by William Thornton » Sun Dec 14, 2008 5:00 pm
Timothy, I am always happy to associate with fellow believers on a personal level and even cooperate on a church level with those who are Christian but differ in some beliefs; hence, my association with the various other clergy in areas where I have served – Methodist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, even American Baptists (well, I haven’t actually been around a real American Baptist where I have served). It is my view that an association of churches that is identified as Baptist should be likeminded in doctrine. We all draw lines. The difference is where we choose to draw them.
Chris, your church would be out. Mine stays in. I would cooperate in many ways with your church, even as my church and I do now with the Methodists, etc.
Dave, we have agreed in the past about the march of associations toward irrelevancy in Baptist life – happy to do so again in this thread. All of the associations I have been in (only three) have had the DOM and secretary as by far its main expenses and I am still looking for some clever SBCer to write that article, “The Southern Baptist Association as a Jobs Program for Middle-Aged and Older, Well-Connected White Baptist Men.” While I don’t have a big problem with the BFM2K, I don’t favor associations adopting it in lockstep to the SBC’s earlier vote.
Mark: The list you provide illustrates a truism one of my profs used to criticize conservatives. He was fond of saying that “a conservative is just a slow liberal.”
My stray thoughts on SBC stuff may be found at my blog,