Memory and Hope 
By Foy Valentine

Thank you. It is good to be introduced by a man with a glib tongue, a vivid imagination, and an elastic conscience.

This is the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Christian Life Commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. It is an occasion of very special significance to most of us in this room and especially to those of us who have been involved in it from the first day until now. Lord Acton rightly said, however, that "no awe surrounds institutions of which all have seen the beginning, and which many helped to make." So, forgive me for saying up front that this king, even after 50 years, still doesn't have much clothes. (The establishment is everlastingly determined to do us the great favor of not stifling our creativity with the tranquilizer of affluence.) So, it is not awe that I bring to this occasion tonight. It is astonishment. Astonishment, and wonder, and amazement, and delight at the ways of a Kindly Providence, the grace of God. Continued

Be Ye Hearers of the Word and Not Doers Only 
The Warren Carr Preaching Series
First Baptist Church, Elkin, North Carolina
Ralph C. Wood

Romans 10:14-17

Be Ye Hearers of the Word and Not Doers Only 

• We Are Too Busy Doing 

• We Are Too Noisy Talking 

• There Are Not Many Preachers of the Word

The Sermon as the Center of Baptist Worship

• The Primacy of Hearing

• The Primacy of the Sermon 

• The Primacy of the Preacher 

The Uses of the Imagine for Imagination in Preaching the Gospel

• The Biblical Suspicion of the Imagination

• The Cruciform Imagination 

• Two Examples of Theological Imagination at Work

Continued

I Think We Need to See a Therapist 
By Hal Haralson

[Hal Haralson practices law in Austin, Texas and is a regular contributor to Christian Ethics Today.]

    We had been married about 30 years.  Our youngest son, David, had just left for college and Judy uttered the words that struck fear in my heart.

    “I think we need to see a therapist.”

    David and Judy had talked constantly…about anything and everything.

    That was okay.  That meant I didn’t have to say anything.  That’s what I did most of the time unless a question was directed specifically to me.
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Four Poems
by Kenneth Chafin

• Rain on a Cedar Roof 
• The Street Preacher
• Letting the Silence Say It All In memory of Ernie White
• A Rhythm for My Life 
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Shall We Give Citizenship to Fertilized Eggs?
By John M. Swomley

    The Catholic bishops who organized the “'right to life” or anti-abortion movement in the United States have also planned the various strategies to accomplish their purpose. Their most recent strategy, which raises serious ethical questions, is to involve Protestant allies in changing their theology to conform to official Roman Catholic politics. That strategy is to get Protestants to accept current Catholic dogma (in force for about 130 years) that a human being exists at fertilization rather than at birth, as biblically defined and accepted for thousands of years.

    Before exploring this further it is important to note that the overall purpose of the Roman Catholic bishops is to eliminate not only legal abortion but also contraception by taking political control over Congress and the Presidency so as to secure appointments of only anti-abortion, justices to the Supreme Court. They could then overthrow Roe v. Wade, which made abortion legal. Their ultimate purpose is a Constitutional Amendment that would require federal and state governments to accept the Vatican position. To accomplish this objective they have been using incremental strategies, beginning with the organization of a “right to life” movement at every level within the Roman Catholic churches and at all political levels: state, Congressional district, county, and down to precinct.
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Updated Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Teacher 
By Roger Lovette

Going back to one's hometown after a long absence can be a moving experience. Weeks after Christmas I visited relatives there. While I was home the lady who had kept us as children was celebrating her ninetieth birthday. I called her and an old familiar voice answered that took me back across the years. She had been our maid and nanny while my parents worked in the cotton mill. She took care of my brother and me. Later, when we were old enough for school she would move to the mill. Still after work she would clean our house. She was my first teacher and confidant. I would tell her things I would not dare tell my parents or anyone else. I would pour out my fears, my dreams, and my frustrations on that old round kitchen table that used to be in the center of our kitchen. I talked. Nancy, always in motion, washing dishes, preparing a meal, Cleaning or dusting, would listen. From time to time she would stop and respond: "Just you wait, Continued

Four Poems
by Kenneth Chafin

• Rain on a Cedar Roof 
• The Street Preacher
• Letting the Silence Say It All In memory of Ernie White
• A Rhythm for My Life 
  Continue

An Unnoticed, Life Changing Moment 
By R. Hal Ritter

    The purpose of this autobiographical story is to discuss, for the first time, a moment in my life that has challenged me for thirty‑four years. I have never spoken about this incident, but for some reason I mentioned it last week to a colleague at a meeting of our local ministerial alliance. My friend suggested that I write it down.

    I am sure that what happened went mainly unnoticed except for the few people who were involved, and I suppose that none of them has any memory of it. I have often debated within myself whether or not it was actually "life changing."  But I know it was life changing in the sense that it created a memory and awareness in me that I will never forget, and I hope it has made me a different person. However, I know with my human limitations, that I disappoint myself over and over again.

    I was born in Summerville, South Carolina, in the Dorchester County Hospital. Years ago the hospital was moved and merged with two other county hospitals, and the old hospital building is now used for county health services. I lived in a segregated community, and my grandfather, who hired black men to work in his yard and plow his garden each year, always said that "nigras" were all right so long as they stayed in their place. Now, forty‑five years later, I understand how offensive the term "nigra" is, but as a child I do not have any memory of ever hearing the term used in sarcasm or insult.
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Reflections on Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom 
By Bruce McIver

I've just finished reading Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. It's a challenging and magnificent read. As you know, he spent 28 years of his life in prison--in the worst of privations. But, like his hero, Gandhi, he both refused to bow to the authorities and to retaliate with violence.

Near the end of his prison stay he was given a small piece of ground that he cultivated into a garden, growing a variety of vegetables and plants.

"A garden was one of the few things in prison that one could control. To plant a seed, watch it grow, to tend it and then harvest it, offered a simple but enduring satisfaction...  Continued

The Radical Right: Whither?
By Franklin H. Littell

In his membership manual, The Blue Book, the founder of the John Birch Society laid out his strategy for saving the United States from liberalism, communism, and democracy. "Democracy," he had said, "is simply a deceptive phrase, a weapon of demagoguery, and a perpetual fraud." His declared plan of action, so he wrote, was to imitate the communist conspiracy by organizing John Birch Society membership in disciplined cells and through appealing for public support by the use of a number of organizational "fronts." The "'Birchers" have in truth wielded "the organizational weapon" with a zeal that Nikolai Lenin, who invented the phrase and much of the tactics, would have approved. Continue