“”We think of our local churches as families and we’re pretty good about doing the fellowship thing””
As a former protestant I tend to agree with this statement on a LOCAL basis ,but on the larger scale there is a problem with theology because you don;t have enough concrete teaching in matters of faith and morals. The local group gets together and decides from their interpretations of the Bible what their professions of faith should be etc.... Also,they decide whether they allow women ministers,approval of members to join freemasonry, gay issues etc....
The Southern Baptists Convention says the following about confessions of faith ....
http://www.sbc.net/bfm/bfmpreamble.asp
(3) That any group of Baptists, large or small, have the inherent right to draw up for themselves and publish to the world a confession of their faith whenever they may think it advisable to do so.
This leaves the door open to many error’s IMHO.
That said,the Baptists I know are some of the finest loving people who would give you the shirt off their back
Hope all is well with you and your family,dear brother,it’s been awhile.
I have limited time to post this week.
Yeah, it's kind of hard to argue with that. I think the intent was directed toward local independence ("the right") rather than saying it would be GOOD to have a hundred different and even contradictory confessions running around out there. I think that if an SBC church drew up something that was very contradictory to the BFM, that they would be tossed out. Anyone has the right to say anything they want, but they don't have the right to call themselves SBC while doing it.
It's good to see you again too. I hope all is well with you and yours. :)