When the Indian Nations were divided up for conversion among various flavors of missionary, the Baptists did not get the Cherokee Nation. The Methodists were invited to compete with the Presbyterians, who had a head start conferred by the Scots traders. However, the Baptists were masters of poaching and they won the race.
Real estate agents in Texas can often show you a "Baptist bar," which neatly hides the liquor. Since I was raised in a place infested by Baptists, the hypocrisy was no surprise.
As I got older, the thing that got to me the most was Baptist glorification of ignorance. The only qualification to be a minister is that you must be "called." That is, your Invisible Friend instructed you to meddle in everybody else's business and, over time, you learned to cherry pick Biblical passages to support your prejudices and your income.
In modern times, there are actual Baptist institutions of higher education erected on this sandpile of confidential conversations with Jesus.
(l will digress briefly to warn that if you were raised around Baptists, the first time you get in a theological argument with a rabbi or a Jesuit priest, you better bring your lunch. Some religious education is a bit more rigorous than relating conversations with invisible people.)
All the above is context for the announcement that today I wrote a LTE to the Waco Tribune-Herald. Waco is ground zero for the Baptist faith, politics, and education. It is short and to the point of what is going on in the Texas Legislature as we speak:
I don't care to argue with the vicars and mullahs who hold a non-viable fetus to be a human being, excess embryos from in vitro fertilization to be human beings, or even male masturbation to be mass murder. The First Amendment protects all kinds of beliefs.I do question what is "conservative" about a government big enough and intrusive enough to police every pregnancy and how the Texas Legislature reconciles their tender concern for zygotes with their utter disregard for education of and medical care for extant children?
In Texas, it appears that the "right to life" begins at conception and ends at birth.