DownshoreDrift

100% Chance of a Global Recession in the Next 12 Months?

Marc Faber, a well-respected market analyst, made this prediction on CNBC's Fast Money Halftime Report last week.  The Euro is deflating (trading at $1.24), Greece is about to go belly up, China is slowing down (I've been reading for some time now that China's growth is real, but its uber growth is a bubble that is near bursting brought on by artificial government stimulus).  India is still a country in economic struggle (Rupee to Dollar is trading at 56 to 1, the highest I've ever seen) and while the top end is doing well, the other 800 million inhabitants are mired in poverty. The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 was dealt with by pushing serious issues down the road and it looks like it is possible that Part II is coming up.

Now, we see that Spain is in trouble, as is Portugal, Ireland, and Italy. The American housing market still has not bounced back and we got numbers this week that new home sales had declined again. With governments having maxed out their credit cards to get us through 2008, what happens if things turn south again? How do we bail ourselves out next time.

I read an article the other day that said that by 2024, 100% of U.S. tax dollars will be spent on entitlements such as Social Security, Medicare, Welfare, etc., and interest on the national debt, which will go up approximately $1.5 TRILLION this year alone. That means that there will be nothing left for the military, public works projects, student loans, or anything else the government spends money on. If we go through another recession in the next 12 months on a global scale, our financial situation will just become worse instead of better, possibly moving that date up a few years. Also, Baby Boomers are hitting retirement age and many of them cannot retire because they did not save, spent everything, and are in debt. So, they have to keep working and many are moving into jobs that would be considered entry level with lower pay just to make things meet. The problem is that they are keeping younger workers from being able to enter the workforce and move up, retarding their economic growth and ability to buy homes, increase assets, and contribute to a faltering economy and tax base, which just amplifies the looming entitlement funding crisis due to hit in about a decade. With unemployment continuing to be high and it getting harder to find work (saw today that 20,000 people applied for around 800 jobs at a local Hyundai plant), what are people to do? Go to college? Even that does not help as 53% of college graduates under the age of 25 are either unemployed or underemployed (working jobs that do not require a bachelor's degree).  Perhaps things feel like they have stabilized, but in reality, the bottom seems to be getting weaker. 

What is the Christian to do? IF all of this is true and we are headed for real economic recession again, then that means that there will be a lot of hurting people. Many will lose jobs, lose homes, and lose hope. We went through this just four years ago and were able to stave off the worst of it, but what if that was just the warning shot? What if things get really bad?  Individual Christians and churches need to be getting their house in order so they can be a blessing to others instead of a drain. We can only put our hope in God and should not look to our jobs, our wealth, our education, the economy, or our nation for safety and security. When everything seems to be falling apart and the ground beneath us is shaking, we are to look to the Lord. Also, we must seek to be a help to those in need with the help that we have received from the Lord, both in strength, faith, and peace of mind, as well as in material blessing.

¹ My soul finds rest in God alone;
    my salvation comes from him.
² He alone is my rock and my salvation;
    he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

                        Psalm 62:1-2

Is It Time To Declare Amnesty for Illegal Aliens?

Four years ago, illegal immigration was a huge topic during the presidential election season. This time around, apart from actions against illegal immigrants in states like Arizona, Georgia, and my state of Alabama, we have heard little about it.  But, I wonder if it is time to just declare amnesty for the illegal aliens that are already in the country and put them on the fast track to citizenship if they have been here for more than a few years? We are obviously not going to deport them. So, what should we do? Would we not all be better off if we made them legal and enabled them to pay taxes and openly contribute to the social and civic welfare of our nation and come out of the shadows? For those who do not think that this is a conservative idea, Ronald Reagan did it in 1986 and legalized the status of 1.7 million people in the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. Actually, the American government has provided amnesty for illegal aliens on many occasions throughout our country's history. So, why not now?

I was talking with one of our church members the other day, John Wible, who was the chief legal counsel for the Alabama Department of Public Health and is now volunteer staff for our church. John goes around the state and gives presentations and delivers papers on various topics related to public health and local and state government. We were talking about this issue the other day and he told me about a presentation that he gave on the history of immigration to the US and what the government has done in the past to accomodate it. I was not aware that Reagan had pushed for amnesty, nor did I realize that we engaged in forced deportations of hundreds of thousands of Mexicans in the mid-1950's in what was called, Operation Wetback. I asked if he would mind sending me a reduced version of it to print here. As always, my thoughts turn to the Church and how Christians should see this issue. But, first, let's look at John's history and perhaps I'll write another post about the implications of this history combined with Biblical ethics and calls for justice. 

A Brief History of Immigration in the United States

By John R. Wible, 2012

(Citations and footnotes deleted but available in a longer version)

Historically, American immigration history can be viewed in four periods:

• the colonial period,
• the mid-nineteenth century,
• the turn of the twentieth century, and
• Post-1965.

 Each period brought distinct national groups, races and ethnicities to the United States.

 During the seventeenth century, approximately 175,000 Englishmen migrated to Colonial America. Over half of all European immigrants to Colonial America during the 17th and 18th centuries arrived as indentured servants.

The mid-nineteenth century saw mainly an influx from northern Europe; the early twentieth-century mainly from Southern and Eastern Europe; post-1965 mostly from Latin America and Asia.

Historians estimate that fewer than one million immigrants—perhaps as few as 400,000—crossed the Atlantic during the 17th and 18th centuries. A 1790 Act limited naturalization to "free white persons"; it was expanded to include African Americans in the 1860s and Asians in the 1950s. In the early years of the United States, immigration was fewer than 8,000 people a year, including French refugees from the slave revolt in Haiti. After 1820, immigration gradually increased. From 1836 to 1914, over 30 million Europeans migrated to the United States.

 The death rate on these transatlantic voyages was high, during which one in seven travelers died. In 1875, the nation passed its first immigration law.

The peak year of European immigration was in 1907, when 1,285,349 persons entered the country, most through Ellis Island processing center. By 1910, 13.5 million immigrants were living in the United States. In 1921, the Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, also known as the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921, the Per Centum Law, and the Johnson Quota Act. It was followed by the Immigration Act of 1924. The 1924 Act was aimed at further restricting the Southern and Eastern Europeans, especially Jews, Italians, and Slavs, and Asians (principally Chinese) who had begun to enter the country in large numbers beginning in the 1890s. Interestingly enough, most of the European refugees fleeing the Nazis during World War II were barred from coming to the United States.

Immigration patterns of the 1930s were dominated by the Great Depression, which hit the U.S. hard and lasted over ten years, not really ending until the outbreak of World War II. In the final prosperous year before the Great Crash, 1929, there were 279,678 immigrants recorded. This dropped dramatically to the point where in 1933, only 23,068 came to the U.S. In the early 1930s, more people emigrated from the United States than immigrated to it.

During this period, the U.S. government sponsored a Mexican Repatriation program which was intended to encourage people to voluntarily move to Mexico, but thousands were deported against their will. Altogether about 400,000 Mexicans were repatriated. The event, carried out by American authorities, took place without due process. Some 35,000 were deported, among many hundreds of thousands of other immigrants who were deported during this period. The Immigration and Naturalization Service targeted Mexicans because of "the proximity of the Mexican border, the physical distinctiveness of Mestizos, and easily identifiable barrios." In the post-war era, in the heart of the McCarthy “Red Scare” xenophobic period, the Justice Department launched Operation Wetback, under which 1,075,168 Mexicans were deported in 1954.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Cellar Act, abolished the system of national-origin quotas. By equalizing immigration policies, the act resulted in new immigration from non-European nations, which changed the ethnic make-up of the United States. While European immigrants accounted for nearly 60% of the total foreign population in 1970, they accounted for only 15% in 2000. Immigration doubled between 1965 and 1970, and again between 1970 and 1990. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush (Bush 43) signed the Immigration Act of 1990, which increased legal immigration to the United States by 40%.

Appointed by President Clinton, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform recommended reducing legal immigration from about 800,000 people per year to approximately 550,000. While an influx of new residents from different cultures presents some challenges, "the United States has always been energized by its immigrant populations," said President Clinton in 1998. "America has constantly drawn strength and spirit from wave after wave of immigrants [...] They have proved to be the most restless, the most adventurous, the most innovative, the most industrious of people."

An analysis of census data found that nearly eight million immigrants entered the United States from 2000 to 2005, more than in any other five-year period in the nation's history; an estimated 3.7 million of them, nearly half, entered illegally. Since 1986 Congress has passed seven amnesties for illegal immigrants. In 1986 president Ronald Reagan signed immigration reform that gave amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants in the country. Hispanic immigrants were among the first victims of the late-2000s recession, but since the recession's end in June 2009; immigrants posted a net gain of 656,000 jobs. 1.1 million Immigrants were granted legal residence in 2009.

The immigration laws in the United States have experienced uneven progress. During colonial times independent colonies created their immigration laws. While it is true that the very first attempt to naturalize foreigners was through the Naturalization Act of 1790, many years later the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed to stop the immigration of Chinese people. The Immigration Act of 1924 put a quota on how many immigrants are permitted, based on nationality. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 led to the creation of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the INS or as they say in the vernacular, “The Inmigración.”

The five major departments of the federal government involved in the immigration process are the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Department of State, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Health and Human Services. Of the five, the Department of Homeland Security, which replaced the INS, enforces immigration laws and bestows benefits on aliens.

It is subdivided into three distinct departments: US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP.)

Every year, the Federal government conducts a Diversity Visa Lottery. The lottery grants citizens of other countries legal entry into the United States; however only citizens of countries "with low rates of immigration to the United States" are allowed to apply.

Presently there are two different types of US visas: one for people seeking to live in the US; termed Immigrant Visas, and the other for people coming for limited durations termed Non-Immigrant Visas. The former visa has "per country-caps", and the latter does not. Most non-immigrant visas are for work purposes, and usually require an offer of employment from a US business. Other categories include student, family and tourist visas.

The United States allows more than 1 million aliens to become Legal Permanent Residents every year, which is more than any other country in the world.

Immigration law became a serious political issue in the United States particularly after 9/11 – and nowhere more so recently than in the State of Alabama.

 

Christians Must Fight to Reclaim the Sabbath

I have been thinking about this lately quite a bit - Why do we bother to gather for worship on Sundays? What is the point? Is it really necessary? We live in a culture that thinks that almost all that Christians do is unnecessary, so of course, we are going to have constant alternatives to being and being with the people of God. To actually participate with the Body of Christ in worship and congregational spiritual formation, we are going to have to fight for it and make it a priority. This is something that many of us have a hard time doing.

We have become convinced that any claim on our time from Scripture, the church, or God Himself is only to be seen as legalism and should be rejected as out of touch with the spiritual life. But, we have no problem with giving into the claim that leisure activities, kid's sports, family, entertainment, or simply wasting time places on our lives. We do not understand that we have thrown off the yoke of God's authority and have come under the yoke of the world and the flesh. Why do you think that we are so tired all of the time? For all of our fun activities, we are more tired and stressed than ever.  Maybe we are doing it wrong.

The Christian Sabbath (celebrated on Sunday because of the resurrection of Christ) is a day to be spent in prayer, worship, study of Scripture, gathering with other Christians, reflection, and rest. It is a day that we are to think about the week before and to think about what is coming up. It is a day that we submit everything to God and it helps to order our lives in God's creation and larger purposes. It is a day that we live differently from the world and where we mark our lives with God's grace, instruction, and where we fully place our hope in the Resurrection and the New Creation that is going to break into this world.  For Christians who do not regularly participate in it for whatever reason, they are missing something beautiful that God would give them - if they would just make room in their lives to receive it.

Eugene Peterson, who I love for his devotional writings, says this about the Sabbath in an interview at the Q Conference:

The notion of being too busy to celebrate the Sabbath is due to the way society relates to time, Peterson said, noting that "we kill time, we use up time," but believers have to learn to experience time. Peterson referred to the ancient Greeks' two concepts of time – "chronos" and "kairos." Chronos refers to chronological clock time – the time people fill, kill and use up, Peterson explained. But kairos is the opening of an opportunity in time. It is when something happens that changes people, and it is in kairos that Christians have to celebrate the Sabbath.

"Kairos time is the time of salvation, forgiveness and worship," and to experience kairos, Christians have to "break the habit of killing time," Peterson explained. 

Think about what is keeping you from full participation in the Sabbath. What might God have in store for you if you fully opened yourself up to God and the community of faith on this day? How might God want to shape you for His purposes if you stopped all the other activities, even good things, and participated sacrificially with the Body of Christ under the Lordship of Christ?  Everything worth doing requires some sacrifice and it is worth fighting for.  We sacrifice for what we care about and for what we think has value and worth. What do you care about? Where is your faith located when it comes to how you spend your Sundays?

Gateway's Message to Moms on Mother's Day

Every year for Mother's Day, I like to ask a lady to share from her perspective a word of encouragement for Mother's. This year, I preached on Finding Your Place in God's Story and encouraged Moms to see life according to the idea of being created in God's image (Creation), being aware that we are all sinners, including their kids (the Fall), understanding that Jesus came for us to forgive us and redeem us (Redemption), and that we are to live in Hope by believing and passing on God's perspective to our kids (New Creation). I just wanted to encourage them in God's love, tell them that their worth and identity came from God and not their performance, remind them that things are going to go wrong in their lives and the lives of their family, and that Jesus is the one they are to look to and encourage their families to look to. Our Moms already do that so well, but I was hoping that they would see God's Story and find their place in it.

I asked Cheryl Brake, a lady in our church who has raised three boys along with her husband, Mike, to share about living God's Story instead of the world's from her own perspective. This is what she said (it was powerful):

Are You Mom Enough

When Alan called and asked if I would speak this morning he said,”I really want to encourage these mothers.” And in his tone was the sound of a heart burdened for the mothers of his flock. I got off the phone and I asked God to show me what was happening to the moms around me because I wanted to help my pastor carry that burden. Later that day, when I opened my Yahoo page, I got my answer. There was the Time magazine cover and the question

“Are You Mom Enough?

God reminded me of a conversation I had recently with an amazing mother. A mother is so amazing that she is adding to her family by adopting.

In our conversation she was asking me to review some paper work and she was telling me everything she was doing to mother her new charge. Then she looked at me and said, “Am I doing enough?” Ladies, today I am here to encourage you by telling you, you will never be enough.

Now before you throw your bibles at me just bare with me for a second, because my prayer is that the truth will actually set you free.

On an average day a mom’s job description is cook, nurse, referee, housekeeper, chauffer, coach, confidant, teacher, recreational coordinator, fashion consultant, purchasing agent, toy repairman, and bedtime storyteller.

If you are a Christian mother add to that bible study leader, worship leader, prayer warrior, protector from a fallen world, and you have just an average mother’s day.

No wonder we are tired all the time? And we end the day wondering if we did enough. “Are we mom enough?’

And if you have blown it in any way, well the answer is clear. You have failed! Every other mom is doing a better job than you and you know it. Does it sound familiar?

Well, I am here to tell you that being everything your kids need was never God’s plan.

In Gen 1:26-28 it says:
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.

Mothers, this is where our story begins: Be fruitful and increase in number: Motherhood was part of God’s plan. But His plan was for us to be stewards, not saviors. It was part of a blessing, not a curse.

And when that child is born you do not have to tell a new mother that her child is part of a blessing. When she holds that beautiful bundle of joy she feels the goodness of God. She sees the beauty of His creation. She feels blessed.

But unfortunately, reality follows.

Gen. Chapter 3 says: “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

We see our perfectly blessed woman, created in His image, analyzing that fruit and deciding what is best for her and her family.

I have often wondered how many times Eve thought about that choice. Being removed from the garden, no longer communing with God in a state of perfection, would have been punishment enough. But can you image how that choice haunted her when Cain hit the terrible twos? There was sin staring her in the face! The blessing that was received in perfection was now walking and talking and screaming “NO” at the top of his lungs!

I was pondering this one day when my oldest was exerting his two year old status, and then I thought about Hannah. Now that woman was smart; she had a plan. She loved that little bundle of joy, cuddled him, and nursed him, but the moment that kid turned two she said, “Here God, he’s all yours!”

Moms I am sure you can see what I am saying here. Because of the fall, those little blessings are tough to handle. And let me tell you this, when sinful child meets with burnt out mom, it can get ugly.

BUT… There is hope. God did not leave us trapped in the web of sin and despair. He sacrificed His own to save us.

Every hope we have as a person, as a woman, and as a mother, hinges on the cross of Christ.

God provided a savior. God saved us from ourselves. His redemption took away the consequences of our sinful choices. It provided for us a Holy Spirit; The counselor, teacher and power source to choose a different way.

Ladies, what I am about to tell you is a very different way from the burden the world is putting on us.

We are not the glue that holds our family together Christ is. We will never be tough enough, smart enough, or loving enough to hold our kids lives together. It was never God’s plan.

The redemptive beauty of the cross is that it sets us free. Not only does it set us free from death, but it sets us free from the lies of this world.

We are free to see our children as heirs of Christ. Free to see that God has a plan for their lives, and free to allow Him full authority over it.

We are also free from the guilt that we are not doing enough. We are free from all the ‘experts’ telling us how to be the perfect parent. And we are free from yoke of slavery that says we determine who our children become.

We are also free to approach His throne boldly, to cry out for our son and daughters, and to admit to the God of the universe that we do not have a clue how to ‘fix’ them or the situation they are walking through.

We are free from the fear that this world will win, because Christ has overcome this world
.
We are free to show our children that we are merely stewards. Free to tell them that they were created for a bigger story, a bigger purpose, and a bigger plan.

We are free to make a mistake and ask their forgiveness, and show them that we too need redemption. We can tell them we don’t know which college they should attend, or what job they should take, or even where they should live.
All of those things are part of their story, and they need to listen for the voice of the author.

We are also free to tell them there is hope when they fail, there is one who holds their heart, and he collects their every tear in a bottle.

We are free to point them to a hurt and dying world around them, instead of fearing it’s influences over them. We can show them that the story of others in intertwined with their own.

We are free to tell them that this world is not their home and they were not made to feel comfortable in it.

We are free to believe that if our children are prodigals, that our God loves them with an everlasting love, and He is actively wooing them back to Himself and when they return He will robe them with the garments of His household.

Instead of spending our time and energy trying to be everything our children need, we are free to direct them to the Great I am.

And ladies, listen carefully to this part, we are free to release ourselves. We can trust that every mistake we made will be used for God’s glory. That the sins we have shown them will be the nails that hold them to the cross, and that the God who commands the morning also brings with it, new mercies.

Ladies, God’s plan was for us to Never be Mom enough. It was to provide a savior for our sins, strength for our weakness, and hope beyond this world for our children.

Remember our story started out with a blessing. Well God’s word says that your children are blessed because they were born into the home of a believer. Believe that. Believe that one day your children will say, “My mom was NOT mom enough but the Savior she showed me was EVERYTHING!

 

If you would like to hear this message, you can at the bottom of our church's website.

An Apology to the Man Who Scooped the World ... And Got Fired For It

A couple of days ago, the Associated Press righted a 67 year old wrong when they officially appologized to their long deceased reporter, Ed Kennedy, for firing him after he reported to the world that the Germans had officially surrendered on May 7, 1945, a day before he was supposed to report it. The US and British governments received the German surrender on May 7, but agreed to let the Russians have a separate surrender ceremony the next day. While Kennedy and a dozen or so other reporters attended the German surrender ceremony, they were sworn to secrecy and told that they had to wait 36 hours before reporting it so they did not steal the Russian's thunder. However, when word leaked out of Germany early that the surrender had indeed taken place, Kennedy decided not to wait for the Russians and he reported the news that the whole world had been waiting for.

For doing his job, Kennedy was reprimanded and fired by the Associated Press. He died in a car accident in 1963 believing that he had done the right thing, but never receiving support for his decision from his former employer. I heard this story on the radio today and it caused me to think about many applications. Kennedy was being true to his craft as a journalist. He did not just run ahead and break the story on his own, but once news was reported from Germany, he felt that it was his duty to tell the American people what had happened. He did the right thing, but he was not rewarded for it. Rather, he was punished. That is usually how it goes, unfortunately.

Everyday, we have the opportunity to be true to our calling and our vocation and craft. Everyday, we have the chance to do the right thing, even if it is unpopular. Perhaps we are to speak out against injustice or we are to push the envelope at work and innovate instead of just falling into predictible routines. Maybe we already know what we are supposed to be doing but are afraid of the backlash if we step out and do it. Perhaps we need to be reporting from the edges and telling the stories that people don't want to hear in ways that those in control do not want us to tell.  We might not be appreciated, but we will be right and that is far better. History has a way of coming around.

I had never heard of Ed Kennedy before today, but he became a hero of mine when I heard about what he did. We should all take note and when the opportunity arises, do the right thing at the right time and not look back - even if it goes badly for us.

Why Have the ERLC? Pt. 2

Yesterday evening, I questioned why Southern Baptists have a political lobby group, called the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC).   In the comment stream, Robert Masters said that the ERLC is able to do things in the political realm that churches cannot do because of tax laws. But, that causes me to ask why churches are paying for a political lobby to represent their interests if we are not able to speak to those things ourselves. Have we just created a go-between? Aren't their other ways to influence the process? If we are saying that the ERLC is the voice for Southern Baptists in Washington, but individual churches are percluded by law to speak for themselves, then is it really ethical to create a go-between that does what we cannot do? I am not saying it is, because I don't know if Robert is right about that. But, it does bring up the question.

Todd Littleton raised an interesting point when he said,

Our structure seems to inhere the perception, if not the reality, that we outsource our missions to the IMB and NAMB. We outsource our ethics and ethical positions to the ERLC. We outsource our theological education and ministry habits to the Seminaries.

Then, when another entity like Lifeway presents statistics consistent with other researchers that our evangelistic efforts are falling short, our ethical actions in public spaces show little difference to those not self-identified as Christian, and our theological positions are all over the map, the church is to blame.

Works perfectly.

This is part of the problem in SBC life, I think. Our local churches keep passing all of our responsibility up the line and we pay someone else to do it. Those people then continually ask the local churches to send more money so we can support "missions" and if we don't send more money to the Cooperative Program, then we don't care about the work of God or something like that. But, what does the ERLC have to do with our mission? Perhaps Bob Cleveland captured the real issue when he asked:

I'd like to know if anyone has collected .. or even measured .. the results produced by the ERLC. We seem to track Baptisms, attendance, and things of that sort. But can we tell whether the ERLC has had any effect?

Aside from making headlines for taking a stand on something or other (or maybe worse), I don't know anything concrete that's been accomplished. Do you?

So, that leads us to the ultimate question: Why have the ERLC? What is it doing that the ethics departments of our seminaries or our state conventions or the Executive Committee or the office of the president of the SBC or any number of pastors or parachurch ministries are not already doing?  Do we need a separate entity to be our voice in Washington? Or, can we have a multitude of voices do the same thing and save over $3 million a year.  I am not saying that the ERLC is not doing some good, but isn't it the same good that is already being done by others or could easily be done by others at a fraction of the cost?

Still wondering why Southern Baptists have the ERLC.

Why Have the ERLC?

Southern Baptists effectively have a political lobby group in Washington, DC that speaks "for" the SBC on issues of related to ethics, morality, or politics. It is called the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). But, this begs the question: Why?

Why do we need to spend well over $3 million a year on a "think tank" in Washington, DC to lobby for moral/ethical/political issues?

Why don't our local churches make their voices heard through their Biblical witness and through their local engagement in the lives of people? (they do)

Why don't our seminary professors make their voices heard on the issues of our day? (they do, by the way)

Why not enfold the work of the ERLC into the ethics department of our seminaries, the Executive Committee, or the office of the President of the SBC? Why do we need a separate entity?

If we are wanting more money to go to missions, can someone please explain to me why we have the ERLC?

How does the ERLC aid in the mission of Southern Baptists, which is to make disciples of all nations? What fruit does it bear?

If there are not good answers to these questions, then what is the point of the ERLC? What are they doing that cannot easily be done by others and what makes their positions the "official" position of the SBC?

I am open to be persuaded.