Letter to the Editor
March 15, 2022
Dear Editor:
WOW! I had never heard of Voddie Baucham until I read about him this past week on BNG. This guy is nothing more than a sociopath. He needs to stay where he is and read The Poisonwood Bible with the study guide. He might learn something, but probably not.
Many, many years ago I lived in a Southern state with lots of SBC churches because of a job transfer. What I observed was sheer hypocrisy — from the cookie-cutter ministers pumped out by SBC seminaries to privileged white married professors openly flirting with the women around them and hiding their wine bottles in the closet corner so their children wouldn’t find them.
My second bachelor’s degree was pursued at an SBC university; I regret not driving the extra miles to the state university further up the interstate to learn more about my personal interest in a different discipline. After hearing about the sex abuse scandal in the SBC on NPR, I had a lovely ceremony burning my diploma to ashes and returning it to the earth.
To Rick Pidcock: I applaud your role as incredible husband and father. I was the primary wage earner for 45 years while going to school at night. My husband and I were separated for six months because I listened to ignorant advice of an evangelical pastor and the male elders. After my husband ended up in the ER with a heart attack in his 40s while working in a corporate management training program we learned that God gave each of us different abilities to provide for our family. I easily fit into the corporate world, and he was able to pursue his amazing pencil rendering artwork while cheering on our three kids at basketball games, track meets and just having fun in the park. Next week is our 54th wedding anniversary. How you and your wife decide to provide for your family is your business, not the church’s nor anyone else.
To the white, Christian nationalist TheoBros: I leave you with Roger Williams’ (founder of the first Baptist church in America in 1638) assessment of the Calvinistic Puritans: He indicated that the domestic and genocidal terrorist Puritans would more than likely reside in the Lake of Fire while the Native Americans who took him in and showed him the “real” love of God would be right next to the heart of the Creator.
Jesus gave us the Great Commandments to love God and love our neighbors. That’s it — that’s the whole gospel; not the piled-on Pharisee legalism, man-made dogma, traditions, mistranslations of the Hebrew and Greek, and Calvinistic garbage. We need more “seekers” like Roger Williams and “doubting Thomas'” to seek, find and grow in the true spirituality of our Lord.
S. Anne Smith, Oregon
