THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 19, 1996 TAG: 9608160017
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 30 lines
``Destructive distraction'' (editorial, July 28) was excellent. You were right on target when you said that Southern Baptists have short memories.
Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission, certainly does not speak for all Southern Baptists. However, he probably speaks for the fundamentalist hierarchy that has captured the Southern Baptist Convention and the millions who blindly follow such leadership. They are, apparently, ignorant of European and early American-church history when Baptist preachers were persecuted and thrown in prison because they refused to get permission from the government to preach the gospel. After such bitter lessons, Baptists did everything in their power to see that genuine religious freedom would be guaranteed in America.
Also, apparently, the fundamentalists who have taken over our convention believe that by forcing some kind of prayer into the public-school classroom, the complicated moral problems of our nation would be solved. Forcing prayer into public schools would only add to the distress and distrust so prevalent among us, and might even help to destroy our public-school system. As hard as it is to believe, some want to lay hold of the taxpayers' money for their own Baptist parochial-school system.
No wonder I am embarrassed and ashamed for people to find out that I am a Southern Baptist.
WALKER STOCKBURGER
Norfolk, July 30, 1996 by CNB