Is Oklahoma more than OK?

Something has recently come to my attention. I got started along this little blogging adventure last winter when I Googled “intentional interim” and "blog" and received numerous results. Among other web pages, it turned up Bowden McElroy’s site. He has worked as an intentional interim and founded his site as a way of keeping in touch with the church where he served. (Although now he writes about contemporary controversies like Olympic snowboarding). He lives in Oklahoma.

From Bowden's blog, I started to follow the travails of Wade Burleson on his web site. He too is from the state of Oklahoma. Hmm, I sense a trend developing. From there I started reading Wes Kenney's (counter-conventional blog wisdom) thoughts. He is also from that panhandled state.

But the straw that broke the camel’s back was the shocking news that Art Rogers is heading out west!!

So why does Oklahoma wield such tremendous power in the blogosphere? (Some might proffer the explanation that there’s little else to DO in Oklahoma, but I wouldn't say that.) But as native (though now former) Texan I never gave Oklahoma a great deal of thought. (Except on those all too frequent occasions when OU spanked Texas in the Red River Shootout). But I need to rethink these deeply held prejudices. After all, Oklahoma does host the world’s greatest fast food chain, and was the college stomping grounds of my favorite Dallas writer and one of my favorite theologians.

Full disclosure: I was saved some twenty odd years ago during summer camp at the gorgeous Falls Creek encampment. I was baptized by a current faculty member at Oklahoma Baptist University, and my father-in-law is a non-attending member of the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, a fact I discovered only yesterday. My bride, Kadie, was also born in Enid, though quickly left the state afterward. That is the extent of my Oklahoma-related ties.

So what gives? Has the geo-political-theological center of Baptist life shifted from Nashville to Shawnee? And is that a good thing?