The Cardinal and the Red Bishop

If you haven’t already had a chance to read Al Mohler’s latest blog, “The wrath of God poured out,” stop reading this post now and visit www.almohler.com.  Then come back to The Baptist Blogger.

We’ll keep the lights on for you.

Something Mohler said strikes us.  In fact, it haunts us.

I think Mohler intended it to:

We thought this was a Roman Catholic problem. The unbiblical requirement of priestly celibacy and the organized conspiracy of silence within the hierarchy helped to explain the cesspool of child sex abuse that has robbed the Roman Catholic Church of so much of its moral authority. When people said that Evangelicals had a similar crisis coming, it didn’t seem plausible — even to me. I have been president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for twenty-five years. I did not see this coming.

I was wrong. The judgment of God has come.

Paige Patterson is the Cardinal Law of the Southern Baptist Convention. He’s known things. In fact, that’s one way he’s stayed in power. He knows the dark, dirty secrets of many Southern Baptist leaders. He’s milked the Baptist grapevine for more than six decades. He has files. They’re building an entire building on Southwestern’s campus for those files.

In recent days, I’ve accessed some of those files.  They were full of lies, inaccuracies, slander, and idle gossip.

I took those lies to the men who participated in one of Patterson’s gossip gathering sessions. They were embarrassed, and they called me.

Southwestern Seminary officials have already begun the purge of these archives to erase and redact content that is slanderous and false. I’ve communicated with seminary officials and two of the men who participated in the Patterson’s oral history project about the matter. I’ve been assured that the slanderous files will be deleted.

There’s no telling what else the Pattersons have gathered over the years.  Rest assured, the trustees are giving 12,000 sqft and a well-funded staff to protect them.  On top of a generous sinecure as “theologians-in-residence” for Paige and the First Lady Emerita.

But that’s only the beginning.

When all hell broke loose in the Boston diocese, the Vatican pulled Cardinal Law.  The pope didn’t revoke his red hat, but instead appointed him to the ceremonial post of Archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.

When he died in December of last year, he was still living in the Vatican City, safe and secure from the American legal system and justice for the victims of the crimes he not only covered up, but the ones he himself committed by his concealment.

Paige Patterson was just given a new, honorific title. He’s moving to a “private apartment” in a new building on campus. He has a salary. He still has his servants and staff. Probably a travel budget.

All at the expense of Southern Baptist churches who support the Cooperative Program

When Cardinal Law fled the United States, he left an archdiocese in complete disarray, more than 500 lawsuits, $100 million in damage claims and bankruptcy. In exile, he continued to wield power over the American Conference of Catholic Bishops, helping the Vatican make selections for prominent posts in the United States. His proteges still got their promised appointments.

Southwestern Seminary trustees have just created the Baptist Cardinal Law.

We might even call him The Red Bishop.

Stay tuned for more . . .