{"id":1172,"date":"2010-11-18T05:00:52","date_gmt":"2010-11-18T12:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1172"},"modified":"2010-11-18T05:00:52","modified_gmt":"2010-11-18T12:00:52","slug":"democrats-the-gcr-stubborn-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1172","title":{"rendered":"Democrats, the GCR & Stubborn Facts!"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence…”\u00a0 John Adams <\/em><\/strong>(<\/em>Argument in Defense of the British Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials December 4, \u00a01770)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even though our nation’s second President, John Adams, is credited with the above quote, it was our country’s 40th President, Ronald Reagan, who made it famous in the 1980s.\u00a0 Reagan, who often used the first part of the quote — “facts are stubborn things” — had a slip of the tongue when, in a speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention, he\u00a0said, “facts are stupid things.”<\/em><\/p>\n

That seems to be the view of the overwhelming\u00a0majority of House Democrats, who\u00a0on Wednesday\u00a0elected Nancy Pelosi as their new Minority Leader.\u00a0\u00a0Despite the fact that they\u00a0were on the receiving end\u00a0of the\u00a0worst\u00a0House defeat in the last 70 years, Democrats doubled-down and kept Pelosi as the face of the Democrat Party.\u00a0 In addition to viewing the American people as stupid, I guess they also view the facts surrounding their massive loss as stupid too.<\/p>\n

Ever one to reject those stupid facts staring her in the face, Pelosi, when asked why she should continue as the Democrats’ leader in the House of Representatives, said:<\/p>\n

\n
\u201cBecause I\u2019m an effective leader, because we got the job done on health care<\/a> and Wall Street reform and consumer protection. Because they know that I\u2019m the person that can attract the resources, both intellectual and otherwise, to take us to victory \u2014 because I\u2019ve done it before.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps Ms. Pelosi actually believes what she says.\u00a0 However, just because she wishes things to be a certain way does not mean that she can “alter the state of facts and evidence.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Likewise, just because certain establishment leaders within the Southern Baptist Convention wish the facts and evidence to be of a certain\u00a0state does not mean that they can alter or otherwise change said facts and evidence when it does not suit them.\u00a0 After all, facts are stubborn things!<\/p>\n

In yet another setback for the GCR, the Alabama Baptist Conference of Directors of Associational Missions this week overwhelmingly endorsed an open letter to the SBC\u00a0which<\/a>, in essence, opposes some of the more radical elements within the GCR\u00a0recommendations.\u00a0 In addressing their serious concerns with the direction of the SBC, the DOMs said:<\/p>\n

“In recent days there is a movement within the Southern Baptist Convention that not only alarms many committed to Southern Baptist mission work, but also causes division among all entities of the Southern Baptist Convention.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In what is obvious to all but the most ardent and committed pro-GCR\u00a0supporters, the GCRTF’s recommendations have caused and are continuing to cause division within the Southern\u00a0Baptist Convention.\u00a0 As Peter Lumpkins\u00a0at sbc tomorrow put it:<\/a><\/p>\n

“The really sad thing is, this open letter remains indicative of the\u00a0hairline crack in the historically time-tested but delicate network of the Cooperative Program.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But, like so many Democrats on Capital Hill\u00a0on Wednesday, pro-GCR\u00a0forces are furiously trying to alter the facts and the evidence that stand as a massive indictment of the GCR process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, when the facts and evidence cannot be altered, then some pro-GCR\u00a0supporters resort to accusing opponents of the GCR\u00a0as being the ones responsible for instigating the divisiveness\u00a0in the first place.\u00a0 Add the Alabama DOMs\u00a0to that list.\u00a0 Saul Alinsky would be\u00a0proud!\u00a0<\/p>\n

This tactic reminds me of the oft-repeated legal saying, “when you have the facts on your side, argue the facts; when you have the law on your side, argue the law; when you have neither, pound your fist on the table.”<\/em>\u00a0 I recently came across an article which brilliantly captures\u00a0a post-modern twist to this quote.\u00a0 The author, writing about Arizona’s Illegal Immigration Bill, titled his piece, When you can’t argue with facts, call them “racists” and “Nazis.”<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve not been called a racist or a Nazi because of my opposition to the GCR, but I have, as of Wednesday, been compared to Jerry Springer.\u00a0 In fact, SBCVoices — a group blog of diverse voices within the SBC of which I am a contributor — was likened to the Jerry Springer Show.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

As a pastor\u00a0and a blogger, I have found that one must have fairly tough skin to accept criticism when it comes.\u00a0 I am neither offended nor hurt when another blogger, who I have never met, writes\u00a0unflattering things about me.\u00a0 As the saying goes, there’s no such thing as bad press!<\/span><\/p>\n

I am not at all surprised by the negative reaction that I have received from a few who would rather pound their fist on the table instead of engaging in reasoned debate.\u00a0\u00a0Who would rather dismiss arguments out of hand without so much as one counter-argument in opposition to what I write.\u00a0 Facts are stubborn things and, when\u00a0people\u00a0do not possess\u00a0the facts or the evidence to support\u00a0their wishes or inclinations, they want to change the channel.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, just when I think that maybe I’m all alone in my observations, along comes the DOMs\u00a0of the Alabama Baptist Convention to affirm what I have been saying since July:\u00a0 that the GCR has increased division, not unity, within the SBC.\u00a0 When I have doubts about what I write, it is amazing how people I do not know and who I had no idea were even reading my blog, begin to send emails my way encouraging me to keep writing.<\/span><\/p>\n

I promise that I’ll keep writing, even when others would rather I didn’t.\u00a0 And when I see leaders, whether in our own government or in the SBC, try to alter the state of facts and evidence, I’ll point it out.\u00a0 After all, facts are stubborn things!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence…”\u00a0 John Adams (Argument in Defense of the British Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials December 4, \u00a01770) Even though our nation’s second President, John Adams, is credited with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,34,37],"tags":[76,77,3372,303,367,3379,433,434,498,559,693,775,3391,853,876,3393],"class_list":["post-1172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-great-commission-resurgence","category-politics","category-southern-baptist-convention","tag-alabama-baptist-conference-of-directors-of-associational-missions","tag-alabama-baptist-convention","tag-cooperative-program","tag-democrats","tag-facts-are-stubborn-things","tag-freedom-of-religion","tag-gcr","tag-gcrtf","tag-house-of-representatives","tag-john-adams","tag-nancy-pelosi","tag-peter-lumpkins","tag-politics","tag-ronald-reagan","tag-sbc-tomorrow","tag-southern-baptist-convention"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-iU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}