{"id":3392,"date":"2012-03-28T05:00:15","date_gmt":"2012-03-28T11:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=3392"},"modified":"2012-03-28T01:36:37","modified_gmt":"2012-03-28T07:36:37","slug":"power-plays-moves-to-oppress-dissent-in-the-sbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=3392","title":{"rendered":"Power Plays & Moves to Oppress Dissent in the SBC!"},"content":{"rendered":"

“If I see the kind of power plays and moves to oppress dissent that I saw back then, maybe I will go back to war.” (“Why I’m Retiring from (Battle) Blogging,”) <\/span><\/a>by Dave Miller, Editor of SBC Voices)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No truer words could be spoken. But, I suppose at the end of the day, when “your side”<\/em>\u00a0wins and your theological heroes have consolidated their power, then you can have the luxury of laying down your sword and walking away from “Battle Blogging.”<\/em> Of course,\u00a0by writing this post (and similar\u00a0ones which are sure to come), I will be accused of engaging in this so-called “Battle Blogging.”<\/em> I say “so-called”<\/em>\u00a0because the marker which has been laid down within the Southern Baptist Convention by establishment leaders and their supporters is one which brokers\u00a0no dissent on\u00a0major issues of the day, particularly the Great Commission Resurgence, the radical restructuring of the new NAMB, and most recently, the\u00a0proposal by an unoffical\u00a0committee to force<\/del>\u00a0recommend a de facto\u00a0name change on the SBC through a backdoor maneuver\u00a0of adopting a nickname or alternative descriptor. It smacks of\u00a0a certain authoritarian attitude that seems to hold sway within the Evangelical world<\/a>, an attitude\u00a0which has made major inroads into the SBC, particularly among the “young, restless, and reformed”<\/em> (although authoritarianism is not the sole province of the reformed or neo-reformed).<\/p>\n

Any dissent or questioning of the direction of the SBC or its leaders, no matter how tepid the dissent or how reasonable the questions, is now to be viewed as engaging in\u00a0“Battle Blogging”<\/em> or fighting against those mythical Baptist (and perhaps non-Baptist) “Bogeymen.”<\/a>\u00a0If either of those charges do not work to stifle debate<\/a>, then the old stand-by — charging someone with engaging in the sin of “gossip”<\/em>— is usually\u00a0a\u00a0winning strategy. Since the unofficial Name Change Task Force announced its recommendations to the SBC’s Executive Committee last month, there appears to be a more concerted effort to either marginalize or silence those who oppose the radical redefinition of the Southern Baptist Convention.\u00a0Despite the grand pronouncements of a “Great Commission Resurgence,”<\/em> we have witnessed a “great division” <\/em>instead.\u00a0The chasm between those who approve of the\u00a0new direction of the SBC — including a\u00a0new name, Great Commission Baptists — whose initials will be GCB, not to be confused with the ABC’s campy parody of Christians, GCB<\/a>, which stands for something all together different — and those who believe that our current name is just fine and that\u00a0the process used to bring about “name change”<\/em>\u00a0has been\u00a0fundamentally flawed (here <\/a>and here<\/a>), continues to grow deeper and wider (some “traditionalists”<\/em> still remember that song; others, not so much).<\/p>\n

No one will openly admit that he or she wants to limit debate. That would not only appear un-democratic, but also tend to border on an assault on the Baptist principle of congregational polity. And, yes, I know that blogs are not churches nor do they automatically confer rights of commenting on any and everyone. But, how we choose to engage in debate and how we handle dissent — even on blogs —\u00a0can say a lot about\u00a0our philosophies of ministry and governance.\u00a0Of course, with some (many?) of our churches going the way of elder rule, no doubt influenced by some of the megachurches which espouse “elder rule”<\/em>\u00a0(as in rule\u00a0with an iron fist), this is a trend which does not bode well for the cooperative nature of the SBC. Perhaps some would rather have a leaner and more efficient\u00a0“network”<\/em> of churches, even if that means\u00a0that the SBC shrink\u00a0considerably in size.<\/p>\n

We are a Convention of churches which is dividing into\u00a0groups which not only speak different languages, but which view the present and future from radically different perspectives:<\/p>\n

I think the SBC leadership is more open, less \u201ctop-down\u201d and more responsive than it was in years gone by.\u00a0 Some of the stuff that was going on six or seven years ago just wouldn\u2019t be done today.\u00a0 We can argue about the records being sealed, but that is just a small thing.\u00a0 Contrary to what a lot of people say, I think the leadership of the SBC has moved away from the regal leaders model to servant leaders.\u00a0 The kinds of things that were going on behind the scenes between entities back in 2005 just aren\u2019t going on now (to my knowledge.) (“Why I’m Retiring from (Battle) Blogging”)<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To say that “the records being sealed . . . is just a small thing,”<\/em> is to view debate and dissent from a position of established authority, as in THE ESTABLISHMENT.\u00a0But, those “small things”<\/em> inevitably will become larger things. But, when you are in the establishment, you never see anything as a big thing. It’s just all part of a “kinder, gentler”<\/em>\u00a0culture. (Where have we heard that before?) When unoffical committees can be appointed by the President of the SBC in order to “sidestep”<\/em> the By-Laws and directly contravene the last known will of the Convention, that is a big thing. When SBC leaders can mock the intelligence of EC trustees <\/a>who don’t toe the company line, that’s a big thing. When\u00a0members of the GCRTF\u00a0(including a Seminary President)\u00a0snarkily\u00a0tweet\u00a0why autonomous State Conventions should be able\u00a0to appoint their own independent committees to study their relationship with the new NAMB<\/a>, that’s a big thing. When the rules of\u00a0debate are changed to “moderate”<\/em> whose voices can be heard, that’s a big thing. When bloggers, like SelahV\u00a0(Hariette Peterson), have comments deleted from a prominent Southern Baptist group blog<\/a>, that’s a big thing.<\/p>\n

“Power plays”<\/em> and “moves to oppress dissent”<\/em> are just as common today as they were\u00a0back in the day. Some don’t see it because their\u00a0vantage point has changed.\u00a0Those on the outside are now on the inside. That does tend to change a person’s perspective.\u00a0But, make no mistake.\u00a0There are more people\u00a0who see exactly what’s going on within our Convention. Those in positions of power and influence don’t get to tell the rest of us which hills we get to die on! At least that’s still our choice to make. And, that’s no\u00a0small thing!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

“If I see the kind of power plays and moves to oppress dissent that I saw back then, maybe I will go back to war.” (“Why I’m Retiring from (Battle) Blogging,”) by Dave Miller, Editor of SBC Voices) No truer words could be spoken. But, I suppose at the end of the day, when “your…<\/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":[107,6,8,15,19,1607,24,35,1371,37],"tags":[1867,1871,285,1870,1869,1873,1856,433,434,1868,3383,1866,1363,1872,1590,1874,868,1241,1569,3393],"class_list":["post-3392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autonomy","category-blogging","category-christianity","category-evangelism","category-freedom-of-speech","category-great-commission-baptists","category-great-commission-resurgence","category-religion","category-sbc-name-change","category-southern-baptist-convention","tag-battle-blogging","tag-congregationalism","tag-dave-miller","tag-debate","tag-dissent","tag-elder-rule","tag-elders","tag-gcr","tag-gcrtf","tag-gossip","tag-great-commission-resurgence","tag-hariette-peterson","tag-name-change","tag-power-plays","tag-reformed","tag-rule-with-an-iron-fist","tag-sbc","tag-sbc-voices","tag-selahv","tag-southern-baptist-convention"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-SI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3392","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=3392"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3404,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3392\/revisions\/3404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}