hadn’t realized that Wade Burleson was blogging again. Because he had stopped blogging after his resignation as IMB trustee earlier this spring, I dropped him from my reader. Well, he’s back, fighting the good fight, or at least fighting. This time its all about the “Baptist identity” cabal. It seems there are some who want to make us all uniform, or at least run those of us off who don’t conform:
If you disagree with Baptist Identity leaders on closed communion, praying privately in tongues, elders, the qualifications of the baptizer, the recipients of the Great Commission, moderation, eschatology, and the like, you are labeled as either liberal, psuedo-Baptist, or the catch all “not one of us” (as in the nomination speech for SBC Vice-President Jim Richards where it was repeatedly stated, “He’s one of us!”).
It’s an interesting post, and I agree with what Wade is saying, for the most part, but when you stop to think about it, if these folks are going to act this way, why on earth would we want to be counted as “one of us?” It’s not really hard to understand why so many young Southern Baptist leaders are heading elsewhere denominationally, usually because of missions issues; especially when the IMB does not hold all of the cards, and many alternatives are quite sound.
What those of us non-conformists who are inclined to stay ought to do is pray for those non-conformists who are inclined to go, that either ”the Spirit of Jesus will not allow them” (Acts 16:6-7), or that they will ”go on into Macedonia” (Acts 16:9-10) with a clear vision from God as to where they should be in order to serve him best. Beyond this approach we are all just practicing carnal politics.
It’s good to see Brother Burleson back in there. I’ve already put him back in my agregator. I sure hope he picks his fights carefully and prayerfully.
