c. 2008 Religion News Service
Controversial blogger resigns from Southern Baptist mission board
(RNS) A controversial blogger who recently resigned from the Southern Baptist’s International Mission Board vows to keep fighting what he calls an increasingly political atmosphere in his denomination.
“I will continue to press for more cooperation and accountability, transparency and openness on our boards,” Wade Burleson, an Enid, Okla., pastor, said Wednesday (Feb. 20). “And I will continue to fight against what I believe to be politics that have taken the place of following the leadership of the Holy Spirit and the word of God.”
Burleson resigned from the mission board after telling fellow trustees last month that he regrets causing a “distraction” for the board.
He was censured by the board last November because he “repeatedly failed” to follow the board’s standards for appropriate conduct. In 2006, the board dropped an effort to oust Burleson after he had defended the right of missionaries to speak in tongues despite a board policy barring missionary candidates who embrace that practice.
Burleson said he is considering writing a book about concerns he has about Southern Baptists who he feels have been “steamrolled for `doctrinal’ reasons.”
International Mission Board Chairman John Floyd said he did not feel Burleson apologized to the board when he made his January statement.
“I feel like he did the right thing,” Floyd said of Burleson’s resignation.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Virgin Mary on a pretzel? Going once, going twice …
(RNS) A disc jockey for a Eugene, Ore., radio station has received a bid of more than $10,000 for a pretzel that some people think resembles the Virgin Mary.
Tanner Haney, who works for KFLY radio, put the pretzel on eBay on Wednesday afternoon, and by Thursday afternoon it had fetched a high bid of $10,950.
There are also what appear to be several hoax bids _ one as high as $99 million _ and the situation appeared to spawn several other auctions offering various combinations of religious icons and pretzels.
The person who had bid $10,950 appears to be a legitimate bidder and has purchased or bid on a variety of items over time. The bidding closes March 1. Shipping is free.
Haney could not be reached for comment, but he told Eugene television station KVAL (13) that “we’re kind of capitalizing on the stupidity of eBay and that people will buy anything.” He hosts the “Donkey Show” from 2 to 6 p.m.
Michael Fleming, who owns the pretzel, told KVAL that he found the pretzel in a bag of Rold Gold three years ago.
“People seemed generally moved by these images,” Fleming said. “And they really seem to believe that the Virgin Mary is before them.”
Beliefs aside, similar images have attracted money in the past. For example, a grilled cheese sandwich Virgin Mary went for $28,000 on eBay in 2004.
The assigning of religious significance to such objects is not uncommon.
In Boardman, Ore., in 1994, a woman thought she saw an image of Our Lady of Guadeloupe within a painting. In 1998, an image of the Madonna on a road sign about 20 miles southeast of Yakima, Wash., drew hordes of faithful.
There is an entire Wikipedia site dedicated to religious sightings. Among them are the NunBun, the Virgin Pizza Pan and two images that some think to be Jesus: one on a tortilla, the other on a dental X-ray.
KFLY’s Rold Gold Virgin Mary pretzel is not a first. Another similar-looking pretzel sold on eBay in 2005 for $10,600.
_ Michael Rollins
Baptist college ravaged by tornado gets back on its feet
(RNS) Students have returned, classes have resumed and the symbolic Miller Tower clock is working again weeks after a tornado ripped through Union University in Jackson, Tenn., Feb. 5.
“We start afresh because of God’s grace, his providence and the hard work and determination of his people,” Union University President David S. Dockery said.
The new start includes a new student residence complex for the Baptist institution. Union University held a groundbreaking ceremony on Friday (Feb. 22) for the building that will house students this fall.
Meanwhile, 300 students will move to an inn Union was given access to by the Englewood Baptist Church in Jackson, Tenn. Some 350 students will live on campus in residence buildings not heavily damaged by the tornado. An additional 300 students have secured off-campus housing, and the remaining 250 students will spend the rest of the semester with Union faculty and staff.
More than $1.5 million has been donated to the restoration project as of Wednesday (Feb. 20), according to the Union Recovery Web site. Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, has called on all Southern Baptists to support Union University through prayers and donations, according to Baptist Press.
“Certainly we have seen hundreds of acts of mercy and compassion from people near and far,” Dockery said. “Now we pray that God will work in our lives to bring about patience with one another, forgiveness when we have been wronged as well as seeking forgiveness when we have been the ones in the wrong,and fortitude and courage to face the challenges that are now ours.”
_ Brittani Hamm
Quote of the Day: The Rev. Barry Lynn
(RNS) “Trying to turn God into some sort of heavenly hit man is repugnant. There is more than a whiff of the Taliban in this action.”
_ The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, responding to a Southern Baptist pastor who told supporters to pray that God curses Americans United staffers. Lynn’s church-state group had asked the IRS to investigate the pastor, Wiley Drake, for allegedly improper politicking.
DSB/JM END RNS
