The humiliation of the Southern Baptist convention

Christianity Today ^ | 22 May 2018 | Al Mohler

[utahagen]

I believe a scandal broke recently where a prominent SBC leader was revealed to have been involved in an extramarital affair. This may be some of what is behind this letter.

[daniel1212]

This is the best you can do in damage control? Somehow "a sermon illustration from years ago included advice that a battered wife remain in the home and the marriage in hope of the conversion of her abusive husband," and who apologized for it, is akin to the long-term organized hierarchical cover-ups of sexual abuse, mainly of boys, lawyered opposition to victims, and even rewarding Bernard Law with a Vatican post? And denial of divorce to battered women is somehow different in Rome?

Surely and sadly there is much, maybe as much, sexual abuse in Prot churches, if not predominantly of the same kind, but the articles does not mention that while Forgotten Study: Abuse in School 100 Times Worse than by Priests ...

[kosciusko51]

JWs are not evangelicals; they are anti-trinitarian.

[daniel1212]

Meanwhile, LGBT Community Cheers Pope's 'God Made You Like This' Remark, thus requiring another "clarification" and interpretation of the chief interpreter.

And your focus is on a president of a Texas seminary who upheld martial vows and faith (though at least intervention is called for in such a case).

[Cronos]

Why are you deviating? This is an article by a respected Southern Baptist preacher. Address the article.

For your benefit, I'll just repeat the points raised by Mr. Mohler -- Albert Mohler is the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. This post originally appeared on his blog and has been republished with his permission.

..We thought this was a Roman Catholic problem.

...When people said that evangelicals had a similar crisis coming, it didn’t seem plausible—even to me. I have been president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for 25 years. I did not see this coming.

I was wrong. The judgment of God has come.

We cannot blame a requirement of priestly celibacy. We cannot even point to an organized conspiracy of silence within the denominational hierarchy. No, our humiliation comes as a result of an unorganized conspiracy of silence. Sadly, the unorganized nature of our problem may make recovery and correction even more difficult and the silence even more dangerous.

As I recently said with lament to a longtime leader among the more liberal faction that left the SBC, each side has become the fulfillment of what the other side warned. The liberals who left have kept marching to the Left, in theology and moral teaching. The SBC, solidly conservative theologically, has been revealed to be morally compromised.

I would suggest you read this. There are lots of other posts on other topics.

[Cronos]

Oneness Pentecostals are also anti-trinitarian.

i'm not sure how they dress as I've not met one in person in years.

[Cronos]

it’s kind of sad that you instantly look for the smote in your brother’s eye. tsk tsk

[af_vet_1981]

How that is supposed to be comparable to homosexual priests and priests who were protected while pedophiles, I don’t know. I’m not seeing the moral equivalence.

... told a rape victim to forgive her assailant and not report the assault to police, ...

[kosciusko51]

I wouldn’t categorize them as evangelicals, either.

[Cronos]

Well, the OneNess Pentecostals are very very Pentecostal. And Pentecostals are evangelicals, correct?

It is incorrect to say that they are not Pentecostals -- they do reject the Trinity but in every other way their beliefs are identical to Pentecostal groups like "Assemblies ofGod" etc.

Why would you not call them Pentecostal?

[Cronos]

What I don’t get is that Mr Mohler the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary talks about cleaning his house - very admirable and I’m sure he will do that. By hitting the problem head-on, he is sure to resolve it and this is a wonderful example for us all. May God bless Mohler on his endeavours.

[kosciusko51]

The denial of the Trinity separates them from what is commonly held as evangelical. YMMV

[Cronos]

The definition of evangecalism is that maintains the belief that the essence of the Gospel consists of the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ's atonement

As Oneness Pentecostals hold to this salvation by grace and that Jesus Christ is God, they are Evangelicals

The term Evangelical includes diverse points of view with really the only common point being the salvation by grace (since most don't hold to creeds).

[mom4melody]

I grew up Southern Baptist and I’ve heard that crap from the pulpit too.

[Cronos]

Those Pentecostals hold to salvation through grace in Jesus Christ and that the Trinity is non-biblical. So they follow the other evangelicals as saying the bible alone and they reject the Trinity doctrine as a "tradition of men"

You can't deny calling them evangelicals as there is not a defined creed as defines orthodoxy.

[TurkeyLurkey]

The reason why Paige Patterson has been removed from his position is related to this:

Paige Patterson and the Rap Victim He shamed

http://www.wadeburleson.org/

[kosciusko51]

That’s not the classic definition where I am from, since the Trinity is essential to being a Christian, let alone being an evangelical.

[TurkeyLurkey]

“Rap” - s/b Rape

[Cronos]

The thing to respect is that the house cleaning is happening. That’s good news. We all sin, but the fact that people like Mr mohler are standing up and saying “let’s clean house” — THAT is good. Good for him!

[Cronos]

Well then how would you define an evangelical? Since "Evangelical" groups reject creeds like the Nicene creed, there is no "classical definition" --

you do realise that the Unitarians also were defined as Christian as late as the 50s (Eisenhower was Unitarian)