mayflower's radio guy

baptist minister writes on ten things your pastor wants to tell you (but can't because he needs a job)

by David Rucker

Many thanks go out to the good people from within and without Mayflower Church for positive comments about Mayflower’s radio program. Just in case you didn’t know, it’s on the air every Sunday morning at 9:30 on KOKC -- formerly KOMA A.M.1520. KOKC is one of the four Oklahoma City stations in the Renda corporate umbrella around the country. They take great pride in effectively managing what they own.

“This I Believe” is a terrific collection of personal expressions aired on National Public Radio. Hearing those features is most always a good experience. To have them so well preserved in Robin’s Lenten study series is a great opportunity for us to explore what we believe personally and as a community, and it presents a means of deepening all those things we do out of faith and convictions.

There’s another book set to come out on Mar. 20 entitled, “Ten Things Your Pastor Wants to Tell You (But Can’t Because He Needs the Job). I can’t wait to get my hands on it. Endorsements include Bill Moyers and Rabbi David Packman. Hurray! You may have noticed word of it in USA Today, topping off an op-ed by the author, Oliver “Buzz” Thomas. He’s ordained as a minister in both the Southern and American Baptist denominations. Buzz, as he prefers to be called, has a lot of praise for the United Church of Christ.

He talked about that when I informed him of Mayflower’s open and affirming stance. You see, the op-ed took to task those who use the Bible to condemn anyone who isn’t heterosexual, and he soundly and analytically referred to the Bible to back his position. Since I’d never heard of Buzz, it was a great breath of fresh air to read.

Buzz is also an attorney, an expert and advocate for the First Amendment from his home base in Tennessee. In fact, when we spoke, he was about to lecture for a couple of days at Wake Forest. He had visited Israel recently and expressed deep dismay at the way the Palestinians are being treated and the security fence at Ramallah. It reminds him of Berlin at the close of World War II. He wrote, for example, of an elderly Palestinian man trying to earn his meager living and being harassed by an Israeli soldier in the process. Buzz saw it with his own eyes and it sickened him.