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Baptist Theology: A Critical Look
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| Southern Baptists, We're Mad As Hell! |
| 06.17.04 (6:13 am) [edit] |
Headline from the Southern Baptist Convention: Messengers defeat proposed study of new name for SBC
I must confess that I'm for a name change for the Southern Baptist Convention. Not because, as the Baptist Press reported: "John Flint of New Horizon Baptist Church in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., spoke of serving a small church in upstate New York where any mention of Southern Baptists "is almost evil" due to cultural perceptions."--Gee wonder where those New Yorkers got that idea?
I support it because Southern Baptists are no longer Baptists! The move to seperate themselves from the Baptist World Alliance proves that Southern Baptists are no longer Baptists. They have become such fundamentalists that they can't get along with Baptists all over the world who have gathered to:
(From the BWA website)
Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the objectives of the Alliance shall be:
1. To promote Christian fellowship and cooperation among Baptists throughout the world.
2. To bear witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ and assist member bodies in their divine task of bringing all people to God through Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
3. To promote understanding and cooperation among Baptist bodies and with other Christian groups, in keeping with our unity in Christ.
4. To act as an agency for the expression of Biblical faith and historically distinctive Baptist principles and practices.
5. To acts as an agency of reconciliation seeking peace for all persons, and uphold the claims of fundamental human rights, including full religious liberty.
6. To serve as a channel for expressing Christian social concern and alleviating human need.
7. To serve in cooperation with member bodies as a resource for the development of plans for evangelism, education, church growth, and other forms of mission.
8. To provide channels of communication dealing with work related to these objectives through all possible media.
Sounds like some pretty honorable stuff the BWA is engaged in! Guess Southern Baptists don't believe in promoting fellowship and cooperation, being witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ, expressing a biblical faith, seeking reconciliation, and addressing social ills!
It's time for real Baptists in the South to stand up and say, "We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it anymore!"
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| Ronald Reagan and Why I’m Still a Baptist |
| 06.10.04 (6:45 pm) [edit] |
A few weeks ago I sat through a Sunday School class that really ticked me off. I attend a Methodist church now because I am really fed up with Baptists. The Sunday School teacher was instructing us about how America was founded as a Christian nation. It was Memorial Day weekend so he had to slip in some patriotic stuff. Well, the whole Christian nation thing ticks me off anyway, but what offended me most was when he mentioned a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists that was the first mention of the separation of church and state. One of the Sunday School members made a negative comment about Baptists at that point and the Sunday School teacher’s point was that the idea of the separation of church and state was not originally the ideal. He was right…there were several state churches in the early colonies.
Because I’m new to the class, I didn’t defend my Baptist brothers. After thinking about it further however, I’m going to address the situation next Sunday. I think Southern Baptists have done a lot of harmful and idiotic things in the past few years and I’ve been quite critical of them. However, I think the Danbury Baptists, Roger Williams, and other Baptists who insisted on the freedom of religion represent the finest that Baptists have to offer. I think it was a high point in American and Baptist history.
The reason that the Danbury Baptists sought separation of church and state was that they were being persecuted for their beliefs. Imagine that! Christians persecuting Christians! Thank God they weren’t Jews or Native Americans! They would have suffered a great deal more!
You see…. when any group is in charge, they try to impose their beliefs on others. Calling this a Christian nation excludes so many others from being considered “real Americans” and that sucks! I’m glad that I don’t live in a theocracy because God is then used to oppress the minority!
Those Baptists also knew that forced religious conformity is not not real “Christianity.”
For the slow among us these are two major arguments that Baptists had for the separation of church and state. 1. Forcing one to believe in a particular manner is UNCHRISTIAN. 2. Those who conform to the norms of society, even a Christian one, ARE NOT CHRISTIANS.
Even though I have been disappointed by Baptists lately, I’m still a Baptist. Unfortunately, a great deal of Baptists today know nothing of our tremendous heritage and how it helped to make this country more tolerant.
May years ago, someone asked Ronald Reagan why he became a republican after being a democrat for so many years. His reply was, “I didn’t leave the democratic party, the democratic party left me.” I guess I can say the same thing about Baptists. I didn’t leave the Baptist tradition, the Baptists left me.
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| Rats, Hibachis, and My Friend Billy |
| 06.09.04 (5:34 pm) [edit] |
I went on vacation to DC last week and had a great time. When I got home I found a big problem. I had put some bird seed in a plastic container in my garage and when I got home I thought the container had been invaded by squirrels. The top had been chewed through and most of the sunflower seeds were eaten. I was shocked when I looked in my garage yesterday afternoon and saw not squirrels, but rats! Yikes! What do you do when you’ve got rats in your garage! I went to Home Depot to get some traps.
While in DC my 17 year old son and I were discussing the necessities of life when you move into your first apartment. I mentioned a Hibachi. He had no idea what a Hibachi is. I described it to him and said next time that we went to a Walmart or Home Depot, we’d look at one together.
Anyway…. I was really embarrassed to be buying rat traps. So on our way in to Home Depot I told the family that we had to think of something else to buy so that it wouldn’t be so obvious that we have a rat problem. I also told them that whatever we bought, had to be discreet. (I once saw a guy at a checkout buying a lawn chair, a six pack of Budweiser, and a douche and I had to change lanes I was laughing so hard!)
Anyway…..My son suggested that we not by a hibachi and a rat trap. This bit of rambling reminded me of [url=http://billyv.tblog.com/]BillyV’s Blog [/url] . his combination of topics is hilarious! He deals with cutting edge topics like nail care, pornography, flip flops, and what to call Asians! He never ceases to amaze me!
I just wanted to add a little fun to my blog because I know I’ll have depressing news from the Southern Baptist Convention next week!
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A Blog About Baptists and Their Theology
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