William Thornton

SBC blog touts lawsuits against SBC entities. It's one thing for someone who believes they have been aggrevied to sue some SBC entity. People do that. It's one thing to report that someone is suing us. It's newsworthy. But it is an entirely different thing to tout the lawsuits and plaintiffs publicly and uncritically. For shame! Annual meeting hijacked by alt-right resolution fiasco. I don't know how to fix this. Alt-right miscreants dominated the twitter feed for the SBC annual meeting app. A resolution against the alt-right was not returned by our Resolutions Committee. The two together … [Read more...] about Nine less than stellar moments in the SBC in 2017

The SEC will prove that the ACC's crown in NCAA football was merely a pigskin interregnum. If so, we must prepare ourselves to be appropriately humble about it as befits our station in the football world. C. B. Scott told me to say that. Alan Cross will venture into the 800-1,000 word article territory. Alan is the author here who is likely the most informed on the subjects on which he writes. He is the contributor who in my view should write much more here than his once-a-month on average. Dave Miller, having left the Pastor's Conference in a blaze of denominational glory (a "roaring … [Read more...] about Maybe next year…

CLERGY MAY SOON FIND TAXES SOARING AS RESULT OF AN UNDER-THE-RADAR RULING   Yeah, that's under-the-radar if you are The Rev. Rip V. Winkle who slept for the last decade or so and just woke up. The article is about the clergy housing allowance. Other than the screaming, vein popping headline it is one of the best summary articles I've read on the clergy housing allowance and recent ruling. My CPA friend Peter Reilly on Forbes is better but then the HA is never under his radar. He has had many timely articles on it. His latest,Tax free housing benefits for clergy will be safe for … [Read more...] about Scare headline of the year

...that you might like to return: The new tax bill, signed into law by President Trump the other day. Evangelical leaders warn of ‘devastating’ impact of GOP tax plan on the charitable deduction God loves a cheerful itemizer Bad news for nonprofits Charities in the Chicago area and across the country are bracing for the potential loss of billions of dollars in annual contributions  The gloom-and-doomers that are worried about churches and other charities losing revenue as a result of the tax policy changes in the new bill (most provisions go into effect January 1, 2018) are … [Read more...] about Your church’s Christmas gift from the government…

I think alliteration is silly...except when I use it. The lawsuit against LifeWay over Glorieta (the sale of which was over four years ago) continues to hang by a thread. It's like the wierd uncle that won't go away. The underlying issue is a complaint about compensation of one couple who had a house on camp property, a land lease renewed annually. For those who complain about fair market value not being offered to the few dozen who were in this situation, exactly what would the fair market value of your house be if you did not own the land it sits on? Not a whole lot if the landowner could … [Read more...] about Irreverent, renegade, random thoughts about SBC stuff

I always appreciate little language nuggets and interesting things I haven't thought about. While they are rather scarce among us, here are a few I've run across (trigger alert: political hot topics included): Let’s face it: the Roy Moore situation is a sticky wicket. This from Fox News contributor and Southeastern Seminary Provost Bruce Ashford. I like the metaphor, sticky wicket, and am a bit of an anglophile myself, but what is it about these seminary profs and their affection for British figures and language? We're talking cricket here, a game no American has ever seen. We improved that … [Read more...] about Roy M., sticky wicket, a soul-sucking rabbit hole, and The Edicule

The Baptist Faith and Message says, in part, about the Bible: The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.  The phrase "truth, without mixture of error" is our most popular operative phrase about Scripture. Most of us are completely comfortable describing themselves and being described by others as "inerrantists." The inerrant Bible, of course, refers to the original writings, … [Read more...] about Let’s reserve “without error” for Scripture and Scripture alone

Back in January I did a "things to watch in 2017" piece.   Here's my list: What will be the response to the revamped Pastors Conference in Phoenix?  I thought it was very well done and well received. Will we start to see leadership transitions in southern states?  Nope. Will limitless missionaries start to become a reality in 2017? I'm not seeing much different. Will we continue to see increasingly diverse representation on trustee boards?  Well, I don't know. What's to come of the Russell Moore controversy? He apologized. I hope that was the last time we let an … [Read more...] about Anybody mess up predicting SBC things this year?

All of this (except for the last question) pertains to the portion of the Cooperative Program that is sent by the states to the Executive Committee and distributed through the SBC CP Allocation Budget. The data used here are not the total CP including the 60% or so of revenues kept by the state conventions but rather the 40% of total CP received by the Executive Committee. Only the undesignated portion is used, not designated (Lottie, Annie and some smaller designated offerings). So...here you go: 1. The SBC has 42 state conventions. What percentage of the CP is contributed by the 16 … [Read more...] about 2017 Cooperative Program/State Convention quiz