Thanks, folks. The bulk of my post was a cut-and-paste, though I was reading it and saying YES, YES, YES, because it's all so true.
IMO, the Southern Bapitists have been steadfast in their values, beliefs, and teachings in accordance with Jesus and biblical verse. I'm a Southern Baptist myself. I attend a church that averages 600-800 in Sunday morning worship service. Our pastor is a devout, Godly man who preaches the Bible unapologetically.
With all that said, though, I must say that we--and that certainly includes ME--Southern Baptists have our own problems. I think we too get far too wrapped up in the comfort and convenience and the entertainment aspect. I think we far too often hole up in the sanctuary on Sunday, get our own spiritual batteries recharged, take comfort in feeling like we have at least one place of sanity left. There's nothing wrong with any of that, provided it doesn't become primary and provided it doesn't hamper our taking the truth OUT of the church. I personally need to do a much better job of that.
As for our country, it breaks my heart. Lib, in your original post, you asked what we saw coming in ten years, in twenty years, etc. Provided the Lord doesn't return by then, and provided there hasn't been cataclysmic judgment or war, here's a snapshot of where I think this country will be in twenty years:
- Homosexuality will be rampant. What we see in Disney World today will be commonplace on the vast majority of American streets. Gay "marriage" will be legal in around 75% of the states, and gays will be as protected as racial minorities are today.
- Christians will be a TINY minority, almost universally scorned by the rest of society, branded as haters. ALL traces of Christianity will be banned from the public arena.
- "Hate" will be a HUGE buzzword of a label that will be slapped on anyone who dares to criticize any kind of behavior as wrong.
- Pedophilia and incest will be far more accepted than Christianity.
- The United States will be wholly subject to world courts and governing bodies, its sovereignty diminished by staggering proportions. We will be participating in international tax schemes.
- We will no longer be able to legally purchase firearms, and the murmurs about collecting existing guns from citizens will be rumbling loudly.
- Network television will regularly feature nudity and sexual content that would warrant an "R" rating today.
- Abortion will be not only legal, but government funded on a regular basis.
- Tobacco will be illegal.
- Lawsuits against restaurant chains for making people fat, the kinds of lawsuits that are just now getting started, will have been at least as successful as tobacco lawsuits have at this point.
- Conservatives will still be talking about the next election as if it's gonna make a hill of beans difference, still unaware that they have played the part of frogs in boiling water for decades. Many things we consider liberal today will be so commonplace that they will be the status quo that conservatives will be trying to protect.
MM