One day twenty years ago, I remember my colleague Terry saying "What will I be when I'm not a Southern Baptist anymore?" We were standing in the copy room of a Southern Baptist church, where we were both ministers. To say that Terry is more conservative than me is something of a gross understatement.

I went to a the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the early 70's. The current crop of SBC leadership would have said it was a bastion of liberalism then. What they mean by that is that the professors did not tell you what to believe. They gave you a list of 13 prominent interpretations of a scripture passage, proposed by Bible believers over 20 centuries, and asked you to chose one of those for yourself and be able to defend your position. I actually remember the test question on that one. At no time did I ever hear a professor say that he knew the definitive way to interpret any part of scripture. It was confusing to study the Bible. That is liberal. In the conservative world there is one answer and it is simple. Do it this way.

Christian conservative zealotry has taken over the Southern Baptists since then. The organizational shell is still there, but it has been hollowed out. All the buildings are still there, but the occupants have all changed. The president of my seminary now advocates that all forms of birth control should be abolished, even for married couples. God only intended sex for the procreation of children. Albert is thinking about other people having sex way too much. Take a break man.

My brothers-in-law have been taken in by the "Muslims are out to get you" fear mongering conservative right that is also well represented in the Southern Baptist Convention. Muslims are being trained from birth to murder all infidels. Can you feel the cold, steel blade of their scimitar against your neck?!! Their religion demands world domination. All muslims must be eliminated.

What can you say to stuff like this? They send me emails of warning and dare me to refute any of their "facts." Another of my favorites: Muslims are moving here to take over our country from within. Poor me, I was just realizing that the Mexicans were taking over, now it's Muslims too?

The Rev. David Clippard gave the opening address to the Missouri Baptist Convention this week. According to the St. Louis Dispatch, he said "Today, Islam has a strategic plan to defeat and occupy America." The audience cheered. According to Glenn Greenwald, Rev. Clippard's speech emphasized that the greatest threat America faces is the Grand Plan of Muslims to take over the United States, establish a Caliphate inside our country, and then either force everyone to convert to Islam or kill those who refuse.

Whew! These are bad guys. How could I be so unaware? How could John Stewart have not reported this on the Daily Show? It is eye-opening to read the whole article.

My daughter is Episcopalian. My son attends a Methodist congregation. We are members of a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church.