The 'disaster' of CBF seminaries vs SBC seminaries

[William Thornton]

[Sandy]

[Ed Pettibone]

[William Thornton]

[Neil Heath]

[pjerwin]

[Mark]

[rdenton]

[Sandy]

[William Thornton]

[Norm]

[Sandy]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Sandy]

[Neil Heath]

[rdenton]

[rdenton]

[pjerwin]

It is interesting that Bruce Gourley's post beginning another thread on this forum started this discussion of a recently ratcheted-up hatemongering by SBs against CBFers. I wonder any of you remember -- or were ever aware of -- this blog entry from Bruce Prescott at Maintream Baptist titled "SBC Suffers Under Toxic Flood of Fundamentalism" (). And we KNOW why the word "fundamentalist" is used: it intentionally conjures-up the worst images in the minds of readers.

Funny, I don't recall Bruce bristling at "the denomination's shameful failures in regard to slavery" when he was part of the SBC, but now he laments that Southern Baptist's reputation has been, what: "destroyed." He goes further, writing that "Today... they are increasingly loathed and derided by most Christians and nearly all of the unchurched in their communities." I'd like to see the polling he did to come-up with this, but of course there is none. Is this not AT LEAST as bad as Russ Moore? (The answer is, "Yes.")

Don't try to feed me this tripe about the SBC being all mean and hateful and the CBF being all kind and loving. You find this same kind of venom coming from many other "mainstream" Baptists.

[rdenton]

[David Flick]

[Ed Pettibone]

[William Thornton]

[pjerwin]

[Haruo]

[Eric]

In that BP article, Steve Lempke gives a bizarre explanation for the difference between a seminary and a divinity school, so bizarre that I have never, ever heard anything like it.

The real difference in the terminology is that seminaries tend to be free-standing institutions whereas divinity schools/schools of theology tend to be attached to a university. The language can fluctuate (i.e., Truett Seminary rather than Truett Divinity School, but the free-standing Methodist Saint Paul School of Theology), but whether a school trains people primarily for academic or pastoral ministry is not necessarily signaled by what the school is called. I'll admit that certain divinity schools do produce few pastors, but those are exceptions.

(An acquaintance at UChicago Div School told me a few years ago that lucrative scholarship money for students planning for congregational ministry went unused for lack of interest. At least those students didn't lie and take the money, like many of my fellow Baptist college students used to do for the few hundreds of dollars a Church Related Vocations scholarship provided.)

Southern Baptist college religion faculties are dominated by folks with SBC seminary degrees, and even now one occasionally sees ads for Baptist college jobs that demand that applicants have SBC seminary credentials. Other seminaries like Fuller, Princeton, Dallas, and Asbury have produced a boatload of academics. On the other hand, numerous congregational ministers have degrees from Duke Div, Yale Div, Trinity Evangelical Div, Candler School of Theology, and my own Beeson Div.

On another note, I find it odd that William cites Joshua's comments about McAfee to support an opinion that CBF seminaries are on the fringe. Perhaps I missed something, but wasn't Joshua critical that McAfee was too conservative?

My wife and I had the joy of meeting McAfee's Peter Rhea Jones and his wife at an academic conference this summer in Scotland. They are very, very fine folks and very ministry oriented. Mrs. Jones even does home visitations for churches they worship at during sabbaticals!