Baptist Studies Bulletin

I've got some advice for Shurden .....

GO HOME! And take your comrades with you!

 

Joshua,
thank you for posting this. What a great idea for us.

 

I read the latest edition of this "bulletin", and all I can say is that it's more evidence that moderate Baptists want to force their will on everyone--by considering CBF supporters to buddy-up with the ABC.

 

I agree with Shurden - most CBF'ers would be right at home in the ABCUSA.

BTW, Joshua, thanks for posting the link. It's good to keep an eye on you lib's.

 

All I'm trying to say, Joshua, is that if I cast my lot with the CBF, especially with those on the left, I would feel very uncomfortable. I get the feeling that Shurden, Sherman, and Vestal try to speak a majority voice regarding the CBF. I know the SBC is far from perfect, but I would rather minister and study under their watchcare than with the CBF. Since moderates/liberals like yourself claim that "fundamentalists" in the SBC try to force their beliefs on everyone, I'm just showing you that some moderates try to do the same.

 

All I'm trying to say, Joshua, is that if I cast my lot with the CBF, especially with those on the left, I would feel very uncomfortable. I get the feeling that Shurden, Sherman, and Vestal try to speak a majority voice regarding the CBF. I know the SBC is far from perfect, but I would rather minister and study under their watchcare than with the CBF. Since moderates/liberals like yourself claim that "fundamentalists" in the SBC try to force their beliefs on everyone, I'm just showing you that some moderates try to do the same.</font>[/QUOTE]I'm afraid I don't understand how Dr. Shurden forced anybody to do anything (such as requiring missionaries to sign the BF&M). Didn't he merely make a suggestion to people over whom he has no control?

 

Joshua and David,
I agree with the good Dr., I took his point of view and left the SBC years ago because it had gone way to liberal for me. Why so many of the schools had moved so much to the left.
What is the school that the Dr. is from in Ga.? Queston, would the founding fathers of that school agree with the doctrine that is being taught there today? That is Mercer,correct founder in 1833? I don't know but I would say it has moved to the left and a good conservative , or a group of them might not be as welcome on staff as ones who are more liberal.
Let liberals or conservatives use their own money and start their own school, churches or what ever but don't take over another.

[ April 18, 2002, 02:00 PM: Message edited by: Bob Alkire ]

 

I graduated from Mercer. I have many friends and family who have taught there, served as trustees, served as president there, and gone to school there. I do not know of anyone who has ties to Mercer who is unhappy with the direction of the University. By the way, I am quite confident that the founders and early leaders of the school would be pleased. I lived with a retired professor (born 1915) who had many old friends connected with the school. They were pleased.
I think what's lost on alot of people is that Dr. Shurden and the like represent the traditional Baptists (and the best of them, in my opinion). I know him, by the way, and what he has expressed to me is a traditional mainstream Christian theology. For the life of me I can't see why someone would use his name and "liberal" in the same sentence.

 

David,
Thanks for your view, I know nothing of Mercer, but a little reading. Glad to hear that is is going along with it's foundings fathers.
How ever I wouldn't say it is traditional baptist views. I came out of liberal Presbyterian views and was saved in 1967 after year in liberal theology and even went to Union Theol. Sem. in Richmond,Va. and Hampden Sydney in Va. before I was saved.
Just looking from my past I wasn't as much to the left as Mercer seems to be today or maybe I was but the Baptist were no where near, they were to the right. Most Baptist I run across are to the right of what I view Mercer today.

 

I am Southern Baptist familiar with the CBF but not real familiar with the AB so I was kind of out of the loop, but I really enjoyed their statement of faith. I don't see how anyone can automatically call this a liberal group. Their statement of faith seems pretty right on.

 

mark, I don't think the majority of the ABC would object too strenuously to the idea of being "liberal," though they might not prefer the label. And I believe it would be fair to say that in comparison to other Baptists in the United States, the ABCUSA would be very close to the far left end of the scale (and thus liberal). Whether or not one thinks that is a bad thing will probably be determined by where they are on the scale. "Liberal" is much more of a comparative than a definitive term.

 

I can't imagine Jesse Mercer and J.L. Dagg being pleased with Kirby Godsey or his book "When We Talk About God...: Let's Be Honest".

He stands 180 degrees opposite of their theological positions.

 

Why would you say that about Godseys book?
DB

 

Because the Doctrines he espouses in it is not the same doctrine that J.L.Dagg and Jesse Mercer believed!