Quote of the Week

"In overthrowing me you have cut down in Saint Domingue only the trunk of the tree of liberty; it will spring up again from the roots, for they are many and they are deep."

General Toussaint L'Ouverture
Hero of the Haitian Revolution

Quote of the Week

"As believers we will want to do all we can to ensure genuine freedom for all persons. . . . No matter how uneducated and uncultured, unkempt and unclean, vile and course, wicked and immoral, every person is something wonderful and of importance to God, for he has made all of us in his own image."

Millard J. Erickson (1932- )
Distinguished Professor of Theology
Western Seminary

Julius Scruggs on Prosperity Theology

From Ethics Daily's interview with the Rev. Dr. Julius Scruggs, newly elected president of the National Baptist Convention.

"I think that the prosperity gospel is a threat to Christianity. Period," said Scruggs of the belief system that God shows favor to believers through wealth and material possessions.

Such teaching is "a subtle distortion of biblical truths," he said.

"I'm one who believes that God will take care of all of us … But I'm not one who believes that that means that the pastor ought to drive a Bentley car or live in a million dollar house or fly on a corporate jet," said Scruggs, who has been pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church in Huntsville for 32 years.

"That kind of prosperity is influencing the pulpit and the pew in American life today, and that's unfortunate because it takes us far and away from the Jesus who talked about foxes have holes and birds have nests but the son of man doesn't have anywhere to lay his head," said Scruggs. "There is always a tension between that aspect of Jesus and the Jesus who brought the abundant life to everybody."

Warning of the allure that money had for clergy, he said, "One has to be grounded in what Christianity is all about to not allow that temptation to get them."

Click here to read the rest of the interview.

R.I.P., Mae Kelly, 1917?-2009

Mae M. Kelly, former American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (ABFMS) missionary in Haiti for 36 years, died October 6, 2009 at the age of 92.

Mae was born into a Christian home in Jamaica, as Mae Marguerite Lord. Her parents were active in the Christian Missionary Alliance and were instrumental in planting a church. Mae accepted Christ at the age of seven and was baptized at the age of 15, while attending boarding school in England. She had family members who were missionaries in China and South America and her grandfather made several evangelistic trips to Haiti, so the missionary vision was constantly placed before her.

When Mae met Charles Stanford Kelly he had already felt a call to ministry in Haiti, so together they dedicated their lives to be missionaries there. After marriage to Stan on November 26, 1938 he gave up a business career in Jamaica so they could attend the Radcliffe Missionary Training College in London, England, for theological preparation for mission service. In 1940 they moved to Haiti, where Stan became a pastor with the status of a native worker. They were appointed in 1944 as missionaries under the American Baptist Home Mission Society and in 1946 left the pastorate to serve as general missionaries. With the transfer of Latin American work to International Ministries in 1972 they became part of the ABFMS.

Mae had giftedness and love for teaching music and in particular the piano. She did so in churches, in women’s and children’s work, at camps and conferences, at the Christian University of Northern Haiti (UCNH) and to missionary children. Laurie Casseus, who currently serves in Haiti and is the daughter of former IM missionaries Harold and Ivah Heneise, remembered Mae to Annis, one of Mae’s daughters, with these words: “I have so many wonderful memories of her. She is the reason I studied music and do what I do. Praise God. Of course, I did have the encouragement of my folks, but my inspiration and my teacher was your mom. I would say she was a mentor to me, and I was blessed to have such a godly mentor.” “Auntie Mae,” as she was fondly called, was also the ultimate hostess, especially when it was time for “high tea.”

Mae was predeceased by her husband, C. Stanford. She is survived by her sons, Derek, Ron, and Brian; daughters Annis and Kathy; eight grandchildren; one great grandchild; and one brother. There will be a small memorial service at the Fraser Canyon Lodge in Hope, BC and a family graveside service in Victoria, BC. The family suggests that memorial gifts may be made payable to UCNH, designated for the C.S. Kelly Scholarship Fund and sent to the following address:

Laurie Casseus
UCNH
c/o Agape Flights - CAP-1370
100 AIRPORT AVE
VENICE, FL 34285-3901.

Click here for more information on American Baptist missions work in Haiti.

Quote of the Week

"Justice will bring about peace. . . . If you want peace, work for justice."

Pope Paul VI (1897-1978)

New Blog Series on Immigration

Dr. Danny Carroll--my former Old Testament professor at Denver Seminary--is doing a blog series on Christian faith and immigration based, in part, on his latest book Christians at the Border: Immigration, the Church and the Bible.  Click here to check it out!

Justice and Health Care

"Justice and Health Care" is the theme of this month's lecture series (Mon Sept 28 or Tues Sept 29) at Denver Seminary's Vernon Grounds Institute for Public Ethics. If you're in the Denver area, please consider attending.

Click here for more information.

Quote of the Week

"And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?"

Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons (1966)

Where the hell is Matt?

Quote of the Week

"The theologians have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it."

Philip Berryman