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 the early days of the SBC Young Leader Initiative a person might be reading the comment thread over at Steve McCoy’s site and discover the handle, “iMonk.” Michael Spencer is internetmonk. On his site you may find this piece about Micheal, a 1984 graduate of Southern Seminary,
Internet Monk is the personal web space of missional communicator Michael Spencer. Michael is a missional thinker, communicator and writer living in southeastern Kentucky. “I am deconstructing and moving past my evangelicalism; rediscovering what it means to be vitally connected to Jesus. That process is always worth sharing.”
On Sabbatical retreat iMonk visited his alma mater. His reflections were recorded in a February 23rd post titled, The Empty Shelf in the Southern Baptist Bookstore. This post is offered here with permission. I am grateful.
The Empty Shelf in the Southern Baptist Bookstore
February 23rd, 2008 by Michael Spencer
I’m very interested in what current SBTS and other SBC seminary students have to say about your future in the SBC. Will you stay if Calvinism becomes a divisive, “lose your job” issue in the SBC? Would you prefer a Driscoll, Piper or Mahaney Network (T4G) to the current SBC?
CLARIFICATION: I’m a post-evangelical, and that applies to the SBC. But some of what I want to keep is stuff my tradition has in its attic! To be post-evangelical differs from being emerging in the sense that I want to keep my Baptist polity, historical (not current) view of the sacraments, cooperative missions vision and emphasis on missions.
Don’t stand too close to me in public. I’m going to blog your conversation. Yes, I’m that kind of writer.
After the Louisville Institute sabbatical orientation, I stopped at a few bookstores, including the large Lifeway Bookstore on the campus of my alma mater (’84), The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
I’ve been visiting the SBTS bookstore since the late 1970’s. I’ve watched it change through the years as SBTS and evangelicals themselves have changed. Today’s Southern Seminary Bookstore is a cornucopia of Calvinism, reflecting a seminary that is leading the Calvinistic resurgence in the SBC. If you are a lifelong Southern Baptist who would have ever found it difficult to believe that pastors in your convention would buy bobbleheads of Martin Luther, busts of John Calvin or framed prints of various infant-baptizing, state-church sponsoring reformers, I have news for you: It’s big business. There may be a head of Lottie Moon in there somewhere, but the business of little statues and pictures is almost entirely a presentation of Luther, Calvin and the Puritan-influenced reformers. (Apologies to your Roman Catholic friends can be sent directly to the IM post office.)
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a catholic Christian and I benefit from the gifting of the Holy Spirit to the church as a whole. But I was brought up in Landmark Baptist dispensational fundamentalism, and part of me is still a little rattled to see just how far the Calvinist resurgence has come in the SBC. I applaud its good fruit and pray for more, especially in the health and theology of churches. God bless The Founders, 9 Marks and their work. I also have many questions and concerns about what will happen in the SBC in the immediate future as thousands of Calvinist students make their way into a very evangelical, revivalistic, Arminian-leaning denomination.
Back to my evesdropping. I was standing at the “New Releases/Popular Authors” section. “Popular authors” these days include SBC Calvinists like Mark Dever and Al Mohler, alongside non-SBCers such as John Piper, John Macarthur and C.J. Mahaney.
Regular, Nashville published, fully Cooperative, SBC saved, trained and ordained authors? Not many. In fact, there were very, very few. A relatively empty shelf of significant influences and books, so to speak.
The subjects of my evedropping efforts were two students discussing Redeemer Presbyterian pastor Tim Keller’s new apologetics book. Keller, the rising star of the PCA and of conservative evangelicalism in general, has written the kind of book Southern Baptists have largely failed to write or promote in the last fifty years. Apologetics is just one area where the shelf of Southern Baptists is largely empty.
I don’t doubt that some Southern Baptist writers have written apologetic materials in the past, but for whatever reason, these materials passed quickly into oblivion, exerting little influence over the denomination that produced them. They are just one category of writing, thinking, teaching and publishing that find Southern Baptists largely awol. Aside from books on church growth, evangelism and the “popular” level of devotional literature, Southern Baptists have shown little interest in making major contributions to the evangelical conversation, including areas that it would seem SBCers would have taken up their pens and addressed.
This morning I received word from the SBTS IT department that they have not blocked SBC Outpost on the SBTS campus. However, it appears that access has been denied by our server to the student network at SBTS. The faculty network has been able to access the Outpost, but the student network has not.
It is possible that one of our cantankerous commentors who got banned was from Southern Seminary - or at least posted the comment while using the Southern student network and in banning their IP we unknowingly banned the whole student network.
I apologize to Southern for whatever implication those who have trouble understanding provisional “if…then” statements may have drawn from the original post and any lack of clarity in my own writing which may have led to that sort of thing.
We are certainly glad to know that Southern remains open to the free exchange of ideas among interested Baptists and we are working to resolve the issue on our end.
[Update: In response to my apology offered to Southern Seminary I received this as a part of the response: “For my personal account, your apology is accepted without reservation. I do wish we could have averted the issue beforehand, but I am pleased that we had the opportunity to redistribute the grace which we have been freely given.”
I am thankful that graciousness and forgiveness still exist in the Southern Baptist Convention and at Southern Seminary, even if it doesn’t always exist in other places among us.]
Baptists have long believed and struggled for freedom. As Baptists entered the scene in England they were considered “dissenters.” William Lumpkin states that the motivation behind the first London Confession was for Baptists to distance themselves from Continental Anabaptists and to show their substantial agreement with the more accepted/acceptable non-Anglican groups within England. To do so they published a confession and sent it on to Parliament for examination and hopeful approval.
Of course, had they lived in this internet age they may have well found that Parliament had banned their IP address to silence their voices.
It’s been alleged that Southern Seminary has banned the IP for SBC Outpost on their campus. We have not been able to confirm this, so far. Can anyone in the vicinity of Southern Seminary confirm or disprove this allegation?
If true it appears that Baptist dissenters are as popular on the Southern campus as they were in 17th Century England. We are accustomed to hearing reports of the control of information coming from Pyongyang. Communist regimes feel an obvious need to manage what the little people get to read and hear. We are not so accustomed to such allegations coming from Louisville, Kentucky. If you can substantiate or disprove this allegation we would like to hear from you.
Al Mohler suppresses information at Southern?
UPDATE:
Kiel Hauck, student at Southern commented moments ago,
I am currently in the chapel at Southern Seminary and am able to access the site. Other students have had trouble accessing the site from on campus apartments and dorm rooms though.
Maybe I’m just always on the right computer, because I’ve never been denied access to SBC Outpost on campus.
As we investigate the issue on our end the SBTS IT department has changed the IP address for their student network which is allowing access to the Outpost. Thus, Kiel and other students should currently have access.
Recent Comments