Tent Width Oct 25, 2006
Observations on Controversy Oct 24, 2007
First Impressions Dec 5, 2006
Endorsements have been the predominant subject of my blogging this week. The endorsements of the reincarnated SBC Outpost by several convention entity presidents was a matter of great concern to me as a Southern Baptist. Those whom the convention, through its elected trustees, has entrusted with the leadership of our entities ought to represent all Southern Baptists equally and without favoritism. For those men to so openly favor a group of bloggers who have at best been critical of trustees and others and at worst have maliciously vilified trustees and even entity presidents is a disturbing development indeed.
But now the endorsements have been retracted, so all is well. Or have they?
What I could glean from reading the relevant posts and comments is that the person in charge of SBC Outpost, Micah Fries Ben Cole, unilaterally removed the page containing the much-discussed endorsements, apparently at the private request of one of the endorsers. This leaves me (and many with whom I have spoken) with several questions.
The first question that comes to my mind is this: Have these endorsements been retracted? They were publicly trumpeted when they were first announced, and the words of the endorsers themselves figured heavily in the overall promotion. But now that the page contianing them has been removed, we have yet to hear from the endorsers themselves. Do they still believe that SBC Outpost, which in one week has suggested that one entity president is incompetent and another an habitual prevaricator, is the place to go for relevant and timely SBC news and commentary? Absent any contrary statements from the endorsers themselves, I am left to assume that they do.
And who was the one who made the private request that they be removed? Did Dr. Morris Chapman become concerned that he was closely and publicly aligned with a group of bloggers openly seeking to discredit fellow members of the Great Commission Council? Did Dr. Jerry Rankin become suddenly disquieted by the fact that he was on the record endorsing a blog whose contributors are repeatedly on record with harsh criticism of the board elected to hold him accountable?
I don’t expect that answers to these questions will be forthcoming, but neither do I intend to allow myself to be convinced that a sudden change of heart has taken place. Certainly some sort of public pronouncement would have accompanied such a development, rather than a craftily-worded statement from one blogger.
Wes Kenney
Tent Width Oct 25, 2006
Observations on Controversy Oct 24, 2007
First Impressions Dec 5, 2006
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Wayne Smith Aug 4 2007 - 11:48 am
Wes,
SBC Outpost contributors and those who have endorsed, what this open forum is all about have one thing in common. They all recognise that the SBC Churches are in Big Trouble. I think they would all agree that Tom Ascot’s solution for some accountabily should have pasted. Here are some of the things you and others should address if we are to be a healthy SBC.
Discipline
· Let’s Just Admit It: Church Discipline Is a Tough Subject (Jonathan Leeman) The “Church Discipline” Column· Cleaning the Membership Rolls (Part 2) – The Care List (Matt Schmucker) · Does Discipline Divide? (Chris Bruce) · Cleaning Up the Rolls (Matt Schmucker) · Shaping Holy Disciples (a Christianity Today interview with Mark Dever) · The Relation the Pastor Sustains to Corrective Discipline (P.H. Mell) · Discipline for the Omission of Duties (Joseph Baker) · Baptists and a Regenerate Church Membership (Josef Nordenhaug) · Should a church discipline a member for non-attendance? (Iain Murray) · Discipline of the Church at the Metropolitan Tabernacle (J.A. Spurgeon) · Mark 7: Biblical Church Discipline
http://marks.9marks.org/Mark7/LessonA/Slide1of1
In His Name
Wayne Smith
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Wayne Smith Aug 4 2007 - 11:53 am
Wes,
That s/b Tom Ascol’s instead of Ascot’s.
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Joel Aug 4 2007 - 2:58 pm
Wes,
Lets do a comparison of actions and reactions:
1. The IMB passed overly-restrictive guidelines that go beyond our common confession and exclude otherwise qualified candidates from reaching the unreached. In particular one guideline (the baptism one) borders on the heretical.
your response? nothing.
2. A seminary president dismisses a female professor simply because she was a female. This was the same professor hired by the same trustee board that approved this president’s removal of her from service
your response? nothing.
3. Four entity heads and the sitting SBC president endorse SBC Outpost as an alternative source of opinion in SBC life.
your response? outrage!
4. One entity head apparently requests that his name be removed from the list of endorsers, and Ben Cole responds by removing them all.
your response? suspicion that there hasn’t been a “genuine change of heart.”
My conclusion: you believe that inocuous statements of entity heads are more dubious than those of an entity head who fired someone without cause, and the approval of that removal by the very same trustee board that approved her without reservations for employment. In short, you think the harmless words of someone with whom you disagree are more morally questionable than the harmful actions of those with whom you agree.
I like you Wes, I really do. But I’m compelled at this moment to ask: Why don’t you, Jeremy Green, Bart Barber, and a few others just go ahead and mount a campaign to see all these men removed from their positions unless they are willing to retract and repent?
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Alan Cross Aug 4 2007 - 10:49 pm
Wes, you said:
“Those whom the convention, through its elected trustees, has entrusted with the leadership of our entities ought to represent all Southern Baptists equally and without favoritism.”
Wow.
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Debbie Kaufman Aug 6 2007 - 3:53 pm
This post seems like simply speculation on your part Wes, right down to crossing out Micah’s name and putting Ben’s. Speculation equals starting rumors with no evidence. Is that ethical in your opinion? Christian ethics?
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selahV Aug 9 2007 - 9:44 pm
Hello Wes, haven’t visited you in a long while. I’ve got an idea. To spread some light on your thinking, why not contact the people who endorsed the Outpost and ask if they still endorse it and why? Just a thought. They’d probably all be willing to tell you. I haven’t read who endorsed the Outpost and on Bart’s. If I cared, which I don’t, I’d give them all a jingle. Or at least send an email, what do you think?. selahV
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