From the BLAZE network comes a Plan | Eastern North Carolina Now

    This outfit is the composite of conservatism in the USA. It is virtually the same as Southeastern Seminary producing conservatives into the pulpits of NC and surrounding states. When I graduated in 1970 it was a far different place of education.

    •  The concept taught was a Servant Minister / now it is a King Pastor

    •  The Faculty was diverse and all had earned Doctors degrees / they simply broadened our horizons on the Bible / Church History / Ministry / Theology

    •  Some of my fellow grads claimed it was a Liberal school --- far from it in my view

    •  Today each faculty member is an certified friend of the Conservative Resurgence kings which run everything SBC

    •  It is a model of Jerry Falwell's and Pat Robertson's Universities pumping SEBTS students to them today

    •  The mantra for SEBTS is "it won't ruin innocent preachers" = indoctrination over challenge to think

    Before I comment further, here is a video of a guy doing comedy as a Mega church pastor does his sermons these days:

    I am a Preacher's kid from a well-educated and wise father. He saw the religious debates in his day over the Millennium. You had to choose a side and it was all a bunch of speculation simply spawning division and wrath. Just as Gnosticism (knowing) was part of Early Church strife, it seems church people love to fuss and fight over a tempest in a teapot. I came from a "fear not to doubt" environment as I grew up. My daddy would not let us play football on Sunday afternoon or dance, but asking good questions was OK with him! You might say it was a mix of traditionalism from the little country Baptist Church and a man with an earned Th.D. degree who was more than smart and insightful.

    We all are a mix of things we don't want changed and others we strongly desire to improve.

    I see the angst of today as a product of rapid change. Where I never heard of homosexuality, it is all around us now. My little town of Clarkston was no bigger than Bath in the Atlanta suburbs / now it is a sprawling, crime-ridden, international metro area of 8+ million people. They are all on the big highways afraid they might not get there before the person in front of them. My friends all say, "Will the last real southern genteel people bring out the flag!" In my early driving days in metro Atlanta, it was common to make a gap and wave merging traffic into your lane. The two major north-south expressways were crammed to go through downtown Atlanta. Now even the I-285 beltline is the same without anyone wanting to back off and let people in.

    So what are we to do?

    •  Grasp desperately to the "good old days" as if all problems were solved?

    •  Look progressively to the future and solve problems one at the time?

    Today there seems to be no middle ground when it has been there in the past. Have times changed or have we just given up on getting along with divergent opinions and freedom to express them? Actually, there was a time when you could "agree to disagree" and still be friends. Now the best-paid commentators appeal to hate and bigotry, as I see it.

    Preachers tend to be people who run from any disagreement. The happiest ones these days are the Kings of the Church. In a mega large church you can rule your staff with an iron fist and your pronouncements over the big P-A System backed by a glitter-gown choir and carefully controlled lighting makes you a modern day Wizard of Oz.

    If you get these kinds of control freaks together and show them how to make their people vote as they do, you can have a quick destruction of Separation of Church and State. It is worse than block voting because it comes from all over. It used to be that any church which involved itself in politics risked losing its tax-exempt / non-profit status. One of the cornerstones of traditional Southern Baptist work was ministering to all no matter their creed. The leaders of the beginning came out of Baptist put down against the large traditional churches of Episcopal / Catholic traditions. Baptists drew social outcasts and the poor. There was wisdom in keeping your mouth shut over politics, lest a fist-fight break out in the pews.

    Ronald Reagan saw the political benefits of wooing the Moral Majority. Jerry Falwell found it was profitable for him and --- as long as it brought in money --- used it to the max. When the funds waned, he dropped it like a hot potato. You might say he was the first BLAZE Network commentator on his TV show in Lynchburg, VA. There seems to be way more money in negativity than in get along. Jerry built his big operation over criticizing all other major churches in his area and sending buses to pick up kids in the back door of competitors.