‘Provocative Days’

It was a delight and honor for me to have in the church (First Baptist Church, Collinsville) where my mother and grandmother were baptized David Currie, Catherine Allen and Mark Baggett Feb. 24.

I was equally honored to have Suzannah Raffield of Global Women and Jim Evans of the Alabama Interfaith Alliance here in the audience.

It was church for me, the kind my mother and father would have loved and felt at home in.

At my invitation they were here to speak on future directions in state Baptist life as part of a Freedom Forum tour that also took Currie and Baggett to Albertville and Currie to First Baptist Church, Williams.

The meeting was quite provocative as these are provocative days in Baptist life.

Currie lamented the climate of fear that now pervades Baptist life and gave an excellent talk on the Baptist basics in Collinsville. Several of my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus here were awed at his gifts to communicate so directly and humbly the Baptist message.

For me the two days of fellowship with this group of Baptists brought back memories of the enthusiasms of my dad's periodic ecstasy of a two-week simultaneous revival.

Stephen M. Fox
Collinsville, Ala.