February 27, 2014

Yesterday, I talked about Tom Friedman's article in the NY Times and based on the response I received, not many of you were that interested.  Hate to realize that as the column was meant to alert friends to the realities of the world in which we live.   Remember folks, it is our responsibility.

I had the same thoughts as I read Albert Mohler's response to the times in which we live in an address to the Mormon church.  Oh, if only I could discover what prompted this relationship.  For those who do not know who Reverend Mohler is, he currently is the President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, located in Louisville, KY.  As such, he speaks for the overwhelming number of Southern Baptists in our nation and more importantly, our Baptist friends and neighbors.

He starts his speech with these intriguing words, "I come as one who does not share your theology."

I do not care to demean the man, but it seems to me, the fact that our "theology" is divided should not be laid at the feet of others as he reveals - at least to me, that they have - perhaps, intentionally, divided the body of Christ, as it is, here today.  He warns the Mormons that "we had better talk with candor and
urgency.

Then he drags out old Karl Marx who is reported to have said, "...the modern age would sweep all conventional morality and political structures aside in a complete transformation of values."  If we have studied history, most of us realize that Marx died and was buried and most of this thoughts about the future were interred along with his body.

Based on his reference to Marx, he recalls Aleksandr Solzhenisyn, a more renowned Russian, who reminded us that, "Men have forgotten God."  Actually, even that is little more than a half truth as women have also forgotten God, and because men and women form families, children and grand children have forgotten God.

I grew up in a family where my grandfather and grandmother knew God and lived out their lives in such a belief.  From my earliest days, we attended church and there were various Pastors who would come to serve our country church, but it was not the person of a Pastor, but the words of the Bible they heard in his messages that inspired them to live out their lives.  It was their example that instilled in me a belief in God.  When I left their home to join the military, I kept right on attending chapel, but now I might be listening to men who may have opened their Bibles, but the words in their sermons often led me to explore thoughts that later I would learn, were not inspired by the Bible.  And in the decades that followed, I would discover that more often than not, I would be listening to personal opinions rather than the eternal truths found in the Bible.

Then. Dr. Mohler turns to his belief that there are the elites who are more "classically secularized" and lays the blame for our short comings on plans developed for European ears and the ages old cliche, the American Universities.

Nothing troubles me more than such accusations.  As a University graduate myself and as one who has earned my living as a personnel recruiter, I have interviewed thousands of university graduates in my life and the numbers of those who have been corrupted by liberalism has been insignificant.

On the other hand, I have also interviewed hundreds upon hundreds of "street" people who have told me of the "divisions" in their lives that were primarily caused by a church that dictated their life styles
and demanded allegiance to the words being "parroted" by their families.  Sadly, so that many could not return home in a manner such as  the Bible teaches in the parable of the prodigal Son, but continue living, never knowing of the lesson in love that is the foundation of that parable.

It wasn't long before he turned to the 50 million American babies aborted since the passage of Roe vs. Wade in 1973.  No one grieves more for the enormity of this tragedy than I do as I near my 85th birth date, but I have yet to see an analysis of this problem that reveals that the huge majority of the abortions involved young people who now realize they have made an enormous mistake.  That fact is that the overwhelming numbers of these young women have never heard what the Bible actually says about - loving one another as a lifestyle.  I could spend hours debating the fact that "Roe v. Wade" is not the cause for blame, but another example of the failure of the Church to teach their followers the whole truth to be learned by STUDYING the Bible, taught by those who have EXPERIENCED the truths to be discovered.

We should not be surprised to learn that Dr. Mohler would turn his attention to the faults of the United Nations.  Obviously, he has never studied the differences between those nations who represent people who have experienced the freedoms enjoyed by the more prosperous and those that are led by leaders whose appetites for personal prestige and rewards far exceed any interest in the dignity of the general population.  But then, he obviously stands among the elites of the nations whose only real concerns for the disadvantages of others is their labor while extracting their resources.

I could go and on and on concerning this speech, but that would be wasting your time and mine.  If I had the opportunity, I would love to walk through the Bible with Dr. Mohler, from the days of Joshua to what we know as the New testament and show him how he has misinterpreted the words of God, as expressed by those called by His name.

And I leave you with this apology I will offer to Dr. Mohler for not saying what I really would like to say to him as I believe he is one of those leading us to the future he fears.