Stop judging

A recent letter writer made misleading and inaccurate critical comments about the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). She accused the SBC of not allowing a Muslim to attend a Baptist seminary and for shamefully squandering a witnessing opportunity.
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s president Paige Patterson did admit a Palestinian Muslim as a special student without the usual qualifications into the doctoral archaeology program and received heat for the decision. He later apologized, but Patterson’s decision was the right one. The Muslim student has been exposed to the gospel message since 2008 from Baptist students at Southwestern’s Tel Gezer dig in Israel and now at Southwestern’s campus. That’s putting Acts 1:8 into practice.
The letter writer said the SBC is a club and needs to stop judging others. No denomination is an exclusive club; we’re all sinners saved only by the grace of God. No denomination sits in judgment on others; only God is judge, but we are all judged by the same standard as Christ said in John 14:6.
The writer correctly said Christ mingled with sinners, lepers and the downtrodden of the day.
He would do the same today. He loves sinners, but the Scriptures do not say Christ condoned their sins; He came to seek and save those who were lost (Luke 19:10).
The letter writer chastises the SBC for not ministering to people in everyday life because of race, religious views, social or economic status. She should read Matthew 25:35–40 to see what dedicated SBC churches do 24/7.
What chaps the critical letter writer and most of the secular world is the unwavering commitment and noncompromising position of the SBC and other like-minded denominations toward God’s Word.
The secular world seeks to conform God and His Word to mankind’s way rather than mankind conforming to God’s way.
Larry Dunagan
Wetumpka, Ala.