Posted on 04/23/2020 7:01:13 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Crisis and upheaval have brought out the best in some (think of Ulysses Grant) and the worst in others (think of Vidkun Quisling). This holds true of Christian churches and the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). In previous columns, my colleagues and I have raised red flags about the SBC, including corruption and leftward drift. One sees this in executive leadership (see this about president J.D. Greear), in missions (see here and here), in the management of seminaries (see here), in the workings of the SBC's publishing company (see here and here), in its political advocacy (see here), in its gatherings (see here), and in funding ties (see here, here, and here).
Some problems can be framed as left versus right (cultural Marxism creeping into the denomination's entities). Some are not ideological, but rather symptoms of garden-variety Good Old Boy corruption.
We had a swampy SBC that was bad enough by March 1, 2020. But then came COVID, and it got even worse. Four ugly outcomes have brought the SBC's problems into clear focus.
Outcome 1: SBC puts petty feud over COVID relief or fairness
On March 9, 2020, Randy Adams said the SBC's North American Mission Board "informed me and our leadership at the Northwest Baptist Convention (NWBC) ... that they will end our joint-funding agreement for evangelism and church planting, and will stop virtually all funding through the NWBC as of September 30, 2021[.]"
On March 7, 2020, CNBC News showed that Washington State had clocked 102 of the United States' 395 cases and 16 of the country's 19 deaths. Why would the SBC crush a regional Baptist network when it was the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak?
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
That’s strange. I have been assured by Freepers over and over that belief in God = Conservative, and we atheists are far more likely to fall for liberalism than believers are. Now that liberalism is taking over more and more denominations of Christianity, I’ll be interested to see what believers make of this very clear evidence that theism is no inoculation against liberal brainwashing.
Deterioration is a fact of life when a once-solid institution becomes 1) compromised, 2) politically-correct and 3) bureaucratic.
It is a sad scene. Here, the writer describes the main impetus for the deterioration of the SBC as being “corruption” (as over against ideology). And it looks that way.
Of my own alma mater, Wheaton College, I’ve seen over the past 40 years a descent into the traps and trappings of the left — in particular, the various strands of multiculturalism, gender and racial this-and-that, liberal interpretations of scripture, green politics, psychobabble, socialism, and the like. Never thought I’d see the day when I was there in the mid-60s. In the case of Wheaton, the drift is most definitely ideological.
The American church is very much the tail and not the head.
Demons also believe in God-—and tremble. It is is Jesus FIRST for Christians, otherwise they are CINOs.
Believing in Jesus is no more likely to inoculate one against socialism than believing in God. If it did, liberals wouldn’t have taken over so many denominations. Look over at the Vatican. Newsflash: Jesus wasn’t American, and nothing he says counters socialism. Put THAT through the eye of the needle.
“That’s strange. I have been assured by Freepers over and over that belief in God = Conservative, and we atheists are far more likely to fall for liberalism than believers are.”
Not strange at all when you read about the Pharisees (religious leaders). They had a rock hard belief in God but sought to kill Jesus from the beginning because he stood in the way of their agenda, which was money, power, and control. Same motive here.
Matthew 7: 22, 23
And the snarkiness of "Put THAT through the eye of the needle" is totally unnecessary...
What is essential is the individual's belief in Christ.
Well....the video is rather embarrassing.
Whatever. Jesus wasn’t a capitalist, so millions of Americans and Europeans and Africans believe in him just as fervently as you do, and they find it perfectly compatible with handing over most of their earnings to the government.
There is nothing either theologically correct or incorrect in high taxes and numerous social programs. Jesus was not American. Jesus was not capitalist. Neither God nor Jesus ever advocated for the separation of church and state (or temple and state) to protect private property rights. It's time for the handful of believers with intellectual honesty to admit: neither theism nor atheism is intrinsically linked to religiosity or lack thereof. They are an X and Y axis.
Excellent example, thank you.
-Jesus wasn't American.
-Jesus didn't make any statements about states rights, small federal government, low property taxes, right to bear arms, freedom of speech, or any other things that AMERICAN CONSERVATIVES care about.
-Those who believe that a federal government that takes from the rich and gives to the poor can come up with twice as many Jesus quotes supporting their views as you can.
-You therefore have no basis for stating or implying that worshiping Jesus correctly will result in you being a proponent of states rights, small federal government, low property taxes, right to bear arms, freedom of speech, or any other things that AMERICAN CONSERVATIVES care about.
You seem to be assuming that the leftists who are taking over some denominations, believe in God. This is not true in general. As the left gains control of denominations, there is a tendency for the Social Gospel to be substituted for the Gospel, and for half-baked left-wing causes to be substituted for worshiping God. To a great extent, the religious left is irreligious.
Not all leftists are atheists, but everyone I know of, in church hierarchies, who is atheist, is leftist. Within the churches, as elsewhere, there is a contest between the believing right and the atheist left. When the left wins, that doesn’t mean that believers have won. It commonly means that the church is now going to quit concerning itself with God, and will now focus on pretending that anyone who doesn’t support the latest nuttery by the left, is a racist. This seems to be a case of the more general phenomenon that only leftists think it’s virtuous to take over existing organizations, quit doing what the organization exists to do, and push left-wing politics instead. Thus you get colleges which have turned away from learning, and also christian churches which have turned away from christianity.
The SBC “leadership” has near zero power in the SBC. And while it is more liberal than the member churches, it isn’t as liberal as some folks like to pretend.
I’m not thrilled by the SBC but find it is still useful for seminaries and missions.
Sounds to me like after a few exchanges, you’d eventually be offering the No True Scotsman defense. There is nothing in the belief in God or Jesus that precludes a strong federal government with a lot of social programs for the poor, and that is simply that.
“The deeper I moved into the Southern Baptist world, the more I saw how the left’s contamination of culture was being repeated in the churches.”
Odd. I’ve been a baptist since 1976 and I’m not seeing what he says he is seeing. To a certain extent, since members come from the surrounding culture and take time to grow as Christians. But not in church leadership positions - like SS teachers, deacons, pastors, etc.
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