3.13.2017
Meeting between ERLC president and Southern Baptist leader Frank Page results in ‘mutual understanding,’ not a firing.
CHR Comment: Moore was involved in presidential politics, supporting Trump, which offended Graham and others in the Southern Baptist Convention.
Warren called the moment “historic”, before Alberto Flores became the 45,000th person to be baptised by the church.
CHR Comment: Saddleback Church is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, which has reported the issue of repeated Baptisms in their denomination. In other words, some Baptists who have fallen away from the church get baptized a second or third time when they recommit as Christians. Although Christians in the U. S. should celebrate the many Baptisms at Saddleback Church, we should also view this large number in perspective with popular practice among Baptists.
Source: 45,000 People Baptised At Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church | Christian News on Christian Today
Racial diversity in local churches is a preview of eternity.
CHR Comment: Given Robert P. Jones new book on White Protestantism, this essay by Stetzer is an interesting piece to read from a leader in the Southern Baptist Convention. I especially like the visual with different crayons all labeled “flesh” tone, which is very clever.
Source: Di-ver-si-ty: Overcoming Homogeneity in Our Churches | The Exchange | A Blog by Ed Stetzer
The resolution calls for Southern Baptist churches to discontinue displaying the Confederate flag as a “sign of solidarity of the whole Body of Christ.”
CHR Comment: The quotation from the article seems confusing to me (see above). It implies that Southern Baptist churches were displaying the Confederate flag. Perhaps I have not spent enough time in the south but I have never seen a church of any denomination displaying the Confederate flag. No doubt members of Southern Baptist churches have flown the Confederate flag on their own property but that is not the same as raising such a flag over a church. If there is a reader of the blog who is from the south and has actually seen the Confederate flag displayed over a church, please add a comment about that experience.
The Baptists were not the only ones who divided over the issue of slavery. Similar denomination splits occurred among Presbyterians, Lutherans, and perhaps others.
Source: U.S. Southern Baptists Formally Repudiate Confederate Flag
The president of Liberty University urged his students Friday to carry concealed firearms on campus, adding to diverse university rhetoric on the issue of gun control.
CHR Comment: Christian traditions differ significantly on the issue of bearing arms. For example, many Anabaptist groups are committed to pacifism. The Falwell family church, Thomas Road Baptist Church, is affiliated with the Baptist Bible Fellowship and the Southern Baptist Convention. English Baptists have traditionally supported self-defense, the right to bear arms, and just war.
Source: Liberty University students urged to carry guns. Do other schools agree? – CSMonitor.com
Less than a quarter of Americans — and Christians — avoid Halloween due to its pagan roots.
CHR Comment: The survey information comes from LifeWay, the publisher for the Southern Baptist Convention. Its hard to object to kids in cute costumes but the darker aspects of Halloween observance, dabbling in horror and spiritism, still raises concerns. The article mentions All Saints Day (Nov. 1) but does not mention Reformation Day (Oct. 31) as a Christian observance.
Source: Even most Christians agree that Halloween is fun, not pagan – On Faith & Culture
LifeWay has pulled its books on near death experiences and heaven after the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution against the subjectivity of such testimonies.
Why evangelicals are divided by afterlife testimonials (COMMENTARY) – Religion News Service.
Marriage, sex, and age has sparked discussion in the Southern Baptist Convention. Unquestionably, Americans are waiting longer and longer to get married with complicating factors along the way.
Southern Baptist Convention: ‘Marry Younger To Avoid Premarital Sex’.
church history review 