Some South Carolina Baptists helped carry that "raghead" water which did not douse Nikki Haley's bid the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial nomination.
Christa Brown calls our attention to a story of a Southern Baptist church's negligence in dealing with a preacher's sexual abuse of his adopted children. She quotes from the Anchorage Daily News:
Church officials knew the oldest daughter, Renee, was being abused long before Diana did. One of them, according to Renee's sworn testimony, told her to forgive her father and not tell anyone what he had done. It was three years before Renee got the courage to speak up again. By then, her father had started in on her two little sisters.
You see in that horror why sexual predators regard churches as attractive environments.
For example, one predator told a researcher [.pdf]:
I considered church people easy to fool...they have a trust that comes from being Christians...They tend to be better folks all around. And they seem to want to believe in the good that exists in all people ... I think they want to believe in people. And because of that, you can easily convince, with or without convincing words.
Thus forgiveness becomes cover-up, with hellish results for victims.
Deface their billboards, again(?). This time on the Billy Graham Parkway in North Carolina.
William Warren of Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics was civil in his response. According to the Charlotte Observer:
He said his group considered the vandalism an isolated act and not indicative of Charlotte’s religious community.
It would be ironic if Christians were found to be responsible for the vandalism. For the pledge in its original form, without the "under God" wording which was added in a Cold War heat in 1954, was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister (and socialist).
Oops is in a way how FBC Jax Watchdog was robbed of his anonymity.
Formerly anonymous blogger Thomas A. Rich's identity was made public after an unnecessary investigation whose details are still being unearthed in court.
Although some evidence pertaining to the involvement of Florida State Attorney Angela Corey was somehow inadvertently destroyed.
Really, and that destruction is cited as part of an argument against deposing Corey as part of the proceedings.
"Oops!" indeed.
Another injustice.
A Florida federal district court refused this week to dismiss the claim by blogger Tom Rich (FBC Jax Watchdog) that Assistant Fla. State Attorney Stephen Siegel violated Rich's right to speak anonymously, and trampled on the Establishment Clause because defendants had no secular purpose for their actions.
The lawsuit alleges Siegel issued subpoenas that helped Jacksonville police officer Robert Hinson -- who was a member of First Baptist Church of Jacksonvilla, Fla. -- identify Rich when there was no evidence of criminal activity.
Dismissed in the same action were civil claims against State Attorney Angela Corey for her office’s role.
Rich’s claims against the police officer and against First Baptist were unaffected because they weren’t involved in this motion to dismiss.
Emerging standards for unmasking anonymous bloggers were certainly not met in Rich's case.
To prevail in this instance, Rich must now prove the violations he alleges. But even at this juncture, the case is a caution for those who would twist legal authority to unmask an anonymous blogger without compelling legal justification. Abuse of power has a price.
[H/T: Religion Clause]
Henry IV's burning of Walliam Sawtre as a heretic starts the Google News Timeline for Baptist.
Their graph is interactive. What do you think of it?
site:sitename.com keywordIf yours is a ".org," ".net" or other generic top-level domain (gTLD) or a country code top-level domain (ccTLD), substitute that for ".com".
Sex offenders are apparently unsurprised when Southern Baptist clergy seek clemency for them, as Raleigh, N.C., pastor Ricky Mill did last Monday for a man convicted of possessing child pornography.
The pastor's good faith not at issue, but the overall predictability of the behavior is a concern.
In 2003 a researcher [.pdf] was told by a predator:
I considered church people easy to fool ... they have a trust that comes from being Christians...They tend to be better folks all around. And they seem to want to believe in the good that exists in all people ... I think they want to believe in people. And because of that, you can easily convince, with or without convincing words.
The court was unconvinced, and on firm ground the plea for clemency made by Mills and others. Whatever the personal history of that individual offender, a study of child pornography offenders at the Butner, N.C., federal prison by M.L. Bourke and A.E. Hernandez Journal of Family Violence found:
More than 85 percent admitted to abusing at least one child, they found, compared with 26 percent who were known to have committed any “hands on” offenses at sentencing. The researchers also counted many more total victims: 1,777, a more than 20-fold increase from the 75 identified when the men were sentenced.
That study suggests a risk to the community in releasing a known offender. The offender has a twelve-year history of "looking at images of children being molested and sexually abused," and according to the Charlotte Observer had accumulated "more than 3,400 images and videos of naked, molested boys and girls, toddlers and teens."
If the pattern of seeking leniency had not already been established in cases in involving crimes like and including sexual indecency with children, it might be overlooked. Instead, it should be corrected.
Michael Mansur of the Kansas City Star writes:
There was no screaming. No shouting. Security hauled no one off. ... for more than two hours Sunday afternoon, about 250 Kansas Citians clapped and supported a panel of religious leaders — including Buddhist, Jewish and Baptist — who called for a moral response to the national health care crisis. The forum was at Community Christian Church.
The core message: With 46 million in the U.S. uninsured (35.9 million uninsured Americans) and millions more underinsured, "it is time to do something."
The Rev. Eric Williams, pastor of Calvary Baptist Temple in Kansas City "and other panel members" said it is time to end the fusillades of misinformation, fear and division: “Call it what you want, but let’s get something done.”
FBC Jax Watchdog's anonymity was silently demolished by an unsatisfactorily explained and, from the point of view of the blogger, secret criminal investigation.
Anonymous blogs permit the relatively powerless to speak what they believe is truth, to power. Sometimes the power is a church, as we see in the confrontation between First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Fla. and FBC Jax Watchdog, and risk still attends attempting to say to power things it would prefer not to hear.
The unmasking of Thomas A. Rich as Watchdog, detailed in Florida Times-Union, closely resembles the July attempt by the Bronx (N.Y.) District Attorney to use a grand jury subpoena to unmask and silence critical anonymous bloggers and commenters on the NYC political blog site called Room 8. With the help of Public Citizen, Room 8 successfully resisted disclosure.
We do not know how Google responded to the subpoena it received. Not only does Google have an official policy of not commenting on subpoenas or other legal processes, but also, subpoenas associated with criminal investigations are typically attended by gag orders (Room 8 responded by threatening the Bronx DA's office with a countersuit). Nor has Watchdog thus far been able to obtain a copy of the subpoena he believes Comcast honored.
We do know that no wrongdoing was found, yet the investigating Jacksonville Sheriff's Department officer apparently chose to breach the blogger's anonymity by disclosing his identity to FBC Jax. We also know that Thomas A. Rich's life was disrupted as a result. He was denied access to his (now) former church, publicly excoriated in an official church action and this week was described as a "sociopath" by the pastor who has been the principal subject of his blogging.
We don't know in persuasive detail what criminal allegations were believed to justify that intrusion of police power into Rich's life and the lives of two other bloggers. As a result, whether those allegations can withstand the light of day is an open question. Serious issues of conflict of interest (the investigating officer is an FBC Jacksonville member and apparently among those who provide security there) and as a result abuse of power, have been raised by the association of the detective's investigation with attempts to silence the then anonymous blogger.
Such issues are typically best resolved by full disclosure, for this has become in considerable part a debate over public policy, and specifically over whether the force of law was properly applied. Given the issue's visibility, the local and state public officials involved must tell the truth and trust the people, or absent a thoroughly compelling explanation for silence, find themselves indicted by the appearance of concealment.
If the purpose of the investigation and disclosure was to end Watchdog's commentary on matters of general interest to his audience, it failed and those who applied the pressure have put themselves in the fire.
Ethical/legal standards not followed by law enforcement in FBC Jax case
The case of a Rwandan Baptist minister accused of genocide took a disturbing turn today when his defense argued that police tortured witnesses to extract evidence against him.
According to YLE:
The 57-year-old suspect sought political asylum in Finland in 2003. The man was arrested in 2007 on suspicion of planning, leading and implementing massacres. Suspicions were aroused in connection with a background study during the consideration of his asylum application.
Finland stands by its refusal to extradite the individual to Rwanda. He is in custody, however. Finland's National Bureau of Investigation expects to have its inquiry completed by summer. An extension of tomorrow's deadline for filing charges has been requested.
History's lesson about stifling dissent, from John Adams' loss of the presidency amid backlash from his Alien and Sedition Acts to current ecclesiastical conflicts, is the same writes Wade Burleson:
One of these days men and women with power, whether it be ecclesiastical, political or corporate will learn that attempts to stifle dissent and criticism will only ultimately result in the people you lead turning against you.
In the comments, First Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Fla., Watchdog compares the "sedition" part Adams' Alien and Sedition Acts to a passage from the FBC Jax deacon's resolution, which was directed at him in a "public flogging of a former member."
You may recall that Watchdog aggressively blogged FBC Jax's policies and repressive governance, especially the pastor's accumulation of power. After a period of self-muzzled silence, Thursday brought new Watchdog coverage of the drive to strip him of his anonymity and silence him.
We look to Adams' extinct Federalist Party for the price of repressive governance. The Federalists did much good but embodied sweeping distrust of and intolerance for dissenting views.
Thursday brought us Watchdog coverage of the drive to strip him of his anonymity.
You may recall that Watchdog aggressively blogged First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Fla.'s, policies and repressive governance, especially the pastor's accumulation of power. The deacons adopted a resolution directed at him and it was approved in a vote by the congregation [video] -- after he was no longer a member there. Etc.
BaptistLife.com site administrator William Thornton observed that FBC Jacksonville conducted a "public flogging of a former member" -- a process which sounds "less Biblical than it does medieval." [Amen to that.]
We did not celebrate the earlier caesura in self-expression about matters which at every step have appeared to be legitimate public concerns. It is good to see the hard questions asked now about privacy, conflict of interest and (still) church governance. Such public debate can be redemptive by revealing the truth.
Miguel De La Torres returned heretically Wednesday to the Associated Baptist Press opinion section. He was there to amplify and clarify arguments which in February ignited a Southern Baptist blog firestorm.
De La Torres performance gave heretics a good name. He explained that he didn't call Jesus a sinner for His response to the Canaanite woman, who in Matthew 15:21-28 sought to have her daughter freed of a demon. Equally important in our view, De La Torres said:
Many also thought I was being heretical by implying that Jesus learned something from the Canaanite woman’s persistence in demanding aid from him. But do the Gospels themselves not tell us that the fully human Jesus, as he grew into his divinity, “increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God” (Luke 2:52)?
You may recall that passions ran high. The original piece was called “tripe,” “heretical trash” and so on. Which our "heretic" touched in good-humored passing. He reserved his time Wednesday for more serious considerations, closing with the suggestion that "Jesus is not afraid of our honest inquiry." And with humility asked "if you are willing to be the sister or brother in Christ of a heretic dog like me?"
Read it all here.
Advised to fall silent about First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Fla., "until certain on-going events run their course," the Watchdog has proclaimed himself "muzzled."
Watchdog promises to tell his story then, and it sounds both interesting and illustrative of what can befall anonybloggers:
When I tell my story, it will be the entire story of what has occured regarding this blog, the legal proceedings, Comcast subpoenas, field reports, official JSO trespass warnings ... all of it. It isn't pretty, and many people will be sorely disappointed at what has transpired in the last few months behind the scenes.
Public-spirited anonymous blogging deserves our support and defense. After all:
Do we not protect the discourse itself by protecting this one blogger?
A collapse of anonymity appears to have led to this silence -- a caesura in self-expression about matters which at every step have appeared to be legitimate public concerns.
Do not look here for a celebration of such silence.
Ilford High Road Baptist Church\'s answer to the Atheist Bus ads and commentary on our collective economic predicament.
Anonymous blogging is part of a tradition of protective self-expression whose origins predate electronic communication, as an anonymous comment at Enid, Ok., pastor Wade Burleson's blog eloquently explains:
All of this talk about anonymity has got me thinking. The term “coward” is sure getting thrown around a lot, and that is unfortunate. I wonder if anyone here has ever read or heard about the Marprelate tracts? They were written by (anonymous) Puritans in 1588-89 criticizing the abuses of Anglican bishops and clergy. They knew the consequences if they were discovered, but they could not remain silent. In fact, two men (both ministers) died (1 executed, 1 died in prison) because they were linked to the printing of the tracts. The printer, Waldegrave, had his press confiscated and was financially ruined. It is debatable whether or not the authors were ever really discovered. When the Anglican Star Chamber issued an edict in 1586 declaring that the Anglican church had the power to license and/or forbid all printing in the country, these men knew that they must speak out, but they didn’t necessarily want to die for it. After all, when a “trouble-maker” is discovered and dealt with (i.e. ruined by those in power that he critiques), then the criticism is silenced and people remain in the dark about the issues.
Read the rest here.
Anonymous blogging does permit the less powerful to constructively express themselves about the powerful. It does honorably trace its heritage to the anonymous pamphleteers, like those who wrote during the American revolutionary era.
Through anonymity authors may escape intimidation and other retaliation that would silence them and as was the case in 2007 with a New Jersey blogger, "daTruthSquad", legal action is sometimes required to preserve their anonymity and thus their continued self-expression.
Demeaning anonymous self-expression as "cowardice" is in such cases merely additional pressure on the blogger to fall silent.
As gwfrink3 wrote at the time:
Democratic government cannot be well-conducted in the dark, and this anonymous author is casting good light.
Yet anonymity is sometimes required if one is to both make responsible contributions to public discourse, and also put bread on the family table.
Do we not protect the discourse itself by protecting this one blogger?
Frink recently argued the public service case for FBC Jax Watchdog .
Aware that like all examples (ourselves included) he is imperfect, we have defended him as well. Anonymity and all, the less powerful critic's risk is real. Care is required.
We back up today on all of this not a single step.
Miguel De La Torre ignited a Southern Baptist blog firestorm Monday with an iconoclastic reading of Matthew 15:21-28. That passage has Jesus responding to a Canaanite woman's plea that He heal her child. In the key phrase Jesus says:
I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It is not good to take the bread of the children and throw it to the dogs.
Jesus' comparison of the woman of color to "dogs" strikes De La Torre and many before him [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] as an arguably racist remark.
His conclusion in the Associated Baptist Press (ABP) opinion piece, not a new one to the world of progressive Christianity, strikes the fundamentalist bloggers as saying that Jesus committed a sin: racism. Yet Jesus is God incarnate, argues J. Thomas White of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Perfect. Sinless. Some therefore suggest that De La Torre is heretical when he writes:
To deny this woman a healing and call her a dog reveals the racism his culture taught him. But Jesus, unlike so many within the dominant social structure of today, was willing to hear the words of this woman of color, and learn from her.
Passions run high. They call the piece "tripe," "heretical trash" and so on. Some swear off the ABP for presuming to publish a "false teaching." They wonder at the competence of the ABP editors and want the piece deleted. Only a couple gently defended open debate.
Quietly reasoned explanation of the text, the sort of explanation which might be heard by skeptics and others whom our angry ministers would regard as unsaved, was rare.
Should we wonder whether there is a relationship between this occasional Baptist blogger preference for heated expostulation and the report in this year's National Council of Churches' Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches that Southern Baptists are declining in number?
Westboro B*ptist Church's plan to picket (a favorite target) a production of The Laramie Project at Basingstoke, Hampshire, has been cripped at the British border.
"Homophobic American cleric" Fred Phelps, who heads Westboro Baptist Church, and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper, had announced plans to lead protests against the play and have been banned from doing so by Britain's home secretary, Jacqui Smith. Other members of the family may be banned as well.
The UK Border Agency applied the British "exclusions policy," targeted at "all those who seek to stir up tension and provoke others to violence regardless of their origins and beliefs." They said, "Both these individuals have engaged in unacceptable behavior by inciting hatred against a number of communities."
No mention was made of Phelps' companion website God Hates the World, which this week stated: "God hates England. Your Queen is a whore. You're going to hell."
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