Southern Baptists in Crisis - Exclamation Mark or Question Mark
Twitter world is afire with claims that the Southern Baptist Convention is in crisis.
I have a feeling 99% of the members of the largest denomination are not feeling this crisis.
This is a crisis in a certain segment of the leadership, in a certain seminary, in the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, with some high profile women and men. The average Joe or Jane in the pew does't know what's going on.
I had to tell my Life Group class of middle aged and elderly women what was going on. They didn't even know there was a controversy, or were confused as to how it affected them.
Because for most of us, it doesn't.
That said, repentance and firings and strong statements needed to be made, and I'm glad a certain person stepped down from being the keynote. He would have to have world class hutzpah to try to speak, and most of the audience would have walked out, as would I if there, mostly because it would have shown a prideful and unrepentant attitude. The way some talk, he was guilty of rape or child molestation. No, he was guilty of not taking rape seriously, or being unwise, of probably devaluing women and their word, which is of course bad enough, and he did not follow ethical procedures about notifying the police. It's horrendous, but not unforgivable or unrepentable.
So I feel that the church has to be careful not to act like the world (i.e., media) in all of this. Do the right thing, not the media frenzy thing. We hold our leaders to a higher standard. We should hold ourselves to the same.
That said, two other issues came up with this. One is a very good article on CT online about how predators come into churches and "groom" the whole church, not just the children, for abuse. They do this by playing the part of the wonderful, faithful, charismatic (not in Pentecostal sense) church member, so that when the allegations come out, other church members want to be on their side. How insidious. I was greatly troubled by this article.
CT also had one of the dumber things they ever publish. A person I've never heard of suggested that Beth Moore be the president of the convention. Why? Because the convention needed a woman president. HUMMM. We got some logic problems here. Just like with Hillary--the country needs a woman president (first bad premise--we need good leadership, regardless of gender), therefore Hillary should be president (despite everything). And I say this as someone who refused to vote for either of the camdidates--worst choices we were ever given.
A woman as president of the SBC is one thing. Maybe. The SBC is going to have to do something about women in leadership roles other than senior pastor, and soon. But . . .
Beth Moore as president sounds like a joke to me, a person who is educated and serious about the teaching of the Word, and has sat in on her studies. I've "done" several. Beth has issues. She talks about her hair and herself too much; there is a lot of emotion in the teaching (but there's content too, don't get me wrong). She has a great ability to connect with women and be vulnerable because of her own abuse. She leads a parachurch organization but has not had a staff position in a church, to my knowledge. She doesn't have a seminary (or even Bible college) degree. She's self-taught as a Bible teacher, not that that is a bad thing. But it makes her susceptible to other influences, and apparently she is into the word of faith stuff. She's gotten attention because of an open letter she wrote to her Baptist brethren, which I found interesting and forthright, maybe brave. But president? Please.
I have a feeling 99% of the members of the largest denomination are not feeling this crisis.
This is a crisis in a certain segment of the leadership, in a certain seminary, in the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, with some high profile women and men. The average Joe or Jane in the pew does't know what's going on.
I had to tell my Life Group class of middle aged and elderly women what was going on. They didn't even know there was a controversy, or were confused as to how it affected them.
Because for most of us, it doesn't.
That said, repentance and firings and strong statements needed to be made, and I'm glad a certain person stepped down from being the keynote. He would have to have world class hutzpah to try to speak, and most of the audience would have walked out, as would I if there, mostly because it would have shown a prideful and unrepentant attitude. The way some talk, he was guilty of rape or child molestation. No, he was guilty of not taking rape seriously, or being unwise, of probably devaluing women and their word, which is of course bad enough, and he did not follow ethical procedures about notifying the police. It's horrendous, but not unforgivable or unrepentable.
So I feel that the church has to be careful not to act like the world (i.e., media) in all of this. Do the right thing, not the media frenzy thing. We hold our leaders to a higher standard. We should hold ourselves to the same.
That said, two other issues came up with this. One is a very good article on CT online about how predators come into churches and "groom" the whole church, not just the children, for abuse. They do this by playing the part of the wonderful, faithful, charismatic (not in Pentecostal sense) church member, so that when the allegations come out, other church members want to be on their side. How insidious. I was greatly troubled by this article.
CT also had one of the dumber things they ever publish. A person I've never heard of suggested that Beth Moore be the president of the convention. Why? Because the convention needed a woman president. HUMMM. We got some logic problems here. Just like with Hillary--the country needs a woman president (first bad premise--we need good leadership, regardless of gender), therefore Hillary should be president (despite everything). And I say this as someone who refused to vote for either of the camdidates--worst choices we were ever given.
A woman as president of the SBC is one thing. Maybe. The SBC is going to have to do something about women in leadership roles other than senior pastor, and soon. But . . .
Beth Moore as president sounds like a joke to me, a person who is educated and serious about the teaching of the Word, and has sat in on her studies. I've "done" several. Beth has issues. She talks about her hair and herself too much; there is a lot of emotion in the teaching (but there's content too, don't get me wrong). She has a great ability to connect with women and be vulnerable because of her own abuse. She leads a parachurch organization but has not had a staff position in a church, to my knowledge. She doesn't have a seminary (or even Bible college) degree. She's self-taught as a Bible teacher, not that that is a bad thing. But it makes her susceptible to other influences, and apparently she is into the word of faith stuff. She's gotten attention because of an open letter she wrote to her Baptist brethren, which I found interesting and forthright, maybe brave. But president? Please.
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