by Sandy » Wed Mar 12, 2014 7:06 pm
Gushee offers an objective view, which many in CBF are unable to see. That is one of the reasons that it has never been able to shake its image as "the Anti-SBC," or "ex-SBC." It's leaders marched away from the SBC in Atlanta over twenty years ago, expecting half the convention to follow. When that failed to materialize, they tried to recreate their lost structure as much as possible, with significantly reduced resources and a huge loss of prestige. In all honesty, there are fewer than 200 churches that severed ties with the SBC, and are uniquely aligned with CBF, most of the rest, according to their own website not more than a total of 1000, are somewhere along the spectrum of support for the Cooperative Program, from allowing a few SBC loyalists the privilege of giving, to churches that allow a few CBF supporters the same privilege. They are scattered all around the country, with a cluster of maybe 250-300 in North Carolina and Virginia, a smaller cluster in Georgia and South Carolina, and maybe 150 in Texas. The rest are dotted here and there. I would say that a majority are indistinguishable in identity from their SBC brethren, down to holding similar views on inerrancy, ordaining women and homosexuality.