Posted on 05/22/2007 7:38:57 AM PDT by NYer
If the Rev. Jerry Falwell personified the Christian right in the past, then the Rev. Frank S. Page may represent its future.
From his Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., where his funeral will be held Tuesday, Falwell gave evangelicals a strong political voice. But it was often the voice of a sure and angry prophet, as when he blamed the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in part on "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians," or described warnings about global warming as "Satan's attempt" to turn the church's attention from evangelism to environmentalism.
Page, 54, was chosen last year as president of the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention, Falwell's denomination and the country's largest evangelical one, in an election that he saw as a mandate for change.
"I would not use the word 'moderate,' because in our milieu that often means liberal. But it's a shift toward a more centrist, kinder, less harsh style of leadership," Page said. "In the past, Baptists were very well known for what we're against. . . . Instead of the caricature of an angry, narrow-minded, Bible-beating preacher, we wanted someone who could speak to normal people."
With members of an older generation of evangelical leaders, including the Rev. Billy Graham, the Rev. Pat Robertson, psychologist James C. Dobson and the Rev. D. James Kennedy, ailing or nearing retirement, Page is one of many pastors and political activists tugging conservative Christians in various directions.
Others include the Rev. Rick Warren and the Rev. William Hybels, megachurch pastors who are championing the fight against AIDS in Africa. David Barton, head of a Texas-based group called WallBuilders, stumps the nation decrying the "myth" that the Constitution requires separation of church and state.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
That is indeed their plan.
Indoctrinate the young and kick off the old.
No wonder they hate school choice and homeschooling and favor euthanasia.
Pretty good explanation - except I think that Thomas Road is an Independent Baptist - not Southern Baptist as Page.
Independent’s aren’t really a “denomination” as such .. though the Southern Baptist Convention is a VERY loose denomination where local churches have a LOT automony..
I’ve been a member of both - the Independent are very much unto their own.. no one over riding Association.
Those poll results seem off.
I am surrounded by young evangelicals, and not one supports gay marriage.
The young evangelicals don’t beat gays over the head, but they aren’t okay with gay marriage, either.
Of course, I guess I should say that since Rick Warren and his heretic friends are screwing up evangelicalism as it is, who knows what the trend will be in terms of gay marriage. Warren and pals are extremely dangerous and would not know the true gospel if it hit them in the ass.
http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/
No doubt. Something else to consider in all this is that sin has its own "rewards" and they usually aren't all that rewarding. While some folks are happy in their sin, at least for a time, usually in the long run they aren't or won't be. It seems that many Christians seem to forget this.
Illicit sex can lead to a string of shallow, meaningless relationships, heavy drug use and addiction can lead a person to ruin in several different ways, gambling addiction can lead to financial ruin, etc. They all provide immediate gratification in some way, but usually aren't excessively harmful if indulgence is limited and/or controlled. It's when vices become habits/addictions that the "rewards" really begin to manifest themselves in problematic ways.
When we have laws punishing people under various aspects of these behaviors, the law is merely "piling on" another level of problems to people or in many cases is the biggest problem that person has had to date regarding the vice. While some people whose lives may already be wrecked because of their excessive vices might eventually benefit from the state intervention in the long run, most are just merely hurt by the state's intervention in ways far more injurious than their vices have been. For instance, the casual drug user whose not an addict can have his life radically altered for the worse because of a drug arrest, while the over-the-edge hard-core addict might benefit from state imposed discipline in rehab.
All so true! Great post.
Baptist ping...
I don’t know about yall but they never call me when they poll!
Well said and succinctly put, my FRiend.
Maybe some. The Christian kids aren't.
I think when there is a compelling societal interest, they should. A society that abandons the traditional one man, one woman for life marriage idea finds itself slowing rotting away from the insides. We can look at the U.S. and see it for ourselves.
I believe you are thinking way too narrowly about the consequences and even the vice, for that matter. The consequences are nearly always shared by a circle of people around the person-of-vice. And in nearly every case, the guilt is not just one person guilt. The legal problems of the recreational drug user has as much to do with the producer and seller of the drugs as it has to do with the end user. You have to make it tough on the end user, the easier guy to catch, so that you can find and stop the bigger problem -- the dealer.
An abuser doesn't start as an abuser. And never ever are the consequences only his to bear. You have to hope he doesn't drive or operate machinery under the influence. You have to hope he doesn't beat or neglect his children and other family members. You have to hope he doesn't break the law with violent behavior or destruction of property or theft. You have to hope he is holding down his employment obligations so that he doesn't become a welfare issue. On and on and on and on. Those who want to legalize all drugs tend to put blinders on. They also assume control is adequately maintained when a person chooses to hand over the healthy functions of his brain to some controling substance. But by definition the individual has freely given up control.
Just because false prophets tug in one direction doesn’t mean that Christians will move that way.
Not the Baptists. In the SBC goes that way, churches will withdraw. If the local church goes that way, members will start a new church.
Baptists won’t have the problems that the Episcopalians do, each church owns its own property and is totally independent of the others and of the convention.
the MSM is trying to form the evangelical movement in their image.
Just goes to show you that many in the church today do not read their Bibles, do not know God, and are probably not even saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.
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