Does the love fest between the rabid Cals and the formerly militant, though now meek, Trads extend to Great Commission Giving, the SBC giving category that can’t get any respect? I’m just trying to manage all the consequences of recent SBC political developments that have my head spinning. You’d think my Christian, Baptist, Southern Baptist colleagues would have more respect for their elders than to jerk their head this way and that with convention politics. Fantasyland, SBC style.
So, the Trads love their presidential candidate, longtime follower of Jesus and John Calvin, Tom Ascol. I like Ascol well enough but have seen and heard enough not to vote for him for SBC president.
Wasn’t it was just a few years ago that the Traditionalists had their own non-calvinist theological statement, tossed together on a kitchen table somewhere by a guy who totally dropped from public SBC life best I can tell? Thousands signed the statement. “Thousands!” they touted. Their organizational leader was concerned about the SBC having too many Calvinist entity heads. They had their own SBCAM huddle each year. Gave awards out. Now they’ve learned to stop worrying and love the militant Calvinists. Dr. Strangelove indeed.
And here comes Great Commission Giving which some state conventions don’t even collect as part of the Annual Church Profile, for which any church can just pull numbers out of the air. According to Baptist Press, Tom Ascol’s church gave around 20% in GCG, about $160k, and on top of that another $34,500 to Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. I absolutely assume that the advocate of meaningful church membership and meaningful church membership numbers, would give meaningful GCG numbers. Just wondering which SBC entities got the checks. But, since I’m the guy who has often pointed out how GCG has never been taken seriously by many Southern Baptists, especially Trads, I’ll just express curiosity.
And whaddabout meaningful baptism numbers? One contribution of Calvinists to the SBC was to raise questions about how many toddler baptisms SBC churches were reporting. The unnamed SBC powers behind data collection then decided not to ask churches about toddler baptisms. Problem solved. I would be curious about a meaningful baptism number from our Trad/Cal candidate, since his church reports a blank in that category for almost a generation. Statistics in the SBC are/is a fighting sport among us. Not for me, though, I’m just trying to figure out how to hack it on Mondays through Fridays in retirement. This week it was medical stuff and bird watching.
If teleported to Anaheim I’m voting for the conservative candidate, the guy with the great given name, Willy Rice. Love the hair, Willy. Looks like mine.
_______________
Two presidential candidates from Florida, huh? We will be well-tanned whomever wins. Trumpesque. There is a third candidate, former missionary and professor Robin Hadaway. California guy. Sunbelt and west coast for us this year. Hadaway has a 1% solution for the Cooperative Program. That’s what his church gives.
Sunscreen sales are already up.
I dined in at a Chick Fil A this morning, first time in a couple of years. I was the only guy there. Kinda liked that.
This article is humbly offered in honor of Dave Miller’s Senegal trip. Cheers.
