Rooted in the grasslands of the SBC are baptists who love the SBC for her rich heritage of missions, of cooperative spirit, of adherence to John 3:16. Some voices are Calvinists. Some are not. Some are men of sweat and blood tears of service to our King. Some are little white-haired old ladies who've given their nickels, dimes and quarters to Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong. Others are lawyer-turned-minister, gramas in sweatpants, welders, and deacons, retired ministers, and active ministers. Baptists. Southern Baptists. Hear are a few voices I, admittedly, cherry-picked to express views on what they see within the heartlands of the SBC:
"Any dissent or questioning of the direction of the SBC or its leaders, no matter how tepid the dissent or how reasonable the questions, is now to be viewed as engaging in “Battle Blogging” or fighting against those mythical Baptist (and perhaps non-Baptist) “Bogeymen.” If either of those charges do not work to stifle debate, then the old stand-by — charging someone with engaging in the sin of “gossip”– is usually a winning strategy. Since the unofficial Name Change Task Force announced its recommendations to the SBC’s Executive Committee last month, there appears to be a more concerted effort to either marginalize or silence those who oppose the radical redefinition of the Southern Baptist Convention. Despite the grand pronouncements of a “Great Commission Resurgence,” we have witnessed a “great division” instead. The chasm between those who approve of the new direction of the SBC — including a new name, Great Commission Baptists — whose initials will be GCB, not to be confused with the ABC’s campy parody of Christians, GCB, which stands for something all together different — and those who believe that our current name is just fine and that the process used to bring about “name change” has been fundamentally flawed (here and here), continues to grow deeper and wider (some “traditionalists” still remember that song; others, not so much)." Howell Scott, From Law 2 Grace.
Discussion reached a cresendo regarding powerplays within the SBC with a little lady addressing a comment to her by Jared Moore:
"Lydia, YES. You’re a Southern Baptist aren’t you? Would you leave the SBC if you disagreed with the President? How would you feel if an outsider stereotyped you based on the current President of the SBC?" Jared Moore, pastor and contributing writer to SBC Voices, in comment stream of From Law 2 Grace
"Jared, I am having a hard time understanding why something like this needs to be explained but here goes: I was raised in the SBC. There is a big difference. And there is a huge difference between the SBC as a whole which has been known for "autonomy" and "cooperating" on missions and short on authoritarianism. Our historical identity has not been one man. Actually our unofficial historical identity is more Lottie Moon! Acts 29 is totally different. It was created and designed by Driscoll. It has his DNA all over it. So a more similar comparison would be asking me if I would join up and rally around an SBC today if it were new and Al Mohler were the creator and identity of this new SBC. The answer is no. Actually, No Way. The young men I know who have gone with Acts 29 were drawn to it precisely BECAUSE OF Mark Driscoll. He was the big draw, initially. They were drawn to his style. I am starting to weary of your thinking processes. There really is no point to us continuing. We will simply have to agree to disagree. We think differently on things. "I don’t think you’re being fair to Acts 29." I know you don't. And that is ok." Reply from Lydia to Jared Moore in comment stream at From Law 2 Grace
These are but a small sampling of a few voices within the SBC blogosphere that are chattering and debating issues regarding our beloved convention. I shall try to give more as days continue. I've just been given this call to arms, so to speak. So bear with me as I wiggle my way into the battle-fronts of bloggers in the grasslands.. This is the heat of one of the most front-burner issues we have at the moment. Comments are moderated, but comments are welcome, Just be sweet. selahV (Reaper of the Grasslands)
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