SBCOutpost

My mentor, Dr. Rick Davis, recently suggested the need to check out information posted on blogs for “verification and authentication.” In my previous post I noted Nathan Finn calling attention to the new dynamics the Internet creates for SBC politics. In today’s edition of The Daily Oklahoman religion reporter Carla Hinton wrote a piece titled, “Blogging boosts dialogue.” (The online version of the article is titled, “Southern Baptists’ access to information a click away.”)

Wade Burleson, Wes Kenney and Debbie Kaufman receive press for their participation in blogging. Burleson noted his interest began while serving on the Board of Trustees of the IMB. Most, if not all, Outpost readers would be familiar with Burleson. Hopeful blogging would bring more information, transparency and accountability Burleson began blogging chiefly regarding policy changes at the IMB. Since that time Wade has posted on a variety of subject.

Kenney is one of the four founders of SBCToday according to the article. He too considers the goal of of SBCToday to provide information and a place to dialogue primarily about Baptist identity issues. Comments are moderated and when the moderators consider a comment unhelpful will delete it informing its author.

Kenney took the occasion to point up the difference between the aims of SBCToday and another blog SBCTooDazed. On the one hand those at SBCToday contend for a focus on issues rather than personalities. Kenney suggested SBCTooDazed makes personality the issue. I checked out SBCTooDazed and find it not too dissimilar from early parody sites of SBCOutpost. Anyone remember “Marty binDuren?” In fact, those parody attempts used satire just the same to draw attention to the authors differing perspectives. The parody sites of SBCOutpost were also offered by anonymous authors. We too, the Outpost Team, may eschew the method but I did find the content of SBCTooDazed to, more often than not, address an issue raised by SBCToday once getting past the name changes.

I, like Kenney, may prefer a different forum for discussion. But, I do recall reading those early parody sites to hone my own understanding and hope to get an idea of the author’s particular nuance of an argument or difference of opinion. If someone takes the time to write, it may even be a compliment, though I may not think so.

Debbie Kaufman finds blogs helpful to her understanding of issues in the SBC. She notes a regular regimen of research she hopes will continue to make her a more informed voter.
Doubtless one could spend inordinate time perusing the innumerable SBC blogs. Some write blogs with a narrow focus on SBC issues/politics. Others write with their local church in mind. Still others write for a combination of audiences. Careful reading may indeed offer information worthy of consideration. Conversation, as noted in the previous post, would be a great outcome.

There is little doubt each of these bloggers intend to shape opinion. Any change that comes will be a result of any number of factors - thoughtful content, welcome diversity in conversation, and the receptivity to other ideas by the reader among a host of others.

Recently Nathan Finn wrote a fine piece alerting the SBC to the realities of the Internet. In an even handed manner Finn noted the mediums used to chart a new course in the SBC by those who used, “computer mailing lists” and the like. Some recall “Town Hall” styled meetings and “Whistle Stop” tours rallying troops to stand with the assertive new leaders to stem the tide of liberalism, rescue the denomination and ensure the authority of the Scriptures. Enter Al Gore’s “Internet” and look out. Conference calls and snail mail fliers cannot compete with the speed of a DSL connection, a chat program and yes, one’s own website.

These developments give anyone, including me, an occasion to opine about something, anything. Occasionally good questions will be asked and, though not often enough, healthy conversation ensues.

Yesterday while listening to KOSU, Sooner fans don’t excoriate me, an opinion piece was aired drawing attention to the influence of the postmodern mood on our culture. The speaker considers the incessant, and petulant, chasing after conspiracy theories to be something of an expression of the loss of truth to “my truth.” Critiques in our quarters, Southern Baptist that is, regarding postmodern philosophy and its influential mood often point up the loss of meaning for a given text. Or, to put it another way, rather than let the text speak we seem to practice the literary theory to have emerged from or within the postmodern shift, namely “Reader-Response Theory.”

The assumed meaning of the text shifted from what the author may have intended to the reader’s interpretive framework - preconceptions, psychological proclivities and long-held biases. Many who read here at the Outpost, and many who say they don’t but do, want very much to rest in the perspicuity of Scripture - that is, there is a plain meaning of the text. Authorial intent and its form hold what is needed. Yet, since words are on the screen you our faithful readers and detractors will decide for yourselves what is said and what is intended. It is always a risk someone will “mis-read” or “mis-interpret” what is being typed.

I recently wrote a piece here describing my thoughts on recent Lifeway research. One interlocutor determined I lay claim to “Kreskin” like skills and wrote a piece asserting I knew the hidden motive of another thereby questioning my motives. Imagine my shock and amazement, not to mention un-mitiaged belief, that same writer who finds the Outpost a great source of material, writes a response to the recent Rodney Hammer letter released by The Biblical Recorder snooping as it were among the paragraphs and sentences for a conspiracy to expose. That’s right, Rodney Hammer looks to bring down the IMB by making his opinion public and asserting the need to re-think policy. Having sought to express himself to the point of reprimand, he wrote to me, to us, to say “I am concerned.” If the best someone can do is come along and look for a conspiracy in accountability then said person has way too much time on their hands. Furthermore, if this is the best kind of defense, we in Okie land call it “mis-direction” recalling the bygone days of the amazing “Wishbone” era of Sooner Football, critics and the like have to offer then “Nashville, we have a problem.”

Let me make my motives clear. I hold no animosity for another who seems given to twist the obvious. I simply believe that when a man stands on his convictions and is willing to take the heat in the public square then we must listen to his words and not to the ruminations or imaginations of another. Yes, yes, dear reader you will comb the archives being sure to note every instance where we here at the Outpost may have done the same. So before you do it, “Shame on us.” If we have attributed motives to another without proper verification we stand under your scrutinizing eye. But, if we have knowledge of another’s motive and for whatever reason determine not to share it - yes, I am invoking the reality of anonymity here - you will have to take extra Rolaids at what will appear to you a contradiction.

My hope, read “motive,” is that we could really engage in honest, healthy conversation. Calling someone’s motive into question, assuming we know the strength of another’s “ecclesiology” based solely on a comment in a post thread, or ramping up our rhetoric charging ecumenism or the loss of inerrancy to hijack an otherwise honest attempt at dialog is in view. No hidden agenda here. No attempt to subvert what it means to be a Baptist.

Oh, and while I am at it, there is little credibility in slamming Ben Cole, or referring to him in dark terms. Your cries and laments fall helplessly on deaf ears when you claim to want to engage in honest conversation. For our dear critics, like a good addict, you return driving site statistics with your curiosity as to who will slam Ben next or what “juicy” post will follow. Posts offering thoughtful ideas and interjections into the future of the SBC, denominations and the like to you are as boring and uneventful as watching paint dry. So, let’s, in the motive of this post, have an honest conversation. We like to read the tabloid stuff. Our leaders were masters of the invective. They could rally the troops with just the right euphemisms whether or not they accurately described the situation and or person or not.

So, the motive of this post - call attention to Rodney Hammer’s words. Read them understanding his concerns only serve as a tip of the proverbial iceberg. Southwestern Alums recently received their fund-raising letters asking for contributions to keep the lights on. Is it increasing or decreasing enrollment? We here at the Outpost often receive communiques from the mission field noting a lack of resources for “evangelism” and matters they are not to speak of but are certainly causing a great deal of discomfit and interruption in service. Let’s not spin this one. No amount of posturing is going to solve our dilemmas. Open and honest conversation will be the way forward.

I hope I have illustrated that. With that, I point you to Hammer’s letter.

The Biblical Recorder posted the full letter from Rodney Hammer which had been leaked in “bits” around the Internet according to the Recorder. We direct your attention to the letter with no commentary on the content.

Your good, green friends at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission have joined together with historian (no snickering please) David Barton, the ever lovely Janet Parshall, an apparently less family-focused James Dobson, a few organizations supported by oil money, a handful of Southern Baptist theologians like Russell Moore and Daniel Akin, Singer Pat Boone — who apparently got off the the Crazy Train in time to sign — and Oklahoma’s entire Senatorial delegation

Ergun “Butch” Caner apparently did not sign this declaration either.

Go check out the We Get It campaign as it rolls out of Nashville coming to a convention near you.

[UPDATE]: The Outpost is saddened to learn the wreckage and bodies have been found.

TAMPA - Searchers found the wreckage of the Rev. Forrest Pollock’s plane and the bodies of the popular pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church and his 13-year old son, Preston, about 20 miles southwest of Asheville, N.C.

The plane was in rugged terrain more than two hours on foot from the nearest access point.

The Rev. George Thomasson, associate pastor of Bell Shoals, stood inside the sanctuary where Pollock normally delivered sermons and, fighting tears, told about 100 staff and church members the grim news.

More information at Tampa Bay Online.

Additional update from Baptist Press:

Pollock was to have been a featured speaker at the Southern Baptist Convention’s June 10-11 annual meeting in Indianapolis. He also had been appointed to serve on the convention’s Committee on Committees.

In 2006, Pollock nominated Frank Page to serve as SBC president during the annual meeting in Greensboro, N.C., and he was a member of the Resolutions Committee that year.

[/UPDATE]

Be in prayer for the family of Forrest Pollack, pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Florida. He has gone missing while flying his own plane to a conference. From Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Florida:

Please be in earnest prayer for Pastor Forrest. On Sunday afternoon, Pastor Forrest left (flying his own plane) for North Carolina, a quick stop before going to a conference in Texas. He reached his destination in North Carolina; however, after leaving from there early Monday morning for Texas, we have learned that Pastor has not yet reached his destination at the time of this writing.

Everything humanly possibly is being done to locate Pastor’s whereabouts. We are, however, appealing to all of our church family to pray earnestly for God’s supernatural intervention. The new Worship Center is open for prayer and will remain so until further notice.

Updates are being provided at the church’s website.

Here are the most recent updates:

5/13/08 7:05 AM Posting
Two additional aircraft have joined the search this morning. Ground teams are being replenished as the search continues. Crews are working on refining the search area based on the radar track. A second command post has been opened closer to the search area. Clear weather is expected as they continue to search.

5/13/08 12:35 AM Posting
A search plane is currently in the air nearing the area of the emergency signal. Weather had prohibited earlier air search attempts. Fourteen crews will be on the ground throughout the night attempting to locate the signal source.
Dawn Pollock is doing well given the circumstances. Please continue to pray for God’s intervention for Pastor and Preston and for Dawn and the children as they await further news.

5/12/08 11:35 PM Posting

Multiple ground search teams are currently investigating an emergency transmitter signal about 30 miles from the Rutherfordton, NC airport where Pastor Pollock departed at around 4:10 AM this morning. The signal was first picked-up around 11:00 AM this morning. The initial timing of his departure and the reception of the signal did not lead authorities to believe it was the pastor’s plane. It is possible, however, that the mountainous terrain could have impeded the emergency signal. Air search crews will begin searching at first light.

Pathways is reporting Avery Willis will be nominated by John Marshall in Indiana to be the next President of the SBC. No wait, word is out Johnny Hunt will also be nominated. Three. Four. Five. Some seem to be forgetting Wiley Drake.

No. It isn’t falling, but it appears to be in disrepair. Ed Stetzer has come out with Part Two of his analysis on SBC growth trends (or un-growth trends, as the case may be).

The wailing and gnashing of teeth has personally been quite unexpected. I never would have thought that his three-pronged prescription: seek to broaden convention participation, quit fighting so much, and get focused on the gospel, would have been viewed as so much poor medicine. I guess I continue to underestimate the penchant for people to deny what appears to be such clear reality.

I, like Todd, am a little incredulous that people would propose that the SBC has all of a sudden gotten a conscience about church membership or that a significant number of churches have gotten the will to act on that conscience. We’ve tried to address the regenerate church membership issue in our church and I continue to hear objections that “they might come back” or “aren’t we telling them we don’t care about them any more?” Admittedly, I’ve only been here four years and this issue has not necessarily been what I’ve been overly focused on. We’ve had our talks, but I’m not going to shove it down people’s throats. That’s just not how I tend to lead. We’ve been trying to talk more about missions, generosity, the gospel and community impact.

But maybe there are a significant number of churches cleaning up their rolls. Given the convention’s inability to express a positive resolution in favor of such a thing I remain quite skeptical. Let’s not forget that one chairman of the Resolutions Committee actually argued, publicly, that we should keep them on our rolls as prospects. And his argument won the day. This was but two years ago.

Now it appears that Thom Rainer, LifeWay statistician Cliff Tharp and Southern professor Chuck Lawless agree that the trends do not look good. You know where I stand (here, here, here and here).

As Ed says at the end of this second article, “…the fact is that we don’t need to say this is not real. It’s deadly real and has eternal significance. If trends continue, we are entering a period of decline and we need to repent and ask God for His power to change.”

Right you are, Ed. Right you are.

Today Ed Stetzer is reporting that, for the first time in our history, the Southern Baptist Convention is in decline in terms of overall membership. We’ve been in decline in baptisms for about seven or so years and now we are seeing that reflected in our membership numbers.

He writes:

…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.

There are three issues Stetzer says we, as a denomination, should address:

1. The absence of young leaders and ethnic leaders in denominational life.
2. Denominational infighting.
3. (most importantly) We’ve lost our focus on the gospel.

Check out Ed’s blog for more details. More commentary to come.

The SBTS website noted the successful surgery of Dr. Mohler. We pray the pathology report comes back with more good news. Pray for him, his family and Southern Seminary.

In June 2001, Tammi Reed Ledbetter published an article in Baptist Press entitled, ‘60 Minutes’ segment on Anne Graham Lotz muddied SBC stance on women in ministry.

To get a balanced perspective on Southern Baptists’ views about women in teaching roles, Ledbetter went to her old mentor, Dr. Dorothy Kelley-Patterson. When asked about Anne Graham Lotz’s apparent views concerning the BFM2000, Dr. Kelley-Patterson had this to say:

Praising Lotz’s ability as “a gifted expositor,” Patterson agreed that the conditions set forth in the Baptist Faith and Message were misrepresented to the popular Bible teacher. “The Baptist Faith and Message addresses what Scripture addresses. It is a confessional statement and we are not trying to address 50 situations,” Patterson explained. She said she does not believe the directives about women teaching or “ruling over men” cited in 1 Timothy 2, 1 Corinthians 11 or 1 Corinthians 14 address para-church organizations like seminaries, evangelistic organizations, or other ministries outside the church. “They are talking about church order.”

Does Dr. Kelley-Patterson hold a different view than that of her husband, who apparently believes that those precise passages do, in fact, address seminaries? Kelley-Patterson goes on to clarify that her own personal view does not allow her to teach men except on rare occasions, though she is careful to distinguish her personal view from the view adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention in the BFM2000.

I have forwarded the above quote to Klouda’s attorneys.

J. Shelby Sharpe, Esq., represents Defendant Paige Patterson in the Klouda lawsuit. In recent days, I’ve enjoyed becoming pen pals with Mr. Sharpe, who has taken issue with my insistence that his client has difficulty remembering the whole truth — or telling the whole truth — or both.

Speaking of lies, I’ve been directed to a Dallas Morning News article from 1986 where Mr. Sharpe is reported to have told a jury that sometimes — in certain circumstances — lying is legally permissible.

This, from the “Get To Know Your Lawyer” file:

Dallas Morning News
October 7, 1986

ABORTION CENTER JURY HEARS CLOSING PLEAS: Defense lawyer says not all lies illegal

FORT WORTH — The jury considering deception charges against a pregnancy center will have a “tremendous historical’ impact on the nation, a defense attorney said Monday.

Shelby Sharpe, in his closing statement to the jury, said the verdict could be a precedent-setting victory for free speech or become a national embarrassment like an 1850 Supreme Court ruling that denied citizenship to slaves.

“Your decision is going to make tremendous history,’ Sharpe said. “Either it will be a very good day, or a very sad day in our history, like the Dred Scott decision.’

Eliot Shavin, an assistant Texas Attorney General handling the lawsuit against the anti-abortion Problem Pregnancy Center of Fort Worth, urged the jury to reject a “right to lie’ and asked for fines and fees of about $100,000.

Shavin said center volunteers and president Chuck Pelletier use deception and misleading advertising to lure women seeking abortions to the center, then subject them to a a graphic anti-abortion film and confrontational counseling.

Ten women testified that they were tricked by advertisements and statements from volunteers into thinking the Problem Pregnancy Center was an abortion clinic.

“These lies are unlawful,’ Shavin said.

But Sharpe, telling jurors that the center has the free speech right to present its views on abortion in a manner of its choosing, acknowledged the possibility that a volunteer might have lied, which he said would be immoral, but defended its legality.

“God doesn’t approve of lying,’ Sharpe said. “It happens, but not every lie is unlawful.’

Pelletier has testified that center employees are instructed to avoid answering some direct questions, such as whether the center performs abortions, but are never instructed to lie.

The jury, which has heard five days of testimony, met behind closed doors for only a few minutes of deliberation Monday before deciding to resume work Tuesday morning.