Getting what they prayed for

I was thinking in doing posts this week about the events at the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) that the Christian Right has gotten what they prayed for. For years and years, fundamentalists and conservative Republicans have been grouching that religion had been "taken out of the public square".

That makes it sound like people were unable to talk about religion in public. Which as anyone who's lived in America for any time in the last, well, ever, knows is not the case. And politicians have always advertised their church memberships and yadda, yadda.

When you looked at actual cases, religion being taken "out of the public square" basically meant court decisions that didn't allow children in public schools to be required to participate in conservative Protestant prayers. Or Judge Roy Moore in Alabama not being allowed to put up a big ole Ten Commandments monument on public property. Actually, he did put it up and it got taken down.

But not religion is "in the public square". Christian fundamentalists (and Moonies) are appointed to responsible government posts and get to impose their sectarian visions on science policy. Religious groups can now get public funds for "social service" programs whose main goals is proselytizing for particular religious creeds. And a crackpot interpretation of ancient apocalyptic prophecies is a key factor driving US foreign policy in the Middle East.

Religion is definitely "in the public square" now.

And guess what? That means that all of us need to keep up on the religious directions of the most significant denominations, including the SBC, the biggest Protestant denomination in the US. Their church business is public business now. This merging church and state thing works both ways. Also merging church and political party, as the Republicans have achieved.

So all this WATB nonsense that we hear from the fundis about "oh, you criticized some of our goofy ideas, you're disrespecting our religion"? Save it for whining to each other. If that kind of public scrutiny, from other Christians as well as non-Christians, makes you uncomfortable - well, maybe you should have thought about that we you were praying and organizing to get your religion "in the the public square".

The Australian pop singer Paul Kelly has a song with the chorus line, "Be careful what you pray for/You just might get it".

Maybe even more to the point is Bruce Springsteen's song that says, "With every wish, there comes a curse".

Having said all that, the Baptist Press has a fairly long article about the new SBC president's responses to post-election questions: SBC’s new president, Frank Page, fields reporters’ questions by Tammi Reed Ledbetter 06/14/06

Our mainstream "press corps", to the extent things like this enter their constricted horizons at all, can only process this as some kind of "moderate" victory. I would describe it as maybe less radically conservative than the other options. But only time will tell about that. Page doesn't particularly sound "moderate":

“I do not believe the convention elected me to somehow undo the conservative resurgence. That is not who I am, not what they’ve asked for, not what they want,” Page said. Instead, the soft-spoken pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., said he believes the vote for him was a wakeup call from grassroots Southern Baptists to focus on the Cooperative Program channel of missions support and to broaden the base of involvement in the convention. ...

... “It’s a clear call from the people of the Southern Baptist Convention that we want to strengthen our work together through the Cooperative Program as we expand involvement to reach out to godly, conservative men and women who perhaps have not been utilized in the past.”

I guess they're not really after godly liberals.

Oh, how could I forget? The Liberals are going to Hail.

Page’s third condition addressed a commitment to biblical inerrancy, the doctrine most often identified with the conservative resurgence. “I believe in the integrity of the Word of God. I want that very, very clear,” Page said, alluding to a statement by the Florida pastor who nominated him.

Forrest Pollock of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Fla., in his speech nominating Page, affirmed Page’s conviction on inerrancy and said the Carolina pastor would simply look for men and women who had not previously been involved.

“I’m not trying to undo a conservative movement that I have supported all of these years,” Page told reporters.

An increasing emphasis on "missions" may not bode well for the coming years. What, we're going to send more fundamentalist Christian missionaries to Muslim countries?

Actually, the following indicates that they may be worried about getting new Baptist blood here at home, too. This really caught my eye, with all we hear about the growth of fundamentalist churches at the expense of more mainstream Christianity:

Citing a statistic that between 75 and 80 percent of Southern Baptist churches are in decline, Page said, “they need to know there’s help and hope for declining, plateaued churches.”

Evangelist preachers always are seeing a great movement of people turning to God. But 75-80% of SBC churches declining? Wow. That's quite a statistic.

That article doesn't say if any reporters asked Page why the convention "messengers" cheered so enthusiastically for Condi Rice's dishonest war propaganda.

The Baptist Press' report on Condi-Condi's speech is here: Moral leadership needed to confront evil, spread liberty, Rice tells SBC messengers by Gregory Tomlin 06/14/06. Unquestionably, moral leadership is needed to combat evil. Particularly the evil of wars started for no good reaon.

But the "sweet spirit" Page kept talking about didn't seem to include confronting the Secretary of State over preventive war or torture.

Tomlin's report notes, "The secretary’s 30-minute address followed videotaped comments from President Bush the previous day."

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