{"id":2294,"date":"2011-07-27T06:00:46","date_gmt":"2011-07-27T12:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2294"},"modified":"2011-07-27T06:00:46","modified_gmt":"2011-07-27T12:00:46","slug":"questioning-calvinism-watching-the-mud-fly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2294","title":{"rendered":"Questioning Calvinism & Watching the Mud Fly!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since starting From Law to Grace<\/em> in July 2010, I have published 179 posts (including this one) “discussing the intersection of law, religion, and politics in culture and Baptist life.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>With articles dealing with the Great Commission Resurgence, the new NAMB, the Southern Baptist Convention,\u00a0President Obama, Islam, Hollywood, and Homosexuality, I have received my fair share of feedback and comments.<\/p>\n

While\u00a0almost all comments over the last year have been respectful (I think I’ve only\u00a0moderated one\u00a0or two comments which were blatantly offensive), I have enjoyed the interaction\u00a0and dialogue with the readers\u00a0of From Law to Grace<\/em>, particularly with those folks who may not\u00a0have agreed with what I wrote (you know who you are).<\/p>\n

If you would have asked me last July\u00a0to predict which\u00a0posts would have been read the most, I would probably not have been able to accurately guess.\u00a0 Looking back, however, it’s not too surprising that posts dealing with SBC politics — The New NAMB: 7 Years Sure Goes By Fast <\/a>and The Slow Death of the Cooperative Program <\/a>— were\u00a0the top two posts of the past year.\u00a0\u00a0I’m still somewhat flummoxed that my\u00a0post, Limiting Your Audience: Janeane\u00a0Garafalo and Criminal\u00a0Minds<\/a>, was the fifth most read post of the year.\u00a0 I never thought that Ms. Garafalo would attract readers.\u00a0 Who knew?<\/p>\n

But,\u00a0if you combine\u00a0hits with comments, there was no contest as to which one of my posts was the most\u00a0“popular.”\u00a0 Coming in at number four in terms of readers, but number one\u00a0for comments, was my first post on a subject that brings out the best and worst in people — Calvinism.<\/p>\n

In SBC’s New Calvinism & Patriotic\u00a0Worship: Part 1<\/a>, I entered into an area fraught\u00a0with many dangers, toils, and snares.\u00a0 I won’t say that I was unprepared for the blowback that I received both here (and at SBCVoices<\/a>), but the intensity of some of Calvinism’s defenders that was on display was eye-opening, to say the least.<\/p>\n

It seems that discussing Calvinism, particularly as it relates to life within the Southern Baptist Convention, will often lead to mud-slinging — early and often.\u00a0 Granted, the mud can come from all parties involved (including me), but\u00a0from my observation, it seems that even the slightest questioning of Calvinism or the sharing of negative personal experiences or observations\u00a0concerning Calvinism are grounds for a direct\u00a0and swift counter-attack, often with much more force than\u00a0was warranted.<\/p>\n

The latest example of this counter-attack strategy can be clearly seen in response to an article written by SBC Plodder<\/a>, William Thornton, posted\u00a0at SBCVoices on Tuesday.\u00a0 Entitled “Why I’m Wary of Calvinists,”\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0Thornton shares HIS OWN experiences with Calvinists.\u00a0 These personal experiences, which he readily admits are anecdotal, have obviously shaped his view of Calvinists, leading him to his personal position of being wary of Calvinists in general.<\/p>\n

In stating his three main observations, Mr. Thornton was\u00a0careful to point out that these did not apply exclusively to Calvinists.\u00a0 However, as he was\u00a0obviously writing about his own personal experiences with Calvinists, his arguments were limited to Calvinists.\u00a0\u00a0He concludes his OP by writing:<\/p>\n

Perhaps my experience is atypical and an aberration. I\u2019d be pleased to know that is the case. If not, I\u2019ll look askance at Calvinists but still rejoice when Christ is preached and Christ is preached by every Calvinist I know.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I do not know exactly when on July 26 that William’s article was published at Voices, but it did not take too long for the defenders of Calvinism to help prove that Pastor Thornton’s observations and experiences might not have been atypical afterall.\u00a0 Instead of acknowledging that the experiences and observations of William Thornton (a respected pastor and blogger) might have been true, most Calvinists commenting not only did not interact with Thornton’s observations, but they dismissed them out-of-hand.<\/p>\n

Why is it so hard for those on opposite sides of theological issues to acknowledge that their “opponent’s” observations and\/or experiences maybe true?\u00a0 Just because we make that acknowledgment does not mean that we are somehow bound to then accept our opponent’s theology.\u00a0 Would it hurt to say to someone like William Thornton,<\/p>\n

“I don’t doubt that you have had bad experiences with some Calvinists, but I want to let you know that the behavior you observed is an aberration.\u00a0 I’m sorry that this brother — who called\u00a0himself a Calvinist — acted like\u00a0he did.\u00a0 He was wrong and he shouldn’t have done what he did to destroy that church.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Instead, we get full counter-attacks which not only do not acknowledge another brother’s experiences, but in fact come close to (and at times do) calling him a liar who does not know what he is talking about, even though he has shared his personal experiences and observations.\u00a0 There are a few folks who will never be convinced that there are any Calvinists who have destroyed churches (just as there are those who will never be convinced that there are non-Calvinists who have detroyed churches).<\/p>\n

I’m fully aware that this post will be misinterpreted as an assault on Calvinists.\u00a0 No matter how delicately I might phrase something, there will always be the _________\u00a0\u00a0 __________’s of the world — the ardent defenders of all-things Calvinist — who will jump on anything that is written that is not completely, 100% in agreement with Calvinism.\u00a0 As a confessing (although admittedly inconsistent) 5-Point Calvinist, I’m okay with that.\u00a0 Let the comments (hold the mud) fly!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since starting From Law to Grace in July 2010, I have published 179 posts (including this one) “discussing the intersection of law, religion, and politics in culture and Baptist life.”\u00a0\u00a0With articles dealing with the Great Commission Resurgence, the new NAMB, the Southern Baptist Convention,\u00a0President Obama, Islam, Hollywood, and Homosexuality, I have received my fair share…<\/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":[6,7,8,35],"tags":[3368,3369,3370,1095,709,3392,1165,878,3393,982,1189],"class_list":["post-2294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","category-calvinism","category-christianity","category-religion","tag-blogging","tag-calvinism","tag-christianity","tag-doctrines-of-grace","tag-new-calvinism","tag-religion","tag-sbc-plodder","tag-sbcvoices","tag-southern-baptist-convention","tag-theology-2","tag-william-thornton"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-B0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2294","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=2294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}