Too often stereotyped by some as uneducated, superstitious Bible thumpers, Southern Baptists have entered an era where its intellectual firepower has never been greater, exerting much needed influence on our troubled society. While many of us serve our Lord Jesus at the church level, Southern Baptist scholars are engaging the lost on another part of the spiritual battlefield. Blessed with keen minds and the unsheathed sword of God’s inerrant, infallible Word, they are making Christ known in ways reminiscent of the Apostle Paul’s encounter with Greek philosophers on Mars Hill.
This is what came to my mind as I was privileged to participate in the Spring Institute conducted by the Richard Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. About 20 scholars and church leaders from various disciplines, ranging from law and ethics to pastoral ministry and public policy, gathered for three days to discuss issues facing the church and American culture. Speakers like Calvin Biesner of the Cornwall Alliance and Patrick Garry, author and constitutional law professor at the University of South Dakota, addressed topics ranging from the fallacy of man-made global warming to the growing threat to our religious liberty.
The Land Center, headed by Evan Lenow, associate professor of ethics at Southwestern, is a glowing example of the increasingly dynamic nature of Southern Baptist intellectual life (about half of the attendees were PhD. professors from Southern Baptist Convention seminaries). The commitment Southern Baptists have made to higher education and world class scholarship is not only providing our churches with first-rate pastors and teachers, but has opened doors among the unbelieving intelligentsia where ideas are born and/or shaped. And because ideas have consequences, Southern Baptist scholars are making a difference. Lenow and all the staff at the Land Center at Southwestern are to be commended for their important contribution and for allowing someone like me to be blessed by witnessing it all.
Now for some brief comments on an assortment of news stories as The Pathway staff prepares to leave for Columbus, Ohio, to bring you coverage of the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting:
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Missouri is now rated by National Right to Life as one of the most pro-life states in the nation. This has happened – to the glory of God – because of hard work by many people – Missouri Southern Baptists included. Such efforts produced a 1983 law requiring women to buy optional insurance for elective abortion coverage – and it recently paid off. Missouri just leveled the largest fine ever in the state’s history against insurer Aetna, which agreed to pay $4.5 million for violations of state law that included paying for elective abortions when the women were not eligible under their policies. That will get the attention of company CEOs and shareholders very quickly.
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The Missouri General Assembly has completed the 2015 regular session and to be honest, not much was accomplished. Bills that would have strengthened Missouri’s laws prohibiting sex trafficking of women and children and a proposed constitutional amendment protecting the right of parents to educate their children in private schools or home education died for lack of action. Mandatory annual abortion clinic inspections and protection of the religious liberty of Christian student groups on college campuses met the same, frustrating fate. The good news: The new budget includes more than $2 million for the state’s alternatives to abortion program.
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It is appropriate for May to begin with the National Day of Prayer (May 7) and end with the Memorial Day (May 25) observance, where we pause to honor those who gave their lives so that we could have things like a National Day of Prayer. Now consider the disgusting treatment of Air Force Maj. Gen. Craig Olsen, speaking at the National Day of Prayer event in Washington, D.C. Olsen credited God for his accomplishments in the military and referred to himself as a “redeemed believer in Christ.” His speech enraged Mikey Weinstein and his Military Religious Freedom Foundation (atheists), who are fighting to keep Christianity out of the military. Weinstein fired off a letter to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Walsh, calling Olsen’s remarks “a brutal disgrace to the very uniform he was wearing” and demanded that Olsen be “immediately, aggressively, and very visibly brought to justice for his unforgivable crimes and transgressions.”
The Air Force has not yet responded to Weinstein’s demand.
