When can readers expect The Alabama Baptist to publish a view supportive of the recent Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) resolutions on regenerate membership and church discipline?
In the June 26 issue, the “Comment” was the only article that was remotely substantive, yet the treatment given to the issue of the SBC resolutions was woefully inadequate. Sections of the Baptist Faith and Message were quoted with approval, yet those sections say nothing directly about regenerate membership or church discipline. The passages cited (Acts 20:30 and 2 Tim. 2:17–18) appear to have nothing to do with regenerate membership and discipline, and no attempt was made to explain how they relate.
Finally the use of statistics was a bit misleading. Most churches already include every live body they can muster in the attendance tally: those actually present (including visitors), in nursing homes, hospitals and homebound. To “add” this percentage to others is padding the figures. Besides is the “70 percent mark” accurate? Is it really true that 11,386,844 Baptist church members “participate to some degree in church life” each Sunday? This is the sort of numbers manipulation that prompted the resolutions in the first place.
Robert C. Faircloth
Troy, Ala.
Share with others: