I'm no fan of the SBC. I have attended 2 SBC churches and was miserable at both. Why? Well for one thing, they are people who in general, really do want a theocracy. They are in denial when they say they don't. The church leadership was typically very judgemental of me, and my rather unorthodox (back then) manner of dressing and living. Ironically my ultimate split with the last one came when a youth minister treated me very poorly due to my being homeschooled. He also had very choice things to say about homeschoolers and overall I was less than pleased. On top of all this, I was already pretty much agains tthe idea of denominations anywaysdue to my reading the Bible and it saying things like "Be ye not divided amongst yourselves." Yes, the words of Paul ring pretty well through my head.
Even though, I still do not wish ill will towards these people, churches, or the denomination. And I think this quote in the article puts it best: "This is a denomination that has lost its focus." How right they are! They've forgotten what it is all about and have become ultra-political in trying to force other people to live their lives by the SBC doctrine, and many if not most of them do not. A perfect depiction of how many of these people act could be found in the recent movie "Saved!"
In reality (and Ironically), many of these people, particularly young people, are moving towards non-denominational and/or charismatic churches. I've attended many of these churches and found that they are more open to people of all walks of life. They won't lie to you about what they think of whatever you do that does not follow church doctrine, but they won't embarrass you about it or tell you not to come back about it.
If the SBC want's to revive themselves, they might start looking towards the very churches their pastors criticize on sunday morning.
Read the article at Yahoo!
Posted by Skywalker at June 17, 2004 04:34 PM | TrackBack"...they might start looking towards the very churches their pastors criticize on sunday morning."
AAAAMMMEEEENNN!!!!! Pa-reach it Brotha!!!!:-D
BTW...I did read that same article myself and it reminded me alot of my own past experience with the *Free-Will*(Some of them should really take *that* part out of it) Baptist before I left them for good about 10 yrs. ago. I guess, when you look at it, all denominations have their problems.
I left when I got tierd of being the carbon copy of what they (some of them unknowingly) were trying to form me into. The more I tried be who I felt Christ was leading me to be and the more I tried to expressed that...the more some had a big problem with that because it just "wasn't appropriate for the church". To some degree, I *could* see what they were saying but I just didn't agree with them. God wouldn't want any of us to stiffle who he made us to be just so we can make others happy if it's just going to make *us* miserable and damage our spirit. So, in my case, I made us "both" happy...I left and never looked back. To *any* denomination.
The funny thing is, is that *I* still don't believe anything is wrong with denominations ONLY as long as you put Christ FIRST and NOT the denomination.
Posted by: mrs. muddy at June 17, 2004 05:44 PMThat's the problem: they aren't. They really have lost their focus. My friend Scott and I frequently discussed our old pastor's sermons being that he preached the same thing every sunday morning, he just criticized different groups of people each time.
They also basically banished him when he got his girlfriend pregnant and when his son was born didn't even announce it in the church. They did however announce the birth of a baby to an unwedmother...whose parents happen to give alot of money to the church. Scott didn't. Sounds like a winner to me.
I had a youth minister recemtly put it to me this way (we were talking about the movie I referenced) "I love movies that make fun of wanker Christians - not that it is hard." and that is exactly how I feel about these people. They are judgemental, legalistic, and in many cases, just plain MEAN.
Posted by: skywalker at June 17, 2004 07:00 PM"our old pastor's sermons being that he preached the same thing every sunday morning, he just criticized different groups of people each time."
Ah, yes-yes....my old pastor's preached the fire and brimstone every sunday and the good 'ol "...you never know when your time will come so you better be ready...". I remember when I first went to muddy's church (a non-denominational church and also our former church) they didn't harp on the "fire and brimstone" sermon. I was so used to the redundancy of *my* church experience that after the first sermon I remember thinking, "Hey, didn't that pastor forget something?". :-)
I remember at the church I went to as a teenager, there was a girl (a few years older than me) who got pregnant. On her first Mother's Day (after she had the baby) they were handing out roses to all the mothers. The music director was in charge of this. They had a special thing for the eldest mother, the mother with the most children and so on. When it came time to give a rose to the youngest mother of the church, this teen was encourage by her family to go up and get her rose. Well, this music director looked at her comming up the isle and in front of the whole congregation and *into the microphone* "whispered"...."Well, sweetie, are you married?". It was only after she shook her head "yes" that he allowed her the rose.
Some years later, when the youth pastor of that same church had left (as had I by that time) to go pastor his own church, he would call my sister and me to come sing for his new church quite often. Well, one time when he called to ask us to sing, my sister took it upon herself to give him the news that *I* got pregnant (I think she was just trying to somehow make things easier on me). Well, not only did he decide not to have me come sing (which, at that point, I didn't feel right in singing personally.) but it was after that moment when I never heard from him again - ever. This guy was like a father figure to me and he never called back just to even see how I was doing or how I felt.
I should say though that at this same time, the pastor of my dad's church told me to come and sing for them and informed me to "hold my head high". I again decided not to sing at that moment but I let him know how much I appreciated his words. That pastor btw had been caught in an affair some years before and so he understood to *some* degree what I was going through. You really DO find out who your friends truely are during those times.
"They are judgemental, legalistic, and in many cases, just plain MEAN."
Not to mention the fact they eat their young.
Posted by: mrs. muddy at June 17, 2004 10:50 PMJust out of curiousity...I was reading on the AP yesterday about how the Catholic church seems to be devided between the republican and the democrat party. This is when my curiousity struck. You see, being apart of a "free-will" baptist back ground, my experiance with them showed me how very conservative (in some cases fanatically so) they are. I remember growing up how I was constantly given the impression (mostley from the church) that being a democrat was not only looked down on but, in their view - wrong. Now, I know Skywalker mentioned how the SB's believe (though they deny it) in a theocracy. I believe the "FW" B's do as well (though they deny it). I remember as I read about the spilt political thinking *within* the catholic church that I thought about how for many years, *I* believed I was apart of the republican party because the church talk how they (the republican party) believed so much in "family values" and morals that really, if you're a Christian, how could you side with anyone else? It truely wasn't until about 7 years ago when I realized that...I had NO idea what the republicans stood for except for "family values" and why did I want to be lead by the nose when I had no idea where I was heading? That's just stupid - not to mention irresponsible.
My gradmother (mamaw as we call her...and NO one had better laugh at that! :-P ) who has been a democrat all her life (apart of what *I* and probably others call the "old school" democrates anyway) was even at one point about 7-8 years ago told by one woman in her sunday school group that she ( my gradmother) could ask for forgiveness for her political association. That was the iceing on the cake for my grandmother and so after years of being frustrated with different going ons anyway, at the age of 70 + years, she left.
Just curious on what anyone elses impressions are.
Posted by: mrs. muddy at July 2, 2004 11:08 AM