Is It Time to Call Out the Head of the Southern Baptists??

[DemocracyInaction]

Forgive me for making this a post unto itself, but I think that there is an opportunity here over the incident of the NC church that expelled Democrats to bring this whole 'holy war' that has been waged on this country for years to a head. It's a put up, shut up, and let's see your lying filth moment at hand.

How about pressuring the head of the Southern Baptist Churches which is a huge organization (directly and through the press) to either defend the so-called rogue church or to denounce it?? In so many ways, this group has been running around for ages with white sheets and burning crosses in mind and spirit. It's always there under the surface and it is expanding to more than Blacks....it's expanding to a theocracy that wants Dems purged from this nation. I would dearly like to see this incident become a big national news story with the head of the church trying to "explain" to the American people. It, quite frankly, would alert the rest of the nation - both Christians of other denominations and non-Christian - to the fact that we have a dangerous political cult with it's hands firmly on our national politics. I really don't think a lot of people realize how dangerous people like this are to our nation, how strong they have become and what they are about. Maybe getting this incident on mainstream news and calling their hand will finally stop these people.

[smurfygirl]

1. good idea. where should we start?

[DemocracyInaction]

6. Does anyone know where headquarters are and who is considered

the "main man" of the organization??? Need a name and an address and then to include this in contacts to the media asking them to go find the dude and question him!!! The more we can shine a light on these people, the more the other people in this country have a seed of doubt over exactly how religious some of these 'groups/churches' are.

[johnaries]

11. As a matter of fact, I work down the street from the headquarters,

on Maryland Way in Brentwood, TN. Brentwood is a very rich and affluent city right on the border of Nashville/Davidson County and Williamson County. Williamson County is the richest county in TN.

If anyone wanted to stage a protest, I could go down on my lunch hour!

On EDIT: Oops! sorry, that's just the Tennessee Baptist Convention.

Here's the National Address:
National Baptist Convention USA Inc - Baptist World Center
1700 Baptist World Centre Drive, Nashville, TN 37207
[phone]

Bobby Welch is the SBC President.

[ewagner]

2. Not a bad idea

I suggest though that they will probably weasal out of it in some way or another......

Also, that's just ONE of the fronts in this war....don't expect it to be decisive....

[dogday]

3. They should be a member of a larger association like

Southern Baptist or some other organization. That is where we start. Also the Democrats should all file lawsuits....

[sinkingfeeling]

4. I filed a report on this incident with Americans United for Separation of

Church and State. There must be some other organizations, perhaps, Interfaith Alliance or Sojourners (Jim Wallis's group) that could help us out.

[patcox2]

5. Individual baptist churches are autonomous.

This means that this happened because this one pastor was an asshole. The individual churches are very independant, compared to say catholic, episcopal, or even methodists.

By the way, there is a huge difference between excommunication and baing asked to leave a church. I don't actually beleive that the Baptists beleive that a pastor can excommunicate, in the sense of cutting a person off from the body of christ. Its more like telling someone "you ought to go to that liberal baptist church down the street, we only want conservatives here." Thats what tends to happen anyway, birds of a feather do tend to flock together.

I think its great, let the conservative whackjobs ghetto-ize themselves. That would be the end result of this, the conservatives would actually marginalize themselves if they try to create exclusive, conservative-only institutions.

[DemocracyInaction]

8. patcox---I realize that they are quite independent BUT they are all

linked together at one level or the other under the Southern Baptist headquarters aren't they? Don't they have a Southern Baptist Leadership Council or something of that nature. In other words, they are not 100% independent and whatever structure they are a part of can be called on to explain itself.

[patcox2]

13. "itself" didn't do this, one of its members did.

Its like saying Skinner has to explain himself because I got a traffic ticket. After all, I am a "member" of DU and we are all "linked."

[ProdigalJunkMail]

17. not all churches that are Baptist are Southern Baptist

just because they are in the south. There is very little you can tell from the name of this church as from what I can tell it is just East Waynesville Baptist Church...if it had said Southern Baptist Church of East Waynesville (or something to that effect) then you might be barking up the right tree...

theProdigal

[fishwax]

20. not all baptist churches are part of the sblc

i don't know whether this one is or not ...

[paparush]

7. The Southern Baptists are...

absolute nut jobs. Page Patterson and his ilk were influencing Reagan's Policies years ago; convincing RR that Armagedon was upon us. The So. Baptist have a horrible record with regards to Gays, Women's Rights. The So.

NPR's Melissa Block did a great interview with Patterson a while back:

NPR's Melissa Block talks with Reverend Patterson, president of South Western Baptist Theological Seminary, about a vote by the Southern Baptist Convention to withdraw form the Baptist World Alliance. By a two-thirds majority the leaders of the largest Protestant denomination -- with 16 million members -- voted to sever ties. The move stems from disputes over gay rights, ordination of women and other issues. The vote came at the group's annual meeting in Indianapolis.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1958864

[DemocracyInaction]

10. paparush---this is the kind of background to this whole story that

..I would like to 'get out' into the mainstream press. The Southern Baptists are THE backbone of all this shit that has washed through the South and then invaded other parts of this country. I honestly don't think that the vast majority of Americans even remotely know what we are dealing with. Unless they pull out a jug of poison Kool-Aid, the people don't pay much attention and yet they are bringing all the progess made for people in our government down to rubble. I so wish this 'incident' could be a flash point---after all, more and more Americans are getting fed up with this whole repub government.

[cally]

9. Clinton and Carter were both Southern Baptists

I think Carter left the church but I think Clinton has not. Maybe we should contact both of them.

[lavenderdiva]

12. First off, here is the contact information

for the Southern Baptist Convention, or SBC, as it is known:
link: http://sbc.net/others.asp
snip:
If your inquiry is of a business nature, please submit your question in writing to:

The Southern Baptist Convention
Office of Business and Finance
901 Commerce Street
Nashville, TN 37203-3699

For all other inquiries, please submit your question in writing to:

The Southern Baptist Convention
Office of Convention Relations
901 Commerce Street
Nashville, TN 37203-3699

The SBC can be contacted via telephone by calling [phone]

Secondly, the judge who handled the Schiavo case was Southern Baptist, and was also asked to leave his church/congregation by his pastor (in Florida), because of how he was ruling on that case. So I don't think it is just one church that is doing this (I will also say here that I don't think these expulsions are rampant, but certainly, what we have read here at DU today is worth nipping in the bud).


edit: ps. I don't think each Southern Baptist church is all that autonomous, if they are members of the Southern Baptist Convention. Most are members of SBC, and subscribe to their lengthy 'constitution', for lack of a better word. I believe SBC meets every 2 years, and delegates from each subscribing church are sent to participate, and vote and write new passages in the 'constitution'. If a church does not subscribe to what is written, they have the option of removing themselves from the SBC 'umbrella', as it were, but a lot goes along with that decision.

[pk_du]

14. Searched www.SBC.net and couldnt find this church or minister.

....not affiliated with the Southern Baptists ?...will keep looking..

[johnaries]

18. Here's the East Waynesville info

but the church hasn't updated much info except their address.
http://sbc.net/churchsearch/church.asp?ID=6841%2D28786
East Waynesville
175 Woodland Dr
Waynesville, NC 28786
Tel. [phone]

Mailing Address:
175 Woodland Dr
Waynesville, NC 28786

Year Founded: 1953
Total Members: 405

[Kazak]

15. Many baptists...

are VERY active with Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. Surely, this wing of the religion should get involved in this situation.

[johnaries]

16. They're having their Annual Meeting in June!

http://sbc.net/redirect.asp?ci=699&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Esbcannualmeeting%2Ecom

June 21-22 in Nashville at the Gaylord Entertainment Center.

Protest Time! Let's Organize!

[Jade Fox]

19. The head of the Southern Babtists......

if memory serves, made a very public objection to Bushco's attempts to
get ahold of their members lists during the campaign last year.
I can't remember his name, but his statement was great.

[madfloridian]

21. Here is contact info for the convention and their press info.

Southern Baptist Convention
http://www.sbc.net/

Baptist Press(used to be called Southern Baptist Witness)
http://www.baptistpress.org/

They called us unpatriotic for not supporting the war. We left the church.

[Lars39]

22. Bobby Welch claims to be a former VN Vet Green Beret.

Is there any way to find out for sure? I'd love to find out he is really a chickenhawk.
He's also working on converting the troops, with Boykin's help:

http://tinyurl.com/b66oy
<snip>
The Army major general who commands Fort Bragg's training center for special operations forces has invited a group of predominantly Southern Baptist pastors to the base this month to participate in a military-themed motivational program for Christian evangelists.

The unusual collaboration is the result of a friendship between Maj. Gen. William G. Boykin, commanding general of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, and the Rev. Bobby H. Welch, a Southern Baptist minister in Daytona Beach, Fla., who has started an evangelistic campaign called FAITH Force Multipliers.

Hundreds of ministers received an invitation last month from Mr. Welch saying that participants would observe weapons demonstrations, sleep overnight on the base and "go with General Boykin and Green Beret instructors to places where no civilians and few soldiers ever go!"

But the marriage of military and ministry offended one Baptist pastor invited to attend. That minister, who said he did not want to be identified for fear of his colleagues' ire, informed Americans United for Separation of Church and State, an advocacy group in Washington.

<...> Reached at his church in Florida, Mr. Welch, the minister who runs the FAITH Force program, said he was a Vietnam veteran, who trained at Fort Bragg and sought to apply military principles to
evangelism. <snip>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From Lifeway(Southern Baptists):
http://tinyurl.com/cajdq

Kingdom Warriors: FAITH Force Multiplier Update

Kingdom Warriors: FAITH Force Mulitplier Update is a monthly newsletter for FAITH Force Multipliers. FAITH Force Multipliers are those persons used to equip, encourage, and mobilize a group (force) that is larger than themselves. They represent 2 Timothy 2:2 in action. Multiplication is the essence of a three-person FAITH team that is committed to serve a Sunday School class; of a class that is committed to increase the church’s impact; and of a church that is focused on advancing the kingdom of God.

Each issue provides a monthly article (Warrior Message) and testimony (Warrior Testimony), FAITH clinic dates, and other vital information about the FAITH Sunday School Evangelism Strategy®. For more information about the FAITH strategy or the Kingdom Warrior newsletter, call 1-877-324-8498.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's the last newsletter listed. Absolutely sickening.
The cover of Welch's book is the original cover, a toned down version was also put out. It's pdf or I'd post it; it is a must see. :puke:

http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/files/lwcF_F_KWFFM_1204.pdf