The annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention begins tomorrow in Nashville.
I'm all a-twitter. Rosy-cheeked and weak-kneed, I await the genesis of a new day.
I look forward to this event every year. It's more exciting than watching TV or tipping a cow, because you are certain to be entertained. You can absolutely count on the SBC to do something asinine, inflaming the public and distancing themselves even further from the people who need them the most. Whether it is a boycott of Mickey Mouse or another misogynistic assault on women, the hits just keep on coming. This year the convention is set to consider a resolution declaring war on public schools.
Last year some of the SBC leaders proposed a similar measure, but it was just a nebulous attack against godless secularism, so it didn't find traction among the rank and file. This year, co-sponsors of the resolution, Voddie Baucham and Bruce Shortt, are hanging the public school attack on the tried and tested issue of homosexuality. If there's one thing we know will cause Southern Baptists to lunge and froth, it's gays and the gay-lovers who defend them.
It seems that "homosexual activists are aggressively working to transform the moral foundation of our culture," and "any school district that recognizes homosexual clubs or treats homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle is a clear and present danger to all of its children and is violating the community’s trust." The resolution goes on to advocate a complete exodus from the public schools, creating paranoid enclaves of righteousness in our Christian schools and homes.
Damn gays have to be stopped. If they continue feminizing our children, how will we teach them to torture prisoners and bomb abortion clinics? How will we keep all our uppity women in check if our men get all girly on us? If our children become homosexual, how will they learn to grow up and disgrace the institution of heterosexual marriage at a higher-than-average rate like the rest of us evangelicals?
Bobby Welch, president of the convention, would like to set a goal for this next year of one million new baptisms. It seems that Southern Baptists have experienced a substantial downturn in new converts over the last year or so. I wonder why? Maybe it's because they have strayed so far from Christ's message of unconditional love and forgiveness - in order to advance an aggressive culture war on liberals, infidels, and homosexuals - that the average person sees little difference between them and the people they seem to hate.
Until something fundamental changes, most of the baptisms will be for those who were first immersed in the religion of cultural conservatism, not for those transformed by the extravagant love of God.
9 comments:
Helmut Thielicke once said that he believed that the future of American Fundamentalism would determine the future of Christianity as a whole.
I hope he was wrong about that. I suspect he wasn't.
I wish the sensible ones, the ones who lost control of the SBC so many years ago, could find a way to rein it back in and maybe inject a little reason and moderation, perhaps even focus less attention on being Pharisees and more on, oh, clothing the naked and feeding the hungry.
Some days the culture war really gets to me. Some days I think it can only end badly.
Brett, to quote Rex Harriso--"By George, I think you've got it!" When will we learn/understand/accept that unconditional love without having to earn it, and more importantly, make sure that others earn it!!! I sorta recall something in the Scripture that says something about ..whosoever will may come.. don't recall seeing anything about conditions and scores. Also don't recall anything about our job to sort, rank, and approve other people.
We have one of those little magnets on our frig that says, "You catch them, he'll clean them". Believe that specifies our job better that setting forth all those classifying cultural and life-style criteria.
Reacher, you keep doin' it. You keep hitting on the very thing I've been mullin' over.
I live in Nashville. I grew up Southern Baptist. I am conservative in my beliefs.
I was just telling my wife, Redallover, that I want to write something on my blog titled,"Right and Left not Right and Wrong."
On to SBC. I was tired of them telling me I couldn't go to Disney World and I can't watch the Simpsons and I can't buy products from Proctor and Gamble and I can't hug a gay man.
My thought was and is, if I want to go to Disney World or by Tide or dare I say even hug a gay man I'm a gonna do it.
I love people. All people. I disagree with everyone on the planet about something. I sin daily. So does everyone else. I am not perfect. Neither is any other person walkin' around.
But through Him I am made perfect. Through Him and Him alone.
I'm not going to preach but I do think it's important to have a voice in this discussion. I share the same views as the Conservative Right on a great many things but I also get tired of the egos getting in the way of basic compassion. I'm not going to make excuses for them either. They (and not just the SBC) need to be more Jesus' ministry minded. Tool said it with attention to hunger and nakedness.
As to the other part that bothered me, one million baptisms.
I was taught a while back that in the Greek, the word disciple in the Great Commission is a verb not a noun. That makes a lot of difference.
"Go into the world and DISCIPLE the nations."
The goal shouldn't be to get 'em dunked and on the Church roll. The goal should be to share the love of God in such a way, such a true way that they cannot help seeing how AWESOME God is.
Hey, hey, the boycott is over.
As my old newspaper reports, "Baptists change approach on gays"
and Richad Land says they made their point.
Check out the Tennessean stories at - http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050623/NEWS06/506230422
and
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050623/NEWS06/506230424
Boy, I bet Disney is relieved!
My favorite event of the convention so far is that Bush apparently praised a CBF church during his speech.
I'm more worried that the American Baptists are approaching a nasty divide. - Jennifer
Some of you clearly paid closer attention to the proceedings than I did, but the final list of approved resolutions was interesting. The list included immorality in education, stem cell research, the federal judiciary, the Disney boycott, political values, teen smoking, supporting our troops and president, evangelism, and expressing appreciation to the Lord.
Most of those resolutions sound more like the legislative agenda of right-wing Republicans than a gathering of Christ's disciples.
It's official--I guess it's been official for 15-20 years--that the SBC is FAR more concerned about defending paranoid cultural boundaries than they are serving the poor, the weak, the "least of these."
Here's a thought... no abomination...uh, i mean denomination is perfect. All the ones I know of are so far from the movement Christ began that one has to wonder if they are really Christian. I don't care which one you pick. All of us are going to find things in the thousands of different denominations that are completely un-Christlike, because we have different opinions and strengths of conviction on things. I hate the extent to which "the Convention" puts their stamp of approval or disapproval on things. I also hate the negative light that other denominations give Christ in the public arena. It's one extreme or the other, it seems like. But I think it's a lot more the leaders than it is the followers. The dichotomy is false, i believe, to some extent. Many, many "conservatives" hate the extreme policizing that takes place at conventions and so forth, while many "liberals" hate the ridiculousness of casting everything on humanistic feeling and opinions of man. Believe it or not, there are LOTS of people, like myself and skippy, who are tired of the wars we wage against each other, but who still cling to the mystery of Spiritual certainty (a paradox? maybe... a better paradox than embracing total uncertainty... i think they call that building your house on the sand or something like that). See, none of the sides are going to "win". The true Church will never be a social activist organization, nor will it be an anti-cultural, elitist society of bigots. That's not the Church. We're talking sheep and goats here. The Church is the people who are totally surrendered to Jesus Christ and following Him... not just his teachings, or even his example... but his lead. All the others are just goats flocking into and out of barns, pretending to be sheep.
I suggest we get over fighting EITHER side of this ridiculous war, and start PRAYING for hearts to change, seeking GOD'S guidance through the Holy Spirit's enlightenment and fervent study, and keeping a HUMBLE and open heart. We can argue and debate all we want. The bottom line is, the Spirit of the one true living God will not lie. It will not tell one person one thing and another person something contrary. No. The Spirit always tells the truth, and Satan and his dark angels will always lie and pervert the truth... dress it up like truth. I'm literally sick of the stupid liberal vs. conservative bullshit. In Brett's words, "Stop it. Just stop it." Fighting, however subversively, doesn't help advance the kingdom of God's love and purpose.
Yeah, what he said...
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