My letter from Harvard Expository Writing, May 87

[Stephen Fox]

[Haruo]

I think it ill becomes a beer drinker to diss the portly.

[Stephen Fox]

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.npr.org/2012/08/23/159768245 ... ver-donors

Click on the link above and listen. Rove and American Crossroads have perfected with Pressler and Richard Land's designs the prophecy of Ellen Rosenberg in my letter above.

[Stephen Fox]

[Stephen Fox]

http://foxofbama.blogspot.com/2012/12/j ... a-gop.html

[Stephen Fox]

Stephen:

This is to try to thank you for your letter to the Nov 29 Baptist Courier and the one to Birmingham News of Nov 26. Just a few courageous, interested voices like yours, scattered over the strategic states, could have saved us from the total chaos on SBC and state levels. I am sure you have been doing just that--speaking and writing. I have been screaming since 1979. We believe the fundys; they do what they say they will do. Also, we know our Baptist polity and its dependence on trust and integrity.

Within hours after cutting out your Courier letter, I read of the Beeson bequest. I rushed a note to my Alabama relative to congratulate her and Samford. Since she is so confident that the trials that rage in the SBC and other states (ours, alas) will not come in Alabama, I dared to comment. It was something like this: "I hope that the wisdom that helped Mr. Beeson make his fortune also cautioned him to write safeguards around the Samford Bequest. I hope he knew that the word 'convention' cannot be equated with' Baptist." You may have broken the light to her; by return mail she sent me your Birmingham News letter.!

I don't think you need to worry about Furman. I can tell you more...You doubtless have noted that our "cold turkey" approach gave us a better deal than Stetson, Mercer, or even Baylor.

Keep writing and I'll keep screaming. I am a member of the Convention Affiliations Committee, FBC Greenville. You must have been at Atlanta I; I'll see you at Atlanta II.

Very best wishes,

Loulie L. O. Pettigrew

P.S.
Pardon the fuzzy copy. My typewriter is at the fixer's
for the third time this fall. Nervous break-down, I think

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.goupstate.com/article/201308 ... in-Gaffney

See the comments to this piece. Barty Sides, the son of the Presbyterian minister in Gaffney when my Dad was a pastor there, joins me in remembering days of integration of the schools and we pay tribute to the local ministerial association of that transitional time.

See comments to this article at link above

[Stephen Fox]

I found this the other day at the house, a Richard Land reply in 88 to a letter I wrote him. His reply on SBC CLC stationery.

Excerpts:

Dear Mr. Fox:

I think it would be perhaps more productive for me to tell you my beliefs rather than to define myself over and and against others, as you have suggested in your letter. I hold Dr. MLKing in high regard as a prophet in his own time who had a tremendous impact on me personally....Our generation owes him a great debt. I am not a member of the John Birch Society and have never been a member of the JBS,and my personal view is the JBS is made up of well meaning, but misinformed people, who most of the time do more harm to the causes they seek to serve, than they do of a positive nature.

....On church and State I suggest you read tapes of my presentations from the Criswell Center on the matter (he gave me an address and a contact person).You suggested a forum where I, Sam Currin and Albert Lee Smith "square off" with Lee Berg, Neal Rodgers, John Buchanan . I have no problem with a sustained dialogue with anyone in a productive setting. I am a bit concerned with your phrase "square off.", however....

Thank you for taking the time to write. I hope you find my reply helpful. Please do not hesitate to write in the future if you have concerns you feel need to be expressed.

Sincerely,

Richard D. Land

[Stephen Fox]

Stephen:

Thank you for your letter concerning the present and continuing controversy over the Baptist Joint Committee. As you are probably aware, the real thrust of this effort seems to be to establish a right-wing political office in Washington that bears the name Southern Baptist. The parties mentioned in your letter have been involved for years in this effort. The brethren don't seem to care as long as the whole thing can be called a battle over "inerrancy" which of course, it is not.

....I would encourage you to do anything you can that is legal and Christian to expose the conspiracy that seems to be going on. Texas laymen have assured me the ties you hinted at certainly exist, but have decided not to pursue them, since the Moyers exposures seem to have done little to slow the steam-roller.

As to a course of action that would solve our problems I am at a loss.Until the pastors realize that the free exercise of religion is at stake, we are fighting a losing battle....

Grady C Cothen

[Stephen Fox]

I found a copy of the Index in a drawer in a Back room last week and there I found a full column letter I had published. Jack Harwell was still the editor that fall and Lolley still the President of SEBTS. I quoted Tom Edsall of the June 6 86 Wash Post and ended with a quote from Leszek Kolakowski of the U Chicago about how Adrian Rogers and Tim LaHaye were using secular humanism as a ruse in the takeover strategy. It was about the time Jimmy Carter had told Jerry Falwell to go to Hell. I commended him for it.

Will have the letter for you soon.

[William Thornton]

Look for some news on Kelley soon, Stephen. Will rev you up.