{"id":1125,"date":"2010-11-12T13:31:52","date_gmt":"2010-11-12T20:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1125"},"modified":"2010-11-12T13:31:52","modified_gmt":"2010-11-12T20:31:52","slug":"a-bunker-mentality-in-the-sbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=1125","title":{"rendered":"A Bunker Mentality in the SBC?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“A bunker mentality<\/strong> is a slang<\/a> phrase for a phenomenon that occurs when a group or individual stops taking new, pertinent information into account, and begins viewing outsiders as enemies, due to an isolation resulting from being under attack. Political campaigns and figures are often accused of having this mentality, particularly when a leader, administration<\/a>\u00a0or party has become unpopular or is in some sort of trouble.” (Wikipedia)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0“Obama’s Bunker Mentality Sank Him on Tuesday<\/a>” read the headline of Kirsten Powers’ article in last Wednesday’s New York Post.\u00a0 Powers, a likeable liberal who is a Fox News contributor, avoided the spin in her analysis of last Tuesday’s devastating losses for the Democrats in general and President Obama specifically.\u00a0 Powers attributes the loss to Obama and the Democrats misreading of the supposed mandate that voters handed them two years ago:<\/p>\n

“When will both parties start listening to voters? They keep misreading elections to mean that somehow the country has suddenly shifted to believe that one party\u2019s ideology is sacrosanct.\u00a0 Guess what? In 2006 voters didn\u2019t suddenly become liberal ideologues. Not in 2008, either.”\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In her concluding paragraph, Powers says what most tuned-in American voters already knew:<\/p>\n

“A series of decisions by the White House sealed the Democrats\u2019 fate. And it all grew out of an oversized sense of support from the American people and a dangerous belief that President Obama could overcome any difficulties with speeches and persuasion.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When politicians and leaders — whether in the federal government or in the Southern Baptist Convention — begin to misread mandates <\/a>and wrongly think that they have more public support than they really do, then they begin to think that any difficulties can be overcome with speeches, rhetoric, persuasion and sometimes even good, old fashioned power plays.\u00a0 As President Obama and the Democrats learned the hard way last week, this way of governing will lead to failure.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to the bunker mentality that appears to be happening within the Southern Baptist Convention.\u00a0 After having received a “mandate” from less than 10% of all Southern Baptists, the SBC establishment has proceeded apace in reshaping the convention in their own\u00a0image.\u00a0 There’s just one (well many, really) problem with that:\u00a0 the vast majority of churches that comprise the SBC do not look anything like the image that has become the public face of Southern Baptists.<\/p>\n

In times past, especially during the Conservative Resurgence, grassroots Southern Baptists willingly followed established leaders, most of whom were from large churches within the convention.\u00a0 Because the focus was on Biblical inerrancy and theological issues, the overwhelming majority of Southern Baptists, at both the leadership and grassroots levels, were playing on the same team and were playing from the same playbook.\u00a0 You had the star quarterbacks and running backs, but without the linemen blocking, there would have been no major victories.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to today’s climate within the SBC.\u00a0 We have become a convention populated by stars — celebrities if you will — who not only carry the ball,\u00a0but wield an enormous amount of\u00a0power.\u00a0 Unlike the CR, which was a grassroots movement that went up against the power-brokers within the convention, the GCR is a top-down agenda that has been crafted (mainly behind closed doors)\u00a0by those in power to be\u00a0forced upon\u00a0<\/del> accepted by the grassroots.<\/p>\n

And, when those\u00a0in power — whether in Washington or Nashville or Alpharetta — start being questioned by those they are supposed to serve, instead of answering the tough questions (which is what leaders do), they either retreat into the bunkers or only go on softball shows like Larry King Live where they know that they will not be challenged.\u00a0 Of course, today’s SBC establishment have their own Larry King-like blogs where they can sit for pro-GCR friendly interviews without ever having a hardball tossed their way.<\/p>\n

We saw this same mentality\u00a0beginning with the Town Hall meetings in the summer of 2009 where constituents were fed up with their elected representatives.\u00a0 Many of those so-called “leaders” cancelled their public meetings for fear of having to face a hostile and questioning public.\u00a0 They thought that if they went into hiding, that the pesky no-nothing, ill-informed rabble\u00a0would just go away.\u00a0 Well, guess what?\u00a0 The opposite happened and the Tea Party was born!\u00a0\u00a0The riff-raff\u00a0did not go away and, in fact, they made\u00a0their voices heard\u00a0loud and clear last Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The opposition\u00a0to the radical elements with the GCR\u00a0is not going away.\u00a0 And, for those who think that this is just some disgruntled minority with a case of sour grapes, you may need to think again.\u00a0 But, then again,\u00a0I don’ expect many pro-GCR\u00a0folks to learn the lessons from the shellacking that the Democrats and President Obama received on November 2.<\/p>\n

When a broad coalition of voices, who have heretofore not been on the same page, begin to coalesce in their opposition\u00a0to the GCR, the powers-that-be might want to take notice.\u00a0 When Baptist state convention executive directors openly oppose nominees to mission boards, the SBC establishment better start listening.\u00a0 When Baptist state conventions pass resolutions in support of the Cooperative Program, maybe the ruling class should stop and ponder that before rushing to make major changes.<\/p>\n

But, just like President Obama and the Democrats did when they focused on their wins in special House races while all the while ignoring\u00a0Republican victories\u00a0in Virginia, New Jersey, and MASSACHUSETTS, the SBC establishment will highlight GCR\u00a0wins in states like Florida and Kentucky, but miss the obvious warning signs in states like Louisiana, Alabama, New Mexico, Nebraska\/Kansas, etc.<\/p>\n

And, when this happens, instead of reality setting in, the retreat into the bunker will be that much greater.\u00a0 Instead of trying to listen, which is what NAMB\u00a0President Kevin Ezell\u00a0promised he would do for the first 90 days of his tenure, he and others will move forward rapidly\u00a0with the radical agenda that has become the essence of the GCR.<\/p>\n

Instead of listening to opponents of the GCR, its most vociferous supporters will tell opponents “that the vote is over, the GCR passed, move on, and stop complaining.”\u00a0 Instead of handling criticism well, paid employees of entities will come on blogs to make what could be perceived by some as snarky comments against those who dare question the ruling establishment<\/a>.\u00a0 And, when things start to really unravel, those in the bunker will blame their enemies<\/del> opponents for all of their troubles, never once acknowledging that much of the trouble is a direct result of their own making.<\/p>\n

So here’s the thing.\u00a0 Is there no one in leadership in Nashville, Alpharetta, or Richmond who understands that there is\u00a0great\u00a0discontent\u00a0among rank and file Southern Baptists about the GCR?\u00a0 Is there anyone at all in the establishment that recognizes that the GCR\u00a0process has been highly politicized from the beginning, up to an including the Orlando Pastors’ Conference and the Anual Meeting?\u00a0 Is there anyone at all who thinks that there is a\u00a0huge disconnect between calls by the Task Force for\u00a0“openness and transpency” and then moving to\u00a0unilaterally seal all their records for 15 years? \u00a0Are there any convention statesmen, in addition to Morris Chapman,\u00a0who will speak out against the division that the GCR is causing within the\u00a0SBC and within the state conventions?<\/p>\n

I am a blogger.\u00a0 I do not hide the fact that I am opposed to the GCR and voted against\u00a0the recommendations in Orlando.\u00a0\u00a0I have written and will continue to write my opinions and analysis of\u00a0issues affecting the Southern Baptist Convention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The SBC establishment can retreat deeper into the bunker by ignoring the warning signs coming from a\u00a0diverse contingent of bloggers.\u00a0 But maybe, just maybe, there might be one former pastor turned entity employee who can remind the powers-that-be that many of these “pajama-wearing”\u00a0bloggers also happen to be pastors.\u00a0 You can choose to ignore the blogs, but when you do that, you\u00a0also choose\u00a0to ignore the pastors.\u00a0 I’m just saying . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“A bunker mentality is a slang phrase for a phenomenon that occurs when a group or individual stops taking new, pertinent information into account, and begins viewing outsiders as enemies, due to an isolation resulting from being under attack. Political campaigns and figures are often accused of having this mentality, particularly when a leader, administration\u00a0or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,37],"tags":[129,3372,303,401,433,434,458,583,586,691,728,3392,3393],"class_list":["post-1125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-great-commission-resurgence","category-southern-baptist-convention","tag-barack-obama","tag-cooperative-program","tag-democrats","tag-fox-news","tag-gcr","tag-gcrtf","tag-great-commission-resurgence-task-force","tag-kevin-ezell","tag-kirsten-powers","tag-namb","tag-north-american-mission-board","tag-religion","tag-southern-baptist-convention"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-i9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}