Friday, July 24, 2020

What Lives?


Anyone who knows me, knows that I love baseball. Some of the fondest memories I have of my childhood are related to the grand game. I remember winning, and loosing, smiling and crying. I remember my dad being an umpire and treating me more strictly than the rest of the players because he didn’t want anyone to think he was favoring me. I didn’t understand that concept then, but now I can see there was a lot of wisdom in it. Many of our family outings have been built around baseball. When my dad turned 75, we went to Cooperstown to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. And when he turned 80, we traveled to Arlington and Houston to watch the Rangers and the Astros.


Wednesday, July 15, 2020

By What Standard?


I ran across the documentary linked on the picture sort of by accident. But I must say that I found it extremely enlightening and informative. And I say that from the point of view of one who attends and is a pastor at a congregation that understands the biblical pattern for men and women and that understands that we are all one race. But the thing about all this complementarianism (which seems to have been sort of forgotten in the storm of viruses and racism) and racial intersectionality, is that as with many other issues such as homosexuality and social justice, they will sooner or later come to our doors. And when they do, it is imperative to know why we stand where we stand.

As we contemplate the landscape of the “church” today, we see a very disparate organism. There are churches that are strong bulwarks (and I hope we are among them) against the efforts of society, and even some in the church, to bring all the social baggage of our day into the church. But there are many more which are doing little to resist those unbiblical trends and are even being easily co-opted into helping the forces that are attempting to bring down the structure that God has erected (good luck!!). Often when we view documentaries such as this one, we are made to wonder what ever happened to the Bible in the minds of some of these folks. You will hear a whole lot of sociology and psychology and all kinds of such claptrap. But you will often be hard pressed to hear anyone try to support what they’re attempting to convince you of with a “thus saith the Lord.”

There are some things within the documentary that are problematic simply because it deals primarily with the Southern Baptist Convention. To my mind, that organization is an extra-biblical organization and as such it is going to have a lot of the issues that come with such a status. The Bible clearly lays out the pattern that each congregation of the Lord’s people are to be autonomous and independent, what we would call the congregational model. Once you begin to stretch that model and begin to create extra levels weighing down on the local church, the potential for problems multiplies. I know that the SBC claims that each congregation is supposedly independent, but it’s hard for me to see how that independence can truly be sustained if you’re part of that organization. But, that’s really neither here nor there. The bottom line is that the Bible is under assault, even by some of its purported proponents.

Watch the video (it’s kind of long at nearly 2 hours, but it’s worth it) and let me know what you think. Obviously, I have a lot more to say about this, but I’d like to hear your thoughts.
(I found it especially interesting at the beginning of the documentary when the Lifeway representative was asked what he thought was so distinctive about the SBC and he replied that the respect that they have for the Scriptures. But, when asked about complementarianism and what the Bible has to say about it, he was strangely silent about it!!)