Thank you for your faithfulness in printing so many articles and Bible studies that truly encourage Baptists in our walk with God.
For the first time that I can remember, you printed a guest editorial that was negative — “My Reason for Not Endorsing David Platt as IMB President” by Ron Madison, page 6, Sept. 11 issue.
It truly put the election of David Platt to the position of International Mission Board (IMB) president in a disparaging light.
In contrast, I was delighted to see Jay Wolf’s guest editorial the previous week (page 2, Sept. 4) encouraging Dr. Platt and all of us regarding the reasons he supported Dr. Platt’s election.
I’m sure Dr. Wolf gave an accurate reflection of the convictions of the overwhelming majority of votes that were cast for Dr. Platt.
Perhaps you printed the most recent editorial to present the “other side” of this election. But I don’t understand your reasoning for publishing Dr. Madison’s guest editorial, because his views represent a very small percentage of voters.
Even though Dr. Platt didn’t support the Cooperative Program to the extent others perhaps felt he should have in the past, he nevertheless intends to correct that mistake in the future.
Dr. Madison also mentioned that he didn’t know how Dr. Platt would correct his “failure” since he will not be leading a local church.
But the president of the IMB would have significant influence over the local churches’ support of missions, does he not?
Even though I haven’t had the opportunity to know the specifics of Dr. Platt’s plan, I know I can trust God to give him success as he leads our missions effort because of his obvious desire to make Jesus known to the world.
My concern with the publication of this editorial is the negative light it casts on someone who was overwhelmingly chosen to lead.
Eleanor McElvy
Montgomery, Ala.
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