SBC Survivors Release a Joint Statement

“The only way to make a spoilt machine work again is to break it down, work on its inner system and fix it again. Screw out the bolts of your life, examine and work on yourself, fix your life again and get going.” ― Israelmore Ayivor


So glad to be speaking with you again. Suitable lessons were learned by me.


When the blog was down, Jules Woodson asked me to post this statement yesterday. So here it is today. I took the format for SBC Voices since it was easier to copy. I’m sure they will forgive me. I am friends with a few of these ladies and have had the opportunity to speak with all of them, except for Jennifer Lyell. I have posted many of their stories.

I am so grateful that they have spoken out. Finally, ALL spoke with Guideposts. Sadly, the Caring Well conference ignored many of them. Thankfully, those sad days are behind us, At least for now. I believe there will be more coming.

I look forward to your thoughts on the actions they recommend.

SBC Sexual Abuse Survivors Joint Statement

We come now collectively, as SBC sexual abuse survivors, to make our wishes known in regard
to the ongoing crisis of sexual abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention.

Together, we strongly urge that these immediate actions are taken:

1. All SBC messengers support the motion of Todd Benkert for the hiring of an outside
organization to audit and assess abuse and mishandling of abuse within the denomination.

2. The scope of the Guidepost investigation into the Executive Committee is broadened to
include the Credentials Committee and all paid, appointed, elected or volunteer staff or leaders
of the Convention, the Executive Committee, and the Credentials Committee.

3. The Executive Committee waives all privileges, allowing Guidepost complete and full access
to all data and information.

4. The Executive Committee commits that any final report of the Guidepost investigation will be
made public in full, without redaction or revision, except for the firm’s protection of the personal
identifying information of abuse survivors.

5. Any future investigations or audits regarding sexual abuse within the SBC which are
approved, including the services of GRACE.

Jules Woodson
SBC Sexual Abuse Survivor and Advocate
Abuser: Andy Savage (1998)
Covered up by Larry Cotton, Steve Bradley, Chris Conlee

Dave Pittman
SBC Sexual Abuse Survivor and Advocate
Director, Together We Heal
Abuser: Credibly Accused/Admitted Sexual Predator – Frankie Wiley (1983-1985)

Hannah-Kate
SBC Sexual Abuse Survivor

Anne Marie Miller
SBC Sexual Abuse Survivor
Author: “Healing Together: A Guide to Supporting Sexual Abuse Survivors”
Abuser: SWBTS Student Mark Aderholt (1996-1998)
Sentenced (2019)
Covered up by IMB (2007)

Tiffany Thigpen
SBC Abuse Survivor and Advocate
Abuser: Darrell Gilyard
Covered up by Jerry Vines and Paige Patterson (1980s–2000s)

Megan Lively
Believer, Wife, Mother, and Christian Social Media Professional
SBC Sexual Abuse Survivor and Advocate

Christa Brown
SBC Sexual Abuse Survivor and Advocate
Retired attorney, Author: “This Little Light: Beyond a Baptist Preacher Predator & His Gang”
Abuser: Credibly accused – Tommy Gilmore
Covered up by Glenn Hayden, James Moore and many others

Jennifer Lyell
SBC Sexual Abuse Survivor

Comments

SBC Survivors Release a Joint Statement — 47 Comments


  1. Notice: Undefined variable: button in /home/guswo2wr8yyv/public_html/tww2/wp-content/plugins/quote-comments/quote-comments.php on line 127

    Parts of this don’t feel like the writers actually read the Guidepost report.

    Take #2 as an example, and compare it to the audit of the Credentials Committee that starts on page 193 of the report. The report says “All 14 current and former members of the Credentials Committee met with us …”

    Or #3 and waiving privileges, compare to page 19 and 20 where the report says what the actual challenges were. They were not privileges in need of waiving. They were that the desired communications were either 1) never in the possession of the SBC in the first place (three ways) or 2) not subject to a document retention policy. (Not that document retention policies would have been guaranteed to succeed. How many of you know and follow the document retention policy for your employer/school? Then they tend to call for destruction of documents that are not required to be retained.)


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    grberry,

    Christa is a lawyer and I can assure you she read the report. Knowing this, why do you think she said what she did?


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    dee: Christa is a lawyer and I can assure you she read the report.

    Thank you to Jennifer, Christa, Megan, Tiffany, Anne Marie, Hannah-Kate, Dave, Jules, and Dee, for publishing this statement, as well as for naming names.

    You have carved a path to truth through a minefield of lies and deception by some major players in a grand old institution. Ever grateful for your work.


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    Excellent recommendations and well written. Very direct and to the point which leaves no room for ambiguity.


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    The SBC annual convention will be held next week (June 12-15) in Anaheim, CA. There will be various resolutions voted on by the thousands of “messengers” gathered there. I hope someone has drafted a resolution which includes these actions to be presented at the conference.


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    Max:
    The SBC annual convention will be held next week (June 12-15) in Anaheim, CA.There will be various resolutions voted on by the thousands of “messengers” gathered there.I hope someone has drafted a resolution which includes these actions to be presented at the conference.

    But resolutions are nonbinding.


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    Meanwhile, I noticed this statement in the e-mail I received from the Biblical Recorder (NC Baptist newspaper) regarding the upcoming annual meeting:

    With all that is unfolding in the SBC family, let’s keep our eye on the ball. The feature story this week takes us to the ministry of international missions. IMB released the report of 2021’s international mission work. Take time to read this report.

    The e-mail did include links to the SATF report vis-a-vis The Convention’s website.


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    Tom Parker: resolutions are nonbinding

    It’s really the only mechanism within SBC life to “bind” Southern Baptists to anything … except the Baptist Faith & Message, of course.

    However, a perfect example of the “nonbinding” nature of SBC resolutions was one approved in 2013 “On Sexual Abuse of Children” strongly encouraging “denominational leaders and employees of the Southern Baptist Convention to utilize the highest sense of discernment in affiliating with groups and or individuals that possess questionable policies and practices in protecting our children from criminal abuse.” That didn’t stop Al Mohler from hanging out with his bud C.J. Mahaney, eventually helping him set up shop in Louisville and becoming a Southern Baptist!


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    Burwell Stark,

    IMO, there is story yet to break regarding a long history of abuse by Southern Baptists on foreign fields … tucked away in a dark corner of IMB.


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    Burwell Stark: Meanwhile, I noticed this statement in the e-mail I received from the Biblical Recorder (NC Baptist newspaper) regarding the upcoming annual meeting:
    With all that is unfolding in the SBC family, let’s keep our eye on the ball. The feature story this week takes us to the ministry of international missions. IMB released the report of 2021’s international mission work.

    Really, if they can’t appropriately deal with the sex abuse and cover-ups (AKA Evil) perpetrated by their leaders, the SBC HAS NO testimony to take to an international mission field, just no credibility. But they are conveniently ignoring (and trying to distract from) that fact.


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    Burwell Stark,

    “With all that is unfolding in the SBC family, let’s keep our eye on the ball. The feature story this week takes us to the ministry of international missions. IMB released the report of 2021’s international mission work. Take time to read this report.”
    ++++++++++++

    how else could this possibly be understood other than, “sexual abuse allegations are an annoying distraction, as are those who call themselves survivors”

    who at the Biblical Recorder (NC Baptist newspaper) wrote this?


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    Unfortunately, the most powerful and moving part of that document is the number and names of the survivors. May God heal the survivors and hold the abusers to account for their abuse of these people and for the dishonoring of God’s Holy name.


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    Burwell Stark: Biblical Recorder (NC Baptist newspaper) regarding the upcoming annual meeting:

    With all that is unfolding in the SBC family, let’s keep our eye on the ball. The feature story this week takes us to the ministry of international missions.

    A sick attempt to distract Southern Baptists from the sex abuse scandal by shifting the focus to missions! Keep your eye on your ball folks … it’s rolling away from you.


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    Max,

    It’s a hideous deflection – as if their missionaries will be listened to after these sex abuse scandals have been so poorly handled.

    The last time I was in Ireland was not long after another set of revelations about the Catholic Church & the attitude towards the church had shifted palpably away from the authority it had always assumed in Irish society, especially in Dublin – it was very striking. The SBC is going to shoot itself in the foot in exactly the same way. Who cares about the ‘gospel’ preached by such lawless & immoral people? If they don’t show any care about something so horrendous, as well as so against their own moral rules then why should they get a hearing? B


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    BeakerN,

    Through abuse scandals, both institutions discredit Christianity and Christ, not just their own vaunted folkways.

    I’m not sure either group even cares about imperiling Christianity, since both the RCC and SBC view themselves as the Only Way.


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    The Biblical Recorder used to be a free-standing news journal for NC Baptists before the “Conservative Resurgence.” I was a proud member of the Board of Directors during that time. One the Fundamentalists took over the Baptist State Convention of NC around 2002, the autonomy of the Recorder was ended and it was folded into the operations of the BSCNC and since that time became its “mouthpiece”, which is evident in its comments.


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    Max: IMO, there is story yet to break regarding a long history of abuse by Southern Baptists on foreign fields … tucked away in a dark corner of IMB.

    Max, you’re scaring me. I’m reading Ruth Tucker’s book Daughters of the Church and on the opening page of the chapter on foreign missions she writes, of women’s roles as missionaries in the 19th century,

    Some would-be critics [of women’s leadership and their preaching] took comfort in the fact that most women missionaries were involved in “women’s work” and those who were preaching to mixed or all-male groups were not seriously breaching any Pauline injunctions anyway, since their hearers were only “natives.”

    Point being, if the rules could be relaxed overseas to allow such practices [gasp] as women preaching, what other taboos might be tolerated?

    Wild speculation, but dark corners nevertheless.


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    BeakerN: Who cares about the ‘gospel’ preached by such lawless & immoral people?

    One sex crime story after another, the never ending saga of the patriarchal empowered church … too male to fail.


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    Ava Aaronson: patriarchal empowered church … too male to fail

    With Paige and the Pattersonites shouting “Break her down!”


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    elastigirl,

    Unfortunately, I don’t know who wrote it. It was a summary e-mail.


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    Denny Burk tweeted this on June 4:

    “The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee’s (EC) proposals for funding abuse reform efforts in the denomination will cost the International Mission Board (IMB) roughly $4.5 million…

    …that $4.5 million is enough money to fund 75 missionaries…”

    @mbcpathway
    .
    .
    he deliberately selected these phrases, omitting the surrounding text that was supportive of abuse reforms. The point he was making was quite clear.

    He got a lot of pushback. now he’s saying no, no, that’s not what I meant.

    i don’t find him credible.

    Per an article by Ben Hawkins in The Pathway (Missouri Baptist Convention):
    The Exec Committee ‘voted to reallocate both the 2021-22 and 2022-23 National Cooperative Program allocation budgets’ to fund ‘recommendations made by the Sexual Abuse Task Force (SATF).’

    Why not collect from inflated salaries and retirement benefits? starting with Johnny Hunt, Augie Boto, Frank Page, Roger Sing Oldham, Ronny Floyd, Greg Addison, Morris Chapman.

    Why not defund CBMW?


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    dee:
    grberry,

    Christa is a lawyer and I can assure you she read the report. Knowing this, why do you think she said what she did?

    Asking anyone to guess the motives of somebody they don’t know is a fool’s game. Asking me even more so.

    Two real ideas come to mind, but my first choice of answer is #3 that isn’t a real idea.
    #1 They saw something inside the report I didn’t notice. What? Where?
    #2 Someone more concerned with advocacy than accuracy thinks this wording will achieve their advocacy objectives. Who? What objective? Why?
    #3 I don’t have a clue why.


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    Max: shouting “Break her down!”

    Another leader said the same regarding young girls in his church (who likewise were assaulted):

    Warren Jeffs.

    Netflix’ new doc:
    KEEP SWEET PRAY & OBEY.

    Sounds familiar? If it walks and talks like a duck, it’s a duck.


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    Ava Aaronson: If it walks and talks like a duck, it’s a duck.

    SBC has become a duck pond.


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    elastigirl: “…that $4.5 million is enough money to fund 75 missionaries…”

    Why not collect from inflated salaries and retirement benefits? …

    … and keep those missionaries on the field!

    Speaking of SBC missionaries, I suppose they are grieving as news of the sex abuse scandal in the denomination reaches foreign fields.


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    elastigirl:
    Denny Burk tweeted this on June 4:

    …that $4.5 million is enough money to fund 75 missionaries…

    I’m going in a different direction than elastigirl did from that tweet, focused only on the part I chose to requote.

    Many, most of us believe that the sex abuse and coverup scandals damage the witness of the SBC for what it believe to the gospel. I’m among those who do. Is dealing with these scandals this way more or less impactful on evangelism than the effective productivity of 75 missionaries?

    I don’t have an answer. I don’t think either the damage of the scandal or the productivity of the missionaries is really quantifiable by any human. None of us knows enough. But there ought to be enough data out there for a reasonable argument to be made and a plausible approximation to exist.

    The techniques and thinking style of the effective altruism movement ought to be applicable. But it isn’t often done. Even in the forum of a small organization focused on effective altruism for Christians, I find only one post discussing effective evangelism – and no replies. That post starts “Within the Christian effective altruist community, the concept of “effective evangelism” is controversial.” A later paragraph begins “Rigorous analysis of “effective evangelism” is difficult to find.”

    From what little I can see from that forum posts, the answer is almost certainly that dealing with these scandals is certainly more impactful than 75 missionaries sent to Japan (estimate of $2.7M per baptism) and almost certainly more impactful than 75 missionaries sent to Mozambique (estimate of $1,366 per baptism). Since those are the two ends of the scale from the one study actually cited in that blog post.

    If someone wants to persuade another, speaking to that other person’s known values is important. Many in the SBC care about evangelism. I’d guess most messengers to the convention do. Finding a way to speak their language is important for effective advocacy.


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    Max: A sick attempt to distract Southern Baptists from the sex abuse scandal by shifting the focus to missions!

    Which begs the question, who exactly is the gospel for? Are sex abuse survivors not worthy of missional focus, too?


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    Wild Honey: who exactly is the gospel for?

    It’s obviously for the people make money from book and merchandise sales, speaking fees, endorsements, and tithes and offerings.


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    Ken F (aka Tweed): Wild Honey: who exactly is the gospel for?

    It’s obviously for the people make money from book and merchandise sales, speaking fees, endorsements, and tithes and offerings.

    AKA the Higher-Ups in The Jesus Racket.


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    Wild Honey: who exactly is the gospel for? Are sex abuse survivors not worthy of missional focus, too?

    If the mission of SBC does not include them, their gospel is not good news for all people.


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    grberry: Many, most of us believe that the sex abuse and coverup scandals damage the witness of the SBC for what it believe to the gospel. I’m among those who do. Is dealing with these scandals this way more or less impactful on evangelism than the effective productivity of 75 missionaries?

    I’m not sure I grasp your meaning, but you did get me thinking about the greater good in the SBC (about which I know little). What follows is not intended to reflect your thoughts. It’s an attempt at a fund-raising pitch in this era of quandary.

    Dear Virgin Mary,

    I am writing to ask you to fund my trip to the Unreached People Groups. You recently asked about the problem of rape and cover-up. I want you to know I do not condone those things, but talking about them is even worse! Sexual crimes against children and adults should not stand in the way of representing your son Jesus. In fact, nothing should stop us from telling more people about the glories of the SBC.

    My commitment to you: in exchange for funding, I will never tell any foreigners about the decades of documented and concealed abuse. We in the SBC have worked hard to make sure the victims do not threaten our goals, which I believe you share.

    Please give generously.

    Sincerely,

    William Packedbag Iphone III

    P.S. Tell Lottie Moon I said hey.

    /parody


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    elastigirl: Denny Burk tweeted this on June 4:

    “The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Executive Committee’s (EC) proposals for funding abuse reform efforts in the denomination will cost the International Mission Board (IMB) roughly $4.5 million…

    …that $4.5 million is enough money to fund 75 missionaries…”

    If the SBC is not capable of dealing with sin in the camp at whatever the cost, it won’t be effective camping out elsewhere.


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    Does the SBC really measure productivity in cost per baptism, or is that simply a math problem anybody could do (comparing the cost of one missionary with the number of baptisms during their stay)?


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    Friend:
    Does the SBC really measure productivity in cost per baptism, or is that simply a math problem anybody could do (comparing the cost of one missionary with the number of baptisms during their stay)?

    I have no evidence that the SBC measures productivity at all, much less that way.

    In theory this is a math problem anybody with all relevant data could do. Obtaining all relevant data would be effectively impossible. So simplifying assumptions would need to be made.

    I was baptized above age 30, so my own life is a relevant example of the challenge. As you read the following, think about which denominations, churches, ministries, and missionaries should get what share of the credit for my baptism? As I wrote it more relevant old events kept coming back to mind. I’m sure there are relevant ones I have not remembered or have omitted.

    My parents brought me to a Presbyterian church for the first 6 years of my life. Infant baptism was done to me then. The family moved to another state and we attended a UCC church for the next 5 years. Things happened, we started looking for another church, and my younger brother and I expressed the feeling “Why go to church? We’d rather play.” My parents never resumed regular church attendance. During Jr. High and HS years I was in a scout troop sponsored by a local protestant church and the local Roman Catholic parish. Once a year we all attended service at both churches on the same morning, and that was the extent of my churchgoing until I turned 29.

    I’ve been a voracious reader since before I started attending school. I read much fiction and non-fiction, including Christian non-fiction, even before I became a Christian. I especially liked SF/Fantasy, and repeatedly read both the Narnia books and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Around age 20 to provide background information for an early text only multi-user online game, I borrowed a copy of a old, out-of-copyright translation of the Rule of St. Benedict (a Roman Catholic monastic code) and transcribed it to an online web site. A Benedictine monk later emailed me to talk about it.

    In freshman year of college I encountered a random missionary who tried to evangelize me on the public transport ride to the intercity bus station, and at least had my attention enough that I missed my stop and had to walk back a couple stops in the other direction. I had close friends in a service/social group who were various forms of Christian and were visibly so at the time (among the closest were some whose denomination I don’t know, one belongs to the LCMS, one is Roman Catholic, multiple were Jewish). At various points I saw sandwich board hellfire and damnation street evangelists near/in public transit stations. A Conservative Jewish girlfriend from that organization got me to think about becoming Jewish which started my active seeking phase. Even after we broke up I kept seeking. I purchased a lot of books from the ethics bookshelf of a college bookstore which led me to reading natural law ethics. Natural law ethics is effectively divine law ethics but not labeled as such.

    A female coworker (same manager) had moved to this city with, but not part of, a church planting team from a missionary organization inside a SBC megachurch (First Baptist of …). Some members of the team were on missionary support, but so far as I known none of them were funded as SBC missionaries. But the new church did receive a church planting subsidy from the SBC ($30K year 1, #20K year 2, $10K year 3.) Watching her lived practice out of the corner of my eye and then hitting serious questions worth talking about led me to going out to dinner once a month and plying her with those questions, some of which were from those ethics books and outside her comfort zone. Eventually that switched to attending the small group she was a co-leader of, then my going to church.

    And back at the college I attended a concert organized by a Christian a capella group that also included at least one other Christian a capella group from another school. In the audience was a young lady who had been in the social/service group but not a close friend. She was then a staff member for Intervarsity. After the concert I called her with some questions and had a phone conversation with her.

    Then a combination of my ongoing reading and words from the lord spoken by church members led to my salvation and baptism. One of the people giving me words in this series were also Intervarsity staffers. The final pair of words by husband and wife at once A) confirmed something I had just read in a translation of Martin Luther’s Commentary on Galatians and B) asked me to submit to the Lord at that time.

    The missionary organization that had sent the team amicably split from the SBC megachurch and became a non-denominational megachurch of its own in the original city. (Within two years of the split both churches were of the size of the pre-split church.) I don’t know if that split was before or after my baptism. It and its various church plants are what I would now call a denomination, though so far as I know it has never used that label for itself.

    How much fractional credit should each organization or denomination get for my baptism? I believe it would take God’s omniscient knowledge to do assign the 100% for just me. And this analysis really ought to be done for everyone baptized.


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    grberry,

    Thank you for sharing your story in detail.

    I was also baptised as an infant. Although I do not remember the event, I grew up enfolded by loving family members who surrounded me that day and taught me the importance of the baptismal sacrament: this is the promise that families and godparents make to the child. As my faith grew and changed, I never felt a need to be baptised a second time.

    If people want to repeat the sacrament, that is their choice. But I can’t imagine joining a church that rejects my own baptism and demands another one—whether due to age, the amount of water involved, or the specific words of the rite.

    As you probably know, churches that baptise infants also typically have the sacrament of confirmation, when older children or adults declare their faith.


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    Wild Honey: Which begs the question, who exactly is the gospel for? Are sex abuse survivors not worthy of missional focus, too?

    There are those who are too focused on evangelizing those who have never accepted the gospel/been saved/been baptized/etc… They can develop blind spots about those already saved.

    Most large Baptist denominations in America (including but not just the SBC) are historically rooted in the Triennial Convention (officially named the General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America for Foreign Missions) that was formed/organized in 1814 by existing Baptist churches to support overseas missionary work, including that of Adoniram Judson. The first split of that organization, over the issue of slavery, was in 1845 with the Southern faction forming the SBC after the organization as a whole had declined to support a missionary because he was a slaveholder.

    Baptist churches already existed, and joined the convention to support the missionary work. So historically the denominations exist for the purpose of the missionary work and for no other reason. This is very different from other denominations where the churches/parishes were created by and remain subordinate to the denomination (often they are 100% owned by the denomination).

    That naturally leads the SBC organization to having a focus on missionary evangelism. It is the reason for the existence of the SBC, and arguably the only thing they should be doing. There naturally follows a blind spot for other issues.

    Both that blind spot and that nature of the denomination are part of why the SBC EC handled the reports of sexual abuse the way that they did.


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    Friend,

    The language around this changes depending on who they are talking to. If they are talking to members of a traditional-belief Baptist church, yes. If they are talking to New Calvinists, they don’t bother because the elected are supposed to be elite and small. But they talk a lot to that group about their “duty” to the church. If they are talking to each other, they talk about money.

    Whatever works to get the funds, in other words.


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    ishy,

    Thank you, Ishy.


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    grberry: That naturally leads the SBC organization to having a focus on missionary evangelism. It is the reason for the existence of the SBC, and arguably the only thing they should be doing. There naturally follows a blind spot for other issues.

    Yet, SBC’s International Mission Board (under David Platt’s leadership) recalled 1,000 career missionaries citing a funding shortage … while SBC’s North American Mission Board found plenty of money during the same period to plant 1,000 new churches each year (actually they have been planting reformed theology). And, of course, there was still plenty of dough for SBC’s elite to live in luxury, some of them even making the bad boy list of abusers. Hyping “missionary evangelism” has morphed into a way to attract more SBC customers to send money up the ladder to sustain the gravy train. Sad, because it was once a sincere mission; evangelism was SBC’s denominational gifting – now forfeited.


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    Max: Yet, SBC’s International Mission Board (under David Platt’s leadership) recalled 1,000 career missionaries citing a funding shortage

    If I recall correctly, around the same time the IMB removed their prohibition on praying in tongues becauae it was limiting who they could put on the mission field.


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    Ken F (aka Tweed): the IMB removed their prohibition on praying in tongues

    I looked it up. The prohibition was lifted in May 2015, the firings happened in Feb 2016.


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    Max: Hyping “missionary evangelism” has morphed into a way to attract more SBC customers to send money up the ladder to sustain the gravy train.

    Like Amway Uplines.


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    grberry: That naturally leads the SBC organization to having a focus on missionary evangelism. It is the reason for the existence of the SBC, and arguably the only thing they should be doing.

    in the words of some Rabbi from Nazareth, “Crossing land and sea to make a convert, only to make them twice the child of Hell as themselves”.


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    SBC’s annual meeting in Anaheim,CA starts tomorrow. There will be thousand in attendance. Will there be a display of brokenness over the darkness which has been revealed in its midst? Will there be an outbreak of prayer and repentance and seeking God to change and redirect both pulpit and pew in the days ahead? Or will the masses show up, hold hands, sing Kumbaya, head over to Disneyland for awhile, and return home to conduct business as usual?


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    Max: There will be thousand in attendance.

    “thousands” not “thousand” … but not a cross-section of Southern Baptists from across America. The elite vying for power will be there, the young reformers will be there, and a variety of theo-politicians. But the mainline SBC, the tens of thousands of SBC churches with less than 200 members, will be poorly represented … the non-Calvinist majority has lost its voice.