Reposting Where Are All the Brothers?

This is a repost of the Where Are All the Brothers? post for those of you asking for the orginal post since the format of the blog has changed. The tab to more information is above the first post on this page, below the letterhead rather than to the right as in the previous format. This new format also has a search box. I am making this repost until I can figure out how to put a widget for the book on the front page.

Nathan Finn’s Domestic Slavery and Baptists

Church historian Nathan Finn at The Fullness of Time Blog has a new book coming out with colleague Keith Harper, entitled, Domestic Slavery Considered as a Scriptural Institution. From the blog, here is the post:

 Lord willing, my first book will be hitting bookshelves in about eight weeks. Domestic Slavery Considered as a Scriptural Institution was first published in 1845, about a month before the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention. The book was based upon a series of point-counterpoint articles originally published in The Baptist Repository, a paper in Boston. The authors were Francis Wayland and Richard Fuller, two denominational leaders among Baptists in mid-19th century America.  Several historians have argued that the book was the most important work of its kind. It has not been in print since the 1850s.

My colleague Keith Harper and I have annotated the work, added a brief introduction, and included an appendix that reprints several articles from The Baptist Repository related to slavery and the formation of the SBC. The book will be published by Mercer University Press in its The Baptists series, edited by notable Baptist historian Walter Shurden. I hope to author several posts in the next few weeks about the two authors and the book itself.

I am looking forward to Nathan’s observations. Nathan also recently made a good post on the concept of “Reformed Baptist.“

The Washington Post on Southern Baptists

Today’s Washington Post did a cover article on Southern Baptists. There is a very cute 10-year old girl in prayer on the cover of the print version.

There also is a very good article on African American lawmakers’ struggles with deciding on which presidential candidate to endorse. Of course, the issue of morality is missing from their decision-making.

The Gloucester Institute February Newsletter

Tags

Gloucester Instititue, Kay Cole James

The Gloucester Institute February newsletter is available. Under the leadership of the Honorable Kay Cole James, the Gloucester Institute offers solid training and exposure opportunities for emerging African American leaders. As their website states,

 The Gloucester Institute will … … cultivate a society of “solutionists” within the African American community.

… provide a safe environment for African Americans of divergent views to work to resolve social, economic and political issues in the African American community.

… equip scholars with the intellectual, moral, and financial support to conduct intensive research to discover the best solutions to the social, economic and political problems facing the African American Community.

… communicate this vision to the entire African American Diaspora by creating a unique Web presence with a portal to policy papers, conversation, news media and career development.

… honor the legacy of African American leader Dr. Robert Russa Moton by using his historic home, Holly Knoll, for training, conferences and retreats designed to influence the market place of social, economic and political ideas in the African American community.is committed to providing an intellectually safe environment where ideas can be discussed and transformed into practical solutions

As many of you know, Kay James is a believer with an outstanding testimony before all. (Having read her biography several years ago, and knowing a little bit about the IVCF crew that were her acquaintences in her Hampton years, I suspect Kay holds to the Doctrines of Grace.) Maybe you have young person you wish to direct to the Gloucester Institute.

Tim Keller’s The Reason for God Available

Tags

skepticism, skeptics, The Reason for God, Tim Keller, Where Are All the Brothers

Tim Keller’s The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism is available at 38% off now from Westminster Bookstore. Tim is also featured in Newsweek. May we all learn from him how to speak to the skeptic without apologizing for robust belief in the One True and Living God. Get this book for a skeptic – aka “seeker” to some – you know. Congrats Tim!

Estee – A Young Gospel Hip Hop Artist

On My Space I found a young Gospel Hip-Hop artist whose music I like. You should go check her out. Her name is Estee and the CD is Anew. She is making a joyful noise, offering a good sound for singing songs, hymns, and spiritual songs, so that everywhere, for everything, with every sound, everyone with breath might praise Him. I encourage you to get a copy of the CD.

Before I Vote, Talk Morality to Me

Tags

African American evangelical vote, evangelical vote, Obama

On today’s Albert Mohler program, Dr. Russell Moore turns the Obama run on its head by asking “how can the church lead the way [on racial reconciliation] in a country swept with Obamamania?” The question is legitimate when white voters in Nebraska and Kansas voted overwhelmingly for Obama, even forcing Clinton to fire her campaign manager.  

One year ago the Washington Post examined the mum approach of Obama and Clinton on the issues of same-sex marriage and the morality of homosexuality. Obama has taken heat from the gay and lesbian community for having Donnie McClurkin on his campaign tour.    

Why have the candidates been somewhat silent on their views about homosexuality? Why does it seem that we are giving them a pass on these questions? Even McCain sidesteps the questions on homosexuality. But if you consider that the very definition of marriage is at stake, as well as the appointment of Federal judges and SCOTUS justices, and the military’s policy on homosexuality, these are not questions that we should allow candidates to avoid. I was hoping CT would have given the question to Obama. To me, this issue is more important than any question on gender, race, or racial reconciliation.   

I have great pride in seeing an African American be in a position to be a viable (and probable?) candidate for nomination as a Presidential candidate. I wish my views on the issues and his views were closer. I am warning up to his health-care / insurance-for-all proposal as the best among the main candidates. I am hoping each of the candidates will think about our future role in the Middle East before taking the Vietnam approach to the war in Iraq—an approach that benefits no one but terrorists. Yet, as Andrew Sullivan proposes, it may be true that our relationship to the Middle East and the Two-thirds world will change the morning we all wake up and see a person of color leading the world’s superpower. (But Thabiti’s words (and more words) are informative here.)   

So what lever do I pull in the morning? Well, I think if I pull the lever for Obama, I will keep things interesting, although it is certain Obama will win in my state. But I could make it interesting by pulling the lever for Huckabee (if only a few thousand other voters in my state would do the same). But then again, we do not pull levers in my state. Regardless, when Sunday comes, we will still be as segregated as ever. 

Tom Ascol on Liberty Seminary’s Name Change and Caner’s Revisionism

Tags

Ascol Caner Debate, Baptist Calvinism, Liberty Baptist Seminary, Sandy Creek Tradition

Tom Ascol at Founders Ministries asks, “What’s in a (Baptist) name?” The gaffes Tom points out brought me some roaring laughter. A long excerpt is especially worth posting here:

Timothy George has noted that each of the 293 delegates who met in Augusta, Georgia in 1845 to establish the Southern Baptist Convention came from churches or associations that embraced the Chaleston/Philadephia/Second London Baptist Confession of Faith. Caner may not like this fact, but it will take more than gratuitous assertions to make it go away.

The final excerpt from Caner’s interview illustrates the cautions that one ought to have in following his historical assessments. When asked about whether Calvin would approve the so-called 5 points of Calvinism, Caner made the following historical gaffes while trying to distinguish Calvin from the Calvinists.

During the life of Calvin a guy named Amyraut…Moise Amyraut said Calvin believed in general atonement. And his fiercest opponent was Theodore Beza, the guy who took over for Calvin.

So historian Caner would have us believe that Amyraut disagreed with Calvin during Calvin’s lifetime and was fiercely opposed by Beza. Calvin (1509-1564) died 32 years before Amyraut was born and Beza (1519-1605) died when Amyraut was 11. Those must have been some fierce debates between the octogenarian Beza and the pre-adolescent Amyraut!

Trueman, Moore, and Redmond: Mid-South Conference on Christ and Culture

Tags

African American Reformed, Black and Reformed, Black Baptist Conference, Black Southern Baptist, National Baptist, Theology Conference

Please join Dr. Carl Trueman, Dr. Russell Moore, and me at the Mid-South Conference on Christ and Culture: “Age to Age the Same: The Unchanging Truth in a Rapidly Changing World.” I am grateful for the invitation and opportunity to speak to God’s people. I also am grateful for an opportunity to hear Carl and Russell in person.

Please pass on the word to your freinds. The conference is diverse by intention. I am hoping many of my African American, Baptist and independent brothers in sisters in the Mississippi / Alabama / Tennessee region will make their way to the conference. I would love to see you there!

Pray for Union University and Those Hit by the Storms

Pray for the faculty, staff, students and families of Union University, and also for the families of many others who lost their lives in the storms in the South.

Pause for reflection on Nahum 1:3-6 and Psalm 29, for the Lord is good in calm and storm:   

3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,
and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;
he dries up all the rivers;
Bashan and Carmel wither;
the bloom of Lebanon withers.
5 The mountains quake before him;
the hills melt;
the earth heaves before him,
the world and all who dwell in it.

Nahum 1:3-6, ESV   

29:1 Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, 
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. 3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the Lord, over many waters.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
and Sirion like a young wild ox.7 The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.9 The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth 
and strips the forests bare,
and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
11 May the Lord give strength to his people!
May the Lord bless his people with peace!

Psalm 29, ESV