Janet,
I think you are right about this. I have actually heard more criticism of
this second move than the first. Most of the criticism seems to be stemming
from the apparent effect this change has of elevating the Bible to being the
fourth member of the Trinity.
And, of course, it violates basic Baptist practice by attempting to enforce
things from a national level that Baptists have always, in the past, left to
the individual believer's conscience.
Kamilla
----- Original Message -----
From: "Janet Rice" <rice@teravicta.com>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2001 10:19 AM
Subject: RE: Southern Baptist controversy
> For those of us in Texas, the Baptist controversy is quite prominent in
the
> local papers. If you check out
> http://www.dallasnews.com/metro/178350_baptists_26met.html
> I think you'll find a good discussion of the issues and links to other
> articles. The "wives, submit to your husbands" gets a lot of press, but
as
> far as I can tell the real issue for Baptists is the question of whether
the
> Bible is the only way to understand God or whether one's personal
experience
> with Jesus is also important in how one reads the Bible. Apparently, and
> some one please correct this if I've got it wrong, but the latter view was
> the original idea in Baptist thought is being replaced with the first one
in
> the new statements of faith. I gather there is also a concern that the
new
> faith statements establish a creed, which is something not done in the
> Baptist tradition which has focused on the idea of independence of
churches
> and with independence of conscious?
>
> As an outsider I can sit back and watch, but I know the turmoil has
brought
> real problems to people who take their faith and the historic Baptist
> traditions seriously.
>
> Janet Rice
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 03 2001 - 16:20:03 EST