Atheological refers to one's lack of concern for theology, and this new survey from LifeWay research shows that about 50% of Southern Baptist Pastors, if not unconcerned about theology, are at the very least "Greatly Confused!"
"If a person does not care about their theology, they miss the importance of rooting their entire life in the true knowledge of God and a true, coherent, rational, theological worldview. A person's relationship with God is built on the foundation of what one believes about God and what it means to be right with God, and this is the most important determining factor in shaping the way a person lives. An atheological person does not seriously reflect on their own foundational worldview assumptions (e.g., what is truth, who is God, does this matter?), nor do they see how doing so would be relevant to everyday life." - [http://www.mormonwiki.org/Atheological_tendency]
Some are trying to use the above survey data to say that the majority of Southern Baptist have a problem with the growing influence of Calvinism in the SBC. If that is true then an equal majority of Southern Baptist have a problem with the lingering influence of Arminian (Non-Calvinism) in the SBC. But neither of these are what this survey truly shows...
No, this survey shows that, sadly, over 50% of Southern Baptist Pastors are "atheological".
I don't have any data to back this up, but it is my suspicion that this is largely a generational issue as theology was not stressed in seminary in the previous generations of Southern Baptist as, thankfully, it is today. I pray that as the years go by that we begin to see an improvement in these numbers.
Grace for the Journey
1 comment:
I don't yet know how much attention this new survey is getting from the Calvinist community within the SBC, but I can't help but think that many will find it interesting that a full 30% of the SBC pastors identified themselves as holding to a Theology (WesLeyan) that is not in agreement with the BFM2000.
I know everyone is wanting to promote unity at this time, but when a full 30% of your pastors are saying they are in agreement with the theological position of another denomination we have some serious issues...
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