I recently received two emails from a reader of my Weekly Baptist Roundup (WBR) e-newsletter.
The questions and concerns expressed by this reader helped me to realize that not all WBR readers are familiar with its origin or its mission – AND not all appreciate its direction. While his tone in both emails was respectful and even complimentary/appreciative of my work, it was clear that he disagreed with the overall direction of it.
I finally responded to him this week in my usual style, which is to say WORDY (a four-page PDF), addressing his questions and concerns.
First, I want to give him credit for his patience in reading my LENGTHY response.
Second, I was impressed by his gracious reply, in which he thanked me for giving him a new way of looking at some of these issues. We have never met but have agreed to meet for lunch once this pandemic is over. He and I are friends now . . . God is still at work, my friends, bringing people together. He said that his walk with Christ is still a work-in-progress, and so is mine. God willing, we are all on a journey with God, and if we pay attention to God’s Holy Spirit, we can learn something new each day.
Third, I realized that, while he was the only reader to express these questions and concerns to me, he is likely not alone. There are others who share those questions and concerns. So I want to share – in a series of blog posts – my response to him.
In this post – Part 1 – I’ll share what he wrote to me. Over the next week, I’ll roll out my response in four succeeding blog posts, as follows:
- Saturday, Aug. 22 – Part 2: What is the mission of Weekly Baptist Roundup?
- Monday, Aug. 24 – Part 3: Can a liberal Democrat be a Baptist . . . a Christian?
- Wednesday, Aug. 26 – Part 4: FBC Dallas holds a political rally disguised as “worship”
- Friday, Aug. 28 – Part 5: Different lenses – Does our faith shape our politics OR our politics shape our faith?
My reader’s first email is dated July 4. In the WBR issue that had gone out that morning, in my “A word from Bill Jones” column that appears at the top every week, I had written, “Last Sunday, the vice-president of the United States spoke at First Baptist Dallas’s political rally, which was disguised as a worship service and dubbed ‘Celebrate Freedom Sunday.’”
In his email, my reader wrote the following:
“Good morning, Bill, I just read your weekly recap of Baptist life. You spoke of the FBC Dallas service last Sunday. Did you watch the whole service? My son sent me the link about the ‘political’ rally at FBC. So I decided to watch the entire event. I will admit that I was uncomfortable with how many people were in attendance with sporadic use of masks. I haven’t been the biggest fan of Pastor Jeffress. But I went ahead and watched the whole service.
“My faith in Christ is the most important relationship in my life. My ultimate allegiance is to Him. But I am also very proud to be an American. I love celebrating our country.
“There were a couple of times the FBC service that had me thinking that was a little cheesy. But when Ben Carson spoke it was powerful. I was extremely impressed with the speech from VP Pence. But at the very end, he shared his testimony. Wow!! It was so moving and powerful! Pastor Jeffress then followed with an authentic presentation of the gospel. I was glad I didn’t quit watching the service earlier. From what I hear, over 1000 people gave their life to Christ that morning. God is moving in our nation! I can focus on all the negative but I choose to keep looking where God is at work and join Him.
“We are blessed! Thank you for your ministry.”
His second email is dated August 15. The WBR issue that I had published that morning contained links to several articles about the faith of Kamala Harris, who had been named that week as Joe Biden’s running mate. Kamala Harris is a longtime Baptist, a member of an American Baptist church, but her family background includes a variety of faith influences. The articles I linked discussed her Baptist faith, as well as the other faiths in her background, and how all of that has influenced her politics.
My reader wrote the following:
“Bill, I always enjoy reading the articles you post. I don’t always agree with the message in the articles. Even though Harris is a ‘Baptist’ her liberal political views are too much. Now that you have included articles on Kamala Harris, I would like to see a balanced coverage of VP Mike Pence. I listened to his testimony recently. Powerful!! We need more men in government like him!”
Parts 2-5 of this series will address the concerns expressed by this reader. Maybe my responses to him will be helpful to others, too.
Hi Bill, I really look forward to your responses to your reader. Especially the session about being liberal—and being a Christian. My middle son (and other family members and some friends too) lash out about my liberal views and I want to prayerfully respond. The insinuation is you can’t be a Democrat and be a Christian. I tend to avoid conflict but feel I need to stand up for myself too. Anyway, look forward to reading your responses.
Diana,
Thanks so much. I’ve sent you a private reply by email, mainly because I mention some friends we both knew at Bethany in KC a half-century ago, who haven’t appreciated my work so much. I don’t want to embarrass them publicly. I’m so glad you’ve stayed in touch and that my writing is an encouragement to you. I can relate to the challenges you mention.
Warm regards,
Bill J