{"id":2950,"date":"2012-02-09T05:00:55","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T12:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2950"},"modified":"2012-02-09T00:42:25","modified_gmt":"2012-02-09T07:42:25","slug":"conspiracy-theories-wackadoodles-in-the-sbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2950","title":{"rendered":"Conspiracy Theories & Wackadoodles in the SBC!"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do the Gospel Project and the Great Commission Resurgence have in common with Roswell Aliens, JFK’s assassination, Area 51, 9\/11 Truthers, and Obama Birthers?\u00a0 If you guessed that each has at least one conspiracy theory attached to it, then you probably know more about conspiracy theories than you should.\u00a0\u00a0You see, someone who believes in that many conspiracy theories could probably be classified as a wackadoodle.\u00a0 I like that word.\u00a0 I’d never heard of\u00a0the word wackadoodle\u00a0(aka nut jobs, lunatics, crazies, etc.) until my Student Pastor, Jon, used it to describe a man he once worked with in ministry.\u00a0 I’ve heard of some strange teachings and doctrines — although usually not in Southern Baptist churches — but this\u00a0man’s teachings\u00a0would qualify\u00a0him to be\u00a0known as a certifiable\u00a0wackadoodle.\u00a0 And believe me.\u00a0 No one wants to be known as a wackadoodle.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Once that label attaches\u00a0— rightly or wrongly — your credibility\u00a0goes out the window, usually never to return.\u00a0 Sometimes, as in the case with Jon’s co-worker, the wackadoodle label is self-inflicted, either through one’s own actions or outlandish beliefs.\u00a0\u00a0Those who bring it on themselves have only themselves to blame.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, a<\/span>ll of us, from time to time, could be accused of thinking wackadoodlish\u00a0thoughts or expressing wackadoodlish\u00a0beliefs.\u00a0 No matter how smart we think we are, we are simply not immune from our inner wackadoodle.\u00a0 Ask my wife and she is bound to share examples of\u00a0my own wackadoodlish\u00a0behavior.\u00a0 Of course, if you asked me, I would tell you that in our almost 20 years of marriage she has never\u00a0once acted like a wackadoodle\u00a0or expressed wackadoodlish thoughts.\u00a0 That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Thankfully, real-life, certifiable wackadoodles\u00a0are not the norm.\u00a0 Most people — including most Southern Baptist pastors — could not legitimately\u00a0be\u00a0labeled wackadoodles.\u00a0 Perhaps\u00a0labeled as overweight and out-of-shape (I speak from personal experience<\/a>), but not wackadoodles.\u00a0 Be that as it may, there are\u00a0always others\u00a0who will attempt to put a label on you.\u00a0 Labels, in and of themselves, are not necessarily a bad thing.\u00a0 They can be shorthand for describing a person’s beliefs — conservative or liberal — or characteristics — short or tall — or theology —\u00a0 Reformed or Baptist Identity.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Problems arise when labels are intentionally misapplied.\u00a0 This happens all the time within our political culture.\u00a0 Those who believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman are often labeled as homophobes.\u00a0 (It certainly doesn’t help when some Southern Baptist leaders misapply that liberal-inspired label<\/a>, but I digress).\u00a0 It occurs when conservatives who oppose affirmative action or amnesty for illegals are labeled racists.\u00a0 And, it even happens when those who question the current direction of the Southern Baptist Convention are labeled as conspiracy theorists —\u00a0otherwise known as wackadoodles.\u00a0 Some will even misapply certain labels to\u00a0me simply because I published a guest post on SBC Tomorrow<\/a>.\u00a0 Go figure.<\/span><\/p>\n

For some within the SBC, the charge that one believes in a grand Calvinist conspiracy to take-over the entities of the Convention or a conspiracy to\u00a0secretly indoctrinate non-suspecting churches in Reformed theology through The Gospel Project somehow\u00a0becomes a political weapon used to\u00a0marginalize your opponents (much like misusing Scripture to stifle legitimate debate<\/a>).\u00a0 If you can successfully label your theological opponent as a wackadoodle\u00a0who believes in such outlandish conspiracy theories, then you can effectively\u00a0destroy any credibility that they might otherwise have.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is often easier to label our opponents as crazy than to engage in a spirited debate of ideas and ideologies.\u00a0 Perhaps\u00a0this can be attributed to a “yes man”<\/em> mentality which not only refuses to ask any questions<\/a>, but castigates\u00a0others who have the\u00a0temerity to think critically and to\u00a0ask the hard questions.\u00a0 One of the reasons that our nation is in the mess that it is in\u00a0stems from the fact that\u00a0most of the media refused to ask any\u00a0penetrating questions of then-candidate Obama\u00a0during the 2008 Presidential campaign.\u00a0 Perhaps we would not be headed for more heartache in New Orleans if more\u00a0folks (including so-called Baptist Press) were unafraid to be labeled wackadoodles\u00a0just for asking questions that held our leaders accountable to the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention.\u00a0 Why should Southern Baptists have to\u00a0turn to\u00a0Associated Baptist Press to\u00a0read about alleged financial irregularities at one of our seminaries<\/a>?\u00a0 Where is Baptist Press?\u00a0 On second thought, don’t answer that question.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the run-up to New Orleans, especially once the Name Change Task Force announces its recommendations at the SBC Executive\u00a0Committee meeting later this month, hard ball politics will be on full display.\u00a0 However, there will be nothing about the great Name Change — just as there was nothing about\u00a0the GCR\u00a0— which was conspiratorial.\u00a0 No one that I know thinks that there is any type of conspiracy (Calvinist or otherwise)\u00a0to take over the SBC.\u00a0 A conspiracy, by its very nature, is something that is secret.\u00a0 What has happened in the last few years, with both the GCR\u00a0movement and the Name Change Task Force,\u00a0is open and far from secret (the sealing\u00a0of the GCRTF records notwithstanding).\u00a0 This is simply\u00a0hardball politics at its best and worst.<\/span><\/p>\n

I never have liked the phrase \u201cspeak truth to power,\u201d<\/em> but that is exactly what needs to happen over the next several months.\u00a0 The SBC establishment will not like it, but if they are not held accountable by and to their constituency \u2014 the churches of the SBC \u2014 then they (like any of us) might find themselves tempted by that other maxim which says, \u201cPower corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0And, you don’t have to be a certifiable wackadoodle to believe that!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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What do the Gospel Project and the Great Commission Resurgence have in common with Roswell Aliens, JFK’s assassination, Area 51, 9\/11 Truthers, and Obama Birthers?\u00a0 If you guessed that each has at least one conspiracy theory attached to it, then you probably know more about conspiracy theories than you should.\u00a0\u00a0You see, someone who believes in…<\/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":[34,35,37],"tags":[1562,1564,599,775,3391,801,3392,868,872,3401,876,3393,1563,1057],"class_list":["post-2950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-religion","category-southern-baptist-convention","tag-conspiracy-theories","tag-labels","tag-leadership","tag-peter-lumpkins","tag-politics","tag-president-obama","tag-religion","tag-sbc","tag-sbc-executive-committee","tag-sbc-name-change","tag-sbc-tomorrow","tag-southern-baptist-convention","tag-wackadoodle","tag-yes-men"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-LA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2950","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=2950"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2959,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2950\/revisions\/2959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}