In the past I have made the assertion that Marv Knox, for his views on church and state, is a hippie. To that I, more or less, still hold. However, he has numerous good points. And while I call Marv Knox a "hippie," there are plenty of right-wing nutjobs not so unlike myself who are at least as bad as "hippie" and likely worse.

My problem with Marv Knox is that he talks in the Baptist Standard (www.baptiststandard.org) as if it is the government's job to care for the poor, and not the government's job to do anything about the unmitigated destruction of innocent human life (read: abortion on demand). It is clear to me that it is the church's job to help the poor; the church should be the first, and last, line of defense. It is, however, the government's first and last job to protect human life; that is the role of the divinely instituted institution we call the government.

In Marv's favor, he is aware of the suggestion that it is the church's job to help the poor. To this idea he recently replied in the Baptist Standard that none of the churches are doing a very good job. With this thought I cannot disagree with Marv. Since the churches are doing such a poor job (that's me, by the way, and you, and you, and you, and you, and probably your mom), I have no problem with the government stepping in, which it is and I have to say a feeble "Praise the Lord" for a society generous enough for its government to do so. Somehow I want that situation fixed. I want the churches to start taking care of their communities, their poor and uneducated. I want the government to stop. How? I have no earthly clue. I might agree with Marv more than I think--if only he agrees that the situation should be reversed.

In Marv's favor, I read him saying something partially good about abortion one time: that a substantial enough majority of our society can agree that it is good to reduce the number of abortions. Again I say, it is to the credit of Marv Knox that he realizes that the governmental solution to the abortion problem (read: sin/atrocity/genocide) is not the best. Even though the government is neglecting its duty to protect human life, the Church (which has, since our earliest days, opposed abortion, and not by any means always by governmental means), the Church, I say, can, should, and must do everything in its power, and everything in its love for women and children and men (my gender has something to do with most pregnancies, so the scientists tell me), the Church must do everything in its power and love to stop abortions from taking place. And a good place to start is at the beginning, by reducing the number:

The local Crisis Pregnancy Center is the solution to our problem. While we encourage the government to recognize that its role as protector of human life, we Christians are failing utterly if we do not support the local Crisis Pregnancy Center in our own neighborhood. Those who were conscientious to vote pro-life in November and have never given one hour or one dollar to your local CPC are millionares who have tithed in pennies.

But we are succeeding. And the rest of us need to get on board.

As for Marv Knox, he's a good guy, but he's confused. Kudos to him for telling Texas Baptists not to spend all their time seeking a legal solution to the abortion problem and ignoring the poor.

But he errs badly by failing to tell us to do better. He should be telling Texas Baptists, where the poor are concerned, to open up more homeless shelters. He should be telling us, where abortion is concerned, to open up more crisis pregnancy centers. Marv Knox has a golden opportunity to do so. This would:

--Reduce the number of abortions; save human lives!

--Help endless numbers of women in bad situations.

--Allow for the biggest EVER example of BGCT and SBTC churches showing Christian unity in working together in their communities by supporting the same local crisis pregancy centers.

--Help endless numbers of Texas Baptists who are pro-life in their politics to understand that they need to be pro-life in their churches, where it's even more important.

--Help endless Texas Baptists who are pro-choice in their politics to be pro-life in their churches, where it counts just a little bit more.

--And make Mr. Knox's continued stand against the Christian Republican movement seem credible to Christians who are Republicans mainly because of that party's predominantly pro-life stance.