Broadway gets the boot
My friend and sometimes sparring partner the Whited Sepulchre alerted me to the fact that Broadway Baptist Church of Ft. Worth, where my heresies are tolerated, has been given the boot by the Southern Baptist Convention. The nominal reason was because we tolerated homosexuals in our midst.
Well, la-dee-dah.
There was great huffing and puffing from Louisville, Kentucky, the scene of the crime. "The church was in effect saying that it was OK to have members who are open homosexuals," said a member of the Executive Committee.
Shocking.
The truth is, the SBC has been pissed at us for quite a while. Broadway, if I may venture an opinion, stopped caring years ago.
The only things keeping us in the convention at all were the desire to accommodate Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary faculty members who needed to be at a church in good standing (whoops) and the presence of a dwindling number of older members who nursed a sentimental attachment to what the SBC used to be before the fundamentalist takeover.
Now that we're out -- well, it's like yanking a dirty bandage off.
During the flap over our previous pastor (who failed to see the danger in including gay couples in our church pictorial directory) we lost a number of the members to whom this ex-communication would have mattered. The good news here is (this is tacky) perhaps some of them won't be tempted to come back.
The people really hurt by this are the SWBTS faculty members who are faced with choosing between their church and their jobs. We've already lost a few seminary folks over the last decade allegedly because of pressure place by the seminary.
Our incoming Senior Pastor, Brent Beasley, was alerted to the fact this was in the works. Kudos to him for taking the job anyway.
My friend the Whited Sepulchre has a long, thoughtful post on his blog you should check out.
Well, la-dee-dah.
There was great huffing and puffing from Louisville, Kentucky, the scene of the crime. "The church was in effect saying that it was OK to have members who are open homosexuals," said a member of the Executive Committee.
Shocking.
The truth is, the SBC has been pissed at us for quite a while. Broadway, if I may venture an opinion, stopped caring years ago.
The only things keeping us in the convention at all were the desire to accommodate Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary faculty members who needed to be at a church in good standing (whoops) and the presence of a dwindling number of older members who nursed a sentimental attachment to what the SBC used to be before the fundamentalist takeover.
Now that we're out -- well, it's like yanking a dirty bandage off.
During the flap over our previous pastor (who failed to see the danger in including gay couples in our church pictorial directory) we lost a number of the members to whom this ex-communication would have mattered. The good news here is (this is tacky) perhaps some of them won't be tempted to come back.
The people really hurt by this are the SWBTS faculty members who are faced with choosing between their church and their jobs. We've already lost a few seminary folks over the last decade allegedly because of pressure place by the seminary.
Our incoming Senior Pastor, Brent Beasley, was alerted to the fact this was in the works. Kudos to him for taking the job anyway.
My friend the Whited Sepulchre has a long, thoughtful post on his blog you should check out.
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