Reports came out this morning that Billy Graham School Dean, Adam Greenway, will be nominated to serve as the next president of Southwestern Seminary to be elected at a special meeting of the SWBTS board, Feb 26-27. You can read the press release here. I affirm the work of the search committee and I believe […]
Can autonomy be “leveraged” in the SBC to guard against abuse?
The proposal by professors Whitfield and Yarnell, of Southeastern and Southwestern seminaries respectively, is serious, comprehensive, and deserves due consideration. In my reading of their 2500 word article, Addressing Abuse in the SBC: A Proposal, it seems to me that the key sentence is this: We must leverage our autonomy to call our churches into […]
Addressing Abuse in the SBC: A Proposal (by Keith Whitfield & Malcom Yarnell)
Earlier this week, the Houston Chronicle published three articles – “Abuse of Faith,” “Offend, Then Repeat,” and “Preying on Teens” – concerning some 200 ministers in more than 700 abuse cases occurring in Southern Baptist churches over the past 20 years. These articles properly sparked numerous conversations about how Southern Baptists might respond both as […]
WARNING ALWAYS COMES BEFORE JUDGMENT: Reflections on Recent SBC Sexual Abuse Reports
Christa Brown of StopBaptistPredators.org has been sounding the alarm for many years that there was a major problem, widespread, among Southern Baptists regarding sexual abuse. Unfortunately, she was largely marginalized, rebuffed, rejected, and her claims were met with denial, by high profile SBC personalities and official entity responses. History has vindicated her. The recent Houston […]
A century after prohibition
One hundred years ago last month the necessary number of states ratified the 18th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors. The Amendment went into effect the following year. Thus, next January, my fellow dry Southern Baptists may raise a toast to the time when our great […]
Protecting children in your church
In regard to child protection in SBC churches and entities, whatever solutions are proposed or adopted in the various levels of Southern Baptist life if they prove ineffective in local churches the effort will have minimal value. Our convention has 50,000 or so individual churches that voluntarily cooperate on associational, state, and national levels. The […]
An Unreported Component of the Sexual Abuse Problem
By now most of you will have read The Houston Chronicle‘s second article on sexual abuse in the SBC. I believe that the reporting by The Chronicle, taken together with the responses by various Southern Baptists on this site and in other places, offers us a painful examination of a few undeniable facts: People who […]
Dr. B. Gray Allison 1924-2019
Today we report that last night, 12 February 2019, Dr. Gray Allison, founder of Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary stepped out of this life into his eternal reward in the presence of our Lord. The MABTS family, Southern Baptists, and the greater Evangelical Christian community have been blessed by this faithful servant of our great God. […]
The ordination scandal in the SBC
Some Southern Baptist churches would ordain a ham sandwich. One pastor told me that his ordination was a joke. One ordination council in which I participated would have been a joke if I had not been present. No one seemed to know why they were there. Ordinations are quickly given but rarely revoked. Ordinations are […]
Greear Announces Most Diverse Ever Committee on Committees
Yesterday afternoon through Baptist Press, SBC President J.D. Greear announced his appointments for the 2019 Committee on Committees. The demographic makeup of this committee, which is reported in accordance with a 2015 Executive Committee recommendation (adopted by vote of the entire SBC), includes the following details: 34% of the committee is female, 50% of the committee […]
Responding to “Abuse of Faith” and the #Metoo Movement
NOTE: I just read the third installment, and to be honest, I may be sick. It is hard to read. Wow. Demented men. NOTE: the second installment is out and is more specific, more maddening, and more saddening than the first. I will turn your stomach. I appreciate the research of the journalists at […]
“Abuse of Faith” – A report on Sexual Abuse in SBC churches: How should we Baptists (and we Christians) respond to this report?
Update: Since the posting of this blog on Saturday, the Houston Chronicle report has now been released. You may access the article here. ______ Tomorrow, an investigative article will be released in the Houston Chronicle that will tell the story of hundreds of persons who have been sexually abused in SBC churches. Even before I […]