spiphywarfare

Month: September 2024

  • The SBC’s Dilemma

    A little over two years ago I gave my opinion on the Guidepost Solutions, LLC report the SBC paid over $2 million for, despite the fact that Guidepost supports values at odds with the SBC. It wasn’t flattering. I remember at the time thinking that the use of “credibly accused” as a standard was incredibly vague. The SBC continues to host a horribly

    Now the SBC and Guidepost are going through a lawsuit. They’re being sued by Johnny Hunt, former Senior VP of ministry for the North American Mission Board (NAMB). Hunt resigned after the report named him as being credibly accused of sexual abuse. Now, I do think Mr. Hunt did something wrong and sinful, though he prefers “improper conduct.” That’s not the point of this short post though.

    The point is that in his amended filing for damages, Hunt discloses that his position with NAMB paid him a salary of $610,000 per year.

    That is one single solitary position at the national level for the SBC. How much money that solid, pew-sitting Christians are giving to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ is going to pay wayward, disqualified, philandering men outrageous sums? Full disclosure, I stopped tithing years ago for this reason. We opted to use that money to directly impact people.

  • Public what? “Servant!”

    A short post born of frustration.

    My life has been dedicated to public service. It is so irritating when I see people who are public servants who have forgotten the servant part. It matters not if it’s Joe the President yelling, “I don’t work for you!” at a steel worker or some clerk doing menial filing work in some small, local government office.

    We work for the people. We work for the hardworking, taxpayers people of this country, our state, or community. If your salary is funded by tax dollars, dollars forcibly taken from money someone else earned, you better make it worth it.

  • A Christian Nation?

    Browsing through certain social media sites, in particular, the  đť•Ź  site, one does not have to look far for discussions of Christian Nationlism, often abbreviated as CN. I’d like to address just one aspect of the many different concepts that are debated. One that strangely, in defiance of reality, finds many “leading” Christians on that site agreeing with pagans. That’s the idea that the U.S. of A. was never, and is not now, a Christian Nation.

    Commonwealth of Massachusetts

    One can currently find that Massachusetts, one of the founding states and always a member state, has law right now on the books that prohibits blasphemy. They are found in the General Laws > Part IV > Title I > Chapter 272 states:

    Section 36. Whoever wilfully blasphemes the holy name of God by denying, cursing or contumeliously reproaching God, his creation, government or final judging of the world, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching or exposing to contempt and ridicule, the holy word of God contained in the holy scriptures shall be punished by imprisonment in jail for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars, and may also be bound to good behavior.

    https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleI/Chapter272/Section36

    They backed down from it being a capital offense as they originally passed it while a colony. See Section 3, Chapter 19 of their Province Laws.

    The SCOTUS famously found in Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 143 U.S.457 (1892), and folks don’t like to be reminded of it, that the United States “is a Christian Nation.”

    So, regardless of one’s views on CN, it’s just dishonest to deny that this nation was founded by a Christian people on Christian principles and values.

  • Different Time, Same Tactics

    I’ve been slow-reading through Acts. I consider slow-reading somewhere between reading through and in-depth study. I’ve been in chapters 11-13 for a couple of days, and some things stuck out to me today.

    But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and they began to contradict what Paul was saying by reviling him. (Acts 13:45)

    I read that and thought, “Man, isn’t that the same thing religious leaders do today?” When someone saying something they don’t like starts gaining listeners, they become jealous. I’m thinking along the lines of Doug Wilson here.  I’ve seen this passage before and thought it was similar to today, but this time, it stuck out to me how they conradicted him. They didn’t challenge him through reason, they did it through reviling him. They did it through verbal abuse.

    That’s not the only similarity. In Acts 13:50, we see this:

    But the Jews incited the God-fearing women of high social standing and the prominent men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and threw them out of their region.

    Seem familiar? The leaders stirred up women (of high social standing), and then the men began a persecution against Paul and Barnabas. I wouldn’t call myself “highly online,” but I would say I am more engaged in social media than many of my peers. There’s a phenomenon that occurs wherein a woman will come out and say something about a man, again, thinking Doug makes a good example, and the moment she is called out for an error she is surrounded by a flock of men, clucking at the objector and shaming them. It really is pathetic when you witness it.

    The words of Ecc 1:9 are true, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” They are true in our personal lives as well as the society around us. I plead with you, if you consider yourself a Christian, please, get into the Word of God that he has provided. Deception is strong at this point in human history.

    I do not know if this is the end or if we are still in the early church age, but The Father knows. I do know He is faithful. I do know we shouldn’t be fearful. I know that we should be wise as serpents. I pray we are.

    Stay safe. Stay healthy.