spiphywarfare

Tag: SBC

  • 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.

  • How Very Arrogant

    Quote from an article at American Reformer. Is Rick Warren really this arrogant? Am I overreacting?

    Warren has made it plain he considers himself more of an asset to his denomination than his denomination is to him. “We don’t need the Southern Baptist Convention,” he recently told Christianity Today’s editor-in-chief, Russell Moore, during a podcast interview. “They need the 6000 Purpose-Driven churches that are in our fellowship.”

    I mean, I agree that Christ’s Church does not need the SBC. It doesn’t “Purpose Driven Churches” either.

    Christ is King.

    Not the SBC. Not Rick Warren.

  • Report of Independent Investigation (SBC)

    Report of Independent Investigation (SBC)

    The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee’s Response to Sexual Abuse Allegations and an Audit of the Procedures and Actions of the Credentials Committee

    With everything going on in the world, why would I choose to write about an investigation into the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)? Well, because it matters to me, that’s why.

    My background is in law enforcement, politics, and mental health. I’ve spent my life writing reports on observed behavior, criminal acts, and other incidents. I’ve also spent a large part of my life reviewing reports written by subordinates. In that time I’ve learned this, there are two types of reports: those that state the facts, and those that try to evoke a particular response from the reader.

    My education is in administration of criminal justice (law enforcement, courts, and corrections) and political science. I’ve spent my entire adult life working for various government agencies which were ultimately responsible to an elected official. Sometimes I’ve worked with that official daily, other times they would never have any idea who I was. I’ve sat in U.S. Senator’s offices for private meetings, discussed issues with state level senators and representatives, and helped direct the activities of both governmental and non-governmental organizations. I am keenly sensitive to the impact public perception has on an organization and how to bear that in mind so that to act in ways that benefit the organization.

    I’ve read thousands of pages of reports in my life. I’ve found that whether the report was a single paragraph, or hundreds of pages, it has to be read thoroughly before coming to any useful conclusion regarding it’s contents.

    Bias

    I spent several years working patrol. Before that, fresh out of high school I was a direct care worker at an inpatient psychiatric facility. To this day, I recall a doctor giving me the what-for as an 18-year-old after I inserted an opinion into a chart entry. Even though it was unpleasant, she was right. What she taught me has stayed with me. That served me well when I moved into law enforcement. The goal of every report I wrote was to state the facts and nothing but the facts. If a simple statement of the facts didn’t lead the reader, whether juror or prosecutor, to think a crime had been committed, then maybe I was in error and the accused needed to be freed.

    Bias, as I showed at a young age when I said a patient “was angry” can show up in reports for two reasons in my experience. First, it can show as a unintentional bias. For example when a young, lazy kid writes, “the patient was angry” instead of taking the time to describe the actual observable behavior that will allow the reader to come to the conclusion the patient was angry. Second, it shows up when the writer uses words that are intended to evoke a certain response from the reader, usually through emotional appeals.

    The Report

    The first thing I wanted to do with this report was what I would do with any other. Is there bias in the report? If so, does it appear to be intentional or could it be unintentional? If it is intentional, what is it the writer wants you to conclude and why? If it isn’t (which is mostly okay), how could it influence your final conclusion and how, or even should, you counteract that bias.

    I said it also shows up in words intended to evoke a response. Consider the two following sentences, the first of which is from the report. Look at the missing words and consider that they are there to make you feel a certain way about the facts being presented.

    • Finally, at the 2021 Nashville Convention, calls for reform reached a crescendo – the Messengers overwhelmingly voted to approve a Task Force to supervise an independent investigation into the EC’s handling of sexual abuse allegations.
    • At the 2021 Nashville Convention, the Messengers voted to approve a Task Force to supervise an independent investigation into the EC’s handling of sexual abuse allegations.

    What additional facts did you get from those words that are not in the second sentence? “Overwhelmingly” is a characterization of a vote outcome rather than stating, “by a 5:1 margin” or some such. The others seem obvious so I won’t worry about them here.

    I use the phrase “does it appear” above when talking about bias because I cannot conclude if bias is intentional or not most of the time. One can conclude it is intentional when any other conclusion beggars belief. That said, there is bias in this report. For instance, their initial contact letters with witnesses explained that interviewees would be allowed to “express their opinions as to how the SBC can create a safer community going forward” (p. 24). Before they began their interviews, they were predisposed to thinking the SBC was unsafe. That doesn’t mean it was, it just points out that they went in expecting to find things wrong.

    Expectations are like that: They make us see the falsies that aren’t there. Decades of research have proven that expectation is a powerful force. It acts on our perceptions much as gravity acts on light, bending them in ways that are measurable by others, but, at least to us, imperceptible. 

    Psychology Today

    So they were biased. What else stood out about the report? Guidepost put a decent amount of effort into laying out the methodology they used in conducting this investigation. My opinion? Their methods were sound. By sound I mean I think they seem to have been thorough in trying to contact people they needed to interview, covering all the relevant areas of concern, and their comprehensive document review.

    A couple of the abuse stories they took pages to lay out were simply not believable. By that I don’t mean I believe nothing happened, just I believe it sounded more like adultery than sexual assault or someone molesting another person. Two issues with that: 1) the thing about using words and phrases that don’t appear in the Bible but are intended to bring to mind rape and molestation are dishonest, and 2) if you portray a willing party to adultery as a victim, and tell them they are a victim, the chance of them asking forgiveness is nil. It is an unloving lie to do such a thing.

    My Opinion

    There are two types of reports organizations generate, factual and persuasive. This was definitely a persuasive report. For me it was mostly a fail in that area as they did not focus as much on solid cases where convicted sex offenders were in the pulpit. They seemed more interested in persuading the reader that certain specific cases were sexual abuse. Either way, the outcome for me was still the same though maybe not for the reason they wanted.

    Here’s the thing, as I said, I’ve worked for, with, and around elected officials and others who work for them and I can recognize politics when I see it. As I read the report what stuck out to me was the lack of concern for victims AND for anyone falsely accused. The sole focus was on, when you get down to it, “How do we keep our power and position in light of these allegations?” That is what struck me. Zero concern for getting at the truth which as Christians they know “will set you free.”

    In the end, anything with allegations of criminal activity should be immediately referred to law enforcement. Anything short of criminal allegations but still sinful should be investigated thoroughly so the truth can be found and acted on according to Biblical principles. That is not what happened here and that is very disappointing.

    The events and behaviors on display at the recent SBC Convention in Anaheim, CA don’t give me any hope that the national leadership is anything but political.

  • Should I Stay or Should I go Now

    I walked into church this morning. Just like I have so many other mornings for the past 40 years. Same parking area. Same building. I can’t say same pew because I’m one of the few Baptist who don’t hold to the Covenant of Assigned Seating. But I walked in with a heaviness that I’d never walked in with before.

    I’ve missed services in the past when I knew my spirit wasn’t right. If I’m off-kilter and can’t get right through prayer before service, I would rather stay home to read and/or pray than bring a disruptive spirit into worship.

    This day was different though. It was different because it was just being there that was causing this heaviness. My intent was to walk through those doors, worship with my brothers and sisters, and walk out of them for the last time. Ever.

    I sat in a pew near the back, giving me a good view of the sanctuary. It was near the door and I only greeted a few people walking in. I looked around and saw no less than two dozen people that had known me for forty years. People who had watched me struggle. People I had let down. People who loved me. Even more, there were people in that building who had known me since preschool. Only a handful but they were there.

    Sitting there brought mixed feelings about my intentions. How could I walk away from this group of saints? I loved every one of the familiar faces, not just the ones I’ve known for many decades. These are my people. Yet, at the same time, my intentions were being solidified. As I looked around, I knew so many of these were not just warming a pew. They were giving of their hard-earned money or time, or both. They were investing in the church.

    In turn, the church was investing in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

    It always has as far as I know. I’d always felt a bit of pride (I know I shouldn’t have) going to a Southern Baptist Church. I felt it because in my experience we were looked down on a little bit for being too concerned with what scripture says and being a little too dedicated in our lives. As a teen and a young adult, when someone asked where I went to church, my response was often met with, “Oh.” As if to say any further conversation was unnecessary. That was especially true when Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses wanted to strike up a conversation.

    Sadly, it isn’t that way anymore. I’ve been watching the SBC fall prey to worldly ideologies for a few years now. It’s been happening for far longer than that. It is disheartening to watch people I love strive together for Christ not knowing that they are giving to an organization that is working against them.

    The latest for me, and possibly the nail in the coffin, is over abortion. The position of the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission (ERLC is funded by Cooperative Program dollars), the position of Bart Barber (SBC President nominee), and many others is that with Roe v Wade likely being overturned, states need to slow their roll on how they proceed on this issue. They, and many other “pro-lifers” have revealed themselves as who they are in a letter to all state legislatures in this country. For the record, Barber is not a signatory but his position aligns.

    Women are victims of abortion and require our compassion and support as well as ready access to counseling and social services in the days, weeks, months, and years following an abortion.

    As national and state pro-life organizations, representing tens of millions of pro-life men, women, and children across the country, let us be clear: We state unequivocally that we do not support any measure seeking to criminalize or punish women and we stand firmly opposed to include such penalties in legislation.

    https://www.nrlc.org/uploads/communications/051222coalitionlettertostates.pdf

    They “firmly oppose” any effort to criminalize or punish women who have abortions. Their position would be that the woman who killed her newborn immediately after birth, should be fine (legally) if only she had gone to an abortionist the day before. I doubt any of them would, at least openly, support the woman in this case not being prosecuted. But they oppose any law that would punish her for killing her child the day before. What is the difference? Location, location, location.

    When I see people having to use close to 1,100 words, or just over 1,400 words to explain why their position makes sense, I tend to expect Olympic quality verbal gymnastics. The links above didn’t let me down. They could state a clear, consistent, and concise position that allows for the off-cases like Barber’s position points out. It could be <thirty words:

    Women voluntarily participating in aborting their child should be prosecuted as any other suspect and should have the same access to consideration of exigent circumstances as any other defendant.

    Me

    I’m not sure how to process this as anything other than deception.

    It angers me to know that so many of these people I love are unaware of where their money is going and what it is supporting.

    End of Part 1.

  • At a Loss

    I’m at a complete and total loss. The more I go to look into the nasty, devilish teachings of Critical Race Theory (CRT), the more I find it has infiltrated into an institution I’ve long affiliated myself with. The Provost and Sr. VP of Southern Seminary, an institution of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), claims that “faithfulness, and orthodoxy, and truth, and righteousness, and justice” are actually a rotting corpse of white supremacy.

    Now, before I continue, I need to make something clear. If you’re not familiar with Southern Baptist church polity, it follows a congregational form meaning the SBC holds no authority over local congregations. This is important because you can’t conclude that every SBC congregation, or even a majority of them, are embracing what I am talking about. Although if not stopped, in the future the majority will. I surely haven’t seen this at the congregation I attend, or I would have withdrawn my membership there.

    Sadly, many of those sitting in the pews of those congregations are unaware that some of their giving is going to furthering the introduction of CRT into our seminaries. CRT makes a mockery of the work of Jesus on the Cross when it is blended in Christianity. We need salvation through Jesus, and then some more. At its core, it is a theory based on Marxist thought and as such is concerned only about power, and adheres to the idea that “truth has no independent existence.” Could anything be farther from what our Bible teaches?

    That’s how it becomes acceptable to teach future SBC ministers that “faithfulness, and orthodoxy, and truth, and righteousness, and justice” are ideas based on “the rotting corpse of white supremacy.” Do you want to be faithful? Congratulations, you’re practicing white supremacy! Do you want to express orthodoxy in your beliefs? Congratulations, you’re expressing white supremacy? How about the truth? That thing Jesus says will set you free. Do you want to proclaim it? Congratulations, you’re proclaiming white supremacy! And to top it off, your beliefs, truths, faithfulness etc. are a dead, rotting corpse. Don’t just take my words for it, hear him in his own words. The video below will start a few seconds before he lets that doctrine of demons spew out of his mouth.

    If you want to embrace these teachings, fine. Go ahead. Just know you will have to reject Ephesians 2:14-16. You have to reject 2 Corinthians 5:17. You have to reject Ezekiel 18:19-20. You will have to reject truth, faithfulness, and righteousness.

    Alternatively, you could keep all of that, embrace 1 Timothy4:1, and wonder if we’re near the end.