My name is Finis Leavell Beauchamp, and I am the eldest grandchild of one of the most prominent Christian leaders of the twentieth century. My grandfather, Landrum Pinson Leavell II, was at one time the vice president of America’s largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, a religious body as numerous as the entirety of Jewry worldwide. My grandfather did not lead from this executive position alone. He also presided, for a quarter-century, over one of the world’s largest Christian seminaries, while penning 14 theological treatises. Thousands of the people who now lead the Evangelical Christian world (with all of the concomitant political power that represents) received their theological training under his direct authority. Millions saw him as their leader.
But that world belongs to memory, for today I am 31 years old, and have been a proud Jew these last nine years.
Read Full Article »