Moderator: William Thornton
Ron West says
December 22, 2016 at 1:46 am
The political influence in our convention has been around for some time Since at least the early 80s, Paul Presssler, Paige Patterson, Jerry Falwell and others have been leaders in the Committee on National Policy, a right wing group largely funded by Sun Myung Moon’s organization and the Coors Beer Family. Jerry Falwell even appeared several times on the platform with Moon at his meetings. This organization had tremendous influence over what was happening in our convention.
I was also at the 1989 SBC meeting where Chapman was elected. At that convention the CLC/ERLC presented a first time award for Religious LIberty to Jesse Helms who was in a tight senate race. The chairman of that organization was Sam Currin a former staffer of Helms. Richard Land the director was only too happy to cooperate in what amounted to a political endorsement. Land while serving at the ERLC was little more than Pressler’s cooperative program funded agent to represent CNP interest.
I was at the convention two years ago when we passed a resolution urging the government to start offering funding for Christian schools so we could dip our hands into the government money bag and give government additional control over Christian schools. I spoke against this and the committee member presenting the resolution confirmed this was their goal
In tandem with Edsall's piece in NY Times in October with the "killer" concluding indictment by Randall Balmer I think the dead end is spot on. There were other factors for sure. but I think as you build the puzzle, the building blocks from the foundation up, There woulda never been this Trump Moment without the momentum builder and the cornerstone of the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. Other factors for certain, but the far right poison was there in the genetic code of Presslerism.......I had another thought today, had I seen Trump coming I mighta been willing to sacrifice Obama to Romney in 2012 so the center could hold. But that's all speculation of the past now.
The Neil J Young exchange with Mouw remains the best exercise in the exploration of Moore for my two cents to date. Moore caught Hades in the remarks at Yellowhammer News site in Bama, Yahmmer News pretty much the political mouthpiece of the 14 campus Baptist church of the Highlands which saturates Central Alabama. And in all this discussion the New Yorker Piece in Ocotber must not be forgotten. That said it remains Russ Moore is out of his league for this moment, shoulda never had the platform he now has in the first place, It was Birch Society mentality in the takeover that elevated Moore to this position and because of his origin story his is an Impostor. There is no Trump, there is no sophomoric Russ Moore and his measly resistance without the huge piece of the Religious Right buttress puzzle, the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC whose driving core of Pressler, Jesse Helms, McAteer and Albert Lee Smith were hardwired to the John Birch Society. With that in mind Tom Edsall and his concluding quote by Randall Balmer in NY times is the kerygma.
Fred Clark in Slactivist wrote:Here we are. The wrong road that white evangelicalism has stubbornly been following has led us here, to 2016, and the election of Donald J. Trump thanks, largely, to the overwhelming support of white evangelicals. This is not an aberration, but a culmination. This is where that road takes you. It’s where you’re bound to end up if you drive long enough using only the segregationists and the wealthy donors as your GPS.
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