Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler sent me an e-mail about a conversation she had with Joe Crumpler, her husband and longtime Ohio pastor. She wrote that she and Joe were talking about how every pastor needs a pastor.
Carolyn is a former board member of the Baptist Center for Ethics and a former executive director of the Woman’s Missionary Union, a mission’s education organization of the Southern Baptist Convention.
“Who is your pastor?” she asked Joe.
He replied, “Ethics Daily!”
Carolyn wrote that the same was true for her as well. She also wrote that she wanted my help making an online contribution.
Her e-mail made my day and made me want to share with our readers what other readers have said about EthicsDaily.com and what we do.
First, know that readers communicate mostly when they are really ticked off about what they’ve read on EthicsDaily.com or seen in EthicsDaily.com documentaries. I’ve occasionally referenced their calls and e-mails.
We do read critical e-mails and talk with angry callers. We consider the source and content.
For now, turn to the positive. Consider some of the e-mails we’ve received from those who read EthicsDaily.com and support what we do:
Roy Medley, general secretary of American Baptist Churches-USA wrote: “You have an incredible ministry and needed voice in Baptist life… I know there must be many Baptists who don’t appreciate your views, but there are many, many of us who do!”
“You are a voice for truth,” said Geraldine Boyd, a retired Texas Baptist professor, who frequently writes. She almost always closes with, “Thanks for EthicsDaily.”
In response to an editorial on global warming, Mercer University religion professor Colin Harris wrote, “Thanks for being the voice you are.”
“Ethics Daily is perhaps America’s best kept secret. I read it regularly and forward some of the materials to friends,” praised Raouf Halaby, a Palestinian-American Christian who teaches English and art history at Ouachita Baptist University.
“I am especially grateful for the ministry of EthicsDaily. Keep up the good work,” wrote Tennessee pastor Ed Sunday-Winters in early November.
Mississippi Baptist layman Jack McDaniel wrote in October: “I have wanted to thank you for some time for the Different Books, Common Word work. It is on the agenda for our adult studies series later this year.”
Texas author and speaker Jeanie Miley wrote in September, “Thank you for being sane in the midst of it all.”
“My appreciation for your good work,” penned Bonny Resu, general secretary for the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation, in August.
Every time I visit with Bonny at Baptist World Alliance gatherings, he tells me that he reads EthicsDaily.com every morning – in India.
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Arkansas coordinator pasted an EthicsDaily.com column into an e-mail and sent it to pastors, ministers, chaplains and educators.
Ray Higgins wrote: “Another insightful essay about leadership and ministry from Ron Crawford, president at the Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond. It appears today on the Baptist Center for Ethics website (www.ethicsdaily.com).”
Rick Burnette, a former missionary with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, wrote: “Great article. You expressed exactly our position when we were with CBF Global Missions.”
Explaining his work with ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization), Rick said in another e-mail that “we continue to read EthicsDaily.”
“Thanks for the piece on vegetarian life style and climate. I’m including it, with attribution, in our weekly electronic newsletter,” said Larry Greenfield, executive minister for American Baptist Churches of Metro Chicago.
“I am extremely grateful for your fine work and the efforts of all those involved in producing ‘Different Books, Common Word: Baptists and Muslims.’ I viewed the program … here in Birmingham and found it to be a breath of fresh air in a stale world,” said Alabama pastor Dennis Foust.
“The Sacred Text DVD was excellent,” wrote Mitch Williams, a Baptist layman from East Tennessee.
“I continue to appreciate the writers who contribute to the ethics web. I have been making members of the church, students and people that I meet aware of the link,” wrote Emmanuel McCall, former BCE board member.
“I’m writing to thank you for your recent article on economics. It was encouraging to me to read such an informed piece which presents the market as needing a reform guided by avowedly moral principles,” wrote retired Samford University professor Fisher Humphreys.
Readers and supporters are clearly grateful for and beneficiaries of EthicsDaily.com – the website and the documentaries. The remarkable increase in readership and the widespread use of documentaries underscore how many folk are devoted to what we do.
We need long-time and new EthicsDaily.com readers to take the next step.
We need you to become moral investors.
We need you to see yourselves as investing in a nonprofit organization pursuing social justice, critiquing the culture, challenging the church, framing constructive interfaith dialogue, speaking up for the common good. Your investment will come in the form of a contribution.
EthicsDaily.com, after all, is made available by readers like you – moral investors.
Click here to give.
Robert Parham is executive editor of EthicsDaily.com and executive director of its parent organization, the Baptist Center for Ethics.
Robert M. Parham (1953 – 2017) was the founder and executive director of Baptist Center for Ethics from 1991 to 2017. He served as executive editor of EthicsDaily.com, BCE’s website, from its launch in 2002 until 2017.
