{"id":2693,"date":"2011-09-26T01:11:36","date_gmt":"2011-09-26T07:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2693"},"modified":"2011-09-26T01:11:36","modified_gmt":"2011-09-26T07:11:36","slug":"sbc-name-change-elites-cannot-control-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2693","title":{"rendered":"SBC Name Change: Elites Cannot Control Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mohler acknowledged that the idea of changing the convention name is a highly
\ncharged issue that has the potential to create division (emphasis added)<\/strong>\u00a0if not handled
\nresponsibly. (full article here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The Monday evening announcement led some Executive Committee members to express
\nconcern over the possibility of a name change and of the task force being asked
\nto serve without convention approval. Some also said the issue could be <\/strong>
\ndivisive. (emphasis added)<\/strong>\u00a0Wright responded by saying any proposed name change must be approved by messengers. (full article here<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A unilaterally appointed Name Change Study Task Force created without apparent Constitutional authority<\/a>.\u00a0 Who would have thunk that such\u00a0an unprecedented action would have\u00a0had the potential to create division within the Convention?\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0If the way in which this Task Force came into being is not the height of irresponsibility, then I would really hate to see what\u00a0rises to the level of “not handled properly”<\/em> within the context of the Southern Baptist Convention.\u00a0 Of course, it has become obvious\u00a0that\u00a0most (all?)\u00a0within the highest levels of SBC leadership will not\u00a0soon (if ever) publicly admit that\u00a0the process that President Wright set into motion last Monday night was\u00a0“not handled properly.”\u00a0<\/em> And, if that cannot be admitted at the outset, then grassroots Southern Baptists need to prepare for more “improper handling” <\/em>of the Name Change issue in the days and months ahead.\u00a0 But, just like with beauty, “improper handling”<\/em> is in the eye of the beholder.\u00a0 And, improper handling does not mean evil or immoral (although it can in some cases).\u00a0 In the case at hand, it simply means unwise or irresponsible.<\/p>\n

What some might characterize as “improper”<\/em> others will see as\u00a0wise and entirely reasonable.\u00a0\u00a0Who gets to decide what\u00a0is proper and what is\u00a0improper?\u00a0 The strength of\u00a0Southern Baptist polity (or governance if you prefer) is that the churches of the Convention — in and through their duly elected messengers in annual session — have the final word not only on the Name Change, but also on the propriety or impropriety of the “unusual”<\/em> process that has been used in this instance.\u00a0 President Wright acknowledged as much when he said that the messengers must approve (or reject) any proposed Name Change.<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0there are some within the Convention\u00a0who\u00a0apparently don’t want much said about the improper handling of the Name Change.\u00a0 “No harm, no foul; nothing to see here; let’s move on.”\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0Seen as particularly egregious are those dissenting voices\u00a0who have characterized President Wright’s actions as\u00a0“disrespecting the will of the messengers”<\/em> (here<\/a>)\u00a0or “violating Southern Baptist polity.”<\/em> (here<\/a>)\u00a0 In what some have seen as an effort to\u00a0set the rules of the debate in favor of\u00a0Name Change proponents before the debate has even begun and to quiet certain voices, there have been calls\u00a0for\u00a0Southern\u00a0Baptists on both sides of this issue to engage in “civil\u00a0debate.”<\/em>\u00a0 One\u00a0person calling for this “civil”<\/em> tone is\u00a0Dr. Nathan Finn, Professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.\u00a0 In a recent article (here<\/a>), which was subsequently commended on a post at the popular SBC Voices<\/a>\u00a0blog,\u00a0Dr. Finn\u00a0implores his fellow Southern Baptists:<\/p>\n

I want to plead with you, whatever your opinion might be on a name change, to call down the strident and unhelpful voices that share your perspective. Don\u2019t let the mean or arrogant or irascible or elitist or ignorant tones dominate this conversation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With all due respect to Dr. Finn (and others), his advice (which, on its face, no one would disagree with)\u00a0seems somewhat familiar, perhaps like the advice that was proffered\u00a0during the\u00a0run-up to the GCR.\u00a0 However, who gets to determine who is one of those \u201cstrident\u201d<\/em> or \u201cunhelpful\u201d<\/em> voices that need to be called down?\u00a0 Will we be called down because we didn\u2019t call down those whom others believe are strident or unhelpful?\u00a0 Likewise, who decides what is a \u201cmean or arrogant or irascible or elitist or ignorant\u201d<\/em>\u00a0tone that should not dominate the conversation?\u00a0 And, who gets to set the standard for what is \u201cover-the-top\u201d<\/em>\u00a0rhetoric?\u00a0 If a person doesn\u2019t like how someone else writes or the arguments he presents, then change the channel.\u00a0 No one forces anyone to click on a particular post.\u00a0\u00a0 Therefore, unless something is so egregious that someone must be \u201ccalled down,\u201d<\/em> don\u2019t look for me to call anybody down anytime soon. Although I don’t believe that Dr. Finn’s article was meant to stifle debate, some leaders within the SBC\u00a0would do well to remember\u00a0not to\u00a0try to shut\u00a0down the debate before it begins<\/a>.\u00a0 That may have worked during the GCR, but it will not work again!<\/p>\n

And, in the days before the internet and bloggers, it didn’t work when a true grassroots movement of Southern Baptists (as opposed to the top-down approach currently in favor) challenged an earlier generation of SBC elites who did not think that the rules applied to them.\u00a0\u00a0The “moderates”<\/em> in\u00a0power in 1979 found that they could not control the debate leading to the Conservative Resurgence.\u00a0 The “conservatives”\u00a0<\/em>in power today will soon find that they can’t control the debate this time,\u00a0either!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mohler acknowledged that the idea of changing the convention name is a highly charged issue that has the potential to create division (emphasis added)\u00a0if not handled responsibly. (full article here) The Monday evening announcement led some Executive Committee members to express concern over the possibility of a name change and of the task force being…<\/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":[9,35,37],"tags":[1380,1378,183,3371,249,1377,1363,1381,698,1379,837,868,1241,916,918,3393],"class_list":["post-2693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civility","category-religion","category-southern-baptist-convention","tag-albert-mohler","tag-baptist","tag-bryant-wright","tag-civility","tag-conservative-resurgence","tag-cr","tag-name-change","tag-name-change-study-task-force","tag-nathan-finn","tag-polity","tag-rhetoric","tag-sbc","tag-sbc-voices","tag-southeastern-baptist-theological-seminary","tag-southern-baptist","tag-southern-baptist-convention"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-Hr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2693","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=2693"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2705,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2693\/revisions\/2705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}