The Final Step of Conservative Takeover of Baptists | Eastern North Carolina Now

    I have been covering the history of the "Conservative Resurgence" conquest of the Southern Baptist Convention as well as the NC Baptist State Convention. It is never over when the fat lady sings with Conservatives. They begin to "prove" they were right to seal their victory.

    Redaction of the history of SEBTS and the SBC

    Soon after the dismissal of the President at Southeastern --- and the entrance of a short-term new President, the real leader of the movement, Dr. Paige Patterson, came to Wake Forest as the President who would make final changes to faculty and outlook.

    Many students had left to other educational institutions after Dr. Randall Lolley resigned. No sooner than Patterson came in we were getting reports of great growth in the new student body. They claimed it was so big, new buildings were needed to house them and all their classes.

    Tuesdays had always been the biggest day of classes so I decided to go over and shoot documenting pictures of the "massive student growth. Here is what I found:

        •  Most of the classroom seats empty. About the best I could estimate they had a 20% usage of the chairs. The books being used that were "so awful and liberal" under Lolley were still the same! The Library was being used as in my day. I would stroll outside and engage in conversations with the new style of students. Most were there because it "was now safe" for them coming from Liberty University (Jerry Falwell) and Heritage University (Pat Robertson). Few cited any knowledge of the Foreign or Home Missions Boards which sent missionaries in the name of Southern Baptists.

        •  To come up with the count they were reporting in the alumni publication you had to count a cat walking across campus as 2 students since it had 4 feet! New financial supporters were coming to SEBTS with buildings named after them. Those kinds of supporters were totally gullible and whatever they were told, they believed. They were part of the "great changes at SEBTS."

        •  I had participated in the Royal Ambassador boy's organization. Now it was replaced by AWANA which came from Independent Baptist work. It had nothing to do with mission education and plenty to do with memorizing scripture and interpreting it in a fundamentalist conservative fashion. In other words, the basis of Southern Baptist work was missing now.

    A new Professor of Church History, named Dr. Nathan Finn, was in place and re-writing the history of SEBTS and Baptists in general. If you go to the Wikipedia page on Southeastern Seminary, he is the author of a distorted history contained in it now. According to his version, the liberalism of the SBC was replaced with the TRUE view of a Calvinist theology. Calvin was at the core of Presbyterian theology. NEVER had it been more than a part of my study in Theology and Philosophy in my student days. Now it was as if that was the "real deal" and anything else was "liberal." Calvinism is a "top down" kind of church organization --- and much different than the joining of independent local churches to support missions.

    There have been great debates over that theology in SBC circles. The new President of Southern Seminary, Dr. Al Mohler, is a staunch Calvinist and contends for it often. Part of the theology is PREDESTINATION --- in which only God decides in advance who is saved and who it not. The SBC had formed its massive missionary movement believing that it is the duty of Christians to share their faith and win converts---not to sit back and let God do it before he sends a new soul to this earth!

    Needless to say, Southern Baptists aren't what they used to be in their mission zeal. The mega church pastors contend that only their King Pastor leadership counts. They have a great need to grow in numbers under their roof. Instead of starting mission churches independent from the mother church, they now have "Satellite Churches" where the video from the main church is the focus and even if you are not on the main campus, you count! They all make 6-digit incomes --- as do the CEO's of major corps.

    You control people by eliminating or altering history to "PROVE" might makes right.

    Formation of a new group of Baptists honoring local church freedom

    Out of the mess with Southern Baptists a new group formed. It was named Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and operates in much the same way the SBC used to do. It honors independence of its churches which COOPERATE together for mission enterprises. They even "partner" with non-Fellowship groups to share the Gospel and minister in disasters.

    They have female pastors and are not failing to minister to homosexuals. Meanwhile, the NC Baptist State Convention, taken over by the new conservatives, refuses to receive any money for missions from a church which ministers to homosexuals or has a woman pastor. Rather than "kick you out" they don't take the money, and thereby, you have no vote in public matters.

    Reduction in number of churches participating in NC SBC work

    The attendance at the NC Baptist annual meeting is about 1/3 what it was in the 80's. Giving is down and the majority of churches which left are the large and major giving ones across the state. If they keep it up, they can start meeting in the Men's Room at Baptist Headquarters in Cary and save bunches more of money they no longer have! The State Paper, The Biblical Recorder, is now a fluff piece with none of the former verve in days of yore. To get real and diverse Baptist news, you can go to: http://baptiststoday.org/news-headlines/

    "Gone With the Wind" comes to my mind.

    This new Baptist information center was the result of the Georgia Christian Index editor, Jack Harwell, getting brutally fired when Georgia went Conservative years before NC. The trouble with any major takeover with great hostility is like Jesus on the cross --- Friday night saw him killed and buried in a tomb ---- BUT THEN CAME SUNDAY MORNING.

    God's work is always hard to stop. Ask the Roman Catholics who saw the Protestant Reformation come out of their corruption and control. Martin Luther was a Priest reading the Latin Bible and noting what the Priests and Pope professed was not in it. The average member at that time did not and could not read Latin so they were told stuff and were excommunicated --- if they did not comply.

    The same is true of American history. When the Kings and titled nobles ruled --- and average people starved to serve them --- they booked passage to the New World and began anew with a dream of "liberty and justice for ALL."