Being attached to a label over which you have no control is an occupational hazard in many walks of life, including ministry. Ask a Muslim, or a worker at Trump International, for example.
'Baptist' is a term that a vast range of churches can adopt so there are plenty of reasons to be wary of over-indulging it as a label.
Donald Trump is not a Baptist. There have been Baptist presidents of the USA: four in all - which is four more than the number of Baptist Prime Ministers of the UK. Given the new arrival in the White House I imagine the two that are alive - Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter (though he's no longer a Baptist) - are not feeling very happy just now.
'Baptist' is a term that a vast range of churches can adopt so there are plenty of reasons to be wary of over-indulging it as a label.
Donald Trump is not a Baptist. There have been Baptist presidents of the USA: four in all - which is four more than the number of Baptist Prime Ministers of the UK. Given the new arrival in the White House I imagine the two that are alive - Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter (though he's no longer a Baptist) - are not feeling very happy just now.
But the one that arrests my attention is the one before them - Harry S Truman. He was certainly not a Donald Trump. In listings of US Presidents by wealth he occupies a very lowly position. He grew up on a Midwestern farm and his parents could not afford to send him to College. But for the intervention of World War 2, may have stayed there but that war brought out leadership qualities in him that led to the Senate and at last to the Vice-Presidency.
And then, 82 days into a fourth term of office in 1945, the near-legendary President Franklin D Roosevelt suddenly died. FDR had led the USA through the War following Pearl Harbor but also through the post-Depression 1930s. His death was not on the radar. And Vice-President Harry S Truman became President.
On his inauguration day he turned to the reporters and said, "Well boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now". Within a few weeks he had to decide whether or not to drop nuclear bombs on Japanese cities with the intention of bringing the war to an earlier close. It was a decision to take tens of thousands of lives in order to save more tens of thousands of lives. The only person who has ever authorised the use of nuclear weapons was a Baptist.
There is amazing incongruity in that. Baptists are often somewhat pacifist, sometimes committedly so, and rarely devotedly pro-military by comparison to many other people. It is a reminder that whatever our stories in Sunday School the world thrusts difficult - perhaps cataclysmically difficult - decisions upon us.
And then, 82 days into a fourth term of office in 1945, the near-legendary President Franklin D Roosevelt suddenly died. FDR had led the USA through the War following Pearl Harbor but also through the post-Depression 1930s. His death was not on the radar. And Vice-President Harry S Truman became President.
On his inauguration day he turned to the reporters and said, "Well boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now". Within a few weeks he had to decide whether or not to drop nuclear bombs on Japanese cities with the intention of bringing the war to an earlier close. It was a decision to take tens of thousands of lives in order to save more tens of thousands of lives. The only person who has ever authorised the use of nuclear weapons was a Baptist.
There is amazing incongruity in that. Baptists are often somewhat pacifist, sometimes committedly so, and rarely devotedly pro-military by comparison to many other people. It is a reminder that whatever our stories in Sunday School the world thrusts difficult - perhaps cataclysmically difficult - decisions upon us.
We will all have a critical opinion on the decision that will forever mark his name. But perhaps the lesson to learn is that we must pray for our leaders - whether they know we must or whether they don't. Some of them have thought they are God, but none of them are.
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