Do we have any SBCers other than our GA friend

[Ed Pettibone]

It seem this forum would be pretty near dead where it not for S. Fox.

[William Thornton]

For the last few years, my attention has been mostly on my blog for SBC stuff. Let's face it, SBC stuff is of interest here but mainly from ex-SBCers like yo'self.

I would be happy to let someone else do stuff here. I just can't manage both.

[Tim Bonney]

[Dave Roberts]

Actually, I don't think the problem has been with the forum or its moderator. There simply hasn't been a lot of real news lately out of the SBC. Since the SBC last summer, it has been very quiet.

[Stephen Fox]

Over the years some of my SBC friends have complained that one active member of this site was quite annoying and it just wasn't worth the bother. At same time folks like David Miller and other outspoken SBC folks would rather preach to the choir than have their opinions challenged.

Giberson and Stephens in The Anointed pretty much nailed the coffin for literate or enlightened folks to take the SBC seriously. And what they didn't defeat, Rachel Held Evans and others like her have.

That I guess is why our Friend Thornton is such a rare bird and we should be gratefull he still chats with us.

I walk on eggshells here occasionally as well, and I doubt he would engage the offer, but I'm for amnesty for the fellow who was active here a few years ago. Though his views like Al Mohler are pretty much on the dungheap of history, he was quite articulate and passionate with his fundamentalism.

[Ed Pettibone]

[rfuss]

I think I may be able to give an answer as to why there are few SBCers on here. Most disagree with the positions presented on here and may not be welcome. Consider the following OP on here from the Baptist Faith and Message forum last year.

"The rather long threaded argument with "Abel" has caused me to ask the question, "Why do people do it?" Why go on a forum where people believe quite differently than you do and then spend time challenging what they believe rather than finding a forum that believes more like you do?

Now I'm a bit different than most folks here as a former Baptist. I know why I'm here. I'm here because I have friends here. But, I'm not going to be spending my time trying to argue you all out of being Baptists or into being United Methodists.

So what do you think the motivation is? I've never seen one of these individuals who come into the forum with guns blazing actually change anyone's minds. Most of them leave, either of their own accord or because they finally cross the line and say something insulting enough to finally push even our patient moderators to ban them.

What's the point? What do people get out of it?"

Also, I have also seen the conservative position on here described as being on the "dungheap".
With such attitudes presented, many SBCers could consider themselves not welcome.

[Tim Bonney]

Much of that is an extended quote from me rfuss. I'm not a Baptist or a moderator in this forum. So maybe I'm not the best example. I don't think Abel represents what SBCers are like. He represents the troll fringe and, if I remember right, he is the same character known as Mariner who is actually a right wing Roman Catholic who thinks non-catholics aren't good Christians. No, that isn't that welcome anywhere.

[rfuss]

[William Thornton]

Part of the deal here rfuss is that most of the main posters know each other well and have sniped at one another for years, in old fashioned Christian love. Another part is that there have been a few trolls who pop up and foam at the mouth for a short time before they go away or are banned. Able was one like that.

There just aren't many SBCers here but there are lots of ex-SBCers, most of whom are my friends.

[Haruo]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Sandy]

Is Stephen still a member of an SBC church? Most of what he posts here is intended to attract someone's attention who may be reading about a particular issue, and discovers the thread via google or some other search engine.

Technically, I am still a member of a Southern Baptist Church. In the CMA, membership is all done by statement, so there's no "transfer" when you move from one church to another, even within the denomination. Without formal notification, I'm sure I'm still on the roll at the last SBC church where I was a member. I guess that makes me one of those notorious "Non-resident" members.

[Tim Bonney]

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: And rfuss, let me add, that where I said " I do not believe that any one has been mistreated simply because he or she was/is Southern Baptist. I will expand that to, I do not believe that any one has been mistreated on these boards simply because he or she was/is a conservative or a fundamentalist, of what ever religious affiliation.

[rfuss]

It appears that I may have misinterpreted the thread title question.

I interpreted the question to mean "Do we still have any SBCers other than our GA friend?" as though some SBCers had left. Based on the comments, the question actually is "Do we have anyone who is still in the SBC other that our GA friend?".

I was responding to the first question above wondering why some SBCers have left.

Sorry for the confusion.

BTW, I am still in the SBC although I seldom post.

[Stephen Fox]

Ed; I still hold the definition of fundamentalism is inerrancy; and that was the takeover rubric of the SBC. As a friend while on 3 out of four Sunday's I might just as soon hear Thornton preach as hear you, by the SBC definition Thornton is a fundamentalist.

That said I do want to think William for his affirmation for my tribute at my blog about my High School band director. Still waitin on some of my moderate friends to read and affirm.

I do hope William will take another look. Put a little more polish on it after his affirmation with a football and baseball aside and analogy.

[Ed Pettibone]

[John Sneed]

I am not an SBCer anymore. So ...

[Ed Pettibone]

[Ed Pettibone]

[rfuss]

[Dave Roberts]

Actually, as I read posts about the SBC, there seems to be every attitude here from uncritical endorsement of anything SBC to absolute rejection of anything that smacks of the SBC, and there is every stripe in between. For a lot of folks, the politics of the SBC became even more intolerable than the theology. I'm interim pastor in what is probably the most left of center Baptist church in the group, but there are still SBC elements in things about the church. Makes life interesting, doesn't it.

[John Sneed]

Ed, I see a push in the SBC to rid itself of any Calvinistic influence. Whether it will be successful or not, I am no prophet. But the atmosphere is hostile to Calvinists now. I moved to the ARBCA, the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches in America. I am much more comfortable here.

[Ed Pettibone]