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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

(PM)SBC Voices



Is it just me, or has anyone else become annoyed by all the whining going on over at SBC Voices lately?

If it were not for the big SBC Voices logo at the top of the page (claiming to be “open source Southern Baptist news & opinions”) one might think they had stumbled into a bad episode of the Jerry Springer show.

Here is an example of what I am talking about… it comes from an article written by Howell Scott titled Radically Redefining Transparency in the SBC: Part 1”

Scott opens this episode of the show with this outlandish accusation leveled against the members of the Great Commission Task Force… Howell says:

”…the GCR has led to more division and distrust among Southern Baptists,… Not that they will take any responsibility for the increased level of division and distrust within the convention,”

And the show only gets nastier from there.

Scott next claims that by voting to seal the records of the meeting of the GCRTF for 15 years, in order that we not break the assurance of confidentially given to all who were encouraged to freely speak their mind about what was wrong and needed fixing in the SBC, the members of the Convention itself are guilty of voting to radically “redefine transparency within the Southern Baptist Convention.”

Let’s see now… we have been on the air for, what, 5 minutes now, and Scott has accused the members of the GCRTF of causing “division and distrust among Southern Baptists…” and the members of the Convention itself of being dishonest… all because Scott did not get what he wanted in Orlando.

”How dare you not give me what I want… I’ll come over there and scratch your eyes out… You big…

Yep, this is a bad episode of the Jerry Springer show all right… think I will turn the channel.

6 comments:

Brent Hobbs said...

I've noticed it as well. Ironic that some people complain about the distrust and division at the same time they don't mind contributing to those very same problems with the way they speak of others.

There's no shortage of people who can criticize and complain... why things would have been SO much better if they had done it 'my' way.

Unknown said...

Brent,

I agree... there is no shortage of people who can criticize and complain.

But what is concerning to me is that SBC Voices appears to have an obsession or something with the GCRTF.

Brent Hobbs said...

Unfortunately, its far too common to find people that share that obsession. I think some people like politics for its own sake. Getting things accomplished is often times political - but is so out of necessity. I can't understand the continued criticism after the vote's been taken and the course charted.

It's like this one frequent "moderate" commenter at the Biblical Recorder website and now on a lot of SBC blogs... He hated the conservative movement and continues to talk about it everywhere he can now - even though he's no longer involved in a Southern Baptist Church.

A non-Southern Baptist who stays preoccupied with SBC politics. Wow. Some people just love the fight, regardless of what it's about.

Unknown said...

Brent,

"I can't understand the continued criticism after the vote's been taken and the course charted."

I agree 100%

If you did this as a member of my congregation you would quickly find yourself having a chat with one of our Elders... and if that did not resolve the issue, you would have a little more serious chat with all our Elders... and if that did not help then disciplinary action would be taken.

I just don't understand why anyone would try and justify this kind of conduct.

Paul Yarbrough, Author said...

I was a Southern baptist all of my life. But last year my wife and I moved to Presbyterian, P.C.A. In Houston, Southern Baptists leadership has lost more than its way.
I saw on my blog that we share an interest in a particular book--A DEFENSE OF VIRGINIA AND THE SOUTH

Unknown said...

Paul,

Thanks for dropping by Southern Grits & Sovereign Grace.

A DEFENSE OF VIRGINIA AND THE SOUTH, and for that matter everything written by Dabney, should be required reading for all Southern Christians!

I hate to see you leave the SBC, we are loosing a lot of good men to the PCA... and to be honest if I were to leave the SBC it would be to go to the PCA.

I saw on your profile that you have written a book called Mississippi Cotton. My father was in the Cotton business in the 1950's in Arkansas where he provided gangs of pickers to the farmers. He would go around and pick all the pickers up in a covered flat bed truck with benches on both sides and take to the fields before daybreak and back at dark. He told me that most good pickers could make enough in four months that they did not have to work much the rest of the year.

On one occasion my father and I was returning from Camden Alabama after a deer hunting trip and we stopped for gas and a cup of coffee in Evergreen Alabama and my father, who has never met a stranger, struck up a conversation with the store clerk, a black man, and somehow he caught my father's name and ask him if he ever lived in Arkansas. My father said, yes but that was back in the 1950's and we have now lived in Florida for the past 50 years. The man then smiled and your Bill... The same Mr. Alford that used to come pick me and my brother up each morning to pick cotton.

They sat and talked like old friends for half an hour... it was like they had stepped back in time.

Anyway, Let me know how to get a copy of your book for my Dad... He will enjoy reading it I am sure.

Grace Always,