SBC leader ripped for feel-good forum with Islamic scholar

One News Now ^ | March 11, 2020 | Billy Davis, Steve Jordahl

[fwdude]

The president of the Southern Baptist Convention is taking heat for sitting down for a feel-good discussion with a controversial Muslim scholar and failing to criticize Sharia and defend Jews. JD Greear shared the stage last week with Omar Suleiman at North Carolina State University as part of an interfaith dialogue presented by The Veritas Forum, which brings faith-based thinkers in front of college students. Even before their first words were spoken, the two guests brought their own controversies: Greear has been accused by some Southern Baptists for overseeing a leftward drift of the world’s largest denomination. Suleiman, meanwhile, has been criticized by Islamic watchdogs for openly calling for Sharia laws in the West, and for describing Jews as "monkeys" and the enemies of God, and for calling for the destruction of Israel.

[fwdude]

This is just one of many pieces of evidence that the historically sound SBC is slowly being infiltrated by apostasy, at least at the top leadership.

Greear is a Trojan horse for the enemy.

[MayflowerMadam]

Horrid. Over the decades, the SBC seems to have been on a roller coaster, moving from conservative to whacky. Looks like they’re back to whacky (and dangerous).

We avoid SBC and choose independent Baptist churches.

[fwdude]

I don’t blame you. No doubt, there are some good, sound Southern Baptist churches around, but the fish always rots from the head down.

The culture of the SBC will be affected.

[MrEdd]

Historically the SBC is just a missions cooperative which runs a few seminaries.

The only mechanism which it has ever truly had to maintain a scripturally sound theology that churches would leave if it did not.

There are some things which go along with congregationalist church governance and the potential for what is happening in the SBC is one of them.

Let it fall, its only a tradition and nothing more. Concentrate on leading people to Christ and disciplining them in the faith.

Somewhere in the seventies the SBC lost it's way and became too focused on professions of faith at an alter call and insufficiently interested in instilling a firm foundation in the learning of scripture combined with developing a maturing relationship with God afterwords.

I don't see any reason for any church to be all hung up on preserving some convention or other when they can found a new one with a renewed focus easier.

[Romans Nine]

A large majority of SBC churches could rightly be described as “The Poor Mans Country Club”.

[JLLH]

There are very sound SBC churches that don’t reflect the nonsense at the top. Don’t write them all off. I’m a member of one.

[MayflowerMadam]

There are some good local SBC churches; we were members of one in California. And when it comes to preaching, they have some excellent “preacher boys”. Portions of our offerings were going to their HQ overhead and projects, some of which we questioned — not that they were bad, but we thought they were better handled at the local level, e.g. Missions (Lottie Moon, Annie Armstrong).

I grew up in a Baptist parsonage, and we had missionaries staying with us all the time, and presenting their work to the church. When Missions was handled at the SBC HQ level, we never knew the missionaries we supported, and weren’t intimate with their work.

As long as the end result is achieved, it’s probably even, so it may just be a case of what’s comfortable for each member.

I’m sure the pendulum will swing back to more fundamental some time in the future for SBC; it seems to be what is typical.