I wrote this preview of the June 29 Poor People’s March on Washington D.C.:
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June 27 was the debate between President Biden and Donald Trump, so I published this post:
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June 21 was the 60th anniversary of the murder of civil rights activists in Mississippi.
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It was announced on June 17 that Paul Pressler died on Jun 7.
“Paul Pressler, Disgraced Christian Conservative Leader, Dies at 94,” read The New York Times headline.
In addition to destroying the Southern Baptist Convention, Pressler personally abused and damaged young men, including minors.
In seminary I took Baptist Heritage and Culture from the Rev. Dr. Cecil Sherman, the moderate who led the break-up of the SBC in 1990, and the first moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. (Follow the link for a wonderful book by Dr. Sherman, where he shares some of the stories he told in class.)
Dr. Sherman fought Pressler, Paige Patterson, Al Mohler, Adrian Rogers, and others as they took over the SBC, destroying the lives and careers of good Christians. They took over churches, then the seminaries, then the denominational committees, until finally as the last moderate leader, Dr. Sherman was the chair of the “Peace Committee,” and they forced him out.
They took over the churches by rewriting the Baptist Faith and Message of 1963, where scripture moved from being interpreted by Jesus to scripture being interpreted by the male pastor.
The conservatives ignored decades of Baptist history that affirmed women ministers and began denying women ordination almost as soon as they took control of churches, one after another. Today they deny the Baptist tradition of intellectual independence and instead focus more and more intently on polity and procedures.
Pressler politicized the SBC and the damage he did is permanent. There are no “moderates” in the SBC, just various levels of politicized extremism that ignores the teaching of Jesus.
“The evil that men do lives after them,” Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar, “the good is oft interred with their bones.”
So let it be with Paul Pressler.
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June 9 I attended Mass at Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, the Trappist monastery outside Bardstown, Kentucky. Follow this link for a visit to Merton’s Kentucky.
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I published this post on June 14: Five Reasons why Christians Should be Pro-Choice.
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June 3 was a state holiday in Alabama to honor the birthday of traitor Jefferson Davis. As a reminder, most who defend the Jan. 6 treason probably defend the treason of 1861. 1864, 1964, 2024 like-minded racists carry the exact same flag, making it easy for us to recognize them.
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June also marked the 15th anniversary of my graduation from seminary.
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A reminder I publish blog posts on Patheos.
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Pastor Jim Meisner, Jr. earned his M.Div. from the oldest HBCU seminary in the United States. He’s the author of the novel Faith, Hope, and Baseball, available on Amazon, or follow this link to order an autographed copy. He created and manages the Facebook page Faith on the Fringe.
Faith on the Fringe 