Pickles Have Souls

The phrase "pickles have souls" is a phrase that would have meaning to a person who believes that truth is not absolute and that the source of our strength is an inner driving force and the effective good outcome is the mark of our strength. Such men care not that the Bible is inerrant but that the Church grows. These men are the men who have made Bellevue large by their wealth. These men told Dr Rogers that if we say pickles have souls then you had better preach pickles have souls.

We will never know who these men are! They are there and they control the church. They are the products of semi-pelagian thought under girded day after day by Dr Rogers' preaching. They are very successful business men and corporate heads and they are inner driven and outcome based.

There are two specific changes that these men determined had to be made after Dr Rogers retired; the music and youth programs. The new pastor had to understand this and they made sure the selection committee knew it as well. Jim Whitmire and Rob Mullins were in the way of this change and were very close to Dr Rogers and these men would not suggest this to him but they would make sure the search committee understood. Jim Barnwell said, "Gaines had made changes, but many of them were in place when he came." The decision to get rid of Whitmire and Mullins was already made and Dr Rogers stood in the way. It had to appear that Steve Gaines had made the decision.

These men who are still there are the children of the same one that fathered the Sadducee in Jesus' day. The manner in which Jim and Rob were let go was typical of a corporate move and their hurts matter little to these men. It was a very unChristlike matter. They suffer for it. Neither has confided in me. I do not know Whitmire but only have observed him at Bellevue. The night of his announced retirement his physical demeanor gave away his hurt. I have met with Rob Mullins and have known him and I know the hurt he endures, yet he has not confided in me the source of his hurt.

These men are not interested in Steve Gaines rather they like that "fifth avenue smile" of Jamie Parker. They like it that he is young and "upbeat". So Steve Gaines keep on beating the conservative drumbeat but know that it is not important toward Bellevue's largeness, "Pickles have souls".