"My God is Bigger Than Your God"
The Church of Chuck Norris: Prestonwood Baptist, in Plano, Texas (a Dallas suburb), that is. But Norris isn’t what puts this mega-congregation of 23,000 on the map, it’s the church’s pastor, Jack Graham, president of the Southern Baptist Convention. A perfunctory Dallas Morning News profile marks the end of his tenure in that position with good humor, despite Dr. […]
The Church of Chuck Norris: Prestonwood Baptist, in Plano, Texas (a Dallas suburb), that is. But Norris isn’t what puts this mega-congregation of 23,000 on the map, it’s the church’s pastor, Jack Graham, president of the Southern Baptist Convention. A perfunctory Dallas Morning News profile marks the end of his tenure in that position with good humor, despite Dr. Graham’s calls for Christians to boycott the paper after it started accepting same-sex union notices. Of most interest in the article, though, is Graham’s likely successor: “Bobby Welch, a 61-year-old Vietnam veteran who leads First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Florida. Last year, Mr. Welch strongly supported Army Lt. Gen. William ‘Jerry’ Boykin when the general, speaking at Mr. Welch’s church, told a story about confronting a Mogadishu warlord. ‘I knew that my God was bigger than his,’ Gen. Boykin said.” Dr. Graham, who believes Christian Americans are engaged in a two-front war — in Iraq and here at home, against “cultural” enemies — was considered by many Baptists to be too bland and conciliatory. Welch, his heir-apparent, promises to get the guns a-blazing against the enemies of his big God, foreign and domestic.