Conflating Mohler's SBC with Tom Brokaw and the MemDec
I'm tryin to conflate something here for the sake of our country.
It may come to nothin but hope to bring it to attention of Evans who you will see linked in the various discussions; Jim Henry's daughter Kate Campbell; Adrian Roger's son and Harry Dent's daughter Ginny.
Ryan Hale, a signer of the MemDec (Memphis Declaration) already frequents this blog as well as a kidney doctor west of the Mississippi of influence.
Randall Balmer takes a look see ever so often; and Russ Beene.
Will see if it takes traction.
Roughly the question is which bodes most ill for our Nation's character; or which is the best indication of the soul of the country as it has been infected or Flected by the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC in the last 20 years?
Mohler's bid for SBC President; or Huckabee's bid for USA President.
And are Ben Cole and Ginny Brant evolving any framed by Garry Wills?
Just click on the blue titles.
If nothing else Evans link is very much worth your time if it is a first sighting for you.
Brokaw: SC Baps reject Mohler and Land's "Dogma"
by Stephen Fox on Tue Jan 22, 2008 11:33 am
Memphis Declaration and Evans On Mohler
by Stephen Fox on Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:51 pm
http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=9971
Evans is getting very close to framing the significance of the Huckabee campaign for the SBC. Will the secular press conflate Evan's frame with that of Wills in the Rove ERa of Head and Heart?
It may come to nothin but hope to bring it to attention of Evans who you will see linked in the various discussions; Jim Henry's daughter Kate Campbell; Adrian Roger's son and Harry Dent's daughter Ginny.
Ryan Hale, a signer of the MemDec (Memphis Declaration) already frequents this blog as well as a kidney doctor west of the Mississippi of influence.
Randall Balmer takes a look see ever so often; and Russ Beene.
Will see if it takes traction.
Roughly the question is which bodes most ill for our Nation's character; or which is the best indication of the soul of the country as it has been infected or Flected by the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC in the last 20 years?
Mohler's bid for SBC President; or Huckabee's bid for USA President.
And are Ben Cole and Ginny Brant evolving any framed by Garry Wills?
Just click on the blue titles.
If nothing else Evans link is very much worth your time if it is a first sighting for you.
Brokaw: SC Baps reject Mohler and Land's "Dogma"
by Stephen Fox on Tue Jan 22, 2008 11:33 am
Memphis Declaration and Evans On Mohler
by Stephen Fox on Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:51 pm
http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=9971
Evans is getting very close to framing the significance of the Huckabee campaign for the SBC. Will the secular press conflate Evan's frame with that of Wills in the Rove ERa of Head and Heart?
posted by foxofbama | 9:56 AM
3 Comments:
What of the Fundamentalist Takeover in the SBC & how is it playing out nationally? Well, speaking only for myself, I'm eating a lot of crow. When the whole mess was taking shape, I was young & knew a lot more than I know now. To be sure, there were problems that needed to be addressed at all levels of the SBC. Likewise, there problems on a national scale as well. The power structure was in place & wouldn't budge. But now I am not so sure we did it correctly, on any level. I see the same power corrupting the "other side" just like it did the original power brokers. I see things being done that are obviously partisan. Misrepresentations are everywhere. Say anything if it makes the opponent look bad & the power brokers look good. It comes down to hypocrisy. The inconsistent ethic is most unbecoming. I'm getting rather jaded; cynical. Frankly, I no longer trust the SBC leadership to be about doing the right thing but about doing the right thing for their power & control. Ibid for our politicians. More than anything, I fear a melding of our religious leaders with the politicians. Both want to control the other & both will play the other. Our vote --- at any level --- is the prize. I see the definite beginnings of a melding of church & state. Under the guise of patriotism, Jesus is made out to the be All American Boy. Questioning national policy or religious' leaders action is seen as a High Crime --- heresy or treason. From an historical perspective, it looks like the beginnings of Fascism, though no one will call it that. But a spade is a spade.
Ryan:
Thanks for the response.
I would be interested to know how you got to the place you signed on the Memphis Declaration.
Would love to see you blog about that pilgrimage.
Is there a possibility you could bring Ginny Brant to this discussion?
I trust you routinely check Bruce Prescott's Mainstream Baptist Blog.
And a fourth point: What do you make of Robert Parham's assertion here from a column today at Ed.com:
Too many pastors and churches see the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship or the Baptist General Convention of Texas or the Baptist General Convention of Missouri or the Baptist General Association of Virginia as options for giving and affiliation away from the fundamentalist-controlled SBC without having to leave the SBC. We keep our pride and keep funding a hostile theology and an anti-everything moral agenda. We stay locked in self-destructive behavior.
Sfox, cribbing his own site.
I check Dr. Prescott's blog almost daily. I was with him in DC back in November & had a few minutes to chat with him. Good guy. Genuine guy with honest convictions. I don't know him other than that acquaintance, but I do believe he is a good man.
My pilgramage is similar to the post. I was, at that time (1987), the youngest SBC pastor in Cobb County, GA. Growing church (at that time) with lots of young families who had a genuine desire to grow in their faith. That meant I was one of those "on the radar" pastors, though I thought it was because I had it togther: really, it was because I was seen as an up-&-coming voting bloc. I listened to the "conservative" line & how the "liberals" were lying & playing politics. Sadly, I followed along wtihout bothering to verify the info I was getting. The "Religious Right" leaders were to be unquestionably followed & on the rare moments of doctrinal lapses i.e., lucidity) when I questioned or used my mind & said some historical "fact" they were giving didn't match what I knew to be true from my undergrad days, I was told I just needed to listen & learn; one day I would have a better understanding.
Then I left the fulltime pastorate & taught for almost a decade. In the meantime I did interim pastorates & assisted churches going through that "decline-dying phase" or that dreaded "plateuaed-now-what-do-we-do phase. I really enjoy the interum work but that's another thread.
After about 10 years of being out the loop, one day I decided it was time to get back involved in the denominational goings-on & state working on a more denominational level.
I was shocked.
I found out that if I didn't tow the party line in the denomination as well as the American political thought, I was not only theologically suspect, but I was unpatriotic. Those who didn't work toward a Christian Domionist idea whereby the US was really a Jesus Land as defined by the Religious Right view of theology, I was a "liberal commie." That bothered me.
Really. I was as conservative as they come. Pre-mill even. Non charismatic in praxis or theology. But if I didn't want the have the Bible as the Offical Law of the US of A, I was not to be considered Christian?
As a history major, I knew & appreciated what Thomas Helwys & Roger Williams went through. The theocracy of our Colonial Period meant persecution for Baptists.
If we believed in the Golden Rule, then it was wrong for us to want equality for ourselves & not extend it to others.
Then I read David Barton. After about 25 pages, I counted more than 17 bald-faced lies that any American history major would recognize as misrepresentations of the truth. It was then the backers of Barton came to the forefront, the same "Religious Right" leaders who were manipulating history & doctrine to keep power in the SBC & the national politik.
The more I researched & dug & compared notes from what these guys were saying about the "liberals" 25 years ago, the more I realized they were manipulating people of faith for their own power.
I had been played. And I was not happy about it, either.
That's it in a nut shell.
I don't have a problem with any Baptist Convention or association or even denomination doing what they feel is best. What I have a problem with is, for example, when the SBC stops funding of the Baptist Joint Committee because the BJC won't bow to their political plays. Mission giving should not be political. Cooperation should not be political. Theology within the confines of the fundamentals should unite us, not become so narrow as to exclude.
Frankly, I'm really cynical & ticked off.
How's that?
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