My life has been surrounded by political arguments lately.

A lot of people believe I am voting for a kook who wants to legalize everything that Christians see as wrong. I just want to take a second (maybe more) and explain why I am voting for Ron Paul.

Let me start off by stating my big issues. They are abortion and the economy. It’s one thing to say that, as president, you will “fix” these two things. It’s another to have proof that you have tried. I am not talking about attending pro-life rallies or cutting taxes a few times. I mean definitive evidence that what you are saying can be backed up. Otherwise, you are lying to me. Ron Paul’s congressional voting record and his personal life cannot be denied. He is known as Dr. No in Congress because he votes for what he believes, even if he is the only no. And he believes in cutting spending, drastically, to get us out of debt.

For him, everything goes back to the economy. And truthfully, everything does. Illegal immigration, abortion, health care, the war…it all affects the economy. What really woke me up was when I realized where our economy is heading. It’s not just about the numbers. It’s about my convictions.

I truly believe that the society of debt and wealth we live in is a disgrace. People live far above their means. As a Christian, I look around and see plenty of places our money could be better spent. But, we have created a society of faceless giving. The government takes care of the poor, the ministries in churches take care of the poor and hurting. So we give our chunk of change to Uncle Sam and we put our dollars in the offering plate and we feel good. There is no face to our giving. So, we build our big houses that we can’t afford, and we drive our big cars that we can’t afford and do not need. And we feel okay. This is a big problem in America. Greed, wealth, and the need to get ahead.

And our government does it as well. We borrow money from China at a rate of $1.5 – 3 billion dollars a day. Yes, billion. Yes, each day. From China. A communist country who has been accused of some horrible humanitarian atrocities. Who aborts more babies each day than any other country. Who has enormous leverage in Sudan because of their investment in Sudanese oil fields (and could help to end the crisis but won’t). As a Christian and a human being, borrowing money from this country is bad on many levels. Borrowing money like this from ANYONE is.

Ron Paul is one of the only candidates that directly addresses this issue. Many of them say they will cut spending and lower taxes, but when I took a look at their track records, few can compare to Ron Paul’s stance on this issue.

A lot of Christians won’t vote for Ron Paul because he “wants to legalize everything” from gay marriage to prostitution. Not true. He wants to live by the Constitution and not federalize these issues. Christians seem to believe that if we do not force everyone to live by our beliefs, then we will no longer be “a Christian nation.” The only thing stopping us from being a Christian nation is our own failure to be what God called us to be and do what God called us to do. He never says to make sure gay people can’t get married.

Instead, he tells us to love our neighbor. He tells us to take care of the oppressed and the poor, the widows and the orphans. If Christians spent more time loving people instead of telling them what they are not allowed to do, we could get a lot further. Making certain things illegal does not mean they go away. If something is not infringing on the rights of others, it shouldn’t be a federal issue, it’s a states issue. Making it a federal issue does not change hearts and minds, Jesus does. This “Christian nation” is in our hands, not the governments’ and governing by the Constitution will keep it that way without running over the rights of others.

How “Christian” is a nation that kills unborn babies, borrows money from a humanitarian horror of a country, and has hundreds of military bases worldwide so that we can intimidate everyone and keep them in line. The world knows us through two things, military presence and Hollywood…not very “Christian” things to see.

Somehow the Christian vote means voting for someone who can say everything just right, keep our troops in Iraq, and keep gay marriage illegal. In Isaiah 1, we are warned against leaders who “accept bribes and seek out gifts” but this never comes into play when deciding who to vote for. Ron Paul is KNOWN for not accepting bribes and gifts. Lobbyists are fiercely hoping he will not get elected.

I believe America is heading into a dismal state. There are already parts of the Constitution that we blatantly ignore. What happens when we ignore freedom of speech or religion? You may laugh and say that will never happen, but I am not so sure.

We are sacrificing the Constitution and freedom to keep a few key “Christian” issues. We are no longer the country we used to be. We are weakened, spread to thin, and in debt.

For goodness sake, our LIGHTBULBS are going to be outlawed! The signers of the Constitution are rolling in their graves I am sure. The government has no right to do this, not according to the Constitution. We are blatantly not living by the Constitution. When sworn into office the president is swearing to “uphold the constitution”.

Let’s elect someone who won’t lie to us their first day in office.

Dickens said the payout actually is worth about as much as a $5 million offer the university made to the convention two years ago.

Belmont could invest $4.2 million now and make the $250,000 annual payment for the next 40 years off the earnings, he said.

With the $1 million the university will pay the convention upfront, Belmont’s out-of-pocket costs would be $5.2 million under that scenario.

Ha! Nice little final jab at the Tennessee Baptists. Sort of, “See? If you’d only taken the same settlement two years ago, you could’ve avoided this whole PR nightmare.”

Belmont University is pleased to announce that it has reached a mutually agreeable settlement of all disputed claims with the Tennessee Baptist Convention. We believe that this resolution honors the many significant contributions that Tennessee Baptists have made to the University and upholds the teachings of Jesus Christ, whom we all seek to serve by ending litigation.

The settlement concludes a 56-year relationship between Belmont and the TBC and provides gifts by Belmont to Tennessee Baptists of $1,000,000 next year followed by annual payments of $250,000 for the next 40 years. These gifts are an expression of gratitude to Tennessee Baptists for the financial and spiritual support that they have provided to the University over the past five decades. The funds will be added to an endowment at the Tennessee Baptist Foundation to support Tennessee Baptist missions and ministries.

Approximately $4,900,000 in funds being held for Belmont by the Tennessee Baptist Foundation for the benefit of the University will be transferred to another trustee selected by Belmont. Of that amount, $1,500,000 represents funds which are subject to the terms of the settlement agreement between Belmont and the Tennessee Baptist Convention.

Belmont is grateful to the many Tennessee Baptists who have encouraged the University as it seeks to broaden its Christian mission by including on its Board of Trustees Christians who are members of churches affiliated with other denominations. The University will continue to be a student-focused, Christian community of learning and service with a rich Baptist heritage that we intend to foster and nurture through our ongoing relationships with local Baptist churches. That is our promise and our covenant.

Though Belmont is parting ways with the TBC, we trust that our shared history has provided important groundwork to achieve common goals of the Convention and the University, and that our futures will evidence this good work. Belmont is committed to its Christian mission and to cherishing its Baptist roots.

Marty Dickens
Chairman of the Board of Trustees

I’m glad to see the end of it. Earlier this year I went down with some 25 to 30 other Belmont students to protest the TBC’s actions (detailed in the post “I’m Not Jesus.”)

Of course, instead of the Tennessee Baptists winning a settlement like the hethens do, they’ve won mandatory gifts for 41 years from Belmont. How nice of Belmont. Nobody gives me mandatory gifts totalling $11 million. That’d be nice.

But it is definitely a positive to see them settle it out of court. May 2008 would’ve seen the case placed on the court docket with a judge determining the validity of the document signed between Belmont and the Tennessee Baptist Convention in 1951. Given the settlement, I’d say that document was valid enough for Belmont to want the case never to reach that judge.

There’s a great letter to the editor in a recent Baptist & Reflector (the newsjournal of the TBC), and once I get a copy of it in front of me, I’ll throw in a few quotes.

Essentially, I would just like to discuss questions that were related to the heart issues behind the matters, questions on philosophy of action, biblical connections, questions on how the parties were communicating or not communicating, etc (which is really all students are concerned about anyway). James wouldn’t go into any of that and in fact said it was irrelevant.

In fact, in response to questions raised regarding Paul’s instruction in 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 he said, “I am well aware that Scripture says we should not sue. But sometimes circumstances and other parties leave no alternative.” Scripture can just be sooo inconvenient sometimes, can’t it Dr. Porch?

There seems to be a bunch of religiosity divorced from the gospel; hearts held hostage by shallow compartmentalized faith that only reaches so deep.

…and then the plea:

Assuage my doubts. Let me know that a bunch of old men are not playing chess with other people’s lives. Let me know that they’re pondering both grace and justice in light of God’s Word alone and not secular wisdom. Let me know that there is hope in joining the world of adults and not just more of which to despair.

That’s exactly what I was concerned about, so thanks Matt. Read more, it’s important.

Belmont’s legal council apparently contacted the protest’s organizers–Nicole Loveless, Nick Williams, and Melody Drushal–last night to discourage the event from actually taking place. In a meeting today, the three students spearheading the protest ironed out some of the details with Belmont’s legal council, and though there was still discouragement and a firm stance from the lawyers that Belmont was not in any way supporting the protest, the decision whether or not to proceed was left up to the students. After prayer and consideration, they decided to continue as planned.

Taking to heart a suggestion from Belmont’s legal council, the protest’s organizers chose to notify the TBC of our intentions. The representative from the TBC was very gracious and welcoming and invited us to have an open question and answer session with James Porch, the Executive Director of the TBC. Our organizers also chose to notify the media, and I saw both Fox 17 News and News 2 covering the protest.

Once we arrived, we were greeted warmly at the door by several smiling faces including that of James Porch. They directed us down to the chapel where a large group of people were gathered awaiting our arrival. I can only assume some were the Executive Board, according to Jamie Tucker’s coverage on News 2.

Before we began, the Executive Director asked that we try to keep things as civil as possible and when we asked a question, that we would stand and state our name and where we were from. He then gave us a brief history of the TBC’s involvement with Belmont, emphasizing that Belmont would never have made it off the ground and into the university that it is today without the TBC’s gifts. He then began taking questions. About 10 minutes into the discussion, I started furiously scribbling notes, knowing that I simply couldn’t let this event go unreported. (Sidenote: Both the TBC and the protest organizers had asked that no media be involved in the discussion. As James Porch was putting his mic on and testing it, Melody asked if there was media in the room. Porch responded, “No, there is not.” At the end of the session, Connie Bushey with the official newsjournal of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, the Baptist & Reflector, approached me to ask if it was okay to include my name and a photo in the next issue.)

Several minutes into the session, one student stood up and asked– all legal issues aside, even assuming Belmont was completely at fault in this matter, if filing this kind of lawsuit really seemed like something that pursues the things of Christ. Porch, who up until now in the discussion had been somewhat pleasant and cordial, responded, “We’re not getting into theology here.” He went one to say that the reason the group was here today was to discuss the relationship between Belmont and the TBC, not the theological implications of it. Apparently our dealings with others and the Christ-like manner in which we are to do so are two separate matters.
Making reference to the earlier mention of money given to Belmont as gracious gifts, the student replied, “But would Jesus use money as leverage against someone he’d been gracious toward?”

After a few seconds, Porch replied, “I’m not Jesus.” He followed the comment with an analogy of buying a house with a mortgage and how you can’t just stop paying the mortgage whenever you like and not expect to be foreclosed upon. “Belmont chose to dissociate their governance [Board of Trustees] from the TBC.”

In the back of the room, another student stood and asked a leading question, “It seems in a contract like this, you’d really want two copies of the deal, one for each party to keep. Where’s the other copy?” The question was in reference to the contractual memo found by Belmont last year, the TBC’s copy of which has yet to be found.

Immediately, the TBC lawyer stood up and said it was not at all appropriate to be commenting on those specifics at this time.

Nicole, one of the event organizers, asked, “The way the contract was written, is there no way that Belmont could properly dissociate from the TBC?” Porch responded, “The issue here is an agreement to refund the TBC gifts given to Belmont.”

“Yes, but is there any way Belmont should’ve done it?”

“If Belmont had met the prescribed way. The way you came in is the way you go back out.”

Another protest organizer, Melody, stood and asked, “Is this lawsuit meant to be for punishment or persuasion?”

“This was initiated by Belmont. Nobody at the TBC wanted it to come to this.”

“Wasn’t there a settlement offered by Belmont last year around this time?”

“There has been no agreeable settlement reached.”

A little later, after much hemming and hawing around similarly phrased questions and even more similarly phrased responses, I stood up to ask one myself: “I am not asking this question as a Belmont student, but as a member of a Tennessee Baptist affiliated church. My heart is grieved when I look at how this might seem to the outside world: a Christian organization suing one of its own universities. And I’m concerned that we are not pursuing this in the manner that scripture prescribes. I’m not a theologian. I’m just an audio engineer. Maybe I’m misunderstanding something, but when I read 1 Corinthians I just can’t see how this lawsuit squares with that scripture.”

The Executive Director quickly began, “There has been careful thought and prayer that has gone into this decision. And I also want you to know that none of the people in this building have made this decision, so if you all want to keep emailing them, I just want you to know that. The Convention has appointed a committee to make this decision.” He stopped and took a long pause. “There have been repeated efforts to settle this. In our Christian walk, we must remember that while there is grace, there is also justice. Those two go hand in hand. There’s grace, but there’s also justice. And there has been no malice toward Belmont, but rather this is a fundamental issue of a contract violation.”

I’m not sure if Dr. Porch was referring to the $5 million offer from Belmont or not, but he right when he said the Convention hasn’t found it acceptable.

The final question of the day came from a classmate of mine, who stood and asked a two-in-one. “What are the objectives of the TBC in this lawsuit? To re-establish a relationship or to protect the rights of the TBC? And also, if I could ask this one real quick since I know we have to go… I was raised with the idea that if you give someone a gift, you don’t expect to get it back. You just gave it. So was this money to Belmont really a gift or was did it come with strings?”

Porch: “As stated in the contract, the Tennessee Baptist Convention would honor the agreement as long as Belmont honored it. We have now been put in a position where we’re forced to take action.”

Dr. Porch then thanked us for coming and for our concern, and then asked if he could pray to close the session. During the prayer he asked God that Belmont would come to an agreeable settlement.

This post is already long enough. Perhaps some commentary on the session will follow in the next few days. After all, it is Belmont’s fall break in a few days. I’ll leave you with part of a letter from the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth:

The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.

I write this letter not as an angry student of Belmont University, but as a member of a Tennessee Baptist Convention church. I was born and raised in the Southern Baptist Church, and many of my greatest childhood memories come from time spent with those I met and loved at my home church. I am so glad to see that the TBC represents a church that refuses to sit back and passively exist in our world today.

But I am concerned that perhaps we have lost our true focus in search of vindication of a contract with Belmont. My heart is grieved to hear that money given by those with a heart for missions has been redirected to finance a lawsuit against another body of believers. We know from mainstream media coverage that Americans are notorious for lumping together all Christians in their negative judgments, from swindling televangelists to Billy Graham–it’s all the same to them. When someone like Jerry Falwell makes a statement on national television, the nation assumes he speaks for all Christians. It is, therefore, so crucial we conduct ourselves in all matters in a manner pleasing to Christ, especially in dealing with conflicts within the church.

I have no doubt you’ve had committees scour over passages such as 1 Corinthians 6:1-8, but I personally have a difficult time reconciling the latest efforts by my state’s Baptist Convention with that scripture. Perhaps there is some chance I do not fully understand what Paul was saying here. But of all passages in the Bible, this one seems least likely to be cryptic. When Paul charges us to not sue our Christian brothers in a secular court in front of unbelievers, how have the members of the Tennessee Baptist Convention convinced themselves it is the right and just thing to do. My heart is saddened at this effort if only for the fact that reflects so poorly on the church and undermines the Great Commission.

In both love and sorrow,

Kevin

We should keep in mind that the purpose of this event is to show the Tennessee Baptist Convention just how disheartening this lawsuit really is, and exactly who it’s going to be affecting.

What we need is an officially endorsed Baptist coffee: Bitter enough for fundamentalists, smooth enough for moderates, and weak enough for liberals. Then we could get an “overwhelmingly” supported creamer from a B&R poll..short on substance, easy to write about, and luke-warm journalistically.