A mistake by the staff of The Alabama Baptist is making life difficult for Cecil Taylor, professor of Christian Studies at the University of Mobile and a Sunday School lesson writer for the state Baptist paper. We are glad readers care about what they read in The Alabama Baptist. We want the paper always to be “a trusted voice and a welcomed friend.” That means when we make a mistake we have to acknowledge it. Otherwise readers will not be able to believe what they read each week.
Taylor wrote the Spring Explore the Bible Sunday School lessons for the state Baptist paper. In the May 17 issue he wrote about the crucifixion of Jesus. He contrasted what the Bible says about Jesus’ death with the remains of an unidentified person from Jesus’ day who also died from crucifixion.
The May 17 issue was one of the first weeks The Alabama Baptist worked without its longtime copy editor, who recently had begun a new ministry with national Woman’s Missionary Union. In the course of editing the Sunday School lesson to fit the available space, a serious mistake was made. Worse yet, the edits were not appropriately checked because the staff was working out new editing and fact-checking procedures.
The result was a paragraph that said Jesus’ legs had been broken during crucifixion.
Like many editing mistakes, the problem was discovered after publication. We took the mistake seriously and printed a correction in the May 31st issue on the editorial page. Dr. Taylor had done no wrong. He had written describing the crucifixion of Jesus according to the biblical text. The correction was an effort to exonerate Taylor and take the blame for our mistake.
Unfortunately the correction did not accomplish its purpose. Taylor continues to receive heated emails and correspondence questioning his ability to teach in a Baptist college or write Sunday School lessons. A few days ago he received a petition signed by more than 30 people demanding that he repudiate what was written in the Sunday School lesson.
Alabama Baptists are fortunate to have highly qualified, Bible-believing professors teaching in their colleges. The Alabama Baptist is glad to partner with these men and women as they write Sunday School lesson commentaries week in and week out. The lessons provide wonderful resources for Sunday School teachers and participants alike. Taylor is one of the most proficient Sunday School lesson writers.
To him we publicly apologize for the editing mistake and say again to all our readers, the mistake was not his.
We also need to apologize to the Book-Link International ministry for the confusion we caused in the May 31 issue. We ran a feature story on the ministry and added what used to be an Alabama address available for mailing books. Because of the same situation as noted above — working out new editing and fact-checking procedures — we did not realize the Alabama office had been closed. Several people have mailed books, only to have them returned. We retracted the address the following week on page 2, but not everyone saw the retraction. Still it was a mistake on our part and we are very sorry. The correct address is Book-Link International, Inc., 100 Book-Link Way, Eubank, KY 42567.
To all our readers, we apologize again for the mistakes made by our staff.
We have learned from the experiences and are doing better. Please continue to pray for us.
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