by Sandy » Wed Oct 19, 2011 9:41 am
Gene,
I was part of a CBF supporting church from 1992 until 2004 or thereabouts, and didn't miss a general assembly until 2002, when job obligations prevented me from attending. I'm not incorrigible about CBF, I've just been involved long enough to experience having some genteel, southern-accented wolf in sheep's clothing flash a genteel smile and say "How y'all doin'" to your face while they are inserting and twisting the knife in your back, and to learn a few lessons in what hoops you have to jump through and whose rear you have to kiss if you've got something some prominent person's relative wants. The irony of it is that I wound up in the CBF camp because of an incident that occurred shortly after I graduated from seminary in 1989 in which not having chosen a particular denominational political position turned out to be an incident that caused me a lot of frustration and pain.
I figured that CBF would be a safe refuge, and that theological perspective really didn't matter all that much there. Wrong on both counts. Being honest and trusting people with my feelings turned out to be exactly the wrong thing to do. So much for open mindedness and "freedom." That's a load of baloney. Maybe its the result of too much "southern" culture, but it has become clear to me that Baptists of any stripe, particularly moderates who had anything to do with the SBC prior to 1979 and have anything to do with CBF now, can't stand you if you do not think like them, talk like them, dress like them, do church like them, and especially believe like them. It is quite apparent to me that the blend of revivalistic spirituality and Biblical fidelity that characterizes the kind of Baptist I've always known, those individuals for whom the term "Bapticostal" was coined, is not only unwelcome in CBF circles, but it is deliberately and forcefully excluded. Well, that's fine with me. I don't miss it at all. But you do not need to tell ME that I am incorrigible and naive with regard to CBF.