Things I Think
1.There’s been a new split group formed inside the Southern Baptist Convention…“The Conservative Baptist Network”. The strange thing to me is that I’ve yet to meet a “liberal” Southern Baptist…
2. Movements like this are the first step on the road to more splinter groups and eventual irrelevance as a denomination…go ask Calvary Chapel…
3. Part of the impetus for the new CBN was what they perceived as a lack of patriotism at the last SBC convention when some pastors walked out on Vice President Pence. The thought probably didn’t cross their minds that those pastors thought they were acting as patriots too…
4. The problem with groups like these is that they have to justify why they set themselves apart from their brethren. This is accomplished through exaggeration of perceived differences, bearing false witness, and eventually demonizing those they left. This will all be done in Jesus name, amen…
5. From their press release: “As Southern Baptists can we not love both Jesus and America? Is it no longer okay to be a pastor and a patriot?” There’s some red meat for you…the answer to both is yes you can as long as you understand that loving Jesus and being a pastor has nothing to do with love of any country or patriotism…
6. My guess is that the SBC is one of, if not the most, “patriotic” denominations in the country and this is one of those “exaggerations of perceived differences” I was speaking of… written solely for its inflammatory value…
7. This is an actual quote from one of the biggest “Christian” websites in the country…”There is nothing in the venereal disease-infested crack whore that is the Southern Baptist Convention that is salvageable.”. When you can describe fellow believers and fellow humans that way, it’s a short ride to a place where you want to harm them. That site pulls in six figures a month…there’s cash in hate…
8. We as Christians can’t sustain this sort of division and hate…it’s ungodly and anti-Christ. My fear is that we won’t have the will to change until it’s too late…
9. The only evangelists I’ve encountered in the last year were Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses…
10. If they’ll know us by our love, why are we as mean as hell?
Bonus thought…why isn’t there ever a split over sexual and spiritual abuse issues? Because only the victims care…
phoenixpreacher@gmail.com
The SBC version of church government is basically local and community based. An SBC pastor friend of mine once said this to me, “our church growth plan is a split.” He often spoke of the competition between churches within the Organization and how this spilled into the board structure of the local church. And this was long before the internet.
What I’m trying to say is this, nothing new going on in the SBC. However, what has changed internet communication and how all the filthy rags can be observed by all. So how, in our disputes, do we become the “light” for the world in such a toxic environment?
Maybe it’s not the fact there are always filthy rags, but how we pick them all up for cleaning. Maybe we should know bit more of God’s instructions beyond, “believe and be saved.”
Yep, made me think!
MM,
Well said.
The church has always engaged in unpleasant polemics against each other…but the internet and social media has changed the impact of those disputes greatly.
Out of the mouth the heart speaks… It is too bad that they can’t hear themselves… 😢
Number 10 pretty much sums up what I see on many Christian sites.
Very well put btw!
Once the splits begin, there is little remedy. Too many egos at work, too much money to be made…
Thank you, Dan!
Duane, exactly…they’ve already had 1600 signups…no going back now…
#7, if you are referencing P&P, never saw that quote, but it is getting worse. But 6 figures? Up until recently, my understanding was they were not bringing in much, but the new format website is plastered with ads. I had reached out to “JD” because the ads were hitting me with “close to porn” and in one time frame, showing ads for gay cruises and I had never searched those type of companies therefore was surprised to be hit by rampant filth while they hit out at everyone else. But kudos to you Michael, I don’t know if you ever knew Ken Silva of Apprising before he passed, because I have found your site the replacement and gave money to Ken whom like yourself had financial struggles. I am hoping my own worth improves so that I can forward something your way….
prodinov,
Thank you.
I knew Ken…he occasionally wrote nasty things about me. 🙂
The ads…they must hate their readers.
Michael…sorry about Ken….in my earliest days of apologetics, learning and discerning, apprising was one of the few websites to access, hard to think it was 10+ years ago. Whereas I can’t say I agreed with everything he wrote, I learned much and used that as a tool to search deeper. The web has grown so much faster and now you have to use even more discernment to shift thru while there really is not much solid food….your profound comments are the only things I save for future reference. No other website touches me so….
kinda a funny story, I think, but right before Valentines, I saw a link for something I thought I wife would appreciate on a shopping site so I bought her this special item….on P&P, I was hit with every kind of half dressed female with little clothing and from one website that I have never visited which is soft core porn and now I have to continue to clean my cookies, but P&P still hit me over the head with the trash banners….so I just do not go to their site any longer, it has progressively gone southwards where I did not see that coming, nor their direction that is now evident…so I will just hang with Phoenix, between Duane and you….I get my weekly doses….or as some would say, the WOW factor, and no banner ads hitting me from all directions….just solid food that is worth digesting over and over…blessings to you Michael, and to have friends like duane.
prodinov,
I’m sure Duane will be as warmed by your comment as I am…thank you, much.
He is a blessing, indeed.
Ken just got caught upon what he was doing and had lots of folks urging him on.
You can’t do that kind of work and not have it get to you after a while…
Prodinov
Many thanks… I’m here for my brother, Michael…
Having recently rejoined the SBC……
“As Southern Baptists can we not love both Jesus and America? Is it no longer okay to be a pastor and a patriot?”
No, at least not in the context that focuses on a protectionist, America first type of love. Loving Jesus means loving the stranger, the least of these, welcoming the oppressed, and challenging the oppressor.
pstrmike
Have you been talking to Jim Wallis? 😁
No, but I’m starting to second guess my decision to join the SBC…….
As Southern Baptists can we not love both Jesus and America? Is it no longer okay to be a pastor and a patriot?”
This strikes me as a really manipulative statement. If you don’t agree
with it, “when did you stop beating your wife?”
I also find it highly ironic…aren’t the Baptists, at least historically, the ones who’ve always made the radical distinction between church
and state? Not anymore, apparently.
pstrmike
I second guess what I have for breakfast! Hang in there…