Seriously, Are You Going to Hell?

Before you answer, consider this.  In the comment stream of a popular Baptist blog, we find this extraordinary assertion:

A faulty view of the atonement equals eternity in hell.

“View of the atonement” refers to your particular theory of how the atonement functions to redeem lost souls.  The dominant model among conservative evangelicals is the penal-substitution model, endorsed by the fundamentalist author of the gracious comment above.

How do you handle a situation like this?  I suggest the following algorithm.

1. If you believe fundamentalist blowhards have the power to alter centuries of Christian tradition and sentence your soul to eternity in hell, then sign on the blogs they frequent and defend yourself.  Your soul depends on it.
2. If, on the other hand, you believe such individuals seek only to suppress dissent by condemning all who disagree with them to eternal damnation, thereby ensuring no one of different opinion will ever sit in the pews of their fundamentalist churches, ignore said individuals.

I recommend option 2.

Confusing the Bible and Jesus Christ

At EthicsDaily.com, Bob Allen writes about theological objections to a VBS song being used in Southern Baptist Churches across the nation this summer.  “The Word” is a daily song sung as part of the “Outrigger Island: Living God’s Unshakeable Truth” VBS curriculum published by LifeWay Christian Resources, one of the publishing arms of the Southern Baptist Convention.  The lyrics:

In the beginning was the Word and It was with God and was God.
Before an eye had seen or ear had heard, there was the Word.
I know the Bible is God’s Word, His written promises to earth.
It is a lamp unto the feet of those who believe in its worth.
The Word is Perfect Truth. The Word is what I cling to.
Unbreakable, unshakeable Word of God.
I love the Word of God.

Southern Baptist Scholar: Rebellious Wives to Blame for Spousal Abuse

EthicsDaily.com reports today on the amazing conclusion reached by Bruce Ware, professor of Christian theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. Ware says wives that refuse to submit to their husbands create the environment under which husbands abuse their wives:

Women in Ministry not a “Secondary Issue”

At EthicsDaily.com, Emily Hunter McGowin objects to the way Southern Baptist leaders are dealing with the contentious (for them) issue of women serving in the pastorate.

Many of my gifted and well-meaning colleagues in the Southern Baptist world have devoted much time and energy toward calling a “truce” on the in-fighting regarding the contentious issue of women in ministry. The way my friends commonly arrive at a peaceful conclusion to this matter goes something like this:

“Both the egalitarian and complementarian views of women in ministry can be argued reasonably from scripture, therefore it is unwise for us to be too dogmatic about one’s conclusions. Instead, we must recognize women in ministry as a secondary (or even tertiary) issue and not use it as a theological “litmus test” for fellowship and cooperation.”

While anyone who knows me can affirm that I am disinclined to contradict anything that brings peace, today I must respectfully disagree with my colleagues. The matter of women in ministry is not a “secondary issue.” Indeed, it is my contention that the luxury of affirming women in ministry as a secondary issue is available only to those who are not of the “second sex.” When you are a woman, the will of God for your place in the Kingdom of God is a primary issue–one that cannot be brushed aside simply to avoid conflict.

Southern Baptists: A Denomination in Decline

EthicsDaily.com reports on statistics released by LifeWay Christian Resources that show a drop in SBC membership of 40,000 over the last year. Baptisms are at their lowest level since 1970.

Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research, writes on the LifeWay blog:

“For now, Southern Baptists are a denomination in decline.”

“Some might want to point to the good news (attendance up slightly, more churches, etc.),” Stetzer said. “However, you cannot miss the fact that a dubious historical milestone has been reached–and it needs to be noted in denominational and church offices across the country.”

“Some might say it’s ‘only one year,’ and they would be technically right,” Stetzer continued. But based on long-term membership trends, Stetzer said, “Reality is we have peaked.”

The Green Bible

EthicsDaily.com has launched The Green Bible, “a warehouse of information on the biblical mandate to care for the environment–and what people of faith can and should do.”

On Trying to Change Christian Attitudes Toward Homosexuality

At the Associated Baptist Press, David Gushee writes a moving editorial on the modern Christian response to homosexuality, a response that is too often based on fear, loathing, and ignorance. Gushee challenges us to extend the “rudiments of Christian love of neighbor” to homosexuals. Among other things, Gushee calls on Christians to stop blaming homosexuals for our social ills, to speak accurately about homosexuality as a sexual orientation, and to recognize the full humanity and dignity of homosexuals as persons made in God’s image. For Baptists, Gushee’s words challenge to us take seriously our long-standing position, rejected by the Southern Baptist Convention, that Jesus Christ is the criterion upon which the Bible is to be interpreted.

Southern Baptist President: Libera Media is Ruining America (Just Look at Canada)

Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, rails against the “liberals” in an American Family Association webcast. Writes Bob Allen at EthicsDaily.com:

Page, who completes his two-year service as top elected leader of the nation’s second-largest faith group in June, described the prospect of a future Supreme Court ruling that gay marriage is legal in all 50 states as “a frightening thought.”

“I think it’s going to dramatically change everything,” he said. “The entire societal paradigm is going to shift. Nothing will be the same. The only place where people will be able to sense some sense of normality will be within the walls of Bible-believing churches. Because once they leave the walls of the Bible-believing churches, they are going to live in a world that is totally different.”

Would churches be in peril?

“Just look to Canada,” Page said. “Already in Canada, if you are as a pastor, you speak against homosexuality, you can be jailed. And I’ve told my people in my church, ‘You just have to come visit me in jail, because they may be where we’re headed.’ I’m just saying life is going to change if that happens. Life is going to change as we know it.”

Life in America would never be the same, Page said, unless the people of America were to wake up and ask, “What have we done?” He viewed that as unlikely.

“The liberal control of the media, most of the media, the liberal control of most of education, of most of movies, television–their control is so pervasive and so virulently opposed to a conservative viewpoint of life, they would make it extremely difficult for our nation to ever wake up and do anything about it,” he said.

Follow this link for the complete article.

I wonder if Page has read “Young Goodman Brown.” Perhaps Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story should be added to the Southern Baptists’ Sunday School literature.

Sheri Klouda and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Some backgroud: Sheri Klouda joined the faculty at Southwestern Baptist Theology Seminary (SWBT) in 2000, entering a tenure-track position in 2002. She was assistant professor of Old Testament languages, and the only female teaching in the School of Theology. In June 2003, SWBT hired Paige Patterson as president. In April 2006, the Seminary informed Klouda that her contract would not be renewed, because she was a female. It is Patterson’s position that women should not instruct men at SWBT, because women are not qualified to be pastors at local churches.