I will not give the churches over into the hands of the lawyers, the academicians, the risk analysts, the CEOs, or the politicians. Christ put the church into the hands of simple, Spirit-filled Christians. While we must neither lie nor steal, we are not beholden in the operations of local churches to academic rules about footnotes or attribution of sources. This is not to excuse Ed Litton (yesterday on Twitter I said what he did was wrong in my opinion), but rather this is to throw off the yoke of Turabian in the context of a local church. Sunday, Michael Linton used in a sermon of his own … [Read more...] about Of Unlearned Fishermen and Simple, Spirit-Filled Christians
Will the Free Exercise Clause Catch the Coronavirus?
Our constitutional right to religious liberty stands on two legs. One of them, the "Establishment Clause," is the opening phrase of the First Amendment, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." The other leg, the "Free Exercise Clause," follows with, "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Because of the Establishment Clause, you don't have to pay taxes to support someone else's church, synagogue, ward, or mosque. This clause protects you from being forced by the state to adhere to someone else's religious belief. Because of the Free Exercise Clause, the … [Read more...] about Will the Free Exercise Clause Catch the Coronavirus?
An Appeal to the ERLC Study Task Force
There are two things you ought to know about me that have influenced what I will write in this post. By a tutelage difficult to forget, I have come to understand that those who serve on our boards and committees deserve some level of deference. They are always in a position to know a little more than we do about matters that come before them. That level of deference is not infinite, and showing deference does not mean remaining silent about important things. It just means striving to maintain some charity and some humility when differing with a board or a committee. I have also come to … [Read more...] about An Appeal to the ERLC Study Task Force
Pray for Tom Ascol
Eleven years ago this week Tom Ascol asked people to pray for me. Today I'm returning the favor. Will you please pray for Tom, who collapsed during yesterday's worship service and fell unconscious? Today https://founders.org/ 2008 https://tomascol.com/pray-for-bart-barber/ … [Read more...] about Pray for Tom Ascol
Still Thin-skinned after All These Years
Credit for this post goes to a friend who, weathering some storms in ministry, recently asked me, "What does it take to grow a thick skin?" I'm basically setting forth my reply in writing, with some added material that comes from having had several days to reflect upon what I said. The way I weather a crisis has changed down through the years, but I have not yet grown a thick skin. In other words, in some ways I experience hurt and disappointment in just the same way that I did when I was 22 and when Tracy and I went to our first church together, and in some ways that experience has … [Read more...] about Still Thin-skinned after All These Years
NeverTrump Deserter
There's a substantial chance that I'll vote for Donald Trump in the next presidential election. In a way, that's not all that remarkable. Millions of people all across the country will do that. Not all of them, however, ever wrote anything like this. I am defecting from the NeverTrump state. Here's how and why. A Choice, Not an Endorsement: My largest concerns about voting for Donald Trump the last time around had to do with the negative impact upon my testimony that would come from endorsing someone with the character flaws that President Trump has demonstrated (see the aforementioned … [Read more...] about NeverTrump Deserter
Stained Glass and Shoddy History
Being on sabbatical has brought me blissful isolation from most things ongoing in the SBC. If it is big enough to hit my Google News feed, however, then it pops up into my field of view in the morning. Some of the news that comes my way is encouraging. Some of it is downright dismal. Most of the dismal news has been baseball-related, but for this unsavory tidbit ("Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Displays Stained-Glass Windows Recently Removed from Southwestern Seminary") the only connection to baseball I could discern was my imagination of what a Paul Goldschmidt line drive would do … [Read more...] about Stained Glass and Shoddy History
I Found Something I Could Do
At our upcoming Spring Trustee Meeting, I will be bringing a motion to revoke the degree that SWBTS granted to Mark Aderholt. In this post I will explain the rationale behind this action as it is grounded in SWBTS's governing documents and the current state of our laws as I understand them. The motion that I will bring is, of course, just a motion from a solitary trustee. I will not be able to blog about any aspect of how the Board responds to or processes my motion. My purpose in authoring this post is simple: The Southern Baptist Convention has been through a lot of difficulty with regard to … [Read more...] about I Found Something I Could Do
The Heritage of SWBTS Continues
Yesterday the Board of Trustees of SWBTS elected Dr. Adam W. Greenway as the ninth president of the seminary (See coverage in Baptist Press here). The reception of the news has been overwhelmingly positive both across the campus and across the convention. There have, however, been a few expressions of concern. I write today to address them briefly. Although worded in different ways (Southern takeover, Mohler takeover, Calvinistic takeover, etc.), the expressions of concern yield themselves, I believe to analysis that distills them into two basic loci of angst: First, does Greenway's … [Read more...] about The Heritage of SWBTS Continues
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 want to abuse children sexually are able quite easily to gain access to our pews and our pulpits and are using that proximity to pick off innocent lambs within the flock. If it has served their self-interest to do so, other Southern Baptists have far too often, rather than … [Read more...] about An Unreported Component of the Sexual Abuse Problem