Scary stuff

Two rather scary articles in the latest number of the NYRB, one on baptists and one on corruption.

The baptists in question are those of the Southern  Baptist Convention (SBC, see http://www.sbc.net/) who read the world for Christ. The convention split away from the north in 1845 over the question of slavery and has remained apart every since.

The article says that there are three pillars of faith that matter in the SBC: first that the Bible contains nothing but the literal truth, second that men are in charge of women and third that whites are in charge of blacks (and other aliens like Latinos). Which third pillar, which the article might possibly be right about, sits oddly with the inclusion of a black pastor in one of the illustrations, but which sits more comfortably with the geographical coverage of the SBC, more or less that of the civil war confederacy. But there is plenty of overt activity to block equal rights for women, particularly that of the sort enshrined in the Equal Rights Amendment, an amendment to the US constitution which appears to have had a long and chequered history. Lady pastors and abortions are certainly off the menu.

It seems that the SBC is very strong in Texas and is very keen on the sort of mega-churches which can pull in 20,000 and more on a Sunday. This is a church which is alive and well, unlike the palid, dressed up and incense flavoured relics we have here in the UK. See, for example, http://www.second.org/; more a football stadium than the sort of parish church which we used to go to, although  perhaps the Albert Hall comes nearer in tone, if nothing like big enough. Is it a coincidence that Texas also includes a lot of very rich white males? I wonder if the celebrity pastors pack guns when they preach, just in case Satan makes it into the stadium? Or do they delegate that sort of thing to their security details?

It is perhaps salutary to be reminded about these people at a time when Muslims are getting a lot of stick. With whom they probably share a real and deep concern for the decline of traditional values.

I shall report on the second scary article in due course.

PS: for the SBC version of the 39 articles see http://www.sbc.net/bfm2000/bfm2000.asp.