request, the senator had his own firm response:"Forget it. They don't have a leg to stand on."
If necessary, Grassley said he would seek subpoenas to get the information needed to determine if those benefiting from tax-exempt status — and, boy, are they benefiting — are complying with IRS rules. Good for him.
Just have to wonder how many other big-shot preachers are a little more nervous than before.

Faith, politics and confusion

My old campus ministry colleagues have long recalled and embellished stories from a national gathering of Baptist campus ministers at Ouachita University in Arkansas in the early '80s. The two-day trips out and back for our Georgia group were particularly memorable.
At a Holiday Inn in Tupelo, Miss., about a dozen of us had just settled into the poolside hot tub when a rather assertive, female sales rep approached with the subtle request: "Move your buns over!"
Soon after entering the warm water, she began questioning us about where we were from and what we did. Our early evasive answers like: "We work with college students in Georgia" didn't satisfy. So finally we confessed to being Baptist campus ministers.
"BAPTIST?" she responded, as if it tasted foul in her mouth. "Are you all like Jimmy Falwell?"
On behalf of our well-soaked and somewhat startled group I replied: "It's Jerry Falwell, and no."
Soon most of my bold colleagues and I moved on to the larger, cooler pool on that sticky summer night leaving our ever-reflective and gentle friend Bobby Evans to carry on the conversation from there.
Years later we still jokingly listed him as an expert on "whirlpool evangelism" whenever possible.
Falwell's "Moral Majority" was on the rise back then. The perception that all evangelical Christians shared the same political perspectives was growing.
Those of us, especially Baptists, who did not view faith and politics in that manner had a lot of explaining to do.
The year 2007 sure is different. Falwell and D. James Kennedy, two of the more significant shapers of the Religious Right, went on to glory this year.
The remaining leaders are now facing a presidential primary with looks of confusion on their faces about whether to support a Mormon with whom they agree on social issues, a war hero who has said less than nice things about them in the past, an anti-terrorist Roman Catholic who marched in Gay Pride parades or a Southern Baptist preacher they had written off until recently.
My, how times change.

Bad advice, good advice

This week, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will seek to allay fears that his Mormon faith is a negative attribute. I assume he will do well.
However, I saw several news reports leading to his address that included unsolicited advice for the former Massachusetts governor. One was particularly bad.
A Republican strategist on CNN recommended that Romney tell the nation that he belongs to a "large, mainstream Christian" denomination.
Surely Romney and his close advisers are smarter than that. The road to the White House is not paved with attempts to convince the more conservative evangelicals that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints squares with widely held descriptions of orthodox Christianity.
Better advice would have been to talk about commitments to fairness, honesty and generosity common to his faith and that of most Americans.
But this political "expert" spouting bad advice got me to thinking about how much stuff we all have to sort through in life.
When the computer age was developing in the 1980s, I commented in a small group about how we would soon be learning new skills and reviving our old typing fingers. A retired educator quickly assured me that only a few experts would actually use computers on a daily basis for the benefit of us all.
Learning computers would be a waste of time for most of us, he explained. I wonder how many desktops or laptops he has owned since offering that great insight.
One of the important disciplines in life is discerning, with God's help, what advice to heed and what to ignore.
There are perhaps more advice-givers in the realm of religious faith and practice than any other arena. Maybe Jesus sensed that when he urged his followers to be wise as serpents while being gentle as doves.

The virtues of unbelieving

If one is ignorant, or just flat wrong about something, there is no virtue in having a firm conviction. Maturity requires on ongoing rethinking of what is worthy of our affirmation and commitment.
Now there is a difference in the politically expedient "waffling" on social issues (well displayed during this political season) and the genuine recognition of new light on a subject of politics, faith or otherwise.
In an editorial in the Macon Telegraph a few years ago, my friend Ed Corson, longtime journalist, teacher and Baptist layman, made this good observation: "Changing one's mind is not bad in itself ... Refusing to learn from experience is the opposite of wisdom and of practicality."
In the important realm of faith, our unlearning is an important part of spiritual growth.
One of my seminary professors (wish I could remember which one) use to say something like: "Hold on to what you have until you find something better to replace it with."
I took that to mean that we do not wipe the slate of faith clean and start over. But, on the other hand, we do not fear re-examinations of and even replacements for what we claim to believe.
Therefore, we should have our lists of things we no longer believe as well as our confessions of faith. Here are a few from my unbelief list:
1. I don't believe fear produces a genuine, mature response to faith.
2. I don't believe any one Christian or Christian group possesses as much truth as they likely think.
3. I don't believe the Church can fulfill its rightful mission when so much of its energy and resources are spent internally.
4. I don't believe God is as hard on us as a lot of preachers tell us.
That's good for starters. God help our unbelief; it benefits our belief.