Let’s see. Where do I start?
- SBC blogs are just like the soaps: No matter how long you stay away, when you pick it back up, nothing really has changed. There may be a few different names, but the same old story line is still there, chugging away, right where you left it.
- When I read the posts of most fundamentalists, these lines about chickens always come to mind:
And intellectually, they’re plumb light headed.
They’re not confused by the facts.
That’s why there’s no seeing-eye chickens, guard chickens,
Or trained chicken acts (or cogent thoughts).
- I’m also reminded of the old Arab saying “death by a thousand cuts” when I see a sane Christian trying to set above fundamentalists straight in the comments.
So I’m not even going to go there. The only criticism I have is: Dr. Finn, you never should have revised your post. You didn’t say anything offensive. I know you are not Jesus, but look what he said to the Pharisees in Matthew 23. At the very least you should have left your “simplistic” history intact. And don’t forget about sufficiency; it is important.
Now, I’m going to watch a movie with my wife.
It never fails. Every so often the anti-alcohol issue has to emerge from one of the journalistic organs of the Southern Baptist Convention. This time Oklahoma’s own Baptist Messenger felt the need last week to beat the dead horse one more time. There was nothing really new this time around; not much, really, to comment on. The same tired arguments were drug up on stage: short on scriptural exegesis, well short on scripture, period; long on sophistry. I wouldn’t have bothered with this post on the evils of alcohol except for the on-line comments of a couple of ladies. The fairer sex, on the main, was better represented by sound reasoning and scripture than the men, who, for the most part displayed their more emotional feminine side a bit too much. There were some rational men, but not many. It was pretty impressive, considering one of the ladies was the missus, and the other was one of our three bright offspring. None of them were raised in a Southern Baptist church. That, the grace of God, and home schooling, is why they have a mind and can express themselves without saying “Uh, like, uh, you know.”
Sometimes these anti-alcohol types remind me of a few lines from that immortal classic The Chicken
And intellectually, they’re plumb light headed.
They’re not confused by the facts.
That’s why there’s no guard chickens,
seeing-eye chickens, or trained chicken acts.
You have a very hard time tying them down to plain scripture. They tend to have a penchant for statistics and less-clear scripture which they then “apply” to alcohol. I am not a member of the clergy club, but I know enough about hermeneutics to know that the principle of the analogy of scripture means that you use the clearer passages to see your way through the more unclear passages. With the anti-drink crowd it always seems to be the other way around. What do you do with passages like Deuteronomy 14:22-27, Psalm 104:14, 15, and Amos 9:13? Well, I guess if you don’t like those passages, just skip over them.
[Editorial note, 07/17/07: Apparently the SB o TC has removed the content associated with the link below, as it is now a dead link. They must not have been very proud of their performance.]
My wife is amazing. She had carpal tunnel surgery on her right hand last Wednesday. By Monday she had had all she could take, after reading the comments for five days over at Southern Baptists of Texas Convention blog. With her right hand in a brace, and strict orders from her doctor not to do such nonsense with said right hand, she procedes to bang out a comment on the alcohol debate over there, giving them what-for. She’s right on the money, too. It’s all about being counted righteous in Christ, and not blaming anything or anybody else for your sin. It’s just you and the exceeding sinfulness of your own sin. If you’ve ever argued with her daddy, you’d know better than to tangle with Mrs. Farmer Brown. Go check it out. She made me proud.
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