He knew how to project and image and control a narrative and that played a crucial role in the larger SBC story for a decade or more. What’s my point? Stanley was a megachurch leader, but he had lots of media skills. ![]() (Questions like: What are your hopes for peace in the SBC?) (3) Welcome questions from TV journalists, since those newsrooms contain zero religion specialists and the general-assignment reporters sent to the convention will ask safe, vague questions. (2) Avoid questions from national religion-beat pros, since they will know the details of SBC life and, thus, ask the most probing and dangerous (or a word to that effect) questions. (1) When asked hard questions, give short answers and move on. I don’t remember them all, but I do remember the essence of three: Why? Because he was reading a professional set of public-relations guidelines describing (#WaitForIt) how to deal with journalists after his election as SBC president. Trust me - I wish I had a photographic memory. Seeing that he was reading a document, I confess that I looked it over before I alerted him to my presence at his right shoulder. After we had been airborne for an hour or so, I walked up front to give Stanley my card and to request an interview before the election. He was in First Class, obviously, and I was not, obviously. I ended up on the same plane with Stanley, who was rumored to be a candidate for SBC president. To get to that meeting in Kansas City, working for The Charlotte Observer, I had to (#DUH) change planes in Atlanta. The leader of First Baptist Church of Atlanta was elected SBC president in 1985 during what was, in my experience, one of the most intense, even angry, national conventions ever (and that’s saying something) during the near life-and-death Southern Baptist civil war of that era. ![]() See this Associated Press report: “ Charles Stanley, influential Baptist preacher, dies at 90.” Charles Stanley, a pivotal Southern Baptist leader and preacher who died this week. Thinking about the Atlanta airport reminded me of what I think was as highly symbolic encounter with the Rev. There were great questions and lots of dialogue. One day featured meetings with West Coast reporters, including many that don’t work the religion beat, and the second day focused on talks with a circle of faith-group leaders. I will visit that giant airport myself, today, on my way home from speaking at a Poynter Institute conference - “ Telling the Stories of Faith and the Faithful” here in Los Angeles. There’s an old saying in the Sunbelt that goes like this: When Jesus makes his glorious return on the last day, He will still have to fly through Atlanta.
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