Three Religious Truths

I do not know the origin of this joke but I would strongly believe that it came from a Baptist.

There are three religious truths.

1. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

2. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian faith. 

3. Baptists do not recognize each other in the liquor store.

Epharta

The title of this post is not an error. That will become evident in the following discussion.

Ephratah (or Ephrath) is an ancient name for Bethlehem (בֵּית לֶחֶם Hebrew = house of bread), the prophesied birthplace of the Messiah (Micah 5:2), There were other places also known as Bethlehem so this town was called Bethlehem Ephrathah. This is the place where Jacob buried Rachel.

The Hebrew word אֶפְרָתָה (Ephrathah) comes from the root פרה (parah), meaning to be fruitful, or to increase. Strong’s 672. Genesis 35:16-19, 48:7; Micah 5:2

There are several communities named Ephratah: Efrah, Israel; Ephrata, Pennsylvania, Ephratah, New York; and Ephrata, Washington, with the town in Pennsylvania (USA), being in the national news in 2013.

Ephrata, Pennsylvania, which is of historical importance in its own right, became the focus of a national news story for what basically amounts to sloppiness and failure to attend to details. The problem was a highway sign reading 322 Epharta EXIT 2 Miles, which was noticed in 2013. Highway 322 is a United States Highway which is maintained by the Pennsylvania State Highway system.

Ephrata is pronounced as ef-rah-tah but the town name on the sign would be read as Ee-fart-uh. For readers unfamiliar with idiomatic English, a fart is the expulsion of bowel gas, usually very audibly evident. This sign clearly was a problem.

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/local/misspelled-road-sign-costs-penndot-12k/1962842/

https://lancasteronline.com/news/did-you-catch-that-embarrassing-typo-on-the-sign-along-route-222-near-ephrata/article_4d7d85e4-6694-5a90-841f-dedee1a3ac6a.html

The historical importance of this small Pennsylvania town (2024 population 13,719) comes from the fact that it is the site of the first communal religious society in the United States, the Mystic Order of the Solitary. The buildings are now a tourist and pilgrimage site.

            In 1732, Johann Conrad Beissel (1691-1768) founded the pietist, pacifist, celibate, and ascetic

 group which was known locally as the Ephrata Cloister. Their doctrines identified them as Seventh Day

 Dunkers. The modern survivors of the group are Seventh Day Baptists.

Update to the Statement of faith

 I am from a doctrinally orthodox, Baptist, Trinitarian background. I reject the Prosperity Gospel, Christian Nationalism, and any idea that the answer involves any kind of  political solution.   

    I periodically will make additions to and/or updates to this blog's Statement of Faith. Updates were made today (19 January 2026) to items 1, 5, and 15.  

    To view this page, scroll down until you see the white window labelled as Pages. Click on Statement of Faith. 

Dominant Religious Groups in the United States

This link at businessinsider.com shows a graphic of the dominant religious groups in each county in the United States of America. I believe that the article itself will translate, but I am not sure about the legends accompanying the graphic itself, For readers in languages other than English, the listing below gives the colors of the boxes and the names of the associated religious groups. In most of the major metropolitan areas there are, of course, hundreds of different religious traditions present.

Current statistics show Christian identification declining and "non-affiliated" or "non-religious" identification rising in the USA.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-religious-makeup-of-america-2015-4

Lavender: American Baptists Churches in the USA
Blue: Roman Catholic Church
Yellow: Christian Churches and Churches of Christ
Light Brown: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Grey: Latter-day Saints (Mormons)
Dark Brown: Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
Red: Southern Baptist Convention
Dark Green: United Methodist Church
Light Green: Other
White: None Reported

福音歌 (The Gospel Song)

This is absolutely beautiful!  William Chong’s daughter loves her daddy and helps him sing his song.  William is a gathered worship leader at Howick Baptist Church in Auckland, New Zealand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OAPxinCISU

聖潔神以愛成為
完美人承擔我罪
十架上受苦犧牲
祂受死我得永生

Holy God, love becomes

Perfect bear my sins

Sacrifice on the cross of suffering

His death I have never

Shèngjié shén yǐ ài chéngwéi

wánměi rén chéngdān wǒ zuì

shí jià shàng shòukǔ xīshēng

tā shòu sǐ wǒ dé yǒng

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Some of those listed may surprise you.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff: (b. 1912, England - d. 2005) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1976 - 1979. Baptist, converted to Atheist.

Margaret Hilda Roberts Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher: (b. 1925, England - d. 2013) 

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1979 - 1990. Methodist, converted to Anglican.

Sir John Major: (b 1943, England) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1990 - 1997, Anglican

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair: (b 1953, England) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1997 - 2007, Anglican, converted to Roman Catholic

James  Gordon Brown: (b. 1951, England) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 2007 - 2010, Church of Scotland

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Some of those listed may surprise you.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Bob Newhart: ((b. 1929, Illinois, USA; aka: George Robert Newhart) Stand-up comedian, television and film actor. Roman Catholic.

Virginia Quinn Newhart: Wife of Bob Newhart. Roman Catholic.

Chloe Grace Moretz: (b. 1997, Georgia, USA) Child film actress most known for her controversial roles in Kick-Ass (2010) and Carrie (2013).  She says that her family is “very Christian.”  I am not sure what she means by that and whether or not she, herself, is a Christian.. 

Reginald Howard White: (b. 1961, Tennessee, USA – d. 2004; aka: “the Minister of Defense”) College and professional football player and a member of the Hall of Fame at both levels. Ordained Baptist minister and evangelist.  His views on race and homosexuality became very controversial.  Late in his life, he learned Hebrew and studied under Nehemia Gordon, a Karaite Jew, who is based in Jerusalem.  White's profound interest in Torah led many to believe that he became a Jew, but he never renounced his Christian faith.

Daniel Meyer: (b. 1957) World’s only Christian sword swallower. Clown, juggler, stilt walker, fire eater, glass eater. 

Baptist Top 1000 Ranking

Saints on the Loose! is currently ranked number 362 on the Baptist Top 1000 website, the world's largest directory of Baptist websites.

The worldwide number of websites continues to grow at a rapid pace.  In 2008, there were about 165,000,000 sites.  By December 2012, the number had grown to about 634,000,000 and by April 2013 the number had reached 649,000,000 with about 412,000,000,000 individually indexed pages.  (The statistics are from the internet security and data mining company, Netcraft.) 

Only about 187,000,000 of the sites are active.  Many of the inactive sites were created to lock up every imaginable variation of domain name for commercial companies in order to prevent cyber-squatting.  Also, some of the sites are pre-registered for later sale by web domain companies.

Update on the Murder of a Birmingham Pastor's Wife

Karen Shahan, the wife of Richard Shahan, Associate Pastor at the First Baptist Church of Birmingham (Alabama, USA) was found murdered on 23 July 2013 in her home.

http://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2013/07/pastors-wife-found-murdered.html

There have been almost no updates forthcoming from the police.  The husband, Richard, voluntarily went to the police station to answer questions and was held there for two days for what the police called “investigative purposes.”  Pastor Shahan was released with no charges being filed and without being officially named as a suspect in the killing.  The church has place him on administrative leave “to give him time and space to focus on his family and healing at this time.”

Many of those involved in the situation have become quite frustrated with the apparent lack of progress in the case.  The Senior Pastor, Charles T. Carter, has told his church members that it is acceptable to ask questions and to express doubts and frustrations. “Asking questions is not a lack of faith.”

http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2013/08/its_ok_to_ask_questions_interi.html

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/08/the_rev_richard_shahan_jailed.html

http://topics.al.com/tag/Karen%20Louise%20Shahan/posts.html

http://www.cbs42.com/2013/08/10/update-pastor-takes-administrative-leave-after-wifes-murder/

Pastor's Wife Found Murdered

Karen Shahan, the wife of pastor Richard Shahan, was found murdered in her home in Homewood, Alabama (USA) on 23 July, 2013.  Richard Shahan is the Children and Families Pastor at The First Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama.  The police are not releasing any information about the case at this time.  When more information is available it will be posted on this blog.

First Baptist Church was an important player in the civil rights struggle in Birmingham in the Civil Rights Era of the 1960’s and early 1970’s.  The Baptist Church of the Covenant split from First Baptist  in 1970, primarily over whether or not to admit Winifred and Twyla Bryant, who are black, as members of the church. Read the history of the controversy in the links below.

http://fbcbirmingham.org/

http://www.bcoc.net/templates/System/details.asp?id=43147&PID=579177

http://www.bhamwiki.com/w/First_Baptist_Church_of_Birmingham

http://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Baptist_Church_of_the_Covenant

http://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Temple_Emanu-El

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Some of those listed may surprise you.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

David L. Ramsay III: (b. 1960, USA) Personal money management expert, motivational speaker, author.  Ramsay encourages people to live debt-free.

Bruce Manning Metzger: (b. 1914, Pennsylvania, USA – d. 2007) Biblical translator and textual critic, university professor.  Specialist in Greek, New Testament, and New Testament textual studies.

Karl Ludwig Harding: (b. 1765, Germany – d. 1834) Astronomer.  In 1804, Harding discovered three comets and an asteroid, 3 Juno.

Mark Tronson: (b. 1951, Australia)  Tronson is pionerrin sports ministry in Australia.  He retire in 2001 after seventeen years as the chaplain of the Australian cricket team.  Baptist.

Andrew Wingfield-Digby: (b. 1950, England) Cricketer, pastor.  Founder of the organization, UK Christians in Sport.  Anglican.

Alice Cooper Has Become a Member of the Church of Satan?

Rock musician Alice Cooper has become a member of the Church of Satan?????  For years, he has claimed to be a “born-again Christian.”  Cooper’s actual religious heritage is Bickertonite.  The Bickertonites are a small Trinitarian Mormon sect named for Wlliam Bickerton, but actually formed by the fascinating Sidney Rigdon. (Rigdon was a ubiquitous American religious figure from the nineteenth century who was quite fractious, becoming involved in one religious argument after another and moving rapidly among religious denominations and then quickly becoming a prominent leader in each of them.  Rigdon was in rapid succession, a leader among the Baptists, the Campbellites (Disciples of Christ), the main Joseph Smith Mormon group, and several Mormon schismatic sects.  Rigdon usually ended up disassociated or excommunicated by his former affiliative groups.)

Bickertonites  http://www.thechurchofjesuschrist.org/index.cfm

http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=113546

http://www.mormonwiki.com/Bickertonites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_(Bickertonite)

http://graceforgrace.com/2008/02/18/lds-church-vs-church-of-jesus-christ-bickertonites-vs-rlds-community-of-christ/

For the record, many people believe that this is an elaborate April Fools Joke being perpetrated by Alice Cooper for the publicity it will engender.

Baptists and Pre-Marital Sex

Why do Baptists oppose pre-marital sex?
They fear it might lead to drinking and dancing.

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Some of those listed may surprise you.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (b. 1813, Italy – d. 1901, aka: Joesph Fortuninus Franciscus Verdi, Joseph Fortunin Francois Verdi) Italian composer, mainly of operas.  Roman Catholic.

Hrant Dink: (b. 1964, Turkey – d. 2007) Editor, journalist, columnist, civil rights activist.  Armenian Apostolic Chrurch, Evangelical Protestant.

Ernest David Kelly: Baptist minister, father of actor DeForest Kelly (1920-1999).

Geza Vermes (b. 1924, Hungary) British theologian, historian, expert in Hebrew, Aramaic, and the life of Jesus.  He and his family were Jewish converts to Roman Catholicism.

James Tetsuzo Takeda (b. 1901, Japan; aka: Tetsu) Episcopal priest, chaplain at St. Paul’s University.  He writes Japanese haiku. 

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Some of those listed may surprise you.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Abraham Johannes Muste: (b. 1885, Netherlands – d. 1967; A.J. Muste) American Clergyman, civil rights activist, pacifist.  Muste was a proponent of the Social Gospel.  He was a Dutch Reformed Socialist who became a Quaker Christian pacifist.

Honorio Hermeto Carneiro Leao, Marquis of Parana: (b. 1801, Brazil –d. 1856) Judge, politician, diplomat, and monarchist.  Roman Catholic.

Howard Thurman: (b. 1899, Florida (USA) – d. 1981) Baptist minister, educator, author, philosopher, theologian, civil rights leader.  Thurman was a mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr.

James Leonard Farmer, Jr.: (b. 1920, Texas (USA) – d. 1999) Civil rights activist who organized the 1961 Freedom Ride and was a cofounder of the Congress of Racial Equality.  Son of James Leonard Farmer, Sr. Methodist.

James Leonard Farmer, Sr.: (b. 1886 – d. 1961) Author, theologian, educator, university professor.  Father of James Leonard Farmer, Jr.  Methodist.

Film Comment: October Baby

Really powerful movies are rarely about what they seem to be on the surface.  October Baby (2012) is one of those films.  You absolutely MUST see this film if you possibly can.

A distressingly large number of “Christian” films suffer from weak writing, amateurish acting, poor pacing, and an obvious dependence on one primary set.  You will find none of that in October Baby.

Hannah Lawson (actress Rachel Hendrix) is a freshman in college who suddenly discovers that her entire life is “a lie.”  She learns that she was adopted and that her birth was as the result of a failed abortion.  As the film progresses, Hannah learns even more secrets about her parents, a nurse, a male friend, and her birth mother.

Abortion is the catalyst for the events in the film, but, while the film is clearly pro-life (The tagline is “Every life is beautiful.”), what the film is actually about is the redeeming power of forgiveness.   Hannah, a Baptist, learns from a Roman Catholic priest that because God has forgiven us, we have the power to forgive.

Watch during the credits for a shocking revelation about the actress, Shari Rigby, who portrayed the birth mother.  God works in individual lives in ways we could never have anticipated.

Again, as a Christian, you absolutely MUST see this film.  If you read the film chat rooms you will find equal numbers of people who were absolutely amazed by the film and others, who clearly do not understand, and who post snarky sarcastic comments.  The New York Times film critic, Jeannette Catsoulis, says that the film has "ugliness at its core," while Penny Young Nance, the Chief Executive Officer of Concerned Women for America says that it should be called "Hallelujah Baby."

Obituary of Kenneth Edwin Cherry

Kenneth Edwin Cherry age 83 of Homewood, Alabama (USA) passed away Saturday, October 6, 2012.  Mr. Cherry was a member of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church.  He served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War.  He was buried October 9 in Elmwood Cemetery where military honors were rendered by the U.S. Air Force.

The Saints Unhindered

κηρυσσων την βασιλειαν του θεου και διδασκων τα περι του κυριου ιησου χριστου μετα πασης παρρησιας ακωλυτως. (A very literal translation of this sentence by the Google Translate tool: “preach the kingdom of God and taught the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ after all frankness unhindered access.” Acts 28:31

Saints on the Loose is not personal.  There will be very little information here about me or about my family.  The focus of the blog is about The Lord and His people and the unhindered access we have to further the Kingdom.  Despots, murderers, sarcasm, ridicule, accusations of bigotry and intellectual deficiency,and even vicious persecution with the full force of governments; none  of these have hindered the spread of the Gospel.

I am very aware of the news cycle but will not always speak on current events or controversies unless there is a Christian point to be taken from them.  Other people can and will do that.

This is not a devotional blog and will not necessarily follow the calendar of religious holidays and festivals.  The focus of the blog is intended to be intensely practical and to foster an intellectual and unapologetic presentation of the truth.

This blog is currently indexed on Baptist Top 1000, Bible Top 100, Blog Catalog, Yandex, Bing, and Google Search.  If you would like to index this blog on your search engine, feel free to do so.  Also feel free to suggest blog aggregators and search engines.  You may link to this blog.

Вижу Бога каждый день (I See God Every Day)

This is a Russian Christian song, Вижу Бога каждый день (I See God Every Day), performed at the Slavic Grace Baptist Church in Vancouver, Washington (USA).

Southern Baptists Elect First Black President

On 19 June 2012 the Southern Baptist Convention unanimously elected the extremely popular Pastor Fred Luter (b. 1956, Louisiana, USA) as its president.  This had national significance because Pastor Luter is black. 

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is the world’s largest Baptist group and is the largest Protestant body in the United States. The SBC is evangelical, congregational, and  insists on only believer’s baptism (they are anti-pedobaptists). The Convention was founded in 1845 in Augusta, Georgia (USA) during a dispute with Northern Baptists over slave ownership.  The Northerners refused to allow the appointment of slaveholders to positions of authority.

After the United States Civil War , most of the black Baptists in the American South withdrew to form their own organizations, culminating in 1895 with the National Baptist Convention.

Though the majority of Southern Baptists have long since left behind their embarrassing origins, it was not until 1995 that the group officially renounced and apologized for its racist origins.  By 2008, the SBC had over one million black members.