This is a common refrain from abuse victims, advocates, and others that follow the deplorable cases of abuse now prominent in secular, religious, and social media. In fact, the phrase “the SBC ought to do something about…” can be completed with reference to many issues – racism, sexism, poverty, human trafficing, and a host of […]
Autonomy is a reality, not an excuse
Discussions of clergy sex abuse in SBC churches and entities are, sadly, common these days. Several current examples, deplorable each one, are found in articles here within the past days. This used not to be the case. When clergy misconduct occurred it would be whispered not published. Pastors, denominational workers, and leaders would find out […]
What is Worship? Marrying Corporate and Individual Worship (Eric Reeves)
In every aspect of our corporate worship, music has become synonymous with worship. At our Baptist colleges and seminaries, getting a worship degree means being a music major and not a theology major. I will not attempt to explore why we have conflated music and worship. Instead, I would like to explore what worship actually […]
SCBC Addresses Aderholt’s Employment and Arrest
Tuesday I published a post here in which I addressed the sexual assault allegations against Mark Aderholt. One of my answers to the question, “What needs to happen now?” was that the executive director of the SCBC must be transparent with its member churches about what he and others responsible for hiring Aderholt knew. If they […]
The Invisible People of Mayberry
During the 80s, I lived in a small country town for four years that reminded me of Mayberry, at least when we first arrived. I discerned one major difference during my time there. Recently, during my slow recuperation from surgery, as I rewatched the first three seasons of the Andy Griffith Show on Netflix, I […]
Sacrificing at the Altar of Love One Another (Melissa Edgington)
Jesus was no people pleaser. He wasn’t predictable or palatable or pandering or polite. Yet, He consistently and completely carried out His mission to bring ultimate glory to His Father. Sometimes He did that through speaking. Sometimes by remaining quiet. Sometimes He delivered harsh truths to people. Yes, He taught people their worth. But, He also taught […]
Is it ever too late to call police when sex abuse is reported?
Recent cases of sex abuse of minors in churches by church staff have raised a number of important questions. Perhaps the first question that current church leaders might need to answer is when a report of past abuse should be reported to the police. While blogs and comments are an important forum for discussing such […]
Silence Is NOT Golden
Surely you’ve heard by now that a former missionary with the IMB, Mark Aderholt, was arrested on July 3 and charged with sexually assaulting a teenager. The alleged crime took place 21 years ago when Aderholt was a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The IMB learned of the allegations made by Aderholt’s victim in […]
National Cooperative Program up $17 million while state CP down $41 million
When interim Executive Committee CEO Augie Boto made his report at #SBC18 he shared the graph below. While the subject is arcane to most Southern Baptists it is critical to leaders at the state and national level and what the graph shows is no surprise to those who must watch their revenue streams to […]
Can a woman serve as the President of the Southern Baptist Convention? (Casey Hough)
Much pontification has been digitally uploaded to this site recently regarding the question as to whether or or not it is appropriate for a woman to serve as President of the SBC. My friend Casey Hough offered his thoughts on this subject at his personal page on Thursday. I asked Casey if I could post his […]
Southwestern’s Potemkin village and other fascinating excursions in SBC vocabulary
Ben Cole, flung out of the sordid business of secular politics and back into the sordid business of denominational politics is perhaps the first to employ Potemkin village in our Grand Convention. Rather than Neil Sedaka as Ben suggests, better cue the Mussorgsky for SWBTS and change “Bald Mountain” to “Seminary Hill.” By blogging fiat, I declare complementarianism to […]
BREAKING NEWS: Data Breach at the IMB
The Biblical Recorder is reporting on a data breach at the IMB. Few details are available. This is no small matter since many of our missionaries serve in high-security areas and their identities are kept secret. Please read the BRNow.org article. If you aren’t subscribing to them, you should be. They are just about the […]