by Jas Faulkner
The daily email feed from one of the local papers had two links to stories that showed the city’s religious past and present passing each other in ways that could be seen as fitting, if not entirely ironic.
The first headline, listed as a top story: Southern Baptists Shrink For Sixth Straight Year.
The second, which was tabbed under “City News” : Rev. Will D. Campbell Dies At 88.
The declining Southern Baptist Convention (or whatever it’s calling itself these days) might have elicited a sage nod from Reverend Campbell, followed by a pithy, decidedly un-PC observation about the state of the Southern Baptist church. Campbell was nominally a Baptist who was equal parts Jiminy Cricket and a tenacious gadfly towards the conservative religious establishment.
