As apt as I ma to rant about the negative stuff I see in SBC life, this is indeed a corrective turn in the right direction I frequently hear from young Southern Baptists who express deep frustration with the ethos and image projected by some of their leaders in recent years: they want their denomination to rise above the old Continue Reading
from a new study by LifeWay Christian Resources: On abortion: “Based on our conviction that all human life is sacred from conception until natural death, Christians must oppose abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, human cloning, and any technology or research that involves the destruction of a human embryo.” Ethics Daily.com: Southern Baptist Study Puts Women in Their Place I’m much Continue Reading
SOME Southern Baptists are quite the backward folks sometimes when it comes to church and theology. What a misguided, ignorant reaction. Wayne Bray and William Harrell, pastors at Beulah Baptist Church in Douglasville, submitted the anti-blogging resolution, which said blogs are used by “certain people … for divisive and destructive rhetoric at the expense of peace among the brethren.†A Continue Reading
It’s been a while since I came down on Al, but I just couldn’t resist when I saw this: The president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary said on Friday’s “Albert Mohler Radio Program” that he takes a “middle position” on global warming. He believes the evidence shows the earth is warming and that human activity is at least a contributing Continue Reading
Michael Spencer of internetmonk replies in the comments to one commenter, with a point that suggested the problem I identify in the title of this post: that the resistance to the idea of an intentional, structured, disciplined effort at “formation” is a secular force that many inside the church have fallen victim. The secular tells us that “religion” is a Continue Reading
I don’t exactly recall when I started reading Michael Spencer’s internetmonk blog, but he has seemed to me of late to be especially relevant to me. Michael has very VERY similar roots as I do as far as I can tell. And many of his blogged thoughts accurately articulate for me my frustrations with the state of those Baptist roots, Continue Reading
A while back, I lamented the sad state of journalism in the Southern Baptist world, so it is encouraging to see the Cooperative Baptists putting together something to counter that. I see it as something of a remedy. Warner and Knox estimated NeoVox’s Web-based strategy would cost $3 million to $5 million. Set for opening as early as 2008, the Internet strategy in Continue Reading
The Baptist Press is funded with Cooperative Program Funds of the Southern Baptist Churches. One look at their website and I am reminded of the various “News” outlets like CBN and TBN who offer “alternative news” supposedly from “a Christian” perspective. They have their own “Fox News” here. There is a front page story on the website about a “Creation Continue Reading
A great post from an article by Glen Stassen, who was the teacher for a class I had in Christian Ethics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary sometime between 1978 and 1980. Stassen stayed at Southern Seminary longer than most of the teachers I had there, but finally left when it became apparent that his kind of teaching was no longer Continue Reading
The following, a quote from Hauerwas, lays it out….and it seems to be such an obvious and no-brainer first step, start from here, type of response to Jesus’ life and message that I can only shake my head as I see “theologians” such as Al Mohler just plain ignore the whole thing. NEVER mentions “peace” except as that “inner peace”, Continue Reading
Whoa, Bruce. The first amendment is a constitiution for state, not a Biblical value; and what exactly is the intent of \”separation of church and state?\” This is a tired argument about religion and the public square, and I see many problems. It comes awfully close to elevating the Constitution of the United States to the level of a confession Continue Reading
Al Mohler reminds me so much of the early fundamentalists who were always into “doctrine”, and had their lists of “key doctrines” from which one dare not stray from the approved path. (In this quote he mentions the “doctrine of election”). Conventional Thinking : But for the Conservative Resurgence . . . In beginning my comments at the SBC Pastors Continue Reading
This from a Southern Baptist guy named Ben, who notices what I did about Rice’s speech at the SBC convention. Baptist Blogger: Greensboro Wrap-Up The incredulity I was experiencing at that moment was compounded within the next hour. I stood at the back of the convention floor listening to Condoleeza Rice, a woman who drinks alcohol and approves of abortion Continue Reading
via Gavin, this from the Tennessean about the SBC’s election of a new, “more moderate” president. I had been so turned off by the SBC convention that I had forgotten to check how their election of a new president had come out. Baptists shake up old-guard leadership – Nashville, Tennessee – Wednesday, 06/14/06 – Tennessean.com Wade Burleson, an Oklahoma pastor Continue Reading
I saw exactly two seconds of a clip of Condaleeza Rice standing at the podium of the Southern Baptist Convention before I flipped to a new channel. What I heard was Rice say with crowd-pleasing gusto: “the United States of America” , followed by hearty cheers, and I had had enouigh already. How entirely inappropriate and idolatrous, and how utterly Continue Reading