Fox's Narrative in The Exiled Generation

[Ed Pettibone]

[William Thornton]

Got the book from Sandy...many thanks. Went straight to Stephen's eight pages and about a thousand name drops therein. My take:

I've read all of Stephen's stuff here in years past and enjoyed the sanitized, edited, condensed version in the book; alas, it has little to do with the book's theme of the Southern Baptist holy war. Fox has a story that can stand on its own. It is not the story, however, of a second generation moderate whose parents were purged from the SBC much less a story about how the "legacy" of the SBC takeover/takeback caused one individual to be excluded from his small town Alabama church. It is the story of one individual church member taking considerable and frequent actions without regard to the congregation as a whole and without regard to what most of us in church life would call normal and expected boundaries of behavior and being excluded as a result.

Stephen suffered, I don't question that, by his exclusion from his Momma's church. It is a self-inflicted penalty. I would probably like for Stephen to be in my Sunday School class where I am not averse to being quizzed, interrogated, questioned, or challenged. I can handle all that Bircher nonsense (I'd tell Stephen privately that he should take his Bircher stuff somewhere else, or else) and name dropping and, unless he had a class death wish, I would accommodate him. But if he wanted the whole business of Bible teaching, preaching, church business to be about him, then he might be happier elsewhere.

The piece is about Fox. It is not about Collinsville Baptist Church. It is not about any carryover from the Conservative Resurgence. It is a bet I can neither win nor lose but I'd bet that if there were no SBC Conservative Resurgence, if there were no Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson, if there were no changing of the guard in denominational leadership, Stephen would find a way to irritate his church family. There are many things for which an intelligent, energetic, intense individual can be a gadfly. Stephen is the master of that role.

No question that he is in exile and I sympathize with him in being separated from his Momma's church. The narrative that this is some legacy of the SBC is nonsense. Stephen, as I have seen here, is quite capable of managing that himself.

That said, I rather liked reading about it. Stephen, when the mental hemmorhages and stream-of-consciousness writing are kept in check, can tell a good story. I wish he had included more of what he put here over the years - the "Gospel dog," more on the "liberry" and all that.
________________

I'll start another topic on all the other stories in the book.

[Stephen Fox]

When Criswell sent Newman back the letter Newman had written him in 68 about the race baiting speech in 56 to the South Carolina Pastor's conference and I paraphrase,: I don't quite get what you are saying William, but if you mean well, then God Bless you.

That said, a couple bullet points William should know by now.

1.My Momma walked out on Charles Stanley's Convention sermon in Atlanta in 86 and I'm gald she did.

1B: See Bob Allens' review of Ex Gens at Abpnews.com; also George Mason of Wilshire Baptists has a different appreciation of Ex Gens than William and for that matter Big daddy Weave


2. Thornton was a member of Adrian Roger's Bellevue Baptist in 79 and I think a scholar at Mid America when the Takeover started so that explains a lot right there.

3. If you look at any given page of Big Daddy's bio of James Dunn, you are likely to see as many names as I have on any given page of my 8 page pilgrimage.

4. I was a very active member of Collinsville Baptist for 8 years before the poop hit the fan, in many factes from the choir, to bus ministry, to volleyball ministry which was a carnival at times, to several youth trips to Jekyll Island and some ministries at 2 am mostly with the preacher's sons then in High school and their friends exploring the back road of DeeKalb county unauthorized.

5William must do the background education, read some stories and have an awareness of of Singleton's Half Mammals of Dixie and see the Movie and have post viewing chat with Jerry Vines of the White Ribbon to get full effect of my story.

6. I will let others read my eight pages. I talk about myself some to define how my expectations of what it was to be a baptist might me a little different from the one deacon who said about MLKing near his birthday in 88: "I say we dig.....[vulgar word deleted] and Shoot him again, and another deacon who cussed me loudly to my face cause I question his public derogaroty remakrs in a City Council meeting about Hispanics.

So there was a lot the two deacons the three to five women sicced on me overlooked when they mighta had better prospects for a churchin.

And six, those two deacons, Jackie Myers, former Elementary School principal whose sharp daughter went on an Emmaus Walk; and his brother Donnie, a former Asst School supe both told me they voted for me in the vote of May 28.

7. I was on the way to have lunch with Dr. Thornton himself the week preceeding the May 28 vote when I had car trouble outside Iva, South Carolina. So Thornton is part of the story too, but his name is not in the index of Exiled Generations cause I didn't mention him. But I'm about to blog about him and Jerry Vines, the Bircher s and that whole cauldron.

[Stephen Fox]

http://sbcplodder.blogspot.com/2010/07/ ... stars.html


Comments by me and David Montoya

[Stephen Fox]

http://sbcplodder.blogspot.com/2010/07/ ... stars.html

Fox Take Away

http://foxofbama.blogspot.com/2015/03/t ... xiled.html

[Stephen Fox]

see my latest entry in Collinsvile History

[Stephen Fox]

In Thorton's neighborhood.

Jon's extended family member in Collinsville now has the book in her possession. Her and Jon's Great Grandfather adorns, portrait adorns the Overstreet Room of Collinsville Baptist Church as a founding pastor in the late 1800s!

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.bgdailynews.com/features/exi ... be274.html

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/201 ... acist.html

[Stephen Fox]

I think I did mention Will in my Essay. I hope most of you know by now ExiledGenerations has a Facebook page I hope many of you have seen. Several folks in Collinsville have now read my contribution.

Meanwhile here is a definitive piece on Will Campbell in case there is something Sandy missed about his life.

http://www.progressive.org/news/2013/06 ... d%E2%80%9D

[Stephen Fox]

The Fox Saga took a new twist today with a review of the book on the pernicious and evil plan of the GOP that was abetted by Collinsville Pastor John Morgan's son Joseph.

That was what I was up against in Collinsville, a Francis Schaeffer ideology in the pastor and his wife with Joseph abetting a policy of weakening political power for blacks and Hispanics while the UVA, Yale and Duke Brothers were struck mute.

Will link soon the New Yorker review, an easy google with Rat copulator in the title. BTW that is the nickname for Roger Stone, who Richard Land and Ronnie Floyd have signed on with in the Manafort Trump campaign.

[Stephen Fox]

Joseph Morgan embraced and worked to help bring about the Mike Hubbard implementation in Alabama named Bleaching there. Helped elect Phil Williams as Colliinsville now is sliced and diced into 5 districts. His parents had PhillWilliams Yard sign in their yard and now the Dad in his 40th plus year in the town has a faith column in Joseph Morgan's weekly that fronts as the Tea Party rag of the region

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/ ... istricting

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.readthespirit.com/explore/th ... e-flipped/

[Chris]

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGH!

[Sandy]

[Chris]