3 prominent Republicans join Carter, Clinton, Gore on New Covenant roster

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3 prominent Republicans join Carter, Clinton, Gore on New Covenant roster
By Greg Warner
Published: May 17, 2007

ATLANTA (ABP) -- Organizers for next January's New Baptist Covenant gathering announced the speakers for the historic three-day meeting -- with former President Jimmy Carter making good on a pledge to enlist prominent Republican Baptists to complement the mostly Democratic headliners.

Republican Senators Lindsay Graham (S.C.) and Charles Grassley (Iowa) join Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee as recently named participants for the Jan. 30-Feb. 1 New Baptist Covenant Celebration in Atlanta, billed as the broadest Baptist meeting in America since Baptists divided over slavery before the Civil War. Organizers hope to attract 20,000 people to the gathering.

Carter already has enlisted former President Bill Clinton and Al Gore, the former vice president who came within 537 Florida votes of succeeding Clinton. They all are Democrats, as is ‘60s-era presidential adviser Bill Moyers, now a journalist and author.

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Apparently you do not either of them to voice such an opinion.

 

Grassley makes most of the SBC look liberal. He is far more conservative than Bush by a mile. People in Iowa have tremendous respect for Senator Grassley. They do not always agree with him but they do not say he is a crook like the folks in the SBC say about their leaders in the SBC.

Grassley stands for financial accountability. Recently he also stood for having money donated to academics to be used only for academics.

 

Apparently you do not know what really goes on behind the scenes. Why do you think some of those pastors get such great churches and get in such high places so fast? Sometime just watch some of the relatives and friends of some of the SBC leaders and watch the movement among them.

If the SBC leaders did not control anything then let the seminary professors speak. If they did we would hear about a lot more nonsense they know about. If they did speak what some have told me they would be immediately be fired. Why do you think the trustees offered Dilday hush money when he was fired at SWBTS? If they had nothing to hide Why did they offer him money with strings attached to saying nothing.

The SBC does have leaders who make decisons and nepotism abounds among many of them.

I would not characterize Grassley quite like you have. If you do not side with the Democrats then who would you side with? I think that is more where Grassley stands.

You have to remember that Iowa has traditionally been a state of 50/50 democrats and republicans. Not everyone votes straight republican nor straight democrat. Everyone I talk with respects Grassley as a man of integrity and honesty. He is not viewed at the typical politician. I think if you talked with him personally you would find him to be a straight shooter. I have confronted him about some issues and found him to give me straight answers unlike what I often get from a politician or pastor.

Grassley is a very well respected man in the church he attends and in the community where he lives because of his integrity and honesty. I have talked with him personally and so has my daughter. It is largely because of what she sees in him that she feels motivated to follow in his footsteps. He attends a very solid Bible believeing, Bible preaching church. The pastor has tremendous convictions. The people Grassley talks with and gets advice from are very conservative Bible believing people. Even those who do not agree with him politically still repect him because of who he is. He has lived in the same area al of his life. His family still lives there. A lot of the same people I know have known him since he was a little kid and know his relatives and family members. When people have known you that long and still repect you for your honesty and integrity then it is more than just words.

A lot of times what a politician has to deal with is what he inherits from the past whether it is god or bad. Many times it is not a win win situation. It is trying to make the best of a terrible situation. I can't even imagine what I would do in some of the situations I am aware of. If I were in his shoes I would be spending a lot of time asking God for wisdom. We need to encourage Christian men involved in politics and pray for them. Some of the most profane letters public servants get are from Christians. That should never be.

 

Personally I am sick of most conservatives. I think conservatism is an excuse to be lazy and pat themselves on the back just like the Jews did which James and Jesus addressed. I have heard all kinds of excuses over the years why they cannot share their faith door to door and why they cannot take a stand on some issues affecting their community in a negative way. When I pastored I watched them cower down and play dead with their excuses. How can anyone be a conservative or liberal and walk with God? When I look at Jesus I see him attacked by the liberals and conservatives of the day. None of them liked him. I once had a seminary professor tell some of us that if the liberals and conservatives were shooting at you then you were probably in the right place.

Being honest with God is not liberal or conservative. It is godly and a side that most will fire at.

When I was in business I found several fundamentalists to be good liars and regularly cheat people while at the same time telling others about their righteousness and how the world was going to hell. Listening to those people certainly would not want one to follow them where they were going.

Years ago I had a neighbor who was a lawyer and mostly did divorces. He told me where most of his clients came from. They came from conservative churches.

Personally what I see reminds me of the message of Amos. Years ago I brought a church from near death and then pastored another church which grew very rapidly until the conservatives got in the way and caused me all kinds problems. When they complained I invited them to come with me and knock on doors and visit people. They did not like that kind of exposure. One of them was involved at the state level of the SBC. Today his business has failed and was taken back by the owner. I saw them bristle up when it came time for them to quit being lazy and do something. Another one of the troublemakers committed suicide. Another one resigned. That left three and two more should have resigned. One of the two was divorced and the other told me not to call on him tp pray in church. The last one told me he did not have time to read his Bible. I told him that if he did not have time to read his Bible then what kind of an example was that to the people. His daughter now much older is not doing very well. While those people were causing me trouble I realized that was conservatism in action. Shortly after I quit pastoring I got a regular job and in six months I started meeting with 20 people each week in Bible study and discipling them. I did not have to give plead with them and give them prizes to get them to do things. Within three years everyone of them had gone from doing nothing in a church and no ministry to having some kind of ministry and impact on the lives of others.

When I was a college student I saw the same thing happen to a pastor and for 30 years that church remained dead. A friend of mine and I decided to visit that church. Afterward he asked me, "What happened?"

From what I know of Grassley he is not concerned with the political football but really doing what is right. Recently the sports promoters would not like what he had to say. In my discussions with him and the discussions my daughter has had with him we have never heard him talk about any party, but what is right.

I do not seem Grassley as a party guy but trying to do what is right. I think if most Christians really understood the magnitude of their responsibility, the changes needed and the vastness of the population involved it is amazing anything gets done. I have managed a large company and many times it seemed as if things were on the verge of being out of control.

I simply think he is trying to do what he can. Personally I find him to be a very humble person. Unless you know who he is it is doubtful you would find him in a crowd. He does not look like a typical businessman in a 3 piece suit. He is a down to earth guy who looks just like anyone else. I think you would find him to be a straight shooter. He won't give you the politically right answer nor the brush off. Once when I talked with him he did not just listen but gave me straight answers. I see his family in church almost every Sunday. The sermons are not sweet talk filled with candy. The pastor is a good speaker who gives straight talk. In the congregation are six former Baptist pastors. Some are retired and some were forced to leave their churches.

The church Grassley goes to is not the typical Baptist denominational church. The pastor did not grow up in a Christian home. He stresses evangelism a lot. I am not sure what ministries the senator is involved with but I do know that he does things at the church.

In the discussions I have had with him I think you will find that he is more aware of the needs of the country than we give him credit for. One of my discussions with him and a visiting senator centered around the need for more Christians to get involved. The other senator does missions work each year for two weeks in another country. I am not sure how much physical labor Grassley can do any more. I would guess he is in his middle 70s. I am told he still has a small farm and runs it.

I just know from what I see in him and the people he associates with makes me proud to call him my senator. I see who the men are who he discusses thing with and I am encouraged. He is humble enough to discuss things with younger men and ask for their opinion. I pray for him and encouraged by him. I believe we need to encourage humble men like him and pray for them. I am encouraged when I see men like him representing Christ and the state they represent. I would think it would be hard to work with people in two political parties. I think what he has and who he is what it takes to be successful as a senator. I see him as an honest man who is upright and seeks to do what is right. I simply cannot criticize him for what I see in him and who he is as a person.

As far as the Carter issue I have not heard him mention anything. My thought is that a lot of older Baptists do not like all of the fighting and seek to go back to the days of BYPU and missions work. People during that time sacrificed their time and money to build churches. Whereas people today don’t have a clue what that means. Two of my friends own businesses in other states and both of them tell me that they will not hire college students because they are not dependable. Just a few years ago it was quite the opposite. College students needed the money and were dependable.