Alabama Baptist Covers Collinsville Baptists 175th

[Stephen Fox]

In Gadsden. Will be interesting to see how many of the Collinsville Historical Association or the Study Club see the film; an overwhelming movie experience.

I called the Gov's office this morning and told the receptionist, a member of Jay Wolfe's FBC Montgomery, she should see it. She said she rarely goes to the movies but would pass along my recommendation to the Governor.

[Stephen Fox]

Well, it's scheduled for some non-fiction publication in April. And there are two affiliates of the congregation at differing levels of the film world. From FBC Athens to FBC Auburn networks historically, to the home stay of yours truly for ten years, I think there is stuff of Biblical proportions there. And of course Statham Baptist has its stories as well:

http://ethicsdaily.com/is-your-church-a ... -cms-21298

[Stephen Fox]

Was planning to be there but budget constraints may have me at the Collinsville/Valley Head basketball game. I was at a similar event where in the early days of the Mayor Carter administration the kandgaroo courts got me off the grounds of the local Lyberry; Feb 2006 right after Kate Campbell had performed for my sister's 50th Birthday in Upstate S.C.

http://www.wbhm.org/IssuesAlesNov19

[Stephen Fox]

Every January in the Sunday School class the Morgans lead three weeks are taken to indoctrinate the class on the Francis Schaeffer view of abortion and the politics of Casey Mattox and the church state group of Reagan operatives and Mississippi Judge Pickering.

As a matter of conscience here is a faint hope the Morgans have the Christian integrity to reference this recent discussion on NPR.

Ask themselves a question would Martin Luther King walk across the EdMund Pettus bridge for women bearing unwanted pregnancies, and where would the Morgan's be on such a Civil Rights move

http://www.npr.org/2013/11/21/246534132 ... l-question

[Stephen Fox]

Had an interesting day on Iron Bowl Day. The first person I saw after leaving the viewing residence was the local lyberrian, at a gas station.

Trade Day was interesting as well. More later. Thanksgiving day had a chat with a neighbor of Katniss of the Hunger Games.

[Stephen Fox]

http://foxofbama.blogspot.com/2013/12/c ... l-and.html

Joseph is a staffer for the Gadsden office of US Congressman Robert Aderholt. He has an undergrad and graduate degree from Alabama. Not sure his or his Mother's status re Judge Frank Johnson:

http://foxofbama.blogspot.com/2013/12/c ... l-and.html

[Stephen Fox]

The Editors
Ft Payne Times Journal
For publication

The Editors:

I noticed David Clemons piece over the weekend on U Bama grads praising the law school in particular. Over the years I have heard good things about the English Department and some in the History Department as well; and Hugo Black's grandson Stephen is a credit to the state.

However, I have been grieviously disappointed in the staffers from Bama's national legislative delegation over the past several months. No Bama grad that I remember had an inkling who Judge Frank Johnson was, the 2nd greatest man to breathe the air of Alabama in the 20th Century. And no, Bear Bryant was not the first, doubtfully he makes the top ten.

One staffer on Senator Shelby's staff knew of Judge Johnson and his significance, but she was a Vanderbilt grad. And Brooks Simmons of Jasper, Alabama knew of Johnson, but she went to Washington and Lee where my friend Doug Cumming taught her in the journalism department. Collinsville's Joe Morgan who has two degrees from Bama was a little sketchy, but Ft Payne and Guntersville can be proud of Hillary Beard who knows the most about Judge Johnson and Profile in Courage Winner Carl Elliot. She has a degree from Birmingham Southern.

This morning Kelly Lee, Bama grad and native of Marietta, Ga was as sweet as she could be, but woefully ignorant about Judge Johnson. And she had no clue who Leo Frank was nor the significance of his 1915 lynching. I told her the meadow where he was hung is now under the southbound lane of I-75 near Whitewater and the Big Chicken.

She did know of those landmarks.

Maybe some better screening or remedial reading is in order.

No wonder a hack like Mike Hubbard is house Speaker. For that see my blog on the iron bowl and SEC Championship and reverberations for Obamacare.

And kudos to Reita Grant for Understanding President Obama and how the tea party has gimped his Promise.

Sincerely,


Stephen M. Fox

[Stephen Fox]

and Everywhere

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/1156 ... ueens-film

And for the local Historical society another light on Daughters of the Confederacy, this time at work in Jacksonville, Florida:

http://www.npr.org/2013/12/18/255185942 ... t=1&f=1013

[Stephen Fox]

I had an interesting incident yesterday with the Library and Obamacare. May say more after Christmas. Called the governor's office this morning about Alabama State and some ways in which Gov Bentley and his former pastor Rick Lance may come up to speed. Also shared some insights with S.C. Congressman Rice of the Paul and Rocky Purvis district that limns the N.C Border up from Myrtle Beach.

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.abpnews.com/ministry/organiz ... -sbc-cause

Would be interesting to see how the leadership of the Collinsville Historical Association navigates the opinion piece above. At a minimum new insights into the 60s South and enlightened history should be examined.

The current president of the CHA's Brother is director of Missions for Cherokee Association in which leading pastor Ricky Pollard has reportedly made some outrageous statements from the pulpit about President Obama; and Rebecca Clayton remains an avid supporter of the Daughters of the Confederacy recently boasting of four brothers of her Great Grandfather who gave their Life for the Lost Cause.

Where Bob Allen misses the point is not so much an examination of Robertson but an honest race history of Paul Pressler, Curtis Caine, Jesse Helms, Criswell, Eunie and Albert Lee Smith and the world that shaped Adrian Rogers, McAteer in particular.

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.abpnews.com/blog/theology/ba ... 013-12-24/

Or must they ever kowtow to Jennifer Wilkins and Sandra Killian.
Pastor Morgan was at SEBTS with Molly Marshall and studied with Bill Leonard. Surely with kids at Duke, UVA and Yale he has the capacity to be honest with the Myers and Martha Barksdale and distinguish between Criswell and Bill Hull, Adrian Rogers and Will Willimon.

[Stephen Fox]

Buddy was part of youth group that went to Charleston with Us in 2005 or so. Had a shared bonding experience with that group as the lead counselors went to town and left me and a 2nd lieutenant in charge. We filmed group doing extemporaneous Praise number to Southern Culture on the Skids singing: "My Baby has the Strangest Ways of Saying OOee Ooooo Wee". Was an existential moment and Buddy had iconic segment in the brief documentary on church camp; one of my fondest memories of my 12 Yrs a Member or so of Collinsville Babdiss

Buddy and his good friend Jennifer Cortina were at my Inquisition May 28, 2006 when I was dismissed from the Grounds of Collinsville Babdiss. Jennifer was MisS Dar Winner for her graduating class of CHS. Neither of them attend church regularly now, though my dismissal I'm satisfied is not the only reason.

From his Facebook wall:

I'm a Christian. I do believe in God, and I have my own reasons for that (some of them pretty unbelievable and insane-sounding). I don't go to church because every church I've been to thus far has had members that are overly self-righteous and really, really judgmental, and I grew weary of all that. I do celebrate Christmas based on the Christian belief behind it, but I do respect your decision if you choose not to do so. These people on the internet, these so-called "WARRIORS OF CHRIST" or whatever, are annoying and should be ignored. They seek to bring nothing but misery to a day that should be filled with joy. I refuse to be that grating and unlikeable. Have a great Christmas, everyone. Stay off the internet today.

[Stephen Fox]

See reference to these two Collinsville Babdiss Women in the Squaring topic at Baptist Covenant here on this board. I could also add Rebecca Clayton whose first allegiance may not be to Jesus Christ but to the Daughters of the Confederacy. She is a Baptist in the Collinsville vicinity, but not the Baptist church in the Center of town.

[Stephen Fox]

It's about time for the annual pastors SS 3 week emphasis on abortion at Colinsvile Baptist. Things came to a head in 2006 when I was still in the class with Pastor John MOrgan and the chair of the deacons--also in the class--ruling I could not speak against the pastor's views in Sunday school which came almost word for word from FRancis Schaefer playbook. The pastor's wife in the state of Judge Roy Moore said a politicians view on abortion would be the determining factor on how she voted.

Yesterday there was a post from the Collinsville Elementary school said students were coming to school with no Socks. The Morgans aren't solely to blame but had their emphasis been somewhere else the last 35 years, and their Ivy League educated four sons bore more witness maybe somebody woulda heard something different from the Christian community in NE Alabama and reverberations coulda been stronger.

Who will make reference to the following link at Collinsville Baptist this Sunday, or next when the nation celebrates the life and witness of Martin Luther King Jr.?


http://weldbham.com/blog/2014/01/01/the ... -the-poor/

[Stephen Fox]

Mon Jan 13, 2014 2:35 pm

http://www.baylor.edu/spirituallife/index.php?id=55979

Rebecca has been on staff there for some time, originally as director of the Baptist Student Choir. She brought her tour to Collinsville in October of 99. In 1991 while on staff as music director of Collinsville church she attended the SBC in Atlanta with Jennifer Wilkins, now the librarian in the town and gatekeeper for Collinsville and the Auburn University Living Democracy Project.

It would be interesting to explore Ms Kennedy and Ms Wilkins positions not only on the social issues, but church state matters and how they come down on the matter of whether John Grisham's Oxford American Magazine should be shelved in the local library.

What would "Scout" say about Grisham?

[Stephen Fox]

I went to the baptism of a family friend at Liberty Hill Baptist Church yesterday during the morning worship hour. Beautiful day, but was told on arrival the baptism was that night. I stayed anway. Glad I did. While there was much to take exception to in the sermon, it was a great text and the pastor had a Carlyle Marney quote. Good people. The girl to be baptized is distant kin to Wilmer C. Fields by his second marriage. The woman is from Cullman.

Uncle of the initiate about 20 years ago heard me named the "village idiot" by the Collinsville HS principal's son who was Auburn undergrad then. I saw the vet's brother Saturday, taking up money for the Basketball game against Neal Thrash's Fyffe team. The Uncle is a vet now himself. Was driving down from Kentucky through Jackson Co Georgia to pick up the grands. But I never saw him, didn't make it back that night. But, Trace Gorham tell Bone I got you in the historical record here at Bl.com!

[Stephen Fox]

Most likely Collinsville Baptist will set this one out again and focus on abortion as is the tradition. But of course everyone is oh so proud of Becky Kennedy's prgress at Baylor--her mentors include Julie Pennington Russell and Molly Marshall--but that's just the Collinsville Way.

http://www.bwim.info/msm_month/

[Stephen Fox]

http://foxofbama.blogspot.com/2014/01/p ... ncing.html

[Stephen Fox]

These last three Sunday's in the pastor's annual 3 week emphasis on abortion in his Captive Sunday School Class

The abortion controversy is exhausting, but it is anything but boring. It has been a proving ground for strong-arm strategies that are now the stock-in-trade of a Republican Party taken over by people who learned what politics was about from what happened with single issues such as anti-choice. They saw that it was possible for a small minority to hamstring business as usual by presenting itself as “public opinion.” The unabashed mendacity, the extreme and implausible goals (the contraceptive-free Christian family that lurks right beneath the surface), and the ginning up of protest by elites with deep pockets and political plans: these were all road-tested on the long march against Roe.

This from the easily googled April 7, 2011 Christine Stansell piece in New Republic on Roe

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolso ... t-3-final/

[Stephen Fox]

What's ironic about all this is if I'm not mistaken, Becky Kennedy, Collinsville product now on staff at Baylor as a Chaplain if not a member of Calvary Baptist in Waco is friend of the church. She considers John and Gloria Morgan mentors. Would be interesting to hear her honest resolution of these concerns about her childhood pastor's chief theologian taken to task as "charlatan" by Worthen and Olson

From the Olson Review:

According to Worthen, Schaeffer styled himself as an intellectual and as culture-savvy and sensitive while all the time hiding a basically fundamentalist attitude toward inquiry and knowledge. Worthen’s portrayal of Schaeffer is so harsh as to border on being uncharitable. But charity isn’t her concern; she’s a historian. She honestly believes, apparently, that Schaeffer was a charlatan who convinced even himself, to say nothing of millions of readers and followers, that he was the epitome of a Christian intellectual. In fact, if Worthen is right (and others have said the same), Schaeffer was a fake. He was to evangelicalism what many gurus (and she uses that word for Schaeffer and many evangelical leaders) are to Hinduism—tricksters who cast a spell over their followers and have even come to believe their own press when, in fact, they are the proverbial Wizard of Oz—all bluster and show but no real depth.

You doubt me? Read her treatment of Schaeffer in the sections subtitled “A Thinking Christian” and “The Uses of History” (209-216). Here’s a sample: “[John Howard] Yoder was not the only one appalled by Schaeffer’s hamfisted caricature of history. For all of his emphasis on careful argument, Schaeffer was notoriously irresponsible as a scholar. ‘Schaeffer didn’t read books,’ said his son-in-law, John Sandri. ‘He got his material from magazines, Newsweek, Time—he’d take them to the beach. He did go to seminary, so he had that, but when he was here [at L'Abri], he went through the summarized version. He was out to give broad strokes. It was not necessary to give you the details of Kierkegaard.’ Schaeffer wowed audiences by explaining 500 years of intellectual history in paragraphs and a casual chalkboard diagram—but he did so with exaggerations, oversimplifications, and misinformation that would make a specialist cry.”

[Mrs Haruo]

I remember getting college credit at a PUBLIC community college in California in 1976 for Sheaffer's series "How Shall We Then Live?" while it was also being run at the Mennonite Brethren church I had recently joined. I ate it up as eagerly as I had been eating up Bill Gothard's "Basic Youth Conflicts" seminars.

[Stephen Fox]

Coots son whose father died of a Rattler snakebite, said the snake had been taken to church about 100 times and never struck. Like some women at Collinsville Baptist you just can't never tell when they are gonna strike, some go ten years or more without administering venom with their fangs. One reportedly was key in the dismissal effort of the local pastor in 87, but history is muted in the region; folks just don't talk about it anymore; well not much in my hearing.

Lot to think about especially in frame of Dar of Faulkner's and James Franco's art. I think I finally get it, why Dar laughs; but doesn Speaker Hubbard and his badge dispatch stooges get it?

Franco is out on pay per view and should be dvd soon. I hope there is a viewing in Collinsville.

BTW, one woman who claims to know about such things and family goes way back in the region says Lowell Barron's Mother was a snake handler. She comes from that region of the community. I don't think it would take much to convince the wife of former President of Auburn Dr. Muse of Marks Mississippi given the one conversation we had about Lowell and Church State. I don't know if you would call it a Darl laugh like Faulkner's, but Dr. Muse and I got a big grin; least he liked my telling of the story!

[Stephen Fox]

About the same number that got me at Collinsville Baptists:

http://www.kentucky.com/2014/02/16/3092 ... dling.html

[Stephen Fox]

Had read Molly Worthen's book and had Becky Kennedy come in with a group from Calvary Baptist in Waco to help them put it in perspective, I doubt I would ever been voted out of the local Babdiss Church. At some point Susan Weaver's literacy and comprehension woulda caused her to say something even if to differ with her Mother in Law re Francis Schaeffer. And if Oxford American's John Grisham coulda gotten Annie Lucas Brown to talk to Jennifer Wilkins and Sandra Killian, who knows if things woulda been different

But one vote was in 2003 and the final May 28, 2006 and the rest is history:

http://esrh.blogspot.com/2013/10/molly- ... alism.html