SBC Today reported, breathlessly, that the state of Georgia has more pastors who signed the "Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God’s Plan of
Salvation” than any other state.
Wow.
So...how many?
Thirty-two.
Thirty-two?
Yep.
Out of how many SBC pastors in Georgia?
Oh, five thousand or so, give or take a retired or semi-retired pastor.
Hmmm, that would be 0.64 percent, about one out of every 150.
Impressive, in a manner of blogspeak, I suppose.
What gives the statement heft is this (quote from Baptists Today):
No need to look for your humble hacker and plodder blogger's name on the list. I'm not much of a signer, although I share some of the concerns about aggressive Calvinism and have not a few articles on the same.
I just don't know where this is going or what exactly the traditionalists have in mind. I'm down for the Baptist Faith and Message. That should be sufficient.
Count me as one who is not ready for another Conservative Resurgence type of crusade with candidates for office, trustee appointments based on party, etc.
Let's see what Frank Page has in mind next week.
Wow.
So...how many?
Thirty-two.
Thirty-two?
Yep.
Out of how many SBC pastors in Georgia?
Oh, five thousand or so, give or take a retired or semi-retired pastor.
Hmmm, that would be 0.64 percent, about one out of every 150.
Impressive, in a manner of blogspeak, I suppose.
What gives the statement heft is this (quote from Baptists Today):
The signers include four members of the committee who penned the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 (plus the President who appointed them to do so). The list includes six former SBC Presidents and seven state Baptist convention executives.
No need to look for your humble hacker and plodder blogger's name on the list. I'm not much of a signer, although I share some of the concerns about aggressive Calvinism and have not a few articles on the same.
I just don't know where this is going or what exactly the traditionalists have in mind. I'm down for the Baptist Faith and Message. That should be sufficient.
Count me as one who is not ready for another Conservative Resurgence type of crusade with candidates for office, trustee appointments based on party, etc.
Let's see what Frank Page has in mind next week.
10 comments:
My friend, I am just a fellow pastor who reads your blog on a regular basis, but what you say makes more common sense than anyone else I hear from in the SBC. Keep writing and sharing your ideas! Hopefully thinking like yours will stick!
Bill Pfister
Taylors, SC
William:
You said:"Count me as one who is not ready for another Conservative Resurgence type of crusade with candidates for office, trustee appointments based on party, etc."
It appears to me that this appears to be like another CR where if you do not meet the "criteria" you will not be allowed to serve in certain positions.
Why in the world would SB want another CR?
William:
You pointed out the following:
"Hmmm, that would be 0.64 percent, about one out of every 150."
I have always wondered what the True percentage of "liberal" professors was at our SBC seminaries.
Would you even make a guess as to what percentage it was?
It would be worth exploring how many of those from GA are not pastors but members of one (or a couple) church(es). Could it be that,out of the 500+ signers, a significant number of them could members of a large church?
Bill Pfisters, you are right that William makes lots of sense. He's that kind of Plodder. However, I'm sure you MEANT to say, "he makes more sense than anyone, except that Miller fella over at SBC Voices."
William, I'm sure that is what he meant.
Common sense? Perhaps I acquired some of that during my 15 years as pastor in SC. Thanks for the compliment, Bill.
The BT list of signers is arranged by state. The pastors from GA totalled 32.
William, might this indicate that "members of the committee," former SBC Presidents, state convention executives, directors of missions and so forth may a great deal more interest in such things than the average Southern Baptist pastor?
In the same article that you reference I noticed something else. It notes that "in less than two weeks, there have already been over 500 signatures." (532 to be exact.) Now that sounds impressive, and I suppose it certainly is nothing to sneeze at. I doubt I could get one person to sign on to something I posted. But in this same period of time "Since posting the Statement, SBC Today in just 13 days has had over 30,000 unique visitors." That's .01 percent of the viewers who have actually signed it, if my math is correct.
So, they've had over 500 "signers" from throughout the convention. While that may look like a large number...
...I would love so to see 500 folks in our church... it doesn't seem like such a large number compared to the 16 million members of the SBC.
I'm bad at math. Could someone tell me what the % is of 500 out of 16 million?
Tim
Online petitions and statements are pretty routine nowadays but what gives this one legs is the couple of dozen high profile folks - seminary presidents, former SBC presidents, etc. It has achieved critical mass because of that, not because of 800 or 1000 signers.
Tim: If my somewhat less than considerable math skills are in proper working order, the answer to your question is a shade over .003%.
Louis Johnson
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