Did He Just Say That? - MBC Day 2

October 31, 2006 @ 4:28 pm by Pressed

It’s been an interesting day here at the convention. At first I thought it was going to be another day of cheesy lameness. What do I mean by that? Well, there seems to be some backwards cheese ball way of doing and saying things that has seeped its way into the convention. I am from the mindset that we should be doing everything with excellence and class and that we should have some definite leadership. That seems to be lacking. I’m not saying it to be mean, I’m just being real. If a person not associated with the MBC would visit I’m not sure what they would think about some of the disorganized and seemingly unprofessional way the convention seems to be conducted. The President and Vice President act as if they know very little about what is going on from the stage. I guess they don’t know how to conduct a business meeting and know even less about how Roberts Rules of Order works. Maybe they do know it and are just nervous. Either way, there were a lot of mistakes made today and it seemed as though the parliamentarians had to stand next to them and whisper in their ear the whole time. That frustrates me. I think to be leaders in the convention is a privilege and a title that should be respected. If a person has the privilege to be elected as President or Vice President, then they should at the very least learn how to conduct such a meeting in a proper and orderly fashion with respect to the position and the rules by which the convention is run. It’s like we have been winging it the last couple of years. That doesn’t look good. I mean, we went through all the trouble in the conservative resurgence to gain back our convention and is this what we really want it to become? Is this what conservatives are all about? Is this what conservative leadership looks like? Come on. We need to conduct these meetings with excellence, it’s only once a year!

Now that I got that off my chest, there were a few things of significance that took place today. Due to the single alignment issue that was passed last year in the MBC there were a group of churches that no longer qualify to be a part of the Missouri Baptist Convention. We were asked to vote to unseat all the messengers from these churches. This simply means we voted to take away their credentials and register them as guests and not voting members. I thought this was going to be a big issue, but it wasn’t. In fact, I don’t think any of the churches even showed up except for Third Baptist in St. Louis. They got up and said they were still praying for us and we said we are still praying for them and they handed in their credentials and that was about it. No discussion, no objections. I was surprised.

The next thing we voted on was to accept the nominations to the executive board made by the nominating committee. This became a fairly debated issue. Some wanted the nominations to not be accepted. Former MBC president Mitchell Jackson asked to remove the current president, Ralph Sawyer, from the executive board and replace him with Gerald Davidson who was speaking later that day. This became a slightly heated debate until Gerald stood up and asked his name to be removed because he didn’t want to cause any division within the convention. With this whole debate there was some element of confusion and suddenly in the middle of it I think a little bit if internal conflict that has been going on in the executive committee made its way to the floor. Mitchell Jackson stepped up and aired out some dirty laundry. He asked the convention not to let Roger Moran be allowed to be a part of the executive committee. He said that Moran has been causing problems within the executive committee and that he was making things difficult for our executive director David Clippard. Unfortunately it was pointed out to Mitchell that Moran was not a nomination at all and Mitchell had made a mistake in thinking that he was. Mitchell had basically said all the stuff and then realized that we were not voting to nominate him anyway.

I felt really bad for him and he later stepped up “broken” and offered his heartfelt apology to the convention and to Roger Moran. Later when Gerald Davison got up to preach he declared that project 1000 is over and that the Missouri Baptist Layman’s association needs to be shut down because the conservative resurgence is over and has been over. Roger Moran is the head of the Missouri Baptist Layman’s association. So there are some conflicts that I guess I didn’t know much about. It was kind of shocking that within a matter of minutes it all came flopping out.

Tomorrow we vote on miscellaneous business and a few other things. Until then, I must sleep.

Permalink  |  Comments (2)  |  Filed under: MBC & SBC

Halloween: Just Good Fun Or Demonic Tradition?

@ 3:34 pm by Pressed

Originally Posted On October 25, 2004

In my search to discover more about the history of Halloween I was taken to the History Channel’s website. On October 31st, 2004 they are airing a show on the history of Halloween, but if you can’t wait until then there is plenty of information on their website. Here is a quick overview of the history of Halloween from the History Channel’s website:

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints’ Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints’, All Saints’, and All Souls’, were called Hallowmas.

Our celebration of Halloween is wholly different than what October 31st meant to the Celts. To them it was their religion, their belief, their life, and they were serious about it. They depended on the natural world and to see the predictions of the future. To do things to help them through the winter was important to them. In America Halloween maybe somewhat similar to the practices of a false religion or cultic practice, in reality, it is not the same. Is what we do at Halloween wrong? Is it the practice itself or the meaning behind it? For instance, they dressed up to attempt to tell each others fortunes during a festival in which they were sacrificing animals to a false god. We dress up and go door to door collecting candy and having fun. It seems to be there is a big difference in those two things. To Americans it is a fun holiday. Things like pumpkins, ghosts, ghouls, monsters actually entertain us. So how did this buisness of “trick or treat” become a tradition in the United States?

The American tradition of “trick-or-treating” probably dates back to the early All Souls’ Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called “soul cakes” in return for their promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as “going a-souling” was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

I have found tons of information on the subject of Halloween and the history behind it. For Christians, the biggest fear of celebrating Halloween is the fear of practicing or participating in some type of cultic practice or demon worship. (I won’t get into, but these same poeple should not own Christmas trees if that is the case.)

To me, Halloween is nothing more than good fun, enticing some of the basic human emotions, fear and fun. We like to be scared, thats why we like scary movies. It’s not something that is associated with the devil. These kids don’t dress up and sacrifice people or animals to false gods. The devil doesn’t come in the form of a big monster or an ugly demonic creature that bites our heads off. The things we potray as evil are not what evil looks like at all. Satan and his demons were angels of light and were made as beautiful creatures. However, I am teachable in this area… I don’t have the answers and in fact this could be a disputable matter.

What do you think about Halloween? Demonic holiday or just good fun? Let me know in the comments below.

Permalink  |  Comments (19)  |  Filed under: Ethics & Worldviews

The Agenda For Today: MBC Day 2

@ 7:24 am by Pressed

Today is a pretty full schedule. The convention meets from 8:15 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. tonight with a few breaks in between. I won’t bore you with the details of the schedule, I’ll just list the things going on today that I am interested in and that I think will be fairly significant.

First of all at 9:00 is the report of the Credentials Commitee. Then we will hear from and vote to approve the reports from the Committee on Convention Committees and the Nominationg Committee. We will also hear from the Executive Board Staff and the one I’m really looking forward to, the Legal Task Force Report. I’m interested in what is going on with the battle between the convention and the 5 breakaway agencies and how close we are to bringing all of that mess to a conclusion. I guess I hold out hope that we will see our agencies return to the Missouri Baptist Convention and hopefully before they strip Windemere into nothing but a bare wasteland.

At 11:00 a.m. we will have the introduction of Miscellaneous Business. It’s interesting to hear some of the things that come up during this session. We don’t get to vote on the items until Wednesday, but they are all introduced today in order to be reviewed.

At 11:15 a.m. we will elect the president. This of course means that only one guy will run for the position and the executive board will simply cast its vote and the guy will be the president without any disagreement. This amazes me, but it happens.

In the afternoon there is really not much worth noting. There is another Introduction of Miscellaneous Business at 2:45.

The evening service tonight is an IMB Commissioning Service done by Jerry Rankin. He’s going to be speaking to our association in Franklin County next Sunday night, so I guess I get a double dose of Rankin this week. That could be quite prophetic.

Permalink  |  Comments (0)  |  Filed under: MBC & SBC

Up A Willow Creek Without A Paddle: MBC Day 1

@ 12:31 am by Pressed

That’s just one of the many interesting comments made by the convention president Ralph Sawyer at the opening session of this years Missouri Baptist Convention. On Monday night there is really not much business to attend to. In fact, the biggest things going on are the Executive Director’s address and the President’s address. I left tonight feeling, how shall I say, a bit disenchanted with the MBC. From the time I’ve started going to the convention about 6 years ago I’ve always had a deep appreciation and respect for our convention. In fact, being new to the whole idea, I was enthralled by it. I was around when some major changes were taking place in the convention and I was able to see the process. Everything was done with a certain degree of efficiancy and class. Tonight however seems to mark a pattern that has been growing over the last couple of years. It’s as if we’ve lost all efficiancy and class and have settled for a cheap, unorganized, cheesy substitute or imitation of what the convention used to be. I hate to admit it, but there were even some times that I actually felt embarrassed to even be a part of it.

It’s sad to see that after the whole battle between conservatives and liberals that this is what we are left with. I am very conservative, and yet I’m not sure what to think about all of this. I find myself being frustrated with it rather than being pleased with the direction we are heading. Something’s got to give, but I don’t know what that is.

Are we finding ourselves up a creek without a paddle? We’ll see what happens tomorrow. Maybe things will be better.

Permalink  |  Comments (0)  |  Filed under: MBC & SBC

VOTE NO ON AMENDMENT 2

October 29, 2006 @ 9:09 am by Pressed

Line 11 of Amendment 2 states that “No person may clone or attempt to clone a human being.” But if you look at line 109 you will see that it says to “Clone or attempt to clone a human being, to implant in a uterus or to attempt to implant in a uterus anything other than the product of fertilization of an egg of a human female by a sperm of a human male for the purpose of initiating a pregnancy that could result in the creation of a human fetus, or birth of a human being.” In other words in Amendment 2 you ban human cloning defined as implanting anything into a uterus to produce a human fetus or the birth of a human being. You DO NOT ban cloning that doesn’t implant anything into a woman.

In essense they are saying that as long as they don’t implant the fetus into a woman or carry it to full term it isn’t really cloning. I guess that means that if I make a bowl of macaroni and cheese and do not put it in my stomach it can’t really be called food.

Just because you clone a human in a dish and not in a womb doesn’t make the fetus any less human and it doesn’t mean that you are not cloning. Lets not distort reality to make ourselves feel better. Don’t be fooled! Vote no on Amendment 2.

Permalink  |  Comments (2)  |  Filed under: Ethics & Worldviews