This summer in Nashville, 15,000 people gathered for the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. Called Messengers, they elect a new president and pass resolutions designed to guide their cooperative programs and shared beliefs. Baptists are congregationalists. Each congregation hires and fires its own pastor and sets its own procedures. But Southern Baptists share a statement of faith and mission and cooperate on a denominational basis for their common good. Together, Baptist churches pool a portion of their tithes for their cooperative programs and missions.
I was baptized and raised as a Roman Catholic. I am now a member of, and officer in, a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation. My only counsel for the Southern Baptist Convention, aside that they pray diligently on the matter, is that they in no way do anything which can even remotely construed as attempting to cover up these allegations. The Roman Catholic Church in America was seriously, if not fatally, damaged by its attempts to cover up its sexual abuse scandal. It faces, IMO, an uncertain future as it tries to dig itself out of the hole which it itself dug.
This is well written Erick. I read it early this morning but wanted it to "cook" for a while. I have been concerned about some of the events occurring at the national and state level of the SBC. From a theological standpoint, I have considered when events would rise to the point of my suggesting our church leave the SBC. Yet as your analysis clearly shows, this question may be moot: the Convention won't necessarily leave the Bible, they will implode. I deeply appreciate your analysis. Too many in the SBC are now choosing sides. There's only one "side"--God's. I sincerely thank you.
Remember Ravi Zacharias and the scandal last year? His ministry disappeared after years of hard work from its members. I find it hard to believe that no one in the ministry at the upper levels didn’t know or suspect.
Erick, where do you get your news of this sort? I’ve heard some negative things about certain publications and would like an honest source for “church” news?
I spend a lot of time talking to people involved, reading the various news sources across currents to find what they have in common, and building around those things to give as accurate a picture as I can.
Do what is morally correct. Protection from past and current criminal activity is not a biblical tenet.
I was baptized and raised as a Roman Catholic. I am now a member of, and officer in, a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation. My only counsel for the Southern Baptist Convention, aside that they pray diligently on the matter, is that they in no way do anything which can even remotely construed as attempting to cover up these allegations. The Roman Catholic Church in America was seriously, if not fatally, damaged by its attempts to cover up its sexual abuse scandal. It faces, IMO, an uncertain future as it tries to dig itself out of the hole which it itself dug.
This is well written Erick. I read it early this morning but wanted it to "cook" for a while. I have been concerned about some of the events occurring at the national and state level of the SBC. From a theological standpoint, I have considered when events would rise to the point of my suggesting our church leave the SBC. Yet as your analysis clearly shows, this question may be moot: the Convention won't necessarily leave the Bible, they will implode. I deeply appreciate your analysis. Too many in the SBC are now choosing sides. There's only one "side"--God's. I sincerely thank you.
Remember Ravi Zacharias and the scandal last year? His ministry disappeared after years of hard work from its members. I find it hard to believe that no one in the ministry at the upper levels didn’t know or suspect.
Erick, where do you get your news of this sort? I’ve heard some negative things about certain publications and would like an honest source for “church” news?
I spend a lot of time talking to people involved, reading the various news sources across currents to find what they have in common, and building around those things to give as accurate a picture as I can.