The purpose of my post was to show clearly how you can turn black into white---given enough time and redacting! It is a partial answer as to why Hitler could take the most intellectually advanced Christians on the planet and con them into exterminating Gypsies / Jews / and mental deficients. I
t is a classic case of Rationalization gone amuck!Ed --- The minority who re-occupied the church were made stronger in the conflict. The majority went up the road by 2 blocks and built a new church which has all the classic lines of columns and steeple from a Church Archtecture plan of the SS Board. The group which formed Falls Road Baptist Church is truely an independent church = its deed is in the pastor's name / they support their own missionaries / they have a Christian School / they always do what the preacher dictates.
It is a clear difference in the way each SBC church used to do it's business. Now both churches are in a transition community and are moving. N. Rocky Mount simply sold its facility and property to a growing black congregation. Falls Road has property about 6 miles north on the same road and is using it for recreation until their building sells. Neither church has solved the racial issue like most churches in the south. Megas and ghettos are not mixing!!!!
This is a classic picture of SBC doings in the 60's and it took place in the 50's. No one paid much attention to the "secrets for success" of a takeover:
(1) Count on over-strong "trust" to let religious liars sneak in.
(2) Charm and aggression hidden and presented in a proper fashion will get you conned.
(3) Some people just want to be told what to do to be happy.
The start of this whole mess was another preacher in the association. He was a Bob Jones graduate and wanted a buddy in another church to join him. That "buddy" was a dynamic preacher. A naive Pulpit Committee was told little or nothing about the Bob Jones education---and learned in the school of hard knocks that Bob Jones graduates go out on a mission to take over churches and mold them into the model taught at Bob Jones (it's located near Furman in Greenvile, SC)!
This religious/political mentality of Conseratism believes that '"the end justifies the means to it." Having won, they proceed in 40 years of leading people wandering in the wilderness while they do more background redaction to "prove" they were right in the first place. Like this SEBTS Professor out of Criswell College, he now believes his version of the church history is accurate and adds to it a theory that the NCBSC was sneaking in the background to "rule its churches." This is a total fabrication on the professor's part! He is giving "historical justification" to what is going on now in this state!
The main point I make is that people need to know their own history to the point they can detect a departure from a major point of reference. In this case it is AUTONOMY. NCBSC major decisions are now made in the Execuitive Committee and rubber-stamped at Convention time by the Messengers who used to have a strong say in such activity.
In more recent years the NCBSC has re-written their Constitution and By-laws into a Document of Incorporation. When it was presented for adoption, I pointed out from the floor that the former clear principle of Autonomy (Article III) is now hidden and it took me 3 times readings the document to even find it! A Financial Policy which allows the NCBSC to refuse funds from any church taking a homosexual in as a member allows the Convention or Association to rule a local church. The Georgia Baptist Convention is doing so with BF&M 2000 to kick out churches with female Pastors.
Yes Steve, I feel like Don Quihote! I feel like Dietrick Bonhoeffer as well. At the least, I know our history and stood to cry, "FOUL" If people and churches choose to destroy a basic principle of Baptist success and growth, then it is their own stupidity which led them further into Wilderness Wandering.
Mark my words: Our next national tragedy will be the elimination of Separation of Church and State, then we will be back in England and Europe where that combination doomed the average citizen to poverty----and no chance for moving up the social ladder to rise above their beginnings!